p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" After a couple of weeks, it was nearing the end of November and Annie had secured herself as the stereotypical theater kid. Constantly listening to showtunes and memorizing monologues faster than she could memorize equations. She started to move up the metaphorical food chain, gaining the respect of a few of the people in the theater class. Mainly the girls who sang in lower vocal registers. It was like the girls that shared choir and theater could smell another soprano from a mile away. They didn't outright say anything rude to the newer girl, but they would seem to leave her out of anything they talked about during breaks. So Annie found herself finding friends in some of the alto section instead./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Outside of the world of theater and singing, she had found some form of friendship with Spider-Man. Well, it was more of a frenemy relationship. They were both on the same side, but they had completely different ways of solving problems. The conflicting ideas sometimes got to be a bit much, but they often ended up finding a way to compromise. Especially after the other hero had managed to talk Tina into working with them on the case. Not to mention the solid friendship she had with Peter and Ned along with the interesting friendship she'd acquired with Michelle./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Holy shit! You guys, did you see what he spring musical's gonna be?" Annie asked, practically slamming her books on the lunch table as she grinned at the two boys sitting across from her./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned shrugged, unwrapping his sandwich, "What about it?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "It's West Side Story and auditions are right before winter break," she replied, a mischievous glint in her brown eyes./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter gave a look, thinking he was catching on to why Annie was telling them, "And you're going to audition, right? That's one of the musicals you keep listening to and tearing up about."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Well, no shit, Sherlock, it's super sad and of course I'm auditioning! But I want you both to audition too! Oh, come on you guys, it'll be fun!" Annie pleaded, batting her eyes as she sat down and pulled out her lunch./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "I mean, as much as I would like to I have the-" Peter was cut off./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Stark internship, I know. However, Pete, having multiple things on your resume looks better though, it makes you seem rounded," she replied insistently as she opened a bad of potato chips./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned laughed, "You know what? Fuck it, I'm in, it could be fun. But I'm not too sure about what they'll think of my voice."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Oh please, you were doing that off-key stuff on purpose and you know it," Annie stated as she popped a chip in her mouth./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter frowned, "W-well why can't I just be a techie person instead?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Because I heard you singing when we were all watching Aladdin last weekend. You could easily get the lead," Annie responded before leaning forward, "Please? I don't wanna do this alone, but either way I definitely have to do this."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned shrugged, "It would be fun. Come on Peter, you can pull some strings, can't you?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "I'll think about it," Peter relented, running a hand through his hair as he appeared to be thinking about something./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Annie ran to the other side of the table to hug Peter, "Great! I can help both of you come up with the perfect audition material. All you guys have to do is practice singing it, I promise!"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" After lunch, the day consisted of Annie going through all the music on her phone. Along with her constantly bugging Peter and Ned about audition song ideas. Then she was worrying about what she was going to sing. The songs needed to be nice enough, but not overused at the same time. She was positive that if Ms. Beauregard heard one of the girls sing "Popular" one more time in her class that she was going to scream. Granted, Annie felt the same way after having heard every other girl use that damn song for an audition when she was in Seattle. Annie worried about the audition so much that she forgot about the other, much more important issues she was dealing with. Issues that included going and attempting to get Tina to finally say something that could help herself and Spider-Man to find out who was running that trafficking ring./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Well, it wasn't that she forgot about Tina, it was for the best for Annie to have something else to focus her energy on. If she let herself stay up another moment worrying about what happened to Tina, she would probably never get any sleep. Then she would just be useless all the way around. Granted, Annie had been getting a minimal amount of sleep even with her and Spider-Man insisting on not working with Tina every single day. She wasn't supposed to work on it, but that didn't mean Annie didn't feel her hands grow a little clammy whenever she thought about the night she found Tina./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Truth be told, Annie had been trying to come up with plans and ideas. It was a no brainer for her, all those girls could be her age or younger didn't get to sleep easily. Why should she? Besides, coffee was just the perfect fix for a bit of sleep deprivation. Albeit it was probably irresponsible and definitely terrible for Annie to go out stopping crime and go to school and stay up until two in the morning. It was a wonder she hadn't gotten a cold yet, especially when all her suit consisted of was a hoodie and a pair of leggings. Though she started putting more shirts underneath the hoodie to keep warm. She needed to get that new suit as soon as possible./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Although, the change of her mental energy was welcome, it was clearly obvious that Annie had to be fixated on something. It was even more noticeable when someone could just look over her shoulder to see three lists with all kinds of colors on the paper, some things crossed out. People probably thought she was being obsessive, and they wouldn't have been wrong. Though, that never worried Annie or her parents, she'd always had phases where she went a million miles a minute./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" By the end of the day, Annie had only been able to find Peter, it seemed that Ned had left early for a doctor's appointment. Which meant that Peter was going to end up listening to Annie talking his ear off about musicals while they worked on physics homework in the library. Of course, Annie wasn't sure if she was bothering him or not, but she continued talking anyways. If he wasn't stopping her, Annie assumed that her constant rambling wasn't aggravating him./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Come on, just listen to them, all those musicals are on Netflix," Annie begged as they were putting their books back into their bags./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter shook his head and sighed as he glanced at the multicolored mess that was Annie's list, "You know I don't have time for that."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "But, Pete, you could do so good! At least listen to the soundtracks, that's all you really need to do," she continued before adding, "Besides, if you can find time to have Star Wars marathons, you can find time to watch a couple."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He shrugged a bit, "I'll see, I'm not sure what's going on with my internship tonight. And Star Wars nights are untouchable, and you know that."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" They had been staying after school to help Annie with physics for the last couple of weeks. Annie managed to prove that she wasn't completely hopeless at the subject, she just needed a different way of looking at the problems. Though there was still a long way for her to go. With Midtown being a science school, she needed to ace those physics tests in order to be competitive in academics. At least, that was the excuse she gave for caring about the subject so much. In reality, Annie could have passed the class on her own, but she wanted to know more so she could eventually understand her powers better. Although, getting the chance to hang out with Peter was an added bonus./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Thankfully, Peter didn't seem to mind. He would always be the one to end the sessions. After that, he would walk Annie home, him joking that she would probably get lost again. She didn't stop him, though, she knew that being a girl and walking home later in the day was rather risky. Then, Annie would suit up and meet Spider-Man at the same place that they dropped Tina off. It was their only lead with the trafficking ordeal, but Tina was rarely any kind of help./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The lack of help confused Annie, and she could tell that it confused Spider-Man as well. She wouldn't let up on who her real family was or where she'd come from. It was impossible for Annie to understand, but she knew that she would never truly understand Tina. There was no way to truly understand the things she went through. Especially when she wasn't always clear about what she did when talking to the heroes./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina had let up on a few things. Things like how the pimp had gotten the black-haired girl started on heroin. How Tina had been moved from Nevada to New York due to demand. She never had anyone to help get her out. All Tina could do was lose herself in her clients. At least, that was the way she had put it. Annie felt pangs of hurt, wishing that she had somehow been able to be there and help Tina before everything had gotten as bad as it was. Even though she knew that it would have only meant Annie would have found a different girl in the alley that night./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" It turned out that Tina was seventeen. An age so close to Annie's that in left knots tightening in her stomach. Had Annie ever been close to ending up in Tina's situation before? The thought quickly left her mind, knowing that it would have done nothing more than keep Annie awake in the middle of the night. Still, despite how cruel the pimp was, Tina refused to give up the man's identity. Neither Annie nor Spider-Man could understand why that was. In her mind, it almost sounded as if Tina were in love with the guy. Maybe it was a depressing form of Stolkholm Syndrome, but that didn't make it any less complicated./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Point blank, there wasn't much of a case. Tina had yet to give away any information that could lead anywhere. Perhaps that was the point, making the pair of heroes feel like they knew something. Though, when both of them looked back on it, they only knew the nature of the situation. Until that particular day when Tina gave the slightest lead that Annie had barely even noticed./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "How'd you even get wrapped up in this?" Annie asked, shifting in the seat that surrounded a table of the dining hall./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina paused, "Are you just meaning if I got into pot before smack or if I was kidnapped or what?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Not quite. Like, were you raped and thrown into a scam or was it a drug deal gone wrong? Runaway maybe?" she prompted, thinking of some of the stories she'd read to help give herself some ideas./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina shrugged her shoulders, "He offered me a modeling job while I was alone at the mall, gave me this card. Said I was real pretty, it started simple enough. It was just a photoshoot or two. Then a trip to his studio out of town, and we went there more and more…. One day he showed me to a friend and I ended up fucking him. It happened so gradually, I guess I didn't realize."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "And how'd you get into drugs? Did you… do… uh, did you do something… with your um… with your pimp?" Spider-Man asked. Annie was positive the guy underneath was redder than his costume./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You mean was my pimp my dealer and did I fuck him too? I guess saying no would be a lie…" Tina said in response, seeming to be thinking about something./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The charges against Tina's pimp just stacked in Annie's head. Drugs, trafficking, dealing, statutory rape, rape in general, the list just continued growing. Annie was almost certain that murder fit into the mix somewhere. It was obvious that the man who Tina appeared to care for was worse than a piece of garbage./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" When it seemed that Tina was getting irritated with both heroes, Annie suggested that they leave for the evening. All Annie wanted was to finally crack Tina open, just so she could understand the other girl better. If only she could establish more trust with Tina, maybe then she'd trust Annie a little bit more. Though maybe it had to do with the fact that Annie was in a costume the whole time. Maybe if she met Tina while not being a superhero it would go differently, but she doubted that the opportunity would ever present itself./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "So, Spider-Kid, what do you think we should do for dinner?" Annie asked as they walked out of the homeless shelter, the sky already darkened./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The male sounded like he rolled his eyes at the nickname, "Well, Bird-Girl, I was thinking about getting something from that hot dog truck that's about a block away."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You're kidding right? You can't actually smell that far away, can you?" she questioned with a small laugh, following Spider-Man./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He laughed a bit, "I-I actually can. My senses are dialed to eleven, it kinda sucks."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Well yeah, you're in a huge city where everyone's doing something at all times. I don't think I could handle it," she said as they stopped in front of the hot dog truck./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Annie just got a normal hot dog, but Spider-Man always got a ton of food. He blamed it on a scarily fast metabolism, but she never really paid much attention to it. The people working the truck were a bit surprised to see a couple of heroes just getting food. She couldn't understand why, everyone had to eat at some point. At least it got both of them a sort of discount. They were familiar with Spider-Man, and Annie guessed that they just figured she was a friend or a hero by association./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Getting dinner after talking to Tina had become routine for the pair. That was when they got to talk about everything that happened. If they were going to have any major breakthroughs, hopefully it would be over some dinner while on the top of a skyscraper. It was a nice feeling, getting the chance to see the sky and all the buildings around. The city was prettier when she was able to see everything without feeling as though everything was stacked on top of itself./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Alright, Spidey, lift me up, my dude," Annie said, standing next to him with a hot dog in hand./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You sure you don't wanna try using your powers to lift yourself up? I'm telling you, I think you could do it. That would be way cool."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Eh, maybe later, I don't feel like ruining my hotdog while trying to learn a new move."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;"Spider-Man had an arm around her waist before he shot up to the top of the building they stood next to. Then they both sat on the roof, starting to eat. Being with each other like that made things private but casual. Annie found Spider-Man to be kind of funny sometimes. Sometimes it felt like she had known him for years and that they were good friends. Friends who shared being a hero in common. It felt like nothing would have changed if they knew each other in person. Though the guy could be insufferable when he brought up everything he had already done. It felt like he talked about stealing Captain America's shield just to irritate her a bit./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Anyways… you noticed that lead, right?" Annie asked, interrupting his fifteenth recount of Germany as she took another bite of her hotdog./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" His eyes seemed to squint in thought, his mouth slightly opened in confusion, "How was any of that a lead?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "We know how the guy finds girls. I'm a teenage girl, if I went to the right place at the right time and got a card or something like she did, we'd have a name," she explained./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Then the eyes on his suit widened, becoming completely white, "No! You can't do that! Swan, if you're not careful then… I'm not sure you could get things to go the way you want."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "It would just be a card, jeez, I wouldn't need to do anything else," she insisted, finishing up her food./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He glanced at her, "You know it would be more than that. You would over investigate. Normally… normally that's fine, but he has other people."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Okay, but we could take them down together, I get us on the inside and we trap them together. You know, doing what the cops obviously aren't," Annie replied./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Spider-Man sighed, "It's too dangerous, and it relies on you being in the right place at the right time."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "But we both have powers, they don't have any! We could take them so fast and they'd never see us coming!"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You don't know, there's so much more that Tina isn't telling us and I doubt she would know all that much about whatever organization it is anyways."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" They argued over practicalities and leads for the whole time they were up there. Annie thought it was nice that Spider-Man cared about what she did. Despite that, she was going along with her plan. He couldn't stop her, she wouldn't be in costume anyways. Like she'd claimed before, she just wanted to get a card. Something that could be more evidence. She figured that if the guy really wanted more supply in New York that he wouldn't be too hard to find if she looked carefully./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Both of them agreed on just keeping their identities secret. There was no reason for either of them to know. If anything, it would only complicate their weird form of friendship. She also liked the type of anonymity it gave her. It was like they knew each other, but the reality was that they knew absolutely nothing about each other./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Granted, Annie had a list of people she suspected. Flash, Peter, and a couple other guys were on the list. Though when Annie asked Peter about his internship, the stories felt real enough. Still, every skinny guy that was a few inches taller than her was put on the list and Peter was certainly up there, but he wasn't the prime suspect./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Then again, it was bold of her to assume Spider-Man went to Midtown in the first place. Queens was a huge area, the guy could have been in so many different schools. He was probably some guy that went to a school across from where she went for all she knew. For all she was aware, she didn't know his secret identity personally anyways. It was possible that she had never even walked past him on the streets./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" That would probably make more sense anyways for the fact that Annie liked to think that she knew the voices of the handful of people who she knew in New York. Not to mention Spider-Man's seemingly unique personality. The odds of Annie knowing Spider-Man when she cross referenced personality with height and build, there were only two or three guys that Annie could really suspect. Perhaps, the mystery of who Spider-Man really was would remain unsolved in her mind./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Besides, Annie had better things to keep herself awake at night. Between the promise she had made to Peter and Ned alongside the makeshift mission with Tina, the young hero was swamped. It didn't' help that it felt like Harper was beginning to get tired of Annie focusing on the same two things, claiming that she needed to get a hobby or a love life. Something to keep her from obsessing so much about the problems around her./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Outside of the world of theater and singing, she had found some form of friendship with Spider-Man. Well, it was more of a frenemy relationship. They were both on the same side, but they had completely different ways of solving problems. The conflicting ideas sometimes got to be a bit much, but they often ended up finding a way to compromise. Especially after the other hero had managed to talk Tina into working with them on the case. Not to mention the solid friendship she had with Peter and Ned along with the interesting friendship she'd acquired with Michelle./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Holy shit! You guys, did you see what he spring musical's gonna be?" Annie asked, practically slamming her books on the lunch table as she grinned at the two boys sitting across from her./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned shrugged, unwrapping his sandwich, "What about it?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "It's West Side Story and auditions are right before winter break," she replied, a mischievous glint in her brown eyes./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter gave a look, thinking he was catching on to why Annie was telling them, "And you're going to audition, right? That's one of the musicals you keep listening to and tearing up about."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Well, no shit, Sherlock, it's super sad and of course I'm auditioning! But I want you both to audition too! Oh, come on you guys, it'll be fun!" Annie pleaded, batting her eyes as she sat down and pulled out her lunch./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "I mean, as much as I would like to I have the-" Peter was cut off./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Stark internship, I know. However, Pete, having multiple things on your resume looks better though, it makes you seem rounded," she replied insistently as she opened a bad of potato chips./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned laughed, "You know what? Fuck it, I'm in, it could be fun. But I'm not too sure about what they'll think of my voice."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Oh please, you were doing that off-key stuff on purpose and you know it," Annie stated as she popped a chip in her mouth./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter frowned, "W-well why can't I just be a techie person instead?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Because I heard you singing when we were all watching Aladdin last weekend. You could easily get the lead," Annie responded before leaning forward, "Please? I don't wanna do this alone, but either way I definitely have to do this."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Ned shrugged, "It would be fun. Come on Peter, you can pull some strings, can't you?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "I'll think about it," Peter relented, running a hand through his hair as he appeared to be thinking about something./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Annie ran to the other side of the table to hug Peter, "Great! I can help both of you come up with the perfect audition material. All you guys have to do is practice singing it, I promise!"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" After lunch, the day consisted of Annie going through all the music on her phone. Along with her constantly bugging Peter and Ned about audition song ideas. Then she was worrying about what she was going to sing. The songs needed to be nice enough, but not overused at the same time. She was positive that if Ms. Beauregard heard one of the girls sing "Popular" one more time in her class that she was going to scream. Granted, Annie felt the same way after having heard every other girl use that damn song for an audition when she was in Seattle. Annie worried about the audition so much that she forgot about the other, much more important issues she was dealing with. Issues that included going and attempting to get Tina to finally say something that could help herself and Spider-Man to find out who was running that trafficking ring./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Well, it wasn't that she forgot about Tina, it was for the best for Annie to have something else to focus her energy on. If she let herself stay up another moment worrying about what happened to Tina, she would probably never get any sleep. Then she would just be useless all the way around. Granted, Annie had been getting a minimal amount of sleep even with her and Spider-Man insisting on not working with Tina every single day. She wasn't supposed to work on it, but that didn't mean Annie didn't feel her hands grow a little clammy whenever she thought about the night she found Tina./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Truth be told, Annie had been trying to come up with plans and ideas. It was a no brainer for her, all those girls could be her age or younger didn't get to sleep easily. Why should she? Besides, coffee was just the perfect fix for a bit of sleep deprivation. Albeit it was probably irresponsible and definitely terrible for Annie to go out stopping crime and go to school and stay up until two in the morning. It was a wonder she hadn't gotten a cold yet, especially when all her suit consisted of was a hoodie and a pair of leggings. Though she started putting more shirts underneath the hoodie to keep warm. She needed to get that new suit as soon as possible./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Although, the change of her mental energy was welcome, it was clearly obvious that Annie had to be fixated on something. It was even more noticeable when someone could just look over her shoulder to see three lists with all kinds of colors on the paper, some things crossed out. People probably thought she was being obsessive, and they wouldn't have been wrong. Though, that never worried Annie or her parents, she'd always had phases where she went a million miles a minute./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" By the end of the day, Annie had only been able to find Peter, it seemed that Ned had left early for a doctor's appointment. Which meant that Peter was going to end up listening to Annie talking his ear off about musicals while they worked on physics homework in the library. Of course, Annie wasn't sure if she was bothering him or not, but she continued talking anyways. If he wasn't stopping her, Annie assumed that her constant rambling wasn't aggravating him./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Come on, just listen to them, all those musicals are on Netflix," Annie begged as they were putting their books back into their bags./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Peter shook his head and sighed as he glanced at the multicolored mess that was Annie's list, "You know I don't have time for that."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "But, Pete, you could do so good! At least listen to the soundtracks, that's all you really need to do," she continued before adding, "Besides, if you can find time to have Star Wars marathons, you can find time to watch a couple."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He shrugged a bit, "I'll see, I'm not sure what's going on with my internship tonight. And Star Wars nights are untouchable, and you know that."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" They had been staying after school to help Annie with physics for the last couple of weeks. Annie managed to prove that she wasn't completely hopeless at the subject, she just needed a different way of looking at the problems. Though there was still a long way for her to go. With Midtown being a science school, she needed to ace those physics tests in order to be competitive in academics. At least, that was the excuse she gave for caring about the subject so much. In reality, Annie could have passed the class on her own, but she wanted to know more so she could eventually understand her powers better. Although, getting the chance to hang out with Peter was an added bonus./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Thankfully, Peter didn't seem to mind. He would always be the one to end the sessions. After that, he would walk Annie home, him joking that she would probably get lost again. She didn't stop him, though, she knew that being a girl and walking home later in the day was rather risky. Then, Annie would suit up and meet Spider-Man at the same place that they dropped Tina off. It was their only lead with the trafficking ordeal, but Tina was rarely any kind of help./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The lack of help confused Annie, and she could tell that it confused Spider-Man as well. She wouldn't let up on who her real family was or where she'd come from. It was impossible for Annie to understand, but she knew that she would never truly understand Tina. There was no way to truly understand the things she went through. Especially when she wasn't always clear about what she did when talking to the heroes./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina had let up on a few things. Things like how the pimp had gotten the black-haired girl started on heroin. How Tina had been moved from Nevada to New York due to demand. She never had anyone to help get her out. All Tina could do was lose herself in her clients. At least, that was the way she had put it. Annie felt pangs of hurt, wishing that she had somehow been able to be there and help Tina before everything had gotten as bad as it was. Even though she knew that it would have only meant Annie would have found a different girl in the alley that night./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" It turned out that Tina was seventeen. An age so close to Annie's that in left knots tightening in her stomach. Had Annie ever been close to ending up in Tina's situation before? The thought quickly left her mind, knowing that it would have done nothing more than keep Annie awake in the middle of the night. Still, despite how cruel the pimp was, Tina refused to give up the man's identity. Neither Annie nor Spider-Man could understand why that was. In her mind, it almost sounded as if Tina were in love with the guy. Maybe it was a depressing form of Stolkholm Syndrome, but that didn't make it any less complicated./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Point blank, there wasn't much of a case. Tina had yet to give away any information that could lead anywhere. Perhaps that was the point, making the pair of heroes feel like they knew something. Though, when both of them looked back on it, they only knew the nature of the situation. Until that particular day when Tina gave the slightest lead that Annie had barely even noticed./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "How'd you even get wrapped up in this?" Annie asked, shifting in the seat that surrounded a table of the dining hall./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina paused, "Are you just meaning if I got into pot before smack or if I was kidnapped or what?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Not quite. Like, were you raped and thrown into a scam or was it a drug deal gone wrong? Runaway maybe?" she prompted, thinking of some of the stories she'd read to help give herself some ideas./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Tina shrugged her shoulders, "He offered me a modeling job while I was alone at the mall, gave me this card. Said I was real pretty, it started simple enough. It was just a photoshoot or two. Then a trip to his studio out of town, and we went there more and more…. One day he showed me to a friend and I ended up fucking him. It happened so gradually, I guess I didn't realize."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "And how'd you get into drugs? Did you… do… uh, did you do something… with your um… with your pimp?" Spider-Man asked. Annie was positive the guy underneath was redder than his costume./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You mean was my pimp my dealer and did I fuck him too? I guess saying no would be a lie…" Tina said in response, seeming to be thinking about something./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The charges against Tina's pimp just stacked in Annie's head. Drugs, trafficking, dealing, statutory rape, rape in general, the list just continued growing. Annie was almost certain that murder fit into the mix somewhere. It was obvious that the man who Tina appeared to care for was worse than a piece of garbage./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" When it seemed that Tina was getting irritated with both heroes, Annie suggested that they leave for the evening. All Annie wanted was to finally crack Tina open, just so she could understand the other girl better. If only she could establish more trust with Tina, maybe then she'd trust Annie a little bit more. Though maybe it had to do with the fact that Annie was in a costume the whole time. Maybe if she met Tina while not being a superhero it would go differently, but she doubted that the opportunity would ever present itself./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "So, Spider-Kid, what do you think we should do for dinner?" Annie asked as they walked out of the homeless shelter, the sky already darkened./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" The male sounded like he rolled his eyes at the nickname, "Well, Bird-Girl, I was thinking about getting something from that hot dog truck that's about a block away."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You're kidding right? You can't actually smell that far away, can you?" she questioned with a small laugh, following Spider-Man./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He laughed a bit, "I-I actually can. My senses are dialed to eleven, it kinda sucks."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Well yeah, you're in a huge city where everyone's doing something at all times. I don't think I could handle it," she said as they stopped in front of the hot dog truck./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Annie just got a normal hot dog, but Spider-Man always got a ton of food. He blamed it on a scarily fast metabolism, but she never really paid much attention to it. The people working the truck were a bit surprised to see a couple of heroes just getting food. She couldn't understand why, everyone had to eat at some point. At least it got both of them a sort of discount. They were familiar with Spider-Man, and Annie guessed that they just figured she was a friend or a hero by association./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Getting dinner after talking to Tina had become routine for the pair. That was when they got to talk about everything that happened. If they were going to have any major breakthroughs, hopefully it would be over some dinner while on the top of a skyscraper. It was a nice feeling, getting the chance to see the sky and all the buildings around. The city was prettier when she was able to see everything without feeling as though everything was stacked on top of itself./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Alright, Spidey, lift me up, my dude," Annie said, standing next to him with a hot dog in hand./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You sure you don't wanna try using your powers to lift yourself up? I'm telling you, I think you could do it. That would be way cool."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Eh, maybe later, I don't feel like ruining my hotdog while trying to learn a new move."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;"Spider-Man had an arm around her waist before he shot up to the top of the building they stood next to. Then they both sat on the roof, starting to eat. Being with each other like that made things private but casual. Annie found Spider-Man to be kind of funny sometimes. Sometimes it felt like she had known him for years and that they were good friends. Friends who shared being a hero in common. It felt like nothing would have changed if they knew each other in person. Though the guy could be insufferable when he brought up everything he had already done. It felt like he talked about stealing Captain America's shield just to irritate her a bit./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Anyways… you noticed that lead, right?" Annie asked, interrupting his fifteenth recount of Germany as she took another bite of her hotdog./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" His eyes seemed to squint in thought, his mouth slightly opened in confusion, "How was any of that a lead?"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "We know how the guy finds girls. I'm a teenage girl, if I went to the right place at the right time and got a card or something like she did, we'd have a name," she explained./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Then the eyes on his suit widened, becoming completely white, "No! You can't do that! Swan, if you're not careful then… I'm not sure you could get things to go the way you want."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "It would just be a card, jeez, I wouldn't need to do anything else," she insisted, finishing up her food./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" He glanced at her, "You know it would be more than that. You would over investigate. Normally… normally that's fine, but he has other people."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "Okay, but we could take them down together, I get us on the inside and we trap them together. You know, doing what the cops obviously aren't," Annie replied./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Spider-Man sighed, "It's too dangerous, and it relies on you being in the right place at the right time."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "But we both have powers, they don't have any! We could take them so fast and they'd never see us coming!"/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" "You don't know, there's so much more that Tina isn't telling us and I doubt she would know all that much about whatever organization it is anyways."/p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" They argued over practicalities and leads for the whole time they were up there. Annie thought it was nice that Spider-Man cared about what she did. Despite that, she was going along with her plan. He couldn't stop her, she wouldn't be in costume anyways. Like she'd claimed before, she just wanted to get a card. Something that could be more evidence. She figured that if the guy really wanted more supply in New York that he wouldn't be too hard to find if she looked carefully./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Both of them agreed on just keeping their identities secret. There was no reason for either of them to know. If anything, it would only complicate their weird form of friendship. She also liked the type of anonymity it gave her. It was like they knew each other, but the reality was that they knew absolutely nothing about each other./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Granted, Annie had a list of people she suspected. Flash, Peter, and a couple other guys were on the list. Though when Annie asked Peter about his internship, the stories felt real enough. Still, every skinny guy that was a few inches taller than her was put on the list and Peter was certainly up there, but he wasn't the prime suspect./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Then again, it was bold of her to assume Spider-Man went to Midtown in the first place. Queens was a huge area, the guy could have been in so many different schools. He was probably some guy that went to a school across from where she went for all she knew. For all she was aware, she didn't know his secret identity personally anyways. It was possible that she had never even walked past him on the streets./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" That would probably make more sense anyways for the fact that Annie liked to think that she knew the voices of the handful of people who she knew in New York. Not to mention Spider-Man's seemingly unique personality. The odds of Annie knowing Spider-Man when she cross referenced personality with height and build, there were only two or three guys that Annie could really suspect. Perhaps, the mystery of who Spider-Man really was would remain unsolved in her mind./p
p style="color: #888888; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 19.2px;" Besides, Annie had better things to keep herself awake at night. Between the promise she had made to Peter and Ned alongside the makeshift mission with Tina, the young hero was swamped. It didn't' help that it felt like Harper was beginning to get tired of Annie focusing on the same two things, claiming that she needed to get a hobby or a love life. Something to keep her from obsessing so much about the problems around her./p
