Walking the Wire | PETER PARKER [1]

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Eloise is doing her homework in her room while eating M&Ms, listening to her playlist when her door opens and her mom's head pops in.

She sees her daughter lounging on her bed with her computer in front of her and frowns.

Eloise pours more M&Ms in her mouth. "What's up?"

She can practically feel the disappointment in her mother's gaze as she looks at her daughter lying on her bed, stuffing her face with M&Ms, a High School Musical poster from the first grade still hung up on her wall. Eloise used to have more posters from when she was younger, but the only poster that stayed was the one of Troy Bolton because, well, Zac Efron. In addition to that poster, there are a few others, but instead of being from musicals they just have some quotes and words on them.

Her mom opens the door more and steps in. "Dinner's ready, if you're not too full from your candy spree." She eyes the candy wrappers on the floor.

"I'm on my period and I'm 16," Eloise defends herself. "I'm allowed to have chocolate."

She sighs and rubs her face. "I brought home some Chinese take out if you want any."

"Thanks," Eloise says, even though she has no intentions of leaving the comfort of her room until morning. "I'll come get some when I'm done with my homework."

The woman nods and leaves, shutting the door behind her. Eloise tunes back into her work, but it gets too stuffy. She rolls off the bed and hits the floor hard, wincing. She rubs her elbow and rises to her feet before opening the only small window in her bedroom. She shoves her face out of it and take a deep breath, inhaling the somewhat fresh air.

"Hey, Eloise."

She almost falls out. Her head whips to the side and she sees Ned, the boy who was building the LEGO Death Star, poking his head out of a window about eight feet away. He must be visiting his friend again.

Eloise turns more so she can see him better while being comfortable and leans her elbows on the windowsill.

"Hey, Ned. Did you and your friend finish the Death Star?"

He smiles. He has a nice smile. "Yeah. Now we're building the Millennium Falcon."

Her eyes widen. "Wow, that's going to be hard."

He shrugs. "Not really. Peter and I have been building with LEGOS together since we were, like, five."

There's a muffled voice that comes from the window Ned's leaning out of. He looks behind him into the apartment and says something incoherent. Then, he disappears back into the room. After a second a second boy pops his head out.

Damn, he's cute. He's got warm brown eyes, a sharp jaw, and messy brown hair.

The teenager's eyes lock with Eloise's and widen slightly.

"Hi," She greets with a small wave and a friendly smile. "Are you Peter?"

He nods quickly. "Um, yeah ." He glances back in the room, she assumes at Ned specifically. When he meets her eyes again, he swallows dryly. "And you're Eloise."

It isn't a question, but Eloise nods. It's nice to finally meet her neighbor that she's lived next to for she doesn't even know how long.

"I need to get back to my homework, but it was a pleasure meeting you, Peter," Eloise says after a few moments of awkward silence.

Peter nods vigorously. "Oh, right, sorry, okay. Um, yeah. Have fun." He waves and then ducks back into his room without another word.

She chuckles lightly at his cute awkwardness and goes to shut her window, but before she can, she hears Ned say to Peter, "See? I told you she was nice and cute."

🕸

On Wednesday after class ends and school is out for the day, Eloise returns to her locker. She stuffs her falling-apart textbooks into her backpack and pulls it over her shoulders.

She waves and smiles at her fellow students on her way out of the school and practically race-walks home. She can't wait until she's in her comfy bed watching Netflix on her computer instead of doing the mountains of homework weighing down her backpack. She doesn't hate school, but nothing beats being in her bed cuddled up with some of her favorite episodes from binge-worthy shows.

On her way Eloise passes by Midtown, as usual since it's on her path home. They're getting out now too, and normally Eloise doesn't run into any of the rich brainy students. She does pass by a few of them leaving, though. They get into their cars and climb up onto their nice clean buses. She watches the students driving their expensive cars leave the parking lot. Not one car is dirty or looks like it is more than a few years old, whereas the few students at Park East who can actually afford a car have to use old, barely-running pick ups and other vehicles of the like. It makes her sad, knowing that the people who deserve the best get the worst.

Eloise reaches the apartment building and climbs the stairs instead of taking the elevator because it was taking too long to reach the lobby. By the time she reaches her floor, she's out of breath and tired.

Eloise meanders over to the correct door. As she's digging in her pockets for the keys, the elevator dings and opens. She glances over at it over her shoulder as two familiar boys walk out of it: Ned and Peter.

Ned spots Eloise first. "Hi, Eloise!" He waves. Peter looks at his friend and blushes slightly in embarrassment.

"Hi Ned, hi Peter," she greets as they near.

Peter smiles nervously in return. "Hey."

"What are you guys up to?" She asks them casually, pulling out her keys.

Ned replies quickly. "Um, nothing secretive, we're just going to do stuff that normal teenage boys do." He laughs nervously.

Eloise pauses and watches them, unsure. "Okay..."

Peter shoots Ned a look and Ned helplessly shrugs and whispers something. Peter shakes his head and unlocks his door. He pushes Ned through quickly.

"See you later, Eloise!" He calls as he disappears inside. The door slams shut behind the two boys and she's left out in the hallway with her keys in hand, confused.

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Attached Song: Meet You There by 5 Seconds of Summer

if you guys haven't noticed yet, the songs don't always match the chapter they're attached to. every song does, however, relate to the book in a whole because i listened to the songs as i was writing this book and the lyrics inspired some events and/or feelings/emotions of some characters.

again, thank you everyone for checking out my book! even silent readers are very appreciated. thank you for voting if you vote and reading!

side note: if any of you spot a grammatical mistake or anything of the like, don't be afraid to point it out to me in the comments or pm me about it as long as you're polite. i am perfectly okay with constructive criticism and being shown if i did something wrong in a respectable manner.

thanks!

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