Marvel's Kid Arachnid: Vol 1

big brother benjamin

Harper jolted up with a cold sweat running down her back. As she tried to catch her breath, she looked around, confirming she was in her regular old bedroom, not wherever her dream had taken her. Her hands still shook, but she took a few deep breaths, letting the air calm her nerves.

It was just a dream, nothing to do with that spider from earlier. She had just been watching too many horror flicks.

Brushing off the remnants of fear, Harper swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched. She took her phone out of her pocket and found several missed calls and texts. Tanya, Miles, and her brother, Benjamin.

Not only that, but she slept the whole afternoon away. It was already five, and she had homework to do...

Harper sighed and plugged her phone into the charger, then stood up and went to the bathroom for a shower.

Warm water ran down her body, relaxing her muscles and making her feel clean again. The sweat went down the drain with the worry. Another deep exhale cleared her mind, then Harper stepped out of the shower.

Despite the less-than-great sleep she had gotten, Harper felt a surge of new strength and almost ripped the shower curtain off in the process of getting out.

"Weird," she mumbled, then dried off and got dressed. Her hair was still a bit messy but she wasn't going to worry about that. She reached for the door handle and once she grabbed it, couldn't pull her hand away, pulling with all her might to no avail. It was like her hand and the knob were glued together. Harper ripped her hand away and with it came the knob.

"The hell...?"

She reinserted the knob and wiggled it around a bit. It was set in, and she could leave, turning the handle gently this time.

Harper decided it was time to tackle her homework, so she placed everything neatly on her desk. Only math and history, she thought, it would be simple. Then her stomach grumbled. So she had two tasks now: homework and food.

Harper opened her door just a tad and peered across the hallway in hopes of not spotting her parents. Her mom was sitting on the couch, shoving chips in her mouth, and that was fine. Harper could just sneak by and grab whatever.

Her mom watched her enter the kitchen but her focus was mainly on her reality show. "There's food in the fridge if you want it."

"Cool," Harper replied. After looking inside the fridge at the juice and leftover meals, she settled for pasta and heated it up before heading back to her room. But she was halfway done with it before even reaching her room door.

Back in her safe space, Harper turned on some tunes and sat down at her desk. She settled for Fight For Your Right by the Beastie Boys and got to work. Not even a split-second later her phone buzzed and she was on it in a heartbeat.

It was Benjamin, typing something. Bubbles...no bubbles. Bubbles...

'Hey, Harps. How are you? I'm off right now if you wanna grab something to eat.'

Harper replied with 'sounds cool. i'll meet you at the one pizza place. with the mouse guy.'

'I could pick you up if you want.'

'nah i'll walk'

Time to ditch.

-

"Damn, I am starving," Harper said as she took another bite of her pizza. Pepperoni, mmmm.

"Slow down, Harps," Benjamin chuckled. "You're gonna choke."

"This is slow!"

"Did you even eat anything today?"

"Ate some leftovers, but I'm still hungry. I'm a growing kid, Ben."

"Oh, I'm aware. So how's school?"

Harper slumped at the question. "Fine. School sucks as usual, but I'm getting my grades back up. Except for math, that shit fucking blows-"

"Watch the language," Ben warned.

"My bad." Harper took another bite.

"You make some friends?"

"Yeah, there's this kid named Miles, he's pretty cool. Met him in my science class a week ago, or so. And there's Tanya."

"Your girlfriend," Ben said.

"Man, what?" Harper laughed, her eyebrows raising in curiosity.

"I thought you were dating."

"Me and Tanya aren't dating."

"What about Miles?-"

"I'm not dating anyone, Ben."

Benjamin smiled, nodding, "Yeah, alright. Proud of you for making an effort. But they don't get into any trouble, right?"

"Nope." Harper popped the sound of the P. "Well, maybe a little."

Benjamin raised a brow.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Harper said.

"Y'know, speaking of, there's been an uptick in crime. So if you see anything, you run the other way, even if they Spider-Guy is there. I don't want you in the-"

"-wrong place at the wrong time." Harper interjected. "I know." A beat passed before she added, "Didn't Scorpion break outta jail?"

Benjamin nodded as he took a sip of his drink and thought about what to say. "Yeah. My men have been trying to find him, but we don't have any leads." He sighed. "I don't wanna talk about that, let's-"

His phone began to buzz, which caused him to sigh again. "I gotta go."

Harper slumped into her chair, watching Benjamin as he rose from his seat with a slightly annoyed expression. "See ya," she said.

"I'll text you later, Harper."

"Yeah, yeah."