Thanks to the impressive total of two people who reviewed my story so far. Here are my replies:

To Shadowy Seclusion: Yes, this is about Doc Ock's son. I have read quite a number of good stories about Dr. Octopus and his daughter...but I decided to make it a son for my story.

To Agent Silver: Yes, Anna is pretty busted. As I always saw both Jake and Anna as blue-eyed, having a brown-eyed kid definitely means something is up. The answer to why is found in any high school biology textbook.

Now, for the story! You won't find any Marvel characters in here, that will be soon. This chapter is all about Anna and her family, foreshadowing things to come...Now read, for God's sake! And review!

Chapter 2: Twinkies and Tabloids

Fourteen years later…

The alarm clock rang 6:30. Time to be up and dressed for school.

Austin Smith rolled out of bed—reluctantly. Still rubbing the sleep gunk out of his brown eyes, he haphazardly made his bed and put his clothes on. He looked in the mirror, trying to comb his hair. His brown hair had a permanently windswept appearance, even though there was never any wind in Elsinore, CA this time of year. After ten minutes of frantic combing, Austin finally decided it was no use trying to get his hair to behave, and put on dark sunglasses. Austin had a rather peculiar liking for wearing sunglasses, even though he didn't know why. Smelling breakfast from the kitchen, he hurried down for breakfast.

As well as his mother, Anna, and his aunt, Laufey, his fraternal twin sister Magni and cousin Rachelle were there. Magni was busily describing to Rachelle her dream of making out with Tobey Maguire, and it was pretty graphic.

"Tobey Maguire?" Austin grunted, taking two pancakes. "Isn't he that dumb geeky looking actor?"

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black," retorted Magni. "You're such a geek, you'll be lucky if Maia Wilson gives you the time of day." Maia was another high school student at Elsinore, and she weighed 98 pounds—half of it pimples.

Austin munched his pancake. "I had a dream last night too."

"Austin, don't talk with your mouth full," corrected Anna.

"Yeah, Mom." Austin hurriedly chewed and swallowed. "The dream was about an octopus. It was climbing up a skyscraper. Like King Kong."

No one noticed that Anna had now swallowed her orange juice down the wrong tube and was now in a fit of coughing.

"You dork," said Magni. "Octopuses can't climb walls. They live underwater."

"Well this one did," insisted Austin. "Besides, it was a dream."

"You're stupid," Magni snapped, picking up her backpack. Cousin Rachelle offered a sympathetic look, shrugged her shoulders, and picked up her own backpack. Austin sighed. Being the only guy in a house full of girls is complicated.

"Get in the car, I'm driving," Anna ordered. "I have something to do at the school today."

Anna sat perched on a stool in front of Magni's Home Economics class, finishing her lecture on being a single working mother.

"So, that's what it's like," she concluded. "You know, Miss Watson," referring to the teacher, "I've grown rather fond of these kids. Why don't I take them out on a field trip? To the school of hard knocks, so to speak."

"Splendid!" said the teacher. "I'll print out some permission slips."

As the bell rang for lunch, Austin went very carefully into the hallway, as best as he could while pressed in the throng of hungry kids. He couldn't let Brandon McCloud see him, much less beat him up, until his plan was in full force. He thought of the Twinkies in his backpack—and his plan.

It was a mild day as nine girls, including Magni, met Anna at the grocery store. Anna pulled a cart out. She extended the child seat. "Magni, you're here! Want to sit in the basket with Mommy?"

The girls laughed. Magni rolled her eyes and muttered "Mom…" Anna put her purse in the child seat.

"Weren't there boys in this class?" Anna asked, looking around.

"Yeah," said a girl, "but they didn't come. They think shopping's a girl's job."

"Tell me something I don't know. Come on, let's go to the meat section."

Anna gestured to the meat racks. "Okay, you're a single working mother, you've got three hungry kids and a perpetually jobless sister at home, and you're on a really tight budget. Which meat will you choose?" She directed this question at a young black girl in dreadlocks.

"Um, there's so much meat here."

"What's your name?"

"Ebony."

"Well, Ebony, you've got three hungry kids at home! Move, move, move!"

"All right!" Ebony raced over and grabbed the first pack of meat she could see.

Anna read the label. "T-bone steak, $14.99 per pound. Ebony, what do your parents do?"

"My father's a proctologist."

"Well, Ebony, then for you this would be a good choice. For us mere mortals, however, it's this." Anna held up a package. "Ground beef, 27 fat. The food of the gods." She tossed the ground beef in the cart. "Let's get to the cereal aisle. We need to get cornflakes."

"Corn flakes?" yelped Magni. "What for?"

"Well how else are you going to turn four servings of meat into ten servings of mouthwatering meat loaf?" Anna asked. "Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question. Let's go."

Anna and nine girls were now looking in the cereal aisle. "Magni, get me a box of cornflakes," she ordered. The young girl brushed the red hair out of her eyes and grabbed a box right at eye level.

"Kellogg's? That's the name brand. Here you go, Ebony." Anna handed the box off. She reached up to the top shelf. "It's the generic stuff for us po' folks."

"But Mom!" Magni retorted. "Austin and I eat name brand Count Chocula for breakfast!"

"Ah, Magni, how could I tell you? Ever since you guys were six, I've just been refilling the box with the generic stuff. I'm sorry you had to find out like this," Anna sighed, eliciting much laughter from the girls. From Anna's tone of voice, it was like she just told a child that Santa Claus didn't exist, which was very funny.

Austin strolled home. For two days, McCloud hadn't beaten him up. His plan was in full swing. Austin always had a strategy for to get what he wanted, and he wasn't afraid to play dirty. How he was a natural at strategy he didn't know; but his plans, though not exactly ethical, always worked to his advantage.

There was the time that he found out that the only reason that the cheerleading captain, Brittany Gibson, had asked him on a date was that she lost a bet. But Austin was graciously wenton the date anyway—but not before hiring an older boy to stage a mugging as Austin and Brittany walked to her car. When the "mugger" shoved a gun in Brittany's face, Austin "knocked him out" whith a couple well-placed punches. For a few minutes, the mild-mannered science geek became Superman, and Austin rather enjoyed the attentions of the other girls afterward.

Anna looked into the cart. "Okay, we've got meat, cornflakes, spices, ketchup, and boxed mashed potatoes. Let's head to checkout. Magni, run and get some Twinkies."

"What for?"

"Your brother. They're cheaper than karate lessons, at any rate."

At the checkout, Anna pointed at the racks of tabloids, candy bars, and gum.

"These are the impulse items," she said. "The store's hoping that some poor schmuck will be standing in line like we are now, and drop something in the basket." She paused to pick up a king size Hershey bar. "And it's never worth it—except for chocolate, of course."

However, one of the girls had already picked up a tabloid. "Doc Ock's Love Child: Tentacled supervillian may have fathered son with one night stand," she read aloud. "Hey Magni, is this a picture of that geek brother of yours?"

"Let me see!" Magni cried, looking over the girl's shoulder. "He does look like him, except Austin doesn't have te—"

The paper was snatched out of the girl's hand. "Like I said, it's never worth it," sighed Anna.

"Oh, look there," Anna said, pointing to the guy ahead of her. "Doritos, TV Guide, a TV dinner, a six-pack of beer—yup, single and staying that way."

The girls laughed. Fortunately, girls like these had attention spans slightly shorter than your average Britney Spears song.

"Okay," said Anna as she and the girls arrived home, "you three—follow the instructions to cook the mashed potatoes. You three are cleaning up, setting the table, and doing the dishes. Now you three—" Anna said, holding up a cake pan, "are doing the meat loaf. Take half the cornflakes, the meat, spices, and some of the ketchup, mush it all up with your hands, plop it in the pan, put some more ketchup on it, and bake it at 375°."

"How will we know it's done?" asked one.

"When my perpetually jobless sister comes in and says, 'Meat loaf again?' Now get to it."

"Wait, why do we have to cook you dinner?" asked another girl.

"You wanted to learn what it was like to be a single mother. You're going to the school of hard knocks. Try doing what all nine of you are doing, all by yourself."

Anna plopped down on the couch. Laufey joined her sister, turning on the TV. The doorbell rang.

"Oh God," muttered Anna. "I hope they're not Jehovah witnesses or something."

She opened the door to see a burly man in frayed jeans and a t-shirt reading, "Women Love Me, Fish Fear Me."

Okay, too poorly dressed to be a Jehovah witness, thought Anna.

"Where's District Attorney Smith? I need to have a little talk with that crooked lawyer and I need to have it now!"

Anna looked at him. "And how may this crook help you?"

"Oh…" He paused. He obviously didn't consider that lawyers could be female. "I need to have a talk about your son Austin." He then introduced himself as Brad McCloud, Brandon's father.

"What did he do now?"

"He's been ambushing my son Brandon after school, threatening to beat him up unless he pays him two Twinkies every day!"

Anna clearly had experience with her son's schemes. So did Laufey, raptly listening from the couch. "Austin!" Anna called. "Get down here! Mr. McCloud wants to talk to you."

Austin rushed down the stairs, trying to smooth his hair. As usual, his hair didn't cooperate. "Hello, Mr. McCloud."

"What?!" McCloud yelped. "This is your son? My kid could snap this human toothpick in half!"

Austin gulped. Okay, he was tall and slim like his mother, but was he really that skinny?"

"Yes, that's him. Austin, explain yourself!" Anna snapped, relaying McCloud's story.

"Look, it went like this. Brandon was beating me up every day, so I hired a bodyguard. I paid him a Twinkie every day. Then you stopped packing Twinkies in my lunch, so I had the bodyguard tell Brandon that he would get beaten up twice as hard as I was, unless he paid me two Twinkies every day. I eat one, and give one to the bodyguard. Everyone wins—you don't have to pay for Twinkies, my bodyguard and I get something we like for lunch, and Brandon gets his lesson for beating up nerds."

Laufey grinned broadly—she, too, had had problems with bullies. "Austin—you're a genius!"

"Don't encourage him!" cried McCloud. "He's not a genius, he's an extortionist!"

"Well, you can't say he doesn't have a great criminal mind in him," said Laufey. "Like father, like son…"

"What do you mean?" asked Austin. Around the Smith house, questions about Austin's father were strictly verboten.

"Your aunt doesn't know what she's talking about. She's been smoking too much pot." Anna quickly changed the subject. "This wouldn't have happened if your son hadn't been beating my son up!"

"I'll call off my kid if you call off yours," replied McCloud, stubbornly.

"Call yours off first!"

"You!"

"No you first!"

"Hey," interrupted Laufey. "Call your kid off or I'll pay my sister a Hershey bar to whoop your ass."

"I'll have a talk with Brandon," replied McCloud. A criminal mastermind high school student with a lawyer for a mother, especially if she was called "Hammerhand," was not someone to mess with too much. If Brandon was going to beat a nerd up, at least he could be smart about it. "Good night," McCloud said, slamming the door.

Laufey poked her head in the kitchen "Not that infernal meat loaf again!"

"Girls, it's ready!" Anna called. "Come on, Godfather, let's go in to dinner."