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03. THREE : how to cope
New York city streets were not a safe place. Ella had almost gotten hit five different times by taxi cabs and she hadn't even been two blocks away from The New York News building. Ella was still in shock from her encounter with the Linda Kar. She thought it'd be a normal internship but no it was exactly the opposite. Linda had sent her out on a mission to write about the masked vigilante, Spider-Man, and Ella had barely been in the office for five minutes. The frustration from the whole situation seeped off of her in waves that when the next taxi cab almost hit her she gave him a few colorful words.
The whole thing was just rushed.
Ella had no clue what to write about the masked vigilante. She didn't know anything about hi other than the few recorded pictures she's seen of him. The vigilante was just something - someone she needed to write about and she had no clue as to what he actually did. Sure, he swung around on some sort of web that's supposed to be for spiders, and he stopped criminals. But the real question was why. Why did he want to become a vigilante? What's his purpose? Is he really helping New York?
Questions flooded through Ella's mind leaving her in a haze as her pen scratched lightly against her little notepad. The world was a blur around her, the dangers of the city immediately fleeting from her mind as she thought.
At the top of her notepad, there was a little quote that her father would always tell her about being a reporter. It helped Ella focus on the important things to follow in his footsteps. In her neat scrawl the words, What makes a great journalist is a person's ingenuity and you, Ella, you were destined for greatness. were written. Ella smiled a bit as her thumb brushed the messy scrawl that was her father's handwriting.
Ella glanced up, tearing her eyes away from the notebook. She had been walking blindly that she hadn't realized the sun was starting to set, causing shadows to linger and the air to become cooler. She hadn't realized how lost she was until that very moment. The streets made absolutely no sense to her, they made her feel absolutely helpless.
Sighing, she pulled out her phone and turned on the gps. A groan escaped her lips when she realized that she passed the turn she was supposed to take to her house about a mile back. Ella tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her feet because heels were a bitch to wear all day. Seriously, why did she wear heels?
It probably wasn't very safe for her to be out alone, looking very confused. It's like asking to be mugged or something. New York City was the place of endless possibilities, it was basically a place of guessing games. You never really know where you're going to go next. Ella stopped and glared up at the street sign, trying to figure out which way to go.
Her phone's ringtone blaring snapped her out of whatever stupor she was in, causing Ella to fumble with it until it fell out of her hands. The phone landed face first on the concrete, causing Ella to gasp. The scale was tipping from bad, to good, to bad, to good, and then even worse.
She picked up the phone seeing that only the corner of it was cracked. A sigh of relief left her lips as she pressed the 'accept call' button.
"Hey mom," Ella tried to sound as calm as possible.
"Ella, where are you? You were supposed to be home by now!" Ella winced at the shrill tone her mother held.
She sighed, "sorry, mom. I got caught up but don't worry I'm on my way now."
"You better be, young lady. Dinner's in a hour, I expect you to be back by then." Before she had a chance to reply, her mother ended the call leaving Ella slightly shocked.
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Somehow, Ella had managed to make her way only a few streets from her house in record time. She was so dead set on getting home, she didn't even bother to pay attention to the people around her. Until one guy named Peter Parker bumped into her for the second time that day.
She let out a groan as fell before being caught by an arm wrapping itself around her waist. She let out a little breath she didn't know that she held in and opened her eyes a crack, "we have got to stop meeting like this, Parker."
"I don't know, Ella. I think someone's trying to get us together, that or they want to see me hurt you." A hand gripped hers and she was pulled back to her feet.
"Parker, nice to see your comments are always flattering," she replied dryly.
His head snapped up from inspecting her phone that was still tightly clutched in her hand, "You love it, Carson," he smiled cheekily before turning back to her phone, "you do this today?"
"Yeah," she sighed, "just my luck, right?"
He smiled at her, "it could've been worse."
"True. So, Mr. Parker, where are you off to in such a rush?" She noted the way his body fidgeted under her gaze, the way he gripped his backpack a little tighter, and his eyes fleeting around the area.
"Oh, um," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm going over to Gwen's. She lives a few streets down."
Ella cocked a brow, "are you guys dating?" Honestly it wouldn't be a surprise to Ella if they were.
"No, no. Just friends, promise." He rushed out, fumbling over the word friends.
"Alright, I better get home. My mom's worried because I got a little lost earlier. But I'll see you at school tomorrow, Parker." Ella gave him a little wave and brushed past him, knocking their shoulders together.
"Ella! I did promise to catch you the next time you fell, didn't I? Do I at least get credit for catching you tonight?"
She stopped and pretended to think, "We'll see, Parker. And just because you caught me, doesn't mean you're forgiven."
"Ella," he whined. She let out a little giggle, eyes still trained straight ahead.
"Bye, Parker." Her mood had gotten a little better as soon as she saw Peter, not that she'd ever tell him that.
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The food on her plate looked like some kind of mush they'd feed you in prison. Not that she'd know what the food is like in prison but yeah, it was bad. Ella rested her head on the table as she sullenly pushed bit of food around on her plate. She was tired, cranky, and her feet hurt like hell. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep.
"Ella, honey, you okay? I thought today was supposed to be a great day, you started your internship!" Her mother looked over with worried eyes and a hesitant smile plastered on her face.
"It was. It was amazing, and I even got a subject to write an article about," she mumbled, the mashed potatoes on her plate seemed more interesting than that conversation, "then I got lost, cracked my phone, and almost got knocked over for the second time today."
"Oh that's great." Her mother ignored the last comments about her semi-shitty say, "What is it?"
"Spider-Man." Ella twirled her fork, her eyes never leaving the metal prongs.
"Hey, honey," she swept Ella's hair out of her face, causing Ella to look up at her, "that's amazing. It'll be a great topic."
"Yeah, I hope it is," she mumbled, "I really hope it is."
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Note: I really dislike this story sorry y'all. :) love u guys tho
