'Spider-Man...who are you?'

Curious, onyx eyes gazed at the headliner for the morning, a picture of a man in red and blue costume soaring through the sky plastered on her TV. The rays of the morning sun flooded into her kitchen as she continued to finish her breakfast. For the last few days, a certain web slinger has been everywhere over the news, the talk of the world. He's been called many things by the press. Some say he's the next Avenger, others think of him on the same level as a cop, and the rest would argue to say he's a menace. It would be difficult for people to think of him as just one of those things, but to the girl, he was a fraud.

'Just like any other superhero that ran through the streets of New York…'

Another solemn sigh escaped her lips. Superheros weren't all that amazing to the brunette, she's been surrounded by mutants all her life and they weren't treated any differently than the villains that roamed the streets. What made people like Spider-Man any different? Yeah sure, he was called a menace by a certain part of the press, but at least there were still some out there who defended his existence. Mutants? They didn't get that, no one thought of those rogues as good news. The only hope they had were the X-Men, but even then it was limited.

The girl continued to sit in front of the television, watching the one called Spider-Man save the lives of innocent people. If she weren't such a pessimist...this girl might actually look up to this arising hero. That wasn't the case as one might expect after knowing her for so long. She wasn't a complete pessimist, but she wasn't one to look at new developments with excitement, especially superheros.

Her name was Victoria Adams, a mutant for as long as she was able to remember. Her parents were mutants as well, but their abilities were nothing too special. Her mother had the ability to self heal, though it was nothing compared to Wolverine. The only wounds that have been able to heal exceptionally fast for were simple cuts. Her father on the other hand had a very odd quirk. His sweat was extremely sticky when he chose it to be. For a civilian, it was extremely inconvenient.

Victoria's ability on the other hand...was different.

Her eyes stared deeply at the image of the so-called menace, observing every detail, something she could never do otherwise.

After finishing the cereal that had been left in her bowl, Victoria grabbed the bag that lay at her feet and began to swander towards the door. On the outside awaited a basic red bike, the one that she took every single day. Her family was able to live under the radar despite the fact that they were mutants, albeit only minor. They had a fairly average life, not too poor, not too rich either. Both her parents worked nine-to-five jobs, so most of the time Victoria was left to herself.

After locking the door behind her and ensuring that the bike lock was in her bag, Victoria walked towards the bike and sighed, inspecting her ride to make sure there was no flat tire or broken gears.

After securing her belongings onto the back of her bike, the teen began to ride towards her school, Midtown High. It was a normal high school. There was no known celebrity to come out of it and other than the occasional villain or hero sighting, nothing actually happened...or at least that was how it was until recently. It must've been around the time that Spider-Man had gained a more memorable reputation that the villain sightings had increased dramatically...As has the hero sightings, the hero that was seen more often than not being Spider-Man.

What was once a "once-in-a-blue-moon" kind of deal was now almost once a week. Almost everyone in the school has had at least one near death experience, Victoria being one of them.

As she began to lock her bike in the rack in the front, she noticed some of her classmates walking past her.

"Oh, hey there Victoria!"

Mary Jane Watson, one of the few individuals in the school Victoria actually enjoyed being around. She was an optimistic girl who seemed to have a very promising future in the news business.

Next to the red head was her two friends, Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. Other than being a bit of a player, Harry seemed to be a pretty cool guy. He definitely wasn't just good looks either, both Victoria and himself had been partnered together for a science project and he actually managed to pull his weight...and managed to save her from a few errors as well. Both her and the extremely lucky male exchanged nods before her sights landed on the boy she interacted with the least...Peter Parker.

In all honesty Peter was someone that didn't seem all that interesting. He was a huge nerd and pretty bland when it came to personality. Other than a small quip that might come out of his mouth every so often, he was a pretty generic guy.

As both Victoria and the male in front of her locked gazes, the younger of the two did her best to calm her nerves. There was just something about him that put her off...but she couldn't allow herself to think about him or what he was thinking. If she couldn't do something as simple as that, then she wouldn't be able to live out the rest of her life like a normal person...like the sort of life she wanted.

After breaking eye contact with the male, Victoria faced Mary Jane and smiled, attempting to whisk away her previous thoughts.

"Haha! Hey there MJ, what's up?"

Both of the girls gave each other a small hug before smiling brightly towards each other. Just being around her gave Victoria a more positive and even happy feeling. If there was one thing about Mary Jane, it was that she was charismatic, almost to the point where it could rival Harry.

"Oh not much, just worrying about that history presentation due today."

The girl laughed softly though also nervously. Presentations were always so killer when it came to grades, that's why whenever one was assigned, anyone that cared about their grades took it seriously.

"Yeah...I wouldn't sweat about it too much."

Victoria tried to sound calm about the whole thing, but she'd be lying if she said that her breathing didn't increase a bit. The thought of her grade crashing before her was a scary thought...and she worked on the whole thing alone, no one was there to fact check her or anything like that. She was truly alone.

"Hah, yeah. Here's to hoping we all don't screw this up." Harry laughed, shaking his head as he kept his hands in his pants pockets. No matter what the occasion was, he managed to keep a cool front...It was inspiring yet slightly annoying as well since everyone else was having at least a small nervous breakdown about the whole thing.

"Oh come on Harry, as long as we played our cards right I'd say we're all going to be in a good place. Don't you agree?" Peter looked at all of them with a reassuring grin plastered on his face. "Now enough with the chit-chat and lets get in before we're late."

The brunette threw his arms around the shoulders of his two best friends before beginning to head into the school. Before the school doors closed completely, creating a sort of border between Mary Jane, her friends, and Victoria, the red head craned her head to the side. When she caught a glimpse of Victoria she mouthed to her 'I'll see you later' before following Peter into the school building.

That was all Victoria needed to smile back in response, reciprocating with a small wave of the hand before getting the rest of her school supplies that rested on the back rack of her bike. As soon as all of her supplies were in her grasp, the female began to trudge towards her locker. There were still a few minutes before class started so she had time...That made her question what Parker was talking about when he said they'd be late.

The walk to her locker wasn't long...but putting in the combination for it was. She managed to mess up the combination twice...twice. At this rate she may as well start making her way to class because she was going to be late.

"Damn it, open up!"

Her small fist collided with the locker door, a small growl of frustration leaving her lips. If a simple locker combination was going to make her get a tardy, that would really be it.

Thankfully, third time's the charm. As soon as the locker opened, Victoria threw her extra books and binders inside and slammed the door shut.

'Here's to hoping it actually locked.' She thought as she began to run down the almost empty hallway. At this point, the girl was really cutting it close.

As her class began to come into view, Victoria's eyes narrowed, the speed of her legs increasing as the distance between her and her destination began to decrease.

The door was soon slammed open as that same exact girl was letting out strained breaths, looking into the class and at all of the judgemental faces staring back at her.

"Miss Adams, you have just barely made it." Her teacher stated as the bell began to ring in the background of it all.

With her labored breathing and still pounding heart, she barely even heard it at all.

"S-sorry sir." She mummered, rubbing the side of her arm sheepishly. It didn't take the girl long to reach her assigned seat, a small huff escaping her lips.

If there was one thing that drove her mad, it was whenever she had to look at other people and was put in an uncomfortable situation, that made her mutation go wild and presentations called for exactly that.

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New story! With everything the way they are now, I felt the need to start a new project and this is it. I'm hoping this'll go well, but only time will tell. I'd love it to hear some feedback! It inspires me to write more and if there are any flaws in my writing, I'd like to correct it. Thanks for reading!