PETER 🕷

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"MAY! CODE MAYDAY! MAY, PLEASE HELP ME!"

Calm down, Peter, I'm sure you're just hallucinating. Wait—no, that's not a good thing. Hold on. I'm sure this is just a dream. Yeah, I seriously hope this is just a dream.

The last thing I remember was falling asleep at my desk (Spanish homework til' 3AM, sigh), and now I'm waking up tangled in my spider-webs. I can't move my arms, and everything is sticking to my shirt, and I'm late for school, and everything is going wrong, and May's gonna' walk in to see—

May's going to walk in.

And see me covered in spider-webs.

AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW I'M SPIDER-MAN.

"Never mind, May!" I yelled, twisting around in my chair, "don't come in here, everything's fine! False alarm!"

Unfortunately (like my life), I heard her footsteps nearing from the kitchen anyways. I felt my heart sink as soon as the door started creaking open. Okay, okay, play cool. Just pretend there was a giant spider that did this—NO—I'd rather not think about a spider infestation, please help.

"Pete?" May said, her head popping through the doorway, "everything okay?"

I froze. "It's not what it looks like."

"Is there something that it's supposed to look like?"

"No."

"Because all I'm seeing is a teenager who's late for school."

I blinked, utterly confused (again). If I walked into my nephew's room to see him covered in spider-webs, I'd be horrified, and I'd call the anti-bug people as soon as possible. I'd also probably scream and run away, but this is why I'm not ready to take care of a child yet. Or ever. Children can be scary.

"You can't see the webs?" I said weakly, twisting around in my chair.

May frowned. "No, Peter, what webs?"

"Seriously? Are you messing with me?" I asked, "because you know I hate it when you mess with me, because I can never tell if you're being serious or not."

The estranged look on my Aunt's face was enough to tell me that she was definitely not messing with me. Either I was hallucinating, or she was, or we both were, because I know for a fact that I am covered in spider-webs that I didn't make.

"Peter are you okay?" she said, pacing across the room and slapping her hand across my forehead, "do you have a fever?"

"No," I said bluntly, "I'm just covered in invisible webs that apparently you can't see."

I need to call Mr. Stark about this, maybe he can help. Or not, since I don't have his number, and Happy won't answer any of my messages. But—I don't know what to do, and May is looking at me like I've sprouted eight legs—WAIT AM I TURNING INTO A SPIDER?

"Oh, Pete, today's your birthday, remember?" May laughed, "when you turn seventeen, you see the red-string that connects you and your soulmate for the first hour after you wake up."

Okay, so no spider (yay!).

I blinked. "I forgot about that."

"Yes, and you also forgot that homeroom started an hour ago," she sighed, beginning to walk towards the door, "and remind me to take you to the eye-doctor to check your sight. I'm concerned that you're confusing spider-webs for red strings."

!

Okay, Peter, either pretend you're blind, or say it's because you're Spider-Man. Whatever happens, May cannot know that I'm a superhero, because then she won't let me stop crime. And crime must be stopped.

"I have no eyes!" I said, rolling out of my chair, "hard to see, very hard."

May just left the room.

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I'M VERY, VERY LATE.

Even after rushing out of my apartment, getting on a train, getting off a train, and running to school, I'm still not going to make it. I had to finish my Spanish homework on the way to school too, and forgot to put them in my bag, so they're just in my hands.

That won't be a problem, right?

Wrong.

"Sorry!" I yelled, before crashing into someone.

Apparently my Spidey-Senses decided not to work today, because when my eyes were blocked by my crumpled up homework, I failed to notice someone walking in front of me in the hallway. We collided like a ton of bricks, and I nearly fell on top of them, but I managed to swerve onto the cold, hard ground instead.

Thanks, Spidey-Senses, why are you even here if you're not going to save me from embarrassment?

"Are you okay?" The stranger asked, "nothing broken?"

I groaned. "Just my dignity, but I never really had any to begin with."

Standing onto my feet, I looked up to apologize to the person I nearly killed, but froze. For some reason, locking eyes with her made a chill run up my spine. I recognized the buzz the second it hit, and I wondered why it decided to show up now.

My spidey-sense is tingling...She must be dangerous.

Wait no, she's just pretty.

Oh, great, now I'm panicking—what, no, I'm late for homework—no, homeroom, she's pretty, butIreallyhavetogonow, just RUN PETER.

"Good face—no, goodbye," I said, picking up my papers with one swift grab, "gotta' go home, no—room, homeroom—sorry for crashing into you!"

And then I ran.