Spider-Man Down These Mean Streets

Chapter 1 Peter Parker looked at the clock on the wall, smiled, and said, "We've got a few minutes, so let's go to the next chapter: 'The Periodic Table of Elements.'"A roomful of teenagers moaned and whined.Peter smiled, remembering hearing similar moans in science class when he was a student here at Midtown High School and the teacher jumped ahead. Of course, Peter never indulged in those complaints himself -- he was always three steps ahead of the rest of his classmates, especially in the science classes, whether it was in physics, chemistry, biology, or the general sciences that he now, years later, was himself teaching."Now, now," he said chidingly, "the periodic table was part of the reading you were supposed to have done by yesterday's class. So you all should have it down pat by now." He walked over to the side of the classroom, to the bulletin board situated between the room's two doors on the right-hand side from where the kids sat. "Besides, it's been up on the board all year.""Dude, I thought it was a movie poster," Tommy Ciolfi muttered. Several of the kids around him tried, and mostly failed, to swallow a laugh."Well, it has been coming soon to a classroom near you." Peter winced even as he made the bad joke. Why is it I'm hilarious when I'm beating up bad guys, but all the jokes I make as a teacher are lame? "All right, who can tell me why the isotopes are in the order they're in?"He looked around the room; only two hands, those of Marissa Blaustein and Suzyn Baptiste, went up. Hardly surprising, Peter thought. They're two of the brightest kids in the class. Marissa was pretty, popular, had perfect diction, and was on the junior-varsity cheerleading squad; Suzyn was overweight, unpopular, spoke with a Haitian accent, and was in the chess club. Both were brilliant, and they seemed to be in competition with each other academically. Marissa couldn't stand the idea of the social misfit being better than her, and Suzyn despised Marissa and everything she stood for. Peter had to admit, it made for good theatre.However, this was a ridiculously easy question, and one that anyone who had actually done the homework would know. So he looked out over the class to see who besides these two really did the work.Actually, only a few were looking at him. Most of the thirty kids were studying either their notebooks, or the window, or the floor, or the clock in the hopes that it would move faster. Peter's freshman general sciences class was scheduled for last period, and it was always difficult to hold kids' attention during the final class of the day, particularly in a required class that most of them didn't give a damn about.Still, he was there to teach, and they were there to learn. He fixed his gaze on Javier Velasquez, the class's biggest troublemaker. Javier wasn't the only kid in the class with a rap sheet, but he was the one who took the most pride in it. "Javier?""What?"Peter exhaled. "Answer the question, please." Knowing full well the kid hadn't heard it -- since he hadn't paid attention to anything Peter had said all year -- he threw Javier a bone and re-asked it: "What order are the isotopes on the Periodic Table in?"He shrugged. "Alphabetical?"One kid almost laughed, but stopped at a glare from Javier."L doesn't usually come before B," Peter said. "At least not in any language I'm familiar with.""You 'familiar' with the language of kiss my ass?"Peter grinned. "Yup. It's the language you'll be talking if you don't do your homework -- or if I decide to tell the principal about the switchblade you've got stashed in your locker."The look on Javier's face was priceless. Normally, a kid talking to a teacher like that -- or, for that matter, carrying a weapon into the school -- would get detention or a suspension, but Peter didn't much see the point in punishing Javier. He knew that Javier lived with the threat of getting shot or stDeCandido, Keith R. A. is the author of 'Spider-Man Down These Mean Streets', published 2005 under ISBN 9781416509684 and ISBN 1416509682.