Hi everyone!

This is my first fic since my Descendants one (The Cold Never Bothered Ben, Anyway!), and I'm super excited to post it. It's for the 2018 Secret Santa that is hosted by Brentinator and Glittercat, and I'm happy to announce that I'm the secret santa for Glittercat! I know I probably didn't follow the exact criteria I was given (who does?), but I hope you like it, Glitter, and I hope it's good enough.

This story has been edited by Brentinator and the title was given to me by Gummybear1178.

Enjoy! :)

It happens halfway through their senior year.

It's completely unexpected, at first, when she sees it on the TV. And, yeah, sure, maybe it is nothing to get worried about because Peter's gone missing before (she still remembers what her and Ned had dubbed "The Staten Island Ferry Accident of 2016"), but this is different. This time, it wasn't of his own doing. This time, it wasn't voluntary. This time, it was by force.

She remembers the day he was taken. It was like any other, raining pouring down New York, as she walked the road, holding her umbrella in one hand, while trying to balance her book in the other. Her teacher, angry that she had came in late, had shot her a fixed glare and a sharp "Late again, Michelle," but she waved them away. With decathlon after school and homework to do at night, the only other time she could go to the library was the morning. And that barely just gave her enough time to breathe.

Seeing as her teacher had turned back to the board and started writing down equations while the other kids played on their phone, MJ had pulled out hers. 'Hey,' she texted. 'Where's Parker?'

Ned texted back almost right away. 'Don't know,' he replied. 'May said he was sick, but I haven't seen him in a week.'

Michelle paused and frowned. She even hesitated before responding.

mj (8:53 am): What's he sick with?

Ned responded in less than a second.

ned (8:53 am): don't know. May told me it could be stomach flu or strep, but she also gets worried if Peter has a ninety-nine degree fever…

ned (8:53 am): so, I dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MJ sighed. 'Well,' she replied. 'Thanks for the help, nerd.'

She sends him a few texts in the middle of the English.

mj (10:25 am): Hey nerd. You feeling any better yet?

mj (10:32 am): Mr. Castello's asking where you are.

mj (10:32 am): What should I tell him?

mj (10:32 am): should i tell him you're sick?

mj (10:33 am): or that you got kidnapped and turned into a science experiment?

mj (10:48 am): Hello?

mj (10:48 am): Peter?

mj (11:10 am): …Peter?

"Hey," she says, as she sits down at their lunch table. "I know the nerd's sick and stuff, but has he been responding to any of your texts? Like, at all?"

"Uh, nope," Ned says, as he checks his phone. "But, to be fair, if he's sick or something, May's probably keeping him off his phone while he gets some rest. You know how she is, right?"

Michelle doesn't respond. Instead, she only lets out a quiet "Mhmm," before she digs into her egg salad sandwich.

The next time someone texts her, she thinks it's Peter. Hell, she wants to believe it's Peter. But, if there's anything she's learned in this world, it's that it's not good to have expectations because they just get shattered.

And, unfortunately, it's not him.

cindy (12:20 pm): Hey MJ? Is it possible we can maybe cancel decathlon practice?

She takes her time responding.

mj (1:37 pm): Why? You losers got something better to do? 'Cause, you know, if you sign up for something, you're supposed to stick with it.

cindy (1:37 pm): Yeah, we know, we know. It's just that, Flash and I were thinking..

mj (1:42 pm): Flash? Thinking? Well, that's surprising.

cindy (1:42 pm): Yeah, I know, right? But, anyway, Flash and I were thinking and… do you think we could maybe just take a day off?

cindy (1:42pm): 'Cause we all know that this is really important to you and stuff, but we're all kinda stressed and tired, and the rest of the team agrees.

cindy (1:43 pm) But, you know, if we can't, it's totally fine. Abraham and Flash just wanted me to ask.

cindy (1:47 pm): So…?

MJ sighs. She's never canceled a practice, not once in her entire life. But, she also hasn't cried that much either, so she guesses things are beginning to change.

'Yeah,' she texts back. 'We can cancel decathlon practice.'

She doesn't figure it out until that night.

"Michelle," she says aloud as she reads a text from Ned. "Turns on channel seven."

She rolls her eyes. Ned's always been trying to get her to watch these weird Star Wars shows and science documentaries whenever they're on, but she'd always thought he'd stop. But now that he tells her to turn on the news, when this can't have to do with anything besides science and Star Wars? Well, she's getting sick of it.

But, when she turns on channel seven, the news isn't reporting on any new scientific discovery, or any new Star Wars theory. Instead, they're reporting on Peter.

Peter.

Peter.

Peter.

And, almost instantly, she turns the volume on.

"Hey MJ?" There's a knock on her door that she can barely hear between her sobs and the volume from the TV. "You in there?"

"Hmm? Yeah. Sorry," she apologizes, as she wipes the tears from her face and tries to control her breathing. Walking over to the door, she opens it, and tries to look as strong as she can while she comes face-to-face with her brother. "Sorry, Jax. What's up?"

If he see the tears streaming down her cheeks (which he should, because he's not blind), he doesn't say anything. "My… friend, Felicia, texted me," he says, slowly. "Apparently, your friend, Peter, or whatever, is on TV, if you wanna see it. Channel seven."

She smiles sadly, with her mouth closed. "Thanks," she says, her voice just barely above a whisper. "I'll… I'll check it out."

But when Jax leaves, she doesn't turn on the TV, because it's already on. Instead, Michelle flops on her bed and turns the volume up, while she rewinds the show to the moment the reporter first started talking.

"Meanwhile, in other news," she say, her voice monotone, "a seventeen year old teenager named Peter Parker from Queens has gone missing. City cameras show that the victim was last seen on Wednesday afternoon—"

Two days ago.

"—Near his home in the Forest Hills neighbourhood. Unnamed sources—"

May. 'His aunt,' Michelle thinks. 'May.'

"—Say he was a well-behaved boy who often snuck out at night, but barely got into trouble. A search by civilians and the NYPD has been conducted in the Forest Hills area, but no discoveries have been made as of yet. If anyone has, or has been withholding, any information, however, that may lead to a spark in this investigation, they are currently being asked to come forward, whether they want to be anonymous or not."

The man beside the reporter smiled. "Thank you, Janet," he spoke, cheerfully, as he looked into the camera. "Now, we'll be taking a short break, but stay tuned after these commercials to hear about Hurricane Katrina in Colorado, and the latest Spider-Man theories, about the superhero's absence, that are breaking the internet. I mean, after all, isn't that what all the kids say these days?"

The reporter beside him smiled and laughed. "Oh!" she agreed, happily. "It sure is, David!"

He isn't found until another three weeks.

She remembers the day she got the news. It was like any other, with sun pouring down New York (or, more particularly, Queens) as she walked the flower-lined streets. But, while it wasn't exactly the weather she had wanted, considering it was contrasting with her dark and depressing mood, she wasn't someone who felt like complaining today. And, at the very least, it didn't get her library books wet.

She, unlike most mornings before it happened, arrived early that day. She had arrived fifteen minutes before the bell went off and, in response, her teacher had shot her a bright smile and an amusing "I'm happy to see you arriving early for once, Michelle," but she had waved them off as she opened her book and started to read. She had better things to do, anyway. The first book's title read 'The War of the Worlds' and the second one read 'Fahrenheit 451.' Both of them were (or, rather, used to be, before he was taken) Peter's favourite.

She had stopped reading as soon as the bell rang, seeing as her teacher liked to start their lessons the moment school started. So, since twenty-five out of the thirty students they usually taught had arrived on time, they started their Chemistry lesson.

They were learning about gases and the kinetic molecular theory when she got the text halfway through class.

ned (9:27 am): michelle

ned (9:27 am): the cops

ned (9:28 am): they found peter.

Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated, as well as criticism, but please be nice! I'll try to post chapter two soon!

-TheeBlackSapphire :)