chapter two!
002. sunflower

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    "NEEDLESS to say, I▬eh, uh, eh..." Far away, across the universes, a hand fixed headphones over thick dark curly hair. Loud music blared into his ears as the teenager swung his chair to the song's beat in a small, messy bedroom in downtown Brooklyn. Bright posters stuck to his walls, energetic comic artworks made out of markers stuck by flimsy blue tack hung with them. Near his window the morning Brooklyn sunshine glared through the streets down onto a small cluttered shelf filled with paintbrushes and paint and old art books. Next to it, tubs were filled to the brim with pencils, markers and whatever the owner could chuck inside whenever he rushed to clean his room.

    "... Nevertheless ... Callin' it quits▬" an orange marker spun between his fingers as he scribbled on the sticker pressed against his desk, shadowed by thick bookshelves filled with old comics, notebooks, middle-school fantasy and boxed action figures. Snuggled in the corner of the top shelf, sat a dusty red and blue Spider-Plush, "▬Now, baby, I'm a wreck..."

    "Miles!"

    His name passed by his ears as he tapped his markers lightly against his desk to the beat. A teenager, barely fourteen, nodded his head and mumbled the lyrics to his new favourite song. He was like every other fourteen-year-old boy▬still waiting for the growth spurt that was supposed to make him tall, and wondering when puberty would give him muscles by magic overnight. He spun his chair around slightly, bypassing an unmade bed and his laundry overflowing his hamper.

    "Miles, papá, time for school!"

    "Oooh▬" he tapped the marker against his throat, running his fingers down in an imaginary vibrato. He mumbled over lyrics he didn't quite know yet.

    "Miles!" a louder, deeper shout echoed from outside his room. "Miles▬Miles!"

    The loud, frustrated shout of his name made Miles almost jump out of his chair. He scrambled his headphones down and glanced towards the door of his room. "Yeah!" He cleared his throat. "Yeah?"

    "Are you finished packing for school?" his father's voice echoed through his door.

    The question made Miles shrink in his chair. He glanced towards the open, empty suitcase on his bed. "Uh ... Yeah?"

    New schools were a fustrating, nerve-wracking and annoying experience for any fourteen-year-old. Change was something everyone was afraid of, deep down, even if they said it wasn't. But for Miles, it was worse. He didn't want to switch schools▬he had been perfectly fine at Brooklyn Middle School. He had friends, people liked him, he never had to pretend to be anyone else except for the person he was▬it was a place where he felt free to do whatever he wanted to do, whether it was art or music.

    He grabbed his washing basket and dumped all of his dirty laundry into his suitcase, his notebook clamped close between his teeth. "Just ironing my last shirt!" his words were muffled as he called them out to his parents through his closed door.

    It all changed the day his teacher decided he was somehow better than everyone else and enroled him into the scholar competition. Miles didn't want to be different or special▬he didn't want to be picked out of hundreds and propelled up onto a pedestal for everyone to see. He didn't want to be chosen by some prestigeous, upper class academic institute like Brooklyn Visions Academy to be sent away from his parents for the week, and be surrounded by a bunch of kids who will think they're so much better than him.

    "Miles, come on!" came his father's voice▬loud and booming as it echoed throughout the apartment; edged with the commanding presence and confidence he bore everyday at the precinct. "You a gown man now. Let's show these teachers that, let's go!"

    Miles stuffed his books into his bag, shouting a quick, "Yeah, yeah!" He slipped his notebook in last and stumbled to the door▬almost tripping over the untied laces of his shoes. He dragged his suitcase with him.

    Tugging his earphones down to hang around his neck, Miles burst out into the bustle of his home. Even with only the three of them▬all three of their loud personalities seemed to double the amount of people living in their apartment. "Where's my laptop?" he tugged the tie he rushed to get on, already feeling like he was being suffocated in his new uniform.

    His mother brushed past him in her nurse scrubs, rushing to get her earings on. "Where did you leave it?" her Spanish was as fast-paced as her stride throughout the sitting room.

    "¡Yo no se, mami!" he went straight for the bookshelves and the table, tugging at his hair lightly as he searched.

    "If you want me to drive you, Miles, we gotta go now▬" his dad huffed when he almost walked right into Miles's suitcase. He picked it up. Officer Jefferson Davis was a tall and large broad-shouldered man who always talked so gruffly it was like he was talking through the boulders and rocks that were his insides. He was tough, and he was rigid▬but he also loved a good soft Christmas record album to dance with Miles's mother after Christmas dinner.

    "No, no, Dad," said Miles quickly, and he didn't mean to sound so desperate but the last thing he wanted was to be driven by his cop dad to his new school. He scanned the room for his laptop. He found it on the couch and snatched it up, stuffing it into his over-flowing back pack. "I'll walk. I'll walk▬"

    "Personal chauffeur going once▬"

    "It's okay, Dad▬whoa!" Miles's back hit the edge of the fridge to avoid the disaster it would have been if he had walked right into his mother and her coffee.

    "Ay, Maria▬" she sighed, exasperated as her son brushed past straight for tonight's dinner still simmering on the stove, "▬This kid is driving me crazy. Miles!" she picked up one of his books that fell out of his bag and propped her hand on her hip, watching him scoff some of the soup down. Rio Morales's long, thick brown hair hung over her shoulder in a messy plait. "Gotta go."

    "In a minute!" he blew away the steam.

    She stuffed the book in his back pack and grabbed her purse. "We gotta go▬!"

    "In a minute!"

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    "MOM, I gotta go," grumbled Miles as he squirmed away from his mother's hands that gently grabbed his head and pulled him in close for a family kiss on his cheek.

    "In a minute," she chided him and tugged him in close for another. Miles hunched up at the sloppy, over-dramatic kiss to his cheek that he knew his mother was doing on purpose.

    When he was finally let free, Miles rolled his eyes to himself and wiped his cheek as his mother fixed up his back pack▬and deep down, he knew he wouldn't want this short goodbye to be like anything else.

    His mother sighed and fixed his hair, too, and for a second, Miles was worried that she might start to cry▬which took him by surprise because if there was anyone stronger than his father, it was his mother; a woman who could handle day and light night shifts at the hospital, a stubborn husband and an equally stubborn son and still manage to make sure she had a turn at making her amazing home-cooked meals at least once a week. Miles admired his mom▬and his dad. Even though he won't admit it▬especially to his dad▬he thought they were bigger superheroes than the real superhero swinging through the streets.

    Miles gave his mom a smile and leaned in to kiss her cheek this time. Seeing her smile was worth the extra minute. She cupped his cheek and tapped it gently with her fingers.

    "Love you, mami," said Miles before descending the stairs outside their Brooklyn apartment. His suitcase went thud with each step as he dragged it behind him.

    Rio Morales crossed her arms and leaned against the threshold of the front door of the small complex. She smiled as she watched her son walk away. "Papá! Llamame!" she called out before he'd get too far. Miles glanced over his shoulder and nodded, promising he'd call her. "See you Friday."

    "Okay, mami," he said sweetly before spinning on his heel and taking off down the pathway towards his new school with a confident stride▬despite all of his fears and worries, Miles was always one to keep his head up; his parents made sure of it. "Hasta luego!"

    Brooklyn Visions Academy was a place Miles never considered himself to ever attend. It wasn't too far from his old school, and he remembered days where he would judge and joke along with his friends over any students that would pass on their way to classes for the week. It was a boarding school▬an academy for the smartest of their generation in Brooklyn, rivaling even Midtown High School in Queens.

    It was where the rich and the privilaged went, and if it werent for this scholarship, Miles's family would have never been able to afford it. Not that he wanted them to. He didn't want to go to Brooklyn Visions, if he could help it. He knew he wasn't going to fit in, no matter how hard he tried.

    As he wandered down the pathway through the streets of Brooklyn, Miles tried to keep his energy and his chin up with the music that blared through his headphones, but as he passed his old school▬and saw the basketball court and his old schoolmates hanging out before the start of class, he grew a little sad; yearning to be amongst them.

    He pulled down his headphones as one of his old classmates recognised him and grinned. "Oh, look who's back," he lightly slapped his shoulder as he passed. "Yo, what's going on, bro?"

    "Hey, I'm just walking by, man," chuckled Miles. He nodded to a girl with bright pink hair, Angela, whose locker had been near his. "How you doin'?"

    She rolled her eyes and accepted his high-five. One of her friends, Micah chucked his basketball and Miles caught it, spinning it around in his hands before throwing it back. "Yo, Miles▬You feel that earthquake last night?"

    Miles scoffed and grabbed his suitcase again. "Earthquake? What you talkin' about? I slept like a baby last night."

    "Oh, come on!" laughed Angela. "It was all over the news this morning. If you didn't feel it, surely you heard Jameson blame Spider-Man for it for a good thirty minutes at breakfast."

    "Sure my dad would've loved to see that!" said Miles before waving goodbye to them.

    He pursed his lips as he watched them turn back to the conversations they were having, as if he never even walked past▬and he tried not to feel a twist in his chest to think they all could move on so easily without him.

    Miles forced the thought aside, and as he passed an ATM sign, he fished one of his stickers out of his pocket and leapt up▬he slammed the sticker right at the base of the 'M'.

    He pushed his headphones back up, letting his suitcase skid along the concrete of the pathway. Miles sang the song under his breath, each step he took following the beat.

    Maybe the school wasn't going to be so bad (Miles very much doubted that)▬maybe he was thinking to much into it; but he couldn't help but feel like the person his teachers seemed to believe he could be, no, his parents wanted him to be was somebody Miles could never live up to, no matter how hard he tried.

    And he didn't want to try. Miles just wanted to be himself, whoever that was ... because deep down, the truth was he didn't know.

    He reached the end of the sidewalk and took it at a running start. Miles pushed up into a mighty jump and flung up his hand▬My Name Is: MILES! slammed and stuck to the base of Wythe Street for everyone to see and remember: he had been here.

    Miles landed on the edge of the sidewalk and stepped on his loose shoe lace▬

    "Ah▬!" he let out as he tripped, his arms flying before he fell, hard against white painted tarmac crossing. A car slowly came to a stop right in front of him. The abrupt chirp of the police siren made Miles groan. "Oh, come on..."

    Of all the cars to stop right in front of his embarassing fall, it had to be his father. Miles had no choice but to put his suitcase and bag into the passenger of the police car and sit in the back, sliding low into his seat so no one would see him.

    It was silent for a long time as he sat there, scowling at his shoelaces while his father drove the rest of the way to Brooklyn Visions. Neither one of them spoke▬and the air between them was awkward and tense; so much so that not even the song on the radio could break it.

    After a while, Miles sighed to himself and muttered lowly. "Seriously, Dad. Walking would've been fine."

    His father shot him a look behind his sunglasses through the reaview mirror of the car. "You can walk plenty on Saturday when you peel those stickers off."

    "You saw that?" gasped Miles, quick to lie. He shrugged and played innocence. "I don't know if that was me, Dad▬"

    "And the two from Yesterday on Clinton."

    Miles pursed his lips and went silent. He slumped back down in his seat. "Yeah, those were me..."

    Another tense silence settled. Miles pulled at the ends of his school blazer sleeves, hating the blue colour already.

     He heard his father let out a soft sigh and sit up straighter in the drivers seat. He noticed something ahead of them. "So! Look at that..." he grinned and rested his arm over the back of the seats. "Another new coffee shop. You see that?"

    Miles rolled his eyes to himself and sulked out the window. "Totally. Yeah."

    "You see that? What's that one called?"

    "Foam Party," he muttered, not giving it a glance. He propped his cheek onto the palm of his hand, watching people walk by with a glum look on his face.

    "Foam Party?" His father barked out a laugh. "Come on. And everyone is just linin' up▬You see that, Miles?"

    "Yeah, I see it."

    Officer Jefferson Davis scoffed another laugh. "Is that a coffee shop or a disco?"

    Miles rolled his eyes when his father chuckled at his joke. "Dad, you're old, man."

    His glum look softened when the music over the radio was suddenly interrupted by the breaking news update. Miles glanced between the two front seats and noticed his father's shoulders stiffen. "There are multiple reports of another mysterious seismic event last night. Sources close to Spider-Man say he's looking into the problem▬"

    Officer Davis scoffed and changed the radio channel. "Spider-Man," he muttered and Miles shrunk back down in his seat, sighing softly to himself as he prepared to listen to the same vent he's heard a million times. "I mean, this guy swings in once a day, zip-zap-zop in his little mask and answers to no one. Right?"

    Miles huffed a soft breath, not interested. "Yeah, Dad. Yeah..."

    "And meanwhile, my guys are out there▬"

    "Yeah▬"

    "▬lives on the line, no masks▬"

    "▬Uh-huh▬"

    "▬You know, we show our faces..."

    Miles's eyes widened and he gasped when he recognised the group hovering on the sidewalk on their way to school. He immediately shrunk down even lower in the back of the police car. "Oh▬Dad! Speed up, speed up. I know these kids▬"

    He wasn't listening, or chose not to, still gesturing his hand around on his rant about Spider-Man. "You know, with great ability comes great accountability▬"

    Miles made a face. "That's not even how the saying goes, Dad▬"

    "▬I do like his cereal, though. I'll give him that."

    He hid his face in his hands, shrinking as small as he possibly could in the back seat, though it was too late. His father slowed down at the traffic lights and it gave the kids a perfect view of Miles's▬he groaned again when they took out their phones and took pictures, more than ready to show the rest of his old classmates back at Brooklyn Middle. "Oh, my gosh▬Dad! Don't cops run red lights?"

    "Oh, yeah, some do," shrugged his father, not noticing. He grinned and snapped his fingers. He gestured to himself, smug. "But, uh, not your dad."

    The rest of the ride was in painful silence. Miles stayed slumped in the back seat, a glum stare fixed outside the window of his father's car▬he watched all of the people pass on the sidewalk, and crossing the street as they got closer to his new school. He began to see more students in the same uniform as him, chatting with their friends and laughing▬already having found their place, where they belong; Miles had no idea how he was supposed to find his place among them.

    At last, his father slowed down at the front of Brooklyn Visions Academy. Miles swallwed a fearful lump in the back of his throat▬he didn't move to get out of the car. He glanced at the rearview mirror where his father was already looking▬he watched him quickly advert his gaze, awkward in the tense air between them.

    "Why can't I go back to Brooklyn Middle?" murmured Miles.

    His father sighed, having heard this plenty of times. "Miles, you've given it two weeks, we're not having this conversation▬"

    "I just think that this new school is elitist▬" 

    "▬Elitist▬?"

    "▬and I would prefer to be at a normal school among the people!"

    "The people?" his father sounded incredulous as he shifted in his seat to look at Miles over the shoulder through the screen that separated the front seats from the back. "Miles, these▬" he nodded to the students crossing the road in front of them, "▬are your people."

    "I'm only here 'cause I won that stupid lottery."

     "No way. You passed the entry test just like everybody else, okay?"

    Miles huffed and looked down at his Jordans, biting back his tongue. His father took his silence as a sign to continue. "You have an opportunity here," said Officer Jefferson Davis. "You wanna blow that, huh? You wanna end up like your uncle?"

    Miles frowned at his father, growing very defensive of his favourite uncle▬his only uncle. "What's wrong with Uncle Aaron? He's a good guy."

     The look his father gave him made Miles feel as if he was sitting in front of a volcano about to explode. Then, Officer Davis sighed and shook his head. "We all make choices in life," he began.

    Miles gritted his teeth. "It doesn't feel like I have a choice right now▬"

    "You don't!"

    Both father and son huffed in their equal fustration, anger and regret, sitting still in their seats and glaring out through the windscreen.

    Admittedly, Miles awaited his father to soften his voice▬to say something else to break the tension, but when he didn't, his shoulders slumped and realised there was nothing else left but to leave.

    Taking a deep breath, he opened the passenger door and stepped out of the car into the morning light; the muffled sounds of chatter suddenly became very loud. Miles didn't look at his father as he walked to the front passenger seat and grabbed his suitcase and bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

    But before he turned on his heel and stormed up the stairs to the front doors of the school, Miles hesitated. He sheepishly glanced at his father, whose gaze softened at the sight of it.

    Officer Jefferson Davis pursed his lips and met his gaze, stern, but gentle. "I love you, Miles."

    Miles sighed and offered him a little sheepish smile. He slipped on the other strap of his bag over his shoulder. "Yeah, I know, Dad. See you Friday."

    He closed the door with his foot, and with a final smile, turned on his heel and started to walk away.

    But his father wasn't finished.

    Miles froze at the sudden flare of the siren. Everyone spun around at the sound. Miles felt all of his insides burn with embarassement. Over the police radio, said his father: "You gotta say 'I love you' back."

    Miles swivelled on his feet and glared at his father, wanting to hide away. "Dad, are you serious?"

    "I wanna hear it▬"

    "You wanna hear me say it▬?"

    "▬'I love you, Dad,'" said his father stubbornly, and his voice echoed all across the front lawn of Brooklyn Visions▬and the street; everyone was hearing this right now, and everyone was looking at Miles with stifled laughter. Miles wanted to die.

    "▬You're dropping me off at a school▬!" said Miles through gritted teeth.

    "▬'I love you, Dad'▬"

    "▬Look at this place▬!"

    "▬'Dad, I love you.'"

    Miles threw his head back with a big, fustrated sigh, wishing he could shrink into nothing and never show his face again. Reluctantly, he grumbled. "Dad, I love you."

    He scowled at his father's smug smile. "That's a copy," he said into the radio and the students couldn't hide their amusement any longer▬there was a burst of laughter all across the lawn. Miles definitely wanted to perish into nothing now. He spun around and stormed his way up the stairs. "Tie your shoes, please."

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    MAY LOUISE PARKER remembered being in pain. Excruciating pain where it felt as if her very insides were being pulled apart and then stitched back together. She screamed▬and it sounded distorted; the entire world around her was for a few seconds nothing but purple and pink, glitching as if she had somehow been transported through the screen of a television. She remembered calling out for her dad. She was scared.

    And then, the world around her started to turn into colours of blue, and grey, and green▬vibrant and colourful, but the sounds of cars, and birds, and shouting of people were the sounds and colours of home.

    May Louise squealed when she dropped down, falling through another hole towards the East River. The world around her opened up like she was a flower that suddenly bloomed into a life she didn't know▬and it all blurred into a mixture of colour as if May Louise was suddenly falling through a paint pallete.

     She gritted her teeth and flung her hand up last minute. Pressing the trigger of her web shooters, she watched as a string of web flew wildly upwards. It attatched itself to the bottom of Queensboro Bridge and her body jolted. May Louise took a deep breath, hanging there for a second as she tried to comprehend everything that just happened.

     Glancing around, she took a few deep breaths. Her heart was still racing from the entire ordeal with a slight burn to her chest▬the fight with Aftershock, and the humilation that followed it, was still catching up with her.

     Spider-Girl had no idea what had just happened to her. But as she glanced around, noticing the main island▬and the skyscrapers littered across Manhattan, and the sight of Queens and Brooklyn across the bridges▬made her feel a little less terrified. Whatever had happened, she was still where she should be, she was back home.

    And yet, her spider-sense hadn't relaxed.

    May Louise pursed her lips and climbed up her string of web. She crawled across the underside of the bridge towards the edge in which she peered over the edge at the busy streets. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary▬no supervillains or criminal thugs to take down. She frowned behind her mask, wondering if the whole ordeal had messed up her spider-sense and now it was crazy super sensitive over absolutely nothing. May Louise ducked back down beneath the bridge and pulled out her phone.

    She hesitated. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to keep hiding away from her father, or to tell him where she was. If she faced Peter Parker, then she was sure he was going to make her give up the mask and never be Spider-Girl ever again▬and May Louise couldn't risk that. She was supposed to be a superhero, she wanted to be one. She wanted to save the world, just like her father did.

    A spark of anger returned. How could her father say those things to her? When he himself had been Spider-Man since he was her age? He put himself into danger, and risked his life to save the people of New York, and yet now he was chatising May Louise and telling her she couldn't do the same thing?

    She was going to have to go back home eventually, but right now, she didn't want to be anywhere near her family▬especially her father.

    May Louise perched on the side of the bridge, scrolling through her phone as she tried to figure out what to do▬except, her phone didn't seem to be working. She frowned and turned it on and off, but it didn't work. She even smacked the side of it against her palm, but it kept glitching.

    "What the hell?" she muttered, standing up and walking sideways across the bridge.

    Maybe her phone had gotten messed up in whatever had happened, too.

     May Louise sighed and sat back down, frowning over at the main island as she tried to figure out what she was going to do and where she was going to go to keep her father off her tail. He would be looking for her, she knew it, which meant she had to find somewhere he wouldn't even think to look.

    Something else struck her as odd. She tilted her head.

    She scanned the East Side of the island, trying to find one of the tallest buildings out of all of the high rises in New York City▬the Avengers Tower. It was hard to miss; tall, sleek and pristine with a gigantic, red 'A' planted on its side that could be seen all the way from Brooklyn.

    Why couldn't May Louise see it?

    The hair on the back of her neck were stiff▬her spider-senses making her so on edge that the abrupt cry of a car horn made her flinch and almost jump right off the side of the bridge.

    Something wasn't right. She knew it now. But her confusion still swirled deep within her; and she wasn't sure whether it was because she was sluggish and tired after the fight, or whether her brain was torn on whether to believe something it already knew, deep down.

     Perplexed, Spider-Girl climbed up the side of the bridge and onto the sidewalk, startling some pedestrians. When they saw her, a few of them made faces, some took photos and videos while another laughed and called out: "Hey! Great Spider-Man costume! Where'd you get it?"

    May Louise frowned and turned to face them, confused. "Spider-Man?" she murmured, wondering what they meant▬her father hasn't been Spider-Man in a long time, and she's taken on his mantle long enough to be recognised. "No, I'm Spider-Girl."

    The guy glanced at her and chuckled. "Oh, right, sorry," he shared a dubious expression with his friend before they continued walking.

    She watched them go, her confusion only growing.

    May Louise's spider-sense was now going off like crazy. Her breathing grew laboured, as if expecting a well-aimed blow from all directions. She wandered down the edge of the bridge back onto the road on the main island, noticing a billboard showcasing the breaking news to numerous spectators.

     "SPIDER-MENACE!" shouted the reporter from behind his desk, looking very grumpy and old underneath green light and big, bold lettering saying: THE DAILY BUGLE. "That's what I have always told you, folks! And have you believed me? Wrongfully, no! But that is your mistake, and I finally have the evidence to prove it!"

     May Louise hunched up amongst the people watching the broadcast and carefully retreated towards the back to hide. She's never seen a broadcast like this back home▬Spider-menace? No, everyone loved her. Everyone loved the Amazing Spider-Girl. But, despite wanting to scoff and leave it be for the most part, Spider-Girl couldn't look away from the grumpy scowl of J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle▬her interest was piqued, as if her spider-sense was telling her this was exactly what she needed to see and needed to hear at this moment. 

    "Now, as you all may know by now," continued J. Jonah Jameson in a gruff voice, glaring at the camera, "there has been multiple seismic attacks recently throughout the tri-state. The rest of my fellow news operators are quick to pass of their gratitude to Spider-Man, but let me tell you this, how do we know that the no-good, criminal web-head isn't causing these earthquakes HIMSELF?!"

    There was a collective groan of annoyance from the gathering crowd and most of them dispersed to return to their mornings, but May Louise Parker was left frozen with a horrible, churning feeling deep in her gut. Her breath hitched, and both her heart and her mind raced with a terrible feeling as she watched the news broadcast show clips of Spider-Man saving the day▬the suit her father once donned decades ago suddenly seemed young and fresh in everybody's mind. 

    Something was not right. Something wasn't right at all.

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    a/n: there's a spelling mistake somewhere. I know it. i couldn't find it. but i know its there grr.

     short chapter, long wait, i'm so sorry guys. the chapter's a bit eh, sorry again, but i hope you like it anyways.

    miles is so iconic i miss him haha. 

    (minimal editing).