A Day with Micheal S. Peterson

"Thrill Rider," Spiderman screams, shooting at me a string of web. Hitting my back, he pulls me back just in time to dodge a blast of green lightning from Dr. Doom. Standing high on top of his throne in the empty New York street, I whip out my batons and clap them together.

"Where is everyone," I ask, backing up as the doom bots walk toward us, their deep-red eyes focus entirely on the two of us.

"Captured," Spiderman answers, stomping his foot into the ground. "But hey, we're more than enough. Right?"

Smiling back, I stop backing away and stomp my foot too.

"More than enough," I repeat, charging forward. Screaming as we charge, we rip right through the army of doom bots, taking one out after another. In what seems like mere seconds, I stomp on the last doom bot's head, destroying it.

"Now it's just you, me, and Thrill Rider," Spiderman says, bringing up his fists. "Any last words before you're back at the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier?"

"Yes," Dr. Doom replies, putting his hands together and summoning forth a lightning storm. Crackling with even more green lightning, the storm fires at us.

"Incoming," I yell, jumping and running out of the way. Jumping onto the hood of a car and then back onto the street, the storm hit the car instead. Exploding with pieces flying all over, I duck into an alley.

"Any idea," Spiderman asks, landing beside me.

"Not yet," I say, peeking around the corner but quickly ducking back when a lighting bolt almost hit me. "But let me tell you this. I have never ever liked Dr. Doom. He is very annoying."

Covering our heads when another bolt of lightning made the street beside us explode, I dust myself off and slam my back against a wall. Once more, peeking around the corner, I scan the area for anything useful. Spotting a fire hydrant near Doom's throne, a lightbulb went on above my head.

"That'll work," I say, tapping Spiderman on his shoulder and pointing at the hydrant.

"Yeah," he says, "You're a genius!"

Almost crying a bit when he said that, I had to look away to wipe some tears.

"Let's go," I scream.

Charging out from the alley, my batons high in the air, I made a mad dash for the hydrant! About ten steps from it, I stop when a weird pain starts in my shoulder!

"What the heck," I say, looking at my shoulder. Hitting it, it turns from a weird 'poking' pain into a fierce shaking!

"Hey Micheal," someone says from the sky. "Hey, Micheal! Wake up! Come on!"

The hydrant, Dr. Doom, Spiderman, the streets filled with destroyed doom bots, they all vanish, turning into a sea of wavy blurs. The blur disappears and in its place is a bright-blue cloudless sky, I got up to look around. Surprisingly, I find myself not in New York but instead, in the school's courtyard.

"Hey Micheal," Brian says, his dark-skin, bald head now floating above me. "Come on! Move! You're hogging the bench!"

"Aw man," I say, hitting my forehead. Now shaking my head, I roll off the bench and give Brian room to sit beside me. Pulling out my phone, I check the time.

"Brian! Why did you wake me up! It's only 7:45! I still have 15 minutes left! Aaahh! I'm still sleepy!"

Stretching my arms and legs, I cover my mouth while yawning. Blinking my tear-full eyes, I look at Brian.

"You know," I say, pointing at him. "You and I may have been friends since elementary school, but that doesn't mean I won't hit you. Come on, I was in the middle of an amazing dream. I actually got to fight alongside Spiderman! Spiderman!"

"Calm down," Brian says, putting up his hands and backing away. "Listen, I'm sorry for waking you up. I just wanted to sit down. Sheesh, I didn't know you were this exhausted. What did you do last night?"

"Uuuhhh," I answer, thinking back to what exactly I did last night. Memories of jumping over a car, running after a purse snatcher, and then punching that same purse snatcher rush into my head. "Nothing much. Nothing at all. Just, you know, stuff."

"That's how you spend your last day of summer vacation," interrupts Ash, sneaking up from behind us, her long brown hairs hitting us a little. Clutching my chest and trying to keep my skeleton in my skin, I wave at Ash.

"Hey Ash," I say, "Glad to see you here."

"Yeah," Brian adds, also waving at her. "Hey, how was your summer vacation?"

"Not bad I guess," Ash replies, resting her head in her hands. "Didn't really do anything special. Just hung out with Micheal a lot."

"Oh you two hung out," Brian repeats, looking between us. "What were you two doing?"

Looking at each other, we shrug our shoulders.

"Nothing much," I reply, "We hung out, ate at Rocky's pizza a few times, went bowling that one time. Nothing really special."

"Oh," Brian laughs, pointing at us. "I thought you two decided to try and clean Ash's room."

"Nnnnooo," I scream, swinging my hands. "I'm never going back to Ash's room. Not after last time. Not after the 'moving sandwich'."

Vague imagery of moldy green bread and rotten, brown lettuce crawling its way around creeps into my head, shaking my whole body.

"Anyway," Brian interrupts, bringing up his phone. "I went to Carson City, Nevada to see my grandma. Here, I have some interesting pictures to show you guys."

Before either of us could say anything, Brian shows us pictures of him and his grandmother standing in front of a lake.

"Here's us at Lake Tahoe," Brian starts, swiping the pictures. "We went there the first week I arrived. The two of us walked around for a bit, she showed me around, and I even got to go for a quick swim. And here's us at the famous Railroad Museum. You know, something my grandmother told me, Nevada is famous for its authentic wild western history."

"Oh sweet," I say, pointing at a picture of Brian wearing a striped, blue-and-white conductor hat. "That looks awesome. Please tell me you still have that."

"No," Brian answers, rubbing the back of his bald head. "That was just something from the gift shop. I didn't actually buy it."

"Wwwhhhaattt," I moan, grabbing the phone and looking at the hat. "Aw, man. That hat looks awesome."

Imagining myself in that hat, pulling down on some sort of level that would make a train horn honk, making circles with my arms, and saying "choo choo" over and over, I stop and snap back into reality when Ash grabs Brian's phone.

"Sounds like a fun trip," Ash says, smiling as she hands it back to him.

"Thank," Brian replies, smiling back as he shoves the phone into his pocket. "Hey listen, you guys want to go to Rocky after school today? I haven't been there in almost two months."

"Sure," I reply, lending my head back. "Are you paying?"

"Depend. How hungry are you?"

"About a large pizza and soda hungry."

"We'll split the bill."

"Deal."

Sealing the deal with a fist bump, the school bell went off, the three of us saying our byes and then leaving to go to our classes.

"Wait," I say during fourth-period biology class. Tapping the erase on the tip of my Hulk pencil against my chin, I just remember something important. "Do I have enough for a large pizza and soda? Do I even have enough for a small pizza? Oh man, Brian is not going to be happy about this. Not one bit."