~Maria's POV~
"Finally! I'm free!" I gasp out loudly as I run off of the last train Miles and I had to take in order to get to Queens. "Come on it wasn't that bad" Miles tells me as he chuckles at my reaction, "you try sitting next to a man that smells like he hasn't showered in weeks for almost an hour then" I tell him sharply as I weakly glare at the Afro Latino boy. "Pft, whatever come on drama queen" Miles chuckles as he grabs my hand and pulls me along with him. "Ugh fine! Whatever" I groan and walk along side to him. We walk out of the subway and begin to make our way in the direction of our mentor's house. "It's really been a while since we been over here, hasn't it?" Miles asks as we walk down the streets of Queens, New York. "Sí (Yeah), it's been about a while. Maybe two weeks I think, we usually come see him once every week" I tell him. We continue the rest of our journey in silence.
We walk for another 45 minutes before we finally reach the street Peter lives on. "Miles come on! We're almost there! I'll race you!" I say excitedly and I don't waste a second and immediately take off running towards our mentor's house. "No fair Maria! Slow down some!" Miles calls out and I look over my shoulder to see him running to catch up to me. "You know you're faster than me so why challenge me to a race?" Miles asks as he runs some steps behind me. "Because I feel like it slow poke!" I tell him and go faster forcing Miles to go faster as well. With or without my spider powers I have Miles beat completely in both faster and more agile/graceful but when it comes to durability and strength he takes the crown with no challenges. I think the fact that Miles works out more than me and our Uncle Aaron used to train him in boxing has to do with him being stronger and more durable than me but I'm faster and more agile because I used to run track in grade school and I did some gymnastics as well. I'm also very flexible which is a must for gymnastics.
"Hahaha! I beat you!" I cry out in victory as I skid to a stop in front of Peter's house. "No fair! You know you're much faster than me" Miles whines as he stops running, panting slightly. "I know" I tell him with a smug smile as I walk up on Peter's porch and knock on the door. "Hold on a minute please!" A familiar elderly but strong woman's voice says from the other side of the door. A few moments later the door is opened and standing there is none other than Ms. May, or Aunt May as she has Miles and I call her. "Maria, Miles! What a pleasant surprise! I was starting to miss you two, how've you been?" Aunt May asks me and my cousin. "We've been well Aunt May, can we come in?" I ask the older woman politely. "Of course, you two are always welcomed in here no matter what. Quickly now, don't want you two standing in the cold for much longer" Aunt May tells us as she motions us into the house and steps aside for us to enter. "Thanks Aunt May, it is pretty cold out there" Miles says, a hint of joking in his tone as he steps into the warm house after me, slamming the door close behind him.
I glance at Miles sharply before smacking him upside his head. "Ow! What was that for?" Miles yelps, "stop slamming peoples' doors!" I scold him lightly. "Oh yeah, sorry" he apologizes sheepishly. "You should be saying that to Aunt May" I tell him sharply and let out a huff of annoyance. Miles never knows his own strength, not to mention he's heavy handed and always slams doors when he leaves or enters a room! It's annoying, he almost broke my door a last week when he came charging into my room rambling excitedly about some new video game that just came out. "Would you two like something to drink? Tea? Hot chocolate perhaps? Wait what am I saying? You two always ask for hot chocolate, give me some time and I'll make it for you" Aunt My says as quickly makes her way to the kitchen and begins rummaging through her cabinets. "Aunt May, did someone just come in? I heard the door slam" a very familiar voice says as hurried footsteps make their way down the staircase from the second floor.
The moment the person rounds the corner they look at Miles and I with wide eyes as we sit on the couch. "Hey Peter!" I chirp cheerfully as I wave my hand at him with a wide smile, "yo Peter! What's up?" Miles asks as he too waves at the blond man but our mentor doesn't say anything and looks at us with a blank stare. We both stand up from our spot on the couch and exchange confused glances as we make our way over to the silent man. "Hey Peter, are you okay?" I ask slightly concerned at his silence. "Oh my gosh! I feel like I haven't seen you two in forever!" Peter suddenly shouts, snapping out of his silent daze. "How've my favorite spiderlings been?" He asks us as he warps one of his arms around each of our waists and picks us up in a hug which is quiet easy considering his 5'10" closer to 5'11" height. Although Miles is 5'8" Peter is still able to pick him up easily. "Hahaha! I missed you too Peter!" I giggle happily as I warp my arms around his neck in a hug.
"Co-come on man, put me down!" Miles says embarrassedly as he struggles against Peter's hug but the older male doesn't loosen his grip on us in the slightest, in fact he only squeezes us tighter! "Alright Peter put the children down before you breath their spines!" Aunt May shouts from the kitchen. "Ugh, fine Aunt May!" Peter groans and literally drops Miles on his feet then softly sets me on mine. Peter's always treated me a little more gentle than Miles but when we're training, he treats us the exact same, especially in combat training. I've had bruises for a long time because of this man. "I've got both exciting but sad news" I tell Peter, my happiness dying down slightly. "Both exciting but sad? Now that's a strange combo, what's up chica(girl)?" Peter asks as he looks down at me, his smile dropping ever so slightly. "Um, I'm not sure how to say this so....here" I tell him awkwardly before pulling the letter from my pocket and shove it in his hands. "A letter?" Peter questions before unfolding it and reading what it says.
"Woah Maria this is.....I don't really know what to say! I'm so proud and happy for you!" Peter exclaims and places his hands around my sides before spinning me around wildly. "But!" Peter suddenly says as he stops and holds me out in front of him which is fairly easy since I'm only 5'2" making him a little over 8 inches taller than me. That's almost a whole foot! "That means we have less than two weeks left to spend together, then I won't be able to see you to three whole years!" Peter exclaims, looking very troubled. "We could always face time her" Miles suggest, "you're right!" Peter gasp as he drops me. "Woah!" I gasp in surprise as I fall towards the floor, my heart squeezing slightly from the unexpected drop. "Peter!" I yell at him in a scolding manor as I land on my feet despite the somewhat tall fall and my nerves spiking from the sudden drop. "Sorry" the blond ma apologizes shyly as he rubs the back of his head in embarrassment. "Peter! What have I told you about dropping Maria! She's not even half your height, she could have gotten hurt!" Aunt May scolds her nephew from the kitchen doorframe.
"Aunt May she has the same spider powers I do, she can survive an 8 inch drop" Peter sighs out. "But what doesn't mean you should! Be careful with these children!" Aunt May scolds again as she waves around a large wooden spoon. Aunt May has always been one to baby Miles and I, at some point she kind of adopted us as her new niece and nephew a few months after we started training with Peter. I don't know how it happened but at some point, it just did. Like, my mentor's aunt is now my adopted aunt or something, it's kind of weird when you think about it fitting into a family link. But I don't worry about it much, I see Aunt May as much of an aunt as I see Auntie Rio as one, Auntie Rio is Miles' mother by the way. "Right, right I'm sorry Aunt May" Peter says as he gives up on trying to win this argument. One thing nobody can do is win an argument with Aunt May, it's just simply impossible! Trust me, I've tried, serval times.
"But anyways, this is an amazing opportunity for you Maria. I know you and Miles have been uncertain about how to continue your training after I taught you how to control your powers. Miles text me about how you two were planning on transferring to the hero course from the science course in your school once classes started up again. Besides, being chosen as the one to part take in the foreign exchange program at Brooklyn Visions Academy is amazing! It's really hard to be chosen for this position, trust me I tried when I was there but I didn't get it. I think you should take this chance, UA is a really amazing hero school one of the best in Japan!" Peter tells me sounding very sure of his decision. "Well if you think this is best then I'll go" I tell him, "no Maria you need to make this decision on your own. Do you want to go or do you not want to go? In the end the choice is yours" Peter tells me seriously, a stern look appearing on his face.
"Well the thing is I don't really have a choice, they already said everything's been confirmed so even if I didn't want to go things couldn't be changed. But don' get me wrong, I think this could be a better chance for me" I tell him. "Well at least you actually want to go" Peter sighs out. "Alright you three enough talking about this for now, the hot chocolate is ready" Aunt May says as she emerges from the kitchen carrying of tray of four cups of steaming hot chocolate. "Thanks Aunt May, your hot chocolate is the best!" Miles say as he takes one of the cups from the tray as the elder woman sets it on the table. "Thank you Aunt May" I tell the older woman as I take a cup of hot chocolate and sit in between Miles and Peter on the couch. "No problem dears" Aunt May says as she sits in a chair against the wall across from us. "Ah just look at this, all three of my special spiderlings together once again. I just have to take a picture!" Aunt May squeals as she flips out her phone and snaps some pictures of Peter, Miles and I drinking our hot chocolate, we even strike a few poses for her.
After only God knows how many pictures Aunt May finally gives it a rest. "Happy with those Aunt May?" I ask the elder woman with a smile, "oh yes! These are all so perfect!" She tells me happily as she types on her phone. Suddenly my phone vibrates in my pocket signaling I have a new text message. I pull my phone out of my pocket as does Miles and Peter, I open my text messages to see Aunt May just sent me all the pictures she just took. They all came out really good too! I choose a few of the many pictures she took and make them my lock screen and home screen savers. "Thanks Aunt May, these pictures came out really good" I tell my adoptive aunt as I put my phone back in my pocket. "No problem dearie, I thought you'd want some pictures of you three for when you leave soon. Something to show your future friends in Japan" Aunt May tells me with a smile.
'She must have overheard our conversation' I think, wondering how she knew about me going to Japan. "That's a good idea Aunt May! We should all send Maria the pictures we have of ourselves and each other!" Miles says happily and not even a few minutes later my phone starts buzzing like crazy. I take it out to see I'm getting spam messages from both Peter and Miles. "You guys are going to overload my phone with all those pictures!" I tell them slightly annoyed at the fact that they're spamming me so hard. "You'll thank us later" Miles say and waves off my annoyance as he finishes spamming me. I only sigh and shake my head at him, there's only so much space on my phone and all these pictures are going to take them up! "Yeah don't worry about it Maria, these pictures are worth it" Peter adds and gives me a thumbs up. I sigh again and decide to just let it go, I'll probably be looking at these pictures a lot while I'm in Japan anyways.
Miles and I continue to talk with Peter and Aunt May until 5:30pm strikes, we got here at 1pm after almost two hours of slow travel. "It's been nice talking to you guys again but I think it's time we get going, Miles and I have to get home before the street lights come on in Brooklyn and we have less than three hours" I say as I look at the grandfather clock in the living room. "It's this late already? The sun should be going down around 6:30 as well, you two should head home" Aunt May tells us as she too looks at the clock. "I'll walk you guys to the subway then" Peter says as he stands up and walks over to grab his jacket which is on the coat hanger by the door. "You don't have to Peter, you have patrol soon anyways" I tell him and Miles and I stand up then walk over to the door. "No I insist, besides I always walk you two down to the station wherever you come by" Peter tells me as he opens the door for us. "He's right you know" Miles tells me as he shrugs his shoulders. "Alright then, let's go" I say and all three of us walk out the door.
"Be careful you three!" Aunt May calls out as Miles closes the door, "we will!" I call back to her before the door completely closes. Luckily Miles didn't slam it this time. "Oh yeah here you go Maria, almost forgot to give this back to you" Peter says as he hands me back the letter from my school. "Thanks" I mutter and take back the folded paper before placing it in my pocket again.
~~~
"Well then we'll see you again some time soon Peter, take care until then" Miles tells our mentor as we stand in front of our first train that'll take us back to Brooklyn. "Same, you kiddos be careful and look after each other" Peter tells us. "Will do sir!" Miles and I say in unison as we give the blond man a mock salute. "Hehehe, alright then you little crawlers get along now. Your train is almost ready to leave" Peter tells us and motions to our train that's almost filled with people. "Bye Peter, see you later" I tell him with smile, "see you two later my little spider sidekicks" he tells us and hearing his words I feel both joy, pride and excitement spark within me. Me and Miles decided that when we get our hero licenses the first thing we'll do is become Peter's sidekicks until we're ready to do it solo. Once we go solo we'll be a hero duo! We haven't decided on our team name but we're working on our personal hero names though. I can't wait until we get our hero licenses!
"Right, by Peter!" Miles says before we run towards our awaiting train. We board it and fine two free seats by the window closest to Peter. We both wave bye to him energetically as our train departs, he smiles happily with a proud look on his face as he waves to us as well. We all continue to wave at each other until we're unable to see the other(s). "Wait!" Miles cries out as he jumps in his seat. "Don't tell me your forgot your phone Miles" I groan as I face palm myself, Miles has a bad habit of often leaving his phone at Peter's house whenever we go over there. So when he forgets it we ether have to go back and get it or wait until the next day for Peter to drop it off in his room. The second option isn't as creepy or weird as it sounds. "No I have it with me, but we have to tell Uncle Aaron about your letter!" Miles tells me excitedly. "You're right!" I say, suddenly becoming just as excited as my cousin.
Miles and I always loved going over to our Uncle Aaron's apartment. His large studio like living area is really cool and he's a lot of fun to be around! I remember when I was little I was always playing with my youngest uncle and he always doted on me growing up. Uncle Jefferson is the oldest of my Dad's brothers meaning he' really strict and rule follow-ie, while my Dad is the middle brother making him both strict but chill at the same time and lastly Uncle Aaron is the youngest which makes him the most chill and the coolest! He lets me and Miles do a whole bunch of dangerous but fun things when we're with him like doing burn outs and donuts in the middle of the highway at night with us in the car! They're always so fun and blood rushing! Even though it's really reckless Uncle Aaron always makes sure we're safe and I no that if Miles or I were ever in danger he would do anything to save us. That's why he's me and Miles' favorite uncle!
"But I'm tired and we have to get back home, maybe we should rest for a couple of hours then head over to his place" Miles says as he slumps in his seat and rest his head against the window. "But it'll be dark by then" I remind him, "that never stopped us" he retorts and he's completely right. I remember one time I got in a bad argument with my parents about something really late in the night, I can't remember what, so I snuck out of my room from my window and jumped over to Miles' roof then climb down to his window. My cousin was surprised to see me but let me in regardless. I told him about what happened and surprisingly enough he got into a fight with his Dad as well. I ended up having the great idea of sneaking out and going over to Uncle Aaron's house so we did. In the end we both gave our parents a heart attack when we weren't in our rooms, Uncle Jefferson gave Uncle Aaron a call and found out that we were over his house. Our parents were fuming when they came to get us and long story short we got grounded for two months.