Early morning New York was still covered in a thin layer of mist.
The yellow school bus moved slowly through the streets of Queens, filled with the noise of students chatting, laughing, and eating breakfast.
The smell of milk, sandwiches, and cheap coffee filled the cabin, carrying the lively energy of another school day.
Emily sat by the window, casually flipping through an old Chinese text.
Beside her, Gwen was organizing the homework due that day, occasionally speaking about Dr.
Connors’ lab class with clear excitement.
“By the way, Emily, have you seen Peter?” Gwen asked, glancing around the bus.
“We’re about to leave, and he still hasn’t gotten on.
Did he oversleep again?”
Emily looked around.
Peter really wasn’t there.
Her consciousness spread outward for a moment, sweeping across the nearby street.
Almost instantly, she found him rushing out of his apartment building in a panic.
Emily sighed inwardly.
There was no need to guess.
The mutation from the spider bite had likely kept him awake all night.
Before she could answer Gwen, the bus door closed with a hiss.
The driver stepped on the gas, and the bus slowly pulled away from the curb.
Gwen leaned toward the window and looked back helplessly.
“He really missed it.
Great.
Now he’ll be late again.”
Emily was about to say something when she noticed a figure in the side mirror.
Peter Parker was sprinting after the bus.
His backpack bounced wildly on his shoulders.
His brown hair was a complete mess, sticking up in every direction.
His jacket was unzipped and flapping behind him as he ran, and his face was flushed with desperation.
More importantly— he was fast.
The bus had already reached a steady speed, but Peter was still chasing it.
Not only was he keeping up, but he was slowly getting closer.
People on the sidewalk stopped and stared.
A jogger nearly dropped his water bottle.
Several pedestrians looked as if they had just witnessed an Olympic athlete appear out of nowhere.
“Stop the bus!” Peter shouted.
“I’m not on yet!”
The bus went silent for two seconds.
Then laughter exploded.
“Oh my god!
Parker is chasing the bus!”
“Since when can he run that fast?”
“Driver, stop!
He’s going to collapse!”
Gwen rushed toward the front.
“Please stop the bus!
Our classmate hasn’t gotten on!”
The driver glanced in the mirror and rolled his eyes.
“Departure time is fixed.
If he’s late, he’s late.”
Despite saying that, he eased off the gas.
Even he looked nervous seeing a teenager sprint after the bus like his life depended on it.
Emily watched Peter’s exhausted face and shook her head inwardly.
He had just gained powers and was already using them in public.
Was he trying to get discovered?
Her fingers moved slightly where no one could see.
A faint line of pale blue code slipped into the bus’s electrical system.
The next second, the engine suddenly lost power. Find the original chapter at g.com.
The bus slowed sharply.
The driver frowned, pressed the gas, and cursed when the engine refused to respond.
Finally, he had no choice but to pull over.
With a screech of brakes, the bus stopped.
Peter reached the door at almost the same moment.
He bent over, panting hard, sweat running down his face.
The driver opened the door with a glare.
“Get in.
Next time, I’m not stopping.”
“T-thank you…” Peter gasped, dragging himself onto the bus.
The cabin erupted in laughter again.
“Parker!
You chased the bus for two blocks!”
“Are you secretly training for the Olympics?”
Peter’s face turned red all the way to his ears.
He lowered his head and hurried to the empty seat beside Emily and Gwen.
Gwen handed him a bottle of water.
“Are you crazy?
Chasing the school bus?
If you overslept, you could have called me.”
Peter drank half the bottle in one go.
“My alarm didn’t go off,” he said breathlessly.
“When I woke up, the bus was already leaving.
I just ran… and then I realized I could actually keep up.”
He looked down at his hands, his eyes full of confusion.
He had spent the entire night discovering impossible things.
He could bend metal.
Stick to the ceiling.
Hear Aunt May’s heartbeat downstairs.
See in the dark.
Now he could chase a moving school bus.
It felt like a dream.
Or a nightmare.
Emily watched him quietly, then asked in a casual tone, “Were you bitten by something at Columbia yesterday?”
Peter snapped his head up.
“H-how did you know?”
“Just a guess,” Emily said calmly.
“You scratched the back of your hand after visiting the spider exhibit.
Most of those specimens were part of genetic experiments.
If something feels wrong, you should go to a hospital.”
Peter opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He could not exactly say, I got bitten by a spider and now I can stick to walls.
So he forced a weak smile.
“It’s nothing.
Probably just a small allergic reaction.”
Gwen looked alarmed.
“You were bitten by a spider?
Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s fine, really!” Peter quickly waved his hands.
“Just a tiny bite.”
But his heart was pounding.
Emily knew something.
He could feel it.
She looked calm, quiet, and distant as always, but Peter suddenly felt that she was hiding secrets far deeper than his own.
The school day became a disaster for Peter.
Peter picked up the chalk, applied a little pressure, and crushed it into powder.
The whole class laughed.
In chemistry lab, he tried to pick up a beaker, but his fingers stuck to the glass.
He panicked silently until Emily handed him a scraper and helped him pry it free without breaking anything.
At his locker, he accidentally bent the metal handle.
At lunch, he nearly crushed his milk carton.
By the end of the day, Peter looked like a rain-soaked puppy.
He had no control over his new strength.
Everything either broke or stuck to him.
Gwen watched him with concern.
“What’s wrong with you today?
You’ve been weird since morning.
Are you sick?”
“I’m fine,” Peter muttered.
“Just didn’t sleep well.”
As they prepared to leave, Flash and his friends blocked the classroom door.
Flash smirked.
“Yo, Parker.
Pretty impressive this morning.
Chasing the school bus?
What are you now, a track star?”
He stepped forward and shoved Peter’s shoulder.
Peter dodged instinctively.
Flash missed and almost stumbled.
His face darkened with embarrassment.
“You little—”
He swung a punch.
Gwen gasped.
Emily’s fingers moved slightly, ready to interfere.
But Peter moved first.
His body reacted before his mind could.
He leaned back, dodging the punch perfectly.
Then he raised one hand and pushed Flash’s chest with barely any strength.
Flash flew backward and slammed into the lockers.
The hallway went silent.
Everyone stared.
Flash groaned on the floor, unable to get up.
Peter stared at his own hands in horror.
He had not meant to do that.
He had barely pushed him.
Emily stood nearby, watching quietly.
A faint smile touched her lips.
The little spider was finally beginning to adapt.
Flash’s friends looked at Peter, then at Flash, and none of them dared to move.
Peter panicked.
“I… I’m leaving first.”
Then he grabbed his bag and ran out of the school building.
Gwen watched him go, worry filling her face.
“What is going on with Peter?”
Emily smiled faintly.
“Probably puberty.
His strength suddenly grew.”
Gwen stared at her.
Emily looked perfectly serious.
For a moment, Gwen didn’t know whether to believe her or not.
Outside, Peter’s figure disappeared beyond the school gates.
The gears of fate had already begun turning.
And this time, Emily was watching closely.