"Have a good day at school, Peter!" May called as her nephew Peter, rushed to the door to catch the bus.

"Thanks, Aunt May!" Peter called back.

As he reached the front door, he paused, taking a moment to make sure his shirt was free of wrinkles before he was swept away by the chaos he called high school.

He was about to open the door before he heard his aunt's voice again.

"Peter?"

He turned to see May peering into the foyer, her brows knitted in a serious expression. While her look was stoic, he could see concern shining in her warm brown eyes.

"Be safe. And don't go too crazy with the Spider-Man thing, okay?"

Peter slowly nodded. Ever since she had discovered his superhero identity was the neighborhood web-slinger, she could not stop worrying about him, which, of course, was appreciated, but at the same time, it could be quite tiring.

"Don't worry, I will," he answered, forcing himself to smile. While he could not completely promise he would stay out of trouble (being a superhero required putting yourself in some level of danger), he felt he needed to reassure her for her own sake.

This seemed to work; as he watched his aunt's gaze soften, and the serious expression she had worn mere seconds ago had practically disappeared as the corners of her lips upturned into a small smile.

"Thank you."

Peter nodded, returning the smile. He was glad that he was able to ease her worries, at least for the next couple of hours.

Besides, there was nothing to worry about-he was Spiderman for Pete's sake. He had fought bad guys with deadly alien weaponry before-he could certainly tackle a few lousy bank robbers. It wasn't like there was much else to come across on his daily patrol, right?

The sound of the bus turning onto the street brought him back to reality.

"Have a good day, May," he said.

Giving his older relative one last look of reassurance, Peter ran out the door and boarded the school bus, counting the hours until he could put on his suit again.

"Peter, my man!" a voice called as Peter walked through the doors of Midtown School of Science and Technology.

The young hero glanced up to see his friend Ned bounding up to him in his usual enthusiastic manner.

"Hey Ned!" Peter called back. "What's up?"

The chubby kid's eyes grew wide. "You won't believe this, but I just got my hands on the new Lego Death Star II set last night," he answered.

Upon processing the words, Peter's expression immediately mirrored his friends as a wave of excitement washed over him.

"Really? Dude, that's awesome!" He then frowned, remembering the set hadn't been released yet. "Wait, the Death Star II set isn't even stores yet. How'd you get it early?"

A small smirk crept across the boy's face. "Let's just say I know a guy, who knows a guy…who works for the company," he admitted, shrugging. "But never mind that. So, whaddya say? You wanna build it after school?"

Peter opened his mouth to answer, but quickly paused, remembering he had been planning on going on patrol right after school. But this was Ned, his best friend. And ever since he had gotten his new suit from Mr. Stark, he had been on patrol every single day, waiting for the right moment to swoop in and save the day.

But it was just one afternoon, right? And crime rates had gone down tremendously since the Vulture had been defeated. Surely the police could handle one day without him…

No, he had to protect his neighborhood from any potential threat the bad eggs in the community might bring. Crime does not rest and neither should he. He could only imagine what Mr. Stark would say if he could read his thoughts. Real heroes don't "take a day off," and if he wanted to be an Avenger when he was out of high school, he needed to start thinking like a real hero.

"Sorry, Ned, I can't," Peter said. "I gotta go on patrol after school."

As he had expected, the larger kid rolled his eyes. "Come on, Peter, you're on patrol all the time," he said. "Every time I've asked you to hang out lately, you're like 'Sorry, man, I can't.' Like, is there ever a time when you're not Spider-Man?"

"Look, I'm sorry, Ned, but I already planned to go out tonight," he said. "You know I love hanging out with you, but I need to start acting like an Avenger if I'm ever going to get a chance to be one after I graduate."

"And I understand that," Ned retorted. "But do you really think being on the job 24/7 is the answer? Like, I'm sure even Mr. Stark takes breaks once in awhile."

"I mean, he probably does…" Peter trailed off, not knowing what else to say. "…But it's just something I gotta do, you know, for the good of the people."

Ned shook his head, realizing that he wasn't getting to his friend, and if there was anything he knew about his heroic friend, it was that he was stubborn. Meaning, once he had his mind set on something, it was nearly impossible to talk him out of it,

"Fine, just go," Ned sighed in defeat. "It'd just be nice to, ya know, have a normal best friend for once."

Even though he knew that it wasn't in his friend's heart to be vindictive towards him, the words stung a bit. If he was being honest with himself, Peter knew that he had been distant lately. Even though he was no longer labeled as a loser (perks of not being an underclassman anymore), he was finding it harder to socialize with his peers nowadays. But if there was one person he couldn't afford to lose, it was Ned. The larger kid had been his one and only friend since middle school, and had helped him through some pretty rough times. Especially when he was trying to defeat the Vulture, Ned had been the one guiding him from his seat at the computer, and had even saved his life during that confrontation at homecoming last year.

There was no doubt about it: Ned was his wingman, more importantly, his best friend, and he wasn't going to lose him just because he was more focused on his hero duties.

"Hey, it's okay, buddy, how about we hang out this weekend," he suggested, trying to salvage what enthusiasm he had drained out of his friend. "We could hang out at my house and have pizza or something, and maybe we could build the Death Star then, if you can wait that long."

Even though his shoulders were still slouched in disappointment, Peter swore he saw a glint of excitement flicker in his friend's eyes.

"You mean it?" he asked.

"Duh, of course I mean it!" Peter exclaimed, clapping his friend on the back. "So, whaddya say? You in?"

A large grin spread across the kid's round face. "You know I'm in," he said. "You're combining my two favorite things: food and Legos. What else could a man want?"

A look of sadness flashed across the young hero's face as a saddening thought crossed his mind, but he quickly brushed it aside before his friend could notice.

"Cool," he said. "Just remember: my house. Three o' clock. Saturday. Got it?"

Ned nodded. "I'll be there."

"Awesome."

See? He could juggle being a hero, and a friend.

As if on cue, the warning bell rang, indicating that first period was about to start.

Not wanting to be late for class, Ned gave his friend a quick wave before heading his separate way.

"Alright, I'll see you around, man," he said, turning to go to his first period class.

Breaking free from his thoughts, Peter shook his head, only to see his friend leaving.

"Uh, see ya, man!" he called, returning the wave.

Once the larger kid was completely out of sight, Peter let out a small sigh of relief. Trying to balance his friendship with Ned and his role as Spiderman was proving to be a lot more difficult than he had previously thought, not to mention the crap-ton of schoolwork he had to do.

He was just a junior in high school, yet, he was already being bombarded with college ads in the mail, plus, he was constantly being reminded of the SAT tests that were coming up in the spring. It was like there was no time anymore to have an alter ego. But if he wanted to be a real Avenger, he needed to prioritize his heroic duties first, and be on call at all times of the day, in order to prove that was worthy of becoming an Avenger by the time he graduated high school.

Since he was not on planning on attending college, he had to become Avenger; otherwise, he had no future. And while, Mr. Stark had already told time he would have no trouble being accepted into the team, he knew that the iron hero had high expectations, therefore, Peter knew that he needed to work as hard as he could to be Avenger, even if it meant sacrificing some quality time with his friend.

Nonetheless, he was going to hold Ned to that promise. Nothing in this world was going to prevent him from spending time with his best friend (unless it was an alien invasion, then he might need to cancel), but other than that, he was going to follow through.