CHAPTER 6
European Hookup
KASSIDY did not enjoy the trip from Venice to Prague. Considering she was very prone to motion-sickness, the windy roads bordered by thick trees almost made her lose her lunch on multiple occasions.
Now, she laid her head against the window, eyes pinched shut in agony, and her legs pulled up onto the seat against her chest. Peter was in the seat next to her, absentmindedly scrolling through his phone. Every once in a while, he would glance over at Kassidy, ensuring she wasn't going to puke on him.
Sitting in his open backpack, were the glasses Peter had obtained the night before. He clicked off his phone before leaning down and opening the box.
As he did, Kassidy turned in her seat, spotting the glasses. A curious expression took over her pale and sickly face, and she put her feet back on the ground.
"Try them on." Kassie told the boy, glancing up at him.
Peter did as he was told, gently picking up the glasses and placing them on his face. He turned so that he was facing the girl, and tilted his head.
"Well?" he asked. "How do they look?"
Kassidy's eyes crinkled as she smiled, and she nodded her head in approval. "You look good, Pete." she admitted. "Very distinguished."
Peter thanked the girl with a chuckle, before he noticed something else in the case. As he picked up the small card and flipped it over, Kassidy noticed the writing on it.
Tony's writing.
"For the next Tony Stark, I trust you." Peter read, his eyebrows furrowed. "Say EDITH."
As the name "EDITH" left Peters mouth, the glasses immediately lit up, and Kassidy leaned forward to get a better look at him.
"Hello?" Peter asked quietly, looking around the bus.
Kassidy tried her best to lean in and listen to what the glasses were saying, but she had no luck. Instead, she leaned back and waited for Peter to relay it.
"So he made you for me?" he asked, looking around in confusion. "Cool."
"What's it saying?" Kassidy asked, trying to put her own head next to Peters to listen. "I can't hear."
"EDITH stands for "Even Dead, I'm The Hero."" Peter relayed, listening to the AI intently. "Yeah, he did."
The boy let out a small chuckle, but Kassidy could tell that it was laced with sadness. She felt it as well, just looking at the glasses was a reminder of the fact that Tony was gone.
Peters eyes widened as he looked around the bus. He muttered a small "woah", before pinching his eyes closed and shaking his head.
"It's showing me everyone's phones." Peter explained, placing a hand above his eyes to prevent himself from snooping. "That's wrong. that's wrong."
He glanced up from his lap once more, however, before giving a judgmental look towards Ned and Betty.
"What?" Kassidy asked, following his gaze. "What are they saying?"
Peter shook his head and removed the glasses. "They're texting each other." he told the girl, an amused smile appearing on his face. "And all they're saying is "I miss you.""
Kassidy let out a small giggle and shook her head. Although she was friends with both Ned and Betty, she couldn't help but laugh at the way they acted around one another.
A little while later, the bus finally came to a stop, and Kassidy couldn't have been more relieved. She couldn't wait to pick up some water, Gravol, and most importantly; Pringles. For some reason, Pringles were a great remedy for the girl's motion sickness.
The group of kids slowly filed off of the bus, and Kassidy had to stop herself from pushing them out of the way so she could finally breathe fresh air. When Peter finally stepped onto the ground outside of the bus, however, Dimitri stuck an arm out, stopping the boy and leaving Kassidy stuck on the steps.
"Oh, come on!" Kassidy groaned, trying to sniff the fresh air in front of her.
Dimitri only pointed at a door that was on the building in front of them. From within, Kassidy spotted a tall blonde woman clad in all black.
Great.
Peter let out a frustrated sigh before he began to walk, glancing back to make sure Kassidy was following.
"Are you feeling any better?" he asked.
"I would if I were allowed to go in and buy a few things." Kassidy grumbled. "This is so unfair."
"Yeah, I know." Peter agreed, softly patting the girl on the back.
Peter stepped into the building first, slowly turning the corner. Standing in the dark room was the woman.
"Hello." Peter greeted.
"Close the door." the woman demanded, an accent peeking through her voice.
Kassidy glanced back at the doorway, making sure nobody was around, before nodding her head to the side, causing the door to shut.
"Sorry, but what is this about?" Kassidy asked, her patience running low.
"I'm Peter Parker." Peter introduced himself, taking the more polite approach compared to his partner.
"Take off your clothes." the woman ordered, not returning Peters hand shake.
"Excuse me?" Peter gulped.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You told Fury Spider-Man and Ultra-Violet cannot be seen in Europe." the woman recalled. "So I made you these, different suits."
Sitting on a foosball table next to the woman was two packages of folded up clothes. She grabbed them and hand one to each teen.
"Oh, uh, thank you." Peter said nervously.
"I'm sure they fit just fine." Kassidy commented, inspecting the package. "We don't need to try them on."
"Take off your clothes!" the woman demanded, her eyes widening dangerously.
Kassidy and Peter looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Peter let out a shaky sigh before he slipped off his backpack.
"Peter!" Kassidy exclaimed, shaking her head with wide eyes.
"What?" Peter asked. "What choice do we have?"
Kassidy let out a scoff and raised her hands in protest. She shook her head at Peter and gave the woman a look of disbelief before turning and walking towards the door.
"I'm not stripping for you, lady." Kassidy snapped. "I'm getting gravol."
With that, she swung the door open and left, heading straight for the small connivence store across the lot.
She didn't know if it was her pounding headache and nausea that had given her this sudden attitude, or if it was the general fact that their vacation had been hijacked, but whatever it was, she was pissed.
Kassidy did her best to find what she needed in the small store, and eventually found what she thought was gravol; or at least something close to it.
After she had paid and left the store, she was immediately ambushed by Brad, who was brandishing his phone around like a maniac.
"Kassidy!" he exclaimed. "I hate to be the one to tell you this... but I caught Peter hooking up with some lady."
Kassidy raised her eyebrows, and unimpressed look washing over her face. She glanced down at the boys phone and gestured for him to show her whatever he had.
Brad nodded in understanding before handing his phone to Kassidy so that she could inspect the picture. She had to hold back a laugh as a picture of Peter in his underwear standing next to the woman from earlier popped up onto the screen.
"I know you and Peter have been talking... I just thought you should know." Brad explained.
"That's very thoughtful of you, Brad." Kassidy told the boy, trying her best to disguise her sarcasm.
"Yeah... And, you know, I think I'm gonna have to bring this to Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell." Brad continued. "I just don't think it's right for Peter to be hooking up with random chicks across Europe."
This had gotten Kassidy's attention. Her eyes widened and she began to shake her head. "Brad, do you really think that's necessary?" she asked. "I mean, humiliation is punishment enough, don't you think?"
Brad furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Why are you protecting him, Kass?" he asked. "You can do so much better."
Kassidy ran a hand through her hair in frustration and shook her head at the boy. "Just, keep it to yourself, Brad." she pleaded. "For me?"
Brad pulled his lips into a straight line before glancing over his shoulder towards the bus. He gave Kassidy one more look before shaking his head and heading back towards the bus. Kassidy was terrified that he was going to show Mr. Harrington the photo then and there, but to her relief, he walked right onto the bus.
Kassidy was beginning to walk back to the bus when Peter practically barrelled into her, grabbing ahold of her arm.
"Jesus, Pete-!"
"DidBradshowyouthatpicture?" Peter scrambled, holding both of Kassidy's arms.
"Yeah, he did, and he said he's going to show Mr. Harrington." Kassidy replied, trying to talk slowly to keep Peter calm.
"What?!" Peter panicked, his grip tightening on Kassidy's arms.
"Hey, super strength!" Kassidy exclaimed, wriggling her arms free.
Before Peter could panic any further, Mr. Dell had called all of the kids back to the bus. Kassidy and Peter filed on, this time taking a front seat to try and prevent Kassidy from getting sick.
As soon as they were off and driving again, Peter was sending worried glances towards Brad, who was dangerously close to where Mr. Harrington was sitting.
"Do you think EDITH can do anything?" Kassidy asked, her voice low.
Peters eyes widened and he nodded his head. He leaned forward and retrieved the glasses from his bag before putting them on his face.
"EDITH." Peter whispered in a panic. He began to mumble, fiddling with his hands nervously. "Um, Brad Davis. He has a photo of me."
Kassidy glanced over her shoulder and positioned herself so that Peter couldn't be seen from the aisle. When she turned back to look at the boy, his eyes were wide and he was in a complete panic.
"Peter?"
"EDITH?"
Peter completely ignored Kassidy and instead stood from his seat and removed his glasses. He looked towards the back of the bus, a blank look on his face.
"Dope glasses, Parker." Flash mocked, reaching over Kassidy for the glasses. "How'd you pay for these?"
"Flash!" Kassidy snapped, spinning around in her seat.
"Flash, give them back." Peter pleaded.
"No, no, no. I'm paying you a compliment." Flash argued, an amused smile on his face.
"Flash, please give them-!"
As Peter was trying to get the glasses off of Flash's face, he accidentally hit the boy across the face. And in his panicked state, he hit him a lot harder than he should have. Due to this, Flash was now slumped in his seat, knocked out.
"Oh, shit!" Kassidy exclaimed before grabbing the glasses and handing them off to Peter.
Peter shoved them back onto his face before whispering orders to EDITH, his hands shaking.
"Did you just punch Flash?" one of the students asked, a slightly impressed look on her face.
"No." Peter lied, shaking his head.
Something must have happened within EDITH, because seconds later, Peter slung a web at the steering wheel and tugged, causing the bus to swerve and for Kassidy to go flying into the window beside their seats.
As Kassidy pushed herself back up, Peter was bending down and putting the glasses back onto his face.
"Peter. Plant your fanny in that seat and buckle up right now!" Mr. Harrington ordered.
"Look at the baby mountain goats!" Peter exclaimed, pointing towards the window.
Everyone turned to look out the window, excluding Kassidy. She watched as Peter suddenly jumped, bursting right through the emergency exit on top of the bus. She looked around in a panic, worried somebody would see him, but right as everybody turned back around, Peter was back in the bus, his hair disheveled and chest heaving.
"I don't see any mountain goats." Mr. Harrington said, looking back at Peter.
"You missed them." Peter panted.
"I know you think none of us have noticed, Peter..." Betty suddenly said, causing Kassidy's eyes to widen in fear.
"What?" Peter stammered.
"...but your new look, I love it." Betty finished, nodding her head in approval. "Right, babe?"
"Thanks." Peter sighed in relief.
As Ned began to speak, Peter practically collapsed back into his seat, his head falling into Kassidy's shoulder dramatically. "Oh, man." he mumbled.
Kassidy leaned her head against the window and ran a comforting hand through Peters hair.
If those elementals didn't kill them, she was sure Peter would end up accidentally killing them.
*