Rin Naiya: Thanks for your review! Haha, you're welcome :D I love that episode 'Parents Night'! I would be so embarrassed if my parents turned up, got all my friends' names wrong and basically humiliated me in front of everyone :P Enjoy this chapter!

Fauna Greywolf: Sorry I left you hanging there for so long! Thanks for reviewing, enjoy :D

shana852963: I leave you in suspense because it's part of my charm :) lol, I loved writing Libby's little bit of dialogue, she's adorable, I wish she was my little sister or something :D Thanks for reviewing, enjoy!

abby: Yay, I'm really, really close now! :D Haha lol, good advice :P Did you hear that Spinelli??... lol, thanks for reviewing, enjoy chapter 10 :D

have-a-cookie: (and her conscience) LOL, your review made me laugh! Hope you made a good recovery :D Thanks for reviewing, enjoy this chapter!

RedAsARose: Thanks for the review, glad you like my story! :D Enjoy this chapter!

Trish: Before school started again I updated really fast, but now, I can't seem to anymore. I think it's either because we get so much homework now we're in Year 9 that I never get time to write, or because I don't have as many ideas as I used to. Anyways, thanks for reviewing, glad you like the story! Enjoy Chapter 10!

lozzard-wellard: Thanks for your review, glad you like the story! If you want to know what happens then keep reading :D Enjoy!!

Jayla Starlight: Thank you so much for reviewing! I enjoyed making the characters different, quite a lot of people keep TJ sweet and either make Gus move away or stay the way he is in the series! Will Gretchen tell Gus, you'll have to read to find out :) Enjoy!!

GOOD NEWS FOR ALL BRITISH TJ/SPIN FANS!! Disney Channel are showing 'The Experiment' on Tuesday at 10am! :D

GOOD NEWS FOR ME!! After this chapter is posted, I'll have FINALLY reached 100,000 words!! :D :D :D

Sorry I kept you waiting again, hope you find this is worth the wait :)

Ashley Mills stared at the cell phone in her hand in horror. It had taken a few minutes for Gretchen's words to register in her mind, and now they had, she could only think one thought: I can't tell TJ. I can't tell TJ. I can't…

"You there, Spinelli?" Gretchen asked.

"Don't call me that! I'm not Spinelli anymore, it's Ashley now!" Ashley yelled.

"Well, what do you think?" Gretchen said impatiently. "Are you going to tell him… or not?"

"I can't just decide here and now, Gretchen!" Ashley snapped. "It's first thing in the morning, I'm so tired I think I might collapse and you're expecting me to just ask me some really important question and give you an answer straight away?"

"Yes," Gretchen said matter-of-factly.

"I'm not too sure," Ashley said, and Gretchen must have detected the suspicious edge in her voice, because she said, "What's the matter? Don't you trust me?"

"I suppose I'll have to, won't I?!" Ashley snapped.

"OK, if you don't trust me, then I'll go first," Gretchen said. "I mean, what you said at the hospital was right- Gus needs to know. I'm going to tell him. Today. And you're going to be there when I tell him."

"What?!" Ashley said. "Are you crazy?! I can't! I can't be there when you tell him you've got a kid with him!"

"You don't have to be," Gretchen said simply. "Where do you live?"

Ashley, without thinking, blurted out her address- hey, it was first thing in the morning.

"OK," Gretchen said with an air of smugness in her voice, "I'll be over in around half an hour."

"You're coming over?!" Ashley said. "But- but- I'm not dressed! And it's early! And… well… you can't just invite yourself over to my house!"

"I know you didn't. But your mom did." Gretchen said, the smug tone still there. "She said at the hospital that I was welcome to come over anytime I want."

"But not at 7:16-" "See you soon, Spinelli."

Ashley opened her mouth to protest, but Gretchen had hung up. She threw down her cell phone on the floor. "URRGGHH!!" she yelled, not caring who she woke up. She'd been rudely awoken at this ridiculously early hour, it wouldn't kill the neighbours if they had to wake up too.

"Morning, Pookie!" her mom called out cheerfully from the kitchen below.

Ashley angrily stomped into the bathroom to take a quick shower and threw on her oldest clothes. Just as she had pulled her (odd) socks over her freezing feet, the doorbell rang.

She heard her mother answer the door, call Gretchen 'Gretel' and offer her a drink. Then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and saw Gretchen open the door and come into her room. She looked like she had put a lot of effort into her appearance- her hair was down again, and she was wearing makeup, even though she didn't need it. She was wearing a turquoise tank top, denim jeans and blue dolly shoes.

"Hi," Gretchen said in a business-like tone. She gently laid the black laptop bag she had over her shoulder down on Ashley's bed.

"Uh, hi." Ashley said, staring at the laptop bag. "Why have you brought your laptop?"

Gretchen didn't answer, she just opened up her laptop and started tapping away at the keys like mad. Ashley watched, amazed. She had no idea what she was doing or how she was doing it. She'd kind of forgotten how smart Gretchen could be and how much of a computer whiz she was.

"There!" Gretchen said after a few minutes, sitting back, looking satisfied and triumphant.

"Uh- Gretchen? What was that all about?" Ashley asked.

"Oh! The laptop? I was connecting it to my webcam, look," Gretchen said; she pressed a key on the laptop and Ashley's surprised face appeared on the screen.

"Webcam?" Ashley said. "You… have a webcam… in my room…?"

"No! Who do you think I am, some sort of pervert?" Gretchen said, laughing. "No, the webcam is one I installed in my glasses. It means you can see everything I see, and hear everything I hear using my laptop."

"Ah," Ashley said, realisation dawning in. "So that means-"

Gretchen nodded. "I'm going to tell Gus, and you're going to watch on the laptop while I tell Gus."

"Um… you know, if you'd just said that you'd told Gus, then I-"

"I thought you didn't trust me?" Gretchen cut in, and she smiled when Ashley looked taken aback and didn't reply.

There was a knock on Ashley's bedroom door. "Come in!" Ashley said. It was Flo, of course, with a bowl of snacks in her hands. She gently placed them down on Ashley's bedside table and smiled at the girls.

"You two have fun!" Flo said, smiling and leaving. Gretchen smiled as Spinelli winced; her old friend's mom had not changed a bit.

Ashley looked at Gretchen. She seemed so calm, so collected. Not as if she was going to tell the most popular guy in school that thanks to a one-night stand when they were thirteen, he was the father of her child, whom everyone thought was her sister and could have leukaemia. She felt a sudden rush of respect and admiration for Gretchen- she couldn't even imagine staying this strong when she had to tell TJ…

As much as she thought Gus needed to know about Libby, part of her was hoping that Gretchen would back out so she wouldn't have to tell TJ who she really was. But she knew that wasn't going to happen, from the determined look in Gretchen's green eyes as she said, "I'd better be going," and they way she walked out of the door with her head held high.

"Good luck, Gretchen," Ashley whispered to the laptop screen as she settled down on her bed. She watched as Gretchen passed the houses in her street. She passed a few familiar places- Third Street School, Kelso's- even her old street, where TJ would be sleeping…

At last Gretchen came to Gus's house and rang the doorbell. The door was instantly answered by a small, thin woman. She had grey hair in a bob and wore glasses. She was wearing a fluffy pink jumper and no makeup. Both Ashley and Gretchen could see that she looked like someone who'd lost all hope, lost all will to live- they could tell that from the emptiness in her grey eyes.

"Oh- hello," Mrs. Griswold said quietly. "Can- can I help you?"

"My name is Gretchen Grundler," Ashley heard Gretchen's voice say calmly. "I was wondering if I could have a word with your son?"

"Oh- of course you can, dear," Mrs. Griswold said, an empty smile looming across her ghostly face. "Come in… make yourself at home… I'll just go and wake Gus up."

As Mrs. Griswold went upstairs to wake Gus, Gretchen felt nervous for the first time since arriving. She went through to the living room and looked at the pictures on the wall.

Ashley too could see these pictures, all three of them, framed and looking like they were cleaned every day. The first one was of a man in a smart army uniform saluting, and Ashley remembered what Mikey had told her on her first day about Gus's dad being killed in battle in sixth grade. Maybe that was the reason why Mrs. Griswold looked so… in despair.

The middle picture was of a tall man in a suit lifting up a small woman in a white dress- it was obvious that this picture was taken the day Gus's parents got married. Ashley looked sadly at the happiness and love on their faces- she would never have thought the sad, ghostly looking woman with grey hair that had opened the door to Gretchen was the same woman on the picture.

The third picture was taken on a beach. Gus's father had his arm around Gus's mom, and Gus himself was sat on his dad's shoulders, about Libby's age, beaming. He was the spitting image of his dad. The three people smiling out of the photo seemed to have no idea that eight years later, Mr. Griswold would be dead.

Gretchen looked up at the clock. It was ten minutes since Mrs. Griswold had gone to wake Gus. Maybe he wasn't a morning person…

Then suddenly he and his mom were coming down the stairs. Gus was over a whole foot taller than his mother. He was wearing a vest and boxer shorts- and because Ashley only saw what Gretchen saw and not Gretchen herself, she had no idea that Gretchen's jaw had dropped open. What she could see, though, was that once skinny Gus was now extremely muscled and toned- maybe that's why the Ashleys love him, Ashley thought.

Gus's eyes narrowed in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

Ashley was surprised at how calm Gretchen remained. "I wanted to talk to you." Ashley couldn't help but feel proud of Gretchen for keeping it together so much.

"Well, weirdly enough, I don't wanna talk to some geek at seven forty-five in the morning!" Gus snapped, and Gretchen tensed. "Well, you're going to have to, this is important."

There was something which sounded like a squeak from the corner of the room. It was Mrs. Griswold murmuring 'I'll give you two some privacy' before going upstairs.

"This better be good, Grundler." Gus said. "What's so important you had to wake me up at the crack of dawn to come and tell me about it?"

"There's something I need to tell you," Gretchen said, now sounding more nervous than she was before, but she still did not stutter and she still did not back down. "And I'd sit down if I were you, it might come as a bit of a shock."

Gus sat down, wondering what to expect. He hadn't spoken to Gretchen for- well- it had been years now. So what was she doing at his house?

"Do you remember going to a party around four years ago?" Gretchen asked.

"Duh, I'm the most popular guy in town. I went to about a billion parties four years ago." Gus said, and Gretchen snapped, "I don't have time for this!"

"Chillax!" Gus said- he had no idea Gretchen could get like this. "Which party do you mean? And what-" he stopped suddenly, realising exactly which party Gretchen was talking about.

"Rick's."

Rick… Gretchen's cousin. Good old Rick. There were a lot of parties he didn't remember, but he knew he would remember that one forever, for it had been the best one he'd ever been to.

Drinking… dancing… girls… well, one girl.

"I remember that," Gus said.

"Yes, well, Rick is my cousin, and I was at that party too," Gretchen said. "And I don't really know how to tell you this, but…" for the first time, Gretchen stopped to think. "-Something… happened at that party."

Gus looked at his thumbs, wondering why Gretchen had brought this up.

Gus woke up in a bed. He didn't know whose the bed was, all he knew was it wasn't his bed.

And there was someone else lying next to him- in his arms. She had her face turned away from him, and she had silky auburn hair that spilled out everywhere…

In an instant Gus remembered what had happened and smiled. He had kissed Gretchen Grundler, the girl he'd always secretly liked, even now he was popular and she was a nerd.

But then he realised something else. He was naked. As was she. And they were in a bed. Together.

He wasn't stupid.

He groaned, realising what he had done. Thanks to him, Gretchen Grundler had lost her virginity at thirteen. He knew that she came from a very strict family with traditional beliefs. If they ever found out, she would be in so much trouble. And her mind… Gretchen had such an incredible mind. She could probably have graduated from Harvard when she was five. She had so much potential… he didn't want to think that he could have ruined that potential, just for the sake of one night.

Gretchen stirred, and looked extremely surprised to see him, although if he could work out what happened, so could she.

Gus looked at her- she was so beautiful, he just couldn't bring himself to ruin her life. So he did what he thought was best.

"What… what happened last night?" He asked. "I've got a real bad hangover… I can't remember… anything…"

It was all a lie.

And after he went home, the subject was never brought up again. It was like they buried it deep underground for nearly four years… and now, Gretchen was bringing it up again? But why?

"Uh… yeah," Gus said. "I… um…" Gus gulped. "Gretchen, I think you should know something. All this time I've been lying to you. I do remember everything that happened that night."

They sat in silence for a moment, not daring to look at one another. Words could not describe how shocked Gretchen was at that moment. She could only manage one word… "Why?"

"To protect you," Gus said. "I knew you have strict parents… and that… well… if it got out that we'd slept together, then everyone would call you a slut and… well… you're not. You deserve better," Gus finished, looking Gretchen in the eyes.

"But there's something else you should know, and that's why I'm here," Gretchen said. "You see, because of that night… we're both parents."