Busy Boys, and Rich Boys

Summary: Diana spends some quality time with Peter (if you could call it that), and takes a page from Nitara's book.

The next week of school didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

It started at nine in the morning on Monday, when I got my Spanish quiz back: a fresh forty-two percent. And seeing as it's the only piece of marked material so far this year, my course average reflects it.

"It's not so bad," Nitara said, neatly folding her eighty-eight percent into the flap of her binder. "Verbs were never your strong point. Next unit is past tense. You'll get 'em then."

First of all, that was wrong. I sucked even worse at past tense than I did at verbs. Second of all, it hurts a little more when the teacher hands out quizzes to random classmates to mark, and then a smart kid hands you your failed project. They say time heals wounds, but I kept on reopening mine.

Next, I had gotten logged out of half of my social media accounts after Nitara had borrowed my phone. Which I wouldn't have minded, except for the fact that my recovery email wasn't actually my email- it was my eldest sister's, from when I made accounts when she still lived with Madison and I. Now, Anne and her fiancée were renovating their house, so I had to await an email from her about the mysterious influx of change-my-password emails she had received, since her landline was out, and she lived a twenty minute hike from anywhere you could even imagine to get cell signal.

None of that wouldn't have mattered if I didn't need my social media to get in contact with Peter in the least awkward way possible. He wasn't at school all week long, so I had to sit through yearbook with Harry the Floater, who kept choosing photography. I try to be nice, but this kid knows nothing about photography.

Sometimes I wondered how Peter excelled at school when he only showed up half the time. All week, Ned Leeds wandered the halls with his eyes glazed over. Harry didn't seem to be as interested in the poor guy the way he was with Peter. I tried to reassure myself in the fact that Peter's excuse of absence wasn't related to Nightmare, but the thought churned relentlessly in the back of my mind. What would he need to go on a week-long retreat for? Did he know Vulture? Was he in touch with the press? Or worse, Madison? Or, even worse- I was pretty sure he was still an intern at Stark Industries. There were so many loose ends I was dealing with here, it was enough to make my head explode.

I was not one for dealing with repercussions.

So, when Peter finally arrived at school the following Monday, I cornered him as we left Chemistry, after a very awkward run-down of the lab assignment we had started the previous week.

"I already did the first page," I told him, trying not to sound too accusing. "So if you had time outside of class, I could go over what I've done with you and we can both go from there."

Peter stumbled over his words. "You know, I could just figure it out on my own. Not that I don't want to work with you, or anything, I just… am really busy outside of school."

"So am I," I stated. "I have a job and…" Nightmare stuff. "I'm pretty sure we can find a sliver of time in our schedules to go over it."

"I'm really sorry," Peter blushed. "But I can't. I'll figure it out by myself, and then I can do the rest, if you want."

I narrowed my eyes at him quizzically as we walked down the crowded hallway. "So, you have time to figure it out by yourself instead of me explaining what you missed? Peter, if you don't want to hang out, just say so-"

Those words hurt to say, maybe more for me than for him, because this was the exact reason I didn't have more friends, like Madison wanted. Normally, Nitara and I would just get brushed off by other people. We weren't weird kids, we weren't losers, but we also weren't all that popular. As in, probably no one knew our names outside of our classes. Or for that matter, in our classes. And whenever I tried to branch out, I'd be met with hostility. I wasn't going to lie- I was pretty sick of it by now.

"I do," Peter said with wider eyes than before. "I do. Like I said, I'm just really busy. What if we talked in yearbook? Like, after school the robotics club is having a competition, and there's a Decathlon run-through on Thursday. We could go to those for pictures."

"What the heck is Decathlon?"

Peter craned his head at me. "You really don't know? It's been going on for years, they already have posters up for Washington- it's basically, uh, trivia. In a simple way to say it."

I grinned as I got to my locker. "Sounds like yearbook material." Silence. "I, uh… don't really pay attention to all the clubs going on. Only the ones I took pictures of last year."

"That's okay. I'll bring you along Thursday. The only problem is that I have to be in it, so you'll be the only one taking pictures."

I snorted. "You're forgetting your friend Harry."

"He's a lot more interested in tech," Peter explained. "I think he's only in photography because I am, and you are, and you're friends with Nitara, and he's friends with Nitara…"

I bounced a nod. "Got it. So he won't be sticking around for much longer."

"He'll get bored," Peter said, looking down the hall. "Speak of the devil…"

At the top of the stairs emerged Harry, shooting Peter a sly smile. He spoke once he got through the tsunami of students going for Lunch. "You two ready for the basement?"

I smiled as I was currently situated between two guys I was only acquainted with, max. "…Yup."

Harry held out his hand. "Lead the way, D."

I took the lead in front of Harry and Peter, the latter of whom could probably find his way to the basement with his eyes closed. If one thing was obvious, it was that Peter was wrong- Harry seemed pretty comfortable with photography.

I wish I could say Harry made the basement sound worse than it was, but it really wasn't. Last week, a pipe burst, so the washrooms were currently unavailable, and the yearbook room smelled like wet socks. I tried to think of what I wouldn't do to get a damn window in that room.

The meeting was brief, and afterwards, Harry waws warded off when I gave him the prospect of meeting Nitara before she left the Home Ec classroom.

"You're going to make him run up three flights of stairs," Peter mused, watching his friend dash off in competition with the bell.

I grinned. "Nitara waits for no one. Plus, two flights. The basement stairs are just split in half."

"Diabolical."

The basement stairs were soon empty as an influx of drama club students raced up the stairs, almost as fast as Harry.

I turned to Peter, and leaned against the wall to show him I wasn't leaving the room to talk about this. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Peter leaned across from me, against the stair railing. "About what?"

I took a deep breath. "Do you remember when I ran into you? At the end of the week before last? I know it was a while ago, I just didn't see you since then, and wanted to-"

Peter sucked in a breath of air. "I had nothing to do with it," he rushed.

I paused, and my face froze in confusion. "What?"

Peter went stark, and spoke in unambiguous certainty. "I just mean the Vulture thing. I saw it on the news when I got home, though. It sounded pretty wild."

My mind went blank. Instead of going into self-defence mode, Peter did it for me. "I mean, same here. I was just… curious. I thought… wait, what were you doing that night?"

"Me? What about you? You were covered in blood, Diana."

Fuck. This backfired.

"I…" What do I say? What do I say? Why did Peter have to corner me like this? "I got… my… period."

Peter stared at me.

"Your… period."

I nodded. "Yep. Menstruation. Sucks." I puckered my lips. "What were you doing?"

"Picking up flour for my aunt at the Deli," Peter explained. "She was in the middle of baking. Cookies."

"Oh." This time I blushed. "You live with your aunt?"

Peter began walking up the stairs, and I followed him, glad to be talking about a normal subject. "Yeah. I've been living with her for a while now."

"Cool." We walked. "I live with my sister."

This was definitely why I had no friends. But what I lacked in social skills, I made up for in purple electricity.

Peter nodded. I nodded.

"How come?"

"My parents are dead," I deadpanned. Really, it was a classic line, at this point.

Peter's face went white. "Oh. Sh… I'm sorry-"

"It's fine," I quipped, mostly for my own sake. "We do fine. We kept our apartment on Ascan. My sister works, and I work, and we… manage."

That was one way of putting it. I didn't put much strength into the word manage.

"You live on Ascan? I'm on Winter Street," Peter said. "That's cool. We're not even two blocks away."

I perked up. "Winter Street? Have you ever run into Nitara?"

Peter laughed. "Are you kidding? We live in the same building."

"I never see you!"

Peter laughed. "Well, I- augh, I'm hardly ever home."

I nodded, again. "I see. Well, I'll see you later though, right? Yearbook? Robotics?"

We were walking past the gym, and Peter was making his stop. "Yeah. For sure. That'll be good. And- what if, I mean… why don't you try out for Decathlon?"

I stopped. "Decathlon?"

Peter tugged at his backpack straps. "Yeah. Like, if you don't want to, that's fine, but they're short a member. Or, they will be. You should talk to Mr. Harrington. He runs it. He'll be there when you take pictures Thursday."

"Maybe I will," I hummed, thinking about how I was going to fit this in with Yearbook and the Queens Diner, atop of Nightmare and hunting the Vulture. And studying. "Are you guys expanding? Did someone leave?"

Peter looked down to his feet. "Actually, I'm leaving. I can't balance it with my internship. Thursday is going to be my last day, so…"

"That sucks," I mumbled. "I guess you're really dedicated to your internship. I'll think about it, but it sounds like fun. Or… I might tell Nitara about it? We both like that kind of stuff."

Peter smiled, probably just glad that his spot would get filled. "Alright. Cool. I'll meet you after school."

I opened my mouth to answer him, but the bell rang right as I did. "Oh… shit. Catch you later."

Before Peter could say anything else, I pivoted, and booked it down the hall as fast as I could go without running. Nitara. Where was Nitara?

"I can't believe you," I muttered to Nitara.

My best friend sipped her smoothie in guilty response, her sleek black hair gleaming in the Deli Grocery's window as the sun began to dip over the horizon that evening.

Nitara finished sipping for what had to have been half a minute procrastinating. "Look. I had the chance and I took it. You got to hang out with Peter today. I got to hang out with Harry."

"I went to Robotics Club with Peter after school to take pictures for Yearbook," I corrected, leaving my smoothie untouched. "It's not like that with us. Trust me. I don't think the guy even wants to be around me. Besides, you skipped school. Your Dad is going to paint the walls with you when you get home."

Nitara rolled her eyes. "Relax. Harry called the school and pretended to be Dad. The Secretary hardly knows that Harry exists. Plus, he did a killer accent. It would have fooled me."

I took a small sip of my smoothie. "I find that hard to believe."

Nitara finished the remains of her smoothie, which was mostly just bubbles. "What did you want to talk about, then?"

I was back on track immediately. "Peter." I looked around our table, the only one in the shop, to make sure no one else happened to be within earshot of what I was about to say. "I tried to cover up for the Vulture thing, but he started getting really defensive before I could even say anything. You should have been there. He was acting so weird."

Nitara had put her priorities about Harry aside. "What did he say? Was he covering something up?"

I threw my hands in the air around me. "God, I haven't got a clue. But he just tried to turn the whole thing on me. Can you believe that? I had to pull the period card. Thanks for that, by the way."

Nitara beamed and laughter chimed in her voice. "You did? Did it work?"

I leaned back in my chair, tipping on the edges, and picked at a loose thread on my glove. "Surprisingly, I think he did. If he had a suspicion, he definitely didn't question it."

"Classic." Nitara eyed my smoothie. "Are you gonna drink that?"

I sighed and pushed over my near full smoothie. "Be my guest."

Nitara started drinking my smoothie almost as fast as the last, and I figured as long as she was doing that, I would have the chance to talk without interruptions. "He said that he was in such a hurry, because he came here to buy flour for his aunt."

Nitara stopped breathing. "May," she offered, then went back to her smoothie. "Continue."

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, he was leaving in the direction of his apartment, away from the Deli. Meaning he was going home. He also had no flour with him. And you know the Deli never runs out of flour."

Nitara slowly blinked at me. "So what you're saying is… Peter's lying to you."

I shrugged. "I guess. I just feel like there's more to it, you know?"

"You don't think he's with him, do you?"

"With who?"

"Vulture," Nitara hissed, in her lowest voice which, granted, wasn't very low, but was hushed even though no one was around. "He shouldn't be lying to you about something so miniscule, unless he's somehow involved, right?"

I sat on Nitara's theory. "You're… not wrong."

Nitara finished my smoothie. "When am I ever?"

A lightbulb went off in my head. "That reminds me! They're doing tryouts for the Decathlon team. I thought I'd tell you, because Peter told me about the spot, yet I figured it was kind of more your thing, with random useless facts that never come in handy the rest of the time-"

Nitara put up a hand. "Seriously? Also, yeah, they do come in handy. Like when we went trick-or-treating in eighth grade and that woman asked us a riddle. I'll do it. Just tell me when and where."

"Thursday after school in the gymnasium," I provided. "You know, lucky you. You're taking Peter's place, but that'll just be one more thing to talk about to Harry with. I'll be there with Peter, taking pictures."

Nitara thought quickly about my words. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. We're all in woodshop, plus you're in Yearbook with the two of them."

Another moment passed. "So how was Harry?"

The straw fell out of Nitara's mouth as she sucked in dry air. "Wh-what?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I said… how was Harry? What did you guys do?"

Nitara blushed, which was an infrequent action for her. "Nothing. I mean, we talked for a long time. We went on a drive to Manhattan. Manhattan, D. He had a chauffeur. Like, I had no idea, but the guy's rich. His dad owns OSCORP."

A shiver went up my spine. "Wait… really? Don't you think-"

"He asked me to hang out with him after school tomorrow," Nitara said. "I said yes. He said he can take me to his dad's work and climb the tower. He has a pass to the top. Did you know it's almost as tall as Avengers Tower? You can see it from the top, he said. I'm going to show him my apartment from up there. Or, the general direction, anyway."

"Cool," I answered hollowly, Nitara's veneration about Harry going through one ear and out the other. "I work tomorrow, anyway, but not the late shift. Are you going to be back in time to go out? Or-"

"We were going to watch the sunset," Nitara mused, her eyes glazed over as her eyes floated through space, past my shoulder and staring somewhere out the window.

I picked up the two smoothie cups to bring back to the counter and pet Murph before I left. "Be careful," I said, somewhat wearily, thinking of all the rich guys that have ever owned towers. "You know, wealthy dudes. Make sure you keep a close eye on him."

Hi everybody! Thank you so much for reading this far! just a little note to let you know this is my last pre written chapter but the next one should be out by next week. i should be doing uni rn but im procrastinating ahaha

next chapter is hopefully exciting! nightmare meets a certain somebody.. i'll stop while i'm ahead :)