This is gonna be mostly Ash x Mare. Because it feels unfair of me to put them in the start of the story and yet not have a bit of the story to themselves. Also, does Chad Dylan Cooper remind anyone else of Ash Redfern? Or am I the only paranoid one? o.O

Read on. :)

Chapter 7

APOV

"You're such a stuck-up snob!" Ash said, glaring at Mary-Lynette.

"Oh yeah? Says the idiot who acts like a stuck-up snob!" Mary-Lynette retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Get that stick out of your ass, Carter."

"Get a whore and go already, Redfern."

"Oh, this is getting good," Jez murmured, grabbing a handful of popcorn from Morgead's bag.

"Hey!"

"Shhh," Keller shushed him, grabbing some, too.

"You know what I think, Lady Lynette?" Ash asked, smirking.

"Whoa...you can think!"

"Zip it, Jezebel," Jez glowered at him. "I think that my lady has a...little crush on someone."

"If it's on you again, then you're wrong, Asshole."

"Oh no, dear M'lyn," Ash said, his smirk growing even wider. "I think that you have a little crush...on dogbreath over there." Ash tilted his head to the side. "That boy...what's his name? Jamie, Germy, Jeremya? No...Jeremy Lovett, maybe?"

"And the plot thickens!" Maggie gasped, taking Morgead's entire bag.

Mary-Lynette narrowed her eyes. "So what? At least he's nice. At least he's not as stuck-up as you are. At least he respects me."

Ash got really riled up. He stared her in the eyes and said bitterly, "I'd like you to know, Mary-Lynette, that you're the onlygirl I've ever bothered to spend this much time on. You're the only girl I have to impress. You're the only girl I don't mind spending that much friggin' time impressing. And you're the only one slow-minded enough not to get it!"

Mary-Lynette stared at him, watching him slowly vent.

"I mean, really, Carter? Everyone else knows! Ask anyone! Even your brother knows! And I thought you were really smart, too. Turns out I was wrong...about more things than one."

Ash took a deep breath and said softly, "I should never have wasted all that time. You never cared...hell, you never even noticed. And everyone told me that it was going to be soon..."

Most of the students were staring at him, though only his friends ate popcorn.

"So I'm saying it right now, Mary-Lynette Carter – " "Oh, my gosh! The full name!" Poppy gasped, stealing popcorn from Morgead's ex-bag. " – I'm done with you. I give up."

All this time, Mary-Lynette had been staring at where Ash's head had tilted...still toward Germy.

"See ya' around, M'lyn," Ash said, walking away.

RPOV

For the past two days, Rashel had been going to really extreme means to avoid Quinn.

She took long ways, she asked for teacher's help for every single class, sticking back. She asked Poppy and Phil to change seats with her and Galen because it was three rows behind Quinn and Keller. She put on grey contacts in case Quinn saw her in a corridor,

It was so...sad.

Pathetic, in fact. All of that effort for one guy?

It had been Physics class before lunch, and Rashel had hung back, as usual and used the longest and less used way to get to the cafeteria.

She was walking down the hall when the sound of falling buckets caught her attention.

The only place with buckets even remotely close to that hall was the janitor's closet.

They say that curiousity killed the cat, and Rashel Jordan is too much like a cat for her own good.

"All this fuss for a girl, Quinn?" taunted a very familiar voice.

"The girl, Lily." And then there was this wild, unexplainable emotion in the pit of Rashel's stomach that screamed 'please be me!'

"Please, Quinn. You may have thought you loved Dove, but you should know by now it wasn't love. Did you know," Lily's voice mocked, "that Dove never really liked you?"

There was no response, and Rashel could only too easily imagine Quinn freeze and slowly tilt his head to stare at Lily, if he wasn't already looking at her.

"You're lying," Quinn said, and his voice sounded furious. "She at least liked me. I liked her."

Oh, so it wasn't love now? It seemed so easy for Quinn to turn his back on the girl he supposedly love for so long.

"Of course you did, Quinn. But she didn't. She never did. She pitied you," Lily's voice was cool, like she was trying to reason why a five-year-old couldn't have more than three ice creams. "It was all pity, Quinn. Dad just wanted your father's money. Why did you think we'd be so happy to have you?"

"No," Quinn mumbled, and Rashel knew his resolve was less certain now. And it was very obvious that he does like her...very, very much. So much that it was easily mistaken for love.

"Oh, yes, Quinn. You know, if Ivan had come and ask Dove first, Dove would have accepted him?"

Quinn didn't say anything anymore.

"But, I suppose that I'd rather have you around than that idiot." Lily sighed, as though she hadn't just ripped Quinn's heart into a million pieces.

"Let's go, Quinn. I'm hungry."

Rashel blinked back tears and hurried away.

M-LPOV

Mary-Lynette had shooed Jeremy away after Ash left, which shocked herself.

How many times had she been hoping that Jeremy would ask her out? How many nights spent worrying over what to wear in the morning to impress Jeremy?

It suddenly seemed very irrelevant now.

Because Ash had practically said that he didn't want to even be associated with her anymore. And to be honest, she was absolutely horrid. She never thought about how he felt, only thinking about annoying he was, or how stupid he was, or how much of a man-whore he was.

All those love stories and teenage novels had at least one scene where the main character would cry over her love. So why was she crying over Ash Redfern?

It seemed unfair that when Jeremy finally wanted to take her on a date, Ash would come and destroy everything...unknowingly, of course, but still.

"I'm a horrible, horrible, person," she murmured, staring at the tiny puddle of tears forming.

"Then I'm even worse, my Lady," a soft voice said from behind her.

Ash Redfern stood there, in all his messy-haired red-eyed glory.

"How did you know about this place, Lady Lynette?" he asked, gesturing to the rooftop they were on.

"Jeremy showed it to me."

"Ah."

A silence enveloped them.

"I'm sorry, Ash," Mary-Lynette whispered, looking at his face.

Ash grinned lopsidedly, "I should be sorry, M'lyn. I didn't know I could be that...annoying. I promise I won't ever bother you again."

Mary-Lynette stared at him helplessly. Just when she finally knew why he did all those things – just when she finally liked those things he did – he stops? What kind of twisted universe was this?

Tears started racing down her face, and Ash gaped at her, "don't cry. Aww, c'mon! I can't stand it when girls cry. Er...please? I'll stop forever! Promise! Just stop crying."

She even started to sob now.

"What else do you want? Er...I'll...buy you chocolates everytime it's Valentine's Day and you don't have a date! I'll...I'll give you christmas presents! All 12 days of christmas! Just stop crying."

The thought of Ash Redfern buying her chocolates because she won't have a date was even more depressing than the thought of him never play-argueing again.

She shook her head.

"Just tell me what you want! I'll give you anything! Just stop."

"Don't ever stop, Redfern."

The look on Ash's face was priceless. His mouth sagged open slightly and his eyes were wide.

"Eh?"

"Don't ever stop...Ash."

And he got it.

He laughed and he picked up and he spun he round and round and round and Mary-Lynette – if she was being honest – never felt happier.

QPOV

Rashel opened her locker and the first thing she saw was a bouquet of red roses, with a card saying two words: I'm Sorry.

Holding I close to her, she walked to the trash can and dumped it in without sparing it a second glance.

Then Keller slapped Quinn on the back and said, "you're such a stalker, bro'."

Quinn could only smile slightly and shrug. It was true, no point denying it.

KPOV

"Hey, 'Shel!" Keller said, throwing her bag to the couch, "receive some pretty lil' flowers today, huh?"

Rashel rolled her eyes and muttered, "crazy stalker."

Keller almost laughed at the irony.

"Kept a little card, there, didn't we?" Keller nudged Rashel. "C'mon...show me."

"No!"

"Why not?" Keller demanded.

"It's mine." Rashel hissed protectively.

Keller cleared her throat and said in a reading voice, "Ahem...I'm sorry..." Keller looked at Rashel in a smug way, "was that it?"

Rashel rolled her eyes, "if you knew, why'd you ask?"

"You take the fun out of living, Rashel." Keller shook her head, and then said, "don't change the subject. It was from Quinn, wasn't it?"

Rashel laughed. "Obviously."

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