Peter was jumping from rooftop to rooftop following the woman in black latex. He was trying hard not to lose her but from the way she acted he figured he wouldn't anyway. She didn't seem like she was really trying to get away, Peter figured. Whenever he would get close enough to reach out and grab her she would make a swift turn and his fist would grab the air in front of him. Still she moved just as fast so that he could keep up. After the fourth time she played this it was clear to Peter that to her this was only a game and Spiderman was nothing more than her playmate.

Peter leaped across the air to another rooftop but as his feet reached the ground the woman was nowhere to be found. He stopped and looked around, his body steady so he could shoot out in the instant he spotted her. He almost thought he had lost her when he heard a sudden loud whistle from behind him. He turned in the direction of the sound to see her in the alley below, holding on to the bars of a fire escape. He didn't hesitate and jumped off of the building toward her. The woman had expected it and when Peter was halfway in the air, she pushed herself from the fire escape and with a back flip in the air, her feet landed against the walls opposite. She kept herself in motion and moved on, reaching for the ledge of the rooftop above her across the alley. When Peter landed on the fire escape she had already been standing above him on the roof.

"Hey, Spidey, over here," she shouted, leaning forward so that Peter could see the cheerful smile on her face as he looked up. "Gotta be faster."

"I'll show you faster." Peter retorted.

The face quickly disappeared and he knew he didn't have time to waste so he shot a web toward the ledge and propelled himself onto the rooftop. He could just spot as the white mass of hair disappeared behind an air shaft so he followed, picking up his pace.

They continued the chase for another half an hour when Peter could see that his opponent was getting tired. Or at least she was pretending to be getting tired because one thing that Peter surely knew was that nothing about her was the way it looked. Peter took advantage and shifted into a higher gear to get in front of her. He moved to a higher rooftop, keeping his eyes on her, careful not to lose her sight and when he was in level with her he shot a web onto a water tank and swung back to the other building, landing in front of her, forcing her to a sudden halt.

The first moments of astonishment on her features were quickly replaced by a naughty smile. She raised her arms in an attack form and spun her waist in a quick motion and extended her leg toward Peter's head to kick him with the circular momentum. Peter was expecting her attack and before her leg could have reached his head he caught it with his hands and made a 360 degree spin throwing her out of balance and bringing her to the ground.

She gasped for air as his move caught her by surprise. She didn't launch a counter just slowly brought herself to a sitting position.

"Nice move, web-head." She smiled appreciatively. Peter saw she had given up but he stayed alert, in case she tried to do something unexpected.

"What did you steal today?" Peter asked, looking at her backpack.

"Why would you assume I stole anything?" She asked, still sitting.

"Well, from the way you tried to get away from me I guess you have something you don't want to be taken from you." Peter explained, looking at her bright orange eyes.

"I was enjoying myself." She answered simply then added. "I love playing."

Peter reached his arm out toward her. "Give me the bag."

Instead of giving him her bag she placed her hand in his and pulled herself up from the ground. "Thank you."

"Give me the bag." Peter repeated, slowly losing his patience.

She looked at him hesitantly then finally grabbed the strap of her backpack and pulled it off of her shoulders, handing it to Peter.

"Thank you, Miss-," Peter said waiting for her to tell her name.

"Black Cat." She said and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Black Cat." Peter repeated, tasting its sound and unzipped the backpack to take a look inside. "Couldn't you come up with a better name?"

Peter waited for an answer but when it didn't come he looked up once again to not see her standing in front of him.

"Should have thought." Peter mumbled lowered his arm with the bag in it.

The bag was empty so Peter had to face that he had been fooled again. He dropped the backpack to the ground and headed toward the ledge to take off. He knew he had no chance of finding the woman again. She played the game good. The Black Cat was annoying but Peter had to admit that he enjoyed running around the city after her. He couldn't help but smile as he leaped off of the building, heading home.


The first day of December brought a massive amount of snow so Peter had to leave his skateboard at home before leaving for school. When finally his scars and bruises had healed and he didn't have to pull his hood on to hide his face, he had to pull it on in order to keep it warm.

"This came out of nowhere." Aunt May said, looking out the kitchen window, watching the snowfall.

"Yeah. Now I can take a school bus instead of going on my board." Peter said, his words accompanied by an exasperated sigh, and he put another spoon of cereal in his mouth.

"Well, I don't like you riding that thing anyway." Aunt May said without taking her eyes off of the huge snowflakes.

"You keep telling me that. How could I ever forget?" Peter reassured her with hints of irony in his voice. He quickly finished his cereal and jumped out of the chair, heading for the door. He put his coat and scarf on, pulling the hood over his head.

"I'm off to school, Aunt May!" Peter shouted back from the door.

"Okay. Be careful with the ice. It's slippery." He heard his aunt's voice from the kitchen.

"Alright." He responded to her useful advice and opened the door to leave.

The chilly winter breeze sent a shiver down his spine as he stepped outside of the house. He saw the school bus turn at the corner and he knew he had missed it but it wasn't that big of a deal as he wasn't planning on taking it anyway. He looked back at the kitchen window to see if Aunt May was still watching but when he couldn't see her face behind the glass he took a few steps and elevated himself into the air.


The bell rang and Peter shut the locker and headed for biology class.

Third period, moment of truth, he thought as he walked toward the classroom.

"You excited?" Gwen caught up to him.

"Why would I be?" Peter asked offhandedly. "I told you. B+ or better."

"Uh-huh." She answered, skeptical about his statement. "We'll see."

Peter nodded as they entered the classroom and took their seats. They had to wait a minute until the teacher came in, holding their tests under his arm.

"Good morning, class." He greeted cheerfully. He walked to his table and turned to the students. "So, I brought your tests. Some of them are good, some of them not so good."

"This one is for you," Gwen whispered to Peter as she heard the teacher press the 'not'.

He just smiled back at her, trying not to show how afraid he was. The teacher looked at the papers in his hands to see whose test was on top and then walked to a girl in the back row and placed her test in front of her.

"A!" They heard her exclaim with surprise and happiness.

"Oh, come on. Like you hadn't known," A guy noted sarcastically.

Peter's test was in the middle of the pile and so was Gwen's so they received the papers after each other. Peter waited as the teacher slowly moved toward his desk and placed his test in front of him, upside down. He watched him march over to Gwen and then returned his attention to his own paper. He turned it with its right side up and drove his gaze to the top right corner where he was hoping not to find his mark. First he couldn't believe what he saw. A-. He blinked twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, but the A- didn't dissolve. He never thought he would get as much as a B, not to mention an A-. He wanted to shout out in rejoice but something stopped him.

"Really?" He heard a bitter voice to his left. He turned his head to see Gwen holding his paper, looking at it with a sour face.

"What is it?" He asked sympathetically.

"B-!" She complained and looked at him despairingly as if her mark meant her certain death. "B-. Can you believe this?"

Peter felt sorry for her but he was more happy for his A- that he achieved with zero learning.

"How about yours?" She asked hoping to find some relief in Peter's presumably worse mark.

"I don't think you wanna know," he answered honestly. He could picture Gwen finding out about his mark and her reaction to it. He knew she would be able to tear down a whole city in her anger and disappointment if she found out.

"Okay, class. I hope everybody got one mark worse than they deserved. And now, let's get down to our next unit," the teacher said and he walked to the board.


"A-?" She screamed angrily once they were back in the hallway. "How the hell did you manage to write an A-?"

"Come on, Gwen, calm down." Peter tried to soothe her but it didn't seem to work.

"Calm down? You expect me to calm down? You got an A- with absolutely no learning. I got a B-, you understand? I spent three and a half hours preparing for this single test and the reward for that is a B-. I can't believe this." Gwen jabbered furiously as they made their way to their lockers.

"This is just one mark, okay? No need to get this upset. Besides, it's just a B-. It's not that bad." Peter tried everything but Gwen was too stubborn.

"It may not be bad but it's totally unfair. The time I spent learning you spent with swinging around the city. It should have been me that got the A, not you." She was nowhere near settling down. They stopped when they had reached her locker and she turned to take out the books she was going to need for her next class.

"Well, I can't help it, I am a genius." Peter boasted when he realized how right she was.

"Oh, shut up!" Gwen said, put down the books she was holding and hit Peter's arm with her fist.

"Ouch!" Peter cried voicing his displeasure. He didn't want to risk further injuries so he decided to reconcile her. "Hey, how about I take you out to dinner tonight? We can find the most fancy restaurant in the city and I'll buy you anything you want."

The strategy seemed to have worked as a weak smile appeared in the corners of her mouth.

"Does sound good." She admitted, now on a softer tone. "Pick me up at eight."

"Sure." Peter said, happy that her rage has faded. "Eight it is, then."

She nodded and he laid a soft kiss on her cheek before he turned to walk to his locker.

"You lucky bastard," she mumbled as she watched him walk away.

He saw him lift his right arm in the air without turning back, pointing his index finger at the ceiling as if a warning. "Heard it."