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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xvii. PARTY TRICK
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RILEY O'DAIR KNEW LOTS of things, which made her intuitive to an extent. She could see a lot of things coming most of the time, too. This was fairly helpful when it came to being an Avenger. However, if there was one thing she didn't see coming, it was befriending Michelle Jones.
Don't get her wrong; there wasn't anything wrong with Michelle Jones. If anything, Riley thought Michelle was really cool in the way that she was so authentic to herself and didn't really care about what others thought of her. Michelle did whatever Michelle felt like doing.
Holding one foot down with one hand and a book in the other, Michelle Jones multitasked by reading and listening to Riley talk about various things whilst doing sit-ups. That seemed to be how their friendship worked: Riley did the talking while Michelle did the listening. Though, sometimes, Michelle would always chime in with a comment or two that would keep the conversation smoothly sailing.
"So are you going to Liz's party tonight?" Riley wondered out of curiosity.
Michelle furrowed her eyebrows together, continuing to watch Riley do sit-ups. "Do I look like someone who goes to parties?" Michelle responded.
"Well, no," said Riley, propping herself up on her elbows. She hadn't even broken a sweat. "But isn't that what you do? You know, do things for the irony of it? Come on, it'll be fun!"
Michelle lowered her book, a thoughtful expression on her face. "The fact that you know me so well is a little alarming," commented Michelle.
"I'm not obsessed with you," she mocked. "I'm just very observant."
This was true, despite the joke she had been making. What kind of agent would she be if she wasn't observant?
"If I die at this party, I blame you."
"They're just teenagers, MJ," assured Riley. "Honestly, the fact that you're more afraid of them than the party is concerning."
"I'm not afraid of them. I'm afraid of capitalism," Michelle declared before sighing. "Fine, I'll go. Just for you."
Riley grinned widely. "Yes! I'm telling you, it'll be fun. Plus, there's always free food at parties. You have nothing to worry about—"
"Peter knows Spider-Man!"
Silence slapped the entire gymnasium within nanoseconds. Riley's eyes widened slightly as she and Michelle turned to see Peter stand up from where he had been doing his sit-ups. Ned scrambled after him.
"No, I don't!" immediately exclaimed Peter. "I-I mean—"
"They're friends!" shouted Ned.
Dropping from where he had been climbing the rope, Flash Thompson joked, "Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends."
Rolling her eyes, Riley added, "Yeah, just like you and all the girls who have friend-zoned you this past year!"
In the midst of the laughs from their classmates, Flash just scowled at her, who innocently waved back at him. Peter continued, "I've met him, yeah... A couple times... But... it's through the Stark Internship." He cleared his throat, shooting Ned a death glare. "Yeah, I'm not really supposed to talk about it."
"Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party!" suggested Flash.
"Yeah, I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come," Liz kindly told them.
"Having a party?" nervously repeated Peter under his breath.
"Yeah, it's gonna be dope," confirmed Flash. "You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man."
Shaking her head, Liz said, "It's okay. I know Peter's way too busy for parties anyway, so..."
"Come on," Flash continued to urge. "He'll be there. Right, Parker?"
'Come on, Peter,' Riley thought to herself. 'You don't have to do it because Flash is harassing you...'
Peter gave them a small smile. "Right."
Riley just face-palmed herself. 'Idiot.'
○ ○ ○
Apparently, a party in the suburbs was a bigger deal than Riley O'Dair realized. Honestly, she was just going to the party because she wanted to enjoy the memories she'd made while being in high school. After all, Riley was never supposed to experience this. She figured she might as well pretend she's a normal teenager while she can, right?
The music being played seemed to shake the entire home. The bass was so loud and intense that Riley felt as though her heart was beating in sync with it. People had to scream at each other in order to talk to each other, and even then, no one actually knew what the other person was saying in the conversation. Drinks were spilling and the aroma of pizza was intermingling with sweat. This was a perfect stereotypical high school party that Riley used to dream about going to when she was a kid and still believed she had time to attend a normal high school when she grew up.
Riley looked around Liz Allan's house with interest in her eyes. Her natural curiosity had gotten the best of her once again, for now she was laughing to herself at the baby pictures of Liz that were scattered around the general area. She continued to look at them until she noticed one in particular that stood out to her.
Narrowing her eyes, she stared at an image of who she assumed was Liz's father. Alongside Liz's father was a man she could recognize any day. He had olive-toned skin, similar to Riley, as well as brown eyes, just like Riley's. He had raven black hair and a somewhat sloped nose, much like Riley's. Yes, Riley knew that face. Recognizing it wasn't the problem. The real question was...
How did Liz Allan's family know Rob O'Dair?
Taking a step back, Riley shook her head. What an odd coincidence.
Walking away from the pictures, she decided to search for Michelle. There was only so much weird she could handle, but Michelle was an exception.
"I can't believe you guys are at this lame party," Riley overheard Michelle say. Michelle had been holding a piece of toast as she spoke to Ned and Peter.
Riley tried not to physically frown when she saw Peter, knowing that he was still ignoring her to an extent due to what happened.
"But you're here, too," Ned pointed out.
Michelle narrowed her eyes. "Am I?" Then, she took a bite out of her toast and walked away, a book clad under her arm.
Riley was about to go after her, but she had to keep reminding herself that she needed to fix things with Peter.
Nodding toward Liz after she had just greeted the boys, Ned hissed, "Dude, what are you doing? She's here. Spider it up!"
"No, no, no. I can't—I cannot do this," Peter stammered. "Spider-Man is not a party trick, okay? Look, I'm just gonna be myself."
"Peter, no one wants that."
"...Dude."
Riley raised an eyebrow at their interaction. Did Peter tell Ned about his secret identity?
With that being said, Peter took only one step forward before Flash Thompson started to blare airhorn effects, followed by numerous roasts toward Peter. "Penis Parker! What's up?" Flash yelled. "So where's your pal Spider-Man? Let me guess: in Canada with your imaginary girlfriend? That's not Spider-Man; that's just Ned in a red shirt!"
Peter sighed, but Ned just gave him two thumbs up and walked away after saying, "I'm gonna go tell everyone you're calling Spider-Man!"
Once Ned left, Peter started to make his way out of the party, but Riley stopped him before anything else.
"Hey, are you actually doing this?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. "Weren't you the one that said Spider-Man isn't a party trick?"
Peter hesitated, lips pressed together. "I know, but... I... I guess I'm just tired of being treated like a joke."
She nodded slowly, deemed speechless for a moment, leaving the two teenagers to awkwardly stand before one another. It was almost as though the other wanted to say something, but they didn't know what to say.
Reaching into his back pocket, Peter pulled out a small, folded-up object. "You... You dropped this the other night. I figured you would want it back." He cleared his throat as she took it, unfolding it carefully to reveal the faded image of her family. "I didn't realize you were telling the truth about your parents."
She gave him a sad smile. "You'd be surprised at how much of our friendship was real," she mumbled. "If you're gonna do this, you should go now."
That was the end of their conversation. They parted ways, feeling even more unsure about the other than before.
Riley decided to go around making sure everyone knew that Peter Parker had gone to "find" Spider-Man. Although they had hit a rut in their friendship, she was determined to make things right.
In the midst of talking to another person who had been skeptical about Peter knowing Spider-Man, Ned pulled Riley to the side, saying, "Oh, you and Peter must be on the same page, right? Hey, just out of curiosity, do you have a guy in the chair?"
Riley eyed him. "...What are you talking about, Ned?"
"I keep trying to tell Peter that Spider-Man needs a guy in the chair and how Valor probably has one, but then we kept talking about it and we realized that neither of us actually know if you do, so—"
"Hang on," interrupted Riley with widened brown eyes. She stood straight with alarm coursing through her veins. "What!? He told you!?"
Ned slapped his hand over his mouth. "I... Um... Well..."
Riley ran a hand through her raven hair. "Dammit, Peter! Did he tell anyone else? You better be telling the truth or, I swear to God, I'll—"
"No, no, no! I—He—We didn't tell anyone else! Honest! It was the night you two got in that fight and he was really upset and I was there when he got home and I saw him in his suit," rambled Ned, "and then he ranted about you and then he talked about how cool it was that he was friends with Valor and... I should stop talking now."
Sighing, Riley unhappily said, "It's fine, Ned. Just... Please don't tell anyone, okay? I'm already on thin ice with Peter knowing everything."
Ned saluted her. "Roger that, Miss Valor!"
Snorting, Riley pulled his hand down from where it had been raised. "You don't have to salute me," she told him. "Just Cap."
With that, Riley turned on her heel to find Michelle or something else to entertain her. Ned's eyes widened as she said that. "Wait, Captain America!?" he exclaimed. "Riley? Riley!? Wait! Is he cool in real life? Riley!"