Hello guys, this is my first Recess fanfiction ever so please be gentle with the reviews. Even though I'm always open for criticism. It would be stupid to say that this Fic will be any different from all the other TJxSpin Fic's out there. I'll just try to do my best and throw in some humour maybe and well make it interesting to read. English is not my first language so my English is probably not 100% perfect. Hope you can still understand what I'm trying to tell you ;-)
Just have fun reading and maybe leave a small review so I know if you liked it or not :-)

I remember, when I was younger (and by younger I mean middle school times), me and my friends would always fantasize what it would be like finally going to High School. We would sit at the lake, skimming stones and keep exchanging our fantasies about being a High School student.

Of course our stories were full of having a lot of free periods, spending lunch together and on the weekends having the best parties of our lives, just getting drunk and not giving a care in the world about anything.

Yeah, scrape that.

When it was finally time for me and my friends to enter High School it was nothing like we expected. In the beginning there weren't any parties at all, since the older kids who where throwing them, didn't want to have some lame freshmen roaming at their parties.

The teachers were much less understanding, when it came to prolong a deadline for an essay and homework was no longer something that could be done 5 minutes before the lesson started. That's what our free periods had to be used for. The stress was really heavy on me and my friends in the first few months of High School.

But since I don't want to scare anyone away from going to High School I have to admit that throughout the first year a lot of things changed for the better. I got used to the stress and the teachers were, in fact, really trying to help me being able to get good grades. Or in my case grades that were at least acceptable. I had never been one to get straight A's in all their classes and as a matter of fact, I never wanted to be one of those brainiacs anyway.
I started kickboxing as an extracurricular activity and it really helped me with my… well, let's call it 'anger issue'.
It wasn't like I ran around just hitting someone in the face because I felt like doing it or that I started to put up a fight whenever I was in the mood for it… but in elementary and middle school I was known for my tomboyish characteristics and also violent outbursts when someone was really provoking me. I never seriously hurt anyone though. Well, I guess.

But the one thing, that really helped me cope with all the stress and changes were my friends. The six of us had been friends ever since kindergarten and even though we started to have different hobbies and interests, we never lost touch throughout freshmen year. We all definitely went through some changes and some of them were long overdue.

As I already mentioned, I had always been one of these girls that preferred kickball over having tea-parties with stuffed animals. 5 out of my 6 best friends were boys and I never even thought for a second about putting on make-up or wearing skirts and high heels.

Well, I'm still not one of these barbie-like girls who only care about their appearance but I was now thinking twice about what I was going to wear for school and I didn't mind applying a little make-up when I was going out. Still, I kept my feisty attitude and I wouldn't give it up for anything. In the end, High School was nevertheless like some kind of jungle in which it was either eat or be eaten. And everyone had their own trick to make sure they were not being 'eaten' by the popular people.

I only realised that I must have been lost in my thoughts, when someone slapped my back really hard and I could hear a familiar laugh in my ears. Turning around my eyes fell on the brown-haired boy the unmistakable laugh belonged to. TJ Detweiler, my best friend ever since kindergarten was examining me with an amused look on his face.
"What'cha thinking about, Spin?", he asked, now turning to the locker in front of him, but still never breaking visual contact with me.
"Nothing, just random stuff.", I answered, also starting to work on my locker combination in order to get out my books and notes.
"So, are you excited for sophomore year?", TJ asked, when he was finally done getting his school stuff out of the locker. It wasn't really easy for him, since he was not the tidiest person alive and that's why his locker was full of random papers and also some clothes. He just shoved everything back in and slammed the door shut, now looking at me again.

I shrugged, unsure how to answer his question. It wasn't like sophomore year was going to be any different, right?
"Well, I know for a fact that I am. This year is gonna be legen- wait for it - …", he made a supposedly dramatic pause before continuing his sentence. "…dary. This year will be legendary. More parties, more football and maybe one or two dates with our beloved head-cheerleader."
I rolled my eyes, not just because of the stupid catch phrase he had stolen from his favourite TV show but also because of the comment about dating the head-cheerleader. It was Ashley A and TJ knew very well what I thought of her. Just in that moment she and her fellow cheerleading friends came around the corner, passing by me and TJ, getting the attention of every single guy in the hallway. Their short skirts were definitely one of the reasons every guy was staring at them at every chance possible. I didn't get why they had to run around in those uniforms all day long. But it was probably because they couldn't live without getting the attention.

When I looked back at TJ I saw that he was also following Ashley A with his looks and I couldn't help but smack him against the shoulder. With raised eyebrows I gave him a very clear look that I didn't understand what he saw in her. She was nothing but a bitch.
This time it was TJ's turn to shrug, but I couldn't help noticing the little smirk he had on his lips, in his thoughts he was probably already planning out his date with Ashley A, which would most likely end up with the two of them sharing TJ's bed for the night. I shuddered at the thought and tried to concentrate on something else, but lately it had been getting really tough not to get annoyed by thinking about TJ hooking up with Ashley A or any other girl in general. Of course I knew why I was feeling that way and why every time he looked at me I was feeling a more or less pleasant tingling in my stomach. I wasn't stupid; I knew what being in love felt like. At least I knew how people in those boring romantic movies described it and it must feel very close to what I was starting to feel for my best friend.

It's not like I didn't see it coming. I mean, ever since that stupid experiment in 4th grade, when our friends forced me and TJ to kiss in order to find out if we would enjoy it or not, our friendship has grown stronger than our friendship with the others. Maybe also because we lived only a few houses away from each other and basically saw each other every day, also after school.
But even though I realized a while ago that I might be developing different feelings towards TJ, I would never tell him or anyone else for that matter, because I was too afraid of blowing up our friendship. It was clear as day that TJ was totally into girls like Ashley A and was only having feelings of friendship towards me. And it's ok, I guess. It's better to be his best friend than to lose him because he doesn't return my feelings.

Again I didn't realize that I was lost in my thoughts and this time also staring at TJ in a probably really weird way, until he started to wave his hands right in front of my face.
"Is anyone home? Spinelli, you sure you're ok? You seem totally out of it today.", he said, this time he didn't seem amused, but rather actually worried if I was ok.

"Yeah sorry, I just… didn't sleep very well last night.", I lied, not wanting to ask him anymore questions about what I had been thinking about. But before he could've gone any deeper into the topic, we were interrupted by the ringing of a bell, telling us that we have to get to class.
"See you later.", I mumbled, walking straight to class without looking back or waiting for TJ so we could go together.

My first period was chemistry, ugh, and I was glad to see Gretchen already sitting in the lab obviously waiting for me.

Gretchen hadn't changed much when it came to her brain. She was still smart as ever, sometimes even way smarter than the teachers (which were really annoyed by it, but Gretchen couldn't help but correct them when she realized they made a mistake). I was really glad for still having her as a friend, because she had to save my ass more than once in terms of homework and projects.

But Gretchens outer appearance had definitely changed. In middle school she had gotten braces, which had tamed her huge front teeth which are now sitting perfectly in line with all the others. She had gained some weight, but in all the right places. She was still way taller than me, but not so scrawny anymore. Her long brown hair was usually up in a pony tail and she traded her glasses for contacts. She wore skinny jeans combined with a cute blouse and on her feet were normally flats, since pumps or high heels would make her look way too tall.

I sat down on the chair next to her and put my bag up on the desk in front of me, while the other students were slowly filing into the lab.

"Hey Spin, you ready to take on sophomore year?", Gretchen asked, smiling at me brightly.

Why was everyone acting like sophomore year was such a great change from freshmen year?

"Well, it's not gonna be any different from freshmen year so I guess I'm ready.", I answered, but with a much more muffled voice since our teacher had started to talk and greet the class.

"But there's gonna be a lot more parties, since we're no longer the youngest I'm sure we will be invited to some senior parties.", Gretchen said, while eagerly writing down everything important the teacher was saying.

I hadn't given that a thought until now. Of course there were a few parties last year, but they were usually thrown by other freshmen or sometimes sophomores which were nice enough to invite us. This year we might actually have a chance to get into a real High School party. Not that I cared much about it, but it would probably be fun.

At the end of the period Gretchen had written down almost to full pieces of paper while the only thing I had done was playing a game on my phone, which I was hiding behind my bag. My teacher probably noticed but I guess he knew that I was a hopeless case anyway when it came to chemistry.

When it was finally lunch time, I felt like I never had a summer break but had been going to school for weeks already. I was getting really tired and I couldn't wait to finally come home to lie in my bed and sleep until the next morning.
The cafeteria was already crowded with people when Gretchen and I came in. My eyes searched for a very certain table, but Gretchen seemed to have found it before me because she was tugging on my leather jacket and pointing with her hand in the exact different direction than I was looking at.

"There they are.", she added needlessly and we made our way over to the table where our friends had already seated themselves.
Seeing them from afar really made me want to chuckle. We had to look so weird, all of us sitting together. We were so different from one another and yet we were so close. Usually there was this arrangement in the cafeteria. Every group of friend had their own table but normally these groups of friends were much more alike than we were.
For example the cheerleaders were always sitting at their own table, sharing the latest school gossip. The jocks were usually close by and I sometimes wondered why they didn't bother Vince and TJ not sitting with them, since they were also on the football team.

Vince actually had a great shot at becoming team captain, but usually the team captain was a junior or senior so he would have to wait till next year. He and TJ had joined the team in the beginning of freshmen year and it really helped them gaining some popularity around here. I didn't know anyone who didn't like them and they didn't even try, you know? People just liked them for being them.

Next to Vince was Gus who had really grown since elementary school. And with really, I mean really. He was about 6'3 now and he had gained some muscles after spending nearly ever summer break in a military camp. But he was still the same old Gus, who would cross oceans to keep his friends save. He was also dating Cornchip-Girl since last year, the girl who would always eat corn chips in elementary school. We obviously called her by her real name now – Theresa. She was also sitting at our table, but it was the first time, since she was a year younger and had only today started to go to High School as a freshmen.

The only person still being taller than Gus was Mikey. He had, in fact, lost some weight but was far from having the perfect body. But I couldn't imagine him looking any different. He continued singing when we came to middle school and in High School he went into drama club and had ever since been one of the lead roles in every school play. He wasn't one of the most popular kids in school and sometimes some of the 'cool kids' would pick on him, but he learned how to ignore them and was happy with who he was.

Gretchen sat down next to Theresa and after TJ had noticed me, he pushed Vince a little bit further to the left to make sure I could sit next to him. I couldn't help but smile at the gesture and didn't hesitate to sit next to him. After I sat down that smile must've transformed into a more lovey-dovey smile, which I was giving TJ, because I could suddenly feel Gretchen staring at me with raised eyebrows and a knowing grin lying on her lips. I shook my head furiously, trying to get that stupid smile off of my face and in order not to stare again, I directed my gaze onto my fingers as if they were the most amazing thing in the world. I knew that Gretchen was sensing something about my 'hidden feelings' about TJ, but I didn't want to talk to her about it, because it would make things even more difficult. I didn't know why, I just knew it would.

During lunch we basically talked about our plans for the weekend and how we were still unsure what to do, until some really high-pitched voice interrupted us. I sighed, knowing very well whose voice this was but not wanting to turn around because then I would've had to look into her plastic-like face.

"Hey TJ, you know I was like wondering if you are going to that party on like you know, Saturday.", she asked and I could practically hear her flutter her eyelashes at TJ. I tried my best not to make puking-sounds. I could see that I wasn't the only one at the table who was not so fond of Ashley A's company. Gretchen was rolling her eyes, Theresa was raising her eyebrows and also the guys were all looking rather annoyed by her. The only person, who seemed to be very happy about Ashley A being here, was TJ. It felt like Ashley A had been standing there for 30 minutes, when in fact she had been there for 3 minutes.
TJ grinned widely, but when he realized we weren't just as excited as he was, he started to frown.

"She's not as bad as you guys think. She can be really nice when she's not around the other Ashleys.", he tried to convince us but no one seemed to actually buy his story.

"She's a bitch, Teej. She's stupid and she only cares about her looks. She would do anything to be popular. Even date someone she doesn't even like." I tried to put most emphasize on the last sentence because I was 100% sure that she only wanted to go out with TJ because he was on the football team and everyone in school liked him.
"Whatever.", was TJ's reply, before he got up and left the cafeteria without saying another word.

"Asshole.", I muttered, being fully aware that the others could still hear me. The mood at the table had suddenly changed and Vince tried to ease the tension a little bit.

"So, are we going to that party or not?"

Hope you guys liked it, I'm not 100% sure where I will go on from here. I don't think this Fic will have 467034574893 chapters, but I'll try to make it as complex as possible so it won't get bored. :-)