I hate your stupid t-shirts, And the way you read my mind

Flash doesn't watch Peter, but he hates his t-shirts.

Flash has always hated poetry, puns and wordplay. It's not that he doesn't get them, he just thinks they're pointless. He likes science and math because they have so many real world applications. He's good at real world applications. He's good at connections, or so his dad says. So he flounders in English. Stories are okay, but his lowest grades are in English class poetry units.

Jesse is good at poetry. Where he sees connections in data she sees it in words. Her mind is so beautiful, but Flash doesn't tell her that.

Flash doesn't see why Peter has to combine science, something so pure, with puns, the lazy man's witticism. Every week it seems like Peter has a different shirt, and Flash wants to take them off. Maybe burn them. Definitely not keep them. Peter likes them, and Flash likes prefers when Peter's happy so he's on top of his game at decathlon. So he tolerates them. Barely.

Flash and Peter share English class. In fact, Flash sits behind Peter, and occasionally kicks his chair. When the semester's poetry unit starts Flash can't suppress a groan. He actually liked Ender's Game and was looking forward to reading Steven King's short stories next. He should have read the syllabus better.

Peter turns around. "You got this, Eugene."

"Don't call me that."

"It's your name."

"It's stupid."

"Whatever." Peter rolls his eyes. "I'm just saying that it's not going to be so bad. I know you hate poetry and puns and stuff…."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Let's see: you just groaned, you kick my seat the most during our poetry units, you glare at my t-shirts like you want to set them on fire…."

"What of it?" Flash scoffs. Inwardly he's surprised that Peter noticed all that. He wonders if Peter watches him. That would be creepy. Or not. Flash shifts in his chair.

"Look, you can pick writing a poem or an essay, right? Poetry essays are basically history. Read about the author and find parts of their work that talks about their life and stuff and then write about that."

Flash finds himself writing down Peter's advice. "Okay, so it's like art history then."

"Yeah, that's it!" Peter smiles. "You're smart enough to get this, Flash. It'll be okay."

Peter turns back around, focusing back on the lesson. Flash cannot focus anymore. No reason in particular.

I hate you so much that it makes me sick/ It even makes me rhyme

Flash doesn't do well with jealousy.

He loves his brother but when he was a kid he would get into screaming matches with Ralph because mom and dad praised him more. He adores his sister but she's way too good at English and she has way more friends so sometimes he ignores her. He likes Betty Brant okay but he considers sticking gum in her hair like a fourth grader when she tries to flirt with Peter. He loves Peter but if he keeps up the flirting Flash will have to call him even worse nicknames.

"You've got it bad, dude." Michelle Jones plops herself next to him on the bench. The cafeteria is full and bustling but Michelle chooses to sit with him, spreading her sketchbooks and first edition Mary Shelley's across the table. Flash actually likes "MJ", as she tells people to call her. She's smart, but has a backbone and puts people in their place. So much like Peter, and yet his opposite.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Flash growls into an unimpressive grilled cheese.

MJ laughs. "Uh-huh. It couldn't be that you look like you want to strange Betty Brant, despite maybe only having talked to her once?" She nods over at Peter and Betty. The blond's giggling now. Flash cringes.

"Are you saying I'm gay?"

"No, dude, don't be so monosexualist. Pansexuality is a thing now, this isn't the 80's."

Flash tries to glare at her, but he can't. MJ smirks at him, sipping from her Marie Curry water bottle.

"How do you know I'm not mad at Peter for flirting with her?"

"Because you didn't use any nicknames just now?" MJ raises an eyebrow. "You usually call him penis or something." She grabs her sketchbook and flips through the pages before landing on a sketch of Flash staring at Peter. "This is you."

She's good, Flash thinks, before glancing back up again. Peter is trying to move away, likely in the direction of a cell-phone waving Ned, but Betty persists. Flash feels bile in his throat.

"Do you want to see the one I did of Peter?" MJ asks.

"No, MJ, that's fine." Flash sighs and watches Peter walk away, finally. Peter pauses to wave to them, but Flash knows he's probably waving at MJ.

"It's okay, Flash. No one is going to judge you for liking Peter."

"I don't like him, okay? I'm not pan or whatever, or gay." MJ's smirk grows. "You know that wasn't meant to rhyme."

"Maybe you're a poet and you just don't know it." MJ pokes him with a pencil, adding to her sketch.

"Definitely. Just like Peter works for Tony Stark and you're totally not afraid of the dark."

"You'd be afraid too, if you watched Stranger Things. And you did it again."

Flash smiles at that. He wishes he was more like MJ. She's confident enough in herself to admit to her fears, but Flash can't. He won't.

"He'll never...I'm pretty sure he's not into me."

MJ shrugs. "You never know."

Flash sighs. "Trust me MJ, I know."