CHAPTER SIX.
A GALA AND A SECRET EXPOSED

AMELIA had left her apartment early today to study for Decathalon in the library before school started but as it turned out, all she could think about was last night. She kept replaying that explosion over and over in her head. In the morning, before coming to school today, she had stood in front of the ruins that was now Delmar's deli. It was all cordoned off and officials from Damage Control crowded the area. 

Amelia and her friends had frequented the place enough times for the owner to remember her name. As soon as she had reached home she had called her parents and told them what had happened, told them what she wanted to do. Of course, the Sóngs couldn't be prouder of their daughter. So an anonymous donation was made to Mr. Delmar to help rebuild the bodega whenever he was ready.

It was painful, losing an important part of your existence. A substantial piece that gave your life meaning. Amelia would know. Somedays she wondered if she even was her own person. She was half molding herself after her dead sister, half trying to become everything else everyone else expected her to be. Where was Amelia Sóng?

Where was Amelia Sóng? That thought kept repeating in Monika Godfrey's mind who had just now arrived at school and was scouring the hallways for her black-haired friend. When she didn't find her, she dug out a Post-It note from her backpack, scribbled a message, and stuck it on the locker numbered 1187 just as the bell rang.

She shouldered her bag and went to her first class of the day: Physics. She was late.

Amelia was late. When she reached her locker, the halls were almost deserted. There was a Post-It note stuck on the door of her locker. In Monika's unmistakable wiry writing, it said: FIND ME. IMPORTANT. ─ M.G. Amelia made a mental note to find Monika after her Government class. She rushed to make it in time and ducked inside, trying not to be noticed.

But she was Amelia Sóng. Of course, she was noticed.

"Miss Sóng, you're late."

She made an apologetic face and turned to face the teacher. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I was in the library and lost track of time."

Amelia Sóng had never been given detention. Amelia Sóng was never going to get detention. The teacher let her go to her seat beside Gemma after the apology. As she settled in, she asked Gemma what they were studying and Gemma replied, "The policies of the Sokovia Accords."

Amelia huffed. She put Monika's note on Gemma's notebook who stared at it with pointed eyebrows. "You know what that's about?"

"Does anyone even know what's important to Monika?"

"I mean, it's Monika," Amelia shrugged. "If she's saying it's important then it has gotta be huge, right? Like, monumental." And she gestured with her hands to show monumental. Their curiosity was surely peaked and the two of them were restless trying to think of the topics that would be important to Monika the whole day.

As it turned out, neither of them saw Monika for the whole day. Their only salvation was Gym class that was about to commence at any given moment. Amelia was about to combust if she didn't find out what Monika wanted to tell her. She glared at Coach Wilson while he played a Captain America gym PSA before sending them like wild geese to run around.

The three of them assembled to take laps around the room and both Gemma and Amelia ambushed Monika.

"What's important to you?" Amelia asked without preamble.

"What?" Monika barked, taken by surprise.

"What's the most important thing to you?" Gemma built the question up beautifully.

"What the fuck are you two talking about?" And Monika destroyed it like a falling Jenga tower.

Amelia sighed. "Nothing. What did you want to tell me?"

The three of them were still jogging. "There's something I wanted to tell you?" Monika asked.

"Yes," Amelia said, visibly hurt that only she and Gemma had been going razing mad about this topic while Monika had been living life like normal. "You put a note on my locker."

"Oh," Monika said, avoiding a falling student. "That."

"Yes, that," Amelia nodded impatiently.

"Zachary Hart called in the morning," Monika informed. "After you left."

Amelia's eyebrows drew together. "Congressman Hart's son?"

"Yeah, that one. He was inviting you to some charity gala or something tonight."

Gemma was more concerned about something else. "You answered the phone?" It was a known fact that Monika had all mobile devices so Amelia didn't blame the Burke girl for being shocked.

"No," Monika said, offended. "I let it go to voicemail. I just listened to what he was saying."

Amelia said, "Wow. Okay," in the most monotone way possible.

Monika slapped Amelia's arm with the back of her hand. "You're not gonna go, right?"

"He's Congressman Hart's son!"

"Yeah," Monika gave her a tolerant smile, "the same one who dunked you in his ice-cold pool back in D.C and everyone thought you were gonna die from hypothermia."

"But I didn't," Amelia pointed out.

Monika nodded sarcastically. "That is a very important distinction."

"Well," Gemma said, "that didn't seem to be about anything that interested me. I wasted my time thinking about the most important thing to you." She looked at Monika.

"It's you," Monika told Gemma, no preamble, no beating around the bush. Amelia noticed Monika's sincerity but didn't say anything, just hid her smile.

Gemma said, "Yeah, right."

Monika rolled her eyes, "You guys are idiots, you know that?"

Amelia raised her arms, "In our defense, we did know that." They stopped by the bleachers and Amelia propped her shoe up to re-tie her laces.

"You're not going to the gala!" Monika ordered.

"Yes, I am," Amelia scoffed. "It would be disrespecting if I didn't."

"But that guy's an idiot! And if you go, you by association will be an idiot!"

"I don't like your accusatory tone."

"Well, I'd use a different tone, but I'm trying to accuse you of something."

Whatever Amelia was about to say next was cut off by Ned's voice ringing loudly in the gym. "Peter knows Spider-Man!" he claimed. Amelia looked over her shoulder at them, then at her friends, then back at the two boys.

Peter was scrambling to stand up. "No, I don't," he denied. "No. I . . . I mean . . . " 

"They're friends," Ned added.

Amelia brought her feet down and turned to witness the disaster. 

Monika had her hands on her hips and was grinning. Most days school was incredibly boring and she hated it. But sometimes, on days like these, she was entertained beyond measure. Flash was quick to input his thoughts into the mix and all Monika wanted now was popcorn. "Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends."

"Cut it out, Flash," Amy grumbled, arms crossed against her chest.

Peter chuckled nervously and stole a glance at Amy before turning back to Liz and her group. "Heh. I've met him, yeah. A couple times. But it's, um . . . through the Stark internship. Mm-hm. Yeah, well," he turned to Ned and said through gritted teeth, "I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"Well, that's awesome," Flash said sarcastically. "Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party. Right?"

Liz nodded. "Yeah, I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come."

"Having a party?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dope," Flash said. "You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man."

"Um . . ."

"It's okay," Liz said. "I know Peter's way too busy for parties anyway, so . . . "

"Come on," Flash said. "He'll be there. Right, Parker?"

Peter was saved from answering by the bell. School was over and there were conversations to be had and felonies to be committed. Peter looked angrily at Ned, questioning why he had told everyone that. Ned tried to convince him that Liz definitely had a crush on him. He was an Avenger, after all, and if anyone had a chance with a senior girl it was him. Peter didn't answer. He couldn't.

As he turned to go, his eyes caught Amelia exiting the gym too. She was arguing with Monika about going to the gala. These things were important to her and her family. Peter was still looking at her. As ugly as their gym uniforms were, they still managed to look indefinitely flattering on her.

"Amy!" he called out instinctively. He hadn't thought about what he was going to say. He didn't know what he was going to say. He had just wanted to say her name.

Amelia turned, mid-conversation, saved from Monika about her rip her hair off by Peter's voice. He was jogging towards her. She gave him a warm smile as he came to a stop. "Hey," he said. It was whispered. A few feet behind Amelia, Monika and Gemma were snickering.

"Hi," she returned the greeting.

"Uh . . ." he tried to come up with something to say. He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder and asked, "You going to Liz's party?"

Amelia shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."

Behind her, Monika shouted, loud enough for Peter to hear, "Yeah, she is!" Amelia rolled her eyes.

Peter said, "Okay." He turned to go but this time, she stopped him.

"Hey, do you really know Spider-Man?" He turned to look at her. There was genuine curiosity in her voice, not dismissive sympathy for his embarrassment. 

A crooked smile curled his lips. A sheepish chuckle, he ran his hands through his hair. "You heard that, huh?"

Amy chuckled, "Peter, I'm pretty sure the whole school heard."

Peter sighed, his shoulder moving with the gesture. "Yeah," he said, "I guess I do know him."

"Well," she said, cradling the water bottle in her hand to her chest like it was the most precious thing, "if you do see him again, tell him thanks from me." At his confused face, she explained further, gesturing with a nod of her head towards her two girlfriends. "He saved the three of us last night."

Peter looked genuinely surprised. "Really? He-he did?" He was genuinely surprised. He tried to think back to last night and all that had happened. When? He didn't remember.

"Yeah," Gemma chimed in, "we were near the deli in Queens when it exploded."

Peter nodded absently, still processing this information. "Oh. Cool. That he saved you. Not that the deli exploded near you. That's ─ that's not cool. I mean, the explosion would be kinda cool. Not people getting hurt in the explosion, no ─ "

"Peter," Amy interrupted his rambling.

His mind quietened. "Yeah?" he whispered, the tops of his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Bye."

"Bye," he repeated and watched her go with her friends. Ned's hand clapped his shoulder.

Ned said, "Dude, you're so in love with her."

Peter was still looking after Amelia. "Shut up, Ned."

DESPITE her hundreds of claims to Monika that she would not be going to the gala, Amelia had gone the gala. Her silk dress did little to save her from the occasional cold breeze but for a change, she was happy for the coldness. She had forgotten how stuffy these galas tended to be. Cradling the champagne glass in her hand to her chest she wandered around the length of the grassy outdoor venue. Those who recognized her, the Sóng girl, started conversations with her and she did her best to keep up with them.

Though nobody had missed her as much as Zachary Hart. "Mia!" he greeted her. "It's been so long!" What Monika didn't know was that once upon a time Amelia used to have a little crush on Zach. Which was the reason why she had jumped into the icy pool. He hadn't pushed her, she had just wanted to show everyone she was not a stuck-up girl and actually really fun. It had all gone horribly sideways. The cold water had washed away her crush on Zach like cheap paint.

She smiled at him politely as he pulled her close and clicked a picture of them together, his bronze skin contrasting against hers. She asked him how D.C was and how his schooling was going and he had laughed an incredible laugh that did not answer either of her questions. She laughed too, in an ingenuine nervous sort of way, making it seem like it was happening at gunpoint. She wondered then what had prompted her crush on him all those years ago and failed to find the answer. Monika was right. She was an idiot.

As if on cue, her phone rang. For one, it saved her from furthering a devastating conversation with Zach but for the other, it was Monika. She gritted her teeth. There was luck, there was bad luck and then there was Amelia's luck.

She answered the call.

There were knives behind Monika's tone. "You went to the gala," she stated.

"Yes, I went to the gala," Amy said, stretching a wide fake smile on her face for the passerbys as she continued to have the most unpleasant conversation.

"You went to the gala?!"

"Come on, Mon," Amelia said, "it's not like it's the end of the world."

"It is the end of the fucking world."

"Now you're just exaggerating. Listen ─ Woah!" And she was interrupted by the sound of mechanized wings soaring above the party venue. The guests all gasped and shouted and scrambled for shelter. Most of them were not New Yorkers, hence didn't know this was kind of an everyday thing here. Super-villains and what not. Gliding across the starry night was a man in a mechanized bird suit and clutched in its talons hanging on for his dear life was Spider-Man. "Sorry!" he shouted down at the guests as he hit the buffet table. "This all looks delicious, I'm very sorryyyyyy!" And he was whisked away by Bird Man, up, up, up.

Amelia had her hand over her mouth. On the other end of her still ongoing call, Monika was asking if everything was alright. Amelia didn't know how to answer that. The guests were talking again, trying to calm down and catch their breath. Amelia, though, was wondering about Spider-Man. She had to know how this turned out. She just had to. She told Monika she would talk to her later and hung up. Her champagne glass had fallen somewhere in the rush. Without a goodbye to Zachary who kept calling after her, Amelia bunched her dress in fists and made her way to the driveway.

Parked between an Audi and a Lexus, her trusted crappy orange car stood out. She quickly sat behind the steering wheel and found herself revving the engine. That's exactly how she felt. Her heart was revving in her chest. Her feet to the accelerator, she wound her way through the suburbs, trying to follow them but to no avail. Eventually, she slowed down as she came across someone's destroyed yard. House number 3300. Poor people. Her phone rang again, vibrating on the passenger seat, a picture of Monika with her tongue out covering the screen. Amelia shook her head and silenced it.

She turned to look back at the yard and stopped short. There he was, Spider-Man. She slid down in her seat and ducked, watching him from afar as he crouched to examine something that lay in the rubbles. She slowly opened her car door and stepped out. Took one step and winced at the sound her heels made. Leaning against her car, she slipped them off, then padded across the driveway.

The grass in the yard was soft under her feet. Her gaze was stuck on the spandex-clad hero examining something as he talked on his phone. She was close now, too close. As if sensing her, he turned around, instantly melting into a fighting stance. But maybe he saw her face. Lips parted in shock or to say something, even Amelia didn't know.

He moved out of his fighting stance. Amelia clutched the heels in her hands tighter. 

They both kept staring at each other. 

Amelia had so many things to say but she couldn't bring herself to. She had never been tongue-tied before. It was an odd feeling.

Spider-Man knew he should get out of here as soon as possible, get whatever this glowing purple thing was away from here. But he couldn't move. The girl's eyes were honeytraps.

The cold breeze seemed to wake Amelia up from her trance. "Thank you," she blurted out.

In his daze, Spider-Man forgot to disguise his voice. "For what?"

"For doing what you do." The sea of stars reflected in Amelia's eyes. "Thank you."

Spider-Man didn't know what to say. So he shrugged. Then he winced. He must have pulled a muscle during the whole fighting the vulture thing. Though it hadn't been much of a fight.

Amelia's eyebrows knitted together. "Are you hurt? That Bird Man was really something."

A sheepish chuckle, he ran his hand over his head that would have been his hair if not for the mask. "You saw that, huh?"

Something inside Amelia went very still and quiet.

She said, "What did you say?"

"It wasn't as bad as it probably looked but —"

"No," she said, taking a step closer. "Say precisely what you said before. Please."

Spider-Man hesitated. "I don't remember what I said. Was it ... You saw that?"

You saw that?

You heard that, huh?

That was what had been nagging her all this time. She knew she recognized his voice. She knew that Queens accent, she knew that cadence.

It was Peter's voice back in the gym.

Hey, do you really know Spider-Man?

You heard that, huh?

Peter, I'm pretty sure the whole school heard.

Spider-Man was looking at her in anticipation and confusion. He just wanted to get out of here now. The longer he stayed, the more vulnerable he became. No one seemed to grasp the concept of the mask and he had an inkling what the girl's next question was going to be. Who are you? He wasn't sure he would be able to lie to her. Not with her big inquisitive eyes and her soft smile.

If that was Peter's voice, that meant ─ Peter was Spider-Man. Which was so mind-bogglingly absurd that Amelia had to take a long deep breath to stop herself from hyperventilating. She steadied herself and looked at Spider-Man intently, "Peter?"

Everything stilled.

Amelia stopped blinking. Spider-Man stopped breathing. He, for one, couldn't believe this was happening.

"No," he said, but his voice was cursory. Amelia hadn't realized how still he'd been until he'd begun to move again, and now it was like tension had been bled out of the air. "No. No." He took a few slow steps back, then increased his pace.

"No, wait," Amelia said. "It's okay." And she was following him now, but just her luck that her foot would get stuck in twisted grass. She let out a surprised oh! and then she was falling. She never hit the dirty yard. Something stuck to her dress, her waist ─ quick as the wind, and now she was being pulled with all might. She felt the jerk go through her body as it moved forward. Moved made it sound slow, it hurtled forward. 

A look of terror crossed her face for a brief moment. She didn't know where she was going, if she was going to stop. She was just falling and falling. And then Peter was catching her. She gasped. Blinking, she stared straight at him, trying to catch her breath. He was looking at her too, though it was difficult to tell how he felt with his mask. Cautiously, she raised her hand. She brought it near his mask. He flinched minutely. She stopped, then reached again and pulled off the mask from his face.

She had expected to find brown doe eyes staring at her in anger or fear or in accusation or reproachfulness, but his eyes were closed tightly. Too tightly. "You're Spider-Man," she whispered. Peter's arms around her tightened in anticipation of her next words. But Amelia said nothing. She just kept staring. He opened his eyes and ─ and he didn't know what he had expected to find. He didn't know, but it wasn't this.

She was looking at him in a way no one had ever looked at him. In a way only Uncle Ben had looked at him. When he used to say Peter was meant for great things and when Peter would show him his little science experiments. That expression when he was proud of Peter, laced so intricately with sadness. He knew why Uncle Ben got sad. Peter's father never got to see him do something great, he never got to be proud of him. Peter didn't know why Amelia was sad. Had she expected someone else? Someone better? Someone more worthy? Popular? Not in high school? These thoughts plagued his mind and terrified him.

Amelia's grip on his shoulder tightened as she took in his dejected expression. Peter winced. She let go. And as if clockwork, they both realized how close they had been standing. Peter's breath fanning Amelia's face, Amelia's hair brushing against his cheek. They let go of each other, taking a few steps back.

"Does it hurt?" Amelia asked timidly, seeing him hold his shoulder in pain. When he didn't answer, lost in thought, she frowned. "Peter?"

"Don't tell anyone," his voice was rough as if he was barely keeping it together. "Please."

"Gemma already knows," Amelia blurted out without thinking then facepalmed mentally.

He looked at her in a way she never wanted to be looked at. As if she was a threat. "How does Gemma know?" he asked cautiously, scared of the answer.

Amelia hesitated. "She has ─ a thing. She just knows things." That was not a very good explanation.

Peter's eyebrows shot up. "She can read minds?"

"No," Amelia scoffed. "No. She can't read minds ─ it's more like a touch and ─ " she failed to find words to explain and cringed, "no, she can't read minds." She ran her hand through her hair, trying to calm herself. "She told me you were different like her but not that you were Spider-Man."

Something in Peter's face changed. Amelia didn't like it. An icy hurt tucked itself under Peter's warm heart. "Is that why you were hanging out with me?" His voice was wounded. "Because you thought I had powers?"

Amelia blanched. "No!" she said quickly but Peter wasn't having any of it. He had had enough embarrassment for one day. "No, Peter, listen," Amelia called after him but he was pulling his mask back on. He picked up whatever he had been examining before and took a running start before swinging away. "PETER!" she shouted after him, then slapped her hand over her mouth. As he disappeared from sight, she ran her hand over her face. "Shit."