Firstly some proper warnings: There will be language, smoking and teenage stupidity/bitching throughout this story. There will also be mild slash and het. I obviously do not own Recess or anything Disney related and never have or will.

Right!

Middle school had not been what T.J expected.

Firstly, the work was harder, much harder. He'd never really excelled at school, mostly due to pure laziness rather than lack of intelligence and after he'd come away from the specialist 100% without ADHD, his mother and father had had no choice but to put their foot down. T.J had a full hour of homework a night as checked by both parents and (when she was feeling particularly vindictive) his sister too.

Secondly Recess seemed to be a thing of the past. It was no longer cool to play battle tag or marbles during lunch and if any exercise was demonstrated it was strictly extra curricular sporting activities. He'd found himself on the lacrosse team purely for something to do, and while he didn't hate it, it wasn't exactly his passion either.

Thirdly (and worst of all) although he still hung out with his five best friends two of them had started to drift off to bigger and better things and it was scaring him. Vince and Gretchen had always had the most drive out of the six of them and middle school was no exception. Vince had joined every sporting team imaginable and was already pretty much captaining the basketball team and Gretchen was overachieving at everything as usual, but spent most of her time in the science labs thumbing through stolen High School text books and hanging out with the former pale kids.

And so T.J, Spinelli, Mikey and Gus found a pretty much abandoned spot under the bleachers and spent countless hours trading baseball cards, playing catch and occasionally trying cigarettes or new kinds of gum. It was fine and all but a part of him did miss it being all six of them.

"I'm not surprised," Spinelli said dispassionately after Vince and Gretchen had once again texted T.J declining his offer to lean against the bleachers and pass around a cigarette. "They're way too busy actually being good at junk to want to hang out with us."

"We should be happy for them." Gus replied, leaning against one of the pillars. He still mostly resembled his elementary school self, having surpassed T.J's height already but remaining skinny as a rail with thick glasses and a smattering of acne that he was unrelentingly insecure about.

"Balls to that." Spinelli growled, kicking at a crushed soda can. She glowered at it as it soared through the air and bounced a few times before landing by some oblivious cheerleaders.

The most physical changes by far, had of course occurred in Spinelli and Gretchen who had gone away last summer and returned with the beginnings of breasts and hips and had all at once become wholly mysterious to many of their male friends, who by comparison had only really acquired a few inches in height and perhaps found their voices sounding a little lower.

"You think this is bad," she continued "We'll be in Highschool next year- do you think they're even going to talk to us?"

"Of course they will," Mikey said, not looking up from his battered old Oscar Wilde, "We've been friends since before we could string sentences together."

"Yeah, well, that don't mean nothin' in Highschool, Mikey."

"'Doesn't mean anything.'" corrected Mikey lazily.

"Where do you get these, Spinelli?" T.J asked her, taking a deep drag on the cigarette before trying (and failing) to make smoke rings. It was a sunny Friday afternoon and the two of them had skipped double math, they were now sitting in T.J's old tree house which he mostly used to hide his stash of porn and junk food.

"Joey." She said grinning, "Where'd ya think?"

T.J wrinkled his nose and pushed his feet against the soles of Spinelli's boots so they were facing each other, feet pressed together, she flicked another page of an old 80's playboy he'd found in his uncle's attic.

"Does this shit really turn you on, Teej?" she said, laughing. "They're all so…" she searched for the word. "Plastic."

He shrugged and stubbed out the half smoked cigarette, he didn't like them much and usually only ever participated to impress her.

"Not really," he muttered truthfully, "I was curious so I stole it and now I can't throw it out in case my mom finds it in the trash."

"Not if you disguise it!" Spinelli dug into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out a sharpie. They spent the rest of the afternoon drawing stitches and moustaches on the glossy women splashed across every page of each magazine.

"There! Now try beating off to that!"

Laughing, she stood up and stretched. T.J pretended not to watch her as he stood himself, only having to bend a little as he brushed off his jeans. She was wearing a black, faded 'Grapplemania' t-shirt that was so large it fell down to halfway down her thighs and she'd had to roll the sleeves up several times, a pair of skinny jeans torn at the knee and her brother's old boots

"What time is it?" she yawned, pulling her leather jacket and orange beanie back on, T.J hastily looked at his watch.

"Four."

"Ah, I got time for another smoke." She pulled out her lighter and offered T.J the box, he shook his head and she shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He watched her smoke and play with the lighter a while, burning little black spots on the inside of the treehouse. With her long dark hair tumbling down her back, smooth olive skin and large dark eyes…Spinelli really was quite pretty, sometimes. He snatched the lighter from her and set about burning his name into the wall nearest to him, she let out a bark of laughter and plucking the lighter back from his fingers added a surprisingly neat '+ A.S' beside T.J's messy initials. She paused a moment, took a long thoughtful drag on her cigarette and set about drawing a lopsided heart around it, T.J felt his heart do a stupid little jump and he watched her sit back and admire her handiwork. She stubbed out the cigarette on the plus sign burned into the wood, making a tiny little flurry of sparks dance over their initials. Turning to look at him, she sniggered and kissed him full on the lips before punching him on the arm.

"See you later, Teej." She said, swinging herself onto the ladder, disappearing from sight a second later.

"Later, Spinelli."

T.J decided not to bring the kiss up to anyone else. It seemed sort of private, between him and Spinelli, the girl herself hadn't said anything at all and it'd been three days now. Despite the fact that it hurt a bit T.J decided against confronting her; Spinelli didn't like talking about her feelings.

Anyway, the gang had far more pressing matters on their minds now because it was officially the last few weeks of middle school and there were tests to pass and a summer to get ready for. T.J's mind was far more focussed on the latter but with a little help from Gus (who was in most of his classes) he managed to get through the last month without letting his grades suffer too much.

The last day of school mercifully came and for the first time in a long time all six of them ended up in T.J's treehouse.

"I can't believe we're going to be in Highschool!" Gretchen all but squealed.

"I can't wait to get out on their court; I hear they have an unbelievable basketball coach!" Vince enthused.

"Jesus, guys, can we maybe try and enjoy our summer before we wet ourselves over Highschool." Spinelli added, lazily sketching a sharpie likeness of what seemed to be Ms Finster into the wooden floor.

"I can't wait!" Gus chimed in, excitedly. "My Dad's signed me up for military camp again and now I know I'm not going to be the smallest one there!"

"I'm going to London with my parents," Gretchen grinned, "My mom's friend Helga works at the Natural History museum and we get to go look in the archives!"

"No offence, Gretch," T.J grimaced, "But that sounds super dull." She laughed and rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm going to try and get me some cash." Spinelli added, now doodling disembowelled Ashleys onto T.J's treehouse floor. "Start saving for driving lessons."

"Dude." T.J frowned, "Stop whomping up my treehouse."

"Whatcha gonna do about it, Detweiler?" She replied lazily.

A thirty second wrestling match then occurred where T.J tried and failed to get the sharpie off of Spinelli. It ended with T.J lying face down, Spinelli sitting on his legs and writing rude words on his jean pockets.

"Spin!" he cried as everyone else let out peals of laughter, "My mom'll kill me."

"Hey!" said Vince, suddenly pointing at the wall. "Why have you guys written your initials on the wall?"

"'Cos we're so totally like in love," said Spinelli in an eerily good impression of an Ashley before writing one more cussword on T.J's butt and rolling off him. "We're going to make out all summer while you're at jock camp."

"I'm not a jock," Vince muttered as T.J scrambled up trying to stop blushing and Mikey studied the heart shaped burn mark. "and anyway, I'm going to stay with my brother in his new apartment this summer."

"Well then, looks like it's just T.J, Spinelli and I." Mikey said softly from the corner.

"Fine by me," T.J grinned, "We'll go whip muffins at my sister's car."

As it turned out Spinelli's uncle gave her a summer long job helping him and a few of his workers renovate an old house for some German couple who wanted a vacation home and although she was only a few streets away, whenever T.J rode over to inquire about that making out she'd mentioned to Vince, her uncle would chase him off the site. So T.J and Mikey mostly took to spending their allowances on bad summer movies and riding their bikes around.

It had been one scorching hot day and Mikey had been dragged along to go and spy on Spinelli (who happened to be wearing a tight white vest top while she was working) only to be bellowed at by her uncle yet again. Tails between their legs, they had retired to a nearby creek to skip stones.

"Do you have a crush on Spinelli?" Mikey asked suddenly, making T.J drop his pebbles.

"What!?"

"It's okay if you do." said Mikey glumly.

"I…er?" T.J was scarlet by this point, looking anywhere but Mikey's face.

"T.J?" Mikey continued, "I need to tell you something, but you've got to promise not to tell anyone."

"Uh…I promise, big guy." T.J replied, suddenly feeling very exposed.

"Well, you know how you like Spinelli?"

"Um…Mikey…I never said…"

"T.J."

"Yeah. Okay."

"Well," Mikey said again, "Well…that's how I feel about boys."

There was a silence as T.J considered this. It wasn't such a big surprise really, Mikey had never shown any interest in girls even after he'd lost a bit of weight and cut his hair and in doing so gained some well deserved confidence. He'd heard about people being gay before obviously, his sister had two friends called Gavin and Stephan and T.J knew they were 'living together.' And really, he didn't blame them. Girls were very confusing.

"Okay, man." T.J said, shrugging.

"Is that it?" Mikey asked quietly, "Aren't you…grossed out or something?"

"No." said T.J. "Am I supposed to be?"

"Well, I read up a tonne of stuff about being…about being gay, and most of the articles kind of made out like people were going to react badly."

"Oh. Why?"

There was another silence as Mikey thought about this.

"Do you like girls then?" he asked T.J.

"I like Spinelli." The other boy replied, going a little pink again.

"Yes, but how did you know that?"

T.J shifted uncomfortably, he seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle with himself and Mikey watched as the shorter boy seemed to come to a decision.

"Well…she kissed me one time and then I knew."

"That's it?"

"Well, I dunno," I had some of my uncle's old playboys and I just thought they were dumb, you know?"

Mikey considered this as T.J started fidgeting and eventually went back to skipping pebbles to keep his hands busy. Standing up, Mikey came to a decision and strode towards T.J who turned wide eyed to look at him. Then, before he could chicken out Mikey leaned forward and kissed him right on the mouth. There were a couple of seconds where nothing happened, then Mikey felt the tiniest movement under his lips and his lungs seemed to expand as T.J kissed him back. Mikey pulled away and looked down at his friend.

"Huh. Weird." T.J offered.

"Good weird?" Mikey asked hopefully.

"I dunno."

"Oh."

"No…I mean it didn't feel all that different from Spinelli. It's just…"

"I'm not her." Mikey felt a hot burning behind his eyes and scrubbed at them angrily.

T.J looked mortified before stepping back towards Mikey and hugging him tightly, the taller boy returned the embrace enthusiastically and an intense relief rippled over him. He remembered idly, that time in elementary school when they'd argued over who'd get to be T.J's best friend. And there was a reason. T.J was quite short and stocky with a lot of freckles and messy brown hair, he was a trouble maker, a klutz and he had a bit of a habit of mooching but he cared. He did. And that made all the difference.

Spinelli finally finished her job about two weeks before the end of summer, she came waltzing into T.J's treehouse where him and Mikey were reading comic books and drinking root beer (T.J was always a lot better behaved with Mikey than with Spinelli-a detail his mother hadn't failed to pick up on) with a wad of five dollar bills.

"Check it out!" she proclaimed proudly. "I got cash to burn, not that I would, obviously."

"Woah!" T.J and Mikey chorused.

"Yup!" she grinned, "And it's all going in my driving fund….except." she pulled out two five dollar notes and gave one each to T.J and Mikey. "Kelso's. Now."

She'd matured over the summer, her figure forming yet more of an hourglass shape under her shorts and t-shirt, her body muscular and tanned after a summer of labour. Her face had lengthened slightly and her hair had grown almost down to her butt, it was thick and heavy meaning she kept having to re-tie it back.

"This is driving me frigging crazy, guys." She complained a few days later at Mikey's as they played a lazy game of poker in the back yard. "You're going to have to cut it for me. Mikey, you'd make a great hairdresser." She winked at him sarcastically and he rolled his eyes. The taller boy had come out to Spinelli during their trip to Kelso's (albeit leaving out the bit about he and T'J's kiss) and her reaction had more-or-less been 'well duh' and she'd bought him another shake to celebrate 'finally growing some balls.'

"I'll do it." T.J offered.

"Thanks but no thanks, Teej. I haven't forgotten what dorks you guys all looked in Elementary school when you and Vince went all 'Edward Scissorhands' on every moron in the playground."

"Well maybe you should pay a professional." Mikey suggested, putting down a couple more jellybeans as currency.

"Hell to that, I'm not paying someone to do what I can do myself!"

Mikey won poker and bored of card games, they decided to go and see some stupid comedy movie that'd come out last week, neither of them thought any more on Spinelli's hair troubles. The next day however she arrived at T.J's house wearing some terrible thrash-metal band's t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, a pair of shorts and a pixie cut.

"Whompinbobyulah!"

"Want to see the hair?" Spinelli grinned and held up a heavy looking plastic bag.

"Ew, no!"

"Come on," she laughed, "let's go freak out Mikey!"

Mikey's reaction was similar to T.J's. He gasped and covered his eyes, before peeking through the fingers to see Spinelli giggling like a maniac and T.J shrugging.

"I was thinking I'd fashion the hair into a massive rat and leave in Ashley A's locker when we start High School!"

"Spinelli!" groaned Mikey, as T.J roared with laughter, "You don't want to get into trouble on our first day!"

"Might as well hit the ground running!" T.J chuckled.

"Anyhow," Mikey continued loudly, "You can donate that hair to wig makers for children with cancer."

"Hey, whatever, Mike." Spinelli said lazily thrusting the plastic bag at him, "Go nuts, sick kids can wear my hair all they want, I'll put worms in Ashley's locker instead, way better…"

"And harder to trace." T.J added, grinning.

"So you're not giving up this meaningless prank war with the Ashley's in Highschool either?" asked Mikey glumly.

"Hell no!" cried Spinelli.

"It's a war that will last forever." T.J said dramatically "Or at least through Highschool…"

On the last day of summer the six of them crammed into a booth at Kelso's with their traditional last-day-of-freedom shakes and stayed through the whole afternoon talking about their summers, Spinelli's hair and what high school might be like.

The sun had stooped in the sky and the shadows were getting longer by the time T.J, Mikey and Spinelli made their way back to their street.

"You didn't tell them." T.J said to Mikey as they reached the taller boy's driveway.

"I will." Mikey said quietly. "Just not all at once."

T.J held his gaze before giving him a quick hug then allowing Spinelli to pull him down the sidewalk as she gave Mikey a half-assed wave.

"See ya tomorrow, big guy!" she grinned dragging T.J along behind her.

"Bye, guys." Mikey called after them.

"Teej, we're going to the treehouse for a bit." Spinelli announced as they reached T.J's house.

"Fine," he conceded, "but no smoking, Spin, my mom's getting suspicious."

She rolled her eyes at him but for once she didn't argue and T.J's heart did a little flip at the thought of getting her to himself again. They clambered up the ladder and into the treehouse, Spinelli first, T.J following. He'd barely reached the top of the ladder before she'd crushed their lips together again. He kissed back as best he could, still inexperienced and clasped a clumsy hand around her fingers until she started giggling and he pulled away, embarrassed.

"Aw, Teej," she snickered "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Whatever."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Spinelli offered "I wasn't laughing at you! It's just…kinda surreal…y'know?"

There was an awkward pause.

"Spinelli…do you like me?"

"Oh…man, Teej…"

"Well?"

"Course I do!"

"Well then," he said, heart hammering "do you want to be…dating or something?"

She looked at him for a long moment, chewing idly on her bottom lip.

"I dunno, I don't want to ruin our friendship."

He blanched for a few seconds, thrown for six.

"Um, Spinelli…you kissed me."

"Ugh, I know. I'm sorry. I do really like you Teej… I'm just….confused."

They sat in silence and despite their earlier agreement, Spinelli fished her lighter out of her pocket and lit a cigarette. T.J sighed and without saying anything crawled towards the ladder and swung out of the treehouse.

"Teej…"

"I'll see you tomorrow, Spinelli."

"No, see I'm putting it out!"

"Do what you want."

"T.J!"