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]

"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."

[darkangelsawyer]

"I may have to take you up on that," Peyton said, making a face. 'Studying together' could totally be a euphemism, but she wasn't sure Peter knew that and honestly wasn't thinking of him that way. At least not at the moment.

At that joke, Peyton had no choice. She punched him in the arm. Huh... she hadn't been expecting muscles like that. Still she wasn't going to say anything. Except in response to the joke. "Pretty lame, Geek Boy."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Ouch, hey, 98 pound weakling here, don't forget," Peter said, rubbing at his arm with mock injury. Still, she had a solid punch for just giving him a hard time.

"Okay, so that was was a little bad. I promise to keep the terrible nerd jokes to a minimum. That was one for the day which is more than enough. You're safe until tomorrow."

[darkangelsawyer]

"I'm going to hold you to that," Peyton said with a fake stern face. "More bad jokes on top of a probably pitiful basketball game might just be too much. I might just have to do something dreadful."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Well now I want to know what that might be," Peter said, grinning at her. He wasn't normally the type of person to tempt fate, at least not when he was out of costume, but Peyton made him curious. "Hey... before games or practice or competitions... do cheerleaders drink root beer?"

Clearly Peter Parker had a death wish.

[darkangelsawyer]

"Give me a minute and I'll think something up," she quipped.

She gave him a look. "Pretty sure there's no rule against it or anything. Why root beer in particular?"

[whateveraspidercan]

"You know... root beer? You're rooting for the team?" Peter asked, unable to help himself from grinning at his own stupid joke even as he moved a half step further from Peyton, out of easy striking range. He probably had it coming if she did hit him though.

[darkangelsawyer]

"Oh, you are so paying for that one," Peyton said with a grin. "Sometime when you least expect it. You have no idea what I'm capable of!"

"Root beer."

[whateveraspidercan]

"Hey, I like to live dangerously, remember?" Peter said with a grin before laughing again at the joke. It was pretty bad but he couldn't help but be amused by it.

It was a short walk back to the school and they were able to go right into the gym. The team was still warming up but it looked like the game was about to start soon. Glancing around for a place to sit Peter winced as he heard a familiar voice call out. And to think he'd actually been enjoying himself.

"It's Penis Parker!" Flash called out from the stands. "And he's got an actual girl with him or is it just that the new girl doesn't know how much of a loooooser he is yet?"

[darkangelsawyer]

Peyton sucked in a breath of air, then slipped off her sweater and shoved it at Peter. Then with her best cheerleader attitude, and channeling her best Brooke, she stalked up the steps to the idiot who was yelling out, tugging her tank top down a little as she went.

"Were you talking about me?" she purred dangerously, right in Flash's space.

He started to stutter something, but she stopped him, with a finger to his lips. "Because it sounded like you were offering to show me your penis. So, go ahead, I'm ready."

She stepped back a little and gestured to his crotch. "I'm sure we'd all like to see."

As he sputtered more, his eyes darting around to see that yes, the auditorium had gone silent and everyone was staring at him, she leaned back in and put her lips to his ear. "Worried about how you'll stack up? You should be." She glanced down again, then continued with a soft growl. "You fuck with me or any of my friends again and I will make your life a living hell. You have no idea what I'm capable of. I'm not one of the quiet sweet little nerd girls from this school. I will make you wish that you had never been born. Or... you can leave me and my friends the hell alone and I'll pretend you don't even exist."

Peyton took a step back and smiled sweetly at him. "Do you need a minute to think about it or are we done?"

"Done," he managed and she patted him gently on the cheek.

"Good. Now forget you ever knew our names and go back to watching the game."

She turned and made her way back over to Peter to retrieve her sweater. "So... they sell any popcorn here or what? And didn't you promise me a 'root' beer?"

[whateveraspidercan]

At first Peter inwardly cringed when Peyton seemed insistent on making a scene out of this. He really didn't care anymore about Flash's taunts (or at least that's what he told himself) and he could just see now how people would talk about how Peter would need a girl to come to his rescue. Which was dumb, because why couldn't girls rescue people? Black Widow rescued people.

But then Peyton tore Flash a new asshole in a totally subtle but still kind of obvious way and it was amazing. Peter saw Abe from Academic Decathlon's eyes light up in utter delight. Enough other people around were witness to it that if Flash ever said anything they'd never let him forget this.

When Peyton came back over to Peter he just sort of looked at her in awe.

"Don't take this the wrong way but I think I love you," Peter said with a nervous laugh. "But yeah. Popcorn and root beer."