Mama was pissed. I've never seen her boil over like she did last night. She called Anthony's mother maybe half a dozen times, but she never picked up the phone. Nobody came last night to check up on Anthony, but if Anthony's Dad went to the hospital, social services is only around the corner.

Anthony stayed in Dantae's room, and Dantae slept on the blow up mattress on his floor. I only know because I peeked in this morning on my way to school to see if Anthony was up. I didn't have it in me to wake him up, especially knowing that he would probably just head back rather than come with me to school.

Today on the subway, I see Peter. He stands next to me, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. I wait for him to grab the pole, but he doesn't. Anthony had told me that Peter took an earlier subway, to get to school early to work on robotics.

When I see him, I can tell why he slept in. The cut on his face is crusted over, but it's just as bright in colour as it was yesterday. His flushed cheek has become a purple bruise across his cheekbone.

"What did your aunt say?"

He smiles at me, looking down at his feet. "She... she's not happy to say the least. I'm not grounded, which is lucky. I'm just on dishes for the rest of the month."

"That's good," at least something mediocre has come from this. When I look up at him, I feel the need to repeat our conversation last night. He shouldn't have jumped in. Just like he shouldn't have run out of the cafeteria after a gunman. I never thought straight-laced Peter would be so reckless. Yet, here we are.

"How's Anthony holding up?"

I shrug. "We haven't talked yet. He's been hiding out in Dantae's room."

"I didn't know that they were friends."

They aren't. Actually, they hate each other only slightly less than Anthony hates his father. "Dantae is... he just has a way with people, you know?"

Which is true. Dantae is always the man with the plan. It makes his lapse in judgement regarding getting wasted and trying to fight Spider-man all the more problematic.

"He seems like, I don't know. Kind of a jerk?" Peter says. "Not... not to be rude to your brother or anything. He's just, you know."

Yeah, believe me, I know.

We get off the subway and head up to school. We depart inside, as Peter goes to work in the biochem lab. I, on the other hand, head straight to the principal's office to give him the note from my Mama. I didn't bother reading it, because I thought it wouldn't be very kind. You know, I'm trying to get better at giving people privacy. Even though I am failing, for the first part.

After handing the note to the secretary, I duck out of the room.

"You should never return to the scene of a crime," MJ has a straight face, as she crosses her arms across the atrium.

Shit, I never read the file. It's right here in my backpack. Even though I want to take off running to the public library, ditching school all together, I know that Mama will have my ass if she finds out. Instead, I try to focus on MJ. "You could've just told me I was buying myself a fancy camera."

"Well, buying half of it," she tells me.

From there, she nods at me to follow after her. I do. We walk past homeroom, which we share, and head over to her locker.

"You think Parker has a crush on you?" she asks me, as she twists the lock. Her locker pops open and begins to fill it with stuff.

I need to play this cool. "I mean, who wouldn't?"

"I didn't strike you as the cocky type."

Really, I'm not. "Why, do you like Peter?"

"No," she says. Liar. "He bought you an expensive camera and threw you a birthday party."

He does that kind of stuff for Ned to though. That's not the point. Peter's crush on me has subsided, I think, since he got hurt by Anthony's Dad. Now, he's realizing exactly what kind of danger that Darcy Delmar and her group bring.

The bell for homeroom rings and she walks past me to head into homeroom. All of us, including Ned, have homeroom together. Peter is already inside at his spot in the back. He looks up at me, but I can barely make him out beneath his bruises. I sit in my normal spot, leaving room for Anthony, who of course doesn't come.

Once chemistry is over, I rush to gym. We are doing track, so I run. I run as hard as I can, spinning in lap after lap. Today, we are supposed to train for the mile. I run two. Halfway into my third, I get a cramp in my leg and have to sit out until the bell rings. This is what I get for not stretching properly.

After bio, lunch finally rolls around. I bury myself in a corner in the library, pouring over the file.

Randy Robertson. He's gotten his fair share of misdemeanours for vaping, as I expected. None for drugs or anything. He got into one fight for fighting, but it seems that he received no punishment for the incident. There is some stuff in here about his grades, which are surprisingly phenomenal. The school sponsored him for an internship at a lab last summer, which might have explained how he came into contact with a radioactive spider.

At least I have some leads to go off. Before anyone can take a second glance at the file I brought, I tuck it back in my backpack and move on to the computer.

When I get to the computer, I look him up. Randy Robertson is pictured on Facebook with his Dad, Robbie Robertson. The two could be the spitting images of each other. When I look up his Dad, I discover that he is reported with The Daily Bugle. He writes a lot on crime, and on Spider-man. Maybe that explains Spider-man's passion for justice, as well as his fear that his family wouldn't accept his hobby.

Hobby seems like a weird way to put it, but I can't think of anything else.

The bell rings too soon, but I can't bear to go to class. I skip out on English, thankful that our seminar isn't today. I get a text from Peter, asking where I am, but I don't answer.

Instead, I scroll through my, very limited, list of contacts. Eventually, I pause on someone's number and hit call.

"I never thought I would be hearing from Darcy Delmar."

I roll my eyes as I push through the front door of the school. From there, I head to the subway. "Can you meet me at the docks in half an hour?"

"I can be there in two."

He hangs up on me, but I don't mind.

So, for the next two hours I dick around outside. I really needed a walk to clear my head. Armed with only the music on my phone and my brand-new kicks, courtesy of Anthony, I walk nearly the whole way there. Eventually, though, I must take the subway.

By the time I get to the docks, Manu is already there. The place reeks like weed, but he isn't smoking a joint as far as I can tell. He looks up at me, scratching his shaved head as he does.

I sit down beside him, my knee bouncing beneath me. They've painted over our graffiti on the wall behind us. No more D&D now.

"What can I do to help Anthony?"

Manu scoffs, cuffing his sleeves. I am surprised he hadn't already figured out why I had chosen him out of everyone else.

"I'm being serious," I continue. "He's my best friend, and I want to help him as best as I can."

The wind begins to pick up. One drop of rain lands on the tip of my nose. I'm lucky it is only spitting, or else I would freeze to the bone. The clouds above are only getting darker.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I don't know if it's Peter or Dantae, and I honestly don't know which one would be worse at this point.

"You gonna get that?" Many finally speaks. I was beginning to worry they cut out his vocal cords in juvie. He looks pale right now.

"No," I respond.

"You know, you could've talked to Sergio about it," Manu shrugs his shoulders. "He would've loved to hear from you."

"It's not the same, and you know it," I tell him, because we both know it isn't the same. It's unspeakable. It's unthinkable, but I know that we both think it.

Manu stands up. I follow his movement. Manu shoves his hands deep in his pockets. He takes a step closer to me until he is whispering in my ear. "You help him by leaving him with your brother and the rest of us. Don't ask him questions, don't bake him sweets or any of that girly shit. You wait for him to come to you."

Manu brushes past me, and once again, I am left alone with my thoughts.

School is over now; it has been for half an hour.

I pulled out my phone, and read my missed text from my brother.

I won't tell Mama, but she's got news. Come home ASAP.