Disclaimer: I am not a well-known figure. I am a common, average, (status, not character wise) citizen of the United States of America. If you believe me to be a politician, author, Hollywood star/actor, or director/inventor of any cartoon show, you are sadly mistaken.

A/N: Edited April 20, 2007

Should have put this up earlier: Oh, well. I answer non-signed reviews at the end of the chapter, but try to name those who reviewed at the top. So, please drop me a note.

"Chapter III of A Phantom Spider"

p -----------------------------------checking-------------------------is this thing on?-----------------on with the story----------------- /p .

SUNDAY MORNING:

Peter Parker woke bright and early the following morning. He knew he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep at this time for several reasons: only one excuse included the time difference.

It was just his luck that the empty apartment sat on the edge between urban and rural sections of town. To the west stood an enormous oak tree that revealed the location of a large park and playground.

Although, the location was the main reason this room had been untouched by others, Parker was grateful for the fact it was several stories up and came equipped with both a balcony and a skylight. That little unknown detail would help keep Spider-Man's identity hidden and his presence unknown—which was one thing many heroes desired from time to time.

So, with the sun still hidden behind the rolling hills, Spider-Man jumped down and kept to the man-made canyons as he explored the inner city of Amity Park.

The part of him desiring some action was disappointed—almost every legit business had closed down for the night. Oh, well, the time wasn't wasted. While he had been web slinging around, he'd also been memorizing prominent and easy-to-recognize buildings, and approximant locations of other useful features.

Now he knew exactly where Fenton Works was in relation to the school, the mall, park and numerous other places—relative locations and knowledge were important in this line of work.

Once the sun finished climbing over the hills, Spider-man returned to Parker's apartment and took off his second identity, letting his civilian self relax in the less-hectic lifestyle of these small townspeople. Among the pedestrians up at this hour, no one looked upwards—those that did manage to catch a glimpse of the red-blue figure, tensed slightly in preparation of a possible ghost attack.

Peter Parker grabbed a tourist guide he bought at the tourist info place the previous night and checked the locations with a map of the town.

While memorizing a few names and places, Parker pondered what little he knew of the town.

Thanks to Mr. Lancer and yesterday's "attack" he knew Amity Park to be haunted by paranormal visitors from the Ghost Zone. Alas, the vice principal didn't care to know more about the invaders beyond the fact most were evil. Mr. Lancer did reveal that the Fenton Parents habitually wore jumpsuits and were ghost fanatics. There were the adults who chassed the mall fighters out. The Red Huntress was almost as bad as the ghosts she hunted, and Phantom (or Inviso-Bill, depending on whom was talking) was ever elusive. As far as the teacher knew, those four were the only ones keeping Amity Park from being overrun by these ghosts.

Parker looked at the analog clock on the wall, and hurriedly packed the map and guidebook away before leaving the apartment the normal way and heading towards Denny's where Mr. Lancer two other teachers, and the principle were waiting for the new guy.

Over a breakfast of coffee, hash browns, bacon, and eggs, the four locals warned Mr. Parker about the last class—no teacher wanted to watch that particular group more than once. The newcomer was also given a quick overview of acceptable behavior and what the school board allowed—there were some differences between states and cities, but they didn't differ much from the national recommendations. Parker added this info to all the facts he'd been collecting about this town.

After breakfast, Principle Ishiyama unlocked the school building so Mr. Lancer could give a quick tour while Mrs. Tetslaff pulled out all the science stuff she could find. Mr. Falluca watched and organized the textbooks. Through all this activity, Parker tried recalling all he knew about astral plane ghosts. He didn't have much luck as there weren't many similarities immediately obvious.

Too soon boxes were brought up from the basement and a wary Parker asked about the labels. Mrs. Foul—another regular teacher—laughed. "We reuse the boxes to carry food up. It's very efficient at keeping students out."

Mr. Lancer glared. "Students, yes. Ghosts, no. Remember last year when that green glowing female made attacking meat doughboys from our buffet?"

Mr. Falluca shook his head. "Which wasn't as bad as when ghost skeletons practically overran the town. "Now, overshadowing is bad." The short teacher shuddered in fright.

Mrs. Tetslaff snorted and dropped a dusty box of cardboard textbooks near the rest of the pile. "Phantom held the mayor up for something several months back. I can't say it was a kidnapping because he was chased off the Fentons."

This was all news to Parker but he sensed it was dangerous waters for the rest of the teachers. Clearly there had to be experts or people willing to give unbiased reports, but finding them was proving difficult.

Before placing everything in it's proper place in the science room, Parker glanced at the summary of the every chapter in the most recent science editions and made notes—this would make excellent exam material for Monday and give him a heads up on material already covered—either by the previous teacher or past years.

However, he was distracted by buzzing at the base of his neck. Careful observation led Parker to believe the food was causing his warning system to go off. That didn't make sense though—it had to have been FDA approved, and a lot of it was either locally grown or processed for better consumption—or at least cheaper for the townsfolk. Maybe there was something in the water though.

p ---------------checking--------------------is this thing on?------------------- --------------- /p

P After finishing setting up on Sunday, Parker spent the remaining period of the day looking through his notes of the chapter summaries. While in the local coffee shop, he typed up a multiple guess exam and added several free response questions. Parker took the papers and went across the street to Kinko's where he asked for one hundred copies. /p

P As he paid for the copies, Parker made a mental note to use the Casper High copier whenever possible. He carried the loose papers to his apartment where he carefully placed the tests inside the briefcase along with pencils and other items teachers needed to be "prepared" for class. /p

P Parker shook his head. The briefcase, along with the apartment and several other useful items, had all been left by the previous teacher. He frowned. Since when were adults so fearful of the unknown that they left everything of value behind? Then again, the ghosts were unusual and could be considered frightening, but he'd seen and fought worse in New York City. /p

This has been edited, so past replies may be inconsistent with the current storyline.