"Hey, Aunt May.", Peter called as he opened the apartment door. The woman was sat on the couch, expressing a deep frown. "Hey yourself.", she responded, clearly not pleased or patient with the situation. "Wanna explain why I got a call from the school saying that my nephew didn't show up until the fourth period?"

Straight to the point then, he thought as he heard her tone. Peter huffed, trying to not let the room grow quiet for too long. "...Got lost.", he finally excused, mind traveling back to the castle that he had seen throughout the rest of the school day. Every time he got close to Flash, every time he heard Melbourne's slightly condescending voice, his mind and vision would go back into those old, weathered halls, with a wild stream in the middle, running side by side with his childhood bully and a talking Not-Cat.

"Don't lie to me.", May groaned, turning away from her nephew. "I know that a lot's been going through your head and that today was going to be rough for you, but skipping school is inexcusable. Patrol is getting cut short today. You're home and doing homework by sundown. Got it?", she chided angrily. Peter, just happy that she was letting him go in the first place, took a sigh of relief and nodded. He knew better than to fight when she got this mad about something.

Peter leaped out the window, stringing a web onto the nearest building and swung into the bright borough that is Queens. As he started patrol, his movements became second nature, making plenty of room for his thoughts. And there were plenty of thoughts to go through today.

The first topic was his appointment with their new guidance counselor. Melbourne, who was absolutely the queen that they had dealt with that morning, had spent around ten minutes making him question the legitimacy of the file in her hands, as everything that left her mouth was derogatory and inaccurate, and she actually wanted him to take everything she said as accurate, just because she was the one behind the desk. Every time he brought up something, or tried to defend himself, she would just berate him even more. A waste of time for everyone involved.

Then, later that day, Flash tried to join him and Ned during their free senior period, asking for help on classwork. Peter, under the pretense that this was an excuse to talk about what happened earlier, was willing to give him a seat, but Ned was less than accepting of the offer. ("Yeah? And what's the catch?", Leeds asked, moving his things to take the empty seat by them. "What? There's no--" "We're not falling for your tricks anymore, Flash. Hanging out with us isn't going to feed that ego of yours. Whether or not you fail a class because you weren't paying attention isn't our problem.", Ned interrupted Thompson's defenses. "P-Plea--" "Get lost. Don't you have someone else to annoy?", Ned spat out, glaring the teen away.) He's never been this mean to anyone before. Peter didn't think he'd ever see Thompson so devastated as he was then.

The sound of glass breaking broke Parker from his thought process, as he watched a man in a ski mask run off with a bag of clearly stolen goods. In broad daylight. With several people to witness the turn of events.

Without a moment to lose, Spider-Man jumped off the building's edge and swung towards the man, stopping in front of him. "Think you should go back and pay for that.", he remarked with a light tone, preparing to defend himself.

It seems that this thief was feeling particularly confident today because he decided to put up a fight. He threw whatever he stole over the hero's head, and swung an unprotected fist at the superhero. Peter grabbed it, webbing it to the nearest wall. The thief fought and struggled against the solution as Spider-Man moved to pick up the bag. It only had one thing in it; a shining necklace with a deep red ruby in the center. It was lined with diamonds, as if it didn't look expensive enough, with an engraving of initials behind the center jewel.

"Yeah, this is going back to someone.", he remarked to the thief, putting the expensive accessory back in the bag. As he gently set it in clear proximity for the police, the thief had taken off his mask, used it to cover his other hand so that he could try to grab the stuck hand and rip it away, only for the mask to get stuck. Peter looked up to the source of the grunting, getting a good look at this guy.

The sight almost made him freeze. It was almost like looking at a slightly taller duplicate of himself. Except that this duplicate had a brown buzzcut with striking, sharp green eyes. If it weren't for those differences though, Peter might've been convinced that someone who knew Beck might have taken up the mantle of Mysterio, and had made it their sole duty to haunt him.

"You don't get it. You don't get it.", he constantly repeated, getting more and more agitated as he did so. "Stealing is wrong. I get that much.", the costumed hero emphasized, joking tone gone. "What if it was to help others?", the man spoke up, acting as if he had the vigilante figured out. The question made Peter pause from confusion. "How does stealing a necklace help someone other than yourself?", Parker asked, genuinely perplexed at what kind of the thought process this man had. As a response, the burglar shrugged, raising an eyebrow. "How does using your powers stop the higher-ups from stomping all over us little guys?"

Just as he was going to ask what the man meant, Spider-Man heard the sounds of police sirens growing closer, which he took as a signal to leave the crime scene. Parker glanced up and saw the bright pink glow of the sky as the sun was disappearing beyond the rooftops of the buildings around him. As promised, because he knew May would know otherwise, he decided not to stick around any longer. He was out of his suit, in his room, starting on homework as twilight fell over the city that never sleeps, just as ordered.

After staring at papers for around two hours, he glanced up, looking around his still-messy room before his eyes landed on the mirror by his closet. Mostly because his reflection wasn't what it should have been.

It should have been a slightly sleep-deprived Peter Parker in his pajamas staring at the piece of reflective glass. It should not have been a Peter Parker dressed in the outfit that formed when he was about to fight one of those monster things in the castle, mask and all. After Rhodenbarr appeared behind him from the mask in the reflection, the teen blinked furiously before his clothes had changed into what they should have been, and there was no fiery ghost-demon-thing behind him. 

Taking this as a sign of hallucinating from lack of sleep, Peter decided to put away his classwork and turn in early for the night. "Probably for the best.", he convinced himself aloud, pulling up his sheets and drifting off.