CHAPTER THREE —

— 'PRETTY WOMAN'.

KATE BLACKWELL FELT UNUSUALLY TIRED THAT MONDAY. And not for lack of sleep, though she definitely did lack in that department. Her head throbbed with a dull ache, her eyelids felt heavier and heavier by every minute, and all she wanted was to face-plant into her garden salad and nap until the end of time. Or at least until the end of senior year, which felt equally as long.

There was a lot piled onto Kate's invisible plate, and none of it she really wanted to deal with. The stupid news article about Karma! from last Wednesday had gotten more traction than she had thought, and none of it seemed great. Sure, most people saw the trashy TMZ knockoff website for what it was, and mocked the author's inability to stay on topic for more than one paragraph, his run-on sentences and the way everything he was saying was just pulled from his ass or Twitter gossip — but the rest of the Internet population saw the name Spider-man next to hers and ran for the hills with it, thinking this was the confirmation that everything Karma Kane had worked towards, that she had worked towards, was about this masked spider fanatic all along.

Karma Kane had spent the weekend trying to do as much damage control as she could, sweeping Spider-man under as many rugs as she could find, and trying to retain the focus on the case finale she posted, but it felt pointless when her DM's were filled with questions about a masked superhero she did not know and had only mentioned a handful of times, in passing, like one would remark on the President or the Avengers Tower.

Kate wished she could go back to her 2016 self and stop her from ever bringing up that godforsaken spider and save herself from the torment of current days — but because time travel was only a thing in Hollywood, she was stuck living with her consequences, and cringing every time there was a new Karma Kane/Spider-man fanfiction on her timeline.

84 stories was 84 way way WAY too many.

But those problems were only the tip of the Kane/Kate iceberg. And currently, Kate had to handle much more immediate concerns, one of which being her unofficial trial being held in the Midtown cafeteria over the actual crime she had committed over the weekend.

"I still can't believe you didn't show!"

Blackwell v. Socialization. A truly harrowing case.

Kate speared a cherry tomato, frowning down at the now-bleeding fruit. "You said that already, Didi." Twenty-seven times, already.

But Didi, a pretty, dark-skinned girl dressed head to toe in baby pink, didn't seem to hear Kate yet again. Her hands flew through the air in exaggerated outrage, a fork clutched tight in one fist. She remained oblivious as the almost-weapon nearly speared a freshman walking by, leaving Kate to shoot a sympathetic grimace towards the poor girl.

"I just can't figure out why you didn't show!"

It had been almost three days since Friday night, when Kate had skipped Flash Thompson's party. And Didi Hopes was not about to let that go anytime soon.

Kate shrugged, nibbling at her bleeding tomato. "I was just tired, Deeds."

"Okay. That excuse works if you're trying to get the loser behind you in English to piss off and stop asking you out. That excuse doesn't work for parties like this one, the one you said you'd come to every time I asked you!"

"It's not an excuse! I really was just tired, I promise."

Didi paused to take a long sip of her cherry coke, slamming it down to the lunch table with a resounding 'thump'. She narrowed her eyes down the lunch table, "Is it too much to say I absolutely hate you now, Blackwell?"

"I'm sorry," and Kate did genuinely mean that apology, for the most part. She knew that Didi's whole life at Midtown was built around being everywhere and seeing everyone. Really, that was their entire trio's thing. Parties and football games and dances and social events of all assortments. Avoiding actual schoolwork (because most of their parents were rich enough to not give a shit) and flaunting privilege in pinks and flashy reds. And, usually? That was pretty fun, especially when there was free booze involved.

But the party was a Friday night, which was when Karma! got posted. Kate wasn't going to abandon that for an event that would be like every other one. And if she hadn't had that article to deal with, leaving no time to edit the latest episode until the day it had to be put up, maybe things would have be different. But Karma! came first.

None of her friends knew that, though, and her excuse still lacked, judging by Didi's sour expression. The girl angrily stabbed her rice dish, sending grains flying. "You know we're not going to be here forever, right?! We're seniors! We've only got so many parties left!"

"But there will be other parties," Kate promised, patting her friend's hand. "And I'll go to every other one with ya, I swear."

Didi pouted harder. "I just, do you know how much I missed you? I was all alone out there!"

Aliana, the unofficial leader of the trio, finally spoke up, half-laughing at Didi's dramatics. She shot a knowing look towards Kate across the table. "Don't believe a word she says. She was draped over literally anyone who even looked her way. She was fine."

"Ali, you're just jealous 'cause Nathan McClain was staring at my ass and not yours all night."

Across the table, Aliana scoffed and blew a strand of hair from her eyes. "As if. Nathan McClain is a B-. I would rather break veganism then let that boy near me."

Kate cringed a little, hiding her expression with a cucumber slice. She liked Ali, she really did but sometimes, her word choice was a little...grating. Maybe a tad superficial, especially with her tendency to using a grading scheme on her peers. If Ali wasn't Kate's best friend, she probably wouldn't like her all that much.

One of her Karma! characters was a similar way to Ali, and half based on her. Bea Lindon, a socialite with a pendant for petty crime. She was a fun recurring character to work with. Maybe she could revisit Bea, sometime...

"He's yummy!" Didi huffed. "And he speaks Spanish fluently! So not a B-."

"How would you even know he speaks Spanish fluently?"

"What d'ya mean?!"

Aliana chuckled, "Aren't you barely passing Spanish I, Deeds?"

"So-oo?"

"So-oo, he could literally just be making up words. He could just be like, naming vegetables in a deep voice at'cha."

"Well, either way, it was—"

Kate tuned herself out of the inevitable argument breaking out between Ali and Didi. It was all in good fun and common banter between the two girls — so common, she knew she didn't need to care about any part of it. Shallow judgements and pats to the ego; she could do without listening to all that, all the time.

Not that you're better, Blackwell, she cringed to herself. Keep the ego in check.

She bit down on a piece of cucumber and looked off to the rest of the cafeteria. As always, Midtown High was as crowded as ever, bustling with groups of all sizes. With her trio's signature table close to the middle, she could see just about everyone. A nice position, for a wannabe-detective.

Chess club had monopolized the table in the very back right, and the football jocks were draped across the two middle ones like sitting front and centre meant anything. Flash Thompson snickered with friends nearby. Kal Peters hung in between the two tables: she quickly looked away from him, lip curling. She watched two sophomore girls enter the lunchroom, chatting amongst themselves. Kate caught the word shoes fall from one of their lips.

Another kid scurried around them. She vaguely recognised him as Charlie Riggs. His father had a weird job. She remembered Ali talking shit about him...what was it again? She'd wanted to look into it for a possible case idea, and—

"—Blackwell? Hello?"

Kate blinked and returned to her table, where the argument had ceased. Aliana and Didi were looking at her, waiting for a reply she didn't have waiting.

"Hm?"

Ali rolled her eyes. "Girl. Where's your singular brain cell running off to?"

"You're rude," she threw back with little venom. "What did I miss? Done gushing about Nathan McClain's ass yet?"

"Eugh, no, and yes. We've moved onto your piece of ass, babe."

Kate scoffed. "Now I don't know who you could be talking about."

"Kal Peters!" Didi piped up. She leaned forward even more, her head on her baby-blue-tipped fingers right in front of Kate's face. "Ex-beau Peters, hello?!"

"We barely went out, Deeds. He's not an 'ex'."

"Okay, well, whatever he is or was or ain't, he was at the party and he was looking for you everywhere."

"Shut up. No he wasn't."

Didi shook her head, sending sprays of dark curls all around her face. "He totally was! He looked like a sad puppy dog, honestly. He came up to me all like, 'where's your pretty redhead gone?' and I was all like, 'far away from you, dipshit' and he was like, 'what does that mean?' and I was like, 'that means—'"

"—point is, he was obsessive," Ali butted in. "It was super embarrassing on his part."

Kate fidgeted with the bottom of her skirt. She regretted wearing short sleeves today; it would have been nice to have something to fold her shaky fingers into.

"Why would he be looking for me?"

"Because he's literally in love with you?"

"He's not—"

"—man's obsessed," Ali said. "Again, super embarrassing, considering he's the reason it didn't work out before and everyone knows he's a sad, shitfaced dirtbag...don't know why he thinks he'd get a second chance."

One of the other girls at end of their table, an olive-skinned, warm eyed freshman named Rachel, piped up. "Wait, why wouldn't you wanna go out with Kal Peters? He's such a dreamboat."

Ali rolled her eyes at the younger girl's enthusiasm, curling her lip in that haughty, quintessential Aliana Callahan way.

"Really, sweetie?" she said, voice dripping with condescension. "Cause everyone knows Kal Peters' is a sniveling little turd who doesn't know how to wipe his own ass properly, let alone know how to romance. He might look like an A, but he's a D-. And a D- that'll give it to anyone in aiming distance."

Rachel's shoulders slumped a little. "He seems like a nice guy..."

"Yeah. Seems, sweetie. Until you don't want to spend the night in his daddy's car and he says—"

"—Aliana."

The girl paused immediately at Didi's hushed warning. Her eyes darted up and met Kate's, which were glaring a very obvious, 'please shut up'. "I — point is, he's really not that cute."

The girl looked between Ali and Kate, thick eyebrows knitting together. In a moment of bravery, she snipped out, "Why would you go out with him, then? I mean, you are a Blackwell."

That was brave of Rachel, really, to defy Aliana Callahan's steady-sharp gaze. Kate would almost applaud it, if she wasn't mentally sinking into a hole and waiting for death to take her away from this conversation. If she had known Monday was going to bring this line of questioning, she might have just chanced staying home.

The last name drop didn't help her mood either.

"She literally didn't. He's a liar embellishing his thirty seconds of fame." Ali answered when Kate didn't say anything. "Okay? Doesn't matter. Point is, he's a tool and this is a pointless conversation. Move on."

Rachel slowly slunk back to her side of the table, muttering something under her breath.

Ali sighed and turned away from the girl. "Ugh. I feel like I'm going to break out into hives, talking about that loser boy so much. Aren't there way better people to run our mouths about?"

But Kate didn't respond, still stuck on the freshman's brassy question. She forgot that not everyone was around for the explosive event of last school year. And not everyone followed drama like drama followed her. And, thrice, Kal Peters in general.

To quote one Aliana Callahan: eugh.

The truth was, Kate and Kal didn't have much of a history together. He'd asked her out about eight months ago, and they had gone on three dates together. The first was really nice; mini-golf and dinner, and he kissed her cheek goodbye. The second was another fancy dinner, and he was much more forward, in a way less charming way. But it was fine enough for her to agree to a third, just because she knew it was expected. The third, after he'd paid for dinner again on a Friday night — after Kate had repeatedly offered to split the tab — he told her she could repay him in the backseat of his precious Rolls Royce.

When she said no, he told everyone she'd been desperate and gave it up on the first night. And that red-hot shame and mortification lasted forty-eight whole hours, until school on Monday when razor-tongued Ali had put her skills to work and screamed at him in front of everyone. Belittled him and made sure everyone knew it was all in his head.

It'd earned her two weeks detention, but she said it was worth it. That was just what you do for friends, Ali crowed, before changing the subject completely. They didn't talk about that a lot, but Kate thought about it. Some days, it was what kept her friends with Aliana, because she knew at the end of the day, she'd do anything for her.

Didi cleared her throat, probably realising how awkward everything was now — and that she was partly the cause. "Point is, he's such a loser, still. It's sad."

Kate laughed stiffly and poked at her salad. "Makes me kind of glad I sat this party out."

"Okay, yes. For that, I'm glad too. But!! You did miss Marcus' stunt into the pool, and this one was like, actually so funny, I almost pissed myself laughing. Like, he literally..."

Didi continued on with her tales of the party, and Kate tried to follow along at first. But when one story slipped into three, and they all felt pretty much the same, she didn't feel like she cared enough to focus. She'd rather escape into her own head, guiltily imagining a much more interesting life than this.

Kate liked her friends well enough. It wasn't their fault, it was hers.

Kate Blackwell was a one-dimensional character nowadays, and she seemed to only have a few things going on. Parties and boys and who was where, when, with who and why. She was rich, pretty and that's where the sentence ended.

And she used to be totally fine with that, because it got her out of her ghost house and away from the responsibilities attached to her stupid name. But then Karma Kane entered the picture, and Kate's 'real' life felt grey and drab next to solving murders and kicking ass and having people actually care about her crazy ideas. Sure, she didn't know those people like Ali and Didi, but Ali and Didi didn't know her like the people who knew the intrepid, probably insane, possibly ineffable, Karma Kane.

Some days, she just wanted to leave the insipid, invertebrate, pretty much inferior Kate Blackwell behind.

Kate blinked away the selfish idea. She glanced over dozens of heads and to the left corner, where two boys sat, heatedly arguing about something she couldn't make out. Her eyes skipped back and forth between the two, watching the flying hands and their faces grow redder and redder. She wondered, what in the world could be so dire and seemingly end-of-world for Peter Parker and Ned Leeds?

She didn't know either of them, really. Past Ned being in her Biology class, and Peter in her Algebra II and last year's Chemistry. Both were out of her circle and really out of most. They seemed to do their own thing, hung out with their own people and were fine with that. Apart from Peter's brief stint with Liz Toomes a couple years back, of all people — Kate still couldn't figure that one out — they were mainly labelled nerds at the bottom of the social pyramid.

Over the screaming crowd of the cafeteria, she couldn't hear a sound, but she watched as Peter broke into hard peals of laughter. His friend joined him not a moment later and they were both gasping for air as they laughed, practically dying over their lunches. What could be so unequivocally funny for Ned Leeds to be choking on his water, again and again, scarlet red and breathless?

Kate wondered when the last time she laughed that hard was.

"Blackwell? Oh my god, not again!"

Once again, Kate forced her mind from the rest of the world and back to the present. Parker and Leeds faded from view as she looked back towards her friends. "I'm sorry-y," she groaned, "I'm like, so out of it today."

"Girlie," Didi teased, "I'm gonna start thinking you really have nothin' up there if you do that one more time."

"Oh, ha ha, Deeds. Who's the one who failed their last chem test?"

"She's got you there," Ali butted in, poking at Didi's frown. She glanced over to the other girl. "But also, Blackwell, my darling. You okay?"

Instead of answering honestly, because Kate knew that they didn't really want that, she forced a laugh instead. "What's that? Cold-hearted Callahan, caring about someone?!"

"Oh, piss off, airhead!"

After that, lunch finished in a blur. Kate barely remembered finishing her salad or carrying conversation. But she got up anyways, and waved Didi goodbye, reciting the same thing they always said before linking arms with Ali like they always did before Biology, and — oh.

As they left the cafeteria, Kate had the cold, burning realization that everything was exactly the same, pretty much every day at Midtown, and she had been doing the exact same thing for years. How stupid is that, she questioned, nibbling a hangnail. And is it worse, that all I want is to leave it all behind for Karma?

"I'm so tired," Ali yawned, leaning into Kate's arm. "God, bio's gonna be such a bore."

Kate barely mustered a 'mm' back.

Did she really only ever think about Karma!? No, Kate assured herself, only to second-guess that immediately. She wasn't really sure, honestly. And wasn't that pathetic?

It was her senior year at Midtown High. One of the best secondary schools in the country. And she was Kate Blackwell, one of the descendants of one of the greatest families in the country. She was pretty, and well-liked, and she had kept good enough grades through her years despite her reputation of being an airhead. Nothing revolutionary, but her English grade was strong, and she wasn't dumb. She had a bright future ahead of her, that's what people told her.

Course, they tell you that, Kate mused bitterly, but they're staring at your chest or your lips or judging your clothes or your house or your money and like, maybe nothing she was actually mattered? Was that too big of an existential thought or was that just the truth? Was she just a sack of pretty flesh and bones for someone to someday pose by their side? Was that why she clung to Karma? Because it was the first time she'd ever done anything for herself and by herself and — ohmygodKatestopspiralling.

Existentialism on a Monday really wasn't a great idea, but Kate felt her sinking into the thought pool anyway.

She didn't think about the negatives when she was Karma Kane, because Karma Kane didn't have to worry about any of that. Karma didn't have a dad she hadn't spoken to in five years, despite hearing him scream a floor below her every miserable second of her life. Karma wasn't lonely, even though she was alone all the time, because she liked her own company. And no one bugged her or bothered her or made her remember the real world, because it didn't matter. She was Karma Kane; she did what she wanted. Faceless, badass, teen detective.

But it's not real, Blackwell.

"Are we still on for tonight?"

Kate slowly drifted out of her misery, looking back towards her friend. "Tonight?"

"Yes, tonight. You told me you'd look into those annoying college apps...?"

Kate racked her brain, trying to remember that specific conversation. But all she came up with was images of dank alleyways and faces frozen in screams, faux cases instead of real life evidence.

"Oh, yeah! 'Course I remember."

Her friend looked extremely unconvinced, squinting over at her suspiciously. "Are you still alive in there, Blackwell?"

"I — yes. Yeah! Sorry, I just remembered I forgot my bio textbook in my locker."

"Oh, d'ya want me to wait with you?"

Kate waved her off, side-stepping towards her locker. Her Biology textbook rustled in her bag at the movement. "You're fine. The bell's about to go anyways."

"Are you sure you don't need me to like, walk your spacey ass to class or something? Make sure you're not permanently stuck in la-la land?"

"I'll be okay," Kate reassured, like the good little liar she was. "Sides, considering you're late to literally every class, ever? Giving you a headstart might mean you're on time for once."

Ali rolled her eyes and danced a couple steps ahead. "Piss off, idiot. I'm still showin' up ten minutes late."

"Really?"

"I have a reputation to uphold, Blackwell!" She looked back, grinning. "I'll see ya after school?"

"'Course. Meet me at the front."

"Sweet. Later, Blackwell."

"See ya, Callahan."

Kate watched as her friend went, taking her time to talk to those around her as well as swiping idly on her phone. When she finally turned a corner, she planted her forehead against her locker, hard.

"You're better than this, Blackwell," she muttered harshly. She thumped her head a little harder. "Focus up. Get it together."

The pep talk didn't help much, though. If anything, the dull ache in her forehead only made her feel more spacey, and more like she didn't want to be there.

"Not like home's better, though," Kate hummed into her locker. "Take what ya get and—"

The sound of an opening locker made Kate pause her mumbled monologue and look up from her own. To her slight surprise, Peter Parker stood a couple paces down, rustling through his bag and throwing things into his clearly disorganized locker space. She watched him flip through a notebook, catching glimpses of black ink, scribbles and what vaguely looked like sketches.

Abandoning her fears in her locker for a second, she studied the boy to her left curiously.

Sometimes, Kate wondered what it must be like, to be a kid like Peter Parker or Ned Leeds. They never seemed to be without friends, and an actual smile. They seemed to like school, they liked their friends, everything seemed simple for them. Maybe not everything for Parker — she knew there was something someone had said about his home life, she couldn't remember what. But he still seemed satisfied with his life. Like he liked where he was.

It would be nice, Kate thought to herself. Just waking up and going to school. Living like, say, Ned Leeds? Chem assignment done easy-breezy, new Lego sets, movies on Fridays, date with the girl that does morning announcements. Easy and enjoyable. That didn't even sound real: that sounded like a life only movie characters had. And—

Kate blew out a breath and unlocked her locker. Stop staring down random kids in the hallway, she warned herself: becoming Midtown's creep is not the solution to any of this. She threw a random textbook inside and promptly shut it again. She clicked the lock shut, gave it one last tug and pulled away satisfied. She turned, taking a step down the hall and—

"—ahH!"

"I—I'm so so so so sorry!"

One second she was walking and the next she was stumbling towards the ground, face forward, and then—

— the next second she was upright again and held up by two sweater-clad arms, surprisingly much stronger than they looked, belonging to one Peter Parker. The same Peter Parker who had been living in her thoughts all lunch period, a Peter Parker she hadn't really thought of or cared about until that day.

Now she was stumbling into his arms, closer than she ever thought she'd be to the guy. Is this karma? Actually, no, just bad luck. Right? Shit, do I really not know the difference?!

"Oh," Kate breathed shakily, leaning away from him a little. "Uh...hey?"

"I am so sorry," he stammered, staring at her with large, panic filled eyes. He had a slight height advantage so he automatically had to look down for eye contact, but the boy's eyes reached straight for the ground, instead. "I-I wasn't looking where I was going, and I-I just, I'm sorry! Are you okay?! Anything broken!?"

"Uh, yeah. Nope. I'm good. You stopped me from face planting into your shoe, so..."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry," Peter repeated, like he should have to apologize for saving her dignity. "I, uh..." he quickly let go of her shoulders. His hands fell to his sides, fists clenched. "Sorry."

"You're fine. Thanks."

"For what?"

Kate raised a brow. "For not making me taste floor?"

"Oh. Oh! Y-yeah. Sure. It, it was nothing. Really. Any, anyone could do it."

Well, that was a weird thing to say. Like, of all the things to say to someone saying thanks, that might be the weirdest one Kate's heard. But she chalked it up to nerves; Peter didn't seem the people-person type. Let alone small talk with strangers, let alone strangers with Blackwell level baggage. Sort of stereotypical of the nerd cliché, but if the shoe fit...

"Well, thanks. Even if anyone could do it." She half-smiled and slipped by the boy, who was still staring at her in a half-shocked, half-worried nature. "Uh. Seeya, Parker."

As she hurried away, there was what almost sounded like a mumble of sound behind her. But Kate wasn't quite sure, and she didn't want to be the one to look stupid if she turned around and asked if he was talking to her. That wasn't Blackwell-typical behaviour. Besides, it wasn't like they had anything else to say: a simple thanks, and awkward exchange, and that was it. Never to speak to one another again.

"Focus up, Blackwell," she muttered under her breath as she merged with the hallway traffic. She blinked away the emerging character outline her story-obsessed brain was generating for Peter Parker. He couldn't really be more important than surviving the rest of the school day, or figuring out how to make Friday up to Didi — or figuring out what to do with Karma Kane, and the growing existential pit filling up her mind.

But that'd have to wait until after Biology.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Honestly this is the only thing I've fully committed myself to in...a while, haha. But it's nice, and while I'm not thrilled with this chapter, I'm okay enough to post it and move along. I've had these chapters prewritten for a while and I'm essentially editing them back as I go while writing about 10-15 chapters down the road, so my brain feels like it's playing ping pong. But it's fun.

Kate's a fun character, honestly and I think as I'm editing I'm liking her even more. I also think I've written 'Blackwell' about a thousand times in these three chapters...and literally half the book is just that. But it's for plot PURPOSES so repetition is maybe okay. Maybe? I dunno haha. I haven't slept in a while, I'm delirious.

THANK YOU
for reading.