Akrasia

Chapter 2

Peter Parker's point of view:

I'm sitting in AP Chemistry when all of a sudden my spider senses tell me to look to the door, so I do. I don't understand why though nothing is happening.
   SWOOSH!
   The door flies open followed by a panting Lainey. She also has a black eye, which I'm confused about, but I'll ask her later. Everyone immediately stares at her.
   "Pleasure of you to join us Mrs. Granberg. Now please sit down and allow us to return to our lesson." Our teacher states going straight back into the lesson.
   Lainey  turns bright red as she realizes the amount of eyes on her and the context of what our teacher just said. She scurries over to her seat in a fluster. I love seeing her like this because she's so darn adorable. I'm not crushing on her or anything. Gosh Peter! She'd just be a nice friend that's all.
    "Mr.Parker." My teacher raises her voice at me. Did she ask me a question? Oh gosh. She probably asked me a question.
   "Yes?"
   "Will you answer my question?"
   "Sure, but can you repeat it?" I nervous laugh.
   "Yes, determine rate at the new CH3CHO." She says. "The rest of the information along with the possible answers are in the board, seeing as you weren't writing them down like you were supposed to Mr.Parker." She states giving me that inevitable death glare. I can hear chuckles and murmurs across the room, but hey at least the attention is off Lainey. I quickly look at the board and calculate the equation in my head.
   "Okay, um, the answer would be 2.5 mol / (L • second)."Everyone kind of just stares at me. Clearly they were expecting me to fail, but one it's an easy question and two it's multiple choice. Like come on!
   "Correct. Now please right it down next time, even if it doesn't help you." My teacher says returning her attention back to the lesson. The class goes on, and even though I already know about most of this stuff it's still interesting.
   RINGGGGGGG!
    I jump up and out of my seat to go over to Lainey. But she's already out of the door by the time I can get to her. She always avoids me and it doesn't make sense. I scan the hallways and find Ned waiting for me at my locker. At least I always have Ned.
   The rest of the day is boring. Especially the last class, American History. GROSS! It's so boring. Who cares about the past. We're in the present. We have memes. And Star Wars!!!!
   At least Lainey is in my class. Maybe I can catch her afterwards and ask why she was late today. I'm already sitting down when she walks in. It was really awkward when we make eye contact because we both hold each other's gaze. So I just smile and wave, which resulted in her smiling weakly back at me and looking confused, but I don't mind. Ohhhh. She probably thought I was referencing Madagascar when I did that, but she's wrong if she does. Smiling and waving is just a basic human thing to do.
   We're only halfway done with class when Mr.Brown starts quizzing us about the Civil War, specifically the Battle of Gettysburg .
   "On the last day of the battle, Robert E. Lee sent one of his generals to attack the center of the Union Army. What was this attack called?" Mr.Brown asked. No one raises their hand or glanced at the teacher. "Anyone?" Our teacher asks smiling, but in a pleading way. I don't blame him though hardly anyone has answered a question without a hint.
     I see movement in the corner of my eye to find Lainey raising her hand. May I add very subtly, but still that's the first. It barely came off her desk but it was enough to make her big sweater fall down her wrist. Wait, what! Holy crap! Her wrist is full of bruises. I'm asking her about this one, I mean it's not like I'm barging into her personal life. Her sleeve fell down while she was raising her hand that's all, so if anything it's her fault. "Yes Lainey." My teacher smiles satisfies that someone knew the answer.
   "Pickett's Charge" Lainey says lowering her hand.
   "Correct." Hearing that word, correct, makes her posture increase so much more. That's something I love about her. She's so shy but when someone displays something good about her she doesn't brag about it. Lainey just acknowledge it but doesn't ignore it without allowing herself to feel better.
   The last 15 minutes of class Mr. Brown makes us re-read our textbooks since no one knew the answers.
   RINGGGGG!
    FINALLY! I jolt out of my seat to find Lainey leaving the room already. Gosh girl give me a break! I spot her heading down the hall. "LAINEY!" I yell at the top of my lungs. She turns around clearly confused and then she lays her eyes on me, but she keeps walking forward. I mean how rude. I run after her, apologizing to everyone I run into trying to catch up to her. "Hey!" I say out of breath when I finally reach her.
   "Hey." She states quietly not even glancing at me.
   "You know my name is Peter."
   "I know. Im not stupid, but clearly you thought I was." She says quietly again. Which is ironic consider what she just told me.
   "Hey you're not stupid. I saw you answer that question in American History class." I say evaluating her, and she seems very uncomfortable.
   "Thanks, but American History is easy so it doesn't count ." She smiles finally glancing at me. I love her smile and I hardly see it.
   "Whatever. Anyways, why do you have a black eye?" I ask, and she was clearly anticipating that question because it doesn't throw her off guard.
   "On my way to school I ran into a pole on my bike. And before you ask why I was late that's because I ran into a pole on my bike because I was going too fast, trying not to be late." She states looking away from me again. "Why do you care anyways?"
   "I was just making sure you were okay. Plus you seem lonely and in need of a friend." Her position sort of shifts at the mention of my last sentence. As if it caught her off guard and not my last question. I really am worried for her.
   "Well I've got to go now." She says shutting her locker and turning around. But out of no where she looks over her shoulders and looks me dead in with her chocolate eyes and says, "bye, Peter." And then runs off. Trust me she's never said my name before which was very shocking for me for her to tell me when saying goodbye to me.
    I have to go to my Stark Internship today, and I don't really want to. Not that I don't like it but just because I have a lot on my mind.
   The black, shiny, and expensive car pulls up to my school and I hop in. It was a really awkward ride today because I wasn't talking. Usually I talk so much that Happy gets really annoyed. But most likely he's happy that I'm not talking, no pun intended.
   It was even more awkward today at the internship because usually both Mr.Stark and I talk a lot. I think he could tell something was up, but thankfully he didn't ask.
   "Oh look at the time. I've got to go. Don't want to be late for May's supper. Bye Mr.Stark." I say really nervously, and my goodbye sounds really stupid too.
   "Now hold up kid" Tony says glancing up from the project he's fiddling with. "Clearly there's something wrong, and I was just going to let you tell me. But you didn't, so now I'm asking."
   "Nothings wrong Mr. Stark." I state not making eye contact, which probably makes my situation worse.
   "Then how come you didn't make eye contact on that last comment?" Yup. Made it worse.
    "I don't know."
   "Okay, come on kid."
    "Fine, but don't tell anyone she obviously doesn't want people to know about it." I say regretting what I'm about to do. Open up to Mr.Stark.
   "Oh it's a she. I understand." Tony says smirking as he looks back down to continue his work.
   "No, you don't. She's hurt. And doesn't want to talk about it."
    "Oh. How so?" Tony says looking up clearly not expecting this. He just though the kid has a crush.
   "She has a black eye and came to school late."
    "So what kid, a lot of kids end up like that once a year. No big deal. Stop worrying about her, if you want a chance with her she's not going to go out with you if your always interrogating her."
   "True. Wait, WHAT!" I yell astonished that he thought that. "No. That's not what it's like Mr.Stark, not at all!"
   "Okay, so then why is this a bad thing." Tony asks eyeing the kid.
   "Well when I confronted her about it she obviously already had a planned answer. She said that she ran into a pole on her bike. And then went on to say that's why she was late, because she was going too fast trying to get to school time, therefore running into a pole."
   "That's completely reasonable kid."
   "No it's not because when she raised her hand in class today her sleeve fell down. Revealing a whole bunch of bruises on her wrist. She wouldn't get a bajillion bruises on her wrist from running into a pole now would she." I explain vigorously. And I think Mr.Stark realized this was a touchy matter.
   "Well, first of all, bajillion isn't a number. And two, I'm sure she's fine. Stop worrying about her. She sounds like she can take care of herself."
   "Whatever." I mutter under my breath dropping our gaze.
   "What was that Peter?" Tony asked sounding annoyed.
   "Nothing." I say raising my voice to be the happy go lucky kid I always am, apparently. "Well, bye Mr. Stark." I say while throwing my backpack over my shoulder and turning towards the elevator.
   "Bye kid." Mr.Stark responds while laughing silently and turning back to his toys. The whole way back home the only thing on my mind was Lainey.

Hopefully you guys liked this chapter. I don't know how often I'll write in Peters point of view, especially when I get into another section which I won't say stuff
about...but yeah!👍