Spidey
Eight dark glittering eyes stared back at him from the glass jar and Peter blinked, a small crooked little smile creasing the corners of his mouth. You couldn't stare down a creature that didn't have eyelids. The spider was the first stage in his experiment and it had taken him hours of crawling around the woods behind the house to find the right type. He hated the outdoors, but it had been worth the scratches and brambles and small creepy crawly things. He shuddered involuntarily; hopefully if the experiment worked he'd never be afraid of the creepy crawly things again.
"Hi Webby, wotcha doin'?"
Once he'd recovered from being scared out of his skin, Peter Webb turned to his bedroom window where the elfin face of his neighbour peered over the windowsill. He felt The Blush start; she always did this to him. She knew how nervous he was around girls and even though she was a bit of a tomboy, Helen knew that he liked her, knew that she could turn him into a stammering beet red numpty with only a few words.
"Er... hi."
"Ooh, a spider," she said climbing into his bedroom. "I hate spiders." She shuddered and then looked around the room, her nose wrinkling with distaste. "Jeez Pete, you really are a typical teenage boy aren't you? Clothes on the floor, superhero posters on the wall, X-Box, I bet you've got a stash of dirty mags under your mattress too haven't you?"
"I have not!" he said indignantly as she make a feint for his bed, only to collapse on it laughing wickedly, picking up a book on spiders he'd borrowed from the library with an amused look on her face.
"Oh Pete, lighten up. I know you wouldn't dare with your father around the place, you being the ever obedient son and all."
"I'm not that much of a nerd," he protested softly, knowing that even as he said it his glasses, unkempt shock of hair and baggy clothes made him look the absolute stereotype of one.
"You're a nice nerd Pete," she said reaching forward and touching him on the arm with a smile.
The Blush once again flooded his senses and he smiled back shyly.
"So, what's with the spider?" she said brightly, saving him from further redness.
"Er... it's a sort of experiment."
"Nerd," she said shortly, then burst into laughter again at his dark expression. "All right, all right, no need to get tetchy. A spider in a jar, exciting stuff Webby, appropriate though."
"It will be exciting," he muttered. Then, desperate to prove his non-nerdness he blurted out something sure to impress the girl who sat coyly on his bed.
"I'm going to break into the school tonight, there's some stuff I need."
"Really?" Helen looked uncertain for a moment, and then leant forward, her eyes shining with excitement. "Wow, you're actually serious aren't you? What you gonna take?"
"None of your business," said Pete smugly, aware that for a brief moment he had the upper hand for a change.
"Well, you're going to have to prove you did it."
"How?"
"I want you to bring me a present."
"Like what?" asked Pete, aware that he was rapidly losing the initiative as usual.
"I want the sign from the Headteacher's door. I want you to bring me 'Mr Jensen's Office'. You'll need a flat head screwdriver," she said smugly.
"What? Why the hell should I? Why should I do..." What he was about to say was cut off as she leant over and kissed him gently on the lips, giggling as The Blush roared up his neck.
"Good enough reason?" she giggled again and climbed back out of the window. "See ya tomorrow Pete."
He watched as she ran across the back lawn of his parents place, lithely jumping the dividing fence and turning to wave briefly at him with a mischievous grin on her face before disappearing into her house.
"Wow," he said softly, then turned back to the arachnid in the jar. "Right then Spidey, let's get you some food and then we can start on our experiment."
Clad in black, the shape moved stealthily from tree to tree across the school grounds, stopping by the caretaker's entrance to make sure that no-one else was around. Pete was sweating under his balaclava, the warm summer's night and tension not helping to reduce the uncomfortable rivulets of moisture that ran down his back. "I'm sure ninjas don't sweat like this," he thought to himself. Reaching the side door, he tapped the four digit code into the keypad and entered the school, using the same code on the alarm system just inside the door, the double beep signifying that the alarm had been deactivated. He'd watched John the caretaker carefully and, when the alarms had been tested the week before, had made sure that he was strategically placed to see the code used. A similar exercise early one morning had confirmed the man's lack of imagination in using the same code for both alarm and door, and a quick test at school the following day meant that he had armed and disarmed the alarms during a trip to the toilet during a lesson. Satisfied that the police weren't going to come screaming down the road to investigate his nocturnal excursions, he moved through the darkened corridors to the head's room.
"First things first," he said, the memory of a warm kiss distracting him momentarily. Some quick work with a screwdriver and minutes later a sign was nestling gently in his backpack. Grinning in satisfaction, he moved on toward the science labs in the east wing.
"Morning Petey."
He looked up from his desk at Helen and smiled at her as the early morning sun glinted from her hair, watching as she scrambled into his room, a pair of old jeans and trainers completing the usual tomboy image but highlighting her athleticism. Her dark eyes sparkled with suppressed humour as she grinned at him, a quick tease ready on her lips.
"I didn't hear any alarms from the school last night," she said. "Lose your nerve?"
Pete stood and moved close to her, also grinning as just for once he knew that he held a trump card to her incessant teasing.
He lifted a piece of paper from his desk exposing the wooden plaque underneath. "I think I'd like to claim my kiss," he said softly, watching in pleasure as just for a change Helen was the one who blushed.
"Oh hell Pete, what have you done, I was only kidding?"
"You can put it in the bin later," he grinned. Leaning close, he kissed her, softly, lingeringly, a gentle brush of lips that increased in passion until they broke apart a few seconds later, gasping for air.
She chuckled. "Well my little nerd, you've certainly changed in 12 hours. What else did you take?"
He grinned again, excitement lighting his eyes as he reached into his rucksack. "This," he said and lifted a small box from the bag. A garish yellow sign stared at her from the lid, the radioactive symbol fluorescently blatant in its warning.
"Oh God Pete, what do you think you're doing?" Slightly scared now, she moved away from him and went to the window. "The sign is one thing, but you have to take that back, that's not good."
"I need to try something. Something that'll stop me being so afraid all the time," he waved a vague arm at himself. "I'm fed up with being so damn normal."
"But Pete, you're fine the way you are, you're lovely. You're my friend."
"Friends, aye. You'd never see me as anything more than that though would you? Your little friend who you can tease and make fun of and cause to blush. I want to be stronger than this, I want to mean something to you and everyone else."
"But you do Pete," she said sadly. "This is one step too far. The sign was kinda cool, but that?" She pointed at the lead lined box. "That needs to go back. Now. I'll see you later."
Before he could say any more, she'd jumped out of the window onto the grass and was moving away.
He shook his head angrily. "I don't understand girls," he muttered. "Right Spidey, we've got something we need to do."
As the sun began to fall painting the walls of his room with yellow and orange light, he opened the jar. The radioactive source had been in there with the spider for a week. He'd carefully shielded it with some spare lead he'd found in his dad's shed, making sure that he exposed himself for the minimum amount while feeding 'Spidey'. He looked at the poster on the wall. Spiderman swung mightily between towers, bad guys left sprawling in his wake, the cute girl watching in awe and longing at her hero. He shook his head ruefully and turned back to his desk. Carefully, he lifted the radioactive source with some tweezers and popped it back into its box before stowing it back in his rucksack.
"Right, here goes nothing."
He tilted the jar, the spider skidding down the glass and gently out onto his arm. Nothing happened, so he poked it with the end of a pencil. "Come on you stupid bastard." The spider did nothing so he poked it again. He sighed and sat down at his desk, the spider still sat unperturbed on the bare skin of his forearm.
"Bloody hell, I...ow!" he yelped as the spider bit, venom searing in burning fizzing agony into his arm. "Oh shit," he groaned through clenched teeth before gently slumping to the floor in a dead faint.
He came to a couple of hours later and stretched muzzily. As he stood, he noticed the empty jar on the desk and reality crashed into his brain.
"Ow, bloody spider. Where are you Spidey? Ah well, I don't blame you for disappearing, can't say the accommodation was up to much. Right then, let's see if it worked. He placed a palm against the wall and tried to pull himself up. Nothing. He tried to lift his bed, see in the dark, even see better without his glasses. All met with disappointment. He looked at the poster above his bed.
"Ah well, it was worth a go, so much for superhero status. Perhaps I should go and stand next to a nuclear explosion instead. Super Nerddom here we come."
He looked over at his rucksack and the small box with its day-glo sign and sighed. No alarm had been raised as yet at the school, although the head had created merry hell about the sign. He grinned, Helen had had a stroke of genius and attached the sign to the hapless caretaker’s door where it had been assumed that some stealthy student had swapped it during break time as a prank. It had been worth it for the kiss, but Helen hadn't been over for a week after she'd seen the radioactive source. He hoped she'd forgive him. His eyes strayed to the flowers outside his window.
"That's an idea," he mused. "But first, I think I'd better get that box back."
His parents had gone out for the evening and left him alone with his thoughts and an empty jar. The afternoon sun light was beginning to wane as a soft cough from the window introduced the presence of his friend and he looked up at Helen. She smiled faintly and he offered her a hand in through the window, noting that she was dressed in more girly fashion than normal, a light summer dress gracing her figure.
"Thank you for the flowers."
"It's no problem, I owed you an apology for behaving like an idiot. The dress suits you." He paused as she smiled at the compliment. "I took the box back to the science lab, no-one had missed it after you did that brilliant little switch with the sign. You were right."
Helen sat down on the bed and patted the mattress next to her.
"I'm sorry for all the teasing," she said softly as he sat next to her. "I do like your company you know, it's just that... aaargh!"
She leapt from the bed rubbing her backside and looked back at the spot where she'd been sat, suddenly snatching one of Pete's shoes from the floor. "Son of a dirty little hairy bastard," she swore, stopping the beating only when the spider was plainly flat.
"Oh shit," she gasped, horrified. "Sorry Pete, that was your pet spider."
"It's ok," he said giggling at the swearing, "are you alright?"
"He bit me on the arse! Look!" She raised her skirt to show her punctured buttock and then dropped it hurriedly when she realised what she'd done, looking at Pete who was open-mouthed in astonishment and blushing to his hairline.
"I've gotta go," she said, blushing too, but stopped as Pete grabbed her hand.
"Wait, please?" he pleaded softly. "Just stay and talk for a while?"
He opened his eyes as the morning sun streaming in through the curtains. They'd fallen asleep while watching a film cuddled together on the bed, but she'd left him during the night to get back home. He reached for his glasses, but couldn't find them on the bedside cabinet. His vision was fuzzy without his specs but he made his way to the small sink in the corner of his room to try and wake himself up with some cold water.
"Oh hell!" The face in the mirror wasn't his own. Eight eyes stared myopically back at him from the glass. "What the hell?"
He reached up to feel his face and eight eyes blinked simultaneously. "Shit," he swore softly. "Even when I do get extra eyes, I'm still short-sighted. Bloody hell fire."
He turned back to his bed to find his glasses, noticing them on the desk. Once he had some vision restored, it was then that he noticed the rest of the room. Everything was covered in a fine gossamer thread, the almost glassy filament glinting in the early light. Then something moved in the shadows of the wardrobe. A figure with eight legs and glinting eyes moved into the room, a predatory look on her face.
"Oh God, Helen?"
There was a hiss from the mandibles, venom dripped from the fangs at the side of her mouth and he stumbled back against the desk. His hand hit the spider book that he'd borrowed from the library and out of reflex he stole a quick glance down at the book, one phrase from the page jumping out at him from the page he'd researched 'Spidey' from.
'Female usually eats the male.'
"Oh shit..."
~~~ The End ~~~
Spidey
by
Gavin Wilson
Wattpad EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Gavin Wilson on Wattpad
Spidey Copyright © 2012 Gavin Wilson.
All rights reserved.
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