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The halls of Midtown were filled with students. Andi made her way through the crowd, ignoring the eyes she knew were on her. Ever since Tony sent her to Midtown, she'd become victim to the curious eyes and suggestive remarks of the many young men that attended the school. The mere fact of it made her miss being homeschooled, but she had a job that needed to be done. She only wished she could do something about the annoyance, but she couldn't without revealing everything she worked so hard to keep hidden.

When Andi spotted Ned standing by his locker, which was, coincidentally, right beside her own, she hurried over to him. Contrary to what she originally believed about the mission Tony had given her, Andi quite liked Ned. He was annoying at times, but being homeschooled didn't allow her very many friends, so she took advantage of the ones Tony had indirectly given her. Ned liked all the same things Andi liked, which surprised him when he first befriended her, but nevertheless it made for a great friendship between the two of them.

"Hey, nerd," Andi greeted Ned as she opened up her locker.

Ned chuckled and closed his. "What's up?"

"Not much," Andi shrugged and grabbed her textbooks. One thing she absolutely hated about her mission was attending high school. She found that things were so much simpler when being homeschooled, but those days had so unfortunately ended for the blonde. "I'm just getting ready for yet another day locked up inside this hell they call school."

"Ain't that the truth."

Andi closed her locker and turned to Ned. "So, where's Parker?"

"Probably late as usual, but guess what?"

Andi and Ned began walking down the hall towards Peter's locker, in hopes that he would be there once they arrived. Although Peter was an excellent student as Andi had come to discover, he had a knack for disappearing or running late. Of course, Andi knew the reason why, but Ned had absolutely no idea. It was only smart that he remained out of the loop for the time being.

"What?" Andi replied, holding her books for first period close to her chest.

Ned removed a small figure from his pocket and held it up to Andi. It was a Lego piece she recognized as Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars series, a series the science-fiction enthusiast loved dearly.

"Emperor Palpatine wishes to build his new Death Star with you," Ned answered with a bad imitation of the Emperor's voice. Regardless of the bad imitation, however, Ned's words made Andi incredibly happy.

"Seriously?" Andi chimed happily, her brown eyes bright. This was one of the few things she loved about the mission. Having friends, especially friends she was comfortable being herself around, made her so incredibly happy. She remembered being so skeptical about Peter and Ned at first, simply because of who she was as a person, but after warming up to them, she'd come to learn the two were quite the lovable pair. She was glad she had the two in her life, despite how much they annoyed her on a day-to-day basis.

Ned nodded his head and smiled. "Me, you, and Peter are going to build this later on after school. Are you down?"

Andi pursed her lips and thought for a moment. Since her main job was to watch over Peter, it was routine that every day after school she followed him and made sure he didn't get into trouble during his ventures as Queens's "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." In the two months she'd been working, Peter hadn't given her much of an issue, which meant if he screwed up, it was her job to fix it, so she doubted taking one evening off would do much harm. Ned was presenting her with the opportunity to be a normal teenager for once, and she wanted to take it.

"I am definitely down," Andi finally answered Ned.

"Great!"

Ned perked up when he noticed Peter by his locker, and he ran over, followed closely by Andi. He snuck up behind the boy, holding the Palpatine figure in his hand.

"Join me, and together we'll build my new Lego Death Star," Ned spoke to Peter, once again using a terrible imitation.

Peter turned around immediately and looked at Ned with wide brown eyes. "What?"

"Surprise!" Andi chimed happily, earning a smile from Peter.

The girls standing behind the trio laughed, muttering something or another about just how lame they were. Another thing Andi hated about attending public school were the bullies. She hated that there were people who felt the need to judge other people simply because they didn't share the same interests as others did. She hated even more that she could do nothing about it. It was a wonder to Andi why she defended the humans in the first place, especially when she believed there were so many who didn't deserve it, but defending the humans was beyond any personal belief she held. It was her duty, just as it was Peter's duty, to defend the humans. There weren't many who were capable of doing what the two of them could do, so when the bad things happened, and the two of them did nothing about it, those things happened because of them.

"Ignore them," Andi muttered to the boys. "You never did tell me how many pieces it was, Ned."

Ned smirked and glanced between the two of them. "3,803," he told them.

"No way, that's insane," Peter replied, grabbing more books from his locker.

"Andi and I are gonna build it tonight," Ned told Peter.

"Yeah," Andi smirked. "You are more than welcome to join us."

"I can't tonight." Peter closed his locker and the three of them began walking down the hall. "I got the Stark internship."

"Of course you do," Andi sighed.

Peter's obsession with the "Stark Internship" annoyed Andi greatly, especially because she knew there was no real Stark Internship. He was, in essence, lying to both her and Ned about his true activities, but she couldn't be too mad at him because of that. She was lying to both of them as well, but she was under direct orders from Tony to remain as low-key as she possibly could. If that wasn't the case, and if telling Peter didn't mean risking his safety, he would've known her true identity the first day he met her.

"It's always about the internship," Ned remarked. He wasn't too happy about Peter always bailing on plans for the internship either, and that was something Andi had figured out around the third time the internship was even mentioned.

"Well, hopefully one day it'll lead to a real job with him," Peter defended himself, just as he always did. This didn't make Ned or Andi feel better, however.

Ned snorted back his laughter. "Wouldn't that be awesome? Making spreadsheets for Tony Stark." Peter gave Ned a look, to which he shrugged in response to. "Look, I dunno how jobs work."

"That is exactly how jobs work, Ned," Andi assured him.

"Well, Andi and I will start with the basics of the star at my place, and then we'll finish up at yours," Ned explained to Peter. "How does that sound to you?"

Peter wasn't listening to Ned, though. His eyes and attention were elsewhere. Liz Allen was at the other end of the hall, Andi noticed, and she sighed when she saw just how much attention Peter was actually giving her. She had never seen such a young boy so infatuated with a girl before, but then again, she had never been allowed to experience the reality of high school before.

"That'd be great," Peter spoke quietly, his eyes on a retreating Liz.

Andi rolled her eyes at him and started towards her first period class. "I bet it would be great," she muttered in an attempt to prevent Peter from hearing her, but sometimes she forgot just how enhanced his senses were.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter questioned Andi. He followed her into the classroom and sat down beside her. The two shared every class together, and while Peter believed it to be a coincidence, Andi knew it was far from it.

"It means that you didn't hear a damn thing Ned said to you because you were so busy fawning over Liz," Andi grumbled.

Peter chuckled and pulled out his laptop. "Does that bother you? Are you jealous I'm not fawning over you instead?"

Andi rolled her eyes and grabbed her notebook. "Hardly, but it is quite annoying when your friends are trying to speak to you and you can't hear a thing they're saying because your attention is on some girl who doesn't even know you exist."

"Ouch."

"Truth hurts, babe."

The two remained silent after that. Class had started not too long after their brief exchange, so, like the good students Andi and Peter were, they focused their attention on the teacher. Well, Andi did. Peter's attention had once again been shifted elsewhere. This time, he was focused on his laptop screen, and while he tried to keep the contents of the screen as discreet as possible, Andi was more than aware of what he was watching, though she did her best to act as if she couldn't see a thing.

"Okay, so how do we calculate linear acceleration between points A and points B?"

Andi looked up at the question.

"Flash?"

Flash answered the question, which only resulted in a quiet laugh from Andi. His failure never failed to make the blonde laugh. She despised him, not only because of the way he treated Peter on a daily basis, but because of the way he treated everyone around him. He was a total douchebag and one of the few people Andi wished she could just take her wrath out on.

Flash looked back at Andi with a glare on his face, and she only smirked in response. She raised her hand to answer the question, but her instructor had other plans. She called on Peter, who was sitting beside Andi with his head down and his eyes on his computer screen. His head shot up the moment his name was called, and he closed his laptop quickly.

"Are you still with us, Peter?"

"Yeah," he answered and focused his attention on the board. "Uh, mass cancels out, so it's just gravity times sine."

"Right," the teacher answered. "See, Flash, being the fastest isn't always the best if you are wrong."

Flash turned around to look at Peter, mouthing "you are dead" before turning back around. Andi rolled her eyes and clenched her fists, using all of her self control to keep from snapping at him. She truly did dislike him.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, Andi was ready to head back home. Since starting public school, her days seemed to drag on and on, and it was nothing short of annoying. Not to mention, Ned and Peter weren't paying the least bit of attention to her. Their eyes were, of course, on Liz, which meant their minds were as well. It was almost impossible to speak to them when that was the case.

"Did Liz get a new top?"

Andi rolled her eyes and took a sip of her water.

"No, we've seen that before," Ned answered him. "We've just never seen it with that skirt."

"We should probably stop staring before it gets creepy, though," Peter replied.

"Too late," Andi breathed out.

"Yeah," a voice sounded from beside the trio. "You guys are losers."

Andi snickered at Michelle, while Peter and Ned threw their hands up.

"Then why do you sit with us?" Ned questioned the girl.

"Because I don't have any friends," she answered.

Andi shrugged at her response and stood up the moment the bell rang. It was time for her, Ned, Peter, and Michelle to head to practice. The four of them were on the Academic Decathlon, which Andi found a lot more fun than she originally believed she would. While most girls were cheerleaders and volleyball players, Andi was perfectly content with her sport of knowledge. Sure, she didn't mind being active, as her abilities provided her with quite the advantage over all things related to sports, but she was a lot more comfortable as a member of the Academic Decathlon. Though she was physically enhanced, she believed her mind to be her strongest asset.

During the hour, after finishing practice, Andi found herself on the floor of the auditorium with Peter and Mr. Harrington. He and Peter were talking about Peter's inability to attend the Decathlon in Washington D.C. Of course, it was due to his "internship" with Tony, and the mention of it almost made Andi want to rip her eardrums out.

"Peter, it's Nationals," Mr. Harrington told him. "Is there no way you can take one weekend off?"

"I can't go to Washington, because if Mr. Stark needs me then I have to make sure that I'm here," Peter explained to him.

Andi rolled her eyes. "Mr. Stark this, Mr. Stark that. When are you gonna give this whole internship thing a rest, Peter? It's getting unnecessarily annoying."

Peter frowned and opened his mouth to respond, but wasn't allowed the opportunity. Flash had already begun his verbal attack.

"You've never even been in the same room as Tony Stark," he remarked.

"Wait, what's happening?" Cindy questioned.

"Peter's not going to Washington," Sally alerted the remainder of the team.

Abraham rang the bell. "Why not?"

"Really?" Liz asked softly, grabbing Peter's attention immediately. "Not even for Nationals?"

"He already quit marching band and robotics lab," Michelle informed everyone.

The team looked at her with shared expressions on their faces.

"I'm not obsessed with him, I'm just very observant," she defended herself.

Andi chuckled and looked over at Liz, who had already begun speaking.

"Flash, you're in for Peter," she told the boy.

"I dunno," Flash started, his eyes on the textbook he was reading. "I gotta check my calendar first. I have a hot date with Black Widow comin' up."

Flash smirked at Peter in a teasing manner, and Andi had to turn away to keep from snapping at him once more. There were no words to describe just how sick she was of him.

Abraham rang the bell again. "That is false."

"What did I tell you about using the bell for comedic purposes?" Mr. Harrington scolded him.

Peter turned to look at the clock, catching Andi's attention.

"You don't have to keep looking at the clock, Peter." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I'm sure Mr. Stark isn't going anywhere."

He looked over at her with pleading brown eyes. "Can you just cut me some slack, Andi? You're supposed to be my friend. Friends accept that other friends have important things going on in their lives."

Andi shrugged and frowned at the 15-year-old. "I've just never known anyone so willing to ditch their friends for the sake of something that might not even happen."

Just then, the bell rang, and Andi got up without hesitation. She could hear Peter sigh behind her. She knew she had upset him, but she didn't care much anymore. After first meeting Peter, it didn't take her long to realize that she wanted to be his friend, but with her job and his job keeping the two so far away from each other, it was rare that the two were ever able to spend time together outside of school. Now that Andi had been given the opportunity to actually spend time with him doing something she loved, he was bailing for the sake of Tony's approval, and that annoyed her greatly. If she could take a night off from trying to please Tony, he definitely could as well, but as it seemed, becoming an Avenger was so much more important than any of his friendships.