It All Started In A McDonald's...

forgot to give it a f_cking name so its called this now

She studied the dress for a little longer, before also adding it to the pile on my arms. This was a better arm workout than what I got in the Avengers Tower. Or maybe I was feeling the effects of having training cancelled for so long. "Well, better try it on anyway." To my annoyance, she continued perusing the racks. I was starting to think she was doing this to annoy me now. We are literally in Target. There aren't that many fucking dresses to choose from. "It's such a strange coincidence that thing with the Staten Island Ferry happened on the same day as he lost his Internship, huh?"

I sighed. Back to this again. "Look MJ, yeah, it's weird. I'm not denying these coincidences are starting to get suspicious. But he's so awkward. Could you imagine Peter doing all this stuff Spider-Man does? His heart's in the right place and everything but y'know," I shrugged as best as I could with my arms laden in dresses, "I just don't see it."

She frowned at my words, and I think I actually struck something there. "Hm. That is a good point. Maybe he's Spider-Man's hidden accomplice."

"The guy in the chair. Entirely a possibility," I said. "Anyway, if you're gonna try these on, can you please just do it? We've been here, like, three hours."

Yep, I earned the signature twelve-out-of-ten single eyebrow raise. My bad. "Twenty minutes. But I guess you're right. Besides, we still gotta find a dress for you."

While MJ spent, like, half an hour in the changing rooms, I started to regret my decision to tag along to Homecoming for the first time. It wasn't like I had anything against parties, and it would be nice to prank at every opportunity. It wasn't like I'd be the only person without a date – plenty were just going with friends.

Well, aside from lover boy Peter, who managed to get himself a date with Liz, inexplicably.

Something, I knew for a fact, MJ was bitter about. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew. But it was the only good thing to happen to Peter in a couple of weeks so I made sure she didn't mope about it. Not that MJ was really the moping type.

But I found myself not looking forward to it at all. Five hours of mingling with people I don't talk to and hearing music I don't listen to and whatever outfit I'm able to scrump together likely being upstaged by everyone else's fairytale princess gowns. My Dad gave me his forty dollars of savings to spend on a dress for me to wear, but I was very, very hesitant about that offer.

For me, forty dollars was a crazy amount of money for anything. For one piece of clothing that I'd likely only wear once, it was an obscene idea.

Then there's the fact I don't even like dresses. I haven't worn one since I was a little kid. And I can't really wear my trusty sneakers either, so that's more money on a pair of shoes, and I hate shoe shopping. My feet are a weird size or something, I don't know, but I can never find anything which fits.

I'd rather spend that forty dollars on something I'd wear constantly until it died on me. But I still needed something for Homecoming – it was tomorrow night after all, I needed to sort something out, or I'll have to take the yellow hoodie. Bit of a dilemma.

"What do you think?" MJ's voice said all of a sudden, and I looked up to see my best friend absolutely rocking a light tan-coloured skater style dress. It suits her much better than I imagine a floral dress would. Much more badass.

I put a thumb up to her. "Sick. Probably the best you'll get out of Target."

She pursed her lips in thought and looked down at herself. "I was a bit worried the colour and me would blend in a little."

"Nah, you look brill," I said. "Peter will be very impressed. Perhaps he'll ditch Liz for you."

She rolled her eyes and made to go back into the dressing room. "Shut up. And if you're going to get a dress, start looking."