27|| getting a ride to the comic store

"You should've seen her Charles. She was something to be seen. A new tenant randomly popping up in the elevator of all places."

Queens, New York, October 2016-

Getting a lift home from Skylar was easy after their sleepover. Actually, getting anything with Skylar was easy. After all, the girls were super close. And with the state that Alison was in, some people would do anything for her.

Which was what Ali hated about the chair. Either people treated you like a child, and did anything for you, or avoided you like a disease.

So, there Alison was, backpack in her lap, beginning rolling into the apartment complex once again. Skylar's ride, Michael, who she knew quite well, had dropped her off at the curb.

Alison had just rolled up through the ramp on the side of the apartment complex, and pressed the handicap button to open the door. Once inside, Ali waved hello to the afternoon doorman on duty, and then rolled into the elevator that had just arrived at the lobby floor.

Pressing the button to their apartment level, 11, Alison patiently tapped her finger on her lap, anxious to grab Charles. Of course, it was comic book store day, and Ali was pretty sure Charles was ready to go. Then again, Alison was too.

The elevator gave a pleasant ding, and the doors began to close. However, a hand flashed between the closing elevator doors, willing them to open again.

Craning her neck to see who had jammed the door, Alison saw it was a woman in her mid-twenties, holding a purse by her side.

The Hispanic lady looked flustered, and worried. "Oh!" She exclaimed, looking at Alison. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to catch the elevator." The woman walked into the elevator. "May I?" She gestured to the panel of buttons.

"Of course." Alison gave a meek smile, trying not to shift around in her seat. "Go right ahead." Ali had been hoping for a private ride to herself, but that clearly wasn't happening

The lady looked impressed with Alison's manners, and pressed the 13 button. The woman looked unfazed as she pressed the button. Maybe she didn't realize that 13 was a fairly unlucky number.

The elevator began to slowly rise, the levels slowly beeping up through the levels. It was as if the ride couldn't be any longer.

Alison just looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to engage in conversation with the woman. One hand was resting on her backpack, while the other was tapping her chair's arm rest.

That, of course, would also fail, as the elevator hit the level 4, the woman tried to strike up conversation. "How long have you lived here?" The woman asked.

There was an awkward pause between the question and Alison realizing that the woman was talking to her. "Three years." She tersely responded, feeling awkward.

"That's very nice." The woman nodded, looking at the blank metal doors. "I just moved here. Apartment 1313." She stated. "Oh!" The woman seemed to want to smack herself in the face. "My name is Luciana Villanueva. It's a pleasure." Luciana stick out her hand in greeting.

Alison shook the hand before speaking, not wanting to seem impolite. "Alison Marnell." She tried to keep the same enthusiasm as Luciana did, but to no avail.

Luciana nodded, pretending to be impressed by the girl's name. Of course, she already knew Alison's name, but she wasn't about to reveal that. "I see." She glanced down at the wheelchair. "Where are you going in that little chair on wheels?"

"Uhm..." Alison tried to stay polite. "A comic book store with my younger brother, Charles. The one he wants to go actually by Staten Island."

Luciana gave an impressed look. "That's quite aways to walk. For anyone, I mean, and not just people-" She searched for the right words, "Like you." Luciana finished.

"I see." Alison tried not to make the situation awkwarder than it was, but it was definitely not turning out that way. "Any other ways to get there?"

"Yes, actually!" Luciana exclaimed, happy that the conversation had taken a somewhat turn for the better. "You should take the Staten Island ferry. One leaves in about-" She glanced down at her watch, checking the time. "30 minutes, at around 11."

The doors slid open, and the robotic voice reminded the two women that it was floor eleven. "Well," Alison said weakly, "This is my stop. Thanks for the transportation advice."

"Of course!" Luciana waved, watching Alison roll out of the elevator. "It's the least I could do! Have a good da-!" The woman was cut off by the elevator doors sliding shut.

Alison gave a small chuckle, and rolled her eyes. That woman was definitely something. At least she gave Alison some good information for the future.

Pushing her chair down the hallway to reach the apartment Alison called home, Ali almost ran into the sharp corner. She really needed to get better at controlling the damn chair.

When she finally reached the apartment door, Alison banged her hand on the door, gesturing for Charles to come and get the door. Seconds later, a breathless Charles appeared at the door.

"Hi Ali!" He exclaimed, pulling the door open wider. "Is it time for us to go to the Staten Comic Store!" Charles' eyes were lit up with excitement, and he seemed to be bouncing up and down.

"Yeah bud," Alison gestured with her head to the elevator. "Just let me put away my books from my backpack, and we can get rolling." She ruffled his hair. Charles was still short enough that Alison could reach his head at chair level.

Charles took Alison's backpack from her lap. "I'll put it away!" He rushed back inside, throwing the bag's books onto the sofa. "Cause I wanna go to the store sooner than later! You take forever." Charles threw the bag at Alison, who caught it carefully.

"Do I?" Alison laughed, beginning to back her chair out of the apartment doorway. "I would think you'd know by now that I can be faster than you could ever be." She gave a sly smile to Charles, and she turned her chair handles around to face him.

Charles took ahold of her wheelchair, and directed her through the halls once again to the elevator. He carefully pressed the button, and patiently waited for the elevator to slowly rise up to their level.

Once it finally did, the two loaded into the elevator, and pressed the L, or lobby button. On the way down, Alison explained how they would get to the comic store.

"Ferry?" Charles interrupted her halfway through her explanation. "Why would you want to take the ferry?"

Alison gave a shrug. "I don't know, but the new tenant in 1313 told me that it was the fastest way to get to the island." She glanced back at her brother, who was leaning up against the elevator wall.

"Alrighty, But I was told a while back from Mrs. Van Burren that that apartment, 1313, would bring nothing but bad luck. So if we follow the instructions this tenant gave us and everything goes wrong, I'm blaming it on you." Charles warned his sister, throwing his hands up like he was innocent.

"Let's just get to the ferry first, Okay? That's the first chapter of our two part adventure." Alison chuckled, almost giving a sigh at her brother's superstitions.

The elevator dinged again, signifying that the siblings had reached the bottom of the line. They unloaded, and then hailed a cab to take them over to the ferry line.

The ride over to the pickup place for the ferry, was certainly silent, as the taxi driver keeping quiet. Alison and Charles kept their voices to a whisper as they rode over into main New York.

Halfway through the trip, Charles gave Alison a question that she knew she couldn't answer. "Hey Ali, why aren't we just taking a cab the whole way to Staten Island?"

Alison took a deep breath in. How could she say this in a way that didn't sound weird, but also enough explanation for Charles to understand? "Well Charlie, because it's super expensive to take a cab to Staten Island. Plus, I think we'd have to board the ferry anyways."

Charles nodded. "Oh. That makes a little sense. But why are we going to this comic store instead of the one in Queens?"

Alison reached over and ruffled his hair again. "Enough with the questions already! Jackie told us to try this one, because it has a bigger selection of comics you like. Plus, we need a change of scenery. Staying in Queens is kinda boring if both of us can't ride our bikes all over."

Charles gave her a roll of his eyes. "Okay, Okay, I get it." He batted her hand out of his hair. "So let's take the ferry."

Almost like magic, the cab driver halted to a stop. "Here's your destination- Staten Island Ferry." He held out his hand for the money. "24.35."

Alison gave him 25 dollars, and told him to keep the change. Charles hopped out of the car first, and grabbed Alison's folded up chair from the back. He then opened Alison's door. "Let's get you in here." Charles reached down to pick Ali up.

"No! No." Alison shook her head. "I can get into the chair. I'm half broken, not all broken. And not for much longer either." Ali carefully got out of the cab, standing for one slight second.

But before she could even try and take a step, Charles plopped the chair underneath Alison. "No standing, remember! I know you want to try it at home, but not in public."

Alison sighed, waving him off. "I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll be out of here by Wednesday, Friday max. Just in time for Homecoming."

Charles just shook his head. "Let's just go get tickets, before this quarrel costs us that trip to the comic store." He took ahold of Alison's chair, and walked her onto the sidewalk.

When Ali and Charles finally made it to the ticket stand, the lady seemed to have had enough with the people taking the ferry. "What time would you like to take the ferry?" She asked, a bored look on her face and a monotonous tone clear in her voice.

"Uh the 11:00 Staten Island ferry." Charles looked up at the woman. Of course, she couldn't see him, as he was short, but she got the message.

"That ferry just left." She motioned over at the slowly backing out ferry. "You missed it by two minutes. But you can get on the next one in ten minutes."

Charles looked over at Alison. "Ten minutes? I thought the lady said they came every thirty minutes, so this one was the one to catch."

Alison gave a shrug. "Just buy the tickets for the next one, I'm sure it's not too big of a deal." She gave a glance over at the ferry, just in time to see a small little blip of red and blue to swing onto the boat.

Charles wasn't paying attention, but as he was buying the tickets, Spider-Man was hanging around on the side of the ferry, then messing around up top. He seemed to be in call with someone.

The ferry horn blew, signaling that the ride was beginning to take off. That made Peter, or Spider-Man, or whatever he was called, jump.

Alison could barely see him now, but he was fighting someone. Or some people. She couldn't end up seeing the rest of what happened, as first, Charles finished buying the tickets, and second, Alison's phone began to ring.

When Alison quickly pulled out her phone, not even seeing the ID. "Yello?" She casually greeted, assuming it was Jess, or Skylar, or someone fussing about homecoming.

Instead, it was a skeptical Tony Stark. "Hi, Uh Alison? You wouldn't happen to be at Staten Island Ferry, would you?"

"Yeah. And I would assume you know this because of the tracker in my phone?" Ali shot back, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but that's all irrelevant to the next question I'm going to ask you. Do you know where Peter Parker is? Because, I'm sure you know by now, he's the Spider-Man, you're not that dumb." Tony asked in his classic - 'I'm about to scold this kid'- voice.

"I would think he's on the Staten Island Ferry as well, or you wouldn't be calling." Alison turned her chair to look at Charles.

"Yes, He is. Although he said he was at band practice." Tony's tone seemed to shift. "You wouldn't mind if you called him for me? And played reconnaissance on the ground? Just in case?"

Alison dismissed the comment. "Fine. But if anything goes wrong-" Almost as if Alison had jinxed the whole ordeal, she saw a guy with vulture wings come out of the lower deck of the ferry.

"You'll let me know. Great, great. Thanks Marnell!" Tony interrupted her, hanging up the phone. He had no clue of what just happened before her.

Alison gave a sigh, and turned to Charles. She stood up from the chair, seeming to not waved as Ali stuck out her hand. "Hand me the backpack, will you?"

<~•~>
I just banged this out in three hour, you're welcome.

wow two updates of two different books in less than 24 hours? Ash, you must be over your writer's block!

yes! I am. I'm hoping for another chapter of this to be out by- hmmmmm tomorrow sometime, maybe later today?

anyways, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time!

((this is like low key one of the best gifs ever))