Spider Quinn 08 - The Three Misfits - Part 5

 

Lawndale Sun-Herald

Tuesday, January 5^th, 2000

There are still no Y2K related issues in Lawndale

 

Quinn was excited to be back at school. The holidays weren’t exactly, happy times, with her father no longer around. She knew that Stacy, Tiffany and Tori had had it better. She had remembered that she was going to do a field trip with the three misfits. She also hadn’t encountered Anna as SpiderGirl over the Holidays.

 

“Quinn Morgendorffer, please report to the Principal’s Office,” came an announcement straight after Homeroom.

 

“Right on que,” Quinn said.

 

“Good luck,” Stacy said.

 

“Thanks.”

 

 

“I have decided to approve your field trip idea,” Ms. Li said.

 

“That’s great!” Quinn said.

 

“I’m going to call in the other three now.”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

 

“Anna Coultard, Ben Harrod and Gerald Brown, please report to the Principal’s Office.”

 

Anna had remembered and she had reminded Ben the night before, so she wasn’t surprised. She got a hall pass from DeMartino and headed towards the Principal’s office.

 

 

Ben entered last.

 

“I have approved the field trip idea, for sometime this week,” the Principal said. “One of the junior science teachers will accompany you to one of the forests where they will assist you in a survey of plants and animals.”

 

“A junior science teacher?” Anna asked.

 

“Yes. Sending Barch with two male students by herself would be a bad idea,” Li answered.

 

Both Ben and Gerald nodded. That was an understatement.

 

“Either tomorrow or Thursday would be great,” Quinn said. “Best to strike while the iron is hot, or whatever.”

 

“Tomorrow. I can send out the permission slips today,” the Principal decided.

 

“That’s fine,” Anna said.

 

“Yeah, fine,” Gerald said, in a subdued tone.

 

“Sure,” Ben said, although he wasn’t sure.

 

 

As they left the Principal’s office, Quinn saw that Ben wasn’t enthusiastic. “Ben!”

 

“Yes, Quinn?”

 

“I’ll make sure that we do have a first aid kit.”

 

“Thanks, but that’s not what I’m concerned about,” Ben said.

 

“Which will have disinfectant and insect repellent,” Quinn added.

 

“That will do, I suppose.”

 

 

Upon school letting out, SpiderGirl headed to the west, to the forests where the group would be having their field trip. She arrived there less than 10 minutes later.

 

‘It looks alright to me,’ she thought. But there was then a flashback to when she and her parents had eaten strange berries on a camping trip back in the Spring. Or was it the previous Winter? ‘No one will be picking strange berries this time,’ she thought as she reflected on the usual grief that came when she remembered her father. ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.’

 

She looked around some more before she heard a cry in the distance. She quickly swung in that direction.

 

 

She found that a young woman had fallen down a small ravine. “SpiderGirl! Help!” she called.

 

“Coming!” she said. She swung down into the ravine.

 

“I think my leg is broken,” the young woman said.

 

“I can’t tell,” SpiderGirl said. “But I will get you out of the ravine and then call an ambulance.”

 

“OK.”

 

 

It wasn’t that difficult, except SpiderGirl had to use a branch as a splint before slowly bringing the woman out of the ravine.

 

She left her in a clearing not far from the ravine before heading to the nearest phone booth and calling 911.

 

 

Having called the ambulance, she returned to the woman. “They’re on their way,” she said.

 

“Thanks. I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to climb down that ravine.”

 

“You’re lucky I came along. I didn’t know I was coming out this way.”

 

“You’re right, SpiderGirl. I can call you that right?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“You can call me Bella.”

 

“Bella. That’s pretty.”

 

Bella chuckled. “I was going to say that I could have been stuck down there for days.”

 

“Probably not that long. I would have joined in the search.”

 

“I guess so.”

 

 

It wasn’t long before the ambulance arrived. The paramedics thanked SpiderGirl for what she did. “We would have needed to call in a helicopter otherwise.”

 

“You’re welcome,” SpiderGirl said, although she recognised that that particular paramedic had been there when her father had passed. ‘Not his fault. He tried his best,’ she thought, yet again.

 

 

As the ambulance left she went back to the area she was looking at. ‘I know to avoid that ravine now.’

 

 

Lawndale Sun-Herald

Wednesday January 6, 2000

Why has Norman Osborne moved to Lawndale?

The Tycoon has been tight lipped about his move from New York

 

SpiderGirl put down the paper. She felt, uneasy for some reason. ‘All I know is that I have some foreboding.’ She thought. She shook her head and swung away. She still needed some sleep before school started.

 

It was still early in the morning when the phone rang at the Coultard residence.

 

“Anna, it’s your friend,” her mother said. “Please tell him he’s not sick!”

 

Anna got out of bed and went to the phone. “You’re not sick.”

 

“Yes, I am,” Ben said.

 

“No, you’re not.”

 

“Really. I am.”

 

“We have to sleep,” Anna said with a yawn.

 

“I can’t go on this field trip.”

 

“Yes, you can.”

 

“No, I can’t,” Ben objected.

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“Bye!” Anna said before hanging up.

 

 

Ben was still sure that he was unwell when he got to school. He headed straight to the nurse’s office straight after Homeroom.

 

“See,” he said.

 

“It’s nothing,” Nurse Chase said.

 

“It’s a fever,” Ben said..

 

“Your temperature is only a quarter of a degree above normal.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“It is easily prompted by emotional stress,” Chase said.

 

“Or an influenza virus.”

 

“You don’t have a flu. I’m not giving you a medical excuse. Not this time. You shouldn’t have that thermometer! I’m sure it’s school property. You are going on that field trip. You won’t have time to be worried about getting sick.”

 

 

The school day went as usual. The field trip started at the beginning of the last period. Anna, Ben and Gerald met Quinn and the young science teacher at the bus stop behind the school’s football stadium.

 

“Are we ready to go?” Quinn asked.

 

“Yes,” Anna said.

 

“As I’ll ever be,” Gerald said.

 

“I still don’t like it,” Ben answered.

 

“Let’s go,” the teacher, Ms. Olivia Sanderson, said.

 

 

Ms. Sanderson had prepared as much as she could for the field trip after Ms. Li had informed her that she would be taking the students early in the day. She went over the checklist again before sitting in the drivers seat. She did have a bus licence, but she didn’t know why Ms. Li wanted her to drive rather than one of the staff hired to drive the school’s buses.

 

 

“We’re almost there,” Sanderson said.

 

“Cool,” Quinn said.

 

 

The bus pulled up at a bus stop on the edge of the forest.

 

“We shall take everything,” Sanderson said as they disembarked.

 

“Of course,” Quinn said.

 

“Should we start now?” Anna asked.

 

“We don’t want to miss anything,” Sanderson said.

 

Suddenly there flock of birds flew away in an agitated flurry nearby and Quinn felt something through her spider sense. “What just happened?” she asked.

 

“Nothing,” Gerald said.

 

“Something,” Anna said.

 

“I agree with Anna,” Ben said.

 

“We may not be alone,” Sanderson said. “Keep an eye out.”

 

“I agree,” Quinn said as she looked around.

 

 

Sanderson and Quinn lead the way deeper into the forest. With Gerald following and Anna and Ben bringing up the rear.

 

Ben took out a protein bar. “Want one?” he asked Anna.

 

“Sure,” she responded.

 

 

Quinn dropped back to Gerald. “Apparently you aren’t from Lawndale either.”

 

“No. But I’m not good at small talk. Like what’s the point.”

 

“I used to be good at it, before what happened.”

 

“Look! I’m sorry for running off that time,” Gerald said.

 

“Apology accepted.”

 

“But I’m not up for talking about my home town.”

 

“Usually, I wouldn’t talk of that town in Texas, either,” Quinn said.

 

“Usually?”

 

“Like, I’m worried Lawndale will become like it, or worse.”

 

“How bad was it?” Gerald asked.

 

Quinn began to tell of Highland, including of the two weirdos Daria sometimes hung out with.

 

 

Suddenly part of a tree a tree fell nearby.

 

“What was that?” Gerald asked.

 

“It was just a weakened branch,” Sanderson said. “But we can start here.”

 

 

Sanderson handed out pages on how to identify various plants and animals. “So, we’ll work carefully along the trail, back to the bus and look out for each species. Don’t go too far.”

 

 

The next half hour was spent looking at various plants and animals in the area. But then something happened.

 

 

Quinn and Sanderson turned as the heard Ben cry out. They ran to him. “What was it?” Sanderson asked.

 

“It was a snake!” Anna exclaimed.

 

“Did you see it?” Sanderson asked.

 

“It was a Copperhead,” Anna said.

 

“Right,” Sanderson said. “Where’s the bite?”

 

“On his ancle,” Anna said.

 

“Help!” Ben called out.

 

 

Sanderson whipped out the first aid kit. “Take off your shoe first. Then I can wrap the bandage around your leg.”

 

 

“This is one reason why I didn’t want to come,” Gerald said to Quinn.

 

“Being at home isn’t exactly safe,” Quinn responded.

 

“There haven’t been break and enters when the people are at home in the news.”

 

“No, but, stuff can still happen,” Quinn said.

 

Sanderson then came up. “I can’t leave him, as I have the duty of care. Someone has to go and call an ambulance,” she said.

 

“You don’t have a cell phone?” Quinn asked.

 

“I do,” Sanderson said. “But there’s no signal.”

 

“I can do it,” Quinn responded.

 

“You shouldn’t go alone though,” Sanderson said.

 

‘If I did go it would be quicker though,’ Quinn thought. But she didn’t want to just dash off, because she wanted to stay in Ms. Li’s good books and to continue mentoring the three. “OK.”

 

“Gerald will go with you,” Sanderson said. “Anna wants to stay with him.”

 

“Of course,” Quinn said.