𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝟔

—♟—

𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 at the phone in her hand before looking back up at the number on the door in front of her, her eyes squinted. The '410' looked familiar, and that was what Peter's contact information told her, but . . . maybe she had mistyped? And maybe her memory was fooling her.

No, that's stupid, she thought. She literally had perfect memory, which was a prominent part of her power, there was no way that her memory could be wrong.

But maybe . . . maybe just this one time her powers just weren't working—although, she was pretty sure that wasn't possible.

Why was she being so stupid? Why was she so nervous to see Peter? She saw him every day, for God's sake.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved her phone into the back pocket of her jeans and swiftly knocked on the door before any more doubts could cause her to hesitate any further.

To her relief, the door opened to reveal May, whose lips immediately spread into a grin upon seeing her.

"Karebear! Hi, come on in! Peter and Ned are just buying some snacks at the store, they'll be back soon." May had a warm smile on her face as she gestured for Kara to come in. The two of them proceeded to take a seat on the grey couch of their living room, where May inquired, "How've you been?"

"Pretty good! We have a biology test coming up, so I've been studying for the past couple of days," Kara sighed, giving her a small shrug. "How 'bout you?"

"Oh, you know, the grind. Taking care of Peter is quite the task, let me tell you," May laughed, folding her legs underneath her. "I love him, but that boy never shuts up about some things."

"Really? Like what?" Kara giggled. If she could take a guess, she'd think that it'd probably be Wario, Star Wars, or video games. Or all three.

"Anything and everything." May sighed, before beginning to count on her fingers while listing, "Music, video games, movies, how he got one question wrong on his math test, girls . . ."

"Girls?" Kara repeated in surprise, her eyebrows furrowing. "The only girls I ever hear him talk about are Princess Leia, Princess Peach, and you."

"Well, not girls in general, more like one girl specifically." She corrected herself with a smirk that could rival Helen's. "One that he has a crush on."

"Who?" Kara asked, trying to not come across as jealous, despite the fact that that was the sole emotion she was feeling at the moment. She didn't know that Peter had a crush on anyone; she'd barely ever seen him even talk to a girl who isn't a teacher.

"Oh, it's—"

Before May could finish her sentence, the creak of the door sounded, causing both of them to turn towards the door to watch it open.

Peter and Ned revealed themselves, grins on both their faces as they carried grocery bags that seemed to be completely full of snacks that they had bought.

Kara felt her heart skip a beat as she saw Peter. A small smile formed on her face when she noticed his messy hair that had a few stray curls sticking up in random directions, and his bright eyes as he laughed at whatever Ned had just told him.

"Hey, Au—oh, hey, Kara!" Peter's grin grew wider as he saw the girl who was sitting with May and attempted to wave at her, nearly dropping his bag in the process. "What are you two talking about?"

May turned to face him, leaning an arm against the top of the couch. "I was about to tell her who your crush is!" She looked back at Kara, a goofy smile on her face before she continued, "Anyway, Kara, it's—"

"No!" Peter rushed over and clamped his hand over May's mouth, his face now extremely red. She tried to speak, but her voice was too muffled to understand.

A frown grew onto Kara's face as she playfully whined, "Aw, come on, Parker, why can't I know?"

"Yeah, tell her!" Ned egged on.

May managed to get Peter's hand off of her mouth. "Yeah, Parker, tell her!" she encouraged, a sly smile on her face as she gestured to Kara.

"I—you—no! I'm not g-gonna—I don't like—" He began to stutter, the tips of his ears reddening as he spoke. "No one! Girls—I don't like girls."

Ned's eyebrows furrowed. "You're gay?"

"No, I mean—I do like girls," Peter immediately corrected, his eyes quickly darting around at each person as his cheeks reddened even further. "Ju-just not anyone at the moment."

Kara's heart dropped.

No one? There goes the one percent chance that he could ever like her back.

Before anyone could notice the frown that had unconsciously developed onto Kara's face, she swiftly plastered an amused smile on as she leaned back against the couch.

Blushing more furiously than ever, Peter licked his lips and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes nervously glancing between the three faces. "Um, let's—let's go to my room. Bye, Aunt May. Please don't talk to Kara ever again."

May's grin grew even wider as she teasingly raised her eyebrows. "Why would I do that? I know that if I told you to do that, you would ne—"

"Let's go!" Not letting May finish her sentence, Peter gestured for them to follow him as he quickly walked towards his room.

Ned waited for Kara as she got up from the couch before the two of them headed over to Peter's room, whose door was left open for them.

"You good, dude?" Ned asked as the two of them entered the tidied room, an eyebrow quirking.

"Hm? Y-Yeah, everything's fine." Peter nodded quickly, then he sat down on the edge of his bed, his face slowly returning back to its normal colour as his fingers nervously played each other.

"You sure? You seemed pretty freaked out back there . . . as if . . . you do have a crush on someone?" Kara teased, her eyebrows raising.

His eyes widened for a second before he bashfully looked down and shook his head, muttering, "N-no. Also—" He dug through his plastic grocery bag, taking out a package of Oreos before holding it out to her with a small grin. "I got this for you!"

"My favourite! Aw, Parker, you're the best!" Kara grinned as she took it from him, immediately opening the package and popping a cookie in her mouth. His cheeks instantly became rosy from the compliment, a colour that she was used to seeing on him.

Maybe he was just always really cold?

After they spent about an hour and a half eating their snacks and talking about which of their teachers they thought would beat the other in a WWE match, they had decided to go and play one of their favourite video games: Wii Sports.

First, they played a couple of rounds of bowling, where Ned had mainly gotten strikes and Kara managed to get mostly gutterballs, and Ned was declared as the champion of that game.

That was then followed by a boring round of golf (why they even chose to play it in the first place, she had no clue), which Peter had won, but didn't boast too much about.

Now, they were halfway through their third tennis match, with Peter and Ned on one team, and Kara and her best Mii friend, Matt, on the other.

Kara, using her usual tactic of cheating in order to win (which she had learned from Amelia), pointed over to the wall next to them and pretended to be surprised as she exclaimed, "Ned, what's that over there?"

Ned, as usual, fell for it, and turned his head towards the empty wall with furrowed eyebrows. "Huh?"

Peter's eyes widened. "No! Wait—!"

Taking advantage of Ned's moment of distraction, Kara quickly returned his hit and sent the tennis ball flying back over to Ned's side of the court.

With his eyes still turned to the wall, searching for what she had so enthusiastically pointed out, Ned missed the ball, and the round was ended.

"Ned!" Peter groaned, shaking his head as another point was added to Kara's team on the scoreboard. "That's the third time you've fallen for it in this match alone!"

"Kara!" Ned exclaimed with a look of pure horror. "You tricked me!"

"I didn't trick you, per se. I just . . . No, you're right, I tricked you," she giggled with a small shrug. She may be a cheater when it comes to games, but at least she was honest about it (unlike cough cough, Peter Maximoff, cough cough).

Ned's glare hardened as Kara gave him a sweet smile, his eyes narrowed and his lips pursing, although he couldn't keep the nasty scowl on his face for too long. His lips transformed into a grin as he shrugged. "Okay, I forgive you."

"Thank you." Kara grinned.

Ned glanced down at his watch, his eyes widening as he read the time. "Oh, shoot. I gotta go home, I told my mom I would be there by, like, five minutes ago. I'll see you guys tomorrow, bye!"

Ned rushed over to the door, putting his shoes on so fast that he didn't realize that they were on the wrong feet, then waved to them quickly before slamming the door shut behind him.

Hearing the fading footsteps as Ned sprinted towards the elevator, Kara giggled and turned back to the screen, her eyes wandering over each game option before she chose one and asked, "Wanna do the boxing one?"

Peter grinned, grabbing the remote off of the coffee table and quickly sliding his wrist through the safety strap as he nodded. "Sure."

Kara gave a quick nod as she pressed the start button and sat down on the couch, watching the game as it began.

Unfortunately for him, he was up against the ultimate boxer, Kara's best friend Matt. Peter tried his hardest, adorably sending multiple punches his way, but in the end, Matt prevailed (as expected). He shook his head in disappointment as the match ended, narrowing his eyes at his worthy opponent.

Kara giggled as she leaned back on the couch, and he soon joined her. It was silent for a couple of moments, save for the Wii music that played in the background. Then, Kara spoke.

"Hey, Parker?"

He took his eyes off of the TV screen and turned towards her, his eyebrows raising as he nodded. "Yeah?"

"Who do you have a crush on?" she questioned curiously, her eyes squinting as she analyzed his face, which soon grew nervous.

His cheeks immediately reddened, and his voice quivered as he answered, "Uh, n-no one?"

"Oh, come on," she pleaded as she shifted closer to him and gave him a small smile. "Do you not trust me?"

"I . . . I trust you," he murmured. His eyes shifted to the ground before looking back towards her, and he quietly spoke, "But y-you know her, so . . ."

"I do?" Kara could feel herself growing nervous. Who would it be? Amelia? Liz? Those really were the only two friends she had that were girls he knew. "Well . . . , are you gonna tell her?"

"I mean . . ." he muttered as his ears grew red. "I've been dropping these obv—obvious hints for a while, but she s-still hasn't really noticed."

"Wow." Kara raised her eyebrows with a small scoff. "She sounds stupid."

"No, she—she's not." Peter shook his head quickly, his eyebrows furrowing. "She's smart. Smarter than me. But I-I guess she can be pretty stupid sometimes."

She gave him a small smile, and almost regretted the words as they came out, "Maybe you should make it more obvious. Try just telling her."

Peter's expression grew agitated. "How?"

"I don't know." Kara shrugged lightly, her hands clasping in her lap as she thought to herself for a moment. "Maybe like, 'I think you're really pretty, and I really like you'."

If only he could say that to her.

"All right." Peter gave a slow nod. He took a deep breath and said, "Kara, I think you're really pretty, and I really like you."

"Perfect." Kara smiled, giving him an encouraging thumbs-up. "Now just tell her that."

Peter stared at her for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed. "Are—are you serious?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I mean, if that flies over her head, she's way too stupid for you."

"Kara, I'm—" Peter gave a sigh, a small smile approaching his lips as he shook her head and told her, "I'm talking about you. I—I like you."

"You—" Realization dawned on Kara as her cheeks began to heat up. "Oh. Oh. I'm just—I'm stupid. I—" Her eyes flickered towards his as she licked her lips, feeling her heart rate begin to speed up. She took a small breath, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she said, "I like you too, Parker."

"Seriously?" he questioned, his eyes widening as a look of surprise came onto his face.

"Yeah," she giggled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she gave a small nod.

"S-so then, do you maybe wanna . . . go on, like, a date? With me, obviously," he asked nervously, his fingers beginning to fidget with each other as he shifted in his spot.

Kara smiled, trying her very best to ignore the butterflies that were invading her stomach as she softly replied, "I would love to."

"Finally! Yes!" May came up from behind them, squealing like a little schoolgirl as she clapped her hands together. She walked up behind the two and placed a hand on both of their shoulders as she grinned. "Nice work, you two. I'm so happy this happened. Although, Kara, I have to say . . . not your finest moment."

"Aunt May? Wha—were you spying on us?" Peter asked incredulously, looking up at her as she gazed down proudly at the both of them.

". . . No?"

"Aunt May!" Peter groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"I've gotta say, Peter, I'm disappointed that you didn't use any of the great tips that I had given you." May folded her arms as she shook her head, making a tsking noise. "They really were quite awesome."

"Tips?" Kara repeated with a small giggle, her eyebrows raising.

So May knew about this? Although, she had been trying to tell Kara before Peter had interrupted before.

"Aunt May, please go," Peter pleaded as he used his strength to push her away.

She laughed as she backed away, her hands raised in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm leaving! Don't go to the movies for your first date, it kinda—"

"Oh my God," Peter mumbled as he closed his eyes in frustration, shaking his head.

"Hey, at least you know how I feel every time you come over to my house," Kara giggled.

"Why? Is your mom—" He suddenly let out a small gasp, realizing something. "Oh, so that's why she's been saying all those things to me?"

"What? What things?" Kara immediately narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows knitting tightly together. She hadn't thought that her mom had said anything that suspicious. Ish.

"Oh, nothing." He waved a hand in the air, though he had a sly smile on his face as he reassured her, "Don't worry about it!"

"Wha—Parker! What things?" Kara persisted, furrowing her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing!"

—♟—

"Kaaaara." Ned turned to her, dragging her name out.

Kara's eyes flitted up to Peter to see that he was already smiling softly at her. They both rolled their eyes and grinned at each other before Peter went back to his worksheet, and Kara turned to Ned.

"Yes, my lovely Nedling?" she answered, raising her eyebrows.

"You know how you're super amazing, and incredible, and fantastic, and how you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world?"

"Hey!" Peter interjected, offended.

"Mhm, I know, go on." Kara nodded, sending a playful wink to Peter.

"What's the answer to number seven?" Ned batted his eyelashes, hope in his brown eyes.

She didn't know why he kept doing the 'you're amazing, give me the answers' act, she had already given him the answers for five of the questions.

"Dora bate el chocolate cuando está en la cocina con su abuela," she told him after checking her own answer. "Parker's good at Spanish, why don't you ever ask him?"

"Because, one time last year, Peter gave me the wrong answer on purpose, and the teacher called on me, and I embarrassed myself in front of everyone." Ned glared at Peter, who began to laugh at the memory. "So I don't trust him anymore. Not with Spanish work, at least."

"Yeah, I told him that 'She rode her bike' was 'Tu puta madre en bicicleta'." Peter grinned, still proud of himself.

"That's pretty funny," Kara giggled. "But don't worry Ned, I'll never give you the wrong answer."

"And that's why you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world." Ned nodded quickly. "And the answer to number eight is . . . ?"

She laughed, "Mi hermana canta en la ducha cada día."

"Thank you." He scribbled the answer down, mouthing the words as he wrote them. "Anyway, do you guys wanna come over after school? I just bought Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 the other day!"

Kara's eyes immediately shifted downwards towards her paper. She had to get out of this somehow, because she, as usual, had training right after school with Steve and Wanda. "Uh, I don't know about Parker, but I actually have a, um, doctor's appointment after school today."

"Sorry, man, Aunt May wanted my help with . . . cleaning today. Maybe tomorrow?" Peter nodded, keeping his face down as he wrote so that Ned wouldn't be able to see the guilty look he had on his face.

Kara's eyes narrowed at him, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah, that's fine." Ned shrugged mindlessly. "I'll practice today so that I can beat you guys tomorrow."

"Doesn't matter how much you practice, Ned, I'll still beat you." Kara grinned cockily, raising one eyebrow.

"I don't think I've ever seen you win any game," Peter laughed, shaking his head as he wrote the answer to the ninth question.

"Not true! I won one round of Mario Kart when you came over the other day!" she protested, folding her arms.

"Because we were on Rainbow Road, and you kept pushing me off!"

"Nuh-uh, you just coincidentally kept losing balance every time I got near you." Kara shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe you're just bad at Rainbow Road."

"I suck at Rainbow Road, it's so hard." Ned frowned. He patted Peter's back sympathetically. "I understand why you kept falling off."

"I kept falling off because Kara kept bumping me!" Peter shook his head, giving her a playful glare.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You're just jealous of my skills."

"What skills? Your cheating skills?" Peter scoffed, raising his eyebrows in a mocking manner.

"Constantly pushing you off the road doesn't equal cheating," she giggled. "It's just called being unfair."

Ned looked up from the worksheet. "Kara—"

"Tengo la clase de matemáticas a la una."

"Thank you." He wrote the answer down quickly.

Spanish quickly ended, and it was time for them to head to their biology class. And as usual, Ned struck up a conversation with an opener that really made them think deeply.

"Mhm, but what if you took a cello and turned it sideways?" Ned questioned as the three walked towards their biology classroom. "Then it's like a guitar. Right?"

"I mean" —Kara squinted her eyes— "it's not really the same."

"But it's got all the same elements!" Ned insisted, clutching tightly onto his textbook as it began to slip out of his arms. "The strings, the look—it's just a humongous guitar."

"But you play it differently," Peter pointed out with an amused smile. "You use a bow or whatever. And it sounds different than a guitar."

"So it's just a fancy guitar." Ned shrugged as they entered the classroom and took their usual spots at the lab bench. "Big deal."

"So are you saying a violin is a mini guitar?" Kara giggled as she pulled her biology textbook from her stack of books and placed it on the top.

Ned grinned, slapping her on the back. "Now you get it! Anyway, did you guys finish the math homework?"

"Yep," Kara said as Peter gave a small nod.

"Great, so, what did you get for question seventeen?" Ned asked as he grabbed his math notebook from his little pile of books and opened it. "It's the one with—"

"It's thirty-three bow ties," Kara immediately answered. She let out a silent groan as the other two boys furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. She really needed to get control over her mouth.

"How do you remember that?" Peter crinkled his nose, his eyes narrowed at her.

"Uh" —she gave a small shrug— "I mean, I did the question. I know the answer."

"Yeah, but there were forty questions," Ned said slowly, his face showing just as much suspicion as he exchanged a look with Peter. "How do you specifically remember that one?"

"I . . . I don't." Kara slowly shook her head, regretting every word that came out of her mouth as soon as it was spoken. "I . . . Nope. What were we talking about? Cellos?"

"Why are you being weird?" Peter leaned closer to her, his narrowed eyes peering at her face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kara quickly denied, turning her face so that she was staring directly at the blackboard. She just hoped that they wouldn't catch onto her oh-so-obvious lies like everyone else could (namely Amelia, Peter, Tony, her mom, Steve, Nat, Sam, Happy . . . So yeah, everyone else).

This only seemed to make Peter more concerned. "Are you . . . okay?"

"Hm? Oh, look!" Kara pointed as Mr. Dankworth entered the room, his eyes focused on the stack of papers in his hands. "The teacher's here! We better pay attention."

Peter's eyebrows knit tightly together. "But—"

"Mhm. Studying." She grabbed her textbook and flipped it to a random page. She leaned her chin on her hand, her eyes squinting at the text as she pretended to become immersed in the information. "Oh, wow. Mitochondria. Plasma. Membrane."

"We're not in that unit," Ned pointed out, leaning over to see the page she had gone on.

"Cytoplasm. Nucleus. Mitochondria."

Ned's eyebrows furrowed. "You already said mitochondria."

Peter opened his textbook, flipping it to the proper page and showing it to her as if he thought she was unaware of it. "We're doing lung capacity today."

"Ribosomes. Rough ER. Smooth ER. Mitochondria."

Peter shut his book and stared at her. "Kara."

"Who?"

Before Peter could continue interrogating her, Mr. Dankworth told the class to quiet down before beginning to talk. He then went over a lab project that was to be due the next day, instructing the students to get into partners of two and to grab the materials that he had left on the front lab bench.

Ned nodded as he collected his books and stacked them neatly. "I guess I'll go with Sam, then."

"You know what, Neddie?" Kara patted his shoulder. "Why don't you partner with Parker today?" She needed a way to get them off her scent, and it seemed like the only way was if she stopped talking to them in general. Hello, new lab partner.

"What?" both Peter and Ned questioned simultaneously.

"Mhm." Kara gave both of them a bright smile as she pulled her notebook out of her pile of books. "You two are besties, right?"

Peter began to protest, "Yeah, but—"

"Okay, great!" Kara turned around to face the boy who was sitting behind her.

The boy had been in a couple of other classes with Kara—math and shop. She knew that he was a rather smart boy, judging by the fact that he seemed to do the math homework and actually did productive things in shop class (much unlike them). He was pretty tall, ranging around five foot eleven to six foot, had tanned skin, and soft, black hair that curled slightly at the end.

In fact, Kara had talked to this boy a couple of times. Nothing too deep, just simple passings of 'Hello' and 'How was the test?' and 'Ugh, I hate this teacher, I want to die.' But for the life of her, she couldn't seem to recall his name (so now her super-memory decides to give up on her?).

"Hey, uh . . . your name's Jeff, right?"

He seemed taken aback for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh, uh, Josh."

"Josh, right, sorry," she corrected, wincing slightly. "Wanna . . . wanna be partners for this?"

He nodded, giving a small shrug. "Sure."

"Cool." She grinned before grabbing her books and placing them on the empty seat next to him. "Okay, so, um, I'll get the stuff from the front."

After receiving another nod from him, Kara took a peek at the required material—which was just a balloon—on the paper they had been given and quickly made her way past the desks and to the front one. There was a small, clear container filled to the brim with untouched balloons, the colours mixed as they all waited to be chosen.

As she waited for the students in front of her to pick their balloons, Kara gave a slight jump as a voice spoke up from next to her, "What are you doing?"

She gave a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was only Ned, and quickly responded while pointing to the container, "I'm getting the balloon."

"Yeah, I know that." Ned rolled his eyes before gesturing behind him. "Why are you partners with that guy?"

"Josh?" She raised her eyebrows, receiving a nod of confirmation from the boy. "He's my friend."

"You've never talked to him before," Ned pointed out with a small scoff, his hands placed on his hips. "Also, I'm your only friend at this school."

Kara's eyebrows furrowed as she motioned over to his partner. "What about Parker?"

"That's different, he's your boyfriend," he replied.

"He's not my boyfriend," Kara corrected before she suggested another name, "Liz?"

"He basically is, you guys like each other, same thing." Ned waved a dismissive hand. "And Liz is in a different grade."

"Amelia and Maximoff and Jean and Kurt and—"

"They don't even go here!"

"Well . . ." Kara trailed off as she looked down to the toes of her sneakers, her lips pouting slightly as she tried to think of a better excuse than 'I was about to blow my cover.' "Maybe I want some more friends."

"Why? I'm the whole package!" Ned exclaimed incredulously.

"I know you are," Kara sighed as she stepped toward the container and grabbed a yellow balloon. "But . . ."

"But what?"

"Oh, look at that! I have my balloon!" She lifted it up for him to see as proof before patting him on the back and waving. "Great. Bye!"

"Wait, Kara—"

Kara ignored him as she swiftly walked back over to Josh and took a seat at her new spot. Granted, it wasn't that far from her original one—she was still sitting right behind Peter and Ned—but hopefully, it was far enough for her to regain her cool.

Kara scanned over the instructions before looking up at him. "Okay, so whose lungs are we measuring? Yours or mine?"

"We can measure mine." Josh shrugged, a small grin on his face. "I've always wanted to know how much I can, uh . . . breathe?"

"That's the spirit!" She handed the balloon to him, then taking the paper in her hands. "First, you gotta stretch it."

After he had finished gently stretching the sides of the balloon, she instructed him to take a deep breath, and blow into the balloon, which he then heeded. The balloon expanded at a rapid rate as he blew air into it, the result being the size of a small cantaloupe.

The two of them passed by the time it took to calculate and write their findings down by making small talk that gradually turned into a more intense conversation, such as whether tomatoes were a fruit or not (they were) and if pineapple on pizza was good or not (it was).

It wasn't long until Mr. Dankworth announced that class would be ending in a couple of minutes, and Kara packed up her stuff before saying goodbye to Josh, promising to send her final answers to him once she had finished.

"So?" Ned questioned as he, Peter, and Kara began to make their way over to the cafeteria. "How was it?"

"How was what?" Kara asked innocently.

Ned raised his eyebrows as he continued, "Being with Jonathon?"

"Josh," she corrected before giving a small shrug. "And it was normal?"

"What does that mean?" he pressed, narrowing his eyes as he gently shoved her from the side.

"I mean that it was normal!" she protested as they sat down at their usual table, taking a seat next to Peter and across from Ned. "We just did the work."

"And why couldn't you do the work with Peter?" Ned leaned forward, his hands gripping the edge of the table as he questioned her, "Do you think that Jeremy has a better lung capacity than Peter?"

"Josh. And why would that even matter?" she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And I already told you, Ned, I just wanted to be partners with him because I want more friends!"

"You don't need more friends!" Ned pouted. "I'm way better than Jim!"

"Josh. And you are wonderful, Ned, truly," she reassured him as she reached over and patted him on the shoulder, "but I do need more friends."

"It's fine, Ned," Peter cut in, giving a small wave of dismissal to the other boy. "Lay off her."

"Fine," Ned conceded as he leaned back and folded his arms, his eyes still narrowed at her. "But you better not replace me with Jordan."

"Josh," she corrected with a small smile on her face. "And no need to worry, Neddie. I won't."

"Good." He stood up abruptly. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

As soon as Ned had left the table, Peter turned to Kara and raised his eyebrows. "Okay, now tell me."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she unzipped her lunch bag and unwrapped the sandwich that was covered in saran wrap. "Tell you what?"

"Why you're being so weird?"

"Wha—me?" Kara scoffed as she turned to face him, an incredulous look on her face. She placed her sandwich down on top of the saran wrap before motioning to herself. "Weird? Pshaw!"

Peter's eyebrows lifted even higher, him obviously not believing her act for a second. "You're only proving my point."

"Okay, fine. You've caught me." She raised her hands in defence, a guilty smile growing on her face. "I can explain."

"Okay," he said with a nod, "explain."

"Wait, give me thirty seconds to think of a lie."

"Kara!"

"I'm sorry! I'm just . . ." She licked her lips as she tried to come up with a good, believable excuse. "I wasn't feeling well, so I took some medicine, and maybe I took too many or something because I definitely did not read the label."

"First of all, are you okay?" he asked worriedly, scooting a bit closer as he examined her face. A moment later, he continued, "Second, how did the meds make you choose to partner with Josh over me?"

"It had nothing to do with you, Parker," she reassured him. "Just don't worry about it, okay?"

Peter didn't seem reassured in the least, and he gave her a smile that didn't seem to quite reach his eyes. "Okay."