Chapter 4

"You're going to make me late Uncle Ben!" I whined exasperatedly as he checked my bag for the lunch May had prepared for me. My ears tinted when I realised, I had forgotten it. He smirked at me and dragged me back to the kitchen by my bag. I practically slid all the way over the cheap marble floor.

I made a big show of grabbing the lunch box and stuffing it in my backpack. I grinned at him, "Happy?"

"Get in the car, ya runt."

"I'm not a runt!" I said indignantly as walked out the front door.

As I was readjusting the straps of my backpack, I heard a voice in the distance, "See ya later, mom!"

A girl with fire red hair in a red and blue cheerleader outfit ran out the door of the house to the left of our own. If I was looking for Peter Parker's inspiration for his classic Spider-Man colours, I did not need to look too far from there. She was struggling with a sports bag in one hand and rushing to make the bus waiting down the lane. The combination of sleepiness and the determination to make the bus on time made her look adorable in her clumsiness.

"Wait MJ! You forgot your lunch!" a voice called out from the house frantically.

The girl spun around and huffed, during which time her sports bag came loose and spilt to the ground.

By now, I had walked out my driveway far enough that going over to help her out was only natural. I would have to be a real ass to just watch her struggle on the ground. "Let me help you with that," I said as I knelt over and helped refill the bag.

I barely hear a muffled thanks as we get all the items together and stand up. "I can give you a drive, if you need one," I said, though it was almost a question, "The bus looks like it's about to leave."

"W-What?" she asked, still seemingly flustered by her clumsy accident.

"You go to Midtown High right?" I gestured at the name on the bus, "Uncle Ben is taking me for my first day, we're supposed to arrive earlier than the bus anyway." I trailed off.

"Uhhh."

She didn't seem like a morning person. Maybe I needed to introduce her to the joys of coffee.

"Gimme a mo," she mumbled and waddled her way back home with her bag. She and her mother had a frantic conversation on the front porch. They looked almost comical in how Mary Jane tried to hide what was spoken.

She walked back down the driveway and thanked Ben and I for the lift. When we got seated in the car, she turned to me. We were both sitting in the back of the truck while Uncle Ben drove up front.

"So, you must be Peter."

I was surprised to say the least. I did not know May had already introduced us to the neighbours.

"Yep, Peter Parker. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Mary Jane, but everyone calls me MJ."

"It's really nice to meet you, Mary Jane." I smiled.

"MJ," she asserted.

"MJ," I agreed, easily. This was so neat. I was meeting Mary Jane Watson for the first time!

"If you want, you could go to sleep, and I'll wake you up when we reach the school?" It was exciting to meet her, but she barely looked conscious in her seat. She might just survive the day if she gets a bit more sleep in.

"You're the best Pete," she mumbled as she hugged her bag with her head nestled against the window.

That went far better than I expected. Despite my confidence in my likability, I will admit I was quite anxious about my reception to the school.

I knew I did not look easy to pick on anymore, and I don't think I have the patience to be bullied by children half my age. So, I was not worried about that. But I did not want to separate myself from my peers either.

Sure, I had a more matured mind and a slightly stranger perspective, but we were all fifteen going sixteen, almost adults. I was certain that even Flash Thompson, the quintessential Spider-Man bully, would be above petty squabbles – if he even existed here, that is.

I was determined to make a good impression.

Choosing what clubs to join was hard. While joining a sports team would be an automatic ticket to being socially accepted, I didn’t want to commit that kind of time into team practises and social events. I would probably get kicked off for skipping too many practises once I put on the suit anyway. Let alone the times I would be forced to abandon them mid-practice, without a word, because of an emergency is some part of the city.

Quite tragically, I was finding out that my overall high school life was looking to be quite similar to Peter Parker's. Except that, while Peter probably used Midtown High's facilities out of sheer boredom, I intended to fully exploit their incredibly advanced scientific equipment. Midtown High was well known for its achievements in the Sciences, after all.

I could just imagine the new web fluid and pellet types I could cook up. I was dreaming of arc reactors powering each of my web shooters and over-kill weapon attachments around my body like some sort of freakazoid Franken-Spider when I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to a light punch. MJ was red in the face and her almost exaggeratedly angry expression didn't really match the strength of her punch. Until I realised, she probably thought she put more strength into it than that, it just wasn't that hard.

"Fuck, I fell asleep." I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock."

I wasn't sure what had her panties in a bunch, I was still firmly on my side of the back seat and we hadn't even reached school yet.

I noticed Uncle Ben smiling at me in the rear-view mirror. He said, "Don't go back to sleep, we're almost there Pete."

I knew he was deflecting but the signal switched, and his attention was back on the road. Quite pointedly ignoring me, with a grin.

"I'm sorry about that MJ. I won't fall asleep this time, promise." I apologised wryly with a cheeky laugh.

She laughed back, "Don't worry about it, Pete. I'm wide awake now."

We chatted a bit about her schedule and what the school was like. She and her friend Liz did everything together, so naturally she joined the cheerleading squad. Drama was fun too, but Liz has been talking about getting jobs to help pay for college and then MJ sort of just dissolved into a torrent of words with little meaning to me.

She seemed to be venting a lot of frustration, but for the life of me, I could not keep track of all the things she said. I had never felt myself play catch up with the brain of Peter Parker and it was quite a novel experience. The sheer randomness of her tirade made it so hard to grasp all that she said.I couldn’t help but be reminded of Cali.

Our arrival at the school coincided with the end of her rant and she gratefully took the excuse of getting out of the car to hide her embarrassed blush. When she came around to the footpath, she gave a us a very hasty thanks and scuttled off towards the sports fields.

"Come on, Pete," said Uncle Ben with a smirk, "We've got to get to the offices."

I readjusted my backpack and took a deep breath. "Let's go," I nodded.

Midtown High School was freaking massive. Compared to the high school in my past life, anyway. It looked more like a major scientific institute than a public school. It was four stories tall, with narrow floor to ceiling windows laid out in lines all around the Victorian façade. The footprint of the building itself was somewhat like a trident, with three rectangular prongs and hallway connections in between. More like a capital 'E' than a trident, I suppose.

As we walked up a small flight of stairs to the entrance, I looked up at the rather grand entryway. The large double doors were flush with a tinted glass wall that reached high up, only to get cut off by an overhanging arch seen commonly in more Gothic structures.

The inside was practically deserted, which really let you see just how monotonous and uniform the building really was. Without the colour and variety from hordes of students, the blank walls and endless rows of lockers looked quite unfriendly.

We were asked to come in early, just to ensure I have everything I need ready for my first day. The school would properly start in around half an hour, so Ben and I booked it to make our appointment.

The student councillor, Mr. Flannigan, handed me a class schedule and a detailed map of the school. We had already had a lot of correspondence over email and telephone.

Mr. Flannigan was a short bespectacled man. He wore a brown, boxy suit; the kind you would expect to have a bowler hat to go with. He looked very much like a detective from a Mystery Noir film and had the handlebar moustache to go with it.

I still didn't know his first name and it had reached the point where it would be far too awkward to ask. Thankfully, he thought I was a delightfully polite boy who respected his elders thanks to all the formality.

A fact that helped me a lot when I had him shift my schedule to let me have more lab time than theory. My grades made it clear that I was at least a gifted student, even if I hadn't done anything remarkable in the public light. So, giving me the benefit of the doubt was his prerogative and I am really, really glad he did.

In fact, I got to work as a research assistant to Dr. Lynn Nelson, the head of the science department.

And I was so stoked.

If somebody told me I would be excited by the thought of research in my past life, I would have laughed in their face. But the rules had changed, the very fabric of reality had changed. Anything was possible here, and I had the brains to discover it! Never mind, that the extent of the doctor's research was programming neural linguistic nodes. With the right tools and support as I was sure I could make something of that too.

When I had researched Dr. Banner's condition back in Bay County, I had unknowingly unleashed and insatiable curiosity within myself. Seeing firsthand knowledge of the publicised and whistle-blown research had amazed me because the science checked out!

Which meant that people didn't just turn into green rage monsters for just ‘reasons’. There was a rational explanation for it and that meant that the laws of reality were somehow different here, like the other side of a coin. The fact that this difference allowed for extra-dimensional travel and infinite clean energy among many other things meant I simply had to know more about it.

Mr. Flannigan completed his impromptu orientation and could see that I was sufficiently excited to start my journey in Midtown High. Just in time for the first bell to ring, requesting students to head to class.

I said my goodbye's to Uncle Ben, assuring him I'd eat the lunch and agreed that yes, wasting food was bad. And that I would be home by five. And that no MJ, wouldn't want to meet May at home for dinner. It was a little longer before I could convince Ben to leave me alone. I had honestly contemplated acting out like a real fifteen-year-old embarrassed by his parent.

Thankfully, locating my locker was a fairly simple ordeal – the map had detailed the locker numbers with their locations on each floor as well – so I quickly got to unloading my school stationery and required texts. My backpack now blissfully lighter.

I chuckled as I stuffed my locker, I can't wait to meet someone who knows magic. I could really use some lightening charms on my backpack.

A loud, rude knocking interrupted my inner musings. I turned around to see a giant of a blonde high schooler in front of me. He must have been above six feet, two – easily. He was stocky too, the footballer who was undoubtedly Flash Thompson did not look happy with me.

"You think it's funny that I got ripped a new one out in the hallway?" he glared. The fact that he couldn't recognise my face meant nothing to him. He had taken offence to me finding something funny in his general vicinity, oh the tragedy.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I don't know what y-"

"Hey Flash," called a lilting voice from behind the bigger boy. A blonde girl with perfectly tanned skin wrapped her arm around his shoulder as she greeted him with a kiss. She was wearing the same outfit that MJ was, a red and blue cheer -leading uniform. I could not help but notice the small navel piercing she wore while her outfit adjusted for her lifting hands.

"Hey Liz." He pawed at his girlfriend almost possessively but made sure to continue glaring at me through their meeting.

"Watchadoin?" she asked him softly. Her lips were so close to his head that speaking any louder would have been painful for him.

"This guy-"

"Peter Parker, pleasure to meet you." I drawled a little unkindly. This had really put a damper on my mood. I was so, so hoping that Eugene "Flash" Thompson would not be a complete prick. But apparently, it was not to be.

The blonde looked me up and down uncaring of how obvious she was. I wish I had her level of confidence my first time through high school. She really did not seem to care what I thought about her at all.

"Puny Parker here-" Flash restarted angrily when Liz interrupted him just as softly, "Doesn't look that puny to me."

Wow, Liz Allan did not give a fuck.

Flash looked angrier now if anything. But before the argument had been resolved a voice warned from behind, "Only your first day Mr. Parker and you're in trouble already. I'm not sure what Flannigan was thinking saddling me with a high schooler."

No, no, no.

Before I could make a defence, she led us into the class for our homeroom and ushered us into our seats. She was my homeroom teacher and my boss, effectively. From her words she had not wanted a teenage lab assistant to baby and the encounter with Flash had probably eroded any goodwill Mr. Flannigan may have built.

I cannot believe how many of my plans Flash has single-handedly endangered just by being a jackass. All I could do was stare icy daggers that promised vengeance, something he noticed and returned in equal measures.