The Web Heads

All six of the teens that were involved in the fight were standing in a single horizontal line in front of Principal Morita. They stand so close their shoulders brush together. After the fight in the cafeteria, three teachers had dragged them into the principals office where they were forced to receive scalding glares from their principal as he paced back and forth. No one, for their sake, said anything. Instead they each stood frozen in front of the the principal waiting for the outburst. 

Somehow, Jackson wasn’t brought to the office. He escaped unnoticed, which Liz thought was totally unfair since he basically  started the whole thing. 

Principal Morita stopped pacing in front of Tiny, the very first person in line, and looked him up and down.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Tiny attempted his best ashamed look. “I was just talking to Liz along with my friend Jackson and she pushed us.”

“Oh that is so not true!” Liz shouted and the room erupted with voices from every angle, arguing about what really happened. 

“Enough!” Principal Morita yelled. Dead silence fell over the room. “From what I heard, you all had something to do with this. Tiny, you destroyed Liz’s homecoming poster, and Michelle, you threw pizza over his head. Ned, Peter, and Flash were involved in another fight.”

“We weren’t really fighting.” Ned tried to explain but was cut off by a glare from the principal.

“Any form of pushing, shoving, or violence will not be tolerated, especially not after you boys were in a fight during detention a few days ago.” He turned his narrowed eyes towards Flash, knowing full well that he was usually responsible for starting the fights.

“And I don’t care if your father won’t do anything about it, Mr. Thompson, because I am not him.” 

Liz glanced over her shoulder at Flash, expecting to see him enraged. After all, Morita just drew attention to that fact that Flash’s father was not a good parent. Flash  should be raging mad. But he’s not. He’s staring wide-eyed at Principal Morita as if he’s actually scared of what he might do.

“I’m giving you all another round of Saturday detention, and you will stay after school for the rest of this week and help clean the cafeteria.”

“This wasn’t a food fight.” Liz began but was silenced as well.

“Michelle threw Pizza over Tiny’s head therefore I am declaring this a food fight.”

“Wow.” MJ whispered, keeping her eyes glued to the poster behind Principal Morita’s head. 

“As for you, Tiny, I’m not giving you detention because you are our star quarterback and coach needs you. However, I will be calling your parents.”

“No! No please, Mr. Morita, please don’t call my Dad.” 

Liz was extremely mad at Tiny for ruining her homecoming poster but the way he was pleading actually made her feel somewhat sorry for him. After all, she knew 

her parents would totally freak if they found out she got detention, so she understood where Tiny was coming from. 

“No. My decision is final.”

“Sir, please. I’ll do detention. I’ll clean the cafeteria. I’ll do anything, just please don’t call them.” 

Liz almost wished Tiny hadn’t spoken at all because his voice is all wobbly, and Liz is pretty sure his eyes are starting to redden with tears. It’s hard to see for sure, all the way across from the room, but Tiny is blinking his eyes furiously, trying to keep his tears at bay. 

Liz was pretty sure Peter noticed too because he was hesitantly reaching out, as if he was tempted to place a comforting hand on Tiny’s shoulder.

“Maybe you should think about this before you get in fight.” Principal Morita said harshly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

After a little more lecturing, Principal Morita reminded them what good students they were and how much potential they had, and to keep aiming for the right track. 

“Just learn something while you are in detention, okay? And try not to get in any more trouble. All right, go on, get out of here.” He dismissed them kindly but firmly, trying to be the good guy despite dishing out the punishments.

As they left the office, Tiny pushed past them, and ran out the nearest exit door. Peter followed close behind. 

                   _____________________

Liz scrolled through her phone, wincing unhappily at the comments under her post. She couldn’t believe a video leaked of her being escorted to the principal’s office. It was so embarrassing! 

But worse than that, it was detrimental to her homecoming queen campaign. Everyone knew that the first step to winning was to get good grades and stay out of trouble, and Liz couldn't even do that! 

Kitty Pryde could, and she was winning the voting polls so far by a whooping 5%. Coincidence? Liz thought not. 

This bad girl reputation was not homecoming queen material, and Liz had her sights set on homecoming queen since middle school. She had to ditch this detention persona and fast if she wanted to even catch up to Kitty. 

It took years of extracurricular activities for Liz to make it onto homecoming court, and now that she was there, she needed to campaign like crazy in order to actually win. 

But her poster was destroyed yesterday and that’s all people were talking about, meanwhile, Kitty had a cute video of herself posted on her social media account with two-hundred likes already. This was nightmarish. 

On her way to the patio, where her parents were having breakfast on the most sunny day that New York had to offer, Liz sat down next to one of her mother’s friends. It wasn’t unusual for her mother to have random company over. Often it was women from the country clubs coming over for morning tea and biscuits. 

As she sat down, she looked towards her father, but thankfully he didn’t feel the need to look away from his tablet screen, much less comment on why Liz was awake at such an early hour on a Saturday. She was grateful because she didn’t want them to know about detention. She was supposed to be a role model, getting detention would cause a confrontation about her homecoming queen status, and she wasn’t ready to deal with that. 

Liz’s thoughts were Interrupted as the Allan’s personal chef wheeled in a cart of Apple Cinnamon Waffles, along with every other waffle topping imaginable. Liz licked her lips. Waffles were her absolute favorite. 

Breakfast was nice, except when Liz’s father hinted that perhaps breakfast food was the reason she hadn’t been invited to any pool parties this year. The room became silent and tense for a moment before Liz forced out a casual ‘ha, maybe,’ while silently considering that maybe waffles weren’t her favorite breakfast food after all. But other than that, everything was fine. It almost felt like a real family meal where everyone actually liked each other. 

“Darling we really need to do something about those bags under your eyes,” Liz’s mother remarked, looking up at her daughter from underneath the brim of her sun hat, reaching up to cup both of her cheeks. “You certainly inherited the family looks, but you need to take care of yourself better.” 

Liz frowned, gently prying her mother’s hands off of her with one hand, while the other clutched a glass of orange juice. Her face turned hot as her mother casually turned back to her friend and commented more about her daughter’s appearance. They were discussing tips on how to perfect Liz’s image. 

“She should style her hair differently. I hear bangs are in this year.” 

“Oh definitely! She could also start bulking up a little more in the gym. Not too much of course. But she doesn’t need to look weak as homecoming queen either.” 

“Yes, weak women is not the message we want to send. Also working out will help her keep that slim little figure.”

The conversation was nauseating to listen too and it seemed like it was never ending. Looking at her watch, Liz was grateful she had to leave. 

“Where are you going?” Her mother asked looking up from her cup of tea. 

“Oh you know... I was thinking about going to the mall to shop for some new dresses. Maybe a change in my attire will help.”

“True, true.” Her mother’s friend agreed, pouring herself a morning glass of champagne. 

“Okay, but don’t spend anything over three hundred.” Her mother warned. 

“I won’t.” She waved goodbye and quickly scurried out of her house. 

                    _____________________

To say that detention was becoming a routine would be sad, but that’s exactly how Liz felt when Coach Murch left them in the shop room and they started playing truth or dare again. 

Like Principal Morita promised, Tiny wasn’t in detention. As unfair as she thought that was, Liz was happy that he wasn’t there. It was nothing personal against Tiny, it’s just, if he was in detention, then she wouldn’t be able to play truth or dare like she could with her friends these people. 

“I’ll take the dare!” Flash yelled earning a chorus of shushes from everybody.

“You’re going to alert, Coach.” Ned scolded, but Flash waved him off. 

It’s easy, sort of, when it’s just the five of them spending time together. It’s the joy of something new. And strangely enough, detention with each-other was new and exciting. 

“I dare you to strip to your underwear.” Liz smirked.

“What’s with you girls asking me to strip? First it was MJ with that strip tease and now it’s you. Do you have a crush on me or something?” He winked. 

Liz rolled her eyes. “You wish.” Though Liz will admit, Flash looked particularly dashing today. 

Jumping onto a table, Flash took off his shirt and then his pants. Liz clapped, reaching her bracelet wrist into Ned’s Dorito bag while she watched Flash stand on a desk and bow. 

“Is everyone satisfied?” He sassed, placing a hand on his hip. “Or would you like me to go full nude?”

Liz scrunched her nose in disgust, while MJ pretended to gag. 

“Man, nothing embarrasses you.” Ned said, awestruck. 

Flash shrugged. “Can’t let modesty get in the way.”

“In the way of what?” Liz asked, arching her left eyebrow. 

“My image.”

“Oh, is that what you call that? See, I call it stupidity.”

A bunch of ‘oohs’ were exchanged from her peers, but Flash didn’t seem phased as he hopped off the desk. 

“Stupid or not, I do have a reputation.” 

“Yeah, a bad one.” Liz crunched down on her cheesy Dorito, daintily dabbing her wrist over her mouth to pick up crumbs. 

“Bad reputations get the girls.” He smirked.

“So how many girls have you been with, then?” MJ asked from the opposite side of the circle. They were all sitting on the floor of the classroom, spinning a water bottle to see who goes next. 

Flash flipped her the bird, then spun the water bottle. It landed on Peter. A big smile was plastered on his face, and Peter was already protesting.

“Ah, ah, ah. Just tell me, truth or dare?” 

Peter puffed out a breath. “Dare.” 

Liz was a little taken aback, but was intrigued to see where this was going.

“Okay. I dare you to run to the cafeteria and bring back left over Pizzas for us to eat.”

“Oh shit.” Ned whispered, big eyes going wider. 

“Come on, Flash. He could get in serious trouble for that.” Liz complained, but Peter stood up off the floor, and nodded his head.

“I’ll do it. But only because I want Pizza more than you, and if I bring it back, I get first choice.” 

“Fine.” He reluctantly agreed. 

Peter’s dare might have been bold and brave, but it was extremely boring for the rest of them as they waited for him to return. Thankfully Liz had her phone.

Okay, so checking her phone was a bad idea. She was losing the voting polls by another 10 percent. It’s okay. Smile. Relax. Don’t let it show. Everything’s always alright. You can still win. 

Peter returned with two boxes of leftover Pizza, and a big smile on his face. “I’m pretty stealthy.” He said rather arrogantly, “That was a bad dare to give me, if you wanted me to get caught.”

Flash shrugged, “Who said I wanted you to get caught. I just wanted Pizza.”

“Sure.” Peter mumbled, sitting back down on the floor with a wince. “Ahh.” He whined, twisting so that he was leaning on his side rather than sitting cross-legged.

“You all right?” Flash asked, raising a curious eyebrow. He glanced at Peter, feeling like he was on the verge of an epiphany. Like there was something unbelievable obvious dancing right before his eyes, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

“Fine.” Peter snarled, reaching a hand out to spin the bottle. “Liz, truth or dare?” 

“Hmm,” she rested her chin on her knees, “I guess truth.” 

“Okay. Why was Jackson bothering you, yesterday?”

“Oh. Uh. I kinda blew him off. He asked if we could go out for dinner but I never replied.” 

“Why not?” Peter asked innocently enough that Liz was willing to answer.

“I just... I don’t really like him but I didn’t know how to say no. So I tried to ignore him.”

Flash scoffed. “People still exist, even if you try to ignore them, they don’t just magically disappear, no matter how much you want them to.” 

“I know,” she felt herself getting angry, so she plastered on a smile to cover it up. “But I just thought he would take the hint and leave me alone.”

“Usually when you ignore people, they try to do things to get your attention.” Flash explained, and Liz wasn’t sure if he was still talking about her and Jackson anymore. It seemed almost personal. She briefly wondered if he had a previous relationship where they ignored eachother. 

Smiling, Liz went to spin the bottle. “It’s all good. No harm done.”

“No harm done?” Flash laughed, “Look around you, we’re in detention.”

“I didn’t ask you guys to help me!” She snapped, then quickly tried to compose herself. “I’m sorry.” 

“Oh look, the bottle landed on you, Flash. Isn’t that ironic.” MJ stated matter-of-factly. 

“Yeah, I can see that. I do have eyes, you know.”

“Truth or dare, asshole?”

“Truth.” Flash shot Liz a cheeky grin. 

“Why did you help me?” 

For a moment, Flash sat there puzzled. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” She repeated slowly. 

“I - you -“ Flash sighed, trying to collect his thoughts. “You needed help.”

“I didn’t need help. Incase you haven’t realized, this is the twenty-first century. A woman is perfectly capable to take care of herself.”

“They were messing with you, and you looked like you needed some help. I thought I would step in.” He faltered after he said it, confused as to what brought on such a declaration. 

“Why? So you could be the big hero?”

“No! If anything, I fucked myself by stepping in there and saving your ass. Tiny and Jackson were my friends, but I stuck my neck out for you and now they hate me.”

“They weren’t really good friends.” Ned whispered. 

“What did you just say?” He turned his head toward Ned. 

Normally Ned would back down, Liz had seen it happen plenty of times before. He would say something and then quickly retract it to appease whatever bully was messing with him. But this time, Ned didn’t back down.

“They weren’t good friends to you. They used to bully you as much as you would bully others. And yeah, they were decent. But it came at a price. You had to do things for them in order to maintain friendship status and that’s not cool, man. That’s not friendship.” 

“Oh and I suppose you know what real friendship is?”

“I do.” Ned said, looking directly at Peter, “It’s people that are there for you no matter what. Even if you mess up real bad. They don’t turn their backs on you.”

Peter slapped Ned’s hand and they started doing this weird handshake thing that went on forever. 

But Flash wasn’t ready to give up his argument. 

“For your information, Tiny is my friend, and he’s going through a lot at the moment, so don’t talk badly of him. You don’t know what’s going on.” Flash glared hard at the floor. 

“What’s going on with him?” MJ prompted. “I used to sketch him in homeroom. I knew he was going through something. I just didn’t know what.”

Flash shrugged. “I didn’t know what either. Not until last night anyways.”

When the room was silent for too long, Liz threw her hands to the side, “Are you going to tell us, or are we just going to sit here?” 

“So last night his Dad was kicking his ass for getting a call from the principal. I mean, he was beating him and shit, and I guess the police got word of a domestic violence call, but the coolest thing happened. Spider-Man showed up and basically saved Tiny’s life. He webbed his Dad to the wall and swung Tiny to the hospital. That’s when my Mom got the call. She and I, were both watching Tiny for a little while until they can place him in a foster home.”

“Oh my gosh. Poor guy.” Liz whispered, hugging her jacket closer to her body as she shivered. 

“I know.” Flash whispered. “But at least Spider-Man saved the day. I love that guy. He’s so cool how he protects people.”

Peter was smiling quietly to himself, as if he knew something no one else did. Liz wouldn’t be surprised if he did. That boy had a lot of secrets. 

“Spider Man is awesome!” Ned agreed. “But not as cool as Iron Man.”

“Did you guys see that video on YouTube. He fought off like four guys.” Liz explained. 

“No way, Liz is crushing on Spider-Man!” Flash laughed.

“We don’t even know who is he.” Ned said, “At least with Iron man you know exactly what your are getting. Spider-Man could be burnt and forty.”

“He’s definitely not forty.” MJ mumbled, “Not with how limber he is.”

“I wouldn’t care if he was old or ugly. I’d still like him for who he was on the inside.” Liz said and Flash pretended to gag. 

As the group continued to talk about Spider-Man, Liz’s phone buzzed in her jean pocket. She pulled it out, staring questioningly at the text from her Mom. Without bothering to read it, Liz silenced her device and shoved it back inside her pocket. 

“What I don’t understand is why he’s not with the avengers.” Flash said, still hung up on Spider-Man. 

“Maybe he’s busy with his own thing.” Peter said. 

“I know for a fact he’s not.” Flash said, “Cause I saw him tracking down a bike thief. So obviously, he’s got plenty of time on his hands.”

“Bike thieves are important too! You can’t just go around stealing bikes. That’s still stealing.”

“Iron man doesn’t deal with stolen bikes. I bet he doesn’t even care about Spider-Man’s friendly neighborhood crap.”

“On the contrary, he wants Spider-Man to stay close to home and - I mean probably because Mr. Stark is - Uh - he - Ironman would want to keep citizen safe too cause - cause he’s Ironman. I mean, It’s just a guess of course.”

“Makes sense.” Ned said encouragingly. 

Liz’s phone vibrated again and this time she read over the missed messages.

Come home and try on this dress.

Liz, why aren’t you answering me?

I want you to come home right now, young lady. 

So much for not being in trouble with her parents. Liz closed her eyes momentarily. She really didn’t want to admit she had detention. Maybe she could lie and say she was too caught up in shopping that she didn’t notice the texts. 

Why couldn’t she do anything right? Why couldn’t she be the perfect role-model her parents wanted. 

Suddenly, Liz couldn’t escape the hurricane of thoughts that slammed against her brain.   They are going faster than a three-year old can talk, like they are stuck on fast forward and the volume is jammed up. Every cruel word her parents ever said to her was replaying on a loop and Liz wanted to dunk herself in ice water, she wanted to scream, but she already felt like she was. 

At last, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and then a few other hands grabbing her own.

“Are you okay?” 

She blinked. Crouched in front of her was Peter, and to the side was MJ and Ned. They were each holding one of her hands. Flash had his hand on her shoulder, steadying her back to reality.

“Yeah.” She mumbled. “I’m fine. Sorry guys. I’m just really worried.”

“About what?” 

“The homecoming campaign.” She said, barely above a whisper. 

“You’re kidding? That’s what you’re worried about?” MJ rolled her eyes, but Ned shot her a dirty look. 

“It’s okay, Liz. You’ll do fine. Everyone loves you.” Peter explained kindly. But optimism was in his nature. 

“I’m losing as of now.” 

“Who cares?” MJ hissed. 

“I do.” Liz retorted, angrily standing up and walking back to her desk. “Being popular is important to me.”

“But being popular isn’t everything. It won’t even matter after you graduate.”

“It’s everything to me.” 

“Well it shouldn’t be.” 

“Well it is.”

Peter stood in between the two bickering girls and then he shot Liz a thousand-watt smile. 

“If it means that much to you, I think Spider-Man would want us to help you get your image back.” 

Flash nodded in agreement. “Yeah, he would want you to have justice since Tiny ruined your chances.”

“We could plan a really cool pep rally.” Ned suggested, and then, quietly he admitted, “I don’t know how Pep Rally’s work.”

“You know what, that’s actually a good idea.” Flash snapped his fingers.

“We would never be allowed. The school has strict policies against Rally’s that aren’t football related.” Liz exclaimed, ready to pull out her hair in frustration. 

“So we’ll make it a secret Rally.” Flash smirked. 

“We could make flyers?” MJ suggested, “and hack into the school website again in order to gain access to everyone’s emails and then we can send the flyers to the whole student body.”

“Now you’re talking, MJ.” Flash gave her a friendly nudge to which she just stared at him like he grew three heads.

Peter put his hand out in front of him, “I’m in, if you are.”

Liz smiled and placed her hand onto of his. Soon, Ned, MJ, and Flash joined hands into one big pile.

“We need something to call ourselves. Everybody say, for Spider-Man.” Flash encouraged. 

“Nah, Spider-Man is already a thing. We should be called something else.” 

“The Spider-Man Club?” Ned suggested.

“No. How about the Breakfast Club, since we all met in detention?” Liz said.

“That idea is too classic, besides it’s not us.” MJ shot down the idea like it was a turkey on thanksgiving. 

“Okay, how about... The Web Heads. Cause Spider-Man is called a web head, but we also are going to hack into the school’s web.” Ned said brilliantly.

“Actually they usually call him webcrawler,” Peter explained, “But yeah, close enough. I like it.”

“Me too.” MJ said. 

“Okay, on three.”

One.               Two.               Three.

“Web Heads!”