Back to school

Random School bus, September 17 2002

POV – Sarah Symanski

Sitting on one of the more empty seats in the school bus, idly doodling on George Washington’s picture in her history book was Sarah Symanski.

Father Polish, Mother absent.

A quiet girl who minded her business, not a particularly good student but at least she didn’t cause a ruckus unlike the hooligans at the back of the bus.

Scribbling her doodles silently she was content.

Earphones in ear and metal music blasting. Cheap Blue dye to color her dirty blonde hair.

The strokes of her sketch pen dilute reality while the feel of paper made everything in her life all right.

Sounds came and sounds went but she didn’t pay attention to intrusions.

Then a loud raucous, too loud to ignore came from behind and then the inertia from the old rusty bus coming to a stop. Annoyed with the disturbance, she turned outside her window to see the source.

The mechanized door screeched open.

A lean man….no, a boy entered the bus, the crowd behind her hadn’t stopped its loud jeers and boos.

He wore a brown checkered shirt within which a white t-shirt was tucked in with dusty brown pants to go along with his nerdy getup.

He apologized to the driver about being late or something.

The boy looked familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

He walked up to her and the lone empty seat beside her.

He gestured to the empty seat where she kept her bag.

She didn’t say anything hoping the man would leave her alone if she didn’t look at him or acknowledge his presence.

He asked her another question but she didn’t answer.

Music still blasting, Metallica’s Creeping Death drowned out any sound the man was making.

She could feel his sharp gaze settling on her.

She almost gave in to it, almost about to remove the bag and give her seat reluctantly to the man.

The boy moved on from her to the next seat.

The feeling of relief flooded her, she could finally draw again.

~THUD~

Her head moved involuntarily, turning around to see the boy collapsed with all of his books falling out onto the floor.

The entire back row of the bus was laughing at him now.

One huge boy, Hughie Lawson was laughing at the boy, particularly hard, snorting like a pig.

He even went as far as stomping the books spread out on the floor.

The nerdy boy surprisingly seemed unperturbed by it all as he calmly collected his stuff and filled them back into his blue bag.

‘That’s that!’ Sarah Symanski thought

“Oh Puny Parker forgot to tie his laces! You’re so stupid Park-“

The bus violently took a sharp right before Hughie Lawson could finish his taunting.

She would have been annoyed at the bus driver’s recklessness if her attention wasn’t diverted from the loud yelp she heard behind her.

It seemed the boy, Peter Parker had lost his balance at the turn but this time instead of falling on his ass used Hughie Lawson’s foot as a footrest.

“Oh sorry about your foot Hughie.” Peter Parker smiled innocently

“Why you Piece-”

Hughie Lawson tucked his right shoulder back and was about to throw a mean punch with his meaty hands.

“Settle down you brats.” The raggedy looking bus driver yelled from his seat.

With that, Peter Parker the boy with the odd fashion taste meekly moved without a complaint, finding an empty seat elsewhere.

Hughie Lawson’s eyes were following the boy’s movements like a hawk while massaging his right foot.

Sarah Symanski had enough of all this interference, she only wished to doodle and be left alone.

She didn’t care about bullies or victims.

All she wanted to do was doodle and listen to music.

Thankfully no one picked on her or disturbed her too much, all of them simply content calling her a “‘Weirdo” and staying clear of her.

She was content with that. With being left alone.

Just as Sarah Symanski was about to turn her head, she caught a glimpse of the boy Peter Parker.

In that moment she could have sworn that she saw the corner of Peter Parker’s mouth turn upwards to form a small smirk.

POV – Peter Parker

‘Wow, that was even more melodramatic than I expected.’

Some people really do behave like they’re comic book characters or was this how kids were in America.

Thinking that it’s alright to pick on the weak kid like that in front of everyone.

Even in the orphanage that I grew up in, you couldn’t get away with physically bullying kids that publicly.

It was always in the bathrooms where shit went down. No pun intended.

As I got down from the greasy steps of the bus, I could see it once again, Midtown High School.

The place I loved and loathed since I could ever remember.

It was my temple but also my personal hell!

A place to acquire knowledge but also to experience incredible loneliness.

“Hey Pete.”

Waved a familiar face and one of the few people I could call a friend.

“Hey Harry, I was sick yesterday. Sorry I couldn’t help you with that presentation.”

“Heard you ran into trouble catching the bus.” He ignored my excuses.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle!” I said while jabbing the air.

“Oh no it’s a body snatcher! What did you do with my friend, you alien bastard?” He said with theatrical fright.

“We are Unity. Once you’ve been inoculated you shall be part of Unity and know its wonders. Now don’t resist and join the unity!” I said emotionlessly with a terrible alien impersonation.

“Woah dude that’s freaky!” Harry laughed as he kept evading my hands from grabbing him.

He couldn’t escape my grasp for too long!

“Now for the inoculation process!!!” I began blowing air into his ears

“Alright Peter, Alright I got it I got it. I give up. Alright geez!!!” I let go of my best friend.

We kept walking to class while talking about this and that when he changed the subject back.

“Pete. You know you can come with me in the limo everyday right! It really isn’t a bother to me, not that my father would mind or care about anything I do.”

“Nah I’m good harry! Thanks for the offer though..” I replied.

His eyes still glimmered with worry

“Pete, if they pull anything you know i coul….”

“What, you’re gonna save me harry!!!” I said while flailing my arms like a damsel in distress

“Geez what’s up with you today.” He murmured to himself

“Oh my sweet prince, will you save me from those wretched bullies!”

“Oh that’s it, you’re gonna get it now Pete.” Harry said with newfound enthusiasm and began chasing me now!

The older part of me was still very glad that I could run around like a kid again. To be a young teenager, oblivious to how tiring adulthood could be! All the promise of youth lost to the realities of the world.

Racing to our first class, we had Mr White’s Chemistry.

Making my way to my locker, laughing alongside Harry, I opened my locker with ease!

Having memories of another world didn’t seem to affect any of my memories here!

It didn’t matter that I could remember a previous life.

It didn’t matter that I knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man and Harry Osborne would become the Green goblin.

For now he was just my friend and I was just a random high schooler.

It didn’t matter that everyone I knew were fictional characters created by comic book writers.

Aunt May and Uncle Ben were more real than my previous life at this point.

The reality of my new situation was settling in nicely and for now I was quite content with my situation!

I had super strength and had excellent mental abilities to boot.

In fact I don’t know if it was because of the spider-bite but my memory seems to be extraordinary. Things are easier to absorb than before and I can recall things at a much faster speed than before.

I, as Peter Parker, could always recite the periodic table with little to no effort but now it was at another level.

Memorization was cake.

I could recite complex calculus and integration.

High school books are extremely boring now.

Picking up my books for the class. ‘Yep this one and this one’.

Then it hit me!!!

This feeling of overwhelming emergency, it was like my body could feel something was not right.

My spine tingled and goosebumps were all over my body.

My instincts screamed at me.

I sensed some kind of foreign object heading towards me.

My body moved on its own!

Evade the object [ Success ]

“Hey Pete look out!!!!” Harry shouted at me but was confused half a second later when he realized I already dodged it.

Look at who threw the object [ Flash Thompson ]

He was accompanied by his angry friend Hughie Lawson who was still clutching his leg and grimacing.

He also had a small mob of goons with him. Why do the big strong guys always have a chorus of people to back them up? Big Hughie was grimacing in pain and rubbing his shin!

Oh I guess I put too much force into that kick than I intended.

I looked back to see the object was a football, the American kind.

“PARKER you messed up my linebacker’s foot” barked Thompson.

The tall and muscled blonde would have scared Peter Parker once but for Vijay Prakash fighting hoodlums twice his size was the usual growing up in St Mary’s Orphanage and that was without Superhuman powers.

In fact if you grew up in St Mary’s then it was a rite of passage to get your ass kicked by people bigger than you.

Vijay Prakash didn’t lose many fights.

Clawing, biting and kicks to the balls Vijay Prakash had done ’em all.

Surviving that hell hole until he was old enough to enlist into the Indian Army.

This was not gonna end well, for Flash Thompson that is.

“Hey Flash back off.” Said my best friend trying to defend me as best as he could but was shoved aside by one of Flash’s goons.

“It’s alright Harry, stay back. It’s not your fight!” I said calmly

Glancing at my watch, it’s 8:12. Tch. I’m gonna be late because of this BS.

“HaRrY StAy bAck! What do you think you’re some kind of a hero, Puny Parker?” Mocked another one.

“You’re gonna pay for this parker!” Half-shouted Flash Thompson with his anger simmering.

I smiled. I wanted to think of a smart line and say something badass but I decided to simply smile.

“Why are you smili-”

I continued with the taunt. It must have been very confusing for Eugene Thompson seeing the meek Parker challenge him openly like this.

“Do it flash.” one guy yelled out.

“Yeah, do it!” A girl this time.

A small crowd began growing, encircling us.

I was cool as a cucumber, I kept smiling and my body was loose reflecting my mental state.

I expected him to get agitated and rush me but it had the opposite effect, it made him wary.

Huh.

‘Maybe little Eugene wasn’t as dumb as he looked.’

“Do it flash!” Another girl said with a sadistic smile.

‘Damn this dude is really popular with the opposite gender, isn’t he?’

One of the perks of being a high school football star I suppose.

Flash seemed to consider the growing crowd with a nervous look.

“If you don’t I’ll …” one of the idiots in the football jerseys jumped at me.

‘What was his name again?’

Anyways the idiot lunged and his attacks were as original as he looked.

Dodge wide Right punch [ Success ]

Dodge shoddy Left uppercut [ Success ]

Dodge desperation Right kick [ Success ]

Right punch to his sternum [ Success ]

He fell down like a sack of potatoes And had the wind knocked out of him.

The idiot probably never had a real fight in his life, what kind of moron swings that wide.

His moves practically screamed to me what he was going to do before he did them.

Then again it might be because I could have been a golden glove in the military circuit, if i wasn’t studying hard to make lieutenant.

So maybe experience wise I had him beat.

I then proceeded to…

Step on his chest with force [ Success ]

It was easy. Too easy.

Everything was in slow motion and he couldn’t take one proper punch from me.

I could sense everything.

I heard the crowd gasp. I heard the idiot drool on the floor. I sensed Harry’s jaw hitting the floor in amazement. I heard the sweat forming on Flash Thompson’s brow. I heard the heavier footsteps of the teacher coming to check out the crowd.

Like I said , I could sense everything.

“Ow Gowwwwd” he groaned while drool came out of his mouth.

Better make myself scarce before I get into trouble.

I removed my foot from the moron’s chest.

“That’s all for today folks.” I said to the crowd.

I packed my books in my bag and went to my class ignoring everyone.

As I was leaving, I could sense the teacher had arrived at the scene as I left.

He was perplexed to see a student on the ground groaning in pain.

He was trying to extract information from the students nearby while making sure the weakling was alright.

I could feel Flash’s gaze on me so I turned to meet his blue eyes and winked at him once.

His eyes widened.

‘That was your only warning blonde boy, Don’t Fuck with me!’