A/N: I know the whole plot of either Spinelli or TJ has moved away and suddenly comes back in High School thing has been done a lot. But I hope you enjoy this, I'm doing my own take on the topic. Eventually it will be Spinelli/TJ. Please read and review.
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It was the first day back to school after Christmas break and even though she knew practically all the students who went here Spinelli was terrified. She hadn't been back in this town since the summer of her 6th grade year. Her parents had divorced, her Dad had found out her Mom was cheating on him. When Bob Spinelli confronted his wife Flo about the other man she confessed and told him she was leaving, with her new boyfriend Steve Jerkewitz or Steve Jerkface as Spinelli like to call him. Spinelli had been shocked and so angry at her mom when she found out that she refused to go with her mother, as far as she was concerned she'd never forgive her Mom, how could she have done that? Her Mom had wanted her to go with her and her new boyfriend to wherever it was that they had gone to, Spinelli couldn't even hardly remember anymore; she hadn't talked to her Mom that much since it all happened, she was just too angry with her. Spinelli was often embarrassed by her parents but what child wasn't? She loved her parents and thought they had a great life together. She always thought her mom and dad where crazy about each other, even right up till they found out about Flo's secret fling she thought this, her mom was a great actor apparently. The judge had asked Spinelli who she would rather live with since at 12 years old the judge considered her old enough to be able to have a say in who she went to, Spinelli choose her Dad, still infuriated at her Mom for breaking apart their family, and afterwards right before the beginning of 7th grade her and her Dad moved. Bob said he was unable to stay in the house he had shared with his wife all those past years now knowing that she had brought another man into it while no one else was around. This caused Spinelli to spend all of her middle school years and most of high school away from all her old friends she had grown up with.
But now, she was 16 and in the 11th grade and they had moved back on account of Bob's job. Where her old house had been within walking distance of her elementary school, their new one wasn't too far from the high school. Spinelli had walked to the school that morning herself, turning down a ride from her Dad before he headed off to work, it was a rather mild morning for mid January oddly enough and Spinelli had wanted some time alone to prepare herself for what was coming that day. A lot had changed in the small little town she once knew, for one thing, it had grown by leaps and bounds since they had left by the looks of it. The town hardly looked the way she remembered it anymore, it was hard to believe how big this place was now. It was like someone had poured miracle grow on all the little suburban houses, it was now ranked as one of the fastest growing "family" towns in the state. Talk about your economic growth indeed, the high school was actually fairly new in fact; the population increase had caused the need for bigger schools to be built. The old high school had been turned into a second middle school.
Spinelli stood in front of the school, leaning against one of the two columns at the school's entrance, her earphones in somewhat listening to the rock, punk and heavy metal she had on her Ipod, but rather than really taking in the songs by Shinedown, Rise Against and Machine Head she was studying the few other students around her, trying to recognize someone, anyone, she had known in elementary school. It was bad enough that she had started a brand new school at the beginning of 7th grade but coming back to her old town mid junior year? And this was with only half a semester till she became a senior, the last year of high school? This was gonna be torture, at least in the 7th grade she got there at the beginning of the year, and she wasn't stupid, she knew that the people she had gone to elementary school with would have changed, some more than others sure, but what worried her the most was what all her old best friends had turned out like and if they'd even realize who she was. They all had tried keeping in touch to begin with sure, and for a while they weren't too bad at it but after a while the phone calls and e-mails from Vince, Mikey, Gus, Gretchen and even TJ had stopped. It wasn't due to any hard feelings, it was just simply that time and distance got the better of them all, Spinelli still remembered them all fondly and was looking forward to seeing them but she was realistic about it, and there was no telling what time had done to them all. Would they even be interested in being friends with her again?
She couldn't deny that she had changed over the years too, she still wasn't a girly-girl but probably never would be, her black hair was now long falling a few inches below her shoulders, slightly wavy and she combed it so it was parted on the left side leaving her long bangs to fall somewhat over one side of her face. She really liked the fact that she combed her hair that way now, it gave her something to kind of hide behind this morning, she had never thought about this aspect before but it was proving to be a perk this morning. It allowed her to watch everyone else without looking like she was outright staring at someone. She was still short only being about 5'2" but she had a very nice figure for someone of her height, this did get her some unwanted attention from a lot of the guys at her old school and just made the girls there jealous of her, she hadn't had too many friends there due to this fact. So, she had inherited her Dad's short comings in the height department much to her dismay, but was she was still feisty as ever and still wouldn't back down from a fight. It was one thing her older brothers had both taught her, to never back down, Vito and Joey had their own apartment now on the other side of town, Vito worked for a painting company, and Joey was a mechanic at a local garage they weren't the greatest jobs in the world but hey, a job's a job right?
Spinelli pushed her thoughts of her brothers aside as she noticed a group of girls walking up together who all looked like they had walked off a page in a shopping catalog, the Ashley's were still here, great. Apparently those 4 hadn't changed over the years any; they just got older and taller. Spinelli noticed them sneer at her when they walked by, giving her outfit a once over, obviously deciding she was beneath them. Spinelli wasn't wearing anything out of the ordinary for her, just some dark jeans, her old navy blue converse sneakers and her Killswitch Engage hoodie over a long sleeved shirt that had black sleeves and a dark green and black plaid designed front and back. Nothing special by no means but nothing that would make the Ashley's realize who she was, but that was just fine with her. She wasn't wearing any makeup, unless you count lip gloss that is, and her hair was simply hanging down like usual. She could count on one hand the number of times she had worn makeup, she had for two of her cousin's weddings several years ago, and for her Mom and Steve's wedding. She had actually had to suffer being a bridesmaid in both of her cousin's weddings and was the maid of honor for her Mom. Therefore was forced to endure manicures and pedicures for all three. She had no idea why anyone considered those things to be pampering and relaxing, it hurt! Especially when they pushed your cuticles back with that weird wooden stick they used, she looked down at her nails now, they were short and you could tell that she still had the habit of biting her nails. She didn't like makeup, besides the weddings she had actually tried it once or twice aside from the weddings, just experimenting with it. She thought maybe if she did it herself then she'd find her own style that she liked. In the end she decided it made her mornings more rushed up than they usually were anyway and it was just too much of a hassle, plus she thought she looked weird in it. Although whenever she had worn it her Dad had gotten all mushy on her saying he couldn't believe how grown up his little girl was, and that was just embarrassing.
Spinelli was lucky though, she didn't even need makeup, and she had a nice light olive toned complexion due to her Italian heritage (A/N: If I'm wrong I'm sorry but Spinelli has always sounded like an Italian surname to me.) And her skin was almost always clear, so she never had the need to buy lots of makeup anyway, which she was thankful for especially when she remembered how much some of the other girls at her old school had been picked on for acne problems, she was silently thankful she never had to endure that kind of teasing, she got teased enough for her going by her last name which was as un-girly sounding as you could get and for being a tomboy and diverting from almost all things girly enough anyway, oh yeah, and for being really short. Everyone felt the need to point out to her how short she was; she didn't need anymore ammunition for the popular crowd to use against her. No one dared to do more than tease her, because word had spread fast of how hot tempered the short girl could be and that despite her size she wasn't one to mess with, but that didn't stop them from baiting her though.
Not long after the Ashley's had walked up Spinelli checked her watch, it was 7:50am, thinking that maybe she should go ahead and go pick up her schedule before the bell rang and she was late to her first class she took off her earphones and put her Ipod back in her bag and walked inside the school. The office was to her immediate right she noticed; that terrified feeling crept back into her mind; she took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she opened the door and walked in. She glanced around, taking note of the fact that it didn't look too different from the office at her last school and wondered to herself if there was some kind of school office catalog that all the schools in the country ordered their furniture from. She walked up to the front desk and stood there, waiting. No one was there at the moment but she didn't know who to go see or where else to go, so she just lamely stood there, checking her watch again, hoping someone would come to the front desk soon. She heard footsteps and a young guy about her age walked up to the desk, looking oddly familiar. He had short dark hair and was wearing a light blue buttoned up collared shirt, khaki pants, and small framed glasses; she tried to place him in her mind as he approached her. He was the one to speak first however,
"Can I help you?"
"Um, yeah, I'm a new student, who do I see to get my schedule?"
"Oh, just go to Ms. Poole's office, she's the first door on the left in that hallway right there, she's the guidance counselor here, she handles all the schedules" he said pointing to a small hallway that led further back into the office area.
"Ok, thanks." Spinelli walked off, still trying to figure out who he reminded her of, oh well, maybe it wasn't anyone she knew, and maybe he only resembled someone she used to know. He certainly hadn't given away any signs of recognizing her, although she reminded herself, the last time she lived in this town she went around in her signature pigtails with her orange ski cap, if he was someone she once went to school with he probably wouldn't recognize her with them. She knocked softly on the door to Ms. Poole's office, through the little window she saw the young woman smile and wave to her to come in. She walked in cautiously, she had spent quite a bit of time at the guidance counselor's office at her middle school, talking with the counselor about how her parents divorce made her feel because her teachers and her Dad had worried about her constantly. They said she was too withdrawn from the other students, but she was fine, she had a few friends, she just didn't fit in well with the other kids, she hadn't when she had been at Third Street School, she just happened to have a larger group of friends there.
"Hello, and what can I do to help you this morning? You must be our new student," said Ms. Poole smiling warmly at Spinelli. She was a young woman, probably only about 28 or 29 with straight, shoulder length, honey colored brown hair and a friendly smile.
"Yeah I am, I need to pick up my schedule, my name's Ashley Spinelli."
"Ok, Ashley, let me look it up for you on the computer and I'll print out a copy for you."
"Oh, I prefer to go by my last name, only my parents call me Ashley."
"I'm sorry dear, I didn't know, so you go by Spinelli huh? Well I guess that could have it's perks, goodness knows there's so many Ashley's around anyway, is there any particular reason you go by your last name instead though? Why not your middle name? Were either of your parents in the army or something?"
"Um, my middle name is Funicello…and no neither of my parents were in the army or any branch of the military," Spinelli replied thinking to herself that although the young counselor was nice, she was a bit on the nosy side, probably tried to be every student's best friend trying to get them all to open up to her.
Ms. Poole winced noticeably, "Ohh, I'm sorry honey; I wouldn't want to go by that either. I didn't mean to pry I just never met a girl who wanted to go by their last name. But I understand, I wouldn't want to go by my middle name either, it's Collins, my mother's maiden name, it couldn't have been just Collin, which maybe I could have gone by since some girls now go by names like Alex, Jordan or Max and they're cute but nope it had to be Collins. I have the same problem as you actually, my first name; Amy is so common but I can't imagine going by Poole," she laughed. "I especially can't imagine going by Lester once my fiancé and I get married, I guess plain Amy will have to do" she said smiling as she showed Spinelli her large diamond engagement ring.
"Congratulations," Spinelli said, she had known the counselor for all of a few minutes and this woman was spilling her entire life story to her, but she knew this was the appropriate response and didn't want to seem rude.
"Oh, thank you! I'm so excited! By this time next year I'll be Mrs. Warren Lester! At least Spinelli is an interesting last name, it definitely makes you unique. Well here you go, here's your schedule. Bryan Menlo's the office assistant; he'll give you a map of the school on your way out. If you ever need someone to talk to about anything at all, honey remember my door's always open. Have a great day Spinelli!"
"Thanks, um, bye then."
She walked out of Ms. Poole's office as the woman gave her another hearty wave which she half-way returned, her feelings confirmed about the counselor. Nice, but definitely over-friendly and goes out of her way to try to be every student's best friend. So it was Menlo who was the office assistant, no wonder he had looked familiar to her, well he hadn't changed much, still doing nothing but hanging out around filing cabinets, how boring that must be she thought to herself as she once again approached Menlo.
"Hey, Ms. Poole said you had maps of the school up here…" she trailed off not sure of what else to say.
Spinelli took the map from Menlo, and glanced over it, noticing it was much bigger than her last high school, with a final thanks to Menlo she headed for the office door. Menlo just shrugged and didn't say anything back to her; he was busy gathering his books together. Her feelings were slightly hurt that he hadn't replied back to her or at least asked her name or anything. She hadn't changed that much had she? She knew she had changed somewhat but her face was basically the same just minus the younger more childlike look that had once shaped it. Oh well, it had been a long time since she'd seen anyone she used to go to school with.
No sooner than she had gotten back out in the hallway that the bell was ringing, panicked, she looked at her schedule, American History in 312 with A. McKoll, she took off down the hallway to her left and started running up the stairs. She had reached the 2nd landing when the warning bell sounded. This was not going well, she really didn't want to be late for her first class. Spinelli wasn't incredibly concerned over her academics really but she hated walking in late and having everyone stare at her. She ran down the third floor hallway, now seeing that apparently there was a set of stairs at the other end of the hallway too, she should have gone to her right, that would have put her closer to her room she realized as she hurried past 301, 302 and so on. She was almost there when someone grabbed her arm.
"You shouldn't be running in the hallway, you'd do well to check the clock more often and you wouldn't be rushing to class like this. Besides your class shouldn't be up here, the freshmen classes are all on the first floor." He was a tall, bald man who looked like he was in his early 30's, but he didn't look angry in fact he looked like he was about to laugh at Spinelli, this really frustrated her, this idiot was going to make her even later. Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she replied,
"First off, I'm a new student, its my first day here and I only just got my schedule and a map of the school, second, I don't know my way around yet; third; I'm not a freshman, I'm a junior and fourth; I wouldn't be running late if the stupid guidance counselor hadn't spent freakin' forever telling me her whole life story. And you know what else buster? I'm gonna be even later to my first class now than I was before, thanks to you."
He did laugh at her this time, making her madder, she was about to ask him what was so funny when he said,
"Ah, so you've met my fiancée Amy, huh? Yeah, she likes to talk everyone's head off. So she didn't mention that I teach here I take it?"
Spinelli's mouth almost hit the floor, o great she had gotten caught running in the hall by Ms. Poole's fiancé and she had just insulted her too. Oh boy, well she was sure to get detention now; she could have kicked herself for letting her mouth run away with her. What had she said her fiancé's name was? She said she's the future Mrs. Lesser? Larson? What was it? He noticed the expression on her face and laughed again, ok this guy is getting irritating really fast she thought. He looked down at her again and said,
"Ah don't worry about it, I know she can be a bit talkative and over friendly especially with all the kids, she hasn't been here but for a few years and really wants them all to like her. And I'm sorry I thought you were a freshman, you're shorter than most of the juniors so forgive me, my mistake. I see so many students in and out of here everyday if you don't have a class with me I have no idea who the student is usually, so my apologies once more but for this time for the fact that I was unaware that you're a new student. I'm Mr. Lester, I teach several of the English classes here. Don't worry I'm not gonna throw the book at ya for running in the halls, or for being sarcastic to a teacher on the first day." He winked as he said the last part looking once again like he was going to laugh at her.
Crap, she thought, this day is just getting better and better by the minute. She figured she better apologize soon, she knew some teachers like to pretend that they were all nice and then would just torture the student the rest of the year every chance they got.
"I'm sorr-" she started but he cut her off mid-sentence.
"Don't worry about it, I'm one of the good guys, I'm fairly sarcastic myself 90% of the time, it's nice to see a student with some spunk, other kids I've stopped in the halls or interrupted for whatever reason are usually intimidated by me for some strange reason, it's nice to have one that doesn't talk to their shoes when I address them. I'm pretty lenient with stuff usually though you don't want to make a habit of running down the halls or with being late, not all the other teachers are as lenient as I am. Who've you got for your first class?"
"Un, McKoll for American History in 312."
"Oh Al's class, it's at the very end of the hallway, it's the last door on your right. He's a pretty easy going guy too once you get to know him, he tries to scare everyone by acting all surly to begin with but he's cool, he's strict about being late though. He'll probably let you off the hook though since it's your first day. Well kid, have a good day, I didn't bruise your ego too much with that freshman comment I hope."
"Nah, it's alright I get stuff like that all the time, comes with the territory of being short. Thanks for not giving me detention."
He gave a short bark like laugh and said,
"Think nothing of it kid, I'm not here to spend my time punishing students and handing out detention slips, if I did that I'd never get any work done. Just be glad it was me who caught you and not Mrs. Shale she's the one you want watch out for, she's one of the meanest women I've ever met. The rest of the staff call her the Ice Queen when she's not around. Well, see ya kid."
With that he turned and walked into a nearby classroom, he wasn't such a bad guy Spinelli thought to herself, in some ways he kinda reminded her of her Dad, he liked to pick on the students obviously and joke around. She turned and walked down the hall and into 312.
Mr. McKoll was at the front of the class going over the syllabus when she walked in. He looked up at her entrance, a man of average height with thick salt and pepper hair and small rectangular glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He looked at her and said quickly in a tone that told her he was annoyed by her lateness,
"Sign the attendance sheet at the door please Miss and take your seat, and make sure you write late beside your name so I can mark it in the grade book. Great way to start off the semester, don't make this a usual occurrence. Six tardies and you get a failing grade in my book no matter what your test grades are or what your class performance is like."
"I'm sorry sir, it's just that, I'm a new student, this is my first day here, and I didn't know where the class was."
"You should have gotten a map of the school in the front office, did you?"
"Yes, but,-"
"No buts then, you had your schedule and your map that clearly shows where this class is, you shouldn't have had any problems. Now please, take your seat, here's a syllabus."
"Sir, I-"
"Miss, take your seat now and any questions you have you can save until the end of the class, we have a short amount of time in which to accomplish a lot on the first day now don't delay us any further. There's a free seat in the third row there between the young man in the jersey and the young man with the blond hair."
Feeling thoroughly embarrassed now, Spinelli took her seat where Mr. McKoll had indicated, and looking down at her desk she sat her bag on the floor and proceeded to stare at the syllabus he had handed her, not even looking up when he started speaking again.
"Now as I was saying before we were interrupted by our less than punctual friend, the syllabus will be up here on my desk at the beginning of every class, at exactly 8:10 I will take it up and store it away in my desk and if you walk in later than that you will not be allowed to sign it you will be counted absent. If you walk in after 8:05 please write late beside your name. I have 7 classes a day, 2 on this floor, 1 on the first floor, 3 on the second floor and 1 on the fourth floor and at least 30 students in each one. I have too much to do and too many places to go without worrying about calling out the role everyday and telling you all how many days you've missed, it's your job to keep up with that yourself."
"You're all juniors, you're old enough to be responsible for your own time management and if you think I'm being too hard on you just wait until you get to college this is exactly what the classes will be like, and you'll just sign your name everyday on the roll and if you forget or walk in late, you get counted absent. As it is one of our jobs here to prepare you for college if that is the path you choose once you leave this institution, you need to be prepared for more than just the course load that you will encounter. And for those of you who choose to go right into the workforce or even a branch of the armed forces, just try being late a few times and see what happens to you. I am trying to help you believe it or not, I know it seems unfair to many students but I am helping you in the long run by not babying you. You're all too old for that anyhow."
Wow, now she really felt embarrassed after all that, she got the fact that you shouldn't walk in to class late but come on did he have to be as mean as he had been about it? It was only the first day for crying out loud! After having been publicly called out like that Spinelli just wished she was invisible, she hoped that she hadn't ruined her whole semester for this class now, but then again Mr. Lester said he liked to act like this to the students to begin with. She sighed quietly; hopefully she hadn't made an enemy in her history teacher. Mr. McKoll she noticed had turned towards the board and was writing something on it, he spoke to them while he continued to write,
"Now while I am writing up the information for our first lesson, I would appreciate it if the person in the front desk of each row would get up and grab enough textbooks from the front of the room here for each person in your row, take one and pass the rest of the stack backwards."
Spinelli turned her attention to those getting the textbooks to pass out, they were huge and hardback; grrreat I'll be a hunchback by the end of the semester she thought. She silently prayed that the rest of her textbooks wouldn't be as big. She stole a quick glance to her left and then right, to her right was a tall, athletic African American boy with short hair, wearing a basketball jersey over a white t-shirt; he was doodling on his syllabus in a bored, idle way. That had to be Vince, she was dead sure of it. On her right was the blond boy who looked to be as tall as Vince if not several inches taller, but he was lanky, practically a bean pole. His straight blond hair hung down right below his eyes. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt that said 'Rent'. Rent…she knew what that was, wasn't that a play? Then it came to her why she recognized the musical, her Mom had drug her to see it at a theater somewhere just two summers ago during one of her forced visits with her and Steve in New York City. She forced Spinelli to go, just the two of them for a day of 'girl time fun' not that Spinelli paid much attention to it, she was always determined to have as little fun as possible when she stayed with Flo and Jerkface. Her Mother and Steve had moved to New York City not too long after the divorce and had married only a year later. After going to the play that day, her Mother had tortured her with going to some dumb spa for facials, ugh. Her step-dad actually wasn't half bad but still, it was his fault that he had broken up their family, no matter how nice he was to her, she'd never like him.
The only guy she ever knew that liked show tunes was Mikey, but this couldn't be him could it? He was so skinny, she wished she could have seen his face but he was looking down reading over his schedule, his hair falling in a way that obstructed her view of his face and she couldn't make out the small type on the schedule either from where she was. But if this was Mikey and Vince why weren't they sitting together? Why had there been an empty space between them? And when she had walked in she remembered seeing them both lean as far as they could the other way like they wanted as much space between each other as possible. Weird, she thought. She scanned the room, and spotted two of the Ashley's sitting together one was definitely Ashley Q. and the other had to be Ashley B. She noticed Menlo sitting in one of the front row seats, they had left at practically the same time and he had gotten here first.
Figures, she scoffed quietly to herself, but then again she thought, he probably knew to have taken the other set of stairs and he hadn't gotten stopped by Mr. Lester. She didn't recognize any of the other students in the room however. But this was a pretty big school, her old school had only been two stories tall, this one was four. So if going by what Mr. Lester told her, the freshmen were on the first floor, and knowing that the juniors were on the third then the sophomores and seniors had to be on the second and fourth floors. Isn't that cruel and unusual punishment in some way? The higher up you make it in high school the more stair cases they make you climb?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the boy in front of her who had sandy brown shoulder length hair pulled back in a ponytail that had turned around and was trying to get her attention. He had finally in desperation poked her free arm, the other she had propped up on the desk with her chin in her hand.
"What?" she snapped as quietly as possible, irritated that he had poked her.
"Here, your textbook, pass the others back. Daydream much?"
"Thanks," she said not even trying to mask her irritation. She turned and gave the other two books to the girl behind her. Turning around she noticed he was still looking at her.
"What are you staring at? And why'd you have to poke me?"
"I poked you because you flat out ignored me shoving this huge book in your face. If you daydream like that too much McKoll will call on you in class with the hardest questions ever. I had him for European History last year, he is a good guy but he's strict. Nice hoodie, Killswitch Engage are an amazing band. I saw 'em last summer."
"No kidding? Man, I would love to see them live sometime."
"I tell ya, it was an all out awesome show…" he trailed off talking about the concert and Spinelli found herself smiling for the first time that day, she sat there listening intently to the boy talk about all the songs that had been played and all the crazy stunts that had gone on. She felt really comfortable with him, like she had known him forever. He was wearing jeans and just a plain light blue shirt under his leather jacket.
"So what's your name? What other bands do you like? It's not everyday around here that you meet someone who likes bands like Killswitch and if they claim to it's only their radio singles like My Curse, which is a great song don't get me wrong but usually most people have never even heard their other stuff."
She was going to reply but before she could Mr. McKoll stopped her.
"Mr. Detweiler, I'm so glad to see that you've taken it upon yourself to be our one man welcoming committee to our newest class member and I'm sure you're much more entertaining to the young lady than I am which is why I must ask you to please turn back around and face the front. Or perhaps, Mr. Detweiler you'd rather talk to our new student instead of hearing how our country was founded."
Spinelli couldn't believe it, this was TJ?! God, no wonder she felt comfortable talking to him…
"Ah, come on Mr. McKoll," TJ said with a large smile on his face, "now you know there's nothing I enjoy more in this world than listening to your history lectures. I was just telling her how riveting your class always is."
Laughing Mr. McKoll replied, "I'm sure you were Mr. Detweiler, just as sure as I am that it was Benjamin Franklin who invented the cell phone." The rest of the class, TJ and Mr. McKoll all laughed at this together.
"It's good to have you back in my class again Mr. Detweiler, now if you please, let's all get back to American History, I suggest you all take good notes, this will be on our first test in only a few weeks." With that Mr. McKoll turned back to the board and started writing dates and important events on it.
TJ turned around once more and smiled at Spinelli before turning around and to her surprise actually taking notes. So did this mean that TJ was more serious about school now? Her mind was spinning with questions as she took notes not really paying attention to what she was writing, where was the rest of the gang and who had they all turned out to be?
