Yay, another chapter and 4 more reviews!! I've decided I'm going to try and get one chapter up every night, because I hate reading a story that never, ever gets updated, but I may not manage it every night, because I get quite a lot of homework.

lozzard-wellard: Thanks for the review! I agree completely- I'm not gay but I hate homophobia, if someone is gay it doesn't make them any less of a person. I love Mikey too! He's the best :D

Rockthis: Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you like this, and what happened to TJ is in this chapter, along with what happened to several others :D

anon: Thanks for reviewing! I wanted to make Gus the popular one because most people go with Vince and I wanted to shock them. Gus isn't the only one who's changed either, prepare for another shock people!

abby: Thanks for the review! It does seem unusual, but Gus does become 'cool' in that episode where he stops wearing his glasses, I can't remember what that's called though. :P

Right, I'll leave you to read Chapter 3! Adios!

If Ashley had been drinking something at that moment, she would probably have spat it out into Mikey's face in shock; however, luckily for Mikey, Ashley wasn't drinking something, so she just gaped wide open in shock.

Mikey's eyes widened in suspicion. "Why do you look so shocked?"

God Ashley, you need to become a better actress, she said. But then she remembered something.

"Oh- I seem to remember some guy called Gus Griswald at my elementary school," she lied. "He only stayed a few months- he was a bit of a dork, he had no friends at all… I never thought he'd turn out like that."

"He went to my elementary school too," Mikey said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "He moved around a lot because his dad was in the army- but in sixth grade his dad got killed in the front line, so he and his mom live here now. We used to be friends…" Mikey suddenly looked horrified. "Ashley, please don't tell people I told you that."

"I swear I won't," Ashley promised. Suddenly the fire alarm stopped ringing and kids started going back inside. Ashley saw one fire fighter talking to the principal and shaking his head. "You should really get your kids to give up smoking," he said.

Other than the fire drill, the day was quite uneventful up until lunch. Ashley and Mikey where together in every class but one, then at lunch, Randall came over and sat with them.

"Ah, see you've met Mikey," Randall said, grinning foolishly. "He writes the poetry column on the school paper."

"Yeah, Mikey said he was into poetry," Ashley said, smiling as she remembered how talented Mikey was as a ten-year-old; he must be absolutely amazing now, like nothing on this earth.

Randall suddenly whipped out a notebook and started scribbling away like crazy. Ashley remembered that he wanted to write a report about her for the school paper, but she hadn't told him anything about her, had he?

Mikey, who was sitting next to Randall, saw Ashley's worried expression and read Randall's notes. "He's writing about what you're having for lunch today," he said, smiling. Ashley sighed, relieved.

After lunch, Randall took Ashley on a tour of the school grounds. Randall was explaining to her exactly who everyone was, and when he saw something exciting happening, he'd stop and go, "Randall gets another scandal!", whip out his camera, take a snapshot and scribble hastily in his notebook. Mikey came along too, which Ashley was glad about.

"That's Gretchen Grundler," Randall said, pointing to a tall, pale, skinny girl with auburn hair in a neat bun. She was wearing a yellow cardigan with a bottle green pleated skirt, carried a stack of books and wore huge spectacles. "Smartest girl in school. She could have graduated from college years ago."

Wow. Gretch hasn't changed a bit, Ashley thought to herself. Seeing Gus as a jock was a huge shock for her, and she hoped that everyone else was exactly the same; she didn't cope well with change.

Sadly people don't always get what they want.

There had been several questions running around Ashley's head all day. Has anyone noticed I'm Spinelli yet? If Gus is the popular guy, then what happened to Vince? I thought if anyone would be the popular sports star, it'd be him… and where the hell is TJ?

The second of those questions was about to be answered.

Ashley, Mikey and Randall came across three guys with dreadlocks and tye-dye T-Shirts. There were two who looked like brothers sitting watching the third one, who was performing a complicated trick on his skateboard and making it look extremely easy. He had dark skin and black dreadlocks.

"The skaters," Randall said unnecessarily. "Sam and Dave Parker- they're those guys sitting down. And the one on the skateboard is Vince Lassell. He was the basketball star in middle school, and the most popular guy- but after an argument with Guy, he quit the team and turned his sports talents to skating. And Guy became the most popular dude in school- it's been that way ever since."

Wow. Ashley really wasn't expecting that. When she'd noticed Vince wasn't amongst Gus and the rest of the basketball team, she'd thought he'd either moved away or been snatched up by professionals by now. It had never even crossed her mind that he would be hanging out with the skaters.

So Mikey's still the same old Mikey, and Gretchen's still the same old Gretchen. Vince is a skater and Gus is a total jerk… but where- and who- is TJ?

The bell rang, indicating the end of lunch. Mikey and Randall were in gym class together, and Ashley had French. They were in totally opposite directions, so Mikey and Randall told Ashley where to go, said their goodbyes and went off one way, leaving Ashley to look at the small map of the school that Randall had given her.

She heard a voice going, "Psst!" She looked around to see where it was coming from, but everyone she could see was walking to class.

"Over here! In this corner," the unfamiliar voice whispered, and Ashley followed the voice into a dark corner, where she saw a guy stood there, leaning against the wall. He was wearing a long, brown coat and had dark spiky hair.

Hustler Kid!

Ashley walked over, and Hustler Kid opened his coat to reveal several small, white packets in there.

"You wanna buy some weed?" He whispered. "I'm selling it for a very reasonable price."

"I- uh- don't do drugs," Ashley said, her insides going numb. She ran away, and Hustler Kid shouted, "Come on, don't be boring!" But she ignored him.

As she sat in French class, she thought about Hustler Kid. She remembered how in elementary school he would sell fake hall passes and maps to the teacher's houses. But now in high school, he had obviously advanced to bigger, better things.

She wondered why she'd thought everything would be like Third Street and everyone would just be like taller versions of their old selves. Because she'd been home-schooled, she couldn't see for herself the changes that occurred in middle school and early high school. She should have known people would have changed.

But why? Why did people have to change? Why couldn't everything stay the same all the time? Ashley hated change. It was all pointless to her.

After French, Ashley had math, and as she was walking down, she felt a strong hand push her to the floor. A huge guy towered over her- he was the same size as Mikey, but Ashley got the feeling he wasn't a gentle giant like her friend. He was well muscled, and he wore a black leather jacket and torn jeans. He had brown hair gelled up into spikes, which were tipped with electric blue. He had a silver ring in his eyebrow. He looked more like a rock star than a high school student.

And something about the way he was scowling menacingly at her made her feel very, very uncomfortable.

"You got a name, new girl?"

"Um… Ashley. Ashley Mills."

"Right… well, Ashley Mills, that's a nice name. A name that would look good on a gravestone. Because your name will be on a gravestone if you mess with me. Got that?"

Ashley nodded, and the bully glowered at her for another minute before sloping off to class, leaving Ashley very scared. She made a mental note not to cross paths with this guy; because judging by the way he was scowling at her, he was deadly serious about this death threat.

After math, Ashley had science. The teacher, Doctor Black, looked like Santa Claus, minus the beard. He wore a lab coat and smiled at the class as they sat down.

"OK, class… first of all, you're all going to pick a partner, who you'll sit with all year, and do experiments with."

Of course, everyone else had their friends- jocks with jocks, cheerleaders with cheerleaders, nerds with nerds, drama geeks with drama jeeks, skaters with skaters- it was like Noah's Ark. Until there were only four people left- Ashley, Randall, Gretchen and the mean boy from the corridor.

Ashley was hoping she could be partners with Gretchen, and thinking she would probably be partners with Randall. But Randall shuffled over to Gretchen, leaving her with the only person she hoped she wouldn't have to work with- the boy from the corridor.

He grinned evilly at her. "We meet again, Mills."

Oh no. Ashley thought of science. She thought of all the dangerous acids and chemicals involved. This guy would probably be such a hazard (yes Loz, I had to include it somewhere :D), and she'd be stuck with him all year.

"Just write your names on the seating plan I'm passing around class, so I can learn all of your names," Dr. Black said, passing the seating plan to Randall and Gretchen, who signed it first.

Ashley and her mean partner were the last to sign their names on the seating plan. Ashley was going to write her name on it first but the guy snatched the paper from her, so violently it caused the paper to tear. He scrawled his name and shoved the seating plan in Ashley's direction.

Ashley was just about to write her name, when she saw what the name was of the boy sitting next to her, and it caused her to almost faint with shock. Because there, in black and white, surrounded by skulls, was the very name that had been running through her head all day, for seven years in fact:

TJ Detweiler.

Dun.

Dun.

DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!