Flower Child (Peter Parker, MCU)

Mondays are Made for Fresh Starts

The Bones - Maren Morris, Hozier

The school was buzzing with news come Monday. Everyone was talking about how Spider-Man fought against a villain in the school bus parking lot during the homecoming dance. Some kids swore up and down they saw Spider-Man sink fangs into the Shocker, paralyzing him from the neck down, while others claimed Spider-Man spun the Shocker around on a web like a lasso. Ned assured Lila that the only person out there to see the fight was him, and neither of those things happened.

He actually went into great detail of the account, how Peter was losing the fight until Ned stepped in and helped. The most enthusiastic she'd ever seen him, Ned included sound effects and hand gestures to paint the scene more colorfully. He was thrilled that he got a taste of the action, and almost just as excitedly laughed at the mention of Peter stealing Flash's car.

Lila wouldn't have believed it had Flash not confirmed it to anyone with a pair of ears in range of him. All day Monday Flash recounted the story of Spider-Man commandeering his car as soon as he arrived at the school. In the morning, it had originally been that Spider-Man landed on the hood, and called Flash out by name before taking his car and driving away. At the end, it became Spider-Man and Flash fighting off the Shocker and Flash tossing him the keys. The car in question was totaled, partially by rubble and partially due to poor driving, but Flash didn't care one bit.

All of the events surrounding the homecoming dance, Spider-Man, and the Vulture kept Lila's weekend in the shadows. Which was fine by her, the less attention she got about someone attacking her the better, less people would talk to her and less people would worry about her. The only unavoidable ones were her teachers and MJ. Her teachers seemingly all agreed upon giving Lila a break from homework for a week, since the last two had been a whirlwind, and from an outsider's perspective downright awful.

For once, she was fine with a little special treatment, merely because her time at the shop had consumed her that whole weekend. She'd left most of the operations to Sophie, who stepped up and took the operating reins from Ted's hands. Ted, who suffered a rather severe concussion, was on bed rest per doctor's orders, which Lila happily helped him with the rest of the weekend. She made a deal with Sophie that she'd go and help her in-store as soon as school was over. It was agreed upon right after the police and paramedics left.

Lila had handled the situation like a pro, sticking to her official story that it was merely a robbery gone wrong. She didn't mention Adrian Toomes until asked, and that was how she heard what had happened that evening. The fact that the man robbing her store was tied to the Vulture and his underground weapons business was of no consequence to Lila, for she only knew Toomes to be a frequent customer who was the dad of a friend from school. It wasn't untrue, but she did have to omit her connection to Spider-Man and his actions. She struggled with it at first, but she knew she couldn't relay anything like that to the police, she'd only be in more of a world of trouble.

In fact, Lila found it more difficult to lie to Michelle than she did to the police. MJ was known for her truthful nature, and by association Lila felt obligated to be the same. So when MJ asked her what happened and if she was okay, she had to skirt around a lot of the details. She ended up feeding the bits of truth that she told the police to MJ, and kept it as generic as possible. But the question of whether or not she was okay, Lila answered more truthfully. She wasn't all the way okay, but she was working towards it, and she knew she eventually would be.

One of the sadder instances of Lila's Monday was Liz Allan, who got a fair share of unwanted attention. Her father being unmasked as the head of one of the most dangerous underground crime rings in the city left her exposed like a nerve. The word was that she was going to finish school in Oregon, far away from her father's pending trial and the unwanted grief she might get for it. Her popularity and kindness spared her from the unnecessary hatred the other students might have presented, and she left rather quietly. But not before saying goodbye to Lila and apologizing.