A/N: Okay, so I've had this idea for a Freechamp fanfic for a while but never really done anything with it. It's probably really bad, but here goes.

AU where Connie is your stereotypical high school nerd (dorky glasses, bad asthma etc) and is bullied by the other kids at school. Rita is the new kid and quickly swoops in to save the day.

"Oi! Beauchamp!"

Connie took a deep breath, bracing herself for the impending verbal abuse.

Guy Self strutted over with his little gang of cronies, consiting of Caleb Knight, Dylan Keogh, Lily Chau and Ethan Hardy (who, admitidly, was only there because his older brother had bullied him into it).

"Nice glasses! Are they new Con?" crowed Guy, knowing full well that they were, seeing as he was the one that had broken her old ones.

Connie shrugged, avoiding making eye contact with the smug boy for fear of antagonizing him further. She twitched her nose, moving her glasses into a more comfortable position. The gang moved around Connie in a circle blocking her path. The brunette swallowed nervously, shifting her bag strap further up her shoulder.

"Can I get past please?" she muttered, shuffling her feet, not taking her eyes off her shoes.

Guy squared up to the trembling figure.

"Make me."

A chorus of cat-calls echoed round the circle of teens, and a call of "Come on Beauchamp, show us what you're made of!" from Cal. Connie stood there not meeting anyones piercing gaze. Guy shoved her, but she still refused to meet his gaze.

Come on Beauchamp, bring it on!"

Connie began to tremble more, dreading what was coming, but nothing could have prepared her for what came next.

"God you are such a WIMP!" Something seemed to snap inside Guy and he launched a hard punch in her stomach. All the air in Connies lungs wooshed out with an and crumpled to the ground, gasping for breath.

"God why don't you hit back?"

Guy kicked her hard in the stomach, knocking what little air Connie had managed to regain out of her cheast. Connie yelped in pain and scrambled for her bag, but Cal show her desperate grasping and yanked the bag from her, tossing it to Lily.

"Hot potato Lil!"

Lily caught the bag laughing cruelly, and promptly tossed it to Dylan. He sneered at the gasping brunette.

"Look at her. She looks like a fish-out-of-water! Pathetic!"

"P-please..." Connie gasped, "My... inhaler. I-I..."

Guy cackled harshly, "What? You're asthmatic as well as dorky? You're really pathetic, you know that?"

Connie struggled for air, massaging her chest in an attempt to increase her air intake. Shed read somewhere in one of her beloved cardiotharacic books, that in the absence of Salbutamol that a chest massage my help relieve the symptoms of an asthma attack, though it seemed she didn't quite have the hang of it, and her rising anxiety certainly wasn't helping. She glanced up at Guy for the first time, her breath coming in short gasps. His eyes were filled with a malice that Connie had never seen before.

Guy swung his fist down towards Connie's head again. She let out an involuntary scream of terror as she cowered away from the bully.

"Oi!" yelled a loud voice, "Get away from her!"

Connie tried to spot where the voice was coming from, but couldn't see due to the tall figures of Cal and Guy in front of her.

"What do you want titch?"

Connie caught a glimpse of blonde hair, as the same voice that had yelled piped up,

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What's it to you?"

"I don,t like seeing innocent kids being beat up by the likes of you!"

The young female voice didn't falter as she spoke to Guy. Connie continued to try and regulate her breathing, awe inspired by this powerful voice that seemed to fill her with confidence. She'd never heard anyone talk to Guy Self like that. Who was this mysterious girl?

"Is that her bag?"

"So what if it is?" Cal grunted. Connie strained her neck in an attempt to see her rescuer, her breathing still labored. She was beginning to feel woozy. She needed her inhaler badly.

"I'll ask you this only once. Will you give her the bag back?"

"And WHY would I do that exactly, you cocky little bitch?"

"I told you I'd only ask you once."

Connie caught sight of a small fist making contact with Guy's nose. Her mouth made an 'O' shape as she watched him reel back, blood spurting from his nose.

"Come on, drop the bag, lets get out of here. She's a nutter!"

The gaggle of bullies, and Ethan, scuttled off, helping their gang leader up.

"You'll pay for this Titch!" Guy screamed in fury, blood trickling down his face. He was beyond angry about being beaten up by a girl.

Connie looked up again, at last getting a good look at her savior. The girl looked the same age as Connie, and had short cropped blonde hair with dark roots. Her eyes were a dazzling shade of brown and she had a warming smile that seemed to calm Connie instantly.

"You alright?" she asked. The asthmatic teen looked at the blonde in awe. "I'm Rita by the way."

"I've never seen you- around here- before." Connie stammered, still fighting hard to catch her breath.

"It's my first day." Rita grinned widely, "Great first impression ay?"

Connie nodded at her meekly. "I... need my... inhaler please."

"Oh! Right! That'll be why you're all gaspy then?"

Connie blushed a bright shade of pink, and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Where is it?"

"My bag... front pocket."

The small blonde nodded firmly and began to rummage round the front of her bag. Her petit hand grasped the small blue inhaler.

"Aha! Got it!" she cheered, causing Connie to giggle slightly. Rita passed her the inhaler and Connie took it gratefully. After taking a few puffs of her inhaler, Connie finally managed to regain her breath.

"Thanks." she smiled, looking deep into the large brown eyes of her knight in shining armour. Something about her made Connie's heart skip.

"Here let me help you up." Rita extended her hand and the brunette daintily slipped her hand into hers, as Rita gently pulled her to her feet. The pair stared intently at each other and smiled softly.

"I'm gonna get into so much trouble for hitting that kid you know that?" Rita said laughing softly.

"Hey, I never asked you to hit Guy Self!" Connie arched her eyebrow slipping her inhaler back into the front off her retrieved school bag.

"Wait, he's called Guy? And he's the one picking on you?" The blonde began to laugh uncontrollably, a laugh that sounded about four times too big for her. It made Connie feel almost... fuzzy.

"Come on, we'd better get going. Don't want to be late as well as in trouble for beating up that pompous twit." It was Connie's turn to laugh uncontrollably, something she did very rarely.

Rita grinned widely. "That's a cute laugh, though I'm probably right in saying that I'm one of the few people that's actually heard it aren't I?"

Connie flushed beetroot red and nodded slightly. No-one had ever been this friendly with her. It was new, and she liked it. It was at this point she noticed that they were still holding hands. Rita noticed too and this time it was her that blushed, the tips of her ears as well as her cheeks where a rosy shade of pink. The two pulled apart gently, and an awkward silence fell over the pair like a curtain of mist. They continued to walk up the drive in silence, until Rita finally spoke up.

"I've just realised something."

"What?"

"I've saved you from those morons, yet I don't even know your name."

"Oh. I'm sorry, it completely slipped my mind. My names Constance, but I prefer Connie."

"Connie, huh... that's a nice name. What form are you in?"

"11EH. You?"

"Same! Wow, its like I was destined to save you!"

Rita blushed furiously. God, she sounded like such a dork! Destined to save her? Where the hell did that come from?

"Haha, yeah it must have been." Connie giggled softly. "You're my tiny blonde knight in shining armour."

"Oi! Who are you calling tiny?" Rita retorted giving Connie a small, friendly shove, as Connie laughed loudly at the look of outrage on her new found friends face. The two females strolled leisurely up the hill towards the Form block, getting to know each other properly. Connie smiled softly at the blonde.

"I've never had a friend before." she confessed quietly.

"What makes you think I'm your friend?" Rita asked laughing slightly.

"Haha very funny. I'm serious though. I've never met anyone like you before."

"Me neither."

The two stopped walking, and turned to face each other, a blush tinging both of their cheeks.

Connie coughed softly breaking the trance that they'd both fallen under.

"We should probably go to form now."

"Oh, um, yeah."

Rita looked at the brunette once more her heart softening. Before she knew what she was doing, she lent in and planted a soft kiss on Connie's lips. Connie stood there confused and caught completely off guard. Rita pulled away.

"Sorry... I don't know why I did tha-"

Rita was cut off mid sentence as her damsel in distress returned the favor. She paused briefly before returning the kiss again, as her heart skipped in her chest.

Connie broke off and smiled nervously at the blonde.

"Okay, seriously, we NEED to go form now!"

Rita nodded slowly, speechless. The two re-linked hands shyly and entered the Form Block, Connie no longer worried about Guy Self and his gang. Why should she be?

She had her tiny blonde knight in shining armour.

A/N: Special word of thanks to M-is-for-MollyMansfieldMealing and Tanith Panic (or rather their Tumblr alter egos anyway) for all the amazing love and support. This will be continued at some point when I'm not revising for my GCSE's. Great.