"So you found another bodyguard?" Harry asked jokingly as we sat in our desks. "Blonde...hm, was she one of MJ's friends?"
"I dunno, I know I've seen her before, I don't remember where though." I responded. I tried to think of places I'd seen her before. Joe's Pizza? She didn't look like a delivery girl. She seemed quiet, a bookworm. Maybe that's why I had never seen her before.
"Hey maybe it's that new girl Gwen?" Harry suggested.
"Gwen?" I asked. I knew I'd heard the name before. Gwen Stacy, debate team.
"Yeah," he started, "her dad's Captain Stacy of the NYPD. She transferred here because her family couldn't pay to send her to that brainiac school anymore downtown."
"Hey, be nice." I scolded him.
"Oh? You got a crush Pete?"
"What?" I felt my face grow hot. "No! You know how it is with...you know..." I mouthed the letters 'M-J.' He laughed at me. "And hey, she's the reason I'm not late today."
"Only joking, Pete." Harry said, smiling. We'd always had an odd relationship. Harry fit more of the bad boy, skater, outcast stereotype. I was the nerd outcast. Maybe the fact that we didn't have friends was what got us together. I know from all of this you probably think Harry is a real jerk, but really, we've had some great memories. He's not a bad person, I promise.
I browsed the classroom to see if anything was new today. Same old. Our homeroom teacher, Ms. Lee, was behind her desk, reading "Much Ado About Nothing." We knew not to interrupt her, when it's her Shakespeare time, some students have had to stay after class just for coughing. I was glad I didn't actually have her for any classes besides homeroom. The bell rang, the room slowly faded to the awkward silence of waiting for Ms. Lee to look up from her playbook and call attendance.
"Ms. Lee!" Someone called. They got lucky as she realized she had made the mistake.
"Right! Attendance! Harry Osborn?" She said quickly.
"Here." Harry called. She went down the line. Homerooms, arranged alphabetically, usually have a category of names starting with five different letters. The role call ended.
"All right class, when you are call-"
"Excuse me ma'am." Said a voice from the doorway. I looked over and smiled as I saw the face of the girl who was my lifesaver this morning. Was it Gwen? "My name's Gwen Stacy," it was Gwen. "I recently transferred here, we haven't had homeroom in the two weeks I've been here so I did-"
"Didn't know where to go?" The teacher snapped, then laughed. "Not a problem Ms. Stacy. Here, there's an open seat next to Mr. Parker. Please, acquaint yourselves." Gwen looked at me and smiled a little bit, I smiled back as she came and sat next to me, as she sat down, she extended her arm and offered her hand.
"Hi." She smiled widely as she spoke. "I'm Gwen Stacy."
"Hi, I'm Peter Man-I! I mean, Peter Parker. My name is Peter Parker. It's a pleasure to meet you finally."
"Where have I seen you before?" She asked curiously.
"He's on the debate team." Harry blurted out. "Please excuse me, my name's Harry."
"A pleasure." They shook hands as the intercom rang for the morning announcements.
"Good morning Midtown High! Today is our schools field trip day, we're gonna start off by sending the juniors headed to OSCORP to the buses now. Enjoy your time and learn something new! Next-"
I didn't pay any attention to the rest of the announcements. Us juniors left the classroom and headed to the bus parking lot to load the buses. When we got on, Harry and I sat next to each other. I noticed Gwen taking the seat directly in front of us. I opened a notebook and titled a page "OSCORP Notes."
"Do you have to take your homework everywhere, Pete?" Harry asked. "I thought we were gonna have fun today."
"We are!" I protested. "I just want to get some notes and pictures for the paper, and maybe some yearbook material. Did you hear that they think they're finally getting to the bottom of the spider research at OSCORP?"
"Yes," a voice said, it was Gwen. She turned around in her seat and faced us, adjusting her black headband. "Do you know why it's taken so long to perfect the studies?"
"Well...no," I started, "I don't even know exactly what they're doing."
"Nobody does, that's the thing." Gwen exclaimed, Harry seemed half-interested. "The research started about twenty years privately amongst two men. I can only remember Doctor Curt Connors. Anyway, the research was raided in Connors' partner's home. The man fled his house, afraid of others discovering what he had. We don't know what he had discovered now. Connors was only a partner. He decided to join OSCORP. I should have mentioned, he's missing a limb, his right arm, from the elbow down. He is now studying autonomy, in hopes of helping himself as well as others. He's now head of research, but he never would've even became a janitor at OSCORP had he not agreed to give them permission to experiment with his partner's research." She looked down. "It really is a shame what happened to his partner, he had a son. About four years old. They were a happy family."
"Whoa..." Harry said, actually interested in something for the first time today.
"Have they found out what they're going to use the spiders for now though?" I asked.
"They think so." Gwen started. "They say that the spiders, bred with certain genetic makeup, with their venom, could give superhuman power to humans. Of course, just lab rats have been tested so far."
"Wouldn't that be great..." I said in awe. I imagined for a moment what it would be like if Harry didn't always have to look out for me. I didn't understand why Harry didn't hang out with kids that weren't me. I was nothing special. Harry had it all, looks, money, athleticism; if he wanted, he could be with Mary Jane right now. Or he could at least be one of her boy toys.
"Well, it'd be a great discovery... if it worked." Gwen said. "Only problem is, it's never worked with lab rats. The blood type doesn't even matter. They've finally discovered now that it's a DNA factor. That's why it's taken so long to process. They think that it's possible that the bred spiders' DNA may have been mixed with a human's DNA."
"Wait, don't they know the other scientist?" Harry asked. "You said he had a son, couldn't they just test him?"
"Harry, he's our age by now." I explained. "Besides, if it's never worked with lab rats, why risk it?"
"You've got a point..." he started, "but still. There's an endless possibility to things human DNA mixed with spider DNA could do in a capable host's body."
"Harry?" Gwen asked. "Are you okay? That sounded... smart."
"Wha-? Oh. Sorry, I was just remembering some stuff Peter told me about spiders last night."
"Oh?" She said, turning her interest to me, gazing into my eyes. "What else do you know Peter?"
We talked the whole bus ride, joking a few times, even Harry understood us some of the time. For once in my life I felt I could connect to someone other than Harry. I had just met Gwen this morning, but there was something different about her. Her blue eyes looked at me, and I saw a twinkle inside of them. I was almost disappointed when the bus stopped at OSCORP, but I knew there was just more opportunity to talk to her now, and maybe show off some of my science knowledge. I saw Mary Jane and Flash together, his arm over her shoulders. For once, I didn't even care.