𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐞- 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫

2.

    Today is my first day at Oscorp and there was no better way than shadowing Gwen all day. She showed me all the labs and different job materials that I needed to accomplish everyday. Eventually we made it through the day in time to make it for one of her tours she's giving.

She introduced the two of us, explaining us as seniors at Midtown Science. She was head intern, and I was shadowing. She laid out the basic rules, only to be interrupted by a man pleading for his entry. He claimed to be Rodrigo Guevara, seemingly trying to enter the tour.

Gwen started the way, waving me after her. We stopped in the lab, motioning for everyone to stay in place.

"Good afternoon, Gwen. Makayla, how's it going?" Dr. Connors walked up.

He introduced himself and even got the crowd to laugh. "I'm a scientist, and the worlds foremost authority on herpetology. That's reptiles, for those who don't know. Like the Parkinson's patient who watched on in horror as her body slowly betrays her, or the man with macular degeneration whose eyes grow dimmer each day, I long to fix myself. Everyone's eyes flicker down to his missing arm. He continues. "I want to create a world without weakness. Anyone care to venture a guess just how?"

A man in the front raises his hand. "Stem cells?"

"Promising. But the solution I'm thinking of is more radical."

No one cared to answer even if they had an idea. "No one?"

"Cross-species genetics." A boy in the back guesses.

The crowd moved apart in order for us to get a clear view of him. Little to my suspicions, it was Peter who spoke up out of them all. My mouth dropped, both Gwen and I taking a look at our own sheets of guests. Of course Peter was not on there, but Rodrigo Guevara was.

"Person gets Parkinson's when the brain cells that produce dopamine start to disappear. But a zebra fish has the ability to regenerate cells on command. If you could give this ability to the women you're talking about, that's that. She's..." he purses his lips, hesitating on whether he might use the right words or not, "she's curing herself."

"Yeah, you just have to look past the gills on her neck." One boy jokes, earning a laugh from everyone.

Dr. Connor's laughs in shock. "And you are...?"

Peter doesn't answer, so I cover for him. "He's one of Midtown Science's best and brightest. He's the second best in class."

"Second? You sure about that?" Peter challenged.

"Yeah." I say, almost in a whisper.

Gwen's eyes doesn't leave Peter as we have this weird debate. I knew she wanted to say third, but I prayed she would stay silent and stay out of this one. She got everything she wanted and each test she received had a red A on it. Mine did too, it was a struggle, but her intelligence almost came effortlessly.

Dr. Connor's excused himself when his phone started ringing. Gwen pulled up a diagram of the tree of life for everyone to busy themselves with. But both of us noticed Peter trying to sneak away.

Gwen made a move, but I put my hand out in front of her. "You keep busy, I've got this."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it." I smiled, my eyes not leaving Peter's back.

She gave in, not wanting to cause a scene. "Make it quick."

I headed off, quickening my pace. "Hey, "Rodrigo"."

Peter stopped mid stride, spinning on his heels to smile back at me. "Hi."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I work here." He lied, then gave in. "I don't work here. I was gonna say I work here, but it seems like you do work here. So you know that I don't."

"It's my first day, actually. Your excuse could've worked." I showed him my training badge. "You would know if you worked here."

"Yeah..." he trailed off. "I snuck in, because I love science."

"That's what I presumed." I pursed.

"Makayla." Gwen called.

"Listen, I need to go. I can not get fired just yet. You better not get in trouble." I warned, speeding my way back up to my spot beside Gwen.

The whole tour made me question whether or not I should've let Peter go alone. But I didn't want to be seen has irritating or a blockage to his weird science desperation.

But luckily the tour went by just fine and there was no more yelling or screaming about an intruder. Next time we saw Peter was on his way out. I didn't question why he was there because Gwen already beat me to it, taking his fake name tag while she was at it.

🕸︎ 🕸︎

The next day at school was long all the way up until my class with Peter. I was waiting all day to ask him about why he was there yesterday. Not because I was nosy, but because his love for science intrigued me. Okay, maybe I was a bit nosy too.

I was walking down the halls with Serena by my side to my next class that I had with Peter. I was curious to know why he was at Oscorp, but with the recent whispers going around I was sure he wouldn't be there.

"Did you hear Peter Parker broke the backboard to the basketball hoop?" She wondered, then continued to explain how she heard it and how crazy it was for a boy like Peter to go messing with Flash.

I was listening at first, but began humming along to the conversation she somehow flipped so the topic could be about her. Turning the corner, I stopped in my tracks seeing Peter with an older gentlemen. Serena shockingly waited for me to say something, furrowing her eyes at Peter then back to me.

"I'll be back. Go to class, I'll meet you there." I wave her off. She scrunched up her nose, but made no effort to call after me.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Oh, hey." He noticed.

The gentlemen whispered a few things to him. Things I couldn't catch cause they were too quiet. As the gentlemen was leaving, he waved to me. "He's got you on his computer."

I chuckled, waving to the gentlemen as he was leaving.

"I'm so sorry about him." Peter chuckled awkwardly. "He's uh... he's my Uncle Ben. He lies, a lot. He's really good at it."

"So you don't have me on your computer?" I smirked playfully.

"Just the picture of us from last year. The science project, you know? I was proud of it so I was reminiscing about it the other night." He scratched the back of his neck, keeping his head low out of embarrassment.

"Right." I accepted. "Is the backboard a lie too?"

"You heard about that?" He grimaced, his hands going into his jacket pockets.

"Only the hottest drama yet."

He chuckled without saying anything else. I started for class, knowing now wouldn't be a good time to ask about Oscorp, but I heard his voice trailing behind me.

"Would you wanna... would wanna do something?" He stuttered. "Or nothing? I mean, or everything? You wanna eat, or...?"

I chuckled, seeing how nervous he was. I was nervous too. I was only ever asked out by one boy and it went sideways. Now here I am standing in front of Peter Parker debating whether or not I wanted to eat with him.

"Yes, I want to eat." I agreed, mocking his strange way of asking.

"Oh cool, right now?" He wondered.

"Not everyone gets off of school, Parker."

"Right." He smiled. "I'll see you sometime, then?"

"I mean, it's only one class I suppose." I shrugged, setting my science book back into my backpack.

Peter raised his eyebrows, but didn't dare to argue. I smiled, rushing out the door with him.