Thirteen | Vulture

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I walked to school the next day, hoping to see Peter, but sadly, I didn't. I only found Ned, looking just as disappointed, if not more so than I was.

The day went by pretty quickly, and during lunch when I glanced at my phone, I noticed a news alert saying something about Spider-Man wrecking a ferry, accompanied by Iron Man and one other. It was an article from the Daily Bugle, so there was no doubt in my mind they would be railing on Spider-Man. I ignored it for now, resolving to ask Spidey himself about the incident later, figuring he would no doubt ask me about the police station.

School ended, and I first went to my usual alleyway changing area, with a taped together shoji screen set up to hide from passers by, then to my meeting place with Spidey.

To my surprise, and chagrin, he wasn't there. He usually beat me by at least five minutes or more by his account, but I shrugged it off, resolving to wait for him.

I waited for an hour for him to show but no such luck. I went back home, and took a shower, noticing the hair dye wasn't starting to wear out yet. As I thought about it, I realised I had never seen Felicia actually re-dye her hair, I only assumed it happened. Once I was out of the shower I found Felicia's journal and flipped through looking for anything about her hair, or hair dye. About three or four pages in, I found an entry about how her hair didn't seem to need re-dyeing and that she thought it might have to do with Black Cat somehow, which made no sense at all, but I didn't feel like investigating.

I shrugged, not too perturbed about the permanent change in hair colour, as I didn't totally mind.

A couple days went by, Peter showed up to school as normal, but once again Spidey missed our meeting, again, and then the Homecoming dance was only a day away. I had plans to go to Coney Island that night so I resolved to skip the dance.

Part of me wished I was part of the Homecoming planning committee, as they had an excuse to ditch class in the last few days leading up to the dance. I had been a bit late leaving the day before the dance, and I passed a rather exuberant Peter, walking down the hall. I waved, but he was in his own world so I let it go.

October 22nd, the day of the dance, had arrived. For the last few days, MJ had been trying to convince me to go to the dance with her and Ned, her main argument being the free food, and I had maintained my stance on attending; a firm no.

Finally as we were walking out of school for the day I relented, agreeing to drop by for a quick visit, and only that.

MJ tried to play her excitement off, but she failed, and I could tell she was happy she managed to talk me into attending at all.

I walked home with Peter, chatting about the dance, and I ended up explaining I would be dropping by to say a quick hello, before heading off to Coney Island.

"That's cool! Who're you going with?" Peter asked, and I raised an eyebrow at him, smiling joyfully. For some time now, I had been noticing it was harder and harder not to smile around Peter Parker.

"Just me." I said, holding the door for Peter. I walked over to the elevator, and pressed the up button, waiting for the elevator to arrive. "You gonna get dressed up for the dance?" I asked as we waited for the elevator.

"Yeah, you?" Peter asked, giving me an awkward smile, and I resisted the urge to giggle. What was going on with me?

"No, I'm only gonna be there for a few minutes at most." I said, stepping to the side as the elevators opened to let an elderly man walk past. I stepped into the elevator, Peter pressed the button marked seven and it started moving. I hadn't realised I was holding my breath until I stepped off the elevator and onto the seventh floor. I let out a shaky breath, which didn't go unnoticed by Peter, who gave me a sideways glance, and a soft smile.

"See you later Gwen." Peter said, unlocking the door to his apartment and walking in.

"See you later Parker." I said, turning away as the door swung shut. I unlocked my apartment, closing the door behind me and dumping my backpack on the floor.

I walked into my room, grabbing my Black Cat costume, and a pair of loose sweats. I slipped into the costume, and grabbed a hoodie and a pair of slip ons before stepping out onto the fire escape. I held tightly to my hoodie and sweats, wearing the shoes as I swung off towards midtown.

It had taken me longer than I thought, plus I was giving myself time to throw on the hoodie and sweats before actually going inside. I landed in an alleyway about a block away to change, before walking the rest of the way. I stuffed my mask into my hoodie pocket, and as I neared MSST I began to see well dressed students wandering around. I passed Liz who was walking in on her own.

"Hey Liz. Who's your date?" I asked.

"Peter. My dad is giving him the dad talk." she chuckled, and I glanced back at the black car I passed, and saw Peter nodding at something Liz's father was saying, looking thoroughly terrified. I frowned, wondering what was up, but Liz caught my attention again and I followed her inside, though part of me wanted to stay and wait for Peter. When we got inside, I could barely hear anything, but I found MJ by the food table. I grabbed a couple cookies and joined her chatting for a bit, before noticing Peter walk in like a zombie. About a minute after that Peter left and Liz walked over looking forlorn.

"He left." she said numbly, and MJ lifted her middle finger in a farewell salute to Peter.

"Well, I'm gonna get going now. See you later." I said awkwardly, waving goodbye to MJ and walking out into the hallway. I pulled off my hoodie, sweats and flat, stowed them inside my locker, and headed to the back exit.

About halfway down the hall, I noticed Peter's tie on the floor. I picked it up, walking back to my locker and putting it inside before continuing on my way.

I pushed open the exit, and stepped out to see a school bus flying towards me. I jumped the railing to the right of the door and ran for cover ducking behind a bus. I had planned to leave the back way and head to Coney Island from there but so far my plan was not succeeding. I peered around the side of the bus and my eyes widened. Another school bus was flying towards the one I was behind. In a desperate attempt to give myself more time, I kicked the bus I was behind hard enough to send it forwards before jumping out of the way. The buses collided and bounced back the way they came from, and I swung off towards Coney Island, hoping whoever was back there had it under control.

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