Disclaimers:
Spider-Man and all its related characters belongs to Marvel Entertainment, which is owned by Walt Disney Company, and the Sam Raimi Original Trilogy belongs to Sony Pictures Entertainment. No infringement of these copyrights are intended, and not authorized by copyright holders.

A few months after the school graduation, Mary Jane eventually moved out of her home and rented an apartment in Greenwich Village, as she always intended to move into the city to fulfil her dream career someday. Until that day comes, she settled with a waitress job for Moondance diner restaurant in Soho.

MJ was now in her morning shift: asking for orders, handing them out, cleaning up the emptied tables - the typical routine for any waitresses basically.

Until today.

Mary Jane's in a hurry to get all the emptied, yet dirty plates back to the counter, but she was already feeling the stress getting to her. As she was done collecting all of the plates in her hands, MJ tried making her way to the kitchen when she accidentally bumped her shoulder into a departing customer, making her dropped her plates. Luckily, she somehow managed to effortlessly grabbed them all, almost reminding her of that one time back in Midtown High, strangely enough.

Well, all except that one plate, which somehow dropped on the regular's food, making it spill all over his table.

"Ugh, you messed up my dessert, you stupid waitress!"

"I'm so sorry," Mary Jane apologized for her clumsiness. She placed the plates down on the table and tried to rectified her mess with a cleaning towel on hand, wiping off the messy food she accidentally caused.

The rude regular scoffed. "I hope they cut down your paycheque," He murmured, though not quiet enough for the redhead to caught on to his harsh words.

Although MJ had to act professional in front of her customers, she was already getting sick of the rude ones, not to mention having to deal with a strict boss who would give a hard time for his employees without any consequences. Not feeling like she wanted to cause a scene, MJ walked back to the counter and into the kitchen and placing down all the finished plates she gathered in the cleaning sink, especially the ones she accidentally spilled.

With all that hassle done with, MJ looked at the staff clock to see she was already a few minutes till the end of her shift. "Zaya, Shailene will be taking my shift this afternoon," She informed her co-workers.

After walking into the employee lounge, MJ grabbed her trench coat that was hanging inside her locker, wrapping it around herself to conceal her waitress uniform from the public eye, wanting to hide the embarrassments that came with it.

As MJ walked her way out of the diner after ending her shift for the day, she heard someone that was calling out for her attention as she was crossing the street.

"Hey!"

"Buzz off," MJ brushed off somewhat rudely, without looking back to see someone was calling out to her. Then, in some strange turn of events, that someone turned out to be a familiar face she hadn't seen in a while.

"MJ, it's me, Peter."

"Hi!" MJ expressed in happy shock, seeing Peter smiled gleefully. "What are you doing around here?"

"I'm looking for a job," Peter eyed at a newspaper in his hand for a second. "How about you?"

"Oh, I'm heading for an audition," MJ said.

"Audition? So, you're acting now?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Yeah," MJ nodded in reaffirmation. "Been working steady. In fact, I just got off a job."

Peter couldn't help but feel proud for the redhead. "That's great, MJ. You're doing it. You're finally living your dream."

MJ gave a grateful nod, appreciating Peter's words. "Yeah."

In midst of their conversation, the diner boss was yelling for MJ's attention. "Hey, glamour girl! Your drawer's short by six dollars and I had a customer complaint about you. Next time either of them happens, I'll be cutting the money out of your cheque."

MJ tried to ignore her boss's words, hoping Peter wouldn't think he was shouting for her, despite being obvious.

"Excuse me, Miss Watson?" The diner boss shouted for her attention. "I'm talking you, hey!"

MJ exhaled in frustration and reluctantly glanced back at him. "Yes, Enrique, okay! I get you!"

"Well, they better happen no more, you hear me?" The diner boss gave her a pointed finger. "Don't roll your eyes at me," He said, before walking back inside the diner.

As she did indeed rolled her eyes back at him in annoyance, MJ turned her attention back to Peter, looking down in embarrassment as she opened up her trench coat, revealing her red waitress uniform underneath. "Some dream, huh?" She said sarcastically.

Peter just shrugged, thinking that's not much of a big deal. "That's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Don't tell Harry," MJ blurted out.

Peter raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Don't tell Harry?"

"Aren't you and Gwen living with Harry together? We're going out," MJ informed. "Didn't he tell you?"

Peter blinked a bit, trying to pretend the thought slipped off his mind. "Oh yeah, right."

"I think he doesn't like the idea of my waiting tables. He thinks that it's low or something," MJ said dejectedly.

"That's not low, you got a job," Peter defended her stance. "You know Harry, he doesn't live on a little place I would like to call Earth."

MJ chuckled. "No, I guess not," She then looked him peculiarly when she felt some strange adoration from the cute nerd for some reason again. She tried to shake the weird thought aside and smiled graciously. "Thanks, Pete. We should catch up sometime," She said, before walking away.

"Let's get some lunch some evening," Peter said, the redhead glanced back as she stopped by the curb. "I'll come by and have some of your Moondance coffee some day. And I won't tell Harry."

"No. Don't tell Harry," MJ repeated.

"I won't," Peter said. "I won't tell Harry," He murmured the last sentence, before turning away in the opposite direction.

Much later, Peter exited out of the elevator and opened the door into the loft, seeing two of his best friends at the dining table. Harry was currently going over his college study books as Gwen was tutoring him. He turned to his right to see Norman's currently in a call on his cell phone.

"Timing's perfect," Norman said to his cell, before acknowledging Peter with a small wave. "Five new contracts, it'll be great," He let out a joyful laugh.

"Storming Norman, making his weekly inspection," Harry pointed at his father with his pen. "Spends half of it on the phone. Man, I'm glad you're here. Having you two around really helps a lot... " He then turned silent when he noticed Peter's looking a little down.

"You alright, Pete?" Gwen also noticed his downhearted look. "You look like you just got second place in the science fair."

"No, I, uh... actually Ms. Pascal fired me from work today," Peter said, still feeling a little low spirit.

"You're late again, weren't you?" Gwen said with a smirk, as she was already aware of his 'curricular activity' for these past few months since graduation.

Peter nodded with his eyebrows raised a bit, acknowledging her answer.

Harry, on the other hand, was left dumbfounded by how one of his genius best friend could've lost his job already. "I don't get it. I mean, where'd you go all the time?"

Peter shrugged his shoulders, not entirely sure how to answer that. "Around."

Gwen snickered as she leaned her arm against his shoulders. "Real smooth, Parker," She whispered to him in a friendly banter.

Peter just shook his head at the blonde's usual funny remarks.

"Hey, Parker," Norman walked up to the three. "Since Stacy couldn't tell me, maybe you know who she is."

"Who is that?" Peter asked, curious about who's Norman referring to.

"This mystery girl Harry's been dating," Norman said.

"Dad," Harry tried to dismiss Norman's question for the second time now.

"When do I get to meet her?" Norman asked again.

"Dad!" Harry dismissed his question once more.

"Well, sorry, Harry hasn't mentioned her," Peter said, feigning ignorance to the fact MJ actually did told him she was the one Harry was dating.

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked up at his best friend, hoping to change the subject. "Pete, you're probably looking for a job now, right? Dad, maybe you can help him out."

Norman turned to Peter with a delightful smile, feeling more than happy to offer help to the dear boy.

Peter looked at Norman for a bit before shaking his head in decline. "No. I appreciate it, but I'll be fine," He said, as he was walking to the kitchen.

"No problem, I'll make a few calls," Norman insisted.

"I couldn't accept it, sir," Peter said dismissively. "I like to earn what I get, I'll find my own work."

"I respect that. You want to make it on your own terms. That's great," Norman smiled in approval, before giving a side gesture to Gwen. "Just like her determination to earn that scholarship in molecular medicine."

Peter's interests peaked the moment he grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge. "Oh, you're finally going for that Oxford scholarship you always talked about?"

"Yeah," Gwen nodded with a prideful smile. "The people behind the Oxford Scholars Program said they'll contact me for an oral exam I need to do in the coming weeks."

"Wow, that's wonderful, Gwen," Peter expressed in full happiness for the blonde.

Unknown to them, Harry silently pouted to himself, feeling a little jealous of his two best friends for able to meet his father's seemingly unreachable attention.

"So, what are the skills you have, Parker?" Norman asked in curiosity.

Peter looked over an ad on the front page of the Daily Bugle newspaper he placed down on the kitchen table. "I was thinking of something in photography."

REWARD!

FOR PHOTOS OF SPIDER-MAN

One night, an armored van was blocked by a SUV that had them cornered into a dark street. The security guard on duty tried to secure the padlock that was keeping the doors at the back of the armored van, but then he saw a masked man aiming a pistol at his face.

"Hello."

The security guard then got smacked in the head by what was revealed to be an armed robber, knocking him out-cold.

Soon, a group of masked robbers started to emerge from that same SUV that was blocking the armored van's path, most were guarding around it with assault rifles in hand as one managed to break through the back and began to rake in all of the money inside.

"Let's go! Move it! Watch the street!"

Unknown to them, a camera was suspended to a street lamp by a web, which was three stories high. It then started a single flash, blinding the robbers in momentary confusion.

Suddenly, Spider-Man was web-swinging from the sky, making a drop-in with a loud yahoo. He made a touchdown on two robbers with his twin kicks, then backflipped towards another two, colliding their heads into submission before grabbing the last one with his two legs, flinging him high in the air till he landed face first on the sidewalk.

Spider-Man was in his crouching stance when the three robbers recovered, one of which aimed a revolver down at his head. The hero retaliated by using his arms to lift himself from the ground, kicking the revolver-wielding robber in the face, then did another a midair backflip towards the last two, punching them in the nose to the point of knock-out.

After finishing the rest of the robbers, Spider-Man stood up, looking towards his suspended camera as it was shooting its series of automatic flashes. "Cheese!"

The next day, Peter was at the Daily Bugle, seating in the office of its Editor-In-Chief. A dark-skinned tubby man and one of Bugle's most trusted editor, Robert 'Robbie' Robertson, was sitting next to him.

In front of Peter behind his own desk was the Editor-In-Chief himself, J. Jonah Jameson. He was a middle-aged man, sporting a flattop haircut with white hairs and moustache, wearing a classy shirt and vest, along with a striped tie.

J.J was overlooking the photographer's pictures of Spider-Man. "They're crap," He said, making Peter frowned, considering they were actual high-quality photos he took. "Crap, crap, mega crap," He stacked them all up in in a neat pile. "I'll give you two-hundred bucks for all of them."

Peter still frowned at Jonah's words. "Sounds a little low."

"Take them elsewhere, then," Jonah offered the photos back before answering his ringing telephone.

"Sir, your wife said that tile you want in the foyer is out of stock," Jonah's secretary informed.

"Tell her we'll just put a rug there," Jonah said, before hanging up the phone. He then noticed Peter was about to leave with the photos. "Sit down. Give me that," He took the photos from Peter's hand before handing one to Robbie. "I'll give you 300. That's a standard freelance fee. Tear up page one. Run that photo instead."

"Headline?" Robbie asked.

"Spider-Man, Hero or Menace? Exclusive Daily Bugle Photos," Jonah said his proposed headline.

Peter became dumbfounded by the Editor-in-Chief's misleading choice of headline. "Menace? He was protecting that armored -"

"You take the photos, I'll make up the headlines," Jonah cut him off. "Alright? That alright with you?"

"Yes, sir," Peter said reluctantly, knowing he probably wouldn't be able to change his mind.

"Goodie," Jonah grabbed a piece of paper from his rack and wrote something down. "Give this to the girl upfront and see you get paid," He gave the paper to Peter.

"I'd like a job, sir," Peter requested.

"No jobs, freelance. Best thing for kid your age," Jonah then stood up from his chair and guided Peter to the door. "You bring me more shots of that newspaper-worthy clown, maybe I'll buy them. But I never said you have a job," He reminded. "Meat. I'll send you a box of Christmas meat, Best I can do. Get outta here. Bring me more photos."

After walking out of the door that just closed behind him, Peter approached Jonah's secretary girl, Betty Brant. "Hey, Mr. Jameson told me to give that to you," He said, passing the piece of paper Jonah had given him to her.

Betty looked at the paper. "Welcome to the Daily Bugle," She looked up at him with a smile.

"Thank you," Peter appreciated her kind words. "I'm Peter Parker."

The secretary girl just nodded in acknowledgement before looking back down on her desk to write the cheque.

After a short awkward silence, Peter tried to start a conversation. "I'm a photographer."

Betty looked up again at him again. "Yes, I can see that."

Peter only gave a tiny nod in return, his smile turning lip thin in disappointment of his embarrassing attempt at making a smooth conversation.

Words: 2542

A/N: Just one more chapter left to see how Mary Jane will start her journey as her own heroine. Can't wait for you guys to see how it all finally fall into place.

With that said, any constructive criticisms and comments would be greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

Reviews:

jeromy scott: Thanks.

I wouldn't really call them "my genius ideas" to be honest, considering many other fanfic writers before me came up with Gwen being introduced in the first movie of the trilogy and Mary Jane getting powers. The only difference is, I have my own takes on how I wanted to explore those ideas.

CT311998: Yeah, such a real shame Real-Life events had a negative way of affecting on an awesome art. Doesn't change the fact it's still an amazing introduction to the character.

Rivet94: Yep. Honestly, I started Spider-Man's introduction with that, because I thought it would be kinda mind-boggling to jump between scenes like the film's montage(at least with the level of writing I'm currently at), so I thought the deleted teaser would be the best substitute for that.

And don't worry, the next chapter will show how it all unfolds. Let's just say an inspiration to MJ's start to becoming her own hero will come into play, just a matter of whether it comes off as expected or a surprise to you and the readers.

DCDGojira: Much appreciated, as always.