One Thing After Another

[Forest Hills, Queens, New York City]

Peter was currently walking through a beautiful neighborhood with tree-lined streets and well-kept homes. Few cars will pass by him coming to and from; some families were having a barbecue while others were inside watching TV.

Feeling the cold breeze against his skin and the sounds of birds chirping through his ears, Peter smiled and closed his eyes as he missed the peaceful quietness of home. Thankfully, he had just walked up to the entrance of his house, where he lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

After attending the science tour on the class trip today, especially after the crazy events that happened, Peter felt himself becoming very tired and exhausted. 'Man, I'm beat. I think I'm going to skip dinner tonight...'

Looking at the two-story, well-kept house, Peter walked toward the house and up the porch before unlocking and opening the front door. Then, once inside, Peter dropped his school bag by the door and took a look at the usual surroundings that he's all so familiar with, but he can't help but appreciate home every time he enters through that door.

With his blue eyes, Peter first looked at the long hallway leading up to the kitchen and dining room. Lined up against the hallway walls were open arches leading to several rooms, like the living room, laundry room, and office room. On the right was a staircase leading up to the second floor of the house, which is where the bedrooms were located.

Some nice floral wall paper, paintings, and stools with flowerpots and plants furnished the hallway, but now that the homey atmosphere had begun to settle within Peter's body, it caused him to yawn and stretch.

He felt so tired that everything became so exhausting to do, such as alerting his family that he had gotten home or telling them about his day. 'I'll just lock the door and go upstairs and go to bed.' Peter thought and did exactly that.

Locking the door, lazily walking up the steps, and slowly walking to his bedroom door, Peter entered his rather messy room before taking off his glasses and allowing his body to fall to his bed after closing his bedroom door. He pulled his blanket over his body and began to have a pleasant dream.

Meanwhile, down the stairs and inside the kitchen, an older couple was eating some wheat cakes before making dinner for everyone at the house. They had recently heard someone come through the door by unlocking it with some key, and they obviously knew who that was. They then heard him go up the stairs without saying anything, causing a frown to appear on one of the couple's faces.

"Hmm, Peter didn't say hello? That's not like him. I should go—" A lovely woman who seemed to be in her early forties had short brown hair with a few strands of gray hair, blue eyes, and wore a purple sleeved shirt, dark blue jeans, and socks on her feet.

She was about to get up before the older man sitting next to her, who appeared to be of similar age, stopped her. "Leave him alone, May. I'm sure Peter is alright. Perhaps he's just tired from being excited all day and walking home from school."

This man had short brown hair with a few strands of gray hair as well, along with brown eyes, wearing a yellow buttoned shirt, brown khakis, and white shoes. With his eyeglasses, he was looking at the newspaper's daily crossword puzzle as he talked with his spouse.

These two people were Aunt May and Uncle Ben, Peter's parental guardians, who have been watching him ever since his parents died when he was younger. Ever since, they became his loving family, and Uncle Ben was Peter's role model.

"Oh, alright, dear. But I'll make sure to make him a plate of leftovers—and don't even think about stopping me from giving him an earful first thing in the morning." Aunt May closed her eyes and huffed as she crossed her arms and turned her head, earning a chuckle from her husband.

...

Throughout the night and into the next morning, Peter's peaceful dream had turned into a nightmare, causing him to have cold sweats, sleep talking, and tossing and turning in his bed. When his alarm clock finally rang to awaken him from his slumber, Peter slammed his fist onto it, shattering it to two pieces, along with the nightstand that held not only his alarm clock but also a lamp and other personal things.

It created such a loud noise that it startled not only Peter but everyone inside the house.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"P-Peter?! Is everything alright in there? I heard a loud bang coming from your room. Are you alright? Do you need help?" Aunt May asked, to which Peter replied quickly in a hurried voice, "Y-Yeah, I'm fine, Aunt May. I accidentally knocked something over, but everything's fine!"

Thankfully, Peter managed to hear his uncle pull Aunt May away from the door, telling her that Peter was a growing boy and that he was probably going through puberty. "What?!" Peter whispered with disbelief and somewhat frustration, but he would rather have his aunt believe that than find out he broke the nightstand and the alarm clock.

'So embarrassing, but I can't have them know whatever... happened.' Peter thought as he cringed his face from both the comment made by his uncle and the trouble of coming up with a lie on how he's going to explain what happened.

Scratching his head, he thought aloud, "How did this even happen? Ugh, I'll figure it out later. What time is it anyway...?" Grabbing his old smartphone from under the blanket, Peter checked the time on his phone since he couldn't anymore with the digital alarm clock now that he'd smashed it in two.

Looking at the time, Peter realized that the alarm that he awoke to was actually his second alarm, as he missed the first one that went off, which was well over an hour ago. This meant that he only had fifteen minutes before he had to arrive at school, or else he'd be late.

"My perfect attendance record! Oh, no!" Running over to his open closet, Peter noticed that he forgot to wash his clothes yesterday. "I forgot yesterday was laundry day; what am I going to do?!" With no other choice, he decided he'd wear the same clothes as yesterday, which were, thankfully, already on his body.

Sprinting toward the door, Peter went to reach for the knob on the door, and before he knew it, the doorknob was torn off the door as if it were held there by a piece of fragile tape. "What the hell is happening this morning?!"

Peter then tried dropping the doorknob, but once again, there was something wrong. The doorknob seemed to be stuck to his hand like it was laced with superglue, or rather, super, super, super, superglue.

"Can this day get any worse?!" Peter then tried forgetting the doorknob and went to pull the door open as best as he could, and if it were like a miracle, nothing bad happened this time.

Running down the stairs, picking up his school bag, and running out the front door, Peter left without saying goodbye, as he had little time to do so. Luckily, just before he left, the doorknob managed to become unstuck from his hand, dropped on the floor, and was now rolling and stopping a few meters away from the door.

Slowly walking up to it, Uncle Ben had to admit, "Maybe... you were right. I'll have a talk with him after school..." he said to his wife, who was now very concerned for Peter. They both were, but they didn't know what the matter was, how it was affecting him, or what they could do to help.

Nodding, Aunt May decided to let Peter's father figure and role model handle something like this. It's the best that she could do for the time being, aside from being the loving but stern and concerning guardian she always was.

...

"Come on, come on, come on..." Peter ran all through Forest Hills until he got closer to the urban area where his school was located. He ran through all pedestrian lights, causing turning cars to stop and honk at him, making Peter apologize as he kept on going.

What was even worse was that it was lightly raining and Peter didn't bring an umbrella with him to school, so now the rain splattered all over his clothing, which was becoming more wet the longer he stayed outside.

Nonetheless, Peter persisted and managed to make it to school just in time before the security guard closed the gate at the front entrance. Thanking him for allowing him to enter, Peter walked away but noticed that he could still hear him clearly while the guard talked to himself, as if he were standing right next to him.

'Why...? How is this all possible?' Peter thought, and he now noticed that everything, not just his hearing but all of his senses, increased many folds overnight. This is when Peter found out that he had gotten all the way over here without wearing his glasses. "What on earth is happening right now? How can I see so well?"

Shaking his head to get rid of the thought for now, Peter walked up the large staircase leading into the school building, and once he entered inside, he noticed that all the hallways were empty as all of the students were attending homeroom.

"Has homeroom begun already?!" Peter exclaimed in a quiet hush, and he now sprinted through the hallways, kicking his shoes against the coated concrete floors, passing by the dark blue lockers that lined up on the walls, right between the classroom doors.

Peter kept running swiftly until he had to turn the corner and was scolded by a teacher, who told him to slow down and don't run in the hallways. "Sorry, Mrs. Fletcher! I won't do it again!"

Peter then resumed his accelerated walking speed until Mrs. Fletcher was out of his view before beginning to sprint again all the way until he shortly arrived at his homeroom.

Walking in, Peter could hear his classmates names being called by his homeroom teacher, Mr. Roberts, who was a tall middle-aged man with short black hair and brown eyes who wore a dark-colored sweater, black khakis, and black oxford shoes.

"Ah, Mr. Parker. It's so nice of you to join us. Come, you've made it just in time. I'm taking attendance; please have a seat." Mr. Roberts said with a smile, as kind as always, since Peter knew that Mr. Roberts liked him a bit more than the rest since he was an A+ student compared to the other students here.

"Yeah, thank you." Peter nodded and was about to start entering the classroom until he overheard some of his fellow classmates whisper amongst themselves, though it was as clear as day for him.

"I made it to class before Peter? Are pigs flying today? He's always the first one to arrive."

"Yeah, I have the same feeling. Well, it was also strange since that weird girl managed to arrive right before he did."

"You're right! I totally forgot about her. What was her name again? Sally something?"

"No, I think it's Mandy!"

Peter scanned through the classroom until his eyes caught sight of the girl from yesterday, who had her face covered by her long black hair. When he spotted her, he saw that she, too, was wet with her hair still in her face. However, he was able to see her left brown eye through a tiny gap between her hair thanks to the rain.

Yet, her eyes had then met his, and when they both looked at each other, a tingling sensation spread throughout their bodies before a disorienting sensation and overwhelming awareness flooded their minds. Because of this, their faces winced.

Thankfully, a few moments later, all of this stopped, leaving them even more confused. After looking around, they saw that no one had paid any attention to this, so they looked away from each other.

Peter shook his head and walked to his seat before setting down his bookbag near his desk as the girl looked the other way while taking slight glances over at Peter.

Once Peter had taken his seat, he felt a touch on the shoulder from a presence behind him. Without even looking back, Peter knew who it was, as it was the same person who sat behind him from the beginning of the school year, Harry Osborn.

"What...?" Peter asked as he turned around and faced Harry, who was leaning closer to him in order for them to whisper. "Hey, what happened to you this morning? You're soaking wet, and you're never the last one to arrive." Harry asked, and not just him, but everyone was questioning this, but they didn't bother making a big spectacle about it.

"I..." Before Peter had the chance to respond, he heard his name being called by Mr. Roberts, who was in the process of taking attendance. "I'll talk to you about it later, not now." Peter whispered back.

"I said, Peter Parker." Mr. Roberts asked for the second time, finally earning a "Here" and "Sorry" from Peter.

Afterword, Mr. Roberts began calling out the names of other students.

"Elisabeth Stewart"

"Here."

"Mary Jane Watson"

"Here"

"Flash Thompson"

"Here"

"Cindy Moon"

"..."

"I said, Cindy Moon."

"...here," a quiet voice uttered timidly throughout the class, allowing the teacher to finally move on with the rest of the names. However, Peter was now very interested in this girl after that disorienting moment a few seconds ago.

Funnily enough, the both of them were having similar thoughts as they tried to guess what that moment meant, and since they couldn't figure it out, they wanted to find out...

...