A/N: oh. my. gods.

i know i'm a little late to the party, but i can't believe PJO IS GETTING A WHOLE FREAKING SHOW on Disney+ and i am literally the happiest person in the world right now omg

i started rereading all of the books because i haven't read them since middle school and i watched the movies again (they still suck) and i just really really really wanna see the show because i just know it's going to be perfect this time since rick is heavily involved in the making of it

in other news, i have my last final exam tomorrow and then i am finally free. it was one hell of a semester but i am just done with this online bs. i'm fully vaccinated and ready to get back out there 😤

this chapter is pretty short, but we're just two chapters away from the winter dance and soon everything is going to blow into smithereens which is fun. well, maybe not for you, but definitely for me :)

————————————————————
"My name is Nicholas Fury

and I have a confession to make..."
————————————————————

"Hey Viv, can you grab this end?" Adelaide said, holding out the other end of the banner for her. Vivian nodded, putting down the bucket of paint and grabbing the banner.

Adelaide climbed up the ladder slowly, holding her end of the banner in her hand as Vivian did the same. The banner they were hanging read MIDTOWN WINTER DANCE and the decathlon paint committee (which consisted of just Betty and MJ) had spent the past couple days after school to paint it for the dance. And now, she and Vivian were hanging it up on the main wall of the gym so that it was the first thing that you saw when you walked in through the door.

Betty was spotting them from the ground.

"Higher!" she told them.

Adelaide moved her end of the banner up a little bit higher and Vivian did the same. Neither one of them were tall enough to do this, but all the tall people were already preoccupied decorating a different part of the gym.

"Is this good?" Vivian asked. Her voice sounded strained, as if she was stretching herself a bit too much to reach high enough.

"Actually, move it down a bit," Betty said, frowning. They followed.

"Viv, a little higher," she said, "Adelaide, a little lower. Okay now both of you move it a little lower."

Adelaide and Vivian shared a look before moving it down again. Once they got back down on the ground, Betty was getting an earful from them.

"Now?" Adelaide groaned. Her arm was getting tired.

"Mm, give me a minute," Betty said.

"Betty!" she and Vivian shouted at the same time.

"Fine! Fine! It looks perfect," she finally said and Adelaide immediately dropped her hand which now felt like it was filled with spikes and needles. Slowly, she let herself down the ladder until her feet hit the ground and she jumped off the ladder.

Betty smiled at them.

"I just want everything to be perfect?" she tried. Adelaide and Vivian shared a look and then sighed.

"You're lucky you're nice," Adelaide mumbled, walking past her. She shook her arm, trying to get rid of the static feeling in it. She walked over to the tables where they would eventually put out food and snacks during the dance tomorrow night. They still needed to cover them with tablecloth so Vivian joined her, pulling out the tablecloth from under the table.

"So," Vivian said, pulling the tablecloth out from its plastic packaging. Adelaide glanced at her.

"So?" she asked as Vivian handed her her end of the tablecloth. Vivian gave her a look. Adelaide replied with a confused look.

"Peter looks much better," she said, glancing over at him.

Adelaide followed her gaze. Flash, Ned, Abe, Peter, and some other boys were all populating the room with blue and white balloons. Some balloons would just cover the floor and others, filled with helium, would float up in the air. At the moment, the boys were breathing in helium from the tank and laughing at each other when their voices came out high pitched and funny. Peter said something to Ned with his helium voice and they both bent over laughing until their sides hurt.

She smiled to herself. After they had spent the entire day together, he had slowly began to feel much better over the weekend and now, come Monday, he was back to his old self again. There was a childish spark in his brown eyes today that was usually missing. She loved seeing him like this. Laughing so freely. Messing around with his friends. It was easy to forget that he was fifteen sometimes — especially when he put on that red and blue spandex suit — but in times like this, she wished he could always feel this happy and free.

"He just needed some time," Adelaide said quietly, returning her attention back to the tablecloth in hand which was also blue, as to match the rest of the gym. MJ hadn't let them spare even the slightest detail in their planning. Happy would have approved.

"Or maybe," Vivian said, "He just needed you."

Adelaide looked up at her, faltering to find the right words. It took her a moment to find a reply.

"Uh- n-not necessarily true," she mumbled, pulling the tablecloth over the edges of the table and smoothing it out so there were no wrinkles. She felt her face getting hot.

"Adelaide, even his own aunt couldn't help him, but the minute you went over to his house, he was feeling better by the end of the day," Vivian argued, "Face it, Peter needs you. I honestly don't know who he'd be without you."

Adelaide stayed quiet. That was the same thing that May had told her, too. She didn't want to believe it was true, but on some level, she knew that it was.

Even when Ben had died, those days that had followed had been brutal, but she had always been there for Peter. In retrospect, she didn't know if he would really have been able to get through those months without her. She kept him sane and away from bad decisions. Who knows what kinds of reckless things he could have done back then? And that night that Ben died? What if she hadn't been there to stop him? Would he have been rotting in jail right now for the next who knows how many years of his life on account of murder?

But she wasn't good for him. Hell, she was the one who should have been in jail right now.

Sure, things felt simple right now, when all he knew about her was only the part of her life that existed in New York and nothing outside of that. But what happened when he learned the truth and found out who she really was and the horrors she had committed? Would he still need her then? Hell, would he still even want her? What would happen if he left her and then didn't have someone to stop him from making those bad choices anymore?

Their relationship was just a few stepping stones away from incompatible. He was just a neighborhood superhero but she was a trained HYDRA assassin who had killed more people than she could count, including Tony's parents.

Peter didn't deserve a HYDRA assassin. He deserved someone better, like...like a Liz. A girl who was the captain of the decathlon team and dressed up every day just for school. Not a lying, potentially dangerous girl who would never be right for him no matter how hard she tried. He only wanted her now because he didn't know what he was really getting himself into.

Adelaide wondered if the relationship that Peter needed from her — the one that he had been waiting for — was just leading to a dead end.

What if Peter waiting on her was for nothing? What if the moment she was ready, he suddenly wasn't? What if they would never work together?

"Earth to Adelaide," Vivian said. Adelaide blinked out of her thoughts, looking at her best friend. "What happened? You went off into space for a second."

Adelaide frowned, looking over at Peter again. He was laughing at something Ned said to him. An unsettling feeling blossomed in the pit of her stomach.

How much longer, Ada?

—————

It was long after they had finish decorating the gym, they had gathered around the gym floor in circle with a plastic water bottle to play spin the bottle, surrounded by various blue and white decorations for tomorrow night's dance.

But it was Flash's version of the game because he had insisted (more like forced) on it and so now here they were, halfway through the game and Abe was standing on one foot, Ned was quacking and MJ couldn't roll her eyes again for the rest of the game or she would have to perform Beyoncé's Single Ladies dance in front of everyone. Adelaide was sure that MJ hadn't so much as blinked for the past five minutes now. She had a feeling that the girl secretly knew the whole choreography by heart.

When Flash spun the bottle, it landed on Betty and he grinned. In all these turns, he was the judge on who did what when the bottle landed on them. They tried to argue that it wasn't fair, but they had to admit that he knew how to pick the dares.

"Quack," Ned said monotonously. He had to keep quacking until the bottle landed on him again which might never happen.

Betty was dreading what Flash was about to sentence her to do.

"You have to kiss me," he said. She groaned.

"Let's get it over with," she mumbled. She and Flash both met in the middle and shared a quick kiss which Betty continued to wipe off of her mouth for the rest of the game.

When Flash spun the bottle again, it landed on Adelaide.

"Quack."

"Don't even think about it," she snapped. He rolled his eyes.

"Get your head out of the gutter," he said, "As much as I know you want to kiss me, I would much rather see Parker lose to a girl again. So to fight Parker."

She glanced at Peter who shrugged. That actually wasn't that bad, surprisingly. All the previous dares had been just plain ridic—

"But," Flash added. There it was. "If you lose, you have to kiss him."

"Quack."

"Okay, that is just—" she started.

"Rules are rules," Flash grinned. Adelaide glared at him. She wanted to smack that grin off his face.

"There are no rules!" she argued, "You're making all this up."

"Chicken," he smirked.

"Quack."

Glaring at him, Adelaide stood up and Peter followed suit. He shook off his jacket and tossed in it on the ground where he had been sitting. They both stopped in front of each other, off the side from where everyone was sitting.

Peter looked at her face, trying to figure out what it was that she wanted. She avoided his gaze. Peter had no idea if she wanted him to win or to lose.

A part of him was hoping that she would lose. But he knew that it was less likely that she wanted the same thing.

Especially after that moment they had shared in his kitchen a few nights ago, he wasn't sure if she would ever be ready to lose. She got into position, squaring her shoulders and setting her feet apart. Reluctantly, Peter did the same.

"Ready..." Flash started, "...Set..."

"Quack!"

Adelaide immediately jumped forward, trying to push his shoulders to shove him to the ground, but Peter saw her coming and dug his feet into the ground. He grabbed a hold of her arm and tried to twist her off to the side so he could pin her to the ground, but she twisted herself from underneath his arm and kicked the back of his knees all in one, swift motion. Peter lost his balance and fell to the ground. Adelaide pulled his arms behind his back and put her shin on his lower back to keep him down.

"Quack."

Suddenly, Peter managed to break one of his hands free and he reached up for her arm. He tugged her arm down and she fell to the ground beside him. He quickly rolled over onto his knees and held her hands together to keep her from escaping.

Adelaide struggled with his grip, but it was like steel. She couldn't get out of it. He would win.

But then, his grip loosened and she immediately twisted around on the ground, kicking herself up to her feet before grabbing his hands and pinning him to the ground again. Peter didn't struggle to get out of her grip. Instead, he counted the seconds until Flash jumped up, cheering.

"Parker lost to a girl!" he shouted, "Again!"

Adelaide slowly let go of Peter and held out her hand to help him up. He took it, standing up on his feet again. He glanced at her.

She was a bit out of breath with several strands of her hair falling into her face, but her eyes were grateful as she looked at him. Peter nodded slightly, masking how he was really feeling.

He dusted off his sweater and walked back to his spot in the circle where he had been sitting without saying anything else to her. After he sat down, he stared at the sleeve of his sweater, picking at it to avoid her gaze. Adelaide stood there for a moment longer, watching Flash celebrate by making fun of Peter.

"God, Parker, I can't believe you lost to a girl again," he laughed.

Before he knew what was happening, Adelaide had his arm twisted behind his back, making him jump in pain and surprise.

"Say one more thing and you will too," she grumbled lowly into his ear so that only he could hear before letting go of him and walking back to her place on the floor.

"Quackhead," Ned mumbled under his breath.

Flash glared at him.

—————

Lukov was planning on doing something terrible.

As per usual, his plan involved Adelaide.

Bit by bit, the girl had followed his plan exactly. She was the one who came to his office. She was the one who volunteered to steal from SHIELD for him. She was the one who came to him and told him that she could control light.

And he barely had to lift a finger.

Poor girl was too gullible for her own good. The more he tried to manipulate her, the easier she made it. It was like stealing candy from a baby. Lukov never quite understood that saying. Why would anyone steal a candy from a baby? Regardless, it stood true for his case.

But now...

Now came for the final bit of his plan.

He sat down in front of his computer in his closed office, staring at Fury's face on the video his screen.

He hit play and sat back to watch the video that would soon cause chaos to spread throughout SHIELD like venom from a scorpion's sting.

"My name is Nicholas Fury and I have a confession to make..."

—————

A/N: anyone want a hint about what's in that file adie found at shield? it might or might not have something to do with lukov and infinity war...👀

anyway, i hope finals aren't stressing everyone out too much. hang in there! it's almost over. also, make sure to get vaccinated asap if you can!

question: any clues about what lukov is planning?

see you next week!