Cassidy could have burned incense for how grateful she was to the academic gods that this Peter guy didn't go to a school with a uniform for every day. That would have been a dealbreaker, but thankfully she was allowed to slip on jeans and a t-shirt she'd sliced and diced into a tank top.

It felt weird carrying a backpack and even weirder being bounced around the school like a volleyball, one office to another trying to get things lined up for her first day. But finally, two full years after she'd taken leave from all schooling, she was pointed down the hallway toward a senior English class.

British literature at 8am, what could be better?

She rattled off that list in her head as she found a seat in the back of the classroom – walking Rambo, ordering pizza, catching some thief off guard. Roll call stopped her list and she waved a hand when blandly introduced as the new student.

It eventually came to the Ps and Cassidy nodded to herself when one Peter Parker called out "here" from a few seats away. His side profile matched the picture that Stark had sent her, if not a little more droopy-eyed with a case of the Mondays.

"So you're the little bugger," she murmured as everyone began slamming textbooks onto their desks.

At one point Peter turned to talk to the guy in the seat behind her and Cassidy was startled by his boyish countenance when seeing him head on. Hardened crime fighter he was not; he combed his hair like any other guy and had lips that broke easily into a small smile when he caught her brief gaze.

The near hour flew by and she was a few paces behind him out of the classroom. She knew from Stark's influence that she'd have her next class with Peter and this time he sat right in front of her. He gave another grin before Cassidy felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to face a blonde girl she'd seen in the office that morning.

"New kid, huh?"

Cassidy bounced a nod and crossed her legs into the aisle, preparing for the onslaught of small talk. "Yeah, very new. My dog's still convinced we're just on vacation."

"I'm Molly. Where you from?" Blonde used a bobbypin from one of her cluttered binders to pin away some loose strands.

"Hey, I'm Cassidy. I moved up from D.C, so I'm kinda used to all the subways."

"Was it hard to move in your senior year?" She seemed sweetly interested and Cassidy was glad for the practice with telling some white lies about her life.

She sat up straighter and tried to make sure Peter could hear her clearly. Building this background was key for keeping subtle tabs on him. "Yeah, but my dad's job made a really good offer for us. Seems nice here anyway."

It was a basic enough story that slid right under Spiderboy's radar as planned and she smiled proudly to herself as she began another doodle in her notebook, effectively ignoring whatever kind of science was happening on the whiteboard.

The only other distraction came when Peter dropped his pen and then two other pencils, the clatter dragging every eye to him where he quickly picked them up before his embarrassed blush spread too far.

How this guy stood toe-to-toe with the greats was beyond Cassidy.

The rest of the day went much of the same, with the exception of the couple classes she didn't have with Peter. Calculus and the art elective she was left to fend for herself, something she could see being an issue as math was never her strong point.

It had only taken one day at school for her to become dependent on the ringing bell again and she nearly pooled onto the floor when the final chime signaled her to get the hell out of dodge. After a few wrong turns down more monotonous hallways she found the one that housed her locker and dumped the day's worth of stuff inside.

The now-familiar face of Peter caught her eye down the hall and she slowly edged toward following him, having to pick up the pace to match his when he reached the sidewalk outside. D.C. had grown her accustomed to subway systems and so she easily followed him to the grimy underground.

Peter was bouncing around to music as he walked and Cassidy would have laughed if she wasn't trying to make sure he didn't see her. There was one second as they were bustling off the subway that she could've sworn his dark eyes found hers, but she let it slide. The intimidating man trying to sidle next to her was distracting enough and she had to make it look like quite the accident when she slammed her heel into his toes.

A brisk wind swished past her face as soon as she and Peter resurfaced at ground level, though taking a hard left in the next second let that wind blow her hair forward around her, a dark cloud that might actually work in her favor if he happened to glance her way again.

It was only a block and a half to their apartment complex and Cassidy stepped to the curb to tie her shoe and give ample time between their arrivals.

"Get outta the way!" a rough voice called right as a leg knocked into her and she stumbled before bolting upright.

The crowd was too thick for her to see the offender so she stuffed her hands in her pockets to put out the smoke threatening to drift from her palms. The neutral expressions around her were none the wiser to her misfortune and she had to keep walking as if it never happened.

Welcome to New York.

Finally the apartment complex that Peter lived in and Cassidy was weaseled into loomed above them and as Peter took the elevator, she opted for the stairs and made it to their floor just before him. She gave a polite smile and went to unlock her own door as he moved farther down the hall toward his apartment.

Rambo was thrilled to have company again and nearly knocked her over as they went to the kitchen. Cassidy had unpacked enough to locate her laptop and was about to type up some notes about her target when a knock sounded from the door.

She looked through the peephole and saw Peter Parker himself standing there bouncing on his toes and glancing around for clues. Cassidy's acting skills were about to be pulled out of her ass and so she confidently pulled open the door, having plastered on an innocent smile that Peter didn't notice.

"You're following me!" he cried.

She measured in at an inch shorter than him and so she was hardly intimidated. Caught by surprise, sure, but she managed to evenly say, "I don't know what you're talking about, we go to school together."

"But you just showed up today and in all of my classes!" He was trying to seem tougher than he actually was but the slight crack in his voice and excessive hand gestures told otherwise. "And then you follow me home and live just down the hall from me? No way that's an accident."

"It's really gotta be a coincidence, I'm sorry. My name's Cassidy, nice to meet you. I just moved up from D.C."

"My Aunt May hasn't told me about any new neighbors and believe me, she would've met your parents by now. I don't even see anyone else here! You're totally stalking me." Peter stood on his tiptoes to look over her into the apartment and nodded his head triumphantly.

Cassidy shrugged and apologized again, having to stifle a laugh at how well she was playing the game. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

Her cool deflections completely disarmed him and he shoved his hands in his pockets while glancing down. A sheepish grin dragged at one side of his mouth as he said, "Geez, um, nevermind about that. I'm really sorry, I can be paranoid sometimes."

Weeks later she still couldn't answer the question as to what it was that changed her mind at that moment. Was it his earnest eyes? The way he'd caught onto her game so soon? Did she just not want to play it so stealthy anymore? Whatever the case, it snapped something inside her and she called out to his retreating form.

"Wait! You're not wrong."

Peter swiveled, tugging out the one earbud he'd already put back in. "What did you say?"

"You were right, I am following you. Tony Stark sent me –"

The end of her sentence was warped into a muffled cry as Peter pushed them into her apartment and scanned up and down the hallway before slamming the door. After checking the peephole one more time, he turned to her with arms exasperatedly wide.

"You can't just talk about this stuff in the open! And what the hell do you mean you're following me?"

Cassidy let herself laugh this time and kneeled to pet Rambo who had come to see the commotion. She could have fun now that the hard part was over. "You should really trust your instincts more, Peter, people lie all the time."

"See, I tell people that but…" His eyes widened further despite the brightness of the afternoon sun filtering in through the window. "Wait, did I even tell you my name? That's a little creepy."

"Tell that to Mr. Stark. He's the one who sent me up here. You can sit down if you want, by the way," she added as she fell into the lounger.

Peter's bewildered form bowed up with renewed suspicion. "Why'd he send you? Was it really him? Are you just spying on me for that Accords thing that Captain America was fighting about? How do I know you're not some new bad guy…or girl, just trying to sneak in and make nice with the superhero in Queens? I'm not –"

He was rambling for the first of many times in her presence and so was caught off guard when Cassidy abruptly held out her phone. It only took him a moment to scroll through all the text messages and see that indeed the contact picture was Tony. He finally lowered himself onto her couch and ran a heavy hand through his hair.

"Well, at least Mr. Stark didn't forget about me."

"Far from it," she scoffed. "I saw him put my nickname as 'insurance' in his phone, he's protecting you like an asset."

Peter gave a peculiar glance. "Are you jealous?"

Cassidy waved his suspicion away and headed for her kitchen, not wanting to give him any such satisfaction. She called over her shoulder, "He also called you Spiderboy, so…no. Do you want anything to drink?"

He bounded excitedly after her, having clearly abandoned any thoughts that she wasn't on his side. "Wait, do you have powers, too?"

"Yep. Stark wasn't gonna send a civilian to watch you." Cassidy grabbed two sports drink from her fridge and swiveled back to him, her chest warming at the sight of his gawking. "I can create and manipulate smoke and I've trained MMA. I do for D.C. what you do for Queens. Or at least I did until I got called up here."

"Do you have a superhero name? And who says you can't still fight crime here?"

"Do you ever run out of questions?" she fired back but couldn't hide the sweet grin that bubbled up.

Peter gratefully took a swig of the drink and looked around at her kitchen furnishings, marveling at how much she had to work with. Stark had at least been sincere in his promise to set her up like minor royalty.

"I think I'm allowed to know everything about what the hell is going on."

Cassidy conceded. "I go by Gray Blitz and I figured I'd be too busy chasing you around to fight crime on my own. Are you suggesting we team up?"

With a sly shrug of his own and a playful scrape to his voice, he said, "I don't think it's a bad idea, but we'd have to work on your name. Gray Blitz is a little weird."

There was a new electricity in the room at the spark of his teasing and Cassidy regarded him with new interest. She had not been given a boring guy to watch, that's for sure, and banter was her favorite way to keep things fun.

"I'll let that slide because this is day one, but remember that I could hang you out to dry."

They traded questions for the rest of the afternoon, from home life to fighting experience to all the New York foods that Cassidy was apparently missing out on, as well as traded a few wry smiles and laughs. They agreed on most things, especially when it came to keeping Stark in the dark about their teaming up for a little while, and by the time Peter slipped out her door she had a new friend instead of a target.

Babysitting in Queens wasn't gonna be so bad after all.