Prologue
Miles lifted his head as Ganke chased after him and slung an arm across his shoulder from behind.
“You’re going to check your scores, aren’t you?” Ganke asked, gently pulling on Miles’ cheek. It was obvious he was merely pretending to tease but he was always committed to the act.
“I promised my mom I’d send them once they come out,” Miles said. It was his usual excuse since a part of him always felt guilty at his obsession with grades, but he couldn’t help his pathological need to prove himself to everyone around him.
“What’s the point? You’re going to be first in the class like always,” Ganke folded his arms. “That’s why parents keep telling me to get you to tutor me.”
“Who knows? Maybe I let myself get sloppy,” Miles smiled, knowing he had definitely gotten an A in all his exams. He had pulled several all-nighters cramming for his midterms beforehand and met up with all his teachers to ask for study advice, especially for his physics exam. Even though his school was filled with the smartest students in New York, he was certain that he had outperformed them. He needed to since his scholarship required him to be first in the class at the end of every semester.
The first crowd of students had already seen their class positions and left by the time Miles and Ganke arrived at the poster board, allowing them easy access to the class position sheet. Miles immediately scanned the top of the list for his name and smiled when he saw he had gotten a perfect 100 in physics, while Ganke looked in the middle for where his name was likely to be. Miles had taken out his phone for a picture of his name at the top of his class when he froze as he realized that he actually wasn’t at the very top. Instead, there was one other name in front of his own: Pavitr Prabhakar.
“Nice job man!”
Miles turned his head to see Pavitr high fiving his senior friend Hobie Brown, both of them sporting identical wide smiles. Miles had never spoken to Pavitr before but he still remembered how the school had gone wild when he transferred in at the start of the semester. Even though he shared a dorm and a grade with Pavitr, the two of them had rarely interacted over the semester. They had spoken once on Pavitr’s very first day but with his good looks and friendly attitude, Pavitr had instantly become one of the most popular boys in school while Miles remained a socially awkward nerd that had been left behind.
“Like it was hard,” Pavitr shrugged, a smirk on his face. “I didn’t even study this time.”
“I didn’t study either but I ended up at the bottom,” Hobie teased as he grabbed Pavitr in a gentle headlock.
“That’s on you bro,” Pavitr grinned. He glanced at Miles beside them and his face lit up like the sun. “You’re Miles right? Nice job with exams.”
“Thank you,” the words tasted like venom in Miles’ mouth.
“You came second with a 100?” Ganke’s mouth fell open as he looked from Miles to Pavitr. “How did you get 112 on the AP physics midterm?”
“Ms. Octavius gave me some extra credit,” Pavitr said.
“Dude, can you tutor me?” Ganke said.
“Sure,” Pavitr’s earnest response was immediate. “Let’s exchange numbers. I’ll text you when I’m free.”
Ganke seemed stunned for a moment then nodded and pulled out his phone for the two of them to exchange contact details. Pavitr glanced at Miles then and lifted his eyebrows.
“Do you want to exchange numbers too?” He offered.
“I actually don’t have a phone,” Miles said immediately, just as the phone in his hand buzzed. Pavitr’s eyes trailed down and Miles could have sworn he saw his lips curl up slightly but he didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go,” Hobie said, his arm around Pavitr’s shoulders.
Miles turned around to walk away at the same time that Pavitr and Hobie did. He kept his head up and his face blank until he and Ganke arrived back in their dorm room. Once the door was closed, Miles collapsed face down on his bed in a huff.
“What did he mean by good job for losing to him?” Miles complained as he banged his head against his pillow. “That had to be shade, right?”
“It sounded like a sincere congratulations to me,” Ganke shrugged.
“Nothing about him is sincere. How is his hair that perfect? And he doesn’t have acne. Not even a single zit? What kind of teenager doesn’t have acne?” Miles exploded.
“Miles-”
“You know what? I need a distraction,” Miles sighed.
“Hot pot for dinner downtown?” Ganke suggested.
“Nah. I’m not really feeling hot pot right now.”
Ganke gave him a look so scandalized it would have been funny any other time. “You’re not feeling hot pot?”
“No, it’s just-” Miles cut himself off as he looked at the TV in front of him. The news had suddenly changed to footage of a criminal rampaging at the Bronx zoo. A smile slowly spread across his face. “Perfect. I can take a break and beat up a bad guy as Spider-Man.”
It had been a few years since Miles had become Spider-Man and in that time, he had begun to enjoy the job. No matter how rough and lonely it could be, knowing that he was the only one protecting his city motivated him in a way nothing else could.
Miles got changed in a second, three himself out of the window and started making his way across the city. He arrived less than ten minutes later.
When he got to the zoo entrance, he immediately spotted the villain he was searching for. The man was surrounded by policemen that had been knocked out.
“Hold it!” Miles yelled, catching the villain off-guard. He prepared to swoop in and apprehend him but before he could do anything, a red and blue blur flashed past him. Miles opened his eyes and blinked to see that the villain was now covered in webs and sticking to the wall while an unfamiliar masked figure bounced in front of him and stretched.
“Hey,” Miles said flatly as he landed on his feet next to the strange figure. He immediately realized that this had to be another Spider-Man from his outfit and webs. He had met multiple other spider people but none of them had ever been in his city.
“Hey,” the rookie Spider-Man, Miles’ new moniker for this intruder, looked him up and down. His eyes widened then narrowed in what seemed like a masked version of a grin.
“I was kind of tracking that dude,” Miles frowned.
“You’re welcome,” the rookie Spider-Man preened as he spoke.
“What? I’m not thanking you. You got in my way.”
“Did I? Or did you get in my way?”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Miles slapped his forehead with his hand.
“It does to me,” the rookie Spider-Man shrugged. “I’ll see you around Spidey two.”
“Spidey two? I was here first,” Miles’ protests went unanswered as the other Spider-Man had already swung away.
Miles wore a scowl his entire way back to his dorm room. He got his clothes and headed to the showers without saying a word to Ganke.
Miles had just gotten to the showers when the door suddenly opened, causing him to trip and bump into the figure on the other end. He immediately muttered an apology before his eyes traveled upwards to see that he had somehow crashed into Pavitr, whose hair was wet from the shower and who was wearing only a towel around his waist. Miles looked away immediately and before Pavitr could speak, he squeezed himself into the bathroom and immediately slammed the door in Pavitr’s face.
It was in the bathroom that Miles realized that his liquid soap had spilled all over his favorite shirt. Miles slid to the ground and buried his face in his hands to muffle his silent scream.