Midtown High School. Morning.
Peter walked down the hallway with his headphones in and the specific energy of someone who has slept well, eaten well, and has no immediate intention of being interrupted by anything.
The stares of other students registered and were categorized as irrelevant.
My patience is waning, is this entertaining?
Our patience is waning, is this entertaining?
I got this feeling, yeah, you know
Where I'm losing all control
'Cause there's magic in my bones
I got this feeling in my soul
Go ahead and throw your stones
'Cause there's magic in my bones
"Peter."
Playing with a stick of dynamite
There was never gray in black and white
There was never wrong 'til there was rig-"
"Peter?!"
He hummed, took his headphones off, and turned around to find Mary Jane running toward him with the breathless energy of someone who has been trying to get someone's attention for a while.
"Oh," he said. "Not her again."
She reached him and stopped, catching her breath.
"Peter! I called you three times!"
"Sorry, MJ." He held up the headphones. "I was wearing these. Anyway, what is wrong? Do you need something?"
"Oh, yes, actually." She started to say something else and then visibly reconsidered.
"The final exams are coming up and my preparation is not the best. I was hoping you could help me."
He raised an eyebrow.
She looked at him with the specific expression of someone who is hoping very much that the answer is yes.
"I understand," he said, buying time.
"So.... are you available?"
'No,' he thought. 'I genuinely wish I were not.'
"Actually, I n-...."
"Hi, Peter!"
Missy appeared from around the corner with the energy of someone who has had coffee and is genuinely happy about it.
"So what is the plan?" she said, falling into step beside him.
"Are you coming to my place or are we going to yours? And I will not accept any excuses this time.
You said you would help me study." She looked at Mary Jane. "Oh, hi MJ. Am I interrupting something?"
Peter opened his mouth.
"Hi, Missy," Mary Jane said immediately, with the face of someone who has just solved a problem they did not know they were going to have.
"I was just asking Peter for help studying too. Should we make it a group session? We could help each other more effectively that way."
"That is a great idea!" Missy said.
"It is a shame Gwen is at Oscorp, but she would not really need to study anyway. She is very intelligent. Although not as much as Peter."
'Of course you think it is a great idea,' Peter thought, and started walking.
"Peter?!" Missy called after him.
"Let me get my things from my locker," he said, without looking back, "and then we will go to my house."
Behind him, Missy and Mary Jane exchanged triumphant smiles.
....
....
The taxi ride was unremarkable in the way taxi rides are unremarkable when two people are comfortable enough with each other to fill the space with conversation that does not require him to contribute much.
Peter let them talk.
He had learned that this was often the most effective use of time available to him in social situations.
Mary and Missy had already told their parents that they were heading to his house.
He paid the driver when they arrived, unlocked the front door, and stepped back.
"Welcome to my humble abode," he said as he opened the door.
Mary Jane stepped inside and stopped.
"Oh my God," she said, looking around the entrance hall with the expression of someone whose frame of reference is being revised.
"You live here now? How can you afford something like this?"
"The Baxter salary," he said, walking toward the living room.
"Combined with the Baymax licensing and the medical consultation fees from the cancer treatment.
It adds up faster than I expected..... Please, sit down, make yourselves at home. I will get us something to eat."
He raised his voice. "May! Selina! Caesar! I am home!"
Three separate sets of footsteps came from upstairs. Two of the three sets came down considerably faster than the third.
What came through the door first was Selina, who had evolved in the weeks since arriving at the house into something that was simultaneously a cat and not entirely a cat in terms of behavioral expectations.
What came through second was Caesar, who had also evolved in the weeks since arriving at the house, primarily in the direction of having strong opinions about the correct way to greet people, which was at speed and with full body contact.
Peter went down.
"Hahaha, stop it, both of you!"
He laughed as Selina licked his face and Caesar distributed a hug that had the structural commitment of someone who has been thinking about it since morning.
"I have been gone for six hours."
May appeared in the doorway above them, slightly out of breath.
"Ha.... ha...." She pointed at Caesar with a finger that was trying to be stern and mostly managing it. "T...That was dirty!...Y...You cheated!"
Caesar, being Caesar, stuck his tongue out at her, then turned back to hugging Peter.
"You...." May's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Little monkey."
"Calm down, May," Peter said, amused, getting back to his feet.
He had been at the house for a week now and the dynamic between May and the new residents was developing in the direction he had expected it to develop, which was affectionate disagreement.
"It has been a week. The three of you should be finding common ground by now."
"I wanted to at the beginning," May said, crossing her arms. "That is no longer possible because they refuse to stop monopolizing you."
"They just want attention," he said, patting Caesar's head and running a hand along Selina's back.
"So do I," May said, and walked toward the kitchen with the specific energy of someone who is making a point while pretending not to.
"Awwww, is my dear aunt jealous?" he called after her. "How adorable."
"Shut up!" From the kitchen.
"P.... Peter?" Missy was looking at Caesar with the expression of someone whose brain is attempting to reconcile what it is seeing with what it expected to see when it arrived at a study session. "Is that a chimpanzee?"
"Aww," Mary Jane said. "And a cat... Such a cute kitten."
Caesar's response to the second comment was to press his palm slowly to his face and shake his head.
"I will build you a voice modulator," Peter told him. "So you can answer people yourself."
Caesar nodded with considerable enthusiasm.
Missy and Mary Jane looked at Peter in a way that suggested they were revising several assumptions about the afternoon they had planned.
....