Chapter Text
Marianne winced as her shoulder bumped against the side of the door as she hopped out, and immediately twirled around to help her twin brother Pierce, who had the worst asthma and joint problems imaginable, out of the bus.
Oh, and of course, Mr. Harrington, their biology teacher and the human of no help, who was known for going on emotional tangents about how his wife left him, was standing next to them, looking almost asleep and inputing the occasional comment of “Watch…your step...”
They were on a field trip to the brand new Oscorp lab that Pierce’s best friend Harry’s dad happened to own.
Harry slid out of the bus and fell into line next to Pierce, winking at a young woman walking past, and looking quite proud of the boring stark white building in front of him.
Gwen, Marianne’s best friend slunk up beside her, blond and pink hair hiding most of her face.
Her dad or one of his associates always brought her in the cop car to field trips.
To Marianne, Gwen was amazing. She was an aspiring fashion designer, the only girl in percussion, an absolute genius, and the only person Marianne knew who could drink five monsters and still be… relatively normal.
But to the rest of her school, Gwen wasn’t so cool. Her father was the chief of police, making her a viable target.
And whilst no incident had ever occurred, Gwen’s snarky tone and take no prisoners attitude made people… hate her.
So Gwen had chose to lean into the antagonistic theme, becoming maybe the most alternative person at Midtown High.
Marianne, to say the least, envied her. Even if it was just ever so slightly, the jealousy of being able to wear whatever your heart desired was unbeatable for her. It was part of the reason she had wanted to be Gwen’s friend in the first place, besides the fact that when they had first seen each other, Gwen had been sitting alone at a table with no one else, and Marianne had removed herself from her brother’s table of annoying nerds and rich kids.
“Hey Parker.” Gwen said as she bumped Marianne’s elbow with her own.
Marianne smiled at the familiar greeting and adjusted her glasses. Gwen tended to refer to Marianne as Parker, instead of… the other name. It wasn’t something she had told Gwen to do, nor had she even told Gwen about…it in the first place, but the nickname had came up, and just stuck.
Suddenly, Mr. Harrington clapped his hands.
“Alright everyone, fall into positions.”
The class just started at him, and someone even coughed.
Mr. Harrington just sighed, and pointed to the lab building’s door.
“Go on.” He grumbled.
When everyone had pushed into the annoyingly small door, a scientist lady with long, stringy black hair just…appeared. She had a nasally voice and seemed like she needed another coffee. Once she had explained the tour route, she beckoned for everyone to follow, and Marianne promptly started zoning out.
Biology and chemistry was more of Pierce’s thing, Marianne liked tech more.
She was kind of her neighborhood’s handy man, and had fixed five cars, three microwaves, a dishwasher, a radiator, and an air purifier for some reason so far.
Not that she was counting or anything.
It wasn’t like Pierce was the one who always came home with awards from his nerdy science classes.
Or a giant freaking trophy. His side of the room was full of them and it chronically pissed Marianne off every time she woke up to the early morning sun reflecting a golden ray in her face.
And it’s not like she was always mistaken for him, despite them having plenty of differences!
She had a mole on the left side of her face instead of the right!
She had glasses!
And a crooked smile from when she fell off her bike one time and busted her face on the pavement.
But surely it didn’t bother her, they were identical twins after all.
Nope. Didn’t bother her one bit.
“Parker!” Someone shouted from beyond her thoughts. They sounded mad.
“Parker!”
“Damn.” Marianne thought. “What’d Pierce and Harry do this freaking time?!”
“Peter Parker!”
Marianne’s head snapped up so fast she almost got whiplash
She narrowed her eyes and looked around for the culpri-
oh shit
Mr. Harrington stood at the front of the group, but that didn’t stop him from shouting loud enough to make it to the back, to shout at specifically Marianne.
“Peter Parker! You better be paying attention! Trivia from this field trip turns into most of the final grade for this quarter, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to turn that lovely C into an F!”
Marianne felt her face heat up, she was probably apple red.
“Yes sir, sorry sir.” She mumbled, ducking her head.
She decided maybe it was best if she payed attention for a little while.
That didn’t last.
Once Mr. Harrington’s wrath was upon some other misfortunate kid who happened to find this field trip exceedingly boring, Gwen bumped Marianne’s shoulder with her own.
“Hey. Didn’t know you were almost failing. Thought you and super nerd were good at this stuff.”
Marianne snorted at the stupid nickname for her brother, and shook her head.
“Pierce steals everything from me. So what if I’m failing biology? I’m so much better than him anyways.”
She wanted to say, but instead-
“Pierce’s good at it. Me? I mean, I guess I’m ok at chem… biology sucks ass though.”
Gwen just snorted and nodded along
“I mean I guess I could get Pie Slice to tutor me, but he’s probably too busy with that stupid chem club and the science fair that’s coming up and stuff.” Marianne shook her head and didn’t even try to filter the disgust from her voice.
“He’s been coming home later and later after school, at Harry’s house, and May and Ben are-“
“Hey Penis!”
Marianne was really sick and tired of people interrupting her thoughts before she could finish them.
Flash Gordon was truly the stupidest person on planet earth, and standing right behind Marianne.
He had a stupid big nose, with stupid light brown spiked hair, and stupid blue eyes, not like Gwen’s deep oceans.
His were almost white, which were not unlike like him.
He was the definition of white trash.
He’d had it out for both the twins and Harry since they’d caught him backing Gwen into a locker once in 7th grade, and Marianne and him had been bitter rivals since.
It sure didn’t help that he called her and Pierce “penises one and two” on the daily.
“Didn’t you hear the big H? You’re finna fail Penis. Lock the hell in. Thought you and Penis 1 were super nerds.”
The nickname wasn’t as funny coming from Flash
Flash’s face grew wicked suddenly. “Oooh? What’s this? Lovebirds?”
Marianne didn’t even realize that Gwen had leaned her shoulder against her’s, which wouldn’t have been odd unless-
Unless they didn’t see Marianne and instead saw Peter Parker.
Marianne crossed her arms, but before she could snap…something at him Pierce and Harry stormed up.
“Hey Barry Allan! What do you want with my brother and Gwen? Leave them alone!”
“Uh oh!” Flash mocked. “It’s Earth’s nerdiest defenders! What shall I do?” He said the last part with distain, sneering.
“Hey Penis 1! Yo brother hitting on yo girl!”
Marianne dug her nails into her hand and stepped slightly in front of Gwen.
It was no secret that Pierce had a crush on Gwen, everyone and their mother seemed to know, but Marianne guessed that everyone’s mother couldn’t catch that Gwen could give less fucks about him and still think they were together.
It didn’t help that Gwen was her best friend.
And besides, it’s not like her and Gwen were together either, I mean, not that Marianne wasn’t interested in Gwen it was just that she had other things on her mind, or another person in specific-
“Flash please leave them alone.”
Speak of the devil.
Michelle-James Watson, to Marianne, was the prettiest girl on planet earth.
MJ’s hair was the color of roses, her skin the color of caramel, eyes the color of new leaves, she smelled of spring and coconut curl cream, and she never shouted or raised her voice.
She always took time to come and see Marianne’s class projects, no matter the class, and her and Gwen got along, leading in the occasional group ice cream expedition.
And despite it all, MJ’s boyfriend was Flash Gordon.
Flash Gordon who looked like a drunkard in a parking lot.
Flash Gordon who was ugly and stupid.
Flash Gordon who yelled like Marianne knew MJ’s dad did.
And then stupid idiot Pie Slice Parker beat Marianne to speak.
“Hey, if you weren’t so stupid maybe you’d listen to the prettiest girl in school, who happens to be your girlfriend, maybe you wouldn’t be losing her to my brother.
You know. The one you’ve dubbed ‘Penis’.”
Flash launched at Pierce in a blur, and knocked him to the ground.
MJ shrieked, but that didn’t stop him. He started throwing punch after punch that Marianne knew her nerdy twin brother wouldn’t be able to dodge. Harry and MJ were trying to pull Flash off of Pierce, but to no avail.
MJ met Marianne’s eyes quickly, and rushed off to get Mr. Harrington.
Marianne felt useless. Flash was beating the ever loving shit out of her brother and she was just standing there.
Being useless.
And suddenly Marianne was overtaken with rage.
She usually was calm in times like these. The talker in sticky situations. Either the peacemaker or the collected front. It was Pierce, in all of his science-y nerd glory that had no impulse control, the one who yelled at things when mad.
But no-one was allowed to hurt Marianne’s family.
Radiating anger, Marianne walked over to the fight and in one kick, knocked Flash off of Pierce.
She shoved her foot into his chest and pulled a spare screwdriver out of her jeans pocket. She shook It at him, with no intention to harm, but the universe must’ve really truly hated her that day, because if she had a nickel every time Mr. Harrington had said-
“PETER BENJAMIN PARKER, YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG MAN. GET OFF OF HIM NOW!”
Marianne stumbled back clutching the screwdriver, and Gwen dragged her even further away, arm around her shoulders.
Only later did she realize she was shaking.
Mr. Harrington pointed a finger at both Flash and Pierce, and then Marianne. “DETENTION. ALL THREE OF YOU. AS SOON AS WE GET BACK.”
He picked Pierce and Flash up, dusted them off, snatched Marianne’s screwdriver, and stormed off, dragging Flash with him.
As Flash was pulled along, he mouthed the words
“You owe me.”
And pointed to his expensive white shirt now with Marianne’s boot footprints on them.
And the really expensive sunglasses that were now crushed on his collar.
Oh they were so fucked.