Peter
Peter knew that he had a crush on MJ. Ned knew that Peter had a crush on MJ. Heck, the only person who seemed unaware, was probably MJ herself. And chances were that she knew, because she seemed to catch any and everything that happened around school (and perhaps the world). And also because she was Michelle freaking Jones. She who had figured out Spider-Man’s secret identity all by herself, and then didn’t say anything for a whole 2 months. She who had managed to find inconsistencies in a history textbook and gotten the publisher to fix the errors. MJ was a genius, and that was putting it lightly. And she was also beautiful. With that untamed hair and matching personality, narrowed eyes and a smirk that made anyone question their own worth, she wasn’t hot like a Hollywood star or a supermodel, but she was definitely, undoubtedly, unabashedly beautiful. It was common knowledge that people were either geniuses or lookers – nobody had the best of both worlds, because apparently the universe was fair that way. Well, Michelle Jones had never been one to follow rules.
“Sup Loser,” he heard from behind.
“MJ!” he grinned, turning around and shutting his locker. She was wearing a black jeans jacket that was littered with pins from protests and cool places she’d gone. Some of them were from different countries, and some of them were from kids that she’d taken care of during her monthly visits to homeless shelters, and she kept those in pristine condition. He could observe her for his entire life and always find something about her that intrigued him, and somehow he was content with that knowledge; yeah, he had it bad.
“How was the protest?” He hurriedly asked, falling into step beside her before he was caught staring. He’d wanted to go to that Big Pharma protest with her, but Mr Stark had called him in for a lab day, something about finding chemical applications for the Iron Man suits. She technically hadn’t even told him about it, but since becoming friends, remembering events that she was prone to attend became a lot easier.
“It was good,” she replied, rubbing some sleep from her eyes. “Nothing has changed, obviously, but at least we got our voices heard.”
“I wanted to go too,” he grumbled. “But Mr. Stark called me in to work on some chemical applications for his suits.”
“Well, you are a chem genius,” she rolled her eyes nonchalantly. Oh dear, he was definitely in love with this girl. Head over heels. His heart was hers, signed, sealed and delivered. “Why’d you wanna go anyways?” She continued. “Don’t normal meds have, like, zero effect on your crazy metabolism?”
“I mean, yeah,” he huffed. “That doesn’t make what they’re doing right, y’know?” He hoped to God that he didn’t sound like some self-righteous prick.
“Guys!” Oh thank God for Ned.
“Ned!” He grinned and reached to do their secret handshake. Ned looked worse for the wear, which was saying something because Peter knew that his handsome Filipino friend hadn’t been the one out late web-slinging.
“‘Sup Nerd?” MJ mused, giving him a hug.
“Oh. My. God.” Ned groaned. “I barely got 4 hours of sleep because of that frickin’ history paper.”
“Oh,” Peter laughed. “I finished that on Friday.”
“Well excuuuuuuuse me if I’m not a genius and happened to be busy binging Brooklyn-nine-nine!” He replied indignantly. “And who in their right mind gives people a weekend for 6 pages??”
Peter shook his head. How would he survive high school if Ned hadn’t been his anchor and main source of entertainment? Turning to MJ, he started to ask her something, but stopped when he realised all the colour had drained from her face.
“Um…MJ?” He started carefully, as if approaching a wounded animal. Of course, in a normal situation, he knew that she was anything but, but this didn’t strike him as a normal situation. “You good there?”
“Um…” She seemed to struggle. “I… I might have forgotten to do the essay…”
“What?!” Ned screeched, hands flying to his hair.
“I was busy prepping for the protest okay??” She argued, eyebrows knitted in frustration, probably already formulating a plan to bribe the teacher, commit murder or call in sick.
“But this is 40 per cent of our grade!”
“Gee, thanks for the reminder, Nerd!” Eyebrow raised, she dared him to remind him any more of her own predicament, and God did she look gorgeous under pressure.
“Um…” Peter interceded, hoping to diffuse any further argument. “You can use my outline.”
His 2 friends looked at him in disbelief, but no words were said, triggering his rambling tendencies.
“WELL, I mean I’ve got some extra quotes that I didn’t use, and I know that you’re a genius so you’ll be able to write it so it doesn’t come out as plagiarism. Not that you, of all people, would plagiarise, but I’ve pretty much outlined the arguments and the necessary facts and highlighted the quotes that I used so you can use the others.” He was sure his face resembled that of a lobster, and his hand was nervously scratching his neck. “I know you probably have a back up plan, and don’t need my help, so I’m gonna shut up n-”
“I love you.”
Peter froze. He could faintly see Ned gaping like a fish in the background. Slowly, he raised his eyes to meet hers. The usual mirth and humour was missing, replaced by a vulnerability that he’d never seen in her eyes, not that he tended to stare at her eyes a lot (he did). This was the most earnest she’d ever appeared to him, and it was almost disarming not to see the strong-willed calculating person that he’d grown accustomed to and fallen in love with.
“Wh-what?” Nicely done, Parker, very eloquent. Perfect time for the frog in his mouth to jump into his throat. C’mon, man, say something else. “Really?” Well, that was something else, but still, what the hell?
“Dude, don’t get an aneurism, it was a joke.”
And as quickly as he’d seen the look in her eyes, it was gone, the usual snarky MJ returned with full force. The mirth was back and the genius stared back at him, smirk playing on her lips.
“Uh-um. Right. Haha,” he forced out as he grinned through clenched teeth, ignoring the way his heart plummeted into his stomach, like an airplane taking an emergency landing. “Of course! Ha…Ha!” Sometimes he wished she wasn’t such a brilliant actor. Sometimes he wished she wasn’t so good at pushing his buttons. Sometimes he wished she wasn’t so goddamn good at everything.
MJ just rolled her eyes. “Outline? You were saying?”
“Right! Right! Here you go!” Dropping his backpack, he hurriedly reached in, pulled out a few crumpled sheets of paper, before stuffing them in MJ’s hands and rushing off, a speechless Ned on his tail.
“Dude!” He whispered, but Peter refused to look at him in the eyes. He couldn’t stand to be looked at with pity. Ned knew of his affection to MJ, and would undoubtedly be trying to offer sympathy. “Are you okay?”
“Of course,” he muttered. “Always.”