The New Student Was Wanda

Ever since the Whiplash incident, the story had begun to drift away from the timeline Li Stark knew.

Or rather, he should have realized it long ago. The moment Gwen and he attended the same high school, it had already stopped being the timeline he knew.

Whether it was a reward to himself or something else, Tony Stark had actually submitted proof that Stern was Hydra to the government. Stern went to prison. Rumor had it that he had committed suicide out of fear of punishment there a few days ago.

On top of that, Tony had created a new Arc Reactor. Aunt Helen Cho said Tony's next plan might be Nanotech Armor.

Of course, the thing Li Stark hated most had arrived: he was about to go back to school. He had wanted to skip straight to college, but no one agreed, so he could only obediently continue his high school education at Midtown High School.

In Midtown High School's hallway, Li Stark's appearance caused quite a stir. As Tony Stark's nephew, he was now the most eye-catching figure in the school.

His classmates' gazes followed him like spotlights. Ever since he had appeared in the headlines, he had become the school's living billboard. Someone had plastered his locker with labels reading "Iron Man 2.0," and someone had even drawn a tiny Iron Man suit beside his name.

"Li! Over here!" His good friend Gwen waved from the end of the hallway, surrounded by a group of girls clutching books. Li Stark shook his head with a wry smile. His life had completely changed.

A group of girls handed him notebooks. "Can you give us an autograph? Think of it as a gift for the future editor-in-chief of a scientific journal."

Li took the pen and wrote "Believe in science" in the notebooks. Just then, the class bell rang like a rescue party. He let out a breath, swung his backpack over his shoulder, and bumped into a soft shoulder as he turned around.

Books scattered across the floor. Li hurriedly crouched down to help pick them up. When his fingertips touched a copy of Slavic Mythology Studies, his heart skipped a beat—the familiar title, along with the faint hexagram symbol at the corner of the book, both reminded him of the identity of the person before him.

"Sorry." The red-haired girl raised her head, and the slight upward curve at the corners of her eyes reminded Li of the scarlet Chaos Magic from his memories. When she reached out to take the book, her sleeve slipped down and revealed part of a tattoo, dark red patterns twisting over her pale skin like flames.

"Wanda Maximoff." As the girl introduced herself, Li sharply caught the distinctive Eastern European rolled r in her pronunciation. "Transfer student."

"Li Stark." As he deliberately handed her textbook back, nanotech particles at his fingertips quietly formed an insulating film—who knew when this seemingly fragile girl might suddenly trigger an energy surge? The moment Wanda took the book, her eyelashes trembled slightly, as if she had sensed something. Yet she merely smiled politely and disappeared into the crowd.

"Stop staring, new student?" Gwen suddenly popped up behind him and bumped his shoulder. "I heard she bent the pull-up bar in the gym storage room with her bare hands last week. Don't let that pretty face fool you."

Li raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He glanced down at his palm. Intelligent Particles were gathering restlessly, sketching fine circuit-like patterns across his skin—his armor was issuing a warning. The Wanda in his memories was still training at a Hydra base, yet the girl before him was openly attending school. This disrupted timeline clearly hid even more secrets.

Over the following days, Li kept "running into" Wanda around campus. In the library, she intently read books on quantum entanglement, yet used a yellowed tarot card as a bookmark. In lab class, she mixed chemical reagents with precision no high school student should possess. Even while waiting in line at the cafeteria, Li noticed that she deliberately avoided crowded places.

During one biology lab group assignment, the teacher placed Li and Wanda in the same group. They had to dissect a frog together and observe its neural reflexes. Li picked up the scalpel and was about to begin when he noticed something strange in Wanda's eyes. She stared fixedly at the frog on the lab table, her fingers trembling slightly.

"Are you... okay?" Li asked softly.

Wanda shook her head and took a deep breath. "I'll do it." She took the scalpel, but her movements were far clumsier than when she had mixed reagents earlier, as though it took immense courage just to make the cut. Li keenly noticed that as Wanda worked, her lips kept moving in a murmur, as if she were chanting some kind of spell.

After the experiment, Wanda hurriedly packed up and prepared to leave, but Li called out to her. "Wait. We haven't written the lab report yet. Want to find some time to organize the data together?"

Wanda hesitated for a moment before finally nodding.

That weekend, they met at a café near the school. Li arrived early and was adjusting the nanotech components he carried with him. When he saw Wanda walk in, he quickly packed them away.

"Does Mr. Stark always carry these little inventions around with him?" Wanda asked with a half-smile as she sat across from him and ordered a black coffee.

Li shrugged. "Habit. You never know when they might come in handy. By the way, why do you read books on quantum entanglement and chaos theory? That's not exactly typical high school reading."

Wanda stirred her coffee, her eyes settling on the window. "Some things become more fascinating the more complicated they are. Like..." She paused. "Like you and your Vision Armor."

Li's heart tightened, but he remained calm on the surface. "What are you talking about? I don't have any Vision Armor."

Wanda gave a soft laugh. "Don't be nervous. I was only joking. But I am curious. Are you really just an ordinary high school student?"

Before Li could answer, a commotion suddenly broke out in the café. A few drunk men were causing trouble. They overturned a table, and the sound of shattering glass rang out. The crowd began to panic, but the drunkards only became more arrogant. One of them even grabbed a chair, preparing to smash it into a nearby customer.

Li was just about to stand when Wanda had already risen. Her gaze sharpened, and an invisible force seemed to surge around her. Worried that Wanda would expose her abilities, Li immediately controlled the mechanical particles to gather inside his sleeve, ready to act at any moment.

Fortunately, the café owner arrived in time with security guards and subdued the drunkards. Wanda instantly returned to normal as well. She sat back down, took a sip of coffee, and acted as if nothing had happened.

"Looks like this isn't a good place to write a report." Wanda set down her cup. "Let's meet another time." With that, she got up and left, leaving Li sitting there, pondering that strange force that had flashed around Wanda only moments ago.

During lunch break that day, Li was adjusting the portable communication module of his Nanotech Armor in the lab. Suddenly, a trace of rose perfume drifted in through the window. He looked up and saw Wanda leaning against the windowsill, clutching a copy of Introduction to Chaos Theory.

"What high-tech stuff is little Stark researching this time?" Wanda asked with a half-smile. Sunlight cast a halo over her red hair.

He hated being called that. Among Midtown High School's students, he was the youngest. So aside from "Iron Man 2.0," only Gwen dared call him "little Stark."

Li swiftly covered the unfinished mechanical components on the desk with a lab report. "Just some extracurricular inventions. Is Miss Maximoff interested in chaos theory?"

"Just browsing." Wanda flipped through the book, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the pages. "I heard the Stark Family likes to challenge the impossible. Do you think... some things can truly be completely controlled?"

Alarm bells rang in Li's mind, but he merely shrugged on the surface. "At least the circuit board in my hand can. But you, the transfer student who can lift a twenty-kilogram dumbbell one-handed, are far more interesting than these."

Wanda froze for a moment, then laughed. "News travels fast. Looks like it isn't easy to hide any secrets at Midtown High School."

Just then, the class bell rang abruptly. Wanda stuffed the book into her bag. As she turned, the ends of her hair brushed across the back of Li's hand, carrying a faint, nearly imperceptible warmth. "Talk next time, genius boy."

Li watched her departing figure as mechanical particles on the lab table automatically arranged themselves into a string of question marks. Wanda was like a cloud of mist. Her seemingly casual conversations hid probing intentions, while her everyday behavior carried a deliberate air. But one thing was certain—in this chaotic timeline, the Scarlet Witch was destined to become the most uncontrollable variable in his life.