~Love, Voices & Chocolate~

Cloudy With a Chance of Populars

Jacob Batalon as Ned Lee

Aww! He's so freaking adorable!

In the days that followed after Gwen's date with Spiderman, Peter became distant. It wasn't even the fact that he was ignoring MJ that surprised her, it was the fact that he was ignoring his best friend, too. She didn't think much of it at first, she assumed that the Latino would go out with Spidey and leave Peter alone in his dorky duo. What she didn't consider was Gwen keeping him around and now, all of a sudden, she began to feel discomfort when around him. He was turning into one of them and she didn't like it. She hated to admit it but she missed the weird dork. His science jokes shirts, his rambling on and on about his fandoms, how easy it was to make him flustered.

Now, he seemed to be a permanent member of the popular squad. He wore plain, thin shirts that showed off his muscular body (which she had discovered long before her other classmates when they were having a diving class together), he even wore sunglasses INSIDE. It was freaky. And he would spend hours talking about how close he was to Spiderman, even doing flips and stunts that Spiderman had taught him, to the awe of their classmates. She thought it was great that he was breaking out of his shell but it wasn't in the way she had hoped. This wasn't her Peter, the one she knew, the one she loved to tease, and she wasn't sure she would ever get him back.

"Hey, MJ." She looked up to see Ned holding his books and panting. He slid into the seat beside her and took in a deep, ragged breath. She acknowledged his presence with a sideways glance accompanied by a brief nod before turning her attention to their teacher who had only just walked in. Peter Parker was at the back, sitting with his hair tousled. In all the right ways- for goodness sake, Michelle! She was sure there was something wrong with her, because nothing in the world could explain her sudden... feelings towards Peter.

Before, she felt nothing other than curiosity towards the strange boy. Now that he was gone, she had begun to realise his importance. She didn't have that many friends, her home was hell... she hated to admit it but Peter and Ned made life slightly more worth living other than school, science and sketching distressed people. Now that Pete was gone though, Ned wasn't his usual weird self and the only person she saw in distress looked back at her when she stared into the mirror. "Uh... Peter is sitting with his new... friends so I wondered if I could sit here?"

"Why not? The chair isn't gonna sit on itself." She bit her lip and discreetly glared at Gwen with a sour look on her face. Perfect, hot, stupid blonde and her beautiful, stupid body! She clutched her pencil so tight she was sure her dark knuckles had gone from chocolate-coloured to a milky white. Her eyes roamed the classroom for anything of interest. Peter had ruined school for her. It was the only place she could escape her shitty home life and he messed it all up. She felt like punching him, but he was too innocent for her to. He probably didn't even know how his behaviour was affecting them.

She nudged Ned gently once she noticed he had dozed off, her eyes still on Peter and he turned to her from his slouched position. His eyes went from confused to a softer, sadder look when he followed her gaze. He nodded silently and turned his gaze to the teacher but she wasn't in the mood for it. She knew she had to confront Peter, she just didn't know how to get him away from his precious Gwen Stacey without having to face other populars.

The opportunity presented itself later that day when Peter got detention for not doing his homework. Damn Pete, it's only been a week of school, what have you been doing with your life? Then she saw him talking to Gwen and she facepalmed disappointedly, the sight answering her question. She made up her mind to go for detention and tackle him there. He needed to know that his distance was affecting her- Ned. His distance was seriously affecting Ned.