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It's move in day!
Peter and many of the early arrivers have been voluntold that they get to be the ones to help freshmen move in. Most of the students who assist are fraternity or sorority members eager to find new recruits, but there are certain ones like Peter who are doing it because their Residence Assistants strongly recommended it and you never know when you might need an RA to look the other way, or maybe even hand out a favor.
He's helped three people so far and he's pretty sweaty and grimy. There was that one family from Iowa who kept talkin' about 'the Big City' that he found endearing at first but felt a need to flee at the end. Then a quiet international student from Asia. And then the football player from upstate.
Currently he's wishing he had some water. And wishing there was a breeze. Some clouds, dear god what he would give for some rain as he walks along the dormitory block.
Out of the corner of Peter's eye, there's a familiar sight. The redhaired girl from high school, who was, apparently arguing with one of the local frat boys. He was carrying a rather large box for her, while she had a big suitcase and her guitar. However, said box has since been dropped, and said boy has stormed off, while MJ looks rather miffed, saying something that doesn't sound too intelligible, but is definitely a veritable zing considering the boy blushes and hustles off a bit faster.
Then, the girl sighs, crouching down and shoving the books that spilled out back into the dropped box…
A pair of worn out Chuck Taylor's approaches the most far out book. A boy in blue jeans leans down and it won't take long for MJ to remember him from high school. "Hey. Mary Jane. How are you?" Peter says as he hands the book over toward her. "Do you go to school here?" is the dumbest question, but he asks it anyways because it never occurs to him how dumb the question is. He doesn't ask 'is that your stuff' which might be worse.
Mary Jane says irritably, "Of course I go to school here, I…" She doesn't look up, not even recognizing the voice at first. Then she blinks, and she looks up, and smiles, "Peter! I didn't think you'd be here this soon!" She takes the book, and sighs, "Man, can't believe that jerk actually thought helping me would be enough to get a date. Men are just the worst sometim… er, no offense. I mean, not you Peter." She then smiles at him, tucking an errant lock of her hair behind her ear, "So… um…" Be cool MJ be cool… "What's your major?"
MJ? That. Was Not Cool.
"Oh, right, I," Peter says with a nod. He folds his arms over and nods his head up and down in agreement as she complains about men and then goes to shaking it side to side in agreement to disagreement when she says that she didn't mean him.
"Mechanical Engineering, I think? I don't know, really, just something with science. What about you? Acting, right?" She was in the plays and stuff, wasn't she?
MJ grins, "You don't know exactly? Well, I'm doing applied physics… but I'm minoring in theater." She looks a bit impish, "I don't know, I mean, I like physics but it seems like most of the applications involve exploding people, and that's not really something I want to do." She gets her box back together, then tilts her head at Peter, "So what're you doing here so early?"
"Oh, cool, we'll probably have some classes together, then," Peter replies as he scratches the back of his head. "Me? Oh, I was able to get a campus job in the dining halls washing dishes so I was able to move in early." That brings his job list to two, because he's still taking pictures for the Bugle. "What about you? What are you doing here so early?"
Mary Jane smiles, "Just… well, wanted to move in early. Plus, got a job at the coffeeshop off campus. I mean, I got the scholarship, but I wanted to have a little extra spending money." She hmms and picks up her guitar, then looks at her suitcase, then her box. Suitcase. Box. And she frowns a bit, "Ugh. Um, I suppose now I need to make two trips." Because she wouldn't just ask Peter to help her, that'd be too easy…
"Scholarship? Oh that's great," Peter says with a nod. A pang of jealousy hits his stomach—that sure would have been nice to get, but the one he felt he had a good shot at sadly didn't come to fruition. That's what happens when you're late with your application because the Rhino is storming the Lower East Side. Well, there's the part about how he procrastinated till the last day, too. "Nah, I mean, I can help you. That's what I'm doing today. Helping." He reaches down to grab some of her stuff. It's the least he could do, after all. There was one time when he was being beaten up as a kid and she told them to stop. That was pretty nice.
Mary Jane blinks, "Well, um, sure, that'd be great Peter!" She looks pretty happy about that, as she picks up the suitcase, "And yeah, you're pretty good at it. Helping, I mean." She grins, "Didn't think I'd see a friend so soon here. How's Aunt May doing?" With that, she leads the way towards the girl's dorm that she's been assigned. Pretty close to the dorm that Peter's in, actually.
But that's just a coincidence. Right?
"Well," Peter begins, but immediately begins to think of the tough times that have been happening. This week was her and Uncle Ben's anniversary, which is always a tough time about the ole house, yep yep. Then she had to pick up an extra job to help with bills. She hadn't shown Peter, but he saw a foreclosure threat in one of the letters from the bank. "Oh, she's doing real well. She actually just dominated in Bingo on Friday." Of course, she spent that money to help Peter buy books since he lost his job at the valet. But the good news is that Peter is an excellent helper. He can carry quite a bit of stuff easily and does so without complaint as he wanders by her side towards the girls dorms. "How about you? How's your family?"
Mary Jane hmms, "Well, dad's good. Still teaching, though he's worried I might stop being an engineer and become a /thespian/ instead. I… don't know if he exactly knows what that means." She smiles, "Mom, I think, has already turned my room into something else. Not sure what exactly, think she was talking about a breakfast nook. Not sure why you need a nook just for breakfast, but…" She looks at Peter, a bit of concern, "Sure that isn't too heavy? I mean, it's loaded with most of my books… all I could fit into my half of the shoebox that we have, anyway."
"Thesbian?" Peter says, nonplussed for a second as if mentally computing. "Oh, right, acting and what not. Yeah, you were great in all those plays, MJ." He shakes his head, "Nah, I got this. I've been doing a lot of pushups lately. I can carry it." A thought occurs to him, "Is your dad against the theater minor then? Is he kind of pushing you toward physics?"
MJ makes a bit of a face, "Well… kinda. I mean, I'm good at it, you know I am, right? But I just… I don't know. I don't know if that's what I want to do." She shakes her head, "I guess he's afraid I'll be a waitress my whole life or something while waiting for my one big break on Broadway, which I get. But still…"
"Everyone has to do what makes them happy." Pete shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head, "That's what Aunt May always says." And it's something he puts to the backburner all of the time in his life. But now, starting out here at college. Maybe things will turn around. Maybe he'll be able to put a lot of what is weighing him down behind him. "Of course I know you're good. And you were on our academic team thing in high school too, you were pretty good at that." Peter calling it a team is pretty choice considering how much he missed team stuff in those days.
Mary Jane hmms, "But what makes you happy Peter? I mean, you're helping me here, but… well, I mean, you didn't really seem that into the academic team." She gives Peter a curious look, "What do you want?" With that, they get to the dorm building, and she actually gets the door for Peter, since it's easier for her without the heavy box. Not that it's heavy for him, but she doesn't know that.
Peter shakes his head as if he's trying to figure that out as he looks off into the distance. He used to want to be cool. He wants or wanted to be Liz Allan's boyfriend. He was pretty sure he wanted to make a bazillion dollars and pay off all of May's debts. "I don't really know." Pause. "We're too young to know, right? That's what college is for."
Mary Jane grins, "Come on, what do you really want? I mean, not even for the rest of your life… just, heck, what about this week?" She then leads the way upstairs, as she's on the third floor of course. They quarantined all the 'nerds' up there. But on the bright side, easy window access for webslingers?
"This week?" Peter laughs and shakes his head, "I have an early morning Saturday shift that I want to get out of. I don't know Cassie or Hector well enough to ask them to trade with me, and given they both have pretty awesome social lives judging by our conversations, I think I'm pretty well out of luck. But, what I really want is Saturday morning off so I can sleep in." Fridays are his longest Spider-Man nights. It's payday. "What about you, MJ?"
MJ hmms, "Well, this week? I want to get moved in, and try to avoid going to this 'Welcome' party on Friday night. I mean, it's…" She glances back and forth, then stage-whispers to Peter, "Honestly, I really don't like parties." Which is a pretty big admission from her, since she went to, well, all of them.
Peter seems just shocked to hear this news, "You don't like parties? Didn't you like…throw all the best of them back in the day?" He laughs, shaking his head again at her admission. But the smile fades, "Hey, are you going to Mr. Stacy's funeral?"
Mary Jane sighs at the mention of throwing the best parties, "Yeah, I mean, it's something I have to do Peter. But it isn't always what I wanted to do." She sticks her tongue out, but grows more serious when Peter mentions the funeral, "Yeah, Gwen's my friend, I'll definitely be there. You… you were going too, right?" She bites her lip, just, well, she hasn't been trying to think about it too much. Poor Gwen.
"Oh, of course," Peter replies with a nod. He was friends with Gwen too. He just hadn't talked to her in a while, before seeing her again last week. The truth was he thought she was in rough shape before the Captain died. Now? Well, he's worried about her.
MJ nods, "Yeah, I haven't had a chance to talk to her, but with everything going on… she definitely could use a friend." She looks a bit guilty about that, finally getting up to her room. The nice thing about her room? It's a single, so no roomie!
The downside? It's literally half the size. Shoebox is a charitable term for the amount of space there. "Wow, I might have to rig up a hammock outside the window to have a spot to sleep or something."
"Do you have a loft? I mean, I think I could probably make you one." Peter has all of the mechanical knowledge. The woodworking? Well, probably not. That doesn't stop him from offering. "I think you're right about Gwen. If you see her, tell her I said hi, would you?" He takes another look around the room. "I got a single too." More expensive, but a necessity if you're going to be Spider-Man, right?
Mary Jane grins, "I think they'd probably frown on that, for some reason. Completely unreasonable." She hmms, "Oh, please, set the box down on the bed, I'll go through it later. Just has a few books and sheet music and stuff." She sets her guitar and suitcase down in the corner, and looks back to Peter, "So, um, thanks for helping me carry that up here. It was… nice."
"Oh, sure." Peter does as instructed and straightens. Is this awkward? He can't tell if it's awkward, it really shouldn't be. "Hey, no problem. Anytime. Good luck with getting settled and all that and good luck with the new job."
MJ smiles over at Peter, "Thanks. Say, um…" She pauses, and looks at Peter curiously, "What /are/ you doing Friday? I mean, this Friday? Like, you said you had the Saturday morning shift, so I was wondering um… maybewecouldgettogetherbeforedinnerorsomething?" The last sentence comes out in a quick rush, but it isn't too hard to understand what she said.
"Dinner?" Peter seems mildly surprised. "Yeah, I mean, I like dinner." He nods, liking the sound of it. "I think that'd be great." He doesn't quite get that she said before dinner, but now might not be a good time to tell the kid. He seems genuinely excited about it. "Yeah, let's do that."
MJ blinks, then smiles brightly, "Really? Um…" Okay, she wasn't expecting a yes, so she continues, "There's that pizza place right down by the coffeeshop where I'm gonna work, meet there at six?" She doesn't realize that she had said before dinner, mainly because she's stunned he said yes.
"Is that Doug's or Maggio's?" Peter says. There are about a hundred billion pizza places in this town and slightly less in that area. "What kind of pizza do you like?" he asks, wondering if he's supposed to make small talk now or if he's supposed to hit the road and be cool or if this is just someone new at college looking for a friendly face to hang out with. He'd been so lonely in the biggest town in America.
Mary Jane hmms, "Oh, that's Maggio's. I like…" She pauses, and glances back and forth, before she slyly whispers, "Don't tell anyone, but I like Chicago style pizza. And that's what they have there." She looks a bit sheepish, like she just admitted she's a Red Sox fan or something. But… deep dish pizza? IN NEW YORK?!?
"I'll keep that from Aunt May. She won't let me hang out with you otherwise," Peter replies with a laugh. "Good to see you, MJ. I'll see you tomorrow night." And with that, Pete makes his way to leave.
MJ smiles, "Catch you later, tiger." She says it, without even thinking about it, then she mmms and goes through her box, shelving things as she looks much happier to finally be here.