I do not own Criminal Minds nor any of the characters.

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"I can't believe I decided to take psychology my senior year. It's going to be so hard! I don't have time for another hard class. I have five AP classes and marching band rehearsal every day. What possessed me?"

"I did, Baby Girl. Or don't you remember the pleading look in my eyes coupled with my pouting mouth. I've been told it's irresistible."

"You've been told a lot of things, Derek Morgan. None of them have helped your ego problem."

"What ego problem, Pen?" he replied with his incredible smile on his face.

"Oh shut up. Let's just get to class. I want to get this over with."

Penelope and Derek linked arms and wandered into their next class. The two were both seniors at Lincoln Area High School. Derek was the captain of the football team and star quarterback, and Penelope was the president of the Marching Band. In a normal world, the two would probably never had become friends, and everyone else at school thought their friendship was odd, but since meeting on the first day of classes freshman year – he sat next to her in the back row of their American history class – they had been inseparable. At first it had just been studying together for exams, and that quickly grew to watching movies at each other's houses. From there, they couldn't spend enough time together. They were always with each other.

If you were looking for one, you'd find the other. Derek had practice for the football team – Penelope was in the bleachers. Penelope was in the band room practicing her clarinet – Derek was sitting beside her listening. Derek had a game on Friday night – Penelope was with the other band kids cheering him on and wearing his practice jersey. Penelope had a competition on Saturday – Derek was sitting next to her parents cheering her on.

They spent so much time together that everyone at first had assumed they were a couple. Some still did think they were together. Others just hoped that it would eventually happen. Being with Derek was both great and terrible in Penelope's opinion. Great because everyone assumed that she had snagged the hottest guy at school and terrible because she hadn't actually done that. They were just friends. Not for lack of desire, on her part at least.

Penelope wanted to be with Derek so badly. But he didn't seem interested in her like that. And if he was interested in her, he was doing a terrible job of showing it. In fact, one day they had been studying together outside after school and one of Derek's friends from the football team came up to them and made some comment about finding the lovebirds together. Derek flipped on him and told him immediately that they were just friends and that they guy should mind his own business.

Maybe one day, Penelope thought to herself as they found two seats together in the middle of the room. The class was pretty full for an elective, maybe thirty students, and Penelope was surprised to see that they were almost entirely girls. Oh Derek's gonna love this, Penelope thought. Her best friend was known throughout the female population at school to be quite the player. He always had a date. And even if he didn't have a date, he was always flirting with someone new. But it was never her. She wasn't worried about it, though. She firmly believed that everything happened for a reason, so if she and Derek were meant to be together, it would happen someday. And if that didn't work, she still had her ten step plan to get him to fall in love with her.

Penelope spent a long time thinking about Derek sitting next to her in their classroom, chatting up the girl on his right, before he was completely wiped from her mind as their teacher walked in. Instantly, she understood why so many girls had signed up for the class. Their teacher was the most handsome man she had ever seen. He had a strong jaw line, a handsome, neatly-trimmed goatee, a smile in his kind, delicious brown eyes, and a thick head of hair that was begging to be played with. She hadn't realized that she was staring and admiring him until she noticed that Derek kept saying her name.

"Penelope. Penelope! Are you okay? What are you looking at?" Derek's eyes followed hers and he finally noticed their professor at the front of the room. If Penelope had looked over at Derek at that moment, she would have seen something glimmer in his eyes and the glare develop towards the man at the front of the room.

"Good afternoon," their teacher spoke. "My name is Mr. Rossi. I am a former agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a founder of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. And, I'm here to teach you all about psychology. Let's get started."

Boy am I glad I signed up for this class.