𝑆𝐿𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇𝐿𝑌 𝐵𝐸𝑇𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑁 𝐶𝑂𝑂𝐾𝐼𝐸𝑆 | 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝟔

—♟—

"𝐇𝐄𝐘!"

Kara walked up to Peter with a small grin and leaned against the locker next to his.

"Hey," he mumbled as he twisted the combination on the dial and opened the locker. He quickly slipped his jacket off and shoved it in.

She frowned, noticing his unsettled expression. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just . . ." He sighed once more as he placed his backpack inside and zipped it open before beginning to pull out his books. "Happy isn't answering my calls."

"He's not?" Kara questioned, her eyebrows furrowing. "How many times have you called? Maybe he was busy."

"Like every morning for the past two weeks," he told her, zipping his backpack closed and slinging it onto his shoulder. "And I've texted him too!"

"It's probably because moving day's coming; he hasn't shut up about it," Kara sighed. "I'll talk to him later."

He gave her a grateful smile while he closed his locker with one hand, the other holding his books close to his chest. "Thanks. Also . . ."

She raised her eyebrows. "Also?"

"I've been thinking about the Decathlon team," he started, his voice growing a little nervous as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm going to quit."

"You are?" she asked in surprise, her eyes widening. "Why? We had so much fun last year!"

"I know, I know, it's just . . ." He gave a small exhale, his head dropping a little. "I don't want to waste time there when I could be helping people, y'know? And when the team goes to nationals—what if Mr. Stark needs me?"

Kara stared at him for a moment before pointing out, "You do know that I can teleport, right?"

"Still!" he insisted as he leaned against his locker. "I need to be ready. I wanna impress him."

"Who, Uncle Tony? Him?" She scrunched her nose. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? It's Tony Stark!"

"I don't know how many times I gotta tell you, babe," she sighed, shaking her head.
"Tony Stark literally sucks."

"You don't have to quit if you don't want to," Peter reassured her with a small smile.

"Peter, if you're quitting, I'm quitting. I don't want to leave you to fight crime alone. Or worse" —she shuddered— "be in the presence of Uncle Tony alone."

"Are you sure?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows. "I know you love it. And Liz is there."

She shrugged. "I'll survive."

Suddenly, a terrible impression of Emperor Palpatine came from behind Peter as the Lego character propped up onto his shoulder. "Join me, and together . . . we'll build my new Lego Death Star."

"What?!" Peter exclaimed excitedly as they turned to face Ned. "That's awesome! How many pieces?"

Ned resumed his normal voice as he answered, "Three thousand, eight hundred and three."

"That's insane!"

"I know!" Ned grinned. "You want to build it tonight?"

"No, I can't tonight." Peter sighed. "I've got the Stark—"

"Mhm. Stark internship." Ned gave a knowing nod as the three of them began to head toward their first class.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, exactly."