chapter eighteen!
where is peter parker?
"ARE YOU nervous?"
Nina met Mary Jane's gaze over the brim of her hot chocolate. In her hands, she clutched an envelope from New York University that held a yes or no answer to Nina's future. She felt awkward holding it, but just as nervous as she did last year when she finished her senior year, awaiting many letters with answers from every college she applied for. She had been given answers of 'no' for all of them, and Nina wasn't expecting the best out of this time, either. Especially when all of her others had said no, again. An interview she went to had stated something very similar the first time━picking a graduating boy over her to pursue science like it was 1950 or something.
This was the last one she applied to, and the last one she received a letter for. She got it this morning but had been way too scared to open it. She rang Mary-Jane, and her best friend demanded to go for a coffee (or in Nina's case, hot chocolate) before her audition to be there for her no matter the result.
"Yeah," Nina answered, watching her best friend tuck her bright red hair behind her ears instead of opening her letter.
"Are you excited?"
"Yeah."
MJ gestured to the envelope with a bounce of her brows to say, then go on, open it.
Nina pursed her lips. She glanced down at the letter, eyeing NYC crest on the sleeve and then her name. All she needed to do was to just open it━rip off the bandaid, as her mother would say. But Nina was chewing her bottom lip with anxiety. In the end, she decided, "Maybe after another hot chocolate━"
"Nina!" chuckled Mary Jane, eyes bright with excitement for her. "This is already your third hot chocolate."
"But━"
"Just take a breath," MJ grabbed her hand across the table, giving her an encouraging nod. Nina pursed her lips, her leg bouncing under the table. "Just take a breath, and open it."
"But what if it's no, again?" Nina slumped. "This is my last back-up."
Mary Jane shrugged, sighing, "Then ... I suppose it is what it is. But you'll try again next year. Maybe pick ESU? Either way, they're going to get Nina Hart━nothing will stop her."
Nina smiled despite it, blushing a little at her friends fierce comment. MJ grinned, proud and quickly drummed her hands on the table lightly, "And drum roll ..." she kept on going, waiting for Nina to open it. She chuckled, shaking her head. "Drum roll ..." continued Mary Jane, "... come on, Nina ... open the letter ..."
Nina laughed this time, quiet but a few of the other people sitting down in the cafe gave them strange looks. "Okay, okay! I'm opening it, I'm opening it."
MJ grinned and sat forward, clasping her hands and looked to be ready to burst from her excitement. They've always been supportive of each others dreams, ever since they first became friends. Nina had been there for when MJ's parents told her she'd never act, and Mary Jane has been there for Nina when idiots told her a girl could never be a scientist.
Nina took a deep breath and pulled open the envelope. She ripped the sleeve with a finger and shakily pulled out the letter. Heart racing, she unfolded the paper and read the words.
Her heart jolted. Her eyes widened.
"What?" MJ demanded, breathless in her anticipation. "What is it? What did they say?"
Nina couldn't quite believe it. She had begun to expect disappointment, therefore she'd never be disappointed━so much that this answer almost struck her to the ground.
"I got in," she managed, shocked. Locking eyes with Mary-Jane, Nina slowly broke out into a bright smile. "I━I got in!"
Realising, MJ cried out in celebration. She quickly hid it with a gasp, but she didn't care. She leapt right off her chair and ran around to envelope Nina in a tight hug. Nina laughed, holding onto her just as tight as Mary Jane rocked them, repeating, "You did it! I knew you'd get it! You did it! I'm so proud of you!" over and over again. Then, "Get this woman a hot chocolate! Ten hot chocolates! We're celebrating!"
Nina grinned so bright her cheeks hurt, staring down at her acceptance letter feeling so light she might as well have wings. After what happened at OSCORP Unity Day, Nina needed this. She needed something good happen in her life━and now, she had it. She had a future. She was stepping towards her future.
"I'm going to NYU!" she told Mary Jane in a whisper-shout of excitement that her best friend reciprocated with a little squeal, kissing her messily on the head amongst her hair. "And you!" Nina quickly grasped MJ's shoulders, the two girls completely ignoring the other customers giving them dirty looks. "You are going to nail this audition, you hear me? Both of our dreams are coming true today!"
Mary Jane smiled and hugged her again, and Nina rubbed her back, knowing she needed it. MJ gave another final squeal, and Nina bit back her tears, beyond happy.
After getting another hot chocolate together, Nina walked MJ to her audition and helping her go over her lines last minute with thoughts on her expressions and performance. Then, she took a cab back to her apartment, calling her parents to tell them the good news. She celebrated again in the back of the taxi, and her driver even sent her a smile. Nina was over the moon, racing up the steps and into the small apartment in need of a quick clean to then call Harry. Nina bounced and danced around her apartment, making a grocery list, hoping to invite him over so they could have dinner together. She waited for him to pick up ... and pick up ...
She tried again, figuring he might have not seen her call the first time. Nina had less of a perk in her step as she waited, still holding her acceptance letter and wiping down her kitchen bench, suddenly inspired to revamp her apartment. She could put succulents on her window sil━that would be cool, right? Is that what college students do?
Nina reached her boyfriend's voicemail again. She pursed her lips and decided to leave a message, "Hey Harry, I have some great news to tell you! Call me back!"
She waited for him to call back, sitting down at her table, and her lounge, cleaning her apartment up to keep herself moving just waiting for her phone to ring. But as the time passed into the late afternoon with no call from Harry at all, Nina was running out of time to go to the store to cook dinner. She started to get annoyed. Recently━ever since Unity Day━Harry had started to become distant. Nina assumed it was to do with his father, it always was these days, and she tried to be patient, she tried to understand, and maybe she couldn't, because her father was around, and very much in her life. But Nina needed Harry around after what happened, she wanted to meet Mr. Osborn properly, and she wanted to tell him about how she did it! She got into college without help. Just by herself.
But Harry wasn't there. He wasn't there to listen, to chat, to pick up her call. He was there for a visit, a quick message, a day out or two with flowers and his cheeky grin. But Nina wasn't always as excited to see the flowers. In fact ... she's started to throw them out after two days, not finding herself smiling whenever she glanced over at her vase.
In the end, it was too late. Harry had not returned a call. He had not texted her. And Nina had lost her mood to cook dinner. So, annoyed, she grabbed her apartment key, her bag and stepped out to treat herself to nice takeaway. Nina gave her phone a final check, seeing MJ let her know she was out of the audition, and had recieved a call-back, which was very exciting for her. Nina got a few messages from her parents saying congragulations yet again, even a message from MJ's father asking where she was━most likely to ask her to give him money━to which she deleted. She only had his contact in case of emergencies and MJ couldn't reach him, which happened a lot. But nothing from Harry.
Stepping out of the complex, Nina fixed her handbag angrily over her shoulder. She stormed down the pavement, but didn't even get four steps before she heard someone jogging behind her and a cheerful, "Hey!"
She recognised the voice. Nina stopped and glanced back. And like that, she was back to smiling. Her phone became forgotten at the sight of Peter Parker skidding to a stop as he reached her, dressed up in a neat blue shirt, jeans and dark coat. "It's me again," He grinned. "I was just about to text you, pay a visit."
Nina's anger mellowed and she tilted her head, shaking her head a little at his subtle spontaneous nature. Here and there, everywhere━sometimes just when she seemed to need a smile, a laugh, to cheer up. "Hey," she replied, a little bewildered, but very happy to see him.
Peter slipped his hands into his coat pockets, leaning in to tell her, "This redhead actress told me that you got into NYU."
Nina guffawed at Mary Jane, but nodded, very proud. "I did!" She rocked on her toes, unable to stop her chuckle at the smile on Peter's face. He looked very proud of her. "I did ... and so, you just came by?"
Peter shrugged, suddenly a little shy. He gestured back at her apartment complex, "Like I said, I was just about to text you. Besides, I was in the neighbourhood and needed to see a friendly face."
Nina's brows furrowed a little amongst her smile, remembering someone else who had said those words to her. She chuckled, pushing away the strange sense of deja vu of her short conversation with the friendly neighbourhood webslinger.
"I mean," went on Peter, "I took two buses and a cab to get in the neighbourhood, but━" he broke out into soft laughter at the kind roll of her eyes. Nina felt a flutter in her stomach to think that Peter went through that trouble to come and surprise her with a celebration. She knew her cheeks had reddened up, and so she ducked her head, pursing her lips and shyly glancing at Peter out of the corner of her eye. What a dork.
Nina remembered another time she had run into Peter, outside Moondance Diner, furious over not being able to go to college because she hadn't been accepted into any, ashamed to be working a low-wage job and he told her that it was far from that. That conversation had made her day.
She shuffled on her feet, deciding to say, "So, are you getting into science, too?"
Peter, a little surprised by the question, blinked. He shrugged, "Ah ... I don't know. I mean, thats the idea after college. Now that I got this photography sort-of job, I'll start looking into it."
Nina nodded, "Good," she stated. "Because you're really smart. You always got top place."
He made a face, "No," he said, and she chuckled, "you were always smarter. Remember that time you got first place in the science fair? That was the craziest elephant toothpaste I had ever seen! I was so jealous."
Nina made a face, too, remembering that day very well. She scoffed, amused, "Peter, that was third grade."
"Well?" he said and she chuckled. "Even so. Sometimes, you know people, you can just ... see what's coming."
Her chuckles faded into a small smile, taken aback by his words of wisdom. "You ... you saw that from third grade?"
Peter nodded, "Saw that you were gonna change science forever."
Nina's brows lifted, not sure what to say to that. Thank you? It didn't seem enough. He said it in a way that he believed it━he thoroughly believed it, perhaps even more than Nina herself did. It almost made her emotional. "From third grade?"
He shrugged, smiling. "Like I said, you just know." Then, Peter nodded at her attire, "You heading out?"
Nina was jolted from her haze, and she blushed yet again. "Oh! Oh," she shook her head. "I as just━um━" she chuckled again, about to say that she was going to get takeaway, but then, an idea struck her. It made her tilt her head and purse her lips. She swivelled on her toes, glancing down the street, unsure. But then she decided, screw it, Harry isn't going to even call me back, and turned back to Peter. "Actually, I was going to go to the shops to get some last minute groceries for dinner. You━uh━you want to stay back? I'll cook. I mean, I'll try to cook ..." she shrugged, not sure why she was so nervous.
But that faded when Peter nodded. Her shoulders lifted, pleasantly surprised. He nodded again, "Yeah, sure. Let's go━"
"No, actually," Nina held out a hand, mischevious. Peter arched a brow. "It's a suprise, so, I'll go to the shop and you can have my key, put on the TV or something, I won't be long, and I shall cook and lets hope to God I won't burn the apartment."
She rummaged in her purse for her apartment key before Peter could disagree, holding it out to him with a playful smirk and bounce on her toes. Peter frowned at her, incredulous, but took it anyway, chuckling. "All right," he said, pocketing the key. "I'll leave the door open."
Nina nodded, grinning, "Yep! And I will see you soon. It's just around the corner, so ..." still rather nervous, she shuffled backwards before turning around. Nina gave Peter a final glance over her shoulder before breaking out into a little jog down the sidewalk, excited to celebrate all over again.
*ೃ༄
"ARE YOU allowed to skate in the hallways?"
"Nope," Felicia answered MJ's question as they walked alongside Nina who gently skated across the tiles. She might as well be going to pace as a usual walk, but she liked just trudging along with her board so here she was. "And I'll probably steal it out of the teacher's office yet again."
Now that Michelle Jones was friends with Nina, she dragged her into their small friend group despite Felicia's disagreement. The three girls walked away from the detention room, since MJ had spent her lunch there, for some reason. Nina was a beaming sunshine of happiness to have them walk with her, keeping her mind off the event that was last night and the expedition that was almost dying. Even if Felicia and MJ have been bickering ever since Michelle stepped out of detention, Nina was happy.
"We should all get hot chocolate after school," she decided, letting herself drift. "I can buy us hot chocolate."
MJ frowned at her, "Hot chocolate?"
"She is obsessed," Felicia informed. "Like━in a terrible way. Nina can drink more hot chocolates than an alcoholic can stomach beers."
Nina made a face, "No ... I don't, but I'm going to actually take that as a compliment."
"She once told me she'd love to live in a house made of chocolate."
Quick to lie and disagree, Nina guffawed a scoff and said, "Uh━no, that would be impractical."
Michelle thought about this. Then, she shrugged, "Living in a chocolate house wouldn't be too bad."
Nina gestured to her, happy while giving Felicia a smug smile. Her best friend scoffed a small chuckle, but it didn't have the same spark as it has recently. It made Nina falter━it seemed that Cia only has gotten worse this year; but it happened suddenly. Nina didn't know what happened, or what caused it, but her friend had hit a second low and it concerned her.
Felicia narrowed her eyes slightly at MJ, "What were you doing in detention anyway. You don't have detention."
MJ shrugged, "Oh, I just like sitting there and drawing people in crisis," she fished into her jackets huge pockets and pulled out a small artists journal. She showed them one picture of the school's coach and grinned, snickering under her breath at the sheer look of disappointment on his face.
Cia stared, dubious. "Okay ..." she decided in the end.
"Hey," Nina frowned, flipping back a few pages. "Is that me?"
Michelle pursed her lips, but stared at her blankly and showed the picture━Nina vaguely remembered the day she got detention for skating in the school halls. MJ had been there, she didn't realise she had been drawing. Nina stared back at herself, wondering if she really did look that miserable.
"Wow," she said, "that's really good ... but also really━do I seriously look like that when I'm sad?"
Felicia checked, then analysied Nina, before nodding, "Yeah, pretty much, hon."
Nina frowned to herself, "Really?"
MJ rolled her eyes, "Oh, my god, you pout like a child when you're sad, deal with it," she shook her head, muttering under her breath a scoff of: "White people..."
Felicia made a face at her comment, but then moved on. She glanced at Nina from behind MJ since Michelle was taller than the both of them. Nina saw the mischevious glint in her eye and her shoulders slumped, silently begging her whatever it was, not to say it. But Cia just grinned and spoke up, "So, MJ, I'm guessing you know about Nina's window friend?"
Nina threw her hands up, incredulous at her friend.
Michelle quirked a brow at this, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Nina, "You have a window friend?" she asked.
Nina blushed, shooting Felicia a quick scowl, "N━no, not really, just ... uh ... I mean, no harm━well, sometimes, Spider-Man comes and visits me. It's not exactly something I should really talk about, Felicia."
"What?" Felicia defended herself. "Practically the whole school knows you're friendly with Spider-Man now by the way he acted at Washington━you told me what he said."
MJ was still staring at Nina, as if she was some conspiracy she was trying to figure out. "You know who Spider-Man is?"
Nina suddenly felt a little uncomforable. MJ was sort of intimidating when she was like this. "Uh ... no, not really. I see him, don't know his identity," she quickly lied.
Michelle tilted her head up slightly. Her gaze flickered, looking her up and down. Then, she stated, "Cool," and continued to walk down the hallway. Nina and Felicia shared a glance before catching up. Nina gave her skateboard a swift push on the tiles. "I don't know who Spider-Man is," went on MJ as they did, "but I have my suspicions."
Nina's heart-rate paced at those words. It could easily be nothing━Michelle just exploring her wild conspiracies. But now that Nina knew who Spider-Man was (or rather, figured it out and didn't tell him that she knew), she felt obligated to keep his identity a secret. And since Nina figured it out, she was sure others could, too, so she had to do a way better job than him. "Uh ... you have suspicions? What suspicions?"
MJ shrugged, "I don't know."
Felicia was back to being incredulous, "But you just said━?"
"Hey," Michelle glanced back at Nina, "probably should tell you: your ex-boyfriend completely walked out of detention today."
Nina skidded her board to a stop immediately, "What?" she demanded, trying very hard not to sound sartled.
"Yeah," said MJ casually, "he just got up and walked out not even halfway through Cap's video. I called him to see what his deal was, but I got voicemail."
"The usual," muttered Felicia.
But Nina was worried. Her brows knitted, stomach twisting as she tried to think why he'd do that. "Has ... has anyone seen him since?" Before now, she was always worried, but now that she knew who he was, that sky-rocketed. What if something happened? Did the Vulture decide to attack the school? What was Peter doing?
Michelle shrugged, "I don't know."
Nina was reaching for her phone without thinking, "I ... I'll be back. I should call him."
"He won't answer," Cia called after her, a little disappointed but Nina didn't care. She picked up her skateboard and unlocked her phone, ignoring the suspicious look Michelle had back on her face, eyeing her as she rushed off.
Nina pressed Peter's contact number and placed her phone against her ear, hurrying towards Physics in hopes to see Ned and ask him. When she got voicemail, she wasn't surprised━instead, her worry grew, because now she was sure this was Spider-Man business. And now he was ditching school in general for it? (But maybe that wasn't what was important right now).
Trying his number again and not getting it, Nina stopped outside of class and sighed, her gaze darting towards the window and wondering what trouble he was getting into.
*ೃ༄
a/n: sorry for the sort of filler. was gonna add one more scene but i didn't want to make the chapter too long, so that scene will be at the start of next one. i think next chapter will be a primarily flash-back chapter again, just 'cause i need to catch up in both movies as we are in regards to homecoming.
also i said this on my profile, and i've said this in my other books, but i'm saying it here again. i'm starting a full-time job tomorrow, so every book is going to be slower with updates, including this one. and you guys are used to quick updates, on average around two times a week (?). but that's now gonna obviously change, i know you guys will understand.
i'll be working my 9 to 5 ... what a way to make a livin━
sorry not sorry.
anyway, wish me luck in this receptionist traineeship i'm doing ahahah. i will see you next chapter xx
you guys deciding to read this book after nwh knowing there will be a lot of angst:
also I can confirm that nina will get a spider-man plush and love it more than life itself and bring it with her to Europe in far from home—