A/N: Hello! Here's the next chapter, it's a bit short but we're getting closer to my plans, hahah, want to guess what's going to happen? Please do review! Tell me if you like it, If you hated it, anything, just tell me how you feel about the story so far and try guessing where this is going! Anyway, happy reading!
Angela couldn't fall asleep straight away that night but did anyway considering she'd have to wake up early the next day. Tony didn't drive her to school, Happy did, and they had stayed quiet for the whole ride. Angela couldn't say she wasn't disappointed, disappointed was nothing compared to what she was feeling. Somehow she was feeling betrayed, or sort of something in that realm. Just a day and Tony had already given up on her; he hadn't talked to her the day before and didn't even look at her when he picked her up at the bakery. Was he mad? Did he think that she had done that in purpose? Because she hadn't. She genuinely hadn't, and she had been scared to do something like that. If she were honest her mind was still thinking about the freckled boy she had just talked with, Peter. She had felt guilty on just ditching him, that was extremely rude. But she had had this weird feeling, she had never felt before, she felt how the words had swirled and just time went dancing by, like a nice melody; it had been suave, nice and she had felt as if she had been meant to be there exactly with him. So, of course, being scared of feeling things she hadn't felt before Angela had to run away, and that's why she had just backed away and back flipped from her feelings. And she had ended up at that bakery, thinking about the boy and the freckles that covered his cheeks, and as she watched the cakes and decided that maybe, just maybe a pastry would help her get her mind on more important stuff. But as she was just deciding what the heck she'd eat to forget those shy eyes, the guys had come in. A smoke had covered the room, and they had walked directly at her, how had they known she'd be there? Were they following around? She hadn't yet told her father but she had managed to get into their mind and confuse them, they hadn't killed her. But they had gone mad, and somehow they made no sense, but even before she had manipulated their minds, they had seemed like different type of criminals. Just two of them; had come directly for her while the others were covering the room with A.S., but the two that had come for them had their sight... lost somehow, as if they weren't human, yet the moment they had laid eyes on her they had come straight to her, like zombies. She had stopped them, she had made them stop and try and do more normal criminal stuff, like robbing the cashier. Somehow they had been easy to manipulate, partly because they had nothing in their minds. It was blank.
She had risked her life, and when the girl had stayed there, she had protected her, scared they could have shot her. And then, Spider-Man had flung in and saved her. She couldn't take her mind off of him, she wanted to know his face, the hero behind the mask. He probably was handsome, or maybe he wasn't, she just knew she wanted to meet him, and she'd like him no matter who he was.
Happy pulled in the school driveway, and looked at the young girl from the mirror, Angela was staring outside, waiting for all the reporters and bloggers who were waiting for her to come out the Audi. "Don't answer anything, they'll turn everything against you and your father," he warned her with a half smile.
"I know," she sighed and closed her eyes. She had to focus, she could easily control them, right? She braved up and jumped out of the car as pictures flashed and phones and mics were shoved at her. Miss Stark, a word please. "I'm late for class! Sorry guys!" She answered as she focused on them, squinting her eyes and made their way as they opened a path for her.
She ran into the building, ignoring as she encountered Flash. She wasn't in the mood, all she wanted to do was just get to her classroom sit and stay quiet, just to think and learn, of course. She made the way through the halls and people were approaching her asking if she was alright, she would just nod and smile politely thanking them. She didn't know why the heck she was so mad, or maybe she did know, but she wasn't sure what was the thing that bothered her the most, the fact that it had just been her first day at school and people were already trying to kidnap her, or that because of that Tony was already ignoring her, or even th fact that she knew that she would never be able to have a normal life and that the press was going to haunt her forever or that people were always going to approach her in the hallways. It was...hard. She opened her locker and just watched as the girl who was next to her looked st her in awe. Angela gave her a smile and asked her for her name, the girl didn't answer and just chirped and skipped away. Odd.
Angela closed her locker only to find Flash beside her.
"Hey, sweetheart," her greeted with a smug. "Are you okay? I mean I watched the news and"
"I'm okay, just a little cut," Angela answered with a shrug and then pointed at the band aid on her forehead. "Thanks for asking."
Peter Parker wasn't far from her, he was sore and his head hurt like hell, he felt his whole body cracked each time he moved, on his way to school as he took the train, he had had trouble finding a place to seat but when he had finally sat he had given his seat to an old lady, so he had stayed standing up the whole ride and had his hand up causing his back and chest to burn. It wasn't as bad as yesterday but he sure wasn't feeling okay. His eyes were covered by dark circles and the bandaid that was on top of his eyebrow wasn't doing any justice to the actual cut he had. He was now in his locker trying to get the least amount of books on his backpack so it wouldn't hurt. But then, he felt a heavy hand hit his back causing it to burn intensely.
"Duuuude, you okay?" Ned whispered as Peter turned around with pain in his eyes as he nodded his head.
"Yeah, but don't hit me... it hurts," Peter complained. "Dude those guys were strong and, well..."
"Tell me everything," Ned answered as Peter sighed and began to tell his whole experience.
"We should totally investigate them," Ned answered as Peter had finished the abbreviated story.
"I... yeah, they were weird, but," Peter turned around "have you seen Angela? I think we should go see her, I'm kinda worried for her."
Ned raised his eyebrows and shook his head, and off they went in search of her. They found her carefully hugging her books as Flash was leaning against the lockers talking to her, she didn't seem as uncomfortable as they had seen her before, yet she looked tired, and bored, but her eyes locked with Peters s in a save me now way so Peter and Ned rushed to her rescue.
"Hey Ang," Ned greeted her as she gave him a half smile and Flash turned around to look at them, backing up so they could join them. Peter was surprised by his attitude.
"Parker, Leeds," Flash said.
"Flash," both Peter and Ned said at the unison.
"Ned, Pater," Angela smiled but then frowned as she noticed the bandaid Peter had on his eyebrow. "What happened to you?"
"Uh, something stupid I... fell on the stairs," Peter lied and turned red. "But how are you? With all that happened yesterday?"
"I'm good, I was actually just telling Flash that the criminals didn't even attack me," she answered, but Peter already knew that. They all stayed quiet as Angela was watching Peter.
"So... whats your class, sweetheart?" Flash asked, making Angela shake her head and return to give him her attention.
"Biology, I think," she shrugged. "Yours?" She asked looking past Flash and looking directly at Peter and Ned.
"I've got math," Ned answered.
"Biology, too," Peter answered shyly as Flash frowned.
"Well I'VE GOT POLITICS AND REGIONAL SCENERIES," Flash informed them, as Angela completely ignored him with a non convincing 'cool'.
"Well, lets go Pater Peke," she smiled and took Peter by his shoulder as she tried getting away from class. Peter flinched a bit, but tried to disguise his pain with a grin, which could easily be seen as a grimace.
"It's the other way," Peter whispered to her causing her to blush and laugh. She turned around and gave them the peace sign as they made their way to her classroom.
"Now, Parker, are you gonna tell me the truth about that bandaid?" She asked him when they finally walked into the class.
"I wish there was a more interesting story behind it, but I'm afraid my clumsiness is the only reason as to why my eyebrow is covered by a Mickey Mouse band aid," he answered with a chuckle.
"Well, we share band aid brands," she grinned as she pointed to her own, but showed a Goofy one. "We're bandaid twins, except you have it on the left side."
"Oh man, I should've thought about that when falling," he joked. "I promise next time I have a cut like this I'll make sure we have it on the same place."
"Please do," she grinned as they sat down. "That would be really considerate from your part."
"Well, then it shall be done," said Peter.
The class went by, and both Peter and Angela had their minds on everything but in the powerhouse of the cell. It was basic biology, after all so they didn't worry about giving even slight attention. They were both thinking about yesterday: the criminals, the AS, the bakery, their eyes, their weapons.
Angela wished she could talk about it with someone but she knew talking it with Peter and Ned was something that she couldn't do, or at least not yet. Maybe they could be the first to know about her abilities, or maybe not and she shall then keep them all to herself for her own convinience. Peter, on the other half, also wanted to discuss it, but then again it had to be only with Ned and it wouldn't even be complete; and of course talking about it with Angela would obviously reveal his Hannah Montana like life, so that option was off the table. Yet, if they knew they were going through the same dilemma things would have been a lot easier.
Peter stretched out in class trying to ease the pain away, but failed at it. Angela was watching him carefully, his brown eyes were locked on the whiteboard but weren't even focused, they seemed blank. He looked... uncomfortable and he seemed hurt, she wanted to ask but she knew they didn't have that type of trust yet and she didn't want to cross any boundaries; maybe he was just tired? She didn't risk asking, after all they were just aquittances, not friends yet; but she watched as he was drawing his fingers on the table, and as he would flinch every now and then.
The day went by, and since most of her classes were with Peter that dynamic continued, she'd watch him curiously and he'd glance at her every now and then; with both thinking about the criminals and the things they wanted to do about it. For Angela, it was clear, she wanted to fight them personally, in some kind of revenge for ruining her very first day at school. For Peter, though, it was more like a being the hero thing; proving Mr. Stark he was getting better and possibly then, maybe later get himself an actual position on the Avengers team. A boy could dream, right?
When lunchtime came, as Peter and Angela were making their way to the table with Ned they realized Flash was also sitting there along with 2 other guys, a guy from the football team and a guy Angela remembered seeing at the Decathlon meeting before. Ned gave them a confused look as well as he shrugged his shoulders.
Angela wasn't confused, she knew that would happen, and from the morning she saw Flash not being an actual dick to Peter and Ned. They were going to try being friends with them just to get close to her. The football player guy was big, ish. Not tall but big and had a really nice smile. He probably was a senior.
"Hello," he greeted and gave Angela his most charming smile; which Angela couldn't admit but did find attractive. "I'm Shawn, Shawn Ford," he offered Angela a hand. "And I'm afraid we haven't officially met."
"Angela," she gave him her hand, expecting to shake them but instead he kissed the top of it. Angela blinked away her confusion.
Lame, Peter thought.
"So, I hope you guys don't mind me joining the school's smart team table," Shawn declared. "But I think we should all be friends to show our new classmate here that here in Midtown we don't stereotype."
"We don't?" Michelle walked over, with a half angry, half bored faced. "As far as I know you don't even know our names."
"I do," Shawn scowled. "you're... Marianne"
"Nope," Michelle smiled.
"Well, then, but I know these guys, Abraham, Flash... eh, Nate? And Patrick?" Shawn tried to guess.
"Two out of five, Ford, I guess you can't sit with us," Flash declared.
"You actually never sit with us either, Flash," said Michelle with a challenging voice. "May we know your intentions? Or do you want also to prove our new friend here that we can all get along as if it were some Disney movie?"
"I've always been friends with you guys?" Flash answered nervously.
"You aren't," Abraham acknowledged. "I am, right? And Ned actually invited me over"
Michelle, Peter and Angela turned to Ned who just nodded his head, confirming Abraham's statement.
"Oh c'mon, don't you want a senior with you? Don't you want the captain sitting with you? A hero?" Shawn defended himself.
Hero? Angela thought and stared at him. Hero?
Well, um," Angela sat down, and took out her lunch, which was nicely prepared by Pepper the night before. Peter sat beside her, and Michelle beside Peter. It was an odd table, considering you could cut out the tension with a fork.
They didn't really talk, they were all just eating and glancing between each other, it was, without a doubt a very comical situation. Flash and Shawn had their eyes locked on Angela while Angela had her sight on her food and she'd side eye Peter every now and then. Ned was looking between Peter and Angela, knowing his best friend couldn't take his eyes off of the Stark femine. Abraham was too focused on his juice, and Michelle was playing with her mashed potatoes. It was a rather awkward situation.
"So, tell me, Miss Stark," Shawn broke the silence causing all of them to turn and stare at him. "How did you copy with your father yesterday? Are you okay? Did those 4 guys hurt you?"
"I'm fine," Angela answered. "But no, they didn't attack me."
"What about the girl?" Shawn asked, and Angela stopped to look at him, she hadn't mentioned the girl, and as far as she knew they hadn't mentioned the girl either on the news.
"They didn't hurt her either, but she was at the end of the bakery so wasn't fast enough and... they were pointing the gun at her so, naturally I protected her. Rather me than her, right?" Angela shrugged as they all watched her, Peter's sight was the most interested in her story and Angela couldn't help but clear her throat nervously. If I hadn't ditched you none of this would have happened, Angela thought as she made eye contact with Peter.
"But you're okay, right?" Flash asked.
"And Spider-Man saved you!"Abraham commented with excitement causing Angela to shine a shy smile.
"He did, he's amazing," Angela commented, as Peter blushed and smiled looking down at his food.
"You haven't met him, right?" asked Shawn with a grin. "Bet you wished you knew him, but hey, he got hurt as well, yesterday, right? He collapsed on the floor."
Angela was impressed by how informed the senior football player was, she raised a brow and watched him curiously. He sent her another charming smile, and Angela blinked and focused back on her food.
"Yeah, he was hurt," she answered. "But my father said he was recovering and he just needed to rest, I think he's still at the avengers facility, I don't know."
Peter glanced at Ned who just snorted back a laugh, causing all of them to watch him for a split second.
"You live there?" Abraham asked. "Dude,I mean, girl, you should definitely throw a party there someday!"
"I don't think my father would let me, but maybe I could throw one in my old apartment, I think my dad stil owns it," she shrugged.
"Dude, imagine partying with the avengers," Abraham chirped excited.
"I would go straight with Thor," Michelle pointed out. "That man... damn."
Angela nodded with a smirk, while they all started talking about the whole Avenger subject. At least now it wasn't awkward, they all started talking about the hypothetical situation if they had the chance to party with the avengers. Ned, Peter and Angela had all a free period after lunc, one which Angela was willing to use wisely. She had stolen something and wanted to investigate it right away, or something. Angela asked them for a quiet place, they suggested the library but Angela declined it.
"Looks it's... I need to investigate something, I need the computer lab" she declared as Peter and Ned raised an eyebrow. She glanced at the deserted hallway and looked through her stuff as she took out a small syringe with a yellowish liquid. Ned and Peter frowned and looked at the yellow liquid. Peter recognized it immediately, it had been one of the little tubes he had seen in the criminals' bags.
"Look, I stole this, and I kind of know how the heck to know to-"
"We don't have that at school, but yes, probably we could use a scanner, to see which are the compounds and reactions, your dad has one I've seen it and" Peter took the syringe in his hands.
"I already scanned it," Angela bit her lip. "I need to research some stuff and I need to do it on a computer that isn't mine, my dad tracks mine and I don't want him to... you know, know I have this."
Ned and Peter looked between each other but showed her the way anyway.
"Look guys, I'm trusting you this but if you dare to say something things aren't going to go well, so please."
They nodded quickly as they sat in the room, and Angela googled 'Oscorp'. Peter felt uneasy and his eyes widened. She clicked on the news links and started reading through. Stolen formulas at OSCORP. Norman Osborn buys the Avengers tower. Anastasia Sanders talks about formulas disappearance.
"Just what I thought," Angela whispered as Peter took in his hands the syringe. Ned frowned. She opened several links and started reading them, while Peter and Ned had their eyes locked on the screen as well.
"Why do you think those are...?" Peter started to ask while Angela pointed at the syringe end.
"There's a tiny O in there, see it?" Angela mentioned. Peter saw it, and so did Ned.
"Now, I found these numbers as well," she then pointed at the top of the syringe. "And I'm guessing, just a guess that these are the formulas that were stolen from OSCORP, but I'd need to sneak into their building, and hack their computers to actually see if they were, get into their system."
"But why would you do that? Why not let that to your father?" Ned asked as Angela shrugged.
"I... don't know, it's nt like I'm gonna do it, I'm just curious, and besides my father's got more important stuff rather than investigate some formulas and weird criminals, right?" Angela said as she took the syringe back and packed it in a container. Peter knew she was right, Tony wouldn't even bother with that; but he knew who exactly could bother. And he was sure Angela knew that as well.
"I was just at the Osborn residence this Saturday, seems a bit odd he threw a party at very short notice and just after the formulas were stolen," she commented as both Peter and Ned blinked watching her. "And I don't know why I'm telling you this."
"So you're assuming that was the stolen formula?" Peter asked and frowned. "Don't you think it'd be rather stupid to use it right away?"
"Then again those criminals were indeed pretty stupid," she shrugged. "They were odd."
"Specially those yellow eyes," Peter mumbled.
"Hm?" Angela seemed confused.
"I heard it on the news," Peter lied as Angela turned back to the computer.
" I don't know," she gave up, "just wanted to do a little research and feel like I'm a detective or whatever."
But of course, she wasn't, she was planning way more than that. They spent the rest of the free period talking about their experience when they had been to OSCORP, Peter of course not telling everything he had been through, and then walking Angela to the place where she could join up the school's photography and newspaper where she was highly accepted by the president and the teacher responsible for it. Though, Angela had a condition, that Peter and Ned would be able to join with her, both Peter and Ned declined her offer but she signed them up anyway. She had a plan, one that would have to be executed very carefully.
The day finished, Angela arrived and did her homework just to be trained by Natasha in the afternoons, they'd talk and Angela had sneaked into the lab at the facilty to study the formula.
And so Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went through not as different as it had been that day, Angela would have all her classes with Peter except French and they'd sit with new people each time at lunch; Michelle would talk to Angela and Angela would go to the newspapers meetings just to get to know the team. Nice people, all of them, Peter, Angela and Ned grew closer and they had clicked it off in those 5 days, as if they had known each other their whole lives. They made it all easy, though.
Angela after being exhausted from her training with Romanoff she would sneak to the lab, she knew Tony would walk out of it at exactly 5:18 each day and she had a split second before she could walk into the place so she'd throw a pencil to stop the door from closing, she'd then close all the curtains and begin to work: she explored and tried to know more and more about the syringe liquid and tried to test it on plants, but she'd have so little time to do it because otherwise Tony could discover her. She had her notes though. The only thing she knew about those formulas is that they had clicked with others way older from Stark industries, they had several mixes of the Super soldier compacts, ones that didn't work, of course. She had had so little time to explore the whole formula but she had only come to the conclusion that whatever that yellow liquid was, it was only a test, it couldn't be the final product. Or if it was, then the person behind was wicked, for it could only make the person who took it live for just about an hour. It was lethal.
For Peter, his week went by really calmed, fortunately May hadn't heard about the bakery incident so she hadn't talked bothered Peter with it, and since Peter had to rest due to his back pain he'd stay in, and Ned would come over sometimes, they'd talk about the day, and discuss the possibilities of actually sneaking into Oscorp, Peter didn't know what for but he wanted so badly to help Angela on her research.
If those were indeed the stolen formulas from OSCORP, he wondered what kind of criminal could be interested in having those formulas, and why exactly was OSCOPR created them. A formula that made people super strong and with their skin like play dough? It was odd.
Peter discussed it with Ned, and Ned had made a point. They, after all, had been experimenting with spiders that had given him his powers. Still. Whoever knew about those formulas and had decided to steal them what been somehow close to the company because he knew how secretive OSCORP was.
Peter admitted to Ned that he indeed believed they had come for Angela, even if it hadn't been directly, he knew it couldn't just be a coincidence, considering that bakery was held under investigation and had nothing liked to them. It wasn't until Friday that Peter was clicking stuff up, maybe OSCORP was going after her? After all, Osborn had thrown a party just after Tony had presented Angela to the world. That had been odd.
Friday had gone just like the other days, until Flash had walked over to Angela while she was in her locker to say the words:
"You coming to my party, right?"
Angela had turned around to see Peter who just gave her a shrug.
"I will, but only if you let Peter, Ned and Michelle come," Angela asked him.
"Why are you so obsessed with Penis Parker?" Flash rolled his eyes.
"Because he's my friend," Angela smiled. "Well; want me at your party or not?"
"That's a harsh move, Stark," Flash sighed. "Fine, they can come, but promise me you'll a spend some time with me at the party."
"Got yourself a deal, Thompson."
