"Jones."

Eloise's head snaps up. When sees her teacher, along with the rest of the class, is watching her, she sheepishly turns off her phone and ducks her head. The teacher rolls her eyes at this and walks over to Eloise's desk with her hand extended.

"Phone please," the woman says. Knowing she would just get her phone taken away for a longer time if she didn't comply, Eloise places her phone face-up in her teacher's palm. She watches as the woman crosses the room to her desk and places the phone on it. "You'll get it back at the end of class. If I catch you with your phone out again I'll be seeing you in detention."

Eloise sits back in her seat, defeated. She was texting Ned and Peter in a group chat about how boring school is. Ned is in Anatomy and Peter is in a manufacturing class right now, which sounds more fun than boring old math in Eloise's opinion. She picks up her pencil and taps the eraser end on her desk as she looks up at the board in front of the class with equations written on it that look like a bunch of scribbles. She instantly regrets not paying attention because absolutely nothing in front of her makes sense.

The bell rings ten minutes later. After receiving her phone, Eloise takes her time to leave the classroom and head to her next class. She scrolls through the spammed messages Ned and Peter sent while her phone was on her teacher's desk and laughs under her breath at their nerdy-ness.

Eloise's eyes trained on her phone, she doesn't even notice the person right in front of her until she runs right into them. She fumbles with her phone and immediately starts to apologize.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching—"

"It's all good, Ellie," a familiar voice peppered with a Mexican accent cuts her off.

Eloise looks up and realizes it was just Luis. His lips are quirked in amusement as he looks down at her. Her embarrassment is flushed away instantly.

Luis notices the phone in her hands and teases, "Don't you know that you aren't supposed to text and walk? You could have walked right into a wall and died."

"How would I die by running into a wall?" Eloise questions with a short laugh.

"Of embarrassment." Luis scratches his chin, which is now supporting a dark stubble. He leans his shoulder against a random locker and says, "I'm having a party tonight, by the way. I get that those aren't really your thing, but it's gonna be real low key. Lucy and Cliff are coming."

"Thanks, but—" Eloise starts to decline, but stops. Next year is her senior year, and she has never been to a high school party. Lucy has told her multiple times how she's going to get old and look back at her days in high school as boring because all she ever does is study. Although Eloise's years in high school are definitely not boring, she always felt like she was missing out when she opted out of parties. A low key party with her friends at the end of her junior year is a great way to dip her toe in the water. If she doesn't like it, then it's no big deal.

Eloise surprises herself and Luis by smiling and saying, "Sure, what time is it?"

Luis smirks. "Starts at 7 o'clock." He leans away from the lockers and walks past Eloise saying, "See you tonight, Ellie."

Eloise turns and watches Luis walk down the hallway, hoping she doesn't regret her decision.

🕸

Staring at the front door of the Rodriguez house, Eloise regrets agreeing to come.

Nervousness and the fear of not fitting in settle at the bottom of her stomach. She has never been to a party before, and she's sure that the people inside will immediately know that just by a quick glance.

The fast beat playing from inside the two-story house can be heard from the sidewalk Eloise and Lucy stand on. Lucy has been to parties before, so this is no big deal for her. Eloise, on the other hand, feels like she could hurl at any second.

Eloise turns to her friend and says, "Maybe I should just go home. . ."

"No way," Lucy denies, taking Eloise's hand when she tries to walk away. Lucy pouts her red lips when Eloise gives her a look. "How do you know you won't like it if you don't try it? It's not like there's a hundred people inside waiting to judge you."

Eloise sighs and looks back at the house. Through the window she sees some people standing around, some moving to the music. All of them have red cups and even though Eloise has never been to a high school party before, she has seen enough movies and read enough books to know what's in the cups. 

Lucy steps in front of Eloise so that her attention is on her. Lucy's expression is softer than before and more understanding. "Look," she starts, eyes leveling with Eloise's. "I know that partying isn't your thing, but our friends are in there, and I'll be by your side the whole time." She shrugs. "Nothing to be scared about."

Eloise takes a deep breath and nods. As long as Lucy stays by her and she stays clear of the alcohol, she should be fine.

"Okay."

Lucy grins. "Let's go, party animal!" She squeals and drags Eloise up to the front door, Eloise giggling in excitement mixed with nerves. Lucy opens the door and pushes Eloise in front of her to go in first.

Eloise stands in the entry way, taking in the atmosphere. She has been in the house before, but it looks much different. For starters, there aren't a bunch of little kids running around or warm lighting. Instead there are colorful shades over the lights to make the lamps and ceiling lights shine a dimmer purple or blue hue. Thankfully, Luis was telling the truth when he said not many people were coming. The small living room is almost filled with students having a good time as they talk to each other, look down at their phones, and dance. Eloise glances into the kitchen and sees a few more people hanging out in there next to the fridge.

Lucy playfully shoved Eloise out of the way. When she closes the door and stands next to Eloise, Lucy glances at her. "So what do you think?"

Eloise smiles and shrugs. "The lighting is cool."

Lucy rolls her eyes and nudges her friend's shoulder. "Come on, let's go find Luis."

The two girls make their way through the small crowd, walking around people to get to the kitchen. Right away, Eloise recognizes two people—Luis and Mason. She nearly chokes on air when her eyes meet Mason's. Images of Zagan flash in her mind, and she has to blink a few times to get them out of her head.

Why is Mason, of all people, at Luis's house party? Most students from Midtown thought they were too good for Park Eats parties, but here is one of Midtown's finest in the Rodriguez kitchen. He's dressed in his normal dark jeans and ironed flannel, but his hair is slicked back.

Mason's lips quirk in a smirk as he looks Eloise over. "I didn't take you as a party girl."

Lucy laughs and pats Eloise's shoulder. "She's definitely not."

Eloise brushes Lucy's hand off of her and sends her a playful glare. Lucy just raises her brow.

Luis picks up two cups from a table full of drinks and hands them to the two girls. Lucy takes hers and takes a big gulp. Eloise just looks down at the drink warily.

"It's just Coke." Luis laughs at the look on Eloise's face. She looks away sheepishly and takes a sip. Like he said, it's just plain soda.

Mason picks up a cup and downs it, coughing slightly once it's empty. Apparently not all of the cups contain just soda. He sets his empty cup back onto the counter top and steps forward with his hands in his pockets.

"We never got to finish dancing at the formal," Mason says, standing only a foot away from Eloise. She can smell the alcoholic drink he just consumed on his breath as he smiles down at her. "Want to fix that?"

Eloise scolds herself for having the urge to back away from him simply because a villain transformed himself to look like him. She doesn't feel this way towards May, and Zagan took her form as well. Why does she have to have such feelings every time she sees Mason?

Lucy is quick to nudge Eloise, but Eloise loses her balance and falls into Mason. His reflexes are quick and he catches her with one arm around her waist.

Eloise's cheeks flush and she steps back from Mason. She smiles up at him, embarrassed. "Lead the way."

Mason grins and takes her hand. As he leads her to the living room, Eloise looks back and sees Lucy giving her a thumbs up.

The living room, despite the low number of partiers, is full. It's almost impossible to not get elbowed or bumped into. She's actually pretty surprised that she and Mason could fit. Just as they reach their spot in the crowd of teenagers, the song playing ends and a new one begins. Instantly everyone hollers and starts to dance to it. Eloise just laughs amusedly at them, mostly because she doesn't even know the song that got them all hyped up.

Mason, still holding onto Eloise's hand, starts to dance. He tries to be smooth with his moves, but Eloise had to admit, he's definitely no dancer. She covers her mouth with her other hand as she laughs at him, and he looks up and smirks at her.

"I'd like to see you do better," he teases and let's go of her hand.

Eloise sticks her nose up. "Watch and learn." She then starts to dance like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, her arms up in the air and hands waving as she spins around in a circle. Mason's laughter is immediate.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm Luna Lovegood," Eloise explains with a chuckle.

Mason's face is filled with confusion. "Who?"

"Oh," Eloise stops dancing ridiculously and her joy falters. Obviously Mason hasn't read or seen the movies by his reaction, she she just brushes it off. "She's from Harry Potter." Peter would have gotten the joke. He'd probably join in on her dancing, too. But this isn't Peter, it's Mason, and Eloise finds herself wishing that it was Peter she was with instead.

Mason beams down at her. "You're such a nerd."

Eloise smiles, and Mason takes her hand again. She looks down at their intertwined fingers and frowns. It doesn't feel right, holding his hand when she would rather hold Peter's. Eloise looks up at Mason and says, "I'm kind of. . . with Peter?"

Mason's smile drops, but he pretends like it didn't fall so quickly by replacing it with a fake smirk. "What do you mean kind of?"

Eloise takes her hand from Mason's and folds her arms over her chest, shrugging. She wasn't even sure how to explain it to herself, but there was just a known thing going on between her and Peter now. She cares about Peter a lot and knows that it would hurt him if she went around with other guys. If she knew that Peter still had feelings for her when Midtown's formal came around, she wouldn't have said yes to Mason's offer.

"Well, I mean," Eloise tries to explain, "we aren't technically dating, but—"

"If you aren't dating, then it would be fine if I did this..." Without warning, Mason's hand goes to Eloise's waist and he leans forward. Eloise doesn't process what he's doing until his lips are already on hers. Her eyes go wide and she unfolds her arms, pushing him back.

Mason's hand rises from her waist and holds onto her arm before she can step away. "Hey, El—"

"I need to go," Eloise interrupts him and pulls her arm out of his grip. She quickly turns and rushes out of the living room, dodging dancing partiers, and enters the kitchen again. Luis and and Cliff are in the kitchen, Luis sitting on the counter and Cliff leaning against the surface next to him as they speak. When Eloise enters the room, Luis flashes her a smile.

"Wazzup, Ellie?" Luis asks with a bubbly laugh. Cliff gives her a smile as well, but he also studies her.

"Hi Cliff." Eloise glances around the kitchen and hugs herself tightly. "Do you guys know where Lucy is?"

"In the bathroom," Luis slurs his words slightly.

Cliff narrows his eyes at Eloise and asks, "You okay?"

Eloise nods and tries to give him a convincing smile. "Yeah, I just have, uh, cramps."

"I'm sure Elena has some tampons you can use if you need any," Luis says, then hiccups. He laughs at himself like he just said a prize-winning joke.

"I'm good, but thanks." Eloise steps back towards the living room. There's a hallway near the living room that leads to the bathroom, and although she doesn't want to walk through there in fear of running into Mason, she knows she'll have to. "I'm going to go find Lucy now."

She exits the kitchen without another word and stays close to the wall as she slips through the dimly lit living room. Once she finally reaches the bathroom, she knocks on the door.

"Occupied!" Lucy's voice calls through the closed door.

"It's Eloise," she says, leaning towards the door so her voice carries over.

The door unlocks and opens, revealing Lucy with a stick of lipstick in her hand. She turns back to the mirror as she reapplies the makeup to her face, pouting her lips in the mirror. "What's up?"

Eloise leans against the doorframe and picks at her nails. "I want to go home, Luce."

Lucy frowns and turns to Eloise. "What, why? We haven't been here for more than ten minutes!"

Eloise sighs and runs a hand through her brown hair. "I know."

Lucy caps the lipstick and slides it back into her purse. She fluffs her curly black locks as she watches herself in the mirror before turning her attention back to her friend. "Do you like this lip color? It matches my outfit pretty well, don't you think?"

Eloise leans away from the wall and doesn't even try to pretend to be excited when she says in monotone, "Yeah, it's great."

Lucy just smiles and gives herself one last look in the mirror before pulling her purse over her shoulder and walking past Eloise out of the bathroom.

She stays there, lingering in the bathroom, for a while. Eloise stares at the floral wallpapered wall and tries to convince herself to just stick it out for the rest of the party, but ultimately decides that it would be impossible. Feeling stuck and overwhelmed, Eloise leans the back of her head against the wall and closes her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Eloise opens her eyes and turns her head at the voice. Cliff stands at the other end of the hall with his hands in his front pockets as he studies Eloise.

When she sighs and shakes her head, Cliff steps over towards her and leans against the wall beside her. His eyes trail over her face, reading her. "Whose ass do I need to kick?"

"That's not necessary." Eloise smiles lightly and looks up at Cliff still studying her. "There's just this guy that I'd rather not be around right now and he's here, so I told Lucy that I wanted to go home, but she blew me off."

"Does this guy have a name?" Cliff questions.

Eloise raises her brow. He raises his hands defensively.

"I promise I won't punch his face in."

"It doesn't matter," Eloise replies quietly, listening to the music pumping through the house.

Cliff pushes off the wall. "You want a ride home?"

Eloise looks up at him in surprise. "Really?"

"Sure. My Uncle Jess got a new car and gave me his old pick-up." Cliff shrugs. "Come on, it's no big deal."

Eloise smiles up at Cliff gratefully before wrapping her arms around his middle in a hug. Cliff chuckles softly and hugs her back.

"Thank you," Eloise murmurs into his shoulder.

"No problem."

___

So last chapter in the note I said that I would do a little get to know me thing, along with some other topics, so here it is! Some of you asked me questions, so I think I answered most of them in the text below.

Q: What's your name?
A: My name is Katelyn but I go by Katie.

Q: OTP?
A: It is currently Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor because they just got married and didn't let on to any fans that they were even dating. (It's like Bellarke but real life)

Q: Favorite Tom Holland gif/picture?
A:
Picture(s)

Gif

Q: Favorite animal?
A: Turtles

Q: Favorite books that are not from Wattpad?
A:
1) Waste of Space by Gina Damico (this book actually made me laugh out loud in the middle of class, I definitely recommend reading it)
2) Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (this author is amazing and she's from my state!)
3) The Darkest Minds trilogy by Alexandra Bracken (obsessed with this series)
4) Kill The Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky (a fun read)
5) The Coin Heist by Elisa Ludwig (I read this book while I was in Haiti)
6) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (a masterpiece)

Q: Favorite MCU movie?
A: It's a three-way tie between Captain Marvel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Captain America: Civil War. (This is likely to change once Far From Home comes out.)

Q: Dogs or cats?
A: I'm more of a cat person, but I still love my precious basset hound

Q: Have you watched Sherlock?
A: No, sorry! :(

Q: Favorite scene in Endgame?
A: My favorite scene in Endgame was probably Captain America fighting himself. It's iconic.

Q: Favorite duo in the MCU?
A: It's too hard to choose between Peter & Ned, Bucky & Steve, Tony & Happy, and Natasha & Clint.

Q: Where does your motivation from this book come from?
A: My motivation for this book came from reading other Peter Parker stories on Wattpad and watching all of the Spider-Man movies. Before I was really into Marvel, I was into Spider-Man. He was always my favorite superhero, and when Marvel introduced Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, I fell in love with Spider-Man all over again. It also made me start to think more of the kid behind the mask, and thus became my obsession with Peter Parker.

Q: How do you come up with new ideas for each chapter?
A: I do plot out the bare minimum for each of my books so I at least know where the book is supposed to end up. I am terrible at outlining and usually take it scene by scene with the conflict and the end in mind. I come up with new ideas by listening to songs for inspiration or by things that happen around me. Music is a huge inspiration, whether it's the mood of the song, the voice of the singer, or the lyrics. Public school is actually a great place for inspiration. Some of my characters have some traits I have seen in my classmates and some conversations were taken from the students at my school.

Q: How did you come up with the character Eloise?
A: I have seen "bad girls" in books before (which isn't a bad thing), and I just started to think about a "good girl" character who was nice to a fault. Like, someone who is blindly loyal, someone who gets pushed around because they don't always know how to say no, and someone who suppresses all of their issues because they want to help others' problems first. Eloise is a result of the people around her as well, such as how her parents raised her and how her views changed from witnessing the people around her struggle with issues that are out of their control. Some poems by Nikita Gill also inspired Eloise's character.

Q: If Eloise was super-powered, what would her superpower be?
A: If Eloise had a superpower it would probably be something telekinetic ;)

Q: If Eloise originally went to Midtown High School, how would you have planned for them to meet?
A: When plotting the first book, I originally had Eloise attending Midtown because it just seemed like a default thing you read in every Peter Parker fan fiction. I changed it and had her attend Park East, a smaller school with the majority of the students living in lower-income families, because I wanted to represent the students in my school that have to work every day of the week during the school year to financially support their families or themselves because their family doesn't/can't support them. I didn't want all of Eloise's friends to be rich and be kid geniuses. Anyways, to actually answer the question, I would have had Peter and Eloise have a few of the same classes together but not have the same group of friends, so they never really talked to each other. They would have actually met because they were assigned a project together and had to work on it outside of class. Something like that.

Thank you all so much for all the love and support you've shown me! I appreciate every read, vote, and comment! Also, thanks for those of you who gave me questions!

Also, shoutout to hope_sees_the_stars , usually she reads whatever I write before I upload anything, but I haven't seen her in days (and I'm going through withdrawal) because she's at some boring political camp. It's weird not being able to give her my phone to read what I just wrote and then get her input.

Chapter Song:
Generation Why | Conan Gray