Chapter Fourteen

"Dad? Daddy?" Hillary called turning into the master bedroom. "Are you in here?"

Mary-Jane walked into the room with a load of clothes needing folding. "Sorry Hillary, Dad's off fighting-um..I don't remember what he's called…The Pink Zapper, Pink Shocker-"

"Pink Sparkler?" Hillary offered.

"Yeah, something like that." MJ said with a smile as she dumped the clothes on the bed to fold them. She held up a shirt. "Awe! Rust stains again! I am going to have to nag Peter to fix the softener." She told herself walking across the room with the ruined shirt and throwing it in the garbage can.

"Do you know when Dad'll be home?" Hillary asked a little tired of her dad being off fighting crime almost every time she needed to talk to him. To her it just didn't seem fair. Super heroes work their hardest to protect people - and spend all their time too - but never have a choice to stop or a retirement plan, or even holidays off. Now super villains, on the other hand, either disregard the people completely, or work their hardest to create misery for them; yet they can stop whenever they please and can go back to a normal life. Otto surely had, but her dad couldn't; unless he let down the people of New York City - and he could never do that.

"Pretty soon. Maybe in a few hours or so." Mary-Jane answered coolly.

"OK." Hillary answered in disappointment as she went back into her room. She found Anna on the floor on her stomach with her head propped up by her hands. A notebook full of numbers lay in front of her - probably math homework, there had been a large assignment on Friday. "Hi again." Hillary greeted standing in the doorway.

"Hi." Anna greeted back still consumed in her work. "Couldn't find your dad?"

"No." Hillary replied lowering her eyes. "He's off fighting some guy named The Pink Sparkler."

Anna smiled and her eyes expressed laughing although she didn't take her eyes away from the paper. "Did the Bugle give that name to him, or did the poor sucker make it up himself?" she asked finally looking up. The girls shared a hearty laugh as Anna looked back down at her notebook.

"Do you want to go out for ice cream or something?" Hillary asked after containing herself. Anna's brown eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously. "Great." Anna closed up her notebook and dropped it in her backpack along with her pencil. She arose and put her jacket on over her light blue top and pulled on her pre-tied black shoes. Hillary put on her coat and shoes as well and they both walked towards the door. "Anna and I are going out for ice cream, OK?" Hillary called to her mom.

"Sure that's fine." Mary-Jane called back relieved that they were thinking on something less gloomy than Otto going to jail. They then thanked her and walked out the front door.

Down at the ice cream parlor, Anna and Hillary sat in a booth near the window. Given that Anna hadn't eaten anything all day, she was a little more free to choose without thinking about the calories as much as usual.

She and Hillary had a milkshake, which was one of the few things their budget would allow. Anna would have worn her father's trench coat if the police weren't scanning it for evidence. She didn't know what they'd be looking for, though.

Hillary stirred her milkshake with her straw while smiling. Anna smiled back. "What are you smiling about?" she asked setting her elbows on the table.

Hillary giggled. "I was just thinking about our friendship. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you. No one else on the face of the earth has a friendship quite like ours."

"You mean that you're part spider and that I have four extra arms? Anna asked.

"Yeah, there's that, but also that we're true friends. I help you in times of need, and you do the same."

"But I've never helped you out. As far as I can remember, you've always been the one who's got my back."

"You saved me the torture of not having any friends."

"Oh come one-" Anna said looking away playfully.

"I'm serious! Without you there, I'd be the biggest loser in the school."

"No, you'd find friends, or friends would eventually find you. You have the kindest nature out of anyone I've ever met, and that's hard to find. And really, if you look at the facts, I'd be the one without friends. I mean, how many people, out of all the choices of friends, would choose me? Which makes me wonder, why did you choose me anyway?"

"Because you looked lonely and in need of someone." Hillary replied casually taking a sip of her smoothie.

Anna smiled warmly. "You hit the nail on the head." She said.

A boy, not much older than them, walked up to their table obviously, portrayed by his white shirt with a name tag at the corner of his chest, he was an employee sent over to mop up the ice cream spilt by Anna's bottom right tentacle.

These 'ice cream' cones are tricky. The tentacle dropped the cone to the floor in the mess of sugary goop.

"It is a federal affense to litter." Anna whispered to her tentacle playfully.

It is? But it's on the floor. Just sitting there. How can it be illegal?

Anna rolled her eyes. "I was teasing you." she explained.

Oh.

The boy had leaned over and was cleaning up the mess with a rag. "Those are fancy things you've got there." He commented without looking up.

Anna looked around to see who he could possibly be talking to. "What me?"

"Yeah." He said looking up at her.

"Thanks." She said while blushing.

"They look really cool"

"How did-"

"They look great. I mean, they look real. How'd you get them to look like that?" He complemented.

"I- well -I they're not- um- I mean thanks but they- they're like- I" Anna was tripping over herself and Hillary knew it. The boy laughed to himself as he stood and walked away with the wet rag now stained with ice cream.

Hillary peeked out from behind Anna to catch site of the handsome young man. She smiled and shook her head. Hillary then elbowed Anna and gave her a smirk. "What?" Anna asked holding her arm.

"Go after him." She said quietly.

"What?"

"Go after him." Hillary repeated.

"Why?"

"I saw your look for him." Hillary stated. Anna was silent. "So go after him, you know you want to."

"He's cute and all, but I'm just fine right here." Anna declared slumping in her seat and pretending that she didn't care.

"I think he likes you too." Hillary stated.

"He does!" Anna exclaimed with her eyes lighting up as she sat back up. "I….mean…that's fine. I don't like him though."

"Yeah. Uh huh. Sure." Hillary said. "Anna, you may be able to hide your feelings from some people, but I can see when you're lying."

Anna sighed and lowered her eyes. "OK, so I maybe would kinda like to talk to him, but-" before she could answer, Hillary shot under he table and before Anna could say a word, was already going towards the boy. She sat there nervously wringing her hands. Oh what am I going to say? What his he going to say? Hillary stood for some time talking to the man. Anna watched nervously at the two.

Would you like us to increase our hearing?

No, that would be eaves dropping. Anna answered. That right though, sadly didn't last long as she wondered more and more about what they were conversing about that would have taken so long. OK.

The tentacles tuned their hearing into the fine sound waves coming from Hillary and the young man. Anna watched intently as she listened to their conversation. "Sure, that sounds great." she heard Hillary say to him.

"So it's settled. I'll come by tomorrow?" he confirmed.

"It's a date." Hillary answered giving him a kiss on the cheek. He walked off and Hillary went back towards their table, where Anna was staring at the opposite seat furiously. Hillary sat in the empty seat happily. Anna didn't say a word; she turned her head towards the window. Hillary cocked her head puzzled. "What happened?" she asked.

"That's what I'd like to know!" Anna answered.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know very well what I'm talking about." Anna stated angrily. "You knew I liked him, you knew it!"

She has cheated you.

"Of course I knew you liked him! That's why I went over there, wasn't it?" Hillary said.

"OK, so you knew exactly what I wanted so you could ruin it. That makes it worse." Hillary was confused. "I saw you over there flirting with him, don't try to deny it." Anna declared angrily leaning over the table towards her so-called friend.

You can't trust her.

She's trouble.

Trust in us.

"You don't understand, I was not-"

"I can't trust you," Anna interrupted. She gave her a disgusted look.

"Anna please listen to me," Hillary pleaded.

"No. I should've known you were only trouble, I should've known they were right." She said getting up on her bottom tentacles.

"They?" Hillary asked herself as Anna started for the door. "Anna wait! Who are 'they'? Who are you listening to! Anna! Anna, please!" she called getting up just as Anna went out the door. Hillary raced out the doors but her friend was gone. She looked around and tried to see across the neighboring buildings in her search. She saw not one multi-tentacled figure climbing across them. Hillary sat down on the curb troubled. She stared at the building in front of her. "I hope she's alright."