"I cannot believe my best friend is a superhero now! Oh my, God, I'm so proud of you. But at the same time, why are you doing this? Your decisions are always very... calculated. What's the reasoning behind this one?" Beth questioned as she sprawled out onto her best friend's bed, leaving no room for the actual owner of the bed. The two were getting ready for a briefing and some training at the Avengers Compound in upstate New York. They had a three day weekend, so Tony insisted on starting this. Especially since next week, Kaelyn had her first mission. Apparently, Peter was rejoining Academic Decathlon out of the blue, so Tony was sending her to keep an eye on him. Beth, of course, would be joining her. Tony groaned once he learned the two girls rarely did anything apart, but he obliged. Kaelyn was incredible at getting what she wanted, but that was no superpower.

Kaelyn was about to answer the girl's questions when her phone began ringing. Peter's contact flashed on her screen, so she held up a finger and answered the phone. "What's up, babe?"

"Why is Liz telling me how excited she is about you and Beth joining Academic Decathlon?" he said as soon as she answered the phone and she cursed mentally. He wasn't supposed to know yet. Of course, Liz had to go spoil the "surprise" (even though it was hardly that).

"Because we joined. What's so crazy about that?" she retorted, trying her best to remain calm. She hated not being able to tell Peter that she was pretty much just his babysitter. What a fantastic way to start a relationship; secrets, lies, and bad guys. Just perfect.

Peter hesitated, "It just doesn't seem like it's your scene! I mean, I used to tutor you, remember?"

It was just him stating a fact, but at the same time, something in Kaelyn was trying to convince her that Peter was against her. That he meant to hurt her with his words.

Retaining her composure was not something she was known for and this was one of those times that shined through. "Oh? What are you trying to say? That I'm not smart enough to run in the same circles you do? I'm more capable than you think I am, Peter, but thanks."

"Kae, I'm not trying to accuse you of not being smart enough, not at all." The words were comforting to a degree, but something was gnawing at the back of Kaelyn's mind that she couldn't trust them. Of course, her first boyfriend and her stupid trust issues and baggage had to rear their ugly heads. "I know how capable you are, it just didn't seem like your thing. I'm sorry for assuming."

She sighed, trying her best to remain calm. Beth recognized she was getting heated and stood up from the bed, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders and squeezing lightly as an easy form of comfort. Kaelyn used her hand that wasn't holding her phone to fiddle with the necklace that adorned her neck. A small cross, not that she was very religious, but it used to belong to her mother. She put it on this morning on a whim, finding it in the bottom of her jewelry drawer. Running her fingers along the tiny silver cross was oddly calming. Almost as if she had her mother's warm aura surround her. Beth was calming too, as always. Always there for her, no matter what. The one person Kaelyn never hesitated to trust was Beth. She was hoping it would be the same with Peter, but there was still an evergrowing doubt festering within her broken mind. She was beginning to grow weary of being weighed down and buried by the crushing baggage of her past.

"Kae? You there?" Peter's voice came through the phone, soft and gentle. It was sweet like he was trying to calm her down without even realizing it.

Taking a deep breath, she found her words, "Thank you for apologizing, I'm sorry for accusing you of calling me dumb or something stupid like that. I think I'm just getting ahead of myself and for some reason, I took it out on you and I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Kae, there's been a lot going on lately. Why don't you let me uh take you out this weekend? No superheroes, no criminals, nothing, just me and you being normal teenagers," Peter offered. The redhead so desperately wanted to say yes, but of course, the one time she really wanted something that would make her happy, something had to get in the way. She never got lucky, did she? Well, she was lucky once and so far, she's taken that for granted. Kaelyn is so lucky to have Peter in her life and yet two weeks into their relationship, she's already tip-toeing around the idea of starting fights. What was wrong with her? All Kaelyn wanted was to let herself be happy, but why was that so hard for her?

"I would love to, Peter, I really would, but Beth and I have had this girls weekend thing upstate planned forever. We go like every year in the fall, her parents have a place up there. I'm sorry, rain check?" She fed him the lie Tony Stark told her to, but she felt dirty doing it. Normally, she had no problem lying to people she loves (case and point: Caden), but something about it being Peter made it a million times harder. Getting her heart involved in anything was rarely a good idea, yet here she was doing just that. She never seemed to learn from her mistakes.

The boy was silent for a minute and her heart sunk. She had already crushed him like an awful girlfriend. He deserved someone so much better than her. He should have just kept trying to go out with Liz instead of pursuing her.

"That's okay!" the pure, unbridled optimism in his voice managed to halt Kaelyn's spiraling. Something about his positivity towards the matter washed over her like a tidal wave, calming her and reassuring her. "But I am definitely going to take you out sometime, are you more of a rom-com or a horror type of girl?"

"Oh, my God, Peter, movie dates are so lame! At least take a girl out to dinner first!"

"Dinner and a movie it is, then." His smile could practically be heard through the phone, "Enjoy your girl's weekend, Kae, text me whenever you want because I don't want to intrude on this whatsoever."

Kaelyn laughed gratefully, glad she had such an understanding boyfriend. "Thank you, Peter, this means a lot to me, I hope you know. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Talk to you later, Kae."

"Bye, Peter."

She hung up the phone and turned to her best friend, furrowing her brow at the girl's expectant eyes. After a moment of silence, Beth sighed.

"You never answered my question! Why did you decide to work with Stark?" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes with a smile as she fell back onto the bed.

Realization washed over Kaelyn's expression as she fell down next to her friend. It was probably poetic how their shocking,y contrasting hair colors blending together when they lay like this. Two girls from vastly different worlds tied together like a knot.

Sighing, the redhead searched her brain for a way to phrase her answer to the question. Finally, she settled on, "I think Tony Stark has something to do with the death of my parents. The only way to find this out for sure is to find my evidence from the inside. So, we're going to do exactly that."

"My life would be so boring if we weren't friends, truly," Beth laughed, "Are you being, like, totally serious right now?"

"Totally serious."

"Then I am one-hundred-percent in. We got this."

"We so do."

i love these girls,,, so much