Annie and Jermaine waited just outside the entrance to the subway station. They stood to the side to avoid getting trampled by the people rushing up the stairs and hurrying towards their destinations.
Annie's phone buzzed, and she saw a message from Ryan. "Here! Just getting off the train," it said, and it was followed by a line of emojis expressing excitement, and then another line of cakes and cookies.
"She's here!" Annie told Jermaine, who was scrolling through his phone. His somber expression made her wonder if he was scrolling through Mark's social media. Their recent breakup had been rough on her friend.
"Whatcha looking at?" Annie asked, keeping her tone light.
"Nothin'," he said, immediately sliding his phone into his pocket, his heartbreak written all over his face.
Yeah. He was definitely creeping on Mark. Annie didn't realize they had been so serious. That was on her. She had been so focused on her own shit, that she hadn't been there for her friends. Jermaine and his breakup, Normie selling his company, Reese and Lacey begging her to visit them at ESU; god, she hoped there wasn't some sort of crisis going on with Ryan.
"Wanna talk about it?" She asked.
He shook his head no, and looked up at the sky, bobbing restlessly up on the balls of his feet. She tried to think of something to say.
"Hey Annie!" an excited voice cried.
Annie saw Ryan sprint up the remaining stairs, still in her school uniform which was a navy skort worn over black leggings due to the autumn chill, a light blue button-down, and a thick sweater. The girls giggled as they hugged. Ryan was shorter than Annie, standing at five feet, two inches. Her dark brown hair fell to her shoulders in gentle waves. Ryan's mother and older sister followed behind. Her sister was a slightly thinner clone of her friend.
"Hi Mrs. Valencia-Reyes!" Annie said to Ryan's mom.
"Hi sweetie!" They embraced. Annie introduced Jermaine to Ryan, her mother, and her sister, Riley. Riley and her mother were going to get dinner together in Manhattan before heading back. Ryan would spend the night at Annie's.
When Ryan's family left, Annie and her friends darted into the nearest grocery store, and bought supplies. Ryan was aghast to learn that Annie's plan was to buy boxed cake mixes and cartons of ready-made frosting.
"You seriously need help with boxed baking?" Ryan asked as they walked back to Annie's apartment. "How can you even mess that up?"
"Oh you'd be surprised," Annie began. "I can't tell you how many cakes I made with a pinch of egg shell."
Ryan laughed and looked to Jermaine for backup. "Yeah, I don't bake," he said. "I could really screw up boxed baking too."
Annie checked her phone, and was surprised to see a bunch of missed calls from her dad, and text messages asking her where she was. She responded, reminding him that she had told him yesterday she was going to the market after school with Jermaine and Ryan.
Back at her apartment, they dumped their backpacks, kicked off their shoes, and made their way to the kitchen. The desk in the living room corner was a mess with her dad's research and his school bag, which was strange. He was normally at ESU around this time, completing his TA duties or working on his dissertation. He always had his bag with him. Maybe he was out as Spider-Man? Sometimes he canceled class when that happened, and then spent the next day panicking over the time lost writing his dissertation. And her mom was either with her dad fighting crime, or working at her store.
Annie and her friends had the place to themselves. The three of them headed into the kitchen.
"So, since this is a bake sale, I suggest cute cupcakes. It's for the drama club right? We should work that into the cupcake aesthetic," Ryan instructed.
"You are getting way too into this. I say we just bake and swab some frosting on."
"Swab? Annie, you're such a dork, you don't swab cupcakes!"
"So Ryan, what school do you go too?" Jermaine asked. Annie was relieved to see him back to his normal self.
"I'm a Junior at Academy of St. Mary," Ryan said as Annie dumped the cake powder into a mixing bowl.
"Cool, you like it there?"
She shrugged, her shoulders bouncing up and down. "I like it. I'm taking this awesome psych elective, about the psychology of super villains."
"No way, that's pretty interesting," Jermaine said. And he wasn't wrong. Annie wished she could take a class like that. Hell, with her first hand experience, it would be a breeze.
"Ry, did you guys get your assignments yet?" Annie asked.
"Oh my God! Yes I did!" She angled towards Jermaine. "So, for our midterm paper, we're assigned a supervillain and have to write up a mock psychological report, and back up our conclusions with, like, events and theories and all that stuff. And we got our assignments today. And Annie, guess what?" Before Annie had a chance guess, Ryan continued. "I was assigned the Green Goblin, who's like a Spider-Man villain, and I know your dad takes pictures of Spider-Man, do you think he'd mind if I, like interviewed him, or something? Maybe he has some photos or insight?" Ryan had a habit of talking a mile a minute when excited.
The Green Goblin? Yeah, her dad had plenty of photos and insight. But he was also very private about the Goblin. And strangely cranky about her using Goblin weaponry. She briefly entertained the idea of introducing Ryan to Normie, but that was out of the question as Normie only knew Spiderling and had nothing to do with Annie May Parker. And she doubted he'd be comfortable with his family being a part of a high school midterm.
"Which Goblin are you doing?" Jermaine asked. "I think there were a bunch of them."
"Yea, like four or five. My teacher said I can pick which one. But the first two, the father and son, are obviously the most interesting. So it will be one of them. Maybe I can do both? Like tie it all up to like, family systems or something? I don't know yet."
Yeah. Normie would hate everything about this. And she found herself feeling a little guilty for not saying anything about this assignment. It felt insensitive, especially when thinking about her friend.
"That'll be interesting," Jermaine said. "My mom's an editor at the Daily Bugle. I can ask her if she has any good articles for you to check out."
"Aw, thank you! Between your mom and Annie's dad, this should be a cinch!" As the continued to talk, Annie grabbed the eggs and the oil needed for the cake.
"So, Jermaine, Annie says you swim?"
Jermaine's face lit up. "I do. My coach says he's gonna have me compete in the relays." He beamed with pride. Annie knew how hard he had worked to start competing. He had joined the team as a freshman, and like most freshmen and sophomores, he wasn't chosen for the meets. But he trained like hell, and always showed up to every competition, cheering his team on.
"Oh my God! That's awesome!" Ryan squealed. "I'll definitely come to one of your meets!"
Annie smiled as she cracked an egg into the mixing bowl. Ryan was like that, a constant stream of positivity. And of course, she got a nice chunk of egg shell into the batter. As she tried to fish it her, Annie's dad rushed into the kitchen.
"Hey, guys," he said, his voice uncharacteristically, tense. "Can we keep it down please? Annie's mom is not feeling well."
Her friends apologized. "Is Mrs. Parker okay?" Ryan asked.
Annie didn't like the way her father paused before saying. "Yea. She's okay, just keep the volume down. I'll order you guys a pizza in ten, alright? Let me know what you want."
And then he hurried out of the kitchen.
"Hang on," she muttered to her friends. "Dad!" She rushed out of the kitchen, and caught up with her dad.
He turned around, "What is it?"
She could ask him the same thing. "What's wrong with mom? Do you want us to leave?"
"No, no! Just, keep the volume down, that's all."
"What happened?" Judging by his tone, this felt a lot more serious than the common cold.
Her dad sighed. "During patrol this morning, my Spider-Tracer caught one of the Vultures' signal. We tracked him to the East River Promenade." He winced, as if pained by even thinking of it. What the hell happened? "We found Vulture, and a couple of new goons trying steal some research from an ESU professor. We fought, and the suit got damaged, leaving your mother… powerless in the fight."
"What? Is she okay?" Annie's heart dropped. Where was she? Was she at the hospital? Was that why her dad wasn't home when they got there? And why didn't her Spider-Sense warn her? Her connection to the Web of Life made her Spider-Sense incredibly sensitive, to the point were she caught glimpses of the future. Why hadn't she seen what ever it was that happened? Her parents did leave for patrol very early, leaving Annie to rest up for her science test. She did wake up feeling an awful sense of dread, but she had chalked that feeling up to pre-test nerves, poor sleep, and a high blood sugar. .
"She'll be fine," he said, his shoulders sagging in relief, as if he were just now starting to believe it. Annie listened in horror as her dad recalled their fight against Vulture, Bubble Boy, and Blondie, culminating in an explosion leading to her mom gettin hurled into the East River, trapped beneath the magenta dome.
Annie rushed past her dad and into her parents' bedroom. She saw her mom sitting up in bed, surrounded by Chinese take out cartons from her favorite restaurant. That must have been why her dad wasn't home when she and her friends had first arrived. He was likely out getting her mom something to eat.
"Hey Sweetie," her mom said through a mouthful of food. She looked okay thank goodness. Annie threw her arms around her mother, relief flooding her body.
"Dad told me what happened," she muttered as she buried her face into her mother's hair.
"I'm okay," her mom whispered, rubbing Annie's back. "I'm okay."
Annie broke away. Then she heard Ryan call out for her.
"Is that Ryan?" Her mother asked. "God, I've been sleeping the entire day away, I didn't hear you all come in." She made a move to get out of bed.
"Absolutely not!" Her dad said.
"Come on Peter, I'm fine!"
"MJ, you almost drowned! I'm still kicking myself for not taking you to the hospital."
"That is so not necessary. I just want to say high to the kids, then I'll get back into bed."
"Mom, I'm with dad on this one," Annie said. "Besides, he told us you were sick, not injured. You saying hi would blow our cover," she playfully said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Exactly," her dad said. "You'd blow our cover."
"Oh come on! Are you guys forgetting I'm an actress?" She made her voice sound stuffy, and rubbed at her nose and eyes. "Having cold is easy to fake," she sniffed loudly and coughed. Her performance was convincing. Annie smiled, her mom seemed to be okay.
"Speaking of acting," her dad began. "MJ, I really think you should postpone your class tomorrow. Take a full day to rest."
Her mother's eyes narrowed. "Peter. Tomorrow is the first day of my class. For the last time, I'm not postponing."
Her dad looked like he was about to say something, but her mom cut him off. "I may not have superpowers like you, but I'm not made of glass."
"I never said that!" her dad responded.
"You didn't have to." Her mom got out of bed, and walked out of the room.
Annie and her dad listened as she said a very stuffy hello to Ryan and Jermaine, and apologized for being a hermit, while cautioning them from getting too close. Annie heard her friends wish her mom a speedy recovery. Ryan even offered to remake the cupcakes when her mom was feeling better so she could fully enjoy them.
Her mom came back into the room and sat on the bed.
"See," she began, "I didn't break." She laid down and rolled over to her side, giving Annie and her dad her back.
Her dad sighed and left the room. Annie followed him out, shaken by her parents' exchange. Of course they fought, but this felt pretty heavy, especially with how fast the conversation tone shifted.
"Annie, I gotta grade some papers and work on my dissertation. You mind if I do that in your room so you guys can have some privacy?" "Yeah, sure, but if you want us to leave, or something that's fine."
"No, it's good, it's nice having them over. And let me know about the pizza. I'll call it in."
And so the night continued. Pizza was ordered and devoured, and cupcakes were baked and frosted. They all allowed themselves one cupcake each, Ryan putting hers to the side for later due to an elevated blood sugar. But she honestly wasn't missing much, they were a solid okay.
Ryan ended up not spending the night. She and Jermaine could sense Annie's worry and the overall tension. Annie of course felt guilty her friends left early, but her mind was consumed by what had happened, and what had almost happened, to her mother.
Vulture and this new duo. Annie's body tensed when she thought of what they almost did. But that would not happen; not again. The next time those punks resurfaced, her parents wouldn't face them alone.
