Violet slammed the door before the woman inside of the guest house was able to get a word out. She held onto the door handle and looked up at her brother.
"Andrew..." she said in a soft voice. Andrew's gazed was fixed on the door handle. "We need to leave."
"Everything we have right now is hidden in there. We're nearly out of money, and I am not giving up the only safe place we have right now," he rushed out the words.
"Hello?" the woman from inside called out. "I- I'm going to call the police if you don't leave right now."
Andrew extended his hand towards the door handle. "What are you going to do?" Violet asked him. "You're not going to hurt her?"
He flinched just enough for her to notice, and let out a bitter chuckle. "Have some trust in me, Vi."
Violet tentatively let go of the handle. "You know I do."
Andrew opened up the door and put his hands out in a placating way. "We're not going to hurt you," he said calmly.
The middle-aged woman, "Ava" her name tag read, pulled out her cell phone. "I mean it, if you don't leave now I am calling the police!"
In a swift move, Andrew grabbed her phone from her. She was about to scream, but he held one hand over her mouth firmly, making sure she was able to breath from her nose. With his other hand, he held the back of her head so she would focus on him. His vivid blue eyes seemed to glow.
"You are not going to call the police," he said, his voice sharp and demanding. "You are not going to tell anybody that you saw us today. Understand?"
Ava's heartbeat was quickening. Her pupils dilated, but she nodded her head quickly.
"I'm going to take my hand off your mouth. Don't scream. Just answer my questions," Andrew said to her, his voice calmer now. Ava nodded again. He released his hand over her mouth, but kept his other hand behind her head, forcing her to focus on his eyes.
"Are you the only one who handles the guest room here?" he asked.
Ava nodded. "Y-yes. I come in here twice a week to do a quick dusting and vacuum. I normally come in the mornings, but my son was sick and I came into work late today."
Andrew nodded once and stared thoughtfully at the Ava. "Continue to come here on your normal schedule. If you miss coming here in the morning, do not come at all. Make sure nobody else comes here, and I'm sure you understand you are not to say a word to anybody about this, right?"
"I understand."
"Good," Andrew released her. "Now go," he commanded.
Ava left without another word.
"You're something else," Violet walked into the room, shaking her head at him. "We could have just grabbed our stuff and found somewhere else."
"There is nowhere else right now," he shrugged. "Besides, I like it here. It's the only familiar thing in our lives right now."
"We could have found something," Violet mumbled, dropping herself in the arm chair on the other side of the large room.
Andrew threw his hands up in the air. "Then go find someplace else," he said. Violet's eyes widened, but she didn't reply. "Sorry," he amended quickly.
"You seem tense. What is it?" Violet asked him.
"It's nothing," he sighed. "Look, I'll be back some time later tonight."
Violet nodded to him, not asking any further questions. When she pulled out an old copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from her bag, Andrew took it as his cue to leave.
It was only a couple hours later that Andrew found himself staring at his old house from across the street. He was unsure on the exact reason he had come, but he wrote it off as curiosity. The only time he had met his mother was once she had already been turned into something else. Scarlet.
There was a middle-age woman kneeling in the dirt next door to his old house. Andrew remembered that his father and mother had actually lived next to each other for awhile, and he was hoping to catch a glimpse of her.
"Can I help you with something?" the woman across the street called to him, getting to her feet.
"Oh- er-" Andrew was caught off guard. He jogged across the street as the woman was brushing the dirt off of her pants. "I was uh... Is Mary Jane home by chance?"
Her brow furrowed, "Mary Jane hasn't visited since she was eleven. She lives with her parents. I'm her aunt. Are you a friend of hers?"
Andrew quickly hid the disappointment in his face. "Yeah, I knew her when I was younger and I was in the neighborhood," he shrugged.
She scrutinized him for a moment, lingering on his eyes for a moment too long for his liking. "Stay put for a moment, let me get you her address."
"Thanks, Ms...?" Andrew trailed off.
"Call me Anna," she yelled to him as she went into her house.
The familiar sound of a skateboard came rolling up from behind him. Andrew scowled, already knowing who it was, and turned to face his teenage father.
"Why are you here? How do you know where I live?" Peter questioned him, picking up his skateboard with one arm and shoving his other hand into his green cargo jacket pocket.
Andrew looked around innocently. "I had no idea you lived here. I was actually here to see an old friend." He gestured to Anna's house.
Peter seemed to realize that Andrew had not actually been standing in front of his house. "You're an old friend of Mary Jane's? You realize she hasn't lived here since like the fifth grade, right?"
"Which is why her aunt is giving me her new address," Andrew smirked with a half shrug. "Can you get lost now?"
Andrew didn't want to be cold to his father, but befriending him now could complicate things later.
"I live here," Peter frowned. "What are you playing at?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Andrew answered dismissively.
"First, you said your last name was Osborn, which happens to be my best friend's last name. Then, we come to find your last name is actually Grimshaw. Now, you're saying you know Mary Jane. I just find it odd that you're connected to two of my closest friends and I've never even heard of you," Peter rapid fired.
Andrew stared at him, his mouth set in a hard line. They both turned their heads to the sound of Anna coming back from inside her house, a small piece of paper in her hands.
"Hello, Peter!" Anna greeted him.
Peter waved to her, shot Andrew a dirty look, and then took off in the other direction on his skateboard.
"Here you are," Anna passed the address over to Andrew. "Say hello to her from me if you can, please."
"Will do. Thanks," Andrew read the address and then let out a low whistle. It would take him several hours to walk there from here, and without using his webbing, he was going to have to take a cab.
"Do you mind if I use your phone?" Andrew asked sheepishly.
The cab got to Andrew within fifteen minutes, but it took another forty minutes to get to Mary Jane's address due to how bad the traffic in the city was. Andrew asked the cab driver to wait for him down the street from the address, and he planned on just walking past the house to get a quick glimpse of her. He briefly wondered if all of this was worth it just to possibly see his actual mother for a few seconds.
Right away, Andrew could tell this was a low-income suburb. Just from the spot he was standing in, he saw several houses with broken windows, most of the lawns were overgrown, and garbage littered the yards.
His feet carried him to the sidewalk in front of her house. He held the piece of paper with Mary Jane's address written on it. There were a couple people inside that he could see; he assumed they were Mary Jane's parents. His grandparents.
Absentmindedly he began picking at the cuff of his sleeve. His stomach felt like it was doing flips. Would he recognize her? How much was she like Scarlet? What would he even say to her? He knew he couldn't reveal who he was, which left no opportunity for him to tell her exactly how he knew her.
The voices in the house got louder. He could make out two female voices and one male. They didn't sound very happy. Suddenly, the front door swung open and a petite girl with stunning red hair walked swiftly down the steps. He knew who she was instantly.
Mary Jane paused about three feet in front of Andrew, her wet eyes looking at him with confusion. He must have startled her because she was staring at the ground while she was walking up until this point.
"P-Peter?" she asked him with uncertainly, quickly trying to hide any evidence that she had been crying. Andrew opened his mouth and closed it, once again caught off guard today.
When Mary Jane caught her mistake, she blushed. "Sorry, you look eerily similar to my friend. I haven't seen him in like seven years though."
"No big deal," he replied, smiling. "I was just taking a walk and I heard shouting, but that's when you came outside and here we are now," he stammered, cursing himself for rambling on like his father seemed to be prone to do. "I'm Andrew."
"Okay," she said indifferently. "I'm Mary Jane. Sorry I almost bumped into you."
"Like I said, no big deal," he grinned.
Raindrops began to fall and Mary Jane pulled the hood to her faux leather jacket over her head. "I have to get going, I'm meeting a friend. Maybe we'll see each other again," Mary Jane lifted a hand to wave as she walked away.
"Hopefully," Andrew replied, watching his mother walking away, knowing that the next time he saw her could be when they were planning on capturing Stryker.
Violet was asleep by the time Andrew made his way back to the guest house. Without waking her, he let himself slump onto the couch, and went to bed with a content smile on his face.
Morning came sooner than expected, and Andrew soon found himself shaken awake by his sister.
"Andrew? Andrew...Andrew!" Violet shook him.
"What?" Andrew grumbled, turning around so his back was facing her. "I'm sleeping, leave me alone."
Violet sighed loudly, "I'm going out for breakfast, do you want anything?"
"No," he said in a clipped tone, wanting to go back to sleep.
"Alright, well I'm going to the library afterwards."
Andrew turned back to face her, "But it's Saturday."
"And?" Violet shook her head, but laughed as Andrew plopped his face back on the pillow and shut his eyes. "I'll be back in a bit."
An hour or so passed and Andrew finally woke up to his stomach growling. He checked the time and saw that it was nearly ten. Wishing he had asked Violet to pick him up something, he dug in his backpack hoping he would find a granola bar or something. Digging all the way to the bottom of the bag, Andrew paused and pulled out his hand, taking the black lightweight cube with it.
A pang of sadness filled him as he looked at the cube that Kitty had died for in order to get it to them. Harry and Felicia had also been killed moments before they got sent here. Violet and Andrew had to leave their father and Normie there with Scarlet... he wondered what had happened after they left. They hadn't done anything yet that would change the future, so his father and half-brother were most likely still stuck there with her. Kitty had said time would pass differently while they were on the other timeline though, one day here would really be like one second back home. They had been here for like ten days.
Andrew began twirling the little black cube in his hand. That's when he noticed the bottom of the cube had a slight indentation. He held the cube close to his face and saw something that looked like a battery cover, about an inch long. Using his nail, the cover pulled up and revealed a small blue button. Kitty hadn't mentioned anything about this. She had said that whatever time they were sent to, they couldn't go back or forward without coming home first. Curiosity got the better of him, and he quickly pushed down on the button, releasing it a second later, but only because of what happened.
The second he pressed the button, everything around him began to blur. The room and the furniture remained the same, but something was different. He placed the cube down on the table just as Violet came walking through the door.
"Are you just now getting up?" she playfully scolded him, tossing him a paper bag. "Here, I knew you'd be hungry."
Andrew caught the bag and peered inside, momentarily forgetting about the cube and delighted to find a couple pieces of raisin bread. "Ten isn't that late. Thanks, Vi," he shoved a piece of the bread into his mouth and sat on the couch.
"Ten?" she huffed. "It's nearly three in the afternoon."
"What?" Andrew's face went blank. "I just checked, it was nearly ten."
"Mmm...no. It's three," Violet corrected him.
Andrew jumped up from the couch and grabbed the cube. "Vi! That's it! I knew something was different, the light from outside was coming in at a different angle."
Violet raised an eyebrow at him, "What are you talking about? Why do you have the cube out?"
"Look," he turned the cube upside down and opened up the small cover again, showing her the blue button. "When I woke up it was not even ten yet. I was playing with the cube and I found this. When I pressed the blue button, the room blurred, but it felt like only a second, and suddenly it's three in the afternoon!"
"I thought Kitty said once we traveled to a new time, we couldn't go back or jump forward unless we went back to the original time first?" Violet questioned.
Andrew shrugged, "Well it worked. Kind of sucks that Kitty didn't tell us about that detail to begin with. We've been stuck here for nearly two weeks."
"Maybe she didn't even know," Violet went to grab the cube, "or maybe she thought it was already risky to go back in time." Andrew held the cube out of her reach but she webbed it and it shot right into her palm.
"Risky?" Andrew huffed, "Anything is better than that future."
Violet studied the cube for a moment. "Let's test it again, together this time. You said you pressed it for a second and about five hours passed?"
Andrew nodded, "yeah."
"Okay, so let's try to travel to Monday morning before school. That's approximately... thirty-five hours from now. I'll hold the button for seven seconds, you hold the cube too," she took Andrew's hand and placed it on the cube.
"Monday?" Andrew complained. "Why would you want to travel to the worst day of the week?"
"Because I want to see exactly how this works for myself. If I trust it, then we can use it to travel to the time Stryker comes here, otherwise I don't want to have to miss school."
"Just press the button," he grumbled. Sometimes his sister's priorities perplexed him.
Without another word, Violet pressed down on the blue button. The room began to blur again, and Andrew watched as the seconds passed and the lighting in the room quickly darkened and brightened twice in a row. As soon as it started, the room stopped moving and Violet set the cube down on the table.
"It's nearly seven and it's Monday," Violet checked the alarm clock on the mahogany table on the far side of the room.
"Great, just in time for us to leave for school," Andrew replied sarcastically.
"Let's get going then, since it will probably be our last day attending," Violet playfully nudged him and whirled around to grab her bag. Although there was a smile on her face, it didn't reach her eyes. Andrew deduced she was happy that they wouldn't exactly be stuck her for the next two years, but he knew that she was also excited about getting another chance to go to high school.
Peter was not having a great day today. He should have known it was going to be one of those days when he poured a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and then went to grab the milk only to realize there was barely even a sip left in the gallon. Hitting the snooze button was definitely a mistake this morning, because now he had no time to make an actual breakfast. He said bye to his aunt and uncle, and headed off to school.
Just as he pushed the front doors to the school open, he realized he had a few minutes left to get to his first class. He heard footsteps behind him and held the door open, only to find that it was none other than the "Grimshaw Twins" behind him. Violet gave him a smile as she passed him, while Andrew raised a challenging eyebrow, almost daring him to say something about their previous encounter. When Peter said nothing, Andrew gave a quiet 'thanks' and caught up with his sister.
He managed to avoid Flash for the first half of the day, that is until a basketball slammed into the side of his head. Looking towards the sound of laughter, he saw Flash with two of his goons at his side.
"Sorry," Flash called out, trying to hold in his laughter.
"Morning, Flash," Peter replied as he shut the glass that covered the hallway bulletin board. It was better to pretend nothing had happened, which usually caused Flash to get bored and go bother someone else.
On his way to lunch, Peter was stopped by a pretty girl he recognized as Erin, one of the girls that Gwen would sometimes chat with in the hallways. For a moment, he thought the girl was asking him out on some kind of date on Friday, only to find that she wanted him to take pictures of her boyfriend's car. The two girls behind Erin giggled, obviously knowing Peter had gotten the wrong idea. He hurriedly skated off, only to get scolded by one of the teachers for using his skateboard in the hallway.
Before Peter even touched the door handle to go outside for lunch, he thought he had heard chanting. As he opened up the door, camera in one hand, he couldn't believe what he saw. Flash was holding a freshman named Gordon up by his legs and shoving his face into a plate full of food. A crowd of students had gathered around Flash and Gordon, shouting "Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!"
Peter dropped his jaw in disbelief. Not a single person was defending Gordon or even trying to get Flash to stop. He made his way through the crowd of laughing students when Flash noticed him.
"Hey Parker, come on get a picture, come on!" Flash playfully called out to him, holding up the freshman who now had food dripping from his face. Peter refused to take a picture and quietly told Flash to leave the kid alone. "Take the picture, Parker," Flash commanded.
The two went back and forth for a moment before Peter got tired of it. "Put him down, Eugene!" Peter knew he made a mistake; nobody was allowed to call Flash by his actual name without some kind of retribution. Flash dropped Gordon onto the ground and went towards Peter instead.
Peter went to see if the kid was alright, just as Flash grabbed him and punched him straight across the jaw. Peter went to get up only to receive another throw from Flash straight to his stomach, followed by a hard kick in the same spot.
"Still not taking the picture," Peter managed to huff out before Gwen made her way through the crowd. He didn't hear everything Gwen had said to Flash, but the and the crowd quickly dispersed.
That was what he got for trying to do the right thing.
"You alright?" Peter looked up and Andrew was suddenly standing in front of him. A quick glance around and Peter saw Violet wasn't with him.
"Yeah, yeah," Peter held him stomach with one hand and wiped off the blood from his face with the other.
Andrew held his arm out to help Peter up. "Here." He nodded at his hand, silently telling Peter to take it. "That guy is a jerk."
Peter looked up at him suspiciously for a second, but took his hand as he helped him get to his feet. "Thanks," he said as he dusted himself off.
"I don't think it's broken," Andrew said as he picked up Peter's camera from the ground. "Might need to be looked at, but it should still work."
"Man..." Peter looked sadly at his camera as it was handed it over to him.
He glanced between his camera and Andrew, who was helping Gordon get to his feet as well. He handed the freshman some napkins from another table, who smiled and said thanks. The kid gathered his books and left towards the school. Andrew had folded his arms together and seemed to be studying Peter.
"We should probably get back inside, our Biology class starts in a few minutes," Andrew finally said. Peter nodded, and followed him as he headed back towards the school. He swore he was imagining it, but it was as if the kid held a protective stance as they walked, keeping an eye on Peter and checking to make sure Flash wasn't coming back around.
Andrew reached into his pocket and pulled out two cookies, biting into one and held the other one towards Peter, silently asking if he wanted it. He thanked Andrew and pocketed the dessert to save it for later.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot," Peter said suddenly as they were nearing their next class. He paused near the door and held his hand out. "Sorry for giving you the third degree and all."
Andrew had been the only one other than himself that did anything to help Gordon. There weren't many people in their school who would stand up to Flash.
Andrew shrugged and shook Peter's hand. "No big deal," he replied. The bell was about to ring so both boys made their way into the classroom.
Peter's day started to get better during Biology. Gwen Stacy spoke to him for the first time, which had left him speechless at first. She had thought Peter standing up to Flash was brave, but stupid. Peter was now sporting a bruised face and no doubt bruising across his abdomen, but it saved the younger kid from further humiliation from Flash, which was worth it to Peter.
Class ended and Peter watched as Gwen quickly gathered her belongings and raced out the door, Andrew wasn't too far behind her. Peter suddenly got an idea and sped out the door.
"Hey- uh- Andrew!" Peter called out to his taller classmate. Andrew turned around when he heard his name and looked expectantly at him.
"Yeah?"
Peter ran his hand through his hair; he wasn't that good at making friends. "If you uh, wanted to, after school would you maybe want to go skateboarding? I mean if you don't have anything else planned. Your sister could come too of course, she's invited also, if you wanted to go that is."
Andrew furrowed his brow, as if contemplating Peter's question. His eyes narrowed and the way he was looking at Peter it was as if he was searching for something that wasn't there.
"Sure," his expression softened. "I'll talk to my sister when I see her."
"Alright, cool," Peter smiled. He hoped he hadn't annoyed the kid already. "I'll come find you guys after last period."
"Hey Parker!" Peter and Andrew both turned to see Flash passing by them. "Nice face!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Peter awkwardly answered back.
Andrew scowled and walked away without another word to Peter, same direction as Flash. Just as Flash was about to turn the corner, his body unexpectedly flew forward as if someone had tripped him. Nobody had been near enough to trip him, but Peter could have sworn he saw some kind of white rope shoot forward just as Andrew has been passing him. It was gone as quick as he saw it, so he figured he imagined it.
Flash jumped to his feet quickly. "What!?" he growled in Andrew's direction as the taller of the two was smirking back at him. Andrew simply shrugged and continued on his way as Flash held his elbow, anxiously glancing around him to see if anybody else had seen his fall. His eyes landed on Peter, being the only one left in the hall with him, and he slightly shook his head, almost daring him to say something. Peter looked down quickly, hiding his smile, as Flash stormed off.
The last bell of the day rung and Peter stuffed some of his school books into his locker before heading towards the front of the school. He leaned himself up against a wall, skateboard under his arm, and waited. Remembering the cookie Andrew had given him, he unwrapped it and began to eat it. The last of the students were leaving the school and Peter waited another five minutes. No sign of Andrew or his sister.
Peter left on his board, not admitting to himself that he was slightly disappointed, and figured he'd go to the secluded warehouse to skate a bit before going home to get an early start on the English essay.
It had only been a couple blocks away from the school when he saw he nearly caught up to the twins. They were hastily walking down the sidewalk before turning into an alley that Peter knew to be a dead end, and also a common place for drug deals. He didn't mean to spy on them, but impulsively picked up his skateboard and dashed over to the side of the building next to the alley.
Neither of them noticed him as he barely peeked around the corner, noting nobody else had been waiting for them. He couldn't make sense of exactly what they were saying, but some things slipped through as they conversed.
"...about 4.8 seconds is one day," Andrew seemed to inform Violet.
Violet had pulled something from her bag.
"...need to go like two years..." Andrew sighed.
"...try for 690 days," Violet paused, "...don't want to jump..."
"55 minutes and 12 seconds," Andrew had replied, taking out what Peter assumed was a cell phone, "I'll time it."
None of this was making any sense to Peter.
Both of them were now holding the object that Violet had taken out of her bag. Peter had a better view of it now, a palm-sized black cube. They were talking in such low voices he couldn't make out what they were saying at this point.
Then they both vanished into thin air.