“Huh?
Oh, right…”
Peter Parker’s eyes were completely glazed over.
Hearing Julian’s voice finally snapped him out of his daze, and he stiffly tossed the backpack over.
The bag sailed through the air in a perfect arc, landing squarely in Julian’s hands.
Slipping it over his shoulder, Julian looked at the clean-cut boy, smiled, and held out his right hand.
“Alright, thanks a lot!
I’m Julian.
If that’s too much of a hassle, just call me J.
And you?”
Staring at the extended hand, Peter’s expression instantly twisted into something incredibly bizarre.
He looked exactly like he was thinking: ‘When God closed a door on you, He definitely slammed it repeatedly on your head.’
He replied stiffly, “Um… I’m your classmate, and your desk-mate, Peter Parker.
We’ve been sitting next to each other for almost a year now.
Three hundred and twelve days, to be exact.
I thought you were just being modest when you said you had a bad memory, but I didn’t realize you were being painfully literal…”
“…”
Julian stared at this absolute chatterbox with a deeply weirded-out expression.
A chronic chatterbox, Midtown High, and the name Peter Parker… Yeah, it was practically guaranteed that this guy was the world-famous Spider-Man.
However, looking at him now, he clearly hadn’t been bitten by the radioactive spider or chosen by the Spider Totem yet.
Right now, he was still just an ordinary, slightly insecure high schooler.
‘Speaking of which, with Peter Parker’s insanely high IQ and god-like scientific abilities, why the hell is he so insecure?’ Julian wondered.
‘If I had his brain, I’d be strutting around like I owned the place.
Hell, I’d be smart enough to cure Stephen Hawking and make him stand up to give a toast.’
“Hey, J!
What are you thinking about?
Are you even listening to me?” Seeing Julian’s blank stare, Peter waved a hand in front of his face.
“Oh, my bad.
I zoned out for a second there.
Anyway, look at the time!
We should probably head inside, or we’re gonna be late.”
For some reason, Peter couldn’t shake the feeling that Julian was acting incredibly weird today.
The moment Julian and Peter disappeared around the corner of the academic building, the crowd gathered at the school gates absolutely exploded.
“Did you guys see that?!
Holy crap!
That umbrella was like a living thing in his hands!
Swish, swoosh, and Flash’s entire crew was on the ground!” A boy in a baseball cap gestured wildly, letting out excited, incoherent whoops.
“That was definitely Kung Fu!
I’ve seen it on YouTube—there are martial arts masters who can beat guys with knives using just a pair of chopsticks!” Another boy’s eyes were shining brightly.
He tried to mimic Julian’s umbrella spin, nearly clocking the person next to him in the head.
A few girls huddled together, whispering excitedly.
“He looked so cool holding that umbrella!”
A benchwarmer for the football team looked pale.
He rubbed the nasty bruise on his jaw that Flash had given him the day before and muttered, “Jesus, didn’t you see how he was jabbing those guys?
If he had aimed for the eyes…” He shuddered, leaving the horrifying thought unfinished.
A Black girl pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and whispered to her friend, “I know him!
His name is Julian!
Last semester in gym class, he couldn’t even do three pull-ups…”
“No way!” A chorus of sheer disbelief instantly rang out around her.
Meanwhile, inside the academic building, Julian, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
A deep, thoughtful frown crept onto his face.
Utterly confused by this sudden halt, Peter hurried to catch up.
“Didn’t you just say we needed to get to class?
Why are you stopping?”
Julian looked into Peter’s inquisitive eyes.
Giving him a faint smile, he spoke in a profoundly mysterious tone.
“I suddenly realized that in the long journey of life, the most important thing isn’t reaching the destination, but the contemplation and growth we experience along the way.
The Earth is round.
As long as we have a goal, no matter which direction we set out from, and no matter how long the journey takes, we will inevitably reach our destination.”
“In English, please, Mr.
Shakespeare!”
“…Fine.
I completely forgot which classroom we’re supposed to be in, so I desperately need a kind, upstanding Samaritan to lead the way.
I’d be eternally grateful.”
“…Did you get a lobotomy recently?!”
Peter dragged a hand down his face in sheer agony, looking perfectly ready to declare that if cursing wasn’t allowed, he had absolutely nothing to say.
They had shared a desk for almost a year!
How on earth had he never noticed that Julian was such a massive goofball?!
Just as Peter was about to lead Julian to their classroom, a crisp, pleasant girl’s voice called out from behind them.
“Good morning, Peter!
And… J?!
I can’t believe I’m actually seeing you at school?”
The two boys turned around in unison.
Standing there was an incredibly pretty girl with her blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail.
She carried herself with an air of sharp, quiet confidence.
Julian, however, drew a complete blank.
He nudged Peter in the ribs and muttered under his breath, “Peter, who is that?
Why is she saying hi to us?
Do we know her?”
Peter looked even more exasperated.
His soul practically left his body as he sighed.
“That’s Gwen Stacy.
She’s in our class.
She’s been sitting right in front of you for almost a year, dude!
Seriously, did you actually get a lobotomy last night?”
Julian ignored the sarcastic jab entirely.
“Oh, I see.
But why does she look so shocked to see me here?”
“Well… let’s just say you showing up to class is a rarer sight than a giant panda at the Atlanta Zoo.”
Julian gasped softly, sucking in a breath of cold air.
‘Wow, the original owner of this body was a real bro!
He already laid down a solid track record for me to skip classes whenever I want!’ he thought with a rush of profound respect.
‘Original owner, you’ll live in my heart forever!’
Still, Julian couldn’t help but feel a bit curious.
The previous Julian remembered a terrifying meathead like Flash with perfect clarity, so how did he completely forget about this beautiful, energetic girl sitting right in front of him?
But as Gwen Stacy walked closer, everything suddenly made perfect sense.
As she approached, Gwen casually zipped up her jacket.
The zipper slid all the way to the top with a smooth zzzipp—without meeting a single ounce of resistance!
When it came to frontal armor, stuffing two soybeans into Peter Parker’s shirt would probably offer a more impressive view.
Gwen’s eyes suddenly narrowed.
She looked around with a hint of suspicion.
“I suddenly feel like someone is violently slandering me in their head.
And I bet it’s completely baseless and ignores all the facts!”
Julian instantly averted his gaze.
Slapping a hand heavily onto Peter’s shoulder, he plastered on a bright, innocent smile.
“Really?
No way!
Who in the world could be that mean?!
Anyway, look at the time!
We should really get to class so we aren’t late.”
Using the ultimate “I gotta go to class” deflection technique for the second time today, Julian shoved Peter in front of him to use as a human shield.
Gwen stared suspiciously at Julian’s incredibly guilty face.
No matter how you looked at it, his expression practically screamed: ‘I might act like I don’t care about you, but I just talked an insane amount of trash about you in my head!’