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Art by samsarapine
~*~
Peta Parker’s young when her mom and dad drop her off at Uncle Ben and Aunt May’s and make her promise to be a good girl.
All she’s got are a few hazy memories and a couple pictures to remind her of them when she realizes they’re never coming back.
“Tell me a story?” Peta asks, climbing onto Uncle Ben’s lap.
She’s seven and she misses her dad, but her Uncle Ben always has the best stories. Whenever she can’t sleep, he’ll sit on her bed and read to her from whatever book he’s reading until she fall asleep.
“About the mouse who went to the moon?” Uncle Ben asks.
She shakes her head. “About my dad.”
Uncle Ben’s smile slips from his face. “I don’t have a lot of those stories.”
“But you were brothers,” Peta says.
Some of her classmates have brothers and sisters. Peta doesn’t, it’s just her, she doesn’t even have any cousins, but she likes it that way. More people to pay attention to her when she comes home.
“We didn’t talk a lot,” Uncle Ben tells her. He pushes her hair out of her face. “Your father was a very smart man, and I’m not. We didn’t have a lot in common.”
Peta wants to be smart like her dad was, but she’ll never stop talking to Uncle Ben because of it. That’s a stupid reason not to talk to someone. The whole point of learning new things is to tell people about them.
“I’m going to be a scientist,” Peta tells her uncle, “and I’m going to tell you about everything I learn, and you can tell me your stories. It’ll be a trade.”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Uncle Ben says. He presses a kiss to her forehead. “But until then, you want to hear about the frog and toad that were best friends?”
“Okay,” she says, resting her head against Uncle Ben’s shoulder.
~*~
Peta’s nine when she uses the internet at the school and learns that her parents are never coming back to get her, because they died in a plane crash only a few weeks after dropping her off with Uncle Ben and Aunt May.
“I’m not going to be a good girl,” she informs Aunt May when she gets home from school and then she runs up to her room and uses her scissors to cut all her hair off.
By the time Aunt May gets the door unlocked and gets inside, Peta’s long brown hair is lying in scattered clumps on the floor.
“Oh, Peta,” Aunt May sighs.
~*~
It won’t be the last time Aunt May says her name like that, says “Oh, Peta,” like she’s not sure whether to be sympathetic or frustrated.
~*~
Peta gets her first mohawk at thirteen, and she never looks back.
She experiments with different styles - sometimes her hair is longer so she has to gel it, sometimes it’s shorter so it sticks up all on it’s own. Once, it’s blue, but she doesn’t like that so much, and she buzzes her head and starts all over.
Every time Peta does something with her hair, Aunt May frowns, but she doesn’t say anything.
The only time Uncle Ben says something is when Peta first dyes her mohawk blue and starts wearing camo.
“I thought the hair was so people would notice you,” Uncle Ben says, “but with that shirt on, you blend into everything.”
Peta rolls her eyes but she sneaks a small smile once Uncle Ben goes back to his book.
~*~
Thirteen is also when she gets her first skateboard.
She gets it from Uncle Ben, and the first time she takes it out to try it, she comes home with scraped knees and scraped palms and a giant smile on her face.
~*~
High school is the first time Peta’s in classes that actually challenge her.
It’s also the first time she sees Gwen Stacy.
Peta shows up to her first day of high school in jeans that are a size too big with holes in the knees from skateboarding spills and a black henley with a stretched out collar because she chews on it while she’s thinking.
Gwen Stacy shows up to the first day of high school in buckle shoes and knee high socks and a headband with a bow , and Peta thinks she falls a little bit in love.
And when Gwen Stacy raises her hand in the first class Peta shares with her and answers a question about the molecular properties of soap; well -
Peta’s doomed .
~*~
For the most part, high school is like middle school; Peta’s too smart for her own good, but she keeps her head down in class and her head down in the hallways, and she gets by. Sometimes she gets jostled by upperclassmen and sometimes people have a snide word or two to say about her hair or her jeans, but for the most part she gets left alone.
And then The Hunger Games becomes a big deal.
“Hey, Peta,” Flash says, dropping by her table at lunch. “Got any bread today?”
He sniggers like he’s the first person make a joke like that this week. He’s not even the first one today . The number of people who have called her The Girl With The Bread or even The Boy With The Bread since the movie came out are too many to count.
They don’t even spell their names the same way.
She didn’t even know Flash knew her name.
“Can’t you go back to pretending I don’t exist?” Peta asks, unzipping her lunch box.
She doesn’t have bread today. In fact, she hasn’t brought a sandwich to school since the stupid movie. It doesn’t stop the jokes, but she feels like if she brings a sandwich then she’ll be okaying the jokes.
She stacks a piece of cheese and two slices of pepperoni on a cracker and shoves it in her mouth.
“I’m going to help you find your Katniss,” Flash tells her.
“I don’t want a Katniss,” she mumbles through a mouth full of food.
Flash ignores her.
~*~
Emily Johansson partners with Peta for a project in Earth Science.
“We can bake a cake with layers like the Earth,” Emily says when she has Peta over her house.
“I don’t actually know how to bake,” Peta says.
She wants to say, ‘I’m not Peeta Mellark’ but she doesn’t think it would make any difference.
~*~
Peeta Mellark was a kid with a hopeless crush that got epically screwed over by his life.
Peta might have a hopeless crush, but her life isn’t that bad. Heckling her about her fictional name-twin has replaced shoving her into lockers or tipping her books out of her arms which might be an improvement. She’s late for less classes at least, and she hasn’t broken a pair of glasses in almost a year.
As long as she doesn’t get dropped into a murder arena she thinks she can safely say that she and Peeta Mellark are not the same.
No one else agrees with her.
A couple weeks after her disastrous science project with Emily (they ended up splitting up and Peeta did her own project and Emily baked a lumpy cake), Peta opens her locker and bags of pitas fall out.
“That’s not even how you spell my name,” she mutters, kneeling down to pick them up.
She’ll bring a bag or two home to Aunt May and bring the rest to the food pantry or something. She sighs and stacks them on the top shelf in her locker. She should talk to someone about the lack of locker security at her school.
Or, if she really wants this to stop, she should rig up a lock of her own.
She takes one of the pitas out of the bag and eats it on the way to physics.
~*~
The craze over The Hunger Games fades even though Peta knows it’ll flare up again when the next movie comes out. Maybe she’ll dye her hair again before that happens. Or transfer schools.
Anyways, life goes on, and Peta’s given her father’s old briefcase after she helps Uncle Ben rescue it from a leaky pipe in the basement.
“You should call a plumber,” Aunt May says after they’ve hauled the boxes up from the basement.
Peta turns the briefcase over in her hands. She wonders where her dad got it. Maybe it was a graduation present from her mom. Maybe his dad had passed it down to him. Maybe -
“A real man takes care of his own house,” Uncle Ben says, puffing up his chest.
“A real man is going to make the problem worse,” Aunt May says.
“You’d think after all this time together you’d have more faith in me.”
“After all this time together, I have exactly as much faith in your plumbing skills as they deserve. Call Rich. He owes you a favor for the leafblower incident.”
“He doesn’t owe me anything,” Uncle Ben says. “I was helping a friend out.”
“Uh huh,” Aunt May says. “And now he can help a friend out.”
Peta wanders up to her room with the briefcase. Her door locks behind her, and she spills the contents of the briefcase onto the floor, wondering what secrets it has for her.
A calculator.
A pair of glasses.
An Oscorp ID.
A couple pens.
There are no secrets there. No hidden stories about her father.
She takes her glasses off, slides her dad’s old ones on in their place.
They’re not the right prescription and the world goes blurry.
Her dad used to love playing hide-and-seek with her, and he’d play other games too. Whenever her parents went out, he left the babysitter with a detailed scavenger hunt for Peta to follow if she wanted dessert. There would be math problems to solve, riddles to puzzle out, clues hidden all around the house, and if she got them all right then she’d be led to a brownie or a Twix bar or something like that.
Her dad always had something up his sleeve.
She shakes the briefcase but nothing else falls out.
It only takes her another few minutes to find the false pocket and then she’s pulling out a file. It’s a bunch of research, notes and numbers and equations that don’t make sense to her, not out of context like this.
She’s gotten a clue in the middle of the hunt.
She needs to find the ones before it to figure out how this one makes sense. She needs the whole sequence so she can find the one that comes after.
She needs to go to Oscorp.
~*~
When she comes downstairs for dinner, Rich is pulling a can of beer out for himself and one for Uncle Ben.
“You didn’t need to bring anything,” Uncle Ben says, even as he pops the tab on the beer.
“I always bring something when I come to dinner,” Rich says.
Rich is a big man, tall with compact muscle from working with his body. He comes over for dinner every once in a while, and he’ll always bring a 12-pack of something, and he and Uncle Ben will catch a game while Peta and Aunt May clean up.
Peta thinks he used to be part of Uncle Ben’s bowling league.
“You fixed the leak for us,” Aunt May says.
“A favor for a friend,” Rich says. “The beer’s a thank you for dinner.”
Peta really hopes she doesn’t have to sit through this conversation again .
“Peta, will you come set the table?” Aunt May asks.
Peta sets the table.
No one asks her about the briefcase and she doesn’t tell anyone what she found.
~*~
Getting into Oscorp is easier than she thought it would be.
She exchanges her skateboard for a nametag and then she just wanders around until she finds the group of people - she checks her nametag - Jasmine was supposed to be with. In the lobby, there’s a bit of commotion as the real Jasmine finds there isn’t a nametag waiting for her.
Peta turns her attention to the person leading her little tour group and -
Oh.
Gwen Stacy.
As always, her heart does a happy little skip when she sees Gwen. Her brain immediately follows it up with no good no good no good because if Gwen notices Peta then Peta’s in trouble. Gwen knows Peta isn’t Jasmine.
Everything’s fine in the beginning. Peta relies on the skills she’s developed through years of school to keep under Gwen’s radar, and she doesn’t answer when Dr. Connors asks the group a question even though she knows the answer, because speaking would draw attention.
Everything continues to be fine until Peta catches a glimpse of a man with a file with ØØ on it like the one in her father’s briefcase.
Next clue, she wonders following the man down an empty hallway?
Or a previous one?
She enters a room she’s not supposed to be in, and she can’t help the catch in her throat as she stares at the dozens of spider webs that adorn the room. The webs appear to be made out of something sturdier than natural webbing, and when she twangs one of the strings, dozens of spiders spill from the ceiling.
Time for a tactical retreat.
She rushes out of the room with less stealth than she’d gotten into it, and she thinks she might be in the clear when she bursts into a more occupied part of the floor and almost runs headfirst into Gwen Stacy.
“Uh,” Peta says.
Gwen’s eyes flick down to the ID clipped to Peta’s shirt.
“Jasmine Esparza?” Gwen asks. She snatches the ID. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh,” Peta says again. It figures that the one time in Peta’s whole like that she doesn’t want Gwen Stacy to notice her is the one time she gets noticed. “I like science.”
“You like science,” Gwen repeats.
Something’s crawling up Peta’s spine, and she tries not to twitch, not to wriggle. Given where she just was, it’s probably a spider. That thought makes it significantly more difficult to stand still. She’s not afraid of spiders, but that doesn’t mean she wants one crawling all over her.
Oscorp probably doesn’t keep poisonous spiders on site, right?
Not even in sketchy locked rooms?
Peta wiggles her shoulders, and Gwen’s suspicion grows.
Right, they were having a conversation. “Science,” Peta continues. “It’s cool. And I’m good at it.”
“Not as good as me,” Gwen says.
“Duh,” Peta says.
If she was second best to anyone else in school, Peta would probably put more work into being first. Or maybe not. Peta logs hours studying things that are interesting to her and relies on natural intelligence and a good memory to help her through all the other stuff.
“Flattery’s not going to get you out of trouble,” Gwen says.
Peta tries not to get distracted by Gwen’s white lab coat. Really, there’s nothing inherently attractive about lab coats. Peta has to wear them for some of her classes, complete with safety goggles, so she knows how not-attractive the whole lab get-up can be.
Peta’s trying to think up something clever to say, trying to think of anything to say where there’s a sharp pinch on the back of her neck, and she maybe lets out a little squeak.
“You should leave before security sees you without a badge,” Gwen says.
“Yeah,” Peta says, edging backwards. She’s pretty sure she just got bit by an Oscorp spider. She’s really, really hoping they aren’t poisonous. “Uh, see you at school tomorrow.”
Gwen makes a shooing motion, and Peta slips out of the building, picking up her skateboard on the way.
She wonders if she should be proactive and stop at a clinic or something on the way home to get her neck checked out.
She can’t hear the word ‘proactive’ without thinking about Mrs. Grady and sophomore health class. Proactive will always make her think about condoms and STD prevention, and that breath mint they passed around the room until the sweat and dirt from their hands turned it a grimy grey instead of white.
She’s brought out of her not-so-pleasant thoughts by a not-so-pleasant, “Hey! Girl. Give us a smile.”
Peta looks around. She’d been stupid enough to let her mind wander, and now she’s passing by a construction site she’d normally give a wide berth.
And now she’s made eye contact with the older man that called out to her, and it’s too late to look away, too late to pretend she didn’t hear.
Fuck .
“We’ve been working hard,” a second man says, coming up next to his buddy. “Just give us a smile.”
She shakes her head, and she picks up her step. She shouldn’t have slowed down. She shouldn’t have gone this way.
She -
There’s a prickle at the back of her neck, and she whips around, skateboard up, and knocks away the crumpled beer can that had been lobbed at her.
“Bitch!” Guy 1 hisses at her.
“Nobody wants to see your ugly face anyway,” the second guy shouts.
Head down , she tells herself. Walk faster .
She’s almost cleared the site when a third man pops into her vision. He steps in front of her, and she comes up short, skateboard held out in front of her like a weapon, heart pounding in her throat.
Stupid, stupid, stupid , is the chant in her head.
She takes a step back, and her shoulders draw up towards her ears when a glance behind her shows that Guy 1’s decided to join them.
“All we wanted was a smile,” Guy 1 says.
There’s sawdust in his hair and a glint in his eye that Peta doesn’t like.
She’s debating if she’s quick enough to run (if it’s too much to risk that they might chase) when she can sense Guy 3 moving, and she spins around in time to block his punch with her skateboard. He curses and knocks it out of her hands, and it goes skittering down the sidewalk.
She blocks the next punch, her body moving without her knowledge, and she twists out of the way to avoid Guy 1’s attempt to grab her.
Did she know she knew self-defense?
She’s pretty sure she didn’t know her body could bend nearly in half, the way it does to avoid another set of grabby hands, and she dodges and then delivers a roundhouse kick that sends Guy 3 stumbling back.
“Uh,” she says, because she definitely didn’t know she knew how to do that.
Guy 3 grabs her skateboard off the ground, and she has enough time to think please no before he does something unexpected and swings it at her and not the building.
It catches her across the face, shattering on impact, and it’s her turn to stumble back.
“Shoulda just smiled,” Guy 1 says and when he takes a swing, her body takes over again.
She grabs his fist and twists his arm up behind his back and shoves him into the ground. Guy 3 charges her and she leaps , jumps higher than she knew she could and then she’s sticking to the wall .
“What the hell,” she says.
Not one to question in the midst of a crisis, she scrambles up the side of the building and away from the swearing construction workers.
She waits until she’s (relatively) safe on the roof of the building she just scaled to have a freakout.
- Her skateboard is broken
- She just did things she didn’t know she could do. Things she’s pretty sure humans can’t do.
- Her face hurts.
She checks and there’s a trickle of blood to go along with the throbbing at her temple. She supposes that’s what happens when you take a skateboard to the face.
She should get home before the guys decide to follow her.
She can figure out what’s going on with her once she’s safe in her room.
Her eye is puffy, and it hurts to blink by the time she gets home. She knows there’s no way she’s going to be able to hide the injury from Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but she tries anyways. She runs straight up to her room when she gets home, and she puts on a hoodie, flips the hood up, and only then does she go down for dinner.
“What happened to you?” Uncle Ben demands as soon as she sits down at the table.
“Dunno what you’re talking about,” she says.
“I’m not stupid, young lady,” he tells her. “And I’m not blind.”
Uncle Ben only brings out the young lady when he’s really unhappy with her.
She slowly drops her hood. “Skateboard accident.”
Aunt May tuts as she sets a plate of meatloaf down on the table. “I told you that thing is dangerous.”
“Well, it broke,” Peta says, taking three slices of meatloaf off the platter.
“Good,” Aunt May says.
It broke on her face, Peta thinks, but she doesn’t say it. It’s why she can’t blame Aunt May for being happy. If Peta’s going to lie then she doesn’t get to be upset when people draw the wrong conclusions.
She packs away five slices of meatloaf, two servings of veggies, and three brownies by the time dinner is over.
“Wow,” Uncle Ben says. “Work up an appetite before smashing your board?”
Peta nods. She adds increased appetite to her mental list of things that have changed since she got bit by the Oscorp spider. She touches the back of her neck. There’s no swelling there, she can barely even feel the prick from the bite. That probably means she’s not going to die of the spider bite.
It definitely did something to her though.
She’s going to have to write up an actual list later tonight. Maybe do some poking around on the internet.
She wonders if Gwen knows anything about the spiders.
She can only imagine how that conversation would go.
‘So, hey, Gwen. While I was running around Oscop, yeah, when I wasn’t even supposed to be there, I snuck into an off-limits room and got myself bit by a spider. Any idea what’s happening to me?’
Peta laughs at the thought.
“We got the dishes,” Uncle Ben tells Aunt May when they’re done eating. “You worked and cooked today. Go sit down, and we’ll join you for Wheel of Fortune.”
Peta’s still sitting at the table, wondering why Oscorp would even have a room full of spiders to begin with when Uncle Ben clears his throat.
“You’re part of the ‘we’ that’s doing dishes,” he tells her.
“Oh,” Peta says. She gets to her feet. “Right. Sorry.”
“Uh huh.”
She clears the table while he starts washing the dishes and by the time she joins him, there’s a small stack for her to start putting in the dishwasher.
“So,” Uncle Ben says, and she draws her shoulders up. “Skateboarding accident?”
She puts all the plates in the dishwasher, but Uncle Ben’s still waiting for an answer when she’s run out of plates.
“Of a sort,” she finally says.
Uncle Ben waits her out.
“My skateboard broke on my face,” she says.
“I’m guessing someone helped with that,” Uncle Ben says.
Peta shrugs.
Uncle Ben sighs. He probably thinks she’s getting into fights again, the way she did in middle school when she was angry about her parents and willing to throw a punch any time someone looked at her the wrong way. She got a lot of lectures from Uncle Ben then. She’s expecting another one now.
She thinks about telling him what really happened, but then he’d probably go down to the site, and he’d get into a fight, and she doesn’t think he’d come out of it with just a black eye and a cut on his forehead.
She hangs her head and waits for her scolding.
“Let's get you an ice pack,” Uncle Ben says. “You can ice while we watch Wheel of Fortune. It’ll help with the swelling and at least for a little bit it’ll help with the pain.”
“Oh,” Peta says, a little slow, a little stupid.
Today’s been all about stupid.
Uncle Ben pulls her in for a one armed hug and then goes to get her an ice pack. He wraps it in a dishtowel, and they go to join Aunt May in the living room.
~*~
Art by sarasampine
~*~
Peta gets to econ, and Gwen Stacy gasps and says, “What happened to your face?”
Peta looks around, alarmed, but no one’s paying attention to them.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you,” Gwen says, grabbing Peta’s sleeve and dragging her over to the desk next to Gwen’s. “You didn’t have that when I saw you yesterday afternoon.”
Peta didn’t tell Uncle Ben what happened, because she didn’t think he’d understand, because he’d try and fight something that he can’t actually fight and get himself hurt, but Gwen’s a girl, and Peta thinks she’d understand.
“Took the wrong route home,” Peta says with a wry smile. “Construction site.”
Gwen sucks in an angry breath, and she rustles through her purse for a small can of mace.
“Here,” Gwen says, pressing it into Peta’s hand. “It’s police issue.”
“Uh,” Peta says. “I’m pretty sure I’m not legally allowed to carry this.”
“And I’m pretty sure whoever gave you that,” Gwen glares at Peta’s black eye, “Wasn’t legally allowed to do it.”
“No,” Peta agrees. She puts the mace in her pocket. “Um, thanks.”
“I can get more,” Gwen says. “My dad’s a precinct captain.”
Peta thinks she knew that. This is also the longest conversation she’s ever had with Gwen Stacy in her life. “So you probably know all kinds of self-defense stuff.”
“Yeah. I love the ‘I wish you didn’t need to know how to take down a guy twice your size but since you do I’ll teach you’ talks. You could come over sometime. If you wanted. My dad can teach you to fight back.”
“My uncle told me that the next fight I get into is probably going to give him a heart attack.”
“Then just come over for dinner,” Gwen says.
“We don’t know each other,” Peta says.
Gwen smiles. “So come over for dinner, and we’ll talk.”
Before Peta can say something even stupider, their teacher takes attendance and starts the class.
~*~
After school, Peta takes her old skateboard - battered but whole - and goes to her favorite warehouse by the water. It’s got a few makeshift ramps and enough space for her to do some jumps and flips, and she’s never seen anyone here before.
She wants to be alone right now.
She hasn’t put too much thought into what happened at the construction site, because the fact that she somehow knows martial arts is freaky and the fact that she can climb walls is even freakier.
She shoves the unwanted thoughts out of her head and climbs up on a stack of boxes with her board. There’s a big sheet of plywood up against the boxes to make a ramp, and she starts down it, gathering speed, and at the bottom she jumps up and over a smaller collection of boxes.
She scrambles up to the top of the ramp to do it again.
This time, her back wheels catch on the lip of the plywood, but instead of tumbling down and scraping up her knees or her elbows she lands on her feet, body contorting mid air so she doesn’t get hurt.
“What the hell,” she mutters.
Her skateboard clatters into the boxes she’d been using as a jump, but she’s perfectly fine.
She eyes the side of the warehouse.
No, she thinks.
“No,” she says, out loud, for extra emphasis.
Two minutes later, she’s scaling the wall.
It shouldn’t be possible. Human hands aren’t made to stick to walls like this. She stares down at the floor of the warehouse.
Unbidden, Dr. Connors’s lecture on cross species genetics pops into her head.
No.
Oscorp is not breeding spiders that are designed to bite people and give them spider powers.
No. Nope. No way.
She continues to stick to the wall.
She is in so much shit.
~*~
Peta shows up at the Stacy apartment with a bouquet of flowers that are a little worse for the skateboard ride over.
Her first sign that this is going to be a disaster is that there’s a doorman.
Her second sign is the way Gwen’s brothers giggle once Peta’s been instructed by the doorman how to get up the Stacy’s - incredibly fancy - apartment.
“Flowers are for dates,” the oldest one says.
Peta feels her cheeks heat up and wishes she’d turned around when faced with the doorman. “Not old enough for beer,” she says. That’s what Rich brings when he comes to their place for dinner, and Peta knows you’re not supposed to show up empty handed, but flowers were definitely the wrong choice.
“You have hair like a boy,” the youngest brother says.
Peta flees to the bathroom and shoves the bouquet into the trash and then covers it with a layer of tissues.
She washes her hands then eyes the window like maybe it’s worth making a run for it. The thought that she and Gwen could be friends was a stupid one. They’re clearly from different worlds - her brothers are wearing ties and Peta’s in her one pair of pants without holes in them - and Peta’s been fine all these years not being friends with Gwen.
And it’s not like a year or two of friendship will matter once they’re both off at different colleges and pursuing careers.
“Is Peta here yet?” Gwen asks, her voice carrying into the bathroom.
“She’s hiding in the bathroom,” one of the boys says. Peta hates all three of them.
Gwen sighs, frustrated. “What part of don’t talk to my friends do you not understand? You always do this.”
“Get better friends.”
Peta’s not going to run so she figures she might as well head off any attempts by the brothers to rat out the flowers. Peta washes her hands once more for good measure and then comes out of the bathroom with a smile on her face.
“Sun-dappled pear,” Peta says, bringing her hands up to her face. “Interesting scent for a soap.”
Gwen looks - relieved? - when she sees Peta, and maybe Peta wasn’t the only one who thought she was going to run away.
“My mom thinks it’s calming. At least it’s more subtle than citrus. Uh, you’ve met my brothers?”
“Sort of,” Peta says.
Gwen points to each one of them in turn. “Philip, Howard, and Simon. Make sure you call him Philip. He loves it.”
“It’s Phil ,” Philip mutters, glaring at his sister.
She matches it with a look of pure serenity. “Mom spent a long time thinking up the perfect name for you, and I think we should honor that by calling you by your given name.”
Peta’s known that Gwen was brilliant for a really long time, but this is the first inkling she’s gotten that Gwen is devious . This new knowledge isn’t going to help her keep the lid on her crush. Like at all.
“It’s a strong name,” Peta says, “It’s the prince from Sleeping Beauty , right?”
“The one with the tights,” Gwen agrees, sharing a look with Peta before turning her attention back to her brother. “He spent most of the movie dancing through the woods in his tights and singing to the love of his life.”
Peta, and Gwen, both conveniently don’t mention that Philip also got kidnapped by ghouls, freed himself, and then went after a giant magical dragon with a tiny shield and magical sword.
“Have you met the love of your life yet?” Gwen asks.
Philip curls his hands into fists. “You’re the meanest sister ever,” he says.
“Philip, be nice to your sister,” Mrs. Stacy says, passing by the hallway. She pauses and comes back into view to smile at Peta. The smile is strained when she does a quick once-over, and Peta wishes someone had told her that dinner at the Stacy’s meant like full formal wear.
“Hello,” Mrs. Stacy says. “You must be Peta.”
“Uh, yeah.” Peta reaches out a hand. “Thank you for having me over, Mrs. Stacy. You’ve got a real nice place.”
Howard claps a hand over his mouth but not quick enough to hide his laughing.
“We’re going to my room,” Gwen decides. “Call us when dinner’s ready.”
“Don’t close your door!” Philip calls after them, after Gwen’s grabbed Peta’s hand and started dragging her away.
“That rule’s only for boys!” Gwen calls back and then they’re in Gwen’s room and the door is very firmly shut behind them.
“I’m so sorry,” Gwen says. “I’d say my brothers are the worst, but you haven’t met my dad yet.”
Peta shrugs. Families are different, that doesn’t make them bad.
“Uh,” Gwen can’t quite hide her wince as she looks Peta over. “You don’t do family dinner at home?”
“We eat together,” Peta says, “but I’m guessing what I think of as family dinner is a lot different than what you think.”
“I’d offer you something of mine,” Gwen says with a look back her closet.
Peta sees the rows of mini skirts and laughs. “I can’t remember the last time I shaved.” Hairy legs are probably even more of a crime than pants that don’t have to be dry-cleaned after being worn.
And then, of course, Peta’s words catch up to her brain, and she wants to smack herself. Why would she say that?
Gwen just laughs. “That’s what knee socks are for.” She smiles at Peta’s surprise, bright, pleased. “What? You think I have the time to shave every morning and do my make-up?”
“Honestly, I figured you woke up looking perfect,” Peta says.
She blushes again and hopes Gwen doesn’t notice.
“You do the English reading yet?” Gwen asks and Peta gratefully latches onto the change in conversation.
~*~
Captain Stacy takes one look at Peta when they sit down to dinner, and he frowns. “Where’d you get a shiner like that?”
He’s staring her down like this is an interrogation, like she’s done something wrong, and Peta has a dozen excuses at the ready, but she doesn’t get to use any of them, because Gwen answers first.
“The construction site near Oscorp,” Gwen says with a pointed look at her dad.
They have some kind of silent communication Peta doesn’t have the context to understand.
“I’m clumsy,” Peta offers up.
That gets her a sharp glare from Gwen and a heated, “And street harassment is a thing.”
Captain Stacy frowns at Peta like this is her fault and that’s where Peta loses all her sympathy for the man. Peta didn’t ask to get heckled on her walk home, and she certainly didn’t ask anyone to take a swing at her.
“Lucky I can run fast,” Peta says, “Or my face would look worse than it does.”
“Women shouldn’t feel safe based on how fast they can run,” Gwen says and this feels like the beginning to a familiar rant.
The way Gwen’s brothers are rolling their eyes suggest that this is a conversation that comes up at the dinner table a lot. Captain Stacy’s deepening frown suggests that it’s one he wishes would just go away.
“The police can’t spend their shifts hanging out at construction sites,” Captain Stacy says.
“You mean won’t.”
Peta wonders if Captain Stacy gave his daughter the mace that Peta’s now carrying around or if she snuck it from the precinct. Based on this conversation right now, Peta would believe either.
“ Someone should be keeping the streets safe,” Gwen argues.
“Gwendolyn!” her mother hisses.
Peta tunes out the ensuing whispered fight, stuck on Gwen’s words and what’s probably a really, really bad idea. Someone does need to be keeping the streets safe, and Peta can understand how the police would be busy with car jackings and muggings and murders, but that doesn’t mean women should be left unprotected.
It just means they need someone who’s not the police looking out for them.
Peta has enhanced reflexes now. And she’s twisty and can kind of fight. And she’d picked up that webbing from Oscorp. She didn’t know what to do with it before but now she’s imagining some kind of apparatus that lets her shoot it, that lets her use it to restrain.
She’s not looking to be a police officer or a vigilante or anything.
But maybe she could be a friend.
A protector.
“Peta?” Mrs. Stacy says.
Peta’s head snaps up. Everyone at the table is staring at her. That probably wasn’t the first time Mrs. Stacy tried to get her attention.
“Uh, sorry,” Peta says.
Mrs. Stacy smiles at her, warm. “Would you like help with your branzino?”
“My branzino?” Peta repeats.
“The fish,” Mrs. Stacy says. Her smile falters.
“I can help,” Gwen says. “First time?”
“The only fish we eat at my house are fish sticks,” Peta says.
An uncomfortable silence settles over the table. Peta wonders how long until she can escape back to her house.
~*~
It takes Peta a week before she’s ready for her trial run as, well, as whatever it she’s going to be. Superhero isn’t right, because she doesn’t consider herself in the same league as Iron Man, and vigilante also isn’t right.
Protector sounds a little ridiculous.
She’s just a girl in a spandex body suit and a mask lurking around bus stops at night.
It took her a week to get a costume together (hiding her face is a must) and also to figure out some kind of rigging for the webbing. Plus, she had to practice.
But now she’s ready and hanging out on the side of building, keeping an eye on the bus stop near her house.
The first two times the bus comes by, nothing out of the ordinary happens. Between the second and third time the bus comes by, the sun’s dipped down below the horizon, and the street lights have come on.
When a young woman with dozens of tight, neat cornrows gets off the bus, she looks over her shoulder for a second before beginning to head down the sidewalk. Peta doesn’t see anyone who might be following her, but the woman seems nervous enough that Peta keeps her in her sight.
Two blocks from the bus stop, Peta sees three men in hoodies that are gaining on the young woman even though she’s walking at a brisk pace.
When she has to stop to wait for a traffic light to give her permission to cross the street, the men are given enough time to join her.
Peta lurks nearby, watching, listening.
“New bus stop?” the man in the black hoodies asks.
“We missed you the past few days,” the one in the dark blue hoodie says.
The woman clutches her purse to her chest and stares straight ahead, ignoring them.
“Aw,” Blue Hoodie says, touching her hair, letting the braids run through his fingers. “Don’t be like this.”
The woman pulls away from the touch, and that’s all Peta needs before she shoots her web out to pin Blue Hoodie’s arms to his sides.
“Weren’t you ever taught to keep your hands to yourself?” Peta asks, dropping down from the fire escape she’d been perched on.
All three men stare at her, Blue Hoodie with indignation as he tries to pull his arms free and can’t.
“It’ll wear off,” Peta says. “Maybe. Haven’t tested it before yet.” She addresses the other two. “You need a preschool refresher course? After keep your hands to yourself we can move onto don’t be fucking dickbags.”
“Who do you think you are prancing around my city in spandex?” Black Hoodie demands.
Peta points to the giant spider design on her chest.
“Spiderbitch,” Black Hoodie hisses before he takes a run at her.
She easily dodges, lets him run into the railing and then fall down into the stairwell that leads to some person’s basement. Peta gives it five or so minutes before he’s able to haul himself up and out of there.
“So,” she says, looking at Green Hoodie. “You wanna try your luck?”
He takes off running in the opposite direction.
“Good choice,” Peta says. She looks up to see that the walk sign is flashing. “Perfect timing,” she says before linking arms with the young woman and escorting her across the street. “Want me to walk you home?”
The woman looks back over her shoulder, where Blue Hoodie is still struggling to get his arms free and Black Hoodie is stumbling up the stairs. “Um,” she says.
“If you’re freaked out that’s cool,” Peta says. “I’ll probably follow you home which sounds super creepy, but I’ll keep my distance. Or I can walk with you. Either way, you’re getting home safe.”
“Thanks,” the woman says after a long pause.
She doesn’t shake Peta off her or threaten to call the cops which Peta takes as an invitation to walk with her.
~*~
By the end of the weekend, Peta’s helped five different people.
The last one, a teenage girl, took a selfie with Peta on her doorstep, and suddenly a bunch of newspapers are covering the story of Spidergirl, the good Samaritan.
It’s better than Spiderbitch , Peta thinks, glancing over the article.
~*~
Peta’s not quite sure how she ended up in the journalism office, just that it had something to do with Gwen smiling at her, and Peta’s brain shut off and now she’s surrounded by desktop computers and her fellow classmates.
“We’re going to write an article on Spidergirl,” Gwen tells the team.
Of course she’s the editor for journalism club, Peta thinks.
“How do we know she’s a girl?” Francis asks.
Gwen rolls her eyes. “A superhero that looks out for girls who’re trying to get home without being harassed? Why would you think she’s not a girl?”
“I’m not sure she’s a superhero,” Peta says, because yeah, she’s doing something good, but she’s not Iron Man or anything.
Gwen glares at her. “Why because what she’s doing isn’t important?”
“Of course it’s important,” Peta says. “But it’s not like she’s doing any more than you did for me. If Spidergirl’s a superhero than you are too.”
Gwen loses all her anger in an instant, her cheeks turning pink.
Peta ducks her head.
“Riight,” Jodie says. “What’s Parker doing here?”
“Pictures,” Gwen says, recovering. “You’re a photographer, right?”
“Um,” Peta says. She’s a photographer the way Spidergirl is a superhero but she figures that comparison isn’t too welcome right now. “I have a camera.”
“See if you can get a picture of Spidergirl,” Gwen says. “I want something new, something no one else has seen for our article.”
“Right,” Peta says. Because there’s no way this is going to end badly.
~*~
She sets up the delayed shutter on her camera and gets a few pictures of herself in costume that night, but she waits until three days before finding Gwen after school to give her the thumb drive with them on it.
“I got a couple,” Peta says. “Not sure if any of them are any good.”
“I’m sure they will be,” Gwen says, more confident in Peta’s ability than Peta is.
“Okay,” Peta says. Mission over, she should go. There’s a YWCA she wants to patrol today, make sure the young kids going there from the school bus aren’t running into any trouble.
She lingers.
“Oh, you should come to dinner tomorrow night,” Gwen says, slipping the thumb drive into her pocket.
Yeah , Peta thinks, should’ve fled when she had the chance .
“I’m busy,” Peta says. And she kind of is if you count her new night job.
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Look, no branzino this time. And I’ll threaten my brothers so they won’t bother you. Much.”
“Um,” Peta says.
“I like sunflowers,” Gwen says. “And maybe don’t throw the flowers in the trash this time.”
Peta’s still staring when Gwen strides away, shoes clicking smartly on the floor.
~*~
Peta shows up to the Stacys’ in dark wash skinny jeans and a polo, clutching a bouquet of sunflowers. She knows she’s still not going to be dressed up to the standard of Stacy family dinner, but she thinks she should get points for at least having a collar on her shirt.
“I’ve already got a vase waiting,” Gwen says when she opens the door and sees the flowers.
“So sure I was going to bring them?” Peta asks.
Gwen gives her a warm smile. “Pretty sure, yeah.”
Peta’s still got the fading traces of her blush on her face when she follows Gwen into the kitchen.
“Hello girls,” Mrs. Stacy says. She’s cutting tomatoes up into tiny squares, but raises her eyebrows when she sees the flowers. “Those are very pretty.”
“Aren’t they?” Gwen asks. She puts them in the vase that was on the island. “They’ll look good on my windowsill.”
“Not on the dining room table?” Mrs. Stacy asks.
Gwen holds the vase protectively to her chest. “The flowers are for me.”
“Ah,” Mrs. Stacy says, a smile tugging at her lips. “I see. Why don’t you go find the perfect place for them in your room.”
“Way ahead of you mom,” Gwen says. “Come on, Peta, we’re going to my room.”
Peta follows, obedient if not a little confused by what’s going on. Mrs. Stacy and Gwen just had a conversation that was mostly not in words, and Peta’s missing something.
“Door stays open,” Mrs. Stacy calls out to them as they reach the hallway.
Oh, Peta thinks. She gets it now.
She’s still turning over the thought that Gwen Stacy wants to date her when they reach Gwen’s room. Gwen spends a few minutes fussing over the flowers and the best place to put them, and when she turns her attention to Peta, Peta’s mind goes embarrassingly blank.
“Um, hi,” Peta says.
Gwen’s smile is a touch teasing. “Hi,” she says back. “I didn’t - I mean. I should’ve asked. It’s just - You’re the smartest person I know. Besides me. And I figured you kept up.”
“I did,” Peta assures her. “This is a date. You asked me on a date. That’s why there are flowers and somewhat threatening looks from your mother.”
“Yes,” Gwen says, relieved.
Peta’s still hesitant. “I understand that this is a date. I just don’t understand why .”
“For someone so smart, you’re kind of stupid,” Gwen tells her.
Peta can feel herself blushing again. “Guess it’s a good thing you’re smarter than me. You can explain.”
Gwen surprises her by laughing and then surprises her even more by kissing her. It’s a brief kiss, just a simple press of their lips before Gwen’s pulling back.
“I like you,” Gwen says, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Eloquent,” Peta says.
Gwen laughs and reaches out to shove Peta’s shoulder, but Peta’s hand whips out and catches Gwen’s wrist before she’s done more than raise her arm.
“Um,” Peta says, because she hadn’t meant to do that, and if Gwen looks too closely then Peta just moved faster than humans should be able to move. To cover it, Peta reels Gwen in and kisses her again, longer this time.
Her hand slides down to hold Gwen’s hand instead of her wrist, and she’s about to deepen the kiss when she hears footsteps in the hall.
She springs away from Gwen, quick enough that she stumbles over Gwen’s backpack and falls on her butt. She’s still on the ground when Mrs. Stacy pokes her head into the room.
“Dinner’s ready,” Mrs. Stacy says. She looks from Gwen to Peta and smiles. “Everything alright in here?”
“Yeah,” Peta says, scrambling to her feet. “I’m just a little clumsy.”
“Careful you don’t trip on the way to the table,” Mrs. Stacy says before leaving again.
“You could’ve just told me my mom was on her way,” Gwen says. “You didn’t have to fall over.”
“It’s part of my charm,” Peta says.
Gwen grins and bumps their shoulders together. “Yeah. It kinda is.”
~*~
Dinner starts out much better than last time. Mrs. Stacy has made pasta with a pesto sauce and tiny cubes of chicken and tomatoes, and the whole thing has a dusting of mozzarella cheese. In Peta’s opinion, there could be more cheese, but she’s determined not to do anything stupid or embarrassing at dinner this time so she just eats what she’s given and is grateful that Mrs. Stacy make penne instead of spaghetti.
There’s no good way to eat spaghetti and look like you have good table manners. Or, if there is, Peta doesn’t know it.
Peta’s careful to keep her elbows off the table, and she makes sure she gets two tomatoes and one piece of chicken with every piece of pasta. She keeps her eyes on her plate, except for the occasional glance at Gwen, and listens to Simon and Howard dutifully recite how their days went.
“And what about you Philip?” Mr. Stacy asks. “How was your school day?”
Philip shrugs, expression mulish. “Fine.”
“I had a good day at school,” Gwen says, jumping into the ensuing silence. “I’ve almost finished my article for the newspaper.”
“That’s nice,” Mr. Stacy says. “Philip -”
“My article on Spidergirl,” Gwen continues like her father hadn’t just tried to change the subject.
Peta has a very uncomfortable feeling about where this is about to go. She wonders if she can excuse herself to the bathroom and slip out the window. Or just wash her hands for an hour.
Mrs. Stacy sighs.
“You know my opinion on vigilantism,” Mr. Stacy says.
Gwen looks like she’s gearing up for a full argument, and Peta wants to avoid that if possible.
“I don’t think Spidergirl’s a vigilante,” Peta says.
Everyone’s attention swings to her.
Mr. Stacy’s frowning, eyebrows drawn together.
“I don’t think she’s a superhero either,” Peta says, because she doesn’t want Mr. Stacy angry with her.
“Then why the mask?” Mr. Stacy asks. “Why the spandex? Clearly, someone’s looking for attention.”
“I think the mask means she’s not looking for attention,” Peta says.
She glances at Gwen who gives her a discreet thumbs up. This isn’t what Peta wanted when she decided to fend off the impending argument between Gwen and her dad. Everyone was supposed to go back to their dinner. Peta wasn’t supposed to get into an argument.
But...she’s already started it. Might as well see it through.
“All due respect, sir,” Peta says, wincing because no one says that unless they’re about to be disrespectful but it’s too late. “I think the mask is because she knows she’s going to get attention but doesn’t want it directed at her.”
Mr. Stacy continues to frown.
“I mean, look at the internet,” Peta says, warming to her task. “A journalist makes a well-founded criticism of discrimination in video games and suddenly people are sending her hate mail and stalking her and posting inappropriate pictures of her online. Anyone who defends her gets the same treatment. Women who try to protect other women get crucified. I think that’s why Spidergirl wants to hide her face. Not because she wants to be labeled a superhero but because she doesn’t want people picketing outside her house.”
“Hiding your face implies a lack of understanding of responsibility,” Mr. Stacy says.
“She’s just walking people home,” Peta says.
“She’s restrained several individuals without their consent,” Mr. Stacy says.
Does that mean he wants to arrest Spidergirl? Peta really doesn’t want to add avoiding arrest or evading the police to her list of after school activities.
“Several individuals who -” Peta glances at Simon who is wide eyed and listening to them with rapt attention - “had ideas of what they wanted to do to other individuals. Without their consent.”
“One crime doesn’t justify another,” Mr. Stacy says.
Gwen huffs. “Making sure a creep keeps his hands to himself isn’t a crime.”
“Are you an expert on the police handbook?” Mr. Stacy asks.
“Alright,” Mrs. Stacy says, a strained smile on her face. “That’s enough work talk. Philip, how was your day at school?”
~*~
Dessert was a chocolate mousse that Peta could’ve eaten ten servings of, but after the first, Gwen announces that she and Peta are going to do the dinner dishes then go out on the terrace.
They do the dishes in silence, Gwen angrily scrubbing pesto and bits of tomato off the plates before thrusting them at Peta who gently puts them in the dishwasher. When they’re done, they go outside, and Peta leans against the railing and looks out at the city.
Her city.
Part of her itches to go and get her suit.
Another part of her is afraid that the next time she puts it on there are going to be police officers waiting to arrest her.
“You really think your dad’s going to try and arrest Spidergirl?” Peta asks, drumming her fingers on the railing.
“No,” Gwen says, “and even if he threatens to, you can’t stop what you’re doing. It’s important.”
“Yeah,” Peta says. “Wait. Me ?”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Yes, you .”
“How did you know?” Peta asks.
“You got me a picture of Spidergirl in three days,” Gwen says.
“I waited!” This is unfair. Peta put thought into keeping Gwen from figuring out who she was.
“Yeah,” Gwen says. “ Three days. It was a good try.”
“But you wanted the picture!”
Gwen’s smile softens into something sweet rather than teasing. “That’s kinda how I knew. Plus, a couple other things. I think it’s pretty cool what you’re doing.”
Gwen knows that Peta’s Spidergirl. It should probably be more of a concern than it is (especially seeing as Gwen’s dad wants her in jail) but Peta’s a little fixated on the whole Gwen think she’s cool thing.
“You gave me the idea,” Peta says. “When you gave me the mace. I mean, I didn’t become Spidergirl until after that, but if you could help me out when we were basically strangers then why couldn’t I help other girls.”
“I was your inspiration?” Gwen asks. She smiles, pleased with the thought.
“Much better origin story than Batman or Iron Man,” Peta says. “Wanna see what I can do?”
She hasn’t gotten to share with anyone the fun parts of being Spidergirl, but at Gwen’s nod, Peta climbs onto the railing and slowly raises her legs up until she’s doing a handstand on the edge of the building. She grins at Gwen, upside down, and then takes a deep, steadying breath and goes up on her fingertips.
“Oh my goodness,” Gwen breathes, soft like she’s afraid she’ll knock Peta off the edge if she talks too loud. “You’re - get down! You’re going to fall off!”
Peta laughs as she flips herself onto her feet and safety. “Better?”
“You scared me,” Gwen says. She holds out her hands.
“I wasn’t going fall,” Peta says.
She takes Gwen’s hands anyways and lets Gwen draw her in and away from the railing. This close, Peta can see Gwen’s eyeliner, clean smooth lines across her eyelids. Peta’s never been good with make-up, and she’s not nearly as put together as Gwen is, but she’s at Gwen’s house, invited over for a date dinner, and now they’re holding hands.
If this is a date then does Peta get to kiss her?
Gwen’s hands are soft in Peta’s, none of the callouses the Peta has, and Peta takes another step closer, waiting for Gwen to back up or let go or something .
Gwen just meets Peta’s gaze evenly, and Peta leans in, heart pounding, and presses her lips to Gwen’s. Gwen drops their hands to their sides so she can step even closer, until they’re hip to hip and chest to chest.
Peta wants to touch Gwen’s hair or maybe tug on her sweater, but she doesn’t want to let go of Gwen’s hands either. She wants a lot of things. She’s hoping she’ll get to kiss Gwen again, will get to try all the things she’s thinking.
Her fingers brush the hem of Gwen’s skirt, and they both pull in a sharp breath.
“Sorry,” Peta says, turning her head so her words brush across Gwen’s cheek.
“It’s okay,” Gwen says. “It’s -”
“Girls?” Mrs. Stacy calls, and the two of them quickly step apart, a moment before Mrs. Stacy appears in the doorway leading back into the apartment. “There you are. It was very nice having you over, Peta, but it’s a school night so I’m afraid you’ll have go home so Gwen can do her homework and go to bed.”
“Of course,” Peta says even as Gwen huffs and says, “Mom,” in the exasperated tone of embarrassed teenagers everywhere.
“Do you need a ride home, Peta?” Mrs. Stacy asks, ignoring her daughter.
“I took the bus,” Peta says. “I’ll take another to get home. I’ll see you in school tomorrow, Gwen?”
“Unless you’re planning on skipping.”
Peta shakes her head. “I’ll be there.”
They continue to stare at each other, neither moving, until Mrs. Stacy clears her throat.
Right, Peta thinks, she’s supposed to be leaving. She waves at the two Stacys before taking the elevator down to the first floor. She nods at the doorman and then climbs up the side of the building, peeking over the railing to make sure Mrs. Stacy has gone back inside.
She has but Gwen’s still on the balcony.
“Psst!” Peta says.
Gwen whirls around, surprised, but her face breaking out in a smile when she sees Peta. “Psst? Really? That’s what you’re going with?”
“It’s a classic,” Peta says. “Uh, tonight was a date, right?”
Gwen nods and crouches by the railing so their faces are level. “I thought we’d been over that.”
“Just,” Peta leans in for a quick kiss. “Goodnight, then.”
She starts back down the building, and grins when Gwen leans over the railing to glare at her.
“Really?” Gwen demands. “That’s it?”
“It’s our first date,” Peta says. “I don’t know what kind of girl you take me for but -”
She starts laughing when Gwen mimes throwing a shoe at her and scurries the rest of the way down the apartment building.
~*~
Art by sarasampine
~*~
On Monday, a new issue of Midtown News comes out with Gwen’s Spidergirl article taking up most of the front page.
“Congrats,” Peta says when she first sees her.
“What?” Gwen looks as the paper in Peta’s hands. “Oh. Thanks. Any chance I could get another picture?”
“You’re writing another article?” Peta asks. “Don’t you think people are going to get bored of her?”
It’s weird talking about her alter-ego like they’re not the same person. It’s also a little weird to try and talk her girlfriend out of writing more articles about how awesome Peta (Spidergirl, really) is.
“Yeah,” Gwen says. “You gave me an idea. You were my inspiration, if you will.”
“You’re making fun of me,” Peta says.
“Only a little. Picture by tomorrow?”
“Of course,” Peta says.
As if there was ever any question.
~*~
Peta gets Gwen a couple more pictures, but Gwen remains tight lipped about what exactly she’s planning to write.
“Do I need to do anything?” Peta asks. “I mean, anything special?”
“Nope. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Peta can do that.
~*~
Peta can’t do that.
She falls asleep in physics, because she was up until the buses stopped running and then she had homework to do.
Gwen kicks her awake, but Peta just fall asleep in her next class.
As soon as she gets home from school she takes a nap so she can go out that night again.
“You look awful,” Gwen says when she meets Peta at her locker Thursday morning.
Peta covers a giant yawn with her bio textbook. “Mm. Thanks. You look good. As always.”
Gwen narrows her eyes. “Flattery won’t distract me.”
Peta shrugs. “I’m adjusting to a new sleep schedule. It’ll be fine.”
“You mean adjusting to a no sleep schedule? Because that’s what it looks like.”
“New York’s a big city.” Peta can’t remember what order her classes are in today so she just dumps all her books into her bag.
“One, we don’t have physics today,” Gwen says, taking Peta’s physics book out of her bag. “Two, you’re trying to do too much.”
“I don’t want to do less.”
How can she sleep when there are people who might need her? How can she be worried about homework when there are people being stalked or heckled or afraid to walk home by themselves?
“Give me a week,” Gwen says. “Get at least six hours of sleep a night, do your homework, and I’ll see if I can help.”
“You are working on something,” Peta says.
“I told you I was.” Gwen walks with Peta to her first class. “You can’t run yourself down or you won’t be able to help anyone. Plus, I need someone to challenge me. I want being valedictorian to mean something.”
“Later, when I’m more awake and more clever, I’m going to have a good comeback for that,” Peta says.
Gwen gives her a little shove into her classroom. “I’ll be waiting.”
~*~
Peta sort of listens to Gwen.
She sleeps a little bit more, but what really helps her is bringing her homework with her on what she’s calling her stakeouts. It’s probably a bad idea, because if she loses her textbooks then she’s in trouble and if someone finds her homework with her name written across the top then she’s in even more trouble, but she’ll be in the most trouble if her grades start slipping.
She’s pretty sure Uncle Ben knows she’s been sneaking out of the house at night, but he hasn’t called her out on it yet. He definitely will if she gets a letter sent home saying that she’s falling asleep in classes or even failing them.
She draws up Punnett squares before swooping down to chase off some teenage hecklers, and she walks a girl home while studying her anatomy flashcards, and the girl helps quiz her on them.
“You in med school or something?” the girl - Jennifer - asks after they’ve gone two blocks.
“Something,” Peta answers. “I like science.”
“I used to like science,” Jennifer says. “But then it got hard, and my mom told me there probably weren’t any jobs for me so I figured it wasn’t worth it.”
Peta has no idea what she’s going to do. Probably go to college and then do some kind of research. Maybe continue doing what her dad had done before he disappeared. Or maybe she’ll study herself, try and figure out what exactly the spider did to her. She doesn’t want Oscorp making her a lab rat - lab spider? - but she has no problem running experiments on herself.
Well, maybe not. That hadn’t gone so well for Dr. Banner.
“What’re you doing instead?”
“History. My mom thinks I should be a teacher.”
“You don’t sound like that’s what you want,” Peta says.
Jennifer shrugs. “It’s not so bad. It’s still learning about different pieces and how they work together. And I’m good at memorizing things.”
Peta can’t imagine planning to spend her life doing something that she hates. “You in high school?”
Jennifer nods. “Senior. I’m going to Buffalo State next year.”
“Congrats.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe take a science class or two,” Peta says. “See if you still like it. There are plenty of things you can do.” She thinks back to the career day they had, where a bunch of professionals in the area came in to talk about what you can do with different math or science degrees. “Massage therapist. You need anatomy for that. And really strong hands. Or a pediatric nurse. Do you like kids?”
“Not really.”
“A geriatric nurse?”
Jennifer laughs. “I’m not sure I’ve got the bedside manner to be a nurse or a doctor.”
“So teacher really isn’t what you want to do.”
“No,” Jennifer agrees. “I want to do something where I can sit in a basement for days at a time and no one will talk to me. I mean, I guess I could be some kind of historian, but maybe you’re right. Maybe I can give something else a try.”
“That’s what college is all about.” Or, at least, that’s what Peta’s been told college is all about.
They stop in front of a brick apartment building.
“This is my stop,” Jennifer says. She hands Peta’s flashcards back to her. “Thanks for the company. Do you really do this all every day?”
“Someone helped me out once,” Peta says. “I’m just trying to pay it forward. The spandex was my personal touch.”
Jennifer laughs. “It’s definitely a statement. Um, my sister should be feeling better tomorrow so I’ll have someone to walk home with, but thanks for being here today.”
“Glad to help. Good luck at Buffalo next year.”
Peta figures that someone who doesn’t seem to want to work with people probably doesn’t do hugs so Peta just gives her a little wave before going to find the nearest bus stop.
~*~
Peta promised Gwen a week to let Gwen do whatever it is she’s planning, and she does her best to be patient.
Tuesday, a couple days before the week is up, Gwen gives Peta a present.
It’s looks like a friendship bracelet, woven together with red and blue embroidery floss.
Peta wonders if this is a subtle way to say ‘we’re just friends’. She tries to keep the disappointment off her face.
“Thanks,” Peta says.
“Let me tie it on for you,” Gwen says.
She ties it loose enough that it won’t cut into Peta’s skin but loose enough that it won’t slip off accidentally. While Gwen’s tying it on, Peta realizes that Gwen’s got a similar bracelet on her own wrist. Different pattern but same colors.
“Don’t take it off,” Gwen says. “If it gets frayed or too dirty let me know, and I’ll make you a new one.”
“Okay,” Peta says.
Before she can ask what exactly it is, the bell rings and Peta has to run to make it to her class on time. She forgets about the bracelet until she’s on watch, and she fiddles with the string up in her perch as she waits to see if anyone needs her help.
Something new happens when the first bus unloads its passengers. There’s the usual rush as people try to be the first out the doors, and Peta knows how to look for someone with hunched shoulders, someone who clutches their purse to their chest or glances over their shoulder. She knows how to find someone who’s nervous to walk by themselves.
She finds one such person, a girl with long hair that she lets fall in her face like if she can’t see anyone then they won’t be able to see her. Peta’s getting ready to hop down and offer her a walk home when someone else beats her to it.
A girl in a SUNY sweatshirt pushes her way through a couple guys in Yankees caps and nudges the other girl’s shoulder, and Peta can’t hear what they’re saying, but she gets the gist of it. The long haired girl hesitates and then SUNY girl flashes her wrist and -
She’s wearing a bracelet.
A red and blue bracelet.
When the long haired girl sees the bracelet, her shoulders come down, and she tucks her hair behind her ears and smiles and then she and the SUNY girl walk off.
Huh , Peta thinks.
It happens twice more before the night is done, and Peta can’t wait until tomorrow ask Gwen about it. She swings by Gwen’s apartment and knocks on her bedroom window.
“I have a door,” Gwen says when she slides the window open, but she’s smiling so Peta doesn’t think she’s mad.
Peta tugs her mask off. “Your doorman’s intimidating. Plus, I don’t think your dad would let Spidergirl through the door.”
“He’ll come around.”
Peta doesn’t think he will, but she doesn’t say that. Instead, she touches her bracelet. “You been making a lot of these?”
“A couple,” Gwen says. “Why?”
“Cause I saw a couple people wearing them today.”
“Already?” Gwen’s face breaks out into a smile. “That’s awesome.” She motions Peta into her room and sits down at her computer.
Her fingers fly over the keys, pulling up -
“Is that a Tumblr?” Peta asks.
“There’s also a Twitter,” she says. “I’m writing an article for the school paper on it.”
“What exactly is it?” Peta asks, leaning over her shoulder.
Gwen scrolls through the @Spiderlings Twitter feed. It’s full of retweets and pictures, and from what Peta can tell, a bunch of girls who are willing to walk other girls home from buses, trains, work, school, wherever.
“The bracelet makes you a Spiderling,” Gwen says. “If people see it then they know you’re willing to keep an eye for them. I’m hoping it’ll help lessen your workload. And you know, girls helping girls.”
“That’s how this all got started,” Peta says. “You helping me. And I can’t be everywhere at once so this will help keep more people safe. It’s a good idea. You must be pretty smart or something.”
Gwen flicks Peta’s ear, but she’s still smiling. “It’ll take some time to really spread, but I think it’ll be good. I’ve contacted some of the newspaper editors at other school to see if they’ll run a piece. Because schools is where this is going to happen.”
“Your dad’s not going to like it,” Peta says.
Gwen rolls her eyes. “There’s nothing illegal about people walking home with a friend.”
“Well, I think it’s a great idea,” Peta says. “Thank you.”
She presses a quick kiss to Gwen’s cheek and then darts out the open window when she hears footsteps in the hall.
“What?” Gwen begins, but then her bedroom door opens.
“Who’re you talking to in here?” Captain Stacy asks.
Peta’s clinging to the windowsill by her fingertips. She hopes Captain Stacy doesn’t cover over to investigate. She’s got her mask back on, but it’s probably not good to get caught sneaking into Gwen’s room.
“Just the internet,” Gwen says. “It’s a thing young people do. Like contouring and parkour.”
“You’re saying things to try and confuse me.”
Peta can imagine the smile on Gwen’s face as she says, “Never.”
Peta drops down onto the firescape and then swings away. She trusts Gwen will know she left.
~*~
Peta visits Gwen at Oscorp, checking in at the front desk and being allowed to go through once she gives one of the coffees she brought to the receptionist.
She’s given directions to Dr. Connors’s office, and she takes the stairs two at a time, careful not to spill any of her coffee. She avoids the sharp dressed men in suits and the harried looking scientists just in case they can see that something’s odd about her with just a look.
She makes it to Dr. Connors’s office without anyone pulling her aside and asking if she’s part spider which she counts as a win.
Dr. Connors and Gwen are both in his office which is a double win.
Peta knocks on the open door. “Caffeine delivery,” she says.
Gwen looks up, startled at the sound of her voice, and Peta puts the two coffees on the desk.
Dr. Connors squints at her over his glasses. “Do I know you?”
“Doubt it,” Peta says. “I’m just dropping coffee off.”
“Huh.” He pushes his glasses up. “Thank you.”
He takes the coffee that says ‘Dr. Connors’ on it, and Gwen snatches hers off the table before herding Peta out of the office.
“What’re you doing here?” Gwen asks.
Peta shrugs. “Had some free time. Thought I’d say hi.”
“I don’t get breaks,” Gwen says. “And we’re not sneaking around Oscorp.”
Peta holds her hands up. “No ulterior motives. Promise. Just wanted to bring you a coffee. I even brought some extras so it wouldn’t look suspicious. You wanna come to my house after you get off of work? Dinner? Aunt May’s making meatloaf.”
“I’ll ask my parents. I can’t believe you snuck into Oscorp. Again .”
Peta waves her visitor’s pass. “I didn’t sneak in. I check-in at the desk and everything. Martha’s a wonderful woman.”
Gwen’s trying not to smile and failing. “Get out,” she says, laughing as she gives Peta a shove. “I’ll let you know about dinner.”
Peta grins and backs up and almost runs into another intern.
~*~
Peta didn’t bring her spidersuit with her to drop off coffee, decided to be a normal teeanger for the afternoon which means her skateboard is waiting for her at the front desk when she leaves.
She flips it over her shoulder and heads to the nearest subway stop. If Gwen’s coming over for dinner then Peta should clean her room. And maybe make a token effort at cleaning the rest of the house.
...and maybe tell Aunt May they might have a guest.
She grips her skateboard in one hand and the subway pole in another and stares at her feet so she doesn’t accidentally make eye contact with anyone. The last time she made eye contact with someone on the subway she got a lecture on the evolution of knitting and almost missed her stop.
It’s best to just be left alone.
She’s two stops into her trip when a girl with fingerless gloves joins Peta at her pole even though there are plenty of empty spaces. Peta doesn’t look up, doesn’t ask what she’s doing, but something must show on her face, because the girl leans in and says, “There’s a guy a couple seats down who’s looking at you funny.”
“Oh,” Peta says, the hostility draining out of her. “Um, thanks.”
The grins. “No problem. We gotta stick together, right?” She holds up her left hand, showing off the red and blue bracelet she’s wearing.
“Oh,” Peta says again. She smiles and holds up her own wrist.
“Nice. Did you make it?”
Peta laughs because she can sew a spidersuit and she can design webshooters, but friendship bracelets are beyond her. “Naw. Girlfriend. She’s the one who told me about the whole spiderling thing.”
“Jealous. Your bracelet’s much better than mine. My stop’s coming up. You want me to stick around until you get off?”
“I’ll be good,” Peta says. “But thank you.”
She gets home without incident and drops her skateboard by the door. She hugs Aunt May, says, “Gwen might be coming over for dinner,” and grabs an apple out of the fruitbowl.
In addition to giving her heightened senses and reflexes, the spider bite has made her constantly hungry. Aunt May keeps looking at her like she’s expecting Peta to grow five inches, but Peta doesn’t think it’s a growth spurt thing. Just a metabolism thing.
“It’s good to see you too,” Aunt May says. She turns Peta back towards the front door and gives her a little push. “Put your skateboard where it belongs or I’m locking it in the basement.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Peta says.
She puts her skateboard in the hall closet then comes back into the kitchen. She hops up on the counter and takes a giant bite out of her apple.
Aunt May sighs when she sees Peta on the counter but doesn’t scold her for it. “You’re in a special kind of mood tonight.”
“Happy,” Peta says, feet swinging. “I met someone on the subway.”
“You have a very nice girlfriend,” Aunt May says. “Who might be coming over for dinner.”
“Not like that,” Peta says. “What I mean is -” Peta sighs. “You know how sometimes Uncle Ben can’t pick you up from work?”
“I do,” Aunt May says.
“And how he won’t let me pick you up, because ‘the world is a dangerous place for girls’?”
“I do,” Aunt May says, suspicious now. “You know how your uncle worries.”
“I do,” Peta says. She tugs at her bracelet. “Look, if it comes up again, and Uncle Ben can’t pick you up, look around for a bracelet like this.” She holds up her wrist. “Red and blue for Spidergirl.”
“Spidergirl?” Aunt May asks. “I think I’ve heard about her on the news. She lurks around bus stops.”
“And walks people home,” Peta says. “Anyways, I didn’t want to talk about Spidergirl. She’s inspired people, I guess, or people have been inspired by her. Spiderlings.” Peta tugs on her bracelet again. “Girls and women who look out for each other. So if Uncle Ben can’t pick you up and you get nervous or something, look for a bracelet.”
“And you’re one of these...spiderlings?” Aunt May asks.
Peta grins. “Yep. Gwen wrote an article about it for the school paper. If she comes over tonight you should ask her about it.”
“I’m glad you have good friends,” Aunt May tells her. “And I’m glad you’re helping people. Your parents would be proud.”
Peta puts her apple down. “And you?” she asks. “Are you proud of me?”
“Always,” Aunt May says. “But I would worry less if you didn’t ride that skateboard of yours everywhere.”
Peta laughs and decides not to tell Aunt May that sometimes she moonlights as Spidergirl. Instead, she hops off the counter to give Aunt May a hug.
“I wouldn’t be me without my skateboard,” Peta says. “But I’ve been much more careful recently. I haven’t had a wipeout in like two weeks.”
It’s one of the benefits of super reflexes.
Of course, being Spidergirl has a lot of other benefits.
Peta fiddles with her bracelet again.
So does being plain old Peta. Sure, it helps to have her spider skills in the rare case she gets into trouble, but she doesn’t need them to help people. Gwen does just fine without the enhancements. So did SUNY girl and fingerless glove girl and the dozens of other people Peta’s seen the past few days.
Spidergirl’s spandex and unconventional approach got people paying attention, but she doesn’t need to be able to do a backflip or handstands on the roof of an apartment in order to keep helping people.
She’s not going to give them up though.
Being able to do backflips and land on her feet every time is cool .
~*~
Art by sarasampine