"For the first ever round of our lip sync battle," Mr. Harrington announced, pulling two slips of paper out of a jar, "Michelle and Peter!"
The pair froze as they looked at their teacher then to each other, the auditorium started to burst with the giggles of the other students. They both started to protest when the principal announced that they would be graded on this and to do their best before dismissing everyone.
"Dude..." Ned whispered as he looked at his two friends. "This is so awesome...!"
Peter groaned as he slammed his head into his hand. This is just what he needed, another reason for Flash to make fun of him. Flash and the whole school that is.
When the teachers explained the rules to this new mandatory activity, Peter thought it would be funny to see the students struggle to learn a dance routine with backup dancers and sets and lights and everything that made it seem like a real concert. It would have been even better if Flash was one of the first that got to participate so they could chuckle at him stumbling across the stage for a while. But now that it was Peter and MJ... all the happy feelings left him.
"Listen, nerd," MJ said as she gathered her things and stood up, "I don't like this as much as you do, but we might as well get a good grade on it anyway." And just like that, she walked away from them.
"Are you going to ask for Mr. Stark's help with this?" Ned asked with a strange look of excitement in his eyes as the two of them finally left the room as well, heading to the lockers.
"No! Why would I tell him about this? He'd probably come to see it!"
Peter didn't like the way that Ned's eyes lit up more as Peter picked up the books he didn't need in his locker and began his trip to the front of the school, saying his goodbyes to Ned at the boy's locker.
It was Friday, meaning that Happy would be waiting for him out front to bring him for his weekly trip to the Avenger's compound. He almost wanted to skip this weekend, knowing that it would be difficult to hide it from Mr. Stark or any of the others that happened to notice the faraway look that was no doubt lingering on his face.
What on earth was he going to do? His brain could think of a few things -being a child of the internet, of course he had a few ideas- but all of which would completely embarrass him and leave him in hiding for the rest of his life. And he knew from personal experience that Mr. Stark would find out eventually and never let him live it down. Maybe he could drop out of school? He could probably manage to get into MIT with a GED or something... Maybe he could even talk Mr. Stark into giving him a job at Stark Industries? No, he'd rather work towards his future by himself instead of asking for free handouts like that.
"Hey, kid," Happy greeted as he opened the door and rushed him into the car. Peter blinked as he saw the inside of the car suddenly there, not realizing he had already made it there. "You okay? You look kinda like a basket case today."
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking of a school project is all." Peter swallowed as he saw the man's eyebrow raise and knew he was about to call him out on his vague answer. "It's for biology, we're supposed to... build models of..."
"Alright, stop right there. I don't want to hear it."
Peter tried to hide his smile as he saw the divider sliding up, his bluff having done its job of giving him some privacy. He pulled out his phone, connecting his headphones and turning to YouTube for inspiration.
It took restraint for Peter to not tap on the new videos of Spiderman that were uploaded, knowing that as soon as he left his destined path that there was no turning back. So he forced himself not to watch videos from his fans and went into the music.
It took him almost the entire trip to the Compound to find his song, and the rest of the trip was spent on silently brainstorming ideas. If he was going to embarrass himself, he might as well go all out, right? If MJ didn't do her best, then this was going to be so bad for him, but Peter couldn't deny that there was a hint of excitement in him. He was going to perform on stage, of course he'd be slightly excited!
Once they were at the Compound, Peter remembered all the excitement that surrounded Mr. Stark and how the man had basically used Iron Man as a party trick that was on stage with lots of dancers... Dancers could be very useful...
Unfortunately, Tony was away for a little while and would be back in thirty minutes according to Steve. So Peter went to the room that was reserved for him and sat at the desk while writing things down in his notebook.
"Hey, FRIDAY, remember when Mr. Stark first announced that he was Iron Man, and whenever he'd make a public appearance he would always have backup dancers?"
"Yes, Peter. Mr. Stark loves his attention..."
Peter smiled at the exasperated tone the AI used. "Well, I was wondering if he still had contacts of them? I might need to get in touch with some dancers for a thing for school, and it would be nice if they would do it for free but I know that it would probably cost or something and-"
"I'm sending a notice to all the dancers now. I can add a note about you being an associate of the boss and you would probably get them for free. When would you like to meet them?"
"Thanks, FRIDAY," He smiled to himself, looking up at the ceiling. "After school on Monday would be nice, gives me a little more time to prepare."
"Done, good luck with your school dancing, Peter."
He smiled as he looked down at the notes on his paper. Backup dancers might be a bit much, but he would probably need them. MJ may act like she doesn't care about anything, but underneath all that, he knew that she would put her all into an assignment that was given to her.
When Tony came back and Peter was allowed in the lab to work on things with him, Peter was very far away from reality. He hummed softly to himself as he made his web formula and his feet were tapping to an imaginary dance Peter saw in his head. He knew that Mr. Stark was probably watching him and thought he might have been crazy, but this was a thing for school that he would be graded on.
The week passed by too quickly... Peter was practicing with the dancers every day after school and patrolling every night. He was getting very little sleep, but it was enough for him. He also had to admit that dancing was a lot more fun than he thought it would be. He was enjoying himself as he showed the backups what he wanted to do and they even helped him smooth a few things out.
He was honestly going to feel very stupid if MJ didn't give it her all...
Friday had crept up on them once again, meaning that it was going to be a half day of school for the 'battle' at one.
Peter had shown up in his costume, a very nice (but cheap) suit and fedora with a black umbrella waiting for him backstage. When he saw MJ in what she normally wore, he felt his heart plummet for a second until she told him that she would change later on. He really hoped that he wouldn't make a fool out of himself today...
It was noon when people started filling the auditorium, some family members joining the kids as they crowded in to get good seats. Flash was on the front row, a smirk on his face and camera in hand. Peter suddenly remembered that Flash would use this to humiliate him for the rest of his life...
"Well don't you look fresh today," A voice stated from behind him. Peter was forced out of his plans for escape, his body tensing for a second, his eyes wide as he slowly turned around.
"M-Mr. Stark! Wh-what are you doing h-here?" Peter's voice cracked slightly on the last word, but he was too embarrassed about Tony Stark being at his school for this than on his voice trying to go back into puberty.
"You've been spacing off a lot lately and acting very weird, so I asked around and Aunt Hottie told me about how your school was doing some dance thing that you were going to be in and I decided to check out if the spider-kid can dance," He took his sunglasses off with a smirk. "That's not a problem, is it?"
"N-N-"
"Hey, Tony, we found seats on the front row for all of us," Another voice called from the side of the two. Peter swore that he could feel himself die slightly on the inside as Rhodey came up to them.
"'All of u-us'...?"
"You didn't think that all of the Avengers would miss a show like this, did you?" Tony patted his arm, Peter nearly falling over at the thought of everyone seeing him perform. "Though Vision and Wanda are still on vacation in Italy at the moment, they send their best to you."
"What's with the wig?" Rhodey reached a hand up, a chuckle escaping him as he gently tugged a lock of Peter's fake long hair.
"Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Going to turn emo on us, kid? Like this weird kind of suave emo?"
"W-well..."
A teacher came up to them all, gripping Peter's arm just before noticing the guests the boy was talking to. The teacher suddenly became very clammy and as charming as she could be. If Peter wasn't so mortified about the Avengers being there, he would have laughed at her act.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize Mr. Parker was talking with anyone right now. It's an honor to have such high standing people come to see this small show."
Tony clasped a hand onto Peter's shoulder, "I wouldn't miss seeing my favorited intern perform on stage to a dance he created. He's very bright, I look forward to what he has planned."
If only Tony knew just what he was going to perform, he might not think so highly of him...
"Yes, Peter is one of our top students here. Many of us teachers think that he'll be the valedictorian when the time comes."
Peter blushed, ducking his head down. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the proud gleam that took over Tony and Rhodey's faces, both of them looking at Peter.
"We look forward to seeing that one day."
"If both of the participants would please come backstage, the performance will begin shortly." The loudspeaker announced, Peter gulping as the nerves built inside him again.
"Mr. Parker," The teacher smiled at him before hurrying away.
"Don't worry, kid. You'll do fine. And if you don't, we'll love you anyway." Tony grinned before going to his seat, Rhodey giving him a thumbs up before following.
Peter was contemplating how fast he would be able to move to another country.
"Hey, loser!" MJ called, her head peeking out from behind the curtain, "Get your butt back here!"
Peter took a breath, ignoring the way some people in the crowd laughed at him as he ran to the stage and hopped up, ignoring the steps, and joining her behind the curtain.
She looked... like Bruno Mars. She looked very much like Bruno Mars. Her baggy shirt and shorts, the hat that covered her braided hair, everything added to her look (cosplay) and he was strangely very proud of her.
"Stop staring, you're getting to the creepy point." She said, giving him a blunt look as she crossed her arms. "I talked to the staff and they said that I'm going first, so you get to suffer a little bit more." Her eyes scanned over him briefly, and Peter barely saw the smile she had for a split second before turning to go up to half of a fake jet that was near them.
Wait...
Was that fake? That didn't look very fake...
Peter noticed that everyone was waiting for him to be clear of the stage, so he ran off to the side where the other people were standing but made sure that he had a good view of MJ's show.
She.
Was.
Amazing.
As soon as she stepped out of the fake-but-maybe-not jet, everyone could tell that she had completely embodied her role and let a side of her out that no one could have ever imagined was there.
Not to mention the way she danced with her backup people...! Peter might have fanboyed a bit while watching her. But he didn't know that she could dance and people that danced were so cool! The crowd seemed to love her too. The auditorium stood to their feet and cheered for her as loud as they could; even the Avengers were enjoying her show.
His face suddenly burned red as she walked over to him, taking out fake money and started tossing it above his head. He saw the smirk she gave him and laughed a bit, his embarrassment leaving him as he raised his arms and let her shower him. He could hear Tony yelling out "That's my boy!"
After MJ went back to the front, Peter could see that she had really gotten into it now. The way she moved was more fluent and bouncy than it had been in the beginning, and her smile seemed to be a permanent fixture on her face no matter how hard she tried to fight it down. Peter might have gotten a crush...
Everyone stood to applaud her when she struck her last pose as the music ended, Peter was one of the loudest of her new fans.
As soon as she stood up, she was mainly back to her old self but still couldn't get her smile to fully go away. She walked back to him as she took her cap off and gave him a small smirk that said 'beat that.'
If only she knew how truly extra he really was...
The curtain closed as Peter's large cardboard set of New York was put up and someone gave him an umbrella. He was going to regret this so much later...
The curtain went up as he turned around and began his dance, a few of the people cheering for him as the 'classic' music played.
As he did the tap dance part that he learned, he felt his nervousness fade away and a sense of confidence took over him. Which was very helpful with what he was about to do...
He tipped his hat towards the crowd before heading to the wall of umbrellas to the side of the cardboard background as six men came out on stage.
Peter quickly ripped off his suit, adjusting the tight shorts as best he could. The background lifted up as the music changed, the crowd starting to scream as the backup dancers took over for a few seconds more.
The wall of umbrellas moved up, and the screams became almost deafening to Peter.
As he started dancing in time with the music again, he saw the Avengers with varying reactions to him. Tony and Bucky seemed to be stunned into silence, Steve, Nat, Thor, and Bruce were very amused, and Rhodey, Clint, and Sam were laughing hysterically at him. They would never let him live this down...
A few members of the crowd gathered at the front of the stage and started reaching for him, cheering as loud as they could. Peter smirked a bit at them as he moved slightly closer to the front, knowing that the next move of the dance would probably have them going wild.
And he was right. As soon as he dipped down on the umbrella, more people joined in at the front and reached out to him. He could have laughed, and decided to indulge them for a bit by breaking choreography and dancing just out of their reach.
His eyes trailed back to MJ, who was getting off the ground (for some reason) and not even trying to hold back her laughter. He smirked as he walked over to her, seeing her shocked face as he returned the favor from earlier and danced for her. His senses told him that she played along as well. Thank God she wasn't planning on murdering him...
He walked back to the middle of the stage, towards the back where there was a small pool of water that he reached down and splashed before standing in the middle of it.
When the rain machine turned on and the male backup dancers returned, Tony seemed to have snapped out of his shock and laughed harder than Peter had ever seen before.
This was Peter's favorite part of the dance, honestly. He loved the moves he came up with in the water more than the others, and he was able to show off a little bit more by the one-hand handstand and a few flipped he added in.
The sparkler machine turned on as the crowd roared once again -or was it because of his flip? He couldn't tell anymore, the high he was on was clouding his senses and he was flying on autopilot for the rest of the dance.
When it was time for the final flip, Peter remembered midair that he wasn't supposed to land in a Spiderman pose, messing up his landing slightly as he fell flat on his back. That hurt. He'd live but he was very winded now and was sure that his head was bruised. Damn.
As he caught his breath, the sounds from the crowd finally reached him again. It was so loud it blended into one constant noise that was going to cause him a headache later, but now he couldn't care... He stood up and looked out over the crowd, so many people that were cheering just for him- just for Peter Parker. It was amazing... It was the best high he had ever felt, swinging through New York and fighting along with the Avengers had -almost- nothing on it.
His eyes trailed back to his teammates, seeing them all standing and cheering for him as well. Peter's eyes zeroed in on the phone in Clint's hands, a groan building in him as he was suddenly hit with how embarrassing this would be later...
The hair on the back of his neck stood up as his eyes widened, looking to the side and seeing a group of girls suddenly climb onto the stage and start running towards him. Peter took a step back before breaking into a run off the stage as the girls followed him while screaming professions of love.
This was definitely not something he anticipated after this performance.