𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝟕

—♜—

𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 to Ned's locker as he put his stuff away. She raised her eyebrows when she noticed how Ned was all but throwing his stuff into his locker, but she made no comment. 

As she neared, his and Peter's conversation became audible to her, and her nose wrinkled as she realized that they were talking about what kind of cult either of them would lead (apparently, Ned thought he would lead a cult of people that believed in banana gods, and Peter's was a cult of people who could eat an entire Happy Meal in under two and a half minutes).

"Hey, Kara!" Ned gave her a quick wave of hello before shoving the entirety of his backpack into the locker, which was already quite cluttered with papers and broken pencils, as usual.

"Hey, Ned! You know, today's November tenth and I'm pretty sure that it's someone's birthday today, but I just can't remember whose . . ." She pretended to ponder as she leaned against the locker next to his, stroking her chin. "Do you know?"

"Me!" Ned grinned as he took out his binder with one hand, pointing to himself with the other.

"Happy birthday!" she laughed, pulling out the small gift she had bought him that was wrapped in shiny, purple wrapping paper. "Here!"

"Aw, Kara, thanks! You didn't have to get me anything!" Ned protested as he took the gift from her, examining it as he wondered what could be inside. He placed it on the upper shelf in his locker, muttering, "I'll open it during lunch."

"Sucks that there's a test on your birthday." Peter sighed as the three walked into the chemistry classroom, taking their usual spots.

"At least it's not tomorrow, so you don't have to spend your birthday studying!" Kara said brightly, opening up her study notes. "Okay, I'm gonna quiz you guys, ready?"

"I hope so," Ned said as the two of them nodded, prepared for the questions.

"First, what is an ionic bond?" she read out the topic that was at the top of the page.

"A bond between a metal and a nonmetal where the metals transfer electrons to the non-metal," Peter recited from memory, getting the definition word-for-word.

"Damn, Parker, that was perfect." She grinned as she flipped to the next page, scanning it for another question. "Next, what is a chemical property?"

"One sec, let it come into my brain." Ned held up a finger, closing his eyes. After a moment, he perked up, remembering. "A chemical property is a property or a characteristic of a substance that's observed during a reaction where the chemical composition of the substance is changed. For example, combustibility is an important chemical property to consider when you're choosing building materials."

"You guys are gonna ace this test." Kara gave a thumbs up, scanning the notes for a harder question. "What are the five points of particle theory?"

"All matter is made up of tiny particles, all particles of one substance are the same, different substances are made of different particles, the particles are always moving, and there are attractive forces between particles," Peter listed, putting up a finger after each point.

After quizzing them with a few more questions, the teacher walked into the room and settled the class down. The test then began, the room now more silent than ever, save for the scratching of pencils and the rubbing of erasers.

Kara quickly became confused at one of the questions on the second page. She thought it over: What was a qualitative property? She always mixed that one up with quantitative property.

She glanced up for a moment to make sure Mr. Cobbwell wasn't looking in her direction and quickly tapped against the Bond Touch bracelet.

Qualtive, mesur, no mesur?

It took her a few minutes to tap it all out, but she quickly got a response:

no mesur.

Grinning to herself, she wrote the answer ('Qualitative properties are properties that are observed and can generally not be measured. An example of a qualitative property would be your five senses'). She could not be more thankful for the bracelet that Amelia had gotten.

It had been a gift from Christmas the year before (Amelia and Peter visited for Christmas every other year; they went to Peter's otherwise), and Amelia had a matching bracelet. With a simple touch of the screen, the other's bracelet would vibrate, and you bet your ass they used morse code with this (especially for Kara to cheat on tests).

Other than the one question, the test wasn't too bad; she didn't even have to ask Amelia through the bracelet. She finished it with a few minutes to spare before the end of class, Peter and Ned completing it only minutes after her.

The bell rang not too long after, and the three of them made their way to the next class. They sat in their English classroom, talking about the test while waiting for the class to start.

Kara could hear some of the other students who were in her chemistry class as they passed by, them also exchanging what their answers were. Thankfully, they were all mostly answers that she had gotten.

"What was the answer to the question about testing oxygen gas?" Ned asked the other two nervously as he pulled out the novel they were reading in that class.

"A glowing splint will burst into flames," Kara replied, leaning back in her seat.

"Dang it! That's what I put at first, but then I changed it to that lime water will turn cloudy," Ned sighed in disappointment, slapping his hand to his forehead.

"Nah, that's carbon dioxide, dude." Peter shook his head, giving Ned a sympathetic smile.

"Carbon dioxide? More like carbon I–want–to–di . . . oxide," Ned muttered, shaking his head.

Kara laughed, patting Ned on the shoulder. "That was a good . . . attempt."

English went by rather slowly, the majority of the period being taken up by the low voice that droned on, reading the story that they had been given. Not bothering to listen to the audiobook that was playing, Ned softly groaned to the other two about the one question he had gotten wrong, to which they continually reassured him that it was all right, that it was only one question, and that he had probably gotten everything else correct.

Nonetheless, Ned still didn't look too happy by the end of the class. Kara felt bad for him, he was so upset over it and it was his birthday!

Biology seemed to be no more exciting than the previous class, as they just went over a five-page note on DNA, Mr. Dankworth's monotone voice not making it any more interesting. Although Ned's mood seemed to be picking up, him completely forgetting about the question by the time the bell had rung to signal lunch.

Afterwards, the three went to the cafeteria, Ned rushing them as he wanted to open his present as soon as possible.

"I wonder what it is." Ned stared at the wrapped box with fascination, running his index finger over the smooth surface. He sat down next to Kara with his eyes fixated on the box, Peter sitting across from the two of them.

"Why don't you just open it?" Kara giggled, zipping open her lunch pail.

"Good idea." He nodded, a grin on his face. He carefully tore the purple paper off, somehow managing to not make a single rip. He let out a gasp as he realized what was inside: An R2-D2 figurine that lit up with the press of a button, along with a twenty-five dollar gift card to a local video game store. "Kara, this is awesome! Seriously, you didn't have to! I feel bad!"

"Don't worry about it, I wanted to!" she reassured him with a small laugh. "It's your birthday!"

"Thank you!" He leaned over, engulfing her in a tight hug.

Kara smiled as she embraced him tightly. "No problem."

—♜—

A few days later, Kara nervously stood outside of Peter's apartment, her backpack slung across one shoulder. This was the first time she had ever visited his home, and, honestly, 'nervous' wasn't even enough to describe how she was feeling.

The two of them had planned a small study session since they had a math test the next day. Ned was supposed to come as well but had cancelled on them at the last moment after having thrown up (due to him eating mouldy strawberries that he didn't realize were mouldy).

Finally plucking up the courage, she knocked on the wooden door. It quickly swung open, revealing Peter's Aunt May, whom he had talked about so much.

Kara's eyes slightly widened when she took in his aunt; she was absolutely beautiful. She had long, rich brown hair that ended at her waist, warm brown eyes that were accentuated by her long eyelashes, and was wearing a couple of gold necklaces that glinted off the light.

Peter's aunt gave Kara a welcoming smile. "Hi! You must be Kara!"

"Uh, yes." Kara nodded, an anxious smile on her face. "I'm Kara. Nice to meet you, Ms. Parker!"

"Oh, please, 'Ms. Parker' makes me feel so old," she laughed warmly, gesturing for Kara to come inside. "Call me May."

As she stepped in, Kara looked around the living room. It seemed quite cozy, with its multiple sofa chairs and the grey couch that was covered in red, velvet pillows. Kara's eyes widened when she saw the white bookcase that covered the entire wall behind it, it being filled with thick, well-cared-for books.

May continued as she shut the front door, "You know, Peter has talked so much about you over the last couple of months!"

Kara felt her cheeks redden, though she tried her best to keep her expression innocent as she answered, "Oh?"

"Oh, yeah." May nodded, a small giggle escaping her lips. "It's always 'Kara this' and 'Kara that'! I thought I would've met you before, but—"

"Oh, hi, Kara!" Peter suddenly appeared, his hair a ruffled (and very cute) mess as always. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed that May had stopped talking as soon as he entered the room. "Aunt May . . . What. Are. You. Talking. About?"

A sinister smile spread onto May's face as she turned to him and shrugged. "Oh, I was about to tell her how you always say that you think—"

"Kara, we better start studying! Those questions aren't gonna solve themselves!" Peter interrupted May loudly, leading Kara to wonder what the rest of her sentence was going to be.

It was probably going to be 'Oh, I was about to tell her how you always say that you think that Kara is annoying.' The ending was something she heard often. Usually from either Amelia or Tony's mouth (like father, like daughter?).

"Yeah, we should," Kara agreed with a slight nod. "Nice meeting you, May!"

"You too." May winked.

With his cheeks slightly red, Peter led Kara towards his room, which was down the hall from the living room.

She got a good look around the neat bedroom as they entered; his bed was at the far side, pressed up against the dark wall. His desk was at the side, covered with math notes and different Star Wars and other game-related accessories. She also noted that rather than one light source hanging from his ceiling, he instead had multiple differently-styled lamps placed around the room.

"I like your—" She suddenly gasped when she saw a Super Smash Bros. poster on his wall, which had a main feature of Yoshi. "Yoshi!"

"Yeah, I get sad every time I see him," Peter joked as he sat down at his desk.

"Sad because you know he's the best?" Kara grinned as she sat down in the chair next to his.

"Sad because he's ugly."

She stared at him for a moment. "So wrong." She shook her head as she opened her bag and took out her textbook and notebook.

"Anyway, I was going over the review section of the chapter, and I couldn't figure out this question." Peter pointed to the unfinished question in his notebook, his forehead now creased as he questioned, "Do you know?"

She peered at the question, analyzing it for a moment before nodding. "It's x-cubed and x-squared, so you can take out x-squared from the equation instead of just x."

He sighed as he nodded slowly, "How did I not realize?"

Kara grinned. "Karma for calling Yoshi ugly."

"You're ugly," Peter responded instantly, seemingly out of habit. Realizing what he had said, his eyes immediately widened, and he scrambled to make up for it. "No! No, I don't—I didn't mean—you're not ugly, that's just—just what I say to Ned. You're not—you're very pretty, not—not ugly." His cheeks reddened even further as he realized what he had said to cover up. He shut his eyes, seeming as though he wished he could stop talking.

Kara, who was blushing profusely, laughed it off. "It's okay, Parker, I understand."

He nodded, quickly turning back to the page with cherry red cheeks. "Anyway, t-the teacher said to do, uh, the practice test on page, um . . . one hundred and two."

"Mhm." Kara nodded. "So we should do that?"

"Yeah." He picked up his pencil and quickly fixed his mistake from the previous question before turning the textbook to the practice test. "Oh, um, multiple choice. Okay, I'll quiz you. What are like terms? A) terms that have the same variable and the same exponent, B) one quantity in an algebraic expression, or C) the multiplier placed immediately before the variable in a term?"

"A," Kara answered.

He nodded after double-checking. "Then: How do you check a solution? A) isolate the variable by performing the opposite operation, B) substituting the variable and seeing if the right side equals the left, or C) multiply each term inside the bracket by the term outside the bracket?"

"B."

"Mhm. True or false: When multiplying or dividing algebraic expressions, you should multiply or divide number by number and variable by variable."

She thought for a moment. "True."

"Yeah. Here, let's move on to the actual questions." His eyes moved down to the word problems. He then looked up, squinting his eyes. "Shoot. I think I left my calculator in Aunt May's room, I'll be right back."

After receiving a nod from Kara, Peter left the room, on a mission to find his lost calculator.

A couple of moments later, the door creaked open again, surprising her. "You found it pretty qui—oh, hi, May!"

With a wide smile on her face, May stepped in quietly, closing the door behind her. "Hey! I noticed Peter leaving the room and thought you could use some company. Besides, I want to get to know you better!"

"I'm not complaining," Kara giggled as May took the spot Peter had been sitting in moments before.

"So, Ms. Kara," she began, her eyebrows raising, "Peter tells me you want to be a geneticist?"

Kara nodded. "Yeah, my mom's a doctor and geneticist, so I'm just following her, I guess. You're a nurse, right?"

"Yeah! I work in the emergency room," May confirmed with a smile. "If you ever need any pointers, feel free to ask me. Although, I guess you have your mom to ask," she laughed lightly. "She works with Tony Stark, right? The day he found out, Peter could not stop talking about it. He loves that man, and when he found out his friend's mom works with him? Oh my God, I'm surprised my ears hadn't fallen off that day."

Kara laughed, "Yeah, he seemed really excited when he found out. But my mom's pretty busy, especially with Uncle Tony bothering her all the time, so get ready to be blasted by some questions from me one day."

"You should come back one day, and we can just talk about all that stuff!" May offered with a smile. "Y'know, Peter doesn't have that many friends, so I would love to know more about the girl who's managed to deal with him."

"Oh, he isn't that bad," Kara giggled with a small shake of the head. "Much better than a lot of the guys at our school."

"Oh?" May quirked an eyebrow, an interested smile on her face. "Speaking of guys, are there any you . . . have a crush on? Don't worry, I won't tell Peter. Y'know, just a little girl talk."

Kara could feel her cheeks start to redden. "Oh, well . . ."

Before she could come up with something (she was most definitely not going to tell Peter's aunt that she liked him), the door opened again.

Peter, with a bright smile, entered. "I found it! It was—Aunt May! Wha-what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just talking to Kara about some stuff," May reassured him as she waved a hand in the air. "Nothing to worry about."

Peter narrowed his eyes. "All right . . ."

"Anyway" —May turned back to Kara— "as I was saying, are there any guys that you li—"

"Aunt May, we have to do our math!" Peter tugged on her sleeve gently with one hand, gesturing towards the door with the other.

"Okay, okay," May laughed. "I'll talk to you later." She gave a wink to Kara before leaving, shutting the door behind her.

"What did she say?" Peter immediately asked as he reclaimed his spot. His fingers were now fidgeting with the calculator, mindlessly pressing the buttons and shifting the case that was attached to the back.

"Oh, nothing, we were just talking about her being a nurse and stuff," Kara reassured him, wondering why he was so nervous about this. The way he was acting reminded Kara of herself when the same thing had happened at her house (except that the roles were reversed at that time).

But he couldn't possibly have the same reason for feeling nervous, right?

After receiving several assurances from Kara that May hadn't said anything bad or strange, the two continued to study for their math test for the next couple of hours.

In the beginning, it seemed as though Peter's nerves from before had gotten the best of him, with him stuttering every other second, and blushing at every glance Kara sent his way. Although, Kara could relate with the latter because she felt her heart flutter every time he looked at her, which was quite a lot (she was afraid she'd have a heart attack or heart failure in the near future).

Ned, who was looking a little pale in the face, had Facetimed them halfway through their studying session and joined them in studying for a solid ten minutes before rushing out of his room to throw up yet again. The call didn't last much longer after that.

After finishing, Kara said her goodbyes to Peter and May, making an additional promise to May that she'd visit soon. She carefully answered all of her mom's questions on the way back, making sure not to give her too much information, or else Helen would become far too excited.

Kara laid down on her bed as soon as she entered her room, her mind flurried with thoughts. Did Peter like her back? She sure hoped so. But there was no way, he was way too cute to like somebody like Kara.

With a sigh, she decided that she should probably continue studying for math rather than spend her time thinking about Peter (although that was all she wanted to do). As she took her books out, she prayed that she would find an answer to her question of if Peter liked her or not soon. And a good one, at that.