Please excuse her absolutely shameless giggle. "It's a comic book character with spider powers, or whatever, wasn't really my thing. His name's Peter Parker though."

Willa shifts to rest her head against his chest, realizing with a pang of--what's the opposite of homesickness? She's not sure. Regardless, she gets hugged so much more here. By her dad, by Arthur. She didn't know how much she wanted it until she started getting it from them.

Of course back home no one ever tried to knock her down to probably do worse. Back home there's no unexplained slashes of blood in the halls.

Quietly, she says, "I thought he was going to kill me. I mean... I think that's what I thought. Mostly I was thinking about running away."