THE NAME GAME 🏹 P.PARKER

I

i; name thief

     Parker Peters was born on April 15, 2001. Four months later, Peter Parker was born. Therefore, Parker's parents came up with the name first and anything that happened afterwards was a direct infringement of copyright laws. At least, that's how Parker saw it.

      She needed a reason to hate him that wasn't the overwhelming envy she had for his effortless intelligence. (Or, embarrassingly enough, how nice he was to look at). She had to watch, always sitting directly behind him because of stupid alphabetical seating charts, as he stared at his computer screen during every lecture and still aced every test. Meanwhile, Parker could be handed the all of the questions to her chemistry final, know exactly what to study for, and still flunk it.

She loved english and writing but science and math were the banes of her existence. She only went to stupid Midtown because her stupid genius cousins went there—  not to mention Robbie helping her study for weeks just to pass the entrance exam. Which, by the way, he only did in exchange for her to take his shifts at Uncle Eddie's restaurant whenever he asked for a month. (He ended up only asking twice, which was less than he usually would). She didn't even officially work there, she would only come in when someone called off and it was busy or when Robbie didn't want a shift.

Once, when the latter happened, Peter and his aunt got sat in her section. Parker remembered being especially pissed off that day, because her cousin was being a dick and decided to call off last minute, forcing her to bail on her and Vicky's movie night plans. They were gonna have a Jim Carey marathon, with titles including The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. So, obviously, she was more than disappointed. But when she spotted Peter's stupid perfectly swooped hair through the kitchen doors, it was like all of the air had been sucked out of her lungs and the rock of frustration in her gut was replaced with butterflies.

"I didn't know you worked here." He said with a small smile when Parker arrived at their table. It was the kind of smile that came with seeing a familiar classmate outside of school, just excitement about the coincidence of being in the same place at the same time. "Uh," She blanked, not used to seeing him in the dramatic lighting that the restaurant had. "I don't, really." It came out a little harsher than she expected, and she cleared her throat. "My uncle owns the place, I'm just covering my cousins shift." She nervously explained. At school, she expected him to be there, so it was easier to talk to him. Him showing up at Eddie's restaurant completely threw her off.

"How do you guys know each other?" His aunt asked, looking back and forth between the two. "She goes to Midtown." Peter explained, and Parker pursed her lips into a smile and nodded. "Nice to meet you, I'm May, I'm Peter's aunt." She said, returning the smile and sticking her hand out. Parker shook it and said, "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Parker, and I'll be your server for tonight. Can I get you guys started with something to drink?" She segued into her waitress script with a nervous smile, pulling her little notebook and a pen out of her apron.

When they left, Peter had written a note on their receipt that said 'thanks, see you monday' with a little smiley face drawn next to it. Parker still has it, tucked away in her bedside table. She felt stupid carefully folding it and putting it in her pocket, the same way she felt stupid standing at her open looker and staring at him across the hall through the magnetic mirror she stuck to the door.

"Dude. Come on." Vicky said when she walked up to meet Parker, grabbing her shoulder and shaking to snap her out of the trance the back of his head put her in. Parker snapped her head over to her. "You're stronger than this." Vicky nodded, pursing her lips and harshly patting Parkers shoulder. Parker groaned in frustration. "He's so... stupid." She whined, pouting as she closed her locker and slung her bag over her arm. "I know." Vicky frowned and shook her head, starting to walk towards both of their next classes. "Can you take extra good notes for me in history? I wasn't really paying attention." Vicky asked, giving Parker a sweet smile and batting her eyelashes. Parker rolled her eyes, also smiling. "I always take extra good notes. And you never really pay attention." She responded, crossing her arms.