A/N: Hello! I know I just put up a TJxSpin lemon, but I was listening to Katy Perry's song "One Of The Boys" and Spinelli immediately popped into my head. So let's say that the group was going into sixth grade last September, and before the summer, Spinelli, going on twelve, had a crush on TJ. Well, just read. And the mentions of Katy Perry and Taylor Swift – I know they weren't popular around the time of the show, but I'm writing it as if the show was around in 2008. Enjoy!
Update: I'm sorry, but I have to remove the lyrics from the story after nearly being reported. Please look the song up on YouTube and listen to it while reading.
It was during the the April of fifth grade when Spinelli began obsessively listening to the same Katy Perry song over and over. She had always had the CD, and often listened to the songs on her MP3, namely "I Kissed A Girl", "Hot N Cold", and "Waking Up In Vegas". But then, she started listening to the title song of the album, "One Of The Boys".
Spinelli was in a group of some of the most infamous kids in school. There were six of them – four boys, two girls, although Spinelli once tried to beat up a kid when he called her a girl. However, Gretchen Grundler, the other girl of the gang, seemed to be drifting away. She spent a lot less time with the gang and more time studying so hard that she was probably going to skip sixth grade and go on to middle school after the summer. But Spinelli had stuck with the gang, and her tomboyish ways meant she almost seemed like one of the boys too. But Spinelli was still female, and that fact was becoming all too clear to her.
Ashley Spinelli had a crush on TJ Deitweiler. He hadn't been her first crush, true, but he had been her first kiss. And although she'd deemed the kiss "gross", she had only felt that way when she had really acknowledged that she'd just let her lips touch a boy's lips. She had actually – dare she admit it, even to herself – liked it. Although, she noted, she would've liked it a lot more if the whole school hadn't been watching and Ashley Q of the Ashleys hadn't been throwing confetti over them. Because Spinelli was a girl, she wanted TJ to start treating her like a girl. To notice her the way he'd notice any other girl.
Spinelli had started devising a plan. But to make it work, she had to go into enemy territory. She'd gone to every single girl on the playground for help, but it was a last resort. Sure, they were the girliest girls on the playground and would probably know how to get a guy to notice them, but Spinelli still remembered the incident the year before when they tried to make her join their club. She had to seek help from – the Ashleys.
"Hey." Spinelli said as she approached them, smiling nervously. "You're just the ones I was looking for."
"Like, what do you want?" Ashley A, the ringleader asked in a voice that belonged to an ice princess.
"Well, um," Spinelli stammered, trying to work out how to convince them. "Since you four are the...prettiest girls in school, I was wondering if you could help me. There's a boy I really like, and I want him to notice me."
The four girls stared at her, and then chorused "Ooh, scandalous!" But they agreed to help Spinelli.
"First, you, like, have to stop using your last name." Ashley B advised. "You're Ashley S now."
Spinelli wasn't at all sure the Ashleys would help her. But they taught her about clothes and hair and accessories and flirting throughout the summer. They even made her listen to Taylor Swift and stop listening to Katy Perry, saying that "Guys like sweet girls, not forceful girls." Really, it seemed like they enjoyed it, and knowing them, they probably loved watching the former tomboy squirm as she tried to learn from them and let go of her masculine persona. When she eventually admitted the guy she was talking about was TJ, they modified it to help her catch the attention of the one boy. And sure enough, the first day of sixth grade, Spinelli caught TJ looking at her differently.
It was lucky that Spinelli had counted on the Ashleys not wanting to stop once they'd started, because they kept treating her as an honorary Ashley as sixth grade began. Even Ashley Q, who had disliked Spinelli the most, seemed to have gotten over that. But Spinelli resolved to keep out of their way as much as she could during school, and she still hung out with her guy friends. Although she didn't show it, she did notice that TJ was seeing her differently. She saw him glancing at her when he thought no one was looking. But he didn't make a move, and she was too...she hated to admit it, but she was too shy to say anything.
The Ashleys did still expect Spinelli to come to meetings in their clubhouse, which was becoming more and more boy-crazy rather than girls-only style. Most of their secret meetings were all about boys, and most times, one of them would ask Spinelli if TJ had done anything yet. After about a month of nothing going on, the four girls decided that Spinelli needed to go further. After all, she was still more boyish than most girls.
"You need to stop, like, attacking people." Ashley T ordered. "No more threatening. Just say something smart and the offender will back off. Guys don't like aggressive girls."
Ashley B surveyed Spinelli. "Girls, I think she should have a different signature colour, like us."
All the official Ashleys wore a different colour – Ashley A was pink and purple, Ashley B was yellow, Ashley Q was pastel blue, and Ashley T was green. Spinelli mostly wore red and black, but the other Ashleys hadn't really decided to choose a particular colour for her.
"Red is the obvious answer." Ashley A decided. "But what shade of red?"
Spinelli recognized their expression from when she was an Ashley. "Please don't try to get me back in that checked dress!" she begged.
"As if!" Ashley A scoffed.
"That style is, like, so over." Ashley Q added. "Besides, if you want Deitweiler to notice you, you can't be a true Ashley on the outside."
Ashley A looked at Spinelli again. "Girls, we've been going the wrong way about her clothes and hair." she said. "You're right, Ashley Q. If she wants to do this, she can't look like an Ashley. We have different standards."
"What style?" Ashley T asked. "Emo, skater, punk?"
"Goth." Ashley B said decisively. "It'll work great with her hair and colouring."
The four girls attacked Spinelli with pale foundation and dark lipstick and eyeliner. They took her shopping. After deciding she would attract TJ more in something other than a dress, they got her to buy black skinny jeans and a dark crimson T-shirt with a skull on it, along with a black velvet jacket. By the time a week had gone by of the Ashleys teaching Spinelli her new style and her finally feeling comfortable in it, it was time for her to go out and see if TJ finally made a move.
There was an elementary school disco coming up for the fifth and sixth graders, and for the first time, people asking each other to go was starting. All of the Ashleys were asked, and Spinelli was overjoyed when TJ did ask her to the disco. She knew it meant something, because although they'd gone to things in fifth grade, he'd always wanted to go with the whole gang. The fact that he only asked one girl specifically meant something.
The Ashleys smirked a bit when Spinelli thanked them for their help, since it happened.
"We taught you well!" exclaimed Ashley Q.
"It's not over yet, though." Ashley A pointed out.
"He still has to kiss you." Ashley B finished.
Just the word made Spinelli feel nervous and dizzy at the same time. That time they experimented, she'd only been nervous and full of dread. But if she wanted TJ, what choice did she really have? The Ashleys were right.
The disco was a lot of fun. For the first time, there was more actual couples dancing, and TJ and Spinelli were among them. At one point, near the end of the night, the couple spun past Ashley T and her dance partner, who raised her eyebrows and mouthed Wait for him to be about to...
Spinelli gave a tiny nod, so TJ didn't noticed, but Ashley T knew she'd understood.
At the end of the night, since TJ lived three houses down from Spinelli, he happily walked her home.
"I had a great time." Spinelli said shyly.
"Me too." TJ answered. They got to her doorstep, and that was when it happened. TJ put his hands on Spinelli's shoulders gently but firmly, and leaned in to kiss her on the lips.
And this time, it felt so much more wonderful than the experiment, because it was only them. Finally, Spinelli knew she could be the best friend of TJ and the guys and still do the same things of them.
Because no matter who Spinelli's friends were, she was still a girl. No matter who she was, she knew that she was...
Not one of the boys.
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