Disclaimer: I sadly do not own South of Nowhere. Tom Lynch does; I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement and yours. I however do own the unfamiliar characters.
Summery: Ashley has never had a roommate until her senior year at Dogwood Academy. Now she is thrown together with Spencer... Ashley wants Spencer but Spencer is questioning everything her new roommate tells her all because of rumors. Spashely, OC/OC, Madison/OC
Author's Note: Another chapter up. Another chapter towards the end. Next chapter should be up by the end of the week. Maybe more with Christmas a week away. Anyways here ya go. Again reviews are welcomed.
Ashley was pounding the punching bag being Faith held as Madison jumped rope. "SO how was your night, Faith?" Madison asked.
"Nothing special." She replied, holding tighter to the bag as Ashley went double time on it.
"Really? How come?"
"Nothing happened." She let go of the bag, nodding towards the ring looking at Ashley. "Let's spare."
Looking at the clock on the wall showing it was 7:15. "Yeah let's do a half." Both girls walked over to the ring with Madison following. "Mads, you ref." Entering the ring Madison had the two girls touch gloves.
"Shouldn't you be wearing the helmets?" Madison asked, before they started.
"NOPE!" Both girls answered making it sound mumbled through the mouthpieces.
"Whatever. Fight!" Quickly moving out of the center of the ring allowing the girls to start throwing punches. Getting bored she started verbalizing a commentary, "New York lands a one-two combo in the gut, Hollywood connects with a quick jab to the head. Davies lands another hit to the head and another. Knight comes back with another one-two combo to the stomach followed by a jab to the face, which connects. Davies looks dazed. Oh she's back with another combo to the head, damn Faith has a hard head. Knight pushes her away; both girls circle the other taking a breather. Hey come on fight! Oh they're back taking out all that tension." At that statement both girls stopped and took out their mouthpieces.
"Tension?" The both asked, staring at the Latina.
"Yeah now fight. You've got 15 more minutes." The girls' shrugged their shoulders, replaced their mouthpieces and resumes wailing on the other. "Whoa nice hook by Davies, countered with a upper cut from Knight. Oh Ashley is down. She's not getting up." Quickly moving to the fallen girl, Faith had already removed both of the mouthpieces. "How hard did you hit her?"
"Not as hard as she was hitting me. I connected with her chin." She quickly responded, checking out their fallen friend. "Get the salts." She ordered, taking Ashley's gloves off and unwrapping her wrists. Madison came back with the smelling salts, broke one and waved it under the unconscious girls' nose. With a jump, Ashley swung her fist in the air, which collided with Faith shoulder.
"FUCK! That hurt." She screamed, cradling her hand against her body. "How'd I end up down here?" Pushing herself off the hard floor.
"I hit you." Faith told her, helping her leave the ring. "Come on let's shower and get to class."
Spencer and Keira walked into their last class of the day neither had seen their roommates at all today. Ashley and Faith were missing from first period and Madison told them they did have the same lunch just something come up. Sitting in the back of the class were Madison and Gregor in front of Ashley and Faith, walking towards the group stopping just short of the seats. "What happened?" Keira asked, staring at the swollen faces of the two girls', Spencer moved closer to Ashley looking closer at the bruises that covered the girls' face.
"Training was rough this morning…" Faith answered as the teacher walked into the room, causing the room to fall silent.
"Welcome to Senior Lit. Dr. Leslie Shaver for your learning experience." The young looking teacher introduced herself her long brown hair was pulled back being held into place with a pencil. "Hey Davies, Knight, next time wear the helmets."
"Yes, Coach." The girls' answered, trying to hide in the back of the room.
"Many of you know I'm the coach of the girls boxing team. So here's the only pitch I'm making this year. Anyone is welcomed to try-out. Any questions ask the three national champs in the back of the room." She stated pointing the bruised girls and Madison; each tried to get lower in their seats to hide from the stares they were getting. "Now I see we've got some new faces this year. So what we're going to have each one of you come up here and tell the class something about yourself." Glancing towards the class roster, she started randomly calling up students.
"Gregor Cameron," The blonde boy walked up to the front, keeping his eyes on Madison. "Hey Greg Cameron, a.k.a. Irish. Born and raised in Boston Mass. I played lead and sang for a band back home. Before this year, my sister and I never have been off the East Coast. That's about it."
"Hope you both enjoy it here." Dr. Shaver encouragingly stated, looking at the list. "Faith Knight. Keep it clean."
"Name's New York. National Middleweight Champion. Been here since I was in 7th grade. So, yous know me. If you don't than you're…" Her New York accent coming through.
"KNIGHT!" Leslie yelled, stopping the raven hair girl before she finished that sentence. "Back to your seat." Faith walked back to her seat with the biggest smirk on her face. Dr. Shaver continued calling people up, leaving the four girls for last. "Madison Duarte."
"Mexico's the name. National Lightweight Champion. I grew up in New Mexico, been here for years. I play bass." She quickly stated before heading back to her seat.
"Keira Cameron."
"Yo, I grew up in Boston which is how I got my nickname. I play drums with my brother's band back home. I'm bi, mostly lean towards hot dark hair women who love to…"
"That's enough," the teacher interrupted, pointing her back to her seat. "You must be Knight's new roommate."
"HELL YEAH!" Faith yelled, gaining a cheer from their group.
"Spencer Carlin." Leslie yelled over the cheering teens, only to have them go wild as the blushing blonde walked up to the front.
"Hi. I'm from North Carolina where my dad is on the staff at UNC. I play bass and guitar. Both my brothers are in college. We had a band together up until they left. Ummm that's about it." Spencer turned towards the teacher who was watching the teens in the back.
"Take your seat then. Davies get up here." Ashley bounded
"Hollywood's my hometown. You all know who I am. National Heavyweight Champion. Lead singer for 'The Conquers'. Jimmy's every weekend. Come on by. Captain of the Boxing team. Okay, Coach is that enough?" She asked, annoyed about introducing herself to her classmates that she's know since she was 12 years old.
"Yeah, Davies. Keep them quiet or you'll see laps." She threatens grabbing a book off her desk. "For the next 2 months or so we'll be reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Who has already read it?" Six hands flew up in the back. "Good. You six get to do a 5 page report due by the end of the week. Full report. Davies, Knight, purchase this essay and you fail lit. Understand?"
"Yes Coach." Both groaned thinking about training later when she would make them do the work.
"Now those of you who have not read this classic. Grab a copy and start reading. Class dismissed." The class poured out of the room each grabbing the book. "Davies, Camerons, Knight, Duarte and Carlin stop." She ordered as the six teens tried to leave. "Sit. Good. Three of you are transfer and the other three are my regulars in my advance classes. So, tell me why I should believe that you read this book already. Carlin?" She asked looking at the shy blonde.
"The theme of the book is the predatory nature of human existence," The blonde answered, looking down.
"No it's the importance of fraternity and idealized relationships between men," Gregor argued staring at the blonde who looked at him as if he was crazy.
"No you're wrong. It's the impossibility of the American Dream," Ashley stated, smirking at how the blondes were looking dumb founded.
"No Hollywood, it's the destructive imbalance of social power structures in American society," Faith answered, having the three look at her as if she grew a third head.
"You're all right." Keira corrected, looking to Dr. Shaver to agree with her.
"Why, Ms Cameron you are the first to get that. So Duarte what was the foreshadowing?"
"Lennie petting the dead mouse, Lennie being run out of Weed for the incident involving the girl in the red dress, and Lennie killing his puppy. All of which anticipate Lennie accidentally killing Curley's wife; the death of Candy's dog, which anticipates the death of Lennie; Candy's regret that he didn't kill his old dog himself, which anticipates George's decision to shoot Lennie" She answered quickly, not taking her eyes off the teacher.
"Okay you guys have read this novel. Now go write the essay and the first one to turn it in gets a treat." The brunette left the room with the six teens still sitting there.
"Did she just quiz us?" Keira asked, again picking her book bag up.
"Yeah. Let's go get this report done." Ashley ordered, making her way out of the classroom. The others followed quickly, all heading towards the girls' dorms.
Entering the lobby again the guard nodded and added, "Had a nice night?"
"Sure did Jerry." Ashley answered as Madison unlocked the elevator.
"What's with the keys? No one else uses them. And your dorm is the only one with guards? What's up with them?" Gregor asked, wondered as they all entered the elevator.
"This elevator only goes to one floor. Yes it has all the numbers but it'll still take you to our floor. Those who live on this floor have a key. Copies can't be made. Somehow, the lock reads it as a copy. Ash found that out. The guards, well they are supposed be there to stop anyone from coming up here. The only reason you can Greg is that you are always with one of us or all of us. There are no stairs leading to our floor, no other entrance to the floor. Just this elevator, which sucks for Ash and it looks like Keira." Madison finished her speech as the ride stopped and both mentioned girls flew out of the elevator and waited for the rest to join them.
"Isn't that against some fire code or something." Spencer asked, unlocking her room.
"I don't know. Never thought about it." Ashley answered, motioning the group to come into their room. Gregor followed the two into the room as the three other girls went to get their laptops. Shortly after they entered the room to start on the report.
Two hours later the group was still searching the Internet for sources for their reports. "Fuck this!" Keira screamed, throwing the notebook that once laid on her knee.
"Keira, shut up." Gregor mumbled, scanning the book.
"Why are we even doing this? We did this last year. I'm using that report. It passed and I'm sick of trying to analyze this fucking book." She stated, typing quickly on her laptop. She got up and exited the room only to return a few minutes later with the report all ready to hand in. "Finished."
"You're right. Give me your laptop," Gregor grabbed the laptop and followed his sisters' example. "I knew you were the smart one."
"Spence?" Ashley tried getting her roommates' attention since she had not spoken in over an hour. Hearing no response, she got off her bed and snuck over to the sleeping blonde. Pulling the earplugs out filling the room with heavy metal beats shook the blonde. The blonde mumbled something but stayed asleep. Ashley glanced at the faces that were now watching her and quickly threw the sleeping girl onto the floor.
"What the hell?" Spencer screamed as the room filled with laughter. "What a bitch you are." She told Ashley who was laying on the blondes' bed.
"Aww yes I am." Ashley crooned laughing. "So how far are you into the report?"
"Finished." She stated, getting back up onto her bed.
"How? You've been asleep for at least an hour." Keira asked, staring at the other blonde with dismay.
"Oh, I used the report I did at my old school."
"So the newbies are ahead of us. GREAT!" Faith screamed, slamming her laptop closed.
"I've got an idea." Spencer stated, after thinking for a moment.
