The Sensational Scarlet Spider.

Chapter 5: Growing Pains.


One thing the superheroes never tell you when you're one yourself is the fact that your body will feel like hell every once in a while. Aching and sore, I try to get up but my body forces me back down. It's another school day and of course I need to get up again. So I try to get up once again. My body stiffly protests but I amble my way to the dresser. Getting on my clothes just barely. I got wiped out from the fight with the Shocker and chasing the Black Cat, or more accurately Felicia.

So now I'm paying the price. Which is bad. I need to be at the top of my game because if I'm not I won't like the fact that I'll be out of the streets for a while. What if the guy who killed my Dad kills more innocent people? Or the Shocker… My phone rings and I fumble for it. My hands hurt too and my arms yank painfully as I try to lift it towards my head. My hand trembles and my webbing hole opens, shooting off a jet of air. That hurt more than the rest.

I almost drop my phone onto the floor but I catch it before it can fall, just barely recovering.

Eddie's calling and I answer, "Y'ello?" I groan.

"Are ya okay, Jack?" he asks.

"No, just a little roughed up…" I huff, "Seriously man I don't know about you but I think aching everything isn't what I picture from a potential cure for Cerebral Palsy…"

"I'll be there in a few, you just loosen up." he says, "And listen, you know Mrs. Kirby, right?"

"Yeah?" I ask, shuffling out of my room, rolling a stick of deodorant on my pits as Eddie's on speakerphone.

"She's been replaced by a new guy. Seems pretty big in the Entertainment industry." Eddie starts, "Today is just interestin' huh?"

"Did you research the teachers again, Ed?" I sigh.

"What? I wanna be thorough! You never know if any of 'em are a total creep!" Eddie barks out, "Still, I'm gonna be there soon, you hang tight."

I stifle a whine as I feel more of my web openings spasm. Mom notices quick as a flash before she heads out.

"Jack, don't push yourself too hard, okay?" she asks.

"Sure sure…" I groan, shoving some food onto a plate, stuffing my face as she kisses me on the cheek with a little concerned squeeze. I flinch a bit and she notices.

"Jack, you don't have to go to school today, you're really stiff." she continues.

"Nah nah nah, I'm fine." I deny, "Besides, Drama class has a new teacher so I gotta go make a good impression!"

My smile hides the sheer pain I'm in but I know Eddie has my back. I grab an old friend on my way out, a pair of crutches. When I was younger I used them to get around before I got strong enough to walk without mobility aids. I kept them around just in case I couldn't move as well as I usually do. I lurch my way out the door, loping along the sidewalk and seeing Eddie not too far away from me. He meets me in the middle and kneels to let me on his back. Piggybacking, we get on the bus and he sits me down first as I shimmy over to let him sit down next to me. He's vigilant. His hand ghosting through his buzzed hair. He nudges me gently.

"Dude, you okay?" he asks.

"Not really…" I sigh, "But I gotta go to school, ya know?"

"Right." Eddie says. We sit together and I still try to keep things light with some brighter conversation, but when we get to school I lean against him as we go towards my locker. I push off and use my crutches to keep going. I park myself against my locker, not even noticing a girl next door, digging through her locker. She glances my way, her dark hair down to her shoulders with a red coat wrapped around her shoulders. She's wearing dark blue jeans and normal black shoes.

I struggle to try to unlock my locker, "Rgh… come on…" I growl softly. My hands cramp up and I groan. The girl pipes up. Probably seeing my crutches and braces through my jeans.

"Excuse me. Do you need help?" her blue eyes focus on me and I sigh.

"Sure." I huff, "Fire away."

She peers around, leaning back and forth. No one is paying attention as she draws in a breath and my Spider Sense goes off, watching her lift her slender musician's hands. There's a soft red light going towards the lock and turning it. She smiles and I notice her eyes have a little red in them. There's the tell tale clunk of the lock shifting and there it is. My locker gently opens and the red light fades.

"Wow…" I breathe, "How did you do that?"

The girl in red smiles and holds out her hand, "I have a talent. My name is Wanda."

I grab her hand and shake it once, "Jack Parker." She smiles and helps me with my load.

"Where are we going?" she asks.

"Mr. Lieber's History class." I answer, "Are you new?"

"Yes, my brother and I just moved here recently." I notice the accent in her voice but she continues, "My father just snagged a spot for the two of us." She keeps pace with me.

"So… Wanda, a bit of a warning. There's this guy named Jacob Lawrence, he's kinda a douche canoe."

Wanda giggles, raising an eyebrow, "A what?"

"It's another word for jerk." I explain with her nodding and we get there. She looks a little nervous as I turn towards the door. I turn back to her and smile.

"Here we are." I say, "Thanks, Wanda." I take my materials after putting my crutches into the classroom and going in. Before I come back to invite her to sit with me and Eddie at lunch, she's gone. 'Huh. Weird.' I think, going back towards my seat with Eddie nearby. He's smiling and I glare at him.

"What's so funny, Eddie?" I ask.

"Nothing, nothing. Just… you just walked here." he says, trying to dodge the fact that I walked here with Wanda.

"Yeah? With my new friend Wanda?" My sarcasm is clearly lost but I just take it on the chin with a silver haired boy skidding in. He doubles over, gasping and huffing softly. He's trying to stay stalwart but he checks a rumpled schedule.

"Is… is this…?" he squints a little, "Mr. Lieber's class?" he looks up at Eddie and I with a crooked little smile.

"Yeah, yeah it is." Eddie says, "You got it right uh…"

"Pietro." he states, "My name is Pietro. I saw my sister walking with your friend here." his blue eyes narrow as he puts his hand on my desk, his finger tapping slow and steady. He's in my personal bubble and my Spider Sense is primed for a hit to come in.

"Can I help you?" I ask.

"If you think you can schmooze my sister with those crutches of yours, do not think I'm going to let you do that." he growls.

"Dude, Jack's literally disabled." Eddie says, "If anything he wasn't schmoozing, he needed help."

Pietro gets a good long look at my shaking hands and my stiff legs. He blinks a little in shock and walks away, plunking down at a seat on the other side of the classroom. I don't want to get angry so I won't. He was just new. I'm sure he's not used to seeing someone like me or maybe he is, he just doesn't understand that there are milder forms of it. In class today he gets introduced to the rest of the class, his last name is Maximoff. So if Wanda is his sister that means their last names are the same.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. A quiet girl in red and a skittish impatient boy with silver hair. Twins I'm sure, either that or the pair skipped a grade. The whole time during class Pietro would glare at me from a distance as we were talking about Captain America's involvement in the European Theater of World War II. I still don't know what his problem is but come Science class and Pietro doesn't follow me and Eddie, but I see Wanda and Felicia coming our way. Wanda talking animatedly and Felicia's laughter echoing towards us.

She sees us and waves, "Hey guys! There's someone I…"

"Jack and I are already acquainted, Felicia." Wanda interrupts, "But I believe I haven't been introduced to-"

Eddie sweeps in, grabbing her hand and shaking it, "Eddie Brock, future investigative journalist, best friend of Jack Parker and quarterback of the Midtown High Rangers."

Wanda blinks, a little shocked that Eddie was so forward but she clears her throat, "Wanda Maximoff, and I like… well, I like to paint." She's a little fidgety but recovers quickly enough.

Mr. Warren noticed we had Wanda now and called, "Does anyone want to switch partners?" Nobody else raises their hand other than Felicia until.

Eddie's hand shoots up and I see him walk away, going towards Wanda and Felicia coming back towards me with a breezy, almost happy strut. She sits down next to me and leans close, her hair softly billowing with the motion.

"Hey there, Spider…" she purrs softly.

My cheeks heat up, "Felicia! No using our hero names…" I hiss back with her fingers dancing up my arm.

"What? Do you think the Shocker will be here?" she mutters, "Come on, Jackyboy, let's just talk about this new thing we got going."

"What, the partnership?" I wonder as Wanda passes out the worksheets, not looking too uncomfortable. She flashes me and Felicia a smile. Seems like she and Eddie are getting along. I couldn't say the same about me and Pietro.

"Yeah, do you wanna keep doing it?" she passes me a paper and I shakily write my name on it. It's an experiment on building a case to keep an egg from breaking. Felicia flips her ponytail onto her back and I consider her question.

"Well, yeah. I think it's fun as long as you're not stealing anything." I huff.

"Me? Well I never have!" she giggles.

I shake my head and she bumps me softly, "Whatever you say, Jack."

We work on our experiment and get it done. The testing phase pretty much went off without a hitch but a structural weakness made the egg break. Probably because we ran out of construction paper. Then Eddie and Wanda's never broke once. Not even from the highest height we could go and it wasn't because of the weird red glow she had done earlier. It just felt off. Like it was gonna happen anyway no matter what. Still, I was glad to have a new friend. But at the same time excitement is at an all time high for me. Drama class is coming up and the new teacher is waiting!


Wanda digs in her bag after class, producing her schedule. This one not folded up to hell and back like her brother's. She looks at it with a smile and looks up at me.

"Can I see yours, Jack?" she asks.

"Uh, sure!" I pull mine out and she compares it, "Hm. Same drama class, nice." she hums and walks with me there. We had different lunch blocks so while Eddie and Wanda shared theirs and Felicia and I shared ours. Pietro had mine, but he mainly stuck around the back. Almost sullen. But at this point I'm way too excited to think about it. I love drama class, I love slipping into a character and embodying him.

"So are you into acting, Wanda?" I wonder, my body feeling a bit better than before so I walked with only one crutch, sliding in the other one. Wanda smiles.

"I do like old sitcoms, my grandfather and I watch them together." she nods and I laugh a little.

"What's funny about that?" she cocks her head a little and I shake my head.

"No no no, I'm not laughing at you I'm just… well, I'm kinda the same way except with soap operas with my Mom." I reason with Wanda thinking for a moment more. I like her more calm, thoughtful approach to things. Kinda balances out Felicia's spontaneous acts and Eddie's gung-ho attitude with a happy calm.

"My favorite bit is the Walnut scene." her eyes gain a light in them but it's not red, just a wistful glint in them that makes me feel warm inside. She looks at me with a soft grin.

"I've noticed you and Felicia are quite close." she remarks, "Are you two together?"

I gulp and back off with a skittish tone, "No! No no no, Felicia and I aren't together, just… why ask that?"

"Just curious, Jack." she and I get to the doors with the others like Maxie Dillon, Liz Allen, and…

"Jack!" Harry calls, walking up to me with a big grin, "Ah, and the new girl…"

I get in front of her but she lightly touches my arm, I back up and she steps up to Harry. He smiles winningly and she holds out her hand.

"I'm Wanda Maximoff, it's nice to meet you." she greets, he takes her hand and does the fancy shake if you could even call it that. I notice that there's a slight red glow to her free hand and she turns away with a small grin, putting her finger to her lips with a small shh. I nod and Harry all the sudden doubles over, his underpants wedgieing with a sharp stretching sound. Maxie guffaws and Liz can't help but laugh. He groans and looks at me.

"Parker! Did you do this?!" he snarls.

"Nope!" I exclaim, "Must've been uh…" I look around and shrug, "Hell if I know." He turns back towards Wanda and before he could menace her the double doors spread wide open, a man with a beard and slicked back dark hair wearing a dress shirt and khakis. He grins and holds them open.

"Gooooood Mornnningggg, ACTORS AND ACTRESSES!" he yells, grinning widely, we all go in as he follows us in the middle. He's very high energy for a high school teacher but it's a fun change from Mrs. Kirby, who was notoriously known as the Beast of the Drama Department. He grins and swings up onto the stage, sitting with his legs hanging down.

"So, I'm your new teacher, Quentin Beck. Special effects supervisor and coordinator on a lot of movies. Also directed a few if you've seen Nightwatchers, which you shouldn't."

"I liked it!" Maxie calls.

"No you didn't kid, you're lying." Mr. Beck answers. He smiles and gets out the roll, blue eyes twinkling.

"Alright… do de do… Roll call." he states, going down the list until he gets to me, "Jack Parker?"

"Here sir!" I try to raise my hand but it gives up halfway and begins to hurt. He watches me do that and gets a little concerned.

"Is there something up, Parker?" he asks.

"I got a condition, Cerebral Palsy, it's uh… acting up." I heat up and he nods.

"Gotcha gotcha, and looks like we got ourselves a new kid, Wanda Maximoff, right?" he looks up and Wanda raises her hand.

"Alright, got it. Wow, double whammy. New teacher and a new kid." he puts down the roll and takes a look at the set behind him up on the stage. Our school's production of Hamlet is raring to go.

"Hm. Looking at the cast list we have Laertes being Osborn and Hamlet being Parker. Ophelia being Liz and King Claudius being Jacob Lawrence." he continues, "Polonius… is Max Dillon, Gertrude is Gwen Stacy, hm…"

He tosses the castlist away, crumpling it before he does, "Nah, we aren't doing Shakespeare."

"WHAT?!" Harry yells, with Gwen, Liz, Maxie, and me joining in.

"We're more than halfway done!" Liz objects, "You can't just stop it!"

"Look at Parker! Who wants to see a barely able to move Hamlet try to duel Laertes?" he asks with everyone falling dead quiet. I wobble to my feet and Harry gets to his feet. Anger fills me but I swallow it down in my tone.

"We've been practicing for weeks, sir." I say, "So lemme show you how we do it." I stretch and get up on stage with Harry. He grabs the prop foils and I take one.

"If you wanna back out, don't hesitate to throw the match." Harry says, "I know you've had it hard lately."

"Don't worry… I won't let it slow me down." I get into my stance, my body seems to correct itself. Adrenaline fills me as I shoot forward, catching Harry in the routine, exchanging blow after blow and beat after beat.

We knew this by heart. Even if Hamlet was supposed to lose I wanted to make people root for him to win. It was my idea to make Hamlet not insane, but driven. A man who just wanted revenge. Strike like a man with everything on the line. Strike with your very soul! We clash, and Harry slips out the 'poisoned' dagger, but before it can strike home, my body flips me over him and lands on the other side.

Harry lunges and I still bat him back. He's getting tired but I still keep going, until he's on the ground. As we practiced, this version of Hamlet has our prince inches from victory. Seconds even. Yet he gets too cocky.

"Surrender, Laertes! May your death finally bring peace to mine father's very soul!" I intone with power in my voice. Foil at Harry's neck and poised to finish him. Gasping a little, selling my tiredness.

"Never, Hamlet! This is for my father!" he snarls, 'stabbing' me with the poisoned dagger. I look at Mr. Beck with a smile. He's stunned, his blue eyes wide and he runs his hand through his hair in sheer shock.

I love proving people wrong. He starts clapping and grinning.

"Good job, Parker! How'd you flip like that?" he asks.

"Yeah, that wasn't in the routine…" Liz comments, "Are you sure you can still do it?"

I nod with a grin, "Have a little faith, guys!" I hop right back up and my aching goes away. Guess I get a little messed up if I push too hard. I look over at Wanda and she's almost watching me zeroed in focus.

I sit down with a soft groan, my body still a little tender from the practice but Mr. Beck walks over to me, kneeling down to my level.

"Hey, Parker." he says.

"Yeah?" I huff, "What, Mr. Beck?"

"Sorry about the whole 'Barely moving Hamlet' thing. I was kinda… insensitive. I'm used to yapping at interns that get stuff wrong and all that. So… this is still new to me." he reaches out his hand.

"Are we square?" he asks.

"Yep." I say, shaking his hand.

"Good." he answers, "You make a good Hamlet." he jogs off to Harry and Wanda walks up to me. She sits next to me as the others run through their scenes.

"I thought that was good." she says, "I'm quite glad you got over your pain."

"Eh, more like put it off til later, Wanda." I shrug and she nods.

"True."

Lawrence takes this opportunity from angsting in the back of the room to sweep up and cut in. He seems really proud of himself but before he can get a word in edgewise he flinches hard. Wanda looks at me and winks.

She's pretty mischievous if I do say so myself.


Instead of taking the bus I unpack my suit. Sliding it on and getting my hoodie over it. I swing off into the air, going through it like nobody's business. My goal was to move on in my investigation. I decide to make a quick dropoff of my stuff at home. When I get there, I notice a really nice bouquet of flowers in a vase parked near the door on the side table. A card nestled in the flowers catches my eye. It's a really nice card. And on it is a note.

"Courtesy of Mr. L." I read out to myself, "Hm…"

I wonder if Felicia knows who this Mr. L is? I mean, it seems pretty easy. There's probably some crime bigwig that goes by that name. I leap out of the window and slide on my mask as I do so. Where my Dad worked on wasn't just a small out of the way project at all. But just before I get there, my webline is cut. I go weightless and I can barely stop myself before someone catches me again, taking me back where I came from. We land on a roof and there she is. I drop unceremoniously and I pop right back to my feet.

The Black Cat stands there, "No. You're not getting into this."

I back off and she stands in front of me with her hands on her hips. Hair billowing in the wind and anger in her eyes.

"Why not?!" I yell, "Seriously, Cat! Gimme a good reason why I can't!"

She stands her ground and huffs, "Because you're too good for that. You're still so new at this…"

"So let me learn, Cat!" I object, "I just want to know what I have to do!" My voice falters and warbles, thinking of the night Dad died. Thinking that I could've stopped it if I wasn't at her metal show. If I just swung in that'd be it.

The Black Cat sits down, patting the edge and I plunk down beside her. She leans against me, and I just let go, "I… I dunno… what happened to…" I hug her and cry.

"Shhh… It's okay, Spider, It's alright…" she soothes, "I know you want answers,"

She moves my mask up and presses a kiss to my cheek, "Besides, I wanted to ask you something,"

"Yeah?" I roll my mask back down but she stops me.

"Let's make this a thing. Me and you, going out and fighting crime? Or maybe making our own luck?" she smiles and drapes her arms around my neck, pulling me close, "Whaddya say, Scarlet Spider?"

I don't even hesitate, "You got it." I say.

"Great! Now I got a tip, it seems like there's some big hullabaloo on a yacht out in the bay. I want a little bit of the shinies, and well…" she squeezes me.

"Your Mr. L won't hesitate to be there." she grins and I can't believe my luck. Or rather, the fact that she was lucky enough to intervene, "But! One condition!" she pokes me on the nose.

"You let me lead, you follow. Okay? No breaking the path. We get in, get our stuff, and go." she stands up and holds out her hand.

"Now, let's go." she says with a grin.

I take her hand and we both go swinging off towards the docks. This night was just beginning to ramp up.