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Madeline Osborn has been suspended for vandalism and violence against another student.

The words told by Peter's Principle repeat in his head. Everything seems to go dark in his mind. The guilt sets in his chest as his hands grip the bottom of the metal bench.

"So, you're being awfully quiet. Please say something?"

He looks at the girl next to him, her hair falls over her shoulders as she leans forward on the bench, trying to make eye contact. Peter's other friends have already left for class, but the two are still in the front office, wanting to talk to each other after the encounter with Principle Morita.

"What am I supposed to say?" He croaks out, shaking his head.
"A-um—a thank you would be nice?" Her words curve with the slightest of smile in her voice.

How could she be okay with this? His drumming thoughts say.

"Do you think I'd be thankful of you getting suspended instead of me?" He says, eyes darting all over the floor.

"Peter, It's only for a week. I'm pretty sure Chemistry wouldn't be that boring without me—" She says nonchalantly, like none of this matters. Well it does for Peter, what happens to her does matter for him.

"—No, don't you get it?" He turns to face the girl, who cowers from his low-toned scolding, "This could go on your student record. Y-Your Dad is going to be so mad when he gets here. The chances of getting a really good job could be gone because of this—" he stops to realize that it's too late now for anything to change. The damage is done and he exhales, leaning his back against the seat of his chair. He tilts backwards and he feels the tile wall against his head.

"What about you, huh?" Madeline begins, "Back there with Jack, I-I knew that wasn't you. I've seen that look before with my brother."
The fifteen year old tries to pry his gaze from Madeline but the sad tone in her voice makes him worried automatically. So, he looks to her and listens.

"When he was beginning to get sick, he started lashing out all the time about little things. But he got too out of control and ended up hurting himself and others. . .his mind wasn't in the right place but I could tell that inside, he didn't want to do any damage at all."

"Maddie—" Peter's eyes search the girl's emotions, she seems desperate to make things right. But that doesn't mean she did it ethically. He sits up, about to say something to defend his argument, but she continues on, "—I saw the same look today that I thought I'd never see from you. A-And I guess I was wrong.." Maddie shrugs, her eyes gloss over in a small pool of water until it overflows and one tear slips down her cheek.

Peter bites the inside of his bottom lip, he tries to hold back tearing up in front of her, but he feels his nose sting and the pool also start to fill up. He doesn't like to see a person he cares about deeply cry because of him, the sight just breaks him.

Madeline continues on, "I. . . I know I was being stupid but, I didn't want you to get punished for something you didn't mean to do at all." Her head tilts as she evades her gaze from Peter, a guy who she took too many risks and ended up completely falling for.

"Your not stupid." He says almost too quietly for her to hear. But she catches it and ends up scoffing in return.

"Yeah?...Well—" she swipes away her tears with her hand and wipes it on her jeans, "That's nice of you to say but—"

"—I mean it." Peter's voice becomes serious, his brows turn up in a concerned way. His feet shuffle in their place as he looks up at her with his innocent eyes, "Madeline, Y-You're smart, you're caring towards others, beautiful and incredibly brave. And today just as well proved it too."

"Beautiful?" Madeline smiles up at Peter, she picks up one of her hands to move a piece of hair behind her ear.

The teenager's words become jumbled as he tries to explain himself. The hues of his cheeks turn pink and the palm of his hands become sweaty.

"Y-Yeah—um, yeah your—uh," he scratches the back oh his head and curses under his breath. Maddie chuckles, evading eye contact.
"Sorry, i-it sort of just came out—wow I'm dumb—I hope I didn't embarrass you or anything. . ."

"No, no, your fine." She shakes her head, putting on a shy smile. "And your compliments are well taken. Even though, I don't fully believe that I'm what's even considered pretty." Maddie messes around with her hands as she tilts her head.

"Well you should, you know? I'm not lying to you—I'd never—not about something like that."

She smiles, thinking about how people know her around school for her father and her overall appearance. When others would call her pretty, she'd dismiss it with a roll of her eyes. For Peter, it feels different. And the blush in her cheeks rise like the color of rose.

"I gotta say something. And it's been eating at my head," he starts, looking quite nervous.

"Okay, shoot." She says, turning her head in curiosity.

"Well, when we were walking in the halls before all this happened and we talked to your friends. . .I-I don't know why but I- -"

A sudden force slamming the front door open interrupts Peter. A tall and slumped over figure with a long and gliding pace walks over to the two sophomores.

Peter knows this face, he's seen him on TV, in articles, all over the billboards in Times Square. His scruff stubble makes him look older and his expression is everything but positive.
Madeline gets up slowly from her seat, along with picking her backpack up.

"Dad—" She starts to say, but is cut off by her father,

"—I don't want to hear from your excuses, Madeline." His voice is deep and scary. The tone in his voice turns into a scolding one. He points a mean finger towards his daughter, "I had to cancel an important meeting with one of my highest clients and workers, because of your irresponsible and stupid mistake."

He wears, what looks to be, an expensive suit and tie. He really does look like he was about to attend a meeting with the president.

Norman Osborn sees the startled boy sitting on the bench. He then points his stubby finger at Peter, slowly walking up to him, "You." He says behind gritted teeth, "You're the one who's being the bad influence for my daughter, huh?"

"What? Dad—no. He's not a bad influence!" Madeline walks in front of her father, getting in the middle of the two.

"You be quiet!" He rages on, grabbing a hold of his daughters arm. Peter instinctively stands up from the bench, about to step in but he stops himself when he sees Maddie snap her arm away from her Dad's grasp.

"Grab me like that again and I won't go with you." The death glares and eye squinting ignites. Madeline looks up at Norman, looking like a mere ant.

"Is that a threat?" His face retorts in a scowl. Deep down, he knows he's overreacting. Hell—any parent would react non-ethically when told their child has been suspended.

"No, but we're in school. Lets try and not do more damage to the public eye by making them think your not keeping your cool."
Norman looks around, eyeing the passing students and the lady at the front counter. He immediately cowers down.

"Don't blow this out of proportion and wait in the car for me. I have to sign out anyways." Madeline says and takes a few steps back, almost touching Peter's tensed up hand that is currently being balled up into a fist.

"We're not done here." He says lowly, trying not to get the attention of others around him.

"Fine."

Norman takes one last and final look at Peter, who doesn't change his expression from the man. He notes that Peter looks protective. He can admit, he acted out impulsively in front of the public eye. He just doesn't want to say it out loud.

Norman turns around without looking back and slams the door open once again in frustration.

Madeline lets out the air she didn't know was holding, taking a few relieved breaths.

"Remind me to never piss you off." Peter whispers over to her. She laughs hazily, putting on a smile.

"Are you kidding? That was terrifying. And I only did that because you were going to tell me something and he so rudely interrupted." She says, gesturing to her raging off father, "In fact, you should probably tell me now. He'll only get madder if I make him wait you know—?"

"—Right, right, yeah um—" Peter puts his hands in his jean pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet, "in the hallway earlier on when I said we were just friends, I-I felt. . .weird? Like, I said the wrong thing o-or something. I don't know if it was just me but, yeah."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Um. . ." Peter shakes his head in embarrassment and rubs the back of his neck, blushes rising. "Well, I kinda felt guilty when I did. And I guess I wasn't really being 100% honest too. I don't know, the situation was just going by too fast, and your friends were right there so I panicked. But the is, I—" he stops himself, now realizing what he was about to confess.

Ugh, are you really about to do this? What if she rejects you? No way would she ever like a nerd like me back. God, what am I doing right now, I'll just—

"—I like you."

Peter looks from his worn down Nike sneakers up at the girl in shock. She swallows the lump in her throat once they meet eye contact and bites her bottom lip while looking away to try and hide the red hues on her face.

The boy couldn't get the words out his mouth, "Y-You—You what?"

Madeline never would've thought she'd have these feelings for Peter Parker, the school's geek and brainiac. But he's surprised her the past two weeks. Surprises that include heroics, kindness, and supreme honesty.

Gwen Stacy was wrong, not all guys are pricks and care only for themselves.

Not him.

"Okay, I'm just gonna get this over with since we're already here," she gulped and fiddled with her hands, "Pete, you've done more than enough for me than anybody else has in my entire life. You've gone out of your way multiple times to make me feel okay even when bad shit hits the fan and I haven't had a friend like that in forever. Everyone else is just. .not real. But you, you're this incredibly sweet guy that would do anything for his friends, your an actual genius, and just. . .amazing. It-it's all really something that I admire."

The girl pauses, shaking her head while trying to collect herself.

"So, w-what I guess I'm trying to say is that I like you. M-More than a friend."

"Me?" He says in disbelief, which makes the girl smile of his puppy dog eyes.
"Know any other Peter Parkers?"
"N-No."
"Well then there you go," she laughs, "I know it seems out of the blue and it's okay if you don't feel the same. But I guess it's kind of my stupid way of saying it? God, this is embarrassing. . ."

Peter swallows the lump developing in his throat. He never expected this, he wasn't prepared at all. But he knew he had a crush on her back so,

"Oh well, um. Then would it be weird if. ."

Peter hasn't felt this nervous since Freshman finals. He decides to just say what he wants to say with the upmost confidence left.

". .If I asked you out? Because I kinda like you too. Er—a lot actually. You sort of beat me too it though," He chuckles nervously.

He waits for his answer, rubbing the back of his neck. But it wasn't long until he saw a shy smile beam on the beautiful girl's face. She bites her bottom lip once again, trying to contain her happiness.

"No, it wouldn't be."

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