Chapter 1
Alright, alright, alright. You want to hear about me, right? How I came to be and my story. Well let me tell you. Well, for starters my name is Wendy Linnea Parker but you can call me Wendy. Hobie calls me Wendy Bird so as to not get confused with Gwen. Where’s the second star to the right in this story, am I right?
Anyway, I’ve been busting my ass as my world’s spider woman for well over 11 years now starting when I was at the young age of 15. I was fighting crime while trying to not let the fashion of the 2010s swallow me whole. Yep, my world is a lot like your world. The pandemic hit when I was 23 and the world is still trying to get it together. I promoted masks and safety precautions to not get infected and was one of the only ones roaming the streets of New York as the whole country was pretty much shut down. Crazy right?
But enough about that. You want to hear about the real meat and potatoes. The reason why I’m here and how I got my spidey powers. As you know, I was 15 when I was bitten by the radioactive spider. Some call it fate, or at least that’s what my cousin called it, I called it annoying. Do you know how itchy radioactive spider bites could get? I was using Benadryl for like a week and half. Not to mention all of the things that came to being a spider person. My hands got stuck to walls, homework, you name it. Webs shot out of my arms at random times and I tried my best to hide it.
Wait, you want me to go way back? To the beginning of my origin story? Well, buckle up, you’re going to need some tissues.
My parents died when I was young. Right around the same time, my Peter Parker, my cousin, his parents died as well. Here we were, orphans at such a young age and hanging onto each other as if our lives depended on it because it did. We would have been in the system if it had not been for my Uncle Ben and Aunt May. They were saints. Though they themselves were not in the best financial position, they took in two broken kids. We shared a tiny two bedroom apartment with my aunt and uncle in one room and Peter and me in another. We didn’t have much and it was small, but it was home.
Growing up with Peter was all I could ever ask for. Before the accident, we were spread far apart and didn’t know each other that well. Afterwards, we became inseparable. Students at school used to call us “the twins” because we sometimes acted like each other and the only difference between us besides gender were our eyes. Mine were a deep gray while his were this rich brown that would look amber in just the right lighting.
We did everything with each other. When I found out about my powers and suddenly grew in fame as spider woman, he was the first one I told. I thought he’d be furious with me, but he took my hands in his and told me with the sincerest smile that we would get through it together. He acted as my cover up when I was late to school or other events because of a run in with a criminal. He shielded me from my aunt’s and uncle’s warranted, constant barrage of questions and worried glances. He held me if something I saw during my fights broke me down completely.
He was my everything.