RETROGRADE

CHAPTER TWO: SEARCHING

RYAN had just dropped Edward off at school before she began to walk towards her own, it was about ten minutes away from his, and yet it still took her fifteen minutes to get there.

It was a Tuesday, one of her least favorite days, and all she could think about was the weekend competition that was to come. She would need to talk to Mr. Harrington today, and confirm that she was still allowed to go.

Because if she wasn't, that meant she'd be stuck at home with her mother if she even bothered to come home.

As she made her way across the school campus, she caught glimpses of people practicing for their sports teams and a few kids just huddled around in a circle talking, which oddly enough, was not the weirdest thing you could find at Midtown High, there was a vast selection of little nerds running about with their tails between their legs and somehow, being on an Academic team had not labeled her as such.

Thankfully.

If it meant she could avoid all the bullies that seemed to roam the halls of her high school, she would gladly keep doing what she was doing. She stalked past her locker and to her dismay, there was a couple really going at it, right against her locker.

So instead of stopping to put her books away, she carried them with her till lunch where she found that once again, she was stuck debating if she wanted to go to the science lab or to the library.

The science lab won.

What she hadn't expected was company, but still, there the boy sat with his goggles drawn over his eyes and his hands covered by gloves as he messed with something in a filing cabinet, it wasn't until she cleared her throat that he jumped and slammed the cabinet closed. Turning around to look at her, she realized it was Peter.

And he too had missed a few practices, well maybe not a few, closer to four. Meaning she had a better chance of getting to go than he did. "What're you doing?" she questioned peering over the side of the lab table, he shook his head, "nothing, I'm not doing anything." he spoke his hand firmly placed over the handle to the cabinet.

The last thing he planned to do was reveal himself to her. She frowned, "what're you hiding then? If you're not doing anything."

He pushed his lips together before he reached up and pulled his goggles from over his eyes, "I wanted to see how two chemicals would react to each other, just to see, please don't tell anyone."

Ryan frowned, while she wanted to believe him, she had a feeling that wasn't the truth, and she wanted the truth.

But she knew she wasn't going to get it, so instead of pressing further, she left the room and made her way to the library to try and process the entire situation. What was so top secret that Peter Parker would have to hide? He was a normal kid, just like the rest of them, nothing special about him.

She couldn't even try to convince herself that she wasn't curious, because she was, and she wasn't going to stop until she found some answers.

Within the next thirty minutes, the bell rang and Ryan was forced to head to her sixth period, which was Algebra two for her and then after that followed her Chemistry class, which was one of the few classes she actually enjoyed, and as she looked around, she once again realized that Peter was in her class.

They sat there, the two making eye contact every few moments before the classroom phone began to ring and the teacher swooped upon it while they continued to work on their mixtures. With a frozen look, the teacher set the phone down and looked at Ryan.

"The principal would like to speak to you in the office Ms. Graffen."

Ryan stared at the wall across from her for a moment before she pulled her goggles and gloves off and grabbed her backpack from the floor.

Upon her arrival to the ugly little place, with its overly bright fluorescent lights and terribly polished floors, she almost felt as if she was making her way down death row.

And while it was a stretched comparison, she could only wish that she was in jail instead of the office.

The principal, an average height man with a nicely ironed suit was standing inside his office, waiting for her to sit before he followed.

For a moment she genuinely thought he cared.

And then he gave her the news.

She felt herself shrinking back in the plastic chair, his words bouncing off her like rubber balls.

Even as he stood moments later and held the door open for her she felt utterly lost, nothing seemed like it had been earlier that day, nothing would ever be the same. And she knew she wouldn't survive this, she didn't have the money to feed her brother and pay for the hospital bills her mother was sure to bring in.

Her mother had experienced a stroke, one that would require her to stay at the hospital for some time. And that seemed to be the worst news she could've expected at the time.

Instead of going to class, Ryan walked to her brother's elementary and proceeded to pick him up, she wasn't planning to tell him the bad news, not yet, not until she had a way to pay the bills.

She didn't need him- a mere child- worrying about something completely out of his control. Even though she could be counted as a child at almost sixteen years old.

She was just going to take him to the park and make a few calls, once she figured out what it was she was going to do then she could tell him about their mother's hospitalization.

Halfway through her list of calls that she'd been hoping to make, a text from Liz popped up on her screen, she frowned, she wasn't all that concerned with studying at the moment and was even less concerned with whatever it was Liz was asking right now.

She let her head drop a little before running a hand through her hair and clicking on the notification, there was no reason to ignore Liz, and ignoring her simply because she was more focused on other things wasn't much of a nice excuse for one of your closest friends.

As she read through Liz's text, an idea came to mind.

Maybe her father had a spot on his crew, although she knew she wasn't legally allowed to work on the crew as a teenager, she knew that Liz's father was nothing close to a law-abiding citizen.

Short-tempered, foul-mouthed, and an awful sport when it came to losing, she knew that he was quite possibly her best hope and her only one.

She waited a few moments before calling for her brother. Edward, a small blur of black hair and green eyes, was by her side in a second and curiously peering at the girl's phone which she turned off as soon as his eyes landed on it.

"I'm going to take you over to Liz's house, alright? I want you to be on your best behavior and get along with Secarus, it's really important that you behave yourself."

Edward furrowed his brows before giving his sister a small nod, he wasn't going to question her, mainly because by the sound of it, it really was important.

They could finish packing for the trip and Edward could play with Secarus, and if Liz's father was home she could possibly talk him into letting her work on his crew, she prayed that he would.

Closing her eyes for a moment she waited a few seconds before they began the walk to Liz's house, hopefully, everything would go smoothly and she wouldn't have to worry about keeping a roof over their heads.

"What's wrong?" Edward's small voice struck her out of her daze and she cast a quick look down at him, she shook her head trying her best to offer the boy a convincing smile, "nothings wrong Eddy."

Pursing his lips, he continued to walk alongside his sister without another word, he wasn't going to keep questioning her when it was obvious she didn't want to answer.

One might consider that rude.

But he knew better.

When they reached Liz's house all was quiet until the door was opened and Liz herself came bounding down the driveway to meet her friend, she'd wrapped her arms around Ryan with a smile and cast a look down at Edward, "Secarus has been waiting all week to see you, I wasn't expecting you to come over today but he'll still be happy." she spoke, Ryan was thankful that she was so welcoming towards the boy, otherwise, she would've felt bad about bringing him over.

As they entered the house, Ryan noted that for the first time in forever, Liz's father was home. She'd met him when they were younger, and yet, she felt as if she hadn't seen him since she was ten. He was always out on business and was often working when he was in town, but somehow his relationship with his family had been left unaffected.

She wondered how he did it.

The second they entered the kitchen Liz's mother greeted her with a smile, "Secarus!" she'd called at the sight of Edward, he'd slowly stepped out of his room before seeing Edward and waved for him to follow him into his bedroom, "if you wanna go say hi to your father he's out in the garage."

Liz shrugged her shoulders, "we have to go study for the trip."

Ryan turned to look at her friend and softly shook her head, "you go start without me, I wanna say hi."

The girl offered her an odd smile as she made her way up the stairs, Ryan waited till she couldn't see her to cross the small space between the kitchen and the garage door, she braced herself for the answer she may or may not receive, she prayed it was the one she wanted.

"Mr. Toomes?" she called out, when no answer came she called out his name again, "Mr. Toomes?" a clanking came from underneath the car farthest from her in the garage and she watched as he appeared from beneath it and stood, "ahh, Ryan, long time no see." he wiped his hand on the small towel he'd had tucked in at his belt before offering his hand out to her.

"Whatcha been up to?" she shrugged her shoulders, "the regular, school, the academics team, dealing with Edward."

He nodded his head and set the rag on the hood of his wife's car, "your grades still good?"

She smiled and nodded her head, he always asked that, as if it was ever going to change.

"I actually had something to ask you." she began, the man raised a brow and picked up his water bottle to take a sip, "I'm listening."

She gulped down the nervousness that was creeping up her throat like bile, she didn't know why she was so worried, it wasn't like he was some cruel monster that would yell at her for asking.

So why did it feel like that?

"I was wondering if you had any room on your crew?"

He frowned and set his bottle down, "you want a spot on my crew?" he questioned, she could've sworn he was mocking her, but by the seriousness of his tone, she knew he wasn't.

"Yeah, I would really appreciate it, I'd be completely fine with doing all the dirty work too, the work the others don't want-"

"Ryan, look." his expression softened and she knew she was going to receive the answer she'd been terrified to hear, "you're a great kid, and I have no doubt you'd do great on my crew, but you're underage."

She nodded her head, a somber look drifting onto her face, "but," she looked up at that word, that one word, it was filled with hope.

"I can offer you a spot on something far safer than operating machines."

RETROGRADE

CHAPTER TWO: SEARCHING