Touch the Stars {Peter Parker}

Act 2: The New Moon Heralds the Death March

Liam sighed in relief, shoulders visibly relaxing from all of the academic duress he was put under. "Thank God, I finally got it right. I was gonna commit homicide if I didn't get this right."

"U-Uh," Peter stammered with a nervous laugh. "How about we don't go there?"

Liam grumbled unintelligibly under his breath before turning this page. His grumble turned into a loud, indignant, and pained groan as Liam slammed his forehead against the table. "L'Hopital's rule?! Ugh, fucking kill me!"

"Suffer," MJ added her two cents as she casually scrolled through her phone. "It's not my fault the two of you are already studying Pre-Calculus for high school. It's only March right now."

"I'd rather do it now than have some shit teacher that can't teach to save their own life," Liam grumbled as he peeled his face off the table. After all, he had shit-for-brains teachers in his previous life when it came to his math class. That was a point of extreme stress and ensuing depression for his previous high school career.

"Why even do AP Calculus?" MJ asked. "Aren't you planning to be an English major in college or something?"

"It's because I'd rather do it at the beginning of high school and not have to deal with some shitty math class at the end of high school," Liam replied. "And on the off-chance that I'm required to take some math class in college, which is unlikely, then I won't have to do it."

"I think it's smart!" Ned added his two cents.

"Thank you, Ned," Liam nodded sagely. "Your support is appreciated."

"No problem, dude!"

MJ rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue in barely-concealed amusement. Liam smirked while Peter snapped the textbook close with a dull thud! "How about we take a break here? I'm beat."

"Same," Liam repeated automatically. He slumped over the table, his arm folded and his cheek resting on the fold.

"Have you seen the new video of the Ronin?" Ned asked excitably, now that their study session had reached its close. "Look how cool he is?"

Peter and Liam angled their heads in a way that they could look at the screen. The footage was a bit grainy, but you could easily see how a figure clad in black got the drop on a bunch of cheap bank robbers. There was a loud gunshot followed by a high-pitched ping! that signaled a bullet being cut in half.

Ronin twisted in midair, his sword drew elegant lines in the space around him to form four flowing strikes that connected seamlessly to each other. It was like watching the delicate hand of a professional calligraphist handling an inkbrush. The four robbers stumbled backward as they found their guns cleaved in half. There was a bright sapphire gleam that blinded the camera before the four robbers were revealed to be slumped forward.

The vigilante nodded at the store clerk before warping away.

"Cool right?" Ned gushed. Liam's lips quirked upward in a small smile. It was easy to slip into the natural act of playing dumb. There was not an inkling of suspicion from the three others that Liam was the up-and-coming vigilante.

"Yeah!" Peter nodded enthusiastically. "It looks like he's been getting better with the sword?"

"And you can tell?" Liam raised an eyebrow.

"He watches all the available footage of the Ronin he can get," MJ revealed casually, not even looking up from her phone.

"MJ!!" Peter squeaked in embarrassment. His face bloomed a comical shade of red, and Peter looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.