A/N - I'm glad you guys are enjoying this story! It really means a lot when you let me know that. Here's the next update for you all.

Thanks for being awesome readers :)

Chapter 3

Once Spencer had calmed down, she texted Sean to say she was sorry for biting his head off. As pissed off as she was, she knew he was only looking out for her. It didn't change how much she wished she'd had the chance to rearrange Madison's face, but deep down Spencer was happy that she hadn't given Madison the satisfaction of getting into trouble because of her. That didn't mean the blonde was going to let her get away with what she'd said. No, Spencer would just have to work on a long-term plan to get back at Madison.

Thankfully Sean was as forgiving as he was generous, so it didn't take him long at all to accept Spencer's apology. Soon enough they were back to exchanging messages during class to help with their first day boredom. If Spencer didn't have last period with Sean, she would have cut out early.

She was definitely done with today.

The blonde groaned when she walked into Home Ec to find Madison grinning at her. When Spencer was sure the teacher wasn't looking, she flipped Madison off and then took a seat at the back of the class. She didn't even acknowledge Ashley, who was sitting on the other side of Madison. Those days were over.

Spencer took out a notebook out of her bag so it looked like she was getting ready to pay attention. Instead, she was trying to figure out a way to fall asleep with her eyes open. She would have pretended to be sick so she could go to the nurse if it wouldn't cause Madison to think she was leaving because of her.

Ashley was trying to follow a conversation that Madison was having with her, but her mind kept wandering over to Spencer. It wasn't the first time that the blonde had made it difficult for Ashley to concentrate on anything, but today was different for some reason.

"Why are you spacing out, Davies?" Madison asked, annoyed. She was used to commanding the attention of anyone she wanted it from.

"Huh?" Ashley had no idea what was going on.

Madison turned to find out what was taking her friend's attention from what she was saying. When she saw the reason for her acting like a space cadet, her demeanor changed. "You two are so cute."

"Huh?" Ashley repeated, still clueless. She picked a hint of bitterness in Madison's tone, but couldn't figure out why. She really had to get it together.

"Hey, babe," Aiden called out as he strolled into the room.

From her chair, Spencer rolled her eyes. She tried not to pay attention, but it was hard when Aiden talked like the loud buffoon that he was. He walked over to his girlfriend's desk and gave Ashley a disgustingly sloppy kiss on the mouth.

Spencer was going to puke.

"Hey, Aiden," Ashley replied, somewhat embarrassed. She liked kissing Aiden just fine but she was not really one for public displays of affection.

"Are you blushing?" Madison was just as disgusted by that kiss as Spencer was. They would not be happy to hear they had something in common.

"Shut up!" Ashley whispered so Aiden couldn't hear her. There was always this weird tension when she was around Madison and Aiden. The three of them got along just fine, but there was an undercurrent of awkwardness. Ashley suspected it had something to do with Madison being jealous. That was not an idea she would ever bring up to her friend. Luckily Aiden was too busy talking to one of his jock friends to notice anything going on.

"Whatever," Madison replied already bored with the conversation.

Soon enough the teacher started talking. She introduced herself and Spencer took that as her cue to stop listening.

She already knew this was going to class she was going to dread going to the most.

Oh well, she thought to herself, how bad could things possibly get?

"That was the longest day ever," Spencer groaned after she had gotten in Sean's car. She was exhausted and aggravated by what had happened at lunch. She knew better than to let Madison get the better of her. "You are in so much trouble for making me go to school today."

"I'll pay you back by being your chauffer," Sean deadpanned. His day had been OK, with the exception of watching his friend have to suffer the indignity of talking to Madison.

Spencer put her sunglasses on, "Let's get going, Jeeves. Tut, tut, I have many social engagements and other things that rich people to do on my schedule."

Sean shook his head, but he did laugh. "Jeeves is the name of a butler, not a chauffer, you moron."

"Please, I don't have time for petty details like that," Spencer moved her hand around. "You may drive me now."

Their banter continued on the way home. Spencer rebuffed Sean's offer to go to his house before he dropped her off. He knew his parents wouldn't mind if she came over for dinner. But as much as Spencer was dreading seeing the condition her dad was in, she had to make sure he was OK. With a wave and a promise to text him later, Spencer got out his car and made the long walk up to her front door.

It was often in moments like this one where she'd find herself thinking of happier times. She used to love rushing through the front door after school knowing that either her mom or dad would be home with a snack and eager to find out her day was. She'd race Clay to see who could reach home first, with him more often than not letting his sister win. Then when the two of them were done rambling about their day and eating, they'd head upstairs to either start homework or play video games together. Spencer didn't mind that when she entered high school her brother was her best friend.

That wasn't always the case. She was close with Clay for as long as the blonde could remember. In fact, she had a hard time recalling when he wasn't a member of the family. But it wasn't until Spencer's social life took a huge hit that she got to spend so much time with Clay. Glen was never around and didn't share any of the same interests that Clay and Spencer shared. Plus, he was really popular and often seemed to care more about his friends than his family.

Maybe it wasn't fair to say that about Glen, but Spencer couldn't help but hold a grudge against him. He always seemed to ignore situations when the blonde could have used his help. Not to mention, when their family was falling apart, he would often give Spencer a hard time about being gay. It damaged their relationship to this day.

When Spencer opened her front door, she held her breath not sure what she would find. If it was a good day, her dad would have cleaned up and gone to work. If it was a bad day, he'd be drunk out of his mind. She hated those days. It wasn't that he was violent towards her when he was drinking. Spencer could take care of herself. It was more how emotional and messy he would get. It was hard being the only one in the house to deal with him when he was like that.

It also left a lot of responsibility for taking care of the house to Spencer. She loved her dad a lot, but at times she hated him very much. It's not like there was any alternative. Even if Spencer's mom offered her a place to stay, she'd rather be on the street than in the same house with that woman.

So, she accepted that things were not going to change any time soon. There were still moments and days when it was too much for the blonde. When that happened, it was easier to shut down her emotions than face what she couldn't deal with it.

It was how she coped.

When she got inside, Spencer was happy to see that her dad was not at home. It allowed her to have some peace and quiet while she dealt with the household chores that she had to do. There was laundry, dishes to clean and dinner to make.

"I live a glamorous life," Spencer said to herself before she started getting busy.

Her school year might have started out ominously, but a few weeks in and things had been relatively quiet for Spencer. Madison had mostly left her alone – not that she didn't relish the opportunity to tell her off the next time she dared speak to her – and things with her dad were surprisingly drama free. He seemed to be controlling his drinking a little more. Not that it was anything the two of them discussed. Class and teachers were lame because of course they were. Other than that, things weren't half bad.

Spencer had recently begun to think about getting a part-time job. She wanted to have the chance for some independence so she didn't have to rely on her dad for money. The problem was, she didn't have a car, and asking Sean to drive her to her job all the time wasn't an option. She was sure he would probably do it, but Spencer wasn't going to ask him to do that.

She was so lost in her thoughts about how to earn some extra cash that she didn't realize her teacher was making an announcement. It wasn't until the chatter of her classmates got loud enough that the Spencer decided she better find out what was going on.

"Will you please calm down?" Ms. Devereux requested impatiently. She was excited for everyone to hear her idea for the great project she'd come up with over the summer. It was her first year teaching and she was anxious to find out the student's reaction. "I'll go over all the details with you."

Spencer looked around the classroom. She was amazed that anyone cared enough to get worked up over a school assignment. Her eyes briefly connected with Ashley's, but Spencer shot the brunette a dirty look before she fixed her attention elsewhere.

"As I was saying," Ms. Devereux said once the class was silent again. "This project will account for 60% of your final mark," she paused for dramatic effect, "and I will be assigning you the partner that you will be working with." The collective groan that the students let out at that news was not enough to dull her enthusiasm. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Spencer listened with minimal interest as her teacher described what they would be working on. The idea of being fake married to someone in her class sounded like some kind of lame social experiment. Didn't anyone have any ideas of their own anymore? She wasn't too bothered though. Spencer would use her charm to make the guy she was partnered do all the work.

And if that didn't work, she would have to think of another way to get him to cooperate.

Ms. Devereux was talking so fast she hardly had the chance to breathe. She was sure that this idea of hers was going to have a deep and meaningful impact on her students. Failing that, at least it would give them some things to think about. "Now, because of the changing landscape in society, I have decided that there will be five couples matched up of the same sex." She didn't add that there was also an issue of an odd number of students along gender lines. Instead of making one couple that was two girls, she decided to add a few more so they wouldn't be the only ones.

Spencer laughed, maybe she had underestimated her teacher. This was surely going to cause an uproar of epic proportions among some of her peers.

On cue, Madison decided that she was going to have her opinion heard. "I refuse to be part of something that promotes deviant behavior." She said sternly. "This is unacceptable."

Ms. Devereux was not going to be intimidated by the likes of Madison Duarte. She would keep the fact that her one leg was shaking behind her desk to herself. "I won't tolerate hateful words like that in my classroom, Madison," she replied with authority. "You're free to leave any time but it's too late to drop this class and you will need the credit to graduate."

Madison was not one to be threatened. "I bet you this is her idea." She pointed right at Spencer and the whole class turned their attention to her. "She probably started some kind of online petition or something."

"You flatter me," Spencer replied before the teacher could respond. "But I warn you, if you try and do anything funny to me, I'll sic the gay mafia on you. They are not a forgiving bunch."

Everyone in the room went back to looking at Madison to see how she'd react to Spencer's comment.

"You hear that?" Madison shrieked like a crazy person. "She threatened me! You all heard that, right? You're going down, Spencer."

"If it's a good date, of course I would," Spencer smirked at a confused looking Madison.

The class erupted in laughter, which only enraged Madison further.

"That's enough!" Ms. Devereux shouted. She waited for everyone to stop making so much noise before she continued. "This is your last warning, Madison. One more outburst like that and it's the principal's office for you."

Madison slunk back in her seat, but not before giving Spencer a look that said: "This isn't over."

Spencer responded by waving back with a big smile.

"That bitch is going to pay," Madison muttered quietly, but loud enough for Ashley to hear.

Ashley did not like the sound of that. But there was nothing she could do except hope that Madison would forget whatever dumb vendetta she had against Spencer.

Ms. Devereux started to announce the partners to get things started. "Madison Duarte," there was a hushed sense of anticipation when Madison's name was called, "and Aiden Dennison."

Madison had gone from enraged to elated in a matter of seconds. Only good things could come out of spending time with one of the cutest boys in school.

"Don't worry, Ash," she flashed her friend an overly friendly smile, "I'll take good care of your man."

Ashley wasn't quite sure how to respond. There was something very insincere about Madison right then but she was sure that it was all in her head. Besides, she'd been with Aiden for two years. What did she have to worry about? Aiden started to play along, too, and that only made her more apprehensive.

Spencer felt almost happy. There was clearly going to be trouble in the world of the popular kids and she couldn't see wait to see it play out.

Her good mood was shattered moments later, when the next partner group was announced.

"Spencer Carlin and Ashley Davies," Ms. Devereux said, much to the horror of two very shell shocked people.

There was no way this was going to end well.