Normie sat on the floor of his mother's guest room, surrounded by his father's journals. He leaned against wall feeling exhausted and drained, as if syphoned of his life source. His father's words buzzed in his head, and when he closed his eyes, he could see his dad's small, tight handwriting crowding page after page after page.

Peter Parker. He was his friend. His best friend.

Why couldn't Spider-Man have dropped the heroics and talk to his father, person to person. Could he have used their friendship to reach Harry? Spiderling had done something similar with him all those years ago.

A stab of guilt cut through him. Now that he knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man, it would be so easy to find out Spiderling's name. Hell, MJ probably mentioned it before during one of their post-acting class meetings. He wondered what his classmates would think if they knew their teacher wasn't just a former soap star, but a superhero on top of that?

And she had been his father's friend too. And his mother's. His mom must have felt so betrayed, so alone, after finding out her two closest friends, the godparents to her son, were so closely entwined with Harry's double life.

Normie's heart broke for his mother, his father, his family. He pulled his knees to his chest.

There was a knock on the door. "You okay, in there?" His mother asked. He could hear her awkwardly balancing on her crutches.

Normie cleared his throat. "I'm fine," he lied. "Just cleaning up."

He could see his mother's shadow under the door. Her silence was heavy.

"I'll be out in a minute." He forced his voice calm, just as he used to during all those board meetings.

"Okay then," she sighed. "I'll see you soon." She sounded unsure, vulnerable. Then he heard the clicks of her crutches, and her shadow retreated.

And so Normie sat alone, his face stained with tears, surrounded by the leather bound books. The ghost of his father clawing at his soul.

Annie yawned. Her headache had improved, her blood sugar stabilized. But now she just felt exhausted. She headed to the gymnasium to help set up for the dance. Her phone buzzed. She grabbed it from the pocket of her hoodie, and saw a new message in the family chat.

Hey kiddo, meeting my professor about the dissertation. Will leave my phone on in case you need me. Call if any crime fighting happens. And don't start without me!

Annie had forgotten about her dad's meeting. This one was big. He was doing a preliminary defense to see if he was able to go through with the real thing during spring. If so, then at the end of the next semester, her father would be Dr. Peter Parker. There was no way in hell she was going to pull him from that meeting.

But she wasn't going to tell him that. Okay, good luck!

Her mom responded. Me too, sweetie! Just call and I'll be right there. Tiger, you got this!

Annie knew her mother was also engaged in a modeling gig, something she had been looking forward to for a long time. Annie squared her shoulders. If anything went down today, she'd be a solo act.

Soon, that'll be Dr. Tiger! Break a leg, Red!

Her mom sent an abundance of kissy emojis, and then her dad did the same. And soon, they were in an all out war! Annie shook her head, texted her mother good luck, and pocketed her phone.

"Hi Annie," came a soft-spoken voice.

"Hey Imani!" Annie said. Imani was dressed causally and was awkwardly carrying a long, rolled up spool of fabric. Her fingers and hands were covered in paint. "Let me help you with that!" She grabbed an end of the fabric. "You helping out with the dance?"

Imani nodded. Smiling, she said, "the art teacher asked me to paint the backdrop for the photos. I've been working on it for almost a month!"

"Oh wow! Can't wait to see it, that's awesome." The school always selected a student to paint the backdrop. It was a big deal with the artist cliques, and super impressive that Imani was picked despite being in middle school. Annie smiled. Imani would be a freshman the following year, and Annie, a senior. She was happy they would overlap some. Imani was a sweet girl, and a dear family friend.

The shy girl smiled her thanks. Annie helped her set up the canvas. It was a beautifully painted image of a winter wonderland, bordered by snow-covered trees, with a warm looking cabin in background.

"I didn't know you painted," Annie said, not hiding her awe.

Imani nodded. "It's my favorite thing," she said as struggled to attach the top corner to the stand.

Annie worked on the opposite corner and did her best to make it look a little difficult.

"My mom says you are also really good in her class."

Imani's smile was weaker. "It's a hard class."

"You don't like it?" Annie asked gently.

"It's okay," she shrugged. "I mean, your mom is amazing!"

"I know that," Annie chuckled. "But that doesn't mean you have to like the class."

"My parents wanted me to do it. They think I need to come out of my shell." Her voice had dropped to almost a whisper.

"Do you want to do that?"

Imani shrugged. "I like how I am now."

"You are pretty cool," Annie said. "It's hard when parents are all 'we know what's best for you,' but sometimes they really don't."

"Thanks. I just wish they would relax about that. Shy isn't so bad."

But Annie didn't hear her. Instead, she was gripped by a vision of The Avian and Glass in the in the gymnasium, tearing the place up.

"Get down!" Annie yelled as the large doors blew open. A wave of pigeons exploded into the space, causing students and staff to duck and scream.

The pigeons swarmed around their ringleader, The Avian, who was apparently teaming up with Glass. Annie tried to remember the nickname her parents had given her, but her mind was drawing a blank.

She caught a glance of Imani, frozen in place, her eyes locked on the tornado of birds.

"Run!" Annie yelled, and then took off to find a space to change into Spiderling. She elbowed her way through the crowd towards one of the side exits. She wondered if her classmates thought her a coward for bowling through the crowd. But there was no time for that. As Annie May Parker, she was helpless to the duo's onslaught. But as Spiderling, she'd be able to take those goons down.

Once outside, she miraculously found a secluded spot, and ripped off her civies, exposing her blue costume. She threw on her mask, and swung back into the gymnasium.

"What is this, a party? Guess my invitation got lost," she said, trying to honor the tradition of snark. She would have to absolutely nail this as her parents were going to be pissed that she did't call them.

But Glass and The Avian didn't even hear her. Annie spotted Imani standing in the exact same spot. Her eyes were shut tight, her mouth a firm line, her fists clenched. Was she hurt? Dazed? In shock?

There was no way in hell she was going let these girls hurt her friend.

Screw the quips, she thought, and leaped into action.

But, then, something strange happened. The tornado of pigeons circled tighter around their leader, and then dove down, attacking her and her accomplice.

Amanda had no idea what was happening. One minute, they entered the gymnasium, pigeons circling protectively around them.

"Robertson!" The Avian had screamed as the everyone scattered, except one girl, who appeared frozen in place. "Take us to your grandfather, I've got a proposition for good ol' Tombstone. And don't you dare take me to an actual tombstone," she laughed at her own shitty joke. "I'm not buying the whole dead guy act."

But then the pigeons revolted! The mutinous birds started dive-bombing Amanda and The Avian. She saw the birds swarm her partner, trying to grab hold of her. Then, she saw a swarm of them approach her.

Amanda shot out shards of glass, causing the gray buzzing cloud to scatter. One bird shrieked and feel to the ground, and The Avian screamed.

Oh God, Amanda panicked. She didn't mean to hurt the bird. She thought of checking on the animal, but she ran instead. She felt terrible for fleeing, but knew getting caught by a bunch of birds would hurt her chances of getting back to her mother and their benefactor even more than fleeing would. She would just deny she was a part of this and would find some other way.

It would be a quick and clean exit, but of course, Spiderling blocked her way.

"No you don't!" She said as she fired her webs. Amanda barely dodged them, and sent out a barrage of dagger-like shards.

Spiderling easily avoided the shards, and was able to web the ones that came dangerously close to the students and teachers. Thank God. As Amanda didn't want to hurt the birds, she also didn't want to hurt anyone else. Especially a high school kid. Someone not so different from herself. For a moment, Amanda reflected on her old life. Her school was so similar to this one. She missed it.

Then Spiderling charged. "Stay away from them!" she yelled, and landed a brutal punch. Amanda was knocked to the ground. She saw a webbed crack in her visor where the punch had landed. It obscured part of her vision. Between Spiderling's attacks and the pigeons pecking at her, Amanda knew she had to leave. Besides, it was likely only a matter of time before Spider-Man and Spinneret showed up.

Spiderling ran to were Amanda lay, and reared back for another blow. Amanda shot out a shard of glass. The panic in her caused it to fly out faster than intended, and Spiderling, being so close, just barely avoided getting skewered. The glass had cut her arm, the blue of costume was slashed with a ribbon of crimson. Spiderling took a second to grab her arm, and that was all Amanda needed.

She couldn't get caught. That would only make everything so much harder. Holding her breath, she fired her glass haphazardly, mostly for scare, doing what she could to limit the force behind the projectiles. At the most, she hoped all she would cause were small cuts, and no major damage. But she was too afraid to look back, to see if anyone had been seriously hurt. Instead, she just ran.

Annie held her arm, the blood gushing out. She hoped she didn't need stitches as she webbed up her wound.

Glass got away, and Annie wasn't sure if she'd be able to swing with her arm, or if she'd be much use in hand-to-hand combat. So instead, she focused on helping those that were injured. There were a lot of cuts, most not terribly serious, but many would need stitches. She webbed up the worst ones to stop the bleeding, her heart clenching as she knew all of the injured.

Ms. Reid, her theater teacher, had a pretty bad gash on her upper back.

"Hold still," she said, as she sprayed some webbing. Her teacher was horribly pale and terrified. "You'll be okay," Annie said, doing her best to lower her voice. Her teacher had always been such an intimidating figure. But now, Ms. Reid looked so frail. She wanted to say more, reassure her, but she knew the more she said, the more she risked her identity.

Help came, and The Avian, restrained by her own birds, was taken into custody. Spiderling left and came back, dressed as Annie. She found Imani, who held a tissue with small stains of blood. The girl looked like she was trying to make herself as small as possible, and she sat away from everyone.

The students were not allowed to leave as the authorities gathered information, tended to the injured and secured the crime scene. She could hear the commotion of parents and family members outside of the gymnasium waiting to be reunited with their loved ones.

Annie sat down next to her friend. "Hey, you okay?"

Imani nodded as tears silently streamed down her cheeks. Annie had a suspicion that Imani had something to do with the pigeons' turnaround. While fighting Glass, she noticed Imani hadn't moved, and a bead of blood dripped from her nose.

"What happened back there? I told you to run." Her tone was gentle, hoping it would spark a discussion.

Instead the girl brought her knees to her chest and hid her face.

"I just froze," she said. "They wanted my grandfather. But he's, dead."

Annie was supposed to believe the lie, but as Spiderling, she knew Tombstone had faked his own death as a way out of the life of crime to be there for his family after Imani had been born. The love he had for her not only inspired him to get out of the game, it was the final burying of the hatchet between himself and Robbie Robertson. According to her father, though, the two were now enveloped in a competition of who could be the more doting grandfather.

"I don't think your being honest with me," Annie said, gently. She fought the urge to wince from the pain in her arm.

The fear in Imani's eyes said it all. She definitely had something to do with The Avian's pigeons, but she wasn't going to tell her. And honestly, could she blame the girl?

Annie sighed. She knew she wasn't supposed to do this, but her friend was hurting, and possibly harboring secret superpowers. She didn't want her to be alone.

"Can you keep a secret?" Annie whispered.

Imani nodded solemnly.

It was now or never. Annie took a steadying breath. "I didn't run away. I left to change, then come back."

Imani gave her a confused look. Annie looked behind her and saw that no one was paying attention to them. Annie scooted closer, and faced her, her back towards the rest of the gym.

"I'm Spiderling," she whispered, and lifted up her shirt slightly, exposing a sliver of the webbed blue and black costume she wore beneath.

Imani's eyes were wide and her mouth dropped.

"You're…"

"Shh, please don't say it," she whispered. "This has to stay between us," Annie said, panic beginning to build. Did she just make the wrong call?

Imani only nodded. She looked down at her hands and shredded the tissue. "I can communicate with animals," she said after a moment.

Annie nodded. She wondered if the girl was a mutant, or if this was something she inherited from her mother or grandfather. Annie wasn't sure how they had gotten their powers though. But she could get her connected to Professor X. Get her some training, hell, maybe they could team up.

"How long?" Annie asked.

"As long as I can remember. I've gotten more control over it. But I didn't know I could control them, like I did back there."

"It's amazing what life or death stakes can do."

Imani nodded.

"I can get you set up with someone, for training, maybe a costume?"

She looked up at her with terrified eyes. "Please don't tell anyone," she begged.

"I know who it is safe to tell, to get you some support."

"No!" She said, her voice carrying. For a moment, she looked as if she had startled herself. "I don't want to be a superhero," she whispered.

"Oh, I didn't realize…"

"I don't want to. My grandfather is in hiding. My mom is always facing some sort of scrutiny, having to prove herself again and again because her time as the Beetle. My dad, my grandpa and grandma, their lives have been threatened again and again. Things have finally quieted down. If I come out with powers, I don't even want to know what will happen. Please, Annie, please, don't tell anyone. I just want to be a normal girl. I want to go to school, draw, study, sleep in. I don't want to fight crime. I just want to be me. And if you think less of me, then fine, that's on you."

Annie nodded, and felt bad for trying to push her. "I don't think any less of you. And I promise, I won't tell anyone, not even my parents. And when we give our statement, I can say you were with me. I'll just say the birds freaked and we ran."

Imani nodded.

"You're really brave you know that? You stopped them, and you didn't have to." She carefully hugged her friend. Imani hugged her back.

"I won't tell about you either," Imani said.

"Thank you. And, if you ever change your mind, you let me know. And if not, that's okay. You got it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Thanks Annie."

They sat together, talking quietly, getting their stories straight, both covering for each other.

The dance of course, was canceled. And when they were finally released to their families, they gave their parents the biggest hug. Her mom and dad didn't even seem all that mad. Yet. Give them time, and they would very much be ticked off at how she didn't tell them the school was under attack, and then there was her physics midterm. But hey, at least she was now on winter break.