There were a few days left until the new school year started. Hailey and Chase were the last two in their family to graduate high school. Chase would have graduated high school if he did not Blip.
The summer took a turn that Hailey did not expect. Peter's secret was revealed as because she is his girlfriend, any sense of normalcy is now gone. She is known as Spider-Man's girlfriend.
Chase knocked on Hailey's bedroom door and entered.
Hailey was sitting at her desk, her laptop open. She had been working on her college application.
"Hey, Peter texted me," Chase informed her.
"What did he say?" Hailey asked, looking at her brother.
"He said that he's at that hide out," Chase said. "The one he and the Spark use."
"Oh," Hailey said, closing her laptop. "Let's go."
"He said Hannah will be there," Chase said.
"Hannah?" Hailey said. "Hannah Quill? Isn't she one of your friends?"
"Yeah," Chase confirmed. "I wonder why she would be there."
"Yeah, me too," Hailey nodded. "Let's go. We'll find out when we get there."
Chase nodded in agreement.
The two left the house and headed to the hide out.
Before Thanos happened, Peter had a hide out he would go to with Hannah Quill. Unlike half of the class, Hannah did not turn to dust when Thanos collected all six Infinity Stones and snapped his fingers, causing half of Earth's population to turn to dust.
"Do you know who else will be there?" Hailey asked her brother.
"Peter said Anthony will be there," Chase said.
"Anthony? Who's Anthony?" Hailey asked.
"Anthony Williams," Chase said. "All I know is that he's a friend of Peter and Hannah. He's a year older than me - I mean us. He's a year older than us."
Despite it being months since everyone who turned to dust came back, Chase sometimes slips up about their ages. They went from being five years apart in age to only a few months.
"Anthony blipped?" Hailey asked.
Chase nodded.
They got to the hide out and entered.
"Peter?" Chase called. "It's us."
"Oh, great!" Peter said, jumping down from the ceiling.
"Hey," Hailey smiled.
She opened her arms and hugged Peter, who had smiled at the sight of Hailey.
Hailey kissed Peter on the cheek.
"So this is the hide out?" Chase said, turning around in his spot.
"Yeah," Peter said as Hailey let him go.
"You said Hannah and Anthony are going to be here?" Chase said.
"Yeah, I'm right here," a familiar voice said.
They turned around to another door in the hide out that lead to a bathroom.
It was Hannah Quill.
She looked a lot older than the last time Hailey saw her. Older, but added.
"Hey," Chase said, smiling.
He rushed to hug her.
"Long time to see," Chase said.
"Yeah," she laughed. "It's been a while."
Chase let her go.
"Wow, is that Hailey?" Hannah said, surprised.
"Yeah," Hailey said, nervously.
"You grew up," Hannah said.
"Yeah, well," Hailey shrugged, "it's been five years since you last saw me."
"Wait, hold on, now you two are the same age?" Hannah asked both Hailey and Chase.
"Yeah," Hailey said.
"Uh - huh," Chase nodded. "Only, we're still a few months about. I'm still older."
Hailey nodded.
"Where's Anthony?" Chase said, changing the subject.
"He said he's coming," Hannah said.
"Is anyone else coming?" Hailey asked, looking at Peter, Chase and Hannah.
"Ned is coming," Peter said. "So is MJ."
Once Ned and Anthony Williams were here, that's when they got started. Hailey and Anthony introduced introduced themselves to each other.
"Alright, is there anything we can do?" Hannah asked.
"What are you going to do?" Chase asked Hannah.
"You'll see," Hannah said.
Both Chase and Hailey looked at her confused.
"Hey, there's a guy robbing that bakery," Anthony pointed to a square at one monitor.
"Hey, that's the bakery I work at," Hailey said.
"On it," Hannah said.
She put on a familiar mask over her face as she walked to an outlet in the corner.
"Isn't that Spark's mask?" Hailey asked.
"Yeah," Hannah said.
"Wait, you're the Spark?" Chase demanded. "You're the superhero with electric powers? The one Peter has been working with all this time?"
Hannah smirked and disappeared.
Chase's jaw dropped open.
The Spark is a superhero in New York City. A hero with powers of not only electricity but also lightning like speech. She wore a costume of silver and black and the lightning bolt in the front. She can disappear and reappear using anything that uses electricity.
Since the Blip and everyone finding out who helped, the Spark became a famous superhero. Unlike Peter, no one knows who's behind the Spark's identity. She still had the privilege of living a double life, the life that Peter lost when Mysterio revealed his identity.
This entire time it has been Hannah Quill, someone who from Hailey remembered of her to be someone who was more quiet and reserved whenever she and Chase hung out.
"There she is," Anthony said.
Peter and Anthony turned their attention back to the monitor screens.
"What?" Chase said.
"She's there already?" Hailey said, surprised.
They turned their attention to the monitor again.
There she was, fighting the criminals robbing the bakery.
They saw police sirens going off and Hannah disappeared.
"Alright," Hannah said.
They all jumped in surprise.
"Oh, my God," Hailey said.
"I'll never get used to that," Peter said.
"There's another group of bad guys near Central Park," Anthony said, "on the road between that fancy hotel and the park."
"Alright," Peter said, putting his Spider - Man mask on and walked to the outlet, where Hannah was standing.
She hadn't moved.
They disappeared within seconds. They all looked at the monitor again to see as soon as Hannah and Peter disappeared, they appeared. They had to walk out of the hotel across the street from Central Park to fight the criminals out there.
"How long have you guys known Hannah was the Spark?" Chase asked Anthony and Ned.
"Early on," Anthony said. "Peter and Ned found out later on."
"Who else knows?"
"Hannah's uncle Luke," Anthony responded.
Anthony zoomed into the square that Hannah and Peter were in and trying to find weaknesses in the criminals. With the tech Anthony had access to, he was able to find some weaknesses in the criminals and ways Hannah and Anthony could fuse to their advantage
He pressed something inside his ear.
"Hannah, Peter, how about..." Anthony began to tell them ways they could find the criminals.
"What's that?" Hailey asked.
"Communication device," Anthony said, not taking his eyes away from the screen. "I created tiny ear pieces so Hannah, Peter and I can communicate with each other when they're fighting."
"You created those devices?" Hailey said, impressed.
Anthony looked at her and smiled. "Yeah, I did."
"Impressive."
"Can you make us some?" Chase asked, optimistically.
"I -" Anthony started, "hold on, Chase. Hannah, Peter, go to..."
Anthony turned his attention his monitors and told Hannah and Peter where to go next.
***
It was the night before the first day of school and Hailey laid on her bed, too anxious to go to sleep.
Instead of sleeping, Hailey was on a video call with Peter, who was now staying at Happy Hogan's apartment.
After talking to a lawyer, Matt Murdock, May and Peter both agreed to stay somewhere else until it is safe for them to stay in their own apartment. Happy offered his apartment for them to stay at until they feel safe enough to move out.
"Did you send in your applications yet?" Peter asked.
"I literally just finished my MIT one," Peter smiled.
He was laying on the couch in the living room.
"You?"
"Same," Hailey said.
"What about Chase?" Peter asked.
"Yeah," Hailey said.
"Imagine if the three of us got in," Peter smiled.
"And Ned?"
"Yeah, but... we have to take scholarships so we can actually go," Hailey pointed out.
"Oh, come on," Hailey said. "You got good scores and good grades, and..." Peter said.
"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I'll get in," Hailey said.
"You will," Peter said. "I know you will."
"I doubt it," Hailey said.
Hailey looked away from the phone and at the framed picture she had of her and Peter. Chase took a picture of them during the Europe trip, before everyone found out about Peter's secret, before she started to feel like everything's falling apart and she couldn't do anything about it.
"We'll get in," Peter said, optimistically.
Despite the optimism, Hailey heard the slight doubt in his voice.
Snoring from Peter's end of the call caught her attention.
She looked back at the phone.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Oh, it's Happy," Peter said, moving the phone to point towards a sleeping Happy Hogan.
He showed Hogan sleeping on a nearby armchair. He's connected to some kind of an apparatus.
"Oh."
"Yeah, um, he gave his room to Aunt May," Peter explained, "so he's sleeping down here."
Hailey nodded.
"Um, this is a weird question, but..." Hailey said, "do you feel relieved that everyone knows your secret now?"
"Ever since I got bit by that spider..." Peter said, "I've only had one week, where my life has felt normal. Well, kind of normal, I guess. And... that was when you found out. Because then, everyone that was in my life I wanted to know... knew. And it was perfect. But now everybody knows. And... I am the most famous person in the entire world... and I'm still broke."
They both chuckled.
"I'm... I'm excited to see you tomorrow," Hailey said.
"Me too," Peter smiled.
"Wrap it up," Happy suddenly said.
Peter turned around. "You both like each other. We get it. Hang up. There's no new ground being broken, okay? I need my eight hours."
"Have you been listening this whole time?" Peter asked.
"Hi, Happy," Hailey said.
"Not by choice," Happy said.
"Hailey says hi," Peter said.
"Hello," Happy said.
***
Hailey and Chase woke up the next morning and got ready for school.
Hailey wasn't sure what to expect from school on the way.
She was overwhelmed at what she saw when she got to Midtown High.
There were crowds of people and journalists at the school.
She noticed Betty Brant holding a mic and talking to the camera.
Hailey sighed in relief when she saw Peter.
"Hey," Hailey greeted him.
"Hey," Peter said, trying to smile.
"It'll be okay," she promised.
"Let's go," Chase said.
Hailey and Peter walked up to the school, holding each others hands as they did.
Chase, Ned and Flash Thompson were behind them.
"Hailey!" a random man called. "Hailey, we love you! Hailey, are you gonna have his spider - babies?"
"Leave my sister alone!" Chase called back to the man.
"Mysterio forever!" another man said. "Murderer!"
"Do a flip!"
Hailey tried her best to ignore the people. She absolutely hated this.
"Back off!" ned said.
"Fuck off!"
"Who are you?" a random person asked Ned and Chase.
"I'm Ned Leeds," Ned said. "And this is Chase Freeman. We're Spider - Man's - Peter Parker;'s best friends and Chase is Hailey's brother."
"- Peter Parker's best friend," Flash Thompson interrupted, pushing Chase to the side. "You come at my boy? You come at Flash Thompson. You wanna read about our inspiring friendship? You can now from my new book, Flashpoint."
He showed a book as Ned and Chase walked passed him.
Chase shook his head at Flash as he and Ned followed Peter and Hailey up the stairs.
Before Peter can go in, he's searched by some policemen through a metal detector. MJ stopped as she waited for her turn.
"Go," she told Peter. "Go."
***
To get away from everything, Hailey and Peter were on the school's rooftop. They were both laying down, with their heads resting on their textbooks. Hailey held a newspaper up.
"Can we just like, stay up here all day?" Peter asked. "It is so crazy down there."
Hailey smiled. "I wish we could. This is a good one," she referred to a story. "'Some suggest that Parker's powers include the male spider's ability to hypnotize females, which he has used to seduce Freeman into his cult of personality."
"Stop! Stop," he laughed.
"Yes, my Spider - Lord," she teased.
They both snicker and turn to each other. As they were about to kiss, Ned came up with Chase behind him.
"Ned, stop!" Chase said. "They want -"
"Finally, some privacy," Ned said, ignoring Chase. "It is so crazy down there."
He sat down.
Chase sighed, giving up at this point.
Hailey and Peter sat up.
"So, I was thinking... when we get into MIT, we should live together," Ned said.
"Yeah, for sure," Peter said.
Hailey shifted, uncomfortably.
Chase picked up on this.
"That's a great idea," Chase said, "but I don't know how I'd feel knowing that my sister is living with her boyfriend."
Peter and Ned looked at her.
"It's not that I don't want to live with you guys," Hailey said, "but I don't think I'm there yet and I'm not sure how comfortable I feel living with a bunch of guys."
"Hey, it's okay," Peter said. "Living together is a conversation with another time."
Hailey smiled a little.
Ned pulled out his laptop out of his backpack and pulled out the MIT website and showed them the page with smiling, young people playing frisbee.
"This is gonna be us," Ned said, "regardless if we're living together or not."
"Yeah, but minus the frisbee," Chase said.
"MIT's obviously the dream..." Peter said, "but if we match up our backup schools, either way, we'll all be together in Boston. New school, new town. I can Spider-Man there. I mean, they have crime in Boston, right?"
"Yeah," Hailey nodded. "They do."
"Wicked crime," Ned added.
"Yeah, it'll be a fresh start," Peter said.
Hailey nodded in agreement, despite how she feels.
"What's wrong?" Peter asked.
"What?" Hailey said.
"Something's wrong," Chase said. "We can tell."
"I don't... you guys are really optimistic about getting in," Hailey said. "How do we know we'll get in with everything going on? If you keep your expectations low, you just... you won't be surprised or get disappointed."
Peter took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
"Come on," Peter said. "It'll be a fresh start. And...."
He looked around at Chase and Ned.
"... we'll all be together," Peter said.
"Yeah, you're right," she said, stilling holding onto his hand. "Fresh start."
Ned placed his hand on top of theirs and Chase gave Ned a look.
"Fresh start," Ned agreed.
Authors Note
Hi, everyone. Sorry for taking over a year to update. I felt severely unmotivated to update this fanfic and several others. I will try my best to start writing this fanfic again and finally finishing it.
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know it's long, but I just want to make Castaway too long.