"Parker!" A muffled voice could be heard through a young man's dreams as he lay face down on his desk, fast asleep.
"Parker!" The voice yelled once again, this time sounding much clearer and interrupting the high schooler's slumber.
Eren Parker jolted awake, "I'm up!" he shouted as he found himself in his anatomy class, having accidentally fallen asleep once again. A few students laughed, while others glared at the boy as he rubbed his forehead.
Once his vision cleared, the young man glared back at his peers, rubbing the back of his head nervously with an embarrassed look on his face.
His teacher stood behind his desk with one hand on his hip as he prompted the young man with a question. "This is the third time this week Parker, enough with the class clownery. It's amazing to me that you somehow manage to keep an A in this class. Answer this question for me: What type of muscle relationship refers to two muscles that can never move in the same direction? This should be an easy one."
The young man smiled, already knowing the answer. "Antagonistic, right?" he said, bringing a smile to the teacher's face.
"Great job, Parker!" The teacher commended him, grinning at his lazy star student. "Let's try staying awake, shall we Parker?" Eren nodded and tried his best to stay awake for the rest of class. Due to his hobby after school, he was always tired, but he knew school was too important to skip, especially if he wanted to avoid being scolded by his mother.
The bell rang, compelling the eager students to jump out of their seats immediately. Their bags were already packed due to watching the clock. Eren, still with his empty notebook and pencil on his desk, began to pack while everyone else was leaving. He didn't need to take notes, as he usually just remembered everything with no problem when it was a subject he cared about like any type of science class.
After haphazardly dumping everything into his bag, he began heading out of the classroom. His teacher was looking directly at him with the intent of speaking and Eren knew it.
He tried to ignore his teacher's glare, but it did not stop him from lecturing him. "Eren. Can I talk to you for a sec?" Eren, knowing he had no choice, nodded his head and approached the teacher's desk.
"You have a lot of promise Parker. You sleep almost every day in my class, your notebook is always empty, and yet you somehow have a grade higher than any student I have ever had."
"I told you I have a photographic memory, I don't need to take notes." Eren replied, viewing this conversation as pointless.
"Eren, that's not my point. It's discourteous. I know you probably got a lot going on after school which is probably why you're tired all the time, but you ought to try and work on getting a good night's sleep. This type of behavior isn't going to fly in college." His teacher was worried about the boy. He knew that Eren was incredibly gifted, and he didn't want to see it go to waste.
"Alright. I'll try to get some extra snoozes in. I gotta go, see you later." Without saying anything else, Eren hastily exited the classroom and began heading toward his locker to retrieve his belongings.
Once at his locker, Eren began to exchange his notebooks and textbooks for the ones he'd need to do his homework later. Once he was all packed and ready to go, Eren closed his locker, only to be met by his best friend, Harry Osborn.
"Aye, what's up, bro." Harry said, holding up his arm before the two boys dapped each other up.
"What's up." Eren said in response, smiling at his closest friend. "You got time to work on our afterschool stuff today?"
"I wish. My mom has been hassling me about learning how to run Oscorp since my eighteenth birthday will be coming up. It was part of my father's dying wish, so I'm all booked today." Harry seemed a bit bummed in saying this. He wasn't very interested in running a business, he'd rather just hang out with Eren after class as they always did.
"Damn, alright bro. Well, I'm gonna head out then. See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow I'll be free. See you, man."
The boys dapped each other up once more before Eren Parker walked away toward the school entrance. As Eren walked, he received a text message from his mother, prompting the young man to roll his eyes in annoyance. "Ugh, it's always something with this woman..." he whispered before opening the message.
šš°š®: Can you pick up some kimchi from the store on your way home please :)
Eren sighed as he read his mom's message.
šš³š¦šÆ: Yeah, I got you. I'll be home in about five minutes.
šš°š®: Ty, love you <3
šš³š¦šÆ: Love you too, Mom.
As Eren typed that last message, he ran into a girl who was carrying a stack of books out of the library. As the books fell, Eren quickly grabbed all of them with some very remarkable reflexes before they could hit the ground, impressing the girl as he handed them back to her.
"Watch what you're doing, Mr. Eren Parker." The girl teased him in a somewhat flirtatious and playful manner, smiling at the boy while pushing aside some of the curly black hair that was covering her beautiful, brown-skinned face.
"You watch it, Ms. Riri Williams." Eren teased her back before walking away with a smile on his face. The two had a thing for each other, it was very obvious to everyone at the school. Despite them both being incredibly outgoing, they were too shy to make the move to become more than friends.
Eventually, Eren Parker found himself behind the school near some dumpsters and New York rats, the perfect place for him to transform into his alternate self. Removing his costume from his backpack, Eren put on his red and blue Spider-Man costume, followed by a jean jacket with a spider symbol on the back of it.
This was a secret that only a handful of people knew about, but Eren Parker was one of many of Earth's mightiest heroes.
He was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Using the web shooters that he made himself, he swung across the city, waving and showing a 'rock on' symbol to his fans who would give the symbol back to him. He truly was a neighborhood hero.
Spider-Man eventually found himself inside a corner store, waving to the shop owner before walking toward where the kimchi was. Spider-Man grabbed a jar of it for his mother before playfully walking over to the counter and placing it in front of the shop owner.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Kim." Spider-Man spoke with his energetic, kind voice.
"Good afternoon, Spider-Man. How's your mother doing?" The shop owner asked as he scanned the kimchi.
"She's doing great. Always hassling me, but she's great. I'll tell her you said what's up." Spider-Man pulled out a five-dollar bill and handed it to the shop owner. Mr. Kim grabbed it and began counting out the change for the hero.
"Good, good. Here's your change." Mr. Kim said, handing Spider-Man a few dollars and some coins back.
"Thank you, Mr. Kim. See ya." Spider-Man jogged out of the room and web-zipped into the air, leaving Mr. Kim to smile by himself. Spider-Man was a regular at the shop, as was his mother, so Mr. Kim knew them fairly well.
It wasn't long before Spider-Man was home, climbing through the skylight of their apartment before landing aggressively with the kimchi in hand. His mother, who was reading something on the couch, looked up at him and frowned. "You know we have neighbors downstairs, right?" she said as she stood up and approached her son.
"Sorry. Here's your kimchi, Mom." Eren said as he placed the jar of kimchi on the table. As soon as the jar touched down, Eren's mother hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Son."
"Mom..." Eren muttered, feeling tired of being treated like a baby by his mother all the time. She couldn't help it, she loved her son dearly and was very expressive of that fact. "You know I'm almost eighteen, right?" Eren said quietly as his mother continued to hug him.
"Yeah, I know you are, but even old men hug their mothers." His mother told him.
"Yeah, yeah..." Eren muttered. Though it was hidden by his mask, he was smiling as he was embraced by his mother. Despite the act he put on, he loved his mother more than anything else in the world so her hugs were always welcome.
Suddenly, both Eren's and his mother's phones began to chime. His mother was quick to pull her phone out first, looking at the so-called 'Spider-App' on her phone that was used to track all crime in the city.
"Well, I guess dinner will have to wait." His mother said before a costume of her own appeared over her body, a black and white costume similar to his, along with a red mask that covered half of her face.
His mother was also beloved by many, she had been for almost the last two decades of being the hero Silk, and after saving the world with her lover, the first Spider-Man.
Their son, Eren Albert Parker, grew up to take up the mantle that his father left behind when he sacrificed himself to save the world eighteen years ago. He never got to meet the man, but carrying on his legacy was important to him.
And so, Spider-Man and Silk climbed out of their apartment's skylight together before shooting webs from their fingertips and swinging away side by side, continuing to live by the saying that was passed down the Parker family for generations:
With great power, comes great responsibility.