Hi there. Sorry for missing the update last week. Family issues have taken over my attention so I couldn't really finish the update and post on time. But here it is. Overdue, but it's here.
The Amazing Spider-Girl
|Issue #8|
Girls Like Her
Girls like her aren't supposed to notice girls like you.
It had been at the back of her mind since she finally understood her position in high school. She had been branded as a nerd, a nobody, not even an hour into her first day of high school. Most of the people she went to grade school and subsequently middle school with only remembered her grudgingly. She had always been the smallest. The nerdiest. The easier target. So there was no reason why that had to change once high school started. If she could be remembered for anything, it would certainly be that she was the resident punching bag for those bigger than her to take out their teenage frustrations out on.
Santana Lopez knew this for a fact. She even made it her personal mission to see to it that everyday was Torture Payton Day. For the Latina, it was always a holiday, simply because she seemed to take so much joy out of making the weaker girl miserable. It was practically sport for her.
Then one day she saw her. Blonde hair. Shining hazel eyes that Payton wanted to drown in, and a body, much to her embarrassment due to her body's inevitable reaction, that she could never get out of her head. Not that she tried very hard or anything.
Most of her daydreams were purely innocent. She mostly thought of what it would be like to talk to her. Was she funny? Did she laugh at her own jokes? What was the one thing that could make her smile without fail? Did she have a favorite flower? Was she allergic? Did she even like them to begin with?
Questions, and musings swirled in her mind for the first few months after her first sighting of the beautiful blonde. It was during that time that it finally became clear that this fascination with Quinn, would only ever remain that way. Payton was so deep down at the bottom of the social food chain that even catching sight of Quinn up high on her golden pedestal was pretty much hopeless. No matter how hard she craned her neck to see. Payton could only resign herself to her role and hope that the next slushy aimed her way was never wielded by Quinn herself.
At the time, she had accepted that nothing would change, that it would always be this way.
Except, now, for the first time she feels a subtle shift whenever she steps into the hallway. Thing's had changed and for once, it was in her favor.
She was bolstered, confident even. A sense of strength flowed deliciously through her that didn't have anything to do with her physical prowess whatsoever.
The playing field had changed. Suddenly, the pedestals and high reaching platforms that made up the hierarchy were like ant hills to her growing confidence. They were insignificant, to the point that they disappeared before her.
Though, what she hadn't grasped yet, was that there was a fine line between having confidence and being cocky.
She would learn, eventually.
|Midtown High|
It was another brisk morning as she made her way into school. It had been a few days since her introductions with the Glee club and it had been decided that the young photographer would start taking pictures at the next club meeting the following day. She wasn't nervous at the new project as a whole, moreover she was...cautious. Santana had made her feelings known on the matter of Payton being there. Loudly. Regardless, she had promised Rachel she'd show and she wasn't planning on disappointing Midtown High's resident diva.
She found her locker and went about entering in her combo so she could unload her books and get the ones she would need for her first and second class. Her gaze lands on a beautiful blonde a few lockers down from hers. She watched for a moment as the girl was busy twisting in her combination. She debated with herself the pros and cons of actually speaking with the blonde. Though, really, when was a better opportunity going to come along? Not any time soon surely. With that thought in mind, Payton sucks in a breath and chants a few positive words to herself before closing her locker.
She does her best to school her features into a casual countenance as she made her way over to the blonde. She chose to stand next to the girl instead of on the other side of her locker door as not to frighten her.
"Hello Quinn." She greeted with a warm smile. Despite her best efforts not to startle her, the blonde jumped anyway. Apparently she had been too quiet in her approach.
"Oh." The blonde snaps her head at Payton, noting her arrival before shaking her head a moment. "I mean, hi. How are you?" The blonde smiles at her politely as she places a text book from her arms into her locker.
Payton fights the urge to laugh at Quinn's initial reaction and smiles.
"I'm good." She says. "Actually, I'm very good." Why she admitted that, she had no idea, but the good mood she was in seemingly couldn't be contained.
Quinn gives her a curious look before a small smile makes its way onto her pretty face.
"Oh. Why's that?"
"No idea." Payton shrugged, chuckling at her own admission. "I just woke up like this. I think questioning it would probably be counterproductive so I'm pretty much riding it out for however long it lasts." She joked.
Quinn chuckled softly, nodding as if agreeing. "Alright."
Payton was thrilled at her progress so far. She had yet to stutter her words or fidget, and she had already managed what she had thought was impossible: she had prompted conversation, and she didn't have to be shoved into the girl to do it!
"How's your morning so far?" Payton asks, hoping to keep the dialogue going. Quinn's gaze held hers for a few seconds before smiling.
"I can't complain."
Payton felt herself grinning at the positive response and nodded. It fell silent between them. Thankfully, it wasn't uncomfortable. Quinn stared at her a moment before Payton remembered why she was talking to her in the first place. Not that talking with her at all wouldn't be reason enough.
"Oh. Right. I have those photos from the trip. You wanted to see them." Payton reached into her pants pocket and produced a blue flash drive and held it out to Quinn. "I made sure to include copies of the originals and the touched up ones that I worked on that were being considered for the article they were for."
Payton stood there awkwardly as she bounced slightly on her heels.
Quinn had almost forgotten that she had asked for these. She stared at the flash drive in her hand before looking up at the obviously nervous brunette. She watched as the girl began rubbing the back of her neck the longer Quinn went without speaking. When she began biting her lip she decided to have mercy on her. Before she could say anything, a large shadow towered over her and a meaty arm wrapped itself around her, like a thickly muscled snake.
"What are you doing talking to my girl, homo?" Flash Thomson growled as he sidled up next to the blonde. Quinn stiffened at the name.
"I was just saying hi." Payton said casually while her face expressed her plain annoyance at the arrival of the jock wrapped possessively around Quinn's shoulders. "You know, being nice? You should try it sometime."
Flashed sneered at her defiant expression. It was a look he'd certainly seen before but it had always been weakly given, now it was intense and jarring. He wasn't prepared for it, nor did he like it.
"She doesn't like muff, carpet muncher." He spat. Quinn's face curled sourly, clearly disgusted at his statement. Whether it was the vulgarity or the implication of what he was talking about, Payton didn't know. She was afraid to know.
"Right." Payton gave a curt nod, her tone calm and dull.
"Flash, stop it. She wasn't doing anything." Quinn snapped at her boyfriend.
"Since when does she talk to you?" He asked, finally addressing his girlfriend.
"She was being nice. Let it go." Quinn said the last part succinctly. Flash's eyes darkened and he scoffed thickly in his throat.
"People are only nice when they want something. And guess what freak, you can't have her!" He growled in her face, his stance bringing him closer to the girl. Payton didn't flinch, her expression unfazed.
"Stop it Flash. You're causing a scene." Quinn hissed under her breath as her eyes shifted along the slowly crowding hallway.
"Stay out of this." Flash snarled at her. "Parker and I have beef together."
Payton didn't much care for the way he was talking to Quinn, as if she was nothing. It really rubbed her the wrong way.
"Jeeze, when you say it like that I suddenly have this urge to be a vegetarian." Payton joked weakly. It was a lame response but she couldn't think of anything better through her steadily growing anger at the large boy.
Flash's nostril's flared at the half-hearted jab. He unhooked his muscled limb from around his girlfriend and stood tall in front of the brunette.
"What'd you call me?" His voice held an edge of anger, and in that instant she felt her temples tingling softly, warning her, as if to say,"tread lightly". She ignored it.
"Pretty sure I didn't call you anything yet." She pointed out as she bit the side of her mouth to keep from smirking. Did she have a death wish? If she had tried this crap before she was super powered-who is she kidding? She never would have tried it.
Oh well. Too late to back down now. Might as well go big.
"You think you're pretty funny huh?"
"I'm hilarious." Payton declared sarcastically.
Quinn's eyes widened in shock. Her gaze shifting from Payton to Flash and back again, wearily.
"Flash," Quinn started, her hand clasping around his bicep. Flash shrugged her off.
"Well, you're not."
"That's a matter of opinion." She said easily.
"My opinion is the only one that matters right now." He said through clenched teeth.
Payton couldn't help it. She laughed. "Spoken like a true teenager."
"What? You're a teenager too dumbass." He said with a smirk, clearly not understanding her comment.
Payton's grin was one of amusement as she regarded the posturing man-child in front of her. Her own investigations had shown that she could punch him in the face, break his nose, and flip him on his back before he, or anyone, knew what happened. She could do a thousand things to hurt him or just simply scare the crap out of him which would solve all this mess. She could and the fact that she could had a thrill shooting up and down her body. It was making her giddy, and bold.
"You missed my point." She said with a subtle shake of her head.
Flash looked confused before he shook his head and growled.
"Just stay away from her. I don't know what's gotten into you lately but you better learn your place again. Fast." He threatened, his body towering over her smaller frame. It would have been intimidating. It looked intimidating, but Payton stood uncharacteristically relaxed in the face of it.
"Pretty sure she can make her own choices." Payton said lowly. Quinn tried again to get Flash's attention but the boy ignored her in favor of glaring hatefully into Payton eyes.
"Hey! What the fuck is going on here?" A jovial voice exclaimed.
"Stay out of this Osbourn!" Flash sneered at the lanky boy as he sidled up to Payton.
Harry sucked his front teeth loudly, tutting, "Ya know, I think I'll stay."
Harry glanced down at his female counterpart, checking for any signs of injury, when she seemed fine, he let out a breath of relief and focused his attention on the situation at hand.
"So what were you two crazy kids talking about before I got here?" Harry asked carefully as he slung a protective arm around Payton's shoulders, an illusion of casualness that wasn't lost on anyone. The taller boy glared at the bully, daring him to lay a finger on his friend in his presence.
Flash growled.
Payton rolled her eyes at the tall athlete.
"Nothing important. Mostly a lot of posturing. I almost expected him to pee on something." Her eyes flicked to Quinn a moment and turned to smile up at Harry.
Harry stared at her in shock and horror, and maybe a little bit of awe. He had never seen Payton talk that way to any of her tormentors. Nor had she shown any form of genuine defiance that wasn't a stiff glare in their direction. He knew if she were to then they would be compelled to remind her just why that was a stupid thing to do. He didn't know what kind of insane brain game Payton was playing but she was going to get herself hurt if she wasn't careful. But the real question on his mind was what had gotten into her? Something had to have changed, right?
The blonde cheerleader glanced from Payton to her boyfriend, a flash of uncertainty eclipsing across her face. She looked once more at the brunette glaring daggers at her current beau. Perhaps former, she hadn't really decided yet, and rolled her eyes at the sound of Flash growling at something else Payton had said.
"This is stupid. I'm leaving." Quinn announced. Hazel eyes glare intensely at the tall bully. "And if you still want a head cheerleader girlfriend by the end of the day, I suggest you drop this pointless argument and follow me in the next ten seconds." With that Quinn slammed her locker shut and strode down the hallway, her Cheerios skirt swishing attractively due to her powerful stride.
He growled petulantly at the retreating form of the blonde before glaring at the teenagers standing like a united front against him.
"This isn't over." He snarled at Payton, a forceful hand slamming against a locker door. Harry twitched, the tiniest yelp escaping his thin lips. The action and sound was made to make the girl flinch, but it only caused a smile to grow on her face. Flash swept his hand out to knock her books from her arms but Payton held them closer to her body a second before he could touch her. He growled at his failed attempt.
"Pretty sure it is." Payton mocked.
"Flash!"
Flash glared at Payton before pushing himself away from the lockers and jogging after his girlfriend.
Payton rolled her eyes, sneering at the tall athlete.
"Okay, I know you're prone to bad days but that was ridicu-" Harry trailed off as he noticed that his friend was no longer standing next to him. Looking around, his gaze landed on her retreating form.
"Hey, where are you going?" He asked as he jogged to catch up to her.
"To class." She answered simply.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. She seemed fine, but even he was a bit shaken up over what had happened and he knew he had only showed up towards the very end. Who knows what else had happened before he found her?
"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered calmly as she kept her stride.
Harry blinked.
"Good. Good."
He glanced over at her from the corner of his eye. She seemed perfectly calm and appeared as emotionally stable as the next high-schooler. He didn't know what to make of it. He was so used to her being a wreck after her run ins with Flash, but it was like the whole encounter simply rolled off her back. He coughed casually into his fist. When Payton gave no outward reaction he started coughing pointedly. Nothing. He sighed as he started getting irritated.
"So. How are you? My morning was good thanks for asking. Oh and by the way have you lost your mind?!"
"What?" She asked innocently, looking at him.
He stops them by putting a hand on her clavicle, keeping her from moving forward.
"Hi. I'm Harry Osbourne." He gestures with the same hand to himself. "I don't believe we've met before. Might I say you look an awful lot like my dear friend Payton. Perhaps you've met her, she's yay tall, likes books, and is the most docile awkward little thing you've ever seen." He sticks out his hand and Payton stares at it.
"Was that supposed to be flattering?" Payton said dryly.
He shook his head, grinning slightly. "No. Not in the least." Payton looked hurt at his statement and Harry felt a little guilty that he may have said something unintentionally mean.
"Yeah I figured. Well, I'm going to class." She said with a small glare as she walked passed him.
"Payton. Hey...Payton!" She ignored him. He sighed as she kept walking and turned a corner out of view.
Damn.
"See you at lunch." He waved at no one and turned the other way to make his way to class.
Next issue: "The blonde gazed at her, her stare becoming more and more intense by the second. It was like she was reading her, seeing something that only Brittany herself could process. It was beyond unnerving.
"I'm not that strong." Payton dismissed easily.
Brittany smirked, her gaze landing on the straining fabric that encased her muscular biceps. She had picked a thin cotton long sleeve shirt today and now she was regretting wearing it.
"You look plenty strong to me." Brittany said slyly, her usual airy tone replaced with something knowing and playful."
