CHILD'S PLAY, quentin beck

XVIII. WELCOME HOME

When Josephine, her fellow chaperones and the, back then, still enthusiastic group of young students first got off the plane, it felt as if they had only been travelling for two, maybe three hours. Time flew by as they all chatted about their ideas and plans for the short amount of time they would be spending in Europe.

The trip back home was nothing like that.

The students' enthusiasm and the general cheerful vibes had long disappeared after last week's events. It was supposed to be a fun trip, maybe even a tiny bit educational. And Josephine wasn't stupid, she knew most students only signed up because they would be legally allowed to drink alcohol in some European countries, or because they figured it would be like a vacation.

For the past few hours, Josephine had been staring out of the plane's window next to her seat. Roger sat next to her as he pretended to pay attention to the documentary playing on the small screen in front of him. Their other colleague, Julius, had been trying to fall asleep for the past two and a half hours.

Not even the students were trying to hide their disappointment and gloomy moods. While some of them were watching a movie or blasting music through their headphones, not one of them seemed happy or even willing to talk about what had happened. Not even Flash Thompson managed to make a sarcastic remark or insult when the toddler in front of him started throwing another tantrum, or when he spilled his soda because they experienced some turbulence.

At least Josephine had somehow managed to fall asleep after a few hours, not waking up until Roger shaked her to let her know they would be landing.

"They're giving us a week off," Roger commented as the three chaperons stood, waiting for their luggage to arrive. "And the students, too. To process what happened in Europe."

Julius laughed at that. "So, we nearly died. On multiple occasions. But at least we won't have to go to work for a few weeks. That's nice." It was unclear whether or not he was actually amused at the situation, or if he was being sarcastic. Josephine suspected the latter.

By the time each and every student had been picked up, Josephine was more than ready to go home. She, along with her colleagues, had been listening to multiple parents either thanking them for keeping their children safe, or berating them for putting their children in such danger. Josephine didn't judge them for their reactions. And after a few years of teacher, she liked to call herself an expert on dealing with angry parents.

It took another fifteen minutes for Josephine to find her Uber. The airport's pick-up lot was filled to the brim with cars and she had absolutely no idea what a Honda Accord looked like. But after walking around for what seemed like forever and a quick Google search, she managed to find it.

"Home sweet home," Josephine sighed. She had a smile on her face as she dropped her luggage on the wooden floor and closed the door behind her. She never thought she would miss her small, cold apartment as much as she did. And the very first thing she did as soon as she entered her living room? She took a nap, and fell asleep within five minutes. A new record. But she deserved it.

The nightmare was finally over. No more dealing with chaperoning a teenage superhero who liked to get himself into trouble, or his sidekick who also happened to be terrible at lying. She no longer had to deal with a certain, very intimidating, man, who Peter Parker had referred to as the Avenger's mean boss on more than one occasion. And no more dealing with one evil, albeit good-looking, flying and laser-shooting man.

Or so she thought.

As she prepared her dinner, she grabbed the television's remote and turned on the first news channel she could think of. She wondered if anything strange had happened in New York as well, as it usually does. Most likely not. In this case, trouble had followed them to Europe. Josephine just hoped trouble hadn't followed them back home.

"Spiderman attacked me for some reason," a voice said, catching Josephine's attention and causing her to abruptly turn around, grab the remote and turn the volume up louder.  "Do it, execute them all," another voice said. Peter Parker's voice.  Josephine walked back out of the kitchen and sat down on the couch in front of the television.

"Spiderman's real name is..." Don't say it. "Spiderman's name is Peter Parker."

THE END

A/N: Well, that was it. A very big thank you to everyone who has been reading and following this story, I appreciate you all.

The reason why updates have been so slow is because, to be absolutely honest, I personally didn't really like this book anymore. However, I do still love Quentin, Peter, and Josephine of course, very much. So I will be writing a sequel. I have been thinking about it for a while and I managed to come up with a story line I like very much. You can find it on my profile, it's called 'Game over'.

And once again, thank you all for the large amount of support! I really hope you enjoyed this book.