allendalepharm Chapter 13: Daily Check-in with Friendly Neighbors
Chapter 13: Daily Check-in with Friendly Neighbors
Chapter 13: Daily Check-in with Friendly Neighbors
"What's the best thing about being Spider-Man? Hard to say!"
As the morning sun shone on the New York skyline, a red and blue figure sped along the glass facade of skyscrapers. If any commuters noticed a fleeting shadow on the ground, they would look up to see Spider-Man with his backpack. Today, he had abandoned his signature web-swinging and was running along vertical walls instead.
"But not having to squeeze onto the subway every day is definitely in the top three, wow!"
Peter leaped onto the railing of the Hudson River and, amidst the roar of passing cars, plunged like a diver. Just before he touched the water, a spider web shot out, carrying him in a perfect arc beneath the Queens Bridge.
Uncle Ben and George are both busy with work and generally don't pick them up from school unless it's a special day, like the first day of school.
"The hot dog Spider-Man loves! This is the hot dog Spider-Man loves! The only officially designated Spider-Man hot dog in New York!"
The hot dog stand owner, who sets up his stall on a main street in Midtown Manhattan every day, promotes his hot dogs with a blank expression. After the Battle of New York, he originally sold hot dogs here to employees of the Disaster Control Department, but with the completion of the cleanup work, he now has a new business opportunity: Spider-Man has allowed the owner to use his image, and thus the only Spider-Man-packaged hot dog stand in New York was born.
The most eye-catching feature of the hot dog stand is the plastic bag hanging at the top of the parasol—it always contains a special hot dog.
"Boss, is this really the hot dog that Spider-Man loves to eat?"
Eugene Thompson, a freshman at Midtown High School, pushed his way through the crowd to the hot dog stand. Looking at the vendor suspiciously, he opened his wallet and started taking out money: "Give me one. And, do you really think Spider-Man can reach it if you put it on the parasol?"
"He's Spider-Man, of course he can."
The shopkeeper stared blankly at the customer, skillfully packing the hot dog, but Thompson was still grumbling: "What if I put it in too early? What if it gets cold? If your hot dog gets cold and Spider-Man gets a stomachache, how is he supposed to fight—"
"Thanks, Paul!"
Interrupting Thompson's rambling was Spider-Man, who, swinging on his webs, swept past the hot dog stand, dropping two one-dollar bills as he did so, while the hot dogs on the parasol had vanished.
Thompson stared in disbelief until the shopkeeper held up a hot dog in front of him. Coming to his senses, Thompson pulled out another five dollars and let out an almost deafening scream: "Two more of Spider-Man's favorite hot dogs! Please!!!"
"Good morning, Laurie! How's Carl feeling today?"
"Karl said it's great, thank you for bringing it back for me."
The middle-aged man, who was preparing to release his pigeons on the rooftop, only had time to utter this one sentence before the figure darted across the wall and disappeared around the corner. Startled, the pigeons began to coo wildly, and Laurie could only pat his old friend repeatedly: "Calm down, he's just using a spider web to pack you up and send you home, not roasting you and eating you."
This morning pilgrimage unfolds every day. Spider-Man, eating a hot dog, high-fives the newsstand owner, helps an old lady carry her shopping bags, and even gives directions to a lost dog—after all, what kind of "friendly neighbor Spider-Man" is someone who doesn't know his neighbors on every street corner?
It wasn't until a certain moment that the red and blue uniforms disappeared among the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
At the subway station exit, Peter Parker, dressed in casual clothes, "happened" to walk out. Of course, he hadn't come by subway—this was just a plausible excuse for his sudden appearance near the school. Two blocks away was Midtown High School, a top-tier public high school in New York City that only exists in the Marvel universe. Early in the morning, Midtown's television station was already up and running, with two presenters broadcasting the news on screens that could be seen everywhere in the school corridors.
"Good morning, students. This is Midtown High School. I'm your host, Betty."
"I'm the host, Jesse."
Peter glanced at the screen briefly, then went to his locker, opened it, put his backpack in, and took out the stationery he needed for his morning classes. Before he could close the locker door, he heard a familiar, incredibly annoying voice.
"Parker!"
"Here we go again, Karl?"
Peter's spider sense didn't react at all. He didn't even bother to pretend to be startled. He simply closed the locker door and took a step back. Cal King, who was walking over, slammed his fist heavily on the other people's lockers, trying to appear fierce.
Peter pointed to the smashed cabinet.
"You know that's not my closet, right?"
Cal King hesitated for a moment, then made a menacing threat: "Listen up, Parker, I'll let bygones be bygones regarding what happened in middle school. I won't interfere with your cronies either, but if you keep meddling, you're finished."
After he finished speaking, there was another "bang," and the cabinet was unfortunately hit again. Cal King left without giving Peter time to react, leaving Peter quite puzzled.
"Is this a new form of school bullying? The person who was disciplined turns around and threatens the person who disciplined them?"
Completely baffled by Cal King's behavior, Peter shook his head. A street sweeper passing by, leaning on his broom, echoed a similar sentiment: "These kinds of trashy students are common in any era. But I've seen plenty of thugs. Kid, don't be afraid of them. Muster your courage, fight back bravely, and defeat them!"
"Thank you, Stan."
After thanking the Marvel creators—who, in a universe without Marvel comics, could only be a janitor—Peter entered the math classroom. He, Amadeus, and Harry were in the same math class taught by the same teacher, while Gwen was assigned to a different teacher.
And then there's Carl King; you can't expect a muscle idiot and Peter Parker to take a math class at the same level.
"Good morning, Peter." Harry sat down next to Peter, then placed his laptop on the table. Before class started, Harry turned on the laptop and began searching for information about Spider-Man online.
"Spider-Man? What makes you interested in him?"
"Nothing much, I just heard people talking about Spider-Man, so I wanted to learn more about him. By the way, are you planning to go to the detective agency? I'm thinking of checking it out."
"I'm fine with going. I quite like mystery puzzles; they're very relaxing."
Amadeus arrived late, apologized, and sat down behind them. He wasn't very tall to begin with, the typical skinny, bookish type who was easily bullied. It was unclear whether he could even see them clearly from behind. After Amadeus sat down, Harry turned to him and asked about the previous topic.
"Hey, Amadeus, we're planning to submit our applications to join the detective club after school, wanna come along?"
"Of course, it would be great to go together."
Amadeus nodded, and after a few seconds of silence, Peter looked at him and asked, "Are you alright? Did someone bully you?"
"No, no. It's just that I'm probably short, so no one noticed me, and I got bumped into several times."
Amadeus casually brushed aside the topic, at which point the teacher entered, interrupting their conversation.
High school studies are tedious in any country, and this lesson was a pre-calculus class—Midtown High School's compulsory math curriculum is significantly more difficult than other high schools, including foundational courses in advanced algebra and calculus. This is likely due to their collaboration with Osborne Technology and Stark Industries. In other high schools, math textbooks are often much simpler; Peter has even heard of some schools where student councils have organized themselves to make math an elective—a truly absurd situation.
Listening to the completely easy pre-calculus lecture, bored Peter quickly started twirling his pen and writing on the paper. Then he switched to twirling the pen with his left hand and writing on the paper with his left hand.
"You can write with both hands?"
Harry seemed to have discovered something incredible, and asked in a low voice, "Can you write with both hands at the same time?"
Peter wrote "yes" on the paper with his left hand.
"Can you write different characters at the same time?"
This time, he wrote "No" on the paper with his right hand.
"Alright, guys. We need to find a suitable day to build Lego together."
Having endured the math class, Harry seemed to have finally thought of something, and happily smiled. It was clear that he really wanted to build Lego, and he nodded with a smile.
"No problem, we can find a time. I'll talk to Aunt Mei, she'd be happy to arrange dinner for us."
As the group walked toward their classroom for the next class, the school news program broadcast the latest news.
"Based on this year's voting results, we've decided on the theme for the first day of Back to School Spirit Week this year—Superheroes! Every student who wants to participate should dress up as either a superhero or a supervillain!"
(End of this chapter)