The notification came through on MJ's phone about ten minutes after she got to Midtown School of Science and Technology.
Ned and Betty were already there, decked out in their baggy robes, when she arrived. The three of them had immediately formed a little bubble of comfortable familiarity in an otherwise uncomfortable, ever-expandingsea of strangers, classmates, and family members. Her own parents were here too, of course, but they had drifted away as soon as they set foot in the doors, and she had lost track of them after just a few seconds of conversation.
But really, she thought, the only thing missing right now was Peter.
As such, when her phone rumbled, she haphazardly reached inside her unzipped graduation robe and whipped it out of the pocket in her dress. She frowned when she saw that it was from the app she recently had Ned and Peter create and install on each of their phones—the one that allowed them to easily and privately keep track of Peter when he was in his suit.
She looked up at Ned and Betty, who seemed to have sensed her consternation and had stopped talking.
"What's up?" Betty asked quietly, eyebrows furrowed.
MJ glanced around at the crowded room and shook her head.
"It's from Peter. Let's find someplace quieter."
The video message Peter sent MJ was comical despite its implications.
He had obviously taken it while he was swinging through the city—she guessed in the same carelessly dangerous way he texted when he swung—and it was equally obvious he was flustered with whatever had called him away from graduation preparations to his Spiderman duties. But, in the classic Peter Parker fashion she couldn't help but admire, his voice was as cheerful and energetic as ever:
"So, guys, I think I might be a bit late to graduation. Maybe. I was getting ready to drive with May to the school and thinking about some stuff that's happened and then everything just came togeth—"
Here the camera jerked sharply to a view of the sky, and Peter let out an indistinct exclamation. A few birds flapped furiously across the camera's line of sight, and then it shifted back to Peter's masked face. The audio quality decreased and began to cut out intermittently after the incident, but at least visuals were back.
"Geez. You'd think pigeons...know how to avoid...giant flying spider when they see one. Anyway, I finally...cracked...-ing I've been working on for a while, and I've gotta go...shouldn't take long. Prob...sent May on ahead and...there as soon as...save me a diploma!"
MJ clicked her phone screen off when the message was done and tucked the device back under her robe. Ned and Betty looked at one another and then at MJ, the dark, abandoned hallway stretching out behind them like an ominous sign. They were sorely out of place in their relatively fancy robes—and undoubtedly they would get in trouble if they were caught—but it was too loud and there were too many people to discuss Peter's predicament anywhere near the football field, which is where the commencement ceremony would officially be held.
"Dude, we seriously need to work on the sound for those videos. It kinda sucked," Ned said after a moment of thoughtful silence.
"Yeah, it was pretty bad," Betty agreed, making a face and fidgeting with the wide sleeves of her robe.
MJ rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth lifted in a partial grin at how scattered Peter's message was and how the audio quality of the video was what Ned's mind snagged on first.
"Agreed. But we also need to work on making sure Peter makes it to graduation in time," she said.
Ned nodded.
"True that. We've all worked too hard for him to just not show up. Plus, he has to give the valedictorian speech. And we promised we'd both wear our Star Wars socks tonight."
Ned pulled up the hem of his pant legs, revealing what appeared to be knee-length socks adorned with fuzzy cartoon renditions of Darth Vader and the Death Star.
MJ smirked and Betty giggled.
"Right. Not to mention that if he doesn't give the speech, guess who does have to give it?" MJ said as she folded her arms, attempting to quell the vague, anxious flutter in her chest at the idea that Peter might not make it to graduation at all.
Betty frowned and looked at her friend curiously.
"You'd do great with the speech, Michelle."
MJ snorted.
"Yeah, maybe. But as out-of-character as it seems, I don't really feel like giving a speech on the parallels between the public education and penitentiary systems tonight. Too much bad press."
Now it was Betty's turn to roll her eyes and grin. They stood in silence for a few seconds after that, thinking, and then Ned spoke up again.
"So, what's the plan?"
MJ emerged from her thoughts—which were admittedly growing darker and darker as she reflected on her experience with Peter's crime-fighting shenanigans so far—just to find that both her friends were staring at her expectantly. She shrugged, leaned down and zipped up her robe, adjusted her Aca-Dec medal and stoles. An unease tugged at her belly as she thought about what might have caused Peter to fly into such a frenzy right before graduation. He didn't usually seem to get involved in anything more dramatic than his Spiderman patrols these days, but whatever this was had to be big.
And therefore dangerous.
"I say we give him another thirty minutes or so. If he doesn't show by then, we take action."
Betty furrowed her brows—she was still a bit new to all of the personal secrecy she had to maintain since she'd learned Peter's alter ego—but Ned's eyes lit up.
"You already have a plan?" he asked.
MJ turned toward the head of the hallway they were in, the rows of lockers gleaming under the red EXIT sign above the doorway, and felt a thrill of excitement herself.
There was no way she was going to let Peter miss graduation after everything he'd been through recently.
"I'm working on it."
A/N: Another short chapter for you...but is that a sprinkling of plot and an attempt at high school humor I see? I dunno. Thanks for reading and/or leaving feedback! Y'all are awesome. The next chapter will probably be out sometime between tomorrow and Monday. :)
"Two are better than one, for they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who falls alone, for he has no one to help him up."
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10