A Walk to Remember

Disclaimer: ß Owns nothing

Pairing: S/A

Rating: PG

Summary: Two girls are drawn together by love. When difficult circumstances get in the way, will they be able to pull through?

A/N: Six months into the school year. Spencer and her family moved before the year started. She is a cheerleader.
Ashley is friends with Kelly and Aiden (who never dated Madison). Spencer and Ashley never formally met and they are both Juniors. Glen and Clay are Seniors.

Chapter One
School Gym- Homecoming Night
Spencer Carlin looks nervously around her at all of the people mulling about. She is seated at a table in the far corner of the gym, trying to keep away from the rest of the students. Even after six months of living here, she still doesn't know anybody outside of the cheerleading squad...none of its members are even her friends. She sighs lightly as she sees Madison, the captain of the squad, heading over, looking somewhat miffed at the blonde's lack of participation.
"Girl, what are you doing? Get out here with the rest of us," Madison orders.
"I don't know anybody here, you know that," Spencer responds, just loud enough that the other girl can barely hear her over the music.
Frustrated, the brunette pulls her up and drags her into the crowd. "If you don't know anyone, go meet them," she informs her with an obvious tone before walking off. Spencer sighs as she looks at everyone around her.
Meanwhile, outside, Ashley is sitting on a bench and occasionally looking into the gym and scoffing. She takes another gulp from her flask and wonders for the hundredth time that night how her friends managed to drag her here. Aside from the girls in short skirts and lots of cleavage, the night was turning out to be a total waste of time. She stands up and goes inside, intending to find Aiden and Kelly and leave.
However, after sitting out front and drinking vodka for the last half hour, she ends up staggering in as the earth shift under her feet. While in search for her friends, she spots a blonde girl in the middle of the room looking lost. After staring at the other girl, for what seems like, hours, the blonde girl turns to face her. They make eye contact and Ashley smiles drunkenly at the mystery girl. But then, the alcohol decides that it wants to make a grand reappearance as she hauls off to the girl's bathroom.
Concerned for the brunette that she had caught staring at her, Spencer moves to follow her. Before she can move, a hand grabs her wrist. "Where do you think you're going?" Madison asks, having witnessed the exchange.
"That girl didn't look well. I'm going to see if she's okay," Spencer responds, knowing that it's only the right thing to do
"No, you see, we do not associate with trash," the brunette cheerleader informs the new girl.Spencer defiantly tugs her arm away and goes after the other girl. Sherry and Madison's other cronies appear beside her. "I swear, if she wasn't so pretty and good at cheering, she would be a total nobody at this school," she scoffs as the other cheerleaders just nod dumbly in agreement.
Spencer gets into the restroom and pushes three stall doors open before finding the right one. There she finds Ashley's head leaning against the toilet seat.
"Are you okay?" She gently asks the drunken girl. Before Ashley can respond, she begins to wretch. Spencer holds her hair and rubs her back comfortingly. "Shh, it's okay. Let it out. You'll be okay," the blonde whispers soothingly to the stranger hovering over the toilet before her.
When it seems as though the girl is spent, Spencer leans the girl's back against the side of the stall. "Wait here and we'll get you cleaned up, okay?" She asks with a smile as she stands to get some wet papertowels.
She comes back moments later with several wet papertowels. She uses one to wipe at the other girl's mouth and another to cool off her face. In the midst of all of this, Ashley regains control enough to put her hands over one of the hands on her face.
"Who are you?" The brunette croaks out hoarsely.
"I'm Spencer," the younger girl replies with a slight smile. "Who are you?" She asks, feeling a little silly that this is the circumstances of which they would meet.
"Ashley," she responds just barely above a whisper.
Sitting back on her heels, Spencer studies the other girl for a moment. "I'm going to go get you some water and I take you home...if that's okay?" She says, only questioning herself after making the presumption that the brunette would want to leave with her. Ashley merely nods. "I'll be right back."
The blonde gets up and leaves the bathroom. Once back into the main area of the gym, she searches out her older brother. She marches up to him and pulls him off to the side, away from some of his fellow basketball teammates. "I need your car," she informs the older boy.
"No way, how am I going to get home?" Glen asks, shaking his head vigorously.
"Get a ride with Madison," Spencer asserts and the boy still looks skeptical. "Please, Glen, do it for me," she begs.
His eyes soften. "That guilt thing won't always work," he grumbles as he hands her the keys. Spencer smiles up at him and kisses him on the cheek before grabbing a bottle of water from the beverage table and heading back to the ladie's room.
"You came back," Ashley points out with mild surprise.
"Of course I did," Spencer looks at her as if it was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard before shaking her head. "I brought you this," she says as she opens up the bottle and hands it to the brunette, who takes a long pull of it.
"Thank you," Ashley says, her voice no longer sounding like she'd swallowed sandpaper.
"Come on," Spencer smiles as she helps the girl into a standing position and lets her lean against her body for support as they head out of the bathroom and out of the dance. Madison's eyes narrow as she witnesses the whole scene.
The twenty minute car ride from the dance to Ashley's house is made in relative silence. It is only broken every once in a while as Ashley gives the younger girl directions on how to get to her house. Soon they pull up.
"Did you need any help getting in?" Spencer asks, referring to the state of the older girl.
"No, I feel better now," the brunette responds. She moves to get out of the car, but pauses as she opens the door. "Why did you help me tonight?" She asks out of extreme curiousity.
"Because you looked like you needed help," Spencer smiles enigmatically.
They stay like that for several moments, smiling shyly at one another. "Spencer I...thank you," Ashley says before she gets out of the car and walks up to her house, turning around halfway to smile at the mysterious blonde.
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Monday- Principal's Office
"Ms. Davies," bald Principal Parker sighs as her rubs his eye tiredly at the presence of the brunette. "We both know that you had alcoholic beverages on school property Friday night," he sighs as he looks at the troublesome girl before him.
"So, what, are you going to suspend me? Expel me?" She questions, not particularly interested.
With another sigh, he looks down at his desk. "I am afraid that I can't actually prove that you had alcohol here...but I have been looking through your records," he motions towards the papers on his desk.
"Digging for dirt to try and get me kicked out?" Ashley scoffs incredulously as she crosses her arms across her chest.
"No, I've been looking for a way to help you Ms. Davies," Principal Parker corrects her, causing the girl to roll her eyes. "Since you've been going here you've been suspended four times: once for truancy, twice for skipping altogether and once for having alcohol on the premises. You're grades are less than stellar and I'm afraid that, if something isn't done, you will have to repeat your Junior year," he informs the brunette.
"What!" Ashley exclaims. "I don't want to be stuck here another year," she whines at him, as if the whole thing was his fault.
"I don't want you to be either. That's why I asked one of the students here help tutor you," he smiles warmly.
"What, you bribed some nerd to teach some dumb kid useless information to help feed his superiority complex?" She scoffs bitterly.
"Actually, no. She seemed very interested in helping out a fellow student and she is anything but a 'nerd' as she is one of our cheerleaders here. Ms. Carlin is a relatively new student and is a little shy, so please don't try and make her any more uncomfortable than she already is," the principal warns sternly.
"And you'll let me pass if I agree to do this?" Ashley questions skeptically.
"If you do this, you won't need me," he smiles confidently. Before Ashley can ask anymore questions, there is a tentative knock on the door. "Come in," he calls out to the other person.
The door opens and Spencer walks in.She looks between the two in the room and blushes slightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll wait out-"
"No, no Ms. Carlin. Sit, please. This is Ashley Davies, the girl you will be tutoring for the rest of the semester. Ashley, this is Spencer Carlin," Principal Parker introduces them with a warm smile.
Spencer offers her hand shyly to the other girl. Ashley takes it in her own and shakes gently. "Nice to meet you Spencer," she smirks, beginning to think that this whole experience won't be so bad after all. But then a thought strikes her. She's a cheerleader?

What did you think? It's kind of different than the movie, but I kind of had to tailor it because I wanted all of the characters intact, more or less.
In this fic you can expect some tears and a lot of artisti license on my part, but I am definitely going to keep tha basic plotline of the story intact.
P.S. The drunken dance thing was taken loosely from the book because I like that as the opening scene better than the one in the movie.