What was it like to be a college freshman who followed a professor around, doing the work of a graduate student, while cramming the necessary knowledge at breakneck speed just to keep up with her supervising professor?
Gwen Stacy could responsibly tell anyone who asked: she was so busy she was practically flying.
And Gwen Stacy hadn't given up her tutoring job with Skye, either.
It had simply changed from private lessons every day—with occasional weekend overtime—to once a week, specifically to answer questions for the little girl who had just started high school. There was no longer any need to review every subject from top to bottom.
For Gwen, going over high-school material again was practically the most relaxing part of her week.
She hadn't abandoned her instincts as a girl, either. Every day, she still had to somehow squeeze in time for exercise, skincare, and makeup to keep herself looking her best.
All of that came at the cost of her most precious resource: time.
There were no shortcuts.
The girl who had once looked forward to dating after entering college now found almost every hormone-fueled creature around her utterly repulsive.
The fact that she hadn't strangled them or clawed their faces apart was already proof of considerable restraint.
At the very least, if a guy had more than just muscles and could actually use his brain, Gwen might think a little more highly of him.
Otherwise, she simply had nothing to say to people who couldn't get through three sentences without bringing up sex.
It wasn't as though nerds and greasy, overweight guys were Gwen's type, either.
Her tastes weren't that unusual.
The problem was that Henry's high-profile performance at the graduation dance had genuinely raised the girl's standards.
What lovestruck girl hadn't dreamed of a prince charming who could protect her while also being funny and charming?
Katherine Hepburn had once joked privately that seeing an astonishingly attractive man at too young an age would ruin a girl's taste in men.
That prediction seemed to have come true.
The girl herself simply wasn't very aware of it, however. She was too immersed in the pursuit of knowledge to have much time for anything else.
The Kryptonian cared even less.
As far as he was concerned, this was nothing more than a prank.
Gwen was a girl who called Skye her sister. Henry hadn't literally watched her grow up from the days when she still needed diapers, but he had known her through her teenage years.
It was difficult for him to develop any improper thoughts about her.
Henry and George had gone through the chaotic and difficult first two days of the 2001 terrorist attacks together. By now, their relationship was close enough for them to call each other brothers.
In Henry's eyes, Gwen was therefore basically his niece.
If he took his "niece" as his wife and started calling his brother his father-in-law...
Why did that somehow feel like he was the one getting the short end of the stick?
That same crisis had also brought Gwen and Katherine Hepburn closer.
Gwen had driven the old woman back to her seaside villa in Connecticut during the chaos, and later became Skye's tutor.
As a result, Gwen and Katherine had developed a close friendship despite their considerable age difference.
So Gwen, who occasionally came over to visit, had once again arrived at Katherine Hepburn's house today.
The moment she saw Henry, she immediately went over to greet him.
"Good afternoon, Henry. Are you feeling all right? When I heard you'd been hospitalized, I wanted to visit you. But before I could even find out which hospital you were in, Skye told me you'd already been discharged. You're really okay?"
"I'm fine. Nothing serious. The paramedics and doctors handled things properly that day. The only thing that nearly gave me a heart attack was the medical bill."
"You don't have medical insurance?" Gwen asked, somewhat surprised.
Henry immediately made an exaggerated expression.
"I never imagined I'd actually need medical insurance!"
Gwen poked a finger hard against his upper arm, which was practically as solid as armor plating, and complained like a girl next door.
"You just don't get injured. That doesn't mean you can't get sick. You've learned your lesson this time, right?"
Kitty passed by Gwen's feet and rubbed against the leg of the girl in the short skirt, giving a soft growl as she went.
During the period when Kitty had been taken to the seaside villa in Connecticut and separated from Henry, Gwen and Skye had been promoted to her official cat servants.
The two fearless girls were usually the ones who fed her, so they had already become quite familiar with each other.
Gwen wasn't frightened in the slightest by the enormous "tabby cat," which now weighed more than six hundred pounds.
Instead, she happily greeted her.
"Hello, Kitty. You're looking very energetic today."
She even crouched down and rubbed the loose flesh around the tiger's cheeks.
The sight left Henry completely baffled.
Could the soul of this ruler of the forest have transmigrated too?
In reality, the thing was just an old lecher!
When Charlize Theron had scratched Kitty around the head, the beast had been even more docile than a house cat.
And now it was acting exactly the same way!
Did it even remember that it was a tiger, the king of beasts?
Perhaps it was time to take Kitty into a primeval jungle for some special training.
Henry was counting on being able to use the tiger to fight aliens in the future while he sat back and watched the show.
How could he allow her to become a spoiled house cat?
Then again, if Kitty really was beyond saving...
He could always harvest the tiger's penis, bones, and blood ahead of schedule.
That thought made Henry hesitate.
Although his mind was occupied with thoughts about the tiger, he didn't stop talking with Gwen.
"I remember that even though you're a freshman, you're busier than seniors rushing to finish their graduation theses. How do you have time to come over today? Did you change the schedule for Skye's tutoring?"
"No. I came to ask Skye something. Isn't she home yet?"
As soon as Gwen finished speaking, the high-school girl finally arrived home.
She came charging through the door like a boy who had gotten into an adventure—and probably a fight—on the way home from school.
She didn't forget to greet the old woman first before making a beeline for her room.
Then she spotted the blonde Gwen.
Skye immediately spun around and threw herself into the freshman's arms, rubbing happily against her.
"Gwen, you're here! It's been so long!"
"We saw each other last Sunday. How is that 'so long'?"
The tomboyish girl continued rubbing against her as though taking advantage of the situation to enjoy some free cuddling.
"Why did you suddenly come looking for me?"
"Didn't we talk about it yesterday? I have something I wanted to ask you about."
"Oh, right. I remember now. You said you wanted to learn how to program. Aren't you studying biology? Why do you want to learn that?"
Skye still refused to let go of Gwen. She merely tilted her head and looked upward from between the blonde girl's arms.
The college freshman didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
"Because Professor Connors has a lot of custom computer programs for his research.
"Sometimes it's difficult to explain exactly what we need to computer science students, so I thought, why don't I learn to do it myself?
"The person with the best computer skills around me is you.
"Those computer science nerds somehow turn every conversation into video games after three sentences. I don't even know what the difference between a PS2 and a Dreamcast is."
Gwen, if you dared say that publicly at E3, the players from both camps would tear you to pieces in minutes.
Having a pretty doll-like face wouldn't save you.
Henry could pretend he wasn't aware of his own abilities all he wanted, but he genuinely had no interest in arguing with Skye over who was better at computers.
He wasn't exactly a good teacher, either.
The bigger reason he hadn't personally tutored Skye in her schoolwork wasn't that he didn't know how to teach.
He simply couldn't be bothered.
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