Chapter 5

Dr. Nelson made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself, something I did without any fanfare. MJ was not in my class, and other than Flash and Liz, none of the other students really stood out to me.

I would not say the class she took after her homeroom was boring. Despite Dr. Nelson only teaching things I already knew, what she taught was interesting. Most of her class material were things I would consider important or at least fascinating to know.

But I could not exactly keep myself occupied by simply rehashing my own knowledge. I made a great effort to appear like I was paying attention, but really, I was going through my research notes and plans almost all throughout the class. I had made it a point to ignore Flash and was completely oblivious to the other students but made an effort to make eye contact with Dr. Nelson, to show her I was following along.

My first objective was reconnaissance. Peter Parker was my hero growing up and I was hoping I could find enough information about Midtown High to understand just how much trouble I was in. This was supposed to be ground zero for all kinds of chaos after all. I had already seen many stark differences from the comics I read as a teenager, however, so I did not have great expectations.

Speaking of Stark; it's been almost two months since he was abducted. I know being captured by terrorists and tortured is quite an ordeal, but the movies had not made it seem that long, had they? News of the attack on Tony Stark had been all over the Internet and television long before The Hulk decided to throw a hissy fit in Harlem. The fact that he had not already busted out was mildly concerning.

Ideally, a list of faculty and students would be a great start to my information expedition. But the only place I could find that would be on the computers in the administration office. An office that was pretty much always staffed and under surveillance.

I knew I could break the credentials to access the files on whatever computer they used. Midtown High was a well-equipped school and probably had decent security, but I was almost certainly better. Unfortunately, I didn't think I would get the opportunity seeing as I couldn't even get close to the computer without being spotted. The only solution I had to my dilemma would be to break into the school at night, something I did not want to risk.

Perhaps it would be better to just try to get remote access but that came with its own setbacks. Regardless, the list was tabled for now. I had decided to build my first planned gadget!

In all honesty, I simply wanted to build something. I knew reconnaissance was the first objective, so quite conveniently, I thought up a plan for surveillance bots. But I will openly admit that all of this was just an excuse to get into the robotics lab at Midtown High and see what I had to play with.

Any imminent threat had always been far from my mind as I was confident that May, Ben, and I wouldn't be bothered by much before I got my signature Spider powers. The last few years had been great for learning about the world and myself.

I had quite gleefully, also thrown myself into designing one half of a whole bunch of different ideas. I did not have the physical components to build any of them, but I had at least worked on a bunch of the software and theory.

I had designed a squad of 'spider-bots' that would use various sensors to relay data to a single processing unit. I had plans to then use that information as required, but primarily as on overlay to my vision. Creating any sort of visor would not happen any time soon, realistically, but I really, really wanted to throw a Pokeball full of spider bot minions.

Of course, I had no idea what sensors I would have available or what mechatronic components I could assemble so that would have posed a problem in designing the software. That is, unless I was a freelance programmer for most of my working life (which I was) and I had to deal with the trail-end of projects on a regular basis (which I did).

So yes, while my 'Spynet' would require severe adjustments to whatever hardware I could get my hands on, I was quite excited for the project. Meanwhile, my web-shooters have sat exactly as they did; still waiting for love from Midtown High's energy department. And I was very willing to oblige.

I needed a new power source for my webshooters. Lithium-ion was fine for a prototype and proof of concept, but it could blow my arm off without my spider power up. And regardless, a weapon so susceptible to exploding was a big no, no.

I wish I knew how Howard Stark's arc reactor worked but there was almost no information out there. I had gone down to the giant reception building of Stark Industries in Manhattan, just to look at it.

Could have been magic for all I knew.

But the power output I needed was minuscule compared to what the Iron Man suit required, so I was sure I could come up with something, given just a little bit more information.

It looked like super charged plasma, but at that scale, it should have been guzzling tons of power; let alone generating it. I had even combed through forums on the dark web, safe under the blanket of anonymity, to no avail. While there seemed to be a lot of bounties for the information, nobody actually claimed to have any. It seemed to be a running gag that it would never happen again.

Ironically, I had to look at the mundane technology in my past life for a solution. An ideal solid-state battery had been just an idea, though certainly greats strides were being made to get there. But I found quite astonishingly that it had been a rather simple solution.

Ha. Irony. Solution, Solid state, get it. Never mind.

Unfortunately, my internal joke must have been a lot more obvious than I thought because I heard the now almost dark and angry voice of Dr. Nelson, "Something you find funny, Mr. Parker?"

Oh, for fuck's sake.

"Well?" she clearly did not want to give me a chance to weasel out. I looked at the blackboard in a panic, trying to connect what I could see now to what I last saw and then fill in the blanks from what I heard from memory.

Needless to say, I did not really have the brain power left to stall for time, "Uhh.."

Somebody snickered and I was finally talking, "I just noticed we've been working on the proof the regular way for almost fifteen minutes now."

Her eyes had gone from looking at the class disdainfully to being singularly focused on me. For a regular teenager, being stared at with that level of annoyance by a beautiful older woman – a blond teacher and colleague of Sue Storm herself, no less – would have been incredibly intimidating.

But I had taken on the full force of Emma Frost's glare and had only died a little bit.

"But from the last proof we looked at we know that if a fully connected graph has n nodes then it would have at most 'n times n minus one over two', edges so our proof would practically be done already." I continued unfazed by her stare; the snickering had stopped, at least.

Though now, her eyes were significantly less piercing. Her lips were still tight while she nodded as though to tell me to carry on.

"You mentioned early on in the class that this was the kind of subject where it would benefit us to work smart rather than hard, and I found it funny that we had to get a practical lesson for it to stick." I shrugged acting as nonchalant as possible.

If you asked me if I were feeling smug in that moment it would be a lie to deny it. I knew I had a good answer so when she asked me to meet her in her office after school, I was flummoxed.

This was bullshit, there was no way anybody should still think I was not paying attention after an answer like that.

"Detention!? What? But-" I started to complain.

"You're not in trouble, Mr. Parker. We must talk about your role as a lab assistant and the kind of work we will need to do," she said, almost placating.

I blinked, "Oh. Well that's fine then."

"Not that you would have a choice if I had deemed a detention necessary for your lack of attention in my class."

I opened my mouth to answer, once again indignant – I had clearly been paying attention! Sort of – but I snapped it shut when her practically giddy expression in comparison, disappeared. I decided I should probably not push her temper.

Somehow the class ended without any further interruptions. Dr. Nelson left me with instructions to find her after school and, strangely enough, the impression of taciturn consent for my wandering mind. Maybe she could tell that I had this material covered.

Regardless, I found myself quite excited to meet with her later and dashed out of the classroom before Flash could get in my way and ruin my improving mood.

Midtown High only had three classes in a day. Each class was two hours long and had a short and longer break spaced among them. The classes were more like workshops than lectures and I found it to be quite unique from anything I had ever experienced before.

So, with the first class done I was on my way to the cafeteria with a box of lunch, courtesy of Aunt May. Students were given a half-an-hour long break to get some food in them in case they had physical activities for their first class, but it was a good short break for everyone. Something I really wish I had an established friend by my side to deal with.

I walked through the blue metal doors of the food hall hoping to find MJ already inside. She was not.

It was no matter; I could get in line and grab some juice and hopefully she would be around later. She was not.

I looked around the cafeteria for a place to sit, surprised by how disappointed I was. I don’t usually have great expectations when it comes to other people, but we seemed to have gotten along pretty well and I even offered her a drive to school that morning. We definitely spoke about how I was anxious about eating alone during the breaks, so I was really hoping she would show up.

I shook my head and made my way to the only table that had a seat unoccupied seat and was not completely empty. I didn't want to sit at a table alone and all the tables in my sight were fully occupied.

As I neared the occupant almost all turned to me. Convenient I guess, it certainly made it easier for me to introduce myself and grab a seat. "Hey, I'm Peter Parker. New kid. Do you mind if I sit here?"

The two boys at the table just stared at me. One of them wore a dark blue hoody that had to stretch to contain his stocky body. The other wore a white collared t-shirt; he even had the cap to give him a Wimbledon look.

After allowing a second awkwardness just in case any of them decided to say something I sat down, "Thanks guys, you're the best. I can't stand eating without friendly faces around."

I turned to the blue hoody on my right, who still looked shocked by my existence, "So what's your name?" I asked him.

The dark-skinned boy, blinked his beady eyes twice and said almost subconsciously, "Ned Leeds."

Oh no.

I knew that name. He was the nerdy sidekick from the movies!

My frustration with not seeing MJ and my lack of social opportunities only built when I heard it. The plan was to balance my scientific shenanigans and a healthy social life. I did not want to be forced into some clique.

I looked over at the group who still refused to begin introductions; the petite girl sitting diagonally across had not even taken down the hood of her bomber jacket to make eye contact.

“So Ned-” I started in hope that I could still hustle a conversation out of them. Ned’s expression however quickly changes to a mixture of fear and excitement as his attention was drawn to something behind me.

"Hey, Pete!"

"Parker!"

I turned to see the only two girls I recognised in the school facing each other. They seemed to have had some sort of altercation.

MJ resembled a deer caught in headlights, her face tinting as she was turning away from Liz evasively. Meanwhile Liz had almost broken her diva personality; looking at MJ with something that bordered on curiosity.

Before I could ask what had got them at each other's throats, MJ started to speak, "Liz says she can give us a ride home, later today. Ya know, since you helped me out this morning."

Liz did not really look like she was particularly invested in the idea, but MJ carried on anyway, "You may have to wait a bit after school though, since we have try-outs." Her words were apologetic, but she looked pretty proud of herself. I really did not have it in me to be mad at her for missing the break anymore.

After we agreed to a time, we decided we would meet at the bleachers by the football ground. MJ apologised that she probably wouldn't show up for lunch after all. She claimed to be busy, but Liz made it a point to ensure I overheard they’d be going on a joyride and I was starting to wonder if this was how things would always be. A friend before and after school, but completely ignored within its walls.

To be fair, I would not be all too concerned even if that were true. They were quite a few years younger than me and I did not really yearn for their approval. I had plenty of other things to achieve in this incredible new world.

But I cannot claim to not be disappointed. These people are going to be my peers for the rest of my life. I am very likely to share a lot of experiences with them. But they were behaving like absolute teenagers.

I sighed.

Maybe I was judging them too harshly. Everybody had their own circumstances, and I would be hypocritical to talk about behaving childishly.

"Not to mention; they are, in fact, teenagers," I muttered as I made my way to my next class, American History. I had a long day of significantly less-interesting classes ahead of me.

Mondays sucked.