Those Returning
by Peaches
A/N: Glad you liked the first chapter! Gonna get a little deep now. PS to CradleRock about your 'curious side question': Rebecca 'Becky' Benson was that little bitch that stole Gretchen's science project, r'member? And you call yourself a fan! Lol! j/k! Any hoo, this chapter is a bunch of flashbacks to when the gang was close, and why they grew apart. This chapter is mostly TJ and Spin, but there's some Gretch and Gus, and Gretch and Spin (NOT IN A SLASH WAY!). r/r, and I'm open to suggestions for other flashbacks (For later Chapters).
Disclaimer: Standard
2. Divine Secrets of the Third Street Companionship (okay, it's a little bit of a ripoff, but...)
October 15, 2001
Spinelli felt a tear trickle down her left cheek as she sat cross-legged in the old tree house, her long, raven black hair wisping around her heart-shaped face. She snuggled deeper into her old jean jacket and let out a staggered sigh.
She remembered the summer when the gang was about 7, when they'd all set out to build this place in TJ's backyard. They'd toiled the whole summer, working in the hot sun for hours, until, a week before school opened for the year, it was complete. Not the most amazing architectural masterpiece, she granted, but it was theirs. It was a sacred place. Secrets had been passed on between these four, crude walls that no other being on earth knew, with, perhaps the exception of a much beloved pet or teddy bear.
Spinelli looked at the white pill bottle in her hand. She traced over the name with her painted black nail and felt another tear squeeze its way out of her russet left eye. She shook the bottle, listening to the satisfying rattle of tablets. She counted in her mind the number to take.
There were only 15 left in the bottle.
10, she decided. No, 12, just to be sure it worked. She couldn't have them find her and be able to save her.
She snorted cynically. Like anyone'd try to save her. Her step-father would just shrug, pretend to be sad, then go back to making her mother's life miserable. Her father might fly down from Dakota, maybe her brothers would come in for the funeral, if Joey managed to stay out of jail long enough and Vitto could get out of his exams in time. She didn't know if any of the gang would go. Gretchen was mad at her, Vince was a jock, and 'banned' from talking to her, by the rules of social standings. Gus might go. She really had no beef with him. The ultimate compliment would be if Mikey wrote a poem and read it as a eulogy. And Teej... we'll he might go, or he might not. It all depended on if he'd forgiven her, like Gretchen wouldn't.
They had gotten into a stupid fight. Rumours had flown around school that Spinelli had been talking about them behind their backs, which she hadn't. They didn't even ask her about it, they'd just stopped talking to her.
'Who need's 'em,' she thought spitefully, unscrewing the bottle with shaking hands. Deep down, she really did want someone to find her. She needed to know someone cared, even just a little bit.
"Who's up there!?" she heard a familiar voice call from the ground. She looked at the pills in her hand and started to sob. She barely heard TJ climb up the ladder to the door. "Spinelli?"
"Teej," she nodded, stammering slightly as her shoulders shook.
"What in gods name do you think you're doing here!?" he demanded angrily, not seeing the bottle. She kicked it toward him with just as much animosity.
"Figure it out, Sherlock!" She yelled, not stopping the torrents that flooded from her eyes. TJ sat there next to the door, his mouth hanging open with shock and confusion.
"Spin, are you... why would you wanna OD?" he staggered after a moment of the silence roaring in both their ears. She breathed in deeply, struggling to regain composure. She'd already lost enough dignity tonight.
"You care?" she asked coldly. TJ rubbed his temples in a desperate frustration, urgently trying to keep her from doing something stupid. The pills were still gripped tightly in her clenched fist.
"Of course I care!" he said in exasperation, half laughing as he tried to think of a time when he didn't care about her. "You're my best friend!" He inched closer to her, careful in case she was unstable, which, let's face it, she probably was, considering she'd nearly killed herself. "Spin, you've always been my best friend! Remember when you told me your parents were getting divorced, and I said you could talk to me whenever you needed to?"
Spinelli nodded.
"I meant it!" he exclaimed. "And, remember when my brother Ricky got in that car accident, and I was scared he wasn't gonna make it?"
She nodded again.
"I told you because I couldn't tell anybody else!" He held out his hand, hoping she'd give him the pills. She stared dumbly at the outreached hand of the 13 year old boy she'd lived 3 doors down from her whole life. "Gimme the pills, Ashley," he demanded softly, his still-shaggy chestnut hair blowing around his freckled face.
Finally, she gave him the 12 small, yet lethal, white pills. Then, as he hugged her, she realized he'd called her by her first name. Then she realized something even more startling...
She didn't care.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
April 6, 1998
"Seriously, Gus, wait up!" Gretchen Grundler found herself yelling to her friend. He laughed and waited at the top of the rocky hill for the girl to catch up.
"If we don't hurry," he called back, seeing her ease her way up the rock surface,"the gang's gonna think we're not comin'!"
The gang was supposed to meet in five minutes at the top of the hill in The Clearing, which overlooked the city. TJ had found something in his attic and wanted to show the gang what it was. He'd made it sound really important. But, if Gretchen didn't hurry up, they were going to miss it.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Gretchen grumbled, trying to find footing as she reached the steepest part of the hill, which was 6 feet away from the top. It was a nearly vertical span to reach the summit of 'Wolf Hill'.
When she only had a foot or so left, Gus stood up and started away, figuring Gretchen would catchup when she reached the top. He didn't expect what happened next.
"GUS!!"
Gretchen's ear splitting scream cut through the placid spring air like a verbal knife. It was so urgent, Gus lost no time in racing back to the edge of the cliff-like hill. He looked over, and saw Gretchen hanging by one hand off the vicious stone face of the incline.
"Hang on!" Gus called, then kicked himself mentally. What else was she going to do, except hang on? He scooted himself on his stomach to the edge and reached down his hand. Gretchen looked absolutely terrified she reached her free palm toward his. He grabbed her hand, and, with all the strength his fifth grade body could muster, pulled the lanky girl up to safety.
After a moment of shock, safely back on solid ground, both youths laughed, then, without a word, continued toward the meeting place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
February 26, 2003
"Spin? Are you in here?"
Hearing Gretchen's voice, Spinelli scrambled to her feet from on the tile flooring of the district regulated school washroom. She lurched once more involuntarily, but regained composure and flushed the toilet. She opened the door casually and passed Gretchen, who gazed with worry at her noticeably skinny friend. Spinelli washed her hands and swished some water around in her mouth.
"Hey Gretch," she said, waving slightly after she spit it out.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Gretchen asked, cutting short with the small-talk. Spinelli feigned a look of confusion.
"Doing what?" she asked offhandedly. Gretchen shook her head in a sort of pity. Spinelli sighed. "Look, Gretch, thanks for worrying, but I'm alright. You don't know the business like I do."
Spinelli was referring, of course, to the acting business. She'd co-starred in a huge movie last year, and, as a result, was in the public eye constantly. In fact, on top of all her homework and social life, she was in the midst of learning lines for a movie to be shot in the neighbouring state of Louisiana that coming summer. It was bearing down on her soon-to-be 16 year old body continuously.
"Spin, you're only hurting yourself," Gretchen chastised the raven haired girl. "You're going to breakdown!" And Spinelli was the last person that needed to diet. Gretchen had always envied her friends curves, being a stick, herself.
"I'm fine, Gretch!" Spinelli laughed naively, as though the idea were preposterous. She popped a piece of gum into her mouth and strode out of the girls washroom, carrying, within her teenaged body, burdens no one, in Gretchen's opinion, should ever have to go through.
Two days later, Gretchen went to visit Spinelli in the hospital after she collapsed of fatigue in the middle of an English presentation...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
July 4, 2004
How many years had he spent staring at her from his desk? How many times had he stayed over at her house since kindergarten? How long had he wanted to be a part of her life as more then a friends?
Why should he suffer?
There she sat in her blissful innocence, totally unaware of the 17 yer old boy she was slowly killing from the inside out. She smiled at him with a sort of amusement on her heart-shaped face, her almond shaped eyes laughing at the puppy-dog look on his face as he studied the features he knew so well.
"You okay?" she asked him slowly, as the first of the fireworks rose into the clear night air, snapping into a thousand little red and blue lights before fading into the dusk. TJ nodded and Spinelli went back to watching the display. The Fourth of July was her favourite holiday, simply because it gave her an excuse to play with fireworks for a week up-to and including. She could still feel TJ staring at her as they sat in the treehouse, watching the city fireworks display on the near horizon.
"Are you stalking me or something?" she asked playfully after a few more minutes of his eyes on her neck.
Without a word, and much to both the youths surprise, TJ leaned forward and kissed her. Her eyes were wide as he pulled back a moment later, almost as if they were reliving the moment in fourth grade when they'd been forced to kiss in the schoolyard.
"Oh my God." That was all she could say. She'd just been kissed by her best friend, and all she could say was "Oh my God."
"I... I..." TJ scrambled and stuttered over his own words. "I'm sorry, Spin!" He grew beat red and ran his hand through his chestnut hair sheepishly.
Imagine his surprise when she kissed him back...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: So, you like? Well, r/r s'il vous plait! Love 'n' cookies, ~Peaches
by Peaches
A/N: Glad you liked the first chapter! Gonna get a little deep now. PS to CradleRock about your 'curious side question': Rebecca 'Becky' Benson was that little bitch that stole Gretchen's science project, r'member? And you call yourself a fan! Lol! j/k! Any hoo, this chapter is a bunch of flashbacks to when the gang was close, and why they grew apart. This chapter is mostly TJ and Spin, but there's some Gretch and Gus, and Gretch and Spin (NOT IN A SLASH WAY!). r/r, and I'm open to suggestions for other flashbacks (For later Chapters).
Disclaimer: Standard
2. Divine Secrets of the Third Street Companionship (okay, it's a little bit of a ripoff, but...)
October 15, 2001
Spinelli felt a tear trickle down her left cheek as she sat cross-legged in the old tree house, her long, raven black hair wisping around her heart-shaped face. She snuggled deeper into her old jean jacket and let out a staggered sigh.
She remembered the summer when the gang was about 7, when they'd all set out to build this place in TJ's backyard. They'd toiled the whole summer, working in the hot sun for hours, until, a week before school opened for the year, it was complete. Not the most amazing architectural masterpiece, she granted, but it was theirs. It was a sacred place. Secrets had been passed on between these four, crude walls that no other being on earth knew, with, perhaps the exception of a much beloved pet or teddy bear.
Spinelli looked at the white pill bottle in her hand. She traced over the name with her painted black nail and felt another tear squeeze its way out of her russet left eye. She shook the bottle, listening to the satisfying rattle of tablets. She counted in her mind the number to take.
There were only 15 left in the bottle.
10, she decided. No, 12, just to be sure it worked. She couldn't have them find her and be able to save her.
She snorted cynically. Like anyone'd try to save her. Her step-father would just shrug, pretend to be sad, then go back to making her mother's life miserable. Her father might fly down from Dakota, maybe her brothers would come in for the funeral, if Joey managed to stay out of jail long enough and Vitto could get out of his exams in time. She didn't know if any of the gang would go. Gretchen was mad at her, Vince was a jock, and 'banned' from talking to her, by the rules of social standings. Gus might go. She really had no beef with him. The ultimate compliment would be if Mikey wrote a poem and read it as a eulogy. And Teej... we'll he might go, or he might not. It all depended on if he'd forgiven her, like Gretchen wouldn't.
They had gotten into a stupid fight. Rumours had flown around school that Spinelli had been talking about them behind their backs, which she hadn't. They didn't even ask her about it, they'd just stopped talking to her.
'Who need's 'em,' she thought spitefully, unscrewing the bottle with shaking hands. Deep down, she really did want someone to find her. She needed to know someone cared, even just a little bit.
"Who's up there!?" she heard a familiar voice call from the ground. She looked at the pills in her hand and started to sob. She barely heard TJ climb up the ladder to the door. "Spinelli?"
"Teej," she nodded, stammering slightly as her shoulders shook.
"What in gods name do you think you're doing here!?" he demanded angrily, not seeing the bottle. She kicked it toward him with just as much animosity.
"Figure it out, Sherlock!" She yelled, not stopping the torrents that flooded from her eyes. TJ sat there next to the door, his mouth hanging open with shock and confusion.
"Spin, are you... why would you wanna OD?" he staggered after a moment of the silence roaring in both their ears. She breathed in deeply, struggling to regain composure. She'd already lost enough dignity tonight.
"You care?" she asked coldly. TJ rubbed his temples in a desperate frustration, urgently trying to keep her from doing something stupid. The pills were still gripped tightly in her clenched fist.
"Of course I care!" he said in exasperation, half laughing as he tried to think of a time when he didn't care about her. "You're my best friend!" He inched closer to her, careful in case she was unstable, which, let's face it, she probably was, considering she'd nearly killed herself. "Spin, you've always been my best friend! Remember when you told me your parents were getting divorced, and I said you could talk to me whenever you needed to?"
Spinelli nodded.
"I meant it!" he exclaimed. "And, remember when my brother Ricky got in that car accident, and I was scared he wasn't gonna make it?"
She nodded again.
"I told you because I couldn't tell anybody else!" He held out his hand, hoping she'd give him the pills. She stared dumbly at the outreached hand of the 13 year old boy she'd lived 3 doors down from her whole life. "Gimme the pills, Ashley," he demanded softly, his still-shaggy chestnut hair blowing around his freckled face.
Finally, she gave him the 12 small, yet lethal, white pills. Then, as he hugged her, she realized he'd called her by her first name. Then she realized something even more startling...
She didn't care.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
April 6, 1998
"Seriously, Gus, wait up!" Gretchen Grundler found herself yelling to her friend. He laughed and waited at the top of the rocky hill for the girl to catch up.
"If we don't hurry," he called back, seeing her ease her way up the rock surface,"the gang's gonna think we're not comin'!"
The gang was supposed to meet in five minutes at the top of the hill in The Clearing, which overlooked the city. TJ had found something in his attic and wanted to show the gang what it was. He'd made it sound really important. But, if Gretchen didn't hurry up, they were going to miss it.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Gretchen grumbled, trying to find footing as she reached the steepest part of the hill, which was 6 feet away from the top. It was a nearly vertical span to reach the summit of 'Wolf Hill'.
When she only had a foot or so left, Gus stood up and started away, figuring Gretchen would catchup when she reached the top. He didn't expect what happened next.
"GUS!!"
Gretchen's ear splitting scream cut through the placid spring air like a verbal knife. It was so urgent, Gus lost no time in racing back to the edge of the cliff-like hill. He looked over, and saw Gretchen hanging by one hand off the vicious stone face of the incline.
"Hang on!" Gus called, then kicked himself mentally. What else was she going to do, except hang on? He scooted himself on his stomach to the edge and reached down his hand. Gretchen looked absolutely terrified she reached her free palm toward his. He grabbed her hand, and, with all the strength his fifth grade body could muster, pulled the lanky girl up to safety.
After a moment of shock, safely back on solid ground, both youths laughed, then, without a word, continued toward the meeting place.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
February 26, 2003
"Spin? Are you in here?"
Hearing Gretchen's voice, Spinelli scrambled to her feet from on the tile flooring of the district regulated school washroom. She lurched once more involuntarily, but regained composure and flushed the toilet. She opened the door casually and passed Gretchen, who gazed with worry at her noticeably skinny friend. Spinelli washed her hands and swished some water around in her mouth.
"Hey Gretch," she said, waving slightly after she spit it out.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Gretchen asked, cutting short with the small-talk. Spinelli feigned a look of confusion.
"Doing what?" she asked offhandedly. Gretchen shook her head in a sort of pity. Spinelli sighed. "Look, Gretch, thanks for worrying, but I'm alright. You don't know the business like I do."
Spinelli was referring, of course, to the acting business. She'd co-starred in a huge movie last year, and, as a result, was in the public eye constantly. In fact, on top of all her homework and social life, she was in the midst of learning lines for a movie to be shot in the neighbouring state of Louisiana that coming summer. It was bearing down on her soon-to-be 16 year old body continuously.
"Spin, you're only hurting yourself," Gretchen chastised the raven haired girl. "You're going to breakdown!" And Spinelli was the last person that needed to diet. Gretchen had always envied her friends curves, being a stick, herself.
"I'm fine, Gretch!" Spinelli laughed naively, as though the idea were preposterous. She popped a piece of gum into her mouth and strode out of the girls washroom, carrying, within her teenaged body, burdens no one, in Gretchen's opinion, should ever have to go through.
Two days later, Gretchen went to visit Spinelli in the hospital after she collapsed of fatigue in the middle of an English presentation...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
July 4, 2004
How many years had he spent staring at her from his desk? How many times had he stayed over at her house since kindergarten? How long had he wanted to be a part of her life as more then a friends?
Why should he suffer?
There she sat in her blissful innocence, totally unaware of the 17 yer old boy she was slowly killing from the inside out. She smiled at him with a sort of amusement on her heart-shaped face, her almond shaped eyes laughing at the puppy-dog look on his face as he studied the features he knew so well.
"You okay?" she asked him slowly, as the first of the fireworks rose into the clear night air, snapping into a thousand little red and blue lights before fading into the dusk. TJ nodded and Spinelli went back to watching the display. The Fourth of July was her favourite holiday, simply because it gave her an excuse to play with fireworks for a week up-to and including. She could still feel TJ staring at her as they sat in the treehouse, watching the city fireworks display on the near horizon.
"Are you stalking me or something?" she asked playfully after a few more minutes of his eyes on her neck.
Without a word, and much to both the youths surprise, TJ leaned forward and kissed her. Her eyes were wide as he pulled back a moment later, almost as if they were reliving the moment in fourth grade when they'd been forced to kiss in the schoolyard.
"Oh my God." That was all she could say. She'd just been kissed by her best friend, and all she could say was "Oh my God."
"I... I..." TJ scrambled and stuttered over his own words. "I'm sorry, Spin!" He grew beat red and ran his hand through his chestnut hair sheepishly.
Imagine his surprise when she kissed him back...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: So, you like? Well, r/r s'il vous plait! Love 'n' cookies, ~Peaches