It was a beautiful spring morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, another Great day.
May Parker was especially excited, today was the day that she was going on a field trip to a research facility for her genetics class. The same lab where her Dad told her that he got his powers from, so one could literally feel the excitement.
"Hey May!" yelled her friend Alicia as she walked to school.
"Oh, Hey Alicia. Is that your brother?" May asked, gesturing to the short boy walking next to Alicia.
"Yup, that's me. Markus Archer." He said.
May looked at Markus. There was something in eyes, terror perhaps? May couldn't blame him. She wasn't good friends with Alicia, but she knew that their dad was a drug addict and left them when they were little. And their Mother was away on a business trip for the next three months so it was just them until almost the end of summer.
"Hey Markus, This is May. My friend I was telling you about." Alicia said in a voice that had a tone of "embarrass me and die" masked by a nonchalant tone of "Introduce yourselves"
"Hey." Markus said looking at May with his deep blue eyes.
"Hi, I'm May, but you can call me Mayday. Okay?" May said in a cheery tone. She knew something wrong was going on with him, the least she could do was try and cheer him up.
"Alright. I know you from Genetics Class. I've just never talked to you." Markus said
"Oh, then that means we're all going to that field trip thingy!" Alicia said.
BRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGG!
"Oh shoot! We're going to be late!" Alicia said, running towards the building. May stayed behind with Markus, the teacher loved May and she figured she could cover for Markus as well.
"So, Markus... How old are you? You seem a bit young to be in a Junior-level science course."
"I'm 13 years old today." he said flatly.
"Aww Happy Birthday!" May said, hugging him.
"I'm so sorry!" she said. "It's just... You know, I kinda figured since your Mom was away and all."
"It's fine." He said, his face facing away from her.
She didn't know how, maybe it was her Spider sense, but she could feel like he was crying.
"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, hugging him again.
He hugged her back, sobbing into her shirt.
"No, not really. My Mother's all the way in friggin Japan for the rest of the school year, and my sister is in charge of me. She HATES me!"
"I'm sure she doesn't. Listen, we can talk more about this on the bus ride there. But now, we need to get to class."
As Markus ran ahead of her. May looked at his wrist and swore she could have seen a small pinkish line running across it.
"Poor kid." she thought to herself as she ran to class
13 hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds before
May and Markus sat in the same bus seat together on the way to the laboratory
"So, why do you think your sister hates you?" May asked him.
"Well, aside from the fact she tells me multiple times a day, she often will slap me for no reason and leave without saying where she's going and when she'll be back."
"Alice SAYS that?" May gasped in disbelief
"Yup." he replied.
May hugged him once more
"I'm so sorry." she said.
"For what? You didn't have any part in the matter." Markus said.
"I Just feel bad for you." May said.
"Don't. Please It's nothing. With my GPA and the track I'm on right now, I'll be living On-Campus at any Collage I want in a year." Markus said, yawning.
May angled herself so that he could use her shoulder for a cushion. It was a long bus ride to the facility, so long that in about an hour, they had to stop at a fast food restaurant as an official procedure.
"Sweet dreams." May said jokingly, hoping he would laugh. But Markus was already asleep on her shoulder. May couldn't help but smile.
She turned her head and looked at Alicia a few seats back. She tried to think of her as. Being as figure that would cause Markus this much emotional pain.
12 hours, 14 minutes, 28 seconds Before
"Wake up. Hey wake up, we're at the restaurant." said a beautiful, gentle voice.
"That won't work, you go on ahead I'll get him up." said a less pleasant voice.
"Alright, I'll save you guys a spot in line." said the other voice.
" HEY DIP-S*** WAKE UP!" the evil voice screamed in his ear.
Markus awoke with a scream and smacked his head on the bus seat.
"Ow!" he said. "I think my ears are bleeding." he said. To the culprit, his sister Alicia.
"Shut up, c'mon it's time for lunch we're at McDonalds. You like that don't you, little fatty." she said with a sneer.
Markus' eyes filled up with tears as he shot past her and ran off the bus. He ran inside the building and found May.
"Markus, what's wrong?" she said hugging the crying boy tightly.
"Alicia hurt me In the one place that It really hurts." Markus said.
"What did she say."
"She called me fat." Markus said sobbing. May took him outside behind the busses as she saw Alicia come in.
"Why would she do that?"
"Because she knows it gets to me." Markus said. "I'm not overweight or anything, but I mean look at me, I'm not the thinnest kid either" he said.
"Listen, your going to stretch out when you hit puberty. Then your going to be so good looking that, no girl is going to be able to resist you."
"Alice says that girls don't, or ever will, like me." Markus said.
"Well, that's already false."
"Why?" Markus asked.
"Because I like you and I'm a girl." May said with a smile.
With that, the two walked back into the restaurant. But nothing could prepare them for what lied ahead.