CHAPTER NINE.
rich girls don't cry
OF COURSE THIS is her life. With the way that things have been going recently, Nova guesses she should've seen this coming. Being the fastest human alive, you'd think that she can see things coming from a mile away, right? Well, physically speaking, she's great at it! Nova can see danger far ahead or when it's right in front of her and still get out scot-free. But, just generally speaking? She's horrible at it.
She's had a fairly shitty day already, so why would she have expected it to get better? If anything, it'll obviously get worse. That's just how her life is apparently. (Nova doesn't really believe in God, but she's starting to think that if He does exist, He's definitely got it out for her.)
Like, Nova remembers this one time when she was practically head over heels in love with William Moore towards the end of eighth grade. (He was nice to her a couple of times after they worked on a group project together and he defended her when one of his friends was picking on her about her dad.) And after pining after him for one whole week, her friends had finally convinced her to fess up and tell him about her feelings.
She remembers walking up to him, with way too much strawberry flavoured lip-gloss on, and telling him right to his face, "Will Moore, I like you." (Though she definitely meant it more as, "Will Moore, I love you.") He then proceeded to awkwardly reject her and Nova — who was completely and utterly heartbroken — had turned around and fallen flat on her face.
She's heard that Will dropped out and became a drug dealer. But the thought still haunts her to this day.
Anyway, this is nothing like that time. This, Nova would argue, is worse in every possible way.
It's already bad enough that she can't stop thinking about shirtless Peter Parker, and now she has to eat dinner with him too? (He's not shirtless now, obviously. But still.) Nova wants to run away. No, scratch that. She wants to run off a cliff into a pile of jagged rocks. That's exactly what she wants to do.
She's always seen Peter as a maybe-friend. Like they're teetering the line between acquaintances and friends and they haven't yet crossed it. Today was when Nova was hoping to cross it. When she was supposed to build the Lego Death Star with Peter and Ned. But then she saw Peter shirtless, and now... Nova doesn't know if things are awkward or not.
Now, in the grand scheme of things, Nova knows that really this shouldn't change anything. The human body is completely and totally natural. If anything, shouldn't she feel more at ease knowing that the one guy she's seen shirtless — who isn't Nic — has the same body parts as she does? Shouldn't she feel more normal?
But of course, she doesn't feel more normal, or even more at ease in the slightest. Instead, Nova feels jumpy, nervous, and flustered. And for the life of her she can't figure out why. After all, it's just Peter.
She wonders how the hell in the short period of time that it took her to run home, get changed, find something nice to wear, and run to the restaurant — her dad, Nic, and Claire have found themselves entirely comfortable at a table in this Thai restaurant with Peter Parker and his aunt May.
It took her about what, ten minutes? (She needed the extra time to figure out what to wear. Nova always feels like she never has any clothes, even though her dad, Nic, and Marcus are always telling her she has more than enough. Claire's the only one who gets it.)
She goes to turn around, because maybe she can dash back out of the door unnoticed and she won't have to be forced to eat dinner with Peter and May. But Claire catches her eye and beckons Nova over, beaming.
"Nova!" she waves. "We were waiting for you."
"You shouldn't have," Nova mutters under her breath as she sighs and smiles, walking over to the two tables joined together and taking a seat beside Nic. She frowns as she looks over the table and realises that everyone's already ordered their food. Clearly not.
"Do you wanna order anything?" says David, handing her a menu.
Nova shakes her head. "I'm fine," she says.
"You're sure?"
"Yeah," she shrugs. "I'm not hungry." She'll raid the fridge when they get home in the middle of the night.
She sits across from Peter and his aunt May, and when he looks over at her and shoots her a nervous smile, Nova — who's still thinking about him shirtless for some reason — immediately looks away and mentally scolds herself. Why would you look away? You should've smiled back! Now he's going to think something's wrong! You're so stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"Peter was just telling us about his Stark internship," says Claire smiling. She turns to Peter. "I mean, it's amazing how brilliant you are, especially so young."
Peter smiles awkwardly. "I mean, Mr Stark was really nice about it—"
"You've met him?" says David, bewildered.
"Yep," says May proudly. "He came straight to our apartment to tell Peter that he got the internship. He's got it everyday after school."
"Everyday?" says Claire, a bit concerned. "Isn't that a bit much? I mean, you've still got school and everything." She looks at Peter and he looks down at his plate for a moment before looking back up.
"It's been hard to balance everything, but it'll all look good in the future," he shrugs.
Claire turns to May, who looks at Peter with worry in her eyes briefly, before turning to Claire. "To be honest, I'm becoming less and less of a fan of Tony Stark. I mean, teenagers should not be this stressed out and swamped with work, right?"
Claire looks for any sign of hostility in May's eyes before slowly nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I mean, I know none of David's teen interns work that hard."
"Maybe because I don't exploit my workers," mutters David, a bit bitterly, as he shoves a spoonful of red curry and rice into his mouth.
Claire shoots David a look and Nova sinks further into her seat, wishing that she could be literally anywhere else in the world right now. She looks around the table, and frowns when she realises for the first time that Marcus is missing. Nova leans over to Nic. "Where's Marcus?" she whispers in his ear as she takes a bite of his noodles.
Nic frowns at her before he turns to her and whispers. "Not here."
Nova rolls her eyes. "Clearly," she whispers back. "But where is he?"
Nic shrugs. "How am I supposed to know? When I asked him if he wanted to come with the rest of us he got really weird and said no, then slammed his bedroom door shut. So... I don't care either."
"Seriously?" says Nova, a bit annoyed. "You didn't even ask him what was wrong?"
"Hey, he's your friend."
"And our soon-to-be brother."
Nic waves a hand through the air. "I'd do the same to you if you were being rude to me."
Nova sighs and rolls her eyes. She pulls out her phone and sends a quick, Are you OK, text to Marcus before she puts her phone back into her pocket. She notices Peter looking over at her and he smiles at her. Nova's eyes widen as she remembers how, like, two seconds ago, he'd awkwardly smiled at her as she accidentally walked in on him shirtless. Nova's face starts to feel hot at the memory and she quickly looks away from him, sinking further into her seat, wishing that her dad had given her invisibility instead of super-speed.
"Nova!" says Claire worriedly and Nova's head snaps in her direction, hoping and praying that she doesn't do the inevitable. "Do you need some water? You're flushed!"
And she wants to die.
She shakes her head quickly, and sinks down further in her chair. Kill her. Kill her.
Nic looks down at Nova, with an expression slightly reminiscent of disgust at the fact that she's somehow managed to contort herself so deep into the tiny wooden chair. (After all, she was made to be fast, not flexible, right?) And Nic frowns at her. "What're you doing?" he whispers.
"Hoping I'll die."
Nic rolls his eyes and he sits up further into his chair. "She's fine, just tired," he says.
"Tired of living," Nova mutters under her breath as she folds her arms over her chest. This couldn't get worse if she wanted it to. Of course this is happening to her. Of course this is her life.
She feels her phone buzz in her pocket and as everyone goes back to their conversation, Nova pulls it out of her pocket and frowns as she reads the text on her home screen. Fine, why? reads the text from Marcus and even though he's not here — Nova knows that something is up. She feels it in her bones. Maybe it's a bionic thing, but she likes to think of it as a best friend thing. Obviously tone doesn't convey over text or anything, but Nova likes to think that she knows Marcus well enough to figure out his tone even through a screen.
You didn't come to dinner with everyone else, she texts back and watches as the three dots appear and disappear as Marcus thinks of a response.
I'm fine, I promise, he eventually texts back. Have fun at dinner and we can talk when you get back, OK?
OK, fine, she writes back before locking her phone and putting it back into the pocket of her hoodie (er — Nic's hoodie).
Turning back to everyone sat at the table with her, Nova notices Peter still looking at her weirdly and she wants to walk over and punch him the face. Because why exactly is he still looking at her? Sure, the times he's attempted to smile at her she's immediately looked away, but Nova feels like that's enough of a social cue for him to understand that she doesn't want him to keep looking at her? It makes the entire situation that they're in that much more awkward.
"Are you OK?" Nic asks, turning to Nova and lowering his voice. "You've been acting so weird ever since you got here—"
"—Yeah, nope, totally fine. Everything's swell."
She cringes.
"Swell?" Nic repeats. "Now I know something's up."
Turning away from the table, Nova's eyes dart around the room. Maybe if she can find something else to focus on, she can stop acting so fucking weird. It's not like it's the end of the world or anything. It's not like she just fell face first in front of the love of her life — like she did in eighth grade. She saw someone shirtless. She should just get over it, right?
Nova can pinpoint the exact moment that Nic comes to a conclusion of his own. She doesn't even need to be looking at him to know when it happens.
He looks between Nova and Peter until he finally settles at looking at Nova, a single brow quirked up, his look suggestive.
He leans down. "Did something happen between you and Pete—"
"No!" she says a little too loudly and cringes as everyone at the table turns their head and looks at her — Peter included. He frowns at her in a way that suggests are you alright? And Nova's got that same urge to knock him out and run out of the restaurant.
She could, she knows she could, if she seriously wanted to.
Because somehow, he's incredibly smart, the sweetest person alive, seriously jacked, and apparently super caring. No, she immediately thinks. There's no way that it's possible. No one on Earth can be that perfect. (Liz and Simran don't count in this circumstance.) So really, no man can be that perfect. Which solidifies an idea in Nova's mind. Peter Parker is not from Earth. No way. He's got to be from Asgard... or one of the other millions of planets in the millions of galaxies.
But then again, Nova feels like she would know if she was in the presence of another superhuman. She knows that she's not Peter Parker level smart, but she doesn't think that she's a complete idiot.
"Alright there, Nova?" says David, leaning across Claire to look closer at her. He narrows his eyes. "Not glitching out on us, are you?" He raises an eyebrow slightly, and Nova knows what he's implying.
She shakes her head. "No, sorry," she says quietly. "It's just — um —" She looks around the room trying to find an excuse for her not-so-sudden, sudden outburst. She turns up her super-hearing to find literally anything that she can use as an excuse, when her eyes and ears catch the news playing on the small TV.
"Delmar's Sandwiches was destroyed in an explosion earlier tonight, after an ATM robbery was thwarted by Queen's own local crime stopper, the Spider-Man. As the Spider-Man attempted to foil their heist, a powerful blast was set off, slicing through a bodega across the street. Miraculously, no one was harmed. However this, once again, begs the question: Where are the heroes we know and love? Where are Supersonic and Goliath? And does this have to do with what is now being referred to as, the Battle of Germany?"
Nova feels her stomach tie into knots. She feels sick. Maybe she's hungry, after all, she hasn't eaten anything today except for a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. But there's another feeling stirring up deep inside of her — she feels guilty. Guilty that she's trying to enjoy her normal teenage life when that was never what she was built for.
Nova was created to help people, and that's the exact opposite of what she's doing right now. Lounging around, freaking out about seeing one of her classmates shirtless, when there are real problems happening around her. Problems that she can stop. She was made to stop things like this from happening, she's supposed to protect people from mass freak explosions, not sit idly by while they happen and twiddle her thumbs. And yet here she is, having the most awkward dinner of her life with Peter Parker, his aunt, and her family.
Cursing herself, Nova wonders why the hell she decided to go to Germany on a whim simply because Captain America asked her. Now she's gotten Nic and herself branded as fugitives, and they can't even take a step outside in their supersuits without being the subject of a manhunt led by the government. She can't do the one thing she was put on this planet to do: help people.
God, she feels sick to her stomach. What if Mr Delmar had gotten hurt in the explosion? His shop was blown to bits. His livelihood was blown to bits. All because Nova had made a stupid decision in the heat of the moment and couldn't be there to stop it from happening.
And no matter how great people think Spider-Man is, at the end of the day, that's all he is. Just one man. One boy who's completely new to all of this, and he's the person who stepped up in Nova and Nic's absence. She can't believe it's come to this.
She should have been there. She should have stopped this from happening. Even if it meant sacrificing any chance of her having a normal life — of being a normal girl.
David follows her gaze to the small TV in the corner of the restaurant, and he shares a look with Claire, as Nova turns to Nic and the two of them exchange a look. Under the table, Nic gives Nova's leg a gentle kick. She turns her head slightly towards him and frowns. He gives her a small smile and Nova gives him a half-hearted one back before turning her attention fully back to the table.
"God, its crazy out there," says May and Nova looks at her. "If you guys spot something like that happening, you turn and you run the other way."
She looks to Claire and David who, after the briefest of moments, nod in agreement. Nova would almost find this funny, if she didn't feel like throwing up. She guesses that the statement was aimed mostly at Peter. Why would May care about two kids who aren't hers?
"Yeah," says Peter, nodding as he swirls his fork in his noodles. "Yeah, yeah. Of course."
"Well," says David, standing up. "I think we should be heading out. It's a school night after all." He looks over at Nova and Nic and they follow, standing up and pushing in their chairs.
"This was really nice," says Claire as she folds her napkin and places it on the table. "It was great meeting you, really. We should do this again sometime."
"Yeah," May smiles. "Yeah, we should."
"Oh," says David, stopping before the door and turning back around. Nova gives Peter and May a small smile before walking up to the door and leaning against it with her arms crossed over her chest. She looks outside the widow and sees Archie pull up to the front of the restaurant with the car. "Dinner's on us."
May frowns. "No," she says. "I can't let you do that. I will pay, it's really—"
"No, I insist," says David. "Next time you can pay." He smiles and May hesitantly smiles back.
"I appreciate it really, but—"
David waves his hand. "Its already done," he says as he walks over to the waiter approaching the table and hands him a one-hundred dollar bill. He winks at the waiter who looks down at the receipt and frowns realising the bill is only about half that amount.
Turning on his heel David walks back towards the front door of the restaurant where he says goodbye to Peter and May. He opens the door and steps outside where Archie is ready and holding open the door to the car. Claire and Nic follow, wishing Peter and May a goodnight and Nova pushes herself off the wall.
"Bye Peter," she says, and she hopes — no — prays that it sounded normal. "Bye May."
She turns around to push open the door when, "Wait, Nova." And she turns back around. "I'm sorry for bailing on you at the end of school. I'll have to check what time I can come over to your house with the—"
"—Stark internship—?" She grins.
"—Stark internship. Yeah," he says smiling.
"Or, y'know, you could just quit. Work for my dad instead."
Peter smiles. "I'll text you?"
Nova nods her head, waving a hand through the air. "Sure," she says with a small smile. "But tomorrow, right? Promise?"
He smiles a little more and Nova feels her stomach flutter a little. "Promise."
"And, um, I'm sorry about earlier," he says quickly. Nova feels her face flush at the memory. "It was really awkward and that's definitely not how I wanted you to see my place for the first time." He laughs a bit at the end.
"Oh, yeah," says Nova, waving a hand through the air like it was no big deal. (It was a big deal. A very big deal.) "I mean, consider it forgotten." (She doesn't think she can ever forget.) "It's no big deal, really."
Smiling at Peter and waving an awkward goodbye to him, Nova finally turns and pushes open the door, making her way to the car where Archie is still holding open the back of the car door for her.
"You know you don't have to do this for me, right Arch?"
"I know, Miss Walsh."
He closes the door once she climbs into the backseat and takes his place in the driver's seat of the car. Her dad and Claire sit in the row of seats in front of Nova and Nic. Once she's bucked in, Nova leans her head against the window of the car and watches as the small Thai restaurant fades into the distance as the car starts driving them home.
The car ride home is silent. Usually Archie would play some music that the four of them like, but today it seems like even he senses that the mood is different. Nova keeps her head against the cool glass of the window, watching as the people blur by, the noise of the car being the only sound.
By the time they arrive home, Archie presses the button to open the gates to their house and both David and Claire turn around after unbuckling their seatbelts, a concerned look on both of their faces.
"You guys alright?" Claire asks worriedly. "Car ride was really quiet."
"Hmm?" Nova asks, zoning into the conversation. She turns her head so that she can face Claire and her dad, but her head still propped up against the window. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Claire looks to Nic who nods in agreement after looking up from his phone. "We're good," he says, then looks to Nova who nods. "We're always gonna be good." But the way he says it sounds a lot more like he's trying to reassure Nova, not Claire.
Archie parks the car on the driveway and opens the door, and everyone gets out one by one. When finally it's Nova's turn to exit the car, Archie helps her out and smiles softly at her. "You're a good person, Miss Walsh," he says. "You try your best."
She smiles at him. "Thanks, Archie."
By the time that they've all entered the house and Nic and Nova have reassured Claire that they're definitely alright, all Nova wants to do is go to sleep and forget that today ever happened. She wants to stop feeling this horrible sense of guilt and she just wants to go back to acting normal like nothing's wrong so that she can go back to feeling like a normal girl.
Clearly, that's not going to happen anytime soon.
Before she heads down to the Lab with Nic and her dad, Nova remembers that she promised herself that she'd check up on Marcus and what was bothering him so much today that he didn't come to dinner with the rest of them. Telling Nic and her dad that she'd meet the two of them downstairs in a minute, Nova speeds up the stairs and into Marcus' bedroom, closing the door shut behind her.
She walks past the grand piano and sees him sitting cross legged on the bed, staring out at his balcony despite the doors being closed and locked.
"Marcus?" she says quietly and he turns around. "You didn't come to dinner with us. Are you alright?"
He pauses for a minute, like he's thinking about what he's going to say before he sighs. "Yeah," he says. "I'll be fine."
Nova walks over to the side of the bed where he's sitting and sits down beside him. She looks at him, biting her tongue for a moment before she says, "Come on, Marcus! We've been best friends forever and now you're about to be my brother." She pauses. "You can talk to me about anything."
There's a moment where he still doesn't say anything, and for that moment, Nova's horrified enough to believe that Marcus won't tell her. But thankfully, when that moment passes, he sighs and turns to look at her.
"It's my dad," he says quietly.
Nova tries not to grimace at the mention of Marcus' dad, Eric. Instead, she keeps looking at Marcus, encouraging him to keep going.
"The day of the party, before you left to Germany? He texted me after robotics and asked if we could talk and catch up. Robotics wasn't running late that day, I was out with him," Marcus says.
"But I thought you hated your dad?"
"I did. I do!" says Marcus. "I don't know, Nova. He seems different now. Like he's really changed..." he trails off and Nova waits to see if he'll keep going, he does. "When we went out for coffee that day, he told me all about his new job and how when I was born he wasn't in the right state of mind and couldn't handle a child. He says that he regrets it. I want to believe him."
Nova frowns. "But, Marcus. Your dad hasn't even tried to get in contact with you or your mom for years. And now that Claire's marrying my dad he wants to get back in touch? I don't know... I mean, does your mom know?"
"No," Marcus jumps. "My mom can't know. You have to promise me you won't tell her, Nova."
"Marcus, I don't—"
"Nova," he says, and when she looks at him she sees the desperation in his eyes. "Promise me."
After a moment, she sighs. "OK, fine. But I don't have a good feeling about this."
He groans. "You don't get it, Nova. I love David. But... he's not my dad. And my dad really seems different now. He's not the same person he was when he left. I've been— I've met up with him a couple more times since then. He's changed."
Two months, Nova thinks. Marcus didn't tell her about this for two whole months. "...Why didn't you tell me?" she asks, a bit hurt.
He sighs. "Because — before we met, Nova — I didn't think that anyone could hate my dad more than me, for what he did to my mom and I. And then I told you, and — I don't know — you have a big heart, Nova. And you love with all of it. And I guess, it felt good to have someone hate him just as much as me, if not more. I thought that if I told you, you'd be disappointed in me."
The two of them sit in silence for a moment and Nova thinks. She knows that Marcus is incredibly stubborn. It's the one thing that she, Nic, and Marcus all have in common. So, Nova knows that she can't stop Marcus from getting to know his dad, even though, she's got a weird feeling about all of this. All she can do is support him and hope that everything turns out alright.
She turns to him. "I would never be disappointed in you, Marcus. But I have to say, I don't like your dad. I don't think I ever will," she says plainly. "But I love you. So, if you wanna get to know him, you should get to know him. I'm always gonna be here for you."
Marcus gives her a small smile. They sit in a knowing silence for a while before he turns to her again. "I saw the news."
And Nova gets the sinking feeling in her gut again, except this time, she feels a sting prick behind her eyes. "We could've stopped it, you know, Marcus and I."
Silence.
"I know," Marcus says.
A couple more beats of silence pass where nothing is said, but everything is felt. Nova leans her head over to Marcus' shoulder and he wraps his arm around her as a couple of stray tears fall from her eyes. She doesn't need to say anything. He just knows. He always knows. And a few moments later, Nova decides that she should head back down to the Lab and get ready for bed.
When Nova heads down to the Lab, she starts to get ready for bed when David stops her and Nic. "You guys shouldn't blame yourselves, you know," he says as Nova finishes up flossing her teeth. She grabs her hairbrush and starts to slowly brush her hair and Nic walks up beside her, looking at David. "What happened today isn't your fault. There wasn't anything you could have done."
Nova scoffs as she places her hairbrush on top of one of the consoles. "Who are you kidding, Dad? That's bull and you know it. We could've stopped it. If we did, maybe Mr Delmar would still have a business."
"You know him?" David asks.
Nova nods, just barely. "Not really. When I came home late, Nic had asked to get a sandwich so I stopped by his store and went inside to get us both sandwiches." She pauses. "He said you should come around some time and try one of the sandwiches," she says quietly. "I told him I'd bring you."
She feels a hand on her shoulder and Nova leans into it as her stomach twists into knots. "I don't know, Dad," she sighs. "If we never agreed to go fight with Steve then we wouldn't be in this whole situation with the FBI and we could've saved Mr Delmar's shop. He wouldn't be out of a business."
"Yeah," Nic agrees and Nova looks up at him, his hand still on her shoulder. "We could've stopped it if we both weren't so caught up in fighting with the Avengers. It's the one thing that we were created to do... and we didn't. Nothing like this has happened since we started going on missions and it shouldn't have happened. We should be out there."
Feeling where this is going, Nova straightens up and Nic's hand falls from her shoulder.
"Guys," David says, a half-hearted laugh lodged in his throat. "Come on. I know what you were created for, I was there when we were in the process of creating you. But need I remind you that the government's hunting the two of you down along with the rest of your little buddies? The world was fine before the two of you were created and I'm positive that it'll be fine until this whole thing dies down."
Nic huffs. "It doesn't matter if the government is still looking for us, Dad. This is what we're supposed to be doing, and because we weren't, someone could've gotten seriously hurt."
"Please," he begs and Nova's stomach twists again. "You have to let us go on missions again, at least the serious ones."
David folds his arms over his chest. "No," he says. "I need you guys to stay under the radar for now. If it comes to a situation like that, then I'll send a robot from Walsh Tech instead. I'm not risking you guys." He turns around like his word is final and he starts walking towards the automatic doors.
Nova considers it for a moment. She considers what she'd be losing. She thinks about the past two months, how she's been on zero missions and been able to live the normal teenage girl life that's she's always wanted. Free of missions, free of the weight of being a bionic super-human. She thinks about how much she'll miss it. Because as wonderful as it was, Nic is right. They weren't created to have normal teenage lives, they were created to save people. And if they can't do that, then they shouldn't be here at all. She feels tears start to swell in her eyes and quickly blinks them back.
"Dad," she says and David turns around. "Please."
David's brows furrow, like he's thinking about it, though Nova wishes she knew now more than ever how to read people, and then — after a couple of minutes that seem like forever — he sighs.
"Fine," he says. "But only the absolutely most important ones. No more putting out fires for firefighters or chasing down muggers for lazy cops. And every time you go out, if anything even seems off, I'll have Walsh Tech's best robots set aside to take over the mission and I want the two of you out of there as fast as possible. Got it?"
Nova feels her heart sink a little bit at the aspect of no longer getting to pretend to be a normal girl, but smiles softly at her dad nonetheless. "Thanks, Dad."
Nic nods in agreement as he sighs in relief.
David smiles back at them. "Goodnight guys, I love you."
"I love you too," they both say at the same time.
Once David steps into the elevator, Nova runs the brush through her hair one more time before she steps into her capsule and closes the glass door, Nic doing the same in his capsule beside her. She sighs as she closes her eyes and falls into a restless sleep.
🌟🦋
CALL HER CRAZY, but Nova is coping with the loss of her normal teenage girl life by attempting to pretend like the last two months never even happened. She's lost whatever sort of normal teenage girl life she might have had by getting her dad to agree to send her and Nic on missions again, so obviously the best way to cope with it all is to pretend like what might have been the best two months of her life never happened. Duh.
Also, not to mention the fact that yesterday pretty much felt like the worst day of her life ever. So today, Nova woke up and decided that she would make the best of a brand new day. Sure, she's lost being a normal teenage girl, but she's gained something again. She's gained her responsibility to help people again. And as amazing as being a normal girl was... Nova finds that there's a part of her that's missed helping people too. So, she chooses to focus on that part.
However, the one thing that she can't seem to change for the better in her mind is the whole thing that happened with Peter. Sure, Nova said it was no big deal, but she says a lot of things. She once said that she got an A on her seventh grade math test. Does that mean it was true? No. Absolutely not. So when she went to bed last night, Nova found that she was haunted with the dream of a half naked Peter Parker trapped in a toxic power plant thanks to Eric Wu. Nova was called in for help, and she failed. Eric Wu blew up the power plant with Peter inside it and Nova's mask was blown off her face, revealing her identity to the world.
A fairly fitting dream considering the day that she had yesterday, Nova supposes.
Either way, this cannot go on any longer. It was already awkward enough yesterday and Nova doesn't need that happening for the rest of her life. Especially considering the fact that she actually really likes Peter— tutoring her. Obviously.
Besides, Nova desperately wants to cross the line between almost-friends and friends that they're teetering across right now. Peter's so incredibly kind, and thoughtful, and wonderful. She thinks it's only natural that she'd want to be friends with him. Not to mention, Nova feels like she could use some more friends since she feels like her current friend group is falling into shambles. (She promises she's OK.) Jacks and Simran still aren't talking to each other two months after they hooked up and Marcus is still living in his own world. (Not that Nova can blame him for that, his dad coming back threw her for a loop too.)
God, she hates being a teenager.
Which is why Nova believes that this was a good decision. She responsibly decided that today she'd walk to school instead of riding in the limo with Nic, Marcus, and Archie. She thought that the time and air would free her mind and help her to think more clearly.
She's not running, miraculously. Instead, Nova's choosing to walk, to take the long way to school. Because her entire life has been in fast-motion, sometimes she needs to take a break from it and slow down. It's hard, she'll admit. She's so used to breezing by everything as fast as she can. But it's fun, occasionally; to just take everything in. It makes her feel normal. It makes her feel real.
Nova reaches into her backpack as she approaches Delmar's Sandwiches and pulls out the flip phone. She types out a text and stares blankly at it for a moment before she deletes it and presses the call button on the contact.
The phone rings for a couple of moments until eventually it's picked up.
"I have a problem," says Nova. "Well, a couple of them, actually."
"Nova?" says Steve. He sounds groggy, like he's just woken up.
"OK. So y'know how we did that whole thing in Germany? Well, after that, Nic and I pretty much weren't allowed on any more missions because our dad was paranoid that the FBI would maybe figure out who we were. But there was this explosion that happened yesterday, and I started to feel really... gross, because, isn't it selfish of me to enjoy this time off rather than actually help the people that need it? I mean, I could've saved Mr Delmar's shop, but I didn't."
She starts walking faster as her heart starts pounding harder in her chest. Shoes slamming on the pavement, Nova continues to rant. "The only person that was there was Spider-Man, and he's doing fairly alright I guess. But he hasn't been doing it for nearly as long as Nic and I have. If we were there we could've stopped it, and he wouldn't have had to do it alone. I kinda feel bad for him—"
"Nova," says Steve and she shuts up. She needs to know what he has to say. "You're a kid, it was my fault for bringing you and your brother into my mess in the first place. Your father was doing the right thing protecting you both. I think you should still protect yourselves."
"Yeah," she hesitates. "But... Nic and I wouldn't have even been created if it wasn't for the sole reason of helping people. It's literally what we were engineered to do. It's supposed to be our only purpose in life. To help people when people can't."
"You're still just a kid, Nova," he says. "But the decision is up to you and your brother."
"I guess," she sighs. Not really. "But whatever," says Nova, shrugging it off. "Anyway, I have a question, have you ever had a girlfriend?"
Steve laughs. "Bucky was always more casual with women."
Nova frowns. "What about that one girl, Peggy? I saw a picture of her in your exhibit. She was talking about you in one of the videos too."
"That was..." he sighs. "That was a long time ago, kid." He pauses. "Why are you asking me all this?"
"OK, so, there's been this kid that's been tutoring me, Peter Parker. And something really awkward happened the other day. I'm talking like, I saw him almost naked, award. But the thing is — he's like — he's jacked. Almost as jacked as you, which really confused me, because he's kinda... well... nerdy. But the thing is, I definitely don't like him like that because I don't want to date him. I just want to be friends with him. But now that I know that he's super hot, it's confusing me, I think. So, if you could pass the phone to Bucky and he can tell me about his fuckboy days—"
"—Language!"
"What are you, my dad?"
Steve's silent for a moment. "Bucky's not with me. He's gonna be in Wakanda for a while."
Nova frowns but she doesn't question it. "OK, then what do you suggest? Because I'd rather run off a cliff than talk to anyone in my family about it. And it's not like I can talk to my friends right now either, Marcus is dealing with his own issues, and Simran and Jacks won't just talk about what happened between them."
"Well, I'd suggest talking to Peter Parker about what happened?"
"You're absolutely useless. I'll figure it out," she sighs. "Where are you right now anyway?"
"I can't say."
"Oh, come on!" Nova whines. "What am I gonna do? Run over there?"
"Yes, actually—"
"—Please!"
He sighs, "Ireland."
"Great!" she says with a smile. "I'll see you later today."
"Nova—!"
"Hold on I'm at school, I'll talk to you later," she says before ending the call and flipping the phone shut. She smiles at it for a moment because holy shit, she just got off the phone with Captain America before shaking it off and tucking the phone safely into her backpack and walking up the steps of her school.
She sees Jacks waiting by the front of the school and she walks up to him. "What're you doing?"
He jumps. "Jesus, Nova," he says. "Don't do that."
She frowns. "I didn't do anything. There's literally a hundred other people here right now." She gestures around the courtyard and turns back to Jacks. "Who are you looking for?" she asks, though, she figures she already knows the answer.
Jacks sighs. "OK — so — don't be mad, but me and Simran kind of... hooked up at your party."
Nova feigns surprise. "What? No way!"
He turns and looks at her, frowning. Jacks examines Nova's face for a bit, as she attempts to keep looking surprised when he points a finger at her. "She told you already, didn't she?"
"Who told me what?"
He glares at her.
"OK, fine, yes. She told me already. But I didn't want you to think I knew until you told me yourself. And besides," she says as the bell rings and the two of them walk down to their lockers. "I don't know why you both won't just talk to each other about it."
They reach Jacks locker and Nova leans against one of the lockers next to his as he spins the combination lock. "What do you think I'm trying to do right now?" says Jacks frustratedly as he hits his locker and tries the combination again.
Nova rolls her eyes. "It's thirty-two, not twenty-three."
She turns to Jacks again, a much more serious look in her eyes as he closes his locker door. "You'll talk to her, right? Because on a real note, I miss us. All of us. These last couple of weeks have felt like hell."
Jacks smiles softly. "I've been trying, Nova. But she won't talk to me. It's like, I don't even think I've seen her for the past two months. And even when I do, she finds some reason to run away. I want to talk to her, because... well... I miss her."
And Nova feels her heart squeeze, because, for as long as she's known Jacks, she knows that he's always had a thing for Simran. She knew it from the day that she met the two of them. Smiling a little, Nova remembers what Simran told her the day after the party, how she didn't regret it but just doesn't want things to be awkward. Which is exactly what she's doing by not talking to Jacks.
Forming a plan, Nova makes up her mind. Today is a new day and she's determined to make it a good one. "Don't do anything," says Nova, facing Jacks. "I'll get her to talk to you."
Nova grabs her physics book from her locker, and when she closes her locker door, she peers over the top of Jack' shoulders and sees Simran slowly sinking further and further into the crowd of teenagers. Nova frowns. Fuck no, she thinks. Shoving textbook and backpack into Jacks' arms, Nova takes off after Simran.
(Of course, not at the speed she usually runs at, but the speed that most normal people would consider running very fast. Nova actually feels like she's going way too slow.)
Nova shoves past people (though, she doesn't feel that bad about pushing over a freshman standing right in the middle of the hallway), until she grabs Simran by the shoulder and walks around behind her.
"You're talking to him," says Nova, more like a command as she pushes Simran towards Jacks, who's standing awkwardly by the lockers. "We're fixing this now."
"Can't you just let me ignore everything in my life for a little bit longer?" says Simran as she begrudgingly allows Nova to push her closer and closer to Jacks.
Once Nova's gotten Simran to stand in front of Jacks, the bell rings and the hallway starts to finally clear out. "OK," she says, folding her arms over her chest. "All three of us know what happened at my party — in a room that I really hope isn't one we use — and none of us are going anywhere until you both talk this out and stop making everything so weird."
Simran turns to Nova, a smirk on her face. "Don't you have health first period?"
Nova thinks she feels her stomach drop to the floor. "Shit!" she curses loudly and grabs her stuff out of Jacks' arms and her backpack from off the floor. "You guys better talk about this!" she calls out over her shoulder as she starts walking to the classroom. She was told earlier that week that if she was late one more time, she'd be written up.
"Have fun in health!"
But as she starts rushing towards the classroom, she turns up her super-hearing, just incase, and Nova feels a smile make its way across her face when she hears Simran's voice saying, "Hi, I miss you."
I would rather die, Nova thinks to herself. A silent rebuttal to Simran's comment. But at the mention of the class, she thinks about Peter, who also happens to be in her health class, and her stomach feels a little bit tingly. She cannot let this one little thing make her entire relationship with Peter awkward. Nova thinks that she's learned from Simran and Jacks' mistake. And maybe Steve was onto something about just talking to Peter about what happened. No matter how awkward it might be. After all, isn't that what she's forcing Jacks and Simran to do?
OK, Nova thinks. Making up her mind. I'm gonna talk to Peter about this. I have to. But she sees him sitting there, across the classroom. And her brain catapults her back to when she accidentally walked in on him shirtless and her face flushes at the memory.
Great. Just great.
She's got to fix this.
🌟🦋
"HI, I'M CAPTAIN AMERICA."
Nova can't help but giggle a little as she sits on the bleachers in the school gym. Because now that she actually knows Steve Rogers (that still sounds so cool!), she can't help but find it the slightest bit funny that someone got him to do this. Nova knows there's one for almost every situation at school. She wonders how long it took to film all of them.
So she reaches into her backpack that she forgot to leave in the locker room and grinning, she sends a text to Steve.
How long did it take to film all of these videos?
She tucks the phone back into the front pocket of her backpack and rests her head on her hand as she watches the rest of the video play through. Through the corner of her eye, Nova sees Peter and Ned whispering about something, but before she can make the conscious decision to turn up her super-hearing and actually listen in on their conversation, they stop talking.
"Today my good friend, your fitness teacher, will conduct the Captain America Fitness Challenge."
"Thank you, Captain. Pretty sure this guy's a war criminal now, but I have to show these videos. It's required by the state. Let's do it." He blows his whistle and Nova walks over to one of the mats laid out on the gym floor.
Part of her wants to wither away and die because she's got none of her friends in this class, and therefore, no partner. So Nova watches as everyone else pairs up. Nic transferred do this gym period, Nova thinks. She rolls her eyes when she sees her brother walking over to Flash by the ropes hanging down from the ceiling. She sees MJ in the corner of the gym, her head down in a book, and Nova takes a deep breath and walks up to her.
"Hi," she says. "Do you wanna be partners?"
MJ looks up from her book. "The fitness test is a waste of time and effort. It holds no real value outside of the school gym."
Nova laughs awkwardly. "I think we still need to do this, though. To pass the class."
MJ sighs as she places a bookmark inside of her book and follows Nova over to the mat she's chosen. Which just so happens to be right next to Peter and Ned. What a coincidence. She's still trying to find the perfect time to bring it up and talk to Peter.
"Can you just hold down my feet, then?" Nova asks as she lays down on the mat and relaxes once she feels MJ hold down her feet. "OK," says Nova, more to herself than anything, and she starts the curl ups.
Nova holds a steady pace, still continuing once some of the rest of the class has given up. It's all the training, she figures. She's been doing intense training to save the world ever since she can remember. She'd be a little more worried if she wasn't still doing curl ups after the rest of the class finished theirs.
She's still going, only at about one-hundred curl-ups when she hears her name being called. Frowning, Nova turns around and sees Betty calling her name. "Yeah?" Nova asks, confused.
"Nova, what about you?" she asks.
"What about me, what?" Nova asks, still confused.
"F, Marry, Kill: Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk?"
Nova sits up, forgetting about the curl ups and turns around to face the group still sitting on the bleachers. MJ goes back to her book, and Nova frowns at them.
"Iron Man? Really?" she scoffs. Everyone knows how she feels about Iron Man. It's not like she keeps it a secret. Besides, it's not like everyone here is stupid. They all know about the feud between Nova's dad and Tony Stark.
"OK, fine," Betty says. "What about...?" she looks at her friends sitting on the bleachers.
"What about the Spider-Man?" Liz suggests.
Nova sucks in a sharp breath, thinking back to those dreaded two months where she was utterly — and quite pathetically — crushing on Spider-Man. Not that anyone here knows that.
"OK..." Nova starts. "Um — kill the Hulk, fuck Thor, and marry Spider-Man."
Out of the corner of her eye, Nova sees Peter and Ned looking back and forth between each other and the conversation at hand.
"You'd marry Spider-Man?" Betty says with a raised brow.
There's a thud on the other side of the gym and Nova sees Nic hit the mat after climbing down from the rope. Shit, she thinks. She looks over at him, and he's grinning wildly. No, she thinks and narrows her eyes at Nic. She sees him open his mouth and before he can say anything, Nova clears her throat and puffs out her chest.
"I had a crush on him," she says before Nic has the chance to. "Like two months ago."
"Peter knows Spider-Man," a voice booms from beside her and Nova turns to stare at Ned and Peter with a gaping mouth.
It's not just her, apparently. The entire gym stops what they're doing and turns to stare at Peter. Which, Nova thinks, is completely justified. Because, what the fuck? How would Peter know Spider-Man? Suddenly her needing to talk to him about seeing him shirtless is the very last thing on her mind.
Peter seems frozen. He looks between Nova, the four sitting on the bench, and Ned.
"No, I don't," he says as scurries to stand up, looking at her. Ned stands up a couple seconds after he does and Nova is still wildly confused. "No. I... I mean—"
"They're friends," says Ned as he follows behind Peter who's walking to stand in front of Nova.
"Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends," says Flash and Nic coughs to cover up a laugh. Nova turns and glares at him before she turns back to Peter, softening her gaze.
"I—I've met him, yeah. A couple times," says Peter shrugging. "But it's um... through the — uh — Stark Internship."
She tries not to gag at the words Stark internship. But Nova keeps looking at Peter, she raises her eyebrows a little bit. Is he lying? Why would he lie? She can't help but think how it's such a dumb thing to lie about.
"Mmh," Peter says, like he's confirming to himself what he's saying. He looks at Nova again. "Yeah, well, I'm not really supposed to talk about it." He spits out this last part, glaring at Ned and Nova wonders what the fuck is happening right now.
"Well, that's awesome," says Flash and Nova rolls her eyes as Peter turns to him. "Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party. Right?"
"Yeah," says Liz. And Nova mentally curses. She completely forgot to ask her dad about going to Liz's party today. She looks over at Nic, who's right beside Flash and he nods at her. Telling her that he already asked for the both of them and that they're good to go. "I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come."
"Having a party?" Peter asks.
"Yeah, it's gonna be dope. You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man."
Nova sees Peter stutter and she turns to Flash. "Dude, shut up!"
"It's OK," says Liz. I know Peter's way to busy for parties anyway, so..."
"Oh, come on. He'll be there. Right, Parker?" says Flash.
The bell rings and everyone moves to get out of the gym as fast as they can. Nova, however, stays back a little and she sees as Peter pulls Ned aside to seemingly yell at him. She doesn't even think to turn up her super-hearing as she sits and thinks, her mind wandering. She doesn't notice Peter and Ned whispering between each other and glancing back at her.
And suddenly, Nova completely forgets about why she had to talk to Peter urgently. All she can think is, what the fuck? She knows that everyone thinks that he's lying, but Nova feels like there's a big part of this that she's missing. The way Peter reacted... he's hiding something.
A small laugh escapes her and she finally gets off the mat, heading into the locker room to change back into her usual clothes. Peter Parker is a mystery. He's a lot more complicated than she thought at first. And Nova finds that she's smiling to herself as she walks out of the gym and to her next class.
Peter Parker, she thinks.
The party's only a couple of hours later, and Nova realises that time takes forever to pass, the more you anticipate something. Her leg was bouncing up and down the entire time in the car, and Nic kept looking over at her like her bionics were about to glitch out. The two of them had left their house only after it got dark, Nova didn't want to be too early. Just cause she's not entirely normal anymore doesn't mean that she has to fully become a loser, right? After all, she was still one of the first people invited to Liz's party. That's got to count for something, right?
But most of all, Nova finds that she's anticipating seeing Peter the most. Yeah, it's weird, she knows. And maybe, just maybe, she's half wondering if Spider-Man will show up. Because, yeah, everyone's basically convinced that Peter and Ned are lying — Nic included — but Nova doesn't feel one hundred percent sure. Who knows, though. Maybe she's just delusional.
Either way, when she enters the house beside Nic, Liz immediately spots them and comes over to greet them; wrapping both of them in a hug. After officially welcoming them (which is a weird thing to do, Nova feels. She didn't greet anyone at her party), Liz heads off into the crowd and Nic says goodbye to Nova before making his way over to Flash. She stands alone for a minute before she spots Simran and Jacks in a corner of the room — get this — talking! Nova feels her heart squeeze.
Excitedly bouncing over to them, Nova throws her arms around born of them, bringing them in for a hug and relaxing when she feels them both hug her back. Sighing, Nova breaks the hug first and takes a small step back, smiling between her two friends.
"So," she says, bouncing on her feet. "You guys made up?"
The two of them share a look with each other, one that Nova can't decipher, before they reach for each other's hands and lock fingers. Nova feels like she's about to burst. She hasn't seen either of them for the rest of the day, so Nova assumed that they decided to skip, but she didn't know that they did it together. Yay!
"No fucking way!" he squeals. "Oh my God — I'm so happy for you guys — finally!"
Simran laughs and she leans into Jacks before smiling at Nova and letting go of his hand. "We couldn't have done it if it wasn't for you, you know?" says Simran.
Jacks clears his throat. "Yeah, I would've found a way. Sim probably would've tried to avoid me for the rest of eternity."
At this, Simran scowls and punches Jacks in the arm. "I probably would have," she admits. "But anyway, where's Marcus?"
"Oh, he was busy," Nova says distractedly, looking around the room. Which isn't technically a lie. Marcus was supposed to come, but he pulled Nova aside an hour before they were going to leave and told her that his dad asked to meet up. Nova was supportive. She told him to go because she could see the way that Marcus' eyes lit up about getting to know his 'new and improved dad.'
Not that she actually wanted him to go, Nova still has an odd feeling about Eric Wu's sudden reappearance in his son's life.
"Oh... OK," says Simran.
She takes Nova's arm and the two of them start to make their way through the crowd, Jacks following closely behind. Nova spots a couple of empty red cups and grabs all of them, thankfully there's exactly three, and she makes her way over to the punch bowl and pours some of the drink into each cup.
Nova downs her own drink in one sip and she coughs only moments later. "Ugh," she gags.
Jacks and Simran both frown at her and Nova cringes again. Looking around the room, she spots who she was looking for. "I forgot Matt was here," says Nova, and Simran and Jacks seem to nod in understanding.
Matt, the resident Midtown teenage borderline-alcoholic. After all, it's not a party if he's not there, adding more alcohol to already spiked punch.
Simran and Jacks both slowly sip on their drink where Nova goes to serve herself another full cup, since, why not? It's not like she's got anything better to do tomorrow, so she might as well have fun tonight. Not to mention, Peter and Ned should be showing up soon. Remembering this, Nova quickly finishes another drink and serves herself another while Jacks and Simran are distracted talking to someone else.
"So," says Nova. "You guys know what happened with Peter, right?" She sips on her third drink, forcing it down her throat as quickly as possible so she doesn't taste it.
"Yeah," says Jacks. "He said that he knows Spider-Man, right?" He laughs a little at the end of the sentence, like he couldn't believe that Peter would even say something like that, and Nova frowns.
"Why not? He could know him," she says.
"Yeah definitely," says Simran. "But then again, that's like saying anyone he's ever helped knows him. Spider-Man helped me out once, when someone stole my purse. But that doesn't mean I know him."
"Oh," says Nova, an odd feeling coming over her. She takes another, larger, sip of her drink and the feeling starts to hit her. She giggles a little. "I guess I never thought about it like that."
Downing the rest of the drink and gagging, Nova twirls. "This feels amazing," she says.
She doesn't see Simran and Jacks look at each other and slowly drag her away from the drink table.
But she does see Peter and Ned being welcomed into the house by Liz. Turning to face her friends, Nova stumbles over her own feet a little before she smiles up at them. "I'm going to say hi to Peter Parker now," she says. "You guys can go make out if you want."
"Nova—" Simran starts, but Nova swats her away.
"No," says Nova. "I want you guys to have fun as a couple. I'll be fine. I'm just gonna go say hello to my good almost friend Peter Parker." She slurs a little bit at the end of her sentence and frowns, noticing this.
Turning back around, Nova makes her way towards Peter as she hears Flash through the speakers shouting. "Penis Parker! What's up?"
She rolls her eyes, still walking over to Peter. Why is she moving so slowly?
"So, where's your pal Spider-Man?"
Maybe she should use her super speed.
"Let me guess: In Canada with your imaginary girlfriend?"
Jesus, is she walking through mud?
"That's not Spider-Man. That's just Ned in a red shirt."
Did they just move farther back?
She feels like she's almost there when Nova sees Peter turn to Ned and whisper something to him. Ned looks excited and Nova feels extremely left out. She wants to know what's so exciting. So she continues to trudge her way towards the two of them when she sees Peter walk back out of the front door. Nova frowns at this.
Squinting, she sees him run around the house to the side, but before she can turn around to maybe take a guess at where he's headed, Ned spots her and waves. Nova waves back, but somehow her feet have brought her much much closer to Ned and now she's standing right in front of him.
"Hey!" she says.
"Hi, Nova!" he says. "Great party!"
She laughs. "Not better than mine, though, right?"
"I didn't go to that one."
"What?" she says, shocked. "How come? Is it because my house is bigger than this? I thought that would've been a good thing for a party right? Maybe I was wrong. I don't really know—" She cuts herself off. "That's not the point. Where'd Peter go?" she slurs this question a little bit.
"Oh," Ned says, smiling. "He's coming back with a surprise."
She pats him on the shoulder. "Good to know."
And she turns her back to him, trying to remember which direction she saw Peter running in so that she could maybe find him and say hi through one of the windows. Walking along the side of the house, Nova slides her hand along the glass. She wonders if Liz is going to get in trouble for her fingerprints being left on the glass.
It's only when something outside catches Nova's eye that she stops. Frowning, Nova leans in closer to the window and narrows her eyes, looking up at the top of a part of Liz's roof. Her mouth, along with her hand, drops and she's stood staring at the figure that swings away from the party.
Holy shit, she thinks.
She didn't get a good enough look at his face, but Nova's seen that face enough times to know who it is without a second glance. She feels her heart start to beat louder and louder in her chest and suddenly she can't hear the music anymore. All she can hear is the thundering of her heart.
Nova knows that she's a little tipsy, but she's still conscious. She's still aware of her surroundings. And right now, Nova doesn't feel like she's got anything in her system.
Because no way. There's no chance. But she just saw it, clear as day.
Holy fuck, she thinks again. Peter is Spider-Man.