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WALKING INTO SCHOOL THAT MONDAY, Kaelyn felt new. She walked with her shoulders back and her head high because word traveled fast around Midtown High (especially if Kaelyn Albright was the subject matter — they were seldom true but always fascinating). So, now probably the entire student body knew that Kaelyn and Peter Parker were a thing. She carried herself with pride throughout her day, knowing full well everyone's eyes were going to be on her. She met Peter in the hall after one of her classes, Beth by her side. Out there, in front of everyone, she kissed him on the cheek and walked off to class like it was nothing; like this had always been how things were. Something about being with Peter felt so unbelievably natural, it was weird to think about a world where they haven't been together. It has been a day and she already felt like they were normal. This was her new normal and she loved it.
After the last class of the day, Beth and Kaelyn were walking side by side where she turned a corner and saw Peter talking to Ned. She went to walk up to them, but she heard something out of the ordinary.
"First, we gotta put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer," she could hear Ned saying to her boyfriend. Glowy thing? Mass spectrometer? What were they talking about?
The redhead grabbed her best friend by the forearm and pulled her behind the corner, just barely peeking past the corner where the boys had their backs facing them.
"Why are we spying on your boyfriend?" Beth asked, already knowing it was time to whisper, "Oh, your boyfriend, saying that is gonna take some getting used to."
"Hush, I can't hear what they're saying," Kaelyn motioned for Beth to close her mouth before focusing intently on trying to make out what the two boys were discussing.
She could hear Peter saying, "We gotta come up with a better name for 'glowy thing.'"
"You're right," Ned retorted.
"What glowy thing are they talking about?" she whispered to herself, earning a shrug and confused look from Beth.
Beth scratched her head as though it was representative of her thinking, "I mean, this is Midtown with lots of smart, sciency stuff, maybe things glow. It might be some assignment from chemistry?"
Something in Kaelyn knew that wasn't it, this was something else. She shook her head, her voice still warily quiet, "I don't think so."
Then, Peter stopped and looked up before grabbing Ned, "Crap. Come on, come on, come on."
Suddenly, the boys turned and ushered themselves right to Kaelyn and Beth's hiding spot.
"Shit, abort, abort mission," Beth muttered as the two girls tried to get out of there before being noticed. However, they failed as they were walking away, Kaelyn heard Peter call her name.
"What are you hiding from?" he asked with a furrowed brow. The girls walked back over to them in shame, disappointed they had been caught. Still, Kaelyn held her head high and acted like she hadn't just totally been caught in the act.
