"Peter? Can you hear us?"

"Dev! Hey! Yeah, I can! Is Ned there with you?"

"Yep, I'm right over here!"

"Hey, guys!"

"Are you in Europe?! Oh my god! Is that your room?! Woah!"

"Damn, Stark is rich."

"It's not like he owns a multibillion dollar company, Dev."

"Whatever."

"Yeah! He paid for this all! Doesn't it look cool?!"

"Ok, Parker, you gotta stop waving the camera around so much. It's giving me bleeding headache."

"Sorry, sorry."

"So how's Europe? What part of you in right now? And what are you doing there? It looks so cool!"

"Europe is better than America."

"You're biased, Dev."

"So what?"

"And I was asking Peter, not you!"

"Europe is nice. Um Mr. Stark said I can't say where we are or what we're doing. Sorry."

"That's kinda weird..."

"Oh my god, are you doing like top secret technology stuff?! Woah!"

"No, no, but I just can't tell you guys."

"That's the definition of top secret!"

"I have to agree with Han here, but that is the definition of top secret, Chewie."

"Sorry..."

"Well, have fun over there. Stay safe, ok? I heard about Captain America going all crazy or something." 

"Wait...Peter you said you're with Tony Stark in Europe, right?" 

"Uh...sorta?"

"Sorta? What does that mean?" 

"I mean, he's like busy most of the time. And we went on different flights and stuff."

"So you don't know if he's like fighting Captain America right now?! Because he's Iron Man!"

"No Ned! Why would I um know?"

"Because you're in Europe? And they're both in Berlin, and you work for Tony Stark. Are you telling us you have no idea about them at all?"

"No, I swear! I don't see Mr. Stark that much!"

"Ok ok calm down, we believe you."

"Ok...well um I gotta go sorry. More internship work stuff. Tell May I said hi!"

"Bye! Have fun!"

"Bye!"

//

Dev was dreading school. Not the point of her not wanting to go, but to the point where all she wanted to do was stay in bed and sleep. Matt kept bugging her about back-to-school shopping and all that. He wanted to experience "the American mall." Brendan didn't have to go back to school until late September, so their da decided to go back-to-school shopping for Dev with all of them during August.

"Why did you have to all come..." she grumbled as they walked into the mall. She saw other students buying school supplies with their families also. They were mostly public school students though.

"Because, Dev, your brothers are leaving soon, so let's do as much as possible," her da said with an encouraging tone.

"Yeah! C'mon! We're your family, Marie!" Brendan put an arm around her shoulder teasingly. She shrugged it off.

"Ugh fine."

An hour later, Dev regretted saying 'fine.' Brendan and Matt (mostly the latter) kept pointing out "weird American, New York things" and wanting to buy random things from the dollar sections in stores. To make things worse, she saw multiple people from her school in the mall, which caused her to duck. Thankfully, her dad patiently let her pick out some new clothes to make up for Matt being loud (he was very loud, especially around Americans for some strange reason).

In one clothing store, while the rest of her family was looking for lunch in the food court, Dev found herself wandering around the sweatshirt section, specifically the dark hoodies even though she had three already.

"Looking for more hoodies, Dev?" she heard someone say. Dev turned around to see Liz Allan smiling kindly at her. The younger girl shrugged.

"I mean, you can never have too many," she said, making Liz laugh. Dev picked one out - it had some words written in white spread out cursive on the sleeves.

"That one is ok," Liz said, picking out another one. "Here." She traded with Dev, who looked down at the black sweatshirt with small sewn wings on the back. "This one is cute! Don't you think?" Dev raised an eyebrow but smile slightly.

"It's nice," she said. She put it back on the rack next to the other one. "What're you doing in the mall? Didn't you have prep for aca deca to do?" Liz nodded.

"Yeah," she said, "but I'd rather shop than do that. Aca deca is a lot of work sometimes." The girl smiled. "But it's ok! I'm almost done with prep, and plus we have a pretty good team this year I think. You're in right?" Dev nodded.

"My da thinks it'll be good for me and the boys are making me, so yep!" she flashed a thumbs up, making Liz laugh again.

"I'm glad! You're a great help to the team," she said with kindness. Dev smiled back.

"Thanks," she said. Before she could say anything else, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to see Peter's name. "Sorry I gotta get this. See you at school."

"You too!" Liz waved and walked down into another aisle full of summer dresses. Dev clicked the button and put the phone to her ear.

"What's up, Parker?"

"Dev! How's it going?" There were noises of a plane in the background.

"Are you on a freaking plane?!"

"Yeah! Private jet! Fancy, I know."

"Stark really is super rich," Dev scoffed. "Wifi on a plane, damn."

"Yeah, but he's pretty cool too," said Peter.

"Probably," she replied. "So is there a reason you wanted to talk?"

"I just miss New York," he shrugged. "It's so different in Europe." He gave a laugh. Dev smiled.

"Better than here," she replied. He laughed again. Dev never realised how much she had missed his laugh over the summer break.

"Can't get good New York churros in Europe though," Peter said.

"I'll admit you're right, but only this once," she cracked a grin. "Oh, by the way, I just saw Liz."

"Oh cool! Are you at the mall right now? Sounds like the mall," he said. "Did you like go to the mall with her or something?"

"Yep, I'm at the mall - wow your hearing is like so good, Pete. And nope, I just ran into her in a store."

"Oh ok." There was a pause. "You excited for September? When school starts again?"

"For sophomore year? Um definitely not," sighed Dev.

"Aw why not? It'll be fun! You know, more freedom and turning 16 and stuff!" he said. She rolled her eyes despite Peter being on the other side of the world. "You just rolled your eyes at me, didn't you?"

"Hey! I'm not THAT predictable," she laughed. "But yes, I did, because you didn't mention SAT prep or AP classes or-"

"We'll be fine, Dev, we're smart," Peter reassured her.

"Says you! You're like one of the smartest people I know!" said Dev.

"Thanks," he said. Dev could tell he was probably flustered at the compliment. "But same at you!"

"Lies," she said. His laugh was heard through the phone speaker.

"Who're you talking to, Marie?" Brendan called from down the aisle.

"Shh!" she shushed him.

"Is that one of your brothers?" Peter asked, curiously.

"Unfortunately," she said. "I'll have to call you back - I think they're doing something stupid again." Dev glanced at her two brothers who were trying on different hats with gusto.

"Ok," he laughed again. "See you!"

"Have fun in my homeland! See you!" Dev replied. A bit reluctantly, she clicked the little red button to hang up. "What are you two shites doing?"

"Language, Dev," Matt chided.

"Says you," she shot back.

"Who were you talkin' to?" Brendan cut in. Matt stuck out his tongue and went back to trying on some wide-rimmed hats.

"Just a friend," said Dev. "Remember Peter Parker?"

"Oh yeah, your Star Wars friends?" Matt said. She nodded.

"He's nice, yous be good together," Brendan approved. Dev rolled her eyes, and he broke into a grin. Suddenly, he hugged her and she yelped. "I miss teasing you."

"I want a hug!" Matt said loudly. He wrapped his arms around the two, leaving Dev squished in the middle. Her arms squeezed into her sides, and she could smell her brothers' scents being combined into one (she could not tell if it was a good or bad smell).

"I miss you guys," she whispered. Dev let herself be enveloped in the hug, and she smiled.

A/N

WOW THIS IS HECKING SHORT I AM SO SORRY

i really could not get through this chapter, which is why updating took so long ahhhhhH i apologize

hope you enjoyed!

the next chapter will bring us officially into spider-man: hoco YAYYYY