She Hates Me
She Hates Me
Peter Parker, high school sophomore at Midtown High and the superhero known as Spider-Man. There were some days where he still couldn't believe it. He was a freshman when he was bitten by that radioactive spider at the radiology exhibit. From that moment on, he life hadn't been the same.
If Peter was being honest, he would say that his luck since then had been up and down. There were times when he was at the peak of 'holy shit, this is awesome', like when he help Mr. Stark and the rest of his team fight and apprehend Captain America and the Rogue Avengers. There were also times when he was at the depths of 'holy shit, I'm gonna die', like when he was trapped under several tons of rubble after confronting Vulture at his hideout.
He felt comfortable knowing that there wasn't anyone else at the school who had quite as many highs and lows as he did. The worst part was that there weren't too many people who he could talk to that would understand what he was going through. The list of people who knew his secret was short: Tony Stark, Happy Hogan, his best friends since second grade Ned Leeds, the fucking Vulture, and his aunt May. In that order, actually. On that list, only one understood completely what being a superhero and trying to juggle that with a civilian life with important people was all about. It was too bad he was busy trying to guide the world into a better future.
Thus, Peter didn't have anyone he could go to for advise on how to be a better hero. This wasn't really a 'learn as you go' kind of job. Or, at least it shouldn't have been.
Oh, well. He had the suit. He had Karen. Ned was his guy-in-the-chair. He had been doing pretty well for himself this far, and he was getting better everyday. Both experience wise, and strength. His powers were becoming stronger. His spider-sense was becoming more acute as he got older and used it more. It had saved his life, literally, more times than he could remember. He had no idea how many thugs still used guns nowadays.
Peter sighed. With the excitement and danger he knew was expecting him later on that day, school just didn't do it for him anymore. Of course, he that he needed it to have a good future in case heroics weren't in the cards , but it was just so boring.
Like, right then, he was sitting in Mrs. Toller's history class, listening to her wax poetically about how amazing Tony Stark was and how much of a disgrace Steve Rogers was. Of course, as if the subject matter wasn't biased enough, she was wearing arc reactor earrings and most like had that ridiculous 'I </3 Stucky' shirt on under her blouse. (Ever since it was found out that Rogers' actions were to save his friend, many people – mostly women – paired them together. Unfortunately, May was one of them.) He loved Mr. Stark – he was his favorite hero growing up – but this was a little much. She had graphs and everything.
He shook his head and drowned her out. Across the room, his friend, Michelle Jones, had her nose in whatever book she was reading. He liked MJ. Not like, liked her liked her, but liked her as a friend. She was cool, funny, witty, didn't take shit from anyone; basically the kind of girl a guy like him would like as a friend. She was also kind of weird, but then again, who wasn't around New York City.
Mrs. Toller turned her back to write something on the smartboard, so Peter took that chance to pull his phone out of his pocket. He kinda liked taking pictures of MJ. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was very photogenic. He took one every chance he got. The downside was that she may have not known he was taking these pictures of her. That was because otherwise, she wouldn't let him take any, so he didn't have a choice!
With practiced stealth, he lined up and snapped a picture of MJ while she was busy reading her book. It was a good one. Very clear and got a very good look at her long legs. Ah, that was to say it got all of her in the picture. Heh.
He put his phone away. When he straightened back up, MJ was writing something down on a piece of paper. Oh shit, did Mrs. Toller finally get back to the lesson at hand, Alexander the Great's conquest of the known world?
Nope. Now, she was on to why Steve Rogers should have been tried for treason. He sighed again and let his pen drop to the desk. The very next second, something hit him in the head. What the – It was a paper airplane. Okay, weird.
He unfolded it to find a note from MJ. 'Get out of my school.' What? He looked up at her, only to find her grinning at him and flipping him off.
Okay, what? It could have just been a joke, knowing MJ, but why? Peter shook his head and stuffed the note down into his backpack.
It was the kind of thing to be expected from her. She had a very... acrid sense of humor. She often preferred to use cutting sarcasm as her weapon of choice when making jokes. Stuff like this fell right in her wheelhouse. Still, he couldn't stop himself from feeling a little... what, hurt(?) over the joke. It wasn't really all that cruel. To anyone else, it would have been pretty funny. Still, with MJ... And he didn't even know why he felt that way. He just did.
When he told Ned about it, he shrugged it off. “Dude, it's just MJ being MJ. Don't sweat it too much.”
That was easy for him to say, but he was probably right. “Yeah, you're right.” He sighed and smoothly navigated the crowded halls on the way to their next class. “So—” He stopped abruptly when he saw MJ standing in front of her open locker, shoving books inside her bookbag. “Be right back.”
He didn't know why he was making such a big deal about that note from earlier. It was likely just a joke, and like Ned said, he shouldn't have sweated it so much. He just couldn't help it, though. At the very least, he needed to confirm it was a joke so he could figure out how to get her back. She was extremely sharp, so he needed to be on his game to get one over on her.
“Sup, dork?” she greeted him in her usual manner.
With anyone else, he would have taken offense and gotten annoyed with being called a dork. With her, he just, like, allowed it to happen. He didn't even know why. It sounded like a compliment when she said it. Or, at least that was what he convinced himself was the reason. “Sup yourself. Are we passing notes in class now, MJ?”
She shrugged. “Dunno. I just wanted you to know how I really felt.”
That, for some reason, sent him into an internal panic. Did MJ not really like him? He thought they were friends. He and Ned agreed it was a joke, but what if it wasn't? What if MJ really didn't want him around her anymore? She was smiling when she flipped him off, but she only smiled when she was insulting someone. Oh crap. “Wait, I thought we were friends,” he uttered with a confused frown.
“I gave you my nickname, didn't I?”
Yeah, she did. She didn't have too many friends. The only ones who called her MJ were he, Ned, and the rest of the decathlon team. It was like some sacred privilege to call Michelle MJ, and he was one of the chosen ones. “Well, yeah,” he answered. His eyes trailed to the floor out of embarrassment. He couldn't believe he thought MJ didn't like him anymore. What a ridiculous thing to get worked up over.
“Jeez, lighten up, Parker. It was a joke.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head before shutting her locker.
“Oh.” Yeah, just like Ned said. Which meant this entire conversation was all for nothing. He probably looked like a complete loser for even bringing it up. Then again, MJ already thought he was a loser, so this probably only confirmed it. He should probably have said something else. “Oh, right! Yeah.” He laughed, but that didn't stop or hide the light red blush crawling across his cheeks. “Well, I-I'll see you at practice after school.”
“Yep. Don't skip this time, or I will hunt you down.” Her eyes narrowed into her signature squint so he knew she was serious.
“I'll be there. I promise.” He meant it. He knew he was letting the team down, but some things just couldn't be helped. He was going to be there this time, though. His Uncle Ben taught him that a man had fewer things more valuable than his word. He didn't make it a habit to break his promises.
“Good. I'm gonna ride you pretty hard today. Just so you know.”
Ho-holy shit! Peter's brain slowly tried to comprehend what the fuck had just came out of MJ's mouth. Please don't think dirty thoughts. Please don't think dirty thoughts. Please don't think dirty thoughts. MJ riding me hard. Goddamn it, brain! Stop thinking about MJ bouncing on my—gah! His face felt like he was standing in front of a furnace. “I-I-I'm okay with that,” he stammered. Rather dreamily, in fact. No! This is MJ, Peter! Stop!! “With you riding me, I mean.” NOOO! “At practice!” SERIOUSLY, PARKER?! “Asking questions at practice! I-I'm okay with you asking...”
He just stopped talking. It was always a problem. Whenever he got nervous, he starting chattering away with out a filter. More often than not, it made a complete fool out of him.
He and MJ just stared at each other for a good ten seconds. Maybe he was seeing things, but it looked like she was blushing. “Get your mind out of the gutter, dweeb. You know what I meant.” With one final shake of her head, she walked to her next class.
MJ shrugged it off, thank god. He watched her leave, a little too closely for his own good. “I'll be ready!” he called after her.
“We'll see about that!”
Peter hustled to his next class and made it just before the bell rang. He took his usual seat next to Ned and held his head to compose himself. The thoughts he thought were dangerous. MJ was his friend and he had dirty thoughts about her. Like, super extra dirty.
There was no denying that MJ was pretty. Very pretty in fact, in a natural kind of way. Like, she was one of those girls who was blessed with not needing to wear makeup. Her very casual sense of dress was charming in its own unusual way. Plus, her mysterious personality gave her this alluring quality that left Peter with the urge to just... sit down and figure her out.
That was totally normal for a teenage boy to think about a platonic female friend that way. And that was what MJ was, a platonic female friend.
“Dude, everything cool?” Ned whispered.
“Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine. It was just a joke,” he whispered back, confirming what they speculated earlier.
“See, told you. You gonna be at practice today?”
“Yeah. I promised MJ I would.” There was no reason to include that in the answer. A simple yeah would have sufficed.
Ned looked at him curiously, but thankfully said nothing more.
The final bell rang and Peter and Ned made their way to the library for practice. Peter failed miserably every time he tried to think clean, pure thoughts about MJ. What she said just had him completely shaken. Even if she didn't mean it the way his dirty teenage boy mind tried to imply, it was impossible to separate the intention from the implication.
He didn't know how he was going to get through practice without making an ass out of himself. This is gonna suck.
When he arrived, his eyes immediately zeroed in on MJ. Man, she was just so great. For no particular reason outside of those stated earlier, of course.
“Get over here, Parker,” she ordered as soon as she saw him.
Okay, here we go, Peter. Please don't make an ass out of yourself. Please. “You didn't even say it right,” he remarked with a growing grin as he stepped up to and sat down in his usual seat.
She just raised an eyebrow.
“You know... Get over here,” he rumbled, doing his best impersonation of the second best Mortal Kombat character behind Sub-Zero. Why he did that around other people, he had no idea, and likely never would. Everyone already thought he was the biggest nerd in school. This only solidified that notion. “You know, Scorpion?” he felt the need to clarify for some reason. “Mortal Kombat? Yellow guy with a chain spear?”
“Ah. This city was Russia's only open port that was usable year round during WWI.”
“Social science,” he sputtered, eyes slightly widened. That was, unarguably, his worse subject. It wasn't that it was hard, but it was hard for him to pay attention. He was much more into math and actual science. Specifically chemistry.
“Yep.”
He sighed tersely and tilted his head down to think. “Ah... crap... Vladivostok?”
She nodded. “Vladivostok couldn't handle Entente shipments during WWI for this reason?”
“Insufficient capacity on the trans-Siberian railway.”
“Russia could not use its Black Sea ports during WWI for this reason.”
“The ottomans controlled the Black Sea.”
“These two northern Russian ports lacked a railway system to transport supply shipments during WWI.”
Ah, crap. Another tough one. Russian was pretty tough, so remembering all those names was hard for him. “Uh... ah... Murmansk and... Angel?”
“Archangel.”
“Ah, right.” He raised an eyebrow and smirked somewhat cockily. “Come on, MJ. I thought you were going to grill me.”
“Cocky little shit, aren't you?” She shuffled through the cards some. “Austria-Hungary's GDP per capita was this percentage of its 1913 level in 1918.”
His face went completely blank. The only thing worse that trying to remember foreign names was trying to remember all of these percentages. “Uh... 64%?”
“66. Galacia supplied this proportion of Austria-Hungary's grain before WWI.”
“One-third.”
They continued in this manner for the remainder of the practice. To his credit, Peter bounced back nicely after getting a few questions wrong. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. It was almost as if MJ was going easy on him despite what she said earlier. Michelle... riding... me... as... hard... as... she... can... Why brain? Why? I thought we were cool.
“Alright, nerd, you're off the hook.”
He sighed to release the tension that had been building up inside him. “Awesome! That wasn't so bad.”
“Yeah.”
He stood up and gathered his things. “Hey, you still coming over, right?” he asked Ned.
“Yep. I just got the new Millennium Falcon set in the mail yesterday. Wanna put it together?”
“Is the sky blue?” They laughed. Most boys their age were more interested in working out and dating girls and stuff like that. Not them. While most boys lost interest in legos years ago, their interest persisted. His interest in Star Wars actually started during the Battle in Leipzig. He mentioned the AT-AT walker and got curious about it. Once he watched Return of the Jedi, he was hooked. The original trilogy blew the prequels not just out of the water, but out of the solar system. Well, ROTJ and The Empire Strikes Back. A New Hope was the weakest of the three, in his opinion. “We should watch ROTJ again while we put it together,” he suggested.
Ned nodded in complete agreement. “Yeah. Wait, don't you have Rogue One, though? Let's watch that one, too.”
Rogue One was the best of the SW franchise, obviously. That scene with Darth Vader cutting through those poor, hapless rebel fighters was orgasm inducing. He was about to answer when MJ suddenly slugged him in the chest as hard as she could.
The wind was knocked completely out of him.
What the fuck? Why? He struggled to catch his breath. For a someone who was rather thin, Michelle could pack a punch. But, why the fuck did she just punch him randomly? Did he do something to piss her off this much? He just gawped at her. “Ow! What was that for?!”
She stared blankly at him for a few moments before answering, completely deadpan, “Good job.”
Good job? For what? Not passing out when she punched him for no freaking reason?? “Gee, thanks,” he muttered as he filed out.
“Dude, what the hell was that all about?”
“Who knows,” he answered tersely. It wasn't that he was angry, but more embarrassed and very confused. He thought that MJ was his friend, yet she punched him square in the solar plexus for no apparent reason. At least, no reason that he could figure out. Maybe she didn't like Star Wars. Or, maybe that was her way to congratulating him on answering most of her questions right.
If it was, she had a shitty way of congratulating people. Funny how she had never done something like that before.