Back to school

"I'm Gwen Stacy, nice to meet you," the girl introduced herself, a flash of surprise crossed Adam's eyes when he heard her name.

Gwen Stacy, according to the memories of his previous life, the girl in front of him was one of the recurring characters in the Marvel universe, in some versions she was Peter Parker's girlfriend who died at the hands of the green goblin or one of Spiderman's variants in some others, however, no matter which of those versions she was from, it could be said that she was a pitiful character in each of them since she seemed destined to suffer great misfortunes.

"So, Adam, is it your first day of school too?" "What university do you go to?" Gwen asked as she saw the backpack hanging on Adam's shoulder.

"Actually, I'm still in high school, I go to Standard High School." Adam responded with a bit of embarrassment since he was technically a repeater.

 "I can not believe it! I also go to Standard High School. which year?" she asked, excited to meet one of her possible schoolmates.

"Senior year," Adam answered, somewhat bewildered. He had decided not to re-enroll in his old school, Midtown High School, in order to stay away from Peter Parker aka Spiderman. He had even moved to an apartment in New York, far from his old neighborhood in Queens with that goal, and somehow he still ended up in the same school as one of Spider-Man's future girlfriends, what a coincidence.

"So we're in the same year," Gwen agreed. "Although I must say you look quite old for a high school boy," she added, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Well, to be honest, some things happened and I ended up missing my last year of school," Adam clarified with reservation, still surprised by this coincidence, he just hoped that Gwen and Peter wouldn't get involved until the school year was over, otherwise it would just mean that the girl in front of him was a big source of trouble.

Just at that moment the elevator reached the ground floor of the building and opened its doors 'Saved by the bell' Adam thought.

"Hurry up Gwen, we're late!!" A man in a police uniform talked to Gwen while looking at his watch. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go bet late last night," he scolded Gwen, making the girl blush and look away.

 "Dad, this is Adam, He goes to the same school as me." Gwen said with a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance towards her father who embarrassed her in front of a classmate she had just met.

The man paused for a moment and then looked from him to Adam curiously.

"Adam Harker, my pleasure," Adam introduced himself as he extended his hand toward the man.

"Captain George Stacey," the man responded in a warning tone as he gave Adam's hand a firm grip. Realizing George's intention to scare him, Adam couldn't help but smile amused by the situation, but decided to give in to the man's grip

 "Well, it's a little late now and since I'm going to take Gwen to school, do you want me to take you?" George offered as he looked behind Adam like searching for someone.

Adam paused for a moment to consider the proposal and the implications of accepting it, although it was a little late in reality Adam could arrive in time using his new skills to take a shortcut as he had planned, however, befriending a police captain who he knew was one of the few who did a good job, it was certainly worth it.

"You would do me a huge favor, Mr. George," Adam agreed after thinking about it a little.

"Okay, why don't you get in the patrol car while we wait for your parents," George said.

"I call shotgun!!" Gwen shouted and she ran to the front of the car making George roll his eyes at how childish his daughter was.

"Actually, it's just me," Adam explained, making George look at him.

"Okay I understand, take your things and get into the car" George gave him a pitiful look and patted him on the shoulder making Adam feel a little lost.

Adam and George get into the patrol car and George starts to drive towards their school.

"What does it feel like to be in a patrol car?" Gwen asks Adam with a teasing smile.

"Well, it's not that uncomfortable, although I must admit that I never thought it would be like this the first time I got on a patrol car," Adam responded making the father and daughter smile with amusement.

"And tell me Adam, what do your parents do?" George asked while Gwen looked at him curiously.

'Looks like he's still a police officer after all,' Adam thought. "Well..." he responded with a sigh, "actually my parents died a year ago," he explained, making the atmosphere in the car become uncomfortable.

"I'm so sorry about your parents kid. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." George apologized, somewhat embarrassed.

"You don't have to apologize, Mr. George, it's been a while since it happened and I feel better now," Adam explained.

"Although I now live alone, my legal guardian is a highly respected lawyer and a responsible man, so you have nothing to worry about." Adam added.

"I'm glad to hear that, though, an extra hand never hurts." George said.

Soon the conversation went back to its previous mode with Gwen talking about his new school and possible new classmates, while George added some comments and teasing. They soon arrived at the school and George stopped the patrol car.

"Well guys, we're just in time, you better hurry or you won't make it to your first class." George urged them on as Gwen and Adam got out of the patrol car.

Upon arriving at the school entrance, Adam quickly said goodbye to Gwen and then headed to the office to report and be assigned his school schedule. After taking the papers he headed to his first class.

The school turned out to be more normal than he expected, he had not had any other encounter with any Marvel character nor was he a victim of bullying, even though he found classes quite boring due to his new powers that had also improved his mental capacity.

Adam remained reserved and tried to go unnoticed, his indifferent attitude as well as his attractive and somewhat older appearance created an aura of mystery that kept most of his classmates away, even so, a few tried to get closer but Adam only brushed them away in a cordial manner before continuing with his business, so the day passed quietly and soon it was lunch time where Gwen found him and introduced him to her friends, although Gwen was quite popular at school due to her beauty, In reality, his circle of friends was made up mostly of nerds who mostly talked about science and comics, although Adam could follow their conversations he still felt quite out of place, so he tried to sneak away from them but Gwen quickly noticed this and stopped him from doing so, without any other options Adam ended up having lunch with the smartest kids at school who noticed that despite his appearance Adam was actually quite intelligent and could quickly understand all their conversations.

After a somewhat tedious lunch in Adam's opinion, everyone said goodbye and headed to their respective classes.

In the afternoon, when the last class finished, Adam picked up his books, left the classroom and quickly headed to the school door where he discovered that Gwen was waiting for him.

"I knew you would escape!!" Gwen shouted at him as she gave him an accusatory look.

"Hello Gwen, we meet again" Adam smiled with resignation.

"Don't tell me you were thinking of leaving without saying goodbye," Gwen scolded him, "and I thought we were already friends," she added, pouting.

"Okay, you win," Adam said with resignation as he raised his hands.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Gwen said as she held him by the arm. "I just want to help you integrate better into school," she mocked as they both left the campus heading to her houses.

"My dad won't be able to pick me up today, so he told me to ask you to come back with me," Gwen explained.

Adam ended up accompanying the girl back home without knowing that this would become his daily life for the rest of the year.

A week later, after accompanying Gwen back home, instead of going to his apartment Adam left the building, after walking a few streets he hailed a taxi and headed to Queens, more than a month had passed since that confrontation and It was time to fix things.

After a while, Adam arrived at his destination, a building in Queens where a law firm called Nelson & Murdock was located. However, after checking that the place was open, instead of getting in, Adam went to a cafe across the street and ordered two cups of coffee, after that, he walked to a table and sat down, then took a sip from one of the cups before letting out a sigh of resignation as he heard footsteps approaching him.

"Long time no see you, Adam" said the person as he sat in front of Adam.

"Hello, Matt," Adam greeted with a resigned tone.