Chapter 2: The Beginning
"Ok, people," said Mr. Peterson right before they entered the bus," and Mr. Ramono, I know that most of you already know the rules. But for those who were tardy yesterday," said Mr. Peterson as he glared at Nick, while the students began to snicker, "I am going to have to repeat them. The first and most important rule is not to touch anything without permission. The second rule is that you cannot go off and leave the class. And lastly, you are to do everything that either the scientists or I tell you to do. Do you all understand?"
The class all said, "Yes, Mr. Peterson." Mr. Peterson smiled and replied, "Good. Now board the bus in a fashionable line and find a seat." Unlike what Mr. Peterson had said, the class rushed to the bus. Erik purposely run towards Nick and knocked him down, causing some of Nick's stuff to fall out. Some students started to laugh at him, as well as cheer for Erik. Nick picked up his things, put them in his backpack, and got on the bus.
Because of the delay, all the good seats were taken, forcing Nick to go and take a seat at the back of the bus. As he walked to the back of the bus, students threw paper and other junk at him. Of course by now, Nick didn't care. Nick finally sat down as the bus started and began driving off to the Columbia University.
Knowing that this was going to be a long trip, Nick took out his journal and began to write a story. When he was half way done with it, two students that were sitting in the bus seat in front of him looked back at him. "Look, Johnny," said the taller one, "freaky boy is writing one of his stupid stories." The fatter student laughed and replied, "Tell me, FREAK, what's it about this time? Big old dragons flying around with robot pirates?"
Nick glared at them and replied," No, I'm writing about the time that your mom had to sleep with me in order to get the money to feed you two." The two brothers stopped laughing and glared at Nick. "You better watch it, FREAK," said the fatter student, "or I'll have to introduce you to Mr. Fist." After the fat student had said that, the taller student spat in Nick's face and they both sat down. Nick wiped the spit off his face and continued his writing.
As the bus drove into the parking lot of the Columbia University, Nick stopped writing, put his stuff back into his backpack, as the rest of the students started to get off. The two students that had picked on Nick earlier had pretended that they had dropped something. Nick knew that they were going to do something, so he tried to wait a bit, but Mr. Peterson told him to move it.
As soon as Nick passed them, the two students got up and walked right behind Nick. They began kicking Nick at the back of the knees, almost causing him to fall. As Nick walked down the steps of the bus, the fatter student kicked him in the head. "Ow," said Nick as he felt around the back of his head for bumps. "Ooops," said the fatter student mockingly, "my bad."
As the class settled down, they walked off towards the Columbia University Science Department. As they got inside, Nick saw and was amazed by all the technology around them. A few minutes had passed, when their tour guide, Dr. Anne Roberts, entered the room and greeted the class. "Welcome," said the lovely Asian American with short black hair and blue eyes, "My name is Dr. Anne Roberts." When the class first saw her, almost all the boys were staring and drooling at Dr. Roberts, all of them in disbelief that this hot chick was a scientist.
"Now, let us begin the tour," Dr. Roberts said as she motioned for the class to follow her. "In here," she said, "we are conducting our most important experiments. It is also here that we have the most advanced electron microscope on the East Coast." As she finished, some students raised their hands. She pointed to Erik and said, "Yes, a question?" Erik replied, "So, what is you main project here?"
Dr. Roberts replied, "Well, one of our most important experiments is splicing spider DNA." The class looked at each other with confusion. "You see," said Dr. Roberts, "there are over 32,000 known species of spider in the world."
As she was explaining the experiment, she walked through the different subjects and showed them to the class.
"They're in the order Araneae, divided into three suborders. Arachnids from all three groups possess varying strengths to help them search for food. For example, the Delena spider, family Sparassidae, has the ability to jump to catch its prey."
"Next, we have the net web spider, family Filistatidae, genus Kukulcania, spins a funnel-shaped web whose strands have a tensile strength proportionately equal to the high-tension used in bridges."
"And lastly, we have this spider, which hunts using reflexes with nerve-conduction velocity so fast that some researchers believe it borders on precognition. An early awareness of danger. In order words, a spider-sense."
"Now, we take the DNA from all three spider and we do what has been thought to be impossible. We take all three DNA samples and splice it into these 15 spiders."
The students looked at where the 15 spiders were kept. Nick was near it, when he noticed that one was missing. "14," he said aloud. Dr. Roberts, Mr. Peterson, and the rest of the class looked at him.
"Pardon me?" asked Dr. Roberts. Nick looked at her and replied," there are 14 here. One of them is empty." Dr. Roberts looked into the container, to find it empty. "I guess the researchers are looking at that one," she said, "anyway, let's continue into the other room."
As the class followed Dr. Roberts, Mr. Peterson stopped Nick and pulled him to the side. "You know what," Mr. Peterson had said, "how about you stay here. I don't want you interrupting Dr. Roberts anymore. You can make friends with the spiders if you want. Just stay here." Having finished scolding Nick, Mr. Peterson turned and walked away.
Nick looked at him with disgust and walked over to the 14 spiders. He put his arm on top of the container and looked at each of the spiders. "Hell," said Nick, "if these things could talk, they probably would be friends with me. I mean, to the other spiders around the world, they must be consider freaks, too."
As he gazed at the mutant spiders, the 15th spider crawled up the other side of the container. When it had reached the top, it saw Nick's bare hand. It walked up to it and began to crawl to the top of his hand. When it reached the top, it raised it fangs and bit into him.
"Ow," yelped Nick as he yanked his arm away from the container, "son of a bitch!" Nick examined his hand, when he saw the spider. He then raised his foot and stomped the spider. "Damn spider," said Nick as he wiped his foot and then went back to looking at his hand.
Meanwhile, as Dr. Roberts was giving the tour, she noticed that Nick wasn't there. She went up to Mr. Peterson and asked where he was. Mr. Peterson replied," I told him to wait over with those spiders."
Dr. Roberts replied, "Well, you know that he can't be by himself, he is either supposed to stay with the group or wait in the lobby." Mr. Peterson replied with an annoyed look, "Fine, I'll go get him." Dr. Roberts replied, "No, I'll go get him. Besides, you've been here before, so you can take the students on the tour while I get him." Mr. Peterson replied, "Fine. Come on class, let's continue the tour." As Mr. Peterson lead the class into another lab, Dr. Roberts went back to find Nick.
"Damn," said Nick as he examined his hand, "that hurt." Just as he had said that, Dr. Roberts came through the front doors. She spotted Nick and walked towards him. "Ah, there you are," she said, walking up to him. She noticed that Nick was holding his hand in a strange way.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned for Nick. He quickly replied, "No, nothing's wrong." Nick looked at her and asked, "Why are you here?" Dr. Roberts replied, "I'm here for you. Your teacher knew that you couldn't be by yourself, so I don't know why he told you to stay here." "You are either supposed to stay with the group or go and wait in the lobby." Nick replied, "Ok, let's go." Just as he started to walk, his hand suddenly ripped in pain. He gripped his hand tighter as the pain got worse. Dr. Roberts noticed this and said, "Are you sure you're ok?" Nick replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."
He had taken less than five steps, when he began to lose conscious. He collapsed onto the floor, while Dr. Roberts and some other scientists ran to him. Everything started to go dark as Nick saw Dr. Roberts and the other scientists above him. After what seemed like an eternity, everything went black.