In a dormitory room, a teenager with short-cropped brown hair was asleep on the top bunk of a bunk bed.

"Seriously, Andrew, you'll get in trouble if you're late!" Said the student Andrew shared his dorm with, throwing a pillow at him.

Letting out a tired groan, Andrew's eyes slowly opened, glaring at his roommate.

"Miles, what the hell are you doing?" Asked Andrew in a sleepy voice.

"Waking you up!" Answered Miles.

Andrew slowly took a deep breath and looked around their dorm room.

"Okay, and why are you doing this wearing a shirt that's dripping paint on the floor?" He asked.

"Is it still wet?" Said Miles as he turned around, trying to look for places where the paint had not yet dried. A short time later, he discovered that paint was dripping onto his pants and a few drops were falling onto the floor. "Oh."

Andrew covered a yawn as he climbed down from the bed above.

"You're cleaning the floor, by the way. Your mess, you clean up." He said as he grabbed a set of Visions Academy uniforms from his closet. "Did you paint another mural or something?"

"Yeah." Answered Miles, smiling eagerly as he took off his shirt and began to dress for class like his friend. "My Uncle Aaron showed me this great place on the north side of Brooklyn in the subway tunnels. Secluded and completely at the mercy of me and my spray paint. Want to see?"

"You're talking about a picture, right?" Laughed Andrew as he buttoned his shirt. "Because I don't think we have time to go back and forth to class."

"Duh." Said Miles, rolling his eyes before pulling out his phone. "Check this out!"

Andrew looked at the device and raised an eyebrow.

"Man, it's empty..." He said surprising his friend.

"What?" Said Miles blinking before looking at his phone and pressing its screen. He did it a few times then the device stopped responding. "Aw come on, I'm sure I still had twelve percent on this thing when I left the train!"

Andrew laughed at his friend's antics before he saw the time on the wall clock.

"Whoa. You can show me that later." He said as he grabbed his jacket and kicked the door open. "We're going to be late for homeroom!"

"You know, I still don't really care about school!" Said Miles as he pulled on his backpack.

And yet, Miles still attended class. As the only friend at Visions, Andrew insisted that he at least come to class. He knew Miles wanted to leave Visions and go back to his old school where all his other friends were. And Andrew could respect that, people should be in places where they feel happy, where they feel safe to learn. Yet Andrew told Miles to at least try Visions for at least a week and if he still felt like leaving, Andrew would help Miles get out of Visions.

"So, what's your next idea for your next sculpture?" Asked Miles during lunch as he ate the food on his tray. At least the food here was decent. "Because I have this new set of spray paint my uncle gave me and I really want to use them."

Andrew, who had used some of his lunch to draw a map on the table, nodded absently.

"Uh-huh, yeah that's cool." He said in a focused tone.

Noticing his distracted tone, Miles looked on with a frown.

"Dude, are you listening, oh." He said, when he noticed his friend's plan of mashed potatoes and pieces of chicken meat, he blinked before smiling. "Well, you do, man."

"Mmhmm, sure, Miles." Answered Andrew as his friend watched him continue to make his plan, offering parts of his own lunch when Andrew's tray was empty. "And... here it is!"

"That's... Spider-Man." Observed Miles with a contemplative frown. "Fighting the rhino?"

"Yeah. What do you think?" Smiled Andrew.

"How big will it be?" Asked Miles.

"It'll be big, really big." Answered Andrew with a smirk as his arms stretched wide in emphasis.

"Man, it's going to be awesome!" Said Miles to him with an impatient smile.

"Oh yeah, it will be!" Said Andrew as he raised his hand for a high-five, which Miles easily gave. "But we're going to have to talk to Stan at the junkyard after school, he's the only one I know in town who has parts that might be big enough for this."

"Aw, man, I can't wait!" Miles smiled.

Stan was the owner of a junkyard in Queens and always allowed them access to his best parts that he wasn't going to use himself for profit. A curious old man who always seemed to know more, but said the strangest things such as "excelsior".

"Ahem."

Both boys froze before slowly looking over their shoulders to see one of the teachers looking at them with his arms crossed over his chest and a raised eyebrow, an irritated look on his face as he looked at Andrew's plan.

"Still defacing school property, are you, gentlemen?" Asked the teacher dryly.

Andrew et Miles ont affiché des sourires innocents sur leurs visages.

"Uh, hello, Mr. Jones!" Said Miles nervously. "Nice day we're having, isn't it?"

"Indeed, a beautiful day." Agreed Mr. Jones, his facial expression not changing at all. "At least it was until I found paint drips leading from the main entrance to the dorms to your dorm and now I've discovered that food is currently decorating one of our lunch tables."

Miles and Andrew exchanged glances.

"Okay, Mr. Jones." Said Andrew. "I plead guilty to the food on the table."

"And I plead guilty to the paint on the floor." Continued Miles.

"And we're both sorry for what we did." Continued Andrew.

"So sorry." Said Miles, shaking his head.

"Uh-huh." Said Mr. Jones continuing to look at them, clearly unconvinced by the two students' apologies.

"Man, I don't think this is working." Miles muttered from the corner of his mouth.

"Dude, shut up, you'll ruin it." Answered Andrew, equally calm.

"Trials, for both of you." Said Mr. Jones, lowering his arms. "Two pages explaining why it's so important to keep a school clean. At the very least. I want them on my desk two weeks from today."

Andrew and Miles winced.

"Yes, Mr. Jones." Exclaimed the two boys.

"Enjoy the rest of your day, gentlemen." Mr. Jones nodded before turning on his heels and leaving.

Andrew and Miles both breathed sighs of relief.

"Okay, we should probably clean this up before the lunch ladies start pestering us about it too." Sighs Andrew. "I'm going to go get some paper towels, can you take a picture of this so we can use it later?"

"With what phone?" Asked Miles, looking at him in disbelief. "Mine is back in the room charging, remember?"

Andrew blinked.

"Oh, right." He said, reaching into his pocket and tossing his own phone. "Use mine. And take lots of pictures! We're going to need them."

"Got it, boss!" Said Miles.

Andrew turned to get large rolls of paper towels for cleanup when he nearly bumped into someone.

"Oh shit, sorry about that?" He quickly apologized. "I didn't see where I was going."

"Don't worry about it." Said a girl's voice.

Andrew was surprised by the sight of the person he had stumbled upon, a blonde girl with a piercing on her right eyebrow.

"Excuse me, are you new here?" He asked curiously. "I don't think I've seen you around here."

"Uh, yeah, I just transferred in recently." She nodded.

"Odd, I thought Miles was the only new transfer." Andrew hummed. "Anyway, welcome to Visions."

The blonde smiled.

"Thank you. My name is Gwe..." She said, pausing for a moment before blurting out. "Gwanda. My name is Gwanda. It's South African, I'm from South Africa but uh, I don't have an accent because I, uh, was raised here." She said awkwardly.

Andrew raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Cool, I'm Andrew. I'm part French, but I don't speak the language because I was raised here too." He said, offering his hand for a handshake.

This made 'Gwanda' laugh a little at the use of her joke as she took his hand and shook it.

"I was joking, by the way, there is no G." She said, clearing her throat as her laughter died down. "My name is Wanda."

"Well, nice to meet you, Wanda." Andrew replied.

"Nice to meet you, Andrew." She nodded before raising an eyebrow. "So, do you usually get in trouble with teachers?"

"Ah, you saw that?" Andrew grimaced.

"I'm pretty sure everyone in the cafeteria has seen that." She smiled.

"Probably." He sighed. "But no, I don't usually get in much trouble. It's usually my friend Miles who gets into trouble."

"Then why did you get in trouble?" She asked curiously.

"I draw a map on the table with my lunch." He replied with a shrug. "I didn't have any paper with me, so I used what was available."

"With your lunch?" Asked 'Wanda'.

"Well, when I have an idea, it has to come out." Answered Andrew, shrugging sheepishly, tapping the side of his head with his knuckles in emphasis. "Otherwise, it's just going to bug me for the rest of the day." He grumbled.

It happened once on a test day. He had ended up drawing his plans for his next piece on the back of his answer sheet and had gotten yelled at by the teacher. It was also the same teacher who introduced him to Stan the next day.

"Really?" Asked Wanda, bursting out laughing.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Uh, Andrew? A little help?" Said Miles.

The two looked over to see that Miles was facing an angry lunch lady who was pointing at Andrew's plan made of food with an irritated and disbelieving look on her face. Miles had his hands up as he tried to defuse the problem, but he kept looking over his shoulder at Andrew as he silently asked for help.

"Ah, I have to take care of this." Andrew grinned.

"Have fun, you two." Said Wanda as she shook her head, a sly smile on her lips.

"Better wish me luck instead." He sighed with a grimace as he turned back to Miles. "And welcome back to Visions, Wanda!" He said over his shoulder with a wave of his hand.

With her persistent amused smile, she waved at him as she watched him join his friend and talk to the lunch lady. From the looks of it, it wasn't going very well. Turning on her heels, she began to walk out of the cafeteria. It was a shame she had to give a fake name instead of the real one.

...Later that afternoon...

"Come on, man, how long are you going to keep pouting?" Asked Andrew to Miles, who was sitting next to him on the subway.

"I'm not pouting." Said Miles gruffly, arms crossed as he slumped in his seat, keeping his gaze averted from his roommate. "I'm not pouting. I'm pouting, there's a difference you know."

"I'm pretty sure the words are synonymous, man." Said Andrew, tilting his head to the side, one eyebrow raised.

"No, they're not." Miles scoffed.

"Yes, they are. Ask Google."

Scoffing again, Miles pulled out his newly charged phone to check, typing "pout" into the search bar. He waited a moment for the search to complete and blinked when the search results did indeed indicate that pout was synonymous with sulk.

"Well?" Asked Andrew.

"The research is inconclusive." Lied Miles, not wanting to give his friend the satisfaction.

Andrew shook his head, laughing.

"But you still left me high and dry with that lunch lady to talk to a girl!" Accused Miles, pointing to his friend's face. "What about the Bro Code? Solidarity! Solidarity must always be maintained!"

"Okay, fine, I'm sorry." Said Andrew rolling his eyes. "I'm sorry I left you in the hands of a lunch lady to talk to a girl."

"Good!" Said Miles, nodding, arms crossed over his chest. "Is she hot?"

Andrew blinked before his face turned impassive.

"Are you serious?" He asked flatly.

"Answer the question, man!" Miles insisted, banging the bottom of his fist against Andrew's shoulder. "Was she hot? I'll forgive you if you tell me she was hot."

"Dude, does it matter?" Moaned Andrew, stroking his face.

"For some people it does." Said Miles with a shrug. And if it wasn't clear, he did include himself in the same group of those few. "Come on, tell me, man. Was she hot?"

"Was she pretty good?" Answered Andrew, holding up his hands.

"And...?" Said Miles pronouncing the word with a teasing smile pasted on his face.

"And yes, she was hot." Admitted Andrew.

"I knew it!" Said Miles with a laugh. "Are you going to ask her out?"

Andrew shrugged, looking away.

"I don't know, I just met her." Andrew replied.

"Oh, come on, Andrew." Miles protested. "Why don't you ask her out? I mean, it's been, what, like a month since you and Beth broke up?"

Andrew directed a dark look to the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, don't remind me." He grumbled.

Beth was his ex-girlfriend who he dated for almost a year. She was a transfer student from England who came to Visions Academy as part of a two-year study abroad program. They had hit it off after a few study dates and he had managed to work up the courage to ask her out. And Beth was a good person, a little sarcastic but he had liked that about her, she wasn't afraid to tell anyone how she felt or if someone was stupid. However, with that sarcasm also had cynicism and superiority.

At first he didn't know, but as time went on and whenever they discussed his art, she would make commands in the form of suggestions during the creative process. Or at least that's what he'd thought, and he'd tried to talk to her about it, but Beth would just talk about the subject before blowing him off if things got heated. Eventually, he got tired of arguing and broke it off because, by then, most of their conversations were either by text or phone.

"Come on man, you don't have to worry about her anymore, okay?" Said Miles shaking his friend's shoulders. "Just find someone you'll actually have fun with. Besides, it's like my uncle says, all you have to do to get a girl to go for you is be confident. Get your confidence back, man. Be confident so you can walk up to them, put your hand on their shoulder and say 'hey'."

Andrew looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"'Hey'?" Asked Andrew with a slight chuckle as he raised an eyebrow.

"Hey." Confirmed Miles with a nod of his head.

Andrew then rolled his eyes.

"I'm very skeptical, man." He said.

"Seriously, man." Said Miles as the train came to their stop and they both got up to disembark. "My uncle swears the technique works."

"If you say so, buddy." Andrew chuckled as they walked down the stairs and out into the street.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at a junkyard. Excelsior Auto & Salvage, it said on the sign hanging at the entrance to the property. Numerous cars from different years littered the sides of the place with many broken or non-working appliances piled up. And in the middle of the lot was a decent sized building where the two teens knew the owner of the junkyard was staying while doing business. Walking up to the front door of the building, Miles was the one to ring the doorbell while Andrew just sat on the porch railing.

"Yeah, yeah, just leave the car..." Said an old man with his white hair slicked back and had a mustache and a pair of sunglasses came out grumbling. Although he paused when he saw who was at his door. "Ah, it's just you two. What are you doing here, shouldn't you be in school?" He laughed.

"School's out for the day, Stan." Andrew reminded the man with a laugh.

"Yeah." Miles agreed. "Besides, Andrew has an idea."

Shaking his head, Stan climbed onto the porch, closing the door behind him.

"Well, okay then, what do you boys need?" He asked.

Andrew climbed down from the railing, pulling out his phone to show Stan his new idea.

"Did you... did you make this with food?" Asked Stan, squinting in confusion behind his sunglasses.

"I didn't have a pen or paper." Answered Andrew with a shrug.

Stan shook his head, laughing.

"All right, kid. Anyway, it looks doable and I think I have some wire rope left in one of my garage bays that should help make the frame." Said the old man.

"Great." Smiled Andrew.

"I'll get it." Miles offered.

"It should be in Bay Two." Stan told him as he tossed the keys. "If not..."

"Check Bay Three." Miles agreed.

Stan.

"So, how's your mom, kid? Is she okay?" Asked the older man.

"Last time I checked, she's fine." Answered Andrew.

That's when his phone rang, a ringtone he had specifically assigned to a contact.

"Ah, speak of the devil. Doesn't that bother you?" He asked.

« Pas du tout. » Répondit Stan en lui faisant signe de partir. « Je vais voir quel genre de ferraille j'ai eu qui fonctionnerait en attendant. »

"Thanks, Stan." Andrew nodded before turning his attention to his phone.

Mom: "How was school today?"

Andrew: "The usual. Lesson and a quiz, Miles tried to fail again. The usual."

Mom: "Lmao. Usually it takes a lot of work to get into Visions, not out."

With a wry smile, Andrew typed his next message.

Andrew: "Well, you know Miles. He doesn't like cages."

Mom: "School's not a cage, honey."

Andrew: "It is for some kids, Mom."

Mom: "Okay, but enough about the other kids. I'm asking about MY child.

He rolled his eyes.

Andrew: "I'm fine, Mom. Like I said, nothing really happened today."

"Hey, is that your mom?" Said someone behind him.

Startled, Andrew almost dropped his phone and looked at Miles, who had a few rolls of wire under his arms. Dropping the cables to the floor, Miles ignored the look his friend was giving him and picked up his phone.

"Hey!" Said Andrew in a disapproving tone.

"What kind of a wonderful day." Miles remarked with a smirk as he looked at his friend's texts, keeping Andrew at bay.

"Seriously, Miles, give me my phone back!" Said Andrew.

"In a minute, man." Answered Miles. "You're talking to your mom about me, right? Well, it's a good thing our parents don't talk to each other much."

Andrew gave him a dark look for the pun.

"But..." Said Miles as he began to type on his friend's phone.

"Hey what are you typing?" Asked Andrew as he tried to take his phone back.

Miles then ran away from Andrew, avoiding his friend as he finished typing.

"You're welcome, man." He smiled as he tossed his phone to Andrew.

Looking warily at his friend, Andrew looked down at his phone.

Miles: "Hi, Mrs. Bateman. This is Miles, I just wanted to let you know that Andrew met a girl today. And even left me in the clutches of a mean lunch lady to talk to the girl. Maybe he'll bring her home soon? I'll give Andrew his phone back."

Andrew's head jerked up, his gaze intensifying.

Miles just smiled.

But before Andrew could say or do anything else, his phone rang again. Letting out an annoyed groan, he checked his phone again, immediately dreading what would happen when he saw the text message notification.

Mom: "So, what's her name?"

"Miles, you don't know how dead you are." Hissed Andrew.

Miles just laughed.

"That's a refund for earlier!" He said finally bursting out laughing.

"I think I found the best scrap metal that would work for the base of the statue." said Stan as he returned, holding a few pieces of metal in his hands. Only to find Andrew on top of a downed Miles, tying him up with the metal cables that the latter had brought back earlier, squeezing as tight as he could.

"I surrender! I surrender!" Said Miles in surrender.

"Die like a man, Miles! Die like a man!" Said Andrew, not seeming calm enough to stop.

Stan blinked once, then twice more.

"I feel like I should ask what's going on..." He sighed. "...But then I don't really want a headache." Dropping the pieces of metal on the floor in a heap, he turned back to where he came from. "I'm just going to get more scrap metal."

...A few hours later...

"Whoa, is it time? You kids need to get back to your dorms." Said Stan with a frown as he looked at his watch.

Andrew and Miles shared a disturbed look from where they were individually braiding wire ropes to create frames for their new collaborative project.

"Stan, did you... did you just call us 'the kids'?" Asked Miles incredulously.

"But, he has a point." Said Andrew reluctantly to Miles. "Besides, I have to finish studying for next week's social studies quiz."

"Okay, fine." Miles sighed.

Personally, he wanted to keep going because he had no interest in maintaining his grades at Visions Academy. But he could respect that Andrew wanted to maintain his. However, now he wondered what he was going to do to pass the time.

"Come on, we can take what you did all the way to Bay Three." Said Stan, grabbing some of the scrap metal.

Miles and Andrew took the wire ropes they had fashioned together for their statue limbs and a few rolls of the wire rope they had not yet touched before following Stan to his garage bays. It took a few trips to get all the gathered materials to Bay Three, but eventually, between the three of them, they got the job done.

"As always, you should both feel free to return at any time." Declared Stan as he locked the bay door with a padlock. "Your project won't end on its own, after all."

"Thanks, Stan." Andrew nodded.

"See ya Stan!" Said Miles as he grabbed his backpack and slid one of the straps over his shoulder. "Thanks again for dinner!"

As he and Andrew left the junkyard, Miles' phone rang, making him check and smile.

"Hey, man, I'm going out with my uncle again. He just got the movie on The Amazing Ricochet and he's offering to watch it together." Explained Miles.

"Okay, no worries." Said Andrew, waving to him. "Come on, have fun. Say 'hey' to your uncle for me."

"It works!" Said Miles as he went the other way so he could get to the train that was running in the opposite direction of Visions Academy, offering a wave over his shoulder. "Don't study too hard!"

"If only." Andrew grumbled.

Honestly, he didn't like social studies much. In fact, he hated the subject. Why talk about the successes and failures of the dead? Just keep the lessons of their failures, no need to know when they were born or any other crap like that.

Heading for the subway back to Brooklyn, Andrew plugged his ears with his headphones and played music from one of the playlists on his phone. Joining a crowd in the same direction he was going, he nodded his head to the music.

Finally reaching the subway station, he took the appropriate subway that was going in the direction of his school, still nodding to the music as he grabbed a nearby handlebar to steady himself instead of finding a seat.

As the train moved on, his thoughts went to the girl he had met at school today, Wanda. Even at a school as prodigious as Visions Academy, new transfer students tended to create a buzz in gossip. There was gossip when Miles transferred from his school, but there was little to no gossip that he had heard when he first met Wanda. Now, he wasn't one to actively participate in gossip, but he at least liked to keep his ear to the ground. After all, some rumors about people were.

But again, he heard absolutely nothing about Wanda. So either she was kidding him and she was just a student he'd never met until today, or... No, that was the only plausible reason he could think of. Maybe she was just the anomaly in terms of all the gossip before a new transfer student, an outlier. And he was being honest when he told Miles he'd found Wanda pretty...and sexy. But asking her out? Yeah, that sounded like a lot of stress he didn't want to deal with right now, thank you very much.

When the subway train finally arrived at the station near Visions Academy, he disembarked and headed for street level. And that's when he passed an alley and that's when a spider glowing with a slight blue light landed on his hand holding his phone without Andrew noticing. And finally the spider bit him.

This made Andrew flinch as the spider fell to the ground, dead. Curious about the presence of a spider glowing blue, Andrew took a small test tube out of his bag, put the spider in it and closed the container.

He returned to his dormitory and was so tired that he did not take the time to review and lay down on his bed to sleep.