17. The Emergence of the First-Generation Spider Spirit

Mrs. Snow.

Her full name was Selena Snow, and she was the counselor for their eleventh grade.

From providing personal social and emotional support to guiding individual development and university application upgrades, all of these fell under Mrs. Snow’s responsibilities.

Unlike public high schools, where a counselor might be responsible for a hundred or even over two hundred students, Midtown High was a private school, so Mrs. Snow was in charge of only thirty-five students.

This allowed her to offer deeper, more personalized support to the students she was responsible for.

By a remarkable coincidence, both he and Gwen shared Mrs. Snow as their counselor.

However...

He had planned to quickly shower and change into clean clothes, but on the way to Mrs. Snow’s office, Gwen was urging him along.

Hawk, curious, asked Gwen beside him, “Did Mrs. Snow say what this is about?”

“No, she just asked if I knew where you were. If I did, she wanted me to find you so we could go to her office together.”

“Really?” Hawk pondered and then looked at Gwen. “Could it be about college? Maybe your early admission and scholarship from Berkeley came through?”

That was the only reason Hawk could think of for Mrs. Snow wanting him to go to the office with Gwen.

After all, once this month passed and September came, they would already be seniors.

They would graduate from high school next June.

But before that, outstanding students had already secured their preferred universities early, and those universities had also locked in their chosen students.

Take Gwen, for example; she had her heart set on Berkeley.

Located in California, Berkeley was a public research university known as the “Public Ivy,” having produced over a hundred Nobel laureates—the third highest in number.

Gwen shrugged and glanced at Hawk. “What about you? You’re still set on studying law at New York University? Not considering Stanford?”

Although New York University’s law program was also excellent, comparisons were inevitable.

If you compared it to Stanford, at least in law, Stanford would decisively outclass NYU.

So Gwen was somewhat puzzled.

“I heard Mrs. Snow said she also recommended you prioritize Stanford,” she added.

“Because I definitely won’t get a scholarship from Stanford,” Hawk shrugged as they walked toward Mrs. Snow’s office, explaining, “NYU is different. Even if I don’t get the highest scholarship, I’ll definitely get one. As long as I have a scholarship, when I take out a bank loan, I can negotiate the interest rate.”

Yes.

It was that simple.

He wanted to study law at Stanford, even hoped to attend Yale and maybe join some mysterious organization.

But...

It wasn’t simply a matter of choice. Setting aside whether those schools wanted him, the tuition at Stanford and Yale alone was overwhelming.

Hawk was practical.

Since he had to take out loans anyway, why not choose a school with a high chance of giving him a scholarship and thus reduce the amount he’d have to borrow?

He certainly didn’t want to be repaying student loans every month when he was fifty or sixty.

Of course, this was his thinking before awakening his inner potential.

Now?

Hawk no longer considered Stanford or Yale.

NYU was great, and since this lifetime he was more familiar with New York City, he originally wanted a comfortable life, so staying in his comfort zone wasn’t so bad.

Listening to Hawk’s almost joking reasons, Gwen frowned slightly. She wanted to say something but, thinking about Hawk’s situation—seventeen years old, no car, no house, no phone—she ultimately decided against it.

Soon, Hawk and Gwen arrived at Mrs. Snow’s office.

“Knock, knock!”

“Come in,” Mrs. Snow’s voice called from inside.

Gwen pushed the door open and looked toward Mrs. Snow, who sat behind her desk, wearing glasses, about forty years old, radiating a kindly aura. She greeted them warmly.

“Mrs. Snow.”

“Gwen, have a seat.”

“Hawk,” Mrs. Snow said, smiling as she gestured toward the sofa. Then she sighed looking at Hawk and said, “Once again, Hawk, you really should get a phone.”

It was so inconvenient not having one these days.

When Hawk first enrolled, Mrs. Snow had offered to give him a phone, but he refused, saying he would get one soon.

Yet...

From ninth grade until almost the end of eleventh, whenever Mrs. Snow asked about his phone, Hawk would promise, “I’ll get it soon.”

True to form, this time his answer was nothing more than a copy-paste of his usual response.

“I’ll get it as soon as possible.”

“You say that every time,” Mrs. Snow said, sounding a little weary. Just as she was about to say more, the office door knocked again.

The next second,

Another familiar face walked in.

Hawk, who had just settled on the sofa, raised an eyebrow as he looked at the newcomer.

Peter Parker.

But for some reason, this time Hawk saw something different in Peter Parker compared to the last time he saw him in the shower.

How to put it...

This time, Hawk saw the shadow of bully Maguire in Peter Parker.

More precisely, if before he saw Peter Parker simply as Peter Parker, now, Peter Parker reminded Hawk of that superhero Spider-Man.

The Maguire version of Spider-Man.

The original Spider-Man.

Yes.

Although this was the Marvel universe, where logically Spider-Man should be the version from the Avengers, the Peter Parker before Hawk now resembled the Maguire portrayal.

It was strange.

He couldn’t quite understand it.

“Mrs. Snow.”

“Peter,” Mrs. Snow said, her eyes lighting up as she looked at Peter Parker entering. “Wow, Peter, I haven’t seen you in days, but you look like you’ve bulked up.”

Indeed.

If the previous Peter was a skinny twig, this one was a young bull.

Peter scratched his head awkwardly and shyly smiled, his gaze falling on Hawk seated on the sofa. He froze for a moment, seemingly stunned.

Hawk met Peter’s eyes.

Their eyes locked.

Hawk saw clearly.

At the moment Peter’s gaze landed on him, Peter’s pupils contracted and dilated rapidly in a frenzied manner.

Sure enough.

If there were no surprises, Peter must have mutated.

The real deal—no longer relying on technology but shooting webs from his wrists—the original Spider-Man had successfully emerged.

…