THEIR TOUR GUIDE WAS AN EXCITABLE MAN IN A BOWTIE AND THAT TOLD DIANA EVERYTHING SHE NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NATURE OF THEIR FIELD TRIP; IT WAS GOING TO BE VERY NERDY, BUT VERY INTERESTING.

After their introduction to the museum, they were free to scatter for the first part of the day with instructions to keep an eye on each other and on the clock as they were to meet out in the front at one for lunch before going back inside to watch the demonstration.

Gwen had immediately grabbed Diana and Cindy, whispering angrily about Flash and how much of a jerk he was being.

"He's not even talking to me," she hissed as they checked their map, walking towards the planetary exhibit on Diana's request, "I talk to him and he ignores me, whispering with that Sally girl. She keeps making faces at me and it's really rude."

Cindy and Diana glanced at each other before Cindy moved to comfort Gwen, saying that Sally had a history of being a fairly snotty person. Gwen then argued that she was pretty snotty herself, but she wasn't downright mean. Cindy then proceeded to explain that Gwen wasn't as awful as she had just tried to depict herself.

Harry, who had been listening quietly as this all took place, looked down at Diana who was doing the same thing. "You okay?"

Gwen glanced up and nodded, tugging at her blazer. "Yeah, why?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Flash hasn't been around much and I was worried that maybe you were getting a little uncomfortable being around just Gwen and me all the time."

Diana shook her head furiously as they moved into the space exhibit, not even looking at it as she spoke, "No way! I love spending time with you guys. You're my friends. I don't need Flash with me all the time."

Harry smiled and threw an arm around her shoulder, moving her towards one of the pictures on the wall, the two of them oohing and ahhing at the image while Gwen and Cindy looked at a model of some of the planets.

"Where's Pluto?" Diana asked, looking at the model of the solar system that hung above them in the middle of the room.

"Pluto isn't considered a planet," a voice replied, coming to stand next to her.

She turned to find Peter also looking up at the model, his camera raised. His shutter went off, but his flash didn't. It was a comforting sight, it let her know he respected rules. What didn't comfort her, however, was his statement.

"The words of humans does not affect the thing itself, Pluto is still a planet," Diana said, crossing her arms.

Peter scoffed, shaking his head. "It's too small! I mean, it just can't be considered a planet considering it's size—"

"Peter Parker, you are one of the smallest kids in our class. Furthermore, Flash is the smallest by far in our class, but he still plays on the football team. You know why? Because he brings something to the team, he completes them. We are not complete without Pluto."

"I dunno, he's a little too far away to affect, us don't you think?"

"Don't gender the planet, Peter, it doesn't need your human social concepts."

"It's not a planet."

"You disappoint me, Parker, I thought you'd be better than this."

"You disappoint me too, I thought you'd be more mature than this."

"I'm not the one who gendered a rock in space."

"Okay, what is happening?"

The two turned to see Flash starting at them, his arm slung around Sally's shoulders, his eyes darting between the two of them, clearly unnerved.

Harry, who had been filming the whole thing on his phone, spoke up, "Diana is a closeted Pluto lover."

Flash snorted. "She has a flag on her wall that says 'Viva La Pluto, Fuck You', I don't know what you mean by closeted."

Peter snorted as well, shaking his head at the girl. Diana flipped her hair back and looked him straight in the eye. "Viva la Pluto. Fuck you."

"Dude," a voice said, "she just roasted you."

Peter turned to scowl at Ned Leeds who was making his way over to them, grinning. Peter shook his head and fiddled with the buttons of his school-issued camera, no longer looking at Diana. It didn't take her long to realize why; it had just reoccured to him that he was in public with a fair portion of his peers watching him.

"Diana," Cindy said, pointing towards the exit, "We're heading over to the geology exhibit. Come with?"

"Sure," Diana said, starting to walk towards her friends who were waiting by the exit.

"Yeah, Petey," she heard Flash say behind him, "You and Leeds can hang with us."

Turning on her heel, Diana grabbed Peter and Ned by their arms, practically dragging them out with her. She gave Flash a hard look as she walked off, making sure he got the message. Then she turned and pushed the two boys out into the hallway.

º º º º º

Lunch went by with only one hiccup which Gwen put an end to instantly; Flash and his other friends had tried throwing their trash at Peter and Ned, but only succeeded in hitting Gwen who was not in the mood to humor Flash's behavior.

"Throw it again and I will break your wrist," she threatened, glaring at one of Flash's friends who didn't stop, throwing a piece directly into her face. He didn't play at the football games, but the threat scared him nonetheless.

Harry whistled quietly from his position next to in between Diana and Peter. "Scary. For someone really small, you're very intimidating, you know that?"

Gwen smiled brightly. "Thanks! Dad enrolled me in all these defense classes, so I actually could break your wrist. Here, give me your hand."

"No, thanks," he said, not missing a beat, snitching part of Peter's sandwich, smiling as the smaller boy huffed. "Sorry, Parker, you're just really cute when you're angry."

Peter's face turned red from embarrassment. "What is with you and Gwen and me being angry. If you're into that, that's cool, but don't drag me into your weird sex fetish."

Diana hadn't laughed so hard in nearly two months. She didn't know why it was so funny, but suddenly she was double over, clutching her stomach as she laughed, laughing so hard that no sound came out, just sitting there silently gasping for air.

She hadn't felt that feeling in such a long time. The feeling of being able to laugh at what she wanted for as long as she wanted. For almost two months she had had that feeling. The feeling that made it so she couldn't enjoy the things she wanted, that made her not want to get up or move in the morning, what made her tired.

The feeling that kept her from laughing at what she knew she would normally laugh at. But it was gone and she could laugh easily and it was the best feeling ever.

"It wasn't even that funny," Peter said, smiling at her around Harry who beaming, pointing at her and looking at Gwen who was equally as excited; their friend was happy.

Diana raised her head, still giggling. "I know." She grinned widely at him and he smiled back, shocked by how bright of a smile she had when she was happy.

He felt the sudden urge to make her smile all the time, if only to see her eyes light up the way they had during the football game.

"The demonstration is starting in ten minutes, finish up!" one of the chaperones called out, shocking all of them back to reality.

"I can take your trash," Cindy offered, holding out her hands towards the others.

"No," Harry said, jumping to his feet, "You don't have to do that, we can take our own."

Cindy raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure? It's no trouble, I can—"

"It's alright, Cindy." He looked her in the eyes, leaning his head forward slightly. She smiled, pink dusting her cheeks, and nodded, making her way over to the trashcan, her demeanor much different than before.

"What did you do?" Gwen asked, looking past Diana and over to Harry who had sat back down.

Instead of answering. Harry just stared into her eyes like he had never seen something as beautiful as her in his entire life.

Gwen blinked. "...oh. Damn, you're good." Her own cheeks were pink and she had to rip her gaze away from Harry, staring up towards the sky in an effort to calm down.

Harry tried to look at Diana, but she shook her head, closing her eyes. "You know, I think I'll be okay without the stare, thanks, Harry, I don't think I could take it, not today."

The boy grinned and stretched, sighing contently, clearly pleased with himself.

Peter and Ned, who had been watching him intently, glanced at each other. Ned, who had witnessed the look, making a series of hand gestures and eyebrow raises, widening his eyes and mouthing words, trying to convey what he had seen. Peter, who was sitting behind Harry's back, frowned, trying to understand what he was saying.

Ned sighed and walked towards them, gesturing towards Harry. "He's really good at what he does."

Peter tilted his head, pushing up his glasses. "Really?"

Harry turned and shifted his gaze over to Peter who immediately went slack jawed, stuttering, his face bright red. He struggled to look away, but found that he couldn't, sighing as he realized he was at the mercy of Harry who was starting to smirk.

"Y-yeah, I guess he's alright," Peter tried to scoff, finally breaking the connection and tearing his eyes away, "That was really intense."

Before he could reply, Diana, who had been throwing away her trash, rushed over, nudging Harry with her foot. "You better throw your trash away before Gwen decides to spill her water over you. She's coming."

Harry jumped to his, dragging Peter up as well, rushing over to the trashcan. Ned and Peter followed close behind, Peter having to stop and readjust his glasses which had threatened to fall when he was jerked from his seat.

"I will not like Harry Osborn, I will not like Harry Osborn, I will not like Harry Osborn," Gwen repeated to herself, eyes closed, voice pleading.

"Aw," Cindy said, "But you two would be so cute! He's super tall, you're super short and you're both really pretty."

Gwen opened her eyes to smile. "That's so sweet! But, no, I refuse."

Diana shared a look with Cindy, but said nothing.

When the boys returned, it was just time to go back inside to watch the demonstration. Truth be told, Diana couldn't care less about the safe disposal of nuclear materials, but Gwen and Peter seemed to care, so she tried to keep a look of intrigue plastered on at all times; after all, she had told Peter she thought this was going to be fun.

The boy in question, who had been walking with Ned, slowed his pace to walk next to Diana who was trying not to get squished by the crowd.

"So I never got to finish, but in short, Pluto isn't a planet," he said, trying not to laugh.

She immediately smiled, rolling her eyes. "I will not tolerate blasphemy in my own home, Parker, this is unacceptable."

He laughed and shook his head, holding open the door for her as they walked with the class towards the exhibit where there was already a fairly impressive crowd of other visitors.

"Here," Harry said, noticing Peter trying to stand on his tiptoes in an effort to see, "Come on, let's go to the front."

Motioning Gwen and Cindy in front of him, Harry pushed his way towards the front, Peter, Diana, and Ned close behind, grateful for their much taller friend and his ability to both be charming and persuasive.

"Sorry," he said as they moved towards the front, his voice saccharine sweet, "Hope you don't mind." He received some mumbles of 'of course not's and 'please, go ahead's to which he smiled and nodded gratefully.

"One day you're gonna get yourself killed," Gwen commented as the presenter made her way to the front.

Harry winked. "Maybe some day, but not today."

Diana smiled as she listened to the exchange, moving closer towards Peter so as not to be so close to Gwen. He was watching the presenter speak with rapt attention, his brown eyes wide with interest.

She looked back towards the presenter, but she couldn't focus. No, instead, her mind started to spin, conjuring up another idea that she had long since stopped creating.

She was back in the museum again, yes. Only this time, instead of Peter and Gwen standing next to her, it was her parents. She wasn't young again, like how she had often imagined herself a few years before. She was still the same nearly fifteen year old girl.

Her dad with his thick glasses, much like Peter's, leaned over to whisper a fact about nuclear science that she didn't understand, but nodded in agreement to anyways. Her mother shushed him, telling him not to be rude and watch.

The Thompsons were with them too. Their mother's were such good friends, they almost always went everywhere together. Flash would be trying to understand, always wanting, craving, to be smarter than he thought he was. His father wasn't there, just as he wasn't there in reality.

Not that Diana thought about what was real, not in that moment. No, she indulged in the fantasy. In the phantom touches her mother gave her as the presenter droned on, the feeling of her running a hand through her hair, the way her father would nudge her and smile as if there was an unspoken joke between the two of them.

It wasn't real, but she could believe it, even for a little while.

She was jolted out of the dream by the sound of Peter shouting. She whipped her head around to see him clutching his hand, biting his lip. She placed a hand on his back and grabbed his glasses which were just about to fall.

"Peter, are you oka—"

She heard Cindy yelp, standing to Peter's left, swatting at her foot. Diana looked over and saw that she was now bent over her ankle hissing.

"Something bit me," the two chorused.

"Are you two alright?" the presenter asked, making their way towards the group.

The two quickly nodded, not wanting to make a scene and potentially get in trouble; they were, after all, wearing the school blazer, meaning that they represented the school, so if they caused trouble, it was going to have very nasty consequences later on.

"Can't handle a bug bite, Parker?" Flash taunted from somewhere in the crowd.

"Flash Thompson, I swear—" Gwen started, only to be quieted by a very stern look from Ms. Warren.

The demonstration continued, Diana now fully present. She took a hold of Peter's hand, examining the bite; two exit holes She looked around the ground, her heart pounding, hoping that maybe it was still around so she would know if there was a reason to panic or not.

Spiders weren't a laughing matter. Not to her, at least.

"I'm fine," he whispered. He didn't look fine. He was starting to sweat and his eyes looked hazy.

"Hush up, I'm trying to find the spider," Diana whispered, still clutching his hand as she crouched down, searching.

"Spider?" he hissed, glancing away from the presenter and down towards Diana with a terrified look.

She sighed, standing back up. "It's gone. I'm sure you'll be fine, it doesn't look irritated or anything. It's probably nothing."

He sighed, rubbing his face, pushing up his glasses. "Oh God...I hope you're right."

"You'll be okay. Now, shush, she's talking."

"But I—whatever. Cindy, you alright?"

The smaller girl looked over at them, her state no better than Peter's. "Peachy. It's probably nothing, I'll be fine in a bit."

Peter nodded. "Good. And me too. Hopefully."

Diana hummed, turning back to watch the end of the demonstration, missing the feel of her mom's hands through her hair and her dad's hand on her shoulder. She hadn't had one of her little fantasies in a while and she just remembered why she had forced herself to stop; it always hurt when they ended.

The demonstration ended a few minutes after and it was time to head back to school. By then, people were already starting to whisper about the little scene that had occurred, much to the group's chagrin.

It wasn't until they were halfway to the bus that Diana realized she hadn't let go of Peter's hand.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

REWRITTEN: MAY 30, 2017/REPUBLISHED: JUNE 7, 2017

And the chaos begins...there have been a lot of reports on whether Pluto has recently been redeclared a planet, but regardless of the truth, I'm going to have the epilogue be these to nerds coming back to this museum and watching as they put Pluto on that solar system model, I swear.

I felt as though I just needed to insert more of Harry being a mindless flirt (not that he's mindless, rather that his flirting is mindless) because I feel as though that part of his character. Also, he has another love interest not just Gwen (take that statement how you will)

For those who don't know, Cindy had been bitten on her ankle after the spider had bit Peter, then fallen off.