𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

lix. expecting disappointment

chapter fifty-nine
expecting disappointment

   THINGS DIDN'T improve▬at all▬as the days went on. Nina, Peter and their friends were flooded and hounded whenever they finished class and stepped out into the corridor. Peter was pressured into climbing up the school gym wall only to be called a "Freak!" anyway. Somehow, Betty even persuaded Nina, Peter and Ned to be interviewed on a special edition of Midtown News. Nina remembered cringing the moment she watched it (and wished she never did):

    "What's it like being Spider-Man's teacher?"

    Mr. Harrington pursed his lips and clasped his hands together in his seat. "Well, Peter's always been more than a student to me. He's been more like▬like a son ... Who's also my little brother."

    The clip cut to Coach Wilson who frowned, eyeing the lens with a suspicious eye. "So, what do you think about these crazy Mysterio conspiracy theories that are spreading online?" Betty asked him.

    Coach Wilson merely shrugged. "There's a conspiracy theory that Justin Timberlake was in NSYNC at one time. And then you look it up, and▬oh▬he was in NSYNC."

    The clip returned to Mr. Harrington. "My ex-wife, for example, she's been spending a lot of time online. And, you know, the Internet is a wild place that really beckons people like her who are a little lost and kind of have forgotten where they came from and who they are and ... and that they love someone very much ... Sometimes you just forget these things and you end up in a subreddit ... believing in Mysterio..." Mr. Harrington blinked out of his daze and fixed his stare onto Betty who pursed her lips, startled. "S▬Sorry, what was your question?"

    They cut to Coach Wilson. "So..." asked Betty with a frown, "... you never noticed he had extraordinary athletic abilities?"

    Their coach scoffed. "I▬I mean ... it's a science school, so ... two push-ups is extraordinary athletic abilities. I mean, when I think about it, there were times that he was sticking to the wall, or ... he had this stuff coming out of his wrist. But ... I didn't really think much of it. I just..." Coach Wilson sighed, shaking his head. "I ... I've been doing this a long time. It's just a lot of kids..."

    Around Flash's head, the terrible green screen cut in and out, and his bleached tips looked more like he had dunked his head into a slime bucket. "In your book," he listened to Betty intently, "you revealed that the name 'Spider-Man' was your idea. Were there any others that you tossed around before settling on 'Spider-Man'?"

    Flash sighed as he thought about her question. The both of them sat in a green-screen pink room that had Flash's book placed in the shot on a round green table with some pastel flowers. "Yeah, well, I mean ... There were a few. You know, 'Arachnokid' ... 'The Bitten'▬" He made quotation marks with his fingers.

    Betty pursed her lips and shuffled forward in her seat. She locked one leg over the other. "I▬uh▬I noticed that in your book I'm not mentioned once."

    Flash stammered. "I▬No. No, I▬I'm pretty sure you are... Uh..." He picked up his book and the video glitched as he quickly flicked through it. His eyes widened. "Whoa ... there are pictures in this?"

    Mr. Dell slouched in his chair, his gaze wandering off in thought as he answered Betty's question. She listened with a finger and thumb underneath her chin, humming and nodding. "If that spider had bitten me, yeah ... we'd be talking about a different Spider-Man right now. I think I would have maybe had a different style costume. Maybe something with▬with flared legs, maybe? Maybe? As sexy as possible."