"Will you stop pacing already and just explain what's going on?"

Ashley lets out a groan and turns to look at Chelsea, Kyla, and Al who are currently residing on her bed.

"Yeah really, had I known you were just calling us in here to watch you pace I totally would have made an excuse not to come."

This comment earns Kyla a glare from Ashley, who immediately starts to pace again. "Spencer and I had a chat out by the lake the tonight…"

Kyla smirks at this, and looks at Ashley expectantly, waiting for her to continue on. Chelsea on the other hand looks slightly alarmed, "Umm Ash, maybe we should have this conversation later… when it's just us." She eyes Kyla as if to make her point more clear.

Once again Ashley stops pacing and rolls her eyes, "Relax Chelsea, she knows."

Nodding, Chelsea sighs, "Ok, so you had a chat…" she prompts. Ashley dramatically falls to the ground and sighs. "Glad to see your sister's dramatic side is rubbing off on you."

"Hey! I am so not dramatic!"

This just causes Chelsea to roll her eyes, "Kyla you're the president of the drama club." Ignoring Kyla's mumbles, she looks at Ashley, "Continue on."

"And, she said she's in love with me…"

Upon hearing this, Kyla let's out a shriek and claps her hands together, "That's so cute! You have to be so excited!"

Chelsea eyes her best friend lying on the floor, who is looking less than thrilled and slightly confused at the moment. "Yes you should be excited… so why was our presence requested and why are you pathetically lying on your floor?"

Ashley stares up at the ceiling for a minute, not saying anything.

"Yeah, hold the phone… why are you here? Shouldn't you be with her having crazy, hot, passionate, sex?"

At this Ashley curls into a ball, letting out a groan, "I may have screwed things up a little bit…"

Chelsea sighs, "What did you do?"

"I might have become socially awkward, spitting out random things to her until I escaped back here."

Kyla shakes her head, clearly disappointed with her sister, "Oh Ashley…"

"What?" She sits up down, looking helpless, "I panicked, ok? What else was I supposed to do?"

"Oh I don't know," Cheslea pipes up, "Maybe tell her how you feel back. It's a crazy idea really, but it just might have worked."

"Now is not the time to be sarcastic with me." Chelsea just shakes her head, and lays back on the bed letting out an exasperated sigh. "Well it's done and over with now, so now what do I do to fix it?"

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

Kyla looks at her sister like she's slow, "Are you in love with her?"

Both girls await a response, eying her expectantly, "I think so."

"Then you should go tell her."

"It's not that easy."

Frustrated now, and quite frankly beyond tired, Chelsea stands, "It is that easy. You can sit here and regret not saying it back to her all night or you can do something about it." She heads for the door and stops, giving Ashley an apologetic smile, "Now I'm sorry to cut this short, but it's going on two in the morning and I have a test in little less than six hours, so good night."

Ashley half waves and continues to throw herself a pity party on the floor. Kyla however, has other plans. Hopping off the bed, she holds out her hand to Ashley, to help pull her up off the floor. "As fun as this is, we're going to stop throwing a pity party and figure out how to fix this… that is if you want to."

She takes her sister's hand and allows herself to be pulled up. "How?"

--

For the next week, Ashley attempts to talk to Spencer but fails miserably; as the young teacher has never been colder toward her. Anytime she would try to get Spencer's attention, Spencer would look right through her, as if she wasn't even there. Something was going on with her, and everyone knew it because their favorite laid back English teacher was in full out bitch mode.

One Tuesday afternoon, an exasperated Kyla bursts into Ashley's room. "You have to fix this!"

Ashley looks up from her computer, confused. "Huh?"

"She is driving everyone mad Ash! It's the end of the semester, and I have had more homework and pop quizzes in that class this past week than I have all year!"

"And this has to do with me how?"

"Well isn't it obvious?! She's beyond pissed at you, and has been taking it out on everyone."

"I've tried fixing it… she won't even look at me, let alone talk to me."

"Well try harder! I now have a paper due at the end of this week that I don't have time for because I have the show to get ready for this weekend! And do you know why that is?" Ashley just looks at her, slightly afraid as her sister glares at her from the doorway. "Because someone is socially retarded and gives up too easily! This is my senior year! I shouldn't be stressed about school! Now do us both a favor, and fix it!" With that she leaves, slamming the door shut behind her.

The slamming of the door causes Ashley to flinch as she just stares at it, slightly shocked with her sister's outburst, who has been nothing but understanding and patient with her this past week.

Deciding for her sister's sake as well as everyone else's, she should try to talk to her one more time.

She spent the next half hour searching for Spencer throughout the large school; first all the usual spots. Giving up, she sets off down to the music lab, frustrated that the young teacher is MIA. When she gets to the lab door she freezes as she hears a soft melody coming from the piano. She lets out a small gasp when she finally sees that it is the person she has spent the past half hour looking for. Taking a deep breath, she opens the door and walks in, quickly getting lost in watching Spencer play.

When the song is finished, Ashley clears her throat, "I didn't know you played… is there anything you can't do?"

Instead of responding, Spencer flips the page of the music book in front of her and starts to play.

Transfixed, Ashley stands there watching her for a bit before walking over to the piano and sitting down on the bench. Spencer continues on like Ashley isn't there. Tired of this silent treatment, Ashley grabs a hold of Spencer's hand to stop her and looks at her, "Spence, please…"

The blonde finally looks at her, sending a shiver down Ashley's spine, as the usual passion behind those eyes has disappeared to nothingness. "Listen, about that night at the lake… I just wanted to tell you that…"

"My mother put me in pageants when I was little. I wasn't big on them, but I always loved to please my mom so I went along with them. We had to have a talent, so at first she signed me up for singing lessons. However, it was quickly learned that I couldn't carry a tune to save my life. So instead, we did piano lessons. It was just something that came naturally to me so it always kind of stuck with me, but unfortunately as soon as I told my mom I didn't want to do pageants anymore the piano lessons stopped as well. Seeing how upset it made me, my dad bought me a piano one year and I've been playing ever since."

"How come you never told me this before?" Ashley asks quietly, never looking away from Spencer.

She just shrugs sadly, "You never asked."

Ashley nods, and looks down at her hands. "Oh." She takes a deep breath, preparing herself for what she's about to say, "Spence, I wanted to tell you that… well, the reason I came to find you is that… I lov…"

She is immediately stopped, when a finger is quickly pressed to her lips, silencing her. "I've realized something last night." The blonde removes her finger, and reaches up to brush a few strands of hair out of Ashley's eyes. Ashley does nothing but watch her. "That no matter what I try to do, it's just never enough… I'm never enough."

"What? Spencer I…"

She shakes her head. "Not just with you Ash. With everything. My mother, my career choices, with Jackie… everything always ends in disappointment. And I've realized I've always just let it. We've been going back and forth this entire semester, taking one step forward, two giant leaps back. It's tiring trying to follow really. You and I have had so many odds stacked up against us that I should have known it wouldn't work out. Maybe if it was a different situation this could have happened." She lets out a sigh and looks down at her hands, "I can't keep putting myself out there only to be disappointed. I've done it one too many times and now it's time for me to focus on myself. I should have realized this earlier on… realized that when it came down to it I was always the one trying to find more out about you, not the other way around. I get it, you know?" She looks up at Ashley, who is desperately trying to fight back tears. "It's ok that you can't love me, you're only 18, and I get that. You have all of these things to experience still and I think this time I expected too much from you." She feels a tear slip down her cheek, "Break is in a week and a half anyways…I just… I don't know what I was thinking could happen." She stands now, wiping the single tear from her cheek. "I should get going."

When the door shuts behind Spencer's retreating self, a sob finally escapes Ashley's mouth. The tears are falling freely as she just stares at the door and whispers to no one, "You didn't expect too much, Spence, I love you too."