Spider-Man: Earth-9576

Chapter 4: Now There are Two of Them

[The next morning...]

Jason and Mary Jane were currently on their way to school, walking side by side. Currently, the young man had his head tilted back with his eyes shut as he sighed. One topic had been brought up, and he already knew where it was headed.

"Y'know? Forget I mentioned it at all. I heard about the building, called to make sure our friends were okay, and one of them spent the whole time fanboying over Spider-Man.", Jason said irritably.

"I don't know, Jay... I talked to Gwen about it last night after it happened, and she sounded pretty grateful.", MJ said, a smirk forming on her lips. "Before you know it, she'll be one of the Webhead's groupies just like Pete. And she's a cute girl, who's to say he won't try something with her after awhile?"

Jason just looked at her with a bewildered, bordering on irritated, expression on his face. "Geez, what is it with you and Peter constantly trying to convince me that Gwen and I are a thing or whatever? She's not into me like that, she wouldn't be."

"Oh, and why's that again? If you're so smart?", Mary Jane asked him, the smirk widened as she raised an eyebrow, with something else in her expression he couldn't place. "I hope you've thought up a better reason than-","She's way too smart for me to have a chance. If she doesn't already know, she'd quickly figure out how much better she can do than me.", Jason interrupted.

"I honestly think that you thinking that about yourself, makes you more of a catch than you believe.", MJ said, giving her friend a more genuine smile this time. He nodded in acknowledgment, before shrugging.

"Maybe, who knows? But I think it all circles around to whether or not she's into me. Until I have solid proof she's into me like that, I'm not worrying about it. Mutual attraction is a big thing I look for. Otherwise I'd be a stalker.", Jason continued, smiling as he joked at the end.

"Well, I think the two of you better figure it out before our hometown hero wins her over.", MJ said with a smirk, walking the rest of the way to school, with Jason in tow, thinking on all that she was saying...

[Short Timeskip, School hallway]

They walked to their section of the hall, where they spotted a familiar head of blonde hair. MJ nudged Jason with a teasing smirk and wink, to which he rolled his eyes with an amused smile. He motioned for her to be quiet, the smile turning devious as he crept up closer.

He raised his hands, ready to grab her. "Morning, Sleeping B-", he was cut off as a stunned Gwen Stacy suddenly whipped around and cold-clocked him square in the nose. MJ, and the other nearby students, turned to the sight in shock.

Immediately his hands were cupping his face, muttering as PG-rated curses as he could manage from the sucker punch. One thing was confusing him more than anything else, which was why her punch had hurt him so much. That shouldn't have been possible from someone he didn't beat up in some kind of costume...

'I mean... I don't know why she did that in the first place... she usually isn't that jumpy, and wouldn't do much more than slap me if I did scare her like I was gonna...', he thought to himself.

"Oh my gosh, Jason, I'm so sorry!", Gwen said in surprise, moving over to him, placing a hand on his hunched-over back, and trying to get a look at his face.

"Nah... Don't uh... don't sweat it. I was still waking up this morning, and I think I'm good on that front now...", he said with a passive wave of his hand.

Standing up, he was met with Gwen practically grabbing his face, looking him over, for any crookedness, discoloration, or bleeding from the nose that she'd jabbed with her fist.