Thanks for the reviews, loves. I'm so glad you're enjoying this and I genuinely appreciate the time you take to tell me :). Just to let you know, I'm going away on Tuesday so there will be a short 10/11 day hiatus. Updating will resume as normal as soon as I'm back :]

The radio was on for background noise as Ashley sat on Spencer's bed and watched her across the room as she went about picking up various magazines, books and items of dirty laundry that always seemed to miss the basket.

She had been noticing things about the blonde for the past couple of weeks. They weren't overtly obvious things that anyone noticed, but subtle. Like the way she walked, the faces she made without conscious thought, how she'd check her teeth in the mirror every time she left the house, how she'd absent-mindedly bite her lip and run a hand through her hair in math class when a particularly difficult problem stumped her, how she'd started to blush around her at random times.

Ashley had also begun to notice that she would look at Spencer for longer when she wasn't looking back. Both of their bodies had changed a lot over the past couple of years and she thought Spencer's new, developing body suited her.

Spencer was in front of the mirror now, mouth hung open as she applied mascara for only the third time in her life. Ashley smiled at how ridiculous she looked; though she knew she pulled the exact same face when she was applying hers. It was the only way to apply mascara, her mother had told her. "Look at your face."

Spencer laughed with her mouth still hung open. "Putting me off," is all she could mutter. After a few seconds, she put the mascara back on her dresser and peered closer to her eyes in the mirror, blinking experimentally. She wiped a tiny black smudge from underneath her eyebrow and turned to Ashley. "How do I look?"

"I can't see when you're a mile away."

Spencer walked across her room and jumped on the bed, crawling up it from the bottom end. "I swear to God, you're blind," she said.

Ashley didn't say a word as Spencer failed to stop in front of her, instead crawling onto her lap, putting her legs either side of her. She smiled, embarrassed but not uncomfortable.

"How do I look?" Spencer asked again, closing her eyes so the brunette could see her entire face. It always took so long to put makeup on. She supposed she'd learn how to do it faster with time.

Ashley didn't know where to put her hands, so she kept them beside her legs. She looked up ever-so slightly to Spencer's face and let her eyes roam. Her makeup was getting worse every time she tried to improve, but it was endearing nonetheless.

It had been quiet for longer than Spencer had patience for. "Well?"

"You look nice."

She opened her eyes unsurely. "Really?"

Ashley nodded and couldn't resist wiping her thumb just underneath Spencer's bottom lip, clearing lipgloss that had been applied a little unevenly. "Yeah, like one of those Hollywood actresses from the fifties."

Spencer was coy as she brushed some hair behind her ear. When she looked back, Ashley was still looking at her and she soon found her hands on the brunette's face. She brushed her thumbs over the skin underneath and just smiled at her.

"Spencer, time to go!" her mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

It caused her to snap out of her brief trance. "I gotta go," she said regretfully, climbing off her a second later.

"Can I come over later?"

"Yeah, of course," Spencer answered, walking over to her mirror to look at her teeth. "I'll call you when I'm back."

She was going clothes shopping with her mother. She'd wanted to go to the mall with Ashley but she was —hopefully— getting a new wardrobe and her mother would never give her that amount of cash to walk around with.

Ashley nodded. "Bring me something back."

"What do you want?"

"An acoustic guitar."

Spencer chortled. "Okay."

Ashley's request wasn't serious, but she was almost positive her parents were getting her one for her birthday, anyway. So either way she'd get one that year. She wasn't one to write music, but she liked to strum on her father's vintage Fender when he was at work or out with his friends, and she wanted an instrument for herself.

Ashley figured she'd learn how to play properly and maybe she'd have another genuine talent (other than getting herself in trouble) after some hard work. Talents, it seemed, made people feel free, if only for a few minutes. They become immersed and exist somewhere within their own mind; maybe safe in a memory or dreaming of the future. It didn't matter where she went, as long everything stayed the same as much as it changed.

###

Blood ran and the squelch of a knife sliding through layers of skin, flesh and muscle made Ashley's face contort in disgust. She laughed through it and gripped onto the strong bicep she was holding onto. "Daddy, this is disgusting!"

"Is it too much? We can watch something else," Raife insisted, leaning down to kiss her head.

"No, no, I like it. I can tell Spencer about this one." The main reasons she liked it were because she loved to spend time with her father and his favourite movies were that containing violence, and because it was fun to talk about and watch them with Spencer if they turned out to be good.

He leaned forward and had a sip of beer, only just sitting back when his hand was held. He smiled. Ashley had always liked to hold his hand, ever since she was little. She said they were the only man's hands she knew that were the perfect size, big but not too big, strong, and rough but not too rough; and even though he knew she'd only ever held three men's hands in her entire life —Sheriff Pete's, Arthur Carlin's and his own, it was nice to hear.

Her little (large) personality made him so proud of her. They were as alike as they could be.

The phone rang and Ashley didn't hesitate before jumping up, expecting a phone call right around then. "Hello, Clarice."

"Ash, are you busy?"

Her smile faded. It was Spencer and she was crying. "What's wrong?"

"Can you just come over? Please."

She hung up without a word and apologised to her father, kissing his cheek with a promise to finish the movie later, and made her way to Spencer's. She knocked on the door and was reminded by Mrs. Carlin, again, that she needn't knock, just walk right in. She said she'd remember for next time, but it never happened. She'd rather be invited in somewhere than make her own way inside.

Paula cast a worried glance upstairs and turned to Ashley. "She's still upstairs."

"Do you know what's wrong?"

It was only then that she realised Paula also looked troubled, like she'd been crying recently.

"We hit a deer on the way home. I tried to swerve, but I hit it anyway. Spencer's been hysterical ever since. We've all tried to talk to her but she won't listen."

Ashley winced. "Gross."

Paula ran a hand through her hair tiredly. "I feel just awful. I did everything I could, but still..."

She stepped forward and gave her a hug. "No, don't feel bad. It was an accident, and it was either you, instantly, or a bullet slowly." Ashley held on silently for few moments. "Do you feel better yet or should I say something else? I have a road kill joke I can share, if you want."

Paula smiled. "Your work here is done, I think. Spencer needs you more."

Ashley flashed her a grin and ran upstairs, forgoing a knock as she entered the bedroom. She sighed at the pitiful sight of the blonde face-down on her bed, crying into her pillow. "Oh, Spence."

Spencer lifted her head up and rolled over, silently making room for the other girl who didn't need to be asked to join her. She lay her head down on her shoulder and let her top catch her tears. "It was so horrible."

"I know."

"It was just...there, right in the middle of the road and I was trying to change the radio station when my mom braked really hard and swerved, and the next thing I heard was this...thump." She was quiet, just letting herself be held. "Like a really gross thump, and it made this noise of pain... Ugh," she finished, more tears leaking out. After a while, she added, "It was just lying there, still. Its family was nowhere in sight. Wouldn't it be horrible to die like that; so alone?"

Ashley rubbed her arm leisurely. "Yeah. It's sad, but they're either hit by cars or hunted. It doesn't seem like it, but that way was the better way. It was quick. And you and your mom have both been crying, a lot of people don't care that much."

"Yeah..." Spencer gave in quietly a few seconds later. "I just hate that it happened. It was the sound more than anything that got to me."

"Do you want to hear a road kill joke?" Ashley asked delicately.

Spencer laughed suddenly. "Oh, my God!" she exploded, pulling away. "Shut up, that was so inappropriate!"

Ashley grinned. "Sorry."

Spencer sat up and ran a hand through her hair, her sudden amusement a thing of the past as sadness gradually overtook her once more. "Blood was coming out of its mouth," she said sadly, fresh tears staining her face.

"Spence..." Ashley said as she raised up and moved closer, reaching for her knee in an attempt to comfort her. She hated seeing Spencer upset more than anything.

"I know they die all the time but it's different when you feel it make contact with the car, hear it in pain, and see it dead."

"It'll be okay," the brunette promised softly.

Spencer turned to her and shrugged her shoulders stiffly. "I know. I'm just really sad," she admitted.

Ashley frowned softly in concern and moved her hand to her face, fingers brushing the skin from her cheek to the slanted line of her chin until her thumb and forefinger were holding it like they'd hold something delicate. Eye-contact was held as she began to lean in and broke the moment her lips made contact with Spencer's.

Eyes shut, she cupped the side of her face, fingers now splayed across her ear and curled just slightly in her hair as she gave her a single long kiss that was nothing more than lips against lips, separated again in exactly four and a half seconds.

It wasn't romantic; it was never supposed to be. But it was pure and it was innocent, and that's exactly what it was supposed to be.

Dead deer's were the farthest thing from Spencer's mind now. Her breathing had increased subtly, stunned. "Why did you do that?" she asked quietly, avoiding the brunette's eyes as she looked down.

Ashley's hand fell away from her face but her stare was steadfast, unembarrassed. It had been an instinctive reaction. "To make you feel better."

It made sense, she inferred. In fact, when she thought about it for more than half a second at a time, it was the only plausible answer. "Oh."

"Do you feel better?" Ashley asked.

Spencer began to smile until she laughed softly, still looking down until her head was tipped up. "Yeah," she answered, receiving a silly grin in response.

Everything remained the same.

###

Two weeks passed like any others on summer break, slowly and full of lazy days and long nights. For the past few days, it had been too hot to do anything other than go swimming, so that's what they'd done.

It had been a week since both of them woke up in dark moods and seemed to find ways of annoying each other without even speaking, resulting in silly fights with embarrassingly bad comebacks that only made things worse. In sheer frustration, Spencer's arm shot out with the intention of punching Ashley's shoulder to make her go away, but the brunette had been leaning down to reach for her Ringpop still its wrapper that had just fallen to the floor, and Spencer's fist connected with her mouth instead.

It wasn't clear who was stunned more, but Spencer gasped in time with Ashley and took the cracked Ringpop off her finger, throwing it across the room before she held Ashley's face tenderly and asked to see how bad it was and if any teeth were broken.

Following an initial demand to get away from her, Ashley accepted the sincere apology and it was forgotten.

Spencer sat on her front lawn and quietly observed Ashley as she spoke with her father on her front porch. She looked at her hair and noticed the way the damp tips of it were soaking through her top, the way she was standing, the shape of her body, how her right hand was wrapped around the railing as she leaned away from it and laughed at something Raife had just said.

It wasn't long before she was joined and they sat with mini battery-operated fans, daring each other to put their fingers in front of the blades to see if it still hurt as much as before. It did, but only for a split second. Bracing themselves for it was always much worse than the actual pain.

Ashley was careful to keep her fan away from her hair as she held it in front of her face, practically melting. "You ever notice how Mr. Foster never has visitors? Not even during the holidays."

"I know, it's weird."

"I think he has a body in his basement."

"Probably." Spencer moved her fan to her neck. "His lights are always on till really late. I bet he's chopping up his victims while everybody's asleep."

Ashley agreed vehemently. "Totally, the freak." There was a pause. "Speaking of freaks; did you hear about Emily's parents?"

"Emily, who?" There were three Emily's who lived nearby.

"Emily Cooper. Annoying redhead who walks her cats on a leash and tries to steal you away from me at any given opportunity," Ashley explained.

"She does not try to 'steal me' away from you."

Ashley thought she did. She was always asking just Spencer to hang out or go for sleepovers, and when they were in school she made it a point to butt in their conversations and talk to the blonde instead of both of them. She pissed Ashley off.

"She does, and her parents are getting a divorce. Her dad caught her mom sleeping with their doctor, or something. I don't know. But I heard my mom on the phone to yours last night and it's supposed to be really ugly. Your mom said it had been going on for six months."

Spencer's brows rose high. "Oh, God. That's really sad."

"Yeah... I mean, I don't like her. At all. But I'd die if my mom or dad were cheating."

The blonde nodded in full agreement until something occurred to her. "Wait a second, how did you hear what my mom was saying?"

"Well, I picked up the phone to call you," she began a little defensively, "when I heard something, so I put the phone to my ear and overheard some of their conversation."

"Nosey."

"Uh, no. Victimised." She continued when she received one raised brow. "I heard the sordid details."

Spencer rolled her eyes. "Like what, the kind of underwear she was wearing?"

"Spencer..." she said with a laugh. "When people are caught having an affair, underwear isn't usually involved unless it's on the bedroom floor somewhere. And no, more like the position they were caught in when Mr. Cooper found them. Wanna know what it was?"

"No," she said with a blush. Sometimes she said the stupidest things.

Ashley laughed at her embarrassment. "She was—"

"I said 'no'!" Spencer shrieked, her hand firmly pressed against the brunette's mouth to keep her quiet.

Fighting against it, she grabbed Spencer's hand and leaned away from her, prying her fingers away from her mouth. "Doing a h—"

"Stop it!" she shouted, laughing just because Ashley was, putting both of her hands over Ashley's mouth and held her ground whenever she tried to pull away. "You'll stop?" she eventually asked.

Ashley nodded. Spencer was freakishly strong sometimes.

Reaching for her chilled bottle of water, Spencer smiled at the world in general and enjoyed the cool liquid inside her mouth until she heard Ashley proclaim, loudly;

"She was doing a hand-stand with her legs around his waist!"

Her eyes bulged and she choked on her water, requiring a firm slap to the back from the brunette. "I said no!" she screamed, disgusted yet thoroughly entertained. "You are such an ass sometimes. I really didn't need to know that."

Ashley gasped in jest, and for real seconds later when ice-cold water was being poured over her head. "Spencer, you bitch," she laughed, quickly fighting to grab the bottle. When she managed to snatch it away, she made sure to tip the remaining contents over her, however only a dribble was left. She settled on aiming a squirt of water from her mouth at the blonde, anywhere below the neck.

They were caught up laughing and drying each other off with the mini-fans when they noticed they had an audience across the street. Two boys were staring at them, one nervously.

Spencer sighed quietly as she looked down and leaned in towards Ashley. "It's Bobby."

Bobby lived eight blocks away. He was a good looking boy — dark hair, even darker eyes and tall for his age, that plenty of girls wanted to date, and he'd had a crush on Spencer for the past two months. He'd asked her out once before but she'd politely declined.

Ashley looked at Bobby and his friend approaching but didn't greet them.

"Hi," Bobby said to Ashley, and then turned to Spencer. "Hey, Spencer."

She saw no reason to be rude. "Hi."

"Um, this is Steven," he introduced his friend next to him who wasn't paying any notice. "But everyone calls him Steve because he hates being called Steven."

Spencer looked at Steve whose eyes were on the brunette sitting next to her, barely giving any of them her attention, and felt a frown on her head. It was gone as fast as it appeared. "Hi, Steven," she said.

Steve looked at her for a split second.

"So," Bobby began. "I know I tried this before and I promise I'll back off if I'm bugging you, but I saw you swimming today and I would really, really love to go out with you. Do you want to hang out some time?"

Ashley glanced up, looking between the boy and Spencer until she looked back down, picking blades of grass.

Spencer shook her head —a nervous habit. "Uh..." she racked her brain for an excuse, and looked to Ashley who still hadn't uttered a word to gauge her reaction. It wasn't obvious, whatever it was. Seeing no way out of it, she smiled. "Sure, Bobby."

His face brightened. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome. This weekend, I thought we could go see a movie? My mom can drive us."

She smiled at him. "That sounds nice."

Bobby handed her a piece of paper with his number on and told her to call whenever she wanted to. The Carlin number was in the phone book so he didn't ask for hers, just said they could see whatever she wanted and he'd let her decide the time they went, just as long as his mom had enough notice.

He gave her a nod. "I'll see ya."

"Bye, Bobby."

Knowing they were about to leave, Steve put his hands in his pockets. "Do you wanna go out?"

Ashley looked up to him, eyebrows raised. "What?"

"You, me; movies, bowling. Whatever. What do you say?"

She laughed at him. "I say no."

Steve frowned, disappointed and annoyed. "Why?"

"Because my best friend said hello to you and you just ignored her."

He looked over to Spencer. "Hey, Spencer." Turning his attention back to the brunette, he asked, "Wanna go out?"

Ashley flicked some of the blades of grass off her knee. "Nope."

The boys left soon after, one happy, one gloomy, and Spencer's face was tinged pink at the attention she'd received. It was quiet for all of one minute until she turned to Ashley to ask her what she wanted to do, but before she could ask, Ashley brushed her legs off and stood up.

"I think I'm gonna go in," she said.

"Why? It's early; we can still go to the park to see who's there, or watch a movie or something. Whatever you want."

"No, it's okay."

"Are you okay?" Spencer asked, reaching forward to touch her hand.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know..."

"See you later, Spence," Ashley said, turning around to make her way inside her house.

"Ash, don't go."

She turned back. "No, I think I will. I need a shower, I feel all dirty and gross."

Spencer's disappointment was evident. "Oh. Okay. I'll see you in the morning?" she asked.

"See you tomorrow, Spence."

###

Once Spencer and Ashley had returned home from the diner, Spencer was stealthy as she quietly unlocked her front door and said an awkward goodbye to Ashley who was waiting for her to get inside her house before she left for hers.

A weight had been lifted off her shoulders. They'd managed to speak without the use of raised voices or snippy remarks and she'd made sure her blind was pulled down before she used Ashley's jacket as a blanket, not being able to help herself. For one night, she wasn't going to think. It had been so long since she hadn't.

A few minutes passed slowly when she'd heard faint voices. It had been Ashley and her father. She knew they were fighting in her room because the light from Ashley's room always shone into hers. They'd yelled at the tops of their voices about how she was old enough to take a walk at night, with or without his permission, and he'd disagreed vehemently, shouting in her face she needed to grow up, quickly. Avoiding him wasn't going to make things better.

Spencer had been a second away from getting back up —to do what, she didn't know—when their voices were suddenly gone. She didn't know what they'd been fighting about but she would have guessed it was from Ashley's disappearance late at night.

Ashley had told her father she hated him, and though she acknowledged the fact it sounded childish out loud, she swore to him she meant it. Raife left the room quickly after that but Ashley found it difficult to sleep. They were almost through with their day at school and Spencer was on her way to her locker to swap books when Emily seemed to appear from thin air, suddenly next to her talking about what they were doing after school and Spencer fought not to roll her eyes.

"I'm busy tonight, remember?"

She'd told Emily the night before that she had to attend a dinner party at Ashley's house. It was a regular thing their parents did and they were always roped into it, too. Not that they'd minded in the past.

"Yeah, but, it's next door," Emily laughed. "And a regular thing, kind of like Ashley's habits, so why don't you cancel? We can do something. I said last night we could."

"I can't cancel."

"You're being a loser," Emily said.

Once they reached her locker, books were exchanged and they were on their way to their last class. "And you're pushy and annoying today. I can't cancel, all right?"

"Okay," she reluctantly gave in. "But I'm only thinking of you. I don't want you to get hooked on something and die."

Spencer peered at her. "You really don't know what you're talking about."

Emily sighed. "Spencer, look, I know you've been friends for a long time but...Ashley's different now."

"No, she's not," was her immediate, instinctive response.

The redhead shrugged. "You're her best friend; you know she sleeps with anything that has a pulse. Ramona Castro has been saying how her sister saw Ashley at the park again last night with, like, three guys all around her. She was sitting on one of their laps, drinking and smoking whatever the hell she smokes. I bet she blew all of them."

"How dare you talk about her like that," Spencer fumed. "You don't know anything about her. Ramona is lying."

Emily scoffed in disbelief. "Seriously, you're that blinded? Spencer..."

"No, you know what? You can shut up and stay away from me, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't speak to me again," she said angrily, storming away from her.

"I'm trying to help!"

"Well, don't," Spencer called over her shoulder. She got halfway down the next corridor when she saw Ramona and a handful of her so-called friends crowded around a row of lockers as they talked amongst themselves, and didn't hesitate walking up to them. "Where the hell do you get off?"

Ramona looked around one of the girls in order to see the blonde. "What?"

"The lame stories of Ashley hooking up in the park with random guys are almost as pathetic as you are," she said. "Learn when to keep your mouth shut before it gets you into trouble."

"In trouble with you? Right. Get lost."

"I'm serious."

"So am I. You're annoying me right now and I've hated you since kindergarten, please don't give me another reason to want to set a Rottweiler after you."

Spencer was unmoved. "Which one? Both of your sister's are dogs."

"You're such a little bitch, you know that?" Ramona asked rhetorically. "It's like you want my fist in your face."

"I want you to shut the hole in yours."

"Do you even know who you're talking to?" a blonde next to Ramona asked.

Spencer shrugged casually. "Yeah, I do; a worthless piece of crap who seriously needs a reality check if she thinks this kind of behaviour is intimidating or worthy of anything other than a mammoth eye-roll."

Ramona raised a brow. "If I'm a worthless piece of crap, what does that make you?"

"I'm just Spencer."

"And your best friend is just a whore. You don't want to believe it, but you know she's hooking up with people somewhere. She's the kind of girl who can't say no."

"What, like you?"

Ramona smiled. "If we were to walk in the boys' locker room right now, Ashley would probably be on her knees and there'd be a line all the way out the door."

Spencer lunged for her and got past two members of Ramona's posse before they got hold of her and pushed her backwards, so hard that she stumbled over her own feet and fell to the floor, shoulder's painfully connecting with the lockers behind.

It didn't faze her. She got up quickly and moved forward, looking at the raven-haired girl in pity. "You're going to let your sheep fight for you?"

"Why not? They're perfectly safe, no predators around to eat them alive. Just little you."

An arm wrapped around Spencer's shoulders and she whirled her head to the left.

"Aw, a club meeting without me?" Ashley asked. "Where's the fun in that?"

Ramona rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be on your knees?"

"I didn't know you wanted me that much, Mon. But, no, not in a million years."

She faked a smile. "Elsewhere."

Ashley turned to Spencer, arm still around her shoulders. "What's the trending topic?"

"Nothing," Spencer answered guardedly. "Just the usual crap that comes out of her mouth."

"More like your busy, busy extra-curricular schedule," Ramona corrected. "In the past twenty-four hours, we've narrowed it down to about fourteen guys, excluding those on the bench this season. You seem to be quite the bike around here."

"Oh, really? I didn't know you viewed that as competition." She carried on when a brow was crooked. "Yeah, that's so funny because last week I saw you at a party on Fairmount and, if my memory serves me well, you went in and out of various bedrooms with at least three guys in the space of three hours. Trying to catch up?"

She smiled bitterly. "Fuck you."

The group of six girls were motionless. They'd dared to cross Ashley —to her face— once before. It hadn't been pretty.

Spencer glowered at her, still wanting to at least slap her face. "Other than spread disease from your mouth as well as your vag', you can't really do anything, can you, Ramona?" she asked, hearing Ashley laugh beside her. It was genuine.

"I know what contraception means, bitch."

"You know, I'm suddenly remembering this huge pile of dog shit I saw on the sidewalk this morning," Ashley said as she looked at Ramona, gently rubbing Spencer's painful right shoulder without conscious thought. She'd been watching Emily and Spencer from down the hall and had seen the beginning of the blonde's confrontation before she hurried to her locker for something, returning just in time to see her get knocked to the floor. She hadn't forgotten about it. Payback was in her left hand, carefully hidden from view. "That's weird, right?"

"Huh," Spencer said in response to Ramona. "I guess it's easy to assume you didn't. I mean, your dad doesn't know the meaning of monogamy, so..."

Last year it had come out that Mr. Castro had fallen back in love with his high school sweetheart, who didn't happen to be his wife of seventeen years. News of his affair had travelled quickly and the town had gossiped for weeks as if they had nothing better to do.

Incensed, Ramona stepped forward from her friends in order to inflict as much pain as possible when she saw Ashley raise her left hand with a water bomb in it. Her eyes narrowed prior to raising an arm in defence.

It was too late.

It burst over her face, revealing a mixture of red and yellow that burned her eyes after she'd gasped in utter horror and incredulity and glared in Ashley's direction.

"You're fucking dead," she told her.

Spencer laughed out loud, turning her head to ask Ashley, "You put ketchup and mustard in there?"

"Water would just be way too predictable."

A deep, loud laugh came from behind them, quickly joined by more. It was Glen with some of his friends. "It's an improvement!" he shouted, his phone zooming in for a good picture. "Someone get her on film."

Ashley looked to the two girls who pushed Spencer to the floor and they started, jerking forward to escape when Ramona grabbed them both, pulling them in front of her to block the onslaught of cameras aimed in her direction. She wiped her face on one of their backs.

"Touch her again, even accidentally brush past her in the hallway, and I'll get every guy in band and on the chess, math and physics club to jerk off in a cup, and then funnel it into a bomb just for you," Ashley promised. "You know at least half of them are sexually frustrated."

They both turned a little green.

It was then that Spencer realised Ashley was rubbing her shoulder, touching her at all. It had been months since her hands had been anywhere on her body without one of them being too drunk to remember, or her shrugging it off. She didn't have chance to reflect for long as Ashley reluctantly removed her arm from around her shoulders, stepping to the side as she looked at her in silent question of walking to their next class together. The answer was positive.

When they were well out of earshot, Spencer asked, "Would you really do that?"

"What do you think?"

She thought yes and smiled. "So, how long was that non-water bomb sitting in your locker?"

"Uh, since the day after that P.E class where she was even more annoying than usual," Ashley admitted. "I was pissed and the condiments in the cafeteria were calling to me. I was just waiting for the right person to use it on."

"Well, thank you. You didn't have to waste it on Ramona, but I'm glad you did. And for being there... You know, those losers won't do a thing when you're around." Spencer smiled and shook her head. "They get so nervous, like you're some sort of jaguar and you're going to strike when they least expect it."

"No way. Wasting it would have been if I'd have missed. It was only ever intended for two people, anyway."

"Ramona and..."

"You don't think I'm fierce like a jaguar?" Ashley asked, slightly avoiding her question for good reason.

"You're not going to tell me? Come on. Ramona and... Mr. Purdy for that Saturday detention last year?" Spencer knew how much their science teacher Mr. Purdy disliked Ashley because she teased him over his name as often as she knew it would get a laugh from her and the rest of the class.

She smiled from a memory. "His face gets so red with anger when I just tell him he looks purdy cute, I don't think I want to know what would happen if I got him in the face with a ketchard bomb."

"So, who?"

Ashley let Spencer walk into class first and was about to put her books down on the desk next to the blonde's when someone knocked into her and put their books down first.

It was Emily. She delivered an impressive look of disgust in Ashley's direction before she announced, "I'll be right back."

Spencer saw the look of contempt the brunette was giving Emily's retreating form and her question was answered. Instead of insulting someone she knew Spencer liked, Ashley simply swiped her hand across the desk, clearing it of Emily's books, and sat down.