CHAPTER SEVEN | THE SPIDER AND THE GHOST
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girl frightened. girl destroyed. girl as a symptom. / girl in a paroxysm of rage. girl disappeared in a / death-like loss of feeling. girl as indescribable evil.
-juliet ashbury, the only good girl is a dead girl
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Bella spent more time than she cared to admit looking for Spider-Man. The school was abuzz with news of him, but she had yet to see him since the night he saved her life. She found herself watching videos of him on loop, staring at her screen in awe as he stopped a bus on trajectory for collision with his bare hands. She was kind of obsessed.
"Is that Spider-Man?"
Caught off guard by the sudden presence beside her, Bella jumped and slammed her laptop shut. Cringing at her obnoxious reaction, Bella looked at Peter and smiled.
"Yeah," she said, opening her laptop to make sure she didn't crack the screen when she slammed it shut.
"I heard about how he swept you off your feet," Peter mentioned, cracking a small grin at his joke.
Bella rolled her eyes, but snorted in good nature. She bit her lip and looked over at Peter. He was wearing a dark green sweater over what appeared to be a black button down. He looked adorably dorky, and Bella was almost swooning.
"You excited for Christmas?" Bella asked, tearing her eyes away from his face and glancing down at her hands.
"Yeah," Peter said. "I need a two-week break."
"Oh, man, you're telling me," Bella snorted. "Oh! I'm having a New Year's party at the end of the break. You should come! Bring Michelle and Ned."
"You know their names?" Peter asked, eyes wide with shock.
Bella scrunched her eyebrows together. "Yeah, why? You talk about them all the time. They're important to you, and the things that are important to my friends matter to me."
Peter's face lit up as he smiled at Bella, and she couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy because of it.
Oh, man. This crush is getting out of control.
Bella went home wanting nothing more than to curl up on her couch and continue binging The Office. However, the never-ending cycle of crime was calling her name. Around five, once the sky was dark, Bella got dressed in her suit and teleported out of her home.
As per usual, she was perched atop a roof – waiting. As she waited, she hummed Christmas carols to herself.
"Quite the voice you got there."
The second time today Bella was caught off guard. This time, however, she reacted by kicking out her leg and sending the assailant to the ground. But the assailant only turned out to be Spider-Man.
"Oh, sorry!" Bella yelped, helping the boy up. "So," she said, looking him up and down. "You're the infamous Spider-Man."
"And you're Poltergeist," Spider-Man said bluntly, putting his hands on his hips.
"You could use a serious outfit upgrade."
"Where'd you get your fancy get up?"
"From the people who made me like this."
"Who made you like this?"
"My father and his evil cronies. What made you the way you are?"
"Radioactive spider bite."
"Well, now a name as terrible as Spider-Man makes sense."
"As if Poltergeist is any better."
"It is, Spider-Boy."
"Spider-Man."
"Whatever you say, Spiderling."
"Please don't call me that."
"Okay, Spidey. Well, it's been nice talking to you but I have a gang of muggers to beat up two blocks from here. See you around."
And with that, Bella teleported away. She landed behind the group of broad men and wasted no time in grabbing one and knocking his head against an alley wall. It wasn't long, however, before Spider-Man was beside her, fighting as well. Spidey shot web after web, pinning several of the men to walls while Bella knocked most of them out. All the while, Bella was laughing.
This crime fighting thing was actually pretty fun and easy with a partner.
"That was so cool!" Bella yelled, grabbing Spidey and teleporting him up to a roof with her. "Oh my God, we should do that again!"
"Really?" Spidey asked, his voice full of teenage excitement.
"Yes!" Bella exclaimed. "We could be like the Avengers... but as a much better looking duo."
"You can't even see my face," Spidey reminded Bella.
"True," Bella said, crossing her arms. "But from those arms, that butt, and the voice I can tell that you're at least an eight and a half out of ten."
"Oh, uh, thanks?" Spidey scratched his head and grabbed at his mask. "Do you want to see—"
"No!" Bella shouted, rushing towards him and keeping his hands in place. She licked her lips, caught off guard by their proximity. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I mean, I'll feel the need to take my mask off if you take yours off. And what if we know each other? I'd like to keep myself a secret to only me."
"You like secrets?"
"Not particularly," Bella admitted, "but this is one I have to keep... the truth is messier than a lie in this case."
"I understand," Spidey said, untangling his wrists from Bella's hands.
"But we should do this again," Bella said, wishing she had pockets to stick her hands in – they felt especially cold once Spidey took his wrists from her palms. "It's easier with two people, I think."
The next afternoon, Bella was on her way to meet up with Peter at the movies when a newspaper headline caught her eye. Stopping in her tracks, she turned to take a better look. A grin slid onto her face and she threw a five-dollar bill at the man running the stand.
'NEW YORK TODAY' was scrawled across the top in thick black ink, and the paper's main headline for the morning read:
THE SPIDER AND THE GHOST:
NEW YORK'S BEST CRIME FIGHTING GIRL TEAMS UP WITH THE NEW HERO IN TOWN TO TAKE DOWN GANG
As she walked the rest of the way to the movie theater, Bella clutched the newspaper to her chest like it was a lifeline. Beaming, she shoved the paper at Peter as soon as she saw him.
"Spider-Man and Poltergeist teamed up last night," Bella squealed excitedly.
"No way!" Peter gasped, looking at the picture of the web-constrained men against an alley wall.
"Right?" Bella said, shoving the paper into her purse. "In slightly less exciting news, which movie are you in the mood for seeing? I still haven't seen Force Awakens."
"Man, I don't think I've seen a Star Wars movie since I was nine," Peter said.
Bella looked both offended and shocked as she gasped at him.
"What kind of nerd even are you, Parker?"
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i love my sneaky superhero kids
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