From the first moment we approached that group of students who go to the same school as me, each of them began to look at us with interest, some more discreetly, and some more clearly.

Unlike me, who is obviously embarrassed, Mary Jane is acting like nothing is happening.

Thinking that this might be bothering her, I apologize to her quietly for this strange situation in which she found herself and I tell her that they are probably behaving like this because they are surprised to see a new face.

Next to my words, she turns to look at me with a doubtful expression and she replies that she thinks this attitude is more due to me than to her, since she heard some people whispering to each other to wonder if I really am Peter Parker or if they are mistaking me for someone else.

In fact, she believed, for some obscure reason, that that was a "normal" reaction on their part, so she gave us no thought about it.

Now that I've made her understand that I'm not really the star of the school as she strangely speculated, she tells me that I've certainly been so long in hiding that they were surprised to see me out for the first time.

"Your jokes are getting too obvious, you know? Clearly, it's because they didn't expect to find a girl as beautiful as you with someone like me."

"Do you think I'm beautiful?"

"I think everyone here would say the same, maybe one person would think differently, but she doesn't count since she thinks everyone is inferior to her."

"I don't care what other people think, I want to know what you think of me, little tiger... I think you're a pretty good piece of cake tonight, and I'm sure I won't be the only one who wants to take a bite out of it." She whispers to me and then hugs my left arm so she can be closer to me than before.

"O-ok, now I'm sure you're teasing me. Give me a break please."

"Are you sure this is my umpteenth teasing? What if I'm being honest this time?"

Despite all the effort I put into trying to ignore her provocations, I am again betrayed by my face, who blushes as she looks at me with a slightly distorted smile on her face because she is biting a part of her lower lip.

"Okay, I think it's time for a break with my teases ahah. I don't want to short-circuit your brain before I can test your dancing skills, so I'm calling a momentary truce." She says with authority.

"Oh, thank you for your humble concession, your majesty..." I say ironic, and then continue, "However you do not miss anything about my dancing skills. I'm not a brick because Sue gave me a few pointers, but I'm not even Fred Astaire. My goal will be to try not to accidentally step on your toes."

"Sue? What is this, your attempt to make me jealous to get back at my pranks, little tiger? You know it's not nice to talk to a girl in your company about other women."

"No, no, not at all. Sue is a friend of mine, she's also married- Wait a second, are you teasing me again? What happened to the truce?" I ask after I see her looking at me with a sarcastic look while I try to explain who my friend is.

"I just made a point, it's not my fault if you thought I was upset..." She says with a smirk that makes me clearly understand that she has not resisted the temptation to do another prank, afterwards, while we advance towards the people who are in line, she whispers to me.

"You don't have to worry about these things with me, I'm not the kind of person who gets jealous. When I know something is mine, I don't force it to be in a crystal case like other people for the fear of losing it.In fact, I prefer it to be free so others can understand its value and maybe appreciate it as much as I do."

For some reason, the way she said "mine" makes me swallow instinctively and, before I can deepen this statement with her, we arrive at the reception table of the party, located next to the entrance of the place where it is held.

After we pass by the reception table, we can finally enter the school auditorium that has been set up with various decorations and other types of themed decoration for the occasion.

In addition to the school students, who are gradually arriving, there are some professors who are here to check that there are no problems, the caterers, whose buffet I see on the other side of the room, and finally the usual dj who is playing his music on the small stage they have put for him and his equipment.

As she drags me inside, instead of letting herself be guided by me, she looks around and she tells me that, although it is only her first impression, for her the parties at my school are definitely better structured than those that her school organizes.

"Looks like we're at some kind of high-class reception." She says.

"Yes, let's say this is the work of the queen bee of this school, she's the one who organizes the events at this school. Her father is also one of the main funders of the institute, so no one has anything to say about it. This is also my first time attending one of her school parties."

"I hope I can meet her tonight, I would like to meet this queen bee. The way you talk about her, she seems like an interesting kind of person."

"Trust me, I don't think we should meet her. We're just gonna ruin the night..." I whisper while imagining a possible scenario where Liz sees me here.

"Anyway, since we both are about to lose our first time at being in a party at this school, I'd say we need a toast for this night before we hit the dance floor. Are you in?"

"Of course."

At first I didn't realize the obvious double meaning that was in his proposal, I realize it shortly after, as we are reaching the counter where they distribute the drinks, and since Mary Jane at that moment is looking around, I doubt she caught my reaction to the discovery of this thing.

When we get to our destination, I get a plastic cup of red fruit punch for both of us, and when I give it to her, she takes my free hand and we move from there to a calmer place, where it's just me and her.

Mary Jane then positioned herself exactly in front of me, she handed me her glass so that she could take off for a moment the bag, which she carries hanging on her right shoulder, and then she opens it in front of me.

From it she takes out a small bottle, as big as my index, and she pours the contents of it into our glasses.

Once she's done, she puts her purse back on and she takes back her glass, afterward, while she ignores my questions about what she had poured into our glasses, she toasts to our evening and then she asks me to drink with her, advising me to drink all the contents of the glass in one sip.

For a moment I look doubtful at the cup then at her, however, seeing the way she is looking at me, waiting for us to drink together, I decide to put aside a moment my paranoia so I can seize the moment and have fun as Johnny told me several times.

After colliding our cups, I decide to drink everything in one sip as she advised me and, when I do that, along with the fruity taste of punch, I feel a strong and warm taste that pervades my throat while swallowing it.

'She put alcohol in our punch...?'

The moment we both finish the contents of the plastic cup, both Mary Jane and I cough sometimes, and as soon as I ask her to confirm my hunch, she says cheerfully that she has put a little gin on both of us.

"In addition to going for the first time to a party in this place, we also drank a booze both for the first time ahah. I admit that I don't like the taste, I prefer other spirits, so I doubt that I will drink more personally, however I think this sip that we did is enough to give us the charge for a good evening, don't you think?"

"I see that someone had the stupid idea to bring alcohol to my party, could you tell me your names so that, before kicking you out, we report you to the teachers, so that they take measures or you want me to call them directly here?" A girl with voice, unfortunately, familiar says.

Behind Mary Jane, I see Liz showing up with two of her friends who are part of the cheerleading team of which she is the captain, and all three are acting as if they have just found two criminals.

When Mary Jane turns around, the expression of all three changes, the two girls accompanying Liz are clearly amazed at the appearance of Mary Jane, who had not seen clearly since she was behind.

Liz instead, seeing that she is no longer the center of attention of her minions, she becomes even more nervous but, she too was clearly amazed for a moment by the beauty of Mary Jane.

"Alcohol? I don't know what you're talking about. Do you understand?" Mary Jane asks for a gentle elbow to my left arm to get my attention

"N-No, honestly not, maybe they misunderstood." I say to keep up.

"So what's that bottle in your hand?" Liz says while she points to the object in Mary Jane's hand.

"Oh this one? It's just a single-dose bottle of flavored sparkling water for drinks, in my free time I work in a bar and since I use them often, I always take some with me."

"I've never heard of this stuff." One of Liz's friends says.

"It's a new product, it's in high demand, especially from some very important influencers who hang out at the bar I work at from time to time. I'm sure you've heard of it, maybe you don't remember it now. It's called Spirit, here, try it." Mary Jane says, then pour the contents that remain in the bottle into the cup that Liz has in her hand, and then hand it over, since it has no labels or anything.

For some reason, Liz says she probably heard about this drink that Mary Jane invented in the moment and she says she didn't expect people like us to have it, so she misunderstood.

Mary Jane was able to frame Liz's character right away. Since Liz has heard that that is a new drink that is in vogue, she has pretended to know her in order not to make a bad impression, however that lie comes to the surface as soon as she drinks some of her drink.

When the taste of the punch mixed with the gin in the little sip she makes enters her mouth, Liz starts coughing much stronger than we had done before, maybe because she was caught off guard, and as soon as she recovers, she watches us both furiously as she points us at her index finger of her free hand.

"It was alcohol at the end! How dare you lie to me and make fun of me?!"

"Hey, it's not our fault you fell for it, honey, we're in the same boat now, so I doubt you should be snitching. It's not like we killed someone, we just had a little sip of spirit. You know, in some cultures it's said that drinking alcohol together binds people, maybe this stormy start is the beginning of a beautiful bond, don't you think?" Mary Jane says, then she looks at me.

"Hey Liz, what's going on here? Me and the others were looking for you everywhere."

The person who spoke is Liz's boyfriend, Flash, who has just arrived along with the rest of their group of friends, consisting mainly of some members of the basketball team and cheerleading team and other "popular" people here in the school.

"The missing circus members have arrived..." I whisper under my breath as I imagine what might happen now that Flash is here.

"Oh, are you by any chance a new student or a new friend of Liz's? 'Cause if I'd seen you before, I'd definitely remember... I'm Flash Thompson, nice to meet you, sweetie." Flash says as soon as he sees Mary Jane, and then he extends his hand to her.

Mary Jane out of the corner of her eye looks at Liz, who tries to hide her anger for the umpteenth time that Flash behaves like a flirt with another girl, then she shakes Flash's hand and she introduces herself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mary Jane. Actually, I'm going to another school, but I'll probably come to yours after January. I came here with Petey, and I was now befriending Liz." She asks, then, with the same hand that first held his right hand, she strokes his left arm and she keeps talking.

"Man, look at these muscles... You must be a sporty guy, any girl would be very lucky to have you as her boyfriend." She says.

"I always say that Liz is lucky to have me ahah, I'm not just a sportsman, I'm one of the best players on this school's basketball team, which is the best high school in America!" Flash responds, only to be loudly supported by his classmates with cheers.

"Flash!" Liz exclaims, putting an end to their self-celebration and bringing attention to her,"I caught these two drinking alcohol and they tricked me into drinking it too."

"These two? You mean her and... wait a second, what are you doing here with her, Parker?" Flash asks confused.

"Parker...? Are you Peter Parker?!" Liz asks immediately after him, then after she focuses a moment on me, it seems like she just recognized me.

This reaction of Liz seems shared by all the other members of their clique except Mary Jane. She looks at me with an amused expression because she seems aware of why they have had this reaction despite knowing each other for a long time, even since kindergarten with Flash.

"Oh, Petey is the person who invited me to the party, I was lucky to get to know him. Ever since I saw him for the first time the day I moved near his house, I've always had the impression that he was an interesting person, and so far I'm not disappointed at all." She says as she hugs my right arm and looks me in the eyes intensely, as if she could see my soul through them.

"Are you with someone like Parker?" Flash asks, completely incredulous.

"I just came here in his company, nothing else. I usually avoid relationships like dating or similar for some reason but who knows, if one day I find the right person, I might change my mind.

It's just hard to find someone like that who arouses my curiosity, but maybe I've already found someone...

Anyway it's a shame that you're already into Liz, maybe a big guy like you could have a chance" She says to respond to Flash's insinuation that we were dating, however, by the way she talks, it seems that those words are addressed to me and not completely to him.

"Yeah, that's a shame..." Flash says without thinking, probably because he's focused on Mary Jane's words.

His answer won him a punch in the back, given secretly by a Liz, who begins to have difficulty hiding her anger.

Seeing the interest of everyone but Liz in her response, Mary Jane takes the three bottles she had left in her purse and she discreetly shows them to Flash and the others.

"These are the ones I have left, I'll give them to the first person who goes to get me a drink since mine is finished. What do you think?"

At that request, almost everyone rushes to get another glass of punch for Mary Jane, while we stay there with Liz and some of her friends.

The person to return first with the cup is Flash, so he is the one who receives the bottles from Mary Jane as promised.

After giving them to him, while Flash shares with his friends the alcohol he has earned, Mary Jane offers me the cup she has received from him.

Despite Liz lightning all with her eyes, the charisma that emanates Mary Jane is clearly superior, to the point that the usually docile friends decide to accompany Mary Jane to the toilet, despite Liz's veiled order to not help her.

As they move away from Liz, the group of girls begin to compliment and ask Mary Jane questions, which she answers with a smile while I stay here, sipping punch while I see Liz who doesn't seem to have digested her friends' betrayal.

Once Flash has finished giving some of the booze he has earned to his friends, he approaches me and Liz. He tries to put a hand on Liz's left shoulder to try to hug her, however the girl immediately ducks out and walks away to the toilets.

Flash, completely unaware of why Liz is acting like this, probably thought that was one of Liz's whims and decided not to give it any weight. He then starts chatting with his friends for a while, waiting for the girls to return, until he decides to shift his attention to me.

"Hey, Parker, we were wondering what that hottie is doing with a guy like you? Did you trick her with your beautiful dress and the change of look? Did you know that after midnight Cinderella returns to what she used to be, right?" He asks. after chatting with his friends.

"I don't understand why you care so much about this. Flash, don't you have better things to do? Maybe Liz wants to dance, you know, she didn't throw this whole party to see you talk about other girls..." I say, then I have another sip of punch.

"Mind your own business, Parker. What happened, your idiot brain stopped working? Since when you have permission to retort me?" Flash asks irritated.

"It's not that I need your permission, if I haven't done it so far it's because I didn't see fit to do it. I just wanted to give you some advice to not ruin your evening. Pretend like I didn't say anything, as usual."

"Nobody asked you anything, nobody would follow the advice of a loser like you. I really don't understand how a hot chick like her can be around someone like you. She probably has something wrong in her head, which is possible since she's a bit weird but after all they can't all be perfect as the good Flash. The only other explanation is that you paid her. Personally, I think that's the right answer, since only a pathetic guy like you could do something like that to find someone who wants to be near him. Nevertheless, as you saw earlier, your attempt to get out of your loser status has begun to show its flaws. Even though you paid her, she noticed I was better than you. Or is she an escort who thought I could be another of her clients?"

As soon as I hear his nastiness, my mind gets clouded up for some reason, not enough to notice the people watching what's going on and then I start to shorten the distance between me and Flash, as long as there's only a few inches between us.

"Listen, me and many others have always put up with your bullshit, in the hope that one day you will mature, instead we are in the last year of high school and you remained a baby boy. I don't care if you denigrate me, if you hit me or anything, I've gotten used to having to endure the whims of a little child like you, yet I don't allow you to drag other people through this."

"Now the fearful Parker is threatening me, what's going on tonight? You must have really lost your marbles. You care so much that I show everyone, especially Mary Jane, who really is Peter Parker?" Falsh says to take me by the tie while Kong and his other friends approach him.

"Maybe you want to show everyone how far behind you are compared to everyone here, still acting like a bully with your friends instead of maturing, Eugene." I say while I look into his eyes.

"Hey, big boys, I don't know what happened, but I don't think we should fight right now unless you guys want the party to end early for you. Isn't that right, Liz?" Mary Jane says as she approaches us with Liz.

"She is right. Some professors are already looking in our direction, so if you don't want to get in trouble and make me angry, which is even worse, stop now. The rest of you, do you think this is a show included in the party? Leave." Liz says first about us, then about the people watching

"Next time you won't be so lucky, Parker... Redhead let us know when you realize that it is not worth to be together with that idiot and you decide to be with the right people, we will wait for you." Flash says after he let go my tie.

"Don't worry Flash, I know how to choose the people I choose to spend time with. I'm gonna talk to you all later, okay?" Mary Jane says as she braids her right arm with my left, then, remembering she forgot to say something, she keeps talking. "Oh Liz, please, think about what we just talked about, if you want we can talk more about it later, otherwise I'll give you my number so we can talk about it on the phone with calm."

"All right... if you will come and spend some time with us afterwards, maybe I could give you a tour of the school since you're thinking of moving in this school..." Liz says in a strangely friendly way.

'What happened between the two of them while they were away? Liz seemed to dislike Mary Jane, but now she seems to have become her friend. I've never seen Liz behave like that with another person.'

"Thank you so much, Liz! See you guys later." She says, then drag me away with her to the area in front of the DJ where the other students are dancing.

"Hey Petey, is there any professor you know nearby?" Mary Jane asks as we walk.

"Yes, why? Do you want to ask about the school that has aroused your interest?"

"No, Petey, I just have to report that some students might be drinking alcohol." She says and then she winks at me.

"What? Why is that? I thought you liked them, it seemed like you even got along with Liz now, despite how things went during your first meeting"

"Oh yes, some of them seem nice and I hope that in the future we will become friends, especially with Liz, however I want to make them a prank. The way they interrupted our night together, they deserve it, don't they?" She explains with a smile in which I catch a hint of treachery in it.

"I don't think that's the case, Mary Jane. You just risk ruining your relationship with them from the start, which is a shame since they've taken a liking to you. They only came because they were curious about the bottles and because you were a new face to them. They didn't come to bother us on purpose. In the end they just held us for a little while, but the night is still long, right?" I say after I stop for a moment to look at her.

When I'm done talking, Mary Jane stands there for a few seconds staring intently at me, enough that I'm starting to doubt that I might have said something wrong.

As that uncertainty of mine begins to show on my face, Mary Jane's eyes gain a strange but beautiful glint, and her smile, as well as losing that shred of malice, becomes even more beautiful than those he has flaunted so far.

As soon as I hear that laugh of hers that I have heard several times in this short time we know each other but that every time i hear it, I feel I like it more and more, I ask her if I have been a victim of one of her teases again.

"No, nothing like that, I told you I was giving you a truce, right? I was laughing because I realized something, don't worry. Like you said, it's still a long night, and I want to spend as much time with you as possible, little tiger. So, ready to take me to the dance floor?" She asks and then presents me her left hand, as if she were a lady-in-waiting.

"Sure, I'll do my best, but don't complain if I step on your feet sometimes because I'm uncoordinated" I say as I take her hand and together we walk towards the gruop of students who are already dancing.

"Don't worry cutie, I'm sure you'll amaze me, as you have done so far... At worst i'll step on your toes sometimes too, so we'll be even."