There were some very important questions that Peter needed answering. The top one, obviously, had to be: was Tony Stark Aunt May's booty call?

Peter shuddered at the thought, but Ned thought so.

"Dude," Ned waved a piece of pizza at him. "If I was May, Tony Stark would be the perfect booty call. Hell, Tony Stark is the perfect booty call for everyone. Just think, if she gets pregnant-"

"Ned!" shrieked Peter. "The image! Shut up!"

"Sorry, I'm just saying the truth. You'd be rich and have Tony Stark as your uncle. How cool is that?"

Peter huffed and munched on his apple. He hadn't seen Michelle all day at school until he saw a flash of her hair from the corner of his eyes. He perked his head up at the sight of her. Michelle walked around, an opened book in her hands as she searched for a place to sit. Peter waved and Michelle locked eyes on him. She clenched her jaw and turned away.

Ned watched the entire thing. He leaned closer to Peter to say, "I thought you said it went great? Why is she acting like you don't exist?"

Peter's shoulders fell. "I... don't really know. I thought it went fine..."

"Well, you can ask her after the decathlon meeting."

Shit. Peter had to face Flash during that meeting after school and he was not looking forward to seeing the guy. And Peter hoped that Michelle wouldn't take out whatever was bothering her on Peter during the meeting either.

Peter was anxious for the rest of the day, not looking forward to the meeting after school.

He and Ned arrived just in the nick of time. The others were already seated, chatting amongst themselves. Michelle closed herself off by keeping a book close to her face as she munched on gold fish. Mr. Harrington called the meeting to order and Michelle reluctantly set aside her novel.

"Okay, guys!" Mr. Harrington started with clapping his hands together. "I have great news! We just got the funding to join the United States Academic Decathlon International Program!"

The kids looked at each other, smiling content.

He continued, "The competition is in China this year and set the date: December 15th! We have a month and a half to prepare- it's last minute I know, but all expenses are paid thanks to us winning the national. Give a warm hand to Michelle." He gestured to her and the students clapped.

"That being said," Mr. Harrington sighed, "there must be some changes in our team. Peter?"

Peter felt his head pound. Oh god, no. This can't be happening. He looked up to Mr. Harrington and cleared his throat. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry, but you haven't been pulling your weight lately. Has there been something on your mind? Do you not wish to be here? It's okay if you don't, Peter, I won't force you to be on the team or anything-"

"No, no!" Peter rose in instinct. He looked Mr. Harrington in the eye as he pleaded, "No, I want to be here. I'm sorry I haven't been more active, Mr. Harrington. There's just..." He hesitated, and for some reason, his eyes wandered off to Michelle, who analyzed him closely. "...just a lot going on right now. Don't worry, I'll handle it and I promise to make up for it."

Mr. Harrington rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Hm... okay, yes, I hope that you do. But nevertheless, in case that doesn't happen, Flash-"

"Yes, Mr. Harrington?" Flash gave Peter a smirk.

"You're taking Peter's spot. Peter, you'll be Flash's understudy, and I expect you to make an appearance at the international competition and not disappear on us or I'll be forced to have an unpleasant conversation with the principal."

Peter's shoulders fell. He slowly lowered himself to his seat and leaned back in the chair, feeling the weight of worry and failure against his chest.

Michelle dragged her gaze away from him while Flash snickered to himself. Ned took a deep breath before wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

The rest of the meeting went by in a blur. They practiced and eventually broke off into individual studies. Suddenly, it was time to go. Peter stayed put while everyone gathered their things. He told Ned that he would catch up in a second since he had to talk to Michelle.

Michelle had pulled out her book during the last fifteen minutes of the meeting. She hadn't moved once Mr. Harrington had declared that it was over.

Peter swallowed. He leaned forward and tapped on the top of her book. He said, "Hey, MJ?"

Michelle slowly blinked up at him. She unclenched her jaw and lowered the novel. "Hey, Peter?" she mimicked his voice.

He frowned. What had gotten into her today? "Sorry that I had to bolt like that on you," he apologized. "It was an emergency."

"Hmph," Michelle huffed. "I'm starting to think that all you do is have 'emergencies'." She lifted her fingers to do air-quotes on her last word.

"Oh, I-I just-"

"Quit apologizing, Parker," she sighed. "I get it. You have this whole other life going on behind our backs. Honestly, I'm surprised that you're trying so hard to hide it."

Peter's ears burned. There was no possible way she could know about Spider-Man. There was no way! His jaw trembled and he struggled to compose himself. "I don't know what you mean..."

"No, no, keep pretending. Keep lying, I get that." Michelle closed her book and stuffed it in her bag as she spoke. "You're keeping something from all of us and it's eating you up inside. I can read people." She leaped from her seat to slam her hands down at the table. She leaned closer to Peter, putting her weight on her palms and she studied him. "Yeah, you've got something sketchy in your eyes, Parker."

"What are you even talking about, Michelle?" Peter gasped. "There's nothing sketchy in my eyes! It's probably an eyelash or something- now that you brought it up, I think there is an eyelash in my eyes, they are kinda irritated."

She lifted a finger at him accusingly and continued, "You're good. People don't notice because, well, you're Peter Parker. Just some loner. Who cares? But I notice, Parker. Watch your back."

She grabbed her backpack and slugged it over her shoulder. Michelle circled around the table to shove his back slightly. "Because I'll be there."

"What the fu-?" whispered Peter under his breath as he half spun in his seat. He quickly gathered his things and ran after her. "Wait! Michelle!"

"What?" she groaned.

"Can I get my candy back? I was gonna split it with Ned since he was sick."

She groaned louder and turned down the hallway, out of sight.

Peter mumbled, "Oh, okay. Thanks though." He rubbed the back of his neck, not quite sure of what to do or even what to think.

.

.

.

After the meeting, Peter decided that he should do some patrols, and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity that could lead to another attack. He had no idea when or where the terrorist attacks will happen, but he had to be prepared.

He visited Robbie, the hot dog guy, for another dog and a good chat. "Ey, my man, Spidey!" Robbie laughed and clapped Spider-Man on the back. "How was the girl trouble?"

Spider-Man slid the money to Robbie in exchange for a wrapped up hot dog. He sighed, "It definitely got worse, man. I don't know what I'm doing wrong! She just... lashes at me."

Robbie flinched away with a chuckle. "Oof! That definitely means you're doing something wrong."

"Really?" groaned Peter. "Why is everything so confusing?"

"That's life, my friend." Robbie blissfully looked away into the distance, his eyes trained at no spot in particular but the horizon. "That's life..."

Spider-Man pursed his lips staring at Robbie, unsure of what to say to him drifting off until Robbie blinked hard and shook himself awake. Robbie pointed a finger at him. "Ey, I see you've made some friends, huh?"

A frown. "Not that I... know of?"

"Really?" Robbie scoffed and shook his head playfully. "Nah, you met that guy. Saw it on the news at that apartment building bombing. Gah, what's his name?" Robbie tapped repeatedly on his head to remember. "It was, uh, Paradox. That's it, Paradox."

"That's edgy."

Robbie bobbed his head in agreement. "Edgy... but effective."

Spider-Man leaned closer over the hot dog stand. "Why do you think he's my friend though?"

"'Cause he said he was?" Robbie answered as if Spider-Man was acting dumb. "Paradox came by yesterday and just mentioned you. I just assumed that you two were buds, especially after that bombing incident."

Spider-Man slowly drifted away. So Paradox visited the same hot dog guy that he goes to... that can't be a coincidence. What was that guy's deal? Where did he even come from?

He said his goodbyes to Robbie and climbed up on the rooftop of a building to eat his hot dog while he tried to figure out his next move. With his mouth full of the hot dog, he asked, "Hey Karen, can you look up anything related to that guy, Paradox?"

"Sure thing."

He pulled down his mask to cover the top half of his face, leaving the lower half so he could eat his food without difficulty. In the field of vision in front of him, Karen pulled up some files. There were recent pictures and videos of the apartment complex bombing as well as the young man, Paradox. "It appears that Paradox has never made an official appearance in public before the bombing on Saturday. There is no collection of data on him."

"So," he swallowed his food, "you're telling me that this guy shows up out of the blue, saves my ass and goes to my hot dog guy saying we're friends."

"I suppose so, yes."

He blew a puff of air from his nose. "I gotta find him." He continued to chew his hot dog in distraught and tried to come up with a plan.

Nothing succeeded. Spider-Man patrolled the city, seeing nothing amiss. Eventually, he returned home that night and saw that May was grading more papers for her students in the kitchen with her reading glasses on.

"Hey, Pete, how was school?"

God, school. Where dreams are destroyed.

Peter waltzed around the kitchen in search for something to eat and maybe something to drink. He settled for orange juice and poured a glass of himself. Peter updated his aunt on his day at school, sparing no detail about the Decathlon team and the international competition in China near Christmas. May was so happy for him until he broke the news that he became Flash's understudy.

"This is a disgrace!" She roared with her lips puckered up in a snarl. "How dare he take my nephew's place? You're a hell of a lot smarter than that kid! Wait until I talk to Mr. Harrington-"

"Aunt May! Aunt May!" Peter held up his hands to calm her down. He gently pushed her back down to her chair. "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

"If you don't, you give me a call and I'll give him a piece of my mind."

Eventually, May calmed down enough for Peter to change the topic. There was something else that happened today at school that he didn't get to mention to her: Michelle. He hadn't spoken about the Halloween party to anyone or those weird feelings he felt towards her since he had missed Liz. Peter figured it was about time to break the ice to his aunt about whatever the hell was going on with Michelle.

Peter started from the complete beginning. The day he snapped at her, the bathroom, the party- everything. Although he fidgeted and felt slightly embarrassed under his aunt's calculating gaze, she quickly listened to his story intently. When he finished speaking about Michelle's threat to him, May finally had something to say.

"So... you think you like Michelle," she began, "but not really because you still like Liz and miss her. So you're using Michelle as your emotional comfort?"

Peter blinked. "Uh... I guess?"

May shrugged, "It happens, you know. You think you like someone, only to find out that they remind you of someone else who means a hell of a lot more."

"But Michelle is nothing like Liz and that's the confusing part!" Peter exasperated. He pulled out a chair from across from May and sank. "Scratch that- everything is confusing."

"Well, it seems that Michelle is upset no matter how you feel at this point, Peter." May rubbed her chin. "And she thinks you're leading a double life- she's very smart. You just gotta, you know, be more Peter Parker. Be normal for a change. Spider-Man is not your primary identity."

Peter's mouth fell. "But Spider-Man is who I am! I can't abandon all that because of Michelle."

"I'm not saying abandon-"

"It sounds like you're saying abandon."

May pressed on, "I'm saying that put Peter first and the suit second. People are going to start to worry and speculate who you are if you're not careful Peter..." She dipped her head regretfully, "I should have never let you got to that damn party in your suit..."

"I'll just-" Peter stood abruptly, accidentally making the table teeter unsteadily as he rose. He reached his arms out to steady it before he could regain himself. "-just figure this out on my own."

He clenched his fists and marched away, still unsure of a plan. When he sat alone in the silence of his room, something came to him. It wasn't full proof. It wasn't detailed. It was something at least. Just avoid Michelle, he thought. She won't know your secret if you are too far away. And I won't do anything stupid if I'm near her.

She's not Liz.

And I don't have a stupid crush on her.

.

.

.

But what if she has a crush on me?