Parker IX: Black Lace Weaver
When the last round of Parker's first competition began, they were behind by four hundred points, with each question in this round being worth double the previous. All they needed to do to win their division was answer at least three more questions than the team currently in first.
Right out of the gate, MJ got the first question right. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Each of the other teams in the match answered correctly before Charles scored another correct answer for Midtown by naming the island Borneo in Indonesia. By the time they reached the last question of the match, they were behind by one hundred points, needing to answer the next question correctly for two hundred to win. The pressure to succeed descended on the three of them like a heavy fog.
"Belonging to the species Amaurobius, what species of spider is known for the wooly texture of its webs and the practice of matriphagy?"
Parker pressed his buzzer before he even consciously decided that he knew the answer. Daddell had been watching a nature documentary about this exact subject just last week, and it stuck in Parker's brain both because of the revulsion he'd felt while watching and its connection to his own family name.
"Black-lace weaver."
"That is correct. And those points put you over the top, congratulations to the team from Midtown!"
MJ and Charles immediately high-fived him. Parker found his parents in the audience and watched their faces break into wide grins. He could not believe they just won—and their first competition nonetheless. Heart swelling with pride, he barely finagled his way through thanking all the people who congratulated him, his brain too overwhelmed to form coherent thoughts.
"Nice work, Parker," Abe said. He, Liz, and Cindy had only come in fourth in their section, but that was still an achievement considering how much more competitive it was among upperclassmen.
"I guess we'll have to start calling you the spider-man," Liz said.
Parker felt the heat rush to his face. "Yeah, I guess so," he said sheepishly. She moved on to talk to MJ and Charles. Flash, who Parker hadn't even known came to watch, approached him after. Despite being in almost all the same classes, they'd never really spoken to each other before.
"I thought you would have cracked under the pressure, considering what happened last week," he snapped.
Parker's jaw clenched. Nobody had said a word to him about what happened during the lockdown, though he had gotten his fair share of stares in the days following. Most of them had been of pity and not of scorn. He tried not to let this kid ruin his excitement and just walked away without a word. Engaging him would only make it worse, but of course Parker couldn't unhear what Flash had said.
"What are the odds? The winning question being about black-lace weavers," Daddell said as he and Dad arrived to hug and congratulate him. "Aren't you glad I refused to turn it off now?"
"Yes," Parker admitted. "Thank you for being such a nerd."
"My pleasure."
~0~
That competition changed everything. All the other kids in Quizbowl respected him now, when before some of them hadn't even known his name. The nickname Liz had warmly attributed to him didn't really stick around, though, with the frequency of spider-related questions being almost zero. However, when Cindy found a giant spider in the corner of the classroom, they unanimously elected him to attempt to capture it and take it outside.
Not all the changes were pleasant, though. Something awakened inside Flash—something nasty. He now took every opportunity to belittle Parker. Whenever he got a question right at practice, Flash muttered under his breath about how "Anyone who's been to elementary school would know that" or "That's practically common knowledge." Parker kept his mouth shut and refused to entertain him. Nobody really seemed to care what Flash said to him, since most of it was whispered for only Parker to hear. Only MJ ever brought it up.
"You should report him for bullying, you know," she said one day at lunch.
"What good would that do?"
"If he gets in trouble, he'll probably stop."
"More likely he'll just get a slap on the wrist and go right back to it. It's not like it's anything physical; there's no evidence."
"You should at least tell your parents."
"And kick them into 'adopted-parent-of-traumatized-orphan-mama-bear-mode?' I don't think so."
"Okay. But if it continues, I can't promise that I won't do something about it."
"Thank you, MJ. But I'm fine. I've been through worse."
She looked up at him with the saddest eyes he'd ever seen, and only then did Parker register just how depressing that comment sounded. Quickly changing the subject, he asked, "Are you still in contact with Ned?"
"Not really. After you guys left, I went back to being a loner."
Now it was Parker's turn to look at her sadly.
"Don't give me that, it's not depressing. Henry David Thoreau enjoyed solitude, was his life depressing?"
"Kind of?"
"Nevermind, don't answer that. But I am really glad we ended up going to the same school."
"Your parents didn't take in more foster kids after we left?"
"No. They were…told to stop…after you."
"I don't blame them," Parker immediately said. "Not at all."
"I know, I know. The government has other ideas of who's to blame, though."
"Well, I guess you went back to hogging all the attention, then."
"Yep," she said with a grin. "The bathroom was certainly much cleaner."
"Hey, most of that was Ned," Parker defended.
"I don't care who it was, I'm glad I don't share with him anymore."
~0~
At Bucky's Stump-iversary surprise party, he and Steve and a kid Parker didn't recognize singled him out. "What's up?" he asked them.
"We have something to tell you," the unknown kid announced. "I'm Gabe Jones. I think you know my cousin."
"MJ is your cousin?" It was certainly possible, given their matching last names, but after learning about Liz's dad, Parker hadn't expected another crazy connection to pop up in his life.
"She is. And a few months ago she told me she ran into her former foster brother at her new school."
"And then we told Gabe that we knew this kid," Bucky explained.
"Wow. That's…that's crazy." Parker remembered that day at Quizbowl practice when Liz mentioned her dad. MJ had said her cousin's friends were there when it happened. She must've been referring to Steve and Bucky, though of course Parker hadn't made the connection at the time.
"Gabe also asked us if it's socially acceptable to date a former step or foster sibling," Steve said knowingly. Parker blushed.
"So how's it going?" Bucky asked, nudging Parker's shoulder.
"How's what going?"
"You know…your relationship."
"We're good friends. Actually, she's kind of my only good friend at the moment."
"Just friends?" Steve confirmed.
Parker nodded.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I mean, we eat lunch together most days, and she's in Quizbowl with me, but we're just friends."
"Do you want to be?" Gabe asked.
"Of course I want to be friends."
He facepalmed. "No, I mean, do you want to be just friends?"
"Oh, uh…I don't know." He blushed even darker from pressure of being interrogated about something personal by three older high schoolers. "Maybe not? But I don't know if she feels the same way."
"You're in luck because you're talking to somebody who does," Gabe said.
"Wait—she's talked to you about me? What did she say?"
"When you lived with her she used to text me every so often telling me what you did that day. She made it pretty obvious she was crushing on you."
"What? Really?"
"Yes. She was devastated when you left. And you should have seen her excitement when she ran into you at school. I thought she won the lottery or something."
"Wow." MJ was always so composed Parker could hardly believe she knew how to feel things like that, much less towards him. He remembered them being close as foster siblings, and he considered them close friends now, but he never imagined that she wanted more. Parker didn't know what to think. "What should I do?" he asked.
"Ask her out, duh," Bucky prompted. "What else is there to do?"
"Ask her out? Isn't that a bit…forward?"
"You said you're already eating lunch together most days. Why don't you ask her if it can be just the two of you one time? She'll get the message."
"It's already just the two of us most of the time. But sometimes when a competition's coming up we sit with other Quizbowl kids so we can practice."
"Wait—you eat lunch one-on-one with a girl almost every day and you don't already consider yourselves dating?" Gabe sounded utterly bamboozled.
Parker shrugged. "It's just not like that."
"How hard would it be to make it like that?" Steve asked. "The hard part's over: you already know she likes you back."
"Yeah, but I still think it's too soon or something. I don't want to just up and say, "So today when we go to lunch can we call it a date? It's just a school cafeteria."
"Life's too short to say it's too soon," Steve remarked. Parker thought that was rather profound advice coming from a terminally ill teenager. How selfish was he to consider putting off something this important under the assumption he had all the time in the world? He knew how easily tragedy struck, had experienced it far too many times to arrogantly believe that he'd definitely still be here a year or two from now.
"You're right," Parker avowed. "But I still want to do it right."
"That's the spirit," Bucky said with a grin. "If you need any help with a plan, you know who to call."
"What are you talking about? You've never dated anyone," Steve countered.
"Shut up. Neither have you. Besides, who'd want to date a guy with only one hand, if you know what I mean?" he asked lewdly.
"Gross, Buck, not in front of the kid."
"I'm only one grade behind you," he pointed out. "But I don't know that I'd want to hear that from you at any age."
"Whatever. Tony would have appreciated that joke."
"Tony would what?" the very person in question asked, wandering over to their group from where he'd been talking to Bruce.
"Would appreciate Bucky's dirty jokes, apparently," Steve sighed.
"Oh yes I would. Let me guess, was it a self-deprecating one-handed joke?"
"Yep," Bucky stated. "This guy gets it."
"Parker's going to ask a girl out," Steve said, redirecting the conversation.
"Oh is he?"
"Maybe," Parker reiterated.
"He wants to make it special," Bucky added.
"Well, considering how thoughtful we all know him to be from last Christmas, I'm sure he'll accomplish that," Tony said.
"But it's different," Parker said.
"Why? Because it's romantic?"
He nodded.
"Only if you convince yourself it is," Tony assured him.
"Just be yourself," Steve suggested. "She already likes you, you just have to remind her why."
"Sounds hard."
"Well, considering none of us are exactly poster children for romantic involvement," Tony said. "Maybe you should ask your parents for advice. They had to start dating at some point."
"No, that's so awkward."
"So are most of the conversations you'll have with your parents at this age," Bucky said.
"Fair enough. But I still think I'm going to shelve that idea as a last resort." An idea popped into his head, one that he actually thought might work. It would require a favor from Mr. Harrington, but after Parker won them their last competition he thought the teacher would probably be willing to do this for him. After the party, Parker ran the idea by Ned over FaceTime, and he thought it brilliant. The next time he had Quizbowl practice he stayed a bit after everyone else left and asked Mr. Harrington if he'd be willing to participate. Parker practically skipped out of school that day, excited beyond belief to execute his plan the following week.
A bunch of people read Parker's prequel thinking it was an isolated story and asked me about him becoming Spider-Man. It drove me up the wall (pun one hundred percent intended). Well, here you have it: Parker as the Spider-Man!