Title: Love & Misadventure (Wildcats!)
Genre: Romance / Adventure
Rating: T
Pairing: Peter Parker x OC
Spoilers: MCU through Avengers Endgame and all of Spider-Man: Far From Home minus the end credits scene
Summary: Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.
Word Count: 1,620
Warnings: NaNo competitor

Disclaimer: Marvel and its characters do not belong to me. The summary is a quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

A/N: The only reason I chose not to make the end credits scene cannon is because it didn't fit with the plan I had for this story.

It's every bit as horrible as Peter imagined it would be, really. I mean, every high school student says they want to go to their school dance because they're high off the illusion from A Cinderella Story and shit like that where everything is beautiful and perfect. But in real like schools don't have that much money. That's why they make your own parents chaperone you. And that's why all the decorations were either bought at the thrift store or dug out of people's closets. He see a punch bowl that he distinctly remembers seeing at Ned's house three Thanksgivings ago. It's even shaped like a turkey.

So no, it's not ethereal and magical, not really. The decorations are streamers and balloons from Wally World and the music is being played by a DJ who turns out just to be an ex-student whose daily intake was more 'drugs' and less 'knowledge' and he's playing Pandora and that's his whole plan. The lights have been dimmed to hide the fact that they're in the gym, but there's only so many plants you for wrap around a basketball hoop and, hey, it still just looks like an overgrown basketball hoop. It's tragic.

"I can't believe you're really here, dude!"

That's the tenth time someone has said that. Usually someone who would never give the real life, actual Peter Parker the time of day. This time it's Flash and Peter's never had a conversation with him where the guy wasn't picking on him, so he doesn't know what to say, just flashes him a thumbs up and thanks him.

"Spider-Man is, like, my hero, bro." Flash continues talking, and Peter nods and hm's in random agreement as he continues to scan the room. Samantha has gone all out on her Red Queen costume, no surprise. Eric's costume is clearly a Party City purchase and it should look ridiculous and childish on an adult, but he's so good looking that it doesn't. It's almost enough to make you hate him, really. He and Samantha are posing for pictures and laughing it up. Ned, lurking in the background like an actual weirdo, is watching them. His expression is lovesick and worrisome, but Peter doesn't have the time or energy to deal with it right now. Clearly no one else is keeping watch.

Guess I'll just do it myself.

He almost punches Flash when he grabs Peter around the shoulder and holds out his phone in front of them. "Selfie time, bro." Peter rolls his eyes, but thankfully no one can see and holds up a peace sign for the camera. "This is the best dance ever."

"Yeah sure… kid." He doesn't know how to talk to people his own age in his superhero persona. "Look, shouldn't you be… dancing with someone." Flash looks at him incomprehensively. Peter has already discovered that, since the real him is so far down on everyone's radar, no one recognizes his actual voice. So no fake Batman voice needed. "This is a dance, right?"

The look on Flash's face is downright strange. Peter has a terrifying moment where he thinks his hero worship of Spider-Man has been interpreted wrong by everyone all these years and he's going so ask Peter to dance. It's a very surrealistic, out-of-body moment for him and he feels a tangible swell of relief when Flash says, "Oh yeah, good idea," high fives him, and leaves.

"Holy shit." There would have really been no diplomatic way for him to turn down his primary school bully asking his alter-ego to boogie at a shitty high school dance. The Avengers did not prepare him for that.

"Yo, kid, what's up?" Samantha appears from the crown that had gathered around him at the start of the dance and never left, like she was the real Red Queen parting the seething masses. The wig she'd adhered over her own brunette hair looks so real that Peter had thought she'd actually gone and dyed it when they met early this evening. "Any sign of our wayward librarian?"

He crouched down on the edge of the highest bleacher, so he was more eye level with her standing several rows below him. "Not yet. I'm not even sure she'll show, this is clearly a trap."

"But it's not." He'd been scanning the crowd again, but the tone of her voice makes him tilt his head to face her. She's looking out at the dance floor, too, but her eyes are far away and somewhere else, lost in thought. She seems sad. "It's not really a trap if we're trying to help her, is it?"

"I mean… isn't it though?" He doesn't want it to be a trap either. Traps are for villains and criminals. Callie… Callie is just misunderstood. He thinks. He hopes. But they're still luring her here under false pretenses, aren't they? He had never told her that he liked her, had never really entertained the notion because he'd been too busy looking for Inferno to see what was in front of his face this entire time. She wouldn't really believe he was here waiting for her, pining for her. Though… in the interest of being honest with himself, he sort of was.

"Well, we're not going to arrest her."

He blinked, though she couldn't see it, and shifted so he could face her fully. "Well, then what are we going to do, Samantha?" She turned to look at him, her jaw line a rigid, defiant, clench of teeth, her eyes dark. "If Callie says no, if she doesn't want to be good – "

"But she – "

He held up a hand to quell her argument. "But if she doesn't. I want her to see there's a better way, too, Samantha. And I really do think she's a good person. But sometimes good people do bad things, and sometimes they don't want to stop." He waited a moment for that to sink in. It was something he'd seen more times than he wanted to, one of the hardest things he'd had to come to terms with as a superhero, but it was still a fact. However much he didn't want it to be. "So what are we going to do if she says no?"

Samantha is silent for a long time, leaning her head forward so her face is partially covered by her red wig. When she speaks, her voice is quiet and broken. "I don't know."

The next hour is a blur of loud noises and pressing bodies that Peter, in his leotard, loathes and despises. It's hot and sweltering and there's so many people it's hard to keep a lookout for one in particular. The gymnasium is dimly lit and Callie wears all black as Inferno, there are a dozen corners she could lurk in, undiscovered, as she scoped them out. His eyes ache from peering into dark shadows and under the bleachers, looking for a flicker of flame or a flash of cheek or wrist in the blackness. Too many people here are using this as an opportunity to snap photos for their Instagram or try to get autographs or live Snap this 'momentous occasion in superhero romance news.' Samantha is one step away from creating a diversion so idiotic that it borders on insane.

"What if I just pretend I'm the real Read Queen and clear the place out?"

"No, that's – " He pauses, contemplates. Well, maybe… "No, the cops would come, it'd be a shit show."

She sighs. "Yeah, that's true." She eyes the mass of writhing bodies and the teachers and parents who are trying to force the teenagers to stay a ruler's length away. Leave room for Jesus, one of the teachers keeps saying in a patronizing tone. He can vaguely hear that there's a set of people underneath the bleachers who are getting really up close and personal with each other. He wonders how naked they'll be when an adult finally discovers them. Peter's also fairly certain Eric lit a trashcan on fire to distract the staff from the fact that Samantha had spiked the punch thirty minutes ago, judging by the retching students out front. Classic, American High School dance.

Gwen is positively green by the time she starts to announce the winners of the costume contest. She's wobbling in her Poison Ivy heels and Samantha's spiked punch is clearly going right to her head as she holds onto the microphone stand for dear life. "Alright, everyone, we tallied your votes and – after disregarding everyone who voted for Spider-Man because he doesn't go here –" Peter snorts to himself. " – the winner of our Superhero Masquerade is… drumroll please…" She fights to open the envelope in her hands.

"Inferno!"

Gwen glances up with an irritated expression. "No one here is dressed as Inferno, you idiot!"

But Peter has seen the same thing that his lab partner from sixth grade had seen: That Inferno had all but materialized out of the shadows behind Gwen and was staring out at the room in silent contemplation.

Waiting for him.