The bell rings, signalling the end of our English presentation. Though the desks are askew from the game we put the whole class through. Although, I think it went pretty well.

As everyone leaves, Peter offers me a high-five. I slap his hand, and our fingers intertwine, if only for a brief second. I'm quick to pull away, but I watch as his hands linger in the air. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest.

"Miss Delmar," Mrs. Matsui pulls me aside at the end of the class. "May you stay behind for a second?"

Peter nods, and waves good-bye to me. He leaves the room, leaving just Mrs. Matsui and me. Now, Mrs. Matsui has never been one to put up with my antics. She suspects me of cheating, but has never managed to catch me, which is all to my liking. Here, though, I begin to find myself in a bit of a panic, because Peter's grade is on the line as well as mine.

"I promise everything is cited perfectly," I tell her. "And I didn't copy-paste my speech. You can look at my notes."

"Miss Delmar," she sighs, crossing her arms over her chest. "One should learn to hold their tongue until they've been accused of plagiarism."

I shouldn't have assumed that's why she called me here.

Mrs. Matsui doesn't miss a beat. "Mr. Harrington asked me to ask you to meet him after school today."

The physics teacher? I'm not even in physics. "Why?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," she grits her teeth together, in a lie.

The only thing that Mr. Harrington does, besides physics, is run the academic decathlon team. I imagine that's what he wants to see me for, which I am absolutely not doing.

"Thank you," I tell her.

The rest of the day I spend antsy, planning through my escape plan. Math I have alone, so I spend the class planning out what I am going to say to convince Anthony to skip Spanish with me. I doubt that anything will get him out of school now that he is finally back in it.

However, I don't figure out a plan by the time Spanish rolls around. Now, this class I really don't pay attention in. I could sleep through it and still get a hundred in the class. If Anthony ever were to cheat off me, this would be the class.

We get set up in pairs to do mock job interviews. So, I end up weaseling my way into a group with Anthony. He's better at Spanish than most of the other kids, so I trust him to understand when I speak.

"Want to grab dinner and talk about Dantae?" I ask, in Spanish, eyeing our teacher from across the classroom.

Anthony pauses. He bites his lip, before nodding. "Yeah."

"Really? I thought you'd be worried about violating his privacy now that you are roommates."

In response, Anthony only blinks. I decide it's probably better than he doesn't understand me.

When the bell rings, I dip through the halls. I quickly throw my stuff in the locker, and close it. As I do, I notice Mr. Harrington standing next to me.

I gasp. "Geez, you scared the living sh- you scared me."

"Good correction," he notices. "Mrs. Matsui figured that you wouldn't be coming. You didn't seem particularly enthusiastic."

I tile my head to the side and sigh. "I'd love to chat, Mr. Harrington, but I have to go catch the subway."

Before he can offer anything else, I slip down the hallway and into the crowd. I'm not joining the academic decathlon when all my intelligence comes from cheating. Today is not the day to feel guilty. It is not the day to feel anything except excited that I can finally spend time with Anthony.

Finally, I arrive at Anthony's locker. His face twitches into a smile, and then he frowns quickly.

"Lets go!" I smile at him.

Something is definitely bothering him, but I don't bother prying. He is undoubtedly as tired as I am (only problem is, I doubt he snuck out at lunch to go buy a coffee like I did). Anthony has dark bags under his eye, and when he shuts his locker, he rubs his temples.

"You good?" I tell him as we leave the school.

He nods, "I'm doing a lot better, yeah."

Anthony adjusts the collar poking out beneath his shirt, only causing the collar to grow more askew. Maybe he is bothered because he didn't have time to iron his stuff. Mornings can be kind of chaotic with the six of us packed inside our tiny apartment. Anthony would never tell me if he minded.

"Well, how has catching up at school been?"

"Aren't we going to talk about Dantae?" Anthony stops walking just outside the school and turns to face me. "Or, is this an interrogation?"

I shake my head back and forth, blinking. "Excuse me?"

Anthony turns and walks off. It takes me a second to make my feet move so that I can catch up to him.

"What did you want to tell me about Dantae?" he clarifies. I have never been good at reading people's emotions, but he seems frustrated with me. At least, he's being short with me. I wait for him to continue talking, but he doesn't.

"I just wanted to formally apologize for his behaviour," I tell Anthony.

We head take the subway, and then grab a bus to clear the little distance that we have left before we get to the diner. There isn't enough room to sit, so we stand. Most of the ride there, I try to find myself speaking to Anthony, but I don't have any words. It works out, because he's on his phone with the robotics group chat.

I don't hold on to the poll. Anthony always says that I'm being stupid, but I love to keep myself on my toes. Any wrong turn and I could go toppling over, but I'm completely in control. Nothing can stop me.

"So, what was it you wanted to tell me about Dantae?" he asks again, shoving his phone in his pocket.

I shrug my shoulders. "I told you, I just wanted to apologize for his behaviour."

"You always do, don't you?" he shakes his head back and forth. "When are you going to let your brother hold himself accountable?"

I cross my arms over my chest. Now I'm pissed. I wish I hadn't used him as an excuse to get out of the meeting. "Seriously? I'm trying to do the right thing here, for once."

"No, your not." He says it with such finality that it feels like the whole bus stops. It does, for the light. It makes standing up easier.

Suddenly I am aware that people are watching us. I feel my nose twitch, and so I scrunch it up.

"Well, what am I trying to do then?" I demand, trying to keep my voice quieter, though it isn't doing much good.

Anthony frowns. If I were arguing with Dantae, he would smirk. I don't know which gesture makes me angrier. "You prop up your brother like he is some hero, but he's a good for nothing, would-be gangbanger."

I pull the cord, aware that we are nowhere near the stop that we were supposed to get off at. I'm done with this argument.

"My brother gave you the fucking bed you sleep on," I scowl. "Don't you dare tell me that he-"

The bus jolts, and I go flying backwards. Half the people tumble over, as something collides into us from the side. I peel my head off of the knees of the person sitting behind me, and hold my skull. I can feel blood trickling out of my nose.

As I pull myself up to my feet, I look up and see spider-man through the window.

Darcy.

I didn't realize I was listening in at the time, but I hear the word clear as day. Spider-man knows who I am.

As I feel dizzier and dizzier, I collapse to the ground. Spider-man lingers for a second and disappears.

Anthony grabs my arm to help me stand up. My head hurts too much to look around.

"What's going on?" I ask him through my teeth. I can taste my own blood.

"We need to get you to the hospital," Anthony's voice feels foggy. "The bus was almost just hit by a car. Spider-man... it could've been a lot worse without him."

I let Anthony help me off the bus, because I am too dizzy to be angry with him. I hit my head pretty hard. Hard enough that it made my body panic, and kick on my uncanny ability to understand people. The same power I use to cheat on every test I take, and to know exactly what everyone is thinking. A power that is practically impossible through a mask, unless my body is working in hyperdrive.

I have a gift like Spider-man. And Spider-man knows who I am.

Which means I know who he is.