Chapter 1
The new kid was staring at him. Peter was sure of it, 100% sure of it. Yet, every time he looked over the kid was working hard at ignoring Peter.
"The new kid is staring at me," Peter mumbled into his lunch tray, just loud enough to let MJ and Ned overhear him.
MJ snorted and looked up from her book, her sandwich almost falling out of her hand. "Please don't tell me you've just now noticed?"
Peter bristled a little bit. "No," he said honestly, and then snuck a glance over at the new kid. "I just haven't been able to get a good look at him staring."
"You don't have eyes in the back of your head," MJ agreed, taking a bite out of her sandwich. Ned, on the other hand, was staring the new kid down.
"What's his name?" Ned asked, reaching for his phone. MJ rolled her eyes at first and then frowned. She didn't know his name, and that, more than anything, was the most concerning part of this whole deal.
"You're not gonna hack into the school records just to do a background check," Peter hissed, reaching for Ned's phone before Ned could.
"Why not? Just cause he looks like a high school kid doesn't mean he's not like, a spy."
MJ motioned her sandwich towards Ned as if giving him a point. "Not you too, MJ." Peter groaned.
"Just sayin'," she told him with a shrug, picking her notebook up again.
Ned took advantage of Peter's emotional distress and yanked Peter's phone off the lunchroom table before starting to type into the StarkPhone.
"Ned!" Peter hissed, trying to yank it out of his hands without causing a scene. One kid staring at him was enough, he didn't need Flash's attention today.
They both froze, however, when a big CLASSIFIED flashed across Peter's screen. "Classified?" Peter asked, grabbing his phone back from Ned. They both looked up at the new kid and back at MJ, who finally looked interested in the conversation.
"The whole record system has been classified," Ned said. "I couldn't get into my records, yours, or even figure out who the new kid was, much less his records."
"Who would do that?" Peter asked, frowning at his phone.
"Maybe it's to protect you?" Ned suggested.
"Maybe it's to protect the whole school," MJ guessed. "I mean, Ned is the best hacker we know, right? Aside from the most obvious person we know. Ned is better with computers than any of our teachers, based on their powerpoint presentations. That means the admins would have to hire someone to upgrade the cybersecurity at the school."
Her eyebrow picked up as she looked at the both of them and they all came to the same conclusion, the school couldn't have done it, the admins and school district were too cheap to hire anyone that could out-hack Ned. And furthermore, the school district didn't have any reason to do it.
The bell rang, and all of them startled. MJ started shoveling what was left of her sandwich into her mouth before she yanked an orange out of her lunch bag. She grabbed her bag then paused, using the orange to point at both Ned and Peter.
"Figure this out, or not, but don't be distracted during practice."
Ned nodded and took one more bite of his mystery meat before getting up to shove his tray in the trash. Peter stared at his tray for one more moment before glancing up to meet the New Kid's eyes.
Blue met Brown, and the New Kid winked at Peter before disappearing into the mass of students trying to leave the lunchroom.