Spider-Man: Close To Home
Chapter 2: Join The Club
"Why does your Aunt May want us to join a club? We have a good thing going between the two of us. Like two peas in a pod. I'm like Obi-Wan and you're like Anakin. We can't mess that up." Ned argued as he and Peter walked down the street together.
"I don't know, man. I mean, I guess it wouldn't hurt just to look… Wait, why do you get to be Obi-Wan? How do you know I don't wanna be Obi-Wan?" Peter questioned.
"Because, Pete, you look way more like Anakin than Obi-Wan." Ned argued.
"Oh, and you look just like Obi-Wan?" Peter asked with a laugh. Ned opened his mouth to argue, but just nodded in agreement and chuckled.
"Anyways, I was looking through the list. I circled the ones I thought would work for us." Peter said, handing Ned the list he had printed out. Ned began to go through it.
"You circled Drama club? Are you serious? You know how I feel about putting on costumes." Ned said with a groan. Peter shrugged.
"I'm just spit-balling dude! I thought it might be fun. You don't want that one, we'll pick something else." Peter said quickly.
"Okay… No… No… Ew… Uh, I guess Knowledge Bowl wouldn't be so bad. I am very quick and intellectual." Ned said humorously. Peter scoffed a bit.
"Alright, we'll mark that down then." Peter nodded.
"Robotics and Band wouldn't be too bad either." Ned added.
"But what about the entry fee for Robotics? You know I don't have that kind of cash, man." Peter argued.
"Yeah, but the superintendent changed that policy apparently. There's no fee, it's free." Ned informed him. Peter's eyes widened a bit.
"Oh, really? Okay… Let's do it then… Did you say Band too?" Peter asked, looking a bit surprised by this suggestion from Ned.
"Yeah! I've always wanted to learn how to play the saxophone. Train myself to play like Kenny G." Ned said.
"Who's that?" Peter asked.
"Eh, some old dude. He plays bedtime music, I think." Ned said.
Peter's attention was then disrupted as they approached an alley. The alley was fenced off, but behind the fence he could see a dumpster with computer equipment sitting inside of it. Peter immediately began to gravitate towards it.
"What are you doing, Peter?" Ned questioned.
"Dude, there's a hard drive in that unit right there! I can use it to build my computer!" Peter said, linking his fingers inside of the fence.
"You're building a computer?"
"Yeah! I told you about this, remember? I can totally climb this." Peter said, beginning to step back and survey the fence. Ned looked at the building by the dumpster. Its sign read: 'PARSONS LABS'.
"Dude, are you crazy?! It's fenced off for a reason! What if there's something radioactive in there?" Ned pointed out. Peter looked at him and scoffed.
"Dude, don't be ridiculous." Peter said, beginning to climb the fence.
"Wuh, okay, well it's still breaking and entering. And I can't go to jail, my Mom would kill me!" Ned continued to argue with Peter even as he made his way down to the other side of the fence.
"It's okay, dude. I'll just be in and out. Besides, whatever I don't use for the computer, we can use for Robotics." Peter pointed out, hopping into the dumpster and beginning to sift through the computer equipment.
"Are you kidding?!" Ned said, quickly turning around so his back was to Peter, pretending to be hanging around for no reason, "We are gonna get in real trouble, dude." He whispered back to Peter.
"I promise you, I will be in and out in no time. I just gotta break off the case." Peter said, beginning to hit the computer console against the wall of the dumpster. The loud banging noise startled Ned, and he began to hiss at Peter.
"Peter, get out!" Ned said. Peter held his head up to respond to Ned, but ducked down when he saw a police car pulling up at the street light.
"Play it cool, Ned!" Peter said. Ned quickly turned around again, and cupped his hands in front of him when he saw the cop car. The police car rolled down its window.
"Hey, kid. You lost?" The police officer inside asked. Ned pointed to himself and looked around, then shook his head.
"No, sir. I'm not lost. Just, uh, checking my phone is all. You know…" Ned said, quickly pulling out his phone and taking a look through it. "Oh, look at that, my Mom texted me. Better text back, hahaha." Ned laughed nervously.
"What?" Peter mouthed silently, shaking his head a bit, "I'm not doing this with you anymore, Ned." He whispered and groaned, waiting to hear from Ned that he could get out.
As Peter turned his body a bit inside of the dumpster, getting into a more comfortable position in mid-crouch, he felt a strange itching on his hand. He glanced down at it, and saw it just in time to see a black spider bite him on the hand.
"Ow!" Peter hissed quietly, shaking his hand. He looked at the bite and saw that the small marks from where the bite had gotten him right on the top of his hand where his vein passed through.
"Peter? You okay? Did you get radiation poisoning?" Ned asked.
"What? No, dude! Are they gone?" Peter asked.
"Yes! Now get out of there! I am not covering for you again. I will snitch!" Ned said.
Peter quickly climbed out of the dumpster. He passed the computer console over the fence, and Ned caught it. He stepped back and jumped towards the fence, hitting his stomach against the top of it. With a groan, he pulled his legs over and dropped back down onto the sidewalk.
"Thanks." Peter said, taking the computer equipment back.
"Dude, that was super dangerous. You could have gotten in so much trouble." Ned said again.
"So? Dude, I'm fine. Let's go. We still got clubs to decide on." Peter said. With a shake of his head, Ned continued to walk with him…