Shame

"Hey, Penis Parker!" And of course Flash is the first to notice. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

 Peter groans softly as he walks up to the rest of his class crowding around a shiny, red coach bus. Ned is of course the only one that looks super excited to see him. 

"Dude, no way, so you're really coming!?" Ned blurts out, running up to Peter with his fists pumping in the air.

"No way, Penis Parker is too broke to afford this trip, dumbass! Or did you forget?" Flash guffaws despite Peter's suit case being right next to him. "Sorry, but pity isn't a currency!"

Peter flushes, once again turning turtle, "I - um - actually-"

"I'm guessing your aunt changed her mind, right man?" Ned says throwing his arm around Peter's shoulder before he can respond to Flash. It makes Peter smile and withdraw back from his shell. 

"Um... yeah," Peter laughs sheepishly, "she sort of sprung it on me. I'm happy I get to join." That isn't a lie. Torn up as he is inside about the money, May was right. He wants to be here. 

"Hah, as if!" Flash snorts. "You were just planning to sneak onto the bus when no one was looking right? Poor and a cheating criminal. Those things go hand in hand!"

Peter sucks in a sharp breath. Flash has said some seriously mean things over the years, and by now, he thought nothing could possibly hurt him. But to now call him a... criminal? As if he wasn't already overly self-conscience about his status at this school. Is this the next round of prejudice he'll have to face?

Ned glares at Flash, fists trembling, "You-" 

"What about me?" Flash sneers, folding his arm across his chest as he walks up to Ned, a malicious glint in his eye. "You got something to say jelly roll?"

Ned steps back, glaring, but any one can see how terrified he is. Even if he may be strong enough to beat Flash, no way is he dumb enough to mess with the Thompson family. He may not be as financially challenged as Peter, but compared to the rest of the school, Ned is pretty damn close. 

"Flash, lea.... leave Ned out of this." Peter sighs at the ground, regretting involving his only friend. As much as Flash picks on Peter, for whatever reason, he rarely turned his disdain on Ned, and Peter prefers to keep it that way. 

"Sorry, mind saying that a little louder, criminal?"

Criminal.

The word echoes in Peter's head, and he can think about several more to match and it makes him unsettled. 

Poor.

Homeless.

Dirty.

Peter grits his teeth. "I'm... I'm not..."

"What? You're not what, Penis Parker? A dirty, lying, criminal? How else can you suddenly afford this trip? Wait - unless you stole the money. You stole the money, right, Penis Parker?"

Peter feels water gathering at the corners of his eyes. He squeezes his fists tight, not daring to look up. He knows the whole class is watching him, waiting. They probably think the same as Flash. Of course the poor little Parker kid will steal just to come on a trip they could all probably afford with cash they get for an allowance and-

"Knock it off dip shit," a sharp cold voice says, yanking Peter from his thoughts. He looks up to see a tall, paper thin girl with light caramel skin, and a head of dark, wild, curly hair pulled back into an unkempt ponytail. Her face is plain without a trace of make up or the hint of a smile, but can still be considered pretty. "Everyone knows Parker would never do something like that. If you still got a problem, you can take it up with Mr. Harrington who's coming now."

Peter blinks, not believing his ears. Did someone else just stand up for him? No, not someone else, but Michelle freaking Jones! Since when does she care about, let alone defend other people? Doesn't that, like, go against her code of hating all of humanity or something???

Peter really wants to thank her cause Flash has actually backed off, even if it's only because he's been alerted that Mr. Harrington is on the way over. But Mr. Harrington arrives before Peter has the chance to regain his voice. 

"Peter!" Mr. Harrington beams the moment he makes it over to the class. "Glad you could make it! I spoke to your aunt and she explained everything. You're a great student and it worried me that you were the only one going to be absent."

"Um... Uh... Thanks?"

"Great, now," Mr. Harrington says, turning to the class with a loud clap of his hands to silence everyone. "Sorry I'm late. Had a bit of business to take care of. Now, is everyone present?"

"No, actually," a pretty blond haired girl says. She's slim and tall with moderate curves and looks not unlike Barbie dressed in pink and white. "Harry isn't here. Says he's being personally driven to the resort."

"Ah, that's right." Mr. Harrington nods. "I did receive an email about that. Well, as for the rest of you, let's get going."

On the bus ride over to the resort, Mr. Harrington assigns them seats, and while Peter wasn't too thrilled about the idea at first, his mind quickly changes once he sees his seatmate. 

"So...um... hi?"

Michelle gives him a silent nod, but doesn't look too interested in doing much else besides opening up a blank sketchbook and scratching some lines on the paper. Curiously, Peter watches intently without meaning to.

"Don't."

Peter blinks, looking up at Michelle. If not for their proximity, he might doubt she actually spoke.

"What?"

"Don't. Don't look."

"W-why...I-"

"Just don't look, Parker." She huffs, her lines on the paper darkening, "Do you really want to hear about how it makes me nervous and unable to draw anything? I know Harrington put us together, but that doesn't exactly make this a 'loser's support group'."

Peter decides it's better not to mention the fact that, before he even started staring, she was already drawing nothing but chicken scratch.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't be sorry, just don't look," she snaps, and Peter gulps, swiftly shifting his gaze.

An awkward few moments pass before Peter opens his mouth again after reminding himself several times that, if Michelle actually hated his guts, she wouldn't have defended him against Flash. 

"Um, thank you, Michelle. That's uh... kinda what I wanted to say. For earlier I mean."

She doesn't speak, and Peter can't help but chance a glance at her. 

She's inches from his face staring dead at him, an unreadable expression on her own. Peter's spirit nearly flies from his body at the sudden proximity. 

"Uh... M-Michelle?" 

"MJ."

"What...?"

"MJ," she shrugs, exiting his personal space, "my friends call me MJ."

Peter's never seen her hanging out with any other students at school, but he decides once again, it's better just to keep his mouth shut. 

He smiles, "thank you, MJ."

He doesn't mind being her first friend. 

"Woo-hoo!" Flash and a bunch of other students cheer as they depart the bus. The first thing Flash does is take out his cellphone and starts narrating. Peter is happy to see him find a distraction. 

And what a distraction it is. The mountain is huge and covered in snow, mist, and ice. From this distance it looks like a planet all on it's own. A vast and truly breathtaking sight. It makes the already pretty large resort look like an ant hill. 

"Finally!" Ned huffs, throwing his hand in the air as he makes his way to Peter, a frustrated look on his face. "Twenty-one other students in our class and Mr. Harrington chooses to put me with Brad. That guy's more insufferable than Flash!"

Peter doubts that any one can be more insufferable than Flash, but he supposes Brad might come close. The two are like best friends these days. 

"And what about you?" Ned asks, placing a hand on Peter's shoulder while giving him a sympathetic look. "How did you survive Michelle? That girl's a total black hole."

"Um..." Peter gives him a crooked smile. As much as Peter would love to share in Ned's anguish, truth is his bus ride over wasn't that bad. "Actually Ned..."

"One black hole, coming up," a voice interrupts, and Peter turns to see MJ dropping her suit case on the ground behind them. Actually, not only hers, but Peter's as well. Following his line of sight, she clears throat, "uh, thought I might grab this for you... since I was kinda already there." Both boys stared at her, and as if feeling like that explanation isn't enough, she adds, "I mean, Flash mentioned tossing it over a cliff so..."

"Oh." Peter nods. Figures. "Thanks MJ."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ned holds up his hands in a 'hold on a sec' gesture. "That's the second time you've been nice today for no reason. Are you feeling okay?"

Peter nudges him in the shoulder, and half whispers, "since when does someone need a reason to be nice?"

"Uh... since their name is Michelle Jones?"

"It's MJ, dork." MJ says, giving Ned her signature flat look. "My friends call me MJ."

Ned furrows his brows at her, "you have friends?"

"Peter calls me MJ," she retorts, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. 

Ned turns to Peter with a look of disbelief. 

Peter laughs, confirming, "I call her MJ."

"Are you okay?" Ned asks Peter, but Peter can already see the acceptance in Ned's eyes so he just shrugs.

"MJ's pretty cool." 

"Fine," Ned sighs at that, then turns to face the girl, "But there's a few things you need to know, namely, don't ever insult Star Wars, but more importantly, if you ever do anything to hurt Peter-"

"Dude, Ned- "

"I'm serious Peter. She better not-"

"Okay, got it," MJ interrupts, sounding very unimpressed, "Anything else I need to know? Like on Wednesday, do we always wear pink? Or was the weird shovel talk it?"

Ned scowls at her, but doesn't say anything more.

A few moments later, after everyone's grabbed their luggage, Mr. Harrington guides them into the lodge and hands them their assigned rooms. It's two or more to a room. 

"Room 616?" MJ raises a brow at the number on Peter's key card when she sees it. "That's the sixth floor. Did Mr. Harrington make a mistake?"

"Dude! Those are like the equivalent to pent house suits! That has got to be wrong!" Ned adds, eyes bulging. 

Peter doesn't disagree with them. There's no way he could possibly be assigned to a room that likely costs more than he paid for this entire trip. "Uh... think I should go ask Mr. Harrington?" 

MJ shakes her head, "I saw him run off to bathroom a few minutes ago. You know how late he runs whenever he has a 'little business to take care of'. He probably won't be back for another hour."

Peter laughs and Ned cracks a smile. 

"Well, if you want, you can always chill with me until he gets back? I'm rooming with Abraham, and he's not bad company," Ned suggests with a shrug.

"Yeah," MJ nods, "or me."

Peter and Ned give her a funny look. 

As if just realizing her mistake, but too stubborn to retract her offer, MJ shrugs, folding her arm across her chest, "the idea that a boy and girl can't share a room for five minutes without anything weird happening is totally archaic." 

"Well...um..." Peter's cheeks tint a slight red as he tries to erase the image of him and MJ doing anything weird together. "Maybe I'll just check it out? You know? Just to confirm? Then I'll head back down and hopefully by then Mr. Harrington will be back and we can correct things. It'll give you guys time to settle down as well."

"You sure, Peter?" Ned asks one last time.

Peter nods at them both. "Yeah, I'm sure. Go relax you guys." He turns, waving to them as he makes his way to the elevator.