The next day Bella got up bright and early. She was one of the first people there at the school in the morning. Dressed in overalls with a purple shirt and her hair curled slightly, she looked over her shoulder as she noticed Peter was running over to them.

" Hey guys, I was hoping I could rejoin the team." he said and Bella narrowed her eyes at him. This was his plan?

" No, no way." she moves out of the way as Flash shoves his way past her and another member of the team to walk up to Peter.

" You can't just quit on us, stroll up and be welcomed back by everyone." he starts to walk closer to Peter, staring him down as Peter takes a step back. Bella rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.

" Hey, welcome back Peter." Mr. Harrington said as he walked down the steps of the bus. She grinned as she noticed Flash's annoyed face.

" Flash, you're back to first alternate." Mr. Harrington told him.

" What?" Flash looks over at Mr. Harrington. 

" He's taking your place." a dark-skinned member of the team spoke up and Bella couldn't help but chuckle at hearing that.

" See? This kid gets it. How small is your brain? Or, do you even have one?" she asked. Flash glared at her as some of the members chuckled at her joke.

" Excuse me. Can we get going?" Michelle speaks up, finally looking up from the book she was reading.
" 'Cause I was kind of hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner."

" Protesting is patriotic," Mr. Harrington points over his shoulder at the bus. " Let's get on the bus." Flash takes his jacket off and angrily shoves it at Peter before everyone gets on the bus.

Bella gets on the bus and sits in the back of the bus across from Ned. Liz asks questions here and there as they travel to Washington D.C.

She answers a few of them here and there but she let most of the team answer them. Bella was mostly watching with Ned at the tracker they had on the guys Peter put on them. She looks up as Peter walks by her and sits behind Ned. He was talking on the phone and she assumed it was Happy that called him.

" Is that Happy?" she asks once she got his attention. He nods and whatever Happy must've said made him upset.

Once Peter hung up the phone she moved so she was sitting on the edge of her seat. " What's wrong?"

Peter shakes his head. " He has a tracker on my phone and called because I was leaving New York." Bella was confused as to why Happy would have a tracker on his phone but didn't question it.

After what felt like forever which was only a few minutes, they arrived in Washington D.C and got out of the bus.

There was a banner that said, " United States Academic Decathlon." at the front of the building before they walked in. They walk into the check-in area of the hotel they were staying at. The interior of the hotel was filled with preparations for the Decathlon.

" Everyone stick together." Liz told them. Mr. Harrington nodded in agreement as he glanced back at everyone. " Yeah."

" You kidding me? This place is huge." Charles said as him and the rest of the team look around in awe.

" I've seen bigger." Flash said and Bella rolled her eyes. " I hope you realize we don't care, Flash."

" There's a bird in here." Abe pointed at it and some of the members of the team looked at it.

Bella looked over at Peter as he asked, " Hey, you got your laptop, right?"

Ned looked over at him with confusion. " Why?"

Everyone separated into their rooms with the person they were sharing it with. She found out she was sharing it with Michelle.

" So, the hotel is pretty great, don't you think?" she asked as they walked into the room they were sharing and dropped her backpack on the bed closest to the door.

Michelle walks over to the farthest bed and drops her bag on it as she shrugs her shoulders. " I guess."

Bella sighed in frustration, wishing that Michelle would talk more with her, but she respected Michelle which is why she doesn't push Michelle into doing anything she doesn't want to.

Minutes later the girls had to unpack their bags. Bella was laying on her bed while Michelle was sitting on hers, reading a book. It was silent between them, but it was comfortable silence. Her phone buzzed and she got it out of her pocket seeing that Peter was calling her.

She looked over at Michelle. " Peter's calling me, I'm gonna step out into the hallway." Michelle just nodded as she flipped a page in her book.

Bella got off the bed, taking her key to the bedroom with her and walked into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

She answers her phone. " Hey, Pete. What's up?"

" Come to mine and Ned's room. We're figuring out how to get the tracker out of my suit." Peter told her. Bella glances at the door to hers and Michelle's room. " Okay, I'm on my way."

She hangs up her phone and puts it in her pocket as she opens the door slightly. " Hey, Michelle. I gotta go talk to Peter about something...important. I'll be back later."

Michelle looked up from her book with a smirk on her face. " You finally going to tell him you like him?"

Bella's eyes widened and she felt the blush starting to form on her face.
" What? No! No, it's not that."

Michelle's smirk fell and she raised a brow. " Then, when are you going to tell him? You are going to tell him right?"

Bella bit her lower lip nervously as she avoids eye contact with her. " I will...eventually."

Michelle sighed. " Oh, alright, I don't care what you do. But you better tell him soon before he finds out on his own." she goes back to reading her book as Bella closes the door behind her and heads over to Peter's and Ned's room.

She knocks on the door and a few minutes later the door opens. She didn't even have time to say anything before she was pulled into the room. She yelps as Peter grabs her hand and pulls her into the room quickly before shutting the door behind her. 

" A warning would've been nice." she muttered as Peter let go of her hand.

Peter sent her an apologetic smile.
" Sorry. I didn't want anybody to see the suit."

Bella's eyes trail over to where the suit was laid on the bed beside Nedm
" You mean the suit all the way over there?"

Ned smirked. " I think he just wanted to hold your hand."

" Ned!" Both Peter and Bella shouted at him. Blush was on both of their faces and Ned thought this was very amusing. He just shrugged his shoulders and looked back at his laptop. " Sorry, not sorry."

Peter shakes his head and walks over to the bed the suit was on which Ned happened to be sitting on as well and got to work on getting the tracker out of his suit.

Bella followed him and sat on the bed in front of Ned, her legs in the crisscross position.

" Peter, why are we removing the tracker on his suit?" Ned asked.

" So he doesn't get in trouble." Bella spoke up and Peter shot her a playful glare. She shrugged her shoulders, sticking her tongue out at him childishly. " I'm not wrong."

" You're not right either. I got to follow these guys to their boss before they move again and I really don't want Mr. Stark to know about it." Peter explained.

Bella sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. " Basically what I said."

" So, you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned asks and Bella chuckles, thinking it was amusing that Ned called Tony Iron Man instead of Mr. Stark. To be honest she thought it was amusing that Peter called Tony Mr. Stark instead of Tony.

Peter shakes his head. " No, no. I'm not lying. He just doesn't really get what I can do."

Ned narrows his eyes at Peter as Peter removes the tracking device Tony put in his suit. Bella looks over as Peter stands up with the tracker in his hand and puts it on the lamp.

" All right, Happy. Enjoy tracking this lamp." Peter said and then gets back to the suit.

" Not that I don't love spending time with you both, but why am I here?" Bella asks them.

Before Peter could say anything, Ned beat him to it. " Peter missed you."

Peter glares at him. " Ned!"

Ned looks back at him. " What? Am I wrong?"

Peter looks back down at the suit, suddenly quiet. " No." he mumbles as he continues to work on the suit.

Bella felt butterflies form in her stomach at hearing Peter admit he missed her. She was confused at why he missed her considering they've been with each other all day but she thought it was cute. " Oh, um. I missed you too, I guess." she mumbles and Peter looks up at her with surprise.

" There's a ton of other subsystems in here." Ned speaks up and Bella moves to where she's sitting on Ned's right side so she could see what he was looking at.

Her eyes widened seeing that he was right. " Wow, that is a lot."

Peter hummed in response, to busy working on his suit at the moment apparently. " Wait a minute, is that..." Bella's voice trails off as she notices that Tony had put the training wheels protocol on Peter's suit. She chuckles.

Ned smirks. " They're all disabled by the Training Wheels Protocol."

Peter looks over at him with wide eyes. " What?" he moves over to where he's halfway sitting on the bed and looking at the laptop to see for himself.

" Training Wheels Protocol." he scoffs and Ned chuckles. " Turn it off." Peter told him.

Bella shook her head. " You can't. If my uncle put the Training Wheels Protocol on-"

" It's probably for a reason." Ned finishes her sentence and she nods.

Peter frowns. " Come on, guys. I don't need training wheels." he steps onto the bed across from them and jumps up and down. " I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time. Not cool."

Bella chuckles. " You are the one jumping on the bed."

Peter rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed that she pointed that out. " But you are a kid." Ned said.

" Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands." Peter told him.

" Peter, I just don't think this is a great idea. I mean, what if this is illegal?" Ned asks.

Peter jumps off the bed and kneels on the floor beside Ned. " Look, please. This is my chance to prove myself. I can handle it. Ned, come on."

" I really don't think this is a good idea." Ned continues to say. Bella nods in agreement as she looks at Peter.
" Yeah, sorry, Pete. I have to agree with Ned. I don't want to get in trouble with my uncle for something stupid you've done."

Peter looks over at Bella. " Look, I'm sorry if I got you trouble for the last time. But you have to believe that I didn't mean for you to get in trouble. I didn't even want you to follow me!"

" I followed you to make sure you weren't doing anything stupid, but you were!" Bella told him and Peter sighs. " I'm sorry, okay? I really am sorry."

Peter looks back over at Ned. " The guy in the chair." he whispers and Ned shakes his head.  " Don't do that."

" Come on." Peter says. Ned looks over at Bella who raises her hands up in surrender. " Don't look at me for advice."

Ned sighs and pushes some buttons on the laptop the three of them look over at the suit as a blue light covers over it for a second.

" Did it work?" Bella asked and Ned nodded.

Once Peter got the suit on underneath his clothes he pulls the hood of his jacket over his head. " Are you going with me? If you are, get dressed and meet me out in the hallway." Peter told Bella who nods and super speeds out of the room. 

Bella gets back to hers and Michelle's room and walks over to her suitcase.

" Going somewhere else?" Michelle asks as Bella searches for her suit without Michelle noticing. " Yeah. Me and-"

" Let me guess, Peter?" Michelle interrupts her.

Bella nods and sent her an apologetic look. " I'm sorry for leaving you. This is just, important. I promise I'll tell you about it sometime."

Michelle shakes her head and sent her a small smile. " No, it's alright. I understand."

Bella smiles at her. " Thanks."

Once she made sure that Michelle was back to reading she got her suit out of her suitcase and without Michelle noticing, she super speeds to the bathroom to change into her suit. Once she has her suit on she puts a jacket of hers over it and some sweatpants.

She walks over to the door of the bedroom. " Hey, Bella." Michelle speaks up and she freezes in her place.

" Whatever your doing, just...be safe." Michelle says and a smile forms on Bella's face. " I will."

She leaves the room only to see Peter sneaking out of his at the end of the hallway. Making sure no one was watching she super speeds over to him. " Hey, Pete."

Peter jumps as he turns around and lets out a sigh of relief seeing it was only her. He smiles at her. " You ready?"

She nods. " Yeah, let's go."

Bella looks over Peter's shoulder seeing Liz jogging over to them in her swimsuit with a bag. She watches as Peter turns around seeing her with wide eyes and a smile on his face.
" Hey, Liz."

" We're going swimming." Liz says with a grin and gestures for the others Bella realizing were following her.

" Come on." she whispers to them.

Some other members of the team, dressed in their swimwear jog down the hallway. She rolls her eyes as Flash slaps Peter on the butt when he passes him.

Peter glares at him and offendedly says, " Hey!"

" We were just gonna get some studying in." Bella speaks up seeing the nervous state Peter was in and Peter quickly nods. " Yeah, yeah."

Liz shakes her head. " You guys don't need to study. Peter, you're the smartest guy I've ever met. And Bella, you're extremely smart as well."

Bella looks up at her with surprise. Surprised that Liz thought of her that way.

" And besides, rebellious group activity before the day of competition is good for morale." Liz explained.

Bella noticed that Peter wasn't really listening to her, too busy staring at her. Part of her heart ached at seeing that, but she elbowed him in the side to get his attention.

" Hmm?" Peter hummed in response.

" Um, well, I read that in a TED Talk, so I-I heard it in a TED Talk. And I read a coaching book." Liz smiles and nods.

" Wow. You really...This is really important to you." Peter smiled.

Liz nodded. " Yeah, it's our future. I'm not gonna screw it up. Besides, we raided the minibar and these candy bars were, like, eleven dollars."

" So, Peter get your trunks on, Bella get your swimsuit on and both of you join us." she throws both of them a candy bar and while Bella smoothly catches hers, Peter had a little trouble catching his since he was so nervous around Liz.

The two teenagers watch as Liz runs off with the others, leaving them standing in the hallway.

" Come on, lover boy. Let's go." Bella patted him on the shoulder.

Once they get out of their clothes they had on over their suit they were now standing on top of the building.

" Peter, it's a little creepy staring at her, don't you think?" Bella asks him and he shakes his head and stands up.

Peter puts his mask on and takes a step back. Bella looks at him with confusion. " What is it?" she asks.

Peter looks over at her. " My suit talks now."

She chuckles. " That's just your A.I."

Peter tilted his head in confusion.
" You mean, like, an artificial intelligence?" he asks the obvious.

Bella stares at him with a blank face.
" That's what A.I. stands for, idiot."

A/N I apologize if I haven't updated this book in a while! I hope you guys like this chapter & don't forget to vote & comment. also please check out my other books if you have the time that would be greatly appreciated!