Peter and Eloise walk home everyday after school together for the rest of the week. Ned usually joins them when he's going to Peter's house, too. The two are really close friends and it's honestly kind of endearing to Eloise. They've been best friends since pre-school, they tell her. Although she's glad they have such a strong bond between the two of them, Eloise can't help but feel left out. It's not when they say inside jokes or tell fun stories, but she feels left out in the sense that she wasn't given a childhood like theirs. Hers was structured and academic; theirs was fun and adventurous. She finds herself imagining the adventures they describe, mentally placing a younger Eloise with them. She imagines making a mess in the art room of their old first-grade class. Running around with them at recess.
Ned notices the faraway look on her face a few times, and asks her once if she's okay. His query draws Peter's attention, and suddenly Eloise has both of their attention and concern.
Eloise smiles at them, a little nervous with all the attention, and says that she's perfectly okay. Because she is—she's just feeling nostalgic for a childhood she never even had.
On Friday at lunch, Eloise ends up talking about her new friends to Elena, Lucy, Cliff, and Alev.
"Be careful," Cliff warns her with a smile, but his tone is serious. "Those Midtown-ers like to cause trouble with people like us."
"Was one of them that boy you were talking to at the library the other day?" Elena asks as she nibbles on a handful of carrots.
Eloise fishes the last chip in her bag of Doritos out and eats it. "Yeah, that was Peter. He's actually my neighbor." Wiping off her cheesy hands on her jeans, she changes the subject. "Anyways, how is your mom, Alev?"
She smiles sadly. "Better."
"Still sick?" Lucy asks, stealing a carrot from Elena.
"Yes. But better."
Eloise makes a mental note to swing by a mart to get a flower bouquet and a fruit bowl to give to Alev's ill mother after school.
The group of friends chat casually for the rest of lunch until it's time to go to their next classes. The remaining afternoon classes go by quickly and soon Eloise already out the front doors, backpack on her back and jacket tied around her waist so she doesn't have to carry it.
She takes her usual route home, but a few streets before Midtown is a family-own mini mart with candies and flowers in the front window. She stops by.
She steps up the small concrete step and walks into the store, bell jingling overhead.
A middle-aged man from behind the counter looks at Eloise from behind his wiry glasses. He grins. "How ya doin', Miss Jones?"
"Great, how about you, Mr. Johns?" The girl replies friendly, walking past the counter straight to the refrigerator towards the back.
"Could be better."
She frowns as she pulls out a fresh fruit bowl, glancing at the man. Every time she stopped by for groceries, the two always exchanged the same friendly words. She always said that everything's great and would usually receive the same reply from Mr. Johns. His words cause her to grow concerned. "Why's that?"
"Have ya heard of that deli that got attacked the other day?"
"Yeah." The bank across the street from one of Eloise's favorite deli spots was being robbed, but there was some freak attack by some alien weapon and caught the deli on fire. No one was hurt, thank God.
Mr. Johns pushes his glasses up his round nose and leans against the counter. "I'm just worryin,' is all. Don't want that to happen here, too. The mart's all I got."
Eloise shuts the fridge door and carries the fruit bowl to the counter as Mr. Johns types in her purchase.
"Could I also get a flower bouquet?" Eloise asks.
"Rose or tulip?"
"Tulip, please."
He reaches down under the counter and pulls out a bouquet of beautiful tulips. "6.99."
She pulls out a ten and lets him keep the change. He thanks the girl, then she's out and back on her usual route. Alev's apartment is in an apartment building a block over from hers, so she doesn't have to change her path.
Eloise is passing by Midtown High again when she spots Peter waiting on the bleachers. He's wearing a blue sweater with a collared shirt underneath, his earbuds tucked into his ears and his nose stuck in a book. He's chewing on one of his nails when, almost like he could sense her gaze, looks up. Eloise and Peter make direct eye-contact.
She waves with a smile. Peter waves too, but then closes his book and climbs down the bleacher steps. As he nears Eloise idling on the sidewalk, he tucks his earbuds into his back pocket.
He looks at the fruit bowl and bouquet of yellow tulips in Eloise's arms as he steps into stride with her walking.
"What's that for?"
"My friend's mom is sick, so I thought I'd get her a small get-well-soon gift," she replies.
Peter looks away and smiles, shaking his head slightly.
Eloise's brow furrows. "What?" She asks, a confused smile replacing her happy one.
"Nothing," Peter says as he tucks his hands into his front pockets. "It's just, you're literally the nicest person I've ever met." He shrugs.
She laughs. "No I'm not, you're just saying that."
"No, really," He insists. "You're like, ridiculously, inhumanly nice."
Eloise pulls a face. "Thanks?"
They both chuckle lightly and Peter looks down at the ground as they walk. Eloise takes the time to study him, his posture and his face, when she suddenly notices a yellowish-purple circle around his left eye. Eloise frowns and stops. Peter takes a few more steps before he notices that she stopped walking and turns, confused.
"What happened?" She asks, reaching out and cupping his face. She turns his head gently to the side to get a better look at the bruise, and as her eyes inspect the area, she catches his split lip. A spike of concern shoots through her.
Peter's mouth opens as he goes to reply, but Eloise cuts him off short.
"Who hit you?"
He pulls his face away from her hand. "Nobody, I just got hit in the face with a kickball during gym." He makes an effort not to make eye contact with her, and it makes her worry even more.
Eloise gives him a flat look. "I wasn't born yesterday, Peter." She reaches for his face again, but he steps away. "Pete-"
"Seriously, nothing happened, no big deal," he insists, making small gestures with his hands before he grabs onto the straps of his backpack. "Can ... can we just keep walking now?"
Reluctantly, she lets it go. Maybe he really did just get hurt during gym.
"Okay, yeah, sorry."
Peter releases a breath. "Thank you."
They start walking again. Peter avoids Eloise's gaze and kicks around a few loose rocks and cans, but she can't help but worry about this boy. Everyone's got their own fair share of secrets, but something tells her that Peter Parker's are bigger than most high schoolers'.
🕸
It's Saturday morning. The sky is gray, the clouds are gray, and the light coming through the curtains in Eloise's room is gray.
So, naturally, she attempts to make things brighter. She plays some catchy pop songs on her phone to the highest volume and slips on her fuzzy yellow slippers with her black leggings and rainbow sweatshirt.
It's all going swimmingly until her dad bursts in and tells her to keep down the "fake music." Eloise turns it down, but she doesn't agree with him because if the music is making her happy and feel something, how can it be fake?
Once her dad and mom leave for work, Eloise brings the brightness out of her room and into the kitchen. She pulls out some cake mix boxes and, without reading the instructions, jumps right in. She mixes the batter in a big bowl and taste-tests it before deeming it good (and then eats some more, because cake batter is delicious). Eloise pours a third of the batter into a separate bowl, mixes in some blue food dye, and with the other two thirds, dyes them separately with pink and yellow. She then layers the batter together and mixes it all up so it's marbled before sliding the colorful masterpiece into the oven.
Once the timer is set, Eloise leans against the counter and lets out a sigh.
She's got roughly fifteen minutes to kill.
With nothing better to do, she tosses her backpack onto the kitchen table and pulls out the Algebra II and chemistry homework. She starts out organized with her calculator, pencil, and eraser all in line next to her neatly stacked papers. By the time the timer goes off for the cake, there is paper sprawled across the entire table with her pencil lost under a paper somewhere. Her mind is jumbled with a hundred different equations running through it, and she's not even sure if the equations are right at this point.
Eloise jumps when the timer goes off because she was so deep in her homework that she forgot about the cake and the rest of the world around her entirely.
Rounding the kitchen table to the oven, Eloise opens it up and reaches in for the pan. She realizes too late that she's grabbing the pan without any oven mitts on, just her bare hands.
Eloise shrieks and pull back, pulling her burned hands to her chest as she hisses in pain.
Okay, let's try that again.
Ignoring the stinging pain in her hands, Eloise slips on some oven mitts and successfully pulls out the cake pan, placing it on a heat mat on the counter. It isn't until the cake is safe and sound on the counter that she turns back to her stingy hands.
She clenches her fists, but immediately shakes them out at the pain. "Ouch," She hisses under her breath. She turns to the sink and runs her palms under the cold tap.
After that, Eloise deems her burns good enough to start decorating the cake because that's the best part about making cakes (aside from eating them). She pops out a container of regular Pillsbury white icing and starts dying different sections of it red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, she ices the cake with rainbow stripes. She guesses she didn't wait long enough for the cake to cool because the icing turns a little runny against the warm confection. But, since she already started, she finishes. It ends up looking like she meant to do that with the icing, though, because it blends the colors better. To top it off, Eloise presses handfuls of rainbow sprinkles to the side of the cake so it looks even brighter.
Eloise takes a step back when she's done. It doesn't look too bad.
Satisfied, she picks up the cake and starts for the front door. Once opened, she leaves it unlocked and steps over to the Parker residence and knocks. Only a few seconds pass before she hears the door unlock and it opens, revealing May Parker.
The radiant woman grins when she sees Eloise. "Eloise, hi!"
"Hi!" She greets, then lifts the cake. "I made a little something for you and Peter. It's kind of a thank-you for the dinner a few nights ago, and to brighten this really gray day we're having."
May eyes the colorful cake in the neighbor girl's hands and puts a hand to her heart. "You are so kind, you didn't have to do that!" She opens the door wider and wraps her thin arms around her shoulders in a short hug.
"Hey, who was at the d- oh hi," Peter says as he walks into the kitchen behind his aunt. He's in plain gray sweatpants and a short-sleeved Star Wars shirt. Eloise thinks it looks like he's in his pajamas, but she could be wrong. To make it even cuter, his light brown hair is a ruffled mess on the top of his head.
Eloise smiles at Peter. The corner of his lips lifts.
"Look, she made us a cake," May exclaims, taking the cake from Eloise's grasp. "Wasn't that thoughtful?"
Peter glances at the cake and chuckles. Then, he looks Eloise up and down.
"It matches you."
She looks down, suddenly remembering her bright slippers and rainbow sweatshirt. She blushes in embarrassment.
"I figured the cloudy, gray day needed some brightening up," She explains with a shrug, attempting to be nonchalant. "Hopefully the cake brightens your guys' day at least a little."
"Are you kidding? Of course it does!" May continues to gush. "Oh, it looks too pretty to eat, but it also looks so delicious." She sets the cake down on the counter and returns to Eloise standing in the doorway to give her a tighter, slightly longer hug. "Thank you for the treat."
"And thank you for the dinner and for letting me hang out with you guys while I was locked out of my apartment," Eloise replies as she hugs her back.
Peter takes a knife and cuts into the cake. His eyes widen. "Woah, how'd you get the color inside the cake, too?"
Eloise laughs. "Magic, Peter."
May takes ahold of Eloise's arm and pulls her fully inside, shutting the door behind her.
"Have a slice with us," she offers, taking the plate of cake with a fork on it from Peter's hands and handing it to Eloise. Peter frowns at his sudden loss of sugary goodness, but gets over it as he cuts some more for himself and May.
"Thank you," Eloise says for the millionth time. She takes a bite of the cake and holds back a moan. She may not have followed the instructions, but it turned out beyond perfect.
May and Peter devour their slices and serve themselves seconds in no time. The three of them are almost too busy stuffing their faces to talk. Almost.
May just talks about something going on in the neighborhood when Eloise places her dirty plate and fork in the sink after her first slice is gone. Before she can turn back to the conversation, however, Peter's hand catches her wrist lightning quick.
"What happened to your hands?"
May sets down her plate and steps over. "What? Let me see."
Eloise's face flushes under all the attention and pulls her hands out of Peter's grasp and hug them to her chest.
"It's nothing, just a little burn."
May slips on her wiry glasses that were clipped onto the front of her shirt and extends her hand to Eloise.
Giving in and not wanting to be rude, Eloise turns her hands palm-up in May's.
"It's not that bad," Eloise says. "Just a little baking mishap is all."
May frowns and Peter looks over at her burned hands.
"You should probably wrap them up so the burns don't get infected," May advises. "Do you have any first aid at your house?"
"Yeah," She replies as she takes her hands back. "I'll wrap them up when I get back."
May nods and takes off her glasses. "Okay, well thanks again for the cake."
"It's delicious," Peter compliments, his mouth full of cake again.
May shakes her head disapprovingly at her nephew's lack of manners, but the fondness never leaves her eyes.
"Thanks," Eloise says. "It was no problem." She heads for the door, but before she leaves, she turns. "I'll see you on Monday, Peter."
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Attached Song: Saturn by Sleeping At Last
honestly, this song is so beautiful and the lyrics . . . so warming and comforting. if you usually don't listen to the songs at the top of the chapters, i urge you to listen to this chapter's song.
thanks for reading!
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