Just A Kid ◇ Peter Parker

7◇ AN ACCIDENT

THE MEDIA WAS now dubbing the "masked hero" as a vigilante. Riley scoffs every time she hears someone refer to that person as that title.

She was glad that someone was out there, possibly doing a better job than the police. I mean, they could stop road collisions, robbers, masked gunmen. This person was incredible. It seemed to make life easier for some. The cops, not so much.

Riley was currently sat in an Academic Decathlon meeting. They were doing flash cards on the stage in the assembly hall. Flash was chilling out on a seat on the floor, Michelle was reading a book in the corner, and Liz was reading the cards to the rest of the team.

"What is the empirical formula of C5H10?" Liz asks. Riley knew this one, having just come from her chemistry class less that fifteen minutes ago. She hits the bell.

"Riley?" Liz asks, a small smile on her face. The girl had been on top of her game, having trying to forget about the Peter problem.

"Uh, CH2?" She asks. Liz gives her a nod.

"Correct." The older girl tells her. Riley leans back in her seat and gives Peter a high five.

"Okay. So, that concludes today's session. Great work, guys!" Liz finishes and folds up her cards into a pile and places them in her bag.

Riley smiles at the older girl. She had really warmed up to Liz since she joined the team. She was a really nice person. She was smart, funny, she could even have a pretty good joke with the group. Riley felt like she wanted to have her mind set.

"So, what do we have now?" Ned asks as he walks over to Riley and Peter, a new hat atop his head. Riley smiled. The hat gives him confidence.

"I think we have maths." Riley tells the boy, who nods in answer.

"Alright. Lets go to maths." He says in a funny voice, much like Darth Sideous from Star Wars. Peter rolls his eyes with a smirk, Riley let's out a little laugh.

They leave the hall, quite happily knowing it was the last lesson of the day. Riley had quite the spring in her step, the day had gone smoothly. And it was just maths next. She can do maths. The rest of the day should go great.

Riley links arms with Peter, a light blush forming on the boys cheeks. He hides it behind a smile and chuckles as he leads her past students bustling past them to get to their lessons.

Riley pulls him into their class and they take a seat at the back. She pulls her bag off and grabs a pen and her book, ready for the lesson to start and the day to finally be over.

The teacher walks in and tells the class to settle down before he starts drilling them about circle theorems and angles. Riley sighed. She honestly thought the day would end on a high. She knew circle theorems. She found them easy. She might as well sleep.

Peter starts copying down the drawings on the board, Ned starts writing out the rules for each theorem, and Riley leans her head on the desk and starts doodling on a spare page of her book. She was ultimately bored.

She felt like going to sleep. Her body agreed with her. She wanted to sleep. She needed to sleep. So she was going to sleep.

She rested her head in the crook of her arm and closed her eyes, already numbing the sound of the teacher and their mathematical questions.

Peter looks over at her and raises an eyebrow. He worried about her in the same way she worried about him. He knows she misses her dad. And he knows how difficult it must be for her given that it's only been a year. He lost both of his parents when he was a little child.

He wanted to spend more time with her. He wished he didn't have to leave her all the time, right when they were starting to enjoy themselves. He hated leaving her. It broke his heart, and he knew it upset Riley. He felt so bad.