For Mai

[whateveraspidercan]

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.

Comments

[whateveraspidercan]

“He used to be like that. Now he’s also a really great guy but also those things?” Peter said with a laugh because Peyton was totally right about Stark. But Peter owed him a lot and Stark tried to do the right thing so Peter had to give him that.

“Yeah. I just like making stuff and helping people. Which sounds lame. But I think it would be cool to develop a new prosthetic or something.”

[darkangelsawyer]

"A really great guy who's also an asshole and full of himself?" Peyton said, laughing herself. "That's gotta be something to see."

She turned to listen to Peter, turning serious for a moment. "Seriously? Like that guy who came up with the sort of mind-controlled prosthetic arm? The one that can pick up and egg without breaking it and that looks like a real arm?"

(Couldn't resist, Dean Kamen is local to us and has created this totally AMAZING prosthetic arm. https://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm#t-293361 And they call it Luke after Luke Skywalker, cause he had his hand cut off.)

[whateveraspidercan]

"Yes! Something like that. That guy is amazing. I just think that the line between biology and mechanics is getting more and more blurred every day and I want to be on the side of using it to help people," Peter said. He was sure that the government would use some of that stuff for some shady purposes but there could be so much done to help people.

((That is so amazing!))

[darkangelsawyer]

"Wow, so I'm in the presence of a real life science geek superhero," Peyton said cheerfully. "I'm impressed. Some day I'll be able to say I knew you when!"

[whateveraspidercan]

"Oh yeah, that's me. Just your regular superhero of the science geek variety," he said, taking one final, huge bite of his sandwich to hide the grin on his face. He didn't want her to think he was laughing at her or anything like that.

"So, you ready to head back down to Earth and the basketball game?"

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton wrinkled up her face, then nodded. "If we must descend to Earth, we must. Any chance the basketball players are any good? I have to tell you, back home we go to States every year, so I've got high standards."

[whateveraspidercan]

"You are definitely going to be disappointed," Peter said as she started the climb back down "to Earth" as she had put it. He kind of liked her phrasing though, like being up there they were somehow above it. "But I thought we were going to check out he cheerleaders? Wait, that came out wrong..."

[darkangelsawyer]

She cracked up. "Oh, I think you put it just right. I'm going to check out their moves and you're just going to check them out."

[whateveraspidercan]

"That is totally degrading and I would never do that," Peter said. Okay, he probably would but not obviously and not excessively. Just sort of because they were there.

[darkangelsawyer]

"I'm not saying you're going to drool all over them," Peyton said, "but you're male and theoretically they're hot females. You really need to do at least some ogling or it sort of defeats the purpose of all the short skirts. You can still enjoy the view even as you're being all respectful."

She knew she'd have been disappointed if the guys hadn't been checking her out back at Tree Hill. Not touching or making rude comments, but yeah...

[whateveraspidercan]

"I always thought the short skirts were more kind of a practicality because it's hard to do all those flips and jumps in a longer skirt," Peter said. And it wasn't like he hadn't noticed that there were very attractive cheerleaders it just felt weird to ogle them. Not that it always stopped him.

"But you're saying if you join the squad and I don't ogle you, you'll be upset with me?"

[darkangelsawyer]

"Ever heard of shorts?" Peyton said dryly. "We could always wear those, you know.'

She glanced over at him and grinned. "Tell you what. Ogle a little. If you start to drool, I'll smack you to keep you honest."

[whateveraspidercan]

"I guess I just figured it was a throw back to when shorts would have been terrible for girls to wear," Peter said, although clearly he hadn't put that much thought into it. He supposed that her explanation made a lot more sense.

"And you don't have to worry, I'm not going to ogle."

[darkangelsawyer]

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Geek Boy. Just lead the way to this terrible team where there will be no ogling."

Peyton shot him a glance, "Though I don't promise that I won't do any."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Well, I'm sure the cheerleaders will appreciate it," he said with a bit of a laugh as he headed toward the ladder to climb down.

[darkangelsawyer]

"Brat," Peyton said with a laugh of her own as she followed him to head down. "But I will be ogling the guys on the team. Though, I'm not so sure that any of them are actually worth ogling which is very sad."

[whateveraspidercan]

“I mean, if you find brains attractive you’ll probably want to ogle,” Peter said. That was what they were more known for, the brains and not the brawn. They weren’t awful but Academic Decathlon was a bigger deal.

“What do you find ogle worthy?”

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton wrinkled up her face. "Brains... I mean, there's nothing wrong with brains obviously. But ugh, I mean, look at Flash. Okay, maybe he's smart - at least he thinks he is, but seriously, Not Ogleworthy."

She stopped to consider. "Hmmm... Good hands, definitely. Good abs are a plus. Lean. I mean muscles are nice, but I don't want to date some Hulk-like character. Nice face, decent hair, good sense of humor... that kind of thing."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Flash is not that smart," Peter said, less because he hated Flash and more because it was an insult to smart people to call Flash smart. And the idea of anyone ogling Flash made him throw up a little in his mouth.

"Okay, you're probably going to be a little disappointed," he said, scrambling down the fire escape easily. "Maybe the team we play will be better to look at?"

[darkangelsawyer]

"Oooh! Are you playing another brainiac school or are you playing a real school?"

And don't think she hadn't noticed just how agilely you'd slipped down that fire escape. Very interesting.

'Not that brainiacs can't be good-looking obviously, but at your school - okay, my school now too, I suppose - there aren't a whole lot of them."

[whateveraspidercan]

"We're a real school you know," Peter said, although he was laughing as he said so. He got it, they weren't ever going to win any sporting awards and it was pretty clear what most of them were there for. "So you're saying we're smart but ugly? It's a good thing we're all going to invent cool apps that will make us rich."

[darkangelsawyer]

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, brainiac school that I somehow ended up in - and God knows where I'll go when the Powers That Be figure that out -" Peyton said as she shinnied down the fire escape almost as smoothly as Peter. Former cheerleader, hello.

She turned and made a face at him. "Not ugly," she said. "But you have to admit, most of the guys are more like the proverbial 98 pound weakling. Doesn't mean they won't grow up hot, but right now? Nope. And, hey, aren't like most of them rich already? Yet another way I don't fit in."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Yeah, okay, so we don't really fill the weight room up when we have free time after school," Peter said. He was having trouble not laughing at it all considering the fact that he could probably lift a bus and he looked like a 98 pound weakling. Or maybe it was the whole "looking like" that was the issue and not how much he could actually lift.

"But yeah, a lot are pretty rich. Although it's weird... there's enough scholarship kids that it's not too bad."

[darkangelsawyer]

"I think my dad knows someone who knows someone and that's how I got in," Peyton said with a grimace. "We certainly don't have enough money and I certainly don't have the brains you have. Or you know, it's all some bizarre paperwork mix-up. But I guess at least most of the scholarship kids aren't too bad."

She smiled over at him. "And you're definitely growing on me."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Well if you ever need help in any of your classes, let me know? We can study together," he suggested. Peter didn't call it tutoring because people tended to deny that they needed that kind of help but "studying together" was something people suggested they do all the time. Although now that he thought about it maybe they weren't actually studying...

"Ah, well. I do tend to grow on people being a fun guy..." Peter said, giving her a bit of a grin. "Fun guy, fungi? Get it? It's hard to tell if people get that joke because even if they do they don't usually laugh."