𝟎𝟏 - 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏

It seemed to happen within the span of milliseconds. There was a flash of blue and red above her, and the shout of a teenage boy.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you, my friend!'

The ball of colour zipped through the city buildings, seeming to fly through the air like some sort of bug. As Manish fell towards the earth, the bug-person caught him with some sort of thin white string-like material and pulled him. Manish was caught and brought safely back to the ground. People stopped going on with their business and stared as the person in the colourful suit brought the boy back to the ground.

He put his hands on Manish's shoulders, 'Are you okay?'

The boy looked at him with glossy eyes, before spotting Parvati and running into her arms, bursting into tears. She held him tight, crying as well. It must've been a scary experience for him: thinking you were going to die and then being saved at the last second. His feelings would be indescribable at this moment.

'Manish...' wailed Parvati into his hair, 'Manish why would you do that?'

But the boy kept on crying, and her shirt was soon wet with his endless tears. Aunties and older women had started to crowd them, groping at Manish to calm him down. But Parvati wouldn't give him to anyone. She held onto his body tightly, making sure no one would be able to grab him and take her brother away from her. The colourful guy walked over to them, tying up his damaru-looking web-slinger.

'S- spiderman?' she stammered, seeing his colourful form through the mist of her eyes.

'Yes. It's me!' he squatted next to them, his long hair bouncing in the slight wind, looking at Manish, 'My guy... are you okay? What happened?'

Manish had his head in his hands, shaking, 'A- ask Parvati...'

Indian Spiderman looked at her, and she could see the concerned expression made by his colourful mask. The way his eye patches narrowed slightly, 'Is it fine if you could tell me?

Parvati wiped her tears with her sleeve, 'He's suicidal.'

'I could tell that.'

'He's been through too much. His parents were very bad to him. We adopted him. He was still in con- contact...' she burst into tears again, holding her brother tighter.

It was evident on Spiderman's face that he hadn't understood a single word she said. But at that moments Parvati couldn't care less if he'd understood or not. Manish was now coughing from crying so much, and she planted hard kisses on his cheek.

'Don't leave me like that, ok?' she muttered.

'No didi... no I won't do that every again, I promise,' cried Manish back, burying his face into her shoulder.

Spiderman stood up and faced the crowd, 'I would like if everyone would, er, leave. I know something scary happened here, but we need to leave these two alone until they sort themselves out. I would really appreciate it if you guys could, er... politely leave.'

The people started to disperse at his word, and the general hubbub began to start up again, as though they had just not seen a boy jump of a building and get saved at the last second. Spiderman walked over to them and sat on his knees.

'Hey, do you want me to help you get to school or something?' he gently asked, over the new sounds of police sirens wailing. Paramedics came and took Manish, loading him up into the ambulance.

Parvati sniffed, shaking her head, 'No... it's okay I'll manage.'

'You absolutely sure?'

'Yeah, I'm positive.'

'Alright...' he got up. His mask still seemed to show an expression of concern, 'If you need anything... I'm here. Okay?'

She nodded, brushing dirt of her stockings as she stood up. Indian Spiderman took off with his web slinger, flying through the city out of sight. People stared at her, but they would always look. Parvati straightened herself and walked towards her school, trying to stop her hands from shaking.

***

'Herons formula is a formula created by Heron of Alexandria. It is used to find the area of a triangle in terms of the length of its sides...'

Parvati had started to doodle on her maths textbook instead of looking at the board. Actually, to be fair, no one was looking at the board. The only one who was actually paying attention was Pavitr Prabhakar... but he was weird like that. He tapped her shoulder, passing a note.

Pay attention.

Parvati stared at it, before replying.

My brother nearly committed suicide, how can i?

She slid it back, yawning. Pavitr read the message and his eyes widened. He very quickly scribbled a reply in such bad handwriting that she struggled to read it.

What the heck?! Did he actually?

Yep.

Damn. Why though? Didn't he say that he was fine after going to a therapist?

Yeah he did. But obviously he's been lying since he wouldn't need to do that if he were okay. I'm very worried about him.

As you should be. How come he's not dead though? Did he stop?

No, he did actually jump of a building. But Spiderman came and saved him before he hit the ground.

Pavitr winced slightly for some reason. She had expected his reaction to be glad... not what he actually did.

Well... it's good he did. Otherwise who knows what would've happened.

Class went on by as normally, and Parvati's page for maths notes was full of doodles she'd drawn instead of actual formulas. The teacher left the room five minutes earlier before lunch break, causing the entire class to break into havoc as soon as she left the room. Eventually they were dismissed by another teacher.

Parvati hung around Pavitr. She wasn't friends with him, but she wasn't simply classmates either. It didn't exactly make sense but she went with the flow. You could say she was situated somewhere in the middle of friends and classmates: close but not close.

Pavitr was looking at someone as he chewed on his food. She followed his line of vision and smirked.

'Gayatri Singh, huh? You don't seem to get enough of her, don't you?'

He grinned sheepishly, 'Shut up. I'm only looking at her. Not admiring.'

'Same thing.'

'No they aren't! This is proof that you don't pay attention in English class.'

'Oh! Who said?' Parvati waved her roti around in mock offend.

'Me.'

She rolled her eyes. Pavitr could be annoying, but he was the only person she had to interact with in the school. Everyone else didn't really like her, so she was shunned from group to group until she ended up with him. Pavitr had also experienced the same thing, so they both latched onto each other... like little leeches.

He really liked Gayatri Singh. Like really liked her. Head-over-heels. Parvati loved teasing him about it, and seeing how annoyed he would get. It would sting her a little, for she did like Pavitr as well... but enough to make her feel content when he was happy. So she ignored her feelings and let him enjoy.

'Y'know... I wonder why the entire school practically hates you,' Pavitr said, sitting down beneath a tree.

Parvati joined him, 'Yeah, I wonder what they have against us.'

'Ah, keyword there, dear. I said "you", not "us",' he started to giggle.

She pulled on his long hair, making him wince between his laughs.

'Shut up or I'll go announce to Gayatri that you like her,' she threatened.

'Oh! Blackmail by my own team!' Pavitr mimed fainting, 'Plus, I don't like her anyways.'

Parvati gave him a look, 'Really? Then who spends every waking hour at school gawking at her- you're doing it now! Or talking about how her hair flies so smoothly in the wind, or now the sun catches on her irises, making them turn hazel or whatever.'

Pavitr raised an eyebrow, 'Hey! I can also talk about you in that way!'

'Please. Humour me.'

'Game on! You're eyes don't turn hazel in the sun... they turn the most gorgeous amber colour, like freshly mined topaz coming from the depths of the earth and hitting the golden rays of the sun upon taking their first breath of the earth's air. You're hair flows down your back like the Ganga, an embodiment the spirits of the mighty and divine goddesses as they bless you with your extravagance and bea-'

'Okay that's enough Pavitr,' she started to laugh.

He folded his arms, 'I won.'

'Only just. Only just!'

***