A/N: This chapter is one day late again and my only excuse is that I needed more time to edit it. But I honestly found that having two days to work on it and then posting it on the third day leads to less problems for me so I guess I'm going to start doing that now...Anyway, I wrote this chapter with a smile on my face - an evil one and a nice one. We get to see two characters that we haven't heard from in a while and I love writing them because it's so mysterious and funny at the same time lol. There's more Pepper mom, there's a lot more of Peter and Adie, and two new characters whom I love to death. You'll know them when you see them. ;)

So tomorrow I have like a million doctor's appointments (don't worry, there's nothing wrong with me) and one of them is the eye doctor so my eyes will get dilated and I probably won't be able to write anything for a while. I have started the next chapter, but there's still a lot more left in it so I don't know I guess I'll just work around that.

So remember how I said my friend helped me out with the next plot point? Well, all the things in this chapter and the next few chapters are really just there to set up that plot point which I cannot wait for! I'm so hyped to write about it and it's literally the most perfect idea. It'll be unexpected, is all I will say...

Onwards, to chapter 8!

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"He's a huge fan of Tony

and I honestly

can't figure out why."
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Adelaide found Pepper in her room, standing by the overly large windows and talking on the phone. She noticed Adelaide walking in and held up a finger, silently telling her to wait. Adelaide sat down at her desk, slowly spinning back and forth in the chair. She picked up a pen from the desk, examining it. This pen looked as expensive as the desk it was on. Was there anything in this penthouse that didn't have a price consisting of at least triple digits?

"No, I can't understand, Harvey," Pepper yelled into the phone. Adelaide winced. She did not want to be Harvey at the moment, whoever he was.

"I don't care – you know what? We'll discuss this at the meeting tomorrow. Don't do anything until I'm there." She hit the end button, hanging up without even waiting to hear his response. Poor guy, Adelaide thought. Pepper turned around and sat in front of her.

"Sorry," she said, sighing, "Is this about your math test? Because I already saw the score, so don't bother lying about it." She didn't sound angry or upset, but Adelaide knew she'd find out about it sooner or later even if Adelaide had tried to change the score with her abilities. Nothing got past Pepper.

"Right," Adelaide said, "It is about that. My friend says he's going to help me this afternoon so I'm going to his house." Pepper frowned.

"He? And your letting him help? Hm, I wonder how that happened," Pepper said with a knowing smile. Adelaide rolled her eyes.

"He's not my type. Anyway, he offered to help and I already talked to Happy and he's agreed to drop me there and pick me up." Pepper opened her mouth, but Adelaide beat her to it.

"He lives in Queens with his aunt and uncle, and, no, he doesn't know anything about my powers. He's not suspicious, he's not a bad guy, and – what else do you need to know?" Adelaide had listed off all the things that would make Pepper say no and she couldn't think of a reason she wouldn't be allowed to go. Pepper smiled, leaning forward.

"Do I get to know his name?"

"Oh yeah, Peter Parker. He's a huge fan of Tony and I honestly can't figure out why." Pepper rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You can go." Adelaide stood up, grinning.

"Thanks, Pep," she said, turning around to leave.

"Don't call me that," she told the teenager.

"Bye Pep!" Adelaide shouted as she closed the door behind her. She could almost see her frowning and shaking her head, bringing a smile to the teenager's face.

—————-

"Is it this one?" Happy asked, peering out the car window. Adelaide checked the address on her phone that she had asked Peter to send her yesterday. She put her phone away, turning it off.

"That's the one. Thanks Happs," she said, grabbing her backpack and opening the door.

"Don't call me that," he said, frowning. Adelaide threw him a smile over her shoulder as she closed the door behind herself. He lowered the window, glaring at her.

"I'm serious, Adelaide." Adelaide grinned teasingly, waving.

"Bye Happs!" she said and quickly ran away before he could say anything in response. What was it with the nicknames today? Whatever it was, Adelaide was having fun making everyone angry at her.

After walking past a few more houses, Adelaide stopped at the one from the address. The Parker residence looked nice. There were stairs leading up to the door, a chimney on the roof, a shoveled path. Adelaide briefly wondered if this was the kind of house she'd be living in with her parents had they not died.

Maybe they'd have a big green lawn that she'd play in or a tree in their backyard that she'd ask her dad to make a treehouse on for her. And when it snowed, she would make a snowman with her parents. Maybe they'd have a snowball fight, then go inside and watch movies cuddled up on the sofa together with hot chocolate. But it wasn't like that and they weren't alive.

Instead, they had been murdered in front of her young eyes and now she could barely remember what they were like. She forced herself to stop thinking about that. What's gone was gone. They weren't coming back.

She pulled her coat tighter and rang the bell, wrapping her arms around herself. Even though the sun was shining, she couldn't even feel a shred of warmth from it. She was shivering even inside her thick coat.

To the teenager's surprise, a red-headed woman opened the door, a warm smile on her face. Adelaide suddenly remembered that Peter didn't live with his parents either and this was probably Aunt May. Adelaide found herself smiling back.

"Hi Mrs. Parker, is Peter home?" Aunt May stepped back, allowing Adelaide to walk inside. She was hit with the surprisingly warm air. Much better than the cold.

"Hi," she said, "Peter's in his room and, please, call me May." May closed the door behind Adelaide.

"I'm assuming you're Adelaide. Peter told me you'd be coming," she said. There were loud footsteps from the stairs and then Peter's face popped up. His hair was obviously disheveled, as if he had just woken up from a nap, his glasses were crooked on his face, and he looked somehow surprised to see Adelaide standing in his home.

It hadn't really registered in Peter's mind that this blue-eyed girl was serious about the math help so he'd taken a nap, just having woken up from the noise of the door opening. He hadn't even fixed his hair. Peter adjusted his glasses, pushing them up. Aunt May smiled at him.

"You know, Peter, doing math homework might require you to actually be awake," she teased light-heartedly. Peter cleared his throat.

"Sorry May, I didn't realize I fell asleep," the teenager said. Suddenly, Uncle Ben walked into the room, a bright smile on his face. For some reason she couldn't put her finger on, Adelaide took an immediate liking to Uncle Ben. He seemed so open and good-hearted.

"Well, hello. You must be Adelaide," he said, extending his hand. Adelaide shook it.

"Yeah, I am. And you must be Uncle Ben," she said. Adelaide realized she was smiling again. This might be the most she's smiled all week.

"Peter told me you're new here. If you want, Pete and I can show around Queens sometime," he said. Surprisingly, Adelaide found herself thinking that was a great idea. Maybe it was the way Ben had offered; she just couldn't refuse.

"Sounds great, Uncle Ben, but we have to go do math right now, remember?" Peter said, interrupting. Adelaide thought he was being rude.

"Sure," she told Ben, ignoring Peter, "I think that's a great idea." Uncle Ben smiled.

"Well, you two kiddos go do your homework now," he said. Adelaide smiled politely and followed Peter up the stairs. She decided that she liked Ben and May. They were a homey kind of nice. Adelaide felt comfortable around them; any blind person could see that they were both genuinely good people. There weren't many of those left in this world, sadly.

Adelaide realized that even she couldn't say for herself that she was a genuinely good person. There were 13 years of her life that she couldn't remember and strange abilities she didn't know the origin of. She wasn't sure of herself, what she'd done in those 13 years. She didn't even know herself.

"You can put your backpack there," Peter said, pulling her out of her thoughts. She had been standing in the doorway, staring at the wall. Stop it, she told herself, you're going to creep him out. Adelaide put her black backpack next to Peter's red one and sat down in one of the spinning chairs, staying the room. It was actually pretty neat for a 13 year old boy's room. There was a bunk bed in the corner, a desk, a few posters on the wall, nothing outrageous. It was kind of cozy.

"So do we have to do math?" she asked, her back turned to him. She was inspecting the stuff on his desk now. He had a picture of himself with Ben and May during Christmas; they were posing in front of their tree. Peter looked about 7 years old.

"But that's why you came here," the boy replied, incredulous. This girl was unbelievable. He'd never met anyone who hated math this much. Peter heard a long, deep sigh come from the chair.

"Yeah, you're right. It's just that I..."

"Hate math. I know," he said, "But you're going to have to bring up your grade in the class sometime."

So the two teenagers both worked on their math homework, Peter helping Adelaide along the way. Sometime during their studying, Aunt May came in and gave them cookies which Adelaide finished all by herself, giving Peter only one or two.

He didn't seem to mind, though. He was admittedly having fun – well as much fun as someone could have doing Algebra. He learned that Adelaide was much worse at math than he thought, though, he, of course, didn't say this out loud. And despite having to help her with every single problem, he had a feeling she was starting to catch on.

Outside, a fiery blizzard began, but the two were oblivious to it, too invested in their work. The snow began to pile up in heaps and downstairs, as Ben and May watched the weather, the weatherwoman reported that the storm wasn't going to die down anytime soon and winds were suspected to only get stronger. There was a warning that several roads may be closed until the storm died down, and at the Stark Tower, Pepper was worrying about Adelaide. She hoped the teenager was safe, but she decided to call her just in case. The teenager picked up in a heartbeat, needing an excuse to stop doing her homework.

"Hey Pep, what's up?" Pepper was too worried to get angry at the teenager for using that horrible nickname again.

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Adelaide scrunched up her nose in confusion.

"Why wouldn't I be okay? It's not like Peter's going to kidnap me, right Peter?" The teenager asked. Peter rolled his eyes in response. Adelaide heard Pepper sighing.

"Adelaide, have you looked outside?" the woman asked. Adelaide glanced at Peter and then stood up, walking over to the window. Woah. It was a full blizzard. Everything was so white, she couldn't even see the Parker's mailbox 7 feet away. Adelaide suspected it was buried in the snow. As far as she could see in every direction, it was white. There must be at least 3 feet of snow on the ground. They wouldn't even be able to open the door without all of it piling into their house. Adelaide glanced at the clock. Despite the brightness outside, it was already 8 o'clock. She was supposed to be back at the Tower by now. Pepper took Adelaide's silence as an indication that she was looking outside.

"All the roads are blocked and the storm isn't going to stop for a few hours now. There's no way they'd have the road paved in time for Happy to get there," Pepper said. She had been thinking about this problem for an hour now and she still had no solution.

How was she supposed to get Adelaide back to the Tower? Adelaide chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. Tony couldn't even send one of his Iron Man suits because the winds were too strong. There was no way to leave. Unless...

"What if I stayed here for the night?" Adelaide was surprised at her own suggestion. She hadn't been able to feel safe anywhere except the Tower.

Peter looked up from his work at the question. He'd doubted that she would even come to his house in the first place and now she wanted to spend the night? He realized that there was no other option and it was too dangerous for her to leave right now in the storm. Adelaide turned around from the window.

"Is that okay? If I stay the night, I mean." Peter found himself nodding and Adelaide faced the window again.

"He said I can. Plus, his aunt and uncle are here too...I'll be fine, I promise," Peter heard her say into the phone. He had assumed she was talking to her aunt. "Thanks Pep, bye."

Adelaide turned around again, putting her phone in her pocket.

"Are you sure it's okay with your aunt and uncle?" she asked, walking back to her seat. She grabbed the pen off the desk and began fiddling with it again.

"Yeah, they don't mind." She smiled.

"Great. Thanks Pete." Pete? Where had that come from? It was too late to take it back now. She knew there was something with the nicknames today. "You know, Pete sounds a lot better than Peter," she added. He just shrugged.

"Ben's the only one who calls me that." Just then, Aunt May knocked on the open door, making the two teenagers turn away from the conversation.

"Hey you two," she said, "How's the studying going?"

"As good as anything with parabolas can be," Adelaide mumbled. May chuckled.

"Ada's going to stay here for the night," Peter said, a knowing smile underlying his impassive expression. Adelaide gave him a look which he decided to ignore for the moment being. "Because of the blizzard."

May nodded understandingly.

"Of course. I was just about to ask you about that. It's way too dangerous out there right now and with all the roads blocked, it would be better if you spent the night here." Adelaide smiled gratefully.

"Thank you. I'll leave tomorrow as soon as the roads are opened," she said. May smiled.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get you something of mine for the night. It'll be a little big, but I'm sure you'll be fine," she said, leaving to get the clothes. As soon as she left, Adelaide swiveled around in her chair, a questioning look on her face to which Peter merely smiled to in reply.

"Ada?" she asked him. Really, it wasn't that terrible of a nickname. Peter shrugged, picking up his pencil.

"It suits you. And you know, Ada is a lot easier to say than Adelaide." She shook her head and tossed an eraser cap at his head, making him laugh. In the midst of their laughter, he caught sight of her brilliant blue eyes again.

This girl was a mystery Peter had yet to solve.

Later that night, the two teenagers slept on the bunk bed, Adelaide on the top and Peter on the bottom. Their work laid scattered across Peter's desk and neither of them had had enough energy to fix it.

All that math had been draining. It was 3 hours after Pepper's phone call, and the wind was still howling just as fiercely outside, showing no sign of stopping.

In the dark, Adelaide struggled to fall asleep, mindlessly tracing her finger over the scar on her arm as a method of comfort. She hated being in complete darkness; she needed some kind of light in the room. It helped her feel safe. At the Tower, she always slept with the table lamp on. She couldn't fall asleep without it.

"Peter?" she asked quietly, staring at the ceiling above her. At first there was no answer. Then, the sound of Peter moving in his bed.

"Yeah?" he asked, his voice groggy.

"Sorry," she said, "Never mind." She could hear Peter yawning and turning in his bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, still sounding sleepy.

"Can you turn on the lamp?" she asked quietly, holding her breath. Wordlessly, Peter got out of bed and switched on the lamp next to his desk and then crawled back under his blanket. Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief.

"Better?" he asked, his voice muffled.

"Yeah. Thanks," she whispered in the silence. For once in New York, there were no car horns outside, no one was yelling, everybody was in their house – the city was finally asleep. It was peaceful. The calm during the storm.

"No problem," he mumbled, "Goodnight, Ada."

Adelaide closed her eyes, a small smile on her face.

"Goodnight, Pete."

—————

From the house across from the Parker residence, a certain man with an eyepatch was watching the teenager sleep. He didn't need a window or binoculars; his ability allowed him to see through almost anything.

These thin walls stood no chance against him. He'd been watching the girl ever since she left the Tower, following at a nonsuspicious distance. He found it amusing. The very same girl who actually stood a chance against him in a brawl, was worrying about her math homework.

Oh, the irony of it. He grinned to himself. If she only knew the truth of it all. She'd probably laugh at herself, then give him a black eye for laughing at her. He clearly remembered how much she despised him. He was the only person she wished dead.

Instead, Rivers was sharing a bunk bed with a puny boy, worrying about her math. He watched in disgust. All that power. Wasted on something useless. Hell, Lukov could've sent him and he could've done the job. Even better than her, he'd like to think. In the silence, the ringing of his phone startled Graves.

He fished it out of his coat pocket before it drew any attention to him.

"What did I say about calling me?" he hissed into the phone.

He didn't care that the man on the other side could destroy him in a heartbeat. It was hard to keep an eye on the girl when he kept calling and blowing his cover. He was just lucky no one had seen him.

"Quit crying, Graves."

"What do you want?" he asked, tired of being tortured with questions. It was a bit annoying, really.

"A whiskey. A couple trillion dollars. Which one will you get for me? Oh, that's right. You're useless." Graves gritted his teeth in anger and pulled his hand into a fist. He was crossing the line.

"You asked me to watch the girl. I'm watching the girl. So let me do my job," he growled. He knew he was entertaining the old man with his anger, but that was Graves' weakness. He always let his anger control his actions, to hell with the consequences.

"You know, I find that funny, because the other half of your job was to report back to me and I haven't heard from you in two weeks."

"There isn't anything to report. She's with this boy and –"

"There's a boy?" Graves sighed.

"Lukov, she's a teenager. Of course there's a boy."

"Give me something useful."

"She started school this week."

"Now do you see what I mean by useless? She started school this week, and I'm just now hearing about it. I should've sent someone else." Graves wanted to knocked the man's teeth out through the phone. He was getting on his