Rollercoaster - Peter Parker

02. Observing

MJ held the book in her hand so tightly that her knuckles started turning white while her face turned red in anger. She was happy that out of all the days Peter didn't take the bus, that particular day was the one.

She whipped her head around, glaring at Flash and the other boys. "What did you just say?" she asked slowly but with an obvious edge to her voice.

The boys slowly turned their heads towards Flash, clearly not wanting to be under Michelle's wrath. Flash chuckled, shaking his head. "How didn't you know? Aren't you, like, in love with Parker or something?" he scrunched his nose at her, making a face. "Didn't know you were gay, Michelle..."

MJ wiped her hands on her pants calmly, quickly switching to a seat across the aisle from Flash. She leaned close to his ear, speaking through clenched teeth. "Listen here, Flash. Parker has a first name, and it isn't Penis, it's Peter. Maybe you should start respecting people's pronouns before I walk into the main office tomorrow and casually bring up with the secretary that I heard some transphobic, disgusting talk on the bus ride home that was directed at my friend. What's his name, Flash? It's Peter."

She leaned back from the boy's ear, raising her eyebrows in a challenging manner at Flash's posse who were staring at her. Flash himself was wide eyed and unable to speak for a few seconds because of shock. Finally, it was MJ's stop, and she stood up with her bag slung over her shoulder and patted Flash hard on the back.

"And, don't think I won't hesitate, Flash. There are cameras all around this bus," she pointed to one positioned directly at them. "and they can play back audio... even audio from months back. You wouldn't want that getting to our principal, now would you?" she kindly asked, walking away from them slowly. She turned her head to look at the other members of his group, and she pointed at them accusingly. "That goes for the rest of you, too. You better start respecting Peter before the school administrators have something to do with it."

-

After finishing homework that night, Peter and Ned were hanging out in Peter's bedroom. Ned was always at Peter's house, and that night they were busy testing out the superhero's suit's new settings and powers.

Ned was always at the Parker's household, but most Thursdays during the first months of the school year, he always stayed late and most times stayed the night. May had put herself out in the dating world again, and at the end of Peter's summer, she announced that she met a nice woman while on her lunch break at work.

The two, May and Harper, hit it off quickly and began dating shortly afterwards. Thursdays were date night, so Peter always invited Ned over.

"You still haven't told me, ya know," Ned causally said, glancing around Peter's room. Peter took off his Spider-Man mask, shaking out his hair.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, skillfully climbing up the wall onto the ceiling. He saw Ned reaching for Caden's sweatshirt, and he shot out a web to take it out of his reach.

"That!" Ned exclaimed, gesturing wildly to the sweatshirt. "Dude, that's Caden's sweater, why do you have it?"

Peter landed on his bedroom floor without making a sound. He nodded, blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact with Ned. "Y-Yeah, I know it is. He just offered it to me when mine was trashed from the lunch incident."

Ned nodded understandingly then, because Peter was his best friend, he smirked jokingly at him. "So, you didn't even give it back to him in chem? It's last period... You know, it's actually kind of funny that we all have chemistry together. Well, you and Caden definitely do, and I'm just there watching like you guys are some lovers in a movie or something."