𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

‹3›

      Maya walks over to Gwen Stacy in her fifth period workshop. Peter is over in the corner whispering to his friend, so Maya doesn't try to get near him. She has to take things slow with him or he won't trust her.

      "You don't have to tell me but," Gwen looks at Maya. "What happened between Mary Jane and Harry?" Gwen gapes at Maya for a second, then the brunette smiles. "I'd be blind to have not noticed." And rather stupid.

      Gwen nods and offers Maya the seat next to her which she takes. "They broke up just recently for the-" Gwen thinks for a moment. "About the 7th time." Maya's eyes go wide and Gwen nods. "Yeah, things aren't easy between the two of them." Maya nods and looks at the trinket in Gwen's hands.

      "What's that?" She asks as she observes it. Gwen raises it up and Maya sees it more clearly. It's a metal figurine of Iron Man. "Nothing too special. We're in our metal works section and I thought I would make Iron Man." Maya smiles at her and takes the figurine. "It's a bit weird though." Maya looks at Gwen and the blonde makes a face.

      "The Avengers. Touchy subject lately." Maya nods with her eyebrows raised. "Tell me about it." She purses her lips as she places the figurine on the table, but it falls over. "What's your opinion on the Accords?" Gwen tries to get the figurine to stand again.

      "I think the right idea is there, but the way they carried it out wasn't very smart." Maya nods and sighs. The figurine falls over again and Gwen frowns at it. "Very true." Gwen turns to Maya as she takes over trying to get the figurine to stand, her attention now solely on it. "Are you Team Cap or Iron Man?"

      Maya doesn't look away from the figurine. Gwen shakes her shoulder, gaining her attention. Maya shakes her head and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, ADHD. What did you say?" Gwen takes the figurine and looks at the feet on it. "Team Cap or Iron Man?" Maya purses her lips.

      "I'm always team Iron Man, but Da- I mean, Tony Stark wasn't right about the Accords." Maya mental berates herself for almost slipping up. Gwen nods and sees the problem on the figurine. The feet aren't flat. She grabs a file and begins rubbing at the feet.

      "I'm Team Cap all the way." Maya huffs. "Don't let my dad catch you saying that." Gwen looks at Maya. "Why? Is he team Iron Man?" Maya laughs and shakes her head. "You have got no idea."

☍

      Maya walks out of the front of the school and sees Happy in a car across the street. She starts walking towards it, but someone stops her. "Maya!" She turns to face Mary Jane. "I almost forgot to get your number!" Maya cringes. "Oh, I actually don't have a phone." Mary Jane frowns. "How come?"

      "Strict father." She lies. Mary Jane nods, then her face lights up. "What about Discord? Can you access it on a laptop?" Maya smiles and nods. "Yep!" They exchange Discord usernames and go their separate ways. As Maya crosses the street she catches Peter Parker staring at her again. She waves and he looks away.

      Maya laughs and gets into the car. Happy glances at her through the rearview mirror. Maya creases her brows. "I thought Dad promoted you to head of security?" Happy pulls away from the curb. "He did. Looks like I got demoted." Maya fakes hurt. "Happy! I thought we had a good relationship!"

      Happy rolls his eyes and Maya laughs lightly. "Dad could just let me drive, but nooo." Maya shakes her hands and slouches in her seat. "How can he, mister always-over-the-speed-limit, tell me its not safe to drive." Happy hides a smirk. "Because, he is every unsafe driver out there." Maya nods. "Very true."

      Maya makes a face. "The only way he gets out of tickets is his face." A hologram appears next to Maya. It's Tony. "Well, my face is the money maker." Maya stares at him, amamused. "Actually, Pepper is the money maker. Or is it becoming normal for you to demote your employees back to their old babysitting jobs?"

      Happy drove Maya and got her food after she begged him to insanity. Pepper acted as the mother Athena could never be to Maya. She loved them both like family, because to her, they were.

      "Har har," Tony says with an eye roll. "Any development on Underoos?" Maya shakes her head and sits back in her seat. "Not yet." She gives Tony a look. "It is my first day, you know. I can't just pull a you by cornering him and saying 'hey! I know your Spider-Man'!" Tony makes a face. "Fair enough."

      Maya creases her brows as she notices Happy isn't taking her in the direction of the compound. "Temporary housing." Tony answers her unspoken question as Happy pulls the car into an underground parking lot. Maya raises an eyebrow. "I thought you moved past llama towers."

      Tony glares at her. "It's not a llama tower." Maya mutters a 'yes it is' under her breath. "It's just while you are going to school. The commute to the compound would take too long." Maya nods and Happy gets out of the car, but she stays to finish talking with her father.

      She gives Tony a look. "Where are you anyway?" She asks as she tilts her head. Tony looks around at invisible surroundings. "Bahamas." Maya raises an eyebrow. "'Iron Man business'?" She asks. Tony smirks at her, then the hologram disappears. He is most certainly not there for 'Iron Man business'.

☍

      Maya smiles as she sees the amount of followers she has gained throughout the day. Most are in support of taking down the accords, but a few have commented saying anyone who falls under the Accords deserves to be locked up. Maya was tempted to delete the comments, but the number of people that replied to the negative comments was impressive. They destroyed them.

      "Free of speech, but don't expect everyone to just drop everything and realize how 'right' you are." Maya mutters to herself. She closes the site and opens her file on Spider-Man and puts his schedule into it. Maya rereads the part where it goes over where he gained his abilities. "Why of all things did it have to be spiders?"

      Maya creases her brows. "How did he even manage to find a freaking radioactive spider?" Maya bites her lip, then plugs 'radioactive spider' into a search engine. It comes up with nothing reliable. Maya tilts her head. "Okay," She clears the search bar, then types in 'spider experimentation'.

      An article pops up and Maya raises an eyebrow at the company name. Oscorp. She clicks into it and it shows a report about how Oscorp was experimenting with spider DNA to achieve human evolution. It also reports that Doctor Curt Connors is at the forefront of the research, but they are facing being shut down thanks to Secretary Ross demeaning the research unsafe.

      "Bastard gets into everything." Maya mutters. She scrolls through the article a bit more and finds a photo of Curt Connors next to a man. Maya reads the subtitle of the image. 'Doctor Curtis Connors: Left. Richard Parker: Right.' Maya raises an eyebrow. "Huh." She clicks Richard Parker's name and it takes her to a new page.

      A news article from almost 10 years ago. 'Richard and Mary Parker: Reported Dead after Fatal Plane Crash in Alps Mountains.' Maya blinks in shock. "Poor Peter."