Mary Jane Watson hadn't thought much of Peter Parker at first. When she saw him, standing on the front door step of his and May Parker's house, he looked spindly, lethargic and badly dressed. His hair was short and a dull brown, with darkly ringed eyes—lack of sleep, probably from studying all night like the A+ student his aunt bragged him to be—an equally boring shade of brown. He wasn't short, he wasn't tall. His face was undefined. Mary Jane wouldn't pretend that she really tried to see the inner beauty of many people. She was too bitter a person for that, she knew.
His mouth upturned half-heartedly in a greeting smile he didn't really mean, although briefly she had seen him taken aback at her striking appearance. "Hey, nice to meet you," his voice wasn't exactly high-pitched but it didn't rumble like her favorite actors' did. It was quiet. Almost demure. She was aware that she was being unusually harsh today, but she wasn't impressed.
"You, too," she returned. Her own lips quirked but she wasn't very into it.
Her Aunt Anna was great friends with his Aunt May. That was the sole reason they were meeting. Mary Jane wouldn't fool herself, either, on her curviness and pleasing combination of fire-truck red hair, green eyes and clear complexion. She was an inch lesser in height than him. She wasn't petite. They were both seventeen then. She was well-versed in how to judge guys and Peter didn't rank high on her list of Dudes She'd Hang With just by first glance, although neither did he seem like someone she'd write off as pathetic.
She dismissed many boys as worthless, so there was a strike in his favor. Then again, she'd known him for all of two minutes. He could possibly be the biggest creep ever for all she knew. May and Anna blustered over how marvelous it was that the boy and girl could be friends now, they were both nice children, it was a wise move.
Mary Jane smothered a snort. Peter didn't seem to have much in the way of opinions on the matter, how neutrally expressionless he was. If there was one thing Mary Jane disliked it was people without passion. She admired J. Jonah Jameson Jr.'s stubbornness on Spider-Man's threat to the community, even if she didn't exactly agree with the Daily Bugle editor. On that topic she was adamant that Spidey was a good person, had been since hearing about him at age fifteen.
Inevitably May invited them in, the Parker home was a homey-looking abode, Mary Jane blinked at how the atmosphere seemingly immediately welcomed her unconditionally. Some people said the feeling of a home reflected the people living there. It had to be May. The longer Peter stood there awkwardly the more convinced Mary Jane was he didn't have much of a personality she wanted to get to know. Not that he was bad, not so far, she simply had no patience for the socially dumb sort.
The new school year was going to be starting soon and she would be attending the same high as Peter. Midtown. She fully planned on getting in with the theater fanatics there and carving out the best social life possible. Something told her Peter wasn't very talented with people. He was most likely…bullied. A rush of guilt coursed through her. She knew what that was like on an uncomfortable level. Maybe she ought to stop being such a bitch in her thoughts toward him.
That didn't mean she would be friends with him, of course. Just, polite. That was all.