Although Thea had many classes together with Peter, there was one in particular that Thea couldn't do. Instead of the workshop with tools and metal, Thea opted for journalism with papers and pens. Thea had never thought about journalism as a choice for her, mainly because of her knowledge of paparazzi. She always viewed paparazzi and the media as leeches who sucked celebrities dry, including her own dad. Swapping out the workshop for journalism was something Thea would be grateful for, for years to come. The downside to journalism was that she didn't know anyone in it, until the party that is.

Thea quietly walked to journalism class with her arms full of books. Her sweater covered arms were now feeling the effect of the heavy books in them. The hallway was bustling with students hurrying to their next class. Teens of all shapes and sizes filtered through the doorway into the classroom. But one student caught her eye. It was the same boy that tripped over her at Liz's party, Miles Morales.

Thea quickly speed-walked toward the tall teen, in order to stop him before he entered the class. Her feet carried her to the lockers beside the entrance where he stood, scrolling through his phone with earbuds stuck in his ear. Too immersed with his screen, Miles failed to notice the girl standing next to him. Lightly, Thea tapped on his shoulder. Miles jumped at the sudden contact and pulled both of his earbuds out. His eyes gazed down at Thea who was smiling sheepishly.

"Thea?" Miles sputtered.

"Hey... Miles, right?" Thea questioned, her head tilting slightly.

"I-um-yeah, wh-what are you doing here?" Miles asked while stuffing his phone and earbuds into his pocket.

"I have journalism right now... I assume you do too?"

"Yeah," Miles trailed off, "Wait, do we have the same class together and we didn't even notice each other?!" His eyes grew wide.

Thea giggled and placed her hand on his broad shoulder. The bell rang once more, signaling the class was starting soon. She patted his shoulder gently before she said, "Well... we better get in there. We don't want to be late, now do we?" Thea silently turned from Miles and walked into class.

"I-pft-um," Miles sputtered while watching her figure walk into class.

~~~~

In class, when Thea was silently writing a prompt for a new article for the Midtown newspaper, she received a text. Furrowing her eyebrows, Thea pulled out her phone silently when she felt the vibration against her thigh. Carefully, Thea secretly clicked the text icon, pulling up a shortlist of messages. The newest one was from Peter. She looked around the room discreetly, making sure no prying eyes were watching, when her eyes landed on Miles sitting across the room. He was writing on his paper, his head looking down at the pencil he held. Carefully, Thea looked down at her phone and silently read the text sent from Peter.

'We figured out what the glowy thing is!!!!'

Thea creased her eyebrows together, racking her mind to figure out what he meant. Suddenly, she realized.

'Well???? What is it?' Thea quickly typed back.

'Meet me after school and I'll explain'

Thea's eyes widened as she read that sentence over again. She sighed out and rested her head on the desk, her arms becoming a pillow for her forehead. Her phone now tucked away underneath her.

"Ms. Quinton!"

Thea immediately shot up, her hair ruffling with the sudden movement. Her eyes looked up to see her journalism teacher, Mrs. Torres, staring down at her with narrowed eyes.

"For the millionth time, no sleeping in class. Just work on your prompt," Mrs. Torres spoke with a strict voice.

Although Mrs. Torres was strict with her students on their work, it was only for the good of them. Prior to working as a teacher, Mrs. Torres had explained that she worked with a famous online news site. Although, she never explained which site.

"I-um-yeah, sure," Thea stammered out. She felt the eyes of the entire class on her, but one, in particular, she felt more than others. The rest of the class quickly went back to their assignment, but Thea could still feel a pair of eyes on her. She pivoted her head slightly and saw Miles Morales quickly turn his head back to his paper.

~~~~

After school, Thea immediately sought after Peter. When she texted where he was at, he immediately answered back that he was by the chess room. Taking long strides, Thea made her way down the empty hall. Almost at the end of the hall, she could spot the familiar outline of her two closest friends.

"Hey, Peter! Ned!" Thea shouted down the hall.

The figures turned around to see Thea running down the hall after them. When she did reach them, she was slightly out of breath as she asked, "So, what's going on with that glowy thing?" She kept her voice down, to keep others from listening in on their conversation.

Peter raised his arm and reached around his backpack to pick out the glowing object, but now it wasn't covered by metal, instead, it was a single glowing item.

In a hushed voice, Peter replied, "It looks like those bad guys are combining alien tech with our own to create weapons. And then selling them to buyers." He quickly put the said object away in his backpack.

Thea's eyes widened at his sentence, her eyes trailed to see the object glowing slightly in the dark hallway, even through his backpack.

"First, I say we put the glowy thing in the mass spectrometer," Ned said while walking forward.

Peter looked over at Ned and smiled, "First, we gotta come up with a better name than 'glowy thingy.'"

"You're right," Ned affirmed.

Thea's eyes turned from the pair toward the end of the hall. Her eyes squinted when she spotted two figures appear down the hall. On her side, she heard the gasp of Peter. His eyes were wide with shock as he saw the figures.

"Crap!" Peter half-shouted as he ducked behind the closest wall.

Thea quickly joined him, but she rolled her eyes as she saw Ned standing in the hall by himself.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!" Peter whispered to Ned.

Ned did a double-take to the wall and then the figures down the hall before he joined Thea and Peter behind the wall. Peter peered behind the wall at the figures down the hall before he covered himself by the wall.

"Hey," Peter whispered out to Ned and Thea, "that's one of the guys that tried to kill me."

"What?" Ned whispered out in disbelief.

Thea narrowed her eyes at this statement and peered over the wall.

"Yeah," Peter affirmed.

"We gotta get out of here," Ned leaned over to Peter, who was peering out again.

"No, no, no, no, no. I gotta follow them. Maybe they can lead me to the guy that dropped us in the lake."

Thea scoffed and hit Peter's chest lightly with the back of her hand. Peter looked down at Thea and as she widened her eyes in order to deter him. Peter just looked down at Thea with a longing look.

"Someone dropped you guys in a lake?" Ned asked Thea and Peter.

"Y-yeah," Peter stuttered, his gaze now set on Ned instead of Thea, "it was not good."

"Peter," Ned whispered.

"No. Stay there, Ned," Peter whispered back, his hand keeping Ned away.

But right before Peter was about to follow the figures that went into a classroom down the hall, Thea grabbed his arm that kept Ned away.

"Peter!" Thea half-shouted at Peter. Her grip on him was like a vice, her nails digging into his skin. Peter frowned at Thea before he pulled free from her.

Thea rolled her eyes at Peter's back as he sneakily made his way to the classroom the two figures entered. Her eyes stayed on the open classroom door even as a voice asked Ned.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Ned spoke worriedly.

Thea sighed out as she heard this, but her gaze never left the classroom.

In the background, Thea overheard the same voice speak out in a disappointed voice.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Ned paused, "You good."

"Chess," the voice spoke out.

Thea cleared her throat and turned over her shoulder to look at Ned. She widened her eyes and slightly shook her head in the direction of the classroom. Ned had a look of realization on his face as he took a peek over Thea's shoulder to see the two figures walking out of the classroom and down the hallway, away from them.

Once they were out of view, Thea sprinted quietly to the classroom where Peter was. Her feet almost tripped over the staircase down to the workshop.

"Peter!" Thea half-whispered into the seemingly empty classroom.

A loud thud sounded along with a groan of pain. Thea's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she peered underneath the nearby table, only to see Peter's body lying on the floor. His eyes were closed in pain as he groaned out.

"I'm right here," Peter coughed out as he crawled out from under the table.

Thea rolled her eyes as she stuck out a hand for Peter to take. Warm met cold as Peter grabbed Thea's hand in order to pull himself up. He stood up with a slight bounce, his hair flopping on his forehead.

"Thanks," Peter said, out of breath.

"So..." Thea paused while looking at Peter's deep eyes, "What did you find out?" She leaned against the same table that Peter was lying under.

"It looks like they are trying to find the glowy thing. But I managed to place a tracker on the leg of one of them," Peter said while pulling out his web shooter.

"Great, well let's get going," Thea said with a smile.

Peter and Thea then proceeded to walk up the stairs and out into the hallway, where Ned was waiting for them.

~~~~

Ned, Thea, and Peter all crammed inside Peter's tight room as they kept an eye out for the tracker. Ned was laying on his back on the bottom part of the bunk bed while Thea sat in a chair next to him. Peter was pulling out his web shooter and clicked it once, causing it to project a hologram of a map. He then tossed the web shooter to Ned, who caught it with both hands. Ned then flipped over to lie on his stomach as Peter sat down next to him.

"This is so awesome," Ned spoke breathlessly. His eyes were entranced by the hologram.

"I know, right?" Peter spoke as he leaned in closer to the hologram.

Thea watched as Ned poked the hologram with a single finger, causing the hologram to expand and become more defined.

"They're in Brooklyn," Peter said.

~~~~

Time passed as they waited for a change in the hologram. Thea took the time to finish her homework with the help of Peter. But she still struggled to figure out what to write her article about in journalism. Thea eventually gave up her search for a topic.

Peter was now hanging upside down off of the top bunk of his bed. His hand reached down into an open chip bag, snacking on chips as Ned watched the hologram intently.

"Staten Island," Ned spoke.

Thea looked up at Peter with a confused look on her face and stood up. She walked over to the bunk bed. She stopped right in front of Peter's face, her breath fanning over him.

"How do you do that?" Thea said with a chuckle. She pointed to his hanging body.

"Get up here and I'll show you," Peter said with a grin. His hair was sticking straight downward, causing his entire face to be in view.

Thea grinned softly before she climbed the ladder on the side of the bed. Once up, she sat with her legs crossed as she waited for Peter. Peter sat up on the bed, his upper body forcing itself up against gravity.

"Just... face the window, and make sure your legs are hooked onto the bars. Otherwise, you'll fall," Peter said. His hair was now flat against his face as gravity took back control of it.

"Like this?" Thea asked as she faced the window with her legs straightened out.

"I-um, not quite," Peter said with a smile. "M-may I?" Pink dusted over his cheeked as he gestured to her legs.

Thea nodded hesitantly.

Peter's warm hands landed on Thea's legs as he repositioned them to be able to hold herself. Her eyes followed his hands as they gripped her knees. A light pink dusted over her cheeks as the hands left her legs.

"Now... just fall back," Peter said. His eyes never looked up to see her face, instead, he just leans over himself and hung from the bed.

Carefully, Thea leaned back on the bed and hung there, next to Peter. She grinned as she saw Peter's hair hanging, but quickly stopped when her own hair fell in front of her own face.

Groaning out, Thea struggled to move the hair out of her face. Her hands moved in front of her face, trying to force the hair from invading her mouth. Too preoccupied with her hair, Thea failed to keep her grip on the bars with her legs. With a scream, Thea began to fall to the ground. Her hair that was stuck to her face was now falling. She stuck her hands out, in order to break her fall. Her eyes were closed tight as she waited for the impact, but was surprised to find a tight grip on her leg.

She opened her eyes to see Peter, with his hands on both of her legs, holding her up. Thea's breath was caught in her throat as she processed what was happening. Her eyes were wide and her skin was beginning to turn pink, from both being upside down and the embarrassment.

Peter's eyes were wide in worry, his dark eyes gliding over her dangling body. His grip tightened over her leg as he slowly began to lift her back onto the top of the bed.

As soon as she was pulled upright on the bed, Peter readjusted his grip from her leg to her shoulders. Both of his strong hands came to grasp her shoulders in order to reclamate her position on the bed.

Thea's hair fell back down and landed gently on her shoulders. Her eyes glanced at Peter's hands that were still gripping her shoulders. Taking the queue, Peter dropped his hands to his lap and smiled sheepishly.

"Leaving Jersey," Ned spoke out loud, waking the pair on the top of the bed to his presence below.

Night had fallen quickly. Peter worked on his web-shooters at his cluttered desk while Ned laid on the floor, staring at the tracker. Thea was sitting at the top bunk, playing with a ball of mist in her hands.

She glanced up from her game when a light shone on the wall. A red, characterized image of Peter's spider mask appeared on his wall, directly coming from his web shooter. Thea's eyes quickly moved from the wall, back to her own hands as she continued playing with her powers.

Without even realizing, Thea had fallen asleep on the top bunk. She had fallen asleep before Ned and Peter but was awoken suddenly to the sound of beeping.

"They stopped," Ned spoke suddenly.

Thea's eyes groggily followed Ned's movement in the dark, but they looked up to see Peter, hanging from the ceiling, just now waking up.

"Maryland?" Peter questioned. His body was now turned to face Ned, who was sitting upright on the bed.

Thea's eyes, which were now acclimated to the low light of the room, widened slightly at the sight of Ned wearing Peter's mask.

"What's there?" Ned asked, his voice slightly muffled by the mask.

"I don't know. Evil lair?" Peter breathed out a chuckle.

"They have a lair?" Ned asked.

"Dude. A gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair."

"Badass," Ned nodded. "But how are you going to get there if it's, like, 300 miles away?"

Thea watched quietly as Peter and Ned simultaneously turned to face the Academic Decathlon poster on the wall.

Thea scoffed, bringing their attention to her. She rolled her eyes as she questioned the pair with her arms crossed.

"How will I get there?"

She waited for a response. Watching as Peter came down from the ceiling and spoke quietly.

"I might have an idea."

~A/N~

I'm so sorry for the terrible wait!!!! Its been around 3 months since I last updated. My life has been super hectic and low and I've had no time or motivation to do anything. But I hope it was worth it all.