Hello everyone!

This fic is based on MJ's line in Far From Home when Peter admits to her that he is Spider-Man. She says that she was only 67% sure, and it made me wonder how she reached that percentage. So here we are!

Hope you'll enjoy this first chapter! I'll post the second one at the same time because they kind of go together, then I'll post the rest later.

67% sure

She starts noticing him at the beginning of their Sophomore year, in Academic Decathlon Practice. Peter Parker is mostly shy and awkward, and stupid Eugene Thompson keeps making fun of him, but he's also surprisingly smart. The smartest one of them, excluding her of course. Mr Harrington is pretty excited as soon as he realizes what a valuable asset he is to the team – and he even grabs the attention of Liz Toomes, even though he doesn't realize it and keeps acting like a dork around her. His friend Edward Leeds is quite smart too, but they both are huge nerds so nobody gives them the attention they should probably get. Whenever MJ passes them by in the halls, she can hear them talk non stop about Star Wars or computers, oblivious to everyone around looking at them like they're growing disgusting antennas on their foreheads or something.

People in high school are so freaking stupid.

Leeds and Parker don't seem to care about that though – or maybe they don't even realize it – because they keep doing whatever they do that makes them happy. And that's something MJ clearly respects.

She kind of wishes she'd have the guts to talk to him and get to know him, but obviously she doesn't. So she watches from a distance, hiding behind her books like she always does. At some point though, she gathers the courage one crappy Monday to sit at the far end of their usual table during lunch. And even though she doesn't talk to them – and even gives them the middle finger without even taking her eyes off of her book when they try to engage conversation with her – she's still proud of herself for that. It then becomes a habit. She sits at the same table every day, they don't talk to her and she reads her book in peace. It takes Parker a couple of days to finally get that she does not want to talk to them at all, and after that all he does is nod politely at her when she sits and that's it.

That stupid boy is so nice he can't even properly ignore someone who wants to be ignored.

She still appreciates it though. Despite herself really. He is growing on her faster than anyone before, and it troubles her a little to be honest. So she ignores it. She still sits next to them every day though, and when times get rough, Peter's little nod to her at lunchtime becomes the highlight of her day.

One day, early November, they go on a field trip to Oscorp. MJ sits behind Parker and Leeds in the bus, and listen to them rambling like huge nerds about how excited they are. At some point she coughs under her breath 'losers' and Peter turns on his seat to look at her with a frown. She ignores him, faking to be lost deep into her book, her heart beating a little too fast to her taste. When he finally turns away, she closes her eyes for a second, a little overwhelmed and very annoyed at herself. She decides for her sake to stay away from them during the whole visit, up until she realizes that Peter is gone. She asks Ned about it and he tells her he said he had to go to the bathroom or something. He reappears right at the end of the visit and she watches him curiously. He seems very agitated, but convinces Ned that everything's fine while they're waiting for the bus to get back to Midtown. When it gets her, MJ sits behind them again but they stay silent the entire ride, which is pretty unusual for these two.

The following day, he doesn't show up at school. Then it's the weekend, and she doesn't see him until Monday morning before first period. She is in the still empty hallway, reading while walking, a technique she has perfectly mastered over the years. She usually never gets run into, but this morning she does. Someone crashes into her so hard her book falls flat on the floor and she almost does the same before said someone grabs her by the arm and helps her regain her balance. She looks up, shocked, and meets huge brown eyes that can only belong to one person.

"Crap, sorry Michelle," Peter exclaims, still holding her arm. She stares at him without a word and he gulps awkwardly before letting go of her and scratching the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. "I didn't see you there I'm so sorry I – here, here's your book." He grabs it from the floor and hands it to her. She narrows her eyes at him, her mind racing.

She's almost entirely sure she used to be taller than him. Now their eyes are almost at the same level, which is weird because yes, puberty is an erratic science, but nobody's ever grown up 2 inches in three days. He seems overall a lot more muscular than usual, too. Not that she's ever looked at his body, ew no, absolutely not. But he seems less skinny today, his biceps are filling his regular hoodie when he usually looks like he's swimming in it. She kind of hates that she's picking up on those details. She is not someone that gives importance to someone's physique at all.

Peter is looking at her all nervous now, and that is actually something ordinary. God he is such a dork. "Whatever, Parker." she tells him coldly and walks away without another look. She can hear him let out a little sigh of relief, which brings up a small smile on her lips. What an idiot. The whole day she observes him from behind her current book, and the more she does the more she realizes how different he looks. It's not just his appearance, too. He seems even more restless and energetic than usual, and somehow less dorky and more confident, too. She even catches him talk back to Flash during lunch break, which is definitely something that never happens.

But nobody seems to notice it though, not even Ned who is still acting like the huge nerd he is. He doesn't even realize that Peter is not paying as much attention to his Star Wars ramble as he usually is. MJ notices though. She seems to be the only one.

The week goes by and Peter continues to act weird – and everybody else continues not to pay attention. On Tuesday, in Chemistry Class, something suddenly blows up, setting off the fire alarm and forcing everyone to run outside. MJ is pretty sure the explosion came from Parker's desk – he seems to be covered in something white and sticky, which Flash immediately makes fun of him for, obviously. He doesn't talk back this time though, and once the firefighters are done and they can get back to class, he disappears for a moment and comes back with a fresh set of clothes and a pitiful expression plastered on his face.

On Wednesday, he manages to outrun Flash and various other monkey friends of his, after catching the football they were trying to launch at his head and throwing it so hard it goes over the fence of the field and onto the street.

On Thursday, she hears him complain about how loud the cafeteria is. She notices it to be out of the ordinary because she has never heard him protest about anything really. He usually never complains about anything, but while Ned is laughing at him a bit because 'It's been pretty much the same since forever', MJ scans his face and body language and perceives that he is actually physically uncomfortable because of it. Which is weird, because like Ned said, the cafeteria is always loud like this.

On Friday, she notices him fiddling in his desk drawer during Chemistry Class again, so she decides to corner him after lunch. She waits for Ned to go to the bathroom then she walks to Peter and stops in front of him, with her arms crossed over her chest and a curious glare.

"You OK there, Parker?" she asks him casually, narrowing her eyes at him.

He had been looking over at the table where Liz sits with her friends, and he blinks a couple of time before looking at MJ. "Hum, what are you– uh?"

MJ shakes her head with a roll of eyes. "What are you looking at her for?"

"What? I'm not, I'm not looking at anyone, I mean, what are you talking about?" he stammers like the huge dork he is.

"You've been acting weird all week." she tells him, trying to meet his eyes but he is now clearly avoiding hers.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he says with a shrug. "Sorry, I have to get to class, bye."

After that she's a bit mad at him. She avoids him for the rest of the day, even though she realizes that it must not make a huge difference to him really since they're not even friends. She goes home then, and spends her entire weekend pissed off. Until Sunday night, that is. She has dinner with her parents when the topic suddenly comes by.

"I heard Ben Parker died yesterday." her dad says to her mom, just like that. "Bullet to the chest, some thief ran into him and he refused to let him go. His kid was with him, from what I've been told."

"Oh no, it's that Peter boy, Michelle honey, isn't he in some of your classes?"

At that moment it feels like someone just stepped right onto her heart. She excuses herself and goes back to her room, incapable of eating or saying anything else. She grabs her phone, and it's all over the news. A man murdered in broad daylight in front of his nephew's helpless eyes. She's never met Ben Parker, but she's heard Peter talk a lot about him to Ned, and it was clear just from that how much he loved him. There's a picture of him in one of the articles, and it's been a very long time but suddenly she feels like she has to. She grabs a notebook and a pencil, and slowly she lets her hand shape Ben Parker's smiling face onto the paper. Once she's done, she tears off the page and puts it in her Chemistry book. She wipes off the tear that's been so close to fall since she started drawing. Then she goes to bed.

Unsurprisingly, Peter is not at school the next day. He doesn't show up until the next Thursday. He doesn't look like Peter anymore. He seems exhausted, his eyes are red and his movements feverish. Ned stands by his side the whole day, daring anyone to come and mess with him. But even stupid Flash is sensible enough to leave Peter alone. MJ's drawing is still in her Chemistry book, but she can't seem to get the nerves to give it to him. She's been drawing again. Like she always did a couple of years back. People in crisis.

Peter Parker.

His pain is so clear and visible, she hurts just looking at him. So she draws. Her new notebook is covered in drawings of him. To try and express this pain he is feeling, and to get away from it as it seems to completely crush her own heart.

It's been two weeks now, and she finally gathers enough courage to give him the drawing of Ben. Not in person though. She slips it inside his locker at the end of the day, then goes back home. The next day, when she sits at their table for lunch, Peter politely nods at her before focusing on his food. He hadn't done in ages, it seems. For a while, he didn't even come to lunch at all. When lunchtime is over, Ned and him both stand up but Peter tells his friend to go without him, that he has to do something first. MJ looks at him from the corner of her eyes, curious.

When he starts walking in her direction, his gaze fixed on her, she closes her book and stands up to face him, her heart beating a little too hard in her chest. They look at each other for a moment, then he reaches out and grasps her hand in his for a split second. His jaws are clenched as he whispers in a choked voice: "Thank you."

Somehow she knows he's talking about the drawing, even though she has no idea how he knows she's the one who did it. She just nods to him and he turns away and leaves without another word, his shoulders strained as he makes his way out of the cafeteria. MJ sits back down on her chair, somehow exhausted but relieved. If he is thanking her, maybe it means that it might have helped him, even just a little. She hopes so. Oh God, she really does.

Months go by, and with every little minute of every little day, Peter seems to get better. He still looks like crap most of the time, and keeps falling asleep in almost every class, but he gets better. One day during lunchtime, roughly two months after the death of his uncle, MJ hears him laugh out loud at one of Ned's joke. Her heart seems to jolt in her chest at this sound, and she meets Ned's delighted – and relieved – gaze right after. She smiles to him and he smiles back, and for a second they share the relief that Peter is finally starting to come back.

There are crappy days of course, but he still keeps his head up. Flash starts bullying him again – even though it is less violent and less frequent than before –, teachers start giving him a bad time when they catch him sleeping, and Peter slowly becomes Peter again. MJ can't help but smile anytime she hears him talk passionately about nerd stuff with Ned in the hallways. Days are getting hotter now, and the end of the school year is getting close. There's talk about a new super-hero around Queens, and for a couple of weeks that's all anyone seems to be talking about. Even MJ finally watches a video of the masked man stopping a car from hitting a bus full of kids with his bare hands.

"So what do you guys think about that Spider-man guy?" she asks Leeds and Parker one day. Like every time she engages conversation with them, they look at each other in shock before answering, which makes her laugh inside. Idiots.

"He is so cool," Ned says with the enthusiasm she expected of him. "Did you see how he caught that thief last week and hang him up by the foot to that street lamp? That was sick!"

MJ turns to Peter and narrows her eyes at him. "What about you Parker? Aren't you fangirling about him too?"

"What? Hey hum, I don't know, I guess he's cool and all but–"

"Right." She cuts him, looking suspicious just to mess with him – which works perfectly of course. "Gotta go, I guess I'll see you losers around, bye!" And she leaves, laughing to herself as she hears Ned start rambling about the Spider dude like he always does about anything he finds remotely interesting. Peter's lack of interest kind of makes her curious though, since she can't really explain it. It's no secret to anyone that he almost has a freaking crush on Iron Man.

A couple of weeks passes, and then Peter doesn't show up at school one Friday. The Monday morning after she finds him fast asleep on a bench outside of Midtown. He has tangled the straps of his bag to his feet and his head is tilted to the side in a way that hurts her own neck just by looking. His mouth is half open and MJ can't keep herself from peaking to try and see if he's drooling or not. As she gets closer, she realizes that he has a black eye, almost completely healed but still apparent to someone who pays attention. She must admit it surprises her a great deal. Peter is not one to get into fights. As this thought crosses her mind, she catches sight of Flash's car parking not that far from them and she decides to take action.

"Dude." she says, sitting next to him and nudging him in the ribs to wake him up. If Thompson sees him like this, he is never going to hear the end of it. Peter doesn't move though, so she nudges him again, harder this time. It works better than she had imagined.

Peter jumps out of his sleep, literally, onto the backrest of the bench where he crouches in a weird position just as if he was getting ready to defend himself. "What, what, where am I?" he stammers, his eyes still full of sleep, his hair an absolute mess. Then he meets her gaze and suddenly seems to take in his surroundings. He sits back properly on the bench and smiles nervously at her: "Oh, hi Michelle."

"What's up, Penis Parker?" Flash says as he walks by their bench. Peter doesn't say anything and just scratches his forehead, probably trying to hide his black eye from him.

"You're welcome," MJ tells him, standing up and folding her arms.

"Uh, what?"

"If he'd seen you sleeping like that you'd never have heard the end of it." she says, shrugging. "So yeah, you're welcome, Parker."

"Oh, hum, well thank you then?" he says timidly, untying his feet from the straps of his bag and standing up as well. He raises a hand and tries to tame his unruly hair for a second.

"Like that's going to work," she laughs at him, and he lets out a little smile despite himself. Somehow they start walking together in the same direction, and MJ is painfully aware of how this never usually happens. She feels a little nervous so she decides to question him to avoid thinking about it. "Rough weekend?" she asks, nodding to his eye.

"Hum, yeah, yeah kinda." Peter nods with yet another shy smile.

"What happened to you?"

"I uh, got into a fight I guess," he says after a second of hesitation.

"Really? With whom?"

"I, hum, someone from Brooklyn, you don't know him."

"Really?" she says, raising an eyebrow at him. "I didn't pin you for the fighting type, Parker."

"You'd be surprised," he says with a chuckle, then his eyes widen and he quickly changes the subject: "So anyway, what about you? What did you do this weekend?"

"Nothing much really, I mostly read." MJ shrugs, curiosity spreading in her brain from the fact that he seems to be hiding something.

"Makes sense."

She turns to look at him with narrowing eyes and he has the decency to smile shamefully. She kind of wishes she could question him more about that 'fight' but she has to get to class. "That's me," she says, nodding to her classroom door. "I'll see you later, Parker."

"See you later, Jones." he retorts playfully and she ignores him completely.

At lunch that day, she does as usual and sits at the far end of their table. Parker and Leeds are so deep in their conversation that none of them actually realize she's here though. She opens her book and listens curiously to what they're saying. Something about Iron Man and Captain America fighting in an airport or something. She frowns, wondering what that's all about, since those dudes are supposed to be the good guys. Then Ned says something that catches her attention:

"Anyway, dude, what happened to you, why weren't you there Friday?"

"I got busy I guess, I got uh… okay, don't tell anyone yet, but I got offered an internship at Stark Industries," Peter says quietly.

"What?! Dude, that's sick!"

"I know, I'm pretty excited," he says, and MJ can hear in his voice that it's true. "This summer's gonna be great, I can't wait to get started!"

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment to tell me what you think!