Title: Changing Hearts And Minds
Author: Freeing Alys
Rating: T
Pairing: Spashley[Spencer/Ashley
Summary: Spencer is at college and things are going good, then Ashley shows up out of nowhere half a year after their fallout and Spencer's whole world is turned around.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own South Of Nowhere or any of the charectors or story plots. Those all belong to CTV, The-N and anyone else affiliated. I'm JUST a fan, trying to improve my writing skills. I'm not making any profit off of this at all. No copywrite infridgement intended.
Author's Note: Okay so I kind of figured out the time line. So it's after the episode, When The World Crumbles and the one after that-when they run away and come back. Basically Mrs. Carlin's thoughts of Spencer with Ashley and being gay are the same. Clay and Chelsea have obviously had the baby, and Chelsea is going to a small art school and Clay is at Cal State. Glenn as stated before in chapter one, is going to Cal State as well, the Long Beach version.  If you have any questions on the holes in this story-I'm sure I left something out, lol-ask and I'll reply to you. Thanks to my reviewers and those who have put my story on alert!

Chapter two

"You just won't admit to it ever will you?" Ashley asked, pain in her eyes. Spencer looked at the entrance to the kitchen where she knew her mom and mystery boy that she had brought home were waiting. Spencer was caught off guard when Mrs. Carlin walked into the house with a boy Spencer's age tagging along. Mrs. Carlin made up some stupid excuse to why he was there and as Spencer and Ashley watched them, Spencer knew what it was about. Mrs. Carlin was trying to get Spencer with a guy…again.

Spencer was so caught off guard with the whole thing Spencer never even fought back when Mrs. Carlin introduced Ashley as Spencer's best friend to the boy and suggested that maybe he and Spencer could go on a date. The silence on Spencer's end made Ashley mad and sparked them walking into the living room and fighting.

Spencer shrugged her shoulders and looked back at her with the same expression. "Yeah I will! It's just hard right now Ashley…" Spencer trailed off her gaze falling down towards the ground.

"Wake up Spencer! It's always hard." Ashley spat out and Spencer glanced back up at her not being able to believe how harsh Ashley was being on her.

"Whatever Ashley, I'm trying to get into Berkely to make my parents happy, everything is stressful and building up." Spencer explained but the expression on Ashley's face didn't change.

"That's Spencer Carlin for you, always trying to appease her parents." Ashley said as she crossed her arms over her shoulder and Spencer let out an angry sigh.

"Just because I actually have parents to appease." Spencer said, knowing right away that it was the wrong thing to do, but she couldn't help it; she was hurt.

"Screw you Spencer." Ashley walked quickly past Spencer and walked out of her living room. The door slammed behind her, the noise vibrating in Spencer's bones.

Spencer glanced back towards her mom and the boy, Brain she thought, as they walked into the living room. Shaking her head at the both of them Spencer bit back the tears that wanted to spill from her eyes and walked up to her room.

000

Spencer woke up, her alarm clock beeping loudly in her ear. Reaching her hand over to the device she carefully turned it off and opened her eyes. The dream about the last time she had spoken to Ashley rang in her mind and she felt butterflies in her stomach. There was a huge chance that Spencer could be side by side Ashley Davies once again, and the thought made Spencer just a little nervous.

Spencer sat up in bed and pulled her long, blond hair behind her shoulders and tied it in a loose ponytail. She glanced over to Aubrey's side of the room and saw that her bed was empty and it looked just like it did the night before, obviously Aubrey hadn't made it back the night before.

Letting out a sigh Spencer quickly pushed her blanket off of her and walked over to her closet. She pulled out jeans and a tank top and quickly got dressed. After checking the clock Spencer realized she had another thirty minutes to be able to catch breakfast in the cafeteria. She grabbed her purse and walked out of the dorm room locking it on her way out.

000

After breakfast Spencer walked back to her dorm, taking the longest way there, she needed the time to be able to mull things over. She had to figure out what she would say if Ashley did drop by. Holding onto her purse strap Spencer walked out in the California air and thought about all the things she wanted to say to Ashley.

But what would Spencer even say? The last time they had spoken Ashley was mad at Spencer for not admitting to dating Ashley and for wanting to appease her parents. What would Spencer say to Ashley, that she's doing great on appeasing her parents and even dated a guy? Shaking her head as she reached the dorms Spencer didn't know what to say to Ashley if she did show up.

Spencer walked into her dorm room and found Aubrey sitting on her own bed, chatting on her cell phone. "I know!" She exclaimed into the phone and glanced up at Spencer shut the door behind her.

Aubrey mouth a 'hey' to Spencer and Spencer smiled back in return. Spencer crossed the room to her side and plopped down into her chair parallel to her desk. She let out a sigh and flipped open her notebook with all of her notes and started to go over all of her notes. She had another lecture in three hours and she wanted to be fully ready for it, she didn't want to find herself lost a week before midterms.

Spencer glanced at the pen written words and started to leaf through them, going over the information again, trying to get familiar with it. "Ohmigod! That's like so gay!" Spencer glanced over her shoulder and saw Aubrey laughing on her phone, obviously very into the conversation she was having with the person on the other line.

So gay? Spencer completely forgot people even talked like that. Heaving out a sigh Spencer stared at Aubrey and realized that she set herself apart from that world sense AShely. Even though it was a part of Spencer and who she was, she didn't act on it like she did when she was with Ashley. Spencer could barely even remember what it was like to be in that lifestyle.

Spencer had barely even had a physical relationship since Ashley. There had been Robbie, btu the two of them had barely even made out. It was more hand holding, talking to each other late on the phone and telling each other everything-excluding Spencer's whole spent most of high school sleeping with a girl thing, of course.

Spencer shook her head and turned back to her notes. She just wanted to study for her stupid midterms, she really didn't want to think about Ashley, relationships, expectations, other people's views or anything else. She just wanted to pass her midterm.

000

An hour later Spencer was still sitting in her dorm room studying her notes, while Aubrey sat on her bed painting her fingernails. Spencer let out a sigh as she finished reviewing another page of notes and lifted her head up and then back down, stretching out her muscles.

There was a knock on the door as Spencer was getting into the flow of reading another page. Aubrey leapt off her bed, her nails sticking straight out as she flung open the door. "Ohhh Spence, it's for you!" Aubrey said in a singsong voice and Spencer felt her heartbeat quickly.

Thinkign it was Ashley Spencer smoothed her hair out and stood up from her desk slowly. She turned around and was caught off guard when she stood there staring at a medium built, dark haired, blued eyed Robbie Smith. "H-hey." Spencer stuttered out and she noticed that Robbie was holding something in his hands. "What's that?" She asked her gaze falling to the object he was grasping.

Robbie smiled at Spencer and then glanced down at the object in hand. "Oh…it's a cd and necklace you left in my dorm. I just found them today." He explained and he stepped closer to Spencer.

Spencer nodded her head, that would be the only reason he would be in Spencer's dorm room. "Oh." She said and walked up to Robbie and took the objects from is hands. "Thanks." She smiled at Robbie and Robbie glanced at Spencer with a nervous expression.

"So…" He trailed off and Spencer nodded her head in response.

"I don't want to be rude or anything…but I have midterms next week." She explained glancing back at her desk.

"Oh yeah, see you around Spencer." He mumbled and walked out of the dorm quickly, obviously hurt.

"Wow Spence, harsh." Aubrey said as the door shut behind Robbie.

Spencer tossed the cd and necklace on her shelf and shrugged her shoulders at Aubrey. "What?" She asked playing clueless even though she knew what this was going to be about, but she figured that no matter what she said, Aubrey was going to talk. And talk some more.

"He's totally in love with you." She stated simply and Spencer nodded as she walked over to her desk.

"He might be…but I'm somewhere else right now." Spencer admitted, Ashley's face randomly popping into her head for some reason unknown to Spencer.

"What happened?" Aubrey asked leaning on the edge of her bed, as close as she could get to Spencer.

Spencer glanced at Aubrey and remembered why they had broken up months ago. Their relationship had been going strong and it was all okay, but then something just hit Spencer and she didn't want to be in a relationship. It was an odd case where Spencer liked Robbie but didn't want to date him, relationship was something Spencer didn't want all that much. "It was me. I just didn't want to be in a relationship anymore." Spencer explained and Aubrey nodded her head.

"Ooookay. I don't get it, but I'm sure it makes sense to you." She said and Spencer shook her head. She highly doubted Aubrey hadn't been in a relationship since she was in junior high. These things were harder for Spencer, especially after her self-discovery when Ashley came into the picture.

"Yeah." Spencer mumbled and turned her attention back to her notes and the midterm.