1 | ISSUES ( Peter Parker )

03

           

CHAPTER THREE | OSCORP

__________

God is not death, God is what survives.

-mark jarman, from "[God does not know, God is what is known]," in unholy sonnets

__________

Bella was kind of in awe of the OsCorp building. She was currently only in the lobby, but everything seemed so pristine and sophisticated and professional. This was the dream, wasn't it? God, she could only imagine what the scientists were getting paid. It was only November, but Bella was already in the process of filling out an application for a summer internship program with OsCorp.

"This is so cool," Bella squealed, bouncing on her heels.

Peter seemed amused by her giddy behavior – behavior that seemed very out of character for the typically cool and collected popular girl he saw at school – but he didn't comment on it. He just indulged her with a kind smile.

"All right, my little cherubs," Mrs. King said, gathering everyone's attention. She gestured to a tall, severe looking blonde woman to her left. "This is Dr. Mason and she's currently in charge of the Bioengineering department here at OsCorp. I'm gonna let her give you her spiel. For the love of God, please listen to what she says so that we don't get kicked out of here. I'm looking at you, Randy."

Randy, a senior, made a dramatic scoff and pretended to be incredibly offended. Mrs. King rolled her eyes and Randy's antics and stepped to the side so that Dr. Mason could speak.

"Good morning," Dr. Mason said in a monotonous but still pleasant voice. "As your teacher said, I'm Dr. Mason and I'm in charge of the Bioengineering department. Currently, the Bioengineering lab is working on rearranging the genetics of different animals so that we can learn to combat serious, often incurable diseases, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS."

Dr. Mason then dove into a layered, complicated but still easy to follow explanation of how the scientists at OsCorp hoped to achieve such an ambitious goal. It seemed to Bella like they were trying to play God a little too much, but she supposed that's what all scientists were told before making a major breakthrough.

"Please refrain from touching anything without permission," Dr. Mason told the class of antsy teenagers before opening the door. "Do feel free to take pictures, though."

Grinning, Bella took her phone out of her pocket and turned it on. The screen lit up, showing two Snapchat notifications, a multitude of Instagram notifications, and two unread texts. One text was from Alex that was just telling her to have a good day and be careful. The other was from Liz.

[liz] how's the field trip going?

Bella licked her lips before replying.

[bella] good, im partners with peter parker

[liz] flash's verbal punching bag?

[bella] yeah... hes pretty cute

[liz] ooooooohhhh get it bells!!!!

[bella] ok im gonna go now. we actually have to do work. see you later.

Bella closed out of the messaging app and opened the camera app. She snapped a couple pictures of the machines, forced Peter to take a selfie with her, and got a close up of a mutated cat that was disgusting to look at in a fascinating kind of war.

"Oh, Bella," Peter said, drawing the girl over.

Bella took one look at what he was examining and shook her head.