Aaron Warren never quite had his brother's brains, but he was proud of what he had. Everyone's heard of someone attached to Midtown, and Advanced Biology is always rewarding in it's own right when the lower years show such potential to the likes of Empire State.
He may have perused the headlines less enthusiastically than many of his peers without much guilt, but that's really where he'd have expected the shock come from, not television news speculation. Maybe he's old fashioned like that, but he'd like to think he's up to date and enlightened enough to treat the possibility that one of his brightest students is a superhero as judiciously as you could treat…well…the possibility that one of your brightest students is a superhero. In all honesty Aaron has no idea what to make of it. He doesn't feature enough in Peter Parker's life outside this classroom to have whatever kind of inside you'd need for…this kind of thing.
What is this kind of thing anyway? A media circus, obviously, but nonetheless. He probably wouldn't have taken it so hard if it hadn't come from the television. He never liked the television. He's a quiet man by nature, almost non-existent as Miles joked once because boys will be boys and boys can be cruel. Ironically he may have become a scientist because he didn't like things like the television. So much noise and light, so much speculation rather than actual discovery. He prefers things factual, concise, defined and limited. Natural.
The thing he is looking at does not belong to the natural world, and for one horrible second Aaron hates Spider-Man, Peter Parker or not, for bringing it here.
"WeLl, WeLl. AlL oUr FaVoUrItE pLaYtHiNgS aRe HeRe…"
The world goes red and blue for a second. The monster, blinded, staggers backwards scrabbling with inhuman movements.
"One word: evacuate!"
The thing roars, the vibrations shaking Aaron's already trembling knees. Part of him wonders why the building isn't coming down around them right now. The rest is too busy moving.
"Move along girls!" This is his classroom, damn it. How dare this thing come here, threaten his pupils. Seeing this outsider, this hero (this student?) challenge it for what has to be moral instincts rather than mere dilutes the natural terror of the unnatural thing and gets Aaron thinking again. The hero can do his duty and handle the monster, the teacher can do his and get his charges to whatever counts for safety in new York City these days, and that starts with getting them out of the room.
Gwen Stacy hasn't moved.
"Now Miss Stacy!"
It's not harsh, it's not instinct, but it's something else Aaron realises he's running on that's just as primal. He simply knows he has to get the girl's out of here and that is what he's going to do. It's natural.
Maybe he really does have something to be proud of.
He get's a last glimpse of red and blue and black as he hustles them all out into the corridor. He'd like to think that if the young man under that mask is Peter Parker, then something he did as his teacher contributed to whatever his nature is.
Even if that's not him behind the mask, Peter Parker is certainly the kind of student who can have that effect on a teacher.