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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xiii. GO FISH

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  RILEY O'DAIR'S BRAIN WAS a fishbowl. The thoughts swirling about in her head continued to rotate to the front of her mind. She was so out of it that it was like she was seeing her thoughts right in front of her face rather than the mountainous stacks of homework scattered about on the table before her. Twirling her mechanical pencil in one hand, Riley pursed her lips and scrunched together her ebony eyebrows.

   A cloud of carbon dioxide was forced out of her lungs, causing her cheeks to puff outward. She tossed her pencil a few inches in front of her and used her free hands to prop her elbows up. Her hands went to the side of her head, her fingers pressing against her temple. All she could possibly think about was a flaw.

   In every spider's web, there are intricate details that take hours and hours to perfect the first time around. With time, the spider grows to perfect spinning its own web so well that it is simply rare to screw up, for every spider's web is its own. There are no flaws in a spider's web because there are no rules to web-spinning. To Riley O'Dair, her work as an agent and Avenger was similar to that of a spider's web: there are no rules, so when you mess up, it means you really messed up.

   In other words, Riley's spiderweb had a flaw.

   Something was wrong with Peter Parker.

   She could tell because she had been all too observant of the boy over the past two months. All week long, he had just been... different. It was clear to her that he was trying to act like his normal self, but she had to have been a terrible agent to not notice the change in his persona.

   It made her wonder if she had slipped up. It's not like it was completely impossible, after all. She hadn't done a fantastic job at masking what her true voice sounded like because she didn't think Valor would end up talking to Spider-Man or Peter as much as she ended up doing. Perhaps that was where she screwed up? Maybe Tony said something to Peter about Riley's recruitment? No—that wouldn't make much sense. Surely, Tony would have told her, right?

   Groaning, Riley slammed her head against the table. JOCASTA's voice came echoing through the condominium Tony had lent to the teenager seconds later, "Are you alright, Miss Valor?"

   Picking her head up, Riley pouted, "No, not at all. I'm just so... I don't know, JO!"

  "You sound agitated," JOCASTA commented. "Would you like some cereal?"

   She paused. What a strange thing to suggest. "Why is that your first response of comfort?"

  "Mr. Stark programmed me to cater to your likes, your dislikes, and your desires," JOCASTA explained. "He knows you very well and he knows that you like cereal."

   A small smile emerged on her lips at the thought of Tony trying to piece JOCASTA's intelligence to cater to the teenager. She never really thought about how well he knew her.

   Standing up, Riley made her way to the kitchen to retrieve a box of cereal. She pulled out the box, grabbed a various bowl, and went to grab the carton of milk from the fridge. When Riley opened the refrigerator door, she paused, looking around. "JO, where does Tony keep the milk?" questioned the teenager.

  "It seems that we've run out of milk," JOCASTA replied. "You'll have to go get some more."

   With another groan, Riley slammed the refrigerator door shut, slipped on her shoes, and grabbed her keys. "You know, JO, I don't appreciate you baiting me and making me think we had milk."

  "My sincerest apologies, Valor."

   Riley was lucky that the nearest grocery store was quite literally a block away from her temporary home, for she was in and out of there with milk in no time.

   Walking back home to the condo was a bit nerve-wracking for her. After her first incident with the homeless men and having to have been saved by Spider-Man, she felt... vulnerable, off. In Riley's life, she didn't have time to be weak and helpless. In Riley's life, it was hurt or be hurt. She was just lucky that Spider-Man had been patrolling when he was, for even Riley had no idea how that evening would have played out.

   "Did you forget that it's dangerous to walk around by yourself at night, or do you just have a death wish?"

   She tensed for a moment, not realizing how on-edge she had been. But she somewhat relaxed upon realizing that it was just Spider-Man. "Maybe I just like a good thrill every once in a while," Riley played along. "What makes you think I can't handle myself this time?"

   Spider-Man walked alongside her, his red and blue suit standing out in the darkness of the night. "Hey, I don't mean any harm! I just saw you while I was doing my rounds and thought you could use some company."

   "Well, thanks, Bug Boy, but my place is actually right up here, so..." Riley trailed off as she walked, indicating that he'd have to find something else to do. She looked back when she noticed how Spider-Man had stopped in his tracks. Riley tilted her head to the side innocently. "Is something wrong?"

   "You're Valor."

   She laughed and asked, "What...? What are you talking about?"

   He walked forward. "Don't play dumb, Riley," he stated, his voice holding a certain kind of edge to it. "Why have you been hiding it? Why are you even here in the first place?"

   "Is this some kind of joke?" Riley demanded. There was a pounding sensation against her chest. Her teeth were clenched together as she restlessly stood there.

   "There's only one person whose ever called me Bug Boy, and that's Valor," he continued. "Answer me, Riley." He paused and ripped off his mask. "What the hell is going on?"

  Busted.

   "I... I don't understand," she trailed off. "How did you figure it out? How long have you known?"

   "It's a long story. I've been suspicious all week," Peter snapped. "This... This was just the icing on the cake. Now, I want answers, Riley."

   Riley was silent. She played with one of the cuffs on her wrist, gripping the grocery bag rather tightly. "Um... go fish?" she squeaked.

   When Peter didn't laugh or smile or react at all, really, she sighed. "Two months ago, Tony came to me talking about how he was worried about you being out on your own. He said you could handle yourself just fine, but he just wanted someone to keep regular tabs on you."

   "That's why he assigned Happy to me," Peter argued.

   "Yeah," she confirmed, her voice soft. She rubbed her hand with her free arm. "Um, but he wanted to get inside details on you, so he called me. Tony just wanted to make sure you were doing okay, I swear! I didn't want to do this, but Tony's basically family. I'd do anything to help my family."

   Peter stared at her with this peculiar look in his eyes. "Tony sent you because, what, he thought I was weak? I don't understand." Then, Riley realized it; Peter wasn't pissed off, he was disappointed.

   "I'm sorry, Peter," she meekly apologized. "Really, I didn't want you to find out like this."

   "I just..." continued Peter, brushing aside her apology. "All this time, I'd never really had any friends. All I had was Ned. And when you came to my school, when everyone continued to be assholes to me, I really thought you actually..." Peter sighed. "I thought you actually wanted to be friends with just some loser like me, you know. Like, you wanted to be friends with me because you actually liked me... not because Tony Stark told you to."

   "Peter—"

   "Save it, Riley," interrupted Peter. He took a step back. "I... I'm not sure if I can forgive you, yet. Just... give me some time."

   "Peter, wait, we can talk about this—"

   But before Riley could even finish speaking, Peter Parker was gone.