All These Years

“Hi Peter!”

It took everything in Michelle’s power for her mouth not to drop. Of course he wasn’t waving to her, but instead to his precious Liz. Michelle couldn’t even pretend to be shocked because everyone knew Peter has liked Liz since the beginning of time. Well, not the beginning of time exactly, but ever since she moved two doors down from him while she was in the fourth grade and he was in the third and despite her being a grade above him they always seemed pretty inseparable. Or at least that was how it seemed to Michelle. Before her family moved a few blocks away, Michelle lived in the same neighborhood as them--along with Ned and Flash--and she’d always see the quartet playing at the neighborhood’s playground together.

This was before they forgot about the concept of cooties so, Flash being Flash, he spent most of his time making fun of Peter for inviting a girl to play with them. Peter was never one to be argumentative, but Michelle vividly remembered seeing him stick up for Liz on multiple occasions and in return she’d let him ride her bike. Looking back at it, it was actually quite cute because Peter wasn’t aware that he liked Liz. There wasn’t no feelings, no coming of age pressures to get a girlfriend. Everything just seemed like a natural friendship.

But boy oh boy, when he crush did start to develop for Liz, he started to become aware all at once. It was like those years of wholesome, adolescent friendship disappeared. It was like he hardly knew the beautiful girl that stood before him. He could barely speak without stuttering or muster up the courage to talk to her without feeling stupid or like an overly eager idiot--which in hindsight made it a bit more understandable as to why he seemed so frantic while waving.

But when Michelle turned around and saw a bright-eyed and bushy tailed Liz waving back almost as eager a Peter Parker was; she became all too aware that Liz didn’t think he looked like a goofy, lame dork. Instead she thought it was endearing and honestly? Deep down that made Michelle feel like crap.

“Hey Michelle!” Liz smiled and skipped past Michelle. “I’m on my way to talk to Peter and Ned if you want to come with.” She turned around and walked backwards while using her thumb to point to where Peter and Ned stood.

“With those two losers?” She slipped defensively without giving her words much thought. “I think I’ll just find my way to first period, but thank you.” She glanced behind Liz once more, but now saw the two nerds who were now preoccupied with some kind of Lego structure. “I’m gonna go now.” She cut the conversation short before Liz had the chance to persist and made her way towards the double doors and entered the building.

‘Can this school get any bigger?’ She thought to herself  as she watched a sea of, what looked like a mix of confused and overzealous freshman, bombard and over populate the poor teachers that were on guidance duty. Sure, they were smiling and on the outside seemed enthusiastic to start the new school year, but Michelle couldn’t imagine how they felt on the inside. So many voices, so many different questions coming from different directions. She could scream and she wasn’t even the one being bombarded. Just the mere thought of having fifty students in your face at once made her antsy--she didn’t even like having one student in her face. With that being said, Michelle took her schedule out of her bag. Today she only had 4 classes; Band and English in the morning, Lunch, and then Math and Gym in the afternoon.

‘503’ Michelle’s lips parted as she read the room where her band class would be held. It should be easy finding the room considering there were literally room numbers and arrows pointing in almost every direction of the school. All she had to do was find the 500 wing and she’d be fine. She walked past the crowd of students and shook her head in disbelief. She understood that it was the first day of school, but she couldn’t understand how students could get lost.

Just. Read. The. Signs.

***

“Hi Michelle,” Michelle turned around once she heard her name and watched Ned shyly give her a small smile along with a wave. In return, she gave him a small head nod as she rose her eyebrows. “So,” Ned inched closer, “would you mind if Me and Peter sit next to you? It looks like you’re the only person in this class that we actually know--or that actually likes us.” He let out breathy, slightly embarrassed, chuckle. Michelle squinted her eyes and furrowed her brows; Ned and Peter have never been embarrassed about not knowing anybody--or so she thought. To her it seemed like they were in their own little geeky world.

“Does it look like my name is on those chairs?” She scoffed. “You can do whatever you want, Ned. Don’t be so scary.” Without another word, she went back to the book that she brought from home while Ned turned around and signaled Peter over.

“M-Michelle,” Peter tripped over his words and cleared his throat. He still felt kind of weird about yesterday, but it was bothering him even more that he didn’t know if Michelle was good or not. She just ran off without a word and when he was waving to her she blew him off. “How are you?”

Michelle closed her book, but kept her thumb in the middle as her bookmark. “Good?” She stated more as question rather than an answer. She was starting to feel suspicious of Peter’s sudden interest in her wellbeing. “Why do you care?” She slouched down into her seat. Despite what her body language may scream; she honestly wasn’t trying to sound harsh. But at the same time it wasn’t like he asked her before.

“I-I was just wondering that’s all.” Peter squeaked and slapped his hand on top of his forehead. ‘Stupid puberty,’ He thought.

“Well, I have to go to the bathroom before class starts...I’ll uh, be right back.” Ned faced Peter’s direction before getting up and slapping Peter on his leg. He widened his eyes, trying to say “Dude!” without the words actually leaving his mouth.

In return, Peter’s eyes widened in the same fashion, but this time to say “I’m trying!” Ned shook his head in dissatisfaction, rose from his chair and scooted pass Peter. Ned was far from a Fabio when it came to girls, in fact if he was in Peter’s situation he’d probably pee his pants by now. However, he was one heck of a half hypeman, half wingman and as both he hated to see Peter strike out (like he usually did) so this time he was going to make sure he did better. Plus, that way he could live vicariously through Peter’s love life.

Ned had only left for three minutes before their band teacher made him come inside after watching him stare at Peter and Michelle. It was a painfully long three minutes for both Peter and Michelle and Ned. Peter sat their awkwardly watching his two thumbs circle around each other over and over again while Michelle sat their engulfed in her book. One could say she forgot that Peter--scratch that--that the entire class was there. Which clearly, was the problem.

“Hey, I’m back.” Ned stood next to the end seat. “Hey Peter, do you think I could sit there and you sit in the middle?” He started. “I drank a lot of water before class and...well, you know.” He shrugged.

Peter looked at the seat next to him. The seat next to Michelle and then back at Ned. For a guy that was so smart he was oblivious to Ned’s plan, but nonetheless that was his friend and he wasn’t going to stand in the way of him and his peeing needs so he switched seats.

***

Band class was boring like most classes on the first day of school. All the teacher did was read the syllabus and state the same obnoxiously long list of classroom rules that faculty has drilled into their heads since Kindergarten. Long story short, Peter was more than happy that the bell rung, but he wasn’t leaving this classroom until he said something to Michelle.

“So..” He started. “Mi-Michelle… you hair. It’s different.”

‘Different Parker? That’s the best you could come up with?’