Hero's Responsibility

Ch3: Reliable Peter

Present Day

"You did what?!" The whole P.E class, only the students that were closest to them, stopped mid push-ups to look over to Peter and Ned who were resting on the bench for a water break. Peter looked over at them and gave them a lip pressed smile, nodding at them before they turned away, uninterested in their usual strange actions.

"Dude!" Peter complained, narrowing his eyes at Ned.

When Peter had arrived at school, Ned had instantly bombarded him with questions of how it went with his aunt. Peter wanted to get it off his shoulder but desired to put it off until later because he knew Ned was going to overreact with the shocking news. Ned persisted, to which Peter always replied: "later." Until P.E came around in fifth period, Ned was anxious and Peter decided to tell him, with a prior advice on not to overact. Ned had failed terribly despite agreeing not to.

"How could you give up being Spiderman?" he tried to stay quieter to not attract attention from the students and from the ever-present Michelle who was sitting above them, four bleachers away from them. She was reading a book with a water bottle between her legs. She was abusing her water break like them but was doing a better job at being inconspicuous. She had mastered the art of blending in.

"Relax Ned. I'm not throwing in the mantel. I just," he paused. "I-just never really thought about how putting myself in danger would affect May. I'm just going to wait on it and let her get us to the idea of me having superhuman powers."

"What will you do until then? Are you going to ignore when duty calls?"

"I promised May I would focus on Peter's life, and Peter doesn't have duties to tend to,"

"PARKER!" Peter and Ned both flinched at the sudden call of Peter's name. They snapped their heads in uniform to see their teacher stopping over to them. "LEEDS! What are you two doing! You two asked for a water break five minutes ago, get back to running laps." He shooed them off the benches with his clipboard. They stood up to the side just in time to see the couch sigh in frustration. They thought it was directed at them until he called out,"Jones!"

MJ doesn't move a muscle, the only movement that comes from her is a slight shift in her eyes, as she looks up to see the coach and then looks over to see Ned and Peter. With Ned offering a wave while Peter keeps a dorky expression and she instantly knew their conversation had gotten out of hand, she could even hear Ned's surprised gasps and exclamations by whatever it was Peter was telling him. She descended the stairs with slumped shoulders and loup stomps, making her displeasure known to not the couch but the two losers that got her caught.

"Go all of you. Laps around the gym,"

MJ walks ahead of them, giving them a piercing glare from behind her still open book. Peter and Ned remain frozen at their spot, looking after her before Coach Wilson snaps them out of their scared daze. They follow after her at first content on keeping their distance after her piercing gaze but after a blow of the whistle by coach Wilson, telling them to run the laps, Ned and peter maneuvered around her in order to avoid MJ. She, on the other hand, didn't notice them, her gaze still glued to her book as she walked at a leisure pace.

Coach Wilson blew on the whistle again, calling out to Michelle. "Jones! I said run the laps." Once seeing that she wasn't listening to him he waved his hand at her, slumping his shoulders before walking away. "Ah forget it."

"Do you think MJ's upset with us?" Ned asked, jogging next to Peter slow jogging Peter, giving wheezes as he passed by others for good measures. 

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 MJ was upset.

Not with Ned or Peter. At first, it was with them, but it's impossible to be upset with them for more than a couple of hours. Especially when she had to share a class with one of them, Ned, next period and he continuously looked at her giving her sincere looks of apology. It didn't help when she walked through the halls and walked past Peter and received the same looks from him, except his were intensified by his dopey face and his ever-present puppy dog eyes. By the end of the school day, during the time their decathlon practice was to take place, MJ was able to ultimately determine that she wasn't upset with them, but with their inability to keep their excitement in conversations, and literally everything, down to a minimum.