"Parties aren't really my thing."
_____
WHEN MICHELLE went to school the next day, it was Friday, so the school was buzzing about parties, people talking about who was throwing them and who was going. Michelle heard her name thrown around a few times for those who would be going. She may be quiet and unnoticed, but everyone knows her name. After all, she did get the school to win Nationals last year at the Aca Deca, and now she was the captain of the team. For a school full of nerds, it was kind of a big deal.
In fact, today she was sitting at the table during lunch with last year's team.
"So, we are all staying on the team right? Aside from the seniors that graduated, of course." Cindy spoke up, looking around the table and eyeing the group of students. A chorus of yes' and yeah's came out and she smiled with satisfactory.
Flash, however, noticed how a certain student was rather quiet and zoned out. Peter Parker. "Peter!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers in front of the boy's face. Peter jumped, his eyes going round.
"Y-Yeah? What's up?" He asked, seeing the team staring at him from all directions at the long table.
"You're staying on the team, correct?" Cindy asked, her voice a bit sharp. If Peter didn't stay, they were screwed.
Peter perked up immediately, "Yeah! Of course!"
Michelle let out a small sigh of relief. Besides Functions class, and her occasional comments to he and he's during lunch, this was her only other opportunity to talk or see Peter. Then, she remembered how he ditched nationals last year.
"You won't y'know... skip out on nationals, right?" She asked, her voice low when she spoke to him. Peter turned his gaze to Michelle, who was sitting across from him at the table.
Shaking his head, he quickly said, "no, I promise. I won't skip out!" He told her, her eyebrows raising before she simply shrugged.
"You promised. Better not break it." Michelle stated, before getting into a conversation with Cindy. All Peter could hope is that he wouldn't skip out again, because he knew Michelle would have his head.
"So, are you going to the party tomorrow night?" Cindy asked her teammate. There was a party at Flash's house on Saturday night, and the whole Aca Deca team was invited. Even Peter Parker.
Flash heard the party being brought up and he turned to face the two, "Yeah, you coming, MJ? It's gonna be lit as hell. My parents are out of town and my plug for alcohol is in."
Michelle face turned into a disgusted expression, "I don't really drink, for one.. and my sister is coming home from Uni tomorrow night." She told them, Cindy's formerly happy face dropping.
"C'mon, MJ! It's gonna be so much fun.. and since when did you have a sister?"
"Uh.." Michelle muttered, "since I was born?" She said, though it came out more as a question. Her attitude came through with the words.
Cindy sighed, rolling her eyes. "Obviously. I meant that you've never mentioned her before."
"She's 5 years older than us, graduated when we were in grade eight." Michelle explained, "besides. That's my personal life." She added, trying to avoid the topic.
"I'm sure she'll be okay with you going to a party tomorrow night! Seriously, even Peter is going." Flash said, gesturing to the boy across from Michelle.
At the mention of his name, Peter looked at him with a perplexed look on his face. "I am?"
"Dude, the whole team is invited. I said this on Tuesday in the group chat." Flash scoffed, "do you not pay any attention to things other than old movies?"
Michelle gave Flash a sly glare for his second comment, before shifting in her spot and relaxing again. "I'll text Talya and see what she says, just so you'll get off my back about it." She told them, taking her phone out of the pocket of her jean jacket.
private chat
tea 🥃 [ talya ]
mickey 🐁 [ michelle ]
12:21pm
sept. 8th
micky 🐁
hey t
so ik you're coming home tmrw but a member of the Deca team is throwing a huge party and wants the whole team to go
but really just say no and I won't go
12:22pm
tea 🥃
what no hon go ahead!!
I won't be home until like 8pm tmrw and I'll be beat tired
So go ahead and have fun !! Don't drink too much tho
12:24pm
micky 🐁
i h8 u
i wanted you to say nooooo
but I won't lie to the team so
see you sundayy
12:27pm
"Okay, I can go." Michelle sighed, earning cheers of happiness from the team of students. "But, I'm saying right now that if any of you fuckers get drunk, I'm not taking care of you." She quickly said, a couple of the kids laughing.
After that, her and Peter looked at each other and shared a knowing glance, both fully aware they would probably be the only two sober ones from the team that night. Michelle had only seen Peter drink once, and she remembered the way his face turned up at the taste of the alcohol. It was at Flash's end year party for sophomore year, and he decided he was going to have some alcohol that wasn't his Italian aunt's red wine. Long story short, Peter hated it and scrunched his face up, Michelle laughed at him, and Peter tossed it away.
Peter abruptly stood from the lunch table after his phone went off, Michelle looking at him. He looked tense, his jaw tightened and eyebrows forward.
"What's up, Parker?" Flash asked, noticing how Peter was frantically typing away at his phone, before putting it back in his pocket.
"I gotta go." Was all Peter said before he was darting out of the cafeteria, Michelle's eyes following him until the doors shut.
"Wonder what's up with him." Flash scoffed, shaking his head. After that, people around the table started spilling ideas.
"Maybe Ned needed him."
"Dude, maybe it was that fake internship."
"Could've been his aunt."
"Maybe it just isn't our business, and we should stay out of it." Michelle chimed in, the table silencing as they turned to look at her. She raised her eyebrows, "what? You wouldn't want someone talking about you like this, would you?"
When all Michelle received was silence, she simply scoffed and stood from the table, deciding to finish her lunch period in the library with her book. She was reading the same book as she had been the day before, and she was nearly finished it. Whenever Michelle would read her book, everyone around her knew to not bug her, and nobody would bug her in the library.
When Michelle walked into the large library, she waved to the librarian, Mr. Burns, and made her way to the same bean bag chair she sat in every time she went to the library. She settled herself into the plush seat, and read her book until the lunch hour ended.
In last period, Study Hall, Michelle quickly noticed how Peter wasn't there. Beside his empty seat, there was Ned, who was typing away on his phone as if his life depended on it. First Peter seemed panicked, now Ned? He definitely knew something that Michelle didn't, and that was rare.
Throughout Study Hall, Michelle would glance over at Ned and check if he was still typing or doing something on his phone. Almost every time she would sneak a glance, which was often, he was doing something on his phone. Each time, he would look excessively stressed. Something was up.
Michelle didn't let the two boys and their anxious behaviours bug her, though. Not a lot, that is. She had finished her book in last period, and had a slightly boring bus ride home with nothing to read, but when she was home she picked up another book and buried herself in it.
"Michelle, dinner!"
Jumping a bit in her bed from the sudden shout, she quickly recognized it to be her mom downstairs. Michelle looked to the clock on her nightside table, which read 8:24pm. Had she really been reading for 4 hours?
"Coming!" She called back to Alicia before she set her bookmark between the pages and she got up, making her way downstairs. Her family tended to eat late because of her mother's job as the Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD. She worked long hours, and often came home with some complaint about New York City's own teenage hero, Spider-Man. Or, as her mother preferred to describe him, a teenage vigilante and nuisance.
Michelle was the last person to enter the dining room, where the dinner was to be served. That night, it was fried shrimp linguine, something her father had concocted a few weeks ago and had become one of Karson's favourites. Karson was Michelle's 14 year old brother, but he didn't attend Midtown with her. Midtown was a science and math based school, which wasn't Karson's forte. He was very into literature and arts, mostly music. He attended Manhattan Music Academy, and was one of the top students.
"Got any news on the spider guy, mom?" Karson asked, and Michelle held back a groan of annoyance. Couldn't they just have one dinner where this guy in red and blue tights wasn't a topic of conversation.
"Nope." Alicia huffed, "I wish I could arrest him, he doesn't have the authority to do the things he does. We know hes most likely a teenager because someone in my precinct heard his voice. But who knows, we could be entirely wrong."
"Isn't he kind of like.. helping you guys?" Michelle asked as she twirled her pasta around her fork. "I mean, you have had to do a lot less and haven't been as tired or stressed since he started this last year. He is kind of doing you a favour, if you ask me."
Alicia looked at her daughter in disbelief before shaking her head without response. Michelle only grinned, since she had stumped her for once. If there was anyone who could argue better than Michelle, it was her mother.
Sure, Michelle didn't like talking about Spider-Man, but he seemed like a pretty cool guy.