THE SECOND HALF OF BEATRIX'S FIRST DAY AT UPSTATE WAS WORSE THAN THE FIRST. Mechanical Engineering had been her last STEM course, which meant she'd be forced to mingle with other specialties for the two remaining hours of school. Some of the other science geeks marveled at the colorful array of talkative art students and the buff Athletes with wet hair from the school showers -- Beatrix, on the other hand, found them distracting. Much like Harry Osborn and James Stark, student Athletes were treated like Gods and the artsy kids demanded attention. The halls of Upstate Prepetory reeked of rich kid entitlement. By the fifth period, Beatrix understood why every teenager in New York hated Upstate kids. In fact, she could think of multiple different tortures tactics she'd rather experience than come to school with them for the rest of the semester.

It only got worse in the last period. 

Beatrix, once again, had been racking her brain for a Science-Expo concept and, once again, not much luck was coming out of it. In truth, her mind was elsewhere. Beatrix was still fixated on that video of Peter Parker. How the students mocked him for his brief spider-caused distress. For some reason, the video's virality had upset her. She didn't even know Peter, yet she was hoping he was okay.

Her worrying for him didn't last long, though. Just as she was scrapping another bad Expo idea, Beatrix felt a chill come down her spine. She had felt a great evil enter the room.  She turned to face the door and she saw it—

Sally Avril was making a comeback.

Beatrix almost couldn't believe her eyes as the girl who had terrorized her into leaving school in the first place, came walking into her AP Government class without a care in the world. But, her eyes weren't driving her. The Devil wore a custom-fit version of their school uniform. She really hadn't changed much since childhood. Even if she had, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, Beatrix could recognize her nemesis anywhere; the silky brown hair, the demonic features, the look in her deep brown eyes that just screamed superiority complex. Even without seeing her, Beatrix could simply sense Sally's presence.

Apparently, the link between them was mutual because the moment Sally laid her eyes on Bea, she marched right over to her desk. "Where have I seen your face?" she asked.

Her demeanor was just like it had been when they were in grade school. Confident. Authoritative. The type of tone that let you know not to fuck with someone.

Beatrix didn't answer her question. She was like a buffering video game, she couldn't seem to process any thoughts, let alone express them. She just stared, silent and motionless, hoping that if she played dead Sally might go away.

"I asked you a question." Sally pressed her lips, annoyed by the silence. "Are you like mentally incompetent or something?"

"No," Beatrix answered simply, not detecting her sarcasm (which made a few of Sally's friends laugh.)

"Then listen and respond," Sally said, leaning forward patronizingly as if Beatrix were some type of toddler. "Have we met before?"

"Can you just fuck off, Sally?" A voice said from the back of the class. Gwen Stacy's. She was sitting in a corner, with a group of other STEM kids Beatrix hadn't noticed. "Some of us aren't Cheer athletes. We have to get actual work done before class starts."

"Yeah, and I have to avoid doing said work by copying off them," Harry, who was sitting at a desk near Gwen, added. "Shut up."

Sally rolled her eyes at the recognizable group of Science specialties. "I'll go to my seat right now if the mute answer my question."

"You probably know her from the news." James, who was apparently also in Beatrix's Gov. Class answered for her. "She's Castro kid."

Thankfully, that shut Sally up. After all, the popular brunette had seen the news segments too, and she'd definitely seen #fuckTonyStark go trending over the winter break, so why would she care to look deeper into Beatrix's familiarity? Everyone in New York knew who Beth Castro was. Sally just figured she'd seen Beatrix's picture on some Twitter thread.

Watching her let go of the situation didn't calm Beatrix's nerves though. Sally didn't remember her. Well, she did but she remembered what had happened when they were in second grade. She didn't remember what she'd done. What if it came back to her? Beatrix thought to herself. Would Sally start harassing me again? The students seemed to respect her. Especially the Athletic specialties. Would everyone gang up against me like in second grade? Would the school even care?

The thoughts were coming and going too quickly for her to process them. Beatrix wanted to yell at her brain to slow down so she could breathe. The sound of multiple conversations being had around her simultaneously was getting disorienting. She couldn't breathe. Her eyes were watering. She rubbed at them, distressed. Beatrix wanted to call an ambulance or her dad or Bev or someone -- but she couldn't seem to bring herself to. And she wasn't allowed to use her phone during class anyway. Who to call, no phones in class, Sally's back, breathe, no air, what's their number, no phones in class... too loud... too much talking... who to call, what's their number, Sally doesn't remember, too loud...

Then: their government teacher walked in and as the door opened wide, an opportunity did too. Freedom!

Beatrix didn't think, she bolted.

In a flash, she was out of the room, running to who knows where. She didn't know if she was having a panic attack or a meltdown or what, she just knew she wanted to get far far away from Sally Avril. The world was getting quieter, her breath was relaxing and when her vision finally cleared — she'd come to realize she'd locked herself in a bathroom stall.

Sitting on the toilet seat with one hand rubbing her left watery eye, she took out her STARKphone and told the A.I. Tony Stark had designed, to call her father.

          CALLING RAYMOND ...

No answer. She tried again.

          CALLING RAYMOND ...

No answer. Again. Maybe her sister then—

          CALLING BEV...

No answer.

"Beatrix! Beatrix?" A deep voice called for her; a boy's. "Are you in here?"

"Go away!" Beatrix quickly pulled her legs onto the toilet seat so he wouldn't see them from under the stall door.

Too late. Despite her efforts, he'd noticed the frantic movement and moved over to her stall, giving it a few knocks. "Hey, the teacher sent a couple of us to come look for you."

"Tell him I'm not coming back," she said to him; still from the comfort of the toilet seat.

The boy crouched down onto the bathroom floor and slid his head underneath the stall door, offering a face to the voice. Harry.

"You're not allowed in here," Beatrix said, in an attempt to get him to leave. "This is the girls' bathroom."

"I hook up with people in here all the time." He shrugged, still laying on the ground, underneath the light pink stall door.

"That's weird and discomforting," Beatrix said back. "I still don't want to talk to you."

"Why?" he asked, in a humorous shock. "I'm lovely."

Beatrix didn't laugh. Harry was not as funny as he thought he was. In fact, he was almost dead last on the list of people she wanted to see at that moment. She found it so irritating that he'd laughed at the video of Peter Parker. What was so funny about a boy being targeted by all his classmates? What made the Peter Parker in that video any different than her in the second grade? Would Harry have laughed at her too?

"I want you to go away," she told him.

Harry blinked. "Well, I need to come back to class. The teacher's like totally shitting himself thinking he lost a student."

"I won't," she said. "I don't wanna be around Sally."

"That's what you're all upset about? Sally bringing up your mom?" Harry asked, moving fully into the stall and sitting up. "It was probably nothing personal, you know. People do the same thing with me overdosing. With all the shit they put on the news, people just feel like they have the right to ask--"

"That's not what I'm upset about."

"Then what are you crying for, snookums?"

"Sally Avril is my archnemesis," Beatrix stated. "She was a total bitch to me when we're younger."

"Sally Avril was a bitch to everyone when we were younger," Harry said. "She started a rumor that James was a product of incest when we were in middle school. But that's like the extent of her bitchiness. Words and rumors. She's harmless."

"That's BS. You see this scar on my forehead?" Beatrix pushed away her hair to show him blemish on her forehead. "Sally's doing. Second-grade recess. She told one of her friends to throw a rock at me. She's literally the reason I was homeschooled for eight years."

Harry examined the wound. It had healed as well as it was able to, but thick stitches we're still repugnantly visible. Harry looked like he might throw up. "God, that's shit is gnarly."

"I know," Beatrix agreed. "Why do you think I have bangs?"

"She's condemned you to a life in bangs?" Harry asked jokingly. "The horror!"

"She's like if Regina George and Lucifer had a lovechild." Beatrix put her bang back in its place.

"Satan In Heels," he conceded.

"Exactly."

"Well that was a very tragic story," The Osborn boy said with mock sympathy. "However, it doesn't change the fact that you need to come back to class."

"No."

Harry huffed, surrendering. He shoved his hands into his pockets then pulled out a pair of shiny car keys. "Plan B," he said. "Take these. Go out the door in the downstairs library. The cameras are broken there. Ditch class."

Beatrix frowned. "I can't drive."

"Splendid. Plan C." Harry groaned, then shoved the keys back in his pockets, and pulled out something else. "Take this."

It was a MetroCard for the subway. Beatrix wasn't technically allowed to ride the subway alone. But, she wasn't allowed to ditch school either, and she was doing that.

"Not so fast-" Harry pulled the Metrocard away before she could grab it. "What do I look like, Mother Teresa? If you want the card, you need to do something for me."

"I think you and I should be friends, Beatrix Castro," he said in a quiet tone, with a faint smirk. "So, in exchange for this, you need to stop being mad at me."

Beatrix frowned. "I think I'd rather just stay in the bathroom."

"Come on! What I did wasn't even that bad," he whined. "I laughed at a viral video."

"You guys laughed at a boy being bullied."

"Well staying in the bathroom isn't an option. There's like a whole search party going on in the halls right now," Harry told her, pointing towards the outside of the stall. "You stay here, and it's a one way trip to the Dean's office and Saturday detention."

Harry was probably right about that. Upstate was one of those uptight, prissy schools that wanted everything in order at all times. Losing a student on the first day was the type of thing that made staff members go crazy.

"So do we have a deal?" he asked. Then he spat on his hand for them to shake on it.

At that point, she was gonna get in trouble either way. The school was probably going into a frenzy trying to figure out where she was. Her option were as follows:

          A: Get in trouble and be obligated to sit in the same room as Sally Avril.

          B: Get in trouble and be obligated to forgive Harry.

Beatrix only thought about it for a moment before she made her conclusion before she came to her conclusion.

"We have a deal," Beatrix said. But she didn't shake his hand.

____

JUNE'S CHAPTER NOTES:

poor bea 😔🔫

Thank god for harry helping her skip. Him laughing at peter was not it though 🙄🙄🙄

ALSO:

In case you guys were wondering, I imagine Laura Dreyfuss (zoe from dear evan hansen) playing Sally (#fuckSallyAvril).  I didn't put it in the cast list because shes not as big of a character (maybe I'll add it??)

Anyways memes: