Chapter 8: Spider-Man meet Rita Desjardin

(Later on the Next Day…)

Date: Tuesday February 2nd 2013

Time: 6:50 PM

Spider-Man recovered more tech and woke up the next morning with the laptop he found. Peter managed to access it and began his research. With it, he can look up anything about anyone in the world. He started by putting in Carrie's name. To his surprise, he found little about her.

Full name Carrietta Naomi White, she was born on September 21, 1995, in Chamberlain. She lives with her mother: Margaret and her father: Ralph White, died before Carrie was born in a construction accident. She was homeschooled until she reached 6th grade when the state forced her mother to enroll her in public school. Her best classes are English and art, while gym was her weakest.

Peter then looked up her medical records, and to his shock, found none. There was no record of any appointments made or about getting any of her shorts.

"That's not good." Peter said to himself.

She didn't have any social media presence and when he reached for any disciplinary actions, there were a lot, and we're talking a lot of reports of bullying against her. Peter got the names of all the girls on the reports and saw that the name that popped up the most was Chris Hargensen. When he couldn't find more about Carrie, he moved on to Chris.

Christine Hargensen was born on August 9, 1995, in Chamberlain. Her mother is a dress designer, and her father is a lawyer, and a very influential one at that too. To his shock and disgust, he saw that Chris was served detention up to 70 times throughout her time in school and skipped most of them. Her biggest offense was when she stuffed firecrackers in some girl's shoe and this led to two of the girl's toes being blown off.

"Sorry Uncle Ben, but what the absolute fuck is wrong with here?!" Peter said.

Peter then saw her social media posts. Lately, most of them is of her complaining about getting banned from prom and insisting she did nothing wrong and the people at the school are idiots. Peter then saw her YouTube page. Most of her videos are about fashion and makeup, but then he found an unlisted one.

The thumbnail was completely greyed out and the video was labeled: Carrie White.

His mind told him not to click it, but he did anyway, and instantly regretted it.

It showed Carrie on the floor with only a towel covering her. As Peter saw blotches of red on the towel and her hands. In the background was the sound of numerous girls chanting, "Plug it up!" as she was screaming. The girls were also throwing things at her, but Peter couldn't make out what they were throwing at her because of the up-close shot on Carrie.

Peter slammed the laptop close and was seething with anger. The last time he felt an anger close to this was when… when he confronted Uncle Ben's killer. As Peter wished he could reach into the screen and make everyone stop.

"What… the hell… is wrong with them?" Peter seethed.

After taking several breaths, Peter opened the computer again, but this time, he played the video without sound. At one point, the girl who filmed this, Chris, flipped the angle and showed herself and the others who were mocking Carrie, all laughing and smiling like what they were doing was no big deal.

"Gotcha." Peter said.

Peter took a screenshot of the shot and then read about the incident according to school officials. From what the report said, Carrie had her first period as she showered, but she believed she was bleeding to death as her mother Maragret White never told her anything about menstrual periods. She was then saved by one Rita Desjardin, a gym teacher that was hired at the beginning of the school year. As Peter remembers and meets Desjardin.

"God…" Peter said.

Peter was just plain speechless. He had experienced bullying throughout his years in school, but never to this extreme. Flash Thompson and his buddies were never this… sadistic or evil at any point, not even close. And this Chris and her friends just did whatever they wanted at will without facing any consequences whatsoever.

"That's gotta change… and it will. Now, who are all of you?" Peter asked, as he looked at the screenshot of the girls.

Peter got their names and looked through their social media posts and whatever else he could find. Most of them put negative messages about Carrie and mocked her in their posts. The only one of them that didn't say anything about her was named Sue Snell, Tina Blake was almost as bad as Chris' posts about Carrie. Many of them have also gotten detention or some other disciplinary action taken against them for their treatment of their peers, but have always gotten off light, probably because of Chris' father.

"Run to dear old dad and all your troubles disappear. I'll put an end to that one way or another." Peter said to himself.

Peter decided to look up John Hargensen, Chris's dad, and saw that he's got lots of skeletons in his closet; bribes, blackmail, and countless other things that were written off due to his influence and power.

John could probably have her daughter's boyfriend and his buddies out of jail in no time with what he's got and said influence. The web-head then looks for more incriminating evidence he can find to get John into trouble, maybe enough to make an arrest. He even found that John tried to get Chris's prom privileges back after she refused to serve the punishment Ms. Desjardin gave them, but was unsuccessful.

"Good." Spider-Man said.

Spider-Man then found additional information about everyone he searched.

"Man, there's a lot of info in here on everyone. It's gonna take me a while to go through it all. I'll just save what I've got for now and go on my way." Spider-Man said.

Spider-Man transferred all the info he had onto his phone and suited up again. He looked at the time on his phone and it read 6:55 pm. He then leapt through the window and swung off into the town.

(Later at Next Day at Ewen High School…)

Time: 7:10 AM

Spider-Man's day went smoothly and held his backpack going to school, as he found more lost tech and stopped a few crimes as well. While he still had no leads on Chris or her friends, he was confident that with the tech he's found so far, he'd be closer in finding them. Before he knew it, it was past 7:10 in the morning and he decided to drop by Ewen High School, perching himself in the same spot as yesterday.

"I wonder how Carrie's doing." Spider-Man wondered as he looked down at the fields.

Spider-Man saw some of the girls from the video playing soccer and scowled under his mask. Seeing them smiling and laughing after what they've done to her made him angry. He swore things will change and he'll be damned if they didn't.

His thoughts were interrupted when a softball flew past him. Spider-Man caught it as it came down and saw that a piece of paper was wrapping around it. He unwrapped it and read the note.

Look down. Can we talk?

"What the…?" Spider-Man asked.

Spider-Man did what the note said and saw Desjardin waving at him. He hesitantly waved back before she motioned for him to come down.

"Okay…" Spider-Man said.

Spider-Man leapt down and stood face-to-face with her.

"Well, that's one way to get my attention." Spider-Man quipped as he tossed the ball back.

"I hoped it did, my arm's killing me now though. I saw you up there and I wrote that as fast as I could and wrapped it in that ball." Desjardin said as she rubbed her right arm.

"So… who are you and what's with this?" Spider-Man asked as he held the paper.

Desjardin took a deep breath.

"My name is Rita Desjardin and I… I wanted to talk to you about something." Desjardin said.

"Alright, what is it?" Spider-Man asked.

"It's… it's about Carrie White. I saw you with her yesterday." Desjardin said.

"Oh, her? She's nice, really nice. Ten out of ten, we would meet and talk again." Spider-Man said.

Desjardin chuckled.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Desjardin said. "You see, she's… she's had it rough, to say the least."

"Yeah, I read about her life." Spider-Man thought as Desjardin continued.

"I don't know if you have the time considering you're most likely in town for a huge and no doubt complicated reason, but if you get the chance, could you… could you maybe, I don't know, maybe hang out with her a bit? You see, she doesn't really have anyone to talk to here and whenever someone does do that, it's followed by a big joke someone planned. I talk to her every chance I get, but there's only so much I can do. It's awful, really." Desjardin explained.

"Why do they treat her the way they do?" Spider-Man asked.

"Well, the biggest reason, if you can even call it that, is that her mother is… to put it very lightly, nuts. Margaret, her name is. Very religious that woman and she's told everyone they're going to hell countless times and calling people sinners and whatnot. Practically everyone here users her as ammunition to target Carrie." Desjardin explained more.

"Yikes. Still, that's no reason to bully her or anyone. You're right about me being here for a reason, but I'll do it. One hundred percent, I'll do it." Spider-Man said.

Desjardin smiled.

"Thank you so much. By the way, how'd you meet her? Just wondering." Desjardin said.

"Oh, some guys were giving her a hard time. She won't have to worry about them for a while." Spider-Man said.

"Well, thank you for helping her. I don't think I've ever heard her so happy before until yesterday." Desjardin said.

"Yeah, I think I'm a bit deaf on my left ear now, but hey, if she's happy then it was worth it. By the way, nice throw. I'm surprised it made it up there." Spider-Man complimented.

"Me too. I was afraid someone might see me and ask what I'm doing." Desjardin said.

"You played softball in high school?" Spider-Man asked.

"No, I tried out but didn't make it. I did archery, though. Won first place in the state competition, it's how I got this." Desjardin said, motioning to her silver whistle that's hanging around her neck.

"Should Norma Osborn be worried?" Spider-Man jokingly asked.

Desjardin smirked.

"Maybe." Desjardin said, before the two shared a laugh. "No, not really. I haven't done that since… Oh wow, I don't remember. Maybe since high school. I think I left all my archery equipment at my mother's house in Chester's Mill when I moved out. Anyway, I have to go now before someone looks for me. It was real nice talking to you, Spider-Man."

"You too, Rita. Take care, alright?" Spider-Man asked.

Spider-Man turned back and leapt into the air before swinging away. Desjardin looks at the softball with a look of satisfaction before making her way back to her students.

"That Coach Flagg never liked me. He was pretty creepy too, now that I think about it. Oh well, things turned out alright in the end. I wonder if Mom still has my archery gear." Desjardin said.

Spider-Man arrived on the rooftop to Ewen High School, he knelt and took his backpack and his clothes…suddenly…Peter's call rang…it was unknown he looked around for a moment before answering.

"Hello?" Spider-Man asked.

"Hello Peter, that is Rita Desjardin." Desjardin said.

"Oh, Hello Ms. Desjardin." Spider-Man said.

"You coming?" Desjardin asked.

"Yeah, I'm coming. I'll be back." Spider-Man said.

"Good. Are you alright?" Desjardin asked.

"I'm fine." Spider-Man said.

Desjardin nods yes.

"Peter, you arrived in high school and you saw Carrie. You understand." Desjardin said.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm on my way." Spider-Man said.

"Good. See you later at school." Desjardin said.

"Okay, see you later at school." Spider-Man said.

Spider-Man just hangs up on her. He pulls his mask. Peter takes his clothes to Ewen High School…

To Be Continued…