I let out a sigh as I finally leave school after an excruciatingly long day of classes and the added time in detention thanks to a certain 'new friend' calling me and getting me caught by a cranky teacher. "Finally free! Heading over now for our study session." My phone clicks as I type out and send the text to the group chat.

There's a smile that tugs at my lips as I get on the subway and head to Peter's. It wasn't until today when I officially rejoined my two favorite nerds that I realized just how much I missed them.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out to see an incoming call from Harley, "What is it with you and calling?" I quip as I answer the phone and climb onto the subway. "It's like your some old man who thinks texting isn't proper communication."

Harley laughs, and I can hear him tinkering with stuff in the background. "It's a personal preference, I guess. Texts leave too much to be interpreted and mistaken." He pauses for a moment, "Sorry for getting you detention by the way, but in my defense, how was I supposed to know you were in class?"

"Because it's a Monday?" I tease and shake my head at his logic sometimes. "It's fine though. It gave me some time to convince myself to stop stressing about studying with Peter."

He replies immediately, not missing a beat as he asks, "Wait, do you like Peter?"

"What?" I sputter and try to form a string of coherent words to counter the comment, "No, we—we're just friends. I'm not exactly in the kind of place to date someone anyway."

"So that's a yes then. Otherwise you wouldn't have made an excuse about not dating." Harley laughs, and I swear, I could strangle him for being too inquisitive and perceptive. "What's the trouble?"

"You mean—besides the obvious?"

"It's not like you can't tell him."

"No, Harley, I can't." I snap, and immediately feel bad for it when I hear the tinkering go quiet on the other side. "I'm sorry, it's just—it's more complicated than just that. He likes someone else, and I can't ruin our friendship like that."

"If he's even worth your time, it wouldn't ruin anything." He tells me, and I nod my head even though he can't see. "Plus, for all you know, he could like you more but think he doesn't have a chance."

"Very funny, Harley." The subway pulls to a stop as the screen's flash the information for the stop, and I do my best to navigate through the hoard of people to get off. "Trust me though, you haven't seen that lovesick puppy look he gets when she's around. So, yeah, I highly doubt he likes me."

"You never know." He tells me as he resumes his tinkering. "So, what exactly are you guys studying? I thought being a Stark meant automatic genius status."

"For most things, yes. Unfortunately, the genius chemist gene seems to have bypassed me."

"Does anyone know you're dyslexic?" He questions, which makes me let out a sigh. "That's a no."

"I don't exactly just go around telling people that, and I don't technically have dyslexia. Trust me, my mum got me tested with everything they have. So it's hard to explain that I mix up numbers in certain settings."

"You really think they wouldn't get it?"

"They probably would, but it's not something I really like to talk about. Which makes the fact that you managed to get it out of me really weird." I joke hoping to change the topic. "I swear, you probably know almost as much about me as my best mates who have known me since we were toddlers."

"What can I say? I've got that kind of face."

I abruptly stop in the middle of the sidewalk at the comment, which earns me a few nasty glares from people. "Harley, I haven't seen your face."

He lets out a joking sigh that makes me laugh softly, "I guess I've got that kind of personality then. There, better?"

"Moderately." I chuckle as I approach Peter's building, "I was thinking it's more the constant questions and curiosity, but personality works too."

"I see that the Stark sass gene didn't skip you." Harley teases.

"It would have been a travesty if it had." I reply with a smile. "Well, I'm heading up to Peter's so I've got to go. Talk later?"

"Yeah. Have fun!" Harley teases with one last laugh before hanging up.

I try not to think too much about what he said about Peter as I head up to the latter's apartment, but it keeps nagging me. My head knows that he doesn't see me like that, but my heart wants to believe otherwise. All it takes is remembering how he looks at Liz to remind myself, but it's not enough to stop that surge of hope in my chest.

No. I can't let myself go through all this again. As much as I care about him, there's no way I can let anything happen. He doesn't even know I've been lying to him about who I am since we met. If he did know, I doubt he'd look at me the same, and even if he happened to not think differently of me, I don't want him ending up like Henry.

It's decided then. Peter Parker and I can only ever be friends. I tell myself it over and over as I knock on the door to the Parker's apartment.

The door swings open to reveal May, who smiles widely when she sees me and tugs me into a hug. "Lia! It's nice to see you again." She cheers and ushers me inside as she continues, "Don't tell him I told you this, but Peter has been looking forward to this study session all weekend. I swore I even saw him cleaning his room."

As much as I try to stop it, my cheeks burn in embarrassment. "I've been looking forward to it too. It's nice to get back to normal stuff and hang out with them again." May gives me a confused look, and I take it as a silent question. My brain quickly scrambles for an excuse to cover the almost slip. "I was grounded for a bit. It's part of why I haven't been around for a while."

"Well, I'm glad you're here now. I was just about to run a few errands, but Ned and Peter are in his room."

"Thanks, May." I thank her as I shift the straps of my bags and head to Peter's room. May waves goodbye as she leaves, and I smile as I nudge the cracked door open with a soft knock. "Hey, guys. What's—up?" My voice drifts off as I take in the sight in front of me.

Peter hangs from the ceiling, and it takes me a second to process the information. Then, I see Ned—wearing the Spiderman mask as a projection of the trackers that I programmed hovers in the air.

'I swear, I am trying so hard to be normal. It's not my fault that the universe hates me,' I think to myself as we all watch each other in silence for a moment. My brain is spinning wildly like a fan in an old computer to understand that this is really happening.

"That makes sense, I guess." I mutter as I turn around and start walking out in a daze. Of course, when I take a shot at being normal is exactly when I 'find out' Peter's big secret. How he could be careless enough to be hanging from the ceiling or letting Ned sit around in the Spiderman mask is beyond me.

"Lia! Lia, wait!" Peter calls from behind me, but my head is too clouded to stop. He gently grabs my elbow to stop me. "I—I—this isn't what you think."

"So you mean you weren't hangin from the ceiling, and you aren't Spiderman?" I question. He lets out a heavy sigh, and I don't really think about what I'm doing as I pull him into a hug. "It's okay, Pete. I won't tell anyone."

"I know, but I didn't want you to find out about it—not like this." He whispers, and I just rest my head on his shoulder as I finally come to my senses. Peter seems to notice the change, but he doesn't pull away as he asks, "Are you okay? You're not mad or anything?"

"How can I be mad? My best friend is going out and helping people everyday." I whisper and take a step back. "Am I now freaked out that you're doing it and terrified of what can happen? Yeah, but I'll be fine—especially if you let me help."

"I can't do that." He tells me, and I give him a pointed look as I sidestep him. Peter launches himself into my path and uses his arms to block the doorway. "I'm serious, Lia. This is dangerous stuff, and I don't want you to get hurt."

My heart pounds at the comment, but I brush it aside knowing he means it only as a friend. If only he knew half the stuff I get up to on the daily basis, he would be about a thousand times more concerned. "Peter Parker, I am perfectly capable of handling myself. Plus, you're letting Ned help!"

"She's got a point, dude." Ned interjects and I give him a thankful smile.

"I'm not asking to go fight criminals with you." Mostly cause I already do it without your knowledge, and your permission wouldn't change much. "Just let me help. You know I'm twice as clever as both of you in almost everything but Chemistry."

Both boys just nod before realizing what I had said and pouting. "Technically, you're not wrong though." Ned mumbles as I take a seat next to him and pretend to analyze the Spiderman gear. "It's cool isn't it? Mr. Stark made all this stuff for him."

I bite my tongue to keep from making a snarky comment that 'Mr. Stark' didn't make all of this stuff. A chunk of it I spent spent sleepless nights creating and fine tuning. "Yeah, it's really awesome." I manage to stutter out as I search for a change of topic to avoid having to outright lie to them. "So, who are we tracking and why?"

"Well, Peter got into this fight with a bunch of guys that had these like crazy alien weapons." Ned interjects and excitedly tells the whole story, which fills in a few details I missed. "Then, they showed up at school, and—"

"Wait, they were at the school?!" I screech and turn to Peter, who scratches the back of his neck as he fiddle with his web shooters to keep from looking at me. "Why would they go there?"

"Probably because of this." Ned squeaks as he holds out a glowing purple ellipsoid. Immediately, ARTI provides a flurry of information about it as he runs a full analysis. "We don't know what it is."

"Chitari energy core, first discovered in the rubble from the Battle of New York." ARTI flashes across my lenses, and I swear my heart lodges itself into my throat. "Energy signatures are similar with those of the previous anomalies but not entirely consistent with those of the Battle of New York. Core seems to be inactive with the lack of radiation exposure that would be required to fully activate the destructive and energy capabilities."

"I think I've seen something like that before." I whisper, which is only half a lie. The truth is, I don't think–I know, and I've seen it both in person the night Peter got it and in some of Dad's encrypted files that he thinks I don't read. "But whatever that thing is—we need to be extremely careful with it. Especially if those guys were desperate enough to come after it at the school."

"Well, I was able to put a tracker on one of them." Peter pipes up and sits across from me on the floor as he 'shows' me where the tracker's current location is. ARTI pulls up a cross reference of my own as he speaks, "They're still on the move, but once they stop, we should have an idea of where to look next."

"Actually, they just stopped." I tell him as the Spiderman icon remains stable, and so do two of my own Phantom one in my lenses, which is odd.

There were three trackers last time I checked, but I can't bring myself to start considering the options of what could have happened to the third since it was a bio-powered tracker and only goes offline when disabled—or if there's nothing there to power it anymore.

"They're not far from D.C. I could go during the decathlon trip?" Peter suggests, clearly having said something to Ned that I've missed.

"No!" I shout and quickly take a breath to compose myself. "I mean, yeah, it'd be great to have you at the decathlon competition, but these guys are dangerous, Peter. You've said it yourself, and if these weapons are half as powerful as you say—"

Peter seems to notice the anxiety building up in my muscles as I can't even form the words and instinctively curl in on myself at the idea of him running into this alone and unprepared. "Hey," he whispers and rests his hand over mine, "I promise, I'll be careful, but I can't just do nothing."

"Just promise me that you'll be extra cautious if you're going to do this." I sigh knowing he's just about as stubborn as I am. "Or that you'll call Mr. Stark to help? I'm sure he can do something."

"I promise." Peter tells me with a soft smile that warms my heart despite the freezing grip of terror. "Which means if I'm going to the decathlon nationals too, we really should probably start studying." A half-hearted laugh escapes me as he smiles. I doubt I'll be able to properly focus with all of this going on.

Well, so much for 'normal' and a 'neighborhood' Spiderman, huh?