It takes a long time to sort out. The fire people keep asking MJ if they should call her mom and she keeps saying No. One by one, parents come and collect the rest of the Brain Olympics team.
Then there's just MJ, and Peter. "I'll help you tidy up," he says.
"Won't your aunt be worried?" A journalist was here. This little incident will probably be on the news.
Peter says, "I'll call her."
His aunt May arrives not long after. She's nice, hugs Peter like he's a hero, and looks around at the wrecked apartment. "Huh. It got you real good didn't it."
"Yeah." Horrifyingly, MJ feels tears forming. "Well, thanks then." She stands back to let them leave.
"Oh, no," says May. She shrugs off her coat and lays it across the arm of the couch. She looks narrowly at MJ. "Your mom's at work right."
MJ nods. Peter picks up his shirt and puts it on, rolls up the sleeves. "The fire people left a message asking her to come home right away." Come home, and see all this, and all hell will break loose. She is so dead.
"I'll call her," says May firmly. "Tell her not to worry. And meanwhile you two, make a start." She points all around at the disaster zone. "Move!"
So that's how come MJ gets to spend more time with Peter Parker in one evening than they have probably spent through the whole of high school: wearing rubber gloves and picking trash off her apartment walls. It's not quite love's young dream.
Peter doesn't say much. That's lucky, because MJ is likely to either bite his head off or start sobbing. Delayed stress reaction. Adrenaline is exhausting.
Peter seems to have recovered completely though. He bounces here and there around the living room, doing whatever May tells him, fetching and carrying and even wiping down the counter tops , with a mild, distracted air MJ recognises from school. He's here, he's doing what he has to, but his mind is somewhere else.
"Where's your vacuum," says May, walking into MJ's gaze.
"Uh-"
"I'll just run it around. Can't hurt right."
MJ gets the feeling May is using this as an excuse to check out her apartment, or perhaps, her. She catches May frowning in her direction more than onice.
Usually that would be irritating - that adult thing where they assume you cannot possibly cope - but from May it's ok. She's not thinking MJ can't cope. Maybe just that she shouldn't have to.
There are those tears again.
Damn you, kindness. So this is where Peter gets it from.
Eventually they are done. May hangs up her rubber gloves. "Well then."
The place is spotless, probably better than it was before. They have stacked up the broken dining chairs and made a small pile of the smashed crockery so MJ's mom will know what's missing. Other than that, the place looks pretty normal. Peter has hung the hummingbird clock back on the wall. She thinks he put a little glue back there too so it can't fall again.
"Thank you," says MJ.
"You're welcome sweetie. It was too much to manage alone. Wasn't it Peter."
"Yeah. It's no problem."
The Parkers stand shoulder to shoulder like a team on a podium, and MJ is struck by their closeness, their bond. She can feel the … strength that comes from it.
She could use a little of that. She's so beaten she could fall down right now and sleep. "...Bye then."
At the door May gives MJ a hug. "Your mom must be so proud of you," she says. MJ hears, she better be.
MJ stands and watches them walk down the hall. And she knows that on purpose May turns to Peter while still in earshot and says clearly, "You said she was smart, you never said she was pretty."
"May! Shush!" Peter drags May away.
MJ knows it was on purpose to tease Peter, because May looks over her shoulder and winks at MJ.
MJ snorts and closes the door.