broken cd

Brooklyn Academy of the Fine Arts (Earth-1610)

“Hey! What’d the nurse say?” Joy asked, walking up to you on the field.

“Not to put pressure on my hand.” you huff, tying your sneakers.

“But.. we have cartwheels in the routine?” Joy says, her tone wary. “Will you be okay to do that?”

You shrug, “One way to find out.”

You in fact, were not okay to do routine. Just not for the reason you were expecting.

Part of the routine consisted of three standing pyramids, one of which you were on the bottom of. The plan was to hoist one of the girls up onto your shoulders so she could do a flip in the air before landing safely on the ground.

At first, all was well- you helped stabilize the girl on your shoulders by holding her hand. It wasn’t until she went to jump that everything came crashing down. Literally.

As if your hand was cemented to hers, you just couldn’t seem to detach from her. So when she dove to flip, you were brought down with her, crashing onto the artificial grass field.

“Ow- shit are you okay?” you winced, asking her.

“Yeah, no- I’m good but um.. why didn’t you let go?” she sounded slightly annoyed, not that you could blame her.

“I think I just zoned out, sorry.” You say, getting up and offering her a hand.

She stays on the ground, eyes shifting to your bandaged wrist. “Should you even be practicing right now?”

“It’s just a spider bite. I’m fine.”

Her eyes linger on your wrist a moment longer before she goes to take your hand. “Aren’t you friends with Joy? She won’t get mad if you ask to sit this one out.” she suggests, an uneasy expression on her face.

You shake your head, “It’s all good, I just zoned out. Let’s keep practicing, yeah?” you ask, dismissing her question.

“You dropped her?” Michael exclaimed, nearly choking on his shake.

It was currently 7 p.m and you were sitting across from Michael in a booth at some diner downtown. It became a pattern for him to pick you up after practice, no matter what it was practice for.

You roll your eyes, tossing the last of your fries into your mouth. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.” you say, swallowing them down.

“Who did you drop?” he asks.

You shrug, “I dunno her name”

“Are you kidding me?” Michael pauses. “You’ve been goin’ to this school for two months and you can’t even name all the girls you cheer with.”

“Oh please- you only know their names because you’ve hooked up with them all.” you spit back.

“I haven’t hooked up with you or Joy.” he points out, nonchalantly.

“Thanks for sparing us!” you exclaim sarcastically with a smile on your face. “Honest to God- I don’t know how you haven’t been jumped by one of those girls yet.”

“Because they know it’ll ruin my face.” he teases. You stare at him blankly before reaching across the table to flick his head. 

“Ow!”

“Stop being an idiot.” you say, taking a sip of your coke.

“Harsh.” he mumbles.

“You’re just pissy because you took a test you weren't ready for.” you tease, pouting your bottom lip out as if you were sympathizing with him.

“You don’t even take a math class, I don’t wanna hear it from you.” he scoffs.

“I tested out of math, thank you very much!” you point out, stealing a fry off his plate. 

“God- maybe you belong at Visions instead.” he teases.

You instantly think of Miles. You wonder if he even thinks about you anymore. He hasn’t called in like a month and you hardly see him on the weekends. You quickly pull yourself out of your thoughts. “Thanks for dinner.”

“Satisfied?” Michael asks after paying the check. 

“Most definitely.” you say, standing up. “I’m paying next time though.”

“What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you do that?” he asks, trailing behind you.

“You? A gentleman?” you question, pushing the restaurant's door open. The evening wind hitting your face immediately.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” 

“I highly doubt any girl considers you a gentleman.”

“They usually do after spending a night with me.” He grins.

You roll your eyes, reaching the car. “What playboy did you read that line in?”

“Who buys a playboy to read?” Michael asks, looking at you like you didn’t know what you were talking about; which you didn’t.

You reach for the car's door handle, “What gentleman buys playboys to begin with?” you quip, pulling the door open. You move to release your hand from the handle, only for it to be bonded to it.

Shit.

This was arguably the worst time this could happen to you.

“You getting in or not?” Michael asks from the driver's seat.

“A true gentleman never rushes a lady.” You quickly remark.

He throws his hands up, as if surrendering. “Take your time ma’am.”

You struggle against the car, repeatedly tugging on your arm attempting to free it.

“Do you at least want my jacket while you stand out there?” Michael jokes.

“Would you shut up?” you blurt, irritated. Ironically as it is, your hand was released from the handle by doing so. You get into the car, closing the door shut. “You can be so antagonizing at times.” you huff.

You heard it in your voice, the spite you were putting out. “Sorry.” you mutter, instantly feeling guilty. Michael assured you it was no big deal and that was that.

You shifted in your seat, turning to lean against the car door, looking out the window.

Please don’t have been a radioactive spider.

You lay flat in bed the next morning, staring at the ceiling. You didn’t move an inch since waking up out of fear you would become stuck to something again. You hear your mom call out something incoherent through your closed door and assume she’s probably lecturing you about staying in bed for too long.

You sigh, sitting up. The morning sun is shining through your window in a way that hits your bed frame, telling that you’d probably be late if it’s risen that much already. 

You yawn briefly before being interrupted by a sneeze, screwing your eyes shut; and god- nothing could have prepared you for what you’d see upon opening your eyes.

“Oh what the fuck.” you huff out, looking at an unusually large spider web on your window. You blink your eyes blankly, unsure what to do. “Did I do that?..” 

You straighten out your arm, aiming it at an empty space on your wall, trying to mimic the infamous Spiderman pose. You take a deep breath, flicking your wrist forward, a web shooting out in the process. 

You can’t be serious.

You sit there for a moment, staring straight at the web with a dismayed expression. Groaning, as you fall back on your mattress. You’d sink into it and never leave if that was an option. 

“Y/n I’m not messing around, you’re gonna be late!” your mom calls out.

You stay still in bed, not moving as you take a deep breath. Everything will be fine.

Quickly getting ready and throwing your uniform on, you can only hope for an easy day, but you doubt that’d be the case. You barely put on any makeup seeing as it’s already 8:37. “Bye mom!” You call out, reaching for your phone and heading out the door as you check your unopened messages.

steven [8:28]
hey r u coming to school today??

wesley [8:26]
art shows tmr in case u forgot

joy [8:25]
michaels asking 4 u bae

kimberly [8:22]
bought u a coffee from starbucks wya

You move your thumb over Kimberly’s icon, clicking on it.

y/n: slept in. ill probably get there around 9:10

kimberly: steven said they had a pop quiz. ull prob have to make it up

You sigh in frustration, reading Kim's text. Great.  

“What’s up with you lately?” Kimberly asked, placing a coffee cup in front of you. Eventually reaching the school, you slipped through the back entrance, trying to avoid a lecture from security guards or the attendance office. 

Unfortunately enough, a hall monitor caught you, turning you into the office; to which you were now slumped, face down against a desk. “Nothing.”

Kim gestures to your hall pass in hand. “You got caught?”

“Isn’t life great?” you ask sarcastically, voice muffled by the table.

“Joy told me you dropped Cassie at practice yesterday.” She says, blatantly.

You lift your head, turning to look at her. “It was an accident. ”

“I didn’t say it was on purpose.” she quipped, knitting her eyebrows together. “Honestly, I’ve never seen you so out of it lately.”

You don’t say anything, taking a sip from your coffee- quickly making a disgusted face doing so. “God this is so bitter!”

“Well you would know..” Kim mumbled under her breath, turning a page in her textbook. She pauses briefly before speaking again. “Is this because of Miles?”

“What?”   you nearly choke.

“It makes sense. You aren’t close anymore and you’re stuck painting about love so of course you’re upset by it.” she points out.

You scoff. “Believe me, that is not the reason.” 

Kimberly rolls her eyes, returning back to her textbook. “Whatever you say.”

Honest to God- why does everything always come back to him? It’s not like he was the answer to all your problems. Especially not this one, how could you even explain what’s been happening to you in the past 24 hours?

Wait.  

“Kim, can you cover for me?” you turned to her suddenly.

“What? You just got here-”

“I know but- I have to go do something.” 

“What could possibly be so impor-”

“I’m going to Visions.” you blurt without thinking.

She stares at you, connecting the dots as her eyes widen at your blatant sentence. “Yeah..” she nods slowly, processing your words. “Yeah, okay. Is this like because of what I said or-”

“I’ll tell you later!” you say, quickly gathering your bag together and running out the door.

You pull your phone out as you run through the hallway, opening up your texts and scrolling down, clicking on Miles' contact.

y/n: we need to talk. im omw

It doesn’t take long for him to respond, texting back almost immediately.

miles: WHAT

miles: IM IN SPANISH CLASS RN??

You roll your eyes, moving your thumbs across the screen to type back.

y/n: like you ever pay attention in spanish.

You scoff, putting your phone in your pocket as you turn the corner, exiting the building.

“Okayyy, let’s see if this works.” you mutter to yourself, straightening out your arm and aiming at a nearby building. You screw your eyes shut, uneasy, and flick your wrist.

You ever so slightly open your eyes cautiously, only to widen them at the sight of you swinging through the air.

Holy shit it worked..

Maybe if it weren’t for the overwhelming realization of your new abilities causing the pit in your stomach, would you be smiling at the fact; but the only thing on your mind right now was reaching Miles.

You briefly recall the time he’d given you a tour of his dorm, trying to remember which window was his as you approached the school. 

Was it second to the left or third to the top..

You came to a halt on the side of the building, realizing only one of the two windows was open. “Guess I’m taking my chances..” you mumble, sighing to yourself before jumping through a window. You had your eyes closed shut again.

Please be his room, please be his room, please be his room.

“Umm..”

You open your eyes immediately, turning around at the sudden voice.

“Uhh.. hi.” you awkwardly smiled, now facing a boy with glasses whom you assumed was either Miles’ roommate, or someone about to call campus security on you. Or both.

He looked down at your uniform, noticing your schools' crest on your cardigan. “...Do you even go here?”

“I’m uh-” you clear your throat. “A transfer student?..”

He looks at you blankly, raising an eyebrow.

You open your mouth to say something but quickly turn your attention to the sound of the door swinging open. “What are you doing here?!” 

“Miles!” you and the boy straighten up in unison.

“I desperately need to talk to you.” You speak up.

“You couldn’t have texted it?” Miles asked, seemingly slightly overwhelmed.

“No.” I spit back.

Miles opens his mouth to say something but closes it before he starts, as if rethinking his thoughts. He stares at you for a moment before sighing. “Ganke can you give us a sec?”

“Seriously?” the boy looks between you two, Miles giving him a knowing look. “Alright, fine.” Ganke says, putting his hands up in surrender, leaving the room.

Miles waits until he closes the door before speaking. “What are you doing here?”

“I think a science experiment of a spider bit me and gave me powers.” You blurt out almost immediately.

Miles' eyes shoot open in curiosity. “What?”

“Look!” you exhale, jumping up and sticking your hand to the ceiling.

Miles' eyes widen as his mouth falls open when he looks up at you; he takes a moment to carefully choose his words. “What the- so you’re like.. a spider..mutant”

You narrow your eyes at him, unamused. “I guess?..”, You’d think for someone who went through the same thing he’d have a better choice of words for this kind of situation. 

Miles' eyes light up at the thought of you having the same spider-like abilities as him. He knew he wasn’t alone anymore after the Spider Society, but something felt so different knowing it was you.

You detach yourself from the ceiling, dropping back on the floor. “I’ve been sticking to things unintentionally lately and I only started doing so after I got bit. I did it during cheer practice, and at dinner and-

“Hold on- you do cheerleading?” Miles asked, surprised. He hadn’t realized how much you’d drifted apart from each other.

“OH! And I can do this!” you exclaim, flicking your wrist and shooting a web at the wall. 

A wave of confusion washes over Miles' face as he watches you. “You don’t have web-shooters on, do you?” He questioned, now intrigued as he walked over to you.

You rolled your eyes as he held up your arm, pulling your sleeve back to check if you had a web-shooter. “Wait- where did the web come from-”

You press your lips into a firm line in irritation. “Miles. It came out of me.”

He slightly parts his mouth in shock as he stares at you confused. “You produce your own web-fluid?..”

“Yes!” you exasperate, pacing the room, “and I’m totally freaked out and scared and anxious and-”

“Hey hey hey,” he puts his hands on your shoulder to stop you in your tracks. “Calm down- it’ll be fine. You’re like.. Spiderman. Totally normal!”

You narrow your eyes at him. “Spiderman is anything but normal.” You briefly forget who you’re talking to.

“Right! But..” He pauses, trying to think of something to reassure you. “How cool is it to be able to relate to New York’s favorite hero?”

Silence.

You click your tongue and cross your arms, staring at him blankly. “That’s not comforting.”

“Not yet!” Miles quips, “But I bet if you became like- Spiderwoman or something that-”

You cut him off. “I do not want to become Spiderwoman.”

Miles' face seems to drop at this. “What? Why not?”

You look at him as if he were crazy for even asking, which in a way he kind of was. “Because I don’t have a death wish?”

“Okay but think about it-” he lets go of your shoulders and moves to sit in his desk chair. “You have something that Spiderman doesn’t have-”

“Common sense?”

“-I was gonna say the ability to make webs..”

“Oh.”

“Besides, with great ability comes great accountability.” Miles says proudly. “Wait-”

Is he serious?

“What I meant to say is-”

“I know what you meant to say,” you huff, plopping on his bed. “But what do I do about all this? And don’t say become Spiderwoman- because I really don’t want to.”

Miles observes how you fall onto his bed, frustrated. He knows it’s selfish to ask you to become something you don’t want to be. But on the other hand, he really wanted to swing around the city with you.

“Wait- why’d you come to me anyways?” Miles coughs.

You shrug. “You go to Visions. I figured you’d have some sort of sciency logical explanation.”

Miles tries to hide the wave of relief that washes over his face as he exhales. You finding out he was Spiderman was the last thing he wanted to happen. Ignorance is a bliss.

“Well.. if I had to guess I’d say.. The spider probably altered your DNA when it bit you.” he stated.

“Greatttt.” you blow out air to move the piece of hair in your face. “And there’s no way to undo that?”

Miles shakes his head. “Not that I know of.”

“This is the worst!” 

Miles pauses, looking over at you. Your hair is fanned over his bed and your eyes are closed. You looked beautiful. “Well.. it’s not all that bad.”

“How would you know?” you ask, sitting up.

“I- I mean I don’t.. but you’re you. You’ll figure out how to deal with this stuff and do the right thing.” he reassures. The last part more so being encouragement to become Spiderwoman.

You give him a small smile before hearing your phone go off. “Shit..”

“What? What is it?” Miles asked, seemingly concerned.

You slip your phone back into your pocket and get up, moving to the window. “I have to get back to school, I'm sorry.”

“Oh um.. okay. I’ll see you later?” 

“Yeah.” you smile. You know you probably won’t see him for a while, but he has hope you will. He always does.

“You look like shit.” Michael says walking up to the lunch table, though he doesn’t mean it.

Joy lightly smacks him in the chest. “Be nice, she’s probably tired of running.”

“Running? Why running? You signed up for a P.E class?” Wesley asks, turning to you.

“Nope.” You reply stiffly, not looking up from your laptop. You were currently researching every possible interview you could dig up from the old Spiderman. Since Miles’ didn’t exactly give as much information as you’d hoped for, you figured you’d find it yourself.

“Y/n went over to Visions today.” Kimberly responded to Wesley, taking a bite of her salad.

Michael’s eyebrows furrow as confusion spreads over his face. “Why were you at Visions?”  

“Why else? She was there to see her loverrrr—” Joy teases, poking your cheek. Everyone laughs, everyone except Michael.

“I just had to ask him a question about biology.” You sigh out, clicking on another article.

“You don’t take biology.” Steven points out, confused.

You don’t bother to respond, continuing to read through the endless words that signified nothing. 

Seth squinted his eyes at you. “Have you been doing weed?”

“What? No!” you quip.

“Maybe she’s having drawbacks!” Joy raises her perfectly manicured hand over her mouth as she turns to Seth.

“I’m not doing weed.” you mutter, annoyed.

“It’s completely normal if you are.” Michael adds.

“What does weed have to do with her visiting Miles?” Kimberly asks.

“Thank you!” you huff.

“Maybe Miles is her dealer.” Wesley shrugs.

“I’m not doing drugs and Miles is not a dealer!” you groan loudly.

The table falls silent.

“..Bummer.” Michael murmurs.

You roll your eyes, going back to your research. “I’m just tired is all.”

“Have you slept at all in the past few days?” Kimberly asks with genuine concern. 

“Not well, but yeah.” you sigh. “I’m just in a slump, I’ll get over it.” you say, dismissing the topic.

“Can I ask you a question?” Joy asks, blowing a bubble with her chewing gum.

After two agonizing hours, cheer practice was finally over, and the two of you were currently walking to the skatepark to meet up with the rest of the group. 

“You just did.” you yawn, taking your phone out.

Joy rolls her eyes. “You’re such a smartass.”

“Aww, don’t be like that.” you pout your bottom lip out at her, teasingly.

“Come on,” Joy nudges your arm. “How come you went to see Miles earlier? I really wanna know.”

You shut your phone off, slipping it into your bag. “He’s helping me with Spanish.” You feel bad lying to her, but no way in hell were you going to risk her finding out what’s been going on lately. She’d probably faint at the thought of it.

“Miles?” She raises a brow. “Miles Morales, the no sabo Miles?”

“He’s fluent.” you defend. “Kinda..”

“Why would you need his help anyways? Aren’t you fluent in like four languages?” You hear the skeptical tone in her voice.

“English doesn’t count, we live in the US.” 

“Okay, but it still doesn’t make sense- come on, tell me why you were there!”

“Cállate, Joy please.” (shut up)

“I don’t even know what that means!” Joy groaned, throwing her head back as she walked. “I’ll buy you boba if you tell me.” she bribed as you turned into the skate park. “It’s not like I can ask Miles myself-”

“Hey! There they are!” Steven calls out upon seeing you and Joy.

You turn your attention to the group, your eyes quickly focusing on the awkward out-of-place boy in a Visions uniform.

“Miles?”

Joy looks between the two of you with her mouth open.

You feel the corner of your lips turn up as you walk closer to the group, mostly towards him. “What are you doing here?” 

“Um, well I kept thinking about our talk earlier and uh..” His voice trailed off as he realized everyone was staring at the two of you. “Can we go talk over there?” Miles cleared his throat gesturing to a nearby bench.

You shift your gaze between him and your friends before focusing back on him. “Yeah, sure.” 

The group falls silent, watching the two of you walk away and listening to what they can as your voice drifts off in the distance.

“She’s so in love with him.” Joy sighs in admiration.

“I wouldn’t say she’s in love with him.” Michael mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Right. That’s cuz you’re in love with her.” Kimberly uttered, voice low enough that nobody could hear.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Seth asked.

“Well he brought up their conversation from when she went to visit him.” Wesley shrugged.

Steven shrugged. “Maybe they got into a fight.”

“No way,” Kimberly shook her head. “Y/n was all smiley when she saw him, they can’t be fighting.”

“I don’t see why it matters, let’s just skate.” Michael quips, throwing his board on the floor. He didn’t know what irritated him more, the fact that Miles showed up unannounced, or that you were so overjoyed to see him.

“Y’know I think this is my first time seeing you in your cheer uniform.” Miles said, briefly pinching the material at the bottom of your skirt as you two walked.

“Oh yeah, I guess it is,” You lightly chuckle, “You’d see it more if we still hung out. How’d you even know I’d be here anyways?”

“You always post every Friday about coming here after school.” Miles shrugged. 

“Internet stalker are we?” you tease.

He rolled his eyes playfully, “Don’t be like that.”

You gasp, “Be like what?”

You hear him chuckle as you sit down on the bench and you can almost feel your stomach turn at the sound. He doesn’t sit down with you, just stands in front of you with his hands in his jacket pockets. “In all seriousness, why are you here?”

“I kept thinking about earlier,” He starts, “I felt like..”

Your eyebrows knit together, intrigued, as you watched him struggle to string a sentence together.

“..well there’s something that, um.. I think I should share with you.” he gets out after a moment.

“...Which is?” you question.

“I- dont think it’s the best idea to tell you right here.”

“Why? Are you Spiderman or something?” you tease, a smirk forming on your face. You stand up from the bench, watching a slight panic take over him. “Kidding, tell me later. You can walk me home.” you say, walking past him to join the rest of your friends. 

He stays where he is, unsure if you were inviting him to hang out with you or telling him to go home for a bit. As if on cue, you looked back at him, motioning for him to join you. “Let’s go!”

“So you got in by lottery?” Seth asked, sipping his drink.

The eight of you were currently grouped by Michael’s car, eating shake shack takeout in the parking lot; a tradition you’d been doing since school started. Every Friday after school you would all hangout at the skatepark and get burgers afterwards. It was Michael’s idea. One that he was not fond of opening up to others.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Miles responded, taking a bite out of your burger. You had offered to share with him after realizing he didn’t have any food. “I’d rather go to an art school though, only doing this for my parents.”

“You like art?” Joy questioned.

He nodded. “Yeah, I like drawing and stuff, I’m better with spray paint though.”

“So you’re a vandalizer?” Michael asked.

You shot him a dirty look.

“Not necessarily.” Miles shrugged calmly, a confused expression on his face. He quickly picked up that Michael didn’t want him around, though it wouldn’t have taken much to figure that out anyways.

“We should probably get going soon.” you say, checking your phone and moving off the hood of the car where you sat.

“So soon?” Kimberly asked.

“Alright.” Michael went to start up the car.

“Oh- no it’s fine.” You quickly say, stopping him. “Miles and I are just gonna walk home.”

Michael looked between the two of you, uncomfortably. “Are you sure?”

You nod, grabbing your bag. “Our buildings’ only a couple blocks down.” 

“It was nice meeting you guys.” Miles spoke politely, waving to them as you guys left. 

“I don’t think Michael likes me all that much.” He whispered once you were out of earshot.

“He doesn't like anyone all that much.” you say, rolling your eyes.

“He seems to like you all that much.” Miles quips.

You cock your head to the side, looking at him. “That’s because he has to. I’m friends with his sister.”

“Believe me, I don’t think that’s the reason.” Miles says under his breath. 

“And what would the reason be?” you ask.

Miles scoffs, looking at you like it was obvious; which it was. “That he’s totally in love with you!”

You knew he was, but you thought that the longer you’d push off acknowledging it, that it wouldn’t be true anymore. “He is not.”

“You can’t seriously be that dense.”

You roll your eyes at that, “Well you would know what that’s like.” 

“-saywhat?” Miles rushes out his mouth.

“Kidding.” you scoff. “Anyways, what’d you wanna tell me?”

You look over at Miles, he’s no longer looking at you. Instead, he’s looking at the ground with a small smile; one laced with anxiety.

He speaks up, turning to you. “Promise me you won’t get mad?”