The bell rings and everyone rushes to pack their things. The teacher at the front raises his voice to remind them of their homework. Peter keeps an eye on a fair-skinned girl with a dark brown bob as he hoists his backpack over his shoulder. He notes with mild panic that she is turning to face his direction and he promptly drops under the table.

Ned rolls his eyes, waving at the girl with an exasperated smile. She smiles back with a hint of confusion and leaves the room. "She's gone, you can stop cowering," he deadpans.

"I'm not cowering!" Peter denies, peeking over the table. Ignoring the weird look his teacher directs at him, he and Ned proceed to walk to their lockers. He sighs, hanging his head back. "I just can't face her, not yet. It's my fault she got into a coma."

"It is not your fault," says Ned. "You were in Germany, remember?" Imagine Ned's surprise the night before when he accidentally finds out that his best friend is actually the vigilante from YouTube, Spider-Man. He took every opportunity he could to ask Peter whatever question came to mind.

After the teenage crimefighter quickly shot down every absurd assumption Ned had, he explained how he got his powers and filled him in on recent events.

"If I wasn't in Germany, none of this would've happened to her!" Peter shoots back.

He twists the code on his locker in a flurry and opens it with a touch of aggression. He takes a deep breath to calm himself, eyes automatically flying to a polaroid he keeps on his locker door. In it, he has his arm over the shoulder of Sakura while she poses with a peace sign.

"You saw what happened to Delmar's," Peter murmurs. "I was there last night and even then I couldn't prevent it from happening. In fact, it probably wouldn't have happened at all if I didn't intervene in the robbery."

Ned pats him on his back as Peter glumly stares at the polaroid. "Hey, man, you saw something was wrong and did your best. At least now you know what you should've done better so that next time something like that happens you'll be prepared."

Peter listens, a tiny smile making its way on his face. Ned clamps his hands on Peter's shoulders. "'Let the past die,'" he says then pauses, looking at the paler boy expectantly.

"'Kill it, if you have to.'" Peter grins at his best friend in gratitude, then they slip onto their secret handshake.

"What's up, losers?" MJ greets. She raises an eyebrow when Peter slams his locker shut. Behind her is Sakura, who smiles at them in greeting.

"Just talking about…" Ned pauses when Peter gives him a look. "Uhh homecoming."

Sakura tilts her head. "What's homecoming?"

Again, Peter is hit with guilt. Sakura had started attending classes again earlier that week and although she was catching up pretty fast with the topics she missed, it seems like her amnesia affected all kinds of memories. Just yesterday, Sakura had asked who Iron Man was and if he ironed clothes for a living. She also spoke in Japanese at times without realizing it, which Peter didn't even know she could do because she never did it before.

"It's an event to celebrate the first football game after classes start," answers MJ, "and an excuse for teenagers to wear fancy clothes and dance in a smelly gym."

MJ turns to face the boys. "Asked anyone yet?"

They both shake their head, although Ned glances at Peter with an indecipherable look. MJ nods, walking ahead towards gym class. "Good, we're going as a group."

Sakura scurries along, smiling at them both. "See you guys at the gym."

Ned shakes his head in amusement when Peter gazes after the girl, her bright red sweater making it easy to pick her out from the crowd. The shorter boy doesn't even notice when Liz, a senior he's had a crush on since last year, walks by.

"Liz just waved at you," Ned tells Peter.

Peter doesn't even blink until Sakura rounds the corner. "What?"

Ned raises his eyebrows at this, half-surprised and half-amused.

Ignoring him, Peter walks ahead to follow the girls into the gymnasium. From the distance, Peter can see Sakura tie her hair up into a tiny ponytail. Was she always that cute?

Sakura forces her upper body to raise while MJ holds onto her bent knees - although it looks more like the curly-haired girl is using those as a bookstand. Utterly frustrated with her body's lack of stamina, she presses her lips into a thin line and pushes herself to keep going. Diagonal to their mat is Peter and Ned, who have yet to cease their whispered conversation.

"I'm pretty sure you already passed the required number of situps," MJ drones from behind her book. "But by all means, continue."

"Exercise only makes a difference when it starts to hurt." Sakura pants after every word.

"Since when did you like exercising?"

Sakura lets her back hit the mat for a beat to reply, "Since I woke up."

"Today or last week?" MJ asks.

"Last week."

MJ shakes her head and makes a disgusted noise.

"So," Sakura says breathily. "Are we still on for that sleepover tonight?"

"Mm, can't. I'll be busy doing nothing." MJ looks at the sweaty girl with a playful smirk as she turns a page.

Sakura rolls her eyes. "If 'nothing' entails watching Buzzfeed Unsolved until 2AM, we can do nothing together."

MJ opens her mouth to reply, but a sudden voice interrupts her. She and Sakura turn to face Ned when he shouts, "Peter knows Spider-Man!"

Both girls glance at each other with a slight look of 'What the hell?'

Peter scrambles to his feet, mindful of the many pairs of eyes watching him. "No, I don't! I mean -"

Sakura lays her hands flat on the floor, sweat dripping on her slightly above average forehead as she curiously surveys the scene before her.

Flash, who Sakura had the pleasure of being reintroduced to earlier that week when he told her it was "fine if she dropped off the decathlon team since she would only be a liability," immediately perks at the opportunity to humiliate Peter. He slips down the rope and cockily approaches them while saying, "They're friends like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends."

"Captain America's the guy from that box with moving pictures, right?" Sakura asks MJ, who sighs at her friend's description of the TV monitor.

"I've - met him, yeah," Peter nervously says. "A couple times. It's - um - through the… Stark internship." His voice gradually lowers until the end.

Flash tilts his head. "Really?" The look on his face suggests that he doesn't find this believable.

"Yeah, well, I'm not supposed to talk about it ." Peter turns to glare at Ned, who only stares at him open-mouthed. Meanwhile, Sakura has long since returned to her sit-ups after she glanced at her watch and saw that class would end soon, although she does keep on listening as Flash taunts Peter.

MJ quirks an eyebrow when Peter seems to consider bringing his supposed friend Spider-Man to Liz's party. She glances at Sakura who looks like she sucked on a piece of lemon.

The bell rings and everyone stops their activities. Sakura groans and stands wobbily, leaning onto MJ as they walk to the girls' locker room.

Sakura rubs at the sweat on her skin with a small towel, with a hint of aggression that has MJ eyeing her with a knowing look. She chews on her lip then pouts before turning to the quieter of the two. "You know… I don't think I remember going to a party."

MJ rolls her eyes.