Heyyyy

So this chapter isn't much but it's kind of gearing up for the main action, which will start in a couple of chapters. And honestly, I'm pumped.

 "But if you added oxygen into the solution, wouldn't the molecules be forced to separate from each other?" Peter asked inquisitively.

"Not necessarily." Ashley shook her head, leaning over from her chair and pointing to notes from a previous day on his desk. "From all other trials and evidence stated, every other element that had been included that has similar qualities had actually strengthened the bond between the different compounds. So, it's only reasonable to believe that oxygen would do the very same. The only potential scenario you would have to be concerned about is if there were halogens in the mixture."

"Which there aren't," Peter concluded, "since iodine would react negatively to the iron in the sample."

Still leaning towards his desk from showing him the notes, Ashley turned her head around to give a smile to him to acknowledge his correct answer. However, the smile was quickly wiped off of her face when she noticed something. "Oh God Peter, are you feeling okay? Your face is unbelievably red."

She returned to her correct posture in her chair, then raised a hand to his forehead. "Heavens, you're burning up Parker. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled. "I'm just a little bit steamy in my jacket," he insisted, clawing at his top layer until it slid off.

"If you say so," Ashley wearily replied, still not quite believing his alibi. However, they were in the middle of class, so it wasn't like she really had the opportunity to keep pressing for information. But why else would his face be so red? Had he caught a cold?

Please don't tell me he just gave me a cold, Ashley internally groaned. She was already dealing with plenty between her sporadic modeling sessions, schoolwork, training sessions with Bethany, and practicing her powers. The teenager hadn't mastered them yet in the nearest sense, but she at least had slight control over them. After hours of practice, she had finally managed to be able to lift up a small object and move it around at will.

"Ms. Tanner, would you care to explain why there might be an issue with why a compound like this might not get correctly categorized by the person orchestrating the experiment?"

Ashley's head snapped up from its previously thinking stare. "Um... well... one might not take into consideration what the helium particles do to affect the density."

The teacher thought about her answer for a moment, then gave her an approving nod. "Correct. Not exactly the first answer I would expect from a freshman, but it is brilliant nonetheless. Now, how about you, Mr..."

Now that she knew she was in the clear, Ashley zoned off again. She was still impossibly stumped on how she had the ability to control things using telekinesis. Sure, there were the Avengers, but there were all obvious and simple explanations of how they had their abilities. Captain America gained his from a serum, Iron Man gained his from his intelligence and wealth, the Hulk from an experiment gone wrong, Hawkeye from natural causes and an extremely rare disease, Black Widow from... well... whatever training she had, and Thor from being of alien heritage. However, you take Ashley for example, and there isn't a single reason indicating how she would have this ability.

Of course, there was also the fact that she didn't remember anything about her previous childhood. So either A, she has had her powers from quite some time and never gotten noticed from people in S.H.I.E.L.D., or B, she had gotten her abilities at the same time she had lost her memory.

Ashley could have gone on pondering for hours, but an annoyingly loud bell blared through her ears. Since this was, thankfully, the last class of the day, this was the signal that she would be able to leave and hang out with Bethany.

"See you tomorrow, Parker," Ashley called out as she quickly gathered her belongings and strode out of the room. Today was going to be fun, since Bethany had promised the teenager a trip to go see the Statue of Liberty, along with any 'adventures' that they stumbled across on the way.

The girl had just finished packing all of her needed things into her backpack as she felt someone's presence purposefully walk up behind her. She turned around to see who it was, smiling when she realized it was just Flash.

"Hey Ash," he greeted, leaning up against a locker beside her. "Remember when I told you that there was something I needed to tell you about Peter?"

"Yeah," Ashley replied, slightly realizing where he was going with this.

"Well, I believe it is about time I said it. Not here though, outside."

"Alright," Ashley agreed, closing her locker and walking down the hall with Flash at her side. "Just make it quick, my ride will be here any minute."

When the two were outside and away from the majority of the rest of the students, the two stopped by a pillar and began talking.

"So what about him?"

"This is going to be hard for you," Flash began, hesitation filled into his eyes the whole time, "but he isn't the innocent kid you think he is. You see, a couple of years ago, I was really, really close with this one girl. Dating, if you will. Even though we were just 13, there was just this connection between us."

"He stole her from you?" Ashley guessed.

"Worse," he sighed. "Me and him were buds, y'know. I never thought he would be the one to betray us, but he did. He spread awful rumors about my girl. Things that I wouldn't like to repeat. It was so bad that we ended up having to fall apart because she moved away. Nobody ever found out the truth, and it makes so upset to this day. She was one of the only things that I actually loved, and just like that, he tore apart both our relationship and her entire life."

"I don't get it," Ashley whispered in disbelief, "he could never do that."

"That's what he wants you to think, Ash. I'm only trying to protect you from getting to close to a traitor like him," he assured her, cautiously grabbing her hand. When she didn't show any signs of being uncomfortable, he held it between his palms firmly and looked into her eyes. "Since then, I've never been able to find someone to come even close to her. She was intelligent, beautiful, and kind. But..."

Ashley could practically touch the tension between the two of them. She had a very strong feeling that she knew what he was trying to say, but she forced herself to not jump to conclusions. After all, if he was still upset about this, she had no right to even begin to think that he might have an interest in her.

"I'll keep all of this in mind." Ashley carefully slipped her hand away and gave him a gentle smile. "Thank you Flash, I'm really glad that someone has my back. I'd talk longer, but I think Beth is here."

With that, she walked away, confusion tossing and turning her stomach all the while.

±

"I still don't get it. Why would the French give a gift to Americans? Aren't we kind of like taking away their opportunity to gain more land in the New World?" Ashley asked as she stared out of the crown of Lady Liberty. The view was absolutely stunning: shining sea for miles upon miles and the towering skyscrapers on land.

"Maybe so, but this was a sign of their alliance with us," Bethany explained from beside the teenager.

"That's smart," Ashley chuckled, "making friends one of the most powerful nations in the world."

Bethany hummed her agreement, but her eyes never left the vast waters.

"Have you ever been across the ocean?" Ashley asked quietly.

"Many times," the brunette answered wistfully. "I've had many good times and many bad. Life sure is something, huh?"

"You can say that again. But what really is confusing are the people that fill it. How can you be so happy when almost everyone you know isn't trustworthy?"

"It takes a lot of work, but you learn to tear your heart off your sleeve and keep it safe inside you," Bethany said with a sigh, turning to join the rest of the crowds to make it back to the ground.

"That's no way to live," Ashley argued, all the while wondering what life would be like if you never let anyone close to you.

"It's the only way for me," Bethany replied solemnly, trying her best to hide her pain from Ashley. However, it didn't take a mind reader to tell that the woman had been through a lot.

Hopefully, Ashley thought to herself with the slightest hint of a smile, she'll trust me enough one day to tell me everything. Until then, I just have to be there for her.

They had just made it out of the statue and were walking down some concrete stairs when a small feeling of danger grew inside Ashley. When she tried to understand what it meant, the weave-wearing girl began to realize that it wasn't for her, but for someone nearby. She quickly pivoted her head around to see if there was anything wrong, but she couldn't find anything out of the normal.

Suddenly she noticed a kid that was getting a little too close to a railing that dropped straight into the ocean. Ashley knew that Bethany was getting a little suspicious of her strange behavior, but she was extremely scared for the little kid. The only parent the teenager saw was the mother, who was busy dealing with a crying baby in a stroller.

Ashley started running towards the kid to save it, but it was too late. He wiggled between the bars and accidentally slipped, causing him to begin falling towards the water.

"NO!" Ashley screamed, but there was nothing she could do. She had been too late, even though her senses had warned her about this.

Or am I too late? Ashley frantically thought to herself. So far she had only been able to control small objects, so being able to maintain a hold on something as large as a kid would be near-impossible for her.

It's worth a try. Ashley didn't want to make it obvious that she was using whatever weird powers she had, so she moved to blend into a crowd and kept her hands by her side. Then, within a second, she had her palms facing the direction of the boy and was trying to recreate the connection she had practiced before. Much faster than she had imagined it would take, she began to feel that familiar tug between her hands, the boy's body, and gravity.

Yes! It's working! Ashley cheered to herself. She knew it was bad luck to celebrate early, given that the kid was still half-way submerged in the salty waters, but she was just grateful to even have created the invisible bond between them.

Now time for the hard part.

Ashley gritted her teeth together, then raised her fingers upward to mimic the direction she wanted to lift the boy. It took several tries and serious strain, but she could eventually sense the rising presence of the toddler. About a minute later, she saw the little boy's head peep up over the railing. The teenager let out a breath of relief, but she knew her work wasn't done yet.

Ashley pulled her hands into her as discreetly as she could, and the now-giggling boy that thought he was flying was lifted over the rail and onto dry land. Now, Ashley admitted that she probably could've done a slightly better job setting him down, but she was dead tired and her body was inwardly begging for her to stop. Right as she relaxed her hands and turned around, a frantic Bethany nearly crashed into her.

"Ashley? Where did you go? I've been looking all over for you!"

"Sorry Beth," she apologized sheepishly, "there was this kid that almost fell into the ocean."

"Is it okay?" The brunette asked, her concern successfully diverted from the disappearance of Ashley.

"Yeah, he's good," Ashley answered, but began to slowly walk away from the area in attempts to get away from the flock of terrified, amazed, and confused people that had just finished videotaping the so-called miracle. "Why don't we go ahead and head back to the car?"

±

"Done!" Ashley declared to herself, setting her pencil down and closing her homework packet. The pair had returned home about an hour and a half ago, and being the studious girl Ashley was, she had been working on schoolwork since. Now that her work was finished for the day, she had the rest of the night to do whatever she wanted. Since she was already sitting on her bed, Ashley decided she would just hone and train her powers. Being able to manipulate the kid's body enough to save him from the ocean was an impressive step from what she was capable of before, so she was hopeful that she was getting better.

Let's try something different tonight.

Instead of only making her pencil spin and do tricks in the air, she used her invisible powers to open a drawer on her desk and pull out several more writing utensils. So far, everything was going well, and she had control over multiple different objects.

"That's one thing, but can I make them move in different directions at the same time?"

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out how that could be accomplished. She only had so many hands, so it wasn't like her normal technique would work. Instead, she would have to come up with a different method of controlling the objects.

She dropped both of her hands to her sides, which in turn caused the objects to fall to the ground. "In order to improve," Ashley thought out loud, "you need to change and adapt. What if it's my hands that are holding me back?"

Ashley closed her eyes and tried to blindly sense her targeted objects. After several moments, she had pin-pointed the pencils and pens that she had left scattered across the room. She frowned and pushed her mind even further, creating a mental picture of the writing utensils rising from the positions and coming inwards towards the teenager. By the time that Ashley finally opened her eyes, she was greeted by a band of the objects that were circling her.

"It worked," she whispered to herself, leaning forward and snatching one of the pencils out of the air while using her mind to keep the others stable. Then, to test herself, she tossed the pencil up and caught it with her telekinetic powers, then returned it to its rightful position with the others.

After playing around for several minutes, exhaustion eventually took over the girl and she decided to call it a night. Besides, she had to be ready for the day of school she had before her. To say the least, there were a lot of things that the teenager was going to have to figure out.

So, do you guys think Flash is telling the truth? Or do you think he's just jelly of Peter?

i GuEsS wE'lL nEvEr KnOw