Chapter Text
"Shut up."
Peter and Ned both look at MJ.
"What did we do now?" said Dumbass #1.
They were called dumbasses for a reason.
"You guys are such weaklings. Complaining about homework and Legos as if that's super hard."
"Hey, that is hard," Peter says undignified.
"The people who are making your lame Star Wars pun sweatshirts in the Philippines for ten cents an hour beg to differ." She rolls her eyes and opens up her book to her bookmark.
Ned huffs then opens and closes his mouth while attempting to verbalize a rebuttal. MJ just smirks in response.
"You know what? I am not letting you shit on me because yes, people may have it tougher than me but I have it tough too!".
She raises her eyebrow imploringly.
"I bet you wouldn't know. You don't even do anything but go to random detentions, read a crap ton of books, and Acadec."
Wrong.
"Busy? Busy isn't in my vocabulary because I've exceeded 'busy' in elementary. Please. I'm president of Acadec and Forensics, secretary for Model United Nations, and Vice President of Mock Trial."
"Oh."
"'Oh' yes."
She glares at Ned and, but a bit lighter, at Peter and continues to read "Teaching My Mother to Give Birth".
There’s an uncomfortable silence that MJ basks in till Ned interrupts.
"We're still on for protesting next next Saturday right?" Ned says meekly.
Lame.
"Don't ask questions that you already know the answer to. Obviously, I would never miss a protest, not even if the people I'm going with annoy the hell out of me."
The bell rings ten minutes later and Ned quickly leaves so he can arrive at Lang early to talk to Betty.
Even lamer.
"Hey." She looks over and sees Peter rocking on his heels back and forth.
"Hi?" she says while making her way to the door.
"When's your next extracurricular or afterschool thing?". He looked genuinely interested which genuinely shocked and confused MJ.
"Wait, you really want to go to one of my events? Hah, cute. You’d be bored to death, hell, I actually participate and I fall asleep in some of my rounds. Look, I’m always busy and I have a debate tournament coming up so I got to go,” she picks up her books, throws away her lunch, then flips him the bird.
"They're easy. As in easy as fuck. You got this MJ, bring us the 4-0," he says while clasping onto her shoulders. If it weren't for the judge in the room, she would've kneed him. "Do you know what you're going to say or do you want to use prep time?" he says teasingly.
"Shut the fuck up," she whispers while shoving his hand off of her and her desk. "I got this," she says with a smirk and dusts off her blazer and grabs her timer, legal pad, and her sticky notes.
"Okay, opponents ready?" and she looks at the two girls and they look like they were going to pee their pants. "Partner ready?" and, of course, Flash smirks and gives two thumbs up because she said the fucking word partner.
Why the hell did I agree to go back to Public Forum? I've been a Lincoln- Douglas, and undefeated might I add, debater and I'd rather be debating morality then technicalities.
Whatever. Let's just get this over with.
She looks at the judge and asks sweetly, "Judge ready?". The judge smiles in affirmation.
"Perfect! Let's begin," and she clicks the timer, "So today we are here to debate the resolution, "Resolved: Deployment of antimissile systems is in South Korea's best interest. I would like to demolish my opponents contentions again then strengthen my own case if time permits...".
"And lastly, by using the logic of the MAD doctrine, judge, you can clearly see that the status quo is unjust to South Korea. South Korea needs the antimissiles. It is in South Korea's best interest, which we are debating today on how to derive, to do so. For all these reasons and more, the affirmative has won this debate."
She hit the timer with a happy tap and smiled at the judge.
She could see from the corner of her eye her opponents were shaking.
It was hard to snatch wigs but MJ has mastered it by now.
She let her opponents scramble to make a last minute valiant speech to rebuke their case but it left their case unharmed and even the judge, who was blatantly playing the Kim Kardashian game on their phone, knew that.
When they finished, one of the girls accidentally, more like Flash-dentally, slipped straight into Flash's arms.
Gross.
She got up from her chair and moved away from that freak show to shake her opponent’s hands.
They looked almost tearful for going against the undefeated public forum debate team in the district.
She would say some fake shit that was common for everyone to say such as, "Oh, such a good round!" or "Good debate, guys!".
She hated playing nice with people she knew were very unwilling to play nice with her too. The only thing she hated more was getting her undefeated streak lost.
Screw ad hominem.
She did pofo all throughout her freshman year. Unfortunately for the school, she dipped during sophomore year because everyone wouldn't want to go against her due to the numerous rumors going on about her or partner up with her since she was very strict as to how she planned her cases.
A bunch of weak ass buffoons.
Who the hell knows how Flash managed to get MJ to agree to be his partner for this tournament.
Hell, she couldn’t even remember why she agreed.
Maybe it was because MJ felt an ounce of pity because his partner, Liz, dipped. Well, more like moved across the school and never probably ever coming back but, potato potatoe.
Then she went up to the judge and shook their hand and said something along the lines of "Thank you for judging!".
Ugh, anything for a damn medal.
After she stuffed all the papers and shit away, she slung her backpack behind her back. Giving a middle finger to Flash, when the judge wasn't looking of course, and receiving it back from him, she made her way to the door.
Not a bad round, not at all.
Her partner, ew, was already flirting with the next round's team, a twin duo, by the time she was exiting the door.
The undefeated King of Lameness and Infinite Second-hand Embarrassment.
"MJ, hey, MJ!"
"Peter." She looks back and sees him in his casual jeans and a Stark crew neck running up to her with a shy smile.
That's cute.
The crew neck was cute, obviously. Not Peter.
Never Peter Parker.
He looks at her all happy and embarrassed which makes her feel embarrassed and it doesn't feel good.
Like at all.
"You're still here?"
"Well, um, yeah. Didn't you see me at your round like just now?"
She shook her head 'no' but in reality she did. It was an odd experience having him in the room watching.
Flash was just more hell bent on looking better in front of Peter so he might have went a little too overboard with demolishing their opponent's case.
Another teeny tiny, partial reason why they may have won so easily was because both the girls they competed against were a little too distracted by Peter.
Of course, her opponents didn't even notice because, hello, Caucasian boy with curly hair.
"I don't remember inviting you." She looks at him, seeing if he'll get intimidated and shy away.
"Yeah, you didn't invite me," he says then nervously laughs. "Remember in lunch? Telling us, Ned and I, what extracurriculars you do? I think we're pretty good friends," MJ snorts at that, "and I wanted to see what exactly my friend does."
That was kind of sweet.
The sweatshirt he was wearing was, not him.
"So you're telling me that you want to know how I spend my weekends by spending this whole afternoon at this debate tournament with me? You've been here since 7:30 AM. Parker, you've been here longer than the president of the association ad half the participants.” She laughs then continues, “You can leave anytime you want. I still have one more round anyway so-".
"Nope," he puts his hand on her back and leads them to the cafeteria. "I'll be here till this whole tournament ends."
It was annoying that he was being stubborn but it was way more annoying that he says it with a smile that MJ can't seem to roast upon. Although, that did come quite close to how annoyingly nice it was to have his hand on her back.
"You do know these tournaments last till like 8:00 to 9:00 PM right?"
"Make that till 7:00 PM."
"For 1st Place, Jones and Thompson!".
The crowd is only allowed to give a clap per team announced yet Peter wasn't given the memo.
He was woohooing and clapping too hard for too long.
The other coaches and random parents told him to sit down so he sheepishly obliges and sits down.
“Penis Parker is your biggest fan, eh?” Flash says while they make their way to the table with awards.
He can’t stop laughing so a girl had to do what girl had to do.
He stopped laughing and started wincing after she stepped on his leather Gucci mules.
Good.
The only thing better would be if the coaches told Peter to stop doing that. That smiley thing that showed he was happy for her. It would have been nice to take that sweet smile off his face. That smile ruined everything.
It made her feel that way and she wouldn’t and couldn’t allow it.
I’m fact, she doesn’t feel that at all.
Not even a little.