AN: These are the flashbacks from Book II of Autumn in Philadelphia all together. To those that haven't read AiP, these can be read as stand alone one shots. You may not know who Audrey is right away if you haven't read AiP, but you'll get the idea. Audrey is introduced in Book I (AiP chapters 1-15).

For Vanessa. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. :)

Shawn Hunter is not like everyone else. And he doesn't want to be. Not one little bit.

Everyone went to Blockbuster after school. Everyone. Some of the lucky Everyones also got to pick out video games for the weekend. Everyone got some form of junk food to go along with those movies. Some of the Everyones would get their junk food from the store's overpriced choices of candy and popcorn. The rest of the Everyones would go to a near by store that sold reasonably priced candy and get their junk food there. Most of the Everyones got pizza. The rest of the Everyones got McDonald's or Burger King. Everyone got together on Monday morning to discuss the movies even if they'd already done so over the weekend.

Everyone, that is, except Shawn. Shawn was not an Everyone. He had never been an Everyone. He never would be an Everyone. Everyones did not live in trailer parks. Everyones had extra money for things like movie rentals. Everyones did not worry about whether there would something to eat at home. Everyones did not worry about their parents whereabouts or their sobriety status.

No big deal. Who cares? Who wants to do what everyone else does anyway?

Shawn shoved his hands deep into his pockets giving the dirty tiles of John Adams High an even dirtier glare. Cory and Topanga were gathered around the lockers he was leaning against chattering excitedly about their afternoon plans. With every mention of Blockbuster, his hands dug deeper into the material until they threatened to rip through the seams.

"You can come with us if you want. I wish you would." Cory was looking expectantly at Shawn who couldn't see him through his downcast gaze and hair. "Mom and Dad are expecting you to go."

He said nothing. His lips pressed into a thin painful line as his teeth dug into his skin.

"Shawn?" Topanga was concerned about his sudden withdrawal and failure to acknowledge Cory.

"What?" He tossed his head back suddenly causing his long bangs to coolly flip back off of his face.

"Cory invited you to come with us to Blockbuster," Topanga told him with a look of mild worry.

Shawn looked at his friends. Through no fault of their own, they were a part of the Everyones. They couldn't help it. They were born in to it.

"Nah, not interested."

Topanga shrugged as Cory gave her an despondent frown. Feeling very out of place Shawn pushed off of the lockers and slung his book bag over his shoulder. "See you guys Monday."

"Yeah, see ya," they replied in unison.

Jon's classroom was empty so Shawn threw his bag onto Cory's chair with a thud as he plopped himself down in his own chair to wait on his teacher. He leaned onto the desktop, resting his chin on his arms and glowering at chalkboard.

Who cares about picking out stupid movies on a stupid Friday night? Who cares about getting pizza and candy and junk food at the same time? Who cares about talking about dumb, stupid stuff after the weekend? Who cares? Not me!

Jon walked into his classroom more than a little surprised to see Shawn already there. Normally, he had to hunt him down on Fridays after school. He stopped at the teen's desk and look at him in amazement.

"You're sittin' in your seat with all your stuff and totally quiet," Jon shook his head sardonically. "Man, I wish you'd do this durin' actual class time."

Shawn sat up and furrowed his brow, his eyes still on the board at the front of the class. Jon gave him a curious look at he walked up to his desk.

"Cory went home already I take it?"

"Yeah."

"Ah, that explains the silence."

"You gotta date tonight?" Shawn stopped glaring at the chalkboard and regarded his teacher seriously.

"No, I don't. Do you?"

"No."

Jon looked up at him. "You got somethin' you wanna do?"

Shawn shrugged still, frowning. The teacher briefly wondered if he and Cory had a disagreement and that was the reason for the sullen mood.

"Audrey's comin' home with us," he told the boy. "So if you've got any entertainment ideas I'm all ears."

Shawn dug his toe into the carpet as though he was trying to wiggle the fibers apart. He tilted his head to the side in thought. He didn't want to do whatever one else did. He liked being different.

"I dunno, movie or somethin'."

Jon picked up a stack of papers on his desk and organized them before putting them in his bag. "I don't know that there's any thing good playin' this weekend."

Shawn's frown deepened. Being different is what made him cool. He did not want to give his social status up.

"We could rent one."

Jon gave this some consideration. "Yeah, we could do that."

Shawn frowned and dug his toe across the carpet. "We could get pizza or somethin'."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Shawn's expression soured. He shouldn't say anything. The answer was just going to be no anyway so what did it matter? Besides he liked being the bad boy. The rebel. The black sheep.

"We could go to Blockbuster."

Jon stopped loading his school bag for the weekend and gave his charge a funny look, not quite sure what the significance of the movie store was. He could tell, though, there was something important about it. "Then we'd better get Audrey and get over there before all the good stuff is gone."

Blockbuster was buzzing with activity by the time the trio got there. Shawn stopped just inside the door to take in his surroundings. It wasn't that he'd never been inside the video store before; he had several times with Cory. But he was always a guest. He had never been inside Blockbuster before as a bona fide customer. With people of his own. It was a weird feeling.

"Shawn, you're holdin' up traffic. Can we go all the way in please?" Jon gave him a nudge and motioned to the line that was piling up behind them.

Audrey put her hand through his arm and gave him a smile, pulling him along with her. Kids and their parents were swarming all over the store making it hard to see the rentals on the shelves. Groups of teenagers hung around at the end of aisles talking or hassling the younger kids who went by. It was hard to tell what section anyone was in.

"Listen" Jon told him, unconsciously putting his arm around Audrey, forgetting that they were in a public place. "If you want to do your own thing go ahead, but pick somethin' we can all watch please."

"Yeah, sure." Shawn grinned, looking around for a starting point. It was a exhilarating and a little overwhelming to be let loose under these circumstances.

"And I'm gonna check to make sure the video matches the cover."

Shawn waved at his teacher as he wove his way through traffic, trying find an interesting section to start looking at. He thought he found the action section, but when he got through the crowd he found nothing but Care Bear movies. Before he could move on, he heard a shout.

"Shawn?!"

Cory's surprised voice rang out over the din of the crowd. He hurried over to his best friend, pulling his family along with him. Morgan was already nearby, but too engrossed in the videos to pay attention to anyone. "Hey! I'm glad you're here. I thought you weren't coming." He looked back at his parents silently begging them to let Shawn stay.

"Glad you could make it, Shawn," Amy said kindly.

"Yeah," Alan gave him a friendly smile and rolled his eyes. "You're just in time to help us pick out a boring movie."

Shawn tried to bite back a grin. "Thanks, but, um, I'm here with my, uh, people." He pointed over to where Jon and Audrey were browsing the shelves.

The Matthews exchanged looks, then Amy's face lit up. She abruptly dropped her husband's hand and made her way over to the other couple.

Cory gave him a knowing smile.

"You mean you're here with your family." Topanga smiled, genuinely happy for him.

"Yeah," he said, pleased she noticed. "Sorry, Mr. Matthews. I've got my own boring movie to pick out."

"I wanna watch The Little Mermaid!" Morgan loudly announced to everyone within earshot.

"Still gonna be better than whatever I watch tonight," Alan patted Shawn's shoulder as he passed by to collect his daughter.

In spite of being at separate residences that night, the trio of friends stayed together searching through the videos. As they made their way down the aisles they ran into kids from school and spent more time talking than looking. Several times, though, both he and Cory broke away to run a movie over to their respective caretakers for approval. Most of the time their choices were shot down. Shawn did convince Jon and Audrey to get Jurassic Ducks: D2 also got approval but there was one only one copy left with several other kids wanting it. Intense rounds of rock, paper, scissor ensued. Shawn left victorious.

During one of those times when Shawn left their group to run a video past Jon and Audrey, Harley Kiner somehow managed to find Cory in the crowd and isolate him from Shawn and Topanga. It was the first time he had ever faced Harley outside of school property and he was terrified. Cory backpedaled through the store in a panic while trying to talk the bully down. He prayed for Divine Intervention; he'd lost his parents and friends in the crowd and it seemed hopeless to find someone willing to help him. From out of nowhere, Joey and Frankie joined Harley in his menacing march. Just when he was convinced his time on Earth was finally at it's end, his back hit something solid and a pair of strong hands gripped his shoulders. He looked up to see Mr. Turner engaged in a silent showdown with Harley. As usual and without saying a word, his teacher won and the bully and his gang exited the premise as quickly as they could.

Without letting go of him, Jon frowned down at him. "This is becomin' a bad habit of yours, Matthews."

"Yeah, I know," was the sheepish reply.

"What are you goin' to do when I'm not around?"

Cory held his hands out, palms up, as he shrugged. "Well, if you're anything like Mr. Feeny, I'll never know."

With an amused shake of his head, Jonathan gave Cory a friendly shove in the direction of his friends.

Once reunited, the trio found themselves at the end of one of the aisles of action movies where a group of kids from John Adams High were congregated. Cory, Shawn, and Topanga had only seen them in passing between classes. They were in the same grade but they were one of the many groups that theirs never intersected with. They never had classes together or extracurriculars. Somehow they managed to not even have the same teachers. Other than Mr. Feeny, of course. This group and ones like it might as well have been at a different school entirely. The friends actually knew kids from other schools better than they did the ones in these groups from their own school. In this particular group was a boy and two girls. The groups exchanged cautious hellos, wary of one another, until one of the girls took an interest in Shawn. Ever the flirt, Shawn chatted easily with her while Cory and Topanga small talked with the other two.

"So," the blonde, Tammy, said to him, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "I haven't seen you here before."

"Yeah, well," Shawn said suddenly feeling hot and uncomfortable. Up until this point, he had forgotten about the Everyones. "I've usually got other stuff to do on Friday nights." His eyes darted around the building look for an escape route from the suddenly awkward conversation.

"Yeah,"the boy piped up. "Isn't your dad an English teacher or something?"

Rather than reply, Shawn shrugged as nonchalantly as he could.

"Poor baby," Tammy said, still twirling her hair. "No wonder you're never here. He must keep you doing homework all the time."

It now occurred to Shawn that he could boost his social status immediately by laying the blame for his Blockbuster absences onto Jon.

"Nah," he said casually. "He's cool. We just have other stuff to do."

"Hey! Is that your mom?" the brunette next to Tammy asked him, pointing across the store.

Shawn turned and looked. He smiled at his "parents". When he turned around the smile was replaced with a cool indifference. Again, he shrugged.

"Your mom is really pretty," she told him, sliding in closer to him.

"And your dad is really, really cute," Tammy told him flirtatiously, giving the brunette a disapproving side-eye. "You obviously take after him."

"Yeah," Shawn said proudly, lifting his chin a bit higher. "They're the best."

Cory and Topanga smiled at each other and said nothing to contradict him.

As he and his friends continued to navigate the store before meeting up with the adults to pick out overpriced candy and popcorn, Shawn had this strange feeling follow him everywhere he went. It was similar to the feeling he had the first time he came home to Audrey cooking dinner and Jon grading papers. It wasn't that same warm, cozy feeling but it was that same feeling of normalcy and contentment. Of acceptance. Of being like everyone else. Of being like Cory. That feeling followed him through the rest of his week. On the following Friday it grew even greater when Cory went with him to Blockbuster, this time as Shawn's guest.