Catch Me // Spider-Man (BOOK 1)

Chapter 2 - Walk me home

Five days I've been at my new school and so far I've made a total of one friend, if you can even call him that this early on. I've seen Peter Parker a handful of times, whether it be on the way to or from school, in the hall before class. We even got paired up in science, much to the delight of our Aunts. From what I can tell so far Peter is a bit of a loner. He keeps himself to himself. Kind of like me in a way.

I learnt from Aunt Penny that when Peter was 8 his parents died in a plane crash, hence why he lived with his Aunt and Uncle now. Immediately after hearing this I felt even more drawn to him than I did just by our first meeting. We had that common connection, we were both orphans. Difference was Peter knew his parents loved him and I didn't know whether or not mine ever did. If they had, at any point in their lives they did a crappy job at showing it.

One of my significant encounters with Peter Parker came on my third day at school, Wednesday. I was sitting on one of the benches outside of the science block during lunch, just doodling random things in my sketchbook. Music notes, flowers, butterflies, spiders, all sorts of things. I'd been at it for about 20 minutes and for the last 10 I felt like someone was watching me. It's weird you know that feeling you get when you are sure someone is staring you out or something. Every time I looked up I couldn't see anything. I thought I was going crazy.

I gave up trying to work out why I had this feeling when all of a sudden it was made crystal clear to me. A group of kids had assembled on the other side of the quad and started to chant "Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!" Looking up to see what was going on, that was when I spotted him, staring in the direction of the commotion but his camera pointed directly at me. Peter Parker. I quickly gathered my things and just as I got up to go and confront him, he moved away, towards the crowd of screaming teens.

Walking over myself to see what all the noise was and to also keep an eye on Peter I was not surprised to discover Mr Flashlight was at the centre of all of it. He had lifted some poor kid upside down in the air and was now lowering his face into a tray of spaghetti. The boy must have been so humiliated and no one was doing anything. Just standing there watching, letting Flash get away with it. What an asshole.

"Hey Parker, come on, get a picture of this!" Flash grinned triumphantly spotting Peter and then hoisting the boy up so the crowd could see his face covered in sauce.

"No I'm not taking a picture," Peter said without hesitation, no sign of him giving in to Flashes demands.

"Put him down," I voiced myself getting more or less everyone's attention, hoping that maybe a girl asking him would bring him to his senses. No such luck.

"Gordon, don't eat it. Don't," Peter continued, moving to stand next to me for whatever reason. There must have been 50 kids crowding around now and out of all of them Peter and I were the only ones who said anything. Is this really what our generation has come to?

"Take the picture," Flash yelled out again, acting like he hadn't heard a word of what we'd said.

"Put him down Flash," Peter tried again, and failed again.

"Take the picture." Is he for real? Just give up already.

"Put him down, EUGENE!" Everyone froze when Peter said this, like he was betraying some law never to utter Flashes real name. I personally was struggling not to crease with laughter. That didn't last long though, not with what came next.

Before I could even process what was happening Flash dropped Gordon on the floor and headed straight in our direction. Peter somehow guessed what was going to happen and pushed me out of the way just in time. Why did he do that? Without hesitation Flash grabbed hold of his shirt and slammed his balled fist right into Peter's face, knocking him to the ground. Jeez, that's gonna hurt.