"Aunt May, I'm home! I got the flowers to give to Mrs Watson as you asked." I say as soon as I enter the house.
"Oh Peter, why did you come back so late?! You might be late for your school party! Come on, go take a shower!" Aunt May says as she comes towards me to get the flowers.
"The florist nearby had an incredible line, it's not my fault if you remembered at the last minute that today is Mrs Watson's birthday. Besides, I don't have to show up when the party starts, I can be late." I say while she pushes me from behind, probably to get me up the stairs faster.
"No, Peter, I've told you many times that you have to change your habit of being late. When you're done, go to your room, I left your suit on your bed. I picked it up this morning at the dry cleaners, so don't wrinkle it."
"Even the suit? Aunt May, I told you I'd dress a little less formal."
"I don't care, it's the first time you've been to an event like this, so you're gonna dress up and get some pictures for my album. Stop talking, go and shower, you stink!" Aunt May says as soon as we reach the second floor.
As a joke, I start to move in slow motion however, instead of laughing at the thing as she would have done on other occasions, she gives me a look that makes me shiver and then, as she goes downstairs, she tells me to hurry up. Otherwise, as soon as the party starts, she would have personally accompanied me to school, whatever my conditions are when that time comes.
That clear threat of hers makes me remain stunned, in fact I remain to watch her back while she goes down the stairs for a few seconds in silence, then, realizing that she is not joking, I rush into my room.
Although Aunt May has always shown her interest in my participation in these events, she never forced me to go, this time instead her attitude is strange, I do not understand why she cares so much this time, It's not even the prom after all.
'It's pointless to think about this, the last thing I want is for Aunt May to get angry and take me in my underwear to school, where Flash and his other friends will make me have a great night...'
With that scenario in mind, I leave my backpacks under my bed, take a change of underwear and rush into the bathroom to shower. Only after I finish doing everything I had to do in there, I move back into my room.
Lying on the bed there is a hanger where there is a black jacket and trousers, wrapped in a transparent disposable dress cover from the laundry. Next to those clothes there is also a white shirt folded with care and, leaning on it, a black tie rolled up on itself, both have the air of having just been ironed.
I wanted to go to the party dressed in a more casual way, and not so pompous, but Aunt May seems to care about this particularly, so I sigh and then proceed to lock the door of my room to start dressing.
Before wearing those clothes carefully prepared, I take one of the backpacks under the bed and from it I take out my new costume, which turned out to be definitely more comfortable than the previous ones I had.
In addition to not staining and to repair itself in case of minor damage, it has many other qualities, including the fact that it is easy to wash, that it is suited to all the temperatures at which it is exposed and that it is so thin that I can wear it under my normal clothes, and no one would notice the costume underneath them.
Once I put on my Spider-Man costume, except for the mask, I also start wearing the suit that Aunt May prepared for me.
When all I need is a tie, I place myself in front of the mirror that is in my room to help me put it on, however, even though I know how to put it on, it takes a while because it always feels a little tight around my neck.
While I loosen the tie knot enough to remove that feeling, I put in the inside pocket of the jacket the mask, the web-shoters and the spare cartridges. Unlike these things, the bracelets to which I attach the web-shoters I do not hide them, since I always keep them on and they look like normal bracelets.
As soon as I finish getting ready, I leave my room and go to the kitchen to say goodbye to Aunt May before I go to school, and, as I walk down the stairs, I feel that besides her, in the kitchen there is another person who, from the voice, seems to be Mrs Watson, Aunt May's new best friend.
The moment I walk into the kitchen, I see them both sitting down and having a cup of tea while they giggle. Noticing my arrival they immediately fell silent, but both kept a small smile for some reason. Given their reaction, I check if there was anything wrong with the way I dressed to make them smile, but May stops me immediately saying that they were not laughing at me, but for something they were talking about before.
Mrs Watson then congratulates me on how well I am in this suit and, after thanking her for that compliment, I take this opportunity to wish her a happy birthday, to which she responds by thanking me in turn, afterwards she giggles again with Aunt May.
'Okay, something's wrong. 'Cause they're laughing like little girls who just pulled a prank
Before I can get into this, someone rings the doorbell.
Aunt May, seeing that I was going to see who was at the door, she approaches me and whispers that the person who just rang the bell is a friend they have in common, who has come to celebrate with them.
For this reason she asks me quietly if I can take the flowers she has left hidden near the entrance, and give them to their friend while she distracts Mrs Watson, so they can both make her a surprise.
At that point, then, before I let their friend in, I pick up the flowers I stopped by to buy after my usual city tour as Spider-Man. At Aunt May's request I bought for the occasion a bouquet whose main flower is the white anemone, which should be Mrs Watson's favorite flower.
'A bouquet whose prevailing colors are black and white do not look very cheerful to me for a birthday...'
In the meantime I make that reflection, I open the door and in front of me, instead of a lady of the age of Aunt May or Mrs Watson as I expected, there is a girl who should be my age. Her fiery red hair is smooth while her bright eyes are light green. On her face there is only a hint of makeup and she is wearing a black dress with white details, black heel shoes and some accessories.
"What's up, little tiger? You got the expression of a guy who just hit the jackpot." She says after putting her free hand on her respective side.
I can't answer her right away since my brain is in a moment of turmoil because of the unexpected presence of this girl and, just when I'm about to finally talk to her, Aunt May, who has just joined me with Mrs Watson, precedes me.
"Peter, this is Mary Jane, Mrs Watson's granddaughter. Since you didn't invite anyone to the party and Mary Jane had nothing to do, I suggested that she could go with you, so you get to know each other. This way Mary Jane can also visit your school and see if it's worth going there from next year." Aunt May says.
'Is she miss wonderful personality?!'
Instinctively I turn for a moment with my head towards Aunt May, who looks at us with a loving smile but at the same time amused, and Mrs Watson, who has her same expression.
This attitude of theirs, which tries to mask their triumphant air, makes me understand that both were in agreement regarding this surprise and their giggles a few minutes ago, when I wished Mrs Watson well, were surely due to the fact that I fell into their plan without any resistance.
The moment I turn around to the red-haired girl, I see her staring at me like she's studying every inch of my body with an amused smile, probably because she guessed I didn't know anything about this.
To avoid making the thing more embarrassing than it already is for me, I hand her the bouquet and introduce myself to her, trying not to exude my sudden attack of shyness due to this strange situation.
"The pleasure is all my little tiger..." She whispers to me in a charming way.
Without wasting any more time, Aunt May and Mrs Watson take out their respective phones to take pictures of us, however, as soon as they ask us to pose differently for the third time, Mary Jane leaves the bouquet to her grandmother, she takes my hand and then she drags me out of the house, saying that if we still stayed we would be late.
While the two older ladies bid us farewell, wishing us a good evening, I continue to run to be at the same pace as Mary Jane, who still has my hand in hers, and only once we are out of our block, we finally slow down and she lets me go.
The first thing that came to mind when our hands parted is that Mary Jane, once we were away from her grandmother and my aunt's eyes, would come up with an excuse to leave, since I will certainly not have met the expectations she had by hearing my description through the words of Aunt May.
She always tends to inflate what I really am, which is an unfortunate nerd who tries to live a double life full of problems and dangers.
Contrary to this opinion, when she regains her lost breath from the race we did, she apologizes to me for dragging me away suddenly.
Then, as she laughs, she tells me that if we hadn't run away, we would probably have done several photo shoots for them and we would have finished probably tomorrow morning.
Of course I answer that there is nothing to apologize for and that she was right to take that choice and I joke that, with all those flashes of their cell phone, they were hypnotizing me to stay there, so they could take more pictures of us.
At my joke, she chuckles, in a delicate way but that genuinely expresses how much she liked it, then she wraps her right arm to my left arm and she proposes me to make the way to my school, without running though this time, since she doesn't know if she can do it again in those heels.
On the way to school, Mary Jane asks me why I was surprised when I opened the door, so I tell Mary Jane about Aunt May and her grandmother's "evil" plan, which consisted of keeping me in the dark but at the same time being prepared for her arrival.
At first Mary Jane stops for a moment and she asks me with a disappointed expression if then I had not bought especially for her those flowers, however, as soon as she sees me panicking, she bursts out again laughing, and then she tells me not to take her seriously, since she was just teasing me.
Hearing her words I breathe a sigh of relief, and I ask her what I did to deserve such a joke, after all the embarrassment I was subjected to and she, as she approaches her face to my ear, tells me that I am cute when I am frustrated.
Of course, with that whisper, she most likely wanted to embarrass me even more, and just as she wished, I feel my face warm from his words as she chuckles at my reaction.
'Hell, I have to ignore her words just like I did with Black Cat, otherwise he will continue to make fun of me. Too bad this time I can't wear the mask to cover my face. I don't know what would have happened if Black Cat had also seen my face react to her seductive advances...'
To avoid continuing like this throughout the evening, I ask her to tell me a little about her and Mary Jane, perhaps out of pity for me, she starts talking about her in general.
She's the same age as me, and she's currently going to the same school she went to before she moved to her grandmother's, which is across town from where we live, so if my school respects her needs, she could move in as early as January.
Since she needs information about the school, I naturally put myself at her disposal if she has any questions about something I can help her with. Happy of that, she asks me what it seems to her is the most important thing, that is whether there is a drama course at my school and, if there is, if I know if it is well structured.
With the premise that I don't know much about that course, I say to her that there is one and from what I have heard it is also very appreciated, but, to have a more concrete opinion than mine, I will make her talk to some members of the theater course, so she can have all the information she wants.
Afterwards, since I was curious about that question her on the theater course, I ask her explanations and she tells me that one of her great passions is the theater, or rather, acting, So if she has to change schools, she would like to continue to cultivate that interest that she dreams will become her future job.
Her other passion is fashion, which also blossomed in the theater, among the various stage costumes, and to my comment on how it is evident, seen how well she is dressed, she tightens closer to me and thanks me for the compliment.
She tells me that I am also dressed very well tonight but, since she saw me as I normally dress sometimes while I was near my house, she specifies that for her I should change my wardrobe a little, since it makes me a little unknown.
'Well, that's why I wear them...'
"One of these days we go shopping together, so I recommend what to buy. I'm sure that with a little wardrobe change, you'll start stealing a lot of hearts, maybe even mine, who knows..."
"S-Sure." I say as I try to stay calm.
After that joke, we keep talking to get to know each other better and, contrary to the prejudice I had against her, Mary Jane is an amazing girl, Her colorful personality is so overwhelming that it manages to overshadow her breathtaking beauty.
This conversation that we're having has brought me a peace of mind that I probably haven't felt since Harry and I were still kids starting high school together.
With Johnny and Sue and the others, I feel this way in part, because very often you end up talking about super villains or something like that. Now I feel like a normal teenager, whose only concern is not to make a fool of himself while he's with a girl and not how to stop a madman who wants the extinction of mankind.
"I see you've finally relaxed a little, little tiger. You were so tense before. Was it because you never expected this beautiful redhead to accompany you to the party?"
"No, I was tense because I was expecting a more beautiful girl, but you are o-ok. After all, it is already very difficult to find someone at my l-level." I respond to her obvious joke, hoping she appreciates my attempt to retaliate to her provocation.
Initially the girl stops for a second to look at me angry and, thinking she had not understood the irony of my words, I immediately apologize and try to explain my intentions but her subsequent laughter prevents me from doing it.
"Ahah, I'm sorry, little tiger, but I couldn't resist. You should have seen your face when I made you think I took you seriously ahah. If you want to tease me, you have to try to be a little more convincing, your uncertain tone has betrayed you. I admit, however, that I appreciate the unexpected attempt of response. I did not think that in the shy Peter Parker there was hidden this more proactive side. Who knows what else you keep from me..." She tells me while she smiles at me.
'I'm starting to think this prank thing is a family trait, maybe it was her grandmother and not Aunt May who came up with that plan to get us together... I have to remember tomorrow to thank them both.'
Instead of turning red as a bell pepper, I also laugh for having fallen again into her trap and later I compliment her on her talent in acting, praise that she accepts by making a bow, like the actors at the end of a show in theatre.
After her bow, we both burst out laughing again and when we finish giggling, we find ourselves on the sidewalk parallel to the one where there is the entrance of my school and we can both see from there a lot of students are lining up to get inside the facility.
"Turn around for a second Pete, let me fix you up."
Before I can even ask her why, she pulls out of her purse a foldable hairbrush to fix my hair for a while, after that, once she is satisfied with the new hairstyle she gave me, she puts both hands on my tie to fix that loose knot so that it is tight perfectly and it doesn't bother my neck like before.
"There you go. So, are you ready to dance little tiger?"
"S-Sure."
"Then let's not waste any more time!" She exclaims and then she takes my hand and she drags me with her again.
