Chapter Seven

Spring and summer passed and it was the first day of highschool. Hillary was rushing around the house looking for her tennis shoes. "Dad, have you seen my shoes?" she called down the hallway.

"No I haven't, Hillary." He answered.

"Did you check in the kitchen?" Mary-Jane asked trying to help.

"Yah I did. I've checked everywhere!" Hillary exclaimed falling down on her bed.

Peter poked his head out of their bedroom. "They have to be somewhere. Shoes don't just dissapear." He stated.

"Mine do! This is the fourth pair!" she panicked. The clock was slowly moving closer to eight o'clock.

"I wonder where they all go." Peter mused. "I only have one suggestion left." He said.

"What's that?" Hillary asked.

"Wear another pair. You have other shoes." He said. "You can wear those others tomorrow; but right now, you don't have time to search for them."

"Fine." Hillary gave in slipping on her flip flops. "Mom, I'm ready." She called grabbing her backpack and heading to the door.

"I'll be right there." Mary-Jane said grabbing the cat food and pouring it in a dish. "I have to feed Princess." Princess. The family cat. She had gotten sassier and less forgiving since that trip to the vet. Peter was secretly conspiring to drop her off at the animal shelter one of these days. "You know that Grandma is picking you up today right?"

"Yup." Hillary answered.

"Ok. Go ahead and get in the car." She said. Hillary nodded and went out the door.

"Anna, it's half past seven. You need to get up!" Doc Ock urged walking into his daughter's room.

Anna turned over and covered her head with her pillow. "Can't I miss school today? I don't feel well." She said with a fake cough.

Doc Ock scanned her over with his tentacle. The information uploaded in his mind and he mentally looked over the report. "You look fine to me." He stated peering over the lump over covers. Doc Ock concentrated his eyebrows concernedly, "This isn't about that incident at the graduation, is it?"

"I don't want to talk about it." She said. Doc Ock bent over to touch her but withdrew when one of her tentacles hissed at him.

"Anna, don't hiss at me." He scolded as one of his tentacles hissed back defensively. Woah...those were five words he never expected to say in once sentence. Anna sniffled and he could tell she was crying but didn't want him to know. That was one trait she got from him; neither one of them liked people to see them cry. They iscolated themselves somewhere so that no one would know. It was annoying to Rosie that neither one of them would cry in front of her. She had to guess their mood most of the time. Once in a while Otto would be brave enough to cry in front of her, maybe once a year or so.

"Oh..." he realized sitting on the edge of her bed with an understanding smile.

"Just leave me alone!" she cried.

Doc Ock reached down to rub her shoulder and another one of Anna's tentacles snapped at him almost catching his fingers. "Will you please control your appendages!" he snapped.

"I'm trying! It's hard!" she said with a sniffle.

"...No, I didn't mean it that way." He said softly. I did it again. I need to be careful. He thought. "I know it's hard. It took me years and I still don't know every trick up their sleve." He said slowly peeling the pillow form his daughter's face. "But you can't let them keep you in hiding. Sooner or later you'll have to come out and it's easiest while you're young."

"But the girls will eat me alive! Brittney and her possey always find a way to tease me about my flaws." Anna said.

Hm...I wonder if that pizza incident wasn't an accident at all...No...I'm getting off the subject. She needs my help, and I need to respect that. He told himself. "Really..." he processed the thought. "Don't let them get to you." He whispered encouragingly. "I want you to wear bright colors today. Now, I'm not saying you have to, but I'd like it. Show the world that your gift doesn't hold you down and that you aren't opressed."

"Then why do you wear dark colors all the time? When ever you go out, you're wearing that coat." She pointed out.

Because I am opressed...But I can't tell her that. Doc Ock thought.

You are? But...but what did we do! The tentacles whined.

"It's because it's easier for my tentacles to fit under and because I don't really look like Orlando Blom."

"It's Bloom." Anna corrected.

"Blom, Bloom, same difference. The point is, you're beautiful. You don't have anything to be ashamed of." He said with a smile.

"Except that my dad's a criminal."

"I'm trying my best." He defended. "It's easier to fall into a pit than to climb out of one." Anna didn't make any movement; she just stared at the ceiling. "Just—just get ready for school." He said walking out of her room.

Rosie was in the kitchen sitting at the table as she did every morning eating a muffin, drinking tea and reading her favorite book. Doc Ock walked solemnly into the kitchen. Even without looking at him, Rosie knew that he was upset. She had heard his conversation with Anna for the hall wasn't very long, but she had learned that her husband felt better if he told it to her even though she already knew what he was going to say. "Good morning," she greeted, "I made you some raspberry tea." Rosie said pushing a cup on a platter over to him as he sat down. "Is something wrong?"she asked.

Otto sighed as he gloomly stirred his tea. "Anna's still mad at me about the DNA thing." He admitted quietly. "Maybe it would be easier to talk to her if I weren't so hard headed and impatient. I'm trying but she's so dificult."

Rosie laughed softly to herself. "What's so funny?" her husband asked confusedly.

"Anna's exactly how you were, according to your mother."she said lightly sipping her tea. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. She's still young."

"She's been upset about it since her graduation in June." Doc Ock persisted.

"She gets it from you, you know. Mr. Still-had-my-pillow-at-the-head-of-our-bed." Rosie teased.

"But that was different. You dying ruined my life. She's upset about being bonded to metal arms and being embarrassed in front of the school congregation." Doc Ock said.

"Who wouldn't? You still struggle with them. She's new at this. Maybe all the voices and concentration comes hard for her. You designed and studied them so you knew how to control them. But she's had no experience. She didn't even know about them until a couple months ago. Go easy on her." Rosie said compassionatly.

"I'm trying." Otto said. "But she gets into my criminal record and my opression, and I feel that I need to defend myself. I guess I've been doing it for so long that I've forgotten common curteousy. I'm a horrible dad."

"You are not a horrible dad." Rosie said. "She'll forgive you. Anna just needs to blow off some steam."

"You're probably right." Doc Ock gave in with a smile.

"Thou art intelligent as thou art believe." Rosie quoted.

Doc Ock lowered his eyebrows. "I don't remember what that excert's from." He said.

"Oh, I made it up." Rosie replied casually.

"I love it. But not nearly as much as Thy loveth thee." He replied. Doc Ock knew that his attempt at poetry was pittiful, but he thought it would be fun to add to Rosie's work of art. Rosie didn't mind it anyway.

She smiled at him. "I'll take her to school this morning. I'll even have a mother-daughter conversation with her. Maybe it'll help her feel better." Rosie offered.

"Oh would you? That would be fantastic! Thank you Rosie, I owe you one." Doc Ock said gazing at her lovingly.

"Well," Rosie thought, "That pillow thing was kind cute, so you're off the hook. You're too busy anyway. By the way, I was to hear about your project." Rosie stated getting up from the table. She rinsed out her tea cup and stacked it up in the dishwasher.

Anna walked past the kitchen and into the livingroom. Rosie grabbed her coat and purse and, kissing her husband goodbye, headed out the door. "Good bye, my love." Doc Ock called after her. "Good bye Anna."

"Bye." Anna replied solemnly walking after her mother. Doc Ock's smile faded and he sighed.

When are we going to speak with Anna's appendages?

Yes, they've been quiet.

"How would you be able to? It's impossible...of course, if someone told me twenty years abo that I was going to be welded to metal tentacles and kill innocent people and attempt suicide, I would have said they were crazy...But anyway, it's impossible for you to communicate with them. They communicate in the same way that you do. In order to talk with them, you'd have to be able to read minds." Doc Ock said. The tentacles were quiet. "Read minds? You know, you can hear other people's thoughts?" he clarified.

But we can read minds!

We know what you're thinking all the time!

Like right now. You're thinking that it doesn't count—why doesn't it count?

Tell us!

"Because it's like reading your own mind or hacking into your own file. It isn't the same thing."

Will you speak for us?

You hear us, and she can speak for them!

We will be able to know what they think!

"They probably think the same things you do." Doc Ock said bluntly. "And I never said that I would."

Please?

We will be good!

"For some odd reason, I find that hard to believe." Doc Ock growled.

But what did we do! We didn't—

There they went trying to purify themselves again. Doc Ock got so sick and tired of this routine. He sighed frustratedly and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. Ignore them, just ignore them. He told himself as they went on making the same excuses as they had their whole "life." "I hope Anna'll forgive me soon. Just two months have passed and I'm pulling out my hair."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the highschool, there were five more minutes until the lunch bell rang. The whole class was leaning towards the door ready to race out of the classroom as soon as it rang. Hillary was gathering up her things. She pulled out a little wallet-sized photo of Grace. She stared at the picture wishing that they had gone to the same school. Grace was going to some academy in Oregon or Washington somewhere; Hillary didn't really care where she went, the point was, she was too far to visit monthly. The lunch bell finally rang and the teacher seemed relieved to be rid of that class(for it was his break too).

Hillary slowly trailed behind the group of people to her locker. She opened the weather-beaten door joining the two buildings and walked inside the hallway where many people she didn't know were stooped at their lockers. Hillary made her way to her locker and threw her books in. She grabbed her lunch bag and closed the door.

Hillary Parker walked into the lunchroom humming with students ranging from freshmen to seniors. She scanned the room over and every seat seemed to be taken by a group of friends. Hillary was just about to take a seat on the floor when she spotted a frail, but not short or helpless-looking, girl sitting by herself gloomly eating a granola bar. She was wearing a long, leather coat much too big for her. In fact, it didn't look like she even owned the coat, but had swiped it off of a coat rack somewhere; maybe she found it on the floor, maybe it was her father's, who knows.

Hillary shrugged. Why not sit with her? It was the only available table anyway. Besides, she looked lonely. The freshman walked over to her table and sat down. The girl shot a surprised glance at Hillary, but then looked back down at her food. "Hi, I'm Hillary." Hillary introduced with a friendly smile. Anna didn't reply. Hillary could tell that she was upset about something. "I'm new to this school too, so you're not alone." She comforted. Anna still seemed ignorant. "If you want me to go away, I will."

Anna wiped her nose with her sleve and looked at her. "No, no it's not that. I've just had a rough summer." She explaned.

"So have I. My best friend in the whole wide world moved to the West Coast, and I'm probably not going to get to see her for a year or two." Hillary said. "What happened to you?" Anna thought about answering but concluded that she probably shouldn't. "I—I understand. You don't have to tell me. Uh...hey, how was graduation?"

"Terrible." Anna replied. "I was embarrassed in front of the entire school and their parents."

"What happened?" Hillary asked concernedly. "Never mind. You don't have to tell me that either. Sorry, I'm kinda nosey." She appologised.

"No, it's ok...really. It's nice to have someone to talk to after it." Anna assured her with a smile. "But first, what did you do?" she asked perking up.

"We had the graduation and all, but then we had a huge party over at Grace's, my best friend. It was so cool! Supprisingly, my dad let me go. He's usually protective about those things. All the dads I've met are all the same." Hillary commented.

Anna let out a half laugh, "Well, you haven't met mine." She replied.

"Why? What's he do?" Hillary asked taking a bite of her tuna fish sandwich.

"Uh...well, now he works from home as a scientist and sends his inventions to some guy in Alaska." Anna replied.

"Interesting. I've never heard of a scientist that works from home. Anyway, I never learned your name." Hillary said.

"I'm Anna." She replied shyly.

"Oh, hey Anna. Anyway, my dad works part time for the Daily Bugle taking pictures of Spiderman. Do you ever see those pictures on the front page?" Hillary asked.

"Yah, my dad reads it all the time." Anna replied.

"My dad." She said proudly.

"Your dad's Spiderman?" Anna asked raising an eyebrow.

"No! My dad takes the pictures!" she covered up with a smile. "That would be like saying your dad's Doc Ock!" Hillary joked giggling. Anna giggled also nervously. Hillary guessing so closely to the truth made her uneasy. "Hey, do you want to hang out after school somewhere?" Hillary offered.

Anna's face lit up, "I'd love to!" she exclaimed.

Hillary smiled but then slapped her hand to her forehead. "Ugh! I forgot! My grandma's picking me up from school today. She's never late." She said. "Maybe you could come home with us and we could go to the mall or something whatever you like to do."

"That would be great! I just have to tell my mom where I'll be when she comes to pick me up. I'd love to go the the mall. I don't get to very often." She stated.

"Cool! So, did you bring your money?" Hillary asked.

"Yup. I have enough to spend." Anna answered.

"Great. What class do you have next?" Hillary asked picking up the excess garabage on the table and dropping it in the trash. The two friends walked together to Hillary's locker.

"I have...uh..." Anna pulled out a sheet of paper and looked down the list. "Algebra." She stated.

"Cool. That's what I have next." Hillary said opening her locker.

Anna leaned up against the lockers and looked at the pictures on the inside of her door. "Your family looks really nice." She complemented looking over the family photos.

"Thanks." Hillary said shutting the door. "I'm sure yours is just as nice."

"Yah, I guess." Anna replied.

"What? You aren't abused, are you?" Hillary asked looking at her strangely.

"No, I'm not abused. Actually, things have been going nearly perfect until last summer." No one was in the hallways because everyone was still eating lunch.

"What happened last summer?" Hillary and Anna walked down th empty hallways. The girls seemingly followed one another into one of the newer bathrooms.

Anna led her into the locker room and unbuttoned her coat. "This happened." She said taking her coat off revealing four metal tentacles out her back. Hillary's eyes grew as she stepped back at the sight. Anna looked down at her feet. "Please don't gossip about me." She pleaded quietly. "I can't hide them anymore. It's exhausting." A few tears dripped down and silently hit her black shoes.

Hillary felt compassionate for her. "Why would I gossip about you? You're my friend." She said looking at her wrists. "I have a confession to make. I'm gifted also. I can hide it, but I'm trusting it with you, because you trusted me." She said with a smile. Hillary held out her wrist and shot web at the ceiling. Anna perked up and glanced at the web stuck to the ceiling. She was bewildered. "Please don't tell anyone." She said.

Anna looked at her cozely. She was touched by the trust bestowed on her by her new friend. "I won't." she replied with a warm smile. "Thanks."

"Thanks also." Hillary said putting an arm around Anna as she folded her coat over her arm. "So, are we still on for the mall?" she asked.

"Yup." Anna replied with a smile. The five minute bell rang and the halls were once again swarmming with students. The two friends walked out with one of their arms on the other person's shoulder. As the two friends passed by, people walking to class stopped to stare at them.

"Hey, look at her!" Anna heard some one say. "Woah, how weird." "Better stay clear of that girl." She heard others say. Anna's smile faded and she became skittish. Hillary held her firm and smiled encouragingly at her telling her not to acknowledge them. Anna sighed as to flush all of her peer pressure out of her body.

The two friends walked proudly to math class side by side; not caring what anyone said about either of them.