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Mary Sue Poots, born July 2, 1988, was officially registered through St. Agnes Orphanage in New York City.
The orphanage belonged to Clinton Church, a Catholic institution located in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.
To be fair, the priests and nuns running the church were decent people.
The problem was that in that neighborhood, it was almost impossible to find normal foster families.
That was why Mary Sue—now Skye—had repeatedly run away from foster homes before eventually ending up living in the sewers.
To get the girl back into school, Henry created a new identity and background for her.
Skye Poots, a distant relative of Katherine Hepburn.
Although she insisted on using only "Skye," a surname was still necessary for official registration, so Henry retained her original surname rather than assigning her his own or Katherine's.
Back in the day, obtaining a legitimate identity required going through brokers like Old Tom in Alaska and navigating official channels.
Things were much easier now.
While not strictly legal, Henry could simply hack into government databases and insert a complete, believable personal history.
As for identification documents?
Other than not being produced by the government itself, creating perfect replicas posed no challenge whatsoever.
With her new identity established—and thanks to Katherine Hepburn's connections, along with a rather generous donation—the troublesome little girl was finally enrolled in a public school to experience the joys of American education.
There were reasons Henry hadn't sent her to a private boarding school.
For one thing, elite schools scrutinized student backgrounds far more carefully and didn't accept just anyone.
For another...
He was genuinely worried that a girl raised in the Sewer World might end up bullying those greenhouse-grown children from wealthy families.
A public school seemed safer.
Besides, the two groups would never truly fit together.
Throwing them into the same environment would make everyone miserable.
Compared to that, public schools were a mixed bag but still closer to what Skye was accustomed to.
---
Henry's life became easier.
Skye's life became considerably less pleasant.
After school, she returned home, greeted Katherine Hepburn warmly, said hello to Maria Thomson, and even stopped to rub Katie—the "big cat"—on the head.
Then she tossed her backpack aside and marched over to Henry with a sour expression.
"Why do I have to go to school?
"The place is full of idiots."
"Because I suffered through it, and it'd be unfair if you didn't."
Henry didn't even look up from his book.
"Besides, learning how to live alongside idiots is one of the most fundamental skills required to function in society.
"You don't get to skip that lesson."
"Liar!"
Skye immediately shot back.
"Kate told me you never went to school at all. You don't even have a diploma.
"Tony Stark confirmed it personally."
"A diploma," Henry replied calmly, "is just a piece of paper issued by a school certifying that your knowledge has reached a certain level.
"The problem is that I don't believe any school or professor is qualified to certify my knowledge.
"So what exactly would I gain by attending classes just to collect a certificate?"
Skye nodded vigorously.
"Exactly!
"That's what I think too!
"I already know everything they teach.
"Why should I waste time sitting there?"
"Oh?"
Henry finally lowered his book and looked at the girl standing beside the couch.
She dressed more like a little boy than a girl.
Frankly, with Katherine Hepburn in the house, expecting any sort of cute or feminine fashion was pure fantasy.
The elderly actress herself preferred androgynous clothing.
Over the course of her life, she'd probably worn dresses more often on film than in real life.
With Katherine acting as Skye's protector, convincing the girl to dress cutely would have been about as difficult as persuading newly elected President George W. Bush to wear a skirt at a White House press conference.
Not that Henry had any interest in dressing children like dolls.
Instead, he simply looked at the self-confident girl and asked:
"If you're so sure school is unnecessary, answer a question for me."
Skye folded her arms confidently.
"Fine."
"Suppose a planet orbits a star with a period of 365.24219 days.
"Assume the orbit is circular.
"The distance between the planet and the star is 149,598,023,000 meters.
"What is the mass of the star?"
"Uh..."
Skye froze.
"Don't know?
"Then let's try something simpler.
"Given that is a perfect square, find the natural number ."
"Uhhhh..."
Still frozen.
Henry lowered his eyes back to his book.
"Study hard, kid.
"Neither of those questions is particularly difficult.
"I didn't ask you to solve an unsolved mathematical conjecture.
"If you can't answer those, what makes you think you've learned enough?"
Skye scowled.
"Do you know the answers?"
Without even looking up, Henry replied:
"The first question is actually Earth orbiting the Sun.
"Using Newton's law of gravitation, you can derive the formula and calculate the Sun's mass as approximately kilograms.
"As for the second question, the value of is 12.
"I didn't give you nonsense questions or problems without solutions.
"The fact that you couldn't answer them simply means you haven't studied enough."
Skye muttered,
"What use is any of that?
"You'd never need it in everyday life."
Still reading, Henry replied:
"If your goal is to carry plates in a restaurant or haul bricks at a construction site, then no—you won't need any of it.
"But opportunity favors the prepared.
"If you don't possess enough knowledge or skills, then even when opportunity appears in front of you, you won't be able to seize it.
"So which do you want?
"To settle for an ordinary life?
"Or to reach for the chance to climb higher?"
Skye immediately countered:
"Then do you have that kind of ambition?
"People with ambition don't spend all day lying on a couch like a useless bum."
Henry lowered the book just enough to reveal his eyes.
"Do you know how much money I have?
"I've got sixty million dollars in my bank accounts and more than ten million invested elsewhere.
"I'm already wealthy enough to spend the rest of my life doing absolutely nothing.
"Are you?"
...
The conversation died instantly.
At that moment, Skye wanted nothing more than to find an axe and chop at the exposed neck sticking out from behind that book.
Not because she expected to kill him.
Just because it would make her feel better.
---
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang.
BB rolled out from its charging station and headed for the entrance.
The visitor who entered was a bright and beautiful teenage girl in the bloom of youth.
Gwen Stacy.
As usual, she first greeted Katherine Hepburn and Maria Thomson before walking over to the couch.
"Hello, Henry. Hello, Skye."
Henry immediately pointed at the girl standing nearby.
"Your tutor's here.
"Go study.
"You've fallen behind academically and need to catch up as quickly as possible.
"At this rate, forget applying to college.
"You'll be lucky if you qualify for high school."
Skye glared furiously at the man sprawled across the couch.
Gwen quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
"Skye's really smart.
"Everything up through ninth grade is pretty easy.
"I don't think it'll be a problem for her."
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