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chapter six
SCHOOL SUCKS
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LENA USED TO FIND the new school year exciting. She'd look forward to the routine that going to classes provided, even if she did dread the idea of homework and exams. She'd been one of those weird kids who'd actually liked school— seeing her friends every day, getting exercise during her daily commute, and being involved in extracurricular activities were always things she enjoyed.

But now, as the first day of her repeated senior year arrives, she feels nothing but dread upon opening her eyes that morning. The overcast sky and chilled temperature match her mood. Normally, she'd travel to school by herself or with Graham on the subway, but now, Happy insists on driving them for added security.

They hear the crowd before they see them. News vans clog the street in front of Midtown School of Science and Technology, so Happy has to park around the block just for them to be able to exit the car. The voices of journalists and protestors fill the crisp morning air, cramming Lena's gut with nerves.

They'd texted each other where they'd wanted to meet up so they could walk inside together, so within a few minutes, their entire group is standing together on the sidewalk.

"Hey," Ned greets them, climbing out of his Lola's vehicle as well. "You guys ready?"

"No," Graham admits. His eyes are locked on the side of the school building, his hands gripping tightly onto the straps of his backpack. "I mean, I'm never ready to go to school, but now it's even worse."

"I saw some police cars up the road," MJ says, holding her phone out to them. Lena peers at the screen to see a photo of a police blockade that appears to be stopping traffic except for school buses— not that it matters anyway, because most New Yorkers walk or take the subway. The traffic could easily be avoided.

Lena wonders if it's too late to drop out of high school and become a hermit in Happy's apartment.

"We'll be here with you the entire time," Cindy assures Lena with a squeeze of her arm.

"I think they're making everyone else go through security checkpoints, actually," MJ replies.

Lena's stomach drops. "So we have to go inside alone?"

"We've got this," Peter says, his voice sounding more confident than his face looks. He's clearly trying to seem nonchalant, but the tightness of his shoulders gives away his own fears about confronting the ginormous crowd at the front of the building.

Eventually, they have no choice but to do exactly that. Lena still hadn't been prepared for what she'd see even if she could hear it from around the block. Trash litters the grass in front of the school's main entrance— papers, ripped-up posters, plastic wrappers, and cardboard blow around in the brisk breeze that makes her pull her denim jacket tighter to her body. News anchors relay information to humongous cameras. People shout over one another to be heard, straining to see the action through the mob. A few police officers and Midtown Tech security guards keep the spectators back, barely managing to clear enough room for the teenagers as they approach.

Lena tries to tune out the screams of the protestors as best as she can, but it's difficult when her brain instinctively latches on to each person who calls her name and so many bright posters overload her senses. She briefly catches the words "criminals", "murderers", and "liars", but also shoots a quizzical look at one guy who asks her if she's going to have Peter's "spider-babies".

As soon as her heart rate spikes, Peter's hand slips into her own. She hadn't realized how profusely she'd been shaking until she'd had something sturdy to grip onto. Lena squeezes his palm, seeking reassurance and feeling grateful that he'd sensed her mounting fear.

Energy flickers just under the surface. It makes her jitters worse, begging to be released, straining against her skin in response to her unstable emotions. She slams her eyes shut and forces her powers down. If she releases a cathartic blast now, who knows who she could accidentally hurt?

The voices turn to static as they climb the stairs. A security guard stops Peter first and waves a metal-detecting wand over him, then motions him inside, causing his hand to break free from Lena's. She tries to stand tall when the weapons sensor crosses her body. However, she's immediately guided up the stairs by a female police officer who urges her with a stern voice to keep moving. Graham is able to bound up the stairs after them, but just like MJ said, it's clear they're trying to get the three super-powered kids out of the spotlight.

Midtown Tech is usually swarming with students on the first day of school. However, since the security measures are so tight, most haven't been able to get inside yet. That fact is evident in the mostly-empty corridors and the echoes of their shoes on the laminated tile floors. The air is too still, the atmosphere too tense. It almost feels like a graveyard.

"Keep watching Midtown News all year as we give you up-close and personal coverage of Peter, Lena, and Graham fighting their biggest battle yet: college admissions!" Betty Brant's voice exclaims from the televisions scattered throughout the hallways, making Lena cringe. She loves Betty, but if she tries to get up close and personal with a camera in her face, she's going to end up breaking the lens.

The upper-classmen have lockers on the school's second floor. The trio bounds up the steps as if their bodies are on autopilot, but their movements come to a confused stop once they see who's at the top of the stairwell.

Three of their teachers stand with uncomfortably stiff spines once they reach the top. Mr. Harrington is wearing a suit for what is probably the first time in his life, his dark hair gelled and combed to the side. A tense smile is plastered onto Coach Wilson's face. His royal blue Midtown Athletics hat is askew, and, for some reason, he has three whistles hanging around his neck. Everything about this situation is weird.

"Kids," Mr. Dell begins from the middle of the two men, also clad in a suit jacket, "we would love to welcome you back... to Midtown High... where we shape heroes."

Mr. Harrington dramatically flourishes toward a display case behind them, which Lena catches a glimpse of in the gaps between each teacher. One look at her horrendous yearbook photo has her blushing red and quickly averting her gaze.

"Uh-huh," Coach Wilson says while hardly moving that strained grin from his mouth. It makes him look amicable despite the next words that he speaks. "Or murderers."

"Stop it," Mr. Harrington orders, though the coach still tries to argue half-heartedly. "It's an honor to serve you—"

"It's not!"

"—Sirs. And ma'am."

"Mysterio was right."

"Stop. We don't... that's all..." Mr. Harrington gives up and motions again toward the display case. "Some of the students put this together for you."

Coach Wilson's forced façade of kindness finally drops, making his voice tense. "No, you did that. You did that."

"I — I helped a little bit."

Unsure of what else to say and because Mr. Harrington clearly wants them to acknowledge his hard work, Peter blinks and mumbles, "Oh, wow..."

Mr. Dell finally realizes he's in the way and steps aside to let them see the display. Above what used to be a trophy case is a sign with the quote he had said earlier, "Where We Shape Heroes." Each of their yearbook photos is framed in their respective sections. Some students had made art for them — including sculptures of each of their faces — but also crocheted tissue boxes in the patterns of their suits, makeshift masks, and sketches.

Lena's shelves are filled with light blue memorabilia and trophies from the clubs she's been in throughout the years. There's a medal she'd won when she was on the debate team her Freshman year, one of the robots she and Peter had built pre-blip, and the gigantic trophy from when they'd won the National Championship for the Academic Decathlon in Washington, D.C. It's strange to see herself idolized like this— all this time, she's been a regular student, and now all of her achievements have been put out for the whole school to see.

Graham's section is mostly music-related when it comes to school involvement. Sheet music is mounted to the walls, paper music notes have been taped around the artwork, and a photo of him at the school band's performance in 2017 has been framed. She does have to admit that whoever had done a charcoal drawing of him as Specter had done a fantastic job.

"I tried to stop him so many times," Coach Wilson says, briefly addressing the trio before glaring back at Mr. Harrington, "but you piled through." He waves at the display dismissively. "He did all of that."

Mr. Dell, clearly trying to keep the peace between a passive-aggressive Coach Wilson and flustered Mr. Harrington, reassures the latter, "You did a great job."

"I hope you have time to stop and check it out," Mr. Harrington tells them.

Lena nods and gives him a small smile that probably looks identical to the forced one that Coach Wilson is wearing again. She appreciates the effort, but she never wants to see that display again.

"And feel free to walk — or, or swing, fly, shadow-jump, whatever — through the hallway," Mr. Dell says. "Or crawl on the ceiling to avoid everybody. Jump through the darkness to get to class on time."

Mr. Harrington nods. "We all know you can do it."

Desperate to avoid the awkward situation, Peter points toward the hallway. "We're just gonna..."

As the three of them begin to walk toward the lockers, Coach Wilson calls out, "You know what you did."

"Stop it," Mr. Harrington commands, his voice firm. "You're embarrassing yourself."

"You know what you did!"

"He's a conspiracy theorist."

Lena looks away from the teachers and immediately wishes that she hadn't. Now she knows why Coach Wilson had attempted to appear friendly in spite of his icy words— students have crowded the corridors where their lockers are, some with their phones out and recording them, but all staring straight at the trio. It makes Lena's skin crawl to feel so many eyes on her, looking at her as if she's an animal at the zoo.

Is this the price of having one's anonymity revoked? To never have a moment to be a regular person again? To be ostracized and recorded wherever she goes for the rest of her life? Before, she'd walked these halls as just another student, blending in with the hundreds of other kids around her, not worthy of a second glance. But now it's like she's been put under a microscope for everyone to see.

"See you later, okay?" Lena says to Peter. She and Graham have to head toward the seniors' wing of the second level.

"Yeah." Peter's voice is quiet. "Have a good day."

Graham nods and pats Peter's arm in encouragement. "You too."

They walk down the crowded hall as a pair, pretending like they don't see the cameras following their every movement or the whispers trailing them. The number of people lining the lockers makes the already narrow corridor suffocating. Once they head down the path that branches off from the main hall, it becomes slightly less congested, but Lena's gut still feels twisted.

She takes an abrupt turn into the women's bathroom. Two girls are chatting at one of the sinks while one dries her hands, but as soon as they see her, they hurriedly grab their bags and rush out of the room. Lena doesn't even have the headspace to feel a sting of pain at their eagerness to get away from her. Instead, she locks herself in a vacant stall and curls in on herself.

Not a weapon. Not a weapon. Not a weapon.

A soft burst of energy emits from her body. The door rattles a bit, but she has enough control over her powers to prevent total destruction of the bathroom. In order to fully banish the jitters from her body for the remainder of the school day, she'd have to release a gigantic blast in the middle of some open field where she can't be restrained, but this will have to do for now.

She's going to have to start getting used to feeling this uncomfortable.

-♕-

It's only during their lunch hour that Lena is able to feel some semblance of peace. Instead of eating in the cafeteria — or eating at all, given that she's so nauseous she feels like she'd just vomit up anything she tried to consume — their circle of friends who have aligned lunches has decided to hide from everyone on the roof of the school.

Lena is already studying. Her Anatomy textbook is open on the concrete in front of her, a notebook in her lap as she scrawls notes from the first chapter. She hadn't been able to concentrate in class due to the people obviously watching her every breath. Her teachers have mainly tried to calm the students down and asked them to treat her like they always did, but even the adults look at her differently. Some with fear. Some in awe. But none of them in the same way they had before.

Peter lies with his head propped against her crossed legs, his hands folded over his stomach. He's been quiet, clearly deep in his thoughts as he squints up at the clear sky above them. He doesn't comment on the fact that Lena's tapping foot must be slightly shaking him— he merely seems content right where he is.

Graham has one headphone in his ear and is playing a game on his phone, his body slumped against the half-wall that frames the rooftop. His brows are furrowed in concentration and an occasional flourish of instruments is audible through his unused earbud when a song's chorus plays. But other than that, it's peaceful and quiet— the opposite of what the first half of their day has been.

"Wait, this one's good," MJ says with a smile to herself. She has a printed copy of The Daily Bugle held over her head where she lays on the ground, using it to block out the sun as she reads, "'Some suggest that Parker's powers include the male spider's ability to hypnotize females, which he used to seduce Santos into his cult of personality.'''

"What?" Peter asks, his eyes going wide. "Oh, God. Stop!"

"I don't know," Lena says, removing her pen cap from her mouth where she'd been absentmindedly chewing on it, "I've been feeling pretty hypnotized lately."

"Peter, have you just been seducing us with your spider powers this whole time?" Graham asks with a frown of mock hurt.

Peter rolls his eyes. "Shut up."

"Yes, my Spider-Lord," MJ jokes with a fake deep voice.

"Whatever you say, Master," Lena adds. "I have sworn undying fealty to you and shall do whatever you please."

"Can you do my Calculus homework?" Peter asks, reaching up to jab a playful poke into her ribs.

Lena's eyes light up. "Really?"

"Yeah, she's one of those freaks that enjoys math," Graham says, popping a potato chip into his mouth.

The four of them jump when they hear screaming from the ground below. They quickly rise and rush to the edge of the roof, peering over the brick wall to see the field that the rooftop overlooks.

Three figures rush out of the building and across the grass. Two of them are clearly Max and Owen, using their long legs to their advantage by zig-zagging across the lawn while tossing something to each other like a hot potato. The third person is harder to identify. It takes Lena a moment to recognize Flash's new, blond hair, but soon laughs when she realizes that the twins have stolen a copy of his book and are playing a ridiculous game of keep-away with it.

"GIVE THAT BACK!" Flash screams at them. "OR PAY $24.99 TO KEEP IT FOR YOURSELVES."

"I'd only pay that amount of money for you to shut up!" Owen retaliates as he tosses the book over Flash's head and into his brother's hands. It has now evolved into monkey-in-the-middle with Flash oscillating between twins as they run around and throw his novel back and forth.

Flash had written a book called Flashpoint: One Spider, Two Hearts, A Million Crazy-Ass Stories. It's absolute garbage, filled with lies about how Flash had been Peter's best friend since day one, basically taking credit for everything that Ned has done. Lena suspects that the only thing that had kept him from pretending to be her and Graham's friend is the fact that they genuinely would have kicked his ass— which they'd offered to do for Peter, but he'd told them to just let Flash have his fun. His book hasn't gotten many sales, anyway.

"Atta boys," Graham says fondly.

"The book is trash," MJ declares. "'Two hearts?' It sounds like he's trying to take Lena's place, too."

"Oh no, my competition for Peter's attention is a bully named Eugene," Lena sarcastically laments.

Graham snickers. "Plash: the duo we never saw coming."

Peter groans in dismay and hangs his head, Flash's enraged demands for his book fading into the background as the twins lead him around the school's grounds. Lena is pretty sure they're supposed to be in class, but she can accept them skipping if it means making Flash's attempt to monetize a fake friendship with Peter a little harder. 

"Maybe I will miss them when I'm away at Juilliard," Graham adds with a sigh, his eyes following his brothers when they loop back around to the field.

"Have you heard anything yet?" Lena asks. She knows it's too early for decisions to come out, even for early applications, but since Graham had already been accepted once, there must be an exception.

"Nope. But I don't expect to until they start auditions."

Right. Sometimes she forgets that the process is different than simply receiving an acceptance or rejection letter in the mail.

"Ned and I are planning on living together at MIT," Peter says. "Have you guys thought about your housing situation yet?"

"I'll probably try to find someone to be roommates with on social media or something," Lena replies. "The thought of being assigned a random person terrifies me. Like... what if they just give me the silent treatment the entire school year?"

MJ has been silent, which isn't unusual for her, but her pensive expression catches Lena's attention. Her curly hair is tied back from her face in a half-up style, but the wind from being so high up still makes some strands blow in her eyes.

Lena nudges her with her elbow. "What's up? You're hoping for MIT too, right?"

"I don't know, I just feel like..." She pauses, then sighs, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. "If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed."

"Oh, come on," Peter says. "It'll be a fresh start for all of us. Yeah, maybe we won't all be together, but everything will still be alright. We have phones."

"And I can shadow travel after I visit for the first time," Graham adds.

Lena's brows furrow. "Have you ever traveled that far? Like, across state lines?"

"No, but I'm sure I could do it. Well, probably. I should be able to. Actually... maybe I'd better practice."

_______

a/n:

this movie goes so FAST holy crap. i'm only 15 minutes in and now everything is happening at once. WHY. on the bright side, this means that (hopefully) i will be able to update more since i'm now following more of the movie's events! though i will try my best to slow things down so the act isn't like... 10 chapters long.

i just want to give the kiddos a hug :( it sucks knowing that their pain hasn't even truly begun

—kristyn