Stupid things. He told me not to do stupid things. And here I am. Doing stupid things. Nikolas thought, putting on his football uniform, the protection that made his shoulders look broader and more defined on his skinny body. Holding the heavy helmet in his hands.
Some classes weren't the same as the ones his friends had, and despite the fact that he insisted Happy over and over again that he should talk to the school, he passed by saying that he had important things to organize. He even tried to use the excuse of his limits but it still didn't work.
"Okay class." The Coach said after blowing her whistle. "We'll do some tryouts, as you know a tournament is coming up and we want Midtown to qualify this year, Right? As I was sayin; Nikolas here will be the runner who will lead the starter and...." She turned her pages over searching. "Jackson, you will be the defense.
"What exactly does a defense do?" Nikolas asked incredulously, his helmet tipping to the side. It was like he had said something funny to the team.
On his side, a red-haired boy twice his height leaned down to see through the vents of his helmet.
"I'm going to try not to break you a bone while you run across the court." He said with a not so friendly smile walking away to his position with a certainty that made him look like he was used to it.
"Coach Lillis? I-I don't think I should be the one to do this. I'm going to be the reason Midtown doesn't qualify for that tournament." He spoke as if he was afraid. "Also, I'm new here.
"Do I look like I care that you're new? You'll run to that goal and shoot the ball while trying to dodge the defense. And if you don't, you tried. It's not like we're under pressure that our school hasn't ranked in the last 3 years but practice is what matters. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Did you know that they put Nikolas on the sports schedule?" Peter said with a fist to his cheek trying to focus on the exercises in his notebook, which were just designs for the web, Peter rarely paid attention in class. "He literally got shot by who knows what last night... It was disturbing...--
"I'm starting to get jealous. Do I need to have a super ability for you to care about me like that?" Ned joked and Peter blushed.
"What are you talking about? I do care about you Ned! You are my best friend."
"You shouldn't underestimate someone with regeneration or something like that, it shouldn't be hard to trust him a bit, don't you think? You are partners after all."
Nikolas was starting to feel exhausted after taking a few laps in the warm-up. He didn't know anything about the sport and that was teased by the team. He was fast. The adrenaline of hitting the ball victoriously against the ground for 2 consecutive times. Nikolas was preparing for the third time beginning to believe that he was good for something, without considering that his rival was not going to let his reputation be sullied by a rookie. Nikolas ran, Jackson made an illegal move.
Jackson tackled him when Nikolas had reached the end zone. His nose hit the metal of the helmet, placing his hands on the synthetic grass to catch his fall, feeling how one of his fingers folded inside the glove and quickly adjusted. The whistle didn't take long to go off with everyone starting to get closer as they jogged.
"What's your problem!? I already scored that point! You can't tackle in this zone! Those were the rules." He removed his helmet, his sweaty hair plastered to his forehead and his breath rushing with adrenaline.
"I guess I forgot them."
"Guys! What happened here? Remember that we are all on the same team and this is just a friendly practice, we don't want an injured player. Jackson go to the bench before I change my mind and take you off the team. NOW."
He left with the warning-card, not before bumping shoulders with Nikolas. Bad looser. Bad looser. Bad looser. they whispered inside him.
"Nikolas are you okay? Good news! looks like your nose isn't broken, why don't you go wipe the blood off?"
"huh?"
As soon as he tasted and smelled his blood, Nikolas quickly brought his hands to his nose covering when the bleeding began to be in excessive amounts coming out of his nose as if it were water.
He ran across the schoolyard until he returned to the school where he thanked internally when he saw the empty corridors, his body writhed hitting the lockers. Nikolas found a classroom with the lights off, where he threw himself on the ground looking for something to tie his hands.
"Peter you should stop." Parker couldn't stop moving his foot impatiently. Ned obviously noticed. "What's going on?
"It's Nick. Something is happening to him I can feel it. Look." Peter whispered back, Discreetly, Peter lifted the sleeve of his shirt, his arms-hairs tight. His spider-sense buzzed in his head.
Peter got up from his table taking his backpack asking permission to leave before the class ended, as soon as he left, he began to be guided by his senses interrupting his hasty footsteps when he saw two suspicious guys carrying the weapons with which someone the night before had wanted to kill them in that chase.
Peter narrowed his eyes as he jumped up and hid against a wall. He wanted to go after Nikolas first, but duty called. He had to do what he had to do, he only had to trust his partner and Ned was right about that; It shouldn't be difficult.
Nikolas fought against himself trying to suppress the entities, in his mind he tried to focus the good things that had been happening in his life: Tony, Ned, Peter...Peter. And suddenly what had happened the night before, the feeling of wanting to jump and protect Peter from the fall didn't seem to leave him. Nikolas regained his stability, dragging himself to a sitting position with the relief of his blood returning to its normal temperature.
"H-Holy crap."
His vision was blurry, so Nikolas guessed his eyes were the others and that Ned was reacting to his first time seeing him in the middle of his transformation. Peter rushed to block the door, then kneeling beside him cupping his face with both hands on his cheeks to check for injuries. But Peter just felt a fever that seemed to be reducing each minute.
"You started doing it, then you stopped."
"You're the closest thing I have to something I always want to have with me. Both of you. I just held on to it and...i-i-it stopped." Nikolas replied with a with a weak smile "And somehow you helped me to stop.
"Bound." Ned said in surprise as he knelt down next to Peter. "I read it on the internet.
"I d-don't know what to say ..." Peter stumbled on his words. stunned with the situation, he took the purple object from his backpack "The bad guys followed us and I managed to put a tracker on them.
"Did you really bring that thing to school? I think I'm going to be mad at you."
"Seriously Nick, you don't look so threatening when you look like this." Peter put the stone in his backpack.
Nikolas smiled when he saw emotion on Ned's face.
"Can I declare this moment as the first mission of the spider trinity?"
(30/12/22)