No Matter What- Peter Parker

Chapter 5

    The day dragged on. Surprisingly, my schedule was the exact same as before: AP Calculus, AP Biology, World History, PE, and lastly AP Chemistry, my favorite class. I'm glad I'm still passionate on the subject, at least something hasn't changed. MJ was in a couple of my classes throughout the day, so it added some relief. Tons of people kept coming up to me, old and new faces, all trying to be my so called "best friend." I could see through them all though; they all remember me as the popular girl before The Blip, thus trying to be my friend now hoping to achieve the same status. There were only a couple genuine people, like MJ and another blonde girl named Betty Brant. I just wanted to be cautious. All my friends grew up and are all in college now, leaving me by myself still having to finish high school. I just didn't want to make any fake friends, I wanted friends who wanted to hang with me for me and not my so called "status."

As I walked into my last class of the day, I saw everyone was still standing around the room, no one taking a seat yet. As the bell rang, Mr. Cobbwell cleared his voice and announced, "Alright everyone settle down. I will be assigning seats, and the person you will sit next to will be your lab partner for the semester." The class groaned, and Flash Thompson protested " Aw come on man, so not cool." I remember Flash, he was always trying to work his way into our friend group to be "popular." Guess now he's able to take over since the rest of my friends are gone. He hit on me a couple times today, but quite honestly, I can't stand his stuck-up attitude.

Mr. Cobbwell ignored his comment and began calling names. Students slowly began taking their seats as I patiently waited for my name to be called. "y/n y/l/n, Peter Parker," he said.

I made my way to my seat and sat down closest to the window. I felt the chair move next to me as my new lab partner took his seat. I didn't mind random partners; I just wish I knew mine. He cleared his throat as he turned to me, "Hi I'm Peter.....Peter Parker." He sounded nervous, a feeling I've been trying to hide all day. I mustered a small smile as I glanced at him and said ,"Hi. I'm y/n. I guess we're partners, huh?" 

'I guess we're partners?' Why did I have to sound so awkward? He chuckled and said "Yeah, I guess we are."

We went silent as the rest of the class took their seats and Mr. Cobbwell began going over the syllabus. I loosely paid attention, recalling all of this information from last time. I stared out the window, imagining what life would be like outside of these walls, if I hadn't disappeared.

I was brought back to reality when I heard the bell ring, signaling the end of the day. Everyone around me began conversing and gathering their things, ready to head home. I proceeded to do the same when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned towards the person to see it was Peter.

"So, um, when should we get started?" he stammered, barely meeting my eye. Why did he seem so nervous? 

Wait, get started? Started with what?

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about?" I looked at him as he decided to look at me. Oh wow, he had really nice eyes. He stammered, "Oh, uh, I mean about the first assignment. The one due Friday?" I gave him a blank stare, having no recollection of the mention of already having an assignment. Maybe I should have been paying attention, now embarrassed by my first impression as a lab partner. Seeming like he understood my confusion he continued, "No worries, you seemed a little distant during class. Cobbwell assigned us a project to do a short presentation on one of the elements on the Periodic Table. If you're too busy to work on it I totally understand and we can split the work..."

I cut him off, "No no, I'm sorry I should have been paying attention. We can work on it together; it would probably be faster than working on it separately. When are you free to start?" He seemed taken aback by how apologetic and forward I was to already introducing the idea of starting so soon. However, he didn't falter for long, and said with a small smile, "Are you free tomorrow?"

A small blush crept along my cheeks....wait. Why am I blushing? I quickly averted his gaze in hopes he wouldn't notice. I quickly responded, "Uh yeah, yeah I'm free!" Feeling the blush creep away, I felt confident enough to look back at him to see he continued to hold that sweet smile.

"Great! Should we do it at your place or mine?" he responded. My heart slightly quickened its pace. I've rarely brought anyone home where my parents are. I don't exactly know why, but they're weird about me bringing people over. Emily has only been over a handful of times and even though Jared and I dated for a while, the one time I brought him over my dad made him feel super tense, so we just always hung out at his place.

I quickly suggested we go to his place, making up an excuse that my parents were having company over, so my place was busy. He seemed to buy the lame excuse and we exchanged numbers so he could send me his address. We casually walked to our lockers, which were surprisingly near each other, getting to know each other. Peter seemed nice and easy to get to know, despite being a little awkward. 

Maybe making new, genuine friends was going to be easier than I thought. Guess I won't have to continue Junior year as loner like I expected I was going to.