Disclaimer: I don't own Breakfast Club or the characters.

She liked and didn't like crowds. This particular Saturday night crowd offered her a similar mixture of both like and dislike. She liked crowds for their heat. Their fire. She liked them for their vibrancy and their exuberance and power. She disliked them for the closeness and the pressing and the chaos and the intimidating noise. The possibility for chaos, anarchy, the unexpected. It was good. And it was scary.

This particular Saturday night's crowd seemed to look at her more often. It seemed to press on her more urgently as if saying, "more opportunity for hurt, greater chance for pain". The vibrancy was scary too. Perhaps the like and dislike wasn't so half and half. She hypothesized that it was rather more a 40/60 ratio, rather than 50/50 of like to dislike.

But this crowd also had in it salvation in the form of a guide through it. A guide patiently holding her hand and leading her forward.

"Come to the party with me," he'd said, his smile holding the hint of a dare, his eyes showing a hint of something deeper, and when he'd offered instead to take her somewhere else that night after her refusal, she dared to let herself think it was a sincere desire to be in her company.

"Alright. Let's go to a movie or something then. Or I can take you for a drive. I mean, if you just want to talk. Or you don't have to talk if you don't want to."

She grinned. He was doing enough talking for the both of them.

He went on. "Or, I guess we don't have to do anything, we don't even have to hang out if you don't want. I mean, we did already spend all day together today so..." he trailed off, noticing her grin, biting his bottom lip down on a half grin of his own. "What?"

"Let's go to the party."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

It was true, she hadn't been to many parties, and not any she'd classify as what Claire called "heavy metal vomit parties". She had a cousin, Kylene in college who she'd been close with when they'd both been younger. For a while, she'd invite Allison up to some, but after a while it stopped. Allison hated weed, it made her feel carsick and she felt awkward around Kylene's friends. After spending a few parties in the corner, keeping to herself and a bottle of vodka, the invites became less frequent and then stopped, and the last person she'd had to confide in had drifted out of Allison's life like a cloud on a summer's day.

"You sure you wanna do this?" he asked when they pulled up, his hand gripping hers. "You really don't have to if you don't want to."

"I want to."

He squeezed her hand. "Whenever you want to leave, we'll go. I promise. Just say the word."

She nodded.

He was amazed at how well she drifted through the crowd, with such ease, he'd have guessed she'd been to a million parties like "Stubby's".There was a grace, an easy lope about her gait, if he didn't know any better, he'd have guessed she wasn't nervous at all. But for him, it was the eyes that gave her away. He recognized partly, a look similar to how he often felt in situations like this one. "What if someone here wants to hurt me? Don't let them smell your fear." For him he knew the fear was mostly linked to his desire to be accepted and then, hopefully, left alone. For her he sensed more of a sense of cold preservation. She had taken a different path than most and paid for it dearly in taunts and merciless verbal abuse. She wasn't ashamed, but she didn't want to have to take anymore.

So when he'd gone to the bathroom for a moment and he'd returned to the floor of the house where he'd left her to find no one there, he was worried.

It was then that he heard shouts and cheers coming from outside. Instantly on edge, he followed the sounds out to the pool where the small crowd of almost every attendee of the party had gathered. People were laughing and cheering but it only made Andy even more nervous. He'd seen enough parties where something dangerous was often met with such cheering.

He couldn't see through the small crowd at first, so he asked the nearest person to him, "what's going on?"

The nearest person happened to be Stubby, who'd turned around and slapped Andy on the back, "Dude! That chick you brought is awesome!"

He smiled a bit, but then frowned, worried as to what was awesome. "Yeah. Uh, what's going on?"

"She's swimming man. Her and Spenny."

"The dog?"

"Yeah, look man!" Stubby grabbed Andy by the back of his shirt and pushed him forward to see.

Even though the night was chilly, it felt good to get outside. Since it was a chilly night, hardly anyone was out in the perfectly manicured backyard with it's swimming pool, filthy from the winter and fall leaves and early spring muck, but still gleaming with a promise of carefree summer fun. The cover had been peeled back, as though someone had made to clean the pool but hadn't gotten around to it. Vaguely, Allison wondered if it had been one of Stubby's chores to do before his parents got back from Europe.

She watched the water for a time, so still, thinking that if it were daytime the scene would make a lovely picture, perhaps even a photograph. She imagined it was a magic pool with healing powers. One swim made the swimmer immune to pain. She surveyed the landscape and then bravely sauntered closer to the edge of the pool. Surreptitiously, she looked over her shoulder. Seeing that no one was watching, she slipped one shoe off, then the other, and dipped one stockinged foot into the pool.

The water was cold, but the chill sent a powerful thrill through her spine. Quietly, she slipped the other foot into the pool and then slid her whole self in, standing tip toe to the bottom of the pool watching her skirt billowing up around her to make a cloth basin for the watery leaves. Slowly, she walked through the water until she came to the point where her feet couldn't touch anymore and she rolled over onto her back and began to kick.

The water felt good. Like a pure icicle against a bright blue winter sky. Like healing powers. Like immunity to pain. It felt like choices, a choice she made to herself, the choice not to care whether the make-up Claire had so painstakingly painted onto her face earlier that day would smear, the choice to not care if she would be made fun of and to do what she wanted to do. It felt like immunity. And immunity felt good. Carefully, she lifted an arm up into the air, the night air against the wet skin of her bare arm sent a flash of chills through her body, the cold reflecting everywhere, in her very soul, in the sky in the water, in the pool, the pool full of sky. She pulled her arm back in an elegant stroke and glided through space.

Then, the pool of immunity had an intruder in the form of a fully blown up blow up doll.

"What the -?" Andy gaped as he watched Allison in a splashing game of tug of war with the dog who was equally wet and flapping his wet long Bassett Hound ears with each watery tug of the plastic. Finally, Allison gave an almighty tug and the blow up doll they were fighting over came free of the dogs jowls and Allison tossed the doll to shore where one of the basketball team caught it, to cheers and laughs from everyone around him. Everyone began cheering as Allison swam to shore and Andy rushed to help her out of the pool. Andy couldn't help but laugh as he helped her out.

"What are you doing?" he asked, still laughing and removing his letter jacket to place it around her shoulders.

"Swimming." She responded, as though his question were silly.

"Yo, Andy-man. This chick is awesome man!" Stubby interjected before Andy could ask for a better explanation.

Andy grinned at Allison. "Yeah. Yeah she is."

"So where'd you say you met her again?"

"Detention." Both Andy and Allison replied in time.

"Cool. So what's your name again?" he asked Allison.

"Allison," Allison responded simply, blowing her wet bangs out of her eyes.

"Allison! Allison! Allison! Allison! Allison!" Stubby began to chant with others catching on quickly.

Before he could blink an eye she'd winked at him and then torn off his jacket and run to the diving board on the opposite end of the pool. And with a fast sprint he wouldn't have guessed she was capable of, Allison ran the length of the diving board and flung herself off the edge, all the while screaming, "CANNONBALL!!!!!!!"

She'd had everything planned out, you see. She'd done a cannonball instead of a belly flop thinking that with a cannonball she could very neatly hold her skirt down and out of the way while she splashed into the pool curled up as tight as could be. What she hadn't planned as well was how she was going to bring her arms away from her knees again. For she took her arms from her knees a moment too soon and while her body was still using momentum from the splash she still moved downward and her skirt billowed up around her.

In a moment she was in a wet world of gray, tangled and twisted, trying to kick to get herself to the surface of the water, too frightened and confused to make heads or tails of the cloth that now pressed in on her.

Andy felt his heart stop. Something was wrong. Immediately he could tell. What would she linger for on the bottom of the dirty pool? And in another instant Andy could tell why. It didn't take another instant for him to act. He flung off his t-shirt and undershirt, tossed his shoes aside and didn't even bother with socks before diving into the pool, wishing he'd paid more attention in health class when they'd been taught CPR and hoping there was one among the crowd who would better remember it should it be necessary.

He reached her after two quick combined strokes and kicks and realized the problem. Trapped like a fish in a net by her own skirt. He grabbed her and pulled her to the surface all the while searching for the end of the skirt. He found it as they reached the air and with her help and yanked the cloth away before pulling her to the edge of the pool where Stubby offered her a hand up. He was glad to hear that she was coughing pretty heartily, if he remembered correctly, that meant she likely wouldn't need anything more than a pat on the back, which he offered as soon as he climbed out of the water, pulling her around to face him as soon as the coughing subsided.

"You alright?" he asked softly, not paying attention to the crowd, and searching her wet face.

She coughed again, but nodded.

"Whoa, you ok?" Stubby asked.

"Yeah, fine. Listen man, you got towels anyplace?" Andy asked without looking away from Allison.

"Oh, uh. Yeah, sure. Pool house, over there." Stubby pointed. Andy left without a second glance, taking Allison by the hand with him.

As soon as they were inside and Andy shut the door behind him he flung his arms around her, desperate to make sure she was still whole, real, and not still at the bottom of the pool.

Allison clung to him, her wet clothes sticking to his bare wet skin, not even bothering to brush her hair out of her eyes. She felt stupid. She'd almost drowned once before one summer when she'd grown out of all her bathing suits and she'd had to wear t-shirts and underwear. The same thing had happened. Then she'd fought her way to the surface and had managed to scramble out of the small net her t-shirt had created. Tonight though... she shivered. The thought that it was Andy this time who had saved her made the situation so much different.

"You're alright," he whispered. "You're alright," he said, the top of her hair ruffling as he said it. She could feel he said it as much to reassure himself as her. She sensed the strain in his voice and lifted her head in response. Before she had the chance to look at him he'd pulled her in closer and pressed his mouth firmly against hers, as if in final act of verification of her continued existence.

It was a slow, hard kiss. Deliberate and fierce and it nearly took her breath away. They both gasped for breath when he pulled away to rest his forehead on hers. "Oh Allison," he whispered, his breath hot against her ear, before pulling her in for another kiss.

His whisper shot a wave of icy fire over her, at once making her hot and cold, nearly getting dizzy with the sudden change and shivering slightly, her goosebumps at once soothed by the warmth of his touch and renewed by the thrill of it. Her wet skin pressed against his, cold, but warm and stable.

He couldn't be sure how exactly it had transpired that Allison was sitting on the table in the entry way to Stubby's parent's pool house, but as she pulled him back in for another kiss Andy found he didn't much care. In his opinion it had been entirely too long since he'd last kissed her and he'd been completely preoccupied with thoughts of kissing her like this ever since. Add to that the lingering shock of a near-drowning incident and well, he wasn't willing to let go of her readily.

She seemed not to mind, kissing him back with equal enthusiasm, and clutching him close to her. Her small fingers seemed to be everywhere, clutching his arms, shoulders, neck, even digging slightly into the hair at the base of his neck. It was when she let out a slight gasp, her breath hot and whispered against his neck that Andy felt he might just drop dead of sheer exhilaration on the spot. The mere whispering of his name before she placed a soft kiss at the crook of his neck sent a kalidescope of reactions through him, namely a nigh impossibly elevated heartbeat he was certain she could hear. His heart was going to explode. And he couldn't bring himself to care enough to pull himself away.

It was when she let out a noticeable shiver that Andy thought to pull away and finally make use of the towels he'd requested. Searching through two of three cabinets yielded a treasury of large, fluffy blue towels and he seized two in one hand, setting one down on the table and wrapping the other one around her.

"Better?" he asked. She nodded. He turned to use the second towel on himself, working the towel through his wet hair first and then drying himself as best he could. There wasn't much to be done about his sopping wet jeans apart from taking them off to let them dry and he wasn't certain that was the best course of action. He couldn't be sure of her reactions to anything; she was always so surprising and he couldn't be sure what her reaction would be to his impromptu stripping, regardless of the fact that he was wearing boxers with a fully buttoned fly.

He turned around again to face her and was surprised to find she wasn't there anymore. Curiously he turned the corner of the small entryway to find she was in the main large room of the pool house, standing before a comfortable looking bed. Andy wasn't surprised by the bed, Stubby had mentioned before that the pool house was more like an outside guest bedroom. What did surprise him was the fact that Allison was peeling off her tights to throw them over the heater she'd turned on where her skirt and shirt already hung. Momentarily mortified and unsure of whether she'd meant for him to follow, he ducked behind the corner again but was unable to resist peeking at her from behind the corner. He was dumbfounded. On the one hand, her actions seemed perfectly logical, she was after all, drying off wet clothes. On the other hand, Andy wondered if the absence of clothing meant she had other intentions. Or did it mean she assumed he'd had a certain set of intentions? Absently, he considered the likelihood of Stubby assuming that he was being very smooth in sending Andy off to the most secluded bedroom on the premises. But did Allison think he'd only been trying to get her in bed? Still thinking, he watched as now only clad in a lacy white bra and plain black panties, Allison seized a pillow from the bed and pulled it out of it's pillowcase. She then turned the pillowcase inside out, and started biting at the seam. Fascinated, Andy continued to watch as she bit at the seam and then abruptly pulled the pillowcase out of her mouth and then began pulling with her fingers on the seam she'd been biting at and pulled the thread out of the seam, creating a hole in the pillowcase. She then slipped the whole thing over her head and it came to rest over her breasts and he smiled at her creativity. She'd made herself a make-shift dress in under five minutes. He continued to watch as she adjusted the cloth to her small frame, knotting the edges on either side of her body and then neatly tucking the small knots into the part of her bra that fell right underneath her armpits.

It was then that she looked up and Andy failed to retreat behind the corner quickly enough. Noticing that he was staring she stared back and vocalized a belated, "What?"

He just laughed.

"What?" she demanded. "My clothes were wet." She motioned to the clothes she'd lain on the heater.

He nodded, smiling. "Mind if I use the heater too?" he asked.

She suddenly looked a little shy, but nodded. Carefully, so as not to completely expose himself, he peeled off his jeans and draped them over the heater, exchanging his wet towel for a fuzzy blanket on the chair next to the heater, and slowly sat down next to Allison. After sitting quietly side by side for a moment not looking at each other, he felt Allison fall back onto the bed and instantly his thoughts were set on overdrive again. Alluring as he'd found her (particularly when watching her in nothing but her underwear) and as much as he knew he cared for her, he wasn't sure having sex was the best course of action right now. Did she really think that was why he'd brought her here?

She quieted his thoughts by speaking.

"The sky's beautiful tonight."

He looked back to see she was gazing up at the sky through the skylight and trying to focus on the stars instead of on how even more alluring she looked lying back on the bed in a short, near see through dress, Andy leaned back to lie next to her and looked at the sky as well.

"It is beautiful," he agreed.

"It was beautiful reflected in the pool."

"Is that why you went in?"

She nodded.

They were both silent for a time, Andy stealing glances at her.

Finally he said, unable to keep from laughing, "It was really fucking cold in that pool though."

She laughed too. "Yeah."

"How the hell'd you wind up in there with Spenny and the doll though?"

"Spenny's the dog I take it?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"He jumped in." she said, matter of factly.

"Yeah but, why?"

"I think it had something to do with the doll. Somebody threw it in from the second story balcony."

"So Spenny went in after the doll."

"Yeah."

"And you fought him for it?" Andy laughed again.

She laughed too. "Well, if he eats that plastic it's not good for him."

"How do you know?"

"Can your digestive system break down plastic and rubber?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so anyway. Though my mom always joked I'd eat anything if I was hungry enough."

"Well?" she said, finally turning to him and motioning frustrated with her hand.

"I see your point," he responded seriously. They were both quiet again for a time.

"Spenny seems like a nice dog. Even if the plastic didn't hurt him, it'd still be hard on his stomach getting that plastic junk through to his shitter. I didn't want the poor dog to suffer. The parents would have had no idea why the dog would be so whiny and gassy and no offense, but I don't think your Stubby friend would know the difference."

Andy laughed again. "No, I don't think he would either. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed." Another pause. "How do you know all this stuff about dogs anyway?"

She shrugged. "My cousin's going to school to be a vet. She got this internship as a vet assistant. Sees lots of crazy shit. Dalmatians that swallowed spark plugs. Cats that ate tinsel. That sort of thing. Once she even opened the freezer to find a cat they'd put to sleep in there." she finished with the hint of an evil grin likened to a child trying to gross another child out.

"No way." Andy said.

"Way. They were keeping it there till the family could cremate it."

"What?"

"Yeah. Family had a crypt where they kept all the family's cremated ashes. Wanted the cat in there too."

Andy laughed again.

"It makes sense though," Allison continued in a more serious tone. "People who say their pets are like family and all. Wish I had a cat."

"You don't have any pets?"

Allison shook her head.

"But you talk to your cousin. I mean, I know you said your family is crap but at least you have your cousin."

Allison shook her head again.

"No?"

"No."

"Oh." They lapsed into silence again.

"Had," Allison finally interrupted the silence.

"Huh?"

"Had. Not have. My cousin and I.... well, even though we're four years apart, we used to be pretty close. Being really the only two kids in our families. Anyway, when she went to college she used to invite me up for parties but I was awkward and she just kind of stopped inviting me after a while."

"I'm sorry," Andy said.

"It was bound to happen," Allison said matter of factly. "She was getting more into her friends at college and we never had much in common to begin with. Aside from a family name and female genitalia."

"Uh.. right," Andy responded, again acutely aware of his own genitalia. To keep from thinking he said, "You know you didn't have to come tonight if you didn't want to. I mean -"

"No," she cut him off. "I wanted to come." She chewed on her lip for a moment before continuing, "Are you upset that I came?"

"What? No! Why would I be?"

"Well, I'm sure I'm not your typical date to this sort of party."

Andy laughed. "My typical date was usually a case of miller courtesy of Stubby's older brother."

Allison laughed. "Have I proved to be better company?"

Andy laughed again too. "Yes. Much more interesting for sure."

Allison chewed on her right index fingernail, seemingly anxious.

"What?" he finally asked.

"Well, minus the miller, there isn't some cheerleader who's going to give me hell on monday?"

Realization finally dawned on him. She wants to make sure I'm not playing her, he thought.

"Whoa, no. I mean, I was dating a girl, Heather, for a few weeks but we kinda just fell apart. She knows we're through, it was pretty mutual, so uh, no, you shouldn't be expecting any challenges for a cat fight duel on Monday. Not that I know of anyway."

Allison nodded. Andy couldn't tell if she was satisfied by this answer. To break the silence he said, "What about you? Any guys I should be wary of?"

She blinked and stared at him.

"What?"

She didn't answer.

"Was there some other guy you had a thing for before you realized that I wasn't a complete insufferable douchebag?"

"No," she answered rigidly, abruptly sitting up and then leaving the bed to sit on the dresser across the room, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest.

She wasn't telling him that. She wasn't going to tell him that even though she had assumed he was an arrogant, insufferable barbarian douchebag, she'd still admired him from afar. She wasn't going to tell him she'd dreamed of him and make their coming together even more cliche. She refused.

But she started crying anyway. FUCK, she thought.

"What?" Andy asked, coming over to comfort her in true cliche Andy form. "What is it?"

No. No.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Did some guy give you a hard time. Beat you up?"

She shook her head and refused to look at him.

They were both quiet again for a time, minus Allison's sniffling. To Allison's surprise he finally asked, a hint of realization in his voice, "Did he ignore you?"

She finally looked at him. "Yeah."

Andy nodded. "Well then he's an asshole." Allison couldn't help it, she laughed. "Want me to beat him up?" She shook her head. "I can you know. Let me at him. Who was he?"

"No."

"Come on."

"No!" he stopped at her shout and she took a deep breath. "No, Sporto. This isn't gonna be like you rescued the poor socially challenged girl from the bowels of loserdom. Leave me alone."

"No."

She glared at him.

"What, just because of who we are at god-forsaken Shermer?"

"No, because of-"

"What?"

"Because! It's completely stupid and I know you've heard it before."

"Why do you have to push everybody away?"

"I'm being honest, Sporto. I'd expect you to know the difference."

"Yeah? I think you're being crazy."

"Oh right, because I'm the basketcase."

"No because you know there's no good reason for us not to be together and you don't have the guts to just let yourself be happy."

"God. You don't get it do you? Did you have any idea that I existed before today?"

Andy looked down. She felt bad for him, but refused to waiver. "No." he finally answered, still not looking at her.

"And do you know how pathetic that makes me feel? Oh, the poor loser girl finally gets noticed by her crush the undefeated jock!" She was being cruel but she didn't care. "Do you honestly have any idea how pathetic it makes me feel?"

Again he couldn't look at her but again answered, "No."

"No," she repeated.

"But if it makes a difference. I don't care what people think. And I don't think you're pathetic."

She raised an eyebrow in defiant questioning.

"I think you're a better person than I am. You were willing to imagine there was someone better inside of me."

"Even though I did think you were a barbaric glutton," she added quickly.

He laughed. "You're probably not far off the mark there."

"No, probably not."

"But, look, if you let me, I'll spend as long as it takes proving that there's more to me. And that I see more in you too."

"You realize that in saying that, you are in effect, making this even more cliche?"

"Can I just point out that you're wearing a pillowcase, thereby making this not cliche at all?"

"Yes, but you're going to kiss me and end this argument on a cliche note."

"I am?"

"Yes. You are."

Later, Andy dimly wondered what time it was and how long he and Allison had spent in the pool house. He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers, running his fingers through her hair which was almost dry.

She made an indignant squeak and pulled his mouth to hers but he pulled away quickly after a few more light kisses.

"We should get outta here," he whispered.

"Why?" she asked simply.

"Because."

"Because why?"

Andy sighed. "Well, I think our clothes are almost dry. And I think we've been here long enough. People will think-"

"I thought you didn't care what people think," she cut him off.

"Well, I don't. But I mean, well, they'll think you're... and that we..."

"Did it?" She cracked an evil grin again. "That you slipped me the hot beef injection?"

He gulped, trying to keep his thoughts out of the gutter. "Um. Yeah."

"So what?" She leaned in closer to him and wrapped her legs around him. "I'm a nymphomaniac, remember?" she whispered in his ear.

Oh FUCK, he swore inwardly. No amount of concentrating on the exact pungent repulsiveness of the smell of Spenny's wet fur could keep Andy from reacting to that comment and getting an obvious erection.

She grinned wickedly at him, showing that she'd obviously felt his desire for her. "Allison," he whispered, remembering what she'd said earlier that day "if you love someone then it's ok." Noting the implication of her willingness Andy retreated with a pang in his heart.

"Hey, you said you were a compulsive liar."

She wiggled her eyebrows. "Maybe I'm both."

He laughed weakly. "Maybe, but you're also someone I want to get to know better before we... well, indulge our inner nymphomaniacs, ok?"

She nodded, finally showing that she was being serious. "Ok."

Andy took a deep breath. "Do you wanna get outta here?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Put your pants on Sporto."

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