Swallowing The Spider - Volume 1: Transitions.. Chapter 18 Bt Project: Mmmm..
[Before Transition]
It has now been a week since I had last attended lessons at midtown high school and it’s has not been slow, during this week I have done all my tests and exams to finish high school and I have aced them all with 100%. Memorisation isn’t hard for me and high school is way below my level but with getting a complete 100% and making sure to go into way too much detail for each answer and going above and beyond will only help with getting people to take notice of me. Some of the people who take notice will not have good intentions but if I quickly become an intern at the Baxter Building then they will back off, I’m much too worthless to go against the Fantastic Four for.
I don’t know if I will be able to get their attention with this but I already have a few other alternatives to get inside that building but some are more tedious than others, namely one ‘Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm’ AKA Johnny Storm the ‘Human Torch’ is my current Plan B. If the exam results don’t exactly catch their attention, which it should as I made sure to go into extraneous detail on Biology, Physics, Mechanics and Chemistry which they all share some interests in, I also made sure to add some innovative and clever ideas to really get their attention. Alas there is no guarantee that they will even find out about it, that is why we have other plans.
Johnny when not gallivanting around as the ‘Human Torch’ does some extracurricular activities such as acting(TV commercials using his likeness), driving race cars, doing some mechanic work and picking up chicks at some bars(he does this one quite often). It won’t be too hard to become friends with him and eventually be invited into the Baxter Building where I will use the opportunity to show my genius and help them with something(they’ve always got some kind of problem) and eventually get free access to the building so I can hang out and help them out(NOT superheroing just some science oriented help). Once I have access to the building I will be able to access Reed Richards research files to further my own research, I can even ask him some questions and he likely won’t even wonder why I’m asking them, he doesn’t much care except for furthering his science and the like. It looks like everything is coming- MJ walls in and does not look happy- together.. Well I did think that I would have to deal with this at some point after ghosting her for a week.
I am currently sitting in the living room sitting on the couch watching some news on the TV, it doesn’t hurt to be informed you never know what could be on the news that could benefit you in some way or it would help to be aware off. “Hello Mary Jane, I suppose you are here because we haven’t seen each other in a week and you have been wondering what I’m up to.”
She looks aggravated. “You’re DAMN right I’m here because of that, you haven’t been responding to my texts or calls and you haven’t showed up for school in a week though I know why you haven’t showed up for school. I was in class and when the teacher was doing the attendance I noticed that she didn’t call out your name, in fact she hadn’t called out your name for a few days and so I asked her why that is and I had to find out from her that you had done all your tests and left midtown high school..” I suppose when you put it that way it does seem a little bad.
“Sorry Mary Jane, most of my time this last week was spent on studying up on my subjects and then taking the tests and exams for them and other stuff like hanging out with you skipped my mind.” I didn’t study for the tests as I really didn’t need to as it was just basic stuff for me. What I actually spent most my time this week doing was hunkering down and focusing on my machine, putting all my energy towards it to see if I could have a breakthrough to see if I really needed to involve myself with dangerous people(the Fantastic Four are very dangerous people, at least the things they do are insanely dangerous). Turns out that connecting to other dimensions and universes is fine and all but navigating them and going where you actually want to go is very difficult, not to mention connecting to other multiverses is insanely more difficult to do and I think I’ll be the first to branch out in that direction but to do that I really need to use other peoples research to hurry up my own.
“Right, I guess you did take all your exams in a week and had to focus to make sure you aced them all even if you are some kind of genius. All I’m saying is it wouldn’t of hurt for a heads up of some kind so I wouldn’t have to worry about you so much, I mean we spend quite a lot of time together each week and then for an entire week we didn’t have any contact, I couldn’t help but worry that something was wrong!” Do we really spend that much time together? I hadn’t really thought about it that much but I guess we do hang out quite a bit and she usually pops in whenever she wants to.. Wait, why didn’t she pop in during the week?
“Yeah, I’m hindsight I can see why that would worry you but don’t worry if I’m going to completely cut off all contact suddenly I will definitely let you know. Anyway you usually pop in whenever you want so how come you didn’t check in over the last week?” She looks at me and again she looks a little frustrated, what did I do this time?
“Come on Nick, I told you about this. I’ve been auditioning for the part of ‘Juliet’ in the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ school play midtown is putting on and I’ve been practicing with my friends and my aunt Anna has also been helping me out, I’ve been practicing all week.” Oh.. Did she tell me about this? Probably but I don’t really remember, I’ve had stuff in my mind much more important than high school.
“Right, I’ve been a bit busy so I must’ve forgot, so did you get the part? I never knew that you wanted to be an actress Mary Jane and that’s great though I will tell you that there’s a lot of back room dealing and the ‘Casting Couch’ is very much still in action.” I don’t want my friend to start to invest in this career and then get a nasty shock but it’s too late to turn back and she has to do what she has to do. I want her to know what she is getting in to.
MJ looks a bit wary and annoyed now. “I did get casted as ‘Juliet’ but it doesn’t matter anymore, I quit after a bit and learning who I was working with. Harry Osborn was cast as ‘Romeo’ and we found out we had to do some kiss scenes, I wasn’t really bothered about it but Harry started to shove it in my face and was being a massive douche about it. I didn’t want to do it the play with him anymore but I knew there was no way he was going to leave, his father is rich so even if I complained about him nothing would happen as the teacher wouldn’t want to offend him so I quit. And considering what you just told me I don’t think I will pursue the career anymore which is a shame as I liked acting, I was good at it.”
I know I shouldn’t say this but I’m glad this MJ is not going to be the actor/model version as I don’t think we’d continue being friends if she was but I also don’t want her to be bummed out. “Just because you aren’t going to be an actor anymore doesn’t mean you can’t act, there are all sorts of profession where you can act as that is a very useful talent.” She looks intrigued. “Yeah, like what?”
“Well there’s being a journalist and trying to trick people into revealing stuff and there’s business where you had to do meetings and deals and stuff where acting would be very useful but there’s loads of other jobs where it could be useful.” She regards me for a second before arching an eyebrow. “Me? A business woman? I don’t think I’m smart enough for that.” Which she’s wrong about as she has a lot of potential but she doesn’t use it properly.
“Mary Jane you are a smart young woman but you spend most of your time on extracurricular activities and hobbies and not you classes. If you focused and studied you could definitely become a business woman, you could make your own fashion company and design clothes, that seems right up your alley. Hey, I’ve got a bunch of money that my parents left for me to use and I could invest some of it in your business but that’s only going to happen if you start taking your subjects seriously.” She is my friend so I want her to live the best life she could possibly live.
She looks thoughtful now but also grateful. “Nick I’m thankful that you would be willing to do that for me but you’d be wasting your money for nothing, I don’t think I would be capable of running a company let alone making one of my own..”
“Well you don’t have to worry about any of that for now but you are going to start to study and improve your grades or else I’m going to stop hanging out with you. Now grab your stuff and follow me, we are going to get something to eat and work out a study schedule for you where I will start tutoring you on the hard stuff.” She looks bewildered but I don’t wait for her to respond and I start to walk off.
“W-Wait..” I’m already at the door and opening it when she picks up her jaw and starts to follow me. I’m going to make her the best Mary Jane Watson in the multiverse, so much better than the other ones, I’ll make her smarter and give her better ambitions and career aspirations.
Commence ‘Project: Most Magnificent Mary in the Multiverse’…
