Arthur smiled, looking at his text.
'I'm glad I waited before giving her the gift.'
He hummed a Strokes song as he got ready to sleep, ignoring Gwen blowing up his phone, hoping she would have calmed down by tomorrow.
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Monday came way too fast for Arthur. He used his Sunday to chat by text with Gwen and to review the engineering program, hoping to use his brain to get a little ahead.
Arthur felt his heart thumping with excitement at the thought of going to university.
It wasn't only the innocent excitement of learning, of course not. He would see Gwen for the first time since his gift today. He hoped she had accepted his gift in the end.
Since Empire State University was only a few blocks away from his apartment, he chose to walk there.
Passing through the gates of the university, seeing all the students hustle and bustle into the entrances, looking their best and ready for the first day of school, Arthur couldn't help but feel excited.
Walking inside, Arthur went straight to the administration office and asked for his new timetable. He managed not to forget the phone call he had received on the day he woke up here. The staff in the office only had to look up his name and print his timetable. It took less than a minute.
After seeing his new timetable, Arthur headed down the hall looking for his first class of the day.
On his way down the hall, a slick-haired teenager with an evil grin popped out from behind a wall and tried to purposefully bump into another student, who was looking at his schedule.
And the second guy looked scrawny. He had this nerdy energy with his checkered shirt and dull pants. He was basically a walking invitation for bullying.
"Look where you're going, penis Parker."
The slick-haired teenager said before walking away, looking as if the world was his.
'Flash Thompson and Peter Parker.' The names just resurfaced in his mind. Arthur had involuntarily become part of the audience, just like the other students.
'But Peter should have his powers right now.' Arthur's head spun the more he thought about it. But it wasn't that the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man didn't want to fight back. He just chose not to do it.
That was when a blur of blonde appeared at the edge of his vision. She wore a black skirt and a grey hoodie with 'The Strokes' written in black on the front.
She slipped through the crowd holding a bunch of books close to her chest. But before she could reach Peter, the bell rang. And the students dispersed. Peter also went to class, not having seen Gwen.
Arthur entered his class. Professor Johnson was a quiet man. He barely looked up from his computer as the students entered the room, seemingly setting up the class.
'Linear algebra…'
His mind concentrated on the class. Volunteering to respond to a few questions gave his professor a good opinion of him.
A few rows in front of him was someone he suspected of being Peter Parker. He was the last to enter and the first to leave, so Arthur didn't pay him any extra attention.
His next class was differential equations. During his date with Gwen, he learned that it would be their only shared class between her biology studies and his engineering.
The professor was running late, so the students were left to their devices for a moment. Arthur took this time to greet Gwen, whom he hadn't managed to talk to that morning.
"Hello Gwen, I see you have accepted my gift in the end."
She playfully glared at him for a moment before replying,
"Of course I accepted it. It's almost impossible to find something like that here in the US."
She continued,
"I simply love The Strokes too much."
Arthur glanced at the blonde next to him and laughed lightly.
"Still, you made it look lovely."
She blushed and huffed,
"I think if I wore a trash bag, you would still find a way to compliment me."
He smiled at her before replying,
"And that says more about you than about me."
She looked completely red by this point, so she maturely kicked his shin before changing the subject.
"During the lunch break, I will introduce you to my friend, so wait for me after class."
"You still didn't even tell me the name of your friend."
"I didn't? Well, his name is Peter Parker. He is a student in Applied Physics."
He was surprised for a moment before acting as if nothing was going on.
"I think he was with me earlier in linear algebra. Slender guy, glasses, a little nerdy. Is it him?"
"That sounds like him, yes."
"Alright, I will dutifully follow you."
Just as they were finding another topic to discuss, the professor entered the classroom and started his lesson.
The next two hours were a mixed bag of calculations and theory. Nothing remotely understandable for the average person.
When the bell rang, everyone was glad to end the lesson there, even the professor.
Walking beside Gwen toward the cafeteria, she seemed to be trying to repeat the entire lesson, her eyes shining.
'She really is a nerd, huh? Cute.'
He interrupted her before she could really get going.
"Gwen, I like seeing you going all passionate about things, but let's wait until we are eating. I am hungry, and if the noise your stomach is making is anything to go by, so are you."
She blushed but nodded. They hurried toward their lunch.
Finding Peter was alarmingly easy. He had a whole table to himself, seemingly no one wanted to sit beside him. He was looking into empty space, muttering maths formulas while eating.
'It's so strange. Is he really that antisocial without the mask on?'
Gwen interrupted him.
"Hi Peter, how are you?"
She sat in front of him. He sat beside her and introduced himself.
"Hello."
He looked at her, then him, and back to her before seemingly forming his sentence in his mind and replying to her.
"Hello Gwen, I'm well, thank you. And you, how are you?"
Before looking at him.
"Hello, you were with me in algebra, right? Arthur Lester, I think?"
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