A few months passed after the arrival of the Maximoffs, the days passed pleasantly: I had sincere friends who shared my dream and my ideals and who helped me when Flash threatened to send me to the other world, especially Wanda.

I remember that one day she heard Flash calling me a 'wall-crawler', I explained that Flash was referring to the fact that for me trying to become a hero without a quirk was like trying to climb a wall that was too high, practically impossible. But what Wanda said still warms my heart to this day

"Really? Hmm...well Pete, I think you're wrong: to me 'wall-crawler' describes the unique ability you have to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of you, to reach your dream. To me 'wall-crawler' is a name that suits you."

"Wow Wanda, I've never seen it like that before..."

"It's decided: as of today your name will be wall-crawler!"

I couldn't believe that someone would think that about me and that someone would want to help me defend myself against Flash and I couldn't be happier about it.

It seemed, in short, that everything was going well...how wrong I was.

It all started when Pietro had to leave and stay away for a while, I think by his father. Wanda and Pietro never told me about their father, Wanda explained that they had never seen him and that their mother simply told Pietro that she would take him there, because his father wanted to meet him. Needless to say, Wanda was very disappointed that her father wanted to see her brother, but not her, so I told her about why I live with uncle Ben and aunt May, that I have never spent much time with my parents and that, because of that, I have never met them either. Wanda appreciated it very much and I hugged her to comfort her.

Unfortunately the problems didn't end there: a few days later, while Pietro was still away, Flash attacked again. Wanda and I were in the hallways of the school when, suddenly, Flash grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pushed me towards the lockers

"Hi Wall-crawler, where did you put your lunch money?"

"Let go of me Flash, I'm not going to give you my money!"

"Oh really?" he began to wrap his arm in that black substance, enlarging it in a scary way, then asked me again

"Where did you put your lunch money, Parker? Don't make me mad."

At that point Wanda intervened

"Stop it Flash, leave him!"

"What are you, his girlfriend? Let him deal with his problems on his own!"

"I told you to leave him, Eugene!"

I could see how this was going to escalate: Flash hated his real name and anyone who used it to ridicule him. He stood still for a few seconds, then backhanded Wanda (luckily he deactivated his quirk first), knocking her to the ground, saying

"Get out of here freak!" then turned to me, saying "Now, where were we?"

Seeing what he had done to Wanda I tried to take action and break free: I threw punch after punch, but I couldn't even scratch that walking mountain of muscles. Everyone else in the hallway was laughing and cheering Flash, who raised his arm, wrapped it in black liquid and prepared to throw the usual  deadly punch. But something happened...

In the air we could see shoots of some kind of red colored energy, they were all heading towards one person...Wanda. She slowly stood up as that energy seemed to be charging her, once on her feet she slowly turned to Flash. Her eyes were bright, they shone a crimson red, her expression was one of pure rage and on her hands two orbs of that strange red energy formed, then she began to speak, but her voice was different: it was as if her voice had split and the two voices were speaking in unison

"I SAID...LEAVE HIM!"

She then pushed the two glowing orbs towards Flash, they hit him and sent him down the hall. Several boys rushed to help Flash who, after sitting down, yelled at Wanda

"Witch! You damn witch!"

After that, everyone turned to Wanda and began muttering to each other, someone joining Flash

"Witch!"

"Bloody witch!"

"Don't touch me witch!"

I turned back to Wanda. Her expression went from anger to shame, from shame to pain, then she began to tear up. I wanted to get up, I wanted to run and hug her, but I was still shaken by what had just happened. She turned to look at me and saw my shocked expression, I think she thought she had scared me too, so she made her way through the crowd and ran away. At that point I woke up from my trance, got up and ran after her.

I ran like I had never done before, but she was fast, much faster than me, so after a frantic run, which lasted until outside the school, I didn't see her anymore: Wanda had run away because of me.

Now I was scared, scared that something would happen to her, scared that she would hate me, scared that I hadn't been a good friend to her. I rushed to her house, Mrs. Maximoff opened the door and said.

"Peter? What are you doing here?"

"Mrs. Maximoff, is Wanda home?"

"Wasn't she with you at school?"

"Yes, but something happened and she ran away! I tried to run after her but I lost sight of her, so I thought she was here. We have to find her!"

"Wait here, now we'll go together!"

"I'm going to call my uncle, he'll help us!"

So I ran inside the house and explained everything to uncle Ben, who grabbed his red and blue jacket and got me and Mrs. Maximoff into the car. We were all worried, but I was plagued with guilt: if I had rushed to her instead of being paralyzed, as always, she wouldn't have run away! It's all my fault!

Ben asked the lady

"Natalya, where could she have gone?"

"I don't know, we haven't lived here long, I don't know the place well...my Wanda, my little girl!"

I kept pondering...where could she have gone? Hmm...wait...yeah, yeah but of course, why did I not think of that sooner?!

"Uncle Ben," I said, "Wanda is in Central Park!"

"Are you sure about that, Pete?"

"Yes: there's no other place she could have gone!"

Central Park was our place, by the pond, where we went to be together to comfort ourselves after a hard day: she had to be there.

As soon as we arrived in Central Park I ran straight to the pond and saw her. She was huddled in front of the water mirror looking at her reflection. I decided to approach her slowly. When she saw me she was surprised for a moment and raised her head slightly, then returned to the position in which I had found her. I sat down next to her. I didn't know what to do, so I put my arm around her neck, then the only thing I could think of to say came to me

"You are not a witch Wanda, you are my hero."

At those words she turned around and hugged me, in tears. I did the same and after a few minutes she said.

"Pete, let's go home."