Cindy was right about one thing going to school, - It was loud.

It was manageable due to the ear buds she wore in her ears. She wanted to see how long she could manage without listening to anything.

What made it harder to blend in was how there were other students pointing her out, pointing and giggling, making rings with their finger and putting them to their eyes.

Cindy pouted,

Her eyes weren't that big...

Although they were certainly larger than average, and not bug eyed, it certainly wasn't something that needed to be brought to attention so much.

Cindy sighed, hugging her bag to her chest - this was why she hated people so much. Looking for any sort of way to make their lives feel better. But, in a way, she was like them. Indulgent, just not on a playground like this.

She waited against the wall near the cafeteria, a regular place of commute for students in the morning. This was the place that Miles said to meet him at. She held her bag with one hand to pull out her phone and listen to something - a music or video, something that was go-to. As she was browsing her library, she felt a tap at her shoulder, making her jump, gasp, and held up her phone high as though it were a knife about to stab down -

And blinked when she saw it was a blonde girl with shoulder length hair and glasses.

"Oh! Sorry, are you Cindy?" The girl asked, her tone gentle - Cindy would even go so far as to say it bordered on motherly.

"Who - who wants to know?" Cindy hugged her bag more tightly, her eyes trained on the girl, slightly hunched.

The blonde girl chuckled, "Someone who's a friend of Miles." She put out her hand, "Rafferty. Miles ran into some trouble on his way here, said he'll make it to school but not enough time to show you around."

Cindy stared at Rafferty's hand, then looked up with screwed brows, "Rafferty?" She said with a flat tone.

Rafferty smirked, "Yeah... Mom thought herself a poet, probably could'a become one. Raff or Raffy is fine."

"O-kay..." Putting her phone in her pocket, she shook Rafferty's hand, "Raff...erty..."

The slight discomfort didn't go unnoticed, "Whatever you want to go with is fine. As you can see, we're in the cafeteria. Did you eat breakfast?"

Cindy avoided direct eye contact, "Uh... more or less."

Rafferty's head dipped down, and not only did she have the voice and tone of a mother but also the fierce motherly look.

"...Bag'a chips..." Cindy said with a small voice.

Rafferty rolled her eyes and took Cindy's wrist, leading her towards the cafeteria.

"Wai-wai-wait, where're - where're we going?!"

"And over there is the library! Some people like to skip classes there, I don't know how they do it but they tend to get caught leaving the library."

Rafferty turned around with a smile, "Got that all?"

"Mhm..." Cindy could tell Rafferty was a health freak,

With all the pillars of the food table that Rafferty made her hold.

Rafferty jumped, "Oh! You should have said something! That looks really uncomfortable!" And began taking some of them to put them into Cindy's bag.

"...Didn't want to be rude."

"Omigosh!" Rafferty's eyes practically pushed themselves against the lenses of her glasses, "You carry all this by yourself?!"

"...I had worse, its fine - "

"Nuh-uh. Where's your locker?" Rafferty said, taking Cindy's school schedule from her bag, skimming it to find her locker number. "Oh! That's near mine, actually! Come on - five minutes, but we can make it. Come on!"

Rafferty took Cindy's hand again, pulling her.

Cindy winced and whined, trying to keep it together.

"Moon? Miss Moon? Cindy Moon!"

Cindy looked up -

Her classmates looking at her with smirks and smiles,

The teacher with an arched brow, poised to give vocal scrutiny on how she should be paying attention - Yet her eyes, not moving, saw the whole picture on the board with one look:

"Sixty five with a remainder of two; the other one is not solvable; you're missing an eight on the last one; and your integer is supposed to be nine."

The cannons that were the eyes of the students pivoted to face the teacher,

Who wasn't even done with their work on the board, far behind - just recently going step-by-step over the first equation - that they needed to look at their curriculum in their teacher's book to see if what Cindy said was correct.
When the teacher saw that she was, the teacher was about to say something when the door to the classroom opened and a girl shuffled in - all the warning signs went off in Cindy's head.

"Lola..." The teacher said.

The girl called Lola yawned and lazily waved a dismissive wave, "Yeah yeah... I got it."

If her name was anything to go by, Lola was of Spanish decent, her clothes loosely worn, wrinkled in some places, most notably at her shirt, black tights and ankle boots. The duffel bag over her shoulder seemed limp. Glancing at the it, Cindy wondered if she had ever used it as a substitute punching bag.

Lola began to shuffle over to Cindy. For a moment, she thought she had somehow provoked this Lola in some way before realizing that her table was the only one left with an open seat. Lola plopped herself down and let her duffel bag drop from her shoulder. Cindy felt the urge to tell her to sit up and stop slouching, but Lola looked the non-negotiable type with the perpetual frown on her face. It was also evident that she was tired, making her possibly more receptive to getting irritated.

Cindy hugged her bag, which was on the table, only giving Lola a stiff glance before actively trying not to look at her.

Which Lola did to her instead, looking her up and down then arching a brow,

Then made a grunt.

Whether it was in acknowledgement, Cindy didn't know and didn't want to think about -

Lola looked like bad people to her.

Even when she was tired, even though she had shuffled her way over to the table, there was enough suggestion in her walk that Lola knew how to fight. Did everyone know or were they being quiet about it? The quick glances at Lola suggested at the latter. What did did this girl do? How did someone like her get into Brooklyn Visions?

For the rest of the class, Cindy was not paying attention to the lesson and was doing everything in her power to stay still, doing everything in her power to not provoke Lola in anyway.

Even the few things that required her to do something, like writing something down, at the insistence of the teacher, she made calculated movements that would be the best in not making any such possible reaction.

When class finally ended, Cindy kept calm as she stood up and walked out the classroom, breathing a sigh of relief.
For the rest of the classes until lunch, Cindy's behavior with her smarts followed a similar pattern, for the things that she knew, anyway. For the things that she didn't, when the teacher asked what the lesson curtailed, thinking that she was like any other student in that class, Cindy relayed almost exactly what the teacher had said, paraphrased, and had said what the lesson was transitioning to. Even though it seemed like she wasn't paying attention at all, she had proved that she most certainly was.

Over time, she had put together too late that just by doing what she was doing she had made herself out as a 'Super Nerd' or the 'Memory Freak.' Cindy had excused the first few clues that she should have taken out of faith or the idea that they would let it go and move on to whatever interested them five minutes later, if that.

So when lunch came, when all the students were sitting at their tables, the table that Cindy managed to find all the other students were avoiding it. Seeing the expressions, the smiles, and looks that flashed her way, likely rumors have been made about the Super Memory Nerd Freak, or whatever nickname they would have given her by now. If everything that she had learned about the jungle of school student norms, no matter how formal or polite the schools are, students will always find a way to make a hierarchy of some kind.

Even the nerds wouldn't want to lend a friendly hand, they would tempt getting a bigger target on their backs, if they had any already.

Its was just how people were, survival can take many forms.

Rafferty and Miles had a different lunch period,

Thankfully Lola did as well -

Until she sat down at the table behind Cindy's,

Sitting directly behind her as all the other spots were taken - in fact, the other students sitting at the table seemed
to be part of her group or of the same clique, at least.

Cindy told herself to calm down, Lola had nothing to do with her,

She wasn't close to her person, relatively speaking, wishfully speaking,

She didn't need to worry about doing her any wrong.

Just eat,

And leave.

Cindy reached for one of the foods Rafferty gave her earlier and her eyes widened upon seeing what was on her
wrist,

A spoon.

"...Oh god..." Her voice was barely audible, easily drowned out by the lunchtime clamor.

She gulped.

She glanced around.

She took hold of the spoon, and slowly began to pull, Hearing a familiar sound as a white thread came out of her wrist, attached to the underside of the spoon, Cindy's eyes widened, making her eyes larger.

"...Okay... Okay... Everything's... okay..." She worked her fingers on the thread, one-by-one detaching its strands, "Gonna be okay... Please don't... Please...! Okay..."

The last strand was tied to the main part of the thread, because of that it was always finicky and sensitive.

She took a deep breath,

"Last one... Please... work with me..."

Cindy felt a tickle within her arm and instinctively she moved her wrist back. There came a sound that Cindy had come to describe as soft yet piercing when a separate thread shot out of her wrist and clung to a food tray on the table across from hers. The students in that table were too busy with their conversation to notice, and if any of the surrounding students saw they didn't do anything - anything that Cindy was able to see.

Her chest began to heave as a sink hole appeared in her stomach, "No no no no... Come back, come -"

Cindy realized her mistake when the second thread contracted back into her wrist, taking the tray with it. On instinct, she leaned down to the side with a seamless grace as the tray flew over her head,

And into Lola, the food on the tray splattering against her upper back, sending the other foods on the tray passed her shoulder. Cindy glanced back, and her arm was a blur as she stuffed the food back into her bag, taking it, and swiftly went to the doors of the cafeteria.

By the time Lola turned to see who did the deed, Cindy was already walking out of the doors, but her hurried step didn't go unnoticed. Lola narrowed her eyes.

Cindy didn't know where she was going,

All she knew was that she needed to get as far away from the scene as possible. She couldn't leave the campus, that would put her in deep trouble, one of the rules from the rule book. Hence why she found herself on the roof of Brooklyn Visions. Once there, she looked back at the door, hoping that she wasn't followed. Then out to the surrounding buildings -

She could leave right now, if she wanted to.

It would be so easy.

But she couldn't,

Especially with how happy her father was when she said she wanted to go to school.

Cindy jumped, jolted stiff -

They did follow her.

The door to the roof flew open and the first thing that could be seen was the arm that shoved it open.

One by one the kids that were sitting with Lola stepped out,

Before Lola herself joined them,

And Cindy shrunk under her sharp glare, the dark glare of a gun barrel pointed to one's head.

"Eee..." Was the weary drawl that came from Cindy's mouth as she tried to hide behind her bag.

That made a few of Lola's posse chuckle.

"...You got guts, new kid." Lola's voice was what Cindy expected - loud, obnoxious, threatening. "But you messed with the wrong girl." She nodded with her chin and her posse began her approach.

Cindy's breathing paced again,

She tightly gripped her bag, scared that it would be torn -

She could feel it,

It was going to happen,

She had to say something!

"Lo!" Rafferty burst through the rooftop door, the moment she did Lola rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue, "Let her go! Whatever happened was probably an accident!"

"Yeah and she probably didn't throw her tray at me, either."

Cindy glanced around at her surroundings.

Lola took a ball out of her pocket, but there was something odd about its design, something about the purple lines on its surface.

"Besides, we're just gonna be playing catch, is all." When Lola threw the ball, it moved at a remarkable speed with a faint purple radiance, almost tracing a purple line in the air.

But Cindy saw the whole picture,

And leaned away with a small pivot of her torso to avoid the ball.

It was caught by a member of Lola's behind her.

They threw it, aiming for Cindy's thigh,

And her leg swung up all the way, over her head. As she held that position with an unprecedented grace, everyone, including Rafferty, stared on in awe.

Cindy held up her hands with a nervous smile, still holding the pose, "L-look, I'll get down on my knees and apologize - that's what you want, right? Right? I'll even get whatever it is that you want, okay?"

The awe and surprise on Lola's face fell like the receding wave of a tide,

And a frown on her lip appeared as another ball of the same kind as before was pulled from her pocket and thrown at Cindy.

"Why?!" Cindy screamed.

"Lo!" Rafferty joined.

Seeing the second ball flying towards her, the first behind it in its flight, thrown by another of Lola's members,

She could feel it,

She could feel it crawling up her spine,

Latching to her mind -

She didn't want to,

But she had to -

Jump.

With the twisting of her body and with the kick of her leg, subconsciously using her toes as a focal point for the force, Cindy twirled into the air as the first and second balls went under and over her respectively. The shock, awe, and surprise returned to everyone's faces.

In her twirl, as the world slowed, Cindy spotted the silhouette of a figure,

Far away,

Atop a building,

Too far, too high for anyone else to see,

But close enough for Cindy to see -

Watching her.

When Cindy landed, she was wide eyed, trembling.

"...That was almost like..." One of Lola's members mumbled aloud.

Cindy looked at Lola, raising her hands again, "...Please...!" Her voice nearly on the edge of tears.

"Cindy?!" The intrusive voice cut through the tension, coming from behind the roof door.

"Miles?!" Cindy said.

A moment later, Miles burst through the door, seeing everything. Getting the gist of what was happening with just one look, Miles looked over and saw Lola and Rafferty.

"Lola." Miles said, "I don't want to report you to the Principal." He pursed his lip, "Because no one wants to hear her thunder again."

Lola clicked her tongue and looked away with irritation,

She looked at her posse and nodded her head back and they receded. They all went through the door, going back down, not before Lola shot Cindy a look, too brief for anyone else to notice,

But not for Cindy,

Her face fell -

Her first day of school and she has already made an enemy.

Rafferty approached, putting a hand on Cindy's shoulder, "You okay?"

"Made an enemy on my first day of school..."

Rafferty shook her head, "No no no... She's a hard - she's a tough girl. Give her time, she'll let it go. She can't afford to hold grudges now."

Cindy screwed her brows, "...You know her?"

Rafferty shrugged, "Used to. Not much now. We went our different ways."

Cindy nodded, seeing that there was something else there but didn't want to pry into Rafferty's privacy.

"Did she hurt you?" Miles said.

Cindy shook her head.

"They just wanted to be rough on her, is all." Rafferty said.

"Well, what happened? A fight?"

Cindy shook her head, trying to deescalate the situation, "A misunderstanding."

Miles arched his brow, but shook his head, and opened the door, "Come on, your lunch period's almost over."

Rafferty put her hand on Cindy's back and guided her through the door. As they slipped through the doorway, Cindy moved her eyes to glance at the spot where the silhouette was seen. As she walked down the steps, she blinked, feeling a familiar sensation yawning at her mind, and her fist clenched hard.

Miles, about to follow after them, paused when he felt that he was being watched. He looked over in the direction of the skyscrapers, passed the apartments, and although he saw nothing he couldn't help but feel that something was off.

He pulled his phone as he went down the stairs from the door and his thumbs began to tap away at the screen -

Hey, Pete.
You free right now?

Sure.
What's up?

Not sure.
Got a bad feeling around the school.
Could just be nothing but can you swing around a lil to be sure?

I got spare time.
Be there in five minutes.
How's your friend doing?

Cindy almost got into a fight with some of the delinquents.
Don't want her first day ruined.

Kids like her are easy targets.
I speak from experience.
Look after her Miles.
Sounds like she already has one on her back.

Course.
Stay safe, Pete.
You and MJ just had a full month together.

If you're right, its nothing to worry about.
Plus, it'll make people happy seeing Spidy 1 swinging around the block.

Got three hours left in the school.
Lemme know if you find anything.

Miles put his phone away, returning to class just as the bell rang for his lunch period. Miles apologized to his teacher, made an excuse for being gone for awhile, and went on his way.

But as he walked, Miles couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Being Spiderman, something was bound to happen, All that mattered was what kind of situation would come,

And how it would emerge.

With everything that had happened recently, he hoped it was nothing big. The symbiote invasion was a war that they won by the skin of their teeth, it felt.

He didn't want to go through that again.