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"WHY DOES PARKER KEEP STARING AT YOU?" Elizabeth, also known as Beth, Tju asked in a whisper, nudging her daydreaming best friend in the middle of their Spanish class. The aforementioned boy was, in fact, staring at one Kaelyn Albright, but she had yet to notice due to being half asleep and in her own head.
"Miss Tju, can you please focus on the worksheet?" The teacher called out the raven-haired girl who simply apologized and nodded before making eye contact with her best friend and rolling her eyes.
Kaelyn, holding in a giggle, shrugged, "I don't know. He's kind of a dork, maybe he just thinks I'm pretty or something. Most people do."
"You are," Beth nodded, "So pretty, in fact, you make me look terrible just by standing next to you."
The redhead scoffed, trying not to laugh and instead to focus on the worksheet they had been given. However, it was hard to focus with her best friend giggling and poking her. After a moment, Beth mused, "Hm, maybe he has a crush on you? I wouldn't be surprised, you're pretty easy to crush on."
"Ugh, you flatter me," Kaelyn responded with a laugh, the two girls chuckling at the conversation, "Nah, everyone knows he's head over heels for Liz."
"Mood," was Beth's only response, causing the girls to laugh.
The teacher seemed to be reaching his last straw as he called them out again, "Anything you two would like to share with the class? Since you seem so adamant on speaking when I've asked for quiet."
"Nosotros hablando acera de mi siendo una lesbiana grande," Beth spoke in almost flawless Spanish. Her family had been teaching her foreign languages, including their native language of Vietnamese since she could speak English. Perks of being the child of an immigration lawyer and a linguistics major. She was just taking this class for the easy A. The teacher found this out early into their freshman year and tried to make her transfer, but she managed to convince her parents to claim she didn't speak a word of it before the class. It was kind of a legendary thing with the two girls. At least, as legendary as an average teenage girl could be. Kaelyn, however, was nearly failing Spanish and her best friend, as much as she loved her, wasn't helping with these antics.
He rolled his eyes, "Because of the Spanish, you won't get detention, how does that sound? Just cut it out, Tju, please."
"Sí, Señor," she said with a salute and a close-lipped smile. Once he sat back down, the two girls struggled to hold in their laughter, surely ready to burst as soon as the bell rang. Soon enough, it did ring and the two girls practically ran out of the classroom before the laughter finally broke through to the surface. Sure, maybe the worksheet became homework for them, but at least they were having a good time.
Before they could head to their next class, however, Kaelyn was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off with ease but turned to face whoever had delayed her. It was Peter Parker, just who she thought it might be. Seeing him in the daytime was different now, even though she had seen him in the back of her Spanish class for what felt like forever. Something changed. She was seeing him in a new light, not necessarily as a hero, but he seemed less like the dorky kid who had the right answer for everything.
"Hey, Pete, what's up?" She greeted with a small half-smile, not daring to give him a full grin in the hallway of unknown high schoolers. The only people who saw her truly smile was Beth or her brother and even that was pretty rare.
"You, you wanted help studying, right?" he stammered slightly, looking down at her. He had two inches on her in height, but his demeanor made him seem smaller. "Uh, when were you thinking about..."
Kaelyn gasped, remembering she was blackmailing him. Well, let's not call it blackmail. She preferred the term "I owe you," blackmail just sounded too mean. "Right! Um, test is tomorrow and I have cheer practice today... If you're okay with sitting through that torture we can head to the library after?"
"Yeah, that sounds fine, so I guess, I'll see you then?" Peter asked, smiling once the redhead nodded.
"See you then, now I gotta get to class," she started walking off, but not before turning and giving an airy, "bye, Peter."
She laughed at the expression of Peter's best friend who was standing slightly behind him. He seemed to be more shocked the two of them were talking than Peter was. After all, Kaelyn had never been caught dead in the hallways with anyone that wasn't some gorgeous cheerleader. She didn't actively cut people out, though, people just never seemed to want to talk to her besides the ones she was around all the time like Beth or the other cheerleaders. Not to mention she wasn't usually seeking out new friends, she was happy with the ones she had like Beth and Liz. Although, it did kind of suck when your two closest friends were both named Elizabeth. She didn't mind, though. Now, she walked through the hallways with Beth by her side, since their next class was the only other one they had together.
"Since when is Peter Parker your study buddy?" Beth questioned once the two of them were out of the boys' earshot.
Shit, Kaelyn had yet to think of a backstory besides the fact that the redhead knew the boy's secret vigilante identity. After a moment she shrugged and said, "We ran into each other at the library a couple days ago and he helped me out. I asked him if we could meet up again since we have the stupid Geometry test coming up. That's all."
"Ugh, don't remind me about that piece of shit," the raven-haired girl groaned and Kaelyn let out a sigh once she realized her best friend believed her. Then again, Beth had no reason not to believe her. This was one of the first and probably only times she had ever lied to the other girl. Part of her felt guilty, but another part knew Peter's secret was not hers to tell, video proof or not. "If Mrs. Garcia doesn't curve it, I'm killing her. Like, this is the last straw, I'm serious. Everyone's going to fail, even me!"
"You say that like you don't average a 75 in that class," Kaelyn laughed, calling out her best friend.
Beth hit her on the arm slightly, it was a painless slap meant only for the purpose of teasing, "But is that failing? No! My original statement still stands so ha!"
With an eye roll and a chuckle, Kaelyn caved in, "Yeah, okay, I guess."
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Okay, you guys probably don't care but some of you might so Imma say this about Beth: I don't want you to think I'm perpetuating the smart Asian stereotype so I tried to explain it briefly in the chapter, but I would like to explain it more in depth in here! She's fluent in Spanish not because her parents pressure her into getting good grades, but because her mother is an immigration lawyer who tries to learn as many languages as she can in order to connect with her clients without forcing them to speak English and her father is a linguistics major that teaches at NYU, so because of her father, Beth has always been interested in the origin and specifics of English and other languages. She's only fluent in Spanish, English, and Vietnamese because those are the ones she's been working on since she was really young, but she's always trying to learn about new languages. Other than that, she's not really of above average intelligence, as Kae joked, she literally averages a 75% in Geometry, so she's not some prodigy okay thank you if you read this whole long author's note!
