7 | If He Could See Me Now, He'd Be Proud

                                    

                                          
"You ready for tonight Parker? Your personal coach promised me that you'll be breaking records, so you better not let us down," the Empire State Aquatic Coach said bumping into Peter on campus. He was a lanky man, his black hair starting to go grey and always wearing a silver whistle around his neck. Peter had barely spoken with this man he called Coach.
                          
"Wait what? Oh! Yeah I'll be ready Coach. Don't you worry about a thing," Peter trailed, remembering that the qualifying swim trials were tonight against multiple different colleges.
                          
Peter's coach, who hadn't even seen the kid in a swimming pool let alone show his 'record breaking talents', was convinced by Peter's personal coach outside of college 'Coach Antonio' that he was a prime athlete who best trained alone. 
                          
Tony had told Peter that whatever extra-curricular activity he picked, he would be able to negotiate his way into making Peter 'attend' the club whenever he was on superhero duty. When Peter told him he had joined the Swim Team, Tony sighed in relief that the kid hadn't picked something harder to cover up like Football or Basketball; a sport where you had to train with a team. A sport where the guys who played them were double Peter's size.
                          
Tony Stark, pretending to be this 'Antonio' man on the phone to the Coach had neglected to clue Peter in on the fact he would still have to compete to remain under the Swim Club curriculum. And that competition was tonight.
                          
Peter wasn't too scared about the race,  he knew that his spider abilities made his stamina and speed unlike anything else - what scared him was being half naked in front of a significant portion of the college.
                          
"Peter!" A petite blonde girl called out from several metres away, skipping over to the group holding a binder with several plastic tabs and colour coordinated sleeves.
                          
She stood in front of him smiling, saying hi and not realising there were other people around him. More precisely, MJ, Ned and Y/N. She was already infatuated by Peter, despite being younger than her, he was by far more attractive than the boys she had classes with; she'd just never noticed Peter before.
                          
"You going to introduce us Pete or are you just going to stand there staring at this blonde?" MJ said clearing her throat, finding this entire interaction quite bizarre.
                          
"Oh I'm so sorry. Guys this is Gwen. Gwen, this is MJ, Ned and Y/N," Peter said awkwardly, not really thinking Gwen would end up meeting his friends as anything more than a girl to fool around with at night.
                          
The girl introduced to them as Gwen barely even gave the three friends so much as a proper smile before turning back to Peter and grinning.
                          
"I'll be cheering for you tonight Peter, were you not going to tell me about the race and leave it as a surprise? How embarrassing for me if I wasn't even there! I had to find out from the other boys..." She pouted, fixing his shirt collar and brushing her hand across his shoulder.
                          
"What the fuck is happening?" MJ muttered under her breath, confused that the girl she had just heard about was not only ignoring his friends but acting like a clingy girlfriend already.
                          
"I um, honestly I forgot it was on... But Gwen," Peter started, lowering his voice and pulling her slightly away from the group.
                          
"I told you that this was all just a bit of fun between us, you know that right? Nothing more," He murmured, wanting to make sure she didn't think something bigger was happening between them than the college fling that it was. Peter was indulging in that classic 'college experience' from the movies and he was loving it.
                          
If Tony could see him right now, he would be proud.
                          
"You keep thinking that Pete, but I know you want me," She teased, biting her lip and leaving to go back to her friends. Turning back to his own friends, he pulled a face at them as if to say 'she's so clingy' and laughed to himself.