The weekend had finally arrived. I hadn't managed to get a pass to leave because it was still the first week, which had been a bummer. I still wasn’t on good terms with anyone, but I didn't really mind. Nothing else major had happened the entire week, except that some freshman had thrown up in one of the music rooms. Right now there were a few activities for freshman, and some try outs happening back at school, but I had bigger fish to fry. Because of my pestering since Wednesday, I’d managed to get permission to leave for two hours, citing I was visiting a relative. My tía and tío were close enough that the school had taken the bait and given me a free pass. I wasn’t actually going to visit them, I’d just needed the excuse to get outside. It gave me an hour to test out my powers and an hour to find a job. I also had to buy that TV.

  Since Wednesday I’d spent all my down time hanging from the ceiling and coming up with a plan to make money. I’d thought about robbing someone, but that was too risky, and I didn’t want to get in any serious trouble. Plus, I’d feel bad. So I’d decided to get a job. I’m pretty sure I could find a warehouse, dock or somewhere they needed people to lift things without anybody asking questions. And if that didn’t pan out maybe I could go to Vanguard tower and ask for a job as a superhero.

  I chuckled. No way I could be a superhero. What would they call me? Sticky man. No way, just the idea of it sounded lame. If my powers had been a bit cooler than maybe, but even then probably not. Either way just being sticky wouldn’t cut it, and I didn't see how the white stuff would be good for fighting. There were villains who could throw trucks, and lift buildings. What would I do, stick to them? They’d just crush me like a bug.

  I paused, looking around, before stepping into the alley next to a decrepit, old looking building that had been boarded up. This looked like somewhere no one would want to go. A perfect place to test out my powers. Looking up at the wall I spotted one of the windows at the top without any barricades. It was kind of high up, but I couldn’t sneak in through anywhere else. I glanced down either end of the alley nervously, and then pressed my hands against the wall. I breathed deeply before slowly clambering upwards, my hands pressed flat against the wall. I didn’t dare look down until I’d pulled myself inside. The top floor was an empty open plan flat. There were a few boxes in the corners, but the thick layer of dust blanketing the room told me everything I needed to know. I set my bag down on the floor, and back flipped onto the ceiling with a soft thud. I crawled across the ceiling quickly before leaping back down to the floor. What exactly was I going to do? I mean I could make more noise here, but I already knew how my sticky skin worked. I frowned. I guess I could experiment with the silk from my wrists.

  I hadn’t figured out exactly how it worked, but if I flexed my forearm in a certain way I could make the stuff jet out of my wrists. I didn’t see how it was useful, it's not like I could attach it to something and retract it. I paused. It had been pretty strong though. I pointed my hand at the ceiling and pushed my arm forward. A stream of silk shot out from my wrist and stuck to the ceiling, and instantly the realisation hit me. It was web. Spider web. Suddenly my the wall crawling and agility were starting to make sense. I groaned as I jumped up hanging upside down mid air from the web. I really was an idiot sometimes.

  This was a big step in the right direction though. Now that I knew what my powers were maybe I could figure out how I’d gotten them. Had I come across any spiders recently? Not that I could remember. Maybe it’d happened while I was sleeping? I shook my head, I was wasting time, I could think about this later in my room. I dropped to the floor again and leaped towards the far side of the room. I landed against the wall, catching myself on it, and then leapt off the wall just to see how far I’d go.

  I underestimated my strength. I slammed through one of the barricaded windows and shot out into the air above the opposite alley, flailing wildly. I spun through the air when a burst of static shot through my brain, a flash of electricity putting my body into motion. Danger. Instinctively I stuck my hand out wildly, and felt the pressure of a web escape my wrist. Suddenly my arm went taught and I straightened out. I lifted my legs up narrowly avoiding slamming them into the floor as I swung through the alley on the end of a web. As I reached the end of the arc whatever the web was holding onto broke, and I flew through the air between the two buildings.

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  I’d like to say I did it gracefully, but I’d be lying. I screamed, in a high-pitched shrill voice. Thankfully my body didn’t need my conscious thought to react accordingly. There was a sudden buzz and my hand shot out grabbing at the wall, instantly stopping my fall with a jolt of the arm. I clutched the wall with the rest of my limbs pressing myself against in completely as I breathed heavily. What the hell had I just done? I glanced down the alley to see a mom and a kindergartener staring at me their jaws on the floor. The kindergartener waved, and I gave a small shaky wave back. The mum pulled her daughter away, quickly hurrying off.

  Suddenly my hands slipped and I fell down the face of the wall crashing to the ground. Ow. My entire body shook, but nothing hurt which was good. I thanked god for giving me extra durability as a superpower otherwise I’d be a pancake right now. I let myself lay on the ground, breathing heavily. At least I had a better understanding of how strong the webs were. If I was going to keep testing out my powers I’d need to wear a mask so no one else saw my face.

  -

  I stood on the roof of a different building. This one was smaller, with only four stories, which was still pretty high. I wore a balaclava over my face now, which had costed a tad more than I’d expected. But it felt worth it. Even if I had spent nearly all my money. When the strangers had seen me I’d felt exposed. Really exposed. Hopefully they didn’t say anything or ever see me again. I shook my head before peering over the edge of the building. I needed to focus. I crawled down onto the face of the wall and steadied myself.

  This was the smallest building I could find close by. I didn’t want to test out what I was going to do on anything taller. I stepped from the edge steeling myself. This didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. Well it hadn’t seemed like a good idea in the first place, but at least the idea seemed fun. Now it just seemed scary. The plan had been to try jumping from building to building. Super parkour or something like that. I knew I could take the fall, and I didn’t really have anything better to do. Not that the boredom was enough to overcome the fear.

  I could feel my mind slowly closing off the idea as I stood on the wall, waiting for something to happen. What if I messed up and hurt myself? I sighed and closed my eyes. I should just go home. This was silly. As I turned to climb back up the edge I slipped and plummeted down the face of the wall. I shouted again, but this time I reacted quickly. I kicked out, pushing off the wall face I’d been standing on and backflipped through the air landing on the opposite building. I breathed heavily, focusing on sticking to the wall.

  That was twice now. I was getting too lax whilst sticking when I barely had the hang of it. That flip had been pretty cool though. I glanced upwards, and then flung myself back across the alley. I landed on the wall, and instantly did a back flip back to the opposite building. I whooped as I leap frogged between the buildings before landing back on the roof I’d started on. Ok, that was more fun than I’d expected. I leaped from the roof and landed on the roof of the next building over, stumbling before breaking out into a run. I jumped over to the next building landing on the side, and started to crawl upwards before breaking into a sprint.

  “Now this is what I’m talking about!” I shouted. Suddenly my foot slipped and I smacked into the wall before falling off the side. I screamed as I fell, flailing through the air. I was too far away from any wall to push off of, and I was definitely higher than four stories. I really was an idiot.

  As I plummeted to my death a bunch of thoughts shot through my mind. I thought about my sisters, my parents, Quinten, that weird super soldier history book, and all the questions people would probably have about my death. Then one thought shot through my mind, the web. I stretched out my hand and fired a web for one of the buildings. It stuck and I felt it go taught. Instantly my trajectory went from downwards to forwards. I shot through the air before curving up and losing grip on the web. I flew out of the alley into the street. I screamed as I shot down towards a building face.

  I shot a web out at the building behind me and felt myself arc through the air at ridiculous speeds. I let go again before shooting a web at a building and pulling myself directly towards it before I could swing out of control. I landed against the building and held myself there breathing heavily as I pressed my head against the wall. I glanced down, quickly turning back to the wall. I was high. High enough that the faces of the people pointing up at me were hard to make out. Ok, that was enough experimenting for today. I was going to get myself killed.