"My brother's going too."
The moment Peter said that, the entire table seemed to freeze solid.
If looks could kill, Peter would already have been beaten to his knees by the combined assault of Gwen and Clark, then thrown out of the house for good measure.
But inside Clark's head, the little devil had already raised his tiny trident, done a flip, and started dancing wildly.
"Yes! I hereby declare, unilaterally, that Peter is my dearest, most beloved little brother! He is the greatest wingman alive!"
Meanwhile, the tiny angel was no longer pushing that earlier nonsense about Felicia making lunch more appetizing.
Covering his face, he wailed, "It's over, it's over, the love-triangle apocalypse is here! Gwen's practically bending her fork!"
In reality, Clark's smile had already frozen stiff. He slowly turned his head and looked at the idiot little brother who clearly thought he was being clever and was absolutely hoping to watch chaos unfold.
Clark genuinely wanted to sock him.
"Oh? Really?" Felicia's eyes lit up at once. At first, she had only thought teasing this innocent, oversized virgin was funny, and the boy was attractive enough to keep her interested.
But now?
Now this was a perfect opportunity.
She turned, propped her chin on one hand like a cat, and fixed Clark with a gaze so direct it felt like it might swallow his soul whole.
"You want me to come with you?"
Felicia asked the question, but before Clark could even open his mouth, one long finger pressed lightly against his lips and silenced him.
"No need to answer. I already know. I'm not about to disappoint Peter after he went to all this trouble." Her smile deepened. "See you this weekend, Clark. I'm looking forward to it."
With that, she swept away without even glancing at Gwen, who looked so angry she might actually levitate. All she left behind was the trail of her perfume.
"Peter Parker!"
Gwen finally snapped and called him by his full name through clenched teeth.
Beside her, Mary Jane also felt for her best friend. She looked at Peter, who had clearly invited Felicia because he wanted to see Clark squirm.
Of course, what Mary Jane did not know yet was that Cindy would be showing up too.
Peter jumped so hard his burger dropped back onto his tray.
"Wh-what?" he stammered. "What's wrong, Gwen?"
He genuinely had no idea what was happening. He still did not know Gwen liked his brother. At most, he just thought the two of them were closer than usual, kind of like how he and Mary Jane were.
"What were you thinking?" Gwen's face flushed with anger. "Why would you invite Felicia?"
Mary Jane was quietly laughing by then. She knew Peter too well. His emotional intelligence still had not finished loading.
"I... I just thought it'd be more fun with more people," Peter said, looking a little aggrieved. "Science is amazing. The more witnesses to greatness, the better."
To be fair, that really was his main reason, even if a small part of him had wanted to enjoy Clark's misery.
His science brain was unstoppable.
And his total lack of romantic instincts was equally unstoppable.
Then he looked at Clark. "Did I do something wrong?"
Clark looked at his brother, and in that moment a thousand thoughts flashed through his mind. In the end, all of them turned into one long, soul-weary sigh.
"You did nothing wrong, Peter. It's just that my quiet high school life officially ended on day two."
Then he went back to eating his pasta.
Because he was out of moves.
He could not exactly tell any of them not to come. He was not capable of doing something like that.
Kindness was built into him. He did not want to hurt anyone.
Watching this entire mess unfold, Harry felt a kind of lightness he had almost never known. The lonely, guarded part of him shaped by growing up in a powerful family suddenly felt a lot less heavy.
He was laughing so hard he could barely stop.
"Hahaha, it's fine, really, it's fine. Osborn Tower can hold all of you." Harry waved it off. "Peter, go ahead and invite a few more people if you want. You've still got biology this afternoon, right?"
That afternoon in biology.
The balding middle-aged teacher was drawing on the board, and not just doodling.
It was a DNA double helix.
Peter reached forward and tapped the black-haired girl sitting in front of him, Cindy Moon.
"Hey, Cindy..." Peter lowered his voice like that somehow made him invisible and inaudible.
It did not.
At all.
Cindy turned around, adjusted her glasses, and looked puzzled. "What is it, Parker? Didn't you get the formula down? I can let you copy mine later."
"It's not the formula." Peter scratched his head. "This weekend there's an internal tour of the Osborn science labs. Harry gave me a few passes. Do you want to come?"
Cindy's eyes went wide on the spot. For a science-minded person like her, this was basically a giant jackpot falling out of the sky.
"What?! An Osborn lab tour?" she blurted out. "Oh my God, I am absolutely going. Peter, you're incredible. I've been researching their spider experiments lately!"
Cindy was so excited she had already stopped calling him Parker and switched to Peter without noticing.
"Ahem!"
The balding teacher coughed loudly twice. "You two. If my class fails to hold your attention, you are both welcome to leave right now and go straight to Osborn's laboratories."
Both of them immediately shrank back into their seats and lowered their heads, pretending to take notes like model students.
And just like that, the lineup for the weekend trip was finalized.
Peter. Clark. Harry. Mary Jane. Gwen. Felicia. And Cindy Moon.
Some people might ask, what about Eddie?
Was he just there to make up the numbers?
Of course not.
Eddie was a muscle-and-instinct kind of guy. There was no chance he would spend his weekend looking at lab equipment and sealed specimens.
He would much rather work on cars, then hit the underground boxing circuit and throw punches.
That was more his speed.
That same night.
In Clark's room at the Parker house.
Clark had not gone to bed. Instead, he stood by the window, using his super-hearing to monitor all of New York.
But the city itself was not what mattered most.
What mattered most was the Daily Bugle building in Manhattan.
What Ben had said that morning kept replaying in his head.
"Jameson plans to expose the black-market pipeline on next week's front page..."
That kind of report, something aimed straight at the core interests of underground gangs and corporate powers, was the kind of thing that invited violent retaliation.
Ben might be a former soldier, but now he was out of practice. With his current condition, against the kind of weapons and numbers the other side had, Clark did not think Ben's chances of walking away alive were very high.
Too low.
And Clark would not allow anyone to hurt his family.
So tonight, he had decided to go out.
Using his telescopic vision, Clark spotted Ben still working late.
Ben sat at his desk, preparing his article, when suddenly the phone rang.
Clark focused, trying to catch every word.
"Parker, it's me. I've got something on the warehouse you wanted checked out." The voice on the other end was tight and suppressed, as if the speaker were hiding somewhere and terrified.
"Half an hour. 47th Street in Hell's Kitchen. I'll bring you a copy of the ledger. But bring the money you promised, and don't bring cops. Not one. Otherwise we're both dead."
"I'll be there. I know the rules."
Ben hung up, pulled a handgun from his desk drawer, tucked it into the back of his waistband, threw on his coat, and hurried out of the Bugle building.