Sketching
Much to the observant girl’s disappointment, she didn’t actually miss her physics class. She had missed first period, homeroom announcements, and the bell to her second period class but overall the school day was far from over. It seemed that meeting the star-spangled man with a plan and the incident in D.C. turned her entire life upside down. Not only was she showing emotions she typically reserved but she now had all eyes on her as she tried to quietly close the classroom door and made her way to her seat.
Michelle looked down, readjusting the books in her hand as she mentally cursed herself for signing up for the AP environmental science class. It didn’t help that her friend was eyeing her questioningly from their shared table.
“Miss Jones, would you care to tell the class why you are late?” Mrs. Jameson questioned, a hand placed on her hip as she used the other one to gesture to the graph on the board.
Michelle froze and felt the blood drain from her face. This had never happened before, the eyes and the expectation of an answer. “S-Sorry, Mrs. Jameson. It won’t happen again.”
The woman looked at her for a second longer before nodding her head in the direction of her seat, silently ordering her to sit down and prepare for the rest of the lecture. Michelle happily obeyed, rushing to the back and sitting next to Liz.
“Mind telling me why getting a book took you so long?” Liz asked in a casual tone, doodling aimlessly on a piece of notebook paper. Mrs. Jameson had returned her attention to the bored, though none of the students seemed to be paying attention. Michelle swore she say Flash and Abe playing paper football in the corner.
Michelle huffed as she set down the books and took the pencil from behind her ear into her hand, joining the Liz’s swirls with a rough sketch of Mrs. Jameson with exaggerated features. “Ran into someone.”
A small smile found its way onto Liz’s face. “Is it a special someone? Betty’s going to start setting you up with guys from the business club if you don’t find a date for homecoming.”
Michelle shuddered. “Ugh. They’re all entitled rich kids. Besides, what if I wanted to bring a girl?”
Liz had to cover her mouth to stop a laugh from erupting in the middle of video regarding the test next Friday. “Not all of the business club is male, also that would give Betty even more reason to force you to go. She doesn’t want to be the only one there in a “not straight” couple.”
There was a pause.
“Wait, she asked Cindy?”
“Yep, in homeroom. It was cute, you should have been there.” It was said casually, but MJ could hear the sharpness at the end. It felt like a sting from a wasp.
Michelle looked down, moving on from her sketch that was a cross between the teach and a banshee to an empty are of the paper. “Let me guess, flowers were involved?”
“No actually, an old Avengers Valentine’s day card. Cartoon picture of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts on it that said, “You complete me.” in the middle.”
Michelle raised an eyebrow. “That worked?”
“No, they laughed at it then Betty told her they could make a better one before asking her to homecoming.”
Michelle let out a sound of approval before returning to her art of Betty and Cindy, drawing them, and adding the corny words from the card below it. Liz giggle under her breath before drawing a giant heart around it and commenting “I ship it” to the side. They continued drawing hearts around their new favorite couple until the bell rang, making the sound of shuffling feet and the squeak of chairs against the titled floor fill the room.
Liz slung her messenger backpack over her shoulder. “Hey, instead of regular practice tonight we’re going to have a team bonding night. The leadership books talk about bonding after erupt changes and how time of vulnerability can make a team stronger.”
“This is an excuse to make all of us watch Newsies, isn’t it?”
Liz opened her mouth, a look of slight annoyance on her face. “Okay, my life doesn’t revolve around musical-?”
Michelle pointed to her bag, littered with buttons from musicals she had seen on Broadway and pins she had collected from eBay when they sold out at the theater. Indignantly, Liz covered as many of the buttons as possible. “That is beside the point. We are meeting at Cindy’s house tonight at five, her parents already said yes. You’re going.”
Liz turned, rushing through the classroom with a blush. Not being able to help herself, Michelle yelled one last thing.
“As long as it’s not Newsies!”
Liz turned back before finally leaving the room. “We’re watching The Wiz and you’ll like it.”
Michelle fought the urge to laugh as she slowly followed the herd of others exiting the class room. She passed Mrs. Jameson who simply held out a piece of paper to the girl. Michelle took it, waiting until she had left the room to groan aloud.
Detention. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic.
She dragged her feet as she made her way to the room she’d been in multiple times for different reasons. The school’s “in class detention” policy was an excellent way to practice sketching emotion from people in crisis when she had a free period. Huh. This was in a way some twisted irony.
Walking in, she handed the slip of paper to the teacher, who genuinely did a double take. Yeah, Michelle was a lot of things but a trouble maker was not one of them so seeing her in detention was another example of how her life had been flipped upside down.
Without waiting for a response, she moved to sit in a desk in the back, only halting when she heard her name.
“Michelle?”
Michelle fought a smile, settling on a smirk instead. “Hey, loser. Whatta you in for?” She plopped down in the seat next to him, casually tossing her books on the small basket under the desk.
The boy’s arms were crossed on the desktop, his head was laying against them as if they were his makeshift pillow. “Missing the meet. I’m sorry about that by the way, it- There was a family issue.”
Michelle tried not to look at him, opening her sketch pad and making a rough outline. “Family issue? Your aunt was fine.”
Peter paused. “You know about my aunt?”
“You talk about her at lunch and she still packs your lunch, loser. She writes little notes on your napkin that you pretend not to care about, but I see you smile when you read them before eating.”
Peter looked shocked, giving the girl a once over. “How did you-?”
“I’m observant, loser.” She rolls her eyes, glancing at him before adding more detail to her sketch. She wouldn’t admit it aloud, but he wasn’t difficult to sketch from memory alone. It had to be more of her observation skills than anything else.
“What about you?” he asked after a moment.
“I was late to class,” she explained, working on the shading as the teacher set up the TV.
“No, I mean, what about you? You know so much about everyone but… I know next to nothing about you.”
Michelle looked up from her paper, speechless for a moment before slowly murmuring a, “Does that bother you?”
“The fact that I don’t know much about you? Kind of. I mean, you call the team your friends and you helped everyone after the Washington Monument but… it doesn’t seem fair? Why don’t we know about you? I know more about Flash than I know about you, which… is really saying something. I mean, I know your name is Michelle-.”
“MJ,” the girl said quickly. She looked back to her paper quickly as the boy’s eyes stayed glued to her face for a moment.
“I’m sorry, what?” He asked, wanting clarification.
“My name is Michelle, but I prefer my friends call me MJ. Michelle Jones. MJ. My initials. So, just say MJ.”
Peter looked at the front, seeing the teacher struggle with the TV and setting up the DVD.
“So, you’re admitting we’re friends?”
Michelle huffed in annoyance, turning fully to face him. “Yes. I am friends with you and the rest of the team. I don’t suffer through movie nights of musicals and burnt microwave popcorn for people I don’t at least tolerate. Now, keep that look on your face and stop moving. I’m trying to draw people in crisis and it doesn’t help when you fidget every other second.”
Peter smiled after half a second. “Sure, MJ. But, you’re telling me about this movie night. I’ve been in here since class started and I need to let May know if I’m not going to be home right away.”
Michelle nodded, accepting the conditions before returning to her art work.
“You need to hit the power button on the remote for the DVD player, Mr. Robinson.” Peter called to the struggling teacher, more in secondhand embarrassment at the middle-aged man not knowing how to work the somewhat old technology. Michelle fought a laugh as the teacher walked closer to Peter, who ended up setting up the video for him.
She was almost done with her masterpiece when she heard it.
“So, you messed up.”
She knew that voice. She looked up to see Captain America on screen in all his spandex wearing glory, sitting on a chair in the middle of a green-screen hallway. Snickering she pulled out her phone, taking a quick photo.
Peter glanced at he oddly, confused as to why the artist had stopped working. “What are you doing?”
“It’s an inside joke with a friend,” she whispered back, smiling at him before turning her attention back to her phone. It felt refreshing to act like this with someone that wasn’t Liz or Betty. It felt different though, good different.
She started the new message to S.R. Attaching the photo and writing her message.
They better have paid you big bucks to do this. I know you grew up in the depression, but geez man, your dignity is worth more than whatever they gave you.
She sent it before sending another message.
If I have to wear something like that, I would like to formally resign effective immediately.
The response she got came right as she finished up the shading on Peter’s Midtown sweater. She glanced up at her phone before signing the bottom of the piece and handing it to Peter for inspection. As he looked on in awe of her work, she snatched her phone and quickly read the reply.
Keep it up and you’ll be running more than just laps, foxglove. Maybe we’ll get you something with sequins.
She chuckled before turning her attention back to Peter. “Like it?”
He nodded slowly, still staring at it.
“You can keep it if you want. It was for practice more than anything else.”
Peter looked between her and the art for a moment before a grin graced his face and it looked like he had just been told he won the lottery. “Thanks, MJ.”
She attempted a smirk that somehow only showed itself as a shy smile. She’d given people her art work before, why did this feel so different? “No problem, loser.”
The feeling may be a problem, but oh well. She’d deal with it later.