It starts, as everything seems to, with MJ reading.
It was the first time that she'd sat down across from them instead of down the isle.
She didn't make a big deal out of it, just stared at them, raised two fingers to her forehead and greeted them with a light, "'Sup, losers."
If they were completely honest, they had spent a lot of time just gaping at her and then at each other, before sort of motioning like 'do you... am I... is this...' and then just kind of trying to act cool but failing miserably.
They rock-paper-scissored over who would broach the topic, and Peter ended up having his luck fail him.
He popped his head over to peer at the cover, making an awkward position with his neck stretched like that and head tilted.
MJ raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing?" She asked, popping a french fry in her mouth.
Peter turned bright red. "Well, um... What are you reading?"
The corners of MJ's lips turned up ever so slightly ("She's smiling?" Ned gasped, staring in awe. "No way you're MJ. Are you an alien?") as she showed them the cover. "The Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo. Good book, you should check it out."
And if her sitting across from them at lunch wasn't shocking enough, then her smiling like that and giving them a book recommendation probably was.
"What's it about?" Peter would be the first to admit that it wasn't the best of questions (it was certainly the most generic), but he didn't really know what else to ask and he wanted to keep the conversation going.
"Destiny." MJ replied, shrugging ever so slightly, but with that faded sort of look that people got whenever they were talking about something that was really important to them, or something that just wormed into their lives and made them smile without even thinking about it.
"Destiny? That doesn't sound all that good." Ned frowned as he finished off his chocolate milk. "I mean, following a predestined route that determines our fate seems pretty cookie cutter if you ask me."
MJ wrinkled her nose in agreement, and Peter had the fleeting thought that it was the same look she got when talking to avid feminists, like she was disgusted with the world but liked the person that she was talking to. "Yeah, no, not that kind of destiny. The kind where you're at peace with the world, and you're fated to have a great adventure, but you can choose. And each person's great adventure isn't something that's apart from them, nor something that they have to do, but merely something that makes them complete and allows them to fulfill a great part of their selves."
"That makes no sense." Ned admitted, playing idly with his bendy straw. "But that sounds awesome, so I'm converted."
MJ shot Ned a look where, on any other person, they might be laughing (except this was MJ, so she had to stay cool and robot-ish and stuff). "Sounds good to me." She said, and Peter had the weirdest realization that she hadn't called them dorks since this conversation had started.
"Can you give us an example?" Peter asked, furrowing his brow and linking his fingers behind his head.
"Yeah, sure. Like, Peter, your personal journey might have been to be Spider-man."
Peter choked on his milk. "What... I'm not... what makes you think..."
MJ rolled her eyes as thought to say what am I going to do with this guy. "Hey, dweeb," Somehow the insult made it very real that this was MJ and not actually an alien impostor. "I've known since Washington Monument. If you want to keep a secret identity, you seriously need to do something about your voice."
"Oh, um, that's, well..." Peter turned bright red.
"I'm smart, remember?" MJ's eyebrow inched a bit higher, then she turned to Ned. "So, like, Personal Journeys. This guy starts out as a shepard..."