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You sat at your lab bench with bloodshot eyes during your last block of the day. Why did you bother to stay up and do anything but study for the calculus test last night?
One thing was for sure–regret was too late to feel at this point. The teacher handed out the test papers upside down on everyone’s desks to make sure everyone had a fair start. Each person sat one seat away from each other in order to minimize the chances of cheating. Your calculus teacher was adamant on integrity and if anyone was caught cheating, the minimal punishment would be a suspension and a mark on your permanent record.
However, you had a cheating technique that could never be caught by the human eye, nor proven by any means.
You knew you should never abuse your mind reading powers, and you never did for the most part, but you declared this moment a state of emergency because if you failed this test, you were almost guaranteed to fail the semester. The chances of you keeping your grade afloat for the rest of the year was slim to none if that were to happen.
Once the teacher told everyone to start, all the papers simultaneously flipped onto their backsides and the sounds of scribbling were piercing to your ears. You gritted your teeth and pretended to focus, as if you were taking your time to read each question carefully, but you were actually fixating onto the mind of the smartest boy in class: Peter Parker.
His mind was running 140 miles a minute with all the answers flying, jumping, and bolting across each of the billions synapses within that head of his. You could almost feel all the numbers, the equations, and the work he was thinking of against your fingertips. Not only were there the plain mathematical facts that you could visualize, but you could sense his passion for the work as well. Peter’s love for science and math was truly astounding, making you realize that he truly belonged at Midtown.
Absorbing all the information, you took your time to write down some of the answers onto your paper to make sure you’d get just enough right to receive a decent grade, yet not enough to be accused of copying his answers. It’d be virtually impossible for anyone to accuse you either way since he was sitting two lab benches behind you.
Almost forty minutes passed and you felt Peter’s mind ease from finally finishing the test. Suddenly, his ease turned into waves of excitement, like a kid on a sugar rush. His focus was on the clock and he anxiously waited to get out of school. Who didn’t want to get out of school, especially after this intense calculus test?
I wonder who needs saving today...
You immediately stopped writing as you connected within the depths of Peter’s memories and adventures as the masked hero everyone knew about. It was all too much for you, so much that you even dropped your pencil, making you startled. You swore everyone was staring at you, feeling like they could see what you just found out. Of course you were overreacting– no one was like you and you knew for a fact they were too focused on finishing the test.
Nonetheless, you felt so conscious of yourself. Everything stopped when you felt his secret seep into your mind, and inevitably, into your heart. You’ve felt deep secrets before, but never anything this furtive, this life-changing.
You smacked your lips together and continued to write the answers down as if you didn’t just find out that the boy two seats behind you was Queen’s own friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
The next day, your teacher called you and Peter up after class and you froze. Your test should have been blatantly different from the brown haired boy’s; any evidence of cheating should be non-existent, or so you thought.
“The two of you scored the highest on the test,” your teacher began to say with a small smile and a hint of satisfaction. “But some of the answers and the work are the same too. I need to ask if you copied off one another.”
Peter crinkled his eyebrows in confusion since he never uttered a word to you before. Perhaps long ago in elementary school, or when you two had to deal with each other in previous classes, but you two weren’t in the same clique, let alone friends.
“I-I would never. I didn’t. I swear,” Peter stuttered, and it was true. Peter was guilty of being quiet, conserved, and busy, but he would never cheat. Anyone could tell you that he was too intelligent and never had the need to do so; the boy was interning for Stark Industries for crying out loud.
On the other hand, you may not have had the highest marks in the grade, but you had your shining academic moments once in a while. It wasn’t too far-fetched for you to achieve a high mark if you stopped procrastinating and put a little more effort into school.
“Great minds think alike, I guess?” you nonchalantly shrugged to the accusation, feigning innocence to your lie. Great minds only think alike because you could copy off of Peter’s great mind.
Your teacher closed her eyes, sighed, and nodded her head.
“I just needed to know. I had my doubts that you two would cheat, but I just wanted to hear the truth from yourselves. Thanks for staying.”
Both of you walked awkwardly out of the classroom with an air of unsettlement. Fastening your pace, you decided to walk ahead of him to avoid being beside him and engaging in a conversation of what just happened.
“If you did, you don’t have to tell me how, but did you cheat?” Peter’s voice echoed slightly in the empty hallway behind you. You paused in your tracks and turned around to face the boy with a slinging backpack hanging from his shoulder.
“I might’ve... maybe... sort of... did?” you scrunched your face, not quite sure how to answer his interrogation. Peter reflected the same perplexed expression on your face.
“That is the most vaguest answer I’ve ever heard, but okay, I’ll take it,” he nodded with acceptance and started to walk past you.
Without thought, you asked aloud, “Where you going, Peter? In a rush to be somewhere?”
Peter turned around and walked backwards while saying, “I’m a little late for a… thing...” He paused for a moment, sticking out his tongue in thought.
“With Stark Industries–my internship thing,” he nodded to himself, proud of his recovery.
In that moment, you weren’t sure why you would ask the next question, but knowing Peter was Spider-Man made him more interesting than you thought he was.
“Like saving-the-city-sorta-thing?”
The tables had turned and now it was Peter to stop in his tracks. With widened eyes, he tried to fake his innocence. Unfortunately, you didn’t have to be a mind reader to read how bad of a liar Peter Parker was.
“Uh, what do you mean?” he nervously looked at you with a tilt of his head. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
You decided to play along with Peter. “Fine, whatever you say, but...” you walked up close enough to Peter and lightly touched his shoulder.
“You need to do a better job of hiding your ‘internship,’ Peter,” you whispered before you left with a wink, leaving Peter even more confused than he was before. Something within him suspected that you did cheat on the calculus test, but he was boggled at how you could possibly have accomplished the task if you were sitting in front of him and never even talked to him.
You’d be lying if you said that you weren’t reading Peter’s mind in that exact moment.
You’d also be lying if you said that you didn’t like the thought of having Peter be intrigued by you.
Watching you walk away, almost strutting, down the hallway, Peter whispered to himself, “Who are you?”