( CHAPTER 6 )
❛ academic decathlnot ❜

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   The National Decathlon was tomorrow. Arlyn wasn't very nervous. Competitions have never been a problem for her when she knew her or her team were prepared, but that didn't stop the rest of the team from being totally anxious. The one thing that Arlyn was anxious about was Spider-Man and Cosmo's plan to catch the bad guys, something that she knew they weren't prepared for. All Peter talked about for the rest of that week was how confident he was in their plan. Arlyn on the other hand didn't wanna disappoint, so she kept her mouth shut. For some reason she always thought of the worst possible outcome when it came to Cosmo and stuck with that.

Arlyn shook her head, checking the time on her phone for about the 20th time in the last 11 minutes. They were waiting outside their bus since the bus driver had to go to the bathroom, but he was already on his way back and Peter still hadn't shown up. The first step in their plan was for Peter to show up for the Decathlon. What if he forgot? What if he slept in?

"He's probably just running a little late, that's all," Emily said while putting on her bright yellow Decathlon jacket, which Arlyn despised. It was way too bright and out of her normal colour scheme of appropriate outfit colours.

"He's not supposed to be late, not for this!" Arlyn seethed through gritted teeth, trying not to make her voice too noticeable to her teammates. Thankfully with Peter's permission, Arlyn was able to tell Emily about him being Spider-Man. Emily wasn't too surprised, which made Arlyn freak out. You should become a detective, I'm serious, she said to her best friend who simply shrugged.

"Hey guys!" Peter finally said while running up to the group.

"Peter?" Everyone questioned in confusion.

"Thank the fucking lord..." Arlyn whispered to herself.

It was obvious that the boy was out of breath, which lead her to believe he was running short on his schedule. He scanned the crowd for a moment, almost sighing in relief when he spotted Arlyn. "Yeah, I-I was hoping I could rejoin the team-"

"No, no way!" Flash declared while pushing towards the front of the group. Both Arlyn and Flash avoided eye contact at all times ever since that party incident. It was hard not to notice anything wrong with him with the huge bandage on the bridge of his nose. "You can't just quit on us, stroll up and be welcome back hey everyone!"

Mr. Harrington exited the school bus, letting the driver in. "Hey, welcome back Peter!"

That was easy.

"Flash you're back to first alter now," he said to a confused Flash, whereas Peter breathed another sigh of relief, giving a hopeful glance to the curly haired Cosmo in the back.

"W-what?" Flash asked.

The teammates around them laughed. "He's taking your place!" One said.

"Hey, 'scuse me, can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping I could get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before the dinner," Michelle asked. Arlyn nodded her head in agreement along with Emily.

"Protesting is patriotic, let's get on the bus," the teacher replied, leading the students inside.

Arlyn smirked quietly when a fuming Flash threw his yellow jacket towards Peter, who quite frankly didn't expect it, almost being knocked down.

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A gasp was heard from beside Aryln. "You found a Glaceon! Catch it!" Emily squealed beside her, leaning over to stare at her friend's 3DS. Arlyn couldn't go on any long road trip without her gaming device and a pokemon game.

"Eh, I'm more of a Jolteon person, but I'll try anyway," Arlyn replied, attempting to fight the creature with her Gengar. The team was practicing test questions with a little bell, which very much annoyed Arlyn, as it interrupted her game. Even though she should really be studying to help the team, she couldn't put her device down.

But not for long.

"Hey, get Arlyn to answer a question, her nose has been stuck in that game all day," Flash stated while spinning around in his seat, as well as Peter. Arlyn heard what he said perfectly, but she decided not to look up from her game, even if it would be hard to see them with her feet up against the seat in front of her.

"I know what your nose has also been stuck in all day..." Arlyn grumbled to herself, but by the way Flash huffed he probably heard.

"Um, okay then," Liz, who was asking the questions, began, "who introduced the theory of punctuated equil-"

"Gould and Eldredge," Arlyn answered, throwing a pokeball at the opponent and trying to capture it.

"Good!" Liz awarded. It was nice knowing how mad Flash was probably getting in this moment. Peter was quite happy that she answered it correctly too.

"Okay, ask me one now," Flash demanded, leaving poor Liz to flip through her flash cards.

"O-okay, what is an ATP molecule made up of?"

"Easy. Adenine, ribose and...uracil," he answered confidently.

Before Liz could answer him, Arlyn spoke up. "Wrong. It's adenine, ribose and phosphate. Uracil is a nucleobase for RNA, not ATP."

A few kids sniggered near the front, a few nodded in agreement, and one kid whistled, mocking Flash. Before he got too red he changed the subject. "When's our next food stop, I'm starving!"

Arlyn shook her head in annoyance, saving and quitting her game while putting it in her bag. Just as she did so Peter started walking to the back where Ned was sitting (across from the two girls).

"Look Happy, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy," Peter spoke into his phone, sitting down beside Ned, who was pointing at the bad guys they were tracking which was actually a violation of their privacy.

"That's different," he whispered to Ned.

Happy, Tony Stark's assistant, must have heard him. "Oh, nothing," Peter said into the phone again. "Look, it's just the Academic Decathlon, it's no big deal!"

There were a few moments of silence as Peter waited for Happy's approval. It seemed like he did as Peter hung up with a smile on his face.

"You good?" Arlyn asked, taking off her yellow jacket until she would be forced to wear it outside.

Peter glanced up at Arlyn in confusion for a second, before doing a double-take and nodding.

Ned turned towards the other girls. "Okay, but what's with you and Flash? And about his nose-"

"I punched him at the party."

Ned gasped. "No, you didn't! Wow, that's so awesome," he replied, whereas Peter seemed to be more interested in why she would ever do that. Everyone knew how much Flash bugged everyone, but he never really went too far as to earn a sock in the face.

"What for?" Peter asked, cautiously glancing up at Arlyn's eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed, reliving the memories. She could practically remember how he said it. They're not your real parents. That somehow struck a nerve with her, even now.

Arlyn shrugged. "He said something that...got me angry. So I punched him, didn't really think about it."

Peter could tell she didn't wanna get into detail, so he let it go for the time being.

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It didn't take long for the nerdy trio to get into a hotel room, lock the door, and get back to work. Emily said she'd hang out with the team, so she didn't mind. But Arlyn didn't realize what they were actually planning to do till Ned brought out his laptop and Peter plugged a cord between the laptop and his Spider-Man suit.

Peter was hard at work with a flashlight and a screwdriver, Ned was looking at the coding on his laptop, and Arlyn was, well, being Arlyn. She was sitting in a swiveling chair, spinning herself slowly in circles, listening closely to what the boys were trying to do.

"Peter, why are we removing a tracker from your suit?" Ned asked, making Arlyn stop her spinning to stare quizzically at the boy in question.

"Because I gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again...and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it."

"So you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned asked again.

"N-no, I'm not lying, he just doesn't get what I can do yet."

While listening into their banter, Arlyn used her powers to move a coffee cup under the brewer and make a coffee. Ned still wasn't very used to casually seeing a bunch of purple energy making cups and pens float around, but this was apart of Arlyn's life.

"Gotcha," Peter said, depite the flashlight being stuck between his two lips, as he took off the tracker successfully. "Alright Happy, enjoy tracking this lamp." Peter then placed the tracker on the lamp, as he said.

The coffee under the brewer began to drizzle, meaning it was finished, as Arlyn brought it over to her desk and sipped it. She took her coffee black, which Emily always found ironic.

"There's a ton of other subsystems in here," Ned explained, typing away at his computer. "But they're all disabled by the..." Ned laughed softly. "Training wheels protocol."

That made Arlyn let out a much louder laugh than Ned's. "I like that guy," Arlyn said while pointing to the computer, speaking of Tony Stark and his parental ways.

"What?" Peter questioned while glancing at the computer, wondering if it was just a joke. Sadly, it wasn't. "Turn it off!"

"I-I don't think that's a good idea," Ned said with a slight chuckle. "They're probably blocked for a reason."

"Oh c'mon man I don't need training wheels," he whined while pushing himself off the bed and throwing his arms up in the air. By the way he was acting he seemed like he wasn't even close to getting to training wheels. "I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time, it's not cool!" Peter continued, jumping up onto the bed in protest.

Arlyn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Says the kid who's literally jumping on a bed."

Both boys seemed to ignore her comment.

"But you are a kid," Ned added on.

"Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands!"

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

Arlyn sipped her coffee quietly while listening to them banter.

"Look please," Peter pleaded, getting off the bed and kneeling beside Ned's bed. "This is the chance to prove myself! I can handle it Ned, c'mon!"

"I really don't think this is a good idea..."

"You're the guy in the chair!"

"Guy in the what-" Arlyn was interrupted, ignored once again.

"Don't do that..."

"C'mon!"

That seemed to peek Ned's interest, but he gave a glance at Arlyn as if he needed her superhero seal of approval. With a small sigh, Arlyn nodded her head, and he disabled it, making the suit light up, as if it was being rewired.

Now all they needed to do was leave without being noticed.

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a/n: sorry this chapter is a little boring we're gonna get to the action in the next one