golden | peter parker

seven

"Michelle, don't you at least like the Spiderman?" Ned asked exasperated.

Michelle glanced up from her book, took a sip from her coffee, and went back to reading. Ned started complaining how that wasn't an answer before she sarcastically raised a thumbs up in approval.

"Take that Penny! You're outnumbered 3 to 1!" Ned shouted happily. Penny rolled her eyes playfully.

"Look man, you can like him. Whatever, I don't care. I do care that he is going to ruin my life, which is ironic if you think about it. He's supposed to help people but here he is, about to break my will to live," She sighed, picking at her sandwich.

Peter and Ned looked at each other confused. What was she talking about?

"What do you mean?" Ned asked, genuinely wondering.

"Whatever it's nothing, I don't wanna talk about it. It'll just make me more upset," Penny sighed, clearly frustrated.

Ned and Peter dropped the subject, not wanting to press any further.

"So, pretty crazy we have two projects together, right Pen?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, actually though. I swear if Mr. Knight assigns us a project in Algebra I might actually sue," Penny said laughing and Peter joined in.

As those two chattered on about what to do for their projects, Ned and Michelle were having a separate conversation of their own.

"Okay, but like, I totally ship Parkollins. Their last names fit perfectly!" Ned whisper shouted in excitement.

"Let's not get too crazy yet. I think they're just discovering that they could have been best friends this whole time but just never spoke to the other long enough to realize," Michelle offered while eating her bagel. "Besides what about Liz? Parker isn't just going to forget about her."

"Oh my god you're so right! Piz, no that doesn't work. Liter? Too numeric. Alker sounds too much like alkaline. Pallan is too bland. Ugh. I can't even be bothered to ship him with Liz anymore because their names don't match," Ned frustratedly spoke, rubbing his temples.

Michelle laughed and only replied with, "Well whatever happens, 20 bucks says that they kiss before the end of the school year in 4 months."

"You're on! Peter has been pining after Liz for two years, I seriously doubt that he'll just give up on her," Ned and Michelle shook hands solidifying their deal.

Lunch dragged on and soon it was time for Penny and Michelle to go to Gym. They changed into the proper clothes and walked out, only to sit on the bleachers waiting for class to start.

After a few minutes Coach Wilson gathered everybody up and told them that today would be a workout day. They would need a partner and do sit ups, push ups, squats, climb the ropes, basically anything that would be classified as exercise. 

The two girls looked at each other and laughed, as if they would actually take it seriously. They each grabbed a mat and started to do some sit ups. They managed all of 15 before they decided to call it quits. They could have kept going if they were really going for that class participation grade, but they just didn't care enough to actually go through with that.

Suddenly Penny overheard Flash Thompson speak to his group of friends, "Since when can Penis Parker do sit ups?" 

Penny looked around, Peter was in this class? Sure enough she followed their line of eyesight and saw Peter doing sit up after sit up without even breaking a sweat. She raised her eyebrows, clearly impressed.

"God if you keep staring you're gonna start drooling," Michelle said snapping Penny out of her thoughts.

"Oh come on," Penny said rolling her eyes.

"So you got a little crush on Parker, huh?"

"No, I do not. You should know me better than anyone to recognize when I like someone. Besides... a girl can look, right?" Penny said trying not to smile.

Michelle laughed and shook her head. "You can look at Thor, that's someone who deserves to be looked at."

"Oh my god Thor is so hot though," Penny fanned herself pretending to actually be too hot thinking about the God of Thunder.

"Like damn, get me a slice of that Asgardian pie. Because that man is a snack," Michelle joked.

The two girls burst out laughing, grabbing the attention of everyone around them including not only Coach Wilson but also Peter and Ned.

"Ladies, back to work," Coach Wilson said with no authority whatsoever.

"But Coach, the laughing is helping us work on our abs," Michelle stated convincingly.

"Okay fine, you get a pass."

The girls snickered as he walked away.

"Ned! Since when have Penny and Michelle been in our class?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Uh, since the beginning of the year? You're just too busy drooling over Liz to notice anyone else," Ned hinted, hoping Peter would focus on a certain girl whose name started with Pen and ended with ny. Unfortunately for Ned's OTP, Peter did not get the hint.

"How can I not? She's-"

"Perfect, I know. We talk about this literally every day. Talk to me about someone else. Give me that fresh gos!"

Peter thought for a second. He didn't really know any girls besides Liz, Michelle and Penny.

"I don't know man, she's the only girl I like," Peter finalized.

"What about Penny? You two have gotten pretty close since yesterday," Ned was good at many things, subtlety was not one of them.

"Penny? Absolutely not. We are just friends. Besides, I talked to Liz in the hall on my way to gym today! I'm making progress. And even if I wasn't, Penny's so not my type," Peter said with such certainty that it made Ned rethink all his life choices.

Little did Peter know, Flash had been listening the whole time. To get back at him for constantly making Flash look stupid, he was gonna straight up tell Liz that Peter liked her. He would make sure that Peter knew how it felt to be constantly humiliated.

And even though Peter had convinced himself he didn't like Penny, it was painfully obvious to literally everyone else that he looked at her the same way he looked at Liz. But his poor heart didn't know how to handle having such massive crushes, so he would unknowingly push Penny away at all costs to keep himself safe.

Oh, what the subconscious does to protect the body from heartbreak.