Depressing as it is, I don't own Spider-Man or any of its characters.

She's Just A Bit Rebellious

Chapter 1: Reckless

She supposes it all started when she was just... lying there.

Admittedly, a starfish pose on the floor isn't the most attractive, but she doesn't have anyone to look good for anymore. She's staring blankly at the ceiling of her parents' newly-refurbished room. Her mom's actually.

She wonders where everything went wrong. Was it when she met Peter? Is that when things started to go haywire? Or is it because her dad is - was - a cop? Is it just in the way the stars were written that she would get tangled up in a web bigger than her?

... Pun definitely intended.

She's flip-flopping between hysteria and melancholy nowadays; the former being a desperate attempt to seem cheerful in front of her family, and the latter being the undercurrent of feeling.

That and betrayal.

She tries to distract herself, she really does. She buries herself in the Debate Team and her new internship at Oscorp but it's not enough. Something's missing.

She supposes she's recklessly sad about Peter's leaving her but sadness is that type of emotion where you just can't breathe because it hurts too much. Peter's leaving her does not have that effect on her. She cannot breathe. Period. As much as she's tried, she's shut down. (Her friends have noticed it, too. She's become more and more silent around them and less and less involved. She's slipping away from reality). No, this isn't sadness. It's not even anguish. It's not anything, it's just… Nothing. That's how and what she feels after he's left.

She is recklessly angry with him, though. Him and her father combined. She's developed a hypothesis that all men are stupid because they try to protect the girl they love (her heart skips a beat here; she knows Peter used to love her and that makes her smile). They don't understand that she's more than capable of taking care of herself and staying out of harm's way.

Idiots, she thinks, the lot of them.

She gets the idea of "healing" when she attempts to get up and clear her father's wardrobe. She promptly bumps her head against a shelf and a few boxes cascade down.

"Figures," she mutters, bending down to clear up the mess. Luck just isn't on her side.

She looks down at the boxes she's holding. Inside is her father's police radio, beeping with life.

She freezes for a second.

Her fingers wrap around the device in a haze before she hears her mother call her name. She quickly returns everything into place and tucks the radio into her pocket.

She's out the door just as her mother turns around. "Everything okay, honey?"

She yells out a hasty: "Yes, mom," before rushing to her room as the gears in her head start turning.

Something's hit her, fast and hard, like a freight train hastening to pick up passengers. And as she sits at her table, life pumping through her veins in the same way it was the first time she was airborne, swinging through New York with a certain vigilante, she recognizes this inscrutable, indestructible feeling:

Rebellion.

She can tell that Peter is thoroughly surprised that she isn't trying to follow him and pin him down to get answers. In fact, she's kind of been avoiding him.

Ms. Ritter's English class usually means she'd pointedly look away from him when he enters the classroom. This time, her head's ducked down shyly and almost abashedly and she can feel Peter drilling holes into the back of her head.

She ignores him.

She doesn't try to glare at him or talk to him or catch his eye or anything. She just keeps her head down because she's quite a loudmouth and she's sure that one wrong word to Peter would ruin her whole plan.

She's animatedly chatting with Mary Jane during lunch. The two of them had formed a queer type of friendship when Gwen had complemented Mary Jane's (pink, shiny) shoes that one time during some recess in kindergarten.

She knows Peter's behind her. It had kind of become her habit to corner him during lunch and make him talk, and she sensed that Peter had quite enjoyed it, too. At least, he'd never try to scamper off during lunchtime.

She doesn't approach him today, and she knows he's shocked.

Mary Jane's blabbing about some new gossip – "Have you heard that Tina hooked up with Sam? I mean, honestly… Whore, anyone?" – and Gwen's pretending to listen. She's actually straining to hear what Peter's saying and only faintly catches his rhythmic breathing instead. What does it say about her that she doesn't mind?

Then both girls are easily and eagerly chatting with one another, the boy behind Gwen forgotten for the moment. They are both surprised when a gentle cough interrupts their conversation.

Gwen's (lanky, shy, brown-haired, blue-eyed, gorgeous, loving, breathtaking, idiotic) guy is standing there and to his right is another brunette boy whom she's never seen before. Both girls stare at Peter expectedly and Peter stands there for a second before his eyes widen and he rubs the back of his neck (it takes all of Gwen's willpower not to swoon).

"This is, ah, Harry. And… yeah. He just moved here and all. And this is MJ and t-this, this is… Gwen. Yeah. So, yeah."

Gwen's smiling at Peter and turns around to see Mary Jane's reaction. She's smiling at Harry. Gwen raises her eyebrows before she turns to Harry.

"It's nice to meet you. You'll love it here, it's a great place." She shakes Harry's hand and laughs as she realizes he's half distracted by Mary Jane. She glances at Peter and realizes that the corner of his mouth has also been upturned. They are both amused by their friends' mutual attraction.

MJ, to Gwen's sudden horror, offers to tour Harry around the school, leaving her and Peter standing in the middle of the courtyard, slightly confused and awkward.

Gwen's swaying on her feet and Peter is wringing his hands together. It can't help but remind her of the time Peter asked her out, and she's smiling before she realizes it.

"What?" Peter asks, catching her quick smile.

"Oh, nothing, I was just…" She bites her lip. "Do you remember the time you, ah, first asked me out?"

His blush is priceless. "Yeah, pretty much the stupidest I'd ever acted, so, pretty hard to forget."

She laughs and he smiles lazily at her, his arm coming up to rub his elbow.

They're both staring at each other, quite intoxicated by the other's presence, and Gwen is the first one to break it because she knows she's about to blurt out something stupid.

"I, um. Class. Yes. So, I'll be off. But I'll see you soon."

And she leaves a flustered and confused Peter Parker behind.

She's made sure everyone's in bed and sleeping. Nobody would hear her leave, this way. It's out through the balcony and walking down twenty-two flights of stairs (why couldn't she have a biocable? She thinks everyone should) and she's terribly excited. And nervous as well, this is the first time she's doing something like this.

Her hair's tied into a ponytail and she's pulled on a mask to cover her face. She's wearing all black and her father's radio is attached to her hip.

She begins her descent down, all the while waiting for news about a Spider-Man or a crime.

She hears one pretty quickly – there's a robbery that's happening in 54th and 7th and she's already on her way.

She's in her car and driving to the scene, shaking. She's about to stop a robbery.

She'd never thought that her Karate lessons would ever come in handy. She thought it was just her father being really paranoid about someone hurting her and that his enrolling her in this class would not lead to any real uses. Now, she's very thankful.

She takes one hand off the wheel to feel the side of her hip that doesn't have a radio: there's a gun attached just in case. She hopes she doesn't have to use it.

She's out of her car and shaking now: this is all so new to her. She doesn't know if she goes in with a punch line or if she waits for police backup or if she just tries to take them down one by one. She figures that she might start by trying to spot where they are.

She nears the café that they are supposed to be in, and she waits for a few minutes.

Nothing.

She's standing there and the thought that Spider-Man has already taken them out is plaguing her thoughts, leaving an odd type of bitter taste in her mouth. She really hopes not.

Just as she's about to give up, she spots shadows moving through the alley next to the café.

That must be them.

She's swift in following them because she doesn't want her nerves to kick in at an odd and inconvenient time.

They're big, buff guys but they seem dumb enough: she can easily take them down. It's with a swift kick to the first man's knee that all three turn towards her.

It's easy enough, she finds with surprise. They don't have skill, they just have a lot of brute force.

She's quickly taking them down, one by one, and she realizes how Peter must feel. The satisfaction of being able to do the right thing is exhilarating.

She sees a flash of blue and red and leaves before Peter and the cops can catch her.

She's back in her car and back at home in her bed and she's smiling so smugly to herself: she could get used to this.