Michelle Jones is notorious for many things, but one of them is showering in the one shower that only has cold water at the end of the row.
Every time she is questioned about it, MJ says something about water conservation and how the United States carelessly wastes too much clean water, which is a limited resource. What people don't know is that she goes there because no one else does, and despite all of her confidence in being a bit eccentric, she's also a teenager and is seriously self-conscious of her body. It is hard to explain, but MJ does not feel particularly comfortable in her own skin, and even though she knows that beauty is a construct used to con women out of their hard-earned money, it is a hard feeling to shake.
But anyway.
MJ is showering after another day of the stupid Presidential fitness test. It's not like she got all that sweaty, after all, she only passes the test by calculating the exact bare minimum of work she has to do. But MJ has kind of a thing for hygiene, and she likes the way that it feels to slide back on her warm hoodie over her wet hair after a cold shower. MJ has just finished washing the shampoo out of her hair when it happens.
Three of the upperclassmen girls yank back the shower curtain.
MJ can't cover herself, and she sees they have taken her clothing. For a moment, she is frozen, soaking wet and completely barren before the laughing girls whose hyenic sneers have attracted the attention of the whole locker room. MJ can't breathe, she can't move, she can only stand there as the freezing torrents of icy water slide over her goosebump-covered skin. The only thing in sight is a crumpled P.E. uniform that is clearly too large for her, but MJ grabs it anyway and flees to the shelter of one of the bathroom stalls.
The door barely helps, because she can still hear them taunting her. They are mimicking the surprised yelp she made when they pulled back the curtain, a noise so pathetic that MJ wants to rewind time just to slap herself in the face for making it. MJ waits until they're gone, all too aware of the puddle of water forming at her bare feet on the gross bathroom floor. When she hears the door close for the last time, muffling the screeching laughter of the girls, MJ begins to move.
Everything about MJ is numb as she pulls on the overlarge uniform, but it isn't from the cold. Her hair and body are still soaked, so they drench the uniform that is already swallowing her. The seniors took her favorite combat boots, so the bathroom floor is gritty in that disgusting, barely-there way that every public bathroom is. Once she is dressed in the uniform, MJ leaves the bathroom stall. It is only when she goes to brush a lock of hair out of her face that she realizes her face is damp not from cold water, but from warm tears. Before she knows it, she is sobbing, and MJ slides down the locker room wall and onto the floor.
Then the door to the locker room door opens And MJ is struggling to mop her face with shaking hands when she looks up and it's Peter, and he's wearing one of his stupid geeky t-shirts and a concerned look that melts into pity when he sees her.
"This is the girl's locker room, Parker, get the hell out," she spits like a cornered animal. She hates being vulnerable and here he is and he isn't ever going to look at her the same again, because he's seen her broken. Why of all people did it have to be him?
Instead of listening or turning away out of common human decency, he actually has the audacity to slide down the wall and sit beside her. MJ looks anywhere but him and furiously works on scrubbing at her cheeks, but the tears are falling too quickly for it to help much. Peter is silent for a moment, then, "What happened, MJ?" She freezes, and then another sob escapes and her face completely crumples. MJ claps her hands to her mouth in vain to try to keep it contained.
Peter lets out a soft sigh and gently turns her so that her head is resting on his shoulder, and MJ does the unthinkable as he embraces her.
She lets him.
After a few minutes, she can manage to allow a few words to escape between sobs "They... They pulled b-back the c-curtain..." she says in a tight, constricted voice. She is not going to cry anymore, she orders herself, and she is as taut and stiff as a statue. "They saw me, they laughed, they-"
"MJ," he murmurs, and his stupid, squeaky, earnest voice melts her.
"I'm sorry."
There is a moment of silence, and she pulls back "You didn't do anything."
"I know, but-"
"I got your shoulder wet."
"I don't care about-"
"It's all twisted and misshapen, but I think it looks kinda familiar... Oh, wait, nevermind. It's you."
He gives her a wry, strained smile "It doesn't make it excusable, but if it helps, they only did it because you're beautiful."
MJ has always sort of wanted him to say that, but not like this. Never like this.
"It was not like that."
"MJ-"
"No, Parker. It's more than that. My body has power, it's the one thing is this shitstorm of a world that I can actually control. I can control who sees it and who doesn't, and they-" Her voice breaks, and his eyes are pools of sadness. "They took that power from me. How is that even close to beautiful?" MJ furiously blinks away the stinging of her eyes, because no, she isn't crying, it's just raining on her face indoors.
He is quiet for a moment, and when he opens his mouth, he says, "It's not.
"Nothing about that is beautiful. It's humiliation, and what they did is disgusting and wrong on so many levels. And nothing I say will make that change. That isn't beautiful, but you are. Even in that stupid uniform and even though you look like you've just been waterboarded."
He grins and accepts the punch to the arm she gives him, but it isn't a hard one and her heart is fluttering now.
"And you have every right to be upset, but I'm selfish, and I want to see your smile, because I think it's beautiful. And that's something you can change."
MJ's playful attitude vanishes immediately. For a moment, she looks at him a way she has not before, and he is looking back just as seriously. MJ wants nothing more than to cup his cheek and just look at him, forever, but if she hasn't been creepy before that definitely would make her a stalker.
So instead, she says, "Your scores in Social Studies have been going down in decathlon. Which battle of World War II was the turning point for the Allies?" "
"Stalingrad."
And when they get up, she's barefoot, and they walk out of the bathroom like nothing has happened and his arm isn't still around her shoulder.