Some Things Never Change

Peter left precalculus excited for world history, his first class with Ned. The decimation happened near the end of the school year, but before finals, so the state mandated that everyone dusted had to redo that semester, which meant that Ms. Blanchette would be covering the same materials Peter had learned last year. Well last year for him, Ned, MJ, and Flash. Of all the people who were taken by the decimation, why did Flash have to be one of them. Peter had walked into class late that morning and as soon as Flash noticed he yelled “Hey look it's Penis Parker thinking he's special cause he got dusted! Well so did half of the rest of us, and we all turned up on time!”

Some things never change.

Peter walked into history and sat next to Ned. They did the usual secret handshake, then set up a shared Google Doc for “notes.” They both still had their notes from last year, and weren't too worried about paying attention.

As the class settled in the door opened, and Peter's Spidey-Sense tingled gently. It wasn't a warning of danger, just a nudge to pay attention to what was happening. At the same time his left web-shooter buzzed to notify him about something or other. He muted the notification. Karen would have to wait a moment.

As he turned around, Peter noticed the small blonde girl that has just walked in. He didn't recognize her, and nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, so he introduced himself.

“Hey there I'm Peter, and this is Ned!” Ned gave a little wave. “I don't think you were in this class with us 'last year,’” Peter said putting air quotes up. “Welcome though! What's your name?”

The girl stopped, and seemed a bit distracted. “Oh I'm Gwen. I was in middle school 'last year,’ and flunked this class last semester.”

“Oh cool! Well not really, but that's ok! Hey everyone else in here was getting ready for finals when we got dusted, so if you want I can shoot you the notes.”

“I might just take you up on that. Later though. That seat by the wall over there is calling my name.”

Gwen went and sat down at the seat she had pointed at, on the opposite side of the room.

Peter watched her for a moment. There was something familiar about her, but he couldn't quite figure it out. She seemed to notice his staring and looked uncomfortable, so he quickly glanced away.

Remembering his web-shooter, he looked around before rolling his sleeve up a bit. He had the hologram set to school mode, so it was only about three inches across. Reading what was on the display he realized what the notification was. It was a proximity alert for one of his spider-trackers, the one he had put on Ghost-Spider earlier.

He turned to his notes and started typing.

Hey Ned!

What's up Pete?

So I met a new superhero this morning, and she seemed cool and wanted to meet up later so I put a tracker on her.

Cool, but creepy! Go on.

What? No it wasn't like that! I was going for the mysterious mentor just appearing out of nowhere sort of thing. Anyways, my web-shooter just gave me a proximity alert on that tracker, which means she's at this school.

What? No way! So she goes here!

That or she's following me! She did kinda seem like a fangirl.

Well which is it?

I don't know man! I need to figure it out ASAP though.

Ok. I have an idea. Say you need to go to the bathroom or the nurse’s or something. Track her down, and I'll cover for you.

Good idea Ned! You're the best!

Peter leaned back and raised his hand, but noticed that Gwen had raised hers first. “Ms. Blanchette?” Gwen asked. “May I go to the restroom please?”

“Why of course dear! Don't forget the hall pass!”

Peter got a bit desperate. “Hey Ms. Blanchette, can I go too? It's kind of an emergency.”

“I'm sorry Peter. You know the rules: one student out of class at a time.”

Peter sighed and did the only thing he could think to. He pulled up the tracker on his web-shooter, and set it to compass mode so he'd know which way to start looking when Gwen got back.

Peter glanced in the direction that the needle was pointing, then stopped and did a double take. The needle seemed to be pointed straight at Gwen! He watched as Gwen grabbed her bag, mouthed “sorry” to him as she passed, and went out the door. The needle had stayed on her the entire time. He looked down at the compass, then back towards the door. He paused, thinking for a moment. Then he turned to his laptop.

I think I know who that superhero is.