THE REST OF the school day resulted in Christina sitting in her Calculus class, staring out the window and being completely zoned out after doing her assignment. She just looked onward and into oblivion, thinking about everything that had occurred not even an hour ago and feeling flabbergasted at what she had seen in the hallway that wasn't too far from her current location. She felt as though she had just witnessed a scene from an action movie right outside the room and it was so surreal to her, and it seemed like a dream.

Only... it wasn't a dream. It was real.

When the hell did Peter learn to fight all of a sudden? Christina wondered to herself. If this was a secret he had been keeping from her the whole time, then it hurt her a little bit. Sure, she was truly impressed by his skills, but it was something that he didn't do to defend himself yesterday at the science lab. That could have been because there were teachers and staff members around and he didn't want to risk getting in trouble. But that didn't help the situation make any more sense. It was still confusing as hell. She just didn't understand how all of it came to fruition.

Christina hadn't seen Peter since he had run off. Maybe he had left and ran all the way home to avoid getting himself in trouble or he could have wanted to be by himself for a while before coming back to the school to accept his punishment. She had no idea where he currently was and she had no way of contacting him until she got out of school, so she was worried sick at this point. And for good reason. He might've gotten hurt by some of the most horrendous people of New York, he might've gotten stabbed or shot... or worse. She didn't want to get into the details but the point was that she was worried for his safety.

Harry had also seemed to be worried when they both saw Peter running by what seemed as though his life depended on getting away from this shitty excuse of a school. If it were a different way or a different situation, Christina would have understood that, but she most certainly couldn't right now. Everything had just happened out of the blue and she was still so stunned by it all that she couldn't even think straight, not that she had any reason to at the moment. Her anxiety was off the charts and that was all that she was aware of, despite trying to calm herself down. Her heart was going a mile a minute and, no matter what she did, she couldn't stop it.

She let the eraser of her pencil tap against the smooth, wooden desk as gently as she could since she didn't want to cause a distraction to her classmates but also to help herself with her nervousness. She had already finished her assignment, but she was too bored at the moment, so what else could she do? She had a book with her but she felt as though she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the words in the text without putting it down or slamming her hands against the desk. She glanced at the clock on the white wall. 2:57, it read. She was so close go throwing herself in her car and speeding down the streets of Queens in order to find Peter, no matter what it took.

But she didn't do that. Instead, she remained in her seat, her shoulders stiff with impatience as she waited... and waited... and waited....

Christina stared at the short hand and the long hand ticking and ticking on that godforsaken clock, ready to scream with frustration. But, just as she was about to, all that was let out was an audible sigh of relief as the bell rang loudly all throughout the school. She jumped up, grabbed her school books and sprinted out of the classroom as fast as she could but she made sure to stop at her locker for a moment to put her books in there for the weekend since she didn't have homework and she didn't have to study for any tests coming up. Afterwards, she jogged towards the double doors that went to the parking lot where the students' cars were every day until they could go home. She booked it to her Volkswagen and got in the car, slamming the driver's door beside her.

The blonde looked in the rear view mirror and saw the troubled expression in her bright blue eyes. She combed her fingers through her hair; a coping mechanism for her anxiety, you could say. Whenever Christina grew perturbed, she would play with her hair to help it go away and it worked... most of the time. The fact that her best friend could be in danger certainly wasn't helping the matter of what was going on for sure, and she was aware of that.

Taking a short breath, she turned the ignition after inserting her key into it and the engine roared to life right as she reversed into the pathway between the parking spaces. Christina then pressed on the gas and began speeding out of the lot, but not so much as to accidentally hit someone passing by or to make them frightened of her. She then put on her seatbelt and drove out of the school premises, starting to go towards Peter's house, the one location she knew he would go towards after something like this. Well, not that this had happened before. He never fought back against Flash but he decided it would be a good idea to do so today.

Unlike other days, Christina didn't bother admiring the scenery as she drove, since she had another task at hand. She was aware that she was driving as though she were late for work or something, but she didn't really care about that. She only had one thing to do and she was going to get it done, no matter the outcome.

About fifteen minutes passed by and she finally pulled up to the small house on Elm Street, putting her car in park next to the sidewalk. The blonde stepped out of the vehicle and shut the door behind her before jogging up the brick stairs of the home. She politely knocked on the door, hoping that the residents inside the house would hear it well enough to see what she wanted. She lightly tapped her foot against the red bricks, her black slip-on shoes bouncing up and down very softly to the point that they almost weren't making any noise.

Just as she turned her head to look out into the street, the door opened behind her and she could hear the clicking of the screen door as it struggled to pry itself from the latch. She whipped her head around and came face to face with the elderly woman with eyes that held a line between the emotions of sternness and care and, while Christina was intimidated by those eyes, she couldn't help but feel welcome every time she stepped inside the Parker residence.

"Christina, what is it?" asked Aunt May in a worried tone, a small frown on her face. The blonde woman looking at her was able to sneak a glance into the living room and spot Ben Parker sitting in one of the two chairs that had been in that room for as long as she could remember. But no sign of Peter. Much to her shock, she didn't seem to be surprised that her friend wasn't home at all, but that only concerned her more. Instead of panicking, however, she just looked back at the older woman in front of her and examined her for a moment.

May Parker was a peaceful woman of sixty-seven, fourteen years older than Christina's mother, who was fifty-three. Every wrinkle surrounding her green eyes spoke of the kindness that had been emanating from the elderly woman since she was around the blonde girl's age, and she often looked at her as a granddaughter of some sorts since she was always around because of her connection to Peter. May couldn't deny how close the two were and even suspected that her nephew liked the girl romantically at some point, although he kept denying it.

To this day, he still denied it and had been since he was six; that was around the time Mary Jane Watson had moved next door and he had eyes for her for the past eleven years and had never stopped. But May kept noticing signs that there was affection that Peter had towards the Johnson girl that he had known even before Mary Jane had moved to Queens with her less-than-tolerable parents. He did do a great job of hiding that bit of information, however, especially since he had confessed to his aunt that he had loved the redhead since he was in the fourth grade. So she kept her mouth shut about Christina and had been quiet about it ever since finding that out.

Regardless of this, she kept on being suspicious of the two and had been doing so for the past decade now, although she was silent about it.

"Um... nothing, really, Aunt May," Christina replied after an extended moment of time, the concern in her voice more evident than she thought. "I was just wondering if Peter was here, maybe. I've been looking for him since school let out."

May's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion as she looked behind herself and in Ben's direction, noticing that her husband had set down the newspaper that he had been holding in his hands and reading once he heard Christina mention Peter. The man who was older than his wife by a year stood up and tossed the newspaper onto the coffee table, then walked over to the two women with a look of puzzlement in his eyes. "We don't know where he is, Chris," he told the teenager in reply, looking at May for a moment before glancing back at Christina. "We got a call from the school... something about Pete being involved in a fight with someone. I think they told us he was having detention this afternoon..."

Christina's eyes widened for a moment, but she then nodded with understanding. Perhaps Peter had gone back to the school and she had no idea of that, so she sighed with relief, her eyes briefly fluttering shut.

She just hoped her gut feeling was correct.

"Okay, then," she said, chuckling a little to herself. "Thanks for letting me know. I'm so sorry for bothering you two. I just thought that he had gotten himself into more trouble than he was already in."

Little did she know, he had. Peter Parker had gotten himself into the biggest trouble imaginable. But she wouldn't figure that out for a ridiculously long time.

"No, you're perfectly fine, Christina," May said, smiling at the younger woman. "You don't have to apologize for anything. You're too good of a kid to be sorry for nonsense..." She then thought to herself for a moment before perking up with more cheer in her eyes than there had been in quite a few days. "Would you like to come inside, dear? Ben has meatloaf in the oven if you want some dinner."

Chris winced a little out of guilt and self-consciousness, shaking her head from side to side for a few seconds. "Oh, no, I shouldn't," she responded, her smile turning into a frown. "I wouldn't want to intrude on whatever you two have going on."

"No, it's the least I could do," May said with a giggle coming from her lips afterwards. "How many times do I have to tell you, Chris? You're always welcome in our home, even if it's just to have meatloaf with us." She then turned to look at Ben, a look of hope in her emerald green eyes. "You wouldn't mind if she stayed for a bit, would you?"

"Not at all!" Ben said with a grin. "We love having you over, kid. We basically consider you and your mother family to us at this point, so I don't mind. In fact, you can call Margaret and have her join us as well, if you'd like."

"I'd love to," said Christina before sighing a little with sadness. "But she's working right now, so she couldn't make it, even if she wanted to." She thought about what her answer would be for an agonizing moment, looking downward and towards the ground below her. On one hand, she wanted to go inside and eat dinner with Peter's aunt and uncle because she quite enjoyed her conversations with them and felt as though she had nothing to hide from them. Sure, she loved being around her mother, but this place felt cozy and comfortable with their presence around.

To her, Ben and May Parker were the grandparents she actually wanted in her life; her actual grandparents on her mother's side were nowhere near as laid-back and loving as Margaret was. They were stern and strict and she never felt as though she could have privacy around them. Her grandparents on her father's side had died when she was at a very young age, so she didn't even know them. So it felt nice being around people who actually wanted to listen to her and would never talk down to her like she was an idiot. They were aware that she was filled to the brim with common sense, despite having some moments here and there where she would fuck up.

On the other hand, she felt as though it would be quite rude and disrespectful to interrupt them when it was clear that the couple had been at peace a mere five minutes before she arrived. She didn't want to step inside and trouble them when they just wanted to have an afternoon of quiet, but she knew that she was just being hard on herself. She was aware that they didn't think she was bothering them but, despite how much of a confident young woman of nineteen she was, she couldn't help but feel insecure around people who were older than her since she was scared of disappointing them.

Eventually, however, the first thought won over and she just smiled at the couple standing in front of her. "Y'know, why not?" she said with bright eyes. "I'd love to eat dinner with you two."

___________________________________

Christina was in her bed, trying her best to fall asleep in the dead of night, but her racing heart prevented her from doing such a thing. It was past midnight, yet she couldn't find the will within herself to shut her eyes and allow unconsciousness to overtake her for just a single minute or several hours. She just stared into the dark abyss that was her bedroom since it was nearly pitch black in there; had it not been for the slightest bit of light from the moon inside, it would be completely dark in there. But that was the least of her concerns.

She had not gotten a single phone call from Peter since she had gotten home, and he hadn't shown up at the house while she was having dinner with Uncle Ben and Aunt May. So, being aware of those two things, the blonde was more worried than ever about the boy but she had been forcing herself to keep her calm. She knew that she couldn't keep worrying about someone who could take care of himself, but she always had a protective side to her that could just never go away. She was acknowledging the fact that it was slowly becoming annoying to her and probably everyone around her.

The air around her was becoming freezing cold, but she didn't bother pulling the blankets over her body to get warm again. She wasn't even worried about how cold and frigid she was and she could have frozen to death for all she cared. In fact, it felt nice, almost like there was wind blowing around in her room; it felt refreshing for the time being and it brought some tranquility to the atmosphere surrounding her, and that was all she needed for just a minute, even if it was completely silent in her room.

Margaret had come home a few hours after Christina and they had shared a conversation about how each of their days went. A little while after that, the middle-aged woman told her only child that she was going to bed before going upstairs for the night. Then, the younger woman stayed in the living room for another hour or two before heading up to her bedroom as well, locking all of the doors and windows before doing so. And she had been up here, laying in the same position ever since.

Christina Lily Johnson sometimes questioned if she was insane because of how protective she was over her friends.

Well, she was the oldest of the trio of friends, so she had every right to be the protective older sister figure.

As long as they allow me to be that way, Christina thought to herself.

The poor girl just wanted to be a good person towards others, even if she were pushing herself too far in order to do so. She had to admit that she did way too much sometimes in order to earn the respect of others, and she was scared that consequences would come from that. But she couldn't stop herself, even if she wanted to. Her good instincts prevented her from doing so...

A loud noise coming from outside nearly made the blonde topple out of her bed from fright, and she bolted upright from where she was laying. Her first thought was that there was an intruder outside of her house and they were trying to get her attention, which made her tense up out of fear of what would happen. The blackness of her room made it more petrifying for the situation that had just arrived, and flashbacks to the fear of a monster either being in her closet or under her bed plagued Christina's subconscious. Her eyes closed themselves as her hands clenched into fists, her heart going faster than she realized it could go.

A voice emanated from the night outside of her house and it made her clutch her blanket closer to herself. Christina was convinced that she was having another nightmare of her childhood, and she was trying to wake herself up. It's not real, she whispered in her mind, trembling from head to toe. It was suddenly hotter than the sun in her room, the air stuffy and suffocating. She was way too scared.

"Christina!"

The blonde's eyes suddenly opened once she heard the voice much more clearly and she removed the blanket from where her legs were positioned. She slowly got off of the mattress and walked over to the window, tip-toeing so that Margaret wouldn't be woken up by her loud footsteps. She peered out of the window, forgetting how bright the street lamp was on the sidewalk just outside. She narrowed her eyes and shielded them to prevent herself from going blind as she looked downward; a small pebble suddenly hit the wall just below the window so as to not break it, and Christina flinched a little, reeling back.

She unlocked the window and slid it open, hearing it drag against the metal that it was attached to, sticking her head out into the darkness in front of her. A chuckle of relief came out of her and her tensed shoulder sagged as she sighed, rolling her eyes a little.

"What are you doing out there, Pete?!" she whisper-yelled, not wanting to wake the entire neighborhood up.

Peter was standing just outside and in-between her house and the neighbor's, looking up at her from below, a look of guilt in his eyes. He was wearing a coat over his pajamas, so it seemed as though he had either only just woken up or hadn't been able to go to sleep during the night. Either way, this really wasn't like him to sneak over to Christina's house in the extremely early hours of the morning... or to sneak out of his house at all.

"I wanted to see you... after what happened at school earlier," Peter admitted, laughing a little at how stupid he sounded. "I figured you'd be worried, so I wanted to come tell you that I was okay."

Christina merely nodded before holding up a finger. "Hold on," she mumbled. "I'll be outside in a minute. I need to have a word with you."

As she shut the window, she couldn't see him, but Peter was a little nervous as to what Christina wanted to tell him. The tone of her voice was rather stern and kind of angry, and he didn't like that. Whenever she turned strict, he was scared that he would be in trouble with her and that their friendship would be over, despite her calming down seconds after scolding him. There were times where Peter Parker was more scared of facing Christina Johnson than he was of facing Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

She just had a fierce look in her eyes whenever she was irritated, and it terrified him.

Christina put on her tennis shoes and slipped her gray jacket over her tank top, carefully opening her bedroom door and quietly walking out. She lightly stepped down the stairs and crept towards the front door, unlocking it and sneaking into the chilly air of the night. As soon as the door was shut, she stomped down the porch steps and went right for where Peter was, a look of annoyance and slight anger in her usually happy eyes. She noticed the anxious look on his face, but she knew he wasn't going to back down. For someone who was countlessly bullied every day, her best friend was quite the brave one.

Kind of explains why he suddenly had the balls to kick Flash's ass, she thought.

"Where the hell were you?!" she scolded him, lightly punching his shoulder as a genuine frown fell upon her face. "You've had me worried sick! I thought you had gotten hurt or kidnapped or... something like that!"

"Christina, you're kind of hurting me," Peter warned her jokingly, sighing a little.

"Well, I'm sorry, but what else am I supposed to do?!" Christina retorted, scoffing lightly at her friend's remark. "Besides, if I'm concerned to death about you, then you know I'm gonna yell at you the moment I see you. You're my friend and I have every right to be worried. I'll stop punching your shoulder, though..."

Peter took a deep breath as he looked at the blonde that was much shorter than him, despite her being older than him by seven months. "I needed some more time to myself after I ran from the school —"

"Some time? You've been gone for ten hours, Peter!" Christina replied, getting a little more frustrated with him.

"I know," said Peter. "Please let me continue, okay? Look, I'm sorry I ran off and I'm sorry I didn't call you or Harry. I got home about two hours ago... and I wanted to call you but I thought you may have been asleep. So, I thought to myself that I would dial your number tomorrow. But I couldn't go to sleep, so I decided to go outside to get some air and I just walked over here because you're not too far from me. Then I figured that I might as well go ahead and explain myself.

Christina's anger dissipated during Peter's explanation, and her eyes slowly filled with sympathy. "You could have just called me, Pete," she murmured. "You didn't have to walk all the way over here to tell me. I still think that everything you did today was stupid, but I was only a phone call away. You could have talked to me from your house and I wouldn't have minded. I wasn't even asleep."

"I didn't know you were awake," Peter mumbled to her, shrugging his shoulders. "If I had known, I wouldn't have left the house."

The shorter girl nodded slightly out of understanding, her short, blonde hair bouncing a little as she did so. She looked down at the damp grass as she felt the dew from the plants seeping through her shoes; not really giving a shit, she glanced back up at Peter. "To be honest, I'm glad you came over here in person," she told him, smiling a little for the first time in hours. "That way I could actually be convinced you were alright. I'm sorry for worrying so much..."

"It's okay," Peter replied, giggling a little as he shook his head. "It's not like I wasn't expecting you to be angry with me or anything. I kind of predicted you would be mad, so I decided to just get it over with and show up."

"I'm not mad at you, Peter," Christina said, trying her hardest not to laugh at that statement. "I'm angry because of what you did. Like, seriously, when in the hell did you learn how to fight? Because, if I remember correctly, you've done nothing to defend yourself against Flash until yesterday."

Peter sighed with guilt, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his coat as he looked down at the wet ground. "Yeah, I know," he responded sheepishly, reaching one hand to scratch the back of his neck. "I didn't really want to say anything about it. Have you heard if he's okay or not?"

"Well, yeah, he's okay," Christina answered, nodding a little with an expression of incredulity in her eyes. "I could give less of a shut if he were okay, but he is. All I really know is that you're probably going to get a lot of detention after all of that."

"I understand that," Peter replied, frowning as he stared in the blonde's direction. "I'm sorry for worrying you. I should've called you when I had the chance but I thought that would concern you even more. I should've come over here instead of going to my house, that way I could put you at ease by letting you know I was okay. I just didn't think you would be this stressed out over me."

Christina simply looked at Peter for a moment, surprised at how much he was apologizing. Then, getting over the brief shock, she parted her pink lips to speak again. "Okay, first, I don't want you getting in trouble with Aunt May or Uncle Ben... well, you're probably already in trouble with them, but still! Second, I forgive you. It's impossible to not forgive you. Third, of course I was worried. I've worried about you and Harry since day one. Besides Mom, you two, Uncle Ben, and Aunt May are really the only family I have..."

Peter walked over to Christina and pulled her into a hug full of comfort once he had noticed her mood change from irritated to regretful, sighing heavily as he closed his eyes. "I'm aware of that..." he murmured to help ease her a little bit, sensing that she was trying to hold back tears. "But... maybe you need to let us worry about you every now and then. I know how protective you are but maybe let us be defensive over you sometimes. Can you do that?"

The blonde young woman in Peter's arms took a deep breath and nodded, giggling a little bit. "Yeah, I guess I can," she replied humorously, smiling more now as she pulled away from the hug. Seeing that her best friend was laughing as well, she felt more relaxed than she had been in hours, and she was glad. "It's gonna feel weird for that to happen, but I'll allow it. I'm just trying to be strong for you guys... that way, you two will be okay, you know?"

The young man's head bobbed up and down as he smiled with understanding. "You've always been like that," he pointed out, smirking a little as he remembered all of the times that Christina had stood up for him. "But it's okay to let your guard down sometimes.... You don't have to be strong all the time. Trust me on that. But I'll give you credit for being brave in the hallway earlier... I don't think I've heard you sound so pissed in years."

"Well, you know me," Christina mumbled, grinning now as she shrugged her shoulders. "When someone targets a person I care about, I'm gonna be pissed..."

The both of them laughed for longer than they should have but, after a few seconds, the laughter slowly died down and they just looked at each other. The moment lasted for what seemed to be an eternity but the expression in the eyes of Peter and Christina was meant to be one of contentment. The tension between them due to the fight caused by Flash Thompson had vanished in the blink of an eye and the blonde had most definitely forgiven her best friend at this point.

But Christina sensed that something had changed... not necessarily between her and Peter, but more so something regarding the life surrounding them. She had the slightest feeling that, one day in the near future, an event would occur that would change everything for them when it came to the rest of their living days. She had no idea why she thought this. In fact, it felt as though someone — something — else had put the idea into her mind, but that wasn't possible. It couldn't be! After all, something as silly as that had never happened to anyone around her... nobody in this world could read minds. Nobody in this world could turn into superheroes or mind-readers or vampires... right?

She would end up being wrong.

The moment between them ended when Peter cleared his throat and checked the watch on his right wrist. "I better get going," he mumbled, the slightest chuckle falling from his lips as he looked back up at Christina. "You get some sleep, okay? I'll see you Monday?"

The blonde's head moved up and down as she smiled slightly. "Yeah, I'll see you then," she said in reply, shivering at how chilly it was really becoming for her. "And, hey, Peter?!"

The male turned around to look at her, a look of curiosity in his eyes as he stared in her direction. "Yeah?" he called back, tilting his head with interest.

Christina was about to mutter something but she paused for a moment, wondering if it were the right thing to say. She wanted to tell him the real reason that she was very protective over his safety and his well-being, but she was unsure if this was the correct time to mention that reason. She eventually decided to wait until she felt as though it felt alright to tell him, not wanting to feel awkward around Peter, despite him being the most awkward boy she had ever been around in her whole life.

"Promise me you'll stay out of trouble," she said instead of what she wanted to say. "And... that you won't do anything stupid. I don't really need a heart attack from worrying about you so much.

Peter grinned at Christina out of amusement as he nodded in her direction. "I promise," he said, laughing a little under his breath. "You get some sleep, okay?" At her returning nod, he began to walk away and back towards where his house was. "Goodnight, Chris!"

"Goodnight, Pete!" Christina shouted back, her shoulders sagging as she finally felt the true relief enter her soul. He was alright. Peter Parker was perfectly fine, and she was incredibly happy.

She just couldn't shake away the feeling that something would end up happening in the future... and it wouldn't be good.

A/N: i have FINALLY finished this chapter!!! YAYYYYY! i feel so accomplished right now! i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter... even if christina seems TOO protective lol

well, is she? i hope her protectiveness isn't too bad for you guys. just let me know if it's too much!

be looking forward to the next chapter... where things kind of go downhill for everyone (*cough cough* uncle ben *cough cough*)....

i've noticed recently that this book is VERY fast-paced so far... is that a bad thing?

ANYWAYS, next chapter will (HOPEFULLY) be out sooner than this one was! so be looking forward to it! i will close out with a graphic i've already made but it will be the new banner for this book!

-denbroughswife