Lovebug ── PETER PARKER¹

08. Fanclub Members

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          Luna decided the color pink was officially ugly.

          Back in October, pink wouldn't have been such a wretched color. Everybody looked good in pink, it was just that nice. But ever since Mia began writing in that damn book in pink, Luna grew to hate the color.

          She learned that now her friends brought the book to school with them, and she's never hated them more. Any lingering glance or accidental bumping of shoulders between Luna and Peter that happened in front of Liz or Mia was written in that book. At first it seemed like a funny joke, something for her friends to tease her about. But now, she lived in constant fear that one day somebody would get ahold of it and her small crush would be seen as an obsession based solely off of what Liz and Mia wrote.

          "So," Liz sat on top of the monkey bars, her shoes discarded on the padded floor. "Anything you wanna update us on in the world of Puna?"

          Luna's face contorted into one of disgust. "That's the best you could do?" She scoffed, picking up one of Liz's discarded shoes and throwing it at her. "It sounds like a disease."

          The brunette rolled her eyes, looking over to Mia who was sat on a bench not too far. "Make note that we need to change that, half of Puna doesn't like it," Liz recited, and Mia nodded.

         "And no, I have no updates," Luna mumbled, beginning to climb up the jungle gym a few feet away. "You guys need to stop with this."

         "But we just got a third member," Mia pouted, flipping through the pages of the book. She turned it around to reveal a page with the words SIGN HERE TO OFFICIALLY BE A MEMBER OF THE LUNA AND PETER FANCLUB, Ned Leeds very clearly written beneath it. Luna's face paled, now one more person knew about her crush. "Ned knew, we didn't tell him," Mia quickly rushed out once she saw the look on Luna's face. "He said you left your texts opened on our groupchat and he didn't mean to see but he did."

          "So now you're conspiring with him?" Luna quirked an eyebrow at the girl, who quickly nodded her head. "You two are the worst."

         "Look! I'm Spider-Man!" Liz laughed as she hung upside down from the monkey bars. The laughing and use of the city vigilante's name caused a lot of heads to turn, but not for long once people realized it was just three teenage girls messing around. Out of all three girls, Liz had the most interest for the web-slinging hero; if he could even be called that.

          When Liz presented the video of said "hero" to her two friends, she was expecting both to react as excitedly as she did. Ever since the creation of the Avengers, it seemed like more and more people with some sort of special ability were appearing. As three girls who lived to see the battle of New York from their windows in the neighboring borough, they constantly found themselves looking into new heroes, in fear that the events would happen again. So while Mia matched Liz's excitement, Luna wasn't all too sure.

          Nobody could blame her for being skeptical, or at least nobody but Liz could. Liz was so sure the vigilante was a good person, and she wasn't going to stop until Luna was sure of it too. It wasn't that Luna hated Spider-Man, she admired the good things he did, but her trust in him was little to nothing. He was no Captain America as far as she knew, so how could she be so sure he only used his powers for good?

          "Who do you think Spider-Man is?" Liz questioned as she dropped down from the monkey bars, plopping herself on the matted floor below them. "I read that he's young."

          "How young?" Mia retorted, putting the book back in her bag to join her friend on the floor. "We talking early 30s or 20s?"

          Liz shook her head. "Teens."

          Luna couldn't help but snort. There was no way Spider-Man was a teenager. Teenagers were selfish and destructive, herself included. There was no way there was a teenager that found that much goodness in their heart to risk their life for a strangers, and if there was, then God protect that teenager because they are one of a kind. "There's no way he's a teen," Luna shook her head, climbing down the jungle gym and settling on the floor beside them. "No teenager is going to risk their life for a stranger, it's not how we're wired."

          Mia nodded, "Agreed. Spider-Man is probably mid-twenties at least, probably has his life figured out."

          Liz shrugged, "Maybe they're wrong, it's possible." It fell silent between the three girls for a moment, and Luna could practically see the clouds floating above Liz's head as she was deep in thought. "I bet he's hot," she blurted, diverting her gaze away from the slightly purple sky and back to her friends.

         "How would you know?" Mia snickered. "He's always got the weird mask thing on."

         "Because he's a good guy," Liz pointed out with a roll of her eyes. "The good guys are always hot. Hello? Captain America?" She leaned back on her hands, staring up at the sky once more. "If I was straight, I'd definitely date him."

          "Yeah, but so are the bad guys. Remember the Winter Soldier?"

           While Mia and Liz went back and fourth, Luna pulled out her phone. Her eyes widened when she had four texts from Diana, asking where she was. "Fuck," she cursed, dropping the phone back in her pocket and quickly collecting her things. "I forgot to tell Di where I was, I gotta leave, like now." She quickly gave both girls a hug, calling a 'see you at school' over her shoulder as she ran out of the playground.

          "Wait Luna!" She quickly whirled around, eyes wide thinking she forgot something. "If you don't like Puna, what about Girker?"

          Luna glared at the girl, beginning to walk again. "That's even uglier!" She called back.

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