found out through observation
Michelle Jones would never consider herself obsessed. Obsession was losing hours, sleep, or even days or weeks of one’s life. Obsession was unhealthy. Michelle Jones never obsessed. She was just… observant.
She often found herself on the fringe of social groups. It was lonely at times but she just wasn’t quite sure how to fix that yet. So, she spent most of her time watching people, sketching various students and teachers around the school in her notebook, and eavesdropping on the mundane conversations of her peers whilst pretending to read.
Not that Michelle didn’t read— no she loved to read actually and had quite a collection of books to prove it, but, she found the best conversations to listen in on were the ones overheard when people thought her nose was too far into a book to hear anything.
“Do you know him, too?”
“Yeah, we met… I stole his shield…”
Michelle quirked an eyebrow in curiosity. She didn’t need to lower her book to glance to see who the two voices in particular belonged to. She spent enough of her time sitting on the fringe of this particular duo— mostly because they generally had interesting conversations and they never once made her feel weird for sitting nearby reading.
Ned Leeds and Peter Parker were probably the only people in school Michelle considered herself friendly with, which is why she became more curious now as she ponders the implication that Peter Parker stole Captain America’s shield. She’d heard the duo talking about the Stark Internship before in hushed whispers that really weren’t all that hushed… but he got the internship after Captain America was labeled a war criminal… right?
She adds up the weeks in her head as she moves to find an empty mat as Coach Wilson calls for them to complete sit ups and she absent mindedly completes reps with her book. The weeks weren’t adding up right in her head. She remembers the days Peter was absent from school quite clearly. Ned had sat closer to her at lunch and walked with her to class even though nothing more than casual greetings were said between the two. Then Peter came back, whispering to Ned about how Tony Stark himself had contacted him for the internship and how they had gone on some sort of retreat.
Except… Tony Stark was in Germany when Peter was absent. The Avenger’s battle on the airport strip had been all over the news.
Had Peter been in Germany with the Avengers? Is that when he’d stolen Captain America’s shield?
It didn’t line up, not really. War Machine’s accident had been plastered all over the headlines, surely Stark wouldn’t have taken a literal child into such a dangerous battle.. Unless…
“Peter knows Spiderman!”
Ned’s voice jolts Michelle out of her thoughts and she snaps her book closed, narrowing her eyes as she watches Peter’s body language as he tries to recover from Ned’s declaration.
“No I don’t — I mean —” Peter denies.
“They're friends!” Ned interjects.
Michelle can’t help but roll her eyes when Flash inserts himself into the conversation, walking with what he thinks is “swag” but really he just looks like a dweeb.
“Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends,” Flash glances around, smirking with the peel of laughter he gets for his joke. It’s half hearted at best, but Michelle knows Flash will take any attention he can get.
“I-I’ve met him, yeah, a couple of times… but, it’s… through the Stark Internship” Peter glances back at Ned and speaks with a tone that clearly has more to it than what he’s actually saying, “That I’m not really supposed to talk about.”
Oh.
Oh.
Michelle smirked, cracking open her book again as everything clicks into place. She can’t help but wonder how Captain America felt having his shield taken by a high schooler in spandex.