The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 12

Within the next few months, the four of us were doing everything together. We are playing Wii games at Ned's house as we wait for the pizza to arrive on Friday night. It was Peter and my turn so I stepped up to play. I roll up my sleeves and take the remote to play MarioKart, I pick Yoshi of course because he is clearly the best character.

We pick our race track course and begin the race; I take first place of course after I hit Peter with a shell.

"Grace! I was gonna win!" He yells and then comes in fifth. I begin to laugh along with Ned and Michelle. Michelle and I have grown really close, especially with all of the things we learned we had in common.

"Not with that driving, you weren't," I say playfully and Peter grabs his chest sarcastically which makes us all laugh even more but Peter's smile falters when he sees my arms.

"Grace, why do you have scars all over your arms?" He asks and comes up to inspect them.

"Uh, um, I-" I forgot about them, I quickly pull my sleeves down and try not to let the tears fall from my eyes.

"Grace, are you cutting yourself?" Michelle asks coming up to me. I shake my head and try not to make eye contact with any of them.

"Then, how did you get them?" Ned asks and I shake my head again, I can't tell them the truth.

"Alright, guys back off," Peter says coming up next to me. "Are you ok? You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

"No, no I do," I say and tuck my hair behind my ear showing off my hearing aid. "I never really told you guys how I got this, did I?" They all shake their heads and I sit down, they do too. "Well, as all of you guys already know, I am an orphan. About four years ago, my parents and I lived in Chicago when that explosion happened. They... they died from it, I was also in Chicago and that's how I got these scars." I say and gesture to them. "I can't remember much from that night though, but I do remember seeing a bright purple light."

All three of them are staring at me. Michelle has tears streaming down her cheek.

"I'm so sorry." She says and the boys say that too. I just wave them off.

"It's not your fault." It's mine. "Well, shall we get back to our game Peter?"

"Sure, if you want to." He says and picks up the controller as I do the same.

We stayed silent for the rest of the night. It was a little awkward after that whole thing. I really couldn't take it anymore.

"Guys, it's ok. Really." I say after about a half hour. "It's not any of your faults, this awkwardness isn't really helping though. I'm sorry I made tonight awkward, I know we have been planning this for weeks."

"No, Grace, don't worry about it, you didn't make it awkward," Peter says.

"Yeah," Michelle says. "We're the ones making it awkward."

I shake my head and feel my stomach growl, apparently, everyone heard it and we all started laughing at it.

"I didn't realize I was that hungry," I say and we all start to laugh even harder.

"Pizza's here." Ned's mom shouts up the stairs and we all run down to get some.

"Oh thank god," I say as I take a bite.

"I don't understand why this kid wants that rifle for Christmas," I say as I take a bite of popcorn. "I mean the teacher isn't wrong, he would shoot his eye out if he had the type of luck I have."

Everyone starts laughing.

"No, Grace, he wants the rifle so he could be the 'cool kid' at school for once," Ned says. "Which you don't understand because you are really popular."

"What, no I'm not," I say taking another handful.

"Uh, yeah you are, you're nice to everyone, really smart, really pretty and are friends with everybody," Michelle says.

"Yes but you are too Michelle and so are you guys," I say.

"NO! I don't like some people and they know that, so I don't know what you are talking about!" Michelle throws popcorn at me. "And I'm not that beautiful." She mumbles and we all stop laughing.

"Michelle, what are you talking about?" Ned asks. "The two of you both need to stop being so hard on yourselves. You are both beautiful, smart, talented girls. Michelle, you are like one of the smartest and prettiest girls I've ever met, you have a great sense of humor and a great personality."

"And you Grace," Peter says and I feel the heat rise up to my cheeks, "you are one of the nicest and smartest girls. You are great at basketball and volleyball, you can dance and you make time for people. Why are the two of you guys so hard on yourselves?"

I've never really noticed it before now, but as I look back I do realize that I sometimes think that I'm not enough or that I wish I was like other girls. I guess it could be because I'm living a double life.

"I really don't know why," I lie and Michelle agrees.

"Well you guys shouldn't be," Peter says looking at us, "because everything you guys are thinking about yourselves isn't right."

Michelle and I smile and thank them for that.

We finish the movie and I go over to Michelle's house to sleep over and Peter is at Ned's house. We lay in her room for a while in silence after we got ready for bed.

"Do you like Peter?" She asks.

"As a friend, why?" I ask and she just shrugs.

"Just wondering." We both pull out books and read until we both fall to sleep.

"Well look who slept in," Peter says as we sit down in a booth that Peter and Ned were sitting at in a small diner.

"It was her fault," Michelle says pointing at me. I put my hands up.

"Yeah, yeah it was," I say. "But that's weak Michelle."

I look over at Peter and see him laughing which makes me smile. Maybe Michelle was right.

"Well, what are all of you guys going to order?" I ask. "Cause it's on me."

"No, no Grace you couldn't," Ned says but I put my hand up.

"It's a way for my guardians to apologize for not being able to have you guys over at their place," I say. "C'mon what else am I going to do with this?"

Tony gave me money for that same reason, he felt bad that I couldn't have that part of normal but I'm thankful that my friends understand. We ate breakfast and the bill came, they tried to stop me but I gave the waitress the money and told her to keep the change, which she accepted delightfully.

"Guys, we have to do this every year," I say smiling.

"Yeah, but as long as you show up on time next time," Peter says playfully.

"Shut up!" I sarcastically say back and we all laugh as we walk around looking at all the Christmas decorations. For the first time ever, I actually felt normal.