Chapter 10

Thanks to kfer19 for following and favoriting.

Thanks to Exile037 for favoriting me, favoriting this story, and reviewing. As for your question, yeah I'll definitely show Ken's time during spider-verse. It's gonna be great. I think I'm gonna do it when [RETRACTED].

By the way, I was thinking of writing an ongoing story on FictionPress. I'll give you more news when I have it.

"I'm really ashamed of you, Kendrick."

"I am too Mrs. Langley," Ken said, not really sure if he meant it or not.

He was sitting in the principal's office, or at least the new principal's office. The last one was kinda filled with bullet holes. Along with the old principal.

"I understand a desire to take some time off considering everything that...happened," she said while not meeting his gaze. "But you were gone for almost a month."

She still didn't meet his eye. He'd noticed that going around ever since he came back. He figured that everyone thought if they got on his bad side, he'd come up here and shoot them.

Nah, he thought. I'd probably just web them to the wall.

So, that's what his family had been reduced to, huh? A bunch of freaks. A load of school shooters and wall crawlers. He wouldn't be surprised if he found out his parents had sex in clown costumes.

Oh yeah. I should probably see them later on today, he thought. Not looking forward to that.

"Kendrick Durham, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?"

"Figured as much," she said shaking her head.

"Sorry," he said. "You were saying...?"

She sighed.

"When are you coming back to school?" she asked finally.

"Tomorrow," he said. "I have...stuff to do."

"Stuff," she said. "You know schoolwork comes first right. That's something I always remembered when I went here."

Yeah, Ken wanted to say. But I bet you never had to punch bad guys in the faces in a red and blue exoskeleton.

"I understand."

"'That's something I always remembered when I went here,'" Kendrick said in a mocking tone while standing on the ceiling of his dorm upside down, throwing a bouncy ball against the wall and catching it. "Yeah, well screw you Ms. Principal Lady. I liked Mrs. Carver better anyway."

There was a knock on the door, which made Kendrick pause his MisterWives CD, and fall down to his feet in annoyance.

"I swear if this is another teacher with more homework," he grumbled to himself as he opened the door.

Suddenly, he was wrapped in a bear hug.

"Uh thanks," Ken said to his unknown assailant. "Whoever you are."

The person let go of him, and Ken saw that it was Kim who assaulted him.

"Hey Kim."

"'Hey Kim?!'" Kim said obviously pissed. "You disappear for a month and all you can say is 'Hey Kim?'"

"Hello, Kimberly."

She smiled at him. Kendrick wasn't ashamed he was using just a tiny bit of his spider pheromones to keep her from killing him.

"I missed you," she said.

"I missed you too," he said, then noticed she was walking closer to him. "And Marshall and Jen."

That stopped her in her tracks. Kendrick liked Kim. He did. He wanted them to happen eventually. But not while she was doped up on pheromones. He wanted to make sure she liked him for him.

"Yeah," she said finally. "And Marshall and Jen."

She walked over to his bed and sat down. Not in a way that would suggest anything. She just sat.

"I went with Marshall. To his parents house," she said.

"Oh my God," Ken said smiling. "His dad is so racist."

"Right?" Kim said. "He called me a chocolate bunny."

"He called me a spear-chucker."

"Aw," she said with a fake pout. "Yours is more racist than mine."

"Well, I guess I just have that affect on people."

Kim smiled at him. He loved that smile. He loved everything about her, really. From her chocolate smooth skin, to her chestnut brown hair, to her...

"Ken?"

He realized he was staring.

"Sorry," he said. "I just thought of something."

"I'll bet."

"What are you trying to say?"

She just smiled at him again.

"How long have we known each other, Ken?" she asked finally.

"Huh?" he asked. "Since we were little kids. You know that."

"Remember when my dad was shanked in prison?" she said.

"Yeah," Ken said remembering how much he'd hated seeing her cry.

"Remember how you were there for me? How, you said he would get better and I had nothing to worry about? And you were right," she said as she stood up.

Ken was getting confused now. Where was she going with this?

"What I'm getting to Ken," she said. "Is that I care about you. And I don't care about a whole lot of people."

She suddenly grabbed Kendrick by the balls, making him shake in feat.

"So, if you ever disappear like that again, I will castrate you."

"Good to know," Ken said in a voice he would admit was less than manly.

She let go of his valuables, and walked out the door with a satisfied smile on her face. Kendrick sighed.

What next?

"Kendrick Durham!"

Shit.

Jen decided that that was the best tome to stroll right into his room without knocking.

"Hey Jen," he said preparing to do this again.

"Where were you?" she asked.

Ken released a little bit of pheromones.

"In your dreams baby," he said. "As in, I'm the man...of your..." Ken stopped once he realized he was embarrassing himself.

"I'm not kidding around Ken," she said. "Where were you?!"

"You wanna know where I was Jen?!" Ken yelled, getting pissed at this entire situation. "I was grieving! My brother turned out to be a mass murderer! So, I'm sorry if I forgot to get on my phone and say '"oh, hey Jen. Sorry I've been gone a few days, but I have to figure out how to live with myself!',

Jen just looked at him for a moment, then slapped him across the face. It didn't really hurt. Y'know, spider-powers. But Ken could tell it was meant to.

"Don't you dare try to get pity for yourself," she said angrily. "You're better than that. I know you were going through a tough time in your life, but we did too. We cared about your brother too. Your parents had to deal with that alone, on top of the fact that you abandoned them. Did you know your mom went to the hospital? She was cutting herself. She tried to take. Her own. Life. And where were you?"

Jen stormed to the door, but before she walked out, she turned back to Ken.

"You were grieving?" she asked. "So were we."

Spider-Man swing through the air.

"So were we."

Those words hung in his head. She was right, or course. Looking back at it, he realized he wasn't there for his brother's funeral. He was off fighting an inter-dimensional war. That was great and all, but he felt like he betrayed his brother.

The news about his mother surprised him though. Sure, he knew that she was probably more upset about him going missing than Drake's death. But that was beside the point. He had responsibilities, not just to this city, but to his family.

And with great responsibility, comes a hell lotta running around.

So, here he was, busting his ass to see parents that he honestly wasn't even sure he liked. Yeah, he loved them. But liking was a completely different thing.

Maybe they'll make a change, he thought.

One thing was for sure: this was gonna be interesting.

This is interesting, he thought.

Tyler Farroway was sitting in his office, looking at his files. Normally, ever employee had to sign in every time they used an A-Level device. However, it looks like someone used the Neogenic Recombinator without logging it in the system. Immediately, he went to the security footage around the Recombinator to see who had accessed it. All he got was static.

That's weird, he thought. The only person who knew of the cameras even being there was...

Curtis Lance. His right hand man. What reason could he have to go against the rules? What could he have?

Dr. Tyler Farroway was determined to find out what.

Kendrick walked up to the door of his parents house and knocked on it.

Here goes nothing, he thought.

Suddenly, the door opened and he was wrapped in yet another bear hug.

Shit, Ken thought. If I didn't have these spider-powers I'd be pizza right now.

"Hi Mom," he said.

"Oh my baby!" she cried. She was actually crying. "I missed you. How could you leave us like that?"

"I'm...I'm sorry Mom," he said then looked towards her arms. "I heard about..."

"That's not important," she said hesitantly. "Come inside. I'm sure your father wants to see you."

Ken followed his mother into the house he was raised in. It felt distant from him now. Different. Smaller. He realized that this was the first time he'd been in this house since he was bit by that spider. And the first time since Drake's death. He briefly remembered his fight with Drake. He was fighting in his original red and gold exoskeleton, while Drake was covered in some weird black substance, and calling himself Venom. They had fought across the city, and Drake seemed to have all of Kendrick's powers. He also remembered how Drake cut off his own head when he realized that Ken was Spider-Man.

"Ken, are you listening to me?" he heard his father say.

It had been ten minutes since he had met again with his parents. Their meeting were as to be expected. Y'know, the usual, 'where have you been' 'how could you do this' yada yada.

"Uh yeah," he replied. "I heard you."

"Okay," he said.

"Okay," Ken said. "Um, how was Drake's funeral?"

"It was a funeral," his mom said. "I just can't understand what would possess that boy to..."

"Maybe he felt like he had nothing to live for."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you kidding?" Kendrick said. "Well, you guys didn't love him."

"How dare you?!" his father said. "Of course we loved Drake."

"Then why didn't you act like it?" Ken said, starting to get angry. "All you ever said to him was how much he should've been like me! How everything was wrong about him!"

"You don't understand!" his mother said. "You don't..."

"You're right," Kendrick said. "How about you explain it to me, because I sure as hell don't understand!"

Ken saw them exchange a look. Then his father turned towards him.

"You had a sister." he said.

"What?" he asked. This was the first he'd even heard about this.

"Before you were born. We...we lost her. Miscarriage." he said. "The doctor said your mom couldn't have any more kids. Then Drake was born. We were...we were so happy. But...we were scared. We were afraid that Drake would die and we would be heartbroken again. So we kept him out. We...were ignored him. He was our miracle baby."

Kendrick had to register this then, he spoke.

"If...if this is true...if...why did you love me?" he asked. "Why did you give me attention?"

They were silent. They didn't even meet his eye. Tears came from his eyes.

"Oh," he said. "I get it. I'm not your 'miracle baby.' It's me you don't love."

"Ken..."

"So, not only did you treat Drake like shit, for the absolute dumbest fucking reason for his entire life," he said starting to walk away. "But you treat me like a king because you don't five a shit about me?!"

Ken started to walk away.

"Ken, let us explain..."

"Fuck you!"

"Ken," his mother said. "I'm pregnant."

I want to let you guys in on some changes that are coming to this story. For one thing, I plan to try and release a chapter every week. That whole time I went without writing something, that was horrible. I hate that. And I'll be damned of I let it happen again. So that's my goal. Once a week.

Another thing, I'm gonna try and focus more on Kendrick's school life and how he's adjusting to a school where everyone thinks he's gonna kill them. So far, all the chapters I've written to this story have felt more like his origin story. A really long origin story. Now the real story can begin.

NEXT: Kendrick adjust back to school life, and dealing with the news that he'll be an older brother. Also, he'll have to balance school life with his responsibilities of being Spider-Man.