❛ Spider-Man is lame ❜

The sky itself was a fading darkness, hardly any light peeking through the clouds. At only a time of seven in the morning, Andy had sat next to Pappy and enjoyed a bright conversation with the old fellow, all the while sipping her coffee and pondering over the recent events of her work. "Look at that boy! Look at em'!" Pappy called while motioning to a teenager strolling down the sidewalk with his earbuds in. Andy looked his direction and the boy continued onward, making his way to the train station for his day of school. "That's Benjamin Parker's nephew. Peter. Peter Parker. He's cute, isn't he?"

Andy's head jerked up and she turned to face Pappy in a quick rush, her eyebrows narrowing in and a protest leaving her lips. "Pappy! No!" she cried out. The homeless man let a laugh escape his lips and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Oh relax, Andy. You're out of his league," he replied easily. "He's a nice boy, though," he finished, leaning his head against the brick wall. Andy sighed and looked around the streets, watching the frantic New Yorker's scramble around and rush across cross-walks in attempt to begin their busy day on time. "When you do find a boy, promise me you'll introduce me to him. I want to make sure he's good enough for you," Pappy directed, a firm tone in his voice. Andy smiled a bit and nodded, responding with an 'I promise.'

"Can I ask you something, Pappy Joe?" she blurted out. The man smiled and nodded, motioning for her to speak. "Don't you get scared at night? Of all these people, all these threats?"

Pappy shrugged and pursed his lips, "Look at it this way: 'Fear is only letting your opponent win,'" he explained. "If you are afraid of someone, something, then you lose. They build off of your fear. Your fear isn't helping you, but the other person."

"So, what are you afraid of?" she asked.

Pappy chuckled and looked into the alley behind him, then turning back around. "Can I tell you a secret?" he whispered, a slight smile appearing on his face when Andy nodded. "I have a protector," he admitted, then pulling a poker face when Andy raised an eyebrow. The old man loved to joke around, and seeing that he really was not kidding, she leaned forward and became intrigued. "Who?"

Pappy rolled his eyes and motioned his hand forwards as if she would know before replying, "Well, besides you, that red guy! The one who goes woosh and thwip! He talks to me for hours and I always seem him hanging around this corner," Pappy told her while taking a large bite of the red apple he had in his hands. Andy pursed her lips and leaned against the wall in thought, "You know, Pappy? That's good, that's real good. I'm happy he's watching over you."

The man smiled a toothy grin and silently ate his breakfast while scanning his eyes over the people running late for work. Meanwhile, Andy began to run thoughts into her mind, thinking about the new spider-ling that had partaken his own skills into that of Queens, New York. Her brain skipped ahead to Pappy and his appreciation for the red-spider superhero. And lastly, she pondered on the thought that she - as Piracy- could make a difference behind the scenes. It's not as if she had homework or anything.

···

"The state wants more current event related projects for you all to invest your time in," the teacher announced, her voice draining on due to her class being the last of the day during eighth period. "I've had the pleasure of picking your topics for you last night, you know, instead of watching Grey's Anatomy with my husband..." she then muttered while flipping through her clipboard of students. Several students snickered to one another while others muttered annoyed whispers under the breath, just hoping to start the assignment.

Andy was doing neither, instead, she was typing away on her laptop, clicking on several files of her classmates and marking notes of said kids into her journal -now of which was filled heavily with one thousand names and dozens of notes in the margins. Luckily, Andy sat in the back of the classroom so hiding her work was no issue. Even more so because the teacher did not care about her civics class and tried harder to teach her AP World History course.

Andy didn't pay attention to the groups as the teacher called from Betty Brant to Sally Avril. She only perked awake and looked over the edge of her computer when she heard her name in the same sentence as Peter Parker.

On the inside, Andy let out a large groan after being announced that she was paired with the class smartass who was also the one person who saw her before she ever attended Midtown. Some feeling inside of her made her just think that he could be the one person to find out her secrets. And the other feeling inside of her was just annoyed that she was partnered with someone she already said wasn't a suspect.

"Sally, your group gets global warming. You have fun with that one," the teacher snorted. "Uh, Dubois and Parker..." she mumbled, scrolling her eyes down the list of assignments. "Ah! Here we go! You two get Spider-Man!" she told the two. Peter immediately tensed and Andy let her head drop onto the desk with a loud thud. 'Great,' she thought, 'I get stuck with Peter Parker and Spider-Man.'

"Now, just to clarify, you aren't trying to find out who Man-Spider is. You're only gathering information to see if he's helping this city and if so how, or vice-versa and you get the shit," the teacher shrugged, tossing her clipboard onto her desk and sitting down to check the attendance. Peter felt some sort of relief at her extra addition of information but Andy just closed her laptop so he wouldn's see what was on it as he dragged his desk next to his.

"So, Spider-Man," he said with a certain uneasiness in his voice. He looked down at his fingers as he played with his thumbs and Melisande bit the inside of her cheek. "I like to call him the red-spider-superhero. Spider-Man is lame," she replied, a grin playing on her lips. Peter's eyes widened, a look of shock spreading across his cheeks.

A scoff left his lips and he shook his head, "Lame? Spider-Man is not lame! Come on! Spider-red-superhero? Now that's lame," he retorted, a smug look on his face. "Yeah, okay. I have friends with cooler names," she snapped. Then she leaned in closer and made sure no one was looking before whispering to Peter, "And I don't have any friends."

Peter laughed, not letting the joke interrupt his thoughts and bring his mood down. He had known Andy for a short while now and was used to her darker and more mature sense of humor. He actually preferred it over other humor that was generated throughout the school because it made her unique and different.It made her Andy.

"Are you ready for your first deca practice?" Peter wondered while looking over Andy's shoulder to see her scribbling down the assignment notes on her paper. "I guess," she shrugged. "Haven't you guys already had your major competition of the year?"

"Yeah, we went to Harrisburg. But we do local tournaments, and I think we're going on another one to Boston in a month or so," he responded, leaning over to shrug a crumpled piece of paper from in between two notebooks. He finally heaved it out and smoothed his hand over it before passing it to the brunette beside him. "That's our practice schedule," he told her, watching as she snapped a picture of the sheet on her phone. "Thanks," she mumbled, handing the paper back while watching as Peter wrote the assignment on the board onto his scrap piece of notebook paper. 

•••

"Great practice today, guys! Hey, don't forget, party at my house on Friday!" Liz called as the students began to shove their notes and binders into their bags once the practice had drifted to a close. Andy looked down at her phone at the feel of a vibration and noticed that Steve had texted her about her progress and if she planned on retiring into the city that night for an investigation. She rolled her eyes and began to text him back a snippy response with no indication that one girl was approaching her from behind. 

"Andy! Hi!" a voice squealed, causing the brunette the throw her phone in the air and watch fearfully as it dropped to its ultimate doom. Thankfully, someone used his reflexes to snatch the phone just before it shattered and stood straight, motioning it to Andy. "That could have been bad," he chuckled, handing her the phone. "Thanks, Peter," she smiled, taking the phone and sliding it into her back pocket. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" Peter asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, uh, yes! Yeah, I'll be here. Oh, great job on the Napoleonic Wars, by the way. Honestly, the French Empire is truly a hard conquest," she admired, a small laugh escaping her lips. She knew that in order to make people believe she was Andy Dubois - a devoted student and peer - she needed to act the part. On the inside, she couldn't care less about Napoleon or the French Empire, but Andy did. Melisande wanted to punch the majority of these good-for-nothing rich preparatory kids in the face until their parents needed to pay for more braces for their perfectly annoying teeth. But Andy wanted to compliment their teeth with no regrets or hesitation. It was tiring playing two completely different people.

"Oh, really? You mean it?" Peter sheepishly asked, scratching the back of his neck and shifting on his feet. Andy nodded and glanced over at the girl - Maya Clemmons - who was standing and chatting with Liz Toomes behind her. "Well, of gee, thanks! I mean, it was nothing special. It really didn't compare to your knowledge on the French Revolution, though. I was astonished at how much you knew. That's usually the one Revolution no one can get through, you know? Hey, maybe you'll be first chair for it!"

"Oh, I have a French background. Hence, Dubois, my last name. I don't know, it always seemed to interest me," Andy shrugged, shifting her biology textbook in her arms. "Hey, that's interesting! I think I have an Irish background, but you know, Parker can go a lot of ways," he told me while scrunching his eyebrows in and nodding his head slowly. It was then I noticed that despite his uncle dying not long ago, Peter was okay. He was better than that. He was telling jokes and making references. Peter Parker was truly going to be okay, and that meant Pappy didn't need to worry about him so immensely. I smiled at the boy and watched as he looked down at his phone after a small ding, "Oh, uh, I have to go. Aunt May wants me to pick up some blueberries. I think she's going to try cooking again so I better get home before a fire erupts inside," he announced, holding up his phone to me so I could read a message from his aunt. I pursed my lips and nodded, "It was nice talking to you, Peter," I told him.

Taking a step backward, Peter gave me a light beam, "Yeah, it was nice talking to you, too. Oh, by the way, I just got that reference of the conquest and the French Empire," he reminded before offering a slight wave and walking through the doors. Just as Andy was about to gather her backpack from the ground, Liz and Maya found the perfect opportunity to bombard her. "Andy, my favorite freshman!" Maya cheered, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder and jumping around to face her. Maya's friend - Liz Toomes - appeared to Maya's left and smiled a large toothy grin, holding out her hand to the girl. "I'm Liz, it's so good to finally meet you!" 

"Uh, yeah, I'm Andy. It's great to meet you, too," the brunette replied, firmly shaking her hand. "So," Liz trailed off, turning to her friend. "Party," Maya piped up as a living reminder for the taller girl. "Party! That's right! Friday night at eight I'm having a party, it's kind of an annual thing. But it would be great if you could make it."

"I'll see what I'm doing. I might be busy --" Andy said in response. She cut herself off after having a second thought on how to finish the sentence and cleared her throat instead, "I'm not busy. I will be there," she said quickly before Melisande could change her mind. "Great!" Maya smiled, turning to Liz with a smile on her face. "Better than great!" Liz agreed.

"Hey, Liz, can I see you for a minute?" one of the other members of the team asked from across the auditorium. "Yeah, coming!" 

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," Liz acknowledged. "See ya, Andy!" Maya added, hopping along with Liz. Andy took a deep breath out closed her eyes. She knew that at that moment, she was not getting out of this party, or this new friendship. 

•••

The progress I've made hasn't been much. I've clarified with complete certainty that individuals Edward Leeds [Ned] and Peter Parker are not suspects in any form in this mission. As I've only been working for a short time, I can't lean towards any bias based opinion or educated guesses of any individual in the school due to the excessive amount of beings occupying the space.

My algorithm has yet to work, but when completed, a filter will run through the school program and effortless results will provide me with a shortened list of names of student's parents with incomes that do not correlate to that of which their career entails. 

My future goals for this mission are as followed and set in metaphorical stone. I will be ready for any task given at hand in any way the situation is to present itself. I will discover the hidden identity of my classmate and any affiliations they harness in their background. I will be able to stop any measures of crime this corporation commences with no hesitation.

Moving from the progress of said mission granted to be my the Avengers, progress has not been made in the discovery of what happened to my parents. The only rumor I hold close to my heart is their death in a fire even though I know that not the be true. Steve Rogers has been helping me in any way possible and is close to unlocking a small discovery of their past jobs and how that could possibly correlate to their deaths. Meanwhile, Natasha Romanoff is using her various resources at S.H.I.E.L.D. and should be close to a discovery as well.

Monday, October 17, 2016
- Melisande Dubois