I could feel myself falling, everything was dark. I felt frozen, unable to move. The wind was blowing through my hair. Lights began to fill my vision, buildings appearing around me. Cars below, the street was getting closer and closer every second. I shut my eyes tight, bracing for the impact. Any second I was going to hit and-

But that was when everything stopped moving. I was no longer in free fall, I felt an arm wrapping around my waist. The motion nearly made me sick as we whipped through the air, but we landed on the ground safely. Though my legs were shaky, I looked to my savior. I'd never forget his appearance. Those broad shoulders, that sleek red and blue costume.

"Whoa hey are you alright?" He asked me, patting me on the back.

"I-I-" The words were choked in my throat. I didn't really know what to say, other than- "Thank you, Spiderman."

"Ugh, no that sounds so cheesy..." I quickly held down the backspace key, erasing everything I had typed out so far. Running my free hand through my hair with a heavy sigh, "Why is it so hard to come up with an opening?"

I practically jumped out of my seat as a dark skinned hand slammed down in front of me. Right in the space between myself and the laptop, "Are you still writing those weird stories?"

My cheeks were already heating up, as I quickly slammed shut my small computer, "NO!" I barked up at him. Thin in build, dark skinned with short black hair trimmed on the sides. This is my friend, Miles Morales, "I was just working on... A side project!" I am a very good liar, as you can tell.

"Right," He rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands into the front pocket of his sweater, "Well the library is closing, we gotta get going."

"Oh, really?" I blinked in surprise, checking my phone. "Crap, already eight?" How did so much time slip by without me noticing? I guess I was a little distracted today. Quickly stuffing everything into my bag, we made our way outside. It was already getting dark, the sun setting a little later still in early spring.

My name is Gwen Stacy, I'm a junior at Midtown High School in Queens. Like pretty much everyone my age I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life. I live with my dad in a crappy apartment complex in the not so nice part of town. Mom ran out while I was little, haven't heard from her since. And now you're all caught up.

"So when are you gonna stop writing those stories?" Miles asked, as we passed over the crosswalk.

This again, do I really need to be more embarrassed than I already am? "Don't hate, it keeps me busy when I'm bored..."

"Fair enough, but when are you gonna write like... A real story?" Miles questioned, shrugging his shoulders, "I mean, you've got some talent but you spend your time writing that fake stuff."

"Hey!" I was instantly defensive, even though my cheeks were flushing red, "Its not fake! Spiderman is real and he really saved my life once!"

"Walking into ten mile an hour traffic is not really a life threatening situation." He pointed out, striking a devastating blow to my ego.

"It could have been!" I argued, turning away with a huff, "I just... I don't know... All these heroes and stuff are so cool, I wish I had some crazy super powers so I could help people too." Yeah, that was about the gist of it. Maybe I'm naive, but it looked so intense and fun. More fun than high school anyways.

"Well after all that stuff that just went down with the Avengers that might not be a very good career choice."

Right, the Sokovia Accords and the Avengers splitting up. It had only been a little over two months since that all went down. Captain America, along with a number of other Avengers, were all now on the Most Wanted list. Iron Man was pretty much the only remaining Avenger. Well, except for maybe Spiderman. The jury was still out on that one, but it sure was an interesting coincidence that after all that stuff went on that he got himself a fancy new suit.

"What happened to them was BS," We were pretty much beating a dead horse here, we'd had this discussion before, "The Avengers were awesome... Who cares if some stuff gets blown up, when the world is in peril?"

"Probably the people that are getting their stuff blown up."

Damn, outsmarted once again. "I mean... Yeah, maybe..."

"So are you gonna be at the park tomorrow night?" A quick follow up, rather than letting any silence settle between us, "I guess we're supposed to be able to see that meteor pass over from there."

Ah yes, the space rock everyone was so excited about. Popping up in the news when NASA picked it up a few days ago. Gonna fly right over the city, before supposedly crashing somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. "Yeah sure, I've got nothing else going on."

"So its a date then?" The hope in his voice almost made me feel bad.

"Nice try Miles," Waving him off as we passed by my complex, "But I won't fall for that this time!"

He laughed it off, joking as per usual. We set that idea aside a long time ago, we both gag when seeing the "hot couples" in our school sucking face, so why would we want to become that? Being friends was a lot more fun anyways, "You won't avoid my evil plans for long." He assured, waving me off, "See you at school tomorrow..." Before walking off on his own way, heading for the next building over.

After climbing the front steps, I made my way inside and went to the stairs. This place may have sucked, but at least we had a top floor apartment.

"Dad, I'm home!" The words left my mouth on instinct as I passed through the front door. Shutting it firmly behind me, locking it and kicking my shoes off. This place wasn't much, practically a shoebox apartment. With one large room that was both entryway, kitchen and living room, to a short hallway leading to the only bedroom across from the only bathroom.

"Hrmm?" Half asleep, the balding jumpsuit clad older man was sitting it from his bed, the foldout couch, "Oh hey Gwen, dinners in the microwave..." Dad assured me, before falling back down to continue sleeping. I couldn't blame him, working as a custodian he took a lot of extra hours just to make ends meet.

He was a good guy, despite all the bullshit that went on in his life. I used to think he blamed me for Mom leaving, like they'd had a kid too early or something. But he's too nice for that. Once upon a time he was a promising young recruit at the police academy. But that all kinda fell through when I came along, once Mom walked out he had to drop everything to take care of me.

Our life isn't perfect, but we get by and are happy... Relatively speaking.

"Thanks dad." Chuckling as I pulled out the tray with a few pieces of last nights pizza on it. The food was cold but I didn't mind, some pizza was better that way.

Once I was inside my room, I closed the door and moved to the desk. My personal space was small, nothing but this old desk, a dresser and a bed. There was a closet nearby, but I hardly had anything that could go in it. And it was kind of a mess, I didn't spend much free time cleaning and I wouldn't be caught dead bringing a guest here. Except for maybe Miles, but he doesn't care about that kinda junk anyways.

With reality all taken care of for the day, it was time to enjoy my shameful fantasy land. Sitting at the desk, I pulled out my laptop and popped it open while reaching for a nearby notebook. Quickly opening up my blog, and new tabs to check all the local outlets for news on Spiderman. Most were still buzzing about that mess a week or so ago. Some plane transporting a bunch of stuff from Avengers Tower was nearly stolen by the Vulture. Spiderman put a stop to it and caught the bad guy who actually turned out to be the father of an upperclassman from our very own school!

Sad for her, but crazy!

"There we go," Finally finding the new stuff I was looking for. Catching a few pictures and videos of Spiderman's daily good deeds. I started adding them to a blog post, detailing his endeavors. "Saved a cat, stopped car stealing... Gave an old man directions, awww!"

Alright, I'll be the first to admit, I am a huge dork with an even huger crush on Spiderman. He saved me once, kind of, and I've been kinda hooked on him. Maybe because of all the super hero stuff that goes on in the world now I just sort of attached myself to the local one? Whatever, don't judge!

Once the post was made, I started flipping through the notebook. Passing by sketched images of costumes. Altered... Spider costumes... That is. Possibly made for a girl, but that's none of your business! So what if I sometimes fantasize about getting spider powers and kicking ass? Every girl has dreams! Some are just... More realistic than others.

Reaching for some cheap earbuds, I popped them in and opened up my music. Flipping on one of Miles' lofi hip hop songs he'd cooked up, something nice and relaxing to listen too while working. Miles was super talented, even earned a little spending money by releasing some of this music online. But his real talent was his graffiti art. He loved to tag buildings and alleyways with the stuff, but it was amazing. And his dad was a police officer, so that kept him out of any real trouble. He still ended up grounded a lot for it though.

Once the beats were going, I took a deep breath and relaxed. Putting pencil to paper, "Hmm... Maybe a cape on this one?" Muttering idly as I began working on the outline, "No... Capes are stupid... How about a hood?" Yeah, that definitely sounded better. And while I definitely loved Spiderman's costume, I doubt I'd look so good in bright red and blue.

I'd spend the rest of the night scribbling away, waiting for comments on my blog post. Though I hardly ever got more than a handful of views, at least one of those was from Miles. He did a great job putting up with my obsession, I'd have to repay him for that some day...

Either way, tomorrow was Friday so I still needed to make it through one more boring school day. Maybe I could get a glimpse of Spiderman from the park, maybe he'd show up to watch the meteor pass over too! Maybe I'd meet him there and we could watch it together!

Well great, now I'm too excited. Good job Gwen, so much for getting a good nights sleep...