--O.K. Here I go again.--

2

Rachel had made it her life goal to watch out for Spencer. He wasn't helpless but he wouldn't retaliate to people hurting him. He wouldn't stoop to that level. Rachel met Spencer in her third hour on the first day of school. She marveled at how his hand shot in the air no matter what question the teacher threw at them. What amazed her even more was that he got them right. Everyone else scoffed, a few threw papers at the back of his head. Rachel never sat by and watched someone get bullied. So, since no one else was sitting next to him, she did. They stared at her like she was from another planet. Spencer glanced at her shyly, his cheeks slightly pink. When yet another paper ball came flying at his head she stood.

"The next person who throws anything at him, or me, is gonna get it after school." Then she sat back down. Mid-way through the lesson someone dared to send a paper ball at them. Rachel turned and Saw Matt Showman, grinning like an idiot, he even waved. Rachel smiled back. The next day Matt came to school with a severe limp.

That day Rachel sat with Spencer at lunch. He hadn't said a word to her since the day before but when she sat down he finally spoke.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said. Rachel smiled.

"And why not?" She asked. Spencer stared at his tray.

"If they see you with me your reputation will go down the drain. You'll be considered at the bottom of the social ladder and it will essentially lead to poor social skills later in life. And I don't want to be responsible for that I'll feel terrible my whole life and yours will be permanently ruined." He said all of this very quickly and was sure she hadn't caught any of it. However, she smiled and shook her head.

"I stopped caring what people thought a long time ago. And besides, you won't ruin my life I can assure you that." She said. He smiled back gently.

"What I don't understand is why someone like you wants to be friends with someone like me." He said. "Most people who come around me just tell me to be quiet." Rachel leaned forward.

"Spence I promise you, I would never tell you to shut up. I mean, it's not your fault you know everything." She said chuckling. He looked at her for a moment. Unsure why this beautiful girl was so intrigued by him. And she called him Spence. He hated it. But considering there was an actual person actually interested in what he had to say, he let it go.

"Well, technically it's impossible to know everything. Scientists and other people in that field are proving and making knew discoveries every day, inevitably changing what we actually know and...and I need to be quiet now, right?" He asked. Rachel had been hanging onto every word he said.

"No, please keep going." She said. Their relationship had kicked off from there. Since then they had become inseparable besides of course different class schedules and a curfew. They were in every sense of the word, best friends. Yes people gossipped, but they went unnoticed. Spencer was unaware of anyone else when Rachel was around. He had no romantic feelings for her, they just clicked. Spencer always had something to say, Rachel was always here to listen.

Now they were in fifth hour waiting for the lunch bell. The last hour of the day. Rachel was finishing the last problem of their science assignment. Spencer had been done for awhile and waited patiently for her to finish. She wrote her name on the paper and sat back.

"They need to give genius' three pounds of homework so they'll keep up with the rest of us dumb people." She sighed. Spencer frowned.

"You aren't stupid and you know that." He said shortly. She grinned.

"I know. I just think it's funny when you get mad." She said. They laughed.

Bbrriinnggg.

Instantly students slammed their books shut, grabbed their belongings, shoved their chairs in and bolted out the door. Rachel and Spencer moved at a regular pace, in no hurry to eat the horrors that the school district called lunch.

"They act like the food's gonna run away or something." Rachel said. "The only other time I see Brittany Mills move that fast is when a guy walks by her locker." She chuckled. Spencer shook his head.

"I don't understand this obsession with obtaining a relationship. All it does is give us an excuse to toss away our virtues when we really have our entire lives ahead of us. Our body's cells can live up to 120 years so we really have 103 years to find a significant other. I don't know what the big rush is." Spencer said quickly. Rachel shrugged.

"I don't know Spence. I guess people get lonely." They reached the cafeteria doors and Rachel groaned. "Shall we enter the strange world of tuna surprise and constant vending machine clatter?" She asked.

"If it's the only choice we have." He shrugged.

Rachel and Spencer were the only ones at their table. Rachel had perfected the art of ignoring others remarks and comments. But Spencer wasn't. He noticed everything. Any minuscule detail about anything. So when people walked by their table and glared, he could read their faces.

One girl's said: Those freaks. God why can't they act normal?

A boy's rang: She is SO hot. What the hell is she dong with a freak like that?

"How was your day?" Rachel asked. He wasn't about to tell her about being taunted in first hour, for the entire hour. Mrs. Lang was out sick and the sub was so deaf and so blind he didn't notice. He wasn't going to tell her about all of the people who had called him a freak and nearly beat him up. He wasn't going to tell her about the confrontation he got from Arthur about staying away from Rachel. So he simply said:

"Fine. Yours?" Rachel rattled off a tale about Henry Summers staring at her chest all hour and how she "damn near" punched his lights out.

"...I told him if I ever saw him do it again he'd end up just like his brother Jimmy." Spencer winced. Jimmy Summers had ended up in the hospital after he "tried" to do something he shouldn't. He never said who did it, Rachel would press charges if he did.

"That's harsh." He said. Rachel huffed.

"Yeah well unless I say anything no one has any right to stare at me that way." She said angrily. Spencer nodded. The bell rang again, the entire student body emptied the large school.

"I'll be in the library in a minute Spence. I gotta do something first." She said, walking toward her locker. Spencer was at his own.

"Alright Rachel I'll see you in a minute." He smiled at her. He gathered his books and headed off to the library, alone.

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