Welcome To New York; M. Jones¹✓

Six.

∘°∘♡∘°∘∘°∘♡∘°∘
(𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊)
CHAPTER SIX-----▹

"GWEN! WAIT UP!" Tess jogged up to her best friend, "Where, have you been all day?" the blonde asked, "I overslept," Tess shrugged, and Gwen arched an eyebrow in question.

"Don't look at me like that Gwen," she whined leaning against her locker, while the blonde switched out a couple of books, "Well, Teresa, you are in fact a very bad liar...at least to me because I know you."

Tess tilted her head, crossing her arms over her chest, "Did you just 'Teresa' me?" Gwen looked at her with a similar look, "Yes. I did."

The brunette let her arms fall back to her side, changing the topic, "So, did anyone ask you to homecoming?" 

Gwen half-heartedly glared at the girl, her locker closing with a slam, "Yep, I've turned down three people already," she stated with a slightly teasing smile, "Kidding obviously, nope I haven't been asked yet."

The pair began walking down the mostly quiet hallway, "Have you asked MJ yet?" Tess' head snapped in Gwen's direction, "Wha-"

And Gwen held her hand up, "Save it. I know you have a thing for her," the blonde stated with a smile. "I do not have a thing for her."

"Whatever you say." 

---

"What on earth are you doing, Mama?" Tess asked, entering the open space of the apartment, she took in the sight of painting tarps, and splattered paint on the large canvas. "Art." May stated tossing a dart at one of the paint-filled balloons, "Art?"

May sent her a look, "smettila di giudicarmi e aiutami," (Stop judging me, and help), Tess laughed, pulling a plastic poncho over her head, May handed her a handful of darts, the first couple that Tess throws stick onto the back of it, not hitting any balloons. 

Then one of the balloons popped releasing bright orange paint, "Questo è piuttosto divertente," (this is pretty fun)

May smiled throwing a couple of her own darts, "te l'avevo detto," (I told you so.) 

"They do that a lot," Ned whispered as he and Peter watched them from around the corner, "Ramble in Italian? Yeah, they do."

"Why are we spying on them again?" Ned asked, kind of confused, "I'm waiting to see if Tess is going to tell Aunt May..something."

Ned narrowed his eyes at Peter, "You're being weird."

"I'm not being weird, you're being weird."

"Peter don't act like I can't hear you," Tess crossed her paint-covered arms over her chest "because I most certainly can."

"So you have something to tell me?" May asked, giving Tess the literal mom stare, "What? Nope. Your nephew is delusional, I have absolutely no secrets."

May seemed to be ready to argue with the statement when the shrilling ringing of her phone interrupted them, "Hold that thought."

The woman walked away answering her phone, "Peter, I am going to murder you." he shot his hands up in defense, "We found the bad guys." he rushed out quickly, "It seems we will be going on the decathlon trip after all."

"Ok, fill me in later," Tess stated, shooing away Peter and Ned, "Ok, ok"

---

"Peter? Tess?" Liz tilted her head at the Parkers, "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, I was-we were hoping maybe we could rejoin the team?" Peter spoke, and Tess nodded along with the statement, watching as Peter slightly struggled to talk with the girl he liked, "No way you can't just quit on us, stroll up and be welcome backed by everyone-" Flash pushed through the team to face the Parkers. 

"Hey welcome back Parkers!" Mr. Harrington spoke walking out of the bus, "Flash you're back on the first alternate."

"What?" Flash sounded complete outdone as he looked at the teacher in betrayal, Tess rolled her eyes, "Perdente," (Loser), and Peter elbowed her, "Don't be mean," 

The brunette grimaced, "Ouch, you're mean,"  MJ stepped up through the team as well, Tess' face immediately brightened, "Uh- excuse me, can we go? I was hoping to get in some light protesting down in front of one of the embassies before dinner, so?"

One of the very things Tess loved about MJ, she always spoke her mind. "Protesting is patriotic. Let's get on the bus."

Quite a while later, they finally passed the sign showing they would be entering Washington any second, "Focus up everyone, our next topic is the moons of Saturn," Liz stated, Bells rung back and forth as answers flew around the bus, "Liz don't overwork them." Mr. Harrington stated. 

Tess had been sitting next to MJ on the bus and ended up falling asleep on her shoulder, MJ was of course slightly flustered by the action, but remained with her nose in a book. Peter's phone buzzed from the seat in front of them, "Can I get this?"

After Liz nodded briefly at him, Peter made his way to the back of the bus answering the phone. "Hello?" 

"Got a blip on my screen here, you and Tess left New York?" Petter froze covering the microphone on his phone with his hand, "Tracker," he whispered. "Oh, yeah it's just a school trip. Look Happy, I've gotta say, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy."

Ned pointed to the tracker that  he held in hand, "That's different." he spoke, "What's different?"

"What's different?" Happy asked, "Uh- Nothing. Look it's just the academic decathlon. It's no big deal."

Meanwhile, in the front of the bus, Tess blinked awake startled when she realized she fell asleep on MJ, "Oh, I am so sorry," she quickly apologized her voice still sounding sleepy, MJ shrugged, avoiding Tess' eyes, "It's fine."

The next thing the brunette noticed was that Peter no longer occupied the seat in front of her, "Where'd Peter go?" she turned around spotting him at the back of the bus speaking into the phone, "I wonder what that's about," she thought out loud. 

A welcoming banner hung high as the bus pulled up to the hotel, "Well, this is going to be fun," Tess nudged MJ, "Yeah, sure." 

"You know, sometimes it's ok to be a little optimistic."  Tess faced MJ, "Expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed." Tess half-rolled her eyes at the response, "I mean you're not wrong."

"I know," MJ smirked, "Don't let it go to your head, Jones....I am almost always right. So, don't get used to it." 

"Arrogant much?" MJ arched an eyebrow, "no, per niente" (No, not at all), she switched to Italian knowing it made MJ all flustered. 

Sure, enough MJ's eyes dropped to the floor, almost analyzing the dried-up gum, "Are you blushing, Michelle?" 

"Shut up."