Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 72: Master Of The Game

You do realize that Empire State University isn't Catholic, right?" Jill Stacy asked her cousin.

"Sure I do," Gwen Stacy replied with an impish grin as she brushed her hair back and admired herself in the mirror.

"And we're not in Japan, right?" Jill pressed.

"Of course," Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Then what's with the outfit?" Jill asked.

"You like it?" Gwen asked with a giggle. Dressed in a buttoned red blazer, a white dress shirt, dark blue ascot bow tie, a lighter blue pleated skirt, long white knee-high socks and a pair of smart black lace-up oxford shoes, Gwen looked as if she was set to attend an exclusive private school, rather than the public Empire State University.

"So then what's with the uniform?" Jill asked.

"It's the first day of classes, so I thought I'd try and make a good impression," Gwen grinned. "I also wanted to see if I could pull off the schoolgirl look at make it seem classy and sexy, rather than just blatantly sexual."

"Well, you definitely succeeded," Jill nodding approvingly, looking Gwen up and down. "Let's just hope you don't give Randy a heart attack," she continued as they left Nancy Stacy's townhouse and headed for the bus stop.

"I'm not too worried about Randy," Gwen replied, referring to her boyfriend Randy Robertson. "He's seen me enough times to get used to me. I'm just worried about giving every other guy on campus a heart attack!"

"Hey, at least leave some for me!" Jill grinned.

"Well, that's the thing," Gwen grinned. "If they don't get a heart attack from you, then they don't have anything to worry about from me," Gwen winked.

The two girls giggled at that.

SPIDER-WOMAN #72

"MASTER OF THE GAME"

Gwen enjoyed the admiring looks she was getting on Empire State University's campus, but not nearly as much as she enjoyed the sight of Randy coming towards her. The approving look he gave her made Gwen happy, but not as much as the fact that he seemed to be in better spirits. They embraced eagerly, and Gwen gave him a warm kiss, one that he clearly enjoyed immensely.

"Hey there, kid," Randy grinned at her. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good," Gwen replied, smiling that perfect smile that made Randy's heart flutter. "How about you?"

"I'm a lot better than I was," Randy smiled, as he put his arm around Gwen and they began walking together. "Are you alright, though? You look like something's wrong," he continued, having noticed the look of guilt on Gwen's face before she'd managed to conceal it.

"I haven't had a whole lot of time to look into the new crime syndicate," Gwen sighed, her good mood fading as she recalled the Harlem bombings that had critically injured Randy's parents. As the spectacular Spider-Woman, Gwen had promised to look into the bombings and bring whoever was responsible to justice, but so far she hadn't had much luck. "I've just had so many other things to do-"

"Really, it's fine," Randy assured her. "You look like you've been burning the candle at both ends again, Gwen-you need to take care of yourself first."

Gwen just smiled at that, recalling how many times she'd heard that. In between fighting crime as a superheroine, preparing for the fall semester, getting ready to appear in the independent films that Jonathan Caesar was sponsoring and working at the '60s retro Gloom Room A-Go-Go bar, Gwen had been feeling the strain. As it stood, she'd already messed up her schedule for the semester and would have to spend most of the day on campus, as her last class would run until 5 PM. Fortunately, living at her Aunt Nancy's townhouse saved Gwen having to spend so much of her paycheck on rent, and having to scrimp and save to make ends meet.