When Peter entered the classroom, he happened to catch Cindy staring blankly at her phone, likely having received some mysterious notification from Felicia. He took a deep breath and sat in his seat. Cindy put her phone away and asked, "Are you busy on Homecoming day?"
"Uh? Um, I guess I have something going on?"
Since it wasn't easy to explain, Peter simply brushed it off. Unsure of what Cindy was thinking, he prepared for the start of class. At that moment, something occurred to him, and he turned around to ask Harry and Amadeus, who were sitting behind him. He was surprised to find that both of them had heavy dark circles under their eyes.
"What happened to you guys—"
"Huh? Oh, I was tutoring someone in math online yesterday. I worked too late, so that's why," Amadeus replied.
Peter looked at Amadeus with a mix of belief and doubt, unsure of his story. Tutoring math in America? Whose kid is that studious?
Peter turned his gaze toward Harry. Harry shook his head repeatedly and added, "I was also tutoring someone in math."
"Were you both teaching... the same person?"
"No, no, no, it was just at the same time."
Even without his Spider-Sense, Peter was certain these two were lying. They had likely stayed up too late playing somewhere. However, since there didn't seem to be anything seriously wrong, he let it go.
In reality, they hadn't been out playing; they had pulled an all-nighter. They had spent the entire night gaming on the computers at the new Spider-Base. Now, the two lethargic high schoolers fought back their drowsiness to ask Peter, "What were you going to ask us just now?"
"Oh, right. I haven't been paying much attention to school events. What's the dress-up theme for Homecoming this year?"
"One of the days is My Little Pony."
Peter looked at Harry in disbelief. Harry looked back at him with a perfectly straight face. "What? Do you think that's weird?"
"Is that an activity everyone can actually participate in?"
Peter was truly shocked. Last year, everyone dressed up as superheroes; you could say that was inclusive since anyone could find a hero or a villain they liked, or at least didn't hate. But My Little Pony—
"So what? Everybody loves My Little Pony. Don't worry, it's not like anyone is an actual horse. I'm sure nothing will go wrong."
Peter was speechless. He began to wonder if he could skip the first day of the week-long Homecoming festivities. Then he started to worry: if the first day was My Little Pony, would the following days be even more outrageous?
"Personally, I don't think there's much point in following the dress-up requirements for the week leading up to Homecoming," Amadeus chimed in, clearly not in the 'everybody loves ponies' camp. "It's not like anyone cares if you wear regular clothes. Everyone's focused on the weekend football game and the Homecoming dance. Who's going to notice the daily themes?"
Harry spoke up again the next day: "Then, as a trade-off, one day is Scientist-themed. Everyone has to dress up as a corresponding scientist. I've already prepared my Einstein wig and mustache."
"You might as well have just said one day is for girls and one day is for boys. Your suggestions are terrifying," Peter remarked.
Before he could finish, Harry retorted, "Not at all. I think the ponies are great. Don't you guys like ponies?"
Fine, there was no reasoning with someone like this.
Peter sighed and decided to stop worrying about where to rent a costume. He remembered there was a character in My Little Pony that parodied the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who. In that case, he would just dig out the Tenth Doctor cosplay he wore last year and wear it again. If anyone asked, he'd just say it was a pony reference.
Then, for the Scientist theme, he could pull it out and wear it once more. The Doctor was a scientist, too. It was perfect.
"That reminds me. Peter and I are definitely going to find Homecoming dates this year. What about you, Amadeus? Do you have your eye on any suitable girls?"
"Give me a break, man. I'm not like you guys. I spent so much of last year away from school because I was—" Amadeus glanced around before continuing in a lower voice, "—being dragged all over the world by Hercules. I was helping him solve all those ancient texts, underground labyrinths, curses, and prophecies that he couldn't understand at all. Where would I have had the time to meet female classmates?"
"I think even if you had the time, you wouldn't have approached any girls," Harry said, ruthlessly exposing Amadeus's timid nature. "You barely interact with anyone. In fact, if it weren't for Carl King bullying you, Peter and I probably wouldn't have even noticed you."
Amadeus was furious, but he knew it was true. Hearing this caused Peter to fall into a brief daze. "The Carl King thing... it's been almost a year—"
"Yeah, he's been missing for nearly a year. His mother passed away, too. He probably ran into something terrible. Then again, a guy like him probably turned into a supervillain somewhere and got taken out by the Punisher."
Peter gave Harry a meaningful look. Strictly speaking, Harry wasn't wrong; the Punisher had indeed intervened when dealing with Carl King. The reason Peter never told them how Carl King actually died was partly because it happened so early on—they weren't that close yet, and the death of a classmate feels different from the death of a stranger.
It wasn't like now. Nowadays, Midtown High was crawling with superheroes; it was practically a headquarters. On the other hand, since he hadn't said anything back then, there was no point in bringing it up now. Carl King, who had been so dangerous and powerful at the time, was nothing to the Peter of today.
He decided it was better to keep worrying about what to wear for Homecoming and what other bizarre themes might be coming up.
With that thought, Peter started scrolling through his phone. He saw a message from Felicia asking which dress looked better on her. Peter didn't click on it to see more; instead, he scrolled through the news.
He spotted a headline about the Daily Bugle launching a "Spider-Man Investigation." Clearly, J. Jonah Jameson wasn't satisfied with the Hydra investigation news and was targeting Spider-Man again. Anyone who sent the Daily Bugle photos or interviews proving Spider-Man's actions could win a prize. There were even bonuses for discovering Spider-Man doing something "bad" or failing in his mission.
The man was relentless.
"Spider-Man might not be short on cash right now, but Peter Parker certainly is. Maybe I should take a big bite out of JJJ's wallet—"