Author's Note: Well I finally got this chapter up, tell me what you think and I pretty much did this very similar to the movie because with this part of the movie there wasn't much I could change…so ok please read and thank you.

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            Chapter 2- "Mechanism"

            As soon as she entered inside the lab Mary Jane's face lit up with awe.  Her eyes roamed over the equipment, and the tanks holding various specimen with great intrigue.  This was like a type of haven for her, if only she could be left alone here for a while.  Mary Jane half-tuned out the tour guide of the lab as she spoke about the different types of spiders that they were experimenting on and leaned near Gwen as they walked by a large screen.

        "Wow, that's amazing," she whispered. "This is the most advanced Electron Microscope on the Eastern Seaboard… It's unreal." From the sound of her voice and the way her eyes revolved around it she seemed to be truly impressed. 

Gwen slightly rolled her eyes with an uninterested fashion.  "Wow." She said softly with a hint of sarcasm.

They kept walking on and Mary Jane looked off to her side where Peter and Allison were walking. She kept on trying to snuggle up to Peter as they strode by making him very uncomfortable. He removed her arm from around his waist with a frown.  He looked over as he felt someone's eyes on him, catching Mary Jane staring at them.  Mary Jane looked down at the ground embarrassed as she decided to head up to the front of the room near the tour guide with Gwen.  Peter snuck away from Allison as he slipped to the back of the room paying attention to the tour guide almost smirking to himself as he had caught Mary Jane, making her blush.

            Mary Jane glanced up finally tuning in to what the tour guide was saying halfway through her sentence. "-Family Speracidae, has the ability to jump to catch its prey." Mary Jane glanced at the tank as a slightly large spider leaped across a small sized log to it's web.  Mary Jane smiled to herself thinking that, that would make an excellent picture for the paper. She raised her camera slightly getting attention from the Asian tour-guide.

             "For the paper?" She asked motioning to the tank. The tour-guide nodded in agreement for her to take the picture. Mary Jane positioned the camera in front of her glasses as she tried focusing on the tank. She held her finger over the shutter and just as she pressed down on it to take the picture her elbow was suddenly knocked into, making her take a picture of the side of the tank.  Mary Jane sighed frustrated as she glanced over her shoulder spotting Flash Thompson and Allison grinning wickedly at her.  The tour-guide didn't seem to notice and led the group on with Mary Jane trailing behind.

"You know, this is where "Mary-Mary quite contrary" belongs, with the bugs. You remember, the white specks she'd carry in her hair?" Referring to an incident that had happened in the fourth grade.  Over half their class was sent to the school nurse because she found lice in Mary Jane's hair. Mary Jane had been playing in the sand box the day before that her Uncle Ben had made for her but they didn't know why it had been so cheap and accessible until she was sent home with head lice.  Allison had gotten it from Mary Jane as well, and her parents had to cut her lovely golden locks into a short pageboy style.  From then on Allison had blamed Mary Jane and would call her white-speck amongst many other names.  Mary Jane was mortified and after all the children were cleared of lice she went next door to Peter's house to give him a peace offering of cookies her aunt baked.  Peter however was somewhat happy about the circumstances of getting head lice. It meant he didn't have to go to school.  But that was a long time ago, and she had hoped that everyone would have forgotten it back then.

            'Why don't you get over that, Allison? That was a lifetime ago?' Mary Jane wanted to yell; however all she did as move out of their range to try to get another picture. She aimed the camera again, working much faster this time in case they tried to intercept her again and just as she went to click the shutter, Flash shoved her forward gently.  Anger seethed from Mary Jane's red face, now the color of her hair as she squeezed her fists tightly.  But instead of Mary Jane trying to say something in her defense, Gwen stood up for her.

"Why don't you leave her alone?" Gwen glared at Flash and Allison.

            "Or what?" Flash countered with a menacing glare causing Gwen to back up a step.

"Or her uncle is gonna fire your father," Allison laughed mocking Gwen. She turned on her, getting into her face. "What's Uncle Normie gonna do? Sue me?!"  Just before anything else happened their instructor came in saving a fight from breaking out.

       "What is going on?" He asked looking around the group. "The next person who talks will fail this course, I kid you not." He whispered sternly careful not to disturb the tour guide.  "Let's go." He said directing them back to the group. 

Mary Jane and Gwen diverted themselves from the others glancing at the tanks. Mary Jane sighed exasperatedly. "Those guys are jerks." She said glancing back at them for a second then to Gwen, who she could see was still a little ticked. Gwen seemed to shrug it off not letting her anger get the best of her.  MJ glanced up at the front where Peter stood with some of the others listening, catching pieces of the guide's speech.

            "Almost a precognition…. A spider-sense."

Mary Jane smiled to herself wishing that she had a type of spider-sense, so she could sense when Allison and Flash were around trying to make hell for her.

Gwen and Mary Jane walked over to a smaller aquarium on the side where a large grayish-black spider sat in the middle of his thick webbing. Gwen's eyes widened as she pointed at it.

 "Hey, look at that spider." She said.

            Mary Jane took this to be an opportunity to give some interesting facts to Gwen about what she knew. It always made her feel smart to be able to tell someone an interesting fact that wasn't known. "Some spiders can change colors to blend in to their environment." She grinned over at Gwen.  "It's a defense mechanism."

Gwen groaned in hearing more educational facts from Mary Jane. She wasn't trying to brag was she?  "MJ, what makes you think I'd want to know that?" She asked as she left the side of the aquarium.

Mary Jane stared off in wonderment as Mary Jane left. "Who wouldn't? She asked following suite.

The tour-guide led them around again closer to the center of the area towards the main aquarium's that held several spiders. Gwen nudged Mary Jane with a giggle as Peter went up to the front with the others.

    "Gonna talk to him now?" She asked her.

Mary Jane followed to where Gwen was directing and she flushed embarrassed. She shook her head feverishly. "Oh..No. Come on." She said as if saying to her: 'like a girl like me can talk to a guy like him.' "You talk to him." She grinned as if daring Gwen something impossible. Gwen looked over at Peter and then back to Mary Jane giving her a shrug.

            "Ok." She said walking forward over to the side of Peter.

Peter seemed glued to the glass almost as he stared with an interested look. He noticed Gwen beside him from the corner of his eye.  Mary Jane raised her brows surprised and a little hurt by Gwen just going to talk to her crush like that.

            "Disgusting." He said with enthusiasm, seeming all but disgusted with the sight of spiders.

Gwen nodded as if agreeing with him. "Yeah, hateful little things." She said scrunching up her nose.

Peter grinned. "I love them." He said.

 The scrunched look on Gwen's face disappeared, as she got a little nervous.  She stood on the tips of her toes for the moment looking over at Peter.  "Yeah..Me too."  Peter looked over at Gwen with a look of confusion almost to say: 'o…kay…'

Mary Jane chuckled to herself in seeing her friend flub up. She felt bad for her but she kind of deserved it.  It wasn't really fair that Gwen would go off and talk to her crush; she thought Gwen would have declined to spare Mary Jane's feelings. She guessed that Gwen probably didn't have a clue about how Mary Jane felt about her doing this, she wasn't a mind reader after all and MJ was always great at hiding her feelings.

Gwen decided to keep going wondering if she could spike Peter's interest.

            "You know, spiders can change their color to blend in to their environment." She said looking at Peter as if she had known that all by herself.  Mary Jane frowned as she heard Gwen stealing her facts.  First she acts like she's not interested in what she had to say then she steals from her to impress Peter.  Peter glanced at Gwen with a raised brow obviously surprised at Gwen's knowledge.

"Really." He said looking back at the glass.

            "Yeah.  It's a defense mechanism." She said finishing it off hoping that could catch his attention a little more.

"Cool." Peter said quietly not really sure what to have said in the first place.  Gwen glanced back at Mary Jane nervously as if to say. 'Well maybe that might have worked.'

Peter, Gwen and Mary Jane tuned back in to the scientist who was speaking catching more of her speech.

            "-Combine the genetic information from all three spiders into these fifteen genetically designed super-spiders," She directed to the glass cages that would have held all fifteen spiders.  But as Peter looked closer he noticed that one web was empty. He looked all within the small-enclosed space not finding it.

"Um…hey, there's only fourteen here." He said looking up from the cages.  Gwen leaned in a little to examine it for herself as the guide was caught off guard.

            "I beg your pardon?"

"There's fourteen," He repeated himself. "One's missing, see?" He said as the woman came in closer to look.  He was right, there was no spider to be found inside the small space.

            "Oh.  I guess the researchers are working on that one." She reasoned trying to reassure herself more than everyone else. The slight panic ceased and the group moved on except for Gwen and Peter. She moved in on him again pointing up at the microscope above him wondering if she could dazzle him some more.

"Do you know that this is the largest electron microscope on the Eastern Seaboard?"  Mary Jane groaned in hearing Gwen trying for it again.  It was a good thing Allison wasn't in sight or else there would be a fight for sure.  However Peter stood near Gwen politely listening to her. Peter quietly smirked in both amusement and pity when the teacher swooped in on them gripping a hold of Gwen's shoulder gently.

       "You were talking throughout that woman's entire presentation.  Let's go talk about how we listen." He said pulling Gwen away with him. She gave a look on her face to Peter and Mary Jane as if to say 'oh well' and she shrugged as she was pulled away.  "I don't know what it's like at those fancy private schools-" The rest became muffled as they walked away.  Peter had his back to Mary Jane again seemingly interested in the cage of spiders as he began to browse around them.  Mary Jane felt her pulse quicken as she thought that this was a perfect opportunity to try to talk to him.  She thought to herself of how to go about doing it…the camera.  Of course, take his picture for the paper about the field trip.  Peter was a very popular guy at the school so it wouldn't seem unusual if someone wanted to take his picture for the paper. All right…good idea.  Mary Jane clenched her hand around her camera. 'Ok, move foot. Take me across the room just a few steps… Move left foot!' She mentally commanded herself.  Slowly she crossed over just a few feet away from Peter.  She felt her nerve dying away but she soon found her voice.

            "Hey," She began.  Peter spun around slightly startled looking at her sincerely.  "Can I take your picture? I- I need one with a student in it." Mary Jane asked him almost feeling the color burn in her cheeks.  Peter looked around for a moment then back at Mary Jane and smiled.

            "Sure. Why not." He said holding his hand out.  He looked around himself as if trying to find a good place to stand so he wasn't blocking the cages.

"Great." Mary Jane said struggling to hide her pleased grin.

            "Where do you want me?" He asked.

'Oh you probably wouldn't want to know that.' Mary Jane thought quickly with a shy grin.

Peter looked over to his right where there was an empty space to stand beside the cages. "Over here?"

Mary Jane adjusted her glasses on her nose and pointed. "Yeah. Yeah that's great." She said trying to act with professionalism.  She couldn't let him know that she was doing this just to be able to talk to him. 'Lame excuse, MJ.' She thought to herself.

Peter fixed his hair with his fingers as best as he could not have anything to check his appearance in. He backed up into his spot and looked at Mary Jane with all seriousness. "Don't make me look goofy." He said, then grinned letting her know that he was actually joking.

Mary Jane looked down at her feet shyly for the moment then back up with her cute smile, her dimples showing. She backed up against the screen. "That's impossible." She said. She raised the camera up to her face just in front of her glasses. Closing one eye she focused the camera on Peter. He looked embarrassed for all the attention at the moment and crossed his arms for a moment before thinking of some kind of pose. Clearing his throat he gestured to the cages trying to hide his smile and look serious. That clearly failed as his smile showed through.  Click Mary Jane snapped the first picture.  'If only he was smiling at me and not the camera.' She thought to herself as she reveled in Peter's beautiful smile. She giggled as she lowered the camera for just a second. "Oh that was perfect."  But at that moment she didn't notice the tiny spider that was lowering itself from its web just above her. Soundlessly, deadly.  Peter left his pose and stood up at his full height opening his hand out like it was a newspaper itself, he raised his blue eyes up at the camera and turned his head to the side. Click She snapped the next picture.  Mary Jane smiled to herself, as she wanted to get as many pictures of Peter as she could. 'Shall we say…stalker, Watson?' She asked herself sarcastically. 'Shut up, brain!'  

He then looked down at the paper and back up.

            "Is that good?" He asked unsure.

"Still great." She said preparing for another picture.  'He is really photogenic, isn't he?'

He flipped the page over and decided for a humorous shot but pointing at the paper with an astonished look. Click 'Heh, that one would definitely be good.'

            Still soundlessly, the spider came lower and lower to the red haired girl that stood below it.  She was unaware of its presence and its hunger needed to be satisfied. It lowered itself lower still while she was busy snapping picture after picture of Peter and stopped just below her fingers holding onto the camera.  Still, somehow Mary Jane didn't feel the spider.

            "Yo! Pete! Let's go!" One of Peter's jock buddies yelled from across the room.  His attention at that moment was stolen away and he seemed to just walk off without giving Mary Jane a last glance.

    "Wait." She called after him disappointed as she lowered the camera away from her face. 'Please come back?'

"Thanks!" She called louder trying to get heard. She truly was grateful that Peter gave her the time of day to get his pictures taken. She still didn't notice the spider, which crawled down her hand craving food to suffice its hunger.  And like that it sunk its fangs into Mary Jane's hand with a quick motion.  She cried out jerking her hand to her struggling to see what had bit her. She kneeled down seeing a blue and red spider about less than the size of a penny scurrying under one of the tables.  She frowned worriedly, could it have possibly poisoned her?  Was that possible?

            "Watson," Her teacher called out getting her attention. "Let's do it."

Mary Jane stood up holding her hand and examining the red welt that was forming on her hand. She hoped to herself that if she were indeed poisoned she'd be able to hold out until she got home. She couldn't possibly faint in front of her classmates.  As she walked off she missed the screen behind her showing the spider's DNA strands in what it was made of.

            Luckily the students didn't pay much attention to Mary Jane.  Gwen was picked up by her chauffeur and waved goodbye to Mary Jane before she was whisked away.  She had gotten back onto the bus keeping her eyes down to avoid eye contact with any of her 'prehistoric' type predators.  She sat at the very back of the bus and curled up against the seat feeling very chilled. She could tell that her color was draining from her face and pain wracked through her body.  She whimpered weakly as the bus made it to her and Peter's stop. He got off before her and headed home in the quickest route while Mary Jane seemed to just stagger her way home.  Well…stagger…drag…same thing. She made it to her front door and pushed it open weakly, almost stumbling inside.  She caught both her aunt and uncle off guard, her aunt's arms around her Uncle Ben.

            "Oh, hi sweetie. You're just- just in time for dinner." She said reluctantly, noticing Mary Jane's pale color.

Mary Jane dropped her backpack onto the floor near the door, while slipping off her jacket. Perspiration dripped down her forehead as she started to make her way to the stairs.

"Hey, how you doing, honey?  How was the field trip?" Uncle Ben asked following her to the stairs. Slowly she pulled herself up the stairs with a groan.

            "Uh, I don't feel well. I'm going to go to sleep." She said not answering her uncle's questions.

"You wanna have a bite?" Her aunt called up to her.

            "No thanks. Had a bite." Mary Jane replied with weak humor on her own inside joke.

"Did you get some pictures, MJ?" Ben asked still confused by what had happened to his neice.

            "Uhh. I gotta crash, everything's fine." She mumbled shutting the door behind her.  She heard her uncle mumble just as the door closed.

"What's that all about?"

            She grunted as she shuffled to the mirror looking at her pale reflexion. She pulled off her shirt, remaining in her bra, looking at her icy skin. She looked so worn and skinny at that time. Her eyes had dark circles under them, almost like sunken pits. She looked very ill, as ill as she felt.  The room begun to spin, causing her eyes to roll back slightly.  So this was what dying of poison felt like?  Perhaps she should have told her aunt and uncle what had happened so they could have rushed her to the emergency room to save her life.  But…it was too late. She tried to make it to the bed but she lost her balance, gripping onto the blanket and falling to the ground pulling it over her for warmth.  The cold, icy grip seemed to overwhelm her causing her body to shake.

Just what was happening to her? Was she going to die?

            Author: "So what do you think? Is it ok? It was hard trying to do most of it word for word. So um…yeah well I got it typed finally. Yay. Well college started again so my writing will take awhile, sadly. Please review, and thank you for the wonderful reviews for my last chapter. *Doesn't want to go to college! L *