The Daily Grind (Solo)

Just as the clock hit four am, a panicked Willow rushed into her apartment complex. She galloped up the stairs and as soon as she made it to her apartment, she tip toed in. Her curfew was 11 pm considering it was a Thursday night, but she went on patrol and had a scuffle with some petty thieves. Of course she originally thought they were petty, but then it turned out they had back up of 14 guys, four of them with powers. Luckily Willow was able to turn them into the authorities, after a deep gash in her thigh along with a bloody nose and a black eye. Of course she had her usual bumps and bruises, but this just added to the whole thing.
Just as she silently shut the door behind her, Willow looked down at her leg. She had tied her sweatshirt around the gash to stop the blood flow, but there was still a nasty red stain on her grey sweatshirt. Great. Before she could get a step further a woman with fiery red hair emerged from the shadows with a panicked look on her face. "Willow Marie Castle! Where have you been!? Have you been fighting again!? God this is what I was afraid of if you moved out here! Getting involved with gangs, violence, and... WELL WHO KNOWS WHAT!! You cou-" Her Aunt began with wide eyes, grabbing her chin and turning it side to side and looking at the new collections of cuts and bruises.

"Whoa whoa whoa calm down. I wasn't in a fight nor am I in a gang, I'm just really unlucky and clumsy.." Willow cut her off, her face still being moved around as Ivy inspected it. Of course this answer didn't please her, sure the first couple of times she brushed it off, but now this being the 10th or 11th time, she was worried. She was taking care of her best friend's daughter and it looks like she just hosted a fight club every night when she came home. "You do realize it's Thursday? Your curfew is 11 and it's 4 am! I was worried sick not sure if my niece was coming home! Especially after what happened, who knows who could have snatched you!" Ivy continued, letting out a sigh after she finally released Willow's face.
The thing with Aunt Ivy, she was an amazing private detective and solved hundreds of homicide cases, but for whatever reason she could never pin something on Willow. Willow thinks it's because she doesn't want to believe her little 'Cupcake' was up to no good and she rather be ignorant, but the other half of her thinks she can be pretty blonde sometimes. In Willow's defense, just the other day Ivy had come home after an entire day on a homicide suicide case, only to have Willow explain to her how to use facebook and how to turn on the stove... Some people are just excel at some things and.. don't at others..

"I know Aunt Ivy, I really tried to get home in time but I scraped myself up after a nasty fall while skateboarding then... Well transportation was slow.." Willow lied, running her hands through her hair while doing so. Aunt Ivy obviously wasn't pleased with this answer, but couldn't say anything more than that. "Willow... If there's something going on, you can trust me and talk to me about it, alright? I know I'm your legal guardian but I'm still a cool kid~" Her Aunt told her, nudging her in the arm slightly while doing so. "Uh... cool people don't refer to themselves as a 'cool kid' " Willow stated, cringing slightly. "Yeah that was a long shot... The point is, I understand that you might be going through dificult times right now. You lost important people, you moved across the country, and now you're just stuck with me. It's crazy, it's different... and I know sometimes it's hard to talk to people about it, but Cupcake, I don't want you to go through something like this alone.." The red head explained, grabbing her head and kissing the top of it.
Willow was entirely grateful for this, and she wished she could tell her... but it would endanger her safety. Willow was making too many enemies way too fast, who knows what would happen if they found out her identity, let alone who she was living with. It wasn't worth the risk. The girl gave her aunt a cheeky smirk "Since we had this lovely bonding moment, does this mean no punishment?" She asked, hoping for the best since she was injured. "HAH! No way, you're going to bed, going to school, then cleaning the entire apartment all Friday... AND you're not allowed out Friday night." Of course Willow expected this, but it was worth a shot.

Shrugging, the girl headed to her bedroom, hiding her limp poorly as she shut the door behind her. She then lazily threw her backpack on her bed and peeled her bloody clothes off of her body, hopping in the shower. After what felt like a million years of a warm paradise, Willow hopped out of the shower and tied a towel around her chest. Instead of hopping in bed like a normal person, she pulled out her Spider Girl suit and stared at it for a few moments. She had only been doing this for a few months now, but it felt longer then that, she was tired. Keeping this secret identity, along with the constant fear that someone would find out was starting to pack up on her shoulders. She had no one to tell, no close friends, no.. nothing... Despite her usual 'lone wolf' bravado, for the first time, Willow was desperately lonely.
Trying to push back the wrenching heart ache, her eyes landed on blood stains, a huge one in particular. Her left thigh and mask was covered in blood, meaning it was time for lemon juice and baking soda. Willow already had this concoction stored in her room so she just got her usual tooth brush and started scrubbing the suit in the sink. "Be a hero they said, it would be fun they said." Willow growled, looking at herself in the mirror. Damn her face was messed up, she was going to have a hard time explaining the giant black eye and gash on her cheek. Luckily the cut on her thigh wasn't as deep as she originally thought, so the blood flow had stopped. The only thing she had to remember was to be gentle so she didn't tear it up again.

By the time Willow had finished scrubbing and cleaning her suit, it was 5:30. She still had homework and had to be at school in two hours... It looks like she was packing two cups of coffee today..

Willow had prepared an entire pot of coffee by 5:45 am, she had managed to scribble down the rest of her homework and at this point was drinking the coffee straight out of the pot. Following this she lazily shoved her hair up into a bun, threw on a pair of old jeans, then a purple button up that was way too big. Because of this Willow had to roll up the sleeves, but taking one look in the mirror she realized how beaten and bruised her face was on top of the fact that she was still limping because of the gash in her leg. She reallllyyy hoped that it wouldn't get infected, she cleaned it as much as she could and it stopped bleeding, that was a good sign right? Nonetheless the girl lazily threw her stuff in her tattered nude canvas bag, followed by brewing another pot of coffee, she was going to need it.
Spider Girl walked to her room and grabbed her suit, looking it up and down, she had patched the holes last night and had gotten out all the blood stains, but man did it make her take a second to think about what she was doing. She had just recently gotten her powers, had no idea what she was doing, move across the country, AND she had no friends to confide in, not even her own Aunt knew! She kept telling herself it was the right thing to do, just like in the movies when you get an awesome gift you use it for good! It's what her parents would have wanted right!? But... she was always doubting. She wasn't a good hero, or at least good at being a hero, she wasn't any Titan, and she wasn't good at making ally's, she was really all alone. Sure she went about preaching that relationships were awful and messy, but maybe she needed one to help stabilize her life?

Pushing the sad thoughts from her mind once again, why did it keep coming up!? Every time she had a pity fest she told herself no more, then of course something would remind her and she'd get all gloomy again. Rolling her eyes at her own dramatic-ness, Willow would shove the suit in the bottom of her backpack and set down the empty coffee pot. When she walked out back to the living room her Aunt would be in the kitchen cooking them both a simple breakfast since time was their enemy. "Good morning by Cupcake, did you sleep- JESUS CHRIST!" Aunt Ivy began only to turn and look at her Niece's swollen eyeball. With the drama of it all, she dropped the buttered biscuit on the ground, butter down of course. "I'm still eating that." Willow stated, picking up the biscuit and setting it on the counter. Not dealing with her crap today, Aunt Ivy rushed to her side and grabbed her face, looking at her black and purple eye. "This got way worse over night!? Willow... god Willow.. I am not coming to school to pick you up if you get bullied over this." She complained, running to the freezer and tossing a bag of peas over her shoulder, Willow catching it easily. "I wasn't going to ask you, if anything it'll show these West Coasters who's the coolest kid from the Bronx." She sassed, mimicking the Bronx accent towards the end. "Aren't you funny. Well I'm sure to get multiple calls from your teachers today, they'll probably think I abuse you or something." With this Ivy ran her hands through her red hair and sighed, just deciding to finish up their breakfast.
She pushed over the breakfast sandwich to Willow, which she happily took a giant bite out of. "I'm not going to be home until 10 tonight, I have a special case that's taking me to New Jersey.. BUT when I come home this place better be SPOTLESS or I'm taking away your phone for a month!" She began slowly, trying to put her foot down. "A month!?" Willow reiterated, astonished that her aunt had the guts to make that threat. "A month!" Her aunt said finally, taking a big bite of her own sandwich. "Wow auntie, never thought you actually had the guts to put your foot down." Willow murmured, a sly smile forming on her lips as she watched her Aunts response. She got like this sometimes, suddenly Willow would come home from an accident and then Ivy would get super protective and motherly. Then after a few days she'd go back to her care free young self. "Don't patronize me or... IT'LL BE TWO MONTHS!" Ivy established, finishing her sandwich and making her tea. "I'm quaking in my boots." Willow commented sarcastically, finishing her breakfast and pouring the rest of her coffee in a large travel mug.

"I'm pretty sure it's shaking.." The fiery red head shot back equally as sarcastic, giving her niece a smile. "Who cares! I'm the delinquent from the Bronx remember!?" Willow followed up as she headed towards the door. "Sure you are kid, you could handle yourself in a fight even if you tried!... Have fun at school!" With that final goodbye Willow shut the door, still holding the frozen peas to her eye. She began her walk to school and took tiny sips of her coffee, the bags under her eyes very prominent today. After about 15 minutes of walking she tossed the peas into a dumpster and took out her phone to play Pokemon Go, despite the rest of the world forgetting its existence, Willow played it diligently, she was level 30 and was extremely proud of her collection.
Finally she arrived to school where she got stared and pointed at. She didn't really mind, it's not like what they said actually made her feel any type of way since she didn't care about any of them. Nonetheless she walked to her locker and got out her textbooks for the first half of the day. Right when she shut her locker a couple of guys walked up to her, they were all extremely tall, wore DC shoes and converse shoes, had too many holes in their jeans, and sported a beanie. "Can I help you?" Willow shot at them, coming off way more harsh than she meant to be. "Whoa whoa calm down there Viper, we just wanted to know what happened to you." He asked her hesitantly, his hands up in defense, he had a thick Australian accent. Willow pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Sorry.. I'm just really clumsy and I suck at long boarding..and it's Willow, not Viper." She lied, which peaked their interest.

"Long boarding? Well you could always come hang out with us, we could teach you to long board so you don't end up with another nasty bruise." He told her, one of his friends nodding in agreement. "All of us hang at this skate shop in downtown Jump called XSFX, you should come down there later today." The other guy suggested, smiling at her. "I'd rather not.." Willow murmured, looking off to the side. Sure she wanted friends, but imagine what would happen if Ivy found out! "Come on sheila, it'll be fun! You don't even have to bring a board!" He continued to press, making her roll her eyes. "She said no, lets leave it at that." The third one finally said, giving Willow a dirty look. "You're no fun!" One of them poked back, all three of them slowly congregating away. "Don't worry Viper, I'll convince you by the end of the day!" The Australian piped up as he walked away. "It's not-!.. Eh what do I care.." Willow sighed, trudging towards her first class...