I sit on the bench with my head down in the intriguing book I'm reading. I reach the bottom of the page and turn it, my eyes going straight to the next word. A large crowd forms further to my right. They all chant in union:
"Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!" I try to keep my mind on the book. "Eat your vegetables, Gordon, come on!" Flash shouts over the crowd. I'm really not interested in what's going on over there, it happens almost every day. "Hey, Parker. Come on, get a picture of this!"
"Put him down man. Don't eat it, don't eat that." The boy tells Gordon.
"Take a picture, Parker."
"Put him down Flash."
"Take a picture." Flash screams angrily.
"Put him down, Eugene!" The crowd stops chanting. I hear a loud thud and the crowd goes 'Ooo'. I lift my head from my book and look over to see Flash beating up Parker.
"Come on! Get up, Parker! Get up! Come on!" Flash kicks him again and again.
"I'm still not taking the picture." He breathes through pain. I hurry over to the scene and push through the crowd.
"Stay down, Parker! Who wants more?" Flash spits. I walk over the injured boy and into the middle of the circle.
"Flash!" I shout to him as he starts to walk away. "Flash, are we on for after school today? My house, 3:30? I hope you've been doing your homework. Last time I was very disappointed in you. Now, Flash, how about we go to class? How about it?"
"Whatever." The bell rings and everyone walks away. I walk after Flash but glance back at the boy, cowering on the ground. He looks at me thankfully, struggling to get up. I walk inside and through the school corridors to my locker. I pull out my science textbooks and lock the door. I keep walking to my next class which is just around the corner. The door is open and most of the class is already in there. I drop the books on my desk and settle into my seat. The boy, who was being beaten up by Flash, walks in and sits diagonally behind me. I turn around to talk to him.
"I thought that was great, what you did out there. It was stupid, but it was great. You should probably go to the nurse, you might have a concussion." He seems oblivious to what I just said. "What's your name?" I ask.
"You don't know my name?" His sweet voice replies.
"No, I know your name. I just want to know if you know your name." I lie.
"Peter," He says, quietly. I wait for him to say his last name. "Parker. Peter Parker."
"Okay." I laugh. I turn back to the front of the room and then back to him. "I'd still go to the nurse, though."
"You're Gwen, right?" He asks.
"Gwen Stacy." I smile back. The teacher walks in and calls for our attention. I can still feel Peter's eyes on me. It is both uncomfortable and sweet.
҉
I push my way through the large spinning doors at the entrance to the Oscorp Tower. I continue to the front desk to sign in. There are still a few badges for the new interns on the desk that need to be collected. A girl walks up next to me.
"Hi. I'm here for the internship with Dr Connors." The small voice implies.
"Of course. Your badge is to the left." Says the reception lady.
"Thank you." The young girl walks around me and picks up the badge reading 'Emily Hartwell'. The name rings a bell. As she starts to walk away, I turn around and stop her.
"Emily?"
"Yes?" She says, spinning around. I'm sure I've seen her face before.
"Hi, I'm Gwen. I'm going to be leading you on tour for the internship."
"Oh, hi." We shake hands.
"Can I ask you to do me a favour? Can you make sure that all the interns gather near the edge of the stairs on the second floor, they seem a little lost?" I say, gesturing to the group of freshman standing around in the lobby. Emily looks behind her and sees them.
"Sure." She says, smiling.
"Thanks. I'll be about five minutes. I just need to drop off to my office. Thank you so much."
"No worries." She walks over to the group and points upstairs as she tells them where to go. I take the lift to the second floor, where my office is just around the corner from it. I place my bag down and swap my beige blazer for my lab coat. I see the clipboard of names of interns and other things on my desk which was not there the last time I was at my office. I pick it up and walk out the door towards the stairs. The building voice over echoes throughout the tower.
"Welcome to Oscorp. Born from the mind of our founder, Norman Osborn, the Oscorp Tower has its one-hundred-and-eighty floors of innervation. Our scientific minds are pushing the boundaries of defence, biomedical and chemical technologies. The future lies within." I see the group of new interns standing by the stairs and walk over to them. They all look around, fascinated by the architecture of the building frame.
"Welcome to Oscorp, my name is Gwen Stacy, I'm a senior at Midtown Science, and I'm also head intern to Dr Connors, so I'll be with you for the duration of your visit. Where I go, you go, that's the basic rule. If you remember that all will be fine, and if you forget that then..." I am interrupted by a shouting man on the ground floor being dragged out by security.
"Tell them Rodrigo Gueverra is down here!" He shouts. "Please, just tell them. Rodrigo Gueverra is down here!" Security throw him out of the building and all is quiet again. I look back to the new interns.
"I guess I don't need to tell you what happens if you forget that. Shall we? Come around this way." I start to lead the group to one of the projects. Dr Connors walks around to us to meet the new interns.
"Good afternoon, Gwen."
"Dr Connors."
"Welcome, my name is Dr Curtis Connors. And yes, in case you're wondering, I'm a Southpaw." He says, gesturing to his non-existent right arm. "I'm not a cripple, I'm a scientist and I'm the world's foremost authority on Herpetology, that's reptiles for those of you who don't know. But like the Parkinson's patient who watches on in horror as her body slowly betrays her, or the man with Macular Degenerations, whose eyes grow dimmer each day, I long to fix myself. I want to create a world without weakness. Anyone cares to venture a guess just how?" The group look around. One boy shoots his hand up.
"Yes?"
"Stem cells?" The boy says, shrugging.
"Promising, but the solution I'm thinking of is more radical. No one?"
"Cross-species genetics." Says a quiet, familiar voice. The interns look around and step aside to reveal the boy with the right answer. Although he is wearing glasses, it is very obvious that to me who he is. Peter looks at me, knowing that I have seen him. I look down at the list in front of me and read over it, looking for Peter Parker's name. It is nowhere on this list. "Person gets Parkinson's when the brain cells that produce dopamine start to disappear. But a zebra fish has the ability to regenerate cells on command. If you can somehow give this ability to the woman you're talking about, that's that... She's curing herself." Peter looks proud of himself.
"You just have to look pass the gills on her neck." Laughs the other boy. The group all laugh with him.
"And you are?" Dr Connors says, very impressed. Peter doesn't know what to say.
"He's one of the Midtown Science's best and brightest." I say, pitching in for him.
"Really?" Peter asks, surprised and relieved.
"He's second in his class." I tell Connors.
"Oh." Connors seems impressed.
"Second?" Peter asks.
"Yeah." I assure him, smiling.
"You sure about that?"
"I'm pretty sure."
"I'm afraid duty calls, I'll leave you in more that capable hands of Miss Stacy. Nice meeting you all." Connors goes back to his work and I am left to lead the group and figure out what Peter is doing here.
"If you'd like to gather round." I turn on a hologram of the cross-species tree of life. A hologram begins to talk to interns through the information.
"Welcome to Oscorp's Tree of Life. Our planet's tree of life is a mess at Oscorp's cross-species division..." I sneak away from the group, leaving them to look at the hologram, to talk to Peter.
"Hi," I say to Peter. He seems awfully surprised. He wears an Oscorp badge reading the wrong name: 'Rodrigo Gueverra'. Wasn't that the name of the guy who just got thrown out? "What are you doing here Rodrigo?" I ask, looking at his badge. He looks at his badge, remembering what 'his name' is.
"Oh, yeah."
"What are you doing here?" I ask him.
"I work here, I don't work here. I was gonna say I work here, but it seems you in fact work here, so you know that I don't in fact work here." He says, nervously.
"Are you following me?"
"No, I'm not following you. I had no idea you worked here."
"Then why would you be here?"
"I just snuck in because I... I love science." He doesn't seem so sure.
"You love science?"
"I'm passionate about it."
"I have to lead this tour group, so I'm gonna ask you more about this late. Do not get me trouble, stay with the group." I walk back to the group, losing sight of him. "Alright, guys, I'm gonna take you to the bio-reactor room now." I lead the group away from the hologram.
When I turn around, I see Peter heading the other way. What is he doing? I want to go after him but I really don't have time to. I have to stay with the group. Peter can't be stupid enough to get himself into even more trouble, can he?
The interns look fascinated at every passing lab room. They murmur amongst each other and introduce themselves. These newbies seem like a good bunch, unlike the last radical group I had to lead; more than half of them didn't even make it through.
To be perfectly honest with myself, I have grown tired of the bio-reactor room. I pass it almost every day I'm at work and walk into the room every time I have to lead an internship tour; pressing the same damn buttons and saying the same damn thing. But this is the last internship tour I have to do because I'm graduating high school at the end of the year and they'll have to get someone else to lead the tour groups when I'm not here. I still wonder which university I'm going to go to.
After I show them the bio-reactor room, I show them out of the room. Before closing the door behind me, I wave sarcastically to the lab room, mouthing the word 'bye' on my way out. I lead the interns back to the lobby on the second floor, where we began our tour, and let them take a break for a few minutes. I see Emily and walk over to her.
"Hi, Emily."
"Hi."
"Thanks for making sure they all knew where to go."
"Not a problem." She says, smiling.
"Hey, I was wondering, did you go to Midtown Science High School?" I asked, wondering if that is where I know her from.
"Yeah. I graduated last year. I was in the debate team." Finally, the bell chimes.
"Emily Hartwell! I knew I knew you from somewhere. When I first saw your face I was trying to figure out who you were. Know I remember. I'm in the debate team too."
"Oh, really. Cool! How many in the team this year?"
"Twelve."
"We had eight. You got a good stock?"
"Yep. They're all real fierce. We've a lot of records."
"Awesome." We talk and laugh about school. Suddenly I see Peter walk back into the room. I stop laughing.
"Excuse me, Emily. I'll be right back. There's something I have to take care of." I walk over to him, angrily. He looks kind of worried, confused and scared. We just stand in front of each other for a while, then he laughs. "Give me your badge." I say, firmly, holding out my hand. He looks down, not wanting to give it back. "Give it to me." He takes it off and hands it back.
"Sorry." He says. I walk away from him, hoping he won't do anything stupid and get out. He makes a loud cry of pain. I look back and see him casually holding the back of his neck. I keep walking back to the group.