𝐊𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝟔

—♞—

"𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 you?" Helen emerged from the kitchen, slightly sweaty from the heat in there due to all the cooking. Her brown eyes spotted Kara as she straightened the throw pillows on the grey couch, making sure that everything was neat. "There you are! Have you cleaned your room yet?"

They were having a dinner party, which was going to start in about twenty minutes. The usual people were invited: Tony, Pepper, Steve, Wanda, Vision, Nat, Clint, Happy, Sam, and Rhodey.

And, as always, Helen was freaking out about cleaning the house, even though it was already spotless since the two had cleaned it the day before.

"Yes, everything is clean." Kara nodded in confirmation, sending her a reassuring smile. "You don't need to worry."

"Good, good." Helen sighed in relief, untying her apron and folding it over her arm. "Okay, well . . . you do whatever you want until they come, I guess."

Kara nodded, and then headed straight up to her room, wanting to finish up the work she had already started. There were only a couple of slides left for the biology project, and she wanted to finish them as fast as she could so that Peter and she could begin to practice for the presentation.

She sat down at her desk, her laptop already having the slides open from her working on them in the morning.

Kara flipped her notebook open to the page she had last left off and began to type her notes into the slides.

She leaned back in her seat for a moment, pondering. How many questions should they add to their Kahoot game?

Maybe she should ask Peter. It was a joint project, after all; his input was important (though perhaps the number of questions on a Kahoot game didn't really call for a partnered decision).

To be honest, any excuse to text Peter was a good one.

Kara pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened their messages. She giggled at the last text he had sent her ('Gotta go, my aunt's about to burn the kitchen down again').

After sending the question, she put her phone face-up on her desk and continued to work on the last informative slide.

Kara had gotten so wrapped up in working that she didn't hear the doorbell chime, nor did she hear Helen greeting the guests. To be fair, she was on a different floor.

As her eyebrows furrowed while typing the next point of information ('the cerebellum coordinates movement and action of muscles, and maintains balance'), Kara heard a small knock on her door.

She straightened up, abandoning her sentence halfway through as she turned to see the two figures at the door.

A grin spread on her face as Nat and Wanda walked in. "Hey! I didn't realize you guys were here already!"

"What were you—" Nat leaned over her shoulder to see the slideshow on the laptop screen. "Ew. You were doing schoolwork? What, a project or something?"

"I have a presentation in a couple of weeks." Kara nodded, turning her chair so she could face the two women.

Wanda sat on the edge of her bed, sinking into the soft mattress as she asked, "A presentation? On what?"

"The nervous system," Kara explained as Nat took a seat beside her, taking one of her fluffy pillows and holding it in her lap.

"Eugh, biology." Wanda gave a shudder of disgust as she thought about it. "I hate that subject. Too much memorizing, and totally gross."

"I hear that." Nat grinned. She leaned forward to get a better look at the slideshow. "But I'm sure you'll get a perfect mark, it looks pretty go—" Her eyes widened. "That's a lot of slides. Forty of them? That's so many, please tell me that you have a partner, or half of it is citations or something."

Kara fought as hard as she could to stop the blush that crept onto her cheeks. "I have a partner."

When Nat and Wanda exchanged knowing looks, Kara internally cursed at herself. Dammit.

"And who, exactly, is your partner? Is it a boy?" Wanda questioned, an eyebrow arched. "A cute boy?"

"Oh, just . . . someone," Kara mumbled, looking back at her screen so they couldn't see the blush that had only strengthened in colour.

Just then, her phone dinged with a notification, letting her know that Peter had texted her back. Her eyes widened, worried that one of the two would somehow see.

Immediately noticing her reaction, Nat reached over and grabbed Kara's phone before Kara could, Nat's eyes lighting up as she read it and the name of its sender. Kara prayed that Nat wouldn't remember, but the prayer was pointless.

"'Maybe, like, ten? Fifteen? Whatever you think is good!'" Nat read out. "Sent from . . . Oh! Peter." A malicious grin grew on her face as she looked up at Kara.

So she did remember.

"Peter . . . Maximoff?" Wanda tilted her head as she looked to Nat, her eyes now wide. "Like, Amelia's boyfriend?"

"No, no, a different Peter." Nat's smirk grew bigger as a small groan escaped Kara's lips. "One that goes to her school. One that she has a crush on."

"Oh?" Wanda looked back at Kara, the same smirk now on her lips. "A crush? And he's your partner?"

". . . No?"

"Wow, our little Kara finally has a boyfriend." Nat nudged Wanda, eliciting a giggle from her.

"No, it's not like that! We're just friends!" Kara protested, shaking her head quickly. At least Amelia wasn't there to make things worse.

"Uh-huh, right. Do you have a picture of this Peter boy for us to look at?" Wanda asked, crossing one leg over the other as she waited expectantly for an image.

"Wait, wait, Instagram." Nat, who hadn't given Kara her phone back, lifted the device towards her. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to guess her password. "All right. Four numbers. Let's see . . . Harry Potter was born in 1980, so . . ." She quickly pressed the four numbers, a look of delight expressed on her face once she was in.

"Aw, man. First try?" Kara groaned.

"I mean. . . it's kind of obvious." Wanda raised her eyebrows as she waited for Nat to finish her mission.

"You got me there."

Nat mumbled to herself as she tapped on her phone, "Instagram. Search button. P-E-T-E-R P-A-R-K-E-R. Yes! Got it!" She shifted the phone to her left hand, putting it in the middle of her and Wanda so that the both of them could get a good look.

Smirks grew on their faces once more as they scrolled through each photo Peter had, which was only a few, luckily. Although, he did look cute in all of them, anyway. . . .

The two of them let out girlish giggles with each swipe, enjoying the fact that they were making Kara uncomfortable.

"Pretty cute," Nat remarked as she handed Kara her phone back, a teasing smile on her face. "I'd even go as far as to say that you two would be a good couple. Looks-wise, of course; I don't know anything about this guy."

"No, that's not—it's not going to happen." Kara shook her head as she quickly shoved her phone back into her pocket.

"What? Why?" Wanda questioned, her eyebrows furrowed.

Kara coughed loudly, wanting to change the topic. "Uh, pretty cold weather we're having, eh? It wasn't this cold last week!"

"That's because it's November," Nat deadpanned. She folded her arms as she raised her eyebrows, giving Kara a stern look. "Why wouldn't it happen?"

"I don't know, I just don't think it'll happen! I don't think he likes me like that." Kara gave a small shrug, speaking honestly.

"Oh, Kara . . ." Wanda shook her head, her silky red hair dancing around her shoulders as she did so. "It'd be crazy for any boy not to like you."

"Trust me, there's been many that haven't," Kara giggled. "I don't think there's any that have."

Nat stared at her for a moment, her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I'll pretend like I believe that. But more about this Peter boy—"

Kara swiftly got up, brushing past them as she headed to the door. "What's that, Mom? You need us downstairs? Coming!" She pretended to hear her mom call, then gave them a toothy grin before heading towards the main floor so they had no time to react.

Everyone was already here, all of them filling different spots in the living room as they chatted with plates of appetizers in hand.

Wanda and Nat emerged on either side of Kara as she walked down the stairs, and she groaned.

Wanda continued her interrogation, "So, Peter . . . he doesn't have a girlfriend, right?"

Kara spotted Happy standing next to one of the couches, having just gotten off a phone call, and she sighed in relief.

She walked over to him, now desperate. "Uncle Happy, you're a strong guy, can you beat up Auntie Nat and Wanda please?"

He scoffed, "Me, beat up an assassin and a woman with magic powers? No way."

"Uncle Happy! You can do it!" she encouraged, giving him two thumbs up to help. "You're Uncle Tony's forehead of security for a reason!"

"Who told you that?" he asked quickly, then shook his head and pointed his finger at her with narrowed eyes. "If anything, I'd rather beat you up over them."

"Wha—no! That's the exact opposite of what I said! I said them! Beat them up! Them!" Her jaw dropped as she shook her head quickly. She did not stand a chance against Happy, powers or not.

Clint came over, his eyebrows raised in interest upon hearing the last sentence. "Who are you beating up?"

Happy, Nat, and Wanda replied simultaneously, "Kara."

"Oh." He smirked, taking a sip of his beer. "I'm down for that. When? Now?"

Kara raised her hand to her ear, trying out the trick that had worked while she was upstairs. "What's that Uncle Tony? You need me over there?"

"No," Tony called over.

"Wha—how did he hear me?" Kara's eyes widened. He was standing on the other side of the room, chatting with Vision and Steve! How was it possible for him to have heard her?

"I'm just that good." He sent a wink before turning back to his conversation.

"Hmph." Kara frowned. She looked back at the group, an awkward grin on her face. "Anyway, back to the topic of not beating up teenage girls—"

"Don't worry, we're not beating up any teenage girls," Nat reassured her as she shook her head.

Kara nodded, giving a small sigh of relief. No beatings for her today.

Her soothing smile was replaced with a malicious grin. "We're beating up a little girl."

"Seriously? You're going to come into my house and threaten me? Right in front of my salad?" Kara gave a small giggle at the end of the sentence.

Clint furrowed his eyebrows at this. "Salad?"

"Uncle Clint, are you telling me that you don't—oh, right. You guys are old, you wouldn't understand." Kara nodded slowly, a wide grin coming onto her face. Obviously, Wanda was only a couple of years older than her (she was actually younger than Amelia), but Kara ignored that fact at the moment.

"Okay, I was kidding about beating you up before, but now I really am going to do it," Happy sighed as he took a taunting step towards her.

Kara's eyes widened, and she took a few steps back, though she knew he was only joking. Well, at least, she thought he was joking. . . .

She dashed a couple of steps away to the strawberry blonde woman who was happily engaged in conversation with Rhodey and Sam. "Uh . . . Auntie Pepper!"

"Yeah?" she questioned with a smile as she turned to face her.

"You wouldn't beat me up, would you?" Kara questioned tentatively.

"What?" Pepper's face scrunched up as she shook her head. "Of course not!"

"Okay, I'm sticking with you for the rest of the night." Kara nodded, a relieved expression displayed on her face.

"Why? Was someone threatening you?" she asked in concern, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Big time."

Her eyes scanned around the room before she questioned, "Who?"

Kara pointed over to the group, who were all only a few steps away, all whispering as they stared at Kara. Probably planning her murder. Wouldn't be the first time . . . .

Pepper nodded slowly. "Oh. I see. Well, don't worry, I'll protect you."

"Thank you, Auntie Pepper. I love you. You're the best person here," Kara giggled, shifting closer to her.

"Hey!" Tony called out, offence laced in his voice. "I'm the best person here!"

"How—I'm—does that guy have super hearing now?" Kara gave an incredulous look to Pepper, who just gave a shrug in response.

Before Tony could interrupt any more, Helen called out from the kitchen, "Dinner's ready!"

Kara squeezed in between Pepper and Helen at the long dinner table, hoping to use the two as a form of self-defence.

Nat sent her a wink from across the table, and Kara was not too sure whether it was a reassuring or threatening one. Knowing Nat, it was probably both.

As everyone began to pile food onto their plate, Helen turned to her daughter. "What were you doing in your room? You didn't come down until half an hour after everyone got here!"

"Nothing," Kara said quickly, noticing that Wanda and Nat had exchanged evil looks upon hearing this. "Just hanging. And not talking about anything."

Helen furrowed her eyebrows. "Not . . . talking?"

"Oh, I'll tell you what we were talking about," Nat said loudly, bringing everyone's attention towards her. "We were talking about how Kara has—"

"Powers now!" Kara interrupted. "So cool. Powers. Yay. That's what we were saying. Powers. Pew pew. Wow. Powers."

Nat continued, "How Kara—"

"Is so smart now," Kara cut her off again. "One million IQ. Big brain time. So . . . so smart. Pew . . . pew."

"How Kara has a—"

"You know, Auntie Nat, I don't think anyone's interested in hearing. They've already heard me say it all," Kara chuckled nervously, glancing around at the group, who were all watching in amusement. "Pew pew."

"No, continue, Nat," Tony encouraged, sending Kara a sly smile. "I'm very interested."

"Yeah, me too." Rhodey nodded. "I would love to know."

Clint smirked. "Yeah, I think there's a little more to the story."

"Tell us," Sam concluded.

Nat looked at her for a moment, the playful glint in her eye only making Kara more fearful. She winked at her before continuing, "How Kara is so smart. Like she said: 'Big brain time'."

Kara let out a sigh of relief. Her secret was safe. For now. "Yep, see? Big brain time."

—♞—

"All right, get into groups of four! Today, you guys will be quizzing each other, using the practice booklets that I had gotten just for you guys. This year, the theme of the questions is centred around the continent of Africa! You won't be timed for this quizzing, but next time, you will be!" Mr. Harrington instructed the rest of the team as they filed into the classroom. "It's already December, and the decathlon is in April, so we don't have much time left to prepare!"

Peter turned to Kara, whispering, "But April is five months away?"

Kara shrugged as she whispered back, "I've learned not to question him."

The desks were already grouped into fours, making a large rectangular shape. Ned, Peter, and Kara all sat down at one desk, leaving a spot open next to Ned.

Liz walked over to the three, somehow seeming to have a golden glow around her. Or maybe that was just Kara. "Hey, Kara! Can I join you guys?"

"Sure!" Kara smiled, gesturing for her to take a seat in the open spot across from her.

"Thanks!" She sat down, sliding her mauve backpack under the desk.

"Hey, I'm Liz," she introduced herself to the two boys, who had never met her before, despite the many times Kara tried to get them to talk to her.

"Peter." Peter gave her a friendly smile.

"I'm Ned." Ned held out a hand for her to shake, which she did.

Mr. Harrington came over to their group and silently dropped eight thin paper booklets onto Liz's desk before moving on to the next group.

"Thanks!" Liz nodded as she picked up one of the booklets, looking over the bold letters that filled up the front page.

"Why are there so many?" Ned's eyes widened as he stared at the pile next to him, seeming almost afraid of the stack of papers.

"There are eight different topics: Art, music, math, economics, literature, science, social science, and then a SuperQuiz relay," Liz explained, pointing to each of the subtitles on each of the books as she listed them.

"Oh." Ned nodded slowly in understanding, taking one of the booklets and skimming through it.

"Here, how about I quiz you guys on . . ." She picked a random booklet and flipped it over so that she could see the topic name. "Science! Okay, so I'll read out a question, and then the five possible answers. If you think you know it, just blurt it out. Got it?"

The rest of them nodded, understanding the rules.

"Okay, great!" She flipped to the first page. "First question: In the absence of treatment, AIDS takes an average of how many years to develop? A) six, B) eight, C) ten, D) twelve, or E) fourteen."

"C, ten years," Kara answered, having remembered reading about it in one of the many medical books that her mom had lent to her.

Liz turned to the answer key and scanned it for the answer. "Yeah, C! Good job, Kara!" She grinned as she went back to the first page. "Okay, next, an example of preventing malaria through treatment is: A) targeted mass drug administration, B) larval control, C) indoor residual spraying, D) insecticide-treated mosquito nets, or E) source reduction."

Kara waited for a few moments to see if anyone else knew the answer, not wanting to be the only person answering. Ned and Peter looked like they were drawing a complete blank, so Kara sighed and responded: "A, targeted mass drug administration."

"Dang, Kara! You really know your stuff!" Liz raised her eyebrows after checking that it was correct.

"Kara wants to be a geneticist, that's why she's so smart with this stuff." Ned nodded.

"Makes sense." Liz winked. "You know what? I wanna see if you know the answer without her giving the options. You wanna try?"

"Sure." Kara shrugged, not minding. She prayed that she would know the answer, or else this would be embarrassing. Sure, her IQ was like, a trillion, but . . . Liz.

"All right." Liz grinned. "In order to combat a virus, a treatment would be most effective by disrupting a virion's what?"

Kara thought for a moment. "Nucleic acid, capsid, and envelope."

Liz checked the answer key, surprised as she read the answer. "Correct! Hold on, let me find a hard one." Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she searched. She perked up, a glimmer in her eye. "If you get this, I will be seriously impressed. Which of the following individuals would be most likely to have a mutation in the CCR5 gene, thereby preventing them from being infected by the HIV virus?"

"People of French descent." Kara grinned, knowing this answer. It really was a blessing to have Helen Cho as a mom. And the fact that her brain function had been accelerated didn't hurt.

"Consider me impressed!" Liz raised her eyebrows before nudging her. "Seems like we have a new team superstar."

"I don't know about that," Kara giggled. "I just know some science stuff, that's all."

"Here, how about we break into twos and then quiz each other like that? So that we can save more time," Peter suggested, taking one of the booklets and looking through it with interest.

"Sure! Kara, wanna be with me?" Liz asked, grinning as she raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows.

Kara nodded, taking another booklet. "I'll quiz you this time." She looked down to see that she had grabbed the one for music. "Hope you know a lot about African music!"

"Are you kidding? That's my favourite!" Liz joked, leaning forward on her elbows.

Kara laughed. "Okay, first. What lamellophone is commonly played by the Shona people? A) Kora, B) Bala, C) Oud, D) Mbira, E) Ngoni." She flipped to the answer key, finding the answer before she said anything.

"I'm gonna go with . . . D, Mbira?" Liz guessed, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Correct! Dang, look at you, so knowledgeable in African music," Kara teased, giggling.

"What can I say, I'm just so good at this," she laughed as did a dramatic hair flip.

"Okay, next, the popular Congolese musical style known as blank features the guitar prominently. A) Reggae, B) Bossa Nova, C) Ska, D) Soukous, E) Rai."

She scrunched her nose. "Uh . . . A, Reggae?"

"Nope, it's D, Soukous," Kara read from the sheet.

"Right, so, maybe not as good as I thought." Liz nodded slowly, a small smile creeping onto her lips.

"Still better than I would be," Kara chuckled as she flipped back to the first page. "All right, say that you are listening to a reissued recording by Thomas Mapfumo and notice that the drummer tends to emphasize two meters simultaneously. This technique is best described as what? A) binary rhythm, B) periodic phrasing, C) off-beat phrasing, D) polymeter, E) metrical phrasing."

Liz seemed quite confident with her answer as she quickly replied, "I'm gonna go with D, polymeter."

"Yes! Nice job." Kara grinned.

"Thanks," Liz giggled. "Here, why don't we switch partners? Ned, I'll quiz you on . . ." She picked up one of the booklets that were lying upside-down. "Economics!"

As they began, Kara grabbed one of the booklets. "Parker, I'll quiz you on social science, sound good?"

"Mhm." He nodded.

"Okay, first, scholars have concluded that the expansion and contraction of the Sahara Desert over time led Africans to address the problems of increasingly dense populations in all of the following ways, except what? A) innovations in food production, B) increasing the number of tribal wars fought, C) new forms of irrigation, D) migratory movements or E) formation of centralized states along the Nile and Niger Rivers?"

He shut his eyes, squeezing them tightly as he tried to recall the answer. "Hold on, I know this . . . B?"

Kara checked the answer. "No," she said with a dead serious look, shaking her head.

His eyes widened, seeming surprised that he had remembered it incorrectly. "Really?"

"Nah, just kidding, you're right." She grinned, sending him a wink.

He held his hand over his heart, slightly dramatic as he let out a sigh of relief. "You scared me!"

"Next: Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan Wilson gained fame by determining: A) the geographic center of Pangea was Africa before the continents broke apart, B) San of Namibia were the likely source of all women, C) the origin of humans was in Asia and they migrated out from there, D) the earliest Homo sapiens were in Africa by about 20,000 years ago, or E) Darwin's theory of evolution was true."

He tilted his head for a second, before giving her a small shrug. "I have no idea."

"Aw, come on, just guess," Kara giggled, flipping to the answers.

"Okay, okay, uh . . . whatever C was," he decided, the fingers of his right hand playing with the sleeve of his left arm.

Kara's eyes quickly found the answer. "Close, it was B."

"Aw, man!" Peter gave another dramatic sigh. "One letter."

"Okay, now: According to the historian Herodotus, one way early Nile dwellers demonstrated their social standing was through: A) a crest over the main doorway of their house, B) the number of outfits they had, C) the number of servants they could afford, D) a silo of food stored for years of famine, or E) their choice of food," she read out from the page.

When there was no response, Kara looked up to Peter with confusion. His eyes were narrowed towards the other two, him not having been paying attention to what she had said. Kara followed his gaze to see Liz and Ned giggling with each other, not noticing our stares.

"Why are they giggling?" she whispered to Peter.

"I think I know why," he muttered back.

"Okay. Why?" Kara questioned.

"Uh . . ." He looked to her for a moment, and then back to the two, not saying anything else.

"Wha—Parker. Why?"

He ignored her, instead piping up towards the other two, "What are you guys talking about?"

Ned and Liz immediately stopped giggling, their eyes wide as they looked at them, like deers caught in headlights. Ned swallowed. "Nothing."

Kara furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean, nothing?"

"Nothing. Hey, on a totally different and unrelated topic," Liz started, "Kara, who do you have a crush on?"

"Huh?" her eyes widened, suddenly feeling under the spotlight with this question. "Why—what—why are you asking?"

Liz and Ned exchanged looks. Liz continued, a slight giggle in her voice, "Oh come on, we won't tell him! Who is it?"

"Oh . . . Cedric Diggory?" It was true. She was in love with the man.

Okay, sure, he was dead, but he was still alive in Kara's heart.

She gave them a small smile, hoping that they would take this answer.

They did not.

"That's a fictional character, Kara!" Ned complained. "Give us a real person!"

Peter, whose cheeks were now as red as cherries, spoke up, his voice slightly nervous, "She doesn't have to say, Ned."

"Hm, then what about you, Petey? Who do you have a crush on?" Ned responded, his eyebrows high.

"Let's get back to the—the booklet." Peter then gently grabbed the booklet that was opened in her hands, immediately reading the first question his eyes landed on. "The Greek historian who offered valuable insights about Africans in the Nile region's diets was: A) Ptolemy, B) Herodotus, C) Darwin, D) Aristotle or E) Phidippides."

"Uh . . ." Kara pursed her lips together, thinking. "D."

"B." He looked up to her with a grin, his cheeks now returning to their normal colour. He seemed a lot calmer once again, Ned and Liz having quickly shrugged off the last conversation and returned to quizzing.

"Yeah . . . I didn't study this one yet," Kara giggled.

"Don't let Mr. Harrington hear that, I mean, the decathlon is only five months away!" Peter laughed, turning back to the questions.

"Right, there's barely any time left." Kara nodded seriously, although she had an amused smile on her face. "We better study harder."