E8: Wonder Woman #5

[Spider-Man Beyond]

E8: Wonder Woman #5
School Hard Part 1 of 3

Written by Colee Wisemiller (Wondy)
Edited by Daniel Dyer

“The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it.”
--Bill Cosby

Classes are optional, tests are not. I will grade you the following way, twenty percent participation, thirty percent projects and fifty percent exams.” Professor Lynda Prince enjoyed the first day of school. For the past five years she taught European History at Gateway City University and started off each year the most boring way she could. Then, as the year progressed, she’d do a major one-eighty and show her true colors. This year would be no different. “If you have any questions concerning your grades, please arrange a meeting with me as soon as possible.”

Noticing a few students begin to doze off, she decided they had endured enough torture. “If there are no questions then you may go.” Suddenly, all but a few jumped out of their seats and raced towards the door. Professor Prince couldn’t help but laugh. She knew she was the most popular teacher, the Gateway Glob told her so. Of course she could never acknowledge she knew because to do so would force her to admit to reading the underground paper published by a secret team of students. If she did that, her job would be at jeopardy. For some reason the Dean saw such rebellion as a nuisance.

She was too busy musing on the relieved students to notice a tall and lanky boy with neatly combed, sandy blonde hair who wore his pants an inch or two too high approach her. “Professor Prince?” She snapped back to reality. “I just wanted to let you know if the rest of the classes are anything like today, I will be here, in the front row, every day!” He offered her his hand.

She stared at him for a moment while he looked at her as if she was a god, something she wasn’t fond of. Trying hard to sound appreciative of his unwanted attention, she lightly shook his hand. “Thank you -”

“Of course! Where are my manners? Milton, Milton William Marsten, the third. But please, call me Milton.” His eyes grew wide behind his thick rimmed glasses. She now knew his name.

“Thank you… Milton. If you’d excuse me, I have to prepare for my next class.” She lowered her gaze to his hand still shaking hers.

He followed her eyes down and suddenly became flushed, “Oh! I’m, I’m sorry!” he stammered while his cheeks grew a bright red. Full of embarrassment, he stepped back and fell into the couple behind him.

Adam Schumacher, two time conference champion, one of the top ten quarterbacks in the country and all American boy, stood behind him. He was too busy flirting with the young lady at his side to notice Milton stumble towards him. “Watch it!” He shoved him to the side.

Milton tried to grab something, anything, to keep his balance. That something ended up being Adam’s current love interest. As he fell, he brought her down with him. Amongst the shrieks, an expensive looking ball point pen with the initials MWM fell out of his breast pocket and exploded all over the girl’s pink blouse. “You little bas-”

“Mr. Schumacher, I’d rethink your choice of words if I were you.” Professor Prince stepped away from her desk and towards the scene. “I’m sure it was an accident.”

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Cassandra watched the event unfold. She had met Milton William Marsten the third before class started and was relived to discover someone decent at the school. Her first encounter with her fellow students didn’t do much to prove Artemis’s bias of Patriarch’s male population wrong. The first person she met at Gateway City University was a business major bent on finding a get rich quick scheme. Artemis had warned her of people like him. “Patriarch’s world is bent on acquiring mass amounts of wealth. It does not matter if they do not need it. It is an addiction, one they must feed no matter what the stakes are,” she cautioned before Cassandra left.

She was thankful Milton did not fit the mold. He didn’t seem to worry about petty things like money, nor did he treat her as a second class citizen or a sex object, both seemed to be unbelievably common on the campus. In their few minutes of conversation before class he admitted to wanting to help. That was something Cassandra could relate to, otherwise she would have left Patriarch’s World after her first few days, or worse yet, never have left the Island to begin with. Finding someone else who wanted to make the world a better place gave her reassurance that all hope was not lost the day Superman died. She refused to believe the population would allow something as central as the world’s greatest hero’s death be in vain.

While Milton spoke to the Professor, she noticed another student flirting with the woman who sat behind her. He wore a green and gold football jersey with Gators on the front and Schumacher on the back. The couple stopped at a desk a few feet away from Milton. The woman twirled her auburn hair as both smiled and laughed. Cassandra wasn’t positive but thought she saw him glance her way with his deep blue eyes watching her, instead of his friend, more than once.

A feeling she never experienced before popped into her head, or was it her heart? Something that was too hard for her to explain. She thought she was in sync with her emotions, it was the way of the Amazon to be so, but this one told her different. Luckily, the event that followed occupied her mind.

Milton backed into the jock. The jock shoved him which forced him off balance. The end result was Milton pulling the girl down with him and his pen quickly leaking all over her pastel hued blouse. The jock began to raise his fist in what appeared to be rage. “You little bas-” he began but stopped dead in his tracks.

“Mr. Schumacher, I’d rethink your choice of words if I were you.” Professor Prince stepped away from her desk and towards the scene. “I’m sure it was an accident. Something that could have been prevented if you two were on your way to your next class instead of mingling here.” She handed Milton his glasses.

The couple looked at each other, then at the ground. “I believe you have another class soon.” The three nodded and Adam escorted his companion to the halls. “Milton, you will be late, too.” She picked up his books and handed them to him.

He nodded again and continued to look at her as if she were a god. “Thanks, Professor Prince.” Within a few moments, he was out the door.

By now, Cassandra was making her way to it as well. “Ms. Sandsmark?” She took a deep breath and slowly turned around. This was the first time she saw her teacher close up. Something about her seemed familiar. Was it her raven hair tied up tightly into a bun? No. Her crystal blue eyes? No. Her height? No. There was something about her very essence, something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. “I’m glad you stayed for the mishap. May I speak with you?”

Cassandra checked her watch. “My next class is on the other side of campus.” Of course, with her super speed, that wasn’t a problem. She’d be able to get there in five seconds flat, but her own rules prevented her from doing so. She made a vow to herself not to use her powers as Cassandra, unless it was a life or death situation.

“I’ll be brief then. Last night I was going through the records of all my new students. You have a remarkable background in history.” Professor Prince went back to her desk and pulled out a brochure. “Gateway City Museum of Natural History has an internship that you’d be a perfect candidate for.” She held the brochure in front of her. “Let me know if you’re interested.” Her face drew a satisfied smile as Cassandra accepted it. “See, that didn’t take too long.”

“Thanks. I‘ll consider it.” With that she left.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

“The human mind is a terrible thing to waste. Despite sounding cliché, it is true.” Professor Trace Peters’s voice boomed throughout the classroom. He was small and frail in stature. A brown bead hung from his round face. His eyes, easy to get lost in, were dark, like black holes. “This class is about going beyond Western psychology, beyond a mere text book and actually peering into your own minds, finding the hidden potential and releasing it, discovering what is in your soul!” What he lacked in physical appearance he more than made up for in his passion for the subject matter.

“Men have sought to use their untapped powers since the beginning of time. They have risked their lives to discover a power that, according to many Western psychologists, does not exist. If that were the case, then what about psychics? What about prophecies that have bore the mark of truth? What about telekinetic powers? How many times have you heard of people doing the extraordinary simply by focusing their mind on the task at hand? How are there beings like Superman or people like Wonder Woman, creatures that have not been altered from their natural state, if such abilities do not exist?” The whole class was caught up in his speech, but adding Superman and Wonder Woman to the equation sparked even more interest. “This, my new found friends, is what true psychology is about. Not giving a murderer or child molester an excuse for their ill behavior.” Most of the room clapped as he finished.

Cassandra sat towards the front, next to a strawberry blonde woman roughly her own age. By the time she arrived at the class, there were two spots open, one next to the woman she was sitting by now and one next to the jock who Milton had crossed paths with less than an hour before. Preferring to try another’s company, she chose the strawberry blonde as a neighbor. Again, she wasn’t sure but thought she saw him eye her as she sat down.

She watched her classmates invest their interest in the man before her. When he mentioned Wonder Woman she couldn’t help but sink a bit into her chair. Wonder Woman’s celebritism created a fear of her secret being discovered. Sometimes she needed to just be Cassie, the daughter of Helena and Wayne Sandsmark, not Wonder Woman, the champion of the gods. However, at the same time, she felt as if she were betraying her destiny doing trivial things like blending in with the others. She was torn between being human and being so much more than that.

“Of course, we will have to use the text books to an extent, otherwise I would not be allowed to teach this class. But be assured, I will not waste class time on them. I want every pair to look at each other and shake hands.” He waited a minute while everyone did so.

“You’ve just been introduced to your partners for the entire class.” This announcement received mixed responses. “For your first assignment I want you to bring in an article concerning someone with great powers. I’ll even accept it about someone who is enhanced through a means other than their mind. Right now I just want an article about someone who is different from the so-called norm. Talk amongst yourselves until class ends.”

The strawberry blonde beamed at Cassandra. “Hi! I’m Heidi.”

“Cassandra.”

“Is it okay to call you Cassie?”

Cassandra took a moment to respond. Throughout her stay on the Island, everyone, with the occasional exception of Artemis, referred to her as Cassandra. In truth, she wasn’t fond of anyone other than family calling her anything else. Dee Dee had automatically used her shortened name, something she didn’t favor at first. “I’d prefer Cassandra.”

“That’s cool.” Heidi backed off. Both looked around and noticed their peers were preoccupied with their partners, or, at least, pretended to be. “So where are you from?”

“Here, Gateway City. Yourself?”

“Norway.”

Cassandra detected a slight accent in her voice but up until now she couldn’t place its origins.

“Lived there ‘til I was ten. My folks moved around a lot because of my pappa’s job.”

“It’s a beautiful country.”

“You’ve been there?”

“No, but my mom has family there. I guess that means I have family there.” Sandsmark was not her father’s last name, it was indeed her mother’s. For some reason she was always a Sandsmark.

“Wicked!” Something lit up in Heidi’s eyes, something that made her more aware of Cassandra. If it weren’t for the interruption to soon follow she would have pressed Cassandra’s heritage.

“I am happy to see you are all getting acquainted with your partners. It is crucial to build a strong relationship with anyone you must work with. I look forward to next class, dismissed.” Professor Peters appeared oblivious to the students leaving his classroom. His concentration was focused on whatever was going on raucously in his mind. Perhaps some kind of internal battle or a plotting of some sort. Whatever it was, Cassandra did not notice.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

“I’ll see you around.” Cassandra gave her new friend a small wave.

“Definitely. Hey! There’s a party tonight to celebrate the new school year. It’s going to be wicked! Why don’t you come?”

Cassandra shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m not too big on parties.”

“Aw, c’mon, I’m sure you’ll have a blast. Everyone will be there.” Heidi noticed Cassandra was looking at someone behind her. She twisted her head to see who was stealing her new comrade’s attention. A mischievous smile crossed her face. “Especially everyone on the Gators’ football team.”

Cassandra became aware she was staring absentmindedly at the man in the Gators’ jersey from history. “I don’t know. I’ll try to make it.”

“Good!” Heidi took a piece of pink paper out of her purse, scribbled the party information on it and gave it to Cassandra. “It starts at eight, but I wouldn’t get there until nine-ish. See ya!”

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The party was alive. Students littered the house, most holding plastic cups of beer or Irish punch, some holding cigarettes and others joints. Cassandra saw this and was ready to turn around. She wanted no part in such activities. The only reason for her attendance was Dee Dee’s constant pestering for her to join her peers. “Even Superman had time to himself,” she said. “He couldn’t stop every evil and neither can you.”

Why not? Didn’t she return to Patriarch’s World to save it? How could she do that if she was socializing without aim?

“Cassandra! I knew you’d come!” Heidi, along with a man wearing a gray GCU T-shirt, met her by the door. “This is Brian. Brian, Cassandra.”

“Hey,” was all the man said to Cassandra. “Babe, I’m gonna get us some more.” Heidi gave him a stern look, one that even Cassandra felt was a bit much. He realized his rudeness and tried to rectify it, “Um, you want anything?”

It took Cassandra all her strength to not leave the party right then and there. She appreciated Heidi’s invite, it enforced her first impression of being friendly, but as Cassandra stated before, partying, more specifically drinking and drugs, was not her thing. “No, thank you.”

“Kay, be back soon, babe.” Brian gave Heidi a quick peck on the cheek, although his aim was off and landed on her chin. He staggered away with a cup in each hand.

The freckled girl wrinkled her nose and formed a small smile, “He grows on you.”

Cassandra wanted to believe that but couldn’t help but doubt it’s truthfulness.

Heidi took her hand and guided her to the back yard. They passed several people Cassandra recognized from her earlier classes and several she never saw before. In the yard was an Olympic size swimming pool filled with half naked men and woman too drunk to remember anything the next morning. Heidi brought the two to a bench a good distance away from the crowd. “Isn’t this place amazing? Brian’s parents gave it to him. Four acres of green. Don’t you just love nature?”

“Heidi, I don’t think this is all for me.” Cassandra wanted to leave but did not want to be rude about it. Heidi, she figured, would understand. She seemed like a free spirit who respected other’s feelings. Hopefully, she would sense her uneasiness and leave it at that.

“Cass, I don’t want you to think we’re all drunks.”

A group of guys from the GCU’s football team streaked passed them. Cassandra’s eyes grew wide from both embarrassment and annoyance.

“Okay, maybe they are.” Heidi chuckled.

Cassandra began to get up.

“Wait, please!” Heidi’s reaction time was too fast for her to be even close to drunk, “See, I’m not even drinking alcohol.”

Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

“Smell my breath if you don’t believe me!”

“No, I believe you. Why all this then?”

“It’s fun to get out and socialize. You don’t think so?”

“No, yes, I mean, I do socialize, I just think there are more… appropriate ways.” She nodded at the naked football members.

“Ignore them, and give the party a chance, walk around, meet new people, and if after an hour you still want to go, then I won’t stand in your way. I want to be your friend and friends respect each other.”

Brian found the two. Clearly he was drinking alcohol. His breath stunk of it even a foot away.

Heidi took her water. “Thanks hun.”

“Anytime, babe.”

“What do you say, Cassandra?”

Out of the blue, Cassandra saw Milton walk around with a drink in his hand. All the party goers seemed to ignore him but a feeling in her gut told her something was going to happen. “Okay.”

“Good! We have to be hosts, but feel free to mix!”

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The hour was almost up. Within her time there, Cassandra counted over a dozen couples making out, twenty-two people vomiting their guts out and three almost fights between the same male attendees every fifteen minutes. Trying her best to keep Milton in eyesight, she followed him into the house. Watching him travel the stairs, she paid no attention to the people in front of her.

SMACK!

Whoever stood before her now wore their drink. Cassandra didn’t look at their face, not until she realized they wore a green and gold jersey identical to the one she saw in history. Adam Schumacher stood before her, with punch dripping from the front of his Gators’ jersey. A repeat of the morning’s events started in her head. His fury of Milton’s clumsiness replayed in her mind. Waiting to hear the next obscenity to come out of his mouth, she stood there motionless.

Instead, he laughed. “I’m sorry,” he offered.

He didn’t seem like the type to apologize. This caught her off guard. “Pardon?”

“I’m sorry. I’m a klutz.” He had ceased his laughter but his face was turned a bright red. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought he was blushing.

“No, it’s my fault. I bumped into you.” It was her fault for not paying attention. She knew she was in the company of drunk, and in some cases high, college students. If she were paying attention, she would’ve been able to avoid Adam within an instant thanks to her abilities.

“I saw you coming.” His blush deepened. “I wanted to bump into you.”

Cassandra could feel her heartbeat quicken as he began to bring his hand up to her face. Suddenly a scream of pain was heard coming from the second floor. Milton was upstairs. Her heart sank as she realized who was screaming.

Cassandra mentally scolded herself for letting Milton out of her sight. She knew something was going to happen to him, her intuition about these things was never wrong. For some reason she was caught up in Adam, something she didn’t quite understand. Pushing past drunk bodies, she ran to the second floor.

A crowd had gathered in the room the scream came from. She found Milton lying on the floor of the home’s library. Bruises covered his face and blood dripped from his mouth. “Milton,” she gasped underneath her breath. His attacker was preparing a final blow while she pushed nosey onlookers aside.

“That is ENOUGH!” She caught the burly man’s arm before he could strike. He wore a Gators’ jersey. Adding two and two, she realized the association the man had with Adam. Everything clicked, this man was punishing Milton for his accident earlier in the day.

“Cass-andra,” Milton barely let out her name.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Milton arrived at the first official party of the year. He had no friends but felt it was his right to attend. He was a student at GCU, heck he even did half of the football team’s homework since first grade. If anything, they owed him.

Alcohol wasn’t his thing, it wouldn’t stay down on him, so he grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with ice water. He spent most of his time walking around, looking for anyone who’d talk. After seven cups of water in less than two hours, he had to use the restroom. As he walked past the pool, he couldn’t help of envy the jocks and rich kids having a carefree time. They were oblivious to the world around them. They were oblivious to him. Frustrated with his peers, he walked into the house and up the stairs to the second floor.

“Milton!” Someone called his name.

The voice stopped him just before the bathroom and he saw Elizabeth Thomas, the girl he had the tumble with earlier, waving at him. “Hey, Milton! C’mon.” She waved him to follow her into the library.

He looked at the bathroom less than a foot away and back at Elizabeth. His bladder would have to wait. “Wait up, Liz!”

She was waiting for him in the room, sprawled out on the day bed. He approached her but was stopped by a hand tugging on his shirt. “Huh?” His mind had no time to register what was happening.

BAM!

A giant fist connected with his face. Within a few seconds, he was on the floor. What was left of his glasses was scattered about the room. His attacker used all his force to kick his stomach. That was when he could no longer hold in the pain. “AHHHHHHHHHH!”

His scream attracted a fair sized crowd. His attacker bent down and prepared to give him another one when someone stopped him. Milton could barely see, his eyes were swollen, but he was able to make out golden hair. His savior’s back was to him. After they pulled his attacker’s arm down, they turned and he saw their gracious face. He knew those eyes, full of concern and disbelief. “Cass-andra?” He forced himself to say her name.

~*~

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Cassandra let go of the man who was attacking Milton. Instead, she focused her attention on the innocent boy she had met less than twenty-four hours earlier. “Milton, Milton please, I need you to stay with me.” She lowered herself to the ground and cradled his head.

“Someone call 911!” An onlooker panicked.

“Milton, everything’s going to be okay. Just stay with me, please?” A tear rolled down her face. She was disgusted at the man now sitting on the day bed by himself. Apparently dazed and confused about the whole night, he looked at his hands in shock. She was disgusted at herself for allowing whatever feelings Adam aroused in her to get in the way of protecting an innocent. She was disgusted that some part of her mind wished she was still downstairs with him.

“You’re… an… angel!” Despite all his pain, he was mesmerized by her.

Too busy with Milton, she didn’t notice Adam making his way through the crowd. “Oh my God!” He turned to the man still sitting on the day bed. “What the hell did you do? Huh?” He stared at his teammate, stunned at the blood dripping from his knuckles. “What in God’s name did you do?”

“He needs medical attention.” Adam turned around to see Cassandra holding Milton like he was a baby who wouldn’t stop crying. Her eyes cast a judgmental looked his way. He wanted to say something, anything, to convince her he had nothing to do with it. “Don’t talk, we have to get him help, NOW!”

Continued...