SCHOOL OF LOVE

RATING: T (just to be sure)

CHARACTERS: Shelby, Scott, Wendy, Harmony, Walt, Mark, Alice, Jess

SUMMARY: AU. Shelby, Wendy, Scott, Brian and the others are all in high school. Walt still exists, but is slightly different in comparison with the show. Elaine happened but is now out of the picture.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the original characters. The others are completely made up, unless my subconscious worked on things I saw on TV or something…

CHAPTER TWO

Friday

"Look, it's easy. You just have to stay concentrated." Scott patiently said, helping Harmony to get the movement. "Stretch your arms a little but let them folded at the elbow level. You have to do it with elasticity, like this." He showed her, easily making a shot. Harmony scowled at him and wiped some hair out of her face.

"Is Brian coming for your practice tonight?" She asked, not really showing a big interest.

"I don't think so. Why?" He answered, throwing her the ball and standing under the basket, waiting. He leaned against the pole and crossed his arms, scrutinizing her.

"Because I'm tired of all these exercises, and yet, I'm not even in the team." She complained, her lips making a pout.

"And you won't be if you don't keep training yourself." Scott seriously said and motioned for her to toss the ball, which missed again.

"This is stupid. I never saw you forcing Wendy into doing a sport in school. This is so unfair."

"Firstly, I didn't force you at all; remember that you went asking me. Secondly, Wendy has always been worthless in sports and she never showed interest in them. And thirdly, I had another 'target' when she was your age."

"Yeah Shel. But that was only because she wanted to get closer to you and spend time with you." She stated and then tried to make a shot with the method her had just taught her. The ball missed the basket again.

"That is stupid and you know it." He replied, catching the ball and making it turn around on itself with his finger.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you never saw that she was interested in you!" Harmony retorted, a small knowing smile playing on her lips.

"No because you're seeing things that don't exist."

"Right…" She doubtfully said, smirking at him and throwing another ball. And again, she lost the basket. Scott heard her sighing loudly then swearing under her breath. God, his younger sister was almost as bad as Wendy in manners…almost.

"Okay…" Scott sighed, and then went to take the ball. "What about we stop training for today? I'm beat and I still have some homework to do." He suggested, then went over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Gladly. Hey, Scott?" She interrogated, looking up at him as they walked back to the back door of their 3-story house.

"Um?"

"Do you ever think of college? I mean, it's your senior year and all…" They both entered the kitchen and Harmony sat on a stool, looking at him pensively.

"Of course I think of it." He replied as it was obvious. After all, it was his last year of high school and all the students, teachers and counsellors were talking a lot about it.

"Do you know what major you're going to choose?" She then asked and raised an eyebrow in question.

"I have no clue. Maybe mathematics or law. I really don't know." Scott said shrugging, wiping his sweaty neck with a small towel. He threw it on a chair and Harmony sighed.

"At your place, I'd directly put it on the dirty linen. Mom's gonna make a crisis if she sees it lying on the chair when she comes back from work." Harmony said, taking the towel and throwing it in his face.

"Harm!" Scott yelped as the towel hit his face. He threw it back at her and laughed as the face she made. Pieces of hair had fallen out of her high ponytail and she looked furious. "Sorry, I didn't want to harm you." He apologized as she rubbed her right eye. He approached her and took her hands in his. "Let me look at it." Harmony sighed and let him examine his damage. Her eye was a little red and puffy but Scott assumed it was only from the violence of the hit. "It looks okay, just a little red."

"Maybe I should put some ice on it?"

"If you want but I don't think it's necessary." Scott reassured her, and then turned around when he heard footsteps entering the house. "Di, is that you?" He shouted.

"Hey bro, no need to scream, I'm not even close to be deaf." Wendy sarcastically said as she entered the kitchen, and then took two bottles of soda from the fridge. "What happened to your eye Harm?"

"Ask Scott."

"Oh, okay, drop it! It was an accident!" Scott threw his arms in defence and watched as Wendy also took two bars of chocolate. "Are we having a guest?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, Shelby is here. So if you want her to ever talk to you again, maybe you should come upstairs and apologize once for all." Wendy said, and then patted him on the shoulder. "I'm waiting here while you go."

"Okay…I guess she's in your bedroom?"

"Go Scott!" She ordered then shared a smile with Harmony.

Shelby pulled off her coat and put it on Wendy's bed. She was so thankful her summer diet to lose weight had worked. She had lost almost thirty pounds and was now almost as thin as she wanted to be and many guys were looking at her differently. Of course, she still wasn't as skinny as the other popular chicks of the school but she felt good. She borrowed a pair of jeans and a shirt from Wendy's closet and sat on the bed, slowly unlacing her ballet shoes. Her bag of clothes had been totally overflowed as there had been a problem with the showers. Wendy and she had had an exhausting hour of intensive dance, and she was totally beat. She sighed, getting up and ready to take off her leotard when someone knocked on the bedroom door.

"Shelby? Can I enter please?" Scott asked, before slightly opening the door to let his head in. He looked at her in amazement as he saw what she was wearing: a pink leotard…it actually was the first time that he saw her wearing pink but it looked good on her. He could tell by then, that she had lost a lot of weight during the summer break, he couldn't say how much but god…she was so thin, yet so…sexy. The fat that she had at the hips level had disappeared and her tummy was now revealing perfect abs. She was perfect to him.

She spotted him and sighed. "I'm really not in the mood, Scott." She strongly said feeling a bit embarrassed but not knowing how to act.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." He apologized, his own cheeks reddening at the sight in front of him. Shelby looked up at him blushing furiously and crossed her arms in front of her chest to hide her small cleavage from him. He already had seen a woman naked and had sex many times but it wasn't the same. It was the little Shelby, the Shelby he knew since he was seven, the Shelby he had always considered like his sister. She had definitively changed, and in good ways of saying. It had been almost two years since he hadn't see her wearing something that revealing and was pleasingly amazed at what he was staring at. Her breasts had grown bigger and she now looked more like a woman than like a girl. The fact that her hair was untied was even more disturbing. She looked so…sensual and feminine.

"Oh, that's okay I guess. What do you need?" She dryly asked him, looking behind his back to see if Wendy was following. "Where's Wendy?"

"She's talking to Harmony. Can we talk?" He gently asked, slightly pleading with his eyes, without even realizing it.

"Yeah, I suppose." She sat at the end of the bed while he stood up, gazing down at her. Shelby looked away as she didn't want to meet his eyes but she could feel that he was intensely staring at her. Scott sighed and got on his knees, in front of her. He took both her hands which had previously been on her tights and that's when she decided to look at him. She seemed anything but willing to hear him. He could feel her menacing blue piercing eyes crossing his.

He held up his hand defensively and shook his head. "Firstly I'm not trying to start anything. I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry, okay?"

Shelby didn't let him off the hook so easily though. "Do you know how many guys are scared to talk to me? Boys from the neighbourhood actually avoid me when they see me, even if you're not here! What is your problem anyway?"

"Nothing. I just don't want you to be taken advantage of. You're new to this whole thing and you don't know how these guys think. You're so young and so pure…you don't know what happens in their heads when they see you, but I do. When they say hello, it means they're interested. If they rub your arm, they think they're going to get some soon. And if you kiss them, well, the deal is sealed." He explained, trying to be soft on his own way.

Shelby scoffed. "Not all the guys think like you. And don't you think you don't exaggerate too much? I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself. Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need your 'precious' advices. "

Scott saw how frustrated Shelby was becoming, and decided to let it go. "Are we ever going to talk about how things ended last summer?"

Shelby shrugged. "There is nothing to talk about." she responded.

He gave her a dry look. "C'mon, you know that's not true. I could tell you were severely pissed at me. It's okay, I can take it." He said. Shelby nodded.

"Okay, I think you're a jerk." She simply said and Scott's eyes grew bigger.

"What?" He narrowed his eyes.

"You're a jerk. Last year, you didn't care about me at all outside of training me, and now all of a sudden you have an interest in my personal business? You talk about how bad they are, but in reality you're just like them. You've grown up around it, and as much as you try to stand out with your big words and deep ways of thinking, you're one of them, and you'll always be one of them. So please, save me the speech. Because I don't need it, especially not from you." Shelby took a deep breath after her long tirade. Scott's lips were parted, he was stunned.

"But you know I'm really sorry Shelby. I know I've been a jerk during the summer and I'm precisely here to apologize." He insisted again, finally recovering from the shock of what she had just told him.

"Yes, indeed you have been pretty disturbed." Shelby stated, calming down, still a bit confused by his strange behaviour with her. He had never been so protective before, he had never given a damn about her; she had always been like…transparent to him and what she had done with her life had always seemed meaningless to him.

"I'm sorry." He apologized again, slightly dropping his head in shame.

"Okay." She only said, nodding silently.

"Do you accept my apologies?" He pleadingly asked, and did his puppy eyes.

"I do, but you have to promise me something." She said nodding along, rolling her eyes at his antics.

"Tell me." He shrugged and was willing to accept almost everything she would propose to re-conquer her trust and her friendship.

"I want you to never interfere again into my love life, whatever happens." She requested, and met his eyes. She could tell he was a bit taken aback but could do nothing but accept.

"I promise. Except if you ask me." He said with a small twinkle in his eyes.

"Thank you." She said then quickly hugged him. He hugged back, feeling better than he had been since they had argued. "I'm glad we're friends again." Shelby said smiling as he hugged her tighter. Scott released the grip and lost himself into her piercing dark blue eyes for a second.

"I'm glad too." Wendy said from behind then smiled when they both turned to look at her, slightly startled. "Hey bro, you better go downstairs now."

"Oh, and why that?" Scott asked his sister with a smile, getting up on his feet and stretching his arms.

"Mom got back from work and wants an explanation on why Harm has an equinox forming on the right eye."

"Holly shit, an equinox? Did Harm tell her anything?" He asked, a bit anxious at having his mother give him a talking-to again.

"No, but I will if you don't convince the parents to allow me to go out with Shelby tomorrow night." She said, smiling sweetly.

"You dare bribing me? This isn't nice." He said playfully scolding at her.

"Works better than threatening." She said with a shrug then shared a laugh with Shelby who vivaciously winked at him. "Good luck!"

"Hey mom, I'm home!" Shelby yelled as she entered the house. Mark came running to great her, bouncing happily. She bent down and took him in her arms, smiling brightly at him. Walk watched them from the stairs and she noticed his gaze on her. "Hey Walt." She quietly said and Walt smiled, going downstairs. He leaned down t kiss her cheek and she felt a feeling of fear as she felt him approaching her.

"Hi Shellie, how was your day?" He asked with concern. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable and took a step back as he saw her shiver.

"It was fine." She swallowed hard and he only nodded at her. Mark struggled in her arms and wrapped his small ones around her neck. He began placing wet kisses on her cheeks and she laughed at him and began to tickle him on the ribs. "Where is mom?"

"Upstairs with Jess. They are dyeing Jess's hair."

"What? What colour?" She asked slightly alarmed. Last time her mother had tried to do something on her sister's hair, it had been a disaster.

"I don't remember." He admitted and she nodded, handing him her little brother before taking back her schoolbag and walking upstairs. She heard a woman laughing and knew it was her mother. She stood by the bathroom door and smiled to herself at the sight in front of her eyes. Jess was head inside the hand basin, and Alice was thrashing her hair.

"Hey, you guys having fun?" She asked and Alice turned around, a smile visible on her face. "Hi mom."

"Hi baby, how was school?" Alice asked and Shelby shrugged. The only positive thing of the day was that she had made up with Scott and spent a good time at dance practice. Though, she wasn't sure if she wanted to spend another year doing it. She was thinking more and more about abandoning ballet to privilege basketball.

"Good, but the English teacher already gave us an essay to do for next week." She complained with a moan and Alice nodded.

"I'll give you some help if you want?" She proposed and Shelby's face brightened at the suggestion.

"Thanks."

"Can you give me the comb please?" Alice requested. She looked around and found it next to Jess's make-up palette.

"Sure. Uh, I went to dance practice with Wendy and the teacher asked if there were parents who'd be interested in helping for the suits." Shelby began, slightly hesitant. She knew her mother was working a lot and probably wouldn't find the time to do the outfits.

"Yeah?"

"You know last year was fun. Do you think you could do it again?"

"I don't really know honey. Is Susan going to do it?" Alice asked with a little interest. Susan and she had made the outfits last year and they had become pretty good friends. Before that, they just did never really interact with each other even if Shelby and Wendy knew each other since kindergarten.

"Probably." Shelby answered with a shrug.

"Okay, I'll see if I can find any free time but I can't promise you anything. Can you hand me the towel please?"

"Uh, what colour did you try?" Shelby asked them and watched as Jess wrapped the towel around her hair, smiling happily.

"Purple." Jess answered and Shelby's eyes grew wide.

"You're kidding, right?"

"It's only some strands of hair." Jess said and Alice nodded smiling. Shelby shook her head at them, slightly smiling back.

"Mom?" Shelby asked with hesitation noticeable in her voice.

"Um?"

"Uh, well, Wendy asked me if I wanted to go out tomorrow night. Can I?" She asked and Alice smiled, nodding at her daughter. Ever since Lex had left after his month here, Shelby had stayed inside the house pretending she had things to do. It was great she wanted to take some fresh air, even if it was to go to the movies or doing shopping with her friends.

"If you want, where are you going?"

"She didn't tell me."

"Make sure you'll be here before your midnight curfew."

"Of course." She answered as it was evident for her. She wouldn't have even thought otherwise. Jess smiled and turned to them.

"I can go too?"

"I already made myself clear. Not before you're sixteen, Jess."

"I can always try…So, how do I look?" She pulled the towel off of her hair and let it fall to her shoulders. Alice smiled at her prettiness and Shelby could only gasp.

"That's…nice." She replied, truthfully thinking what she was saying. Jess looked just gorgeous with those strands.

Please R&R.