I yawned as I opened my locker, before a small smile flashed across my face. I’d actually gotten to school on time for once. Maybe the fact that I’d left climbing early had given me enough energy to actually wake up on time. Or maybe something about Mr Briggs passion yesterday had riled me up. Not that I even had history today. Well, I was here. It was better than not being here… sort of. Maybe I could finally start making that academic comeback I was always thinking about. I chuckled to myself, grabbing a few books before slamming my locker shut, turning and instantly being knocked to the floor.
My books fell in a heap onto my chest as I fell backwards, landing awkwardly and banging my head against the lockers.
“Ow” I mumbled, rubbing the side of my head as I sat up.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” a familiar voice said. I looked up and froze, my heart leaping out of my chest. It was Emma. My crush. My crush had just knocked me to the floor, and I was staring at her blankly like a moron.
Say something you idiot.
“Hey” I mumbled.
“I’m so sorry about that” she said, either ignoring or not hearing my stupidly awkward self-introduction, and offered a hand. I took it, standing up quickly, before grabbing my books of the ground. Emma followed suit, still apologising. I glanced at her as I grabbed the last one and stood up straight. “Really, I’m so clumsy. Sorry about that” she said, handing my books back.
“It’s fine” I responded, my heart thumping in my chest. She let out a sigh of relief, then furrowed her brow. I glanced away awkwardly, wondering if she’d noticed my staring.
“You’re Yuta, right?” she asked.
“Y-Yu” I said, feeling a mix of a emotions. She recognised me, but she didn’t even remember my name.
“Sorry. I, uh… I don’t want to sound weird or anything, but do you go climbing? At Movement LIC?”
“Yeah, that’s me” I laughed awkwardly.
“Oh wow. I go there too”
“I know Emma, you’re kind of famous”
“Oh right. I didn’t even realise you go here. That’s so cool. I thought you were older since you’re always at climbing and I don’t think I’ve even seen you at school”
“Well I’m not exactly here all the time”
“Oh, sorry” she said, the panic in her expression clear.
“No it’s ok. It’s not like it’s anything serious. I just don’t come to school sometimes. Climbing’s more fun, you know?” I chuckled awkwardly.
“You shouldn’t do that”
“Right, right…” I responded awkwardly, before trailing off. We stared at each other blankly for a few seconds. Dammit, I couldn’t let this get awkward, I needed to say something.
“So, you’re competing next week, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. My mum says it’s good for me”
“It definitely is. You’ll win like you always do. I mean seriously, I’ve watched all your races and nobody else is even close to as good as you. You’ve basically got it in the bag”
“Thanks I- wait you’ve seen all my races? Only, like, my mum’s seen all my races”
I froze, then laughed awkwardly a bit to hard.
“I mean I’ve only seen a few. I watch everyone with good technique, you know?” I said laughing awkwardly again.
“Thanks. I’ll probably stick around to watch the men’s competition as well. You’ll probably do well”
“Oh. Well I-”
Suddenly somebody burst into the space between us, grabbing Emma. She looked to me, eyes wide.
“Sorry Emma’s new friend, but we’ve got to go. She gets another late and it’s a detention” her friend said whisking her away.
“… don’t really compete” I mumbled to myself. Emma waved bye as she was dragged away and I gave a small nod back. She disappeared round the corner with her friend and I continued staring blankly for a few seconds. I looked down at the pile of books in my hands, feeling a mixture of emotions, unable to . I shrugged. I’d talked to her at least. Well, I guess it was time for class.
-
I hummed to myself as I walked down the hall with an uncharacteristic spring in my step. It was only just the start of lunchtime and today was already a good day. They were serving good food for lunch, there’d finally been a sighting of Spider-Man for the first time in three weeks, and Maths had felt do-able for the first time in a while. Plus, I’d actually spoken to Emma. Held a semi-proper conversation for all of twenty seconds before she’d been dragged away. Sure, she hadn’t remembered my name, or even noticed I’d gone to this school before today, but she’d recognised me. That was better then nothing, right? I could work with it. Now that we’d spoken, maybe I could actually say something to her when we saw each other at climbing. God knows Micah wanted me to actually do something about my crush. I chuckled to myself. This would finally get him off my ass.
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I rounded the corner and turned, opening the door to the bathroom and stepping inside. I paused, hearing the sounds of a scuffle as I came face to face with a guy standing almost directly behind the door. He looked at me, his face emotionless.
“Uh… can I help you?” I asked.
“Toilets occupied” he said gruffly. I peered past him, catching a glimpse of a student getting beaten up. The guy moved his body in the way, shoving me back.
“Didn’t you hear me? Its occupied. Use the toilet on a different floor” he said.
“Right. Sorry” I said, quickly stepping out.
I turned to walk away but stopped thinking about what I was doing. I recognised the guy who they were beating up. Thomas. I recognised the guy by the door too, he was one of James’ friends. My hands tightened into fists. James and his posse were always messing with Thomas. Stealing his stuff, pulling stupid “pranks” on him, and generally making his life hell. The only reason they picked on Thomas was the fact that he was practical always alone. Just like me. In many ways Thomas was like me, though he’d probably been a bit friendlier when we’d started highschool. The only difference was I’m pretty sure he wasn’t close with the rest of his family. I still remembered the fact that he’d shown up to the parent-teacher conference and waited for someone who hadn’t shown up. It made it even more uncomfortable to watch him suffer at school. And now that I’d stumbled across him getting physically beaten up, I was just going to leave him behind? No. Even before now, I’d ignored the bullying far too many times, just like everyone else. I knew it wasn’t right.
I felt a mixture of shame and anger wash over me. I was always talking about how cool superheroes were with Ryo wasn’t I? Teaching him about values and standing up for what was right. I needed to do something now. Not wait. If I didn’t, I’d regret it. I clenched my fists even tighter. I turned back around, hearting pulsing wildly in my chest, and pushed open the door again.
“H-hey! Stop” I said, my voice cracking. The bullies all paused, turning towards me. Thomas just stared at me wide eyed, like I’d just sentenced him to death.
“What’d you say?” one of the bullies said, stepping forward.
“…s-stop” I mumbled taking a step back. They looked at each other confused.
“Who the fuck even are you?” another asked.
“I- that doesn’t matter. Y-you should leave him alone” I said, with more resolve. Thomas’ face paled, the blood draining almost completely from his face. James stood, stalking over to me.
“Or what? You want us to beat the shit out of you too?” he said. He dwarfed me, taller by at least a foot.
“N-no”
“Then fuck off” he sneered.
“A-alright” I said, backpedalling. I felt my face flush as I turned and walked away, the group bursting out into laughter as they watched me leave. I looked down at my feet, embarrassed as exited the toilet and I hurried away.
I slowed, eventually coming to a stop and cursed. I’d chickened out so easily that I might as well have done nothing. Things would probably get worse for Thomas now. They might even start targeting me as well. I’d been so hung up on ideals, the greater good, being a hero, all of that nonsense, that I’d completely forgotten why I hadn’t intervened in the first place. Because I couldn’t. James and his group all had at least a foot on me, and even if I could beat them in a fight, it’s not like that would stop them from beating on Thomas when I wasn’t around. I definitely hadn’t been planning on fighting them, so what had I even been trying to do? Talk to them? What were a few words going to do?
I groaned, face palming at my own idiocy. I always got so lost in my own thoughts I basically forgot how the real world worked. I needed to break the habit. Maybe I was spending too much time in fantasyland with Ryo. No, it was probably all the time I spent by myself. I sighed. I needed to put it out of my mind. It’d be better if I didn’t think about it and just get some lunch. After that, I was done with school for the day.
-
I walked home from school staring at the ground. I’d left early, my mind too twisted up in knots about the Thomas situation for me to focus.
I’d realised whilst eating that I’d been so caught up in my own selfishness, I hadn’t even told a teacher about what I’d seen. Then, when I’d decided to, I’d been stopped by my cowardice. I was too afraid of the bullies turning on me if they realised I’d snitched on them. That feeling had really soured my appetite. I sighed.
It’s not like telling a teacher would do anything anyway, but it was the principle you know? I basically just hyped myself up to do nothing. I sighed again, heavier this time. I was always thinking about how amazing and cool superheroes were, thinking about the bravery and courage they had that I was never able to imitate. It was why I’d even started climbing in the first place. Because I’d wanted to be like Spider-Man. I still remembered when I first felt it, the awe, the inspiration. It had been just over two years ago, Ryo, Dad and I had been returning home from a Yankee’s game when the streets had exploded into chaos, a ten-foot giant had demolished a building and sent debris flying through the street. The world had stopped for a second and I remember so vividly how tightly Ryo clutched onto my hand. Everyone had been so scared, and then Spider-Man had shown up. I’d watched as Spider-Man had taken on Rhino, someone twice his size, and won. He’d fought against all odds and won like a total badass. And he’d only continued to be awesome, taking down Radio-Man, Mr Ice, Prowler, Electro and Mysterio. He was the only reason the city hadn’t been obliterated during the metahuman terrorist attacks, regardless of what the media said. He was amazing. Well, he had been doing amazing until recently.
He'd been missing for a month now. Turns out the sighting earlier had been another hoax. Some idiot had uploaded a video from months ago claiming it was from today. I kicked a stray can and watched it bounced across the sidewalk. I guess there were downsides to being a hero too. Maybe the constant pressure to save everyone started to get to you. First Athena and now Spider-Man. They were different though. Athena had just upped and disappeared, never to be seen again. Spider-Man had disappeared slowly, patrolling less and less frequently until about a month ago when he’d just stopped showing his face.
I probably didn’t understand it anywhere near as well as I thought I could. But other people seemed to think they knew exactly what had happened. There was tons of speculation, and theories, some stupid and most really stupid. There was one prevailing sentiment though. Most people just wanted him back. I glanced up to the sky. I wanted to believe he would, but I didn’t know if it was true. I mean Athena hadn’t. Could I hope this was different? I furrowed my brow, and looked back to the ground. Well, it’s not like I could do anything about it, and thinking anymore would fry my brain. So, like always, I was headed straight for the climbing centre to clear my head. Classes would just stress my out more than necessary. I felt dumb already, I didn’t need to sit in on classes that would just make me feel dumber.
I missed the can and stumbled, before stopping and picking it up and looking for a bin. I spotted one in an alley and made my way over to it, before pausing. Weird. I furrowed my brow taking a good look at the brightly coloured cloth hanging out of a garbage bin. I lifted the lid and stared at the Spider-Man costume I paused, staring at it closely before sniffing it. It didn’t smell bad, maybe it was safe to touch? I reached out and grabbed it pulling it out the bin. A Halloween costume? It looked really well made. Why would someone just throw this away? I shrugged. It was mine now. We had a costume day for charity at school on Friday, and I had nothing else to wear. I sniffed it again. Now that I was closer, it did smell kind of bad, but I could wash it. I lifted up the costume to take a better look at it. There were a few holes too, but I could patch it up. and patch it up. Mum’s sewing machine was somewhere at home. I grinned before quickly stuffing it in my bag, mask and all. I was just lucky somebody wanted to get rid of something this cool. Seriously, it was well made.