Groaning, I dropped my backpack onto the seat next to Peter.
Last night had been a long one. After May came home, Peter Ned and I spun our tale: after trying to print out an interview for our project, the paper had caught fire, and then the printer wouldn't work.
I felt bad lying to May, but it was the best thing to do to keep her safe.
MJ, who was sitting across the aisle from me, leaned her head on her hand, staring at me.
"Hey. You look like you stayed up all night." she noticed, and I smiled grimly.
"How did you guess?" I asked wryly, and MJ snorted.
Ms Warren cleared her throat, drawing most everyone's attention, and interrupting MJ as she opened her mouth to speak.
Turning to the front of the class, the last few people fell silent.
"Alright class, before we get into today's work, we have an announcement. As you may or may not know, Midtown's final football game is this week against Manhattan High. A few of the team members have put together a petition of sorts to get the local heroes Spider-Man and the Black Cat to attend." Flash shifted smugly in his seat. "I have been asked to pass the petition around, so we'll give five minutes for that. Flash, you can come up and talk a little more about the game."
"Wait, how was the Weaver not included?" Aura whispered, sounding mildly offended.
Flash was the school quarterback, and shockingly, a very good one. He didn't look super athletic, which was the only main reason it was at all shocking.
Standing up, Flash walked down to the front of the class as Ms Warren handed off the petition.
"Most of you guys have been to a football game before, but this one is different," Flash said, and I was startled by how passionate he sounded. "This is the last game, and if we win, we win the championship." a couple people in the classroom started clapping.
The petition reached me, and I frowned, unsure if I should sign it or not. Glancing at Peter, I raised an eyebrow as if to ask if we should sign. He gave a quick nod and I scrawled my name in the second to last space on the page, passing it to Peter.
Dropping the three pages already filled back to the clipboard, Peter passed the petition back to the front, where Flash took one look at it and beamed.
"Woo! Thanks Parker!" he yelled, and practically skipped over to the door and pulled it open, hurrying out.
"You could still come anyways." I pointed out, and Aura snorted.
"Looks like you've got an admirer." Harry said, and Peter looked appalled.
"What? Flash hates me!" he protested and I laughed.
"But he loooovvvves Spider-Man," Aura pointed out, and Peter sighed.
Lunch came around quickly and I found myself sliding down the bench to sit across from MJ. She was buried in a book, a few stray curls peeking out from her ponytail.
"Hey." I said, smiling at her as I pulled apart my taquito.
MJ glanced up and gave me a small smile before glancing at my tray. "Why do you do that?" she asked, pointing at my gutted taquito.
"I don't like the tortilla's, and Ned'll eat them for me." I shrugged, and MJ shook her head, laughing a little.
Down the table Harry and Aura were chatting happily with Peter and Ned.
"Hey, uh, how are you, you know, holding up, I guess?" she asked, clearly in unfamiliar territory.
"Oh, the bathroom thing... Yeah, uh, I'm better, so that's good," I offered, and MJ nodded. "What about you? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I added hastily.
"No no it's fine!" she said, closing her book, Four Past Midnight by Stephen King, and set it down. "We uh, we expected my uncle to have more time, but he, well," her voice cracked, and on instinct, I reached out, putting my hand over hers. she smiled gratefully and cleared her throat, trying to make her face impassive. "He had only been home for two days when, uh, I went in, and uh, he wasn't moving." MJ said, voice dropping lower and lower as she spoke. And finally her voice cracked. "The funeral is a few weeks from now. I didn't even get to know him..." she said, wiping her eyes hastily.
"Oh my gods MJ I am so so sorry, are you okay? What can I do to help?" I asked, and MJ glanced around, making sure no one had seen her cry. Her comment about not knowing her dad confused me, but I decided not to pry, and instead gave her a comforting smile.
"Be there." she croaked, giving me a watery smile. "Please."
I lunged across the table all of a sudden, flinging my arms around my friend. The table screeched as it slid a few inches and no more than four people glanced our way, not including Peter, Ned, Aura and Harry that is.
"Of course, I'll always be there for you." I smiled, giving MJ my most winning smile, and she snorted lovingly.
"Sometimes you're so cheesy, Gwen, It's so off brand for you." she said, and sighed. "Honestly, I just want to take my mind off this for a while..." she sighed, and I nodded, offering up a small smile.
"How about you and I hang out after school? We could go shopping and hang out in the Rockefeller centre," I suggested, and MJ nodded, not so discreetly wiping at her eyes.
As if I summoned it, the lunch bell rang, and we went off to class. The hallways were loud and noisy, and like the first day of school, someone was flying a drone around. Unconsciously, I reached behind me and took MJ's hand, squeezing it comfortingly as we pushed through the crowd to P.E
For P.E, Coach Wilson had set up yoga mats about three feet apart, and had the tv set out again.
Thankfully, Captain America didn't pop up on the screen, just an old yoga video.
The whole class, I tried not to giggle as me and my classmates tried to fold ourselves into whatever pose the woman on the screen was doing.
The video ended before class was actually over, so for the last few minutes people sat around, chatting about their lives and what they were gonna do after the game.
"Hey MJ, so, after school what do you wanna do?" I asked MJ, as she tried to tame her wildly curly hair.
"Thrifting is pretty fun." she thought aloud. "Maybe we could go thrifting on our way to Rockefeller centre?" she suggested, and I nodded.
"Ooh! That's a good idea! Uhh, maybe then we could go into Forever 21, I know they have one around there, and try on the most ridiculous clothes we can find!" I suggested, and MJ snorted.
"That sounds weirdly fun," she allowed, and I nodded. "Then after that maybe we get some food and then plan out a world takeover!" MJ joked, pulling a funny face and I couldn't help the cackle that escaped me.
"Your face!! Oh my gods you made this face!" I laughed, pulling an exaggerated version of the face she made.
"Wait, what about this one?" MJ asked, and turned, making another face.
"Hmmm," I made a show of pretending to think. "I'll give this one an eight out of ten." I said, raising my nose snootily, and MJ laughed.
"Hey guys!" Ned exclaimed, dragging Peter over. "What's going on?" he asked cheerily, and Aura and Harry walked over to join us.
"We're making funny faces." I giggled.
"And then ranking them." MJ added.
"Sooo, like this?" Ned asked, and then made a strange face. MJ and I stared for a moment before nodding simultaneously.
"Five." we said, and Ned laughed. I glanced behind him and Peter who was not so obviously staring at MJ.
I frowned, I knew exactly why he was staring, but I tried to ignore it, and we continued along with the game until class ended - Harry ended up winning with the highest score of twelve.
For the rest of the day, I felt a mix of impatient, giddy, and nervous. I was super excited to hang out with MJ, and thus ready for school to end, but I was very nervous that I'd say something wrong.
Then finally, after what seemed like the longest school day ever, the bell rang, and MJ and I left the building, laughing and talking together.
The journey to Rockefeller Plaza was not a very direct one, and we ended up shopping in several more thrift stores than anticipated.
"Hey Gwen, over here!" MJ said, from the other side of a clothing rack, and I walked around the corner.
MJ wrestled with something, and then held her hands up, showing off the jacket she found. "Ta-da!! I thought you might like it, cause it matched your aesthetic." she said, and I stared for a moment.
The leather jacket looked to be about the right size, and it was super awesome.
"MJ, this is amazing! Thank you!" I said, hugging her, and MJ laughed.
"It's only a jacket." she said, but her smiled betrayed her.
"Here come on, look what I found!" I said, leading MJ to the aisle of shoes. A perfectly good pair of army boots were sitting there, a little scuffed but in otherwise great condition.
MJ tried them on, and satisfied they fit, we went up to the front and paid for our things. We left the thrift store and paused to cram our new stuff into the already almost full bags.
"We're not buying anything in Forever 21 right?" MJ asked, and I shook my head.
"Nooooo, no no no. Don't worry. This stop is pure fun." I said, and pressed the button to cross the street.
The store had mostly white interiors, and was pretty large.
"So, what's our goal?" MJ asked, staring around.
"We find the most ridiculous things we can, and then try them on to out crazy each other." I explained, and MJ nodded.
"May the craziest outfit win."
I won the first round, with a light blue top that had no back save a set of strings matching the 'sleeves' and hung down like a bandana, paired with jeans that had no front to them, and buckled platform sandals with some sort of wicker material matched with light blue plaid for a terrible colour scheme.
MJ won next with a super tight dress in a sock like material she dubbed 'sock dress'. The pattern was geometric shapes in vomit colours. Regurgitated pea green, puke orange, barf pink, etc etc. It was so terrible it didn't need shoes to go with it.
MJ won again after that, and we made it the final round so we could go eat. She came out wearing what the tag said was a 'tye dye tie back cropped cami' and 'tye dye shorts' to match.
They were mostly orange, and the tie on the shirt hung down messily.
We changed back to our normal clothes, and left in search of food.
There was a Thai food restaurant nearby, and we ended up going there. The food was amazing, and I sent the location to MJ so she could bring her mom back.
"This was fun!" MJ said, staring out at the darkening city. "It really helped take my mind off things." she said, and I nodded.
"I know how you feel." I said, and we fell into an awkward silence.
"My dad left when I was young." MJ said out of the blue, and I stopped eating. "He showed up a few months ago saying he wanted to get to know me but mom wouldn't let him. Last week, we got a call from the hospital, say that he was brought in after collapsing on the subway. We found out why he wanted to get to know me, he was dying. I spent a lot of time at the Hospital just talking with him, and when he was sent home I thought we'd get more time to get to know each other, but...." she trailed off here pushing what was left of her food around on her plate.
I wanted to say I was sorry, that I knew how she felt, but when I lost a family member, none of that had been comforting. So instead I said what I wish I heard. "Hey, I'm here for you. No matter what. If you need something let me know, and I'll be there for you." I smiled, and MJ swiped at her eyes hastily.
"Thanks," she smiled, and we finished the meal in a much more comfortable silence.
Once the meal was done, we paid and left, heading back to the Rockefeller centre.
"So, is your mom gonna pick you up?" I asked, and MJ shook her head.
"No, mom doesn't pick me up, I walk." she said, and I got the feeling that applied to everything.
She waved, crossing the street and heading off, and I was about to leave when I saw someone follow her. He had been leaning against the of the store across the street, and when MJ passed, he followed. I glanced around, running into the nearest empty alley I could find and changing. It didn't take long, and soon I was swinging off after MJ, lugging several bags of thrift store goods behind me.
I was getting tired of this guy, so I dropped the thrift store bags on a nearby roof, and then jumped down behind the man.
"Hey bub." I said, and he turned. "Why are you following her?" I asked, and the man panicked, whipping a knife out of his pocket. I ducked, easily, and caught his wrist, disarming him quickly.
With a glance between me and MJ, the man took a few steps back, and then ran.
"Don't let me catch you following anyone else around, got it?" I yelled after him, and then turned to MJ. "Have a nice night." I smiled, and then swung off.
Once I was sure MJ was gone, I retrieved the thrift store bags from the roof I left them on, making sure nothing was missing. I swung back to my building, changed in the alley, and then headed inside. The lobby was warmer compared to the chilly night air, and the sounds of New York followed me inside.
My apartment was quiet, and I dropped the bags off on the couch, replaced my suit in my bag, and went into my room.
Thankfully, I'd had it on me, or something might have gone wrong.
000
From his hiding place on the building across the street, Norman Osborn in his Green Goblin costume watched as the Black Cat swung after a girl with thrift store bags and a backpack. She had been following along for several blocks now, after dropping something off on a rooftop.
If it weren't for his plan tomorrow he'd have taken care of the pesky superhero already.
The Midtown Science badge on the girl's backpack drew Osborns attention, and he smiled. This might not have been a waste of time after all.
After a few quick words, the man following the student was disarmed, and he was running away.
Making a mental note of what the girl looked like, the Green Goblin turned, and left. Thanks to the Black Cat, he had leverage.