Reconcile › P. Parker [2]

006. code fury

Peter made his way to stand beside Raleigh, studying the images on the television. Flash noticed the boy and nodded to him with a smug look and a wink. "Sup, dickwad? Thought you drowned."

The irony in what just happened was understandably only spotted by Peter and him. Peter played it off with a smile and a sarcastic thumbs up and Raleigh covered his mouth when a laugh nearly seeped out of him. Although he was trying to hide his amusement, it was still noticed by Flash. He scowled at him. "What?"

Having to pretend the smile was something other then what it was, he decided to point out the second most ironic thing in what the boy said. He removed his hand and smirked at him while quoting his last words. "It's just, a better man?"

To no surprise, Flash didn't appreciate the teasing being looped back on him. "What if that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." He waved him away, not shocked that he didn't catch the hypocrisy in what he did. "Don't worry about it."

Flash opened his mouth, ready to start arguing or sending out some insults to Raleigh, when Brad stopped them by noting something off the newscast. "It sounds like his name's Mysterio."

"L'uomo del misterio," MJ quoted the woman news anchor, "it's Italian for man of mystery. They don't actually know who he is."

"Mysterio..." Ned echoed with a nod.

"Cool name." Both Ned and Betty said at the same time. The couple looked at one another with a grin. "Babe!"

Jaron, now sitting on the other side of MJ, muttered to himself. "I still don't get it." It was quiet for a second, the news softly playing int he background, until Jaron leaned on his knees to see past MJ and scrutinize Raleigh. "Where did you end up disappearing to? We thought you were behind us and then you were gone."

Raleigh peered at Peter, who seemed unsure of how to answer. He turned back to Jaron, who also caught the attention of MJ. He tried to shrug nonchalantly. "There were a lot of people."

Peter glanced between the girl and boy. "So how much of that did you guys actually see?"

"Not much. I was running." MJ stated and Jaron nodded in agreement.

"Right. Me too." Peter crossed his arms and Raleigh watched him. "I was also running... away."

"And also apparently letting Raleigh fall in the canal," Jaron said, not meaning to be accusatory, but coming off that way. When Raleigh came back to the hotel soaked to the bone—somehow being one of the only ones who ended up like that—he had to come up with an explanation to the teachers.

Raleigh turned to him and was quick to defend Peter. "To be fair, I fell in when I lost Peter in the crowd. So it wasn't his fault." He glanced at Peter, who appeared a little down by Jaron's words. "And a little water never hurt anybody."

"Actually water holds tons of parasites," MJ informed them bluntly, "Giardia Intestinalis is one that can cause pretty disgusting side effects."

Raleigh scratched his forehead as he snapped his eyes down at his friend. He pursed his lips and bit the inside of his cheek as he watched her smile widely in his direction. He shook his head and faced away from her. "Thank you, MJ."

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Later that evening, while everyone started to get ready for bed, Raleigh locked himself in one of the few stalls in the communal bathroom, that also had a shower. The smell of the dirty canal water and the grimy feel across his skin was starting to bother him, and he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep knowing what was crawling along his skin. He only brought a small tub of soap and shampoo and before he was finished with his shower, he realized his mistake when he had packed, because past him forgot to bring extras. So by the time he finished his shower, he only had a small smidge left.