A/N: I'm honestly surprised I got this chapter out on time because I wrote all of it today lol. I had some written, but I didn't like it and I wanted to change it but then I got my eyes dilated so my vision was useless so there's another day without writing and yesterday I honestly don't know butt I think I just wasn't in the mood to write. So I wrote most of it today and proofread it like five minutes ago.

In the last chapter, I was looking over it earlier and I found that there was a mistake with one of the dialogues at the end where Graves says she started school this week and then Lukov said last week. I didn't realize it then. Anyway, I found it and fixed it.

So in this chapter, Graves makes another appearance (btw, Graves is his last name) and I finally get to start on the Big Thing that I'm planning and this chapter is the first real 'build up' to it. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how I want to tie in all the Spider-Man stories with my version of Peter and let me tell you, it's a real pain in the ass. It's so hard picking just one villain. It's still a little ways down the road and we have a lot of Adie problems to deal with until then.

Now, chapter 9!


"What, do you love math now or something?"


It was just another normal Sunday morning for Ned Leeds as he left the Whole Foods Market with his mother. They were short on milk, his mother had reminded him this morning after breakfast. The blizzard had died down while they were asleep and some of the roads were paved by the time the Leeds family had woken up. As Ned and his mother turned the corner to find a cab, the teenager realized that he was standing across the street from the Stark Tower. Woah, he thought, Mr. Stark really lives here. For all he knew, Tony Stark was in there right now, maybe working on his Iron Man suit. Ned remembered the keychain that Adelaide had given him. He wondered if Adelaide's uncle had told Mr. Stark about him. He doubted it, but it was still pretty cool to think about.

"Ned, would you please call a cab for us? I've got to get this; it's urgent," his mother said, gesturing to her ringing phone.

"Sure," he answered as she turned away to take the call. Ned was about to stick his hand out to stop one of the yellow cars, when something caught his attention across the street. It was a normal black car, but that wasn't what Ned found shocking. It was the person that stepped out of it. The teenager took a step back in dismay. With big, curious eyes Ned Leeds watched his friend Adelaide Rivers step out of the black car with Happy Hogan and get warmly greeted by none other than the famous Tony Freaking Stark. His jaw dropped. He couldn't believe his eyes. His friend. His friend! With Tony Stark!

"Adelaide!" he shouted, waving. He realized he was grinning maniacally, but he couldn't care less – his friend was with Tony Stark! With all the traffic and street noise, Adelaide didn't hear her friend calling her name across the street. Ned watched in fascination as Mr. Stark patted his friends shoulder who lightly hit his arm in return. Adelaide laughed at something Happy said and then Pepper Potts emerged from the glass doors, a huge smile on her face. Ned took in the whole scene with his mouth agape. This was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him. Then, the four of them walked through the double doors and into the Stark Tower. For a second, Adelaide looked over her shoulder, scanning the area, but, once again, she didn't see her friend waving at her. Laughing at something, Adelaide turned around and followed the others into the Tower.

Ned realized he was out of breath. He still couldn't believe his eyes. He just saw his friend go inside the Stark tower with Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, and Tony Stark himself. The teenager realized how little he knew about his friend. Suddenly, he remembered that her uncle was friends with Tony Stark. Wow, she is so lucky, he thought.

"Is everything all right?" his mother asked him. He hadn't realized that she was already finished with her phone call. In the midst of the event across the street, Ned had forgotten to call a cab like his mother had asked him to do. He still had a huge grin on his face.

After they stopped a cab, Ned retold everything that he had seen in detail to his mother all the way until they got home. He was buzzing with excitement the whole ride.

Ned couldn't wait until he met Adelaide tomorrow.


Monday afternoon, as Adelaide entered the lunchroom, she noticed that Ned was sitting by himself at their lunch table and Michelle and Peter weren't there yet. Well, knowing Michelle, she probably skipped lunch and went to the library so it wasn't much of a surprise. Adelaide sat down in front of Ned with her lunch tray, one eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Where's Peter?" For some reason, Ned look happier than usual. Weird, Adelaide thought. His best friend was missing and he was here eating happily. Ned shrugged, his mouth full.

"He probably stayed behind with Mr. Simons in chemistry or something. I don't know. Anyway –"

"Chemistry?" she asked. She didn't know Peter liked chemistry. That was her favorite subject. Ned nodded.

"Oh, yeah. He loves chemistry. I don't know why anyone would like it so much, but he's a genius at it." She might be terrible at math, but chemistry was her area of expertise. Adelaide never knew why, but it was her easiest subject. It came to her naturally – like a gift. Math on its own seemed like rocket science, but any math involved in chemical reactions was a breeze. She didn't get a chance to take the class this year because she was so late into the year, but she was definitely taking it next year at Midtown High.

"Sooo what did you do over the weekend, Adelaide?" Ned asked. She missed the huge grin on his face because she was thinking about Peter. For some reason, that day always put a smile on her face whenever she thought about it. Maybe it was those amazing chocolate chip cookies or Ben and May's amazing hospitality or even the thing with the nicknames. Thanks to Peter, she didn't hate math now. Although, she still disliked it and would do anything to avoid it, she didn't hate it. It was progress. Maybe next time, she would make progress on the actual math and not just how she felt about it.

"Not much," she answered, poking a piece of broccoli around with her fork, "Just homework, really." Ned's mouth fell open. Adelaide met Mr. Stark and she thought it was 'not much'?! This girl was something else. But Ned had held it in all weekend long and he just couldn't hold it in any longer. It spilled out of him.

"I saw you meet Mr. Stark!" he said, his voice nothing short of a shout. Adelaide looked at him with wide eyes, dropping her fork.

Shit.

"You got out of the car with Happy Hogan and then you met Mr. Stark and you even met Pepper Potts! Adelaide you're so lucky!" He was bouncing in his seat now, beaming. This really was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him. He already felt famous. On the other hand, this was definitely not the coolest thing that had ever happened to Adelaide and she was struggling to get words out of her mouth. She looked around the room, but no one had seemed to hear her friend over the noise.

"Just wait until Peter hears about this!" Ned continued.

"You can't tell Peter!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. Ned looked confused.

"Why not?" he asked. He thought his friend would be happy to hear about this. Adelaide sat back in her seat, trying to regain composure. She needed to find an excuse that sounded believable. He saw her with Tony. Of course, she met him everyday, but she couldn't tell him that. To Ned, it was a big deal. What could she say?

"I just don't want you to tell Peter because..because…" Adelaide learned one thing: she didn't work great under pressure. And under pressure or not, she still was a terrible liar.

"Um…it's because I…because it…it's supposed to be a surprise! Yeah! A surprise!" Ned still looked confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Her smile vanished. What was the surprise?

"I…um, the surprise is that um…I…you and Peter get to meet Tony!" Adelaide found herself saying. Well, now there was another hole that she had dug for herself. How was she going to get out of this one? Ned looked ready to burst from happiness. He thought his friend meeting Mr. Stark was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him, but he was going to meet the legend himself! Ned thought he was going to pass out from the excitement.

"M-M-Mr. Stark? I'm going to meet Mr. Stark!" he yelled. Some girls who were walking by gave them a weird look and Adelaide shushed him.

"You have to be quiet about it!" Lying to one person was enough, Adelaide didn't know what she'd do if someone else heard.

"So do you see why you can't tell Peter about this?" she asked, hoping he'd understand. He nodded.

"Adelaide, I promise I won't tell Peter. Don't worry about it," Ned said, looking serious. Adelaide let out a sigh of relief.

"Won't tell me what?" And the relief was gone. Peter sat down next to Ned with his lunch tray, curiously looking between his two friends. What were they hiding? Luckily, Ned had Adelaide covered.

"It's nothing. Just something Adelaide told me about math, that's all," Ned said. Adelaide was impressed; Ned was a better liar than she thought (A/N: who remembers the porn lie he told lol). Peter raised an eyebrow, a small smile on his face.

"Math? What, do you love math now or something?" he asked her teasingly. Adelaide rolled her eyes.

"No. It's still the worst thing in the world," she said, sipping her water. As Peter was shaking his head at her, she secretly gave Ned a thumbs up who grinned brightly in return. He hated lying to his best friend, but this was for his surprise and Ned knew that Peter would love it more than anything. Adelaide hated lying to them, but it was for her own good and now she would have to find a way to actually arrange the surprise for them.

As Peter and Ned began talking about Legos, Adelaide suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She could feel someone watching her, but when she whipped her head around, there was no one except a janitor mopping the floor by the doors. He was wearing a cap over his head and Adelaide couldn't see his face, but, for some reason, she felt as if he was watching her. She was just being paranoid, she told herself. Why would he be watching her? Adelaide turned away, joining her friends' conversation. She convinced herself that it was nothing. A moment later, when she glanced back at the doors, he was gone.


This wasn't the first time Graves had gotten excited about killing someone. He always made it theatrical, entertaining – for himself, at least.

With a knowing smile on his face, he cruised the halls with the janitor supplies that he had gotten from an open closet that he had found. He whistled a familiar tune, nodding at anyone passing by him. The trick to getting away with murder was to look like you belong. To do that, Graves had stayed up all night to memorize the layout of this school. Every hall and corner was etched into his memory. He even memorized the schedule so he'd know where everyone would be at every hour. At the moment, all of the kids were at lunch, leaving the halls empty for him. But he wasn't here to just cruise the halls, of course; he had a destination in mind.

Acting as nonchalant as possible, Graves entered the gym, pushing the cart into the teacher's lounge. Just as he had expected, there was only one person there at the moment and it was one of the few rooms in this school without a camera. That just made his job easier. Byron Ross was on the phone and he ignored the janitor that had just entered the room, rather annoyed by his noisiness. He was talking to his wife, convincing her that they will go on a vacation soon, but she didn't want to listen.

"Honey, I can't take any more days off work," he told her. Graves pulled out a mop from the cart and began mopping the floor, slowly moving closer to Ross as he did. Graves could feel the knife in his pocket and his fingers itched to pull it out, but he refrained; he would have to wait. Instead, he pulled his cap lower, covering his face.

"I'll lose my job!" he shouted into the phone, slamming his fist onto the table. The pens rattled, one of them rolling off. The ink splattered all over the floor. The two men made eye contact, Ross looked curious while Graves had a grin smeared onto his face. Without looking away from the janitor, Ross tried to end the call with his wife quickly.

"We'll talk about this when I get home, okay? Love you, bye." He put his phone into his pocket, eyes still on the janitor. Something about him didn't settle in Ross' chest.

"How come I've never seen you around?" Ross asked him. Graves merely shrugged.

"I'm new," he answered simply. Ross nodded, but he still felt something was off. He studied the janitor carefully.

"Are you going to clean that up?" Graves asked Ross, gesturing to the ink on the floor. Ross raised an eyebrow. The tension between the two men was evident, almost palpable.

"That's your job," he answered, feeling more curious. Something about this man didn't seem right. The janitor shrugged and began mopping up the ink. Ross stood there for a little while longer, studying the man. He looked lean and cunning. Like he knew something that Ross didn't. After a while, Ross convinced himself that it was all in his head and turned away to head back out to the gym. Lunch was almost over. Turning his back to the janitor was the worst decision Ross had ever made – and his last. The moment he'd turned away, Graves dropped the mop and whipped out his knife, holding it against the man's neck even before the mop hit the floor. His breath turned uneven from excitement. Ross closed his eyes, regretting every moment of this past minute. He should've trusted his gut, but it was too late now. He could feel the janitor's breath – although, Ross had figured out by now he wasn't really a janitor – on his neck, hot, heavy, and full of a terrible stench that might have been a cigarette or beer or both. Ross was suddenly aware of everything around him, his senses heightened. He felt his every breath, wondering which one was the last.

"Sorry, coach," Graves whispered into his ear. The smile in his voice was evident. Ross' heartbeat doubled, but his voice seemed to had stopped working. In a blink of an eye, Graves flipped Ross around and stabbed the knife into the man's chest, aiming for the heart. Ross screamed in agony, but the sound didn't leave the room because Graves covered his mouth. Ross fell to the ground, withering and clawing at the hands on his face that were suffocating him. He was starting to lose consciousness and his attempts to pull away were useless. Suddenly, he knew his next breath was his last.

"I always clean up after my messes." That was the last thing Ross heard before he closed his eyes forever.

And as Graves cleaned the evidence, there was only one person that he could think about. He was going meet her. Soon. Very soon.