Spider-Man: Close To Home

Chapter 4: Decisions

"And so once again, that brings us back to our formula of a-squared multiplied by b-squared equals c-squared. Now, when we plug this in, what do we get? Mr. Parker! You still with us?" The math teacher called out to him.

Peter, who was finding it impossible to focus, turned his head towards the teacher in one sudden jerking motion. He tapped his foot restlessly, doing his best to appear casual and relaxed.

"Uh, um, sorry." He said with a nervous, awkward chuckle.

"Mr. Parker, what do we get when we plug in the Pythagorean Theorem into this equation?" The teacher asked again, gesturing towards the board. Peter's eyes began to scan it.

As his eyes darted to the different writings on the board, he realized that his eyes were focusing in way too much, causing him to notice smaller, finite details in the writing on the board rather than what he was supposed to be looking at. His eyes blinked in disorientation.

"And this, class, is what happens when you don't pay attention. Now, does anyone actually have the answer? Flash?" The teacher moved on.

Peter shook his head a bit, trying to will himself into focusing again. It was like his senses were totally wired up, and he was having trouble dealing with it.

"Jeez, Pete, you tweekin' bro?" He heard a voice behind him say. He was again surprised by feeling a hand on his arm.

"Hey, Peter, are you okay?" The girl sitting next to him asked. His head whipped over to look at her and he leaned away slightly, taking her face in.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Cindy. Thanks." He said, doing his best to be reassuring as he blinked a bit rapidly.

"You sure? You might wanna go to the nurse." She recommended.

"I'm sorry, is this lecture boring you? Miss Moon? Mr. Parker? That's okay, I'll wait." The teacher said in order to get the students to quiet down. Cindy quickly went back to focusing ahead of her. Peter took in a breath and did the same.

"Alright, everyone, pick a partner! We're going to be doing rope climbs today!" The gym teacher said, inciting groans from the students. Peter, of course, partnered up with Ned.

However, today even Ned was noticing how funny Peter was acting. Peter wasn't normally one to be disoriented and sweaty, so his demeanor today came as quite a concern.

"Hey, Peter, you okay? You look like you're waiting for something to jump out and scare you." Ned commented, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter turned towards Ned and immediately began to brush it off with an unconvincing smile.

"Huh? Oh, nah man, haha, I'm fine. I'm fine." He said.

"Right, okay. What was I just saying?" Ned asked.

"Uh… You were… Star…Wars…?" Peter tried slowly. Ned raised an eyebrow at him.

"Dude, you sure you're okay? You've been acting weird ever since you broke into that-"

"Dude! You can't just bring that up! You're supposed to be cool about it." Peter quickly hushed him.

"Sorry, sorry. Uh, anyways, I-I was just saying that I looked into the different clubs we talked about them. All of them seem pretty alright." He informed him.

"Oh, okay. Good. Good, dude! I'll have to- I'll have to do the same." Peter said with a nod. The two of them reached the end of the line now, meaning that it was their turn to try and climb the rope.

"Ugh, they should not be making people my size climb these things. What do they expect me to do, climb to the top and do a backflip?" Ned said sarcastically as he went forward to climb the rope. Peter held onto the rope to keep it steady as Ned tried to climb and did not get very far.

In the 30 seconds of Ned attempting to climb the rope, Peter imagined himself doing what Ned had sarcastically said. With his new abilities, he could probably do something exactly like that; maybe more. He'd certainly look really cool doing something like that.

"Alright, yeah, you know what, Pete? I don't actually know why I'm still trying. Peer pressure. You go." Ned said, tapping Peter on the back and smacking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, okay man, I'll go." Peter said, grabbing onto the rope and pulling his legs up. He got the rope between his feet and began to inch upwards effortlessly.

As he made his way up, it became evident right away that he could easily climb all the way up to the ceiling on this rope. Heck, he could probably jump up and touch the ceiling with how he was now. He easily could become like a star athlete!

But then before he let his imagination run wild and get the best of him, he took another look around at everyone else. They were all focusing on their own thing now, but if he made his way up too far, all eyes would be on him.

And that's when it hit him: he may have powers now, but he didn't before. He'd done nothing to earn these things that he could do, so what gave him the right to use it to forward himself while pushing down those around him?

Besides, if he decided to use his powers to do something actually meaningful, he couldn't afford to reveal himself by doing something extravagant now. It'd be better if no one knew what he could do; that way no one could ruin it for him.

With a sigh, Peter loosened his grip on the rope. He slipped a little bit before his powers got him sticking to the rope again. He jerked a little bit before completely letting go of the rope and dropping to his feet. He looked back to Ned.

"Yeah, man, these rope climbs are way too hard. I don't get what the point of it is." He said in agreement as they walked away…