A/N: So, I'm not supposed to say this, in fact, mxpw wanted me to say that it's my own fault that Chapter Ten of Roads isn't posted yet. But the truth is, well, to put it nicely, it's the holidays, and mxpw is a busy guy. I mean, yeah, I did send him the chapter about a week ago, and he's still not finished editing it, so…

To make up for the delay, that is "totally my fault," I decided to write an AU for Roads. An AU of an AU…that's crazy, isn't it? Well, to put it simply, I was curious to see what would have happened to Chuck and Sarah if her mom never got shot when she was 12. So that's what this story is about—their high school years. Dun, dun, dun!

Anyway, so I hope you guys give this a chance! Let me know if you like it, and this hasn't been beta'ed, so all the mistakes are mine!

Disclaimer: But what isn't mine is Chuck. That belongs to NBC, so I hope I don't get sued!

April, 1993 (Age Twelve)

Minutes went by, and the two of them just stood there. While they were both beyond ecstatic, neither had any idea what to say or do next. Timidly, Sarah held her hand out to Chuck. As he laced his fingers around hers, Sarah felt herself blushing for the thousandth time.

"So," Sarah began, wracking her brain for something to break the silence. "Uh…there's another Terminator in the second movie?"

"What?" asked Chuck, looking at Sarah in confusion. Then a look of realization spread across his face. "Oh, yeah! Like, he's liquid metal, right? And it's super crazy! He looks small, but he's really mean! There was this part where he threw the original Terminator out of the window! I don't know how they're going to stop him, because he's indestructible!"

Sarah smiled as Chuck continued talking about the liquid metal Terminator. She found him to be really cute whenever he babbled—especially when he babbled about things that he was passionate about. She stepped as close as she could next to him, and when she could get any closer, she released his hand, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. She had once seen a couple walking into her parents' store one day, and the girl was walking around with her head resting on her boyfriend's shoulder. Sarah tried this, but since Chuck was shorter than her, she just rested her head on top of his.

When they reached Sarah's street, Chuck began to turn, only to be pulled away be Sarah.

"I have to help my mom stock golf clubs today," she told him. "I'll just walk you home, and maybe…if you want…um…you can come over for dinner tonight?"

Chuck smiled bashfully. "Okay. Do you want me to bring over The Goonies?"

"Duh!" Sarah giggled.

After she walked Chuck to his house, Sarah happily skipped (something she hadn't done in years) to her parents' sporting goods store. For the last twenty minutes, Sarah just couldn't wipe the grin off her face! She was certain that nothing could put a damper on her good mood.

She stepped up to the door of her parents' store, and beamed. "Mrs. Sarah Bartowski," she whispered to herself."I like it!"

A man that was leaving the store, holding a few large bags filled with baseball mitts, held the door open for Sarah. She quickly thanked him and ran up to the counter where her mother was.

"Hey, Sarah," said Dana with her usual smile. "Did you have a good day today?"

"It was the best!" Sarah exclaimed happily as she flung her backpack down behind the counter. "Chuck asked me to the dance!"

Four Years Later
October 12, 1997

They're relationship didn't quite work out in the way that Sarah had expected. There were no spotlights that focused on only them, as she and Chuck slow-danced to I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't really remember if they had even danced. All she remembered was that Chuck was really sweaty that night.

Something had happened after that night, and it wasn't something that Sarah was particularly proud of. Her thirteen-year-old self was just expecting too much, and when Chuck had refused to dance with her, that had seemed like the end of the world to her. Of course, she couldn't see that all the other boys weren't dancing with their dates, either. It was, after all, middle school. Who dances at middle school dances? But after that night, she, as delicately as a thirteen-year-old could do, told Chuck: "Hey, let's just be friends. We're better at that, I think."

Chuck, being the sweet kid he was, pretended to be cool with it. But now that Sarah was seventeen, and she totally knew how the world worked, she was able to see that he was only pretending.

But that was the past, and this was the now. She and Chuck were still best friends, even though Sarah was the most popular girl in school (which was saying something, since she didn't even have a car yet), and Chuck…well, he wasn't the coolest kid, but he was still cool. Sarah was also dating Bryce Larkin—star soccer forward, captain of the soccer team, and was voted most likely to become President three years in a row. He was cool, she supposed, good looking to boot. The guy hardly had any acne.

However, there was a part of her that still liked Chuck more than a friend. He may not be the coolest kid in school to all of the other kids, but damn it, he was cool in Sarah's eyes. The main concern, though, was their friendship. They got along so well, and what would happen if they did go out and it didn't work out? There goes their friendship down the toilet, and if that happened, Sarah didn't know what she would do. It was frustrating, liking Chuck so much, but being unable to do anything about it.

Think happy thoughts, she reminded herself as she stood outside Chuck's house, like she always did, so that they could go to school. Just be glad that you still have him as a friend.

Chuck walked out of his house, like he always did, with a Pop-Tart hanging out of his mouth, and swinging his backpack over his shoulders. He had grown quite a bit over the summer. It was almost scary how he seemed to grow overnight. Sarah used to be taller than him for nearly their entire lives, but now, Chuck was towering over her.

He walked up to Sarah and handed her his second Pop-Tart, like he always did, and they began to walk down his street.

"Thanks," she said, breaking off a piece of the pastry. "Did we have homework in English?"

Chuck shook his head, holding up a finger, as he still chewed his breakfast. "Sort of. We just had to finish chapter nine of Gatsby."

"Oops, totally forgot about that."

"Me too," he said with a shrug. "That probably means we'll have a pop-quiz today."

Sarah chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Yep. Probably. Hardcore reading session in the library during lunch?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied. "Oh! I have something for you." Chuck began to dig in his pocket. "Since you're always borrowing my CDs for like years at a time, I made you a mixtape of the songs you said you liked."

Sarah pumped her fist happily as Chuck handed her a cassette tape. "Yes! Chuck, I'm being totally serious here. You make, like, the phattest mixes ever!"

"What can I say?" asked Chuck modestly. "Let me know if you like it, though, I made another one for Jill."

Ugh…Jill freaking Roberts…

Sarah tried hard to mask the look of disgust on her face, but did a poor job. She couldn't help it! She hated Jill Roberts, and her, "Oh, my name's Jill, and I'm smart, and Chuck loves me because I love videogames!" What a smug bitch.

"You made her the same tape that you made me?" asked Sarah, noticing that her voice was icier than she had intended. She cleared her throat. "That's ghetto, Chuck."

"How is it ghetto?"

"Dude, if you really like a girl, then you can't give her the same mix you made for another girl." Why the hell was she telling him this? This ruined any chance of her blasting the same mixtape that Chuck had made her in the same vicinity where Jill was. Damn it!

"Why not?"

Sarah sighed. "You'd think that you would know what girls like and don't like seeing as you have an older sister." She rolled her eyes. "Ellie picked the wrong time to go to college," she added in an undertone. "Anyway, just give Jill the tape. See what happens."

Chuck frowned. "I still don't get why it's wrong to give—"

"It's wrong because girls like to have things that other girls don't!" she cried in frustration. Chuck was a sweet guy, but sometimes…

"I should write this down," said Chuck jokingly, grabbing a pen from his pocket. "Tell me more, oh great Sarah!"

Sarah laughed, and gave Chuck noogie. "Such a nerd…"

When she released him, he shook his head, and attempted to fix his shaggy hair.

First Period—Chemistry

As always, Carina Hansen plopped down beside Chuck with an overly dramatic sigh and an overly gestured hair toss. She rested her elbow on the table, and held out her hand, purposely avoiding looking at him as though he had a disease. He reached into his bag and pulled out an additional copy of the lab report that he wrote for her.

"Here you go," he said, handing her the paper.

She didn't thank him as she snatched the report from his hand. When Chuck had told Sarah that he was forced to be lab partners with Carina Hansen on the first day of their senior year, Sarah suggested that he sabotage Carina. He knew how Sarah disliked—okay, so hate was a better word—Carina with a passion.

When he asked her why, Sarah's answer was, "She's a freaking hoochie! Didn't you hear that she gave all the guys on the football team head?"

He never heard that before then, but that very same day, that rumor had spread across the school like wildfire. Since the only other friend that Chuck had besides Sarah was Morgan, and he had never told Morgan what he heard, he assumed that it was Sarah that had spread that rumor. But in Sarah's defense, Carina had started a rumor about her having herpes, so…

They were rivals, Sarah and Carina. Chuck knew enough about girls to know that they were quite competitive. And seeing as Sarah and Carina were the prettiest girls in school, and the best female athletes to boot, it didn't surprise Chuck that the two girls hated each other. But whenever he went to Sarah's soccer games, she and Carina had worked awesomely together.

Chuck winced when he felt something cold and wet hitting the back of his neck. He rolled his eyes as he wiped the saliva off the back of his neck from Bryce Larkin's spit-wad. Bryce and the other jocks laughed, and Chuck could hear them slapping their hands together behind him. He would never say that he hated anyone, but Bryce came close. Not only was Bryce a jerk to him, but he was also dating Sarah, who Chuck happened to be in love with.

And Sarah, who was not only the most popular girl at school, but was also the most feared by guys and girls (save for Carina) alike, had always told Chuck, "If any of these scrubs gives you any shit, you tell me and I'll take care of them." But how could he tattle on Bryce when he was Sarah's boyfriend? Also, Chuck needed to stand up for himself.

He turned his body to face the stupidly good-looking Bryce and his stupider friends.

"What are you looking at, Fart-Knocker?" asked Bryce.

Chuck sighed. He still had another eight months before graduation. He'd stand up to Bryce before then. But for now, he couldn't come up with a clever retort for "Fart-Knocker," so he shrugged and turned around, trying to ignore the guffaws issuing from the jocks behind him.

Lunch Break

Sarah stood in the lunch line where they served Domino's Pizza beside Bryce. All she needed to do was grab a few slices of 'za, and go up to the library to meet Chuck.

"Babe," said Bryce, squeezing her hand. "Kowalski is throwing a kegger after homecoming. You down?"

"For sure," she replied.

"It's going to be off the hook! We're gonna get so wasted!"

Bryce stretched his face over to her and began to kiss her. There was such a thing as too much tongue, thought Sarah as she reluctantly kissed him back. Suddenly, someone bumped into her—hard. Her nose smashed into Bryce's cheek, and his nose smashed into her cheek. It freaking hurt! She took a step back and turned around. Before she even saw who had bumped into her, she cried, "Watch where you're going, you—" It was Carina. "Oh, I thought I smelled hooker."

"Gross!" Carina cried, stepping away from Sarah. "You touched me! I better not have herpes!"

Sarah grimaced. "Quit breathing on me—you might give me AIDS!"

Carina glanced over at Bryce. "Once you're done with Walker, make sure you go to the clinic. I heard this one's been around the block."

With that, Carina slithered away, while Bryce laughed. Sarah glared at him. First of all, to clear the record, she didn't have herpes. The furthest she ever got with a guy was third base, thank you very much.

She socked Bryce on the shoulder. "Way to stand up for your girlfriend, dick."

"Dude!" Bryce protested, still laughing, while rubbing his shoulder. "C'mon, that was some funny shit!"

"Ugh…whatever." Sarah released her hand from Bryce's and stepped out of the line. Bryce may have been hot, but man, even Sarah had to admit that he was a tool. She constantly wondered why she was with him, but the answer was simple. He was the most popular guy in school, and, besides Chuck, every guy in the school was a tool as well, and since she couldn't be with Chuck, she might as well just date Bryce until she goes off to college.

High school was a constant war zone, she knew. If you were lucky enough to be popular, then you had to do what it took to stay that way. She was already treading on some dangerous waters by being friends with Chuck. It made her wish that others would give the poor guy a chance and get to know him. Yes, he was nerdy, but he was also a really sweet guy. She decided to invite Chuck to the kegger. It was their senior year, and although she should have done it sooner, it was time for the school to see how great Chuck really was.

And as though the world had been reading her thoughts, from the corner of her eye, she saw Chuck waiting by the cafeteria entrance. Sarah waved at him and turned to Bryce. "I'm going to go up to the library with Chuck."

He looked at her in dismay. "Honestly, babe, I don't know how you can hang out with that kid. He's such a loser, don't you think?"

A surge of annoyance rushed through her. She glared at her boyfriend. "He's a really great guy," she said as patiently as she could. "And he's not a loser!"

"He totally is a loser!" Bryce protested. "Seriously…he brings those…" he trailed off a bit. "Those stupid wizard books to school. How is he not a loser?"

She huffed out a breath. "I'm going to invite Chuck to Kowalski's kegger." Bryce opened his mouth to protest, but Sarah went on. "Just give him a chance. I know you'll like him."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Have fun hanging out with the geek."

He prefers nerd, she thought as Bryce leaned over to give her another kiss.

Library

The Great Gatsby was a terrible book. Chuck got why it was important, being pretty much the first soap opera, but man, it was so boring! He glanced over at Sarah, who was sitting beside him on the floor, and he saw that her eyes weren't moving while she stared at the book. In fact, she looked upset.

"What part are you on?" he asked.

Sarah looked up. "I don't know. I can't remember anything. This book sucks."

"I concur." He let out a yawn and stretched. "At least all of Lippencott's quizzes are multiple choice, and he usually goes by the same pattern."

"C, B, D, A, B, C?" guessed Sarah.

"Yep."

They laughed.

"So what's up?" he asked.

"Uh…nothing? Why?"

He frowned. "You look sort of pissed. What happened?"

"Oh, uh…Carina bumped into me earlier, and I have this urge to go home and take a bath in rubbing alcohol," she replied, chuckling. "God, I hate her."

"Hm," Chuck responded.

Suddenly, Sarah peaked up. "Speaking of, did you botch her lab report like I asked you to?"

"Dude, that's so mean," he said. "I mean, I don't like Carina very much either, but—"

"Well, she should learn to do her own damn homework!"

"Good point, but—"

"Or at least pay you, or blow—"

"Whoa!" Chuck shook his head. "C'mon, now! You just said that she was dirty."

"Figure of speech, Chuckles." Sarah ruffled his hair. She seemed to like doing that. "If she touches you, then I think I would lose all my respect for you, and keep in mind, you still playing D&D is losing you a lot of cool points, so you're pretty much hanging by a thread."

"You're just mad because Morgan won't let you play anymore after you threw his dice across the room, and we couldn't find it!"

"Well, that's what you guys get for cheating."

Chuck groaned. No matter how many times he's told Sarah that it was nearly impossible to cheat at Dungeons and Dragons, she kept insisting that that's what they were doing. She was always so damn competitive. "We weren't cheating!"

"If you say so." Sarah slammed her book shut as the lunch bell rang. Chuck began to pack his book back into his bag while Sarah stood and dusted herself off. "So I have soccer practice after school, but I'll see you at dinner, yeah?"

"Depends on what your mom's making," said Chuck with a grin. Ever since his mother had left a couple of years ago, and now that Ellie was going to school at Berkley, Chuck had been going over to the Walker's for dinner nearly every night of the week.

"I think Mom's going to order Chinese tonight," she said. "So sesame chicken and crab rangoons, right?"

"Oh, if you're going to order in, then I'll just eat something at home. Or at the least, I'll pay—"

Sarah flicked him on his nose and laughed. "Chill out, Chuck! You know my parents don't care. It's cheap Chinese food. " As Chuck stood, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they left the library. He felt a tingle running down his spine. God, she smelled good. "You better be there tonight at six, or I'll kick your ass."

While he knew that Sarah would never actually kick his ass, she still scared him at times. So Chuck, being the brave kid that he was, nodded. "I'll be there at 5:50, then."

"Good." Sarah grinned as she bumped her hip into his, and they made their way to their next class.

After School

It wasn't too unusual for him to stay after school in the library to work on his homework. His father was always home, but he was always working in his office, so he knew that his homework wouldn't get done, knowing that his Nintendo 64 was waiting for him, and with no one to give him a push to finish his assignments. So he did all of his homework in the library. He usually spent this time alone, but today, Jill Roberts, a girl that Chuck sort of liked, was with him.

She had told him that she needed help with her calculus homework, but he knew that she wasn't being entirely truthful. She was probably the best student, next to him, in that class. But Chuck didn't mind her company.

They discussed derivatives, limits, identities, and such for the past hour. When they finished the last problem of their assignment, Chuck put his pencil down.

"So yeah, that wasn't too bad, right?" he asked.

"Not bad at all," she replied with a smile. "Oh, guess what? I just got Zelda the other day, and oh my God, I can't stop playing it!"

"Oh, I know!" Chuck agreed. "Why do you think I'm here? If I was at home, then I'd never get my homework done!"

"You got it too?"

Chuck rolled his eyes. "Duh! And Goldeneye? So freaking good!"

One of the things that Chuck liked about Jill was that she was probably the third girl in his life that he could actually hold a conversation with. She was also the only girl in his life that played videogames, so that brought her up a few notches in his opinion. Sometimes, Chuck would compare her to Sarah. While he and Jill had a lot of things in common, like videogames, Magic, and D&D, he still found Sarah to be more fun to be around.

But he knew that Sarah didn't like him in the way he liked her. She was the coolest girl at school, for the love of God! Even if she broke up with Bryce, there was a huge line of guys that would love to go out with her. And in that line of potential boyfriends, Chuck probably stood near the end, next to Gordon, the obese kid who got in trouble for stealing food from the cafeteria.

Chuck had been single all throughout high school. It was shameful to admit, but he had never even kissed a girl before! How sad was that, he thought.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. Jill seemed interested in him. He knew that she didn't have a boyfriend, either, and homecoming was coming up.

Jill continued to talk about videogames. When she had concluded that Final Fantasy VII was the best game ever made, Chuck made his move. This was his chance to be bold! "Homecoming go with me?"

Damn it! How did he botch that?

Jill stared at him with a puzzled expression. "Excuse me?"

Trying hard not to stab himself in the thigh with his pencil so he could have blamed his slip-up on lead poisoning, Chuck cleared his throat. "Do you want to go to homecoming with me?"

Jill's face turned a deep shade of red as she bit down on her lower lip. "Oh, gosh, really?"

"Uh…yes?"

"Yes, I'll go to homecoming with you!" she exclaimed loudly.

"Really?" he asked, feeling shocked. He really didn't know why he was shocked. After all, he did ask her to go with him, and he knew that there was an eighty-seven percent chance that she would say yes.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, cool..." he trailed off. Should he give her a hug or something? "So—"

"Are you doing anything after this?" she asked excitedly. "I was thinking that we could play Goldeneye at my house."

"Ooh, I actually already have plans," he said, with an apologetic look. "Sarah wants me to go to her house for dinner."

The look on Jill's face had caused the room to drop down in temperature. Or that was how he felt, anyway. "Sarah, as in, Sarah Walker?"

Why were girls so scary? Jill's glare was quite vicious, and Chuck feared that she might turn into a Rancor and eat him. "Yeah, she's my friend," he squeaked.

Jill rolled her eyes. "I don't get how you could be friends with her."

"What are you talking about?" Chuck actually laughed. "Sarah's a really cool girl, and—"

"Then why didn't you ask her to homecoming, then?" snapped Jill.

He was about to tell her that Sarah already had a boyfriend, but stopped when he realized that that was a terrible way to respond. "Uh…because we're just friends," he went with. It was the truth. That was all they ever would be.

Soccer Field

Sarah pulled off her shin guards and shoved them into her duffle-bag. After pulling out her normal shoes, she began to untie her cleats when Chuck walked up to her.

She grinned up at him. "I thought you'd be home by now."

"Lots of homework for Calc," he replied with a shrug. "How was practice?"

"Well, aside from me wanting to kick the ball at Carina's face, it was fine," she replied. "So I was thinking, we haven't watched The Goonies since last winter. I don't have too much homework tonight, so maybe we could—"

"Yeah…about tonight," said Chuck, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. "I can't make it."

"Why the hell not?" Sarah frowned. Chuck never missed out on dinner with her and her parents.

"I, uh…asked Jill to go to homecoming with me, and she said yes."

Something pinched inside her chest. "Okay, well, what does that have to do with you not being able to make it for dinner?"

Chuck blew out a breath of air. "She invited me over to her house for dinner, so…yeah…"

"Dude, Chuck!" protested Sarah. "Chinese food! The Goonies! And there's a new Real World on too! You love making fun of those guys with me!"

"Yeah, I do, but I really like Jill." He didn't look at her as he said that. "Maybe Bryce can take my spot?"

Everything Chuck had said must have killed something inside of her, because she was in pain. Sarah opened her mouth to tell Chuck to tell Jill to screw off, because she had known Chuck longer than Jill had, and she's more important than that eggheady, brunette nerd. But she decided against it. Who was she to tell Chuck those things when she was dating someone else? And Chuck had told her that he liked Jill, so why should she keep him away from being happy?

She gazed past Chuck and saw Jill standing at the end of the field, staring at them. Turning her attention back to Chuck, Sarah forced a smile. "Yeah, I guess Bryce can take your spot. But only for tonight! You better make it to dinner tomorrow."

Chuck grinned. "All right. I'll see you tomorrow morning, then?"

"You bet."

"Okay, well, later!"

"Have fun, Chuckles," she said, still forcing herself to smile. Sarah watched him as he walked away towards Jill and her smile faded. "Bitch better not hurt him," she muttered to herself.

Little did she know, however, that behind her, a certain redhead had been watching the events that had just unfolded.

A/N: I hope you liked!