WILLOW , peter parker

02. the mundane art of adolescence.

chapter two: the mundane art of adolescence.
act one: gold rush.

"I'm so so so sorry," Lin said desperately, her face laced with regret. The two stood in the foyer of the school, cheeks slightly pink from the morning chill. Jamie's hands were stuffed in the pockets of her hoodie while Lin wore a knit beanie, the cream fabric standing out against her dark hair. "I feel awful, Jamie. Like super awful. I didn't know you were going to be alone, I thought your mom would have taken off work or Charlie might've been there—"

"Charlie was out of town." Jamie shrugged, smiling somewhat sadly at her best friend. "But it's okay. You got caught up in stuff with your dad, I understand."

Without another word, Lin tackled Jamie in a tight hug, crushing the blonde in her arms as tight she could muster. Jamie felt the air get knocked out of her chest and her laughter caught in her throat as she did her best to reassure a very distressed Lin. She mustered out a few more apologies, her eyes swimming with concern, but Jamie gently brushed them off as the two walked to Lin's locker.

"I'll make it up to you this weekend," Lin promised, struggling to open her locker door. Jamie gave the metal a harsh tug and the door flew open, leaving countless pieces of paper to flutter to the ground. Lin hastily grabbed the papers and stuffed them back into the top shelf of the locker, her cheeks growing pink.

"You need to organize your stuff," Jamie noted, clutching her notebook to her chest as she surveyed the halls. "And I should be free this weekend, not sure if I'm seeing Dad or not."

"Didn't you just come back to your mom's place a few days ago?"

Jamie grinned despite herself, nodding animatedly. "Yeah, but they're trying a week apiece now. Lin, he's actually giving a shit."

"He always cared, he's just trying harder now," Lin reminded gently. Jamie offered a nonchalant shrug in response, she felt a verbal agreement was bound to jinx things. "Oh, shit—we're gonna be late for first period."

Jamie and Lin hustled to their first-period English class—Jamie's favourite class of the day—and took their designated seats by the window, which was open by a crack to let in some of the cool spring air. Despite it being a minute away from the bell, the class was mostly empty, sans Jamie and Lin along with a few stragglers.

With the second semester in full swing and the end of the year only three months away, students were beginning to drop off at signs of warmer weather and fall prone to reveries about summer vacation. Jamie herself was vulnerable to the occasional hazy daydream, though her spring and summer of the year were already lined up for her since the beginning of the year.

The Daily Bugle took Jamie on as an intern at the beginning of March, leaving her to rush downtown every day after school for the last two weeks. She endured coffee runs and slightly sexist remarks from some of the writers, to which Jamie promptly flipped them off the second they turned their backs on her. The editor, Mr. J. Jonah Jameson, was a character, but Jamie told herself she could endure his bullshit and work her way up to a staff writer in time.

She recalled Jameson calling her into his office on Friday, the skyline view from the large windows making the city shine through the spring sky. He instructed her to show up for her shift today prepared (it was Monday, unfortunately), for she had to instruct and guide one of the new interns the Daily Bugle was taking in. Truth be told, Jamie was relieved to hear about the new (and probably unsuspecting) intern, everyone at the Bugle was too petrified to make friendly small talk with a high schooler under Jameson's reign of terror.

"Hello? Earth to Jamie?"

Lin's voice had grabbed Jamie and pushed her out of her thoughts riddled with newspapers and black ink, Jameson's frustrated face fading away at the sound of louder chatter. More students had rushed into class, some frazzled and desperate to get to their seats, the others leisurely strolling in without a care in the world. Peter Parker was one of them, holding his skateboard as he strode past Jamie, shooting her a tentative smile.