Knock knock knock!
"Come in!" came a slightly weary voice from inside.
Kevin Cross pushed open the door. At the same time, a woman in a Liberty Oak uniform looked up and her eyes lit up when she saw him. She greeted him with a friendly smile.
Kevin gave her a quick nod in acknowledgment, but his nose twitched. The room was thick with the scent of cheap perfume, clashing with the heavy sweetness of blooming callery pear. It made his nose itch.
"What can I do for you, young man?" asked the man behind the desk. He looked to be in his fifties and sported a world-renowned hairstyle the classic balding dome, fringed on the sides.
"Good morning, Principal. I'm here to drop out," Kevin said bluntly.
"Hmm? Drop out? You're dropping out?" The principal looked surprised. If it had been a Black student saying this, he might not have batted an eye. In his mind, Black students often lacked long-term vision and didn't always value education. Even if a white student came in asking to leave school, that too could be understood. But a yellow-skinned kid?
That was a shock.
To the principal, Asian students were the most education-hungry group he'd ever seen. They believed knowledge could change their destiny, bring wealth, elevate their status. Families would scrape together every penny to put their kids through school, no matter how poor they were.
So, Kevin's request to drop out seemed completely absurd.
"Are you having some kind of trouble? Why would you want to leave school? You do realize that education is the key to changing your life," the principal said solemnly.
"I'm broke. My parents just passed away. There's no money left to keep me in school. Of course, if the school could waive my tuition, I-"
"Got it. Understood. Good luck, son." The principal cut him off and approved the withdrawal right away, offering a few token words of encouragement.
"…"
Walking out of the principal's office, Kevin Cross was no longer a student.
School had always been a last resort for him. Now, with a literal golden finger his cheat-code power in his life, and a future that could make him superhuman, why waste time stuck in a classroom? Not that he had anything urgent to do, but still.
Just as he was about to leave the school grounds, two Black students came running toward him.
Their skin was pitch-dark the kind where you'd barely see them in a dark room. Though, if they grinned after lights-out, you'd probably see two floating sets of teeth.
"Hey, yellow monkey. We heard you were just in the principal's office. What was that about? Snitching on us?" One of them shoved Kevin as he spoke.
Kevin glanced at the guy's hand, dark all over but with oddly pale palms. The contrast was jarring and kind of disgusting.
He stepped back to avoid the touch.
"You dodging us now, yellow monkey?" the other one snarled. "Hand over your wallet. We know your parents are dead. Bet all their money's on you now."
These two had been regular bullies, constantly picking on Kevin's former self. Not the only ones, maybe, but definitely the worst.
Smack!
Kevin slapped the guy's hand away hard. A swelling started to rise on the back of the kid's hand almost instantly.
"Whoa-f**k-gah-"
Kevin reached out and gripped him by the throat, cutting off the rest of his words.
The other kid froze for a second, stunned, then roared and swung a punch.
Crack!
Kevin's open palm met the punch in a wide, clean slap across the kid's face. The blow sent him spinning twice on the spot before he flopped onto the ground, dazed and swaying.
"Two pathetic roaches," Kevin muttered with disdain.
He tossed the kid in his grasp onto the pavement. Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly stopped, stepped back, and rifled through their jackets. He pulled out two wallets.
Inside? Scattered bills and coins barely twenty bucks total. But the feeling? Oh, it was satisfying.
Whap! Whap!
He tossed the wallets back at their faces. Hard. The leather slammed into their cheeks, raising fresh welts.
Kevin didn't spare them another glance. He turned and walked off without a word.
The two bullies lay there, dumbfounded, completely disoriented, unable to process what had just happened. A few students passing by stopped and stared, some in awe. One or two girls, in particular, looked at Kevin with starry eyes.
He was already good-looking, but that? That was pure man.
A red-haired girl broke into a sprint, chasing after him.
"Hey! Wait! Hey, Kevin! Kevin Cross, wait up!"
Kevin turned his head slightly as she approached, and memories of her floated into his mind.
She was from the class next door. Popular. A bit of a school celebrity.
Long red hair, bold and extroverted. Despite still being in middle school, she'd already dated multiple boys. Her name? Mary Jane Watson.
To be honest, Kevin wasn't a fan. Sure, she had a reputation, but to him, she was too loose. Too fast with boyfriends. Her looks might've been the type most Americans liked, but in Kevin's eyes, she wasn't attractive. In fact, she was pretty plain.
"Hi! I'm Mary Jane Watson. Nice to meet you," she said with a bold smile, stretching out her right hand.
"You already know who I am. You just said my name," Kevin replied, frowning slightly.
"Uh-" Mary Jane blinked, caught off guard.
"Is there something you actually want? If not, I'm leaving." Kevin didn't wait for her to recover.
"Wait, wait uh, I just wanted to say you were really cool. I mean, the way you dealt with Jason and the other guy super cool!"
"I've always been cool. You ran all the way here just to say that? Whatever. I'm out. I dropped out, anyway. Doubt we'll be running into each other again. Bye."
With that, Kevin turned and walked away, not sparing her another glance.
"Wait-hey-" Mary Jane stood there, speechless.
That was the first time anyone had ever brushed her off like that.