whateveraspidercan

For Mai

Peter was really terrible about this whole "blending in and act normal" thing. He'd never been normal to start with but throw in the fact that he was Spider-Man and Aunt May would freak out if she knew it was kind of a mess. It was safer that way of course but it still wasn't easy.

So Peter tried really hard to be your basic 18 year told. The problem was that he was kind of a weirdo even without Spider-Powers. He'd gotten better, he could talk with attractive girls without making a complete fool of himself, he could hang out and meet new people, things like that. But he still flailed mentally sometimes and was just generally a dork.

Which meant that during lunchtime he normally sat by himself. Sometimes people would sit with him and talk to him and on very, very rare occasions people would invite him to sit with them but usually he just found a table to himself and sat down by himself. Today he was left to ponder the mystery of school cafeteria chicken nuggets by himself.

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Peter was glad for the bell, not wanting to have to explain who Flash was and why she shouldn't kick Flash's ass. For the first time in a long time though Peter was glad to have something other than being Spider-Man to look forward to after school. Plus he was pretty good about leaving class super fast once the bell rang so Peyton didn't have to wait very long for him once school went out.

"Hey," he said, waiving at her. "You ready?"

She closed up her sketchbook, where she might just have been working on a sketch of Peter, and stuck it in her backpack. "More than ready. Show me something good about this ridiculous city."

"Are you kidding? You haven't found a single good thing in New York?" Peter asked, completely incredulous. Sure he'd only really traveled for the academic decathlon stuff and that one time with the Avengers but still, it was New York. Everything here was good. Almost everything.

"Okay, we are coming up with a list of stuff for you to do here that's awesome."

She looked at him a bit skeptically. "I'll believe the awesome when I see it."

Honestly, she'd spent most of her time alone in her little apartment playing her music and sketching, not quite feeling comfortable with the noise and crowds of people. It was a huge change from quiet little Tree Hill where everybody seemed to know everybody.

"But it will give me something to do so I'm not just sitting home being miserable."

"Right, you can come hand out with me and be miserable," Peter said, turning to walk backward a moment to flash her a smile. He was going to get Peyton to enjoy at least one thing about New York if it killed him. Hopefully it wouldn't kill him.

"So when you're sitting at home being miserable, what do you do?"

"Mostly I listen to my music and sketch," she admitted. "Back home I started kind of a podcast thing, so I have my camera on and people can tune in to watch me. Sometimes people from home will watch and IM me or something so we can talk, but mostly it's just me sitting there stupidly listening to whatever I feel like spinning that night."

"Oh man, did you know we have a digital media class?" Peter asked, super excited to have maybe found some school classes that Peyton would be interested in. He knew that STEM stuff wasn't for everyone but everyone should be excited about at least one thing they did at school.

"And even if you didn't want to take the class there's always people that want to have their cool sound equipment they've built used but are too shy to actually record things. What kind of music do you like?"

"Oh, I don't have anything to record," Peyton said quickly. "Believe me, you do not want to hear me try to sing!"

Still, it was kind of him to make an effort to get her involved.

"I do want to produce records one day. That's my dream. I like pretty much any kind of music - all sorts of the alternative stuff and just anyone who really knows how to play - none of the stupid bubblegum pop stuff, but other than that, yeah."

"That's pretty cool. I don't know anything about producing music other than like... Dr. Dre does it. You could be Dr. Pey? If you use that I totally want credit in the liner notes of the first album you do... if they even do liner notes. You'd have to make a CD or record to have liner notes," Peter said, completely babbling despite the fact that he'd just said he didn't know anything about producing music. It just sounded like a pretty cool job to him.

Peyton just stared at him for a moment. "I can guarantee you I won't be Dr. Pey."

Then she relented. "But you just might make my liner notes anyway."

"Yeah?" Peter said, although he wasn't sure that he really believed her. Not that he really thought she was straight up lying to him but because he thought by the time she actually made a record she would have forgotten all about him. "Would you put out a physical album then?"

"Oh yeah," Peyton said. "There's just something about a physical CD. You can hold it in your hands and, yeah... There's something about pulling that plastic off and the smell of the new CD and just being able to look at all the stuff while you're listening. I mean, vinyl is the absolute best, but that's just not being done anymore unfortunately. Not much anyway."

Peter knew exactly what they were going to do the next time they were out because he knew about a great record place not too far away. From what he knew about record stores it wasn't like they all stocked the same sort of stuff. She had to like New York then, right? Or at least maybe hate it less.

"You'll have to recommend me some music sometime then. I'm hopeless about cool music. I just listen to top 40 stuff."

"If you're serious I can give you more music than you'll know what to do with,' Peyton said with a grin. "You'll have to come over sometime and look at my collection."

Just like back home, she'd converted her closet and half the room to hold her vinyl and CD collection.

“I think no matter how much music you give me I just listen to it, right?” He said with a grin as he stepped into the shop they had been heading toward.

“Hey, Delmar, how’s it going?” Peter said, waving at the owner. “The usual for me and whatever my friend wants.”

“Ah, Peter!” Delmar said, spreading his arms wide before switching to Spanish. “Are you on a date with this gorgeous girl? She looks fiesty!”

Peyton laughed. "How much time do you have, because I guarantee I have more music than you can even imagine."

A smile grew on her face at Delmar's enthusiasm, though she looked to Peter a little uncertainly when the man switched into Spanish.

“He said hello,” Peter said, shooting Delmar a look, although that only seemed to encourage the other man, who beamed a delighted smile at both teenagers.

“I’m telling him a pretty girl like you deserves to be taken somewhere special, so he did a good job bringing you here!”

Peyton laughed. "So this is the best place in all of New York, huh? What would you recommend then?"

Peyton. Would she laugh or get bitchy? It was a mystery.

"I like him," she said to Peter.

“Best sandwiches,” Peter said with a nod, glad that Sawyer didn’t get annoyed with Delmar. Peter liked the shop owner and he would have been bummed out if he and Peyton didn’t get along.

“That’s because you like someone who tells it like they see it. Peter? He gets upset when I tell him to study less and have more fun. For you, Peyton, I’m going to make my special. It’s the best if the best.”

How could she not like someone so happy and effusive who also didn't expect anything from her?

"I do," Peyton said. "No time for bullshit - sorry, BS." She turned to Peter. "I'm totally making you ditch school with me one of these days. Less studying, more fun!"

"Alright, Delmar. Dazzle me with you special!"

“Hah! Yes, one special coming right up!” Delmar said, clapping his hands in delight as he went to work behind the counter.

“Okay, he must really like you, he’s never made me the special. Also, you were totally not that nice to me when we first met,” Peter said with a laugh before bumping her shoulder with his own so she knew he was teasing her.

"I was in a bad mood then," Peyton pointed out with a grin and bumped him back. "Also, I can be a real bitch, so fair warning. Now, I'm out of school, I've been talking music and Delmar is going to make me a kick-ass sandwich. But don't worry I'll be back to my usual miserable self in school tomorrow."

“Oh good, I was worried I might see you smiling tomorrow at school and how would I handle that?” Peter said with a laugh. Secretly he was pleased though that she was feeling happier, especially if he helped with that.

“Alright, five dollars for you,” Delmar said to Peter as he paid the man while Delmar turned to Peyton and handed her the sandwiches. “And no charge for you this time. The special is priceless and this was your first time! Have a good night and have some fun!”

"Least cheery cheerleader ever, remember?" she said with a fake scowl. "Don't worry. The dark angst of being me in a city not my own will take over soon enough."

She took the sandwiches. "Aw, Delmar... thank you. I can guarantee I'll be back a lot and I just know this will be incredible."

"Oh good, because you've already charmed my sandwich guy with your smile so that he likes you more than me, next my aunt will prefer you to me and I can't handle that," Peter said, bumping his shoulder against hers as they headed out of the shop and back to the school. Peter didn't actually mind that Delmar liked her so much because if she met enough people who liked her then maybe she wouldn't hate it here.

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