Eva relaxed. She took a deep breath and slowly turned her head. When Arachne didn’t even budge, she tried moving a bit faster. The spider atop her head remained in place. Eva did a light jog around the room to no detriment of the spider.
“Alright, I’m going to try stepping.”
That gave the spider some panic. At least, Eva thought it was panic. The legs touching her shoulders rapidly tapped against her cheek. The fangs at the top of her vision twitched and trembled.
“Alright, stop,” she said. “Right shoulder for yes, left shoulder for no.”
Her left shoulder received several hard taps.
“I can take my clothes and several small objects, including books. You’re pretty small.”
Again, Arachne tapped ‘no.’
Eva glanced out the window. The sun had yet to rise, but the sky had lightened to a much lighter blue. “Alright, hang on, we’re going to double time it then.”
Once the spider had her legs back in position, Eva took off at a run.
Eva’s school was along the edge of downtown. It wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes at a full run. Stepping would bring the time down to a mere five minutes with a decent amount of rest between steps.
With Arachne on her head, things were a bit different. She didn’t want to run too fast for fear of knocking her off. Arachne wrapped a pair of legs beneath Eva’s chin to help keep her from bouncing on her head.
They got to the school in just under an hour, plenty of time before classes started.
“Arachne,” Eva said, “time to hide.” She reached for her book bag, but her hands came up empty. Eva sighed. Her bag was still full of gold from two nights ago, lying in her room.
Arachne didn’t notice or didn’t care about Eva’s minor frustration. She slipped off Eva’s head and straight down her shirt.
Eva burst out giggling. It took a serious effort to keep from swatting at the tickling spider.
Once Arachne settled into place, her long legs wrapped firmly around Eva’s body, Eva peeked down her shirt. She was met with red eyes staring up at her from beneath her developing chest. The curved outside edges of the spider’s fangs rested lightly against her sternum.
“Well,” Eva said, “I hope you’re happy with yourself. You’re in for a boring few hours.”
One of Arachne’s legs carefully loosened and tapped her left shoulder.
“Uh huh. You say that now. We’ll see you singing a different tune by the end of English.”
With that, Eva walked into school to begin her last day of middle school.
—
“I don’t believe you.”
Arachne tapped out a ‘no’ once again.
Eva looked both ways before crossing the street. “I was bored. Especially during math. We didn’t even have a test, just sat around waiting for the next class.”
Peeking down her shirt, Arachne just sat, staring. Her fangs slightly twitched against Eva’s chest.
“Well,” Eva said, “we’re almost there. Are you going to get back on my head?”
Arachne hesitated. The leg that had been tapping her left shoulder lifted. Yet it never tapped Eva’s shoulder. Instead, the rest of her legs loosened and she carefully made her way out from under Eva’s shirt.
Ready for her moving, Eva did not burst into giggles this time. Instead, she marveled at how delicately the spider moved across her skin. By all rights, Arachne’s sharp limbs should have given her several shallow cuts at the very least. Healing cuts was the first thing one learned with blood magic, but that she didn’t have to was a fairly big deal to her.
With Arachne back on her head, Eva made the rest of the way to the Thompson clinic. A driver gave her a bit of an odd look, but didn’t stop.
The chime rang its friendly tune as Eva entered the lobby. Nurse Vallenger looked up from her computer and gave Eva a smile.
“Hello, Eva–” The nurse gave a startled shriek as her eyes locked on the spider on Eva’s head.
Eva could feel Arachne’s limbs tense as she tried to calm the nurse. Well, that went well.
Doctor Thompson emerged from the back room. He put himself between the nurse and the front door, looking ready to attack, without even a second of hesitation. The hesitation came when he saw Eva. His eyes flicked from her face to her head and back several times. To his credit, he didn’t start screaming. A brief look of realization passed over his face before he sighed.
“Calm down, Kattie. It is just Eva.” He gave a bit of a glare at the girl. “I’m sure she knows she has a rubber spider on her head.”
Rubber? Eva frowned. “Don’t be startled doctor.” She held out her arm in front of her face. It was a bit awkward to watch Arachne balance her long legs on a narrow surface, but the spider climbed off her head and into her open palm. “Arachne is very much alive.” She brought her other hand together to give the large spider some room.
Doctor Thompson went wide-eyed. “That’s…”
“A West African tarantula,” Eva lied. “I’m sure I’ve mentioned her before. I thought I’d bring her in while I said goodbye.” Eva looked to the still petrified nurse. “Sorry for scaring you, Mrs. Vallenger.”
The nurse gave less than a halfhearted smile. “I–I always thought daddy long-legs were cute.”
“That’s nice, I guess,” Eva said slowly.
Doctor Thomson frowned at his colleague before turning back to Eva. “I may be a veterinarian, but I’m no expert in spiders. Still, I thought tarantulas were covered in fur and poisonous bristles.”
Eva lifted Arachne back up to her shoulder from where the spider quickly moved to Eva’s head. “Most do, there are a few that don’t. Arachne is one of those.” She smiled as Arachne’s fangs came into view. “You probably don’t want to be bitten by these, though,” she said with a gesture to the dangling fangs.
“You don’t seem very concerned.”
Eva gently stroked one of the dangling legs. “She is quite friendly. I’m sure she wouldn’t object to being touched, if you wanted,” she said, directed more at Arachne than the doctor.
“I think I will pass.” He glanced at the nurse who was shaking her head. “You said something about goodbye?”
“Yeah. I’m moving to Montana for the foreseeable future. I might stop by on occasion, but I am afraid I won’t be volunteering here this summer.”
He gave a light chuckle. “That’s a shame, I was considering hiring you on with pay this summer.”
“I’m sure you were,” Eva said with a mirrored chuckle. She glanced at the unusually quiet nurse and felt a pang of sympathy for the poor woman. “Well, I suppose I’ll be taking off then.” Eva turned towards the door and opened it.
“Eva,” Doctor Thompson called after her, “you’re always welcome here. Perhaps just a bit of warning before bringing any pets.”
Eva smiled and waved goodbye. She walked out the door and immediately ran to the nearest alley.
At Eva’s prodding, Arachne unfurled herself into a human form. A grin split across her face when she turned to Eva.
“Did you see her face?” Arachne cackled. “I want to go back there and just casually crawl up to her. Maybe put one leg on her foot.”
“Arachne, I like her. She’s nice. Don’t be mean.” Eva frowned at the spider-woman’s laugh. “And if you get near her foot, you’re going to get stepped on.”
Arachne’s laugher ceased. She puffed out her chest and said, “Just who do you think I am? As if a mere human could hurt me by stepping on me.”
“Still,” Eva continued, ignoring Arachne’s boasts, “if that is how everyone reacts then we are going to have a pretty bad time.”
“Maybe the first time. They would get used to it if you are always seen with me.” Arachne frowned, then began to look a bit sick. “Maybe,” she started, hesitantly, “maybe if you kept me in a cage. After getting people used to me in a cage, you can let me out around them. Then we can do away with the cage altogether.”
“That is,” Eva tried to find the right words, “unexpectedly thoughtful of you.”