Thanks for the reviews "Someone" "Guest" and "Classic Vision" :)


Yelling and cheering could be heard from the guys locker room and a crowd gathered in the center of the room. The football players seemed to be in some sort of huddle. Sounds typical on game day.

"You made me look like an idiot!"

Vince yelled in Tj's face as he shoved him against the lockers. Tj pushed Vince back and he fell to the ground, he quickly got back on his feet and threw a fist at Tj. Tj was able to react quickly and catch the fist before it could make contact with his face.

"We're on the same team Vince!"

Tj was thrown at the lockers again, at this point their team mates started the "Fight fight fight" chant.

"Okay break it up! Break it up!" An older man pushed himself through the sea of football players and ripped Vince off of Tj.

"LASALLE!" The coach waved his index finger in Vince's face. One more stunt like that and you're off the team!"

He turned to the rest of the team who were still gathered around Tj and Vince. "Same goes for all of you! We're all on the same team here. We fight together not against each other, you hear me?"

"Yes sir." A few voices mumbled.

"Now get changed and get out of here!"

The team started to disperse from the group 'huddle'. Vince and Tj had a brief stare down.

Lawson grabbed Vince's arm and led him towards the exit.

"Calm down man. Don't be La-stupid, the team needs you."

Vince scoffed. "Do they?"

Once Vince was out of sight, the coach went over to Tj who was sitting on a bench with his head in his hands. The coach sat down next to him and put his hand on Tj's shoulder.

"You okay kid?"

Tj nodded.

"What was that scuffle about?"

Tj shrugged. Vince may be a jerk now, but Tj ain't no tattle tale, it's part of the kids code of honor.

"You played a good game kid. That last minute plan you came up with showed some real quarter back potential, you seem to have a real knack for leadership."

"So I've been told." He muttered. The coach picked up on Tj's bad mood and stood up to leave.

"Well if you have any more game winning plans like that you know where to find me."

"Will do sir." Tj gathered his stuff, left the locker room and headed off towards the concession stand to meet up with Spinelli.

He took a short cut under the bleachers to avoid talking to any of his team mates about the game, the fight with Vince, or anything at all. The lights from the field didn't completely illuminate the space under the bleachers, Tj couldn't see too far ahead of him but he didn't think he could get into too much trouble under the bleachers.

"Ouch" Tj heard a guys voice shout.

"Oh Sorry...Gus?" Tj took Gus's hand and helped him to his feet.

"Oh uh hey Tj, what's up?" Gus nervously re-positioned the glasses on his face.

"Gus why are you hiding under the bleachers?"

"Oh I was just... looking for my glasses."

"They're on your face Gus." Tj raised an eyebrow knowing he was being lied to. "Is something wrong? Are you hiding from someone?"

"Nah I'm fine! I dropped my glasses when I was sitting on the bleachers and then... I came down here to find them... and then I found them and you found me... and here we are."

"Okay well Spinelli and I are going to Kelso's to celebrate, you wanna come?"

"Oh I can't my dad is picking me up... and now that I found my glasses I can go find him, I'll uh see you later Tj."

He laughed as Gus ran in the wrong direction of the parking lot. "That was strange, what's going on with that kid?"

Tj reached the other side of the bleachers and looked around for Spinelli. He found her talking to Hustler kid.

"Detweiler great job tonight, and thank you. This game generated a lot of betting. You really shook things up, nobody expected that last minute touch down you made."

"Yeah I lost 5 bucks cuz of it." Spinelli crossed her arms.

"Here consider this a commission." Hustler kid shook Tj's hand and slipped him a twenty dollar bill. He left before Tj could even try to give it back.

Tj shook his head and slipped the money in his wallet. He and Spinelli started walking towards Kelso's.

"How's your wrist?"

"Fine I guess. Worse comes to worse I'll be able to cream the Ashley's with my left hand. I'm just embarrassed that I fell in front of everyone during the half-time cheer." Spinelli blushed and crossed her arms. Tj took note and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't be embarrassed, it was pretty clear that they dropped you."

"They're still mad that I beat out Ashley Q. in tryouts, I bet that's why they dropped me."

"Knowing the Ashley's that's not unlikely. Just don't get into a fight or anything, you don't want to get kicked off the cheerleading squad."

"Drill team." Spinelli corrected him.

"Call it whatever you want, you're still a cheerleader." Tj grinned, and Spinelli shoved him playfully with her good hand.

"Ha did you see Vince's face when he saw me in my uniform this morning." The two of them stopped and laughed.

"Ha yeah I saw a lot of people react like that. You got to admit, 'Spinelli the cheerleader' is a pretty funny sight."

Obviously it was funny because their peers aren't used to seeing Spinelli do girly things, but the way Spinelli expressed her tough attitude while cheerleading was the most comical part about it. She was wearing her cheerleading uniform and like the rest of the squad had her hair up in high pigtails tied with ribbons of the schools colors- red and white. To remind everyone that she is still the toughest she wore her leather jacket and combat boots.

They stood there laughing for another minute until Tj remembered something. The smile slowly disappeared from his face. "Vince and I got into a fight tonight, he's pretty angry that I scored more touch downs than him."

"But you're on the same team!"

"That's what I said. He thinks I made a fool out of him, like everyone expected him to score all those touch downs."

"That's Vince though. He always has to be the best at everything, he always has to be the hero."

"That's what I told him, then things got kinda physical."

"What!?"

The two continued to walk towards Kelso's as Tj told her the event that happened in the locker room, they ordered shakes and sat down at the counter as Vince and the football team walked in.

"Uh Mr. Kelso can we get those shakes to go?"

Mr. Kelso handed Tj and Spinelli some to-go cups, he heard that Tj won the game so he gave them some doughnuts on the house. They started walking towards their street but stopped at a familiar place. Tj and Spinelli smiled at each other and ran towards old rusty. Tj started to climb the jungle gym and realized that Spinelli was having some issues due to her wrist injury from earlier that night.

"Need any help Spin?"

"I ain't no wimp." She continued to climb up slowly. Once she reached the top step she struggled to pull herself up, Tj took her arms and pulled her the rest of the way up. She gave him an annoyed look.

He rolled his eyes at her. "There's been enough fighting, drama, and injuries tonight, you can kick my butt for helping you later."

They looked around the playground and thought back to the years they spent there.

"Man I miss this place."

He handed Spinelli a doughnut and took one for himself. "Me too Spin, I can't believe we all met here 7 years ago."

"Except Gus, remember when you made that plan to get everyone to stop calling him 'new kid'... Where has that kid been lately?"

"I actually saw him tonight. He was hiding under the bleachers after the game, he was being really weird about it."

"What a weirdo."

The two remembered all the good and the bad times they had at Third Street Elementary; the time they knocked the statue of Thaddeus T. Third The Fifth, the time the Ashley's gave everyone ratings, and the time Menlo and Randall teamed up to rule the playground.

"If it wasn't for your pranking and scheming we would've never survived at this joint."

He grinned proudly. "Yeah I played a lot of good pranks at this old school."

"You sure did, remember when you got the title of prankster prince?"

"Yeah look at me now, I haven't pulled a good prank in a while. I don't deserve the title anymore."

"Jeeze middle school has not been good to us, we don't have friends anymore, and you've turned into a real Negative-Nancy."

"I'm Sorry?"

"It's not your fault, you don't have the great friends you use to have to back you up with your schemes."

"No but what if those great old friends of ours became one of my schemes."

"What?"

"If we could get the gang here some how they'd probably start reminiscing like us, and maybe they'd wanna be friends again."

"That's a great idea Tj."

"Vince is mad at me about the game so I need you to get him here, and Gretchen too. I'll get Mikey and Gus here. We'll plan it out this weekend."

"I'm starting to get cold, you wanna go catch something on the boob tube?"

Tj nodded. He put his jacket around Spinelli's shoulders, and they headed towards Tj's house