Peter walked into school with a frown on his face and eyes that were swirling pools of confusion. The night before he had gone out to search for the terrorist guy, Ralph Emerson, and had actually tracked him down using the scanner that he had had Karen set up. He followed to guy to a library, and waited outside for him to come back out. Fast forward 6 hours he still hadn't left, and Peter had fallen off a building because he had fallen asleep while perched on the roof. Needless to say, Peter was tired from staying up all night, sore from when he fell and landed on solid concrete, and confused.
Why was that guy in a library for so long? Why did he never come out? I don't think he was doing any work for school or anything because when I saw him Karen did a scan and she said he didn't attend any college. Maybe his lair is underneath or something? No, that wouldn't make sense. I had Karen scan the building and there was nothing there. I tried to see where he was too, but there were two many people to know which one was him. This is so confusing! What on Earth could he have been doing in a library for hours and hours?!
He found Ned by his locker and approached him. "Woah, you look terrible," Ned said when he saw Peter approach. Ned had been at Peters the night before, and had fallen asleep while Peter was waiting, so he already knew everything. He had gone home at around 3am when Peter finally got back. "I honestly just want today to be over with and to be back in my bed, but I can't," Peter said as he leaned against the lockers, rubbing his eyes. "Why can't you? You're not going out again tonight are you?" Ned said with a tone that implied he already knew the answer.
"I have to Ned." Ned sighed and closed his locker. "No, you don't. You're not going to be able to stop this guy if you're this tired. You need to sleep." Peter walked with Ned down the hall towards their first class. "Maybe I should just skip today, stay at home and sleep. That way I would be better by tonight." Ned sighed again and shook his head. "Peter, you're missing the point. They wont do anything tonight, and you should just go home and rest." Peter thought about what he said. Should I just stay home tonight? Maybe I should skip school. I mean I could sleep and eat at home and such. But then I wouldn't see MJ- hey speak of the devil.
Michelle turned out from around a corner holding about five books in her arms, and looked a bit more cheerful that she usually does. "I think MJ went book shopping again," Peter said, thinking out loud. "How can you tell?" Ned asked, looking at Peter with amused curiosity. "Well, she has more than one book, so she probably couldn't decide which to bring today and just brought a few instead. And she usually gets more books every month or so, and its been a while since last time. On top of that she looks happy, and the only thing I've ever really seen make her happy was her books so..."
When Peter finished he didn't hear Ned say anything, so he turned to look at him and was surpised to see him looking right at Peter with an eyebrow raised and a weird expression. "What?" Peter said, geinueingly confused as to what Ned was looking at him like that for. Ned shook his head and looked back down the hall, "Nothing." Weird... They kept walking down the hall until they made it to their classroom. Michelle had already grabbed a seat, and was holding two of the books she was carrying earlier up, staring at the cover intensly. "Morning MJ," Peter said as they entered. She didn't look up from her book, just gave a quick nod of her head and said "sup."
Peter smiled lightly to himself, guessing that she was debating over which book to read and not being able to choose. "Oh," Michelle said as they passed her, causing them both to stop and turn to look at her. "We have an emergency decathlon meeting this afternoon. It won't take too long but it's important." Ned and Peter exchanged curious looks between them. "Okay, we'll be there. Right, Peter?" Ned said as he nudged Peter in the stomach, a clear indication to him that Peter couldn't skip school and go home like he had wanted.
"Yep, definitely," he said with a smile, trying not to smack Ned in the arm for elbowing him. She looked at them both briefly like they were idiots before she went back to her internal debate. Ned and Peter both found their seats and pulled out their books. "What do you think could be so important?" Ned asked. Peter shrugged, "Dunno. Guess we'll find out."
Throughout the rest of the day Peter tried his best to pay attention and not fall asleep, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as the hours ticked by. By the end of their second last period Peter felt like he was going to just collapse on the floor, fall asleep and never wake up. Because he was so exhausted mentally as well, it was taking longer than usual for his body to heal the bruises from his fall, which was up the entire right side of his body from where he landed. It also didn't help that Flash shoulder-barged him super hard in the hallway. Peter had sensed it was coming but was too tired to move out of the way in time.
By the time they entered their last class for the day, Peter had lost all will to live. He slumped down into his seat and immediately put his head on the desk, desperate for a few minutes of sleep. Screw the consequences. I don't care if I get in trouble, I want sleep. A few moments went by after he heard the teacher come in, but it didn't take long until Peter got told off and had to wake up again. "You can do it dude. Just a little bit longer," Ned whispered to him, offering Peter what support he could.
Peter looked around the room that was way to bright and hurting his eyes, and saw Michelle one row over, writing stuff down in her book. Peter stared at her, admiring the way her curls fell down the side of her face, and how her hands moved as she wroted. He stared at her and remembered, like he does everytime he stares, the moment that he was sitting beside her at her place. He had sat there, staring at her much like the way he was now, and realised that the reason his heartbeat sped up when she was near, and how happy he felt being around her, was because he had developed feelings for her.
Ever since he realised he liked her it had become difficult to not look at her all the time. He hadn't told Ned yet, because even though he trusted Ned almost more than he did anyone else, he didn't want anyone to know yet. Peter had lost track of time as he stared at her, dozing off into his own world, so he was a bit taken-aback when she suddenly looked up and glared at him. "What?" She said. Crap crap crap crap crap crap she caught me staring what do I do what do I do what do I do?????!!!!?!??!?!?!??!?!?
"Uh- I was just uh, wondering... how long the meeting will take after school today," Peter whispered quickly, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't be weird. "It's the same time as usual, right after school in the gym. Now stop staring at me and get back to your work, loser," she said without hesitation. Peter nodded and did as she said, releasing a sign of relief. Phew, that was close.
Still feeling a little embarrassed about being caught, Peter stared at the clock, watching as it slowly got closer and closer to the end of school. When the bell finally rang dismissing them it was music to his ears. "Come on, lets go," Ned said, pulling the lifeless Peter out of his seat and dragging the exhausted boy towards the gym, walking backwards while Neds arms were under Peters armpits, literally dragging him. Peter had kept his eyes closed for most of his fun little ride, but when he eventually opened them he felt another wave of embarrassment rush over him, as he saw Michelle following them with a smirk on her face and her phone in her hand.
"What're you doing?" Peter asked, stumbling over his words. "Recording you looking like a drunk idiot," she said matter-of--factly. Peter groaned and closed his eyes, "Great." Well, at least she is having fun. But this is really embarrassing. Man, she's right. I am a loser. The noise of Ned dragging Peter suddenly became louder, and Peter guessed they entered the large and echoy gym. "Okay people," Michelle started when everyone arrived, Peter now sitting in a chair, leaning over the back rest and struggling to keep his eyes open. He did however notice that there was someone extra in the room.
"Today I wanted to quickly gather everyone together to introduce the new member of the decathlon team. This is Cory." She gestured to the new guy, who stepped forward and waved. Everyone waved back, Peter barely finding the strength to lift his arm. "Hey guys, I know that none of you know me but that's because I'm actually a senior, and I spend a lot of my time after school at home helping my family out. It's super nice to meet you all and I'm glad to be apart of the team. Oh yeah, my name is Cory Emerson."
waIT A GODDAM MINUTE!!!! Peter Jumped up in his seat and looked at the Cory. Emerson? As in rAPLH EMERSON?!?!?!?! He looked desperately over to Ned, who had the exact same expression that Peter did. "Okay, that's it. You guys can go," Michelle said. Everyone left the room, eager to go home, including Cory, but Peter and Ned both stayed behind, and waited until they were sure they were alone.
"Oh my god..." Peter said, feeling the most awake now than he had in the last 12 hours. "Do you think he is related to that terrorist guy?" Ned said. "SSHHHHHHH!" Peter quickly said to Ned, "We can't say that kind of stuff here. But, oh my god." Ned got up and started to pace, "Sorry, but what do we do? How could we know whether he is related to this guy?" Peter rubbed his head, "I don't know...WAIT!" He jumped up from his seat with such force that he flew about 15 ft into the air. "Karen! I can ask Karen! She can find out! You should search this guy up as well."
Ned nodded and grabbed out his phone, "Okay." Peter dug into his bag and pulled out his mask, and quickly checking to make sure no one was around, he pulled it over his head. "Karen?" Peter asked, waiting for a response. "Yes, Peter? Your vitals seem to be very high right now and you have spiking stress levels. What seems to be troubling you?" Peter watched as she displayed his vitals on his screen. "Karen, I need you to search this guy, Cory Emerson. See if he has any ties to the Ralph guy." Peter looked over at Ned, who was still searching on his phone. "Okay, just wait one moment while I search my database."
Ned suddenly had a grave expression on his face. Peter stilled, fearing what he was about to say. "What is it, Ned?" He walked over to Peter and showed him his phone. He was on Facebook, and on the screen showed a picture on Cory's profile. He seemed to be at a family gathering or something, but that's not what Peter was looking at. Peter stared, and felt this huge wave of dread crash over him. That's him. That's him, in the picture, standing next to Cory. It's the terrorist.
"Peter, I have searched my database and have concluded that Cory Emerson is the nephew of Ralph Emerson on his mothers side. Does this help your search?" Karen said. Peter pulled off his mask and looked up at Ned, both of them sharing the same horrified expression. Peter put his head down and rested it against his forehead, which was now pounding with a raging headache. "Ned...What do we do?"
A/N- Hey Guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, its a lot longer than most of my others. What do you think is going to go down?
Also, THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH OMG THIS STORY HIT 4K READS WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!!!!! Thank you guys so much. This means so much to me and makes me really happy to know that you guys are enjoying my story. This all happened because of you guys, and I couldn't thank you enough. I love you all <3 <3 <3
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