Miles was very much enjoying being on a bus alone on the way to Washington D.C. Well, his team was there with him, obviously, but there wasn't much going on save for Flash, Liz, and Peter all practicing upfront with flashcards. Miles was being selfish in that he was actually glad he didn't have Claudia chatting his ear off like usual about something going on in her own life that Miles likely knew nothing about. He loved the girl, but she was so much drama sometimes and Miles just needed some time to himself every now and then. There was nothing wrong with that, right? Academic Decathlon had always been his thing and he had missed it, if he was being honest. It saddened him to know that he had to quit the team after this all because of his stupid ex-boyfriend. Miles would be damned if he wasn't going to help them win this tournament, though.

Not long into the four-hour bus drive, Betty Bryant sat down next to him. Carefully, he raised an eyebrow and pulled out one of his headphones, the sounds of Willow quieting in his ear as he asked, "What's up, Betty?"

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," Betty said with a soft smile. The girl had always been nice to him throughout everything and he was grateful for that. "It's weird seeing you without Claudia, I feel like you guys are always attached at the hip."

Miles scoffed, "Yeah, tell me about it. Uh, yeah, I've been doing good, better. Thanks."

"Of course," Betty shrugged before looking ahead at the aisle asking, "Isn't Ned kinda cute? I think he's cute."

"Are you asking me for boy advice right now?"

"No! I'm just making conversation!" the girl scoffed, a fake-offended look on her face, "Besides, none of my friends agree that he's cute and you're the last person that has a valid say in this so I'm turning to you or else all hope is lost."

Miles laughed, "It's not the end of the world if your friends don't think a guy is cute. If you think he's cute then go for it. Also, please don't count on me for guy advice, my love life is dreadful."

"Oh, I know," Betty teased and the boy guffawed at her to which she only giggled, "I'm kidding! Sheesh. You know, you're more fun to be around without Claudia, but don't tell her I said that. I swear, you never talk when she's around."

"She does enough talking for the both of us," the dark-haired boy said with a shrug. He didn't realize Claudia had an effect on his personality -- at least, not so much that other people noticed it. He wasn't quite sure if he liked the idea of that. Scratch that, he definitely didn't. "But yeah, she was never really the educational type so decathlon has always been... my thing, I guess."

"Well, we should hang out while we're out in D.C. I think Liz was saying we're gonna sneak into the hotel pool one night, so I hope you brought swim trunks. If not, I'm sure... Flash has some you can borrow," Betty mused and he knew that was purposeful but the ghost of a smirk on her face. "Also, listen, teammate to teammate here, he was totally lying about you coming onto him right? Like, it had to have been mutual, right? You don't seem like the type."

He knew outing was wrong, of course, it was wrong, but it was just between the two of them in the back of the bus and Flash had done the exact same thing to him except on a much larger and a much worse scale. However, if he told Betty the truth, did that make him any better than Flash? It was a stupid moral quandary and Miles knew he didn't exactly owe it to Flash to protect him, but shouldn't he?

Sighing, he looked over at Betty and said, "That truth isn't mine to tell. What Flash said is... exaggerated, but that's all. I don't really wanna talk about it that much if that's all right. It kinda... haunted me for a while."

Right away, the blonde nodded as if she respected the decision, saying, "Oh, yeah, of course. Sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I have a habit of running my mouth, oops, but uh, you ready to kill it this weekend? I know I am. I think we've totally got this, especially now that Peter's back."

Miles nodded, "Yeah, of course, we're gonna kill it."

"Okay, okay, I'll leave you alone now, but thanks for the chat," Betty smiled as she stood up, but for a minute she turned and leaned on the top of the seat in front of Miles, saying, "and thanks for the advice. About Ned. I hope you know I didn't ask you because you're... yeah, I asked you because I've always considered us friends. Just, yeah. That's all, talk to you later."

The girl was gone, sitting next to their other teammates upfront before he had even registered what she had said. He wasn't sure if she actually meant it or if she was just trying to cover up any assumptions she made about him, but he sort of hoped she was being honest. He had always thought Betty was sweet, but he had never really had any other friends besides Claudia. Maybe it would be nice to branch out a little bit. It wouldn't kill him, would it? No, it wouldn't.

Without a second thought, Miles stood up and went to move up from the back of the bus where he was sitting alone. He moved up and sat behind Kaelyn and Beth, more for the sake of Beth than Kaelyn because the girl had never been particularly nice to him. Beth had always been kind, though, which he was grateful for.

"Oh, hey, Miles!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed as soon as she noticed he sat down, "What are you listening to?"

"Declan Mckenna," he answered as he kept one headphone in, twisting the other one between his fingers. "Uh, Kaelyn, I didn't know you were on the team, too?"

"It was a recent development," the redhead sighed as she picked at her nails, "Now that football season is almost over, I got bored and wanted something to do."

Miles nodded, surprised he got an answer from the girl at all. Turning back to Beth, he said, "Liz was telling me about you wanting to join the team, Beth, I didn't know you guys talked."

He noted how the girl's cheeks went pink at this as she stuttered, "Uh, yeah, yeah, we're kind of... friends. Yeah. Uh, how's Claudia?"

"Last I checked, she was all right," Miles shrugged, not really wanting to talk about the girl right now. "Are you guys excited?"

"Oh just ecstatic," Kaelyn spoke sarcastically, "as long as no one asks me anything about math, that is."

Beth laughed at this, shoving her best friend gently, "She's kidding, she's going to be a valuable asset to our team. Right, Kaelyn?"

The girl nodded at Beth but turned to Miles to shake her head which caused Beth to shove her again and both of them to giggle. It was weird seeing such an interaction with Kaelyn considering the girl was usually known for her cold demeanor. It seemed that since she started dating Peter she had gotten a bit softer, but he found it nice to see her act a little more human.

Kaelyn laughed as she nodded, "Oh, yeah, we've so got this."

having miles interact with canon characters makes me so happy idk why!! also, if you haven't read Busted, that's where Kaelyn and Beth are from but they've been mentioned a few times in the book already so if you don't know who they are, then what are you doing! go read Busted! (it's almost to 100k AND you'll understand a few little things in this book so really it's a win-win go read it)