Harris Porter finally managed to get home to his apartment. It was late, but he made it. It was cheap, low in-come housing with a few bad neighbors, but he and his daughter had no where else to go. After that false accusation, all friends and family had distanced themselves, immediately branding him a plague, likely more cunning from his ex-wife.
He unlocked the door and stepped in.
"...Daddy?"
Harris's head perked up, "Marie?"
He went past the cheap wall paper, ignoring the musty smell of a building not getting new makeup for years, and found his daughter in her pajamas looking at him groggily from the couch, a bag of chips and a can of soda on the center table.
"Marie, what did I tell you about drinking soda this late?"
"You're home early." Marie's voice was small, the sound of a child aware of her living conditions and the conditions of her father.
"Yeah... Work got called off early." He put on a smile, "I even got paid early."
"...Okay."
"Why are you sleeping here, its late - you have school tomorrow."
Marie held up a composition notebook that she took from the center table, tacked onto its cover being a red ribbion on which was the number two. The notebook itself was labeled as simply 'Science Project.'
"You got second place?" Harris said with a hint of a smile creeping onto her face, his stern attitiude already fading away, "That's great!"
Marie frowned and looked away, "...They messed with it."
"What?"
"The other kids." She mumbled, "The one who got first place."
Harris took a deep breath and sighed, "I'll call the school -"
"But that's all you do," It wasn't accusation, there was a tiredness in her voice, and the look that she had in her eyes was a defeated resignation, "No matter how many times you do it, nothing really happens. They say they will fix something, but not really."
Marie waggled her finger, " 'Don't do that again!' " Her face then fell, "Daddy? Why can't we just go somewhere else?"
A question that he asked himself often,
But he knew why -
"Its... uh, too expensive to move around, sweetie." He paused, even though Marie knew to an extent, tyring to say it out loud to a degree that she could understand was hard.
"...Its because of 'her', isn't it?"
"Don't talk about your mother -"
"She's not my Mom!" Her eyes were tearing up but the coals weren't washed out, tears were the lava of a child's anger, "If she was... we wouldn't be like this."
Her voice was shaking,
And he did the only thing he could do -
Join her on the couch, and bring her into a hug.
The sad thing was -
She was right.
Her wife brought the two of them here,
Abandoned them here.
With the money he could spare, out of curiosity, he found information about the whereabouts of his ex-wife and the mother of Marie. She found a hot-shot rich guy living in the richer parts of New York, far away from them to the point that the chances of seeing her again are astronomically low. Like a typical girl cheats boyfriend for a hotter guy type of story, even living in a penthouse.
The stereotype only made it hurt more -
Was his love not enough?
What did his love mean to her? Did it even mean anything to her?
Was that night that brought Marie into the world just a fluke?
What went wrong?
What about him wasn't enough to the point that she was willing to smear him as something he was not?
He thought about it,
Grabbing a rifle and assassinating her out of spite.
The only thing that kept him from doing so was the only thing left he had of his world,
Marie.
"Can we sleep here?" Marie asked,
"Sure." He laid down, making sure Marie had enough room to become comfortable and not fall off.
He put an arm around her, taking in this moment. Before he was always so busy with work, there were usually little opportunities for them to have moments like this. For awhile, he was going to spend time with Marie now that he can finally pay the overdue rent, leaving him with roughly a few hundred bucks left to use.
After that...
He shook his head,
He will think about that later.
Right now, he wanted to give as much time as he could to Marie to not make her doubt anything about him. His love for her in particular.
The only thing he has left to give.
"Where were you last night?"
It was the first thing Lola ever said to Cindy besides that time on the rooftop, making this seem like a confrontation to her.
"At... home?"
"...Mmm..."
There came a pause, then -
"...You single?"
Cindy gave a look as she leaned away from Lola, hugging her bag as always.
Lola's eyes looked Cindy up and down, "...Shame..."
Cindy felt there were different meanings to that.
"Lola?" The teacher said, "Care to solve this problem?"
Lola stared at the problem on the board for a moment, scribbled on her notebook, "Eight four - eighty five."
"If only you were as dedicated to your school work as you are to your 'interests', Lola."
Cindy caught the glance that Lola gave her. Even with everything that had happened last night, she was glad she indulged the Calling's temptation. She didn't know why Lola was suddenly suspicious, but she was glad this was the only time they would be in any close proximity to each other in the school day.
When lunch came, Cindy was surprised to see someone else at her table - a girl, skin that would have been tan if her pale tone was likely due to staying in the house all the time - something that Cindy could relate to and know, all she needed to do was look in the mirror - with black hair that was kept short. She was sitting in the same spot Cindy sat in yesterday, the one behind Lola. Seeing as there was no where else to go, Cindy sat on the opposite end of the table on the opposite side to her.
The girl looked up, a glint in her eyes, "...You're sitting with me?"
"...There's no where else to sit?"
"Oh..." The girl hung her head, "Yeah... That's... understandable..."
For a brief moment, Cindy stared stared,
Concentrating in her mind -
Don't say it,
Don't say it,
Don't say it!
"...Uh... Why?" Cindy cursed herself in her head.
The girl sighed, "...My name's... Keemia Marko. Sound familiar?"
"No."
Keemia blinked, her head recoiling, "..What?"
"What?"
"Marko?" Keemia said with obvious emphasis, some of the kids in Lola's table turned their heads.
Cindy paused, then a shy smile pulled her lips, "...Po-lo?"
Even more heads from Lola's table turned to look at Cindy with screwed brows.
Lola threw a ball of paper that Cindy, which she had caught on instinct,
Then absently tossed away.
Lola hung her head with a face palm and the few kids beside her had a similar sentiment. Cindy glanced at Lola's table then back at Keemia, wondering what it was that she was missing from this picture that everyone was seeing.
Lola scribbled something on another piece of paper, looked at Cindy with fierce eyes, pointed at the ball of paper with a stabbing finger, and threw it at Cindy.
Catching it once again with the same ease, Cindy opened the ball this time and saw what was written on it -
Her father is The Sandman!
"Oh!" Cindy exclaimed, "I... wouldn't have known that..."
Keemia, Lola, and those at Lola's table looked at Cindy incredulously, all of them bearing the same sentiment -
"Have you been living under a rock?!" Keemia said, nearly jumping out of her seat.
Cindy's face fell, her head tilting to so that the plastic lenses of her glasses caught the light, hiding her eyes,
"...Something like that. Me and my dad moved around a lot after my..." Cindy paused, "...After my mom died."
Lola's brows furrowed.
"Oh, uh, sorry..." Keemia said, sinking back into her seat, "But, you would have heard about my... about Sandman while you were moving around, right? Or Spiderman's other villains? Especially a month ago?"
"I don't look at the news." Cindy said, "At all, now that I think about it. Does your dad being Sandman really matter?"
Keemia sighed, "...To a lot of people, yeah. I didn't even think I would get into this school because of my father's reputation."
"Is it really that hard to prove that you aren't like your father?"
Keemia looked at Cindy for a moment, "Uh, sorry for saying it like this, but - you know about asian families, right? We'll, things I've heard about, at least - high expectations, kinda unfair expectations, how they think that better grades equals happiness - I think that's what it is?"
Cindy went quiet, "...My mom... expected a lot."
"But, not your dad?" Keemia said carefully.
"He... knew what all of that did to me. When we were moving around, he was happy enough that I was still myself."
Keemia's eyes fell, thinking back to her own father.
"Um... Sorry that I brought up your family."
Cindy took a bite of her food, "It's fine, I'm used to it."
Keemia and Lola glanced at Cindy,
Whereas Cindy glanced at a nearby window, not looking at anything in particular, but felt a certain person going off by themself, and soon after heard through the clamor of the lunch room the signature thwipping sound of a friendly neighborhood web-slinger.
"...Even now, huh?" Cindy muttered to herself.
Cindy wanted to go home and watch her shows and play her games but she couldn't say no to Miles's offer to hang out. It would have been rude to, especially so because he had smiled when offering.
They were walking around Miles' neighborhood with his girlfriend Hailey, making small chat as well as them pointing out different spots around the neighborhood. Typical places like the parks, food places, hang out spots, Hailey's artwork, etc.
Life was good here to a lot of people,
And it could be heard, sometimes blatantly, enough that Cindy had to turn on music in her phone to drown out the world a little bit.
"So what kind of music do you listen to, Cindy?" Miles asked, seeing her mess with her phone.
"Uh... Nerdy, stuff..."
Miles chuckled, "How nerdy are we talkin?"
Cindy pursed her lip, "...Japanese stuff."
Hailey moved her fingers - Nothing to be ashamed off.
"She said -" Miles started.
"Sure..." Cindy said, causing Miles and Hailey to glance at each other.
"You understand sign language?"
Cindy glanced at Miles and Hailey, realizing what she had done.
"Yeah. Its... well, its not that hard to see the intent behind things."
Hailey moved her fingers again - Do you understand me?
"Yeah?" Cindy drawled, uncertain if she should just let this play out or give some sort of alibi.
"Learn from your Dad?" Miles said.
Cindy frowned, seeing this was an out for her but she would how to add to it to make it believable, "I, uh... learn things at a faster rate than people. You've probably already heard about a four-eyed-freak-know-it-all."
"Wait. That's you?"
Cindy sighed, "How bad is it?"
Miles chuckled, "Not that bad, really. A lot of people in school are just amazed how quickly you can solve problems just by looking at them."
"Uh-huh."
"How do you do that, by the way? Maybe you can show me how, it'll really help me a lot."
"No ancient chinese secrets from me."
"Pfft, I wouldn't call it like that." Miles said.
"Honestly, I wish I could do things normally like everyone else. The only way I can describe learning for me is like looking at a picture or a pattern that's kinda mis-matched, all it takes is putting the pieces together."
"Its that easy for you?"
"You mean how boring? A lot the things I learn come easy to me, I actively have to stop myself to going any further than I need to. Now that I'm in public school, I have to do that, every, single, time."
"But that can give you so much time, time I wish I had."
"I don't want to put teachers out of a job, Miles."
"But that's not how that works, though?"
Hailey tapped Cindy - Just take things one step at a time instead of looking at everything like you do.
"Yeah?" Cindy said, arching a brow with a jaded tone in her voice.
Hailey continued - That's probably why you have this... mindset about yourself.
"Its hard to look at the small things when everything is so big."
Hailey smiled - Every set of stairs starts with one step.
Cindy opened her mouth and almost let the bile slip out, but she kept her cool and closed her mouth, "...Touche."
"Things aren't easy in life," Miles said.
"Duh."
"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop ourselves from trying."
Cindy's mouth opened,
She paused,
It closed -
"Sure."
Miles and Hailey glanced at each other,
Cindy could see the gears in their minds turning -
She had thought she wasn't this easy to read,
She had practiced talking to people in case instances like this happened, gone over a few scenarios in her head over and over,
Not enough evidently.
Not being able to handle the pity in their eyes, Cindy looked away, "Can we get something to eat?"
"Sure," Miles said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "There's a -"
He got cut off by a buzzing that came from his pocket. He pulled his phone from his pocket and clicked his tongue when looking at the screen of his phone.
Hailey's fingers moved - Something come up?
"Yeah, sorry about that - an errand from my mom that needs doing. You know the place, Hailey?"
Hailey nodded.
"Sorry I gotta leave right now, Cindy."
"You gotta do what you gotta do." Cindy said.
"Right, sorry again." Miles said before jogging off around a corner.
"He's busy." Cindy said.
Hailey fingers went again - He still volunteers at FEAST while also helping his mother with her position.
Behind them down the street, "Spiderman!"
Cindy looked over and saw the Brooklyn Spiderman slinging his webs. "Time, huh?" Cindy mumbled.