By Sunlight (P.P + M.J)

7. The Return

On the way to school, Peter avoided Jack's gaze. His roommate had been glaring at him all morning, at least since he told him that the "I love you" never happened.

"Then what the heck am I helping you for?" Jack had questioned, angrily eating his cereal, "a girl like her isn't gonna wait forever."

He even had the benefit of having Aunt May's support, and she added, "you really should tell her sometime, Peter. Jack's right. Michelle's not one to waste her time."

Jack was silent as they rode a bus to school, his headphones in and head bopping along to his music. Peter took the time to work over his and Aunt May's words in his mind. He really did want to tell MJ how he felt, but last night, he just had gotten so caught up in their moment that it had completely slipped his mind.

They got off the bus after a few blocks and made their way up the steps to the school, which was bustling with activity like always. Kids were talking and standing outside the door, crowding the sidewalk. Flash drove by in his car, a new one since Peter had kinda wrecked his first one a few months prior. He honked at a group of girls as he drove along, and Peter rolled his eyes. He kept pace with Jack's slow gate, taking comfort in his friend's imposing presence.

Once Jack had gotten settled as Peter's roommate, Tony decided that it would be best if he went to school, make something of himself intellectually. And somehow, he had gotten Jack into Midtown. He had explained that all it took was some "financial maneuvering" or something like that. Peter didn't really understand, but he did understand that he had another friend at his school, and that's really all that mattered.

But school was something Jack took no joy in, even though he acted like he was more or less okay with it. He liked that he had something else to use his classic black backpack for, but he didn't necessarily care with doing homework and projects. Even though he was by age a sophomore, he started at the bottom, so he was in most of Peter's classes. The lycan struggled in a few subjects, but Peter and Ned were happy to help him. MJ would sometimes chip in to teach him a few loopholes. But that wasn't even the hardest part for Peter's shapeshifting friend. He had to shave the short beard that he always had, so he could look more like the teenager he was than a thirty year old.

It took him a long time to get used to that.

The one thing Jack did prove to be good at was gym class. Even though he wasn't necessarily super-powered in his human form, he could still pull off a few feats when he wanted to. But it was his height that constantly had coaches coming up to him, asking him to play their sport, be it football, basketball, lacrosse. But Jack wasn't interested in any of that. As versatile as he was, he wasn't a very sporty person.

But Peter found himself staring at MJ all throughout gym class. As he did his sit-ups, he watched her read her book on the bleachers. Coach Wilson never forced anyone to participate, mainly because he himself didn't really care. She usually did the bare minimum anyway. But even as she just casually read her book, Peter still liked to just watch her.

Now, when it came to Peter and MJ's relationship, you couldn't even tell they were together. She had said she didn't care to tell anyone, because it wasn't their business anyway. But Peter found that hard, since he constantly had the urge to show people just how much he cared, but MJ always kept him at bay. PDA wasn't something she encouraged. So, to the other students of Midtown, the two were barely friends.

After gym, the four friends walked to the cafeteria for lunch. It was then that they noticed that there was a rush to get there. Students were talking excitedly to each other, and from what Peter could pick up, it seemed that a new person had arrived. But when had a new kid ever gotten so much attention? Who even were they?