Rising Power ~ p. parker

Red and Blue

Taylor slammed her locker door shut and clamped the lock back on just in time to turn around to the Midtown-famous Flash Thompson. He was bragging to his small group of friends about his close encounter with Spider-Man while he walked down the hallway. She rolled her eyes, knowing that "close encounter" meant he saw Peter swing from building to building while he watched from the ground.

She mentally groaned when she heard him claim that the two had some sort of connection and that they were practically best friends. She slung her backpack over her shoulder before walking to the cafeteria. There was no knowing how much longer she had before Flash told his followers that he and Spider-Man had sleepovers at his beach house every month. And she definitely didn't care to find out.

When she arrived at the cafeteria, her group was already there, laughing and talking. As soon as she sat down next to MJ, Peter tensed up and blushed. The other three friends didn't take any notice of him trying to cover his rosy cheeks with his hoodie sleeve.

"Taylor!" Betty greeted with a smile, "where've you been?"

"Migraine. I stayed home and played vampire for like twelve hours. No one was allowed to turn any lights on."

They laughed and returned to their previous conversation, believing her little lie. She tried to engage in whatever they were talking about, but she couldn't stop paying attention to the boy across from her who seemed to be trying to fade away. Every so often, she'd look over his way to find him staring at her.

The lunch bell rang, telling the students to get to the next class period. The friend group parted ways and Peter nearly ran out of the cafeteria. Taylor called his name and caught up with him by the water fountain.

"Hey!" he stammered, "what's up with you? Anything new?" He plastered a fake smile on his face to mask the nerves.

Taylor furrowed her eyebrows slightly. "You okay?"

"Mhm!" He bobbed his head up and down more vigorously than intended.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to help me this weekend. Tony said it was cool if I painted my new room at the tower."

He was very confused about how she was ignoring the very obvious tension between them so well. "Uh, yeah. Sounds fun," he agreed, trying to appear as calm as she was.

"Cool, see you later." She punched his arm softly and turned to walk to her next class.

When she rounded the corner and Peter was out of sight, she exhaled deeply. A smile of relief crept on her face. She was happy to find that he didn't hate her after what happened on Sunday. The thing she had been worried about all weekend wasn't nearly as bad as she imagined it would have been.

*~*~*

"Hey Tony, what does insurrection mean?"

"I don't know, kid. Your book is right in front of you."

Taylor flipped through a few pages of her American History textbook and sighed. "I know. But there's so many words that aren't the one I'm looking for," she muttered.

The two were in the lab, Tony working on a new project and Taylor on her Revolutionary War vocabulary homework. She sat at an empty table with an almost empty notebook and a bored expression. Tony sat not too far away while he tinkered with a new piece of tech one of the team members asked for.

Taylor thought he would have been a good distraction from the nerves bubbling in her chest. Her eyes kept glancing over at the digital clock above the door to the lab. Peter was supposed to get there within the hour, and she didn't know if she was dreading it or excited. Her foot bounced and she started twirling her pencil between her fingers.