"If you open your mouth one more time,
I'm gonna stitch it shut."
________________
Decathlon practice was probably the most boring after school activity for Monday's, especially since they banned using the bells for comedic purposes. Cora wasn't on Academic Decathlon, but Michelle was and she was the captain since Liz moved away to Oregon a couple of months ago.
Cora only stayed because Michelle was captain, and it was amusing to see her make sly comments at some people on the team, like Flash Thompson. But, Michelle was annoyed by someone other than Flash today.
"Where the hell is Parker?" Michelle snapped, Peter being 20 minutes late now.
"How the hell would we know and why do we care?" Flash commented from the stand, Michelle glaring at him.
"Because he's a significant asset to this team, and without him, we don't have a strong competitor in physics or functions." Michelle snapped at him and Flash rolled his eyes.
Abe grinned and hit the bell, "That's true!" He said, earning a groan of annoyance from Mr. Harrington.
"No using the bells for comedic purposes-"
"Sorry, I'm late!" Peter exclaimed as he rushed into the cafeteria where they held practice. "Sorry." He apologized again when he saw Michelle's irritated expression, her arms crossed.
"Where were you?" She asked as he set his bag down and he froze.
"I um- I forgot we had practice and so I um- had to run back, from the train stop." He said, shrugging off the green jacket he had on before putting on the yellow Aca Deca jacket.
Flash scoffed, "at least it wasn't about the 'Stark Internship' this time." He commented, watching Peter as he walking up to the stage area and went to his stand. Peter had learned to just tune Flash out at this point.
"Flash if you open your mouth one more time, I'm gonna stitch it shut." Cora threatened, sitting at one of the cafeteria tables with her homework spread out.
"How would you do that?" Flash questioned and Cora raised her eyebrows.
"I keep a needle and thread in my bag, Thompson. Don't test me." She said glad Mr. Harrington hadn't said anything. Even he knew Flash could be an arrogant prick.
"Oh shit, nerd number two is threatening me! Someone help!" Flash exclaimed, mocking her. Cora only rolled her eyes and focused on the chemistry homework she had while they practiced.
Michelle asked a question and Flash hit his bell first, "34x." He said and Michelle sighed, shaking her head. Being the captain of the team was fun and all, except for when people like Flash thought that being fast was best.
"It's 82.7 to the power of 6," Cora said from her seat, more to herself than to the team. Her best friend turned to look at her.
"Co," She said and the blonde looked up. "What did you say?"
"I said, it's 82.7 to the power of 6," Cora answered, Michelle, glancing at her card.
"That's correct." She told her with a smirk before turning back to the actual team. A few people were staring at Cora, who just kept to herself and continued to do her chemistry homework. Mr. Rivit told her earlier that day that if she didn't start completing her homework, he would have to start docking marks on assignments and call her dad. So, she was doing as much as she could.
Peter stood at his stand, both shocked and confused at how Cora got the answer so quickly. All she had been doing was listening, and she did it in her head within minutes.
Practice went on and Peter got all of his questions right and rushed down to the floor again to grab his bag and change his jacket. He didn't really miss practice because he forgot. Tony had called him beforehand - which surprised Peter - and told him that he needed him to come to the compound right away. When Peter told him he had practice for Decathlon, Tony had let him go but told him he needed to be there right after it was over.
Peter picked up his bag and checked his phone.
mr. stark
Happy is outside waiting for you at the back of the school.
The teenage boy sighed and left the cafeteria, nobody really noticing, but Cora noticed his rush. She had noticed that he tended to rush out of practices, and her curiosity was eating her alive. She had to know.
"I'll meet you out front, MJ." She told Michelle and her friend nodded. Cora stood from her table and followed Peter, wanting to know why he was rushing. She silently followed him down the hallway, at least 20 feet behind, and watched him go through the back door of the school. Cora walked over to the window in the door, seeing him walk down the stone steps and get into a sleek black car, which proceeded to speed off.
"Where the hell is that boy going.." She mumbled to herself, knowing that her wondering if it would grow.
Peter had gotten into the car with a sigh, seeing Happy in the driver's seat. "Hey Happy." He grinned as he buckled his seat belt before Happy began driving down the road.
"Hey kid," Happy sighed, "how was school?" He asked, turning a corner. Tony liked to know how Peter was doing, so he got Happy to ask him questions and he would report back to Tony since he didn't have the time to ask him questions himself. He also listened to the messages Peter left for Happy, so he would know what was going on.
Peter shrugged, "it was good."
"Just good?" Happy questioned and immediately regretted it. Peter went on a little ramble about his day after that, about chemistry and the test he had coming up on Thursday, how annoying Mr. Rivit was, he talked about P.E and how he ran 32 laps in 10 minutes, and Happy noticed he mentioned a girl named Cora throughout his stories.
"..and then at Decathlon practice, Cora answered a question by just listening! She isn't even on the team, her best friend is the captain though.. so she comes to practices. MJ told me she's been trying to get her to join the team, but Cora says she doesn't have the time." Peter sighed, not mentioning his project with Cora.
"Sounds like an eventful day, Peter." Happy said, pulling into the compound driveway. "Tony wants you in the meeting room."
Peter nodded and got out. He knew his way there well enough, so he could go by himself. He went into the compound, making a beeline straight to the meeting room.
When he got there he knocked, the door flying open, revealing Tony. "Ah, Mr. Parker. Come on in." He grinned and stepped aside.
Peter stepped into the room, sitting down when Tony gestured to a seat.
"So um.. why did you call me over?" He asked curiously, Tony sighing and grabbing the remote for the TV in the room. He turned it on and it showed a video of Peter's baby monitor in his suit, showing the recording of when he met Violet Knight.
"Why didn't you tell me you met her?" Tony questioned, raising his eyebrows at Peter.
Peter shrugged, "I.. I don't know? Slipped my mind, I guess." He told Tony, "I've had a lot going on."
Tony sighed, "I've been trying to find this girl for months. Do you know anything about her?"
The younger of the two shook his head, "all I know is that she is 15, and she made her own suit." He said but got curious. "Why do you need to find her?"
Tony clicked the remote, shaking a picture of the bright, violet light emitting from the girl's hand. "I wanna know how and why she can do that. She might be a useful asset. That being said, I have a project for you." He told the teenager, turning to him.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I need you to find out who it is," Tony told him, Peter raising his eyebrows. "Gain her trust, Peter. Fight crime with her, I don't know. Bond over whatever goes on in high school nowadays." His mentor explained, "if something comes up, I want someone with powers like her to be on our side. Understand, Mr. Parker?"
Peter nodded, "I understand.. but you received a lot of backlash from recruiting me for the fight with Cap. Wouldn't you want to avoid recruiting teenagers?" He asked. Tony was a bit taken aback by Peter questioning him since he never had.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. It's only if we ever run into a threat again. I'll be watching your monitor very attentively, taking any information on her you have." Tony told him and Peter simply nodded again, "that being said, boy, I swear to god, you better not do anything stupid."
"Of course, Mr. Stark," Peter told him, and Tony grinned a bit.
"Great! Now be on your way, I'm sure you have a crime to fight or homework to do." He said and Peter said bye before he left the meeting room and compound.
On the ride home from the compound, Peter tried to devise a plan in his head on how to run into the Violet Knight more often. Gaining a superhero's trust could take weeks to months, especially since her identity was a secret.
What Peter didn't know though, was that she was hiding right under his nose.