3

“It looks nice and ... this is safe,” May said.

She and Peter had arrived at Happy’s condominium in an outer borough—the “safer place” they would be staying for the foreseeable future. The place was protected by a high-tech security system with alarms and monitors. And at least for the moment, no one except the three of them knew they were here.

Peter looked around at Happy’s condo and saw framed sports jerseys, a putting green, and what looked like a robot of some kind.

“Welcome to the spiritual oasis,” Happy said proudly.

After a while, Peter and his aunt settled in. By the time night rolled around, Peter found himself lying on a couch, and on a video call with MJ.

“Did you send in your applications yet?” MJ asked.

“I literally just finished my MIT one,” Peter said. “You?”

“Same.”

“Can you imagine if we both got in? And Ned?” Peter said, allowing himself to feel like a teenager for the first time since the whole reveal-of-his-secret-identity fiasco had started.

“Yeah, but we’d have to get scholarships so that we could actually go,” MJ noted.

“Come on,” Peter said encouragingly. “You’ve got the scores and the grades and—”

“You think I’m being too pragmatic.”

“No, no, no, no, no ...” Peter said. “Well, kinda. It’s okay. That’s one of my favorite things about you.”

“Really?” MJ asked.

“Yeah,” Peter said.

Seizing the moment, MJ said, “Well, what are your other favorite things?”

“I love your relentless optimism.”

MJ grinned. “Yeah, I am a glass-half-full kind of gal.”

“I really like how you’re a people person,” Peter continued, sarcastically.

“I love people,” MJ joked. “I love them so much.”

“You like sports.”

“I think the Mets are gonna go all the way this year,” MJ added.

“Really?” Peter asked, almost believing it for a second.

Finally, MJ addressed the elephant in the room, or, in this case, the loud, incessant droning sound that was coming over the phone.

“What’s that noise?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s Happy,” Peter said. “He gave his room to May, so he’s sleeping down here.”

Then Peter moved his phone, so MJ could see Happy sleeping soundly on the couch with a sleep-apnea mask strapped to his face.

“I have a weird question,” MJ said, changing the subject. “Um ... does any part of you feel relieved about all this?”

It took Peter a moment, then he finally said, “Ever since I got bit by that spider, I’ve only had one week where my life has felt normal. Or kinda normal, I guess. And ... that was when you found out, because then everyone that was in my life that I wanted to know, knew. And it was perfect.”

MJ listened.

“But now everybody knows. And I am the most famous person in the entire world ... and I’m still broke,” Peter said.

MJ laughed, and so did Peter.

“I’m excited to see you tomorrow,” MJ said.

“Yeah, me too.”

Peter was going to say something else, when suddenly, he heard Happy shout, “Wrap it up!”

Startled, he turned around to see Happy, wide awake, talking through his sleep-apnea mask.

“You both like each other, we get it,” Happy said, sounding annoyed. “Hang up. There’s no new ground being broken. Okay? I need my eight hours.”

Embarrassed, Peter asked, “Have you been listening this whole time?”

“Hi, Happy,” MJ said, waving over the phone.

“Not by choice,” Happy groused.

“MJ says hi,” Peter said meekly.

“Hello,” Happy replied with a wave.

It was the first day of Peter’s senior year of high school, and it should have felt like a triumph, like the final lap in a race well-run. Instead, Peter only felt anxiety.

As he approached the entrance to Midtown High, Peter could feel his pulse racing and his heart beating in his throat. He would much rather have been facing the Vulture or fighting Mysterio again, than having to walk into school and face his teachers and fellow students.

So he could only imagine how MJ and Ned must have felt.

Peter held MJ’s hand tightly as they walked past a crowd of students. They couldn’t get inside the school fast enough.

“MJ! MJ! MJ!” someone from the crowd shouted. “We love you!”

A security guard started guiding Peter, MJ, and Ned through the crowd and toward the entrance.

“You know he’s a murderer, right?!” someone else from the crowd yelled.

“Back off!” Ned shouted.

“Who are you?” another person in the crowd demanded.

“I’m Ned Leeds. I’m Spider-Man’s best friend—” Ned began.

But he was quickly cut off by Flash Thompson, who stepped between Ned and the heckler.

“I’m Peter Parker’s best friend,” Flash insisted. “You come at my boy; you come at Flash Thompson. And if you want to read about our inspiring friendship, you can now in my new book”—Flash held up a book, featuring his face on the dust jacket—“ Flashpoint : One Spider, Two Hearts, a Million Crazy-Ass Memories . Check it out!”

Annoyed, Ned stormed off, while Peter and MJ were scanned by school security.

As Peter walked inside, he saw two of his teachers, Mr. Dell and Mr. Harrington, along with Coach Wilson. They were standing near a trophy case, which Peter saw now looked like some sort of tribute to him. There was a sign that read, midtown high—where we shape heroes .

“Peter!” Mr. Dell said with a big grin. “We would love to welcome you back to Midtown High, where we shape heroes!”

“Or murderers,” Coach Wilson murmured.

“Stop it,” Mr. Harrington demanded. Then he faced Peter and said, “It’s an honor to serve you, sir.”

Then Mr. Harrington ... wait, did he actually salute Peter?

“It’s not,” Coach Wilson said. “Mysterio was right.”

“Stop,” Mr. Harrington repeated. “We don’t—”

“Mysterio was right,” Coach Wilson insisted.

“That’s all,” Mr. Harrington said, before looking at Peter once more. “Some of the students put this together for you.”

The teacher was pointing at the tribute cabinet. Peter felt uncomfortable even looking at it.

“No,” Coach Wilson said to Mr. Harrington. “You did that! You did that.”

Sheepishly, Mr. Harrington said, “I ... I helped a little bit.”

“Oh, wow,” Peter said softly.

“And I tried to stop you so many times,” Coach Wilson said, “but you powered through. He did all of that.”

“And he did a great job,” Mr. Dell added.

“I hope you have time to stop and check it out, in close-up,” Mr. Harrington said to Peter.

“And feel free to walk—or swing—through the hallway,” Mr. Dell offered. “Or crawl on the ceiling to avoid everybody.”

“We all know you can do it,” Mr. Harrington pointed out.

“I’m just gonna ...” Peter said, his voice trailing off as he started walking away.

“I know what you did,” Coach Wilson stated flatly as he looked at Peter.

“Stop it, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Mr. Harrington said to his colleague. Turning to Peter, he explained, “He’s a conspiracy theorist.”

Peter headed to his first class, acutely aware of the other students staring at him and snapping photos of him with their phones.

“Can we just, like, stay up here all day?” Peter asked. “It is so crazy down there.”

He and MJ had made their way to the roof of Midtown High, away from the prying eyes of the other students, and the conspiracy theories of Mr. Harrington. They were lying down on the roof, and Peter stared up at the blue sky, soaking in the relative quiet.

Meanwhile, MJ was thumbing through a newspaper that had an image of Peter on it, along with MJ and Ned. It looked like Peter was controlling his friends with strings, like puppets. The headline said peter parker & his spider-minions .

“Oh, wait,” MJ said, reading the newspaper. “This one’s good. ‘Some suggest that Parker’s powers include the male spider’s ability to hypnotize females, which he used to seduce Jones-Watson into his cult of personality.’ ”

Peter rolled his eyes and said, “Oh come on ... stop. Stop!”

In a hypnotized voice, MJ replied, “Yes, my Spider-Lord.”

They chuckled, drawing closer together, when Ned suddenly appeared on the roof. He inserted himself next to his friends, killing whatever romantic feeling was in the air.

“So, I was thinking,” Ned began, “when we get into MIT, we should live together.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Peter agreed.

“Yeah, I’d love that,” MJ said.

Opening his laptop, Ned showed his friends an MIT web page that had a video of some grinning students playing a game of Frisbee on campus.

“This is gonna be us,” Ned said.

“Yes, minus the Frisbee,” MJ observed. “And the smiling.”

“MIT’s obviously the dream, but if we match up our backup schools, then either way, we’ll all be together in Boston,” Peter said. “New school. New town. I can Spider-Man there. I mean, they have crime in Boston, right?”

“Yes,” MJ said. “Yes, they do.”

“Yeah, wicked crime,” Ned joked.

“Yeah, so it’ll be like a fresh start,” Peter said.

MJ looked at him, and Peter instantly picked up on something.

“What’s up?” he wondered.

Slowly, MJ said, “I don’t know ... I just feel like if you don’t ... If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed.”

“Come on,” Peter said, as he took MJ’s hand. “It’ll be a fresh start. And we’ll all be together.”

MJ tried to overcome what she was feeling, and said, “Yeah, no, you’re right, yeah. Fresh start.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, no longer 100 percent sure he was right.

Then Ned grabbed his and MJ’s hands, and said, “Fresh start.”

But as the college admissions letters started coming in, so did the bad news. Peter’s first backup school said no thanks —he didn’t make it in.

A few days later, there came the next letter. Same thing.

That left only one school from which he hadn’t heard: MIT.

Peter was sitting in the kitchen of Happy’s condo eating a bowl of cereal when May walked in holding a letter.

“Last one,” she said.

Peter was mid-bite, his mouth full, when he looked up and said, “MIT?”

Grabbing the letter from his aunt, Peter headed out of the condo. He hurried to a doughnut shop, where MJ had a job to earn some cash to help pay for college. When Peter arrived, he saw the shop was still decorated for Halloween, even though it had already passed. He ran inside with his MIT letter.

MJ saw him coming, and showed Peter her own unopened MIT letter. She stepped away from the cash register, and headed for the back of the shop, where Ned was also waiting with his own MIT letter.

“Okay ... ready?” MJ asked nervously.

Before they could tear into the envelopes, MJ’s boss approached.

“Jones, I told you to take down the Halloween decorations.”

“Actually,” MJ said, “that was Sasha, so—”

“Enough attitude. Just do it,” the boss insisted.

“On it,” MJ replied.

“I feel like I’m gonna puke,” Ned said.

“Well, don’t,” MJ said firmly. “Because he will just make me clean it.”

Ned gave a quick nod. “This is our only shot. It’s here or nowhere.”

“Hey, come on!” Peter said, trying to stay positive.

“Okay, you guys ready?” MJ asked. “On three? One, two, three—”

On “three,” the seniors tore open their MIT envelopes.

Peter scanned his very brief letter, instantly realizing the awful truth. He didn’t get in.

Then he looked over at MJ, who shook her head.

“No,” she said quietly.

“No,” Peter said. Looking at Ned, he asked, “You?”

“ ‘In light of recent controversy, we are unable to consider your application at this time,’ ” Ned said, reading from his letter.

Peter was beyond upset. “This is so not fair! I mean, this is so not fair! I didn’t do anything wrong. I mean, you guys definitely didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Expect disappointment and you will never get disappointed,” MJ said. Peter had that sickening feeling in his stomach that maybe she was right.

As if to make matters worse, the door to the doughnut shop opened, and in walked Flash Thompson, wearing an MIT sweatshirt. He looked at Peter, MJ, and Ned before saying, “You guys didn’t get in?”

“Yeah,” Ned said. “Because we’re actually friends with Spider-Man.”

For once in his life, Flash seemed to realize that maybe he should just stop talking and leave.

“Uh, yeah,” he said awkwardly. “I better get going. There’s a ... They have a mixer for new admissions and ... Sorry, guys.”

Peter actually believed that Flash felt sorry, which kind of made the whole not-getting-in thing hurt even more.

“Jones, what are you doing?” MJ’s boss said sharply. “Get back to work.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” MJ answered, as she tore up her letter. Then, to Peter and Ned, she said, “You know what? I wouldn’t change a thing I did.”

“Me neither,” Ned agreed. Then he ripped up his rejection letter.

A second later, he was picking up the fallen pieces of paper. “Although, I do need to show this letter to my parents.”

Peter looked at his friends, and felt nothing but overwhelming guilt. It was his fault they didn’t get into MIT. He wished desperately that he could do something to fix things.

And then he watched MJ as she began taking down the Halloween decorations. There were witches ... or were they wizards?

Wizards.

That gave Peter an idea.