"YOU'RE SUCH A BITCH!" shouted the young boy as he hurriedly put his shoes on, slipping and tripping as he did so.

"Thank you! It's my favorite pastime, you little shit!" Sneered the young boy's older sister, their uncle watched from a distance with wide eyes and no clue what to do.

"Uh-I...guys?" The kids stopped their argument and looked over to the disheveled man holding rolls of blue papers in his arms. "A little help?"

Rushing over with open arms, the two grabbed most of the papers out of his arms and began making their way out of their apartment. Imane sat in the driver's seat and threw all the papers in the back, smiling in victory as she effectively hit her brother with them, hearing a groan of complaint coming from the back.

"C'mon Imane, that's not very cool of you." Maxwell said, looking back to check on his nephew. She looked at her uncle with a raised eyebrow.

"Cool?"

"What? Do kids not say that anymore?" He asked in surprise, Runako snickered in the back and leaned forward between the seats.

"Don't listen to her Uncle Max, you're the coolest of cool dudes I've ever met." The boy smiled widely at his guardian but gave a sly smirk to his sister, she rolled her eyes at his kiss ass attempt.

"Aw, thank you, Ko. You're a pretty cool dude if I do say so myself." The man smiled proudly at the mirror, looking at nephew. Runako laughed out loud and sat back in his seat.

With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Imane's mind perked up with an idea. She waited patiently till Maxwell pulled up to the boy's school before reaching over to the old beat down radio and blasting an old Biggie song that had come on the radio with very... explicit lyrics. The boy's dark eyes nearly popped out of his eyes as the spillage of curse words shook the car and other students at the school began to look over in judgment.

"Imane, turn it off!" Runako shouted over the loud music, his sister looked away nonchalantly and pretended to clean out her ears.

"Sorry, do you hear something, Uncle Max?" She mocked, the boy scowled and made no hesitations in pushing open the door and slamming it for dramatic effect.

"I'm out of the car, turn it off already!" He exclaimed, covering his ears.

In response, he got a middle finger from his older sister as the car pulled away with a distant goodbye from his uncle.

When it came to matters between siblings, Maxwell tended to stay out of it. Ever since they were young, Imane had no problems arguing with a child, which now explained why Runako was the male version of herself. Even though Max himself never really grew up close with his sister, Imane's mother, he did understand that siblings do fight and sometimes they don't leave each other. No matter how much Runako and Imane fought, Maxwell would always have them sit down and talk before anything escalated, he didn't want them to end up like him and his sister.

"Do you need me to pick you up after school?" The man asked his niece

"Um, no. I think me, Mitzi and Yuriko are gonna go to the city after school." She explained, applying a layer of gloss on her lips while Maxwell watched in admiration. Maybe it was small and insignificant but he always wished he came out as extroverted as his niece, so outgoing and calm despite any circumstances, she remained graceful in it all.

He truly adored her.

"Ah you girls are like three peas in a pod, I'm glad." Imane looked over at him sadly, wishing her favorite person in the world wasn't as lonely as he is. But nobody ever gave him a chance.

"Boo!" With no reaction but a glance to the side, the Asian girl pouted at her best friend. "Seriously? Not even a little sympathy jump?"

Imane gasped dramatically and raised her arms up, "Oh my god!" She wiped the imaginary sweat off her forehead and placed a hand on her heart, "Jeez, Yuri, you almost made me piss myself!"

A laugh emitted from behind the pale girl until Mitzi's face crouched next to the car window along with Yuriko.

"Welcome to your first day of hell, Imane. Join us on the dark side." Mitzi teased dramatically, "Hi Uncle Max."

"Hello girls." He greeted them kindly

"Ooh, are you still having that secret surprise birthday party, Uncle Max?" Yuri inquired with wide eyes, not realizing her mistake.

"Yuri!"

"Yuri, come on!" The two girls groaned

"What?!" She exclaimed before her lips turned into the shape of an 'o' and the noise realization came out. Her friends shook their heads at her.

"When the time comes just act surprised, yeah?" Mitzi asked Max sarcastically, side eyeing Yuri who mouthed out an apology.

He laughed and nodded, "Will do, boss."

Imane leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek and bid her goodbye before getting out of the car and being led into the new school by her best friends. The trio compared their schedules as they walked through the hallways and complained about any classes they didn't have together, as most friends do. Luckily for Imane, she had most of her classes with them. Unluckily for Imane, her first period was not one of them.

She did her best to find a seat closest to the back and also by the window, claiming those to be the best seats. As her eyes scanned the football field across the way, a brown haired boy having the weirdest mornings of his life walked stiffly into his classroom, thinking that if he stepped even slightly too hard the delicate linoleum would break under him.

Student by day, attempted criminal catcher by night.

Too busy using his fingertips to pull open a chair, he didn't notice the blonde male who goes by the name of Flash Thompson barreling straight through the classroom and by the time his ears rang and had him looking over his shoulder, the two collided— effectively sending Peter straight to the ground. Whether the crash was intentional on Flash's part–which Peter has no doubt was, there was almost no time to react.

Instinctively, he held his hands out to catch himself which considering how his past few months had been going, was a bad idea. Despite having these powers and using them for a while already, he didn't want another train incident so he made sure to pay attention to detail and not exert too much energy into the things he was doing. This was not an example of his attention to detail.

The second his hand made contact with the floors, a hole the shape of his fist was immediately imprinted on it. Dust flew up from the newly created hole and if there was any way for the universe to swallow him whole, Peter wished it'd be now. But as his eyes trailed up to the student looking right down at him, he nearly choked on the air he was breathing.

"Ima-"

"Peter Parker?" He raised his head quickly upon hearing the voice of the teacher in the room and nearly hit his head against the desk had it not been for the perfectly manicured hand that covered the edge for him. He stared into her eyes momentarily, almost not believing she was real.

"Mr Parker, what are you still doing on the floor?" The teacher questioned once more. Snapping into his senses, the awkward kid stood up with a smile, acting like nothing was wrong.

"No reason, Miss. Please, continue with the lesson, I love your hair today." His attempt at distraction didn't work as the older woman hummed sarcastically with a raised eyebrow before instructing the class on what to do.

Peter shifted in his seat, not even bothering to fight the way his eyes moved to the side and remained on the human embodiment of his past. His pen twitched in his hand as millions of thoughts raced continuously through his mind with no one track. Why was she here? Her parents would never let her go to a school as unpretentious as Midtown High. Did she come here willingly? Surely not. As long as Peter remembered, Imane had always been decked out in anything and everything expensive.

Baby Peter loved being friends with Imane and Harry because any fancy new toy that wasn't out on the market was automatically given to the three of them.

His mind had finally found silence as it zeroed in on the memories of their youth, a time before it all came crashing down. A small paper falling into his open palm snapped him out of his own mind and his eyes falling back on the same person they'd been drawn to from the beginning, carefully unwrapping the paper.

He smiled down at the paper and wasted no time in writing back.

"Mr. Parker." The boy in question immediately took his eyes off Imane and back at the teacher

"Yes?"

"Maybe if you spent less time staring at Ms Morris, you could answer number one on the board. Most mutations are harmful in developing...?" The older woman questioned.

"Embryos" He answered in record time with a smile that hid the smirk that fought to come out.

"They cause...?"

"Abnormal development, and may cause early death. In older tissue, they can cause cells to keep on dividing uncontrollably. These cells develop into tumors, spread into other parts of the body and become cancerous." Imane chuckled under breath, remembering how naturally smart Peter had been his entire life. He should've been in college with the way his brain was constantly on a hundred but here he is, stuck in senior year everybody else.

Peter's enhanced hearing perked up as the soft chuckle made its way through her lips, a sound he hadn't heard since they were seven. A sound he's longed for since he was seven.

When the bell rang, Peter was already up and out of his seat, standing in front of Imane with his hands fiddling with the straps of his book bag. He waited patiently as she took her time packing her bag till she finally stood up and looked him in the eye.

"Hello Peter." She breathed out, he nearly cried at the way his name wrapped around her tongue perfectly.

"Hello Imane. Fancy seeing you here." He joked, she nodded and began walking away, knowing he would be following not too far behind.

"This is a school, right?"

"W-well yeah but...I thought you only went to like...super private snobby expensive high schools." Imane pursed her lips to fight the smile that nearly grew on her face while they walked through the hallway.

"I did. Before."

"Before...?" He pried

"Before I decided it was too pretentious for me and switched to Midtown." Peter cringed, "And judging by your face I'm guessing I chose the wrong public school to come to."

He quickly fixed his face and shook his head, "No, no, no, no I mean the school is uh...questionable but hey, every public school in New York is weird in one or another, why should Midtown be any different?" He tried to cover up, Imane hummed and stopped in front of a room, looking straight at the brown haired boy who had grown so much from before.

"You're right. See you around, Peter Parker." Was all she said before turning around fully and walking into her next class, of which the two did not share.

Peter's cheeks burned at how much he'd been smiling throughout their entire interaction. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and swung around, his hands unconsciously falling at the arms of the short girl he nearly bumped into. He truly wondered if he'd ever get used to these new instincts.

"Oh sorry- Mirium?...Hello..." he gave her a nervous smile.

She always made him nervous. Not butterflies in your stomach nervous, more so, is she going to kill me today or tomorrow, nervous? Flash Thompson couldn't even compare to how high Mirium Solis was on Peter's list of people not to mess with.

"Hello Peter. How are you feeling?" Her tone, to anyone else, seemed genuine and kind. But to Peter, he could sense she was up to something even without his weird little tingle. Her head tilted to the side and a smirk on her lips screamed that she was plotting something.

"Um...I'm good a-and you?"

"I'm good, great, actually. My best friend has just transferred here so I'm feeling good. You know her right? Imane?" Her smirk grew in size as she said her name, watching Peter squirm at it.

"Mmmm y-yeah, yeah I remember her." He cleared his throat after a quite embarrassing voice crack and rubbed the back of his neck again.

"You wanna know what I remember?"

"Mhm?"

"I remember that little crush you had on her when we were kids, funny, right?"

Peter chuckled nervously, "Yeah, yeah, funny. But I mean we were just kids, you know? It's been a long time and...we've both grown out of it..." He rambled, Mitzi smiled.

"Oh so, you don't have a crush on her anymore?" She raised an eyebrow

He puffed his cheeks and let out a raspberry, "We-Well I mean...the circumstances and-and'' she squinted her eyes at him and nodded at his incoherent words, "Y-you know what? I think that's the bell, I gotta go. Nice talking to you, Mirium. Always a pleasure." Peter sent her a salute as he walked away.

"It's Mitzi, Parker!" She shouted back

"Goodbye, Mirium!"