All I Ask of You

Chapter Twenty-Two

 The last day of school was more than welcome in Annie's mind. After slogging through finals, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to make it. However, with the smallest amount of things sorted out, she couldn't help feeling like things were getting put back into place. It wasn't perfect and things were nothing like they used to be, but it was nice to still be around the people she had considered her friends.

MJ didn't comment when she saw Annie talking to Peter and then Ned again. What was going through her mind, Annie was unsure. For all Annie knew, MJ was already completely aware of everything that happened. She was incredibly observant.

One last problem remained, Annie still needed to convince her parents to let her go across the country for what would likely end up being most of the summer. While she had a couple of ideas, a part of her was unsure if they would work.

"Hey... um, Annie? You there?" Peter asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

Annie blinked, sitting up, "Yep... yeah, um... how mad do you think Stark's gonna be if I don't go on that trip thing?"

"Wait... you're going to? Pete, why didn't you tell me?!" Ned exclaimed.

Annie shook her head, "Wait... you didn't get the whole 'I've been White Swan this whole time' memo?"

"Nope. Peter, you owe me five bucks, though," Ned said, smirking, "Anyways if you're... then does that mean you... you doing okay?"

She shrugged, "Could be better, could be worse. But I really need to know."

"Well... I don't know. I think he said that he really needed you there. It's kinda dangerous to have you over here," Peter said before digging in his pockets, "Also, I think I'm broke right now, so you're gonna have to wait, Ned."

Annie rolled her eyes, "I can't believe you two sometimes... but anyways, I'm just trying to figure out what I should do about it. Like, how should I go about getting my parents to agree... because there are a couple of ways I can go about this. You know, like, one very calm and convincing way and an underhanded, kind of rude way."

"You're gonna go with the rude way anyways, why try acting like you're conflicted," MJ said, leaning against the wall, "What're you convincing them to do?"

Annie jumped a bit, "Oh, theatre camp. It's all paid for, I just need them to agree."

"Well, don't have a whole mess like you did with Flash and you should be fine," MJ replied, walking off.

It was true, if it didn't blow up in her face, then Annie knew exactly what she had to do. She had a few convincing points that she had been holding onto mainly for the sake of hiding her superhero identity, and if she had to use the biggest one that would cause the most damage, she knew that she would have to use it at some point that day. No one else knew except for Ms. Salazar, her father, and now, herself.

There was no way her parents were going to agree to her going to Tahoe, and Annie was all too aware of that. How Peter and Ned were going, she had no clue. Peter wasn't all that secretive or that great of a liar, if Aunt May knew, it wasn't a surprise to her.

Then there was the fact that she wouldn't get to see Harper until the end of the summer. Was that worth it? Sure, she would avoid Carnival for a couple months, but really that was only prolonging the inevitable. At the same time, it gave her an excuse to disappear and sort everything out that had happened. That was something she needed to do without her parents around and without the business of the city and seeing everything that was happening around her.

If nothing else, the last day went by smoothly, though she had to ensure that her plan wasn't about to blow up in her face. She wasn't going to have something like the Flash situation again. At the same time, there wasn't any way for things to get much worse in her mind.