𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝟔

—♟—

𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀, 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 Ned were sitting in a classroom with quite a few other students for the first decathlon team meeting.

The decathlon team was one of the few things Kara had been looking forward to in high school, as opposed to the many things she hadn't been too excited about.

Her interest had first been sparked when her Uncle Bruce had taken her to watch one of the competitions when Kara was twelve years old; she was so amazed by the amount of knowledge that each student had, and she couldn't wait to one day be like them.

They had just gotten their geometry unit tests back in math class about fifteen minutes before, and Ned had gotten one question wrong, so he'd been complaining to them for the last fourteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds. It had not been pleasant.

"I don't understand! Why did I calculate the area of the cylinder? It's obviously supposed to be the volume! Cylinder uses volume! It messed the rest of the question up! Why does God have to punish me? I've been a good boy!" Ned looked up towards the ceiling, now apparently scolding the big guy up there.

"God isn't Santa Claus, Ned," Peter laughed at him, shaking his head as a couple of more people Kara didn't recognize stepped into the classroom.

"Still!" Ned insisted, sighing deeply as he stuffed his paper into his bag.

Mr. Harrington, the decathlon team leader and one of the science teachers, walked into the classroom, immediately silencing the room. He looked to be in his thirties, with medium-length brown hair, along with having a bit of a beard. He had grey-rimmed oval glasses, which made Kara think of Harry Potter's own glasses—if they were slightly squished.

"Hello, everyone! Today is October twenty-fifth, AKA the day of the first decathlon team meeting of the year!" he announced dramatically, giving them an award-winning smile. "Today, we won't get too much into the decathlon preparation, I just want you guys to get to know each other! The most important part of a team is collaboration and trust, so . . . go mingle!" Mr. Harrington encouraged, waving his hands through the air.

At first, only reluctant looks were exchanged, but the room was soon filled with the noise of scraping chairs and awkward hellos as people heeded the teacher's wishes. The people who had been on the team previously seemed friendly enough as they greeted the newcomers.

"Do you think we could just mingle with each other?" Ned asked the other two, hope in his brown eyes.

"I mean, we could, but what's the point in that?" Kara laughed. "We probably should get to know the other people if we're gonna be on the team."

"I guess," Ned said grumpily, folding his arms.

Kara turned to the girl who was sitting at the desk next to her.

The girl had gorgeous, light brown skin, with dark brown hair that had been curled and cascaded a little below her shoulders. She had delicate features that formed a beautiful face, with bright, doe eyes, and smooth, plump lips that had been glossed over with a pink tint. She was wearing a thin, gold bracelet on her right wrist that had a few small hoops of gold that were spread out, the sparkling piece of jewelry complimenting her skin tone.

Judging by her mature looks, and the textbooks that were sitting under her desk, Kara could tell that this girl was in a higher grade than her.

"Hey, I'm Kara," she greeted her with a smile.

"I'm Liz! Nice to meet you." The girl grinned, revealing a set of perfect, pearly-white teeth. "Are you new here? I haven't seen you around before."

"I'm in grade nine," Kara clarified as she nodded.

"Oh, you're a freshman!" Liz said in surprise, her eyebrows raising. "I'm in grade eleven."

"So you were on the team last year?" Kara asked eagerly. "Did you like it?"

"Yeah! It's super fun, and it's a good challenge." Liz nodded before adding, "Plus, I get to meet a lot of new people as well."

"That's good to hear." Kara grinned, leaning her chin against her hand.

"So, what classes do you have this semester?" Liz asked curiously. 

"Chem, English, bio, Spanish, shop, and geography," Kara listed, using her fingers to count the six subjects.

"Oh, bio?" Liz repeated with raised eyebrows. "Do you have Mr. Dankworth as your teacher?" 

"Yeah." Kara nodded in confirmation.

"Okay, well, he's super picky, so make sure to be very detailed whenever you do projects and stuff," she advised, giving her a knowing smile.

"Oh, really? I have a project right now, actually, about the nervous system." Kara folded her arms, now becoming slightly agitated about it.

"I did that one in grade nine, too! I can send you mine if you want so that you can kinda see how you should do it," she offered, grinning.

"That would be really helpful, thanks!" Kara smiled. She loved this girl already.

After the two exchanged phone numbers, a girl with short, ginger hair, and adorable freckles approached Liz's desk. It seemed as though this girl already knew Liz as she gave a warm smile. "Hey, Lizzie!"

"Talk to you later." Liz sent Kara a playful wink before turning to the girl, beginning to start a conversation with her.

Kara turned back to Ned and Peter, who obviously did not take her advice, and were still just talking to each other.

"Glad to see you two mingling with other people." Kara raised her eyebrows at them.

They turned to her, their eyes wide.

"We did!" Ned insisted. "When you weren't looking, we actually talked to everyone else, and you just didn't see. We started to talk to each other right before you turned around because there was no one left to talk to."

"Right," Kara laughed. "Anyway, if you guys want to meet the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, she's right there." She gestured to Liz behind her, who was still chatting to her friend.

A strange look came over Peter's face as Kara said this, his eyebrows furrowing as he stared at her. "You're beautiful, too," he blurted. His eyes widened once he realized what he had said, red beginning to flood his cheeks. "I—I mean, because you know, everyone is, uh, beautiful in t-their own way. Like . . . Ned. Ned is very beautiful."

Ned and Kara furrowed their eyebrows in confusion, and looked at each other, exchanging expressions of bewilderment.

After a moment, Ned shrugged, seeming to have accepted what Peter had said. "You're not wrong. Anyway, mingling is for losers. And we are not losers, therefore, we don't mingle."

"Are you calling me a loser, Ned?" Kara gasped dramatically, pretending to be offended as she stared at him with wide eyes.

Ned looked at her for a moment. "Yes."

—♟—

"Mom, Parker's gonna be here any minute, so please, please, please don't say anything embarrassing," Kara pleaded with her mother as she walked down the stairs.

Peter was coming over to work on a project with Kara. They were supposed to do a presentation for biology class, about how the nervous system works and such. Their teacher was strict on the fact that it had to be two people per group, and, luckily for Kara, Ned had been feeling generous that day and decided to partner up with another friend of his.

Helen looked up from the book she was reading as she sat on one of the grey couches, a slight smile on her face.

"Don't worry, I won't." She paused. "Probably."

"Mom!"

"Relax, relax, I'm not gonna tell him that you have a crush on him," she reassured Kara, placing her book on top of the glass coffee table that sat in the middle of the two couches.

Kara rubbed her eyes, already being able to tell that this wasn't going to go too well for her. "I don't have a crush on him!"

Sure, Kara thought that Peter was really cute, and super smart, and kind, and funny, and he had a lot of the same interests as her, and you know, her heart skips a beat or two every time he smiles at her, and she feels kinda nervous whenever she's alone with him, and—

Maybe she did have a crush on Peter.

There was no way she was admitting this to her mother, though.

Kara began to mumble to herself, "Oh, God, this was a mistake. I should've gone to his place instead, oh no, this is gonna be a disaster, I'm gonna get so embarrassed—"

"Calm down, I'll just say a quick hello, and that's all. I have some work to do anyway, Tony's been on my ass about a project, he's so impatient." Helen got up and smoothed the back of Kara's hair. "I'll be on my best behaviour. Pinky promise." She held out her pinky towards her.

Before Kara could lock her pinky around her mom's, the doorbell rang, telling them that Peter had finally arrived. With one last warning glare at Helen, Kara opened the door.

"Hey, Kara!" He smiled, his backpack slung around one shoulder.

"Hi! Come in." Kara gestured for him to step inside, closing the door behind him as he did so.

"Hello, Peter!" Helen walked up to him, a grand smile on her face. Her eyes slightly widened when she saw him, and her eyes flitted over to Kara for a moment, a smirk beginning to form on her lips. "Kara's talked so much about you!"

Kara closed her eyes. It's already begun.

"R-really?" Peter looked around at her, his eyebrows raised. "I, uh, hope she's been saying good things."

"Oh yes, great things," Helen reassured him, her smirk growing bigger. "She told me that you're very smart, very nice, very, very cu—"

"Parker, we should get working on that presentation, right? Got loads of stuff to do, mhm, yes we do," Kara interrupted her loudly before she could continue. "Let's go to my room, mhm, this way."

She grabbed Peter's hand and guided him up the stairs, sending her mom a death glare as she did. Helen only smiled sweetly in return, sending her a playful wink as she waved goodbye.

They walked into Kara's room, and Peter's eyes widened as he looked around. "Whoa, your room is so nice!"

"Thanks." Kara smiled as she looked around at the grey walls, one wall being decorated with posters and photos that were posted above the wooden desk that sat next to her bed, with fairy lights that were hung around the pictures. She walked over to one of the hanging basket chairs that she had in the corner, straightening the throw pillows that were on it.

As Peter continued to look around her room with wonder, Kara turned to admire her mahogany bookshelf that was next to her digital piano, something she did quite often.

There were five different rows, with the bottom two being dedicated to the many books that she's read millions of times, the middle being dedicated to The Flash and Percy Jackson merchandise, and the top two being dedicated solely to Harry Potter.

The second highest one held the three book sets Kara had purchased, one hardcover original set, one Ravenclaw-themed set, and one special edition set, where the spines of the books formed to make a beautiful image of Hogwarts.

The top one was devoted to the different figurines, wands, jewelry, and collective items that she's bought and received, the merchandise being arranged in an organized fashion.

"Wait, is that—" Peter narrowed his eyes as he walked up to a photo of Amelia, Tony, Peter, and Kara that they had taken last year during Christmas. The four of them were grouped in front of a large, festively lit Christmas tree, while they were still at Stark Tower.

"Orchid, Quicksilver, and Iron Man? Yep," Kara laughed, taking a seat on one of the chairs in front of the desk. She opened her laptop, clicking on a blank Google Slides presentation for them to start with.

"Cool!" Peter's eyes were fixated on the image as he sat down on the extra chair that Kara had brought into the room before. Kara wondered what he would act like if he were to meet the man in real life. All she knew was that his reaction would be the cutest thing she would ever see.

He set his backpack down on the ground, leaning it against the edge of the desk. He unzipped it, grabbing the green notebook he always used for his biology notes, opening it to the page that contained the information they had written down in class.

The two began to work on the first information slide, starting with the structure of the system. "The messages are delivered along a chain of cells called neurons, or nerve cells," Kara murmured to herself as she typed it down, furrowing her eyebrows in concentration. "These neurons connect together at a synapse." She didn't notice the fact that Peter was gazing at her as she wrote this all down, nor that his cheeks reddened as she turned to look at him. "Anything else?"

"Uh . . . no, that's it." He shook his head quickly.

"Okay." She nodded as she turned back to the screen, creating a new slide. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."

When Kara returned to her room, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she noticed the chair that Peter was previously sitting in, the seat now being empty. She tilted her head for a second, trying to think where he could've gone off to.

Perhaps he had gone to the bathroom? No, Kara was just there. Kitchen? Backyard? Liv—

Kara then realized exactly where he was.

She walked downstairs to the living room, to see Peter and her mom talking, sitting on opposite couches. Helen paused in the middle of her sentence when she noticed Kara walking toward her, clearly not wanting her daughter to hear what she was saying.

A worried smile took place on Kara's face as her eyes flickered between the two. "Hey guys, what, uh . . . what are you two talking about?"

"Oh, just school stuff." Helen shrugged as Kara sat down next to her. "Did you know that Peter graduated elementary school with a ninety-nine percent average? What a smart boy!"

All her anxiety quickly disappeared as Kara looked at him, relieved that her mom wasn't talking about her. "Oh, wow, really?"

Peter gave a modest shrug, the fingers of his right hand nervously picking at the hem of his maroon sweater. "The teachers weren't, uh, that picky, I'm sure a lot of other kids got high marks too."

"Humble as well." Helen winked at her, not so subtly. "You seem like the perfect boyfr—"

Kara elbowed her lightly.

"The perfect boy-space-friend that a girl could want."

"Well, I don't know about that," Peter chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm glad the two of you had your bonding time, but we really need to finish this project." Kara smiled, hoping to get out of this situation as soon as she could. "And Mom, didn't you say you had work to do? Uncle Tony is depending on you!"

"Yes, right. I'll talk to you later, Mr. Peter Parker." She smiled at him. She then turned, and spoke to her in Korean, "Make sure to take another bathroom break, I want to ask your boyfriend more questions."

"He's not my boyfriend, and I am not going to take any more breaks," Kara responded in the same language, sticking her tongue out at her.

Peter and Kara walked back to her room, sitting down at her desk once again. Peter immediately began to apologize, "Sorry for leaving like that, your mom just came in and asked her if I wanted a chat with her, and how could I say no? That'd be rude, so obviously—"

"Don't worry about it," Kara interrupted his small ramble, laughing. "But she didn't say anything . . . weird, right?"

"No, of course not! Your mom is really nice!" He shook his head quickly, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, she sometimes gets a bit excited when I have friends over, so . . ." Kara smiled as she moved on to the next slide, internally relieved that her mom hadn't said anything bad.

Kara loved talking to her mom about everything. She told her about her worries, her troubles, her moments of happiness, and most of her secrets. However, Helen was not usually the best at keeping all of it to herself.

"My Aunt May is the same," Peter let out a small chuckle as he looked over his notes.

"Well, I'm excited to meet her." She grinned, beginning to start on the next slide.

"I hope it's not anytime soon," he laughed, his fluffy hair bouncing as he shook his head. "She's probably going to tell you a bunch of embarrassing stories about me."

"Even better." She winked, not seeing his cheeks flood with colour as she turned back to the computer.

She continued copying the notes onto the slide for a few seconds, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she made sure not to skip a word. Suddenly, a thought hit her, causing her to stop typing and straighten up.

"Is everything okay?" Peter tilted his head, confused by her sudden halt.

"I just remembered, Liz sent me her presentation about the nervous system last week," she told him as she opened a new tab, searching up Google Slides.

That clearly helped him no more as his expression grew only more baffled. "Liz?"

"The really pretty girl from the decathlon meeting that I showed you guys, remember?" She reminded him as she opened up her presentation, instantly being greeted by a deep blue slide that had an image of a brain, along with 'The Nervous System' next to it, in bold, yellow letters. "Anyway, she said that Mr. Dankworth is picky, so I figured that we could see how she did her presentation."

Kara quickly went through her slides, impressed by the amount of effort Liz had put into them. She had everything and more: colourful charts, diagrams, definitions, tons of pictures, a video, and even a Kahoot game at the end of it. If this didn't get a hundred percent, Kara didn't know what would.

"Okay," Kara murmured to herself as she went back onto their slides, "now we just need to somehow make ours better than that, which I'm not too sure we can do."

"I'm sure we can, it'll just take time." Peter gave her a reassuring smile, one that made her heart flutter. "And we have until the end of November, so we should be fine."

"Well, then I guess you and I will have to get together more often to work on this then." Kara turned to him, raising her eyebrows.

The tips of his ears turned red. "Y-yeah, I guess so."

A couple of hours later, they had finished a good four slides, only leaving thirty-six left for their future selves to do.

Admittedly, they had gotten slightly off-track when he noticed the small figurine of Yoshi that was placed on the corner of her desk, and yet another playful argument broke out between the two of them. Obviously, there was only one way to settle it, so they played a few rounds of Super Smash Bros on the Wii in the living room, which resulted in a six to zero win for Peter. However, Kara still didn't accept this as justification for Wario's supposed superiority.

When his aunt arrived to pick him up, Kara said a quick goodbye, promising to text him later to figure out when they were going to work on our presentation next. As soon as the door shut, Helen turned to Kara, a wide smile growing on her face.

"No," Kara warned her, already knowing what she was going to say.

"Kara, he's perfect! Very cute, incredibly smart, well-mannered, modest, dresses nicely—I love him!" Helen burst out in excitement, clapping her hands together as they sat down on one of the couches.

"Mom," Kara groaned as she rubbed her forehead, "I've only known him for a month and a half!"

"So what? That doesn't mean the two of you shouldn't date." She shrugged, leaning back. "And a month and a half isn't that bad! You two are good friends by now, why not just turn it into boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Oh my God," Kara muttered as she closed her eyes, leaning onto the back of the couch.

"I'm just saying," Helen insisted, "I think that he's the right guy for you!"

"You talked to him for like, ten minutes in total!" Kara protested, folding her arms.

"And that ten minutes was good enough." Helen grinned, giving a slight nod. "I guess I'll just watch as this plays out, it'll be fun for me to spectate."

—♟—

Kara walked into one of the living rooms in the Avengers Compound, which, she realized as she looked around, was completely void of people.

Kara and her mom were supposed to go grocery shopping today, but Helen had a quick meeting with Tony to get through first, so she told her to wait here for her.

She quickly made her way to the grand piano that she adored and sat down on the sleek bench. She had been playing piano ever since she was a young girl, and the musical instrument was something she treasured quite dearly.

Her fingers gently pressed against the keys, doing a few of the Hanon exercises she had been forced to memorize by her first piano teacher (who was pretty mean).

After she had finished those, she opened the piano book that was resting in front of her and quickly opened it to a random page.

Other than Amelia, Kara was the only one who actually used the piano. And since Amelia wasn't there that often, Kara usually just left her piano books on the music rack for easy access.

Her eyes following the music sheet, she played Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue in A minor. She liked this one quite a lot, as not only was it nice, but it was only a bit longer than two minutes long, faring shorter than most other songs she usually liked to play.

She sighed happily as she reached the end of the song. She loved the piano.

Kara then got a notification from Instagram, telling her that Ned had texted the group chat that consisted of him, Peter, and Kara. She unlocked her phone and pressed on it, the action leading her to the group chat (Which they had named 'The Asiancy + Peter'), to see the message.

@nedleeds1: Hey!!!! Do you guys wanna come to my house today?? I just got Mario Party 10!!!! :D

@kara.cho: Sorry!! I can't! I'm at the compound right now, and then I'm going shopping with my mom :(

@_peterparker: Compound?? Like... the Avengers Compound???

@kara.cho: Yeah!!

@nedleeds1: Holy crap!! That's awesome!!!

@nedleeds1: Wait!! Is Tony Stark with you??????????? :0

@_peterparker: Omggg

@kara.cho: No lol Tony's in his office with my mom

@_peterparker: Cool!!

@nedleeds1: Awesome!!!

@kara.cho: What, that he's in his office?? That's cool and awesome??

@nedleeds1: MEGA awesome!! :DDDD

"Knock, knock."

Kara looked up to see Nat leaning against the door frame, her red hair tied back in a low ponytail.

"Oh, Auntie Nat, hey!" Kara grinned, glancing down as she sent one last text.

@kara.cho: Gotta go, Black Widow's here!!

@nedleeds1: WHAAAAAAT!!!!!!!

"I heard the piano and figured you were here." Nat smiled as she sat down in the chair that sat next to the piano, leaning against the arm. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in a while."

Kara shrugged, putting her phone in her pocket. "Not much has changed."

"Oh, really? Didn't you start high school a couple of months ago? That's a pretty big change." She raised her eyebrows knowingly. She wiped a fake tear from her eye as she pretended to sob, "My little Kara is a big girl now."

"I guess," Kara chuckled with another shrug. "Yeah, it's a bit harder, but I mean, not too bad."

"I wouldn't think that it'd be hard for someone like you, Miss Smarty Pants." Nat winked. "Anything else? Do you have a boyfriend yet?"

"No." Kara shook her head, smiling. Nat asked her this every time Kara saw her since she was in the seventh grade, and her answer still has not changed. And she wasn't too sure when it would.

"Okay, then," she said slowly, squinting her eyes, "any boy you like?"

". . . Nope." Kara shook her head once more, folding her arms.

"C'mon, Kara, you think I can't tell if you're lying?" Nat scoffed in amusement, a smirk quickly growing on her face. "I've known you since you were nine years old. Also, you're a horrible liar."

"Okay, fine." Kara sighed, immediately giving in. It was Nat, after all. "I guess . . . there's this guy . . . Peter Parker . . ." she admitted reluctantly, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"Ooh, Peter Parker? Is he a friend?" Nat nudged her, getting the same excited look that both Helen and Amelia had when they had found out about him. Although, Kara guessed Nat was the first person to who she was confessing that she had a crush on Peter.

"Yeah, he's my friend," Kara mumbled, feeling her cheeks growing a little warmer.

"Does your mom know?" Nat questioned, a small laugh escaping her lips. "I bet she'd freak out."

"Kind of?" Kara answered with a scrunched face. "And, yeah, when he came over to work on a project, she almost exposed me, like, ten times. It was terrible."

"Make sure not to tell Tony though, if he ever meets this Peter guy, that'd be the first thing he'd say to him. Straight up 'Kara has a crush on you'," Nat advised, tucking a strand of hair that had managed to fall out of her ponytail behind her ear.

"Trust me, I don't think I'd ever tell Uncle Tony about my crushes anyway," Kara giggled. She straightened up, her eyes widening as she realized, "I should make sure to tell Amelia not to tell him though. Or would that just make her tell him?"

"Honestly, I don't even know," Nat chuckled. "She's an unpredictable girl."

"But anyway, what've you been up to?" Kara asked with a small sigh. "I haven't seen you around for a few months."

"Uh . . ." Nat squinted her eyes for a couple of moments before shrugging and answering, "Visiting friends."

Kara raised her eyebrows. "You mean top secret stuff that you can't tell me about?"

"You got me," Nat conceded as she gave her a guilty smile. "Nothing too cool though, just boring government stuff."

"I mean, did the government stuff include aliens?" Kara grinned. "That'd be pretty awesome."

"Nope, nothing like that. As I said, boring." Nat gave her a thumbs down, blowing a raspberry. "I haven't done anything cool in a while."

"I mean you're talking to me, that's pretty cool," Kara giggled, gesturing to herself.

"You're right, my bad. I haven't done anything cool for a while before today," she corrected herself with a small chuckle.

"How about you, any boys in your life?" Kara raised her eyebrows before scrunching her nose. "Or men, I guess."

"I've been too busy to even think about men." Nat shrugged, relaxing back into the seat. "Work comes first."

"I see, I see," Kara mused, nodding slowly.

"Kara, time to go!" Helen came into the room, slipping her coat back on. She gave a quick wave of hello to Nat before answering her ringing phone.

"I'll see you later!" Kara grinned as she closed her piano book, giving Nat a quick hug after.

"Good luck with Peter!" She winked, keeping her voice hushed so that her mom wouldn't hear her.

Kara laughed as she waved goodbye. "Thanks, I'm gonna need all the luck that I can get."