Kitty sat next to Peter with an awkward expression on her face, not entirely sure how to break the ice between the two of them as Rogue had with him and the others.

While she sat quietly Rogue was busy nattering away with Twilight and Harry while she and Peter sat quietly, Peter having noticed her the second she'd walked over to the group and joined her friend, but she guessed from the way he reacted to her shy expression he wasn't interested in her.

He was probably into Rogue and not her.

Because Rogue was hotter than her, as everyone kept telling her.

She had cooler hair, a better attitude, larger breasts, in better shape.

The usual things that assholes reminded a lesser woman of constantly, things that shouldn't really matter but still eat away at you no matter how confident you pretend to be.

Her eyes lowered as she crossed her leg over her knee, her soft fingers resting on her thigh as she stared wistfully at the floor.

She, like most people, had gone through the motions of imagining what her life would be like if she'd started dating either of the boys she'd just met. Dates, days out, wedding... sex.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of that last one, the largest thing that Kitty was often teased for was her wish to remain a virgin until marriage.

Something that was seen as a sin by teenagers in this culture.

"Because who wants to stay pure and loving when you can have fast and hot sex?" Kitty thought to herself.

"Don't kid yourself Kitty" Emma's voice said in her head, causing her to jump in surprise "You'll find that most teenage boys don't know how to find where to put it much less be good at keeping it in"

"I know" Kitty thought solemnly "But... I still wish the others wouldn't make fun of me for it"

"Who makes fun of you Kitty?" Emma asked.

"The guys at the School, Bobby and Screech" Kitty answered.

"Well we both know those two are hardly ones to talk about virginity, the closest they've ever come to pounding a woman is punching a porno mag" Emma said.

This comment got a smile from Kitty, who then looked up at Emma on the conference panel to see her smile at the younger girl before turning back to answer the question given to her by another man on the panel.

"Just try talking to him" Emma advised "You'll never have a chance with him unless you say something to him"

"Uh, alright" Kitty said, turning to Peter and opening her mouth, blurting out whatever question came to mind "What do you think about genetically engineered crops?"

Peter turned to look at Kitty with a surprised look on his face, the smaller girl's cheeks flushing redder than a tomato in less than two seconds.

"Why?" she thought in agony "Why did I ask him that?"

"Personally, I don't like to call them that" Peter answered, leaning back in his chair and holding up his hands "I prefer to call them Frankenfoods... sure the name's stupid and it's a stupid idea but don't ever let someone tell you your idea is stupid, just remember that the inventor of the pool noodle is walking around a millionaire"

"He... he responded to that?" Kitty thought "Well... I guess that's a good philosophy to have"

"Trust me, I'm good at bullshit motivational phrases, its one of my amazing skills" Peter continued "I hold it right up there with being able to cook minute rice in fifty-seven seconds"

A smile spread onto Kitty's face as she giggled at the joke, the teenage boy seeming to be quite friendly towards her and genuinely funny.

"I'm Kitty, Kitty Pryde" she said, holding out her hand.

"Peter Parker" Peter said, taking and shaking firmly "It's nice to meet you"

"Yeah, you too" Kitty said, going quiet after letting go of his hand.

"Don't stop now Kitty!" Emma encouraged "You've got the introduction out of the way, strike while the iron's hot and get to know him better, ask him something else, and not as dumb this time"

"Right" she responded "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Kitty?" Emma asked "Why?"

"I don't know, I panicked" she screamed internally.

Peter looked at her with a cocked eyebrow before a smile came onto his face.

"I'm gonna chalk that up to nerves" he said "Look, I know you're not the most extroverted person in the world, you're nervous about making new friends and all you want to do right now is establish some kind of grounding between us that'll make that friendship, but you're forgetting that you don't become friends instantly, you've gotta display personality traits and not try to come off too strong, which is what you're doing right now"

"Oh... I-I'm sorry" Kitty said, hanging her head.

"But I know the way people like you think, I used to be one of them before I turned thirteen and right now you don't know what to say, so just say whatever you want in bulk and we'll sift through it to find a good conversation, okay?" Peter asked.

"Okay" Kitty nodded, taking a deep breath before blurting out random facts about herself "My name is Kitty Catherine Pryde, I'm sixteen years old, one of my feet is slightly wider than the other, I was born with blonde hair but it turned brown when I was three, I once broke my foot jumping over a disabled ramp when I was eleven, I've never had a boyfriend or my first kiss, I'm jealous of my best friend because she's better looking than me and I have an irrational fear of Koi fish"

Peter's mind processed the information, going through it to find a good talking point before he locked onto one, another smirk touching his lips.

"Wait... your name is Kitty Cat Pryde?" Peter asked.

"Yeah... you can laugh at it" she sighed, waving her hand "Every guy does"

"That's fucking adorable" Peter said with a grin "And I don't think I've ever found anything adorable in my life"

"Oh... thank you" Kitty said with a nod "Not many guys think so, girls do, but not guys"

"And the koi fish thing?" Peter asked, leaning forward on his chair and cocking his head sideways.

"Uhhh... I fell into a pond when I was three and all the koi fish started swimming around me" Kitty said in an embarrassed tone, running her fingers through her ponytail in an anxious tick "I've been terrified of them ever since"

"Huh" Peter said "Just make sure that's not your super villain origin story, it's kinda weird"

"Origin story?" Kitty asked.

"You know, the thing that makes you become a hero or a villain, I've heard good ones like your parents being murdered in an alley by a mugger and then you dedicate your life to fighting crime, that's a good superhero origin, then there's bad ones like you get too close to an nuclear bomb and instead of being vaporized you turn into a giant grey werewolf-monster-thing" Peter answered "Then there's good villain ones like your friends and family turning against you in your time of need and you vow vengeance on them then get powers and kill them all"

"And a bad one?" Kitty asked.

"A bad one would be getting electrocuted by a live wire and then falling into a vat of genetically engineered electric eels and not dying for some weird reason" Peter answered "That one's a dumb one"

"Yeah... that is a dumb one" Kitty nodded.

"Would you excuse me for a second?" Peter asked, feeling a need for the bathroom suddenly "I need to go use the little boys room"

"Uh sure, go ahead" Kitty said, bringing her legs up on her chair and allowing him to squeeze past.

Peter made his way through the hotel, entering the lobby to ask where the bathrooms were before his Spider-Sense went off, a police convoy passing the front door of the hotel.

"Oh no" he sighed "They've got free sausage rolls back in the conference... ahhh"

And with the tragic heartbreak of no sausage rolls the teen ducked out of the hotel and into an alley, donning his costume of Sausage-Roll-Sacrificer-Man before locking eyes onto the convoy before a big green thing decided the armoured car needed a sunroof. Next Chapter: Round One: Fight! Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 53 Minutes