Parker And Jones Are Big Bois

Chapter 3 - Operation Library

In which Ned comes to the help...

"Come on, it won't take much. I just wanna have a look."

"I was reserving this morning to catch up with The Mandalorian," complained Ned from his chair. "And I thought, you were gonna go out, doing spider stuff tonight."

Well, Peter thought that too, up until two days ago, when he met Michelle and learned that she could be found in the College's library. Since then, in the last forty-eight hours, he had gone from 'Nah, I won't do that' to a full-fledged plan, about how he was going to visit her there, without raising any suspicions. And to achieve that, he required the assistance of Ned.

The plan was quite simple actually, having only four straightforward steps: 1.) Go to the library – should be easy 2.) Wait around for Michelle if she is not already there and start reading a book – probably a bit boring if he can't find any science fiction novels, but ultimately still worth it 3.) Start talking with Michelle and prove her that he wasn't there to stalk her – which wouldn't be a lie at all because he was there to talk with her and besides, he knew for sure that he wasn't a creep 4.) See what happens – okay, maybe Number 4 wasn't elaborated that much yet, but he only had so much time. Ned should come into the picture at Number 3, to help him prove her, that he wasn't there to stalk her.

"Yeah, umm... Change of plans. I won't. Please, man," begged Peter. "We can catch up with The Mando together tonight. But you have to come with me because if I show up all alone, she's gonna think, I'm a creep."

"Well, technically it's kinda weird how you are trying to sneak up on her." Before he could start to protest, Ned continued: "And what about Liz? I thought you had a crush on her, and not on this Michelle."

Ned, seriously? Peter didn't even know where to begin. "Okay, first of all, Liz was about four years ago, I haven't seen her in three, and I'm pretty sure, I already told you this." Ned rolled his eyes, but Peter went on: "Second, I don't have a crush on Michelle." This made Ned roll his eyes even more, but Peter still went on: "I just think she's a cool girl. And by the way, I'm sure you'd like her too. One more reason for you to come with me." He knew his friend way too well to not realize, he was close. "Come on man. You are my guy in the chair. I need your help."

"Ahh, bro..." sighed Ned as he shook his head in disapproval. "You are hopeless."

***

"So, how are we doing this?"

"All right. So. She comes in."

"Okay," nodded Ned.

"She sees us."

"Mm-hmm."

"I wave hello to her."

"Yeah."

"She comes here."

"Good."

"And then we start to talk, and I tell her that I'm just here because you asked me to help with your project," explained Peter.

He and Ned were sitting in the college's library, waiting for Michelle to turn up. Part 2 of the plan was in motion now, so they had a small pile of books in front of them for the show, which they selected randomly along their way. The upside of the waiting was that the place was surprisingly comfortable for a library. There was plenty of space for the students to study: a whole segment, dedicated only to computers, another for big empty desks, and yet another to comfortable couches and armchairs – obviously, that was where Peter and Ned decided to settle down. The place didn't really resemble anything Peter was expecting, based on his deep knowledge of libraries, which he gathered throughout his life by occasionally watching movies with May that were taking place in universities. It was cool and friendly and a great middle-ground between old and new, and he actually thought about visiting it more in the future.