I rang the doorbell, shifting nervously on the balls of my feet. The lights were on and the tributes to Peter had dwindled down to a couple of pictures, candles and other non-perishables. I was glad they were still up, sitting on the veranda - a memorial to Peter and all he had stood for. The city's love for what he had been wasn't fading, and I hoped following in his legacy helped keep it alive. It was the least I could hope for.

Living up to his legacy may be impossible, but keeping it alive was something I could strive for.

The door creaked open just enough so that May inside could see me, but I couldn't see her, "Who's there?"

"I thought I was supposed to knock first for that joke?" I said, flicking my hoodie off so she could see it was me. I leaned against the door frame casually. From my new angle, I could see her trusty baseball bat sitting by her feet. I was glad I had never come up against that thing in a fight.

She snorted, shaking her head, and then closed the door. I heard lots of clicks as she unlocked the ten or so locks keeping intruders at bay. I wasn't sure how effective they would be against someone with super strength, but, it was the thought that counted.

The door swung open, distracting me from my thoughts. She gestured me inside. "Mary Jane's here too, hope you don't mind."

"Nah, that's fine. Haven't seen her in awhile either. Hope I'm not catching you at a bad time?" I asked, looking around the place. It hadn't changed much since I had last been here, except for some new antiques in the cupboard. I took my mask off and shoved into my hoodie pocket.

"We were just going to sit down for dinner, want some?" She asked, walking into the kitchen. I could smell spaghetti wafting from the other room, making my stomach rumble. The dining room was just adjacent to it. MJ was sitting at the table, leaning over the back of her seat.

"Hey Miles, did you get any cats down from any trees on the way over?" She joked.

"Set a new record of ten," I said, "you wouldn't believe the battle wounds I got from them." I turned back to May, who was already serving up two plates. "You know how deprived of food spiders are. Yes please."

"Do I ever," May muttered under her breath.

There was some shuffling around as I sat down in the spare spot and May stacked three bowls high with food, one noticeably larger than the others. She handed them out to us and sat down herself. "Eat up," she declared, grabbing her own fork.

I wasn't going to argue with that. I scoffed the food down, only pausing to chew properly. I'm sure Mum would gain some sidekick abilities and tell me off when I got home if I was that rude. And also, May would give me a Look.

"So… are you going back to school soon?" MJ asked, pausing in her own eating.

"Any day now. Not looking forward to it," I said with a small shrug.

May looked up at that, "No? Thought you might want to go back after almost two months away."

"It's like summer holidays 2.0, the kidnapped edition," I mused.

MJ snorted in the middle of her mouthful. She swallowed it before adding, "That's one way of looking at it."

I grinned. It was better than the less padded version of 'I got kidnapped and tortured for my blood, because apparently that's really sought after.' I shook my head like I could get rid of that thought. Maybe I should actually talk about the whole reason I was here in the first place. "Uh, I was wondering how you guys deal with fame?"

May frowned, "Have people been bothering you?"

"Yeah? I mean, like, no one's been breaking down my door or anything but I'm," I buried my face in my hands. My mind flashed to the events of not even an hour ago. "I just don't get it. I was fine with talking to kids and taking selfies before, but now it feels wrong and I don't know why!"

I let out a breath, "Sorry, it's fine, it's just confusing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing, kid. Things change when people know about you," MJ soothed. A small, bitter grin pulled at her face, "In fact, I was kind of mad when I got a promotion after Peter passed away."

"You got promoted? After? Ouch," I winced, leaning back in my seat.

"Oh yeah, it sucked. I was this close to quitting. But, I got over it. Being famous helped my articles sell a lot better, and editors were way less likely to cut my stories," MJ explained. She paused to take a bite before continuing. "So think of it this way. What happened was absolutely terrible, don't get that wrong, but it's opened a couple more doors."

"Like what?" I asked. This whole thing felt horrible all around, how on earth could there be any positives?

"Well, for one thing people will be more likely to accept Spider-man you," May pointed out. "A lot of the complaints Peter got were 'how are we supposed to trust you if we don't even know who you are.' I would have thought his actions spoke for him, but there's always the odd paranoid one."

"I've been getting those too, I just didn't think anything of it." I shuffled some food around the plate before having another bite. "But wasn't the whole point of the mask to hide my identity? I might as well design a new costume at this point."

"I…" MJ sighed. She seemed to think for a moment before she finally looked me in the eye. "Well, that wasn't his whole reason. Sometimes after a hard fight, Peter would tell me how having the mask helped hide his fear."

"Really?" I whispered, sitting up straighter.

"Yeah. I know you never met him properly. But even though he was a jokester and fairly charismatic, he was also just a kid for a lot of his career." MJ smiled, like she was reminiscing on pleasant memories, "He really was something else. Some of his villains were so scary that I don't even know how you could think about facing them. You're pretty brave, kid."

Yeah, MJ might have a point about the mask thing, because it would be very convenient for my blush to be hidden right about now. "Uh, thanks. I'm glad I can live up to his legacy?"

May tipped her head to the side, "This whole reveal thing is out of the ordinary for all of us, but think, there's probably a thousand universes where this has happened."

"You saying I should try and contact them?" I grinned.

May shook her head, barely suppressing a grimace. "Heavens no, not after last time. I can barely handle one of you at a time."

"I kinda miss them. It was fun having other Spideys around, even with the whole glitching and might die thing," I said, taking the last bite of my food. I felt so full I could explode, but I knew that that feeling would disappear soon enough. The trials of a fast metabolism.

MJ brought her hand up to her face, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "You wouldn't happen to know if they… I don't know, tried to break into Fisk tower? Using disguises?"

I shrugged, "Not really, I turned up to the fight after the collider was already going. I think I was swinging through New York or something when they were breaking in."

"Huh." She leaned back in her own seat. "Well, I might have talked to one of them. He was apologising a lot for not getting bread to my table, it was really weird. Or it was a waiter having a breakdown."

"Before we speculate further, who wants dessert?" May interrupted, picking up our plates. I quickly intervened and grabbed all of the dishes.

"Yes please!"

Spideyspotter spideyspotter - 5h ago

Spotted Miles in a Seven Eleven grabbing a slurpee!

#spideyspotter #Milesthenewspidey #blackspidey

I flicked over the twitter, paused, and then scrolled back up. What time was that? Seven pm? I had been with May and MJ… right?

I shook my head. Eh. Whatever.

"Miles! Put your phone away, you've got a big day ahead of you."

I shifted from under my blankets. "How did you even see the light?" I called back to Dad. I should probably get some sleep anyway.

That morning was a flurry of activity, to say the least. Bag packed, uniform on, breakfast and then shot out the door faster than you could say 'quantum physics.'

I choose not to walk that day, instead tagging along with Dad in his patrol car. Dread was settled in my stomach but I was ignoring it. This first day was gonna suck, but once everyone sees I'm really not any different than before, they'll let up. Surely. I wasn't actually that interesting.

When we finally pulled up at the entrance, I hesitated for a long moment. I turned back to Dad. "Promise you're not gonna pull the same stunt as last year?"

"What, getting you to come out of your teenage shell and admit that you love me?" Dad asked, leaning back in his seat with one arm still on the steering wheel with a goofy grin on his face.

"Exactly. I might disown you if you do it again," I joked.

Dad laughed, "Don't worry kiddo, I'll let you go in peace. Good luck, and remember our home is always open. If you get overwhelmed or-"

I quickly cut him off, "I know my limits, Dad. I'll call ahead if I really need to escape." I grabbed my suitcase and backpack. "See you Friday?"

"Wouldn't miss it," he told me, giving me a small wave. My lips twitched up in a small smile. I was kinda looking forward to it.

I shut the door behind me, took a deep breath and started up the steps. First, my room and see if Ganke's there. Second, physics, then English I think.

The building doors swung open with a small hip bump and then I was in. There were a few students milling around, who at the movement looked up. I even saw one kid 'slyly' take a picture of me.

Just ignore them. Everything's fine.

A random kid I had never seen before wandered up to me. They looked like they were maybe a year younger than me, or two. "Are you Miles?"

"No, I'm David. Don't know who you're talking about. Uh, gotta go," I said, quickly trying to sidestep them and continue on. No such luck, they hung on like a parasite. And like a parasite, they started sucking the life out of me.

"No, you're definitely Miles! The new Spider-man! How'd you get your powers? Can you show me a thing you can do? What's it like swinging through New York?" They asked excitedly, unfortunately keeping up with me. Even when I walked as fast as I could without outright sprinting. I was sorely tempted to camouflage, but I still had my suitcase trailing behind me and I didn't think that would disappear with me.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I hissed through gritted teeth. Just another couple of corridors and then I could lock them out. Just gotta get there, it's fine. It's fine.

"C'mon, I've been your biggest fan ever since you started! You're way better than Peter. Like, you have style and-"

I stopped suddenly, nearly sending them tripping over my suitcase. "Dude, not cool," I told them, frowning at them. Disgust curled up in my stomach.

"What? Take it as a compliment," they grumbled, folding their arms and jutting their hip out. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Look," I sighed, rubbing at the bridge of my nose with my free hand, "I just want to get to my room. Can you bother me later?"

They tapped their foot for an obnoxious amount of seconds before huffing. "Fine."

I nodded once before continuing on my way, leaving them to sulk. No one else disturbed me on the way to my room, which I was super thankful for. I knocked lightly, "Hey Ganke, you in?"

There was some shuffling inside and then the door swung open. Ganke stood there, big grin slapped across his face. "Didn't get held up by your big fans?"

"Unfortunately, some kid thought it was the perfect time to bother me. It was… so much fun," I said through gritted teeth. I let my suitcase fall onto its back and closed the door, making sure to lock it before getting to work putting all my stuff away.

"It'll only get worse." I stopped in my unpacking long enough to stare at him. "Uh, I meant, they'll stop bothering you soon!"

"Ganke, what do you know?" I asked, standing up straight and folding my arms. Ganke visibly started sweating.

"Uh, nothing. Nothing's going on! Yeah, uh, anyway how's life been?" Ganke said as he 'casually' leaned against the wall, blundering every second word.

I raised an eyebrow. It was the crack that broke the dam.

"Ok, ok! Some things are going on! I've seen that some students are going to try and get your signature on various things and sell it on ebay and I've even seen an instagram set up entirely for tracking where you are and-"

I held up my hands, "Woah, dude, its fine. I can deal with it."

Ganke stopped, "Uh, yeah? You sure?"

I shrugged, putting my laptop and books besides his on our shared desk. "I'm really not that different from everyone else. They'll see. Just give them a couple weeks and exam time will have everyone way more worried than what I'm doing."

"But, like, you're a mini celebrity! And you go to our school!" Ganke exclaimed, hands shooting up into the air like I was the insane one.

I turned back to Ganke. "Remember what you did when I first showed you I was the new Spider-Man?"

"Got super excited and squealed a lot?" He said, tipping his head to the side.

"And how do you treat me now?"

That seemed to get through to him. "Oooh ok, I get it now. It did help that I sorta knew you before the whole-" he gestured at me, "-Spider-man thing happened. Wait, you did get bitten after I first met you, right?"

"After, yeah. People have their own lives dude, My fifteen minutes of fame will be the last thing on everyone's minds in a week or two." I pointed out, sliding my now-empty suitcase under my bed. I surveyed the room. Well, that had been easy, made easier because there had been stuff of mine still here instead of being sent home to Mum and Dad, after the whole kidnapping thing.

Ganke sat down in his swivel chair, "But you're hardly a fifteen minute celebrity. You're more like a in-the-back-of-everyone's-minds celebrity. As soon as you fight an epic bad guy people will be paying attention to you again! You're going to blow up so many times dude."

I rubbed at my eyes. "For my peace of mind, let's just pretend I'll be a fifteen minute celebrity." I got up and stretched, cracking my back in the process. "Alright, I gotta go to all my teachers and get some catch up lessons. You good?"

"Yeah man, good luck. Just message me if you need a convenient escape route," Ganke said, giving me a lazy salute. I smiled and gave him one back before I slipped into the hallway.

Now, school.

Most kids were in their classes, and I had only managed to get a one on one with Miss Calleros because she had a free. Worked well for me, I guess.

I slipped into her classroom after knocking. She was sitting at her desk, drinking what I assumed was coffee. She raised a single eyebrow at my presence. "Mr. Morales, the newest Spider-man. Didn't think your expectations essay was really that close to what you were doing."

"What can I say, ma'am, I was going the English route of hidden meanings," I shrugged, walking over and sitting in the chair she had set up in preparation for me coming along. The plastic was freezing. Hopefully this meeting wouldn't take too long.

"How are you feeling? Ready to play catch up?" she asked, shuffling some papers before picking one out of the heap.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Do you think I'll have trouble catching up?"

She looked over her glasses at me, pausing and thinking. "No. You're a hard working student. The first few lessons you might have to take as many notes as you can until you understand the course work we're studying. But as long as you do enough homework, you'll be fine."

"Thanks miss. Uh, what's first up?" I asked, leaning back in my seat. I was not looking forward to all the homework. From all of my six classes. Sleepless nights, here I come!

She handed over a piece of paper. "This is your outline; if you can understand all the subjects that will be brought up, you'll be ahead of your classmates," she explained as I had a look over it.

There were a lot of fancy words that I didn't even recognise. Gulp.

"I'm sure I can, uh, do that miss. I'll do my best," I said. Oh man, this was gonna be a headache and a half. Hopefully youtube had some tutorials.

She smiled, her eyes going softer and warmer. "I expect nothing less. Don't be afraid to come to me for extra help."