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.

Peter was laying across his bed as he was reading the newspaper for car sales his folks kept around, but on each page he turned, it's all too pricy for him to buy, ranging from a ridiculous $10,000 to the abysmal $20,000 price range, making him raised his eyebrows in frustration.

Peter kept turning over the pages until he managed to find one with some below decent $5,000 range, even though they'd probably required some fine tuning personally, which shouldn't be a problem for him, considering some experiences he had from helping Uncle Ben fixing his 'special' 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 from time to time.

That's when Peter saw one ad that caught his eye the instant he looked at the bottom of the page.

AMATEUR WRESTLERS $3000

FOR 3 MINUTES IN THE RING!

COLORFUL CHARACTERS A MUST

After a long thought, Peter smiled to himself about the potential money he could gain to buy the car he wanted to impress Mary Jane. With a rush of mind, he quickly got up from his bed and moved to his desk, taking out a scrapbook and a few pens to draw up his own costume designs.

Peter first started with sketching a black leotard and mask as the initial base design, then added in a utility belt, black gloves and boots before finishing it with a webbing-theme caped attached to the back.

Already, Peter just scrapped the design after giving it a quick look, thinking it was just too complicated and looked a bit too much like Superman for his taste. He even felt he didn't really have much of a need for a utility belt when he thought about it.

Peter tried drawing a grey bodysuit with a black mask that spread to the shoulders, with a red hourglass design as the main front symbol for the costume, because Black Widows did have those on its thorax. Unfortunately, he scraped that one as well when he thought it just doesn't sell the idea that it's a spider-themed design.

Instead of using the hourglass symbol, Peter sketched numerous of spider emblems that he could use for later designs, thinking they sell the theme way more better.

Peter resumed with drawing, this time with a black overall bodysuit and spider symbol that had its legs extended to underneath the arms and two big white circular shapes as the eyes.

It looked great, but then he remembered the ad specifically said they only allow colorful characters. After some thought, Peter did recalled the spider that bit him had a red-and-blue color palette. Even though he tried to avoid having any Superman-esque inspirations for the sake of originality, Peter thought the color actually mixed well together, and so, he goes along with it.

After laying out the body design, Peter started coloring the main torso, gloves, boots and mask in red while the blues were given to the legs, back and underarms. He then traced out the dark webs covering the reds and two large triangular shapes as its eyes before finally doing the spider emblem on the front chest as the final touch.

Once he done the final draft, Peter smiled pridefully to himself when he finally made, what he thinks, the perfect costume for the wrestling match.

There's one problem, though, Peter just realized: How's he gotta put one together? He's not really good with sewing by himself.

Peter obviously couldn't go to his Aunt May for help without making her suspiciously worried, and even if he explained his powers, which Peter probably shouldn't, he'd get scolded for even considered participating in the match. Not to mention leading to more unnecessary confrontation with his Uncle Ben too; Peter could already imagine him calling him out for his "rash behavior".

Another thought then suddenly occurred to him. Peter remembered Gwen's note on his backpack. He decided to try reach out to her. Besides, Peter knew she would be furious anyway if he doesn't tell her he's alright.

Peter picked up his telephone, dialling for the Stacy's home number. After a decently short waiting time, someone finally answered.

"Stacy Residence, George speaking," George Stacy, captain of the 32nd Precinct and Gwen's father, answered in his usual police authoritarian voice. "Either hang up or talk before I traced this call."

Peter felt a nervous sweat dropping from his forehead, scared by the police captain's usual threatening tone to strangers. "Uh... hey, Mis- Capta-," He fumed over his words, not meaning to disrespect the police captain. "Hello, Mister Captain George Stacy, this is Peter Parker."

George chuckled. "Peter, good to hear you."

"You too, sir," Peter said. "Um.. is Gwen there?"

"One moment," George said.

After another period of waiting time, someone picked up the phone. "Hello, this is Gwen speaking."

Peter exhaled in relief. "Hey, Gwen!"

"Peter? Are you alright?" Gwen asked worriedly.

"Yeah, um, you said you want to talk to me?" Peter asked.

"I did, but not over the phone," Gwen said. "How about noon tomorrow at Delmar's place?"

"Yeah, sure," Peter nodded. "That sounds fine."

"Cool, I'll see you then," Gwen said.

"Wait, Gwen?" Peter stopped her from hanging up the phone.

"Yes?" Gwen replied.

"Um, thanks for bringing my stuff home," Peter said gratefully.

Gwen smiled. "You're welcome, Pete. See you tomorrow."

The next day, Peter was making his way to Delmar's Deli & Grill at 21st street. Upon entering inside the cafe, he already found Gwen sitting next to the window away from the other customers. He slowly walked to her table and took a seat that was adjacent to her.

Peter didn't know how to start as he couldn't maintain eyes contact with her without feeling a bit of guilt about the day before. "Hey, Gwen..."

"Hey, Peter..." Gwen said quietly, slowly stirring her drink. "What's been happening to you? You went from meek but lovable to sending Flash Thompson down a hallway with one bare hand. I know you, Peter. We've been friends since middle school when we were set up as lab partners to work on a reptile presentation. I'm worried, Pete. I really am."

"I'm fine, Gwen," Peter tried to reassure her.

"Peter, are you doing drugs?" Gwen blurted out.

Peter blinked as he was caught off-guard by such an obscure question. "Wha- No! I was... was... "

"You were...?" Gwen said softly, anticipating what Peter would say next.

"You remember... the field trip two days ago?" Peter recalled.

Gwen nodded, remembering she left him alone to let out his feelings for the redhead.

"Remember when... Mary Jane said there was one specimen missing...?" Peter reminded, showing her the tiny pink bump on his hand. "It bit me. Somehow, its DNA passed to me and - "

"And now you can do whatever a spider can?" Gwen finished his sentence with a shocked, yet quiet tone.

"It also gave me super strength," Peter said. "That's how... I managed to beat Flash with one punch..."

"And avoid all of his... " Gwen added, before swallowing a lump in her throat. "Have you... told anyone else? Does anyone know?" She asked softly.

Peter shook his head. "No one but you."

Gwen groaned. "Peter, you need to see a doctor."

Peter became bewildered. "What? Why? I feel fine -"

"Peter! This... whatever this is, is too dangerous," Gwen interjected. "What if your lifespan is now only a few weeks, because that's how long most spiders live?"

Peter cleared his throat. "Actually, the shortest lifespan is a few months -"

Gwen silenced him with a dead-stare. "Not. Helping."

Peter quirked his eyebrows in confusion. "What's the big deal, anyway?"

"The big deal is that you have undergone an unnatural and unprecedented change in your biological makeup," Gwen assumed the worse. "For all we know, your spit is venomous, you have six other eyes hidden beneath your hair and there's an eggsac in your belly! And even if not, how do you know this won't grow out of control and turn you into some kind of... of... Man Spider?"

Peter sighed. "Gwen, I think you're overreacting."

Gwen titled her head. "How exactly am I supposed to react, Pete? This is scaring me more than it should be scaring you. We don't know the consequences of being bitten by a radioactive spider -"

"Genetically engineered," Peter corrected.

"Whatever!" Gwen dropped her head on her hands in frustration. "I'm scared for you, Peter," Her voice trembled in a soft, scared tone.

Peter took her hands, hoping it would calm her down a bit. "I'm sorry, Gwen... I didn't mean to -"

"Don't be sorry for telling the truth," Gwen smiled a little, squeezing her best friend's hand in return. "I'm glad you did but... I'm just afraid that... you'll lose yourself in whatever this is."

Peter smiled back. "With a friend like you, I'm sure I'll be just fine."

Gwen sighed. "I still think you should see a doctor, just to get a reading at the least, but... well, it's not like I can just push you down there myself, can I?"

Peter nodded. He then changed to his intended topic for meeting up. "Gwen... I had this crazy idea... I was thinking of going into... wrestl-"

"Stop right there," Gwen gave a stern look again. "Are you seriously suggesting exploiting your condition against people who do this sort of thing for a living? Peter, what are you thinking?!"

Peter shaken nervously when she switched back to her angry tone. "I-I was hoping to build up enough money for a car -"

"To impress Mary Jane," Gwen finished his words, already knowing about Peter's crush on the redhead. "Why did you tell me that? You had some motive for changing the subject to that one. What is it?"

Peter took out the scrapbook from his bag, showing the final draft of his costume he drawn. "I... was hoping you could... help me make a costume," He murmured. "I need your help, Gwen. You know I'm no good at sewing. Will you help me?"

Gwen gave a focused look at Peter's drawing, carefully taking in its details. With a deep exhale, she turned her eyes towards her best friend. "Peter, in the last twenty minutes, I've learned that you have been bitten by a spider, gained its abilities, have no intention to seek medical advice, and now you're asking me to help make that costume, so you can fight in a wrestling ring to win money for a car to impress Mary Jane, a girl you only barely interacted with for five minutes."

"To be fair, you're the one who encouraged me to give her a try," Peter recalled her words back at the field trip.

"Not the point!" Gwen let out a frustrated moan. After letting herself calmed down a bit, she looked at her best friend with worried eyes. "Do you know when the next wrestling event even is?"

"Next weekend at 7."

"Exactly one week away, then," Gwen leaned back on her chair with a heavy sigh. "Even if I wanted to do this, I'd probably only to able get at least a third of it done."

Peter grumbled to himself as he looked down in disappointment, knowing she's right.

Gwen gave a touch on Peter's shoulder with a genuine smile to at least reassure him. "You're my friend... and it would be wrong of me to not at least try to understand this. And no, our friendship will not vaporize, no matter what you do."

Although the meetup didn't entirely go as he hoped it would, Peter felt a little relieved by her understanding of his situation, as if the nervous tensions on his shoulders from the day before were finally lifted. "Thank you, Gwen."

She smiled back, before walking out of the cafe. "See you around, Parker."

Words: 1970

A/N: Have you got any idea how relieving it is to reconcile with your best friend?

Y'know, for some incarnations of Peter's and Gwen's relationship, whether it was platonic or romantic in the Comics, Shows, Movies, there's always constant drama going on between the two to the point it's kinda tiring. Yes, I know due to Peter's secret always getting in the way, but do too much of that for a long period of time, it's bound to get repetitive and annoying to the readers, no matter how understandable both sides were. It did somewhat play a role in her original death in the 616 comics, after all.

Even as a PeterXGwen fan myself, (yes, ironic for me to say that when this fanfic's supposedly about Peter and Mary Jane) the annoying drama always gets on my nerves overtime.

That's what I want to emphasize on in this chapter. Hopefully I can lay to rest to those concerned about any potential Peter and Gwen drama in this story/universe.

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

Reviews:

DCDGojira: Appreciate the review. And all the great luck for your fanfic.

Ceamonks890: Cheers for the review, man. Honestly, seeing another hardcore fan giving his critiques, especially a fellow Spider-Man fan like yourself, helps me encouraging me to make my writing. Hopefully, I can keep my story take on the Original Trilogy worth reading for you and other awesome readers.