New York City

27/06/2008 06:52:00

New York City. Despite the good and bad times, it's always been home to Peter Parker. The city taught Peter life isn't the sugar-coated wonderland his aunt made it out to be. Although it might not seem likely, the city kept him safe and gave him a chance at a normal life…as well as an extraordinary one. The teased child that was accident-prone, asthma-induced, allergic to half the food group and vision-impaired was forced upon a gift that would help protect the city which helped him grow into a man.

It was the last day of summer, and Peter would be going into his junior year at Midtown High. He had a paper to do on summarizing the events that happened to him over the vacation.

Hmm, let's see. I studied for this years AP courses, I got a job at the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer, I got another job as an assistant at Doc Connors lab…where I got bitten by a super-spider and became the city's most dashing hero fighting crime in my pj's…alright that's a little too far.

Since the truth would appear as a huge lie, Peter had no choice but to lie.

I spent the whole summer either working, studying or sleeping. I don't know how to condense that into three pages by tommorow…

"Coo!"

Peter was startled by the sudden call of a pigeon, but then again he should have expected those by now, at the heights he goes. You see, most teenagers right now would be partying their last night away until tomorrow. Peter, however, shaking the stereotypes of 'most teenagers' was on the roof of the Empire State Building writing an essay. In a slightly annoyed tone, Peter sighed and put the notepad and pencil he was writing with down. English was never his forte, he was always a science nerd. At times like this, when under stress and confusion, Pete lately just started to close his eyes and concentrate, much like he was doing now, although what he was concentrating on wasn't very productive in the least.

C'mon. Just give me one last bust before summer ends.

As if expecting it, a tingling feeling buzzed in the back of Peter's neck, and he opened his eyes. He heard an alarm going off and saw two men on a roof four buildings over running fast.

Thank you!

Peter stood up, put his things into his backpack, and tightened it onto his back. A guard on patrol also heard the sirens and ran over to the edge to see if he could get a better look at the building being robbed. Instead, he set his sights on the little teenaged boy who had the most ridiculous get-up on. He had red and blue tights that encompassed his entire body with a mask that had almost reflective white eyes. Over the red parts which were his gloves, boots, mask and chest was a black web-design. He seemed childish and stupid at first, but then this figures white reflective eyes locked onto the guards and it was then he seemed almost...menacing.

"You…you're…you're real?", said the guard as he began to draw his gun. Peter wanted to be cautious, but the buzzing in the back of his neck hadn't gone off. That usually meant danger was going to go down, and since it hadn't buzzed, this guy didn't mean any harm.

"You can bet my ridiculous super-hero salary on it!", Pete said as he simply dived off the building.

Hah. Like I get paid to do this? Me and May are worrying about paying this months bills, and here I am gambling with the average Joe Schmoe. Alright, so that essay will come later even though I have no clue what kind of lies to make up.

After falling in the sky for a few seconds, Peter made a rocker-hand signal and spewed a grayish liquid from his wrist that became as tough as a metallic cord that stretched all the way to a building in one second flat.

Well screw it. Why lie? Why not just reveal who I am to this city in this one tiny essay?

Pete, channeling his inner Tarzan, grabbed the rope and swung from it. He completed the arc and let himself soar in the sky between buildings for those few seconds in which he felt total freedom.

"How I Spent my Summer Vacation" by Peter Benjamin Parker. I can sum it up in one glorious, hyphenated word:

As Pete landed on the building, the two thugs stopped and looked back.

"Spider-Man!"