At school, Peter of course was having to face the consequences of his actions over the last few months – the skiving, and the disappearances in DC and from detentions. One afternoon, Maria was stood by her locker which gave her a view of the principal's office. Peter was currently sat in there with the headteacher. Ned, as his best friend, was sat outside waiting for Peter, clearly very worried about Peter's future at the school of his jolting left leg was anything to go by. Maria had heard all day of Ned's worry that he thought Peter would be expelled but Maria knew that thanks to Peter's previous track record being so good, he wouldn't be. The school would be stupid to lose such a student.
The corridor was silent and empty apart from Maria so as Peter came out of the headteacher's office, she could hear his conversation with Ned. She kept her locker open and watched out of the corner of her eye but concentrated solely on their speech.
"Are you expelled? Do you have to go to that high school on 46th where the principal has a crossbow?" Ned asked anxiously the moment Peter left the office. Maria chuckled softly at his question. He was so worried; it was sweet really.
"Pretty sure that's an urban myth and no I'm not expelled" Peter said, his voice tinged with sadness. Looking over to him properly, Maria noticed his downcast face. The headteacher had obviously tore Peter a new one, Peter's behaviour had been unacceptable and he probably did come close to being expelled – Peter could have lost everything. Maria could only imagine what Peter had to do now; the detentions alone would be hell.
"You're so lucky" Ned replied. As the boys began walking in the opposite direction to Maria, she slowly closed her locker and sighed.
"Is he expelled?" a new voice asked from behind her. Maria jumped slightly but she recognised the voice immediately. It was Michelle.
"Don't think so" Maria commented, her eyes staying locked on the boys' retreating figures. She felt Michelle copying her actions. A silence fell over them before Michelle turned to face Maria.
"What is wrong with him?" Michelle suddenly asked. Maria didn't need clarification to who she was talking about, it was very obvious. Michelle wasn't an idiot, she had begun to piece things together slowly but surely and Maria knew it - but she was going to allow Michelle to figure it all out.
"He needed a reality check and I think he got it" Maria explained cryptically. With that Maria gave Michelle a smile before she turned on her heels and began to walk towards her class that she was officially late for.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Michelle asked from behind her. Maria didn't have to turn around to know the look of annoyance that would be cast across her best friend's face.
"Nothing" laughed Maria. Glancing over her shoulder, Maria gestured to Michelle with her hands. "Let's get to class."
~8~
Weeks had passed, Spider-Man had disappeared and Peter was figuring out how to be himself again. It was strange. On the one hand, the streets were missing Spider-Man and criminals were slowly but surely showing themselves again but on the other hand Peter was finally getting back to being Peter. Maria had been trying to pick up the slack a bit with the criminals by alerting the police and on very odd occasions sending out one of her father's suits (with his permission of course) to get the odd criminals.
Unfortunately, Peter and Maria had yet to talk which meant that Ned and Maria's friendship was strained and boarding on being hidden. Maria wasn't sure how to approach Peter after their disagreement and Peter didn't feel like he could face Maria yet. but that didn't mean the distance wasn't affecting the pair of them - they had began to become quite close but the argument had blown their friendship up. One thing that they both would admit was that they missed one another dearly but didn't know how to fix it.
One evening Maria was stood beside her locker, pulling out the necessary books she needed, unaware of the boy who was making his way towards her. Once she had packed her bag, Maria slowly closed her locker door to reveal Peter nervously rubbing his neck just a few feet away. He was clearly unsure of how to approach Maria or what to say. Maria studied Peter for a moment, she just took the boy in; she hadn't seen him in so long for him to be stood in front of her ... it was like a breath of fresh air. Eventually, he noticed that she had noticed him. Peter gave her a smile before he closed the distance between them meanwhile Maria hiked her backpack up onto her shoulder.
"Hey" Maria said, breaking the silence that had occurred between the two of them. It was one word but it brought a smile to both their faces - it was one word that shattered the silence that had formed for weeks.
"Um ... Ned and I are building a LEGO Death Star, 3000 pieces" Peter started unsure, his eyes flickering to the people around him. The corridor was of course full and as usual more popular girls had heard him and rolled their eyes. Maria glared at them which quickly shut them up before she turned back to face Peter. The boy was wringing his hands together anxiously. "W-would you like to join us? I've h-heard you wanted to build one." Maria had to frown at those words. The only one who knew about her desire to built a LEGO Death Star was Michelle and what was she doing telling Ned and Peter about that? Knowing there was no point dwelling on that fact, Maria smiled brightly at Peter.
"Sure, I would love to." Peter nodded excitedly, pleased at her acceptance, an action that Maria copied. Peter came to her which meant he had to have forgiven her for her harsh words. Maria was glad to believe that there was a chance at saving their friendship that had come to mean so much to her.
~8~
It didn't take long for the end of the day to come around. The boys had decided to build the LEGO at Ned's house. At that moment, Maria, Ned and Peter were sat in Ned's room with the nearly completed LEGO Death Star in the middle of them all. It had taken some time but they had constructed the large model, piece by piece. There was just one final piece: LEGO Emperor. The small LEGO piece even had lightning firing from his hands. Ned was holding the piece with great care. He studied the small figurine before he looked towards Maria and then Peter. Maria knew what was coming. Ned turned to his best friend and offered him the figurine. The honour of placing the last piece. Peter took it with a smile before he clicked the figure into place. The Death Star was fully operational now.
The trio stared at the finished model with sheer relief and awe. The gigantic model was really cool to view. Suddenly, as was tradition, Ned and Peter began to do their own handshake which Maria still found to be too long. However, she still smiled as she watched them. They were great friends despite everything that had happened to them both over the weeks - after all Ned could have blamed Peter for almost dying but Maria questioned if Ned even had it in him to be mad.
"Why is that so overly complicated?" Maria asked once the boys finished the handshake. Peter only chuckled at her words whilst Ned clambered to his feet.
"Hey, leave our handshake alone" he said with a mocking look of annoyance before he left the room. Maria watched Ned leave before she turned her gaze to Peter who was sat with his arm resting against his propped up knee. He was fiddling on with his fingers whilst a frown was firmly placed on his forehead. The sight caused Maria to frown as well. However, before she could speak Peter beat her to it.
"I'm sorry, Maria."
"For what?" Maria asked, tilting her head in confusion. He hadn't done anything; he hadn't exactly had the opportunity to do something that warranted his apology since they hadn't spoken in weeks.
"Everything" he stated as he lifted his gaze to hers. Maria had no idea what was going on but Peter's eyes were filled with sorrow and regret. "You were right. I wanted to prove myself so much, wanted to be an Avenger ... I lost sight of everything." Maria sighed as she heard his words. They had yet to discuss the topic and the last time they spoke Maria had torn Peter a new one. "Your dad was right to take the suit off me and you were right to not give me it back. I don't deserve it. I became Spider-Man to help the little people and I stopped doing that." Maria however did not agree with that statement all together but it was clear Peter knew she was about to interrupt for he shook his head. "No I did, I stopped wanting to help with the little things like catching a bike thief. I should care about that just as much as I should care about catching 'Vultures', I lost sight of that." In shame, Peter lowered his gaze back to his fingers. Shifting closer to him, Maria reached out and took one of his hands into hers catching his attention.
"You were right to go after the Vulture, Peter" Maria started the moment Peter's shocked gaze landed on her. "It's just you forgot how new and naive you are to this hero gig. I'm just the same. I didn't realise what I was getting myself in for and the DC accident and the Ferry accident were both just as much my fault as they were yours." She had been thinking about it over the time she had been apart from Peter and she realised that she had not actually told him it wasn't just his fault. She had to bear some of the burden too. "Peter you are Spider-Man and you're good at it but you're also human and you make mistakes just like everyone else. As long as you learn from your mistakes then you don't need to feel ashamed." Maria hoped her words brought him some comfort and by the small smile he gifted her she knew they had. Once again, the pair fell into silence, Maria still cradling Peter's hand in her lap.
"So ... you're Karen?" Peter said breaking the silence. Maria cringed and kept her gaze locked on their hands; she knew this question was coming.
"Kinda" she replied unsure of how he was going to react to the news.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Peter asked softly, no hint of anger in his voice at all. Thankfully he had had some time to mull over the information and potentially wasn't as mad as he could have been since Maria had (technically) completely invaded his privacy.
"I don't really know. I guess I feared what my dad would do if he found out and if I told one person it wasn't really a secret anymore" Maria answered with a frown. There was no definitive answer to the question - just lots of little answers that didn't quite explain it all. "I also didn't know how you would react." Peter nodded in understanding at her words. She was grateful that he did not pry. Maria should have known Peter would just accept the fact, that he realised she was doing prying into his life for sound reasons.
"You were good as the 'girl in the chair'" Peter suddenly said with a genuine smile. Maria laughed lightly at his words whilst she looked towards the ground, hiding her blush. She hadn't expected the complimentary words off of him - she could tell he meant the words as well which had cuased her to blush more. Not knowing what to say, Maria just looked towards him with a smile on her face. Truth was Maria too had thought she hadn't done a bad job at helping him from her computers - being the guy in the chair had been a lot of fun. "You, umm said you watched me be Spider-Ma-"
"I only paid attention to you whilst you were Spider-Man and whilst you were at school because I had to have a complete profile on you" Maria admitted bluntly in her panic. She didn't want him to think she was a stalker but her words had not helped her case.
"So, the majority of the day" Peter stated, pointing out the obvious truth. He looked towards Maria with a smirk on his face whilst she sat with wide eyes accompanying an expression of great embarrassment.
"Well – you – I – it's not my fault!" Maria twined, her face blushing bright red whilst she gently pushed Peter away. Peter laughed at her reaction, he wasn't an idiot, he understood why she had been watching him. But that didn't mean he was going to let Maria forget about it. It didn't help when Maria pouted as she frowned at the floor, crossing her arms over her chest in mock annoyance. "I had to keep tabs on Spider-Man, if you didn't wear the suit so much, I wouldn't have had to watch you so much." Peter couldn't believe she was trying to put the blame on him, the words just made him laugh more.
"Excuses, excuses." Maria groaned loudly before she began punching and shoving at his arm constantly, trying to get him to shut up but only succeeding at pushing him over onto the floor completely whilst he laughed. This was exactly how Ned found them.
Walking back into his room, he heard Peter's laughter along with Maria's complaints and found Maria kneeling over Peter hitting him lightly on his arm whilst Peter was flat out on the floor. He had to admit; he hadn't expected to walk in to find Maria "attempting" to beat up Spider-Man.
"It's nice to see you two getting along again" Ned commented making both Peter and Maria stop to look towards him.
"He's mocking me!" Maria openly complained before she turned back and hit him once more on the arm, the punch having no affect on the superhero at all. Ned could only laugh as he retook his seat in his room. It was strange how some distance and one conversation had been able to at least begin to mend the bridge between Peter and Maria but it had. Both were grateful for that fact. They were going to live as normal teenagers without almighty cares in the world crushing them down. But like all great things, that was soon going to end.