Hey guys. Spoby Week is coming up! Happy anniversary to my babies:)! And I can't wait to see all the prompts, gifs, pictures, Tweets, and more. So in the excitement for Spoby Week, I wanted to write a fanfiction for them. This has been stuck in my mind for a while, ever since I read this book called Perfect Chemistry. Happy Spoby Week!
Steered Straight
Chapter 1
I could barely see anything. I tried rubbing my eyes, but my vision was still hazy. I saw my crew next to me. I knew I passed out last night. There was a silver pistol in my hand. I slowly composed myself and got up off the floor. My buddies were still passed out on the ground. I knew I had to get home before the police showed up or something. I have to sneak back in and hide my pistol. The last time my family caught me with it, they banned me from handling it. They just don't accept me.
"Son," I heard my dad's voice as I tried to walk inside. Crap, I thought. I didn't think he would hear me come inside. I quickly shoved the pistol in my back pocket. I knew it was a lame way of hiding, but it was the best I could do at this hour. It was like six in the morning!
"Uh, um, hey dad," I said, trying to sound normal.
"You didn't come home last night," he said, getting angry. "Where the hell were you last night?"
"Out with my friends," I said.
"You mean your stupid gang?" he angrily said. "Show me what you've got behind your back, son. We set some strict rules up the last time you went out without permission. Let me see what you've got there. I told you, no more of your gang."
"Dad, I wanna go sleep," I said.
"Don't play innocent. You don't get to sneak out and back in, and then just play innocent. I know you've been doing something bad, and I'm going to find out what it is," he said. "You know what? Just turn around. Let me see what you've got there."
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
I was totally screwed. Dad was gonna murder me if he found out!
I didn't turn around when he asked me to, and his face turned red. He marched up behind me, and looked into my back pocket. He could see the handle sticking out of my black jeans. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before reaching into my pocket and pulling out my pistol.
"Toby Cavanaugh," he shook his head. "You are a disappointment. I can't take this anymore. I thought you were a bright boy, not a gang member! Who do you think you are? Some mafia member? Some bad ass guy? You're a failure right now, and you always will be, unless you get your head screwed on straight! I'm getting your mother down here."
"She's not my mother," I said quietly.
"You need to accept it. She's your mother now. At least she has her morals right," he said, shaking his head. "Honey, get down here. We have a huge problem that we need to fix, right now."
My life was screwed.
It had been a little more than a week since the incident at home. My parents stripped away every little block of freedom I had. They took my car keys, cell phone, pistol, Internet access, and anything else I could get a hold of. I basically lived I life where I went to school and came home. School was my only way of talking to my buddies.
As I sat down during my first period class, there was an announcement from the office.
Toby Cavanaugh, please report to the principal's office. Toby Cavanaugh.
What? I hadn't done anything bad since the day I got my life taken away from me! My classmates giggled. They knew that I always got called to the office. It had become quite a frequent thing. I had stayed out of trouble the whole week, though! All my encouragement was gone when my parents took everything away from me.
"Nice one, Toby! What'd you do this time?" my friend Jacob asked.
"Nothin'," I answered, shrugging my shoulders. Jacob raised his eyebrows. "Honestly man, I did nothing," I told him. "Maybe I won an award or something."
Jacob laughed, "Funny. You probably did something. You'll have to tell me later, man!"
I rolled my eyes and got out of my chair. I was used to this office thing. I memorized how to get there the fastest way from my first period classroom. I stepped inside the office, and then into the principal's room. He was sitting behind his desk. There was some brunette chick sitting in one of the chairs. Why was she here?
"I didn't do anything," I said. "I haven't done anything!"
"Yes, not recently," Principal Hackett said, nodding. "I'm proud of you, Mister Cavanaugh, but have a seat. Your parents gave me a call yesterday, and I decided to take action. You may know this girl."
She turned her spinny chair around to face me. She didn't look happy to be here at all. There was no smile on her face. I know her.
I know her!
Spencer Hastings.
What the hell was she doing?
I didn't want to sit there with Miss Goody-Goody (AKA Spencer).
"Toby, your parents have been concerned with your 'gang status' and your frequent reach of firearms," Principal Hackett said. "So um, well, I have been meaning to try this new system out, so I contacted your parents, and they said that this would be a great experience for you."
I furrowed my eyebrows. He wasn't even telling me what this 'great experience' was! And I was sure that anything my parents thought was a great experience probably sucked ass.
"I call it the Influential Steering Program, or ISP for short," Principal Hackett proudly told me. "Basically, it's a way for students that are not on the right track to be steered straight! You'll have a good influence guide who will be watching you and making sure you're doing well. And your guide is Spencer Hastings, if you don't know her. She's an honorary student with a perfect GPA, and she serves as a role model here at Rosewood High. That is why I selected her."
At that moment, I had never hated my parents more. They signed me up so this chick could watch me closely!
"Okay, I'm very excited for this to start," Principal Hackett said. "I'm going to give you two the whole first period to get to know each other, since you'll be working together for quite a while. Hopefully Miss Hastings will be able to help you out. You two can have my office while I go out and run some... err... errands."
Principal Hackett left us in his own office.
"Fuck this shit," I said. "You probably volunteered for this to get a couple extra GPA points so you could go and continue being Little Miss Overachiever, huh?"
"No. I didn't even sign up for this!" she angrily said, crossing her arms. "I told him I would love to help the community, and then he dragged me into the mess."
"Look, I don't wanna spend any time with you, so go mind your own business and stay away from me," I said, rolling my eyes. "This program is the dumbest thing I've ever been forced to do in my entire life!"
"It doesn't matter. I have a job to do now, and I'm not going to let you mess it up. They're counting on me to steer you straight or whatever," Spencer said. "I don't know who you are, or what you did to get here, but I know you're a bad guy. And it's my job to fix that. I would rather not be here, but I made a promise, and I'm not going to break it."
She was such a loser!
I wasted my time in that office for a whole hour with Spencer Hastings. She annoyed the crap out of me. I saw Jacob Ruth in the parking lot after school that day. I decided that I would just chill with a friend and tell my parents that the bus came late, if they'd even believe me.
"Hey bro," I said, and sat next to him on the ledge of the cement seating. "I wanna hang for like five. I've gotta get home soon, though. I'm basically not allowed to be anywhere. My parents are still caught up over the whole gun thing that happened like a whole freakin' weak ago!"
"Yeah, that's lame shit. Our gang's been nothin' without you, dude," Jacob said, sighing. "Get your parents to chill out! A little smoke never killed nobody."
"I'm pretty sure smoke kills a lot, but sure," I laughed. "Gimme a cig."
"Aw yeah, there's my man!" Jacob exclaimed. He took the pack out of his back pocket and handed me a cigarette. "I got a lighter. You wanna keep walkin' and lightin'?"
"Nah, it's cool here," I said. "Nobody's gonna see us. Give me your lighter, Jacob."
Jacob grinned and tossed me the lighter that was in his jacket pocket. I grinned back at him, ready to light mine up. Before I could do so, that stupid bitch from earlier came jogging up to me. It was Spencer Hastings, from Hackett's office. My stupid 'guide' for ISP.
"You... you can't do that!" she cried. She closed the lighter and threw the cigarette on the floor. She tossed the lighter back to Jacob and rolled her eyes. "I hate being the cop here, but your parents left rules they want me to steer you away from, and smoking, drugs, and guns are all on that list. Oh, and you've got to come straight home. Come on."
"Who the hell are you?" Jacob asked. "Back off my bro, bitch. Cavanaugh's busy."
I could tell that Spencer was afraid.
"Um...um... well, Principal Hackett made me Toby's guide for a program called ISP," Spencer quietly explained.
Jacob rolled his eyes, "Woman, you can't control a bad ass like him, so get away. We've got better things to do than be paraded by the rich white girl. You've got everything you want, so why don't you let the people that don't have their entire lives paid for to have their own fun?"
"I'm just doing what I was told to," Spencer quietly mumbled.
I chuckled.
"C'mon, Jacob, you're scaring her. Stop being such a douche bag," I said. "I actually have to do what she says. My parents will probably murder me if I don't. This is their revenge for that one night where I did some harmless shit that wouldn't kill me even if I wanted it to."
"Aight, fine," Jacob said. "If you ever want to have another cig, just come to me, bro."
"He can't have any 'cigs'!" Spencer frantically said. "It's against the wishes of his parents!"
Jacob rolled his eyes again. I got up from the cement seating and followed Spencer.
On our way back to my house, Spencer's phone started ringing loudly. All I heard was Spencer saying:
"Hi sweetheart."
"I'm busy, I can't."
"I know I never have time. I'm sorry."
"I have to go. Um... Love you."
It was obviously her boyfriend. I didn't think she had one, but I guess I thought wrong.
"Boyfriend?" I raised my eyebrow.
"I'm not here to share personal details with you, but yes," she said, sighing. "And I don't need any comments about how you think that someone like me shouldn't or couldn't have a boyfriend, okay? I'm just here to try and help you. I'm following what your parents want."
"You could just let me go and live my life," I said.
"No, I can't. Then I'll be going against what I'm supposed to do," she told me.
"Why can't you ever break the rules?" I asked, smirking. "It's your fault that I'm stuck like this!"
"I'm not the one that got you in trouble with your parents. It wouldn't make a difference if Principal Hackett chose a different student to be your guide," she explained. "You're lucky that I'm nice enough to keep that little cigarette story under wraps and not tell your parents, so stop complaining. I'm not the one who comes up with these rules."
"Living by the rules sucks," I told her. "How about I teach you how to live, if you get me out of my house arrest?"
"That's up to your parents. And I don't want to live. I'm fine the way I am," she denied me, shaking her head. "Is that your house?"
"Yeah," I said, nodding my head.
"I have to walk you in," she told me. "That's what your parents wanted."
I couldn't believe my parents were actually making this rich girl follow me around and make me follow their rules. That was so dumb. She was a loser, anyways. She probably had never broken a rule in her entire life. When we got to my front door, she rang the doorbell. My stupid step mother opened the door. She smiled when she saw Spencer.
"Are you the girl that Principal Hackett assigned to be my son's ISP guide?" Step-mom asked.
She nodded her head and answered, "Yes. I'm Spencer Hastings. Um, here's all my contact information if you ever need to contact me. It's a huge honor to be his guide."
I could see that she meant that she was honored, but she didn't want to do it. She probably thought I was some bad guy that would shoot her or something. I guess that was understandable, since my parents went to such an extreme to get me help. Plus, she just caught Jacob and I trying to smoke on campus. She was a buzzkill, though.
"Why thank you!" step-mom exclaimed. "This is so convenient. Thank you, darling. I can tell that you're a very wonderful young woman, and I'm glad that your principal picked you to be the guide."
Spencer smiled at my step-mom. That was disgusting! No one was allowed to get along with my devil step mom, or my devil step sister. I didn't even like my dad at that point, since he always sided with the step family. It was so unfair.
"Thank you for walking him in. Toby, get inside," she harshly said. "Spencer, you can head on home. I really appreciate this. Have a wonderful afternoon."
"Thank you," Spencer quietly said as she backed up.
I walked inside my house. I knew that this was the start of an awful life.
Fuck. My. Life.