Nora came back to school in the second week in November, and she was already regretting it.

She came back on a Tuesday, a day she never liked, to start the day with Spanish and a very irritated Ms. Suarez. If Nora wasn't so off that day, she would've just accepted it, but with one slightly snappy reply, she had to be curtly reminded that if she heard anything like that again her backside would find itself in detention. The young teen just glared at the back of the teachers head, trying to ignore the stares her class was giving her.

The day went by quite quickly, quick enough that when lunch came around Nora was slightly confused on how the day went by so fast. After getting her food, her eyes scanned for a place to sit. Cindy still hadn't come back to school, so she realised that she was going to have to sit on her own, something she hadn't done since the start of middle school. Nora found an empty table at the back of the cafeteria, setting her stuff down and pulling out her phone. She hated being one of those people who was glued to their phone throughout lunch, but her friend had disappeared into thin air and she was getting a little sick of the stares she was collecting.

As she was scrolling through her Instagram feed, Nora heard the gentle chatter of people she recognised coming her way. Through the corner of her eye, she noticed Peter and Ned walking her way, not having noticed her yet. It was only when Peter held out an arm, blocking Ned's path did they catch a glimpse of her. Ned whispered something to his friend, who balked at him, shaking his head furiously. With wide eyes, he was pushed forward by Ned. Nora put her phone down, smiling at the two as they approached. "Hey, guys."

Peter sat in front of her, smiling as well, nerves seemingly dissipated. "Hey, Nora."

"Peter said you were sick." Ned said, setting his stuff down.

She shot him a playful look that he shrugged at. "Yeah, I was. Must've caught what Peter had." Peter feigned an insulted look as he chomped down on his apple. "Which reminds me," she dived back into her bag again, pulling out the red binder that Peter had given her two days previous. Ned smirked at Peter once the binder was on the table. "Thanks for the notes, sorry Ms. Suarez made you do that."

"Made me do what?"

"Take down the notes twice, that must've been a pain."

Ned took a look at the binder. "And that's your binder, isn't it?" he glanced at his best friend who looked like he was sweating bullets. He laughed nervously.

"Well, i-it was raining you know, I didn't want you to get soggy p-paper." Ned raised an eyebrow as he opened his milk, scoffing to himself quietly. This boy was the king of terrible excuses.

Even after that excuse, Ned noticed the slight tinge in Nora's cheeks. "Now I feel terrible for taking your binder."

And the blush creeping up Peter's neck. "Well, I gave it to you, you didn't take it."

Ned looked back at Nora who still didn't seem to catch what Peter was throwing. He felt bad for Peter, first Liz and now Nora? He really did pick girls who were as oblivious about his feelings as one could get. Nora pushed the binder towards Peter. "Thank you, seriously. You're a life saver."

Peter just nodded, it seemed he had caught on too.

Nora phone vibrated on the table, a YouTube notification showing up. She groaned. "I swear, these youtubers are really trying it with these titles."

"What do you mean?" Ned asked.

"Listen to this." She picked up the phone. "Spider-Man, could he be real?" She gave them a incredulous look. "I've got like, five notifications on this Spider-Man guy, who the hell is he?"

Ned's eyes widened at her, seemingly insulted. "You don't know who the Spider-Man is?" Nora shook her head, slightly less adamant on her stance now. "Oh my god, where have you been?"

Peter chuckled at Ned who was pulling out his phone and typing furiously. "He's kind of obsessed." he told her.

"I noticed."

"Okay, here, watch this." Ned handed her the phone. Nora rolled her eyes, but figured she should watch the video just to humour the boy. She pressed play on the video, watching as someone in a red and blue hoodie and leggings combo swing through the New York skyline. She frowned when he flew down, stopping a speeding car collide with a bus. Then the video ended. "Well?" Ned asked expectantly.

Peter covered his face slightly as he tried to figure out what she thought about it. "That's pretty impressive." he tried to be quiet, but couldn't help the sigh of relief when she said that. "Is he a new Avenger or something?"

Ned blinked at her, Peter chuckled again. "I think you broke him."

"No, he's not an Avenger. He's the coolest vigilante ever!"

Nora nodded, shrugging slightly. "I guess he's kind of cool." she laughed as Ned looked like he was about to burst.

Peter smiled furtively, taking another bite of his apple to hide his ego being boosted.

Their conversation was cut short by Flash Thompson coming up behind them. All their smiles dropped when his tray came down with a clatter. "What's with the shouting, guys?"

"Nothing that concerns you, Flash." Nora said through a sickly sweet smile.

Flash bristled at her curt reply. Peter and Ned exchanged a look at that. They remembered what had happened between the two of them. Nora had brought her dolls into the first day of first grade and Flash had made a mean comment about them. Two hours later, Flash was running up to the teacher claiming Nora had glued his backpack shut. Ever since, they hadn't exactly been great fans of each other since. Ned tried to hide his smirk as Nora just kept smiling at him. "I knew this was a terrible idea." he called, spinning back to see another girl walking toward them. Both Peter and Ned went an embarrassing shade of crimson as the one and only Liz Allan walked towards them.

"What's going on?" Nora leaned forward to whisper to the two boys. "Why is Liz Allan coming over here?"

Flash glared at her like she was the most stupid thing he had ever come across. "We're all in the academic decathlon."

Nora snapped. "Was I talking to you?" Peter practically choked on his milk in both surprise and delight at Flash shying away from her.

Of course, he looked like a complete idiot when Liz came up to them. "Hey, guys." she greeted.

Ned waved, Peter smiled while searching for a napkin or something. Nora giggled as she handed one to him. "Hi." he said quietly, his face even redder than it was. "What's up?"

Liz dug into her bag for a second. "I'm actually not here for you two, sorry."

Flash frowned. "Then why did you make me come over here?"

"Because people said you're scared of Nora and I wanted to see if that was true."

Nora gazed at Flash who now was going red also. "I'm not scared of her!" he muttered.

Liz scoffed. "Okay." ending that conversation, she turned to Nora. "You're one of Cindy's friends, right?"

Nora nodded, not really feeling like she wanted to say she used to be. "Yeah, I am."

"Great, do you mind telling her that there's a meeting tomorrow for the decathlon. If she can't make it that's fine, it's just I can't seem to get through to her."

"Will do."

"Thanks so much, I gotta go guys, but I'll see you tomorrow at four?"

"Definitely." Peter squeaked after wiping the milk from his face, Liz jumped a little at the volume of his voice before smiling awkwardly and walking away.

Flash laughed, a belly laugh that made Peter want to melt into the floor. "Nice one, Parker! Have you been practicing that one—"

"Bye, Eugene!" Nora said over him, making his mouth shut. He gave her a look before picking up his tray and stalking off. Ned watched Flash leave with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Please stay forever." he said.

Nora just rolled her eyes with a smirk.

-

At the end of the day, it occurred to her why people had been staring at her.

It was when she entered the bathroom to see two or three seniors snickering at her that she knew something definitely wasn't right with her. Subconsciously, she had looked down at her hands, just to make sure they weren't shifting to their ebony shade. When that wasn't the case, Nora waited in a stall until they were gone to see what they were laughing at. The large mirror on the wall hid nothing, so she was able to distinctly see the large burns on the sides of her neck. Nora leaned against the sink, eyes closed as she let out a sigh. That shock collar must've burnt her skin worse than she thought. This was going to take longer to heal, considering she couldn't feel it anymore, but could see it. Pain was always the first thing to go, then the scar. She ran a cold hand over the burn, it was odd that Peter and Ned didn't call attention to it. She had noticed Flash giving her an odd look or two, but Flash always did that. Nora groaned before picking up her bag and running for the door, walking out of the school and not looking back.

Music blasted from her earphones as she tried to drown out the busy New York streets around her. Still, it was hard to block out the construction guys screaming at each other or the cars honking at her when she crossed the roads. She just wanted to go home, crawl into her bed and forget the world existed. It didn't make sense to her, she was fine today, at lunch it was like she was back to her normal self, but after seeing these burns it was like she had shrivelled up inside.

Maybe it was a bad idea to walk home, but she had to go to call for Cindy. The loss of contact was getting ridiculous. If Nora hadn't been at Oscorp, she would've called sooner than she was now. She arrived at the girls apartment building, smiling at the doorman as she walked up to reception. "Apartment 4C, please."

The doorman nodded, allowing her access to the elevator. Nora took out her earphones, resting them on her t-shirt as the elevator dinged, signalling her desired floor. Coming upon Cindy's apartment, she knocked on the door. Nora expected to see Cindy's mother or father open the door, but instead, someone she had no recollection of answered. "Hello," they said. It was a small, stout woman with greying black hair. Nora frowned heavily.

"Hi, is this apartment 4C?" she tried to peer inside, even more confused at the different decor in the interior of the apartment. The woman nodded. "I'm looking for Cindy Moon?"

"Who?"

"Cindy Moon? Her mother's name is Nari, father and brother are Albert. The Moons?"

"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong apartment."

Nora blinked, unable to comprehend what was going on in front of her. "No, I don't. This girl's been living here since before I can remember. She's my best friend."

"Well, sweetie, maybe she moved."

"But she would have told me—"

"Well, obviously she didn't, so please leave."

Nora sighed helplessly, shaking her head as she struggled to get this through her head. Cindy moving, without telling her. This was not true. "Did they leave forwarding address?" but her question fell on deaf ears as the woman shut the door on her, the force of it blowing her hair back a bit. For far too long, Nora stood there, blinking at the numbers on the door. This didn't seem real, part of her expected that if she knocked again, Nari would open the door with Albert jr. stuck to her hip, looking slightly frazzled. This didn't seem to be the case however, it was like the Moons never existed. How was she going to explain this to Liz? She would sound like the biggest weirdo. She pulled out her phone as she made her way to the elevator, scrolling through her contacts for Cindy's number.

To: Cin

Cindy, where are you?

No reply, Nora's heart rate began to increase.

To: Cin

Please call me, who is the woman in your apartment?

Again, nothing, Nora was now officially worried.

To: Cin

Answer me!!

Then, someone did, and it made Nora nearly drop her phone.

From: Cin

Never call or text this number if you know what's good for you

That message made her suck in a breath, her heart pounding. Who had she been texting these past few weeks? Where was Cindy? Was she hurt? Her head began to hurt as she felt her hands tingle. She needed to go home now. So, when she exited the elevator, she didn't even look at the doorman as she bolted through the streets to the subway.

When she did get home, Rafe, her dad and Aliya were in the living room, Rafe talking animatedly about something. "I'm telling you, dad, he could really help you guys. I mean, you saw him stop that car—"

"Rafe, he's a nuisance. This kid can't take the law into his own hands."

Nora let her bag down, sitting down next to Aliya. "Spider-Man?" she asked breathlessly.

"Uh huh, Rafe's in love." she turned to look at her younger sister heaving frame. "What's up with you?"

"Missed the subway." she lied almost expertly, something that was not her strong suit.

Rafe continued on. "But he's helping, you've never been opposed to civilians helping the NYPD!" he pointed to Nora who just raised a brow.

"That's different. This is like—"

Nora tuned out, knowing this conversation was going to go on for the rest of the night. Aliya leaned toward her. "God, imagine if this was you."

The youngest Mendes was hit by that a lot more than any of them would ever think. As Aliya got up to go to her room, Nora thought about those words. Aliya had always told her she could be a brilliant paramedic when she was older, considering her instinct for helping people. Later that night, as Nora looked over the text they had been sent to her, she felt this overwhelming urge to drop everything and look for her friend. Maybe if she was in the right mind, she would've buried that idea deep in her subconscious, but her mind was muddled from the trauma of losing her friend and everything that had happened the week before.

Don't worry, Nora thought, I'll come find you Cindy.

-

not edited

A/N: Hmmm, I wonder what Nora is doing??? Maybe thinking about becoming a vigilante?? Who knows???

I kind of want the start of Nora becoming Mercy being wrong if that makes sense, like she's doing it for all the wrong reasons but after.....events.....she will become the Mercy that hangs out with Spidey.

Next chapter, it's time for someone to die, and I think we all know who that is....

Comment, vote & follow! - Emma