A/N: So this is my first real attempt at a first person narrative. I hope it's okay. I haven't gotten any feedback for this at all yet. I'm going to soldier on at least until there is some Spike action because mainly I'm writing this for myself.

The Becky O'Shea List of the day

"What's he talking about date?" Debbie asked when the hall had emptied.

I had been silly to think that Debbie wouldn't catch what Billy had said. Her ears where tuned into hearing that kind of thing.

"The get to know you dance." I sighed pushing hair away from my eyes avoiding her gaze.

"So? You don't have a date?" She closed the open door keeping her voice quiet keeping this conversation from the rest of the house.

"No." my voice hitched and I hated myself a little bit. I threw myself onto the bed a long heavy sigh escaping, "And I won't get one."

Debbie was standing at the end of the bed arms crossed, stance wide. Somehow challenging. It was times like this that she really reminded me of Uncle Kevin.

"Of course you will. You are an O'Shea, we get what we want." Her voice was quiet and firm and strong and her determination unwavering. She sat on the bed next to me and smiling she poked me in the side, "So, which boy do you want?"

I shrugged, "I hadn't really thought of it..."

"This could be a problem." She was quiet for a couple of minutes before she sprung up off of the bed, "You're going to Macy's party tonight."

"I am?"

"You sure are. Be at my house after dinner we'll go together."

"I don't understand how will this get me a date?"

"Oh leave that to me." Debbie flounced happily out of the room just as excited as she had been when she had gotten here.

"So what are you two doing on the last night of Summer vacation?" Dad smiled as he handed the pitcher of iced tea to Junior.

"I'm going to Macy's party tonight."

"Oh me too." I was a little taken aback at how surprised he seemed.

"You are?"

"Hey it's not like I've never been to a party before."

"Yeah but usually you go with the team and only after like twenty minutes of being badgered. So who talked you into it this time?"

I looked away from his smug face, "Debbie."

Debbie's room hadn't changed much in five years, still incredibly girly, pink and frilly. White furniture and pretty glass bottles shining in the failing summer light.

"You don't look too bad." She smiled taking in my appearance. She spun me around and I felt off balance for more than one reason.

She was really looking at me, evaluating me and I didn't like it. I knew that tonight was going to be a long night so I had worn jeans and sneakers. I wore a blue peasant blouse that Debbie had given me a couple of Christmas's ago. Something I knew she wouldn't have a problem with if I wore.

"You just had to wear this didn't you." She sighed pulling at my letterman's jacket.

"Why wouldn't I? It'll be cold when we leave the party."

"Oh Becky, Becky, Becky. Don't you understand what tonight is?"

"A party?"

"Oh sweet innocent Becky." She shook her head and pulled the jacket off of me, "These are the colors of being taken. This symbolizes not only that you have a boyfriend but a boyfriend that will beat the shit out of any boy who tries to talk to you. This is the party when we find out which boys like you so obviously this has to go."

"That's a lot for a jacket to say..." I shivered. I had grown accustom to the warmth and protection the jacket had provided. I wasn't sure if I was ready to see which boys liked me, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I had a feeling I wasn't going to be very pleased with the results.

"Yeah well it does." She threw the jacket onto the bed and started pacing around the room, "At least your hair is down. You look so cute with your hair down."

"Umm thanks?" I chose not to tell her that Patty had done my hair. She had walked by when I had thrown my hairbrush across the room and she had come to my rescue.

"Wear this instead." She threw a thin black cardigan at me. I caught it easily even thou the toss was high and to the right. I put it on and let her spin me around again.

"That'll do." she smiled happily and grabbed my arm, "Let's go find you a boy." there was a finality in her words that made me nervous but also excited. Having a boyfriend would fill up the time I usually dedicated to practising football with the guys.

Maybe I would even have a proper date to Dad and Patty's wedding.

Susan Wilkinson was waiting downstairs. She was smiling brightly and was laughing a little as Debbie pulled me down the stairs, "I didn't think I'd ever see you out of that blue and silver." her voice was sweet and her face was kind. I could understand why Patterson was so infatuated with her. She was pretty and a good person.

"It almost didn't happen, someone had brought their security blanket."

"Did you really think you'd get away with your lettermen's jacket?" She asked opening the front door and making her way to the beaten up car she had inherited from her brother.

"Yes..." I mumbled getting into the back seat of the rusted car. I didn't really see the point in driving to Macy Abbot's house when we live in a pretty compact town. Perhaps it was a fast get away thing in case the party got raided.

The ride over was of course incredibly short, long enough for Debbie and Susan to sing to some catchy pop song on the radio. It was only 9:00 and the house was thumping. The sound of pop music and teenage chatter spilled out onto the street.

"Come on." Susan grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled me towards the house, "I hear were looking for you're soul mate." I would have been mad at Debbie if Susan hadn't of been the most trustworthy person I had ever met.

The house was hot and filled with what looked like 90 percent of the high school. I tried to follow Susan into the house but she quickly disappeared. A panicked nervousness flooded my body. I had never been alone at a party in my entire life. All through out Junior High and so far all of High School I had been surrounded by my teammates and friends or at the very least Junior.

"Debbie?" I turned around to see her bright blonde hair disappear down the hall. I let the crowd surge and push me further into the house. Apparently she was leaving me to find a boy on my own. I racked my brain trying to think of what Debbie would want me to do. All I could think of was my thirst, so I made my way to the kitchen.

Macy Abbot was leaning happily against the kitchen counter talking to a blond boy I would have known in my sleep, "Hey Macy, Junior." I nodded on my way past them towards the fridge.

"Hey Icebox..." Macy's smile faltered, "Or should I call you Becky now?"

"What are you talking about?" Junior turned around and reached his hand out to grab a hold of my shirt, "What are you wearing?"

"It's called a shirt?"

"You look like a girl."

I rolled my eyes, "Nice eye...I'll see you later." I shook my head lightly and brushed past them. Opening the fridge I noticed that Macy had done a good job at removing anything that she didn't want eaten, I doubted her fridge usually contained only beer and water. I picked up a bottle of water looked at it a moment and then put it back. I didn't have to worry about practice or training anymore, I picked up a bottle of beer and exited the kitchen.

The living room was thumping with music and people and seemed like a good place to disappear into the crowd. I leaned against the wall and looked at the bottle. I had picked a bottle that didn't twist, of course. Looking around to see if there was a bottle opener around I didn't notice him slide up next to me until suddenly the bottle was no longer in my hands.

"Isn't this beverage a little adult for you Icebox?" the voice was strong and dark and I sighed.

"Just give it back Spike." I turned and saw Spike. Tall, lean, dark and smug. His skin looked paler against the black of his hair. It hung just long enough for him to be able to shake it out of his dark eyes. He held the bottle close to me but as I tried to retrieve it he pulled it away.

"How are you going to open it?" His face was smug and I already missed hitting him and pushing him into the mud. He didn't however wait for a response, he lined the bottle up against an end table and slammed his fist down on the lid. He pulled the bottle away now without it's lid.

The word thanks tried to push its way out of my mouth but I clamped my mouth shut. There was no way I was going to thank Spike Hammersmith, bane of my existence for opening a beer I only had the smallest of intentions of actually drinking. Taking the bottle from him I looked around the room trying to find a glimpse of Susan or Debbie. Finding none I put the bottle against my mouth and leaned back against the wall.

The beer was bitter and I'm sure my face showed it because when I looked around Spike was holding in laughter, "Why are you still here?"

"That's not a very nice thing to say to a teammate." he held a hand to his heart.

"I'm not your teammate anymore."

"What?" Spike turned to look at me properly he looked shocked, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about two broken arms last year and freaked out parents unwilling to sign the permission slip. Why what do you care?" I didn't feel like telling him that I would be helping out Coach instead. He looked too shocked and let down that I wanted to relish in the fact that he would miss me. Apparently horribly.

"I... I don't." he said quickly and awkwardly, his words sounded a lot more like he cared a lot. It brought a small smirk to my face, "I was wondering why you were dressed like a girl instead of wearing your jacket."

"I always dress like a girl." I mumbled taking another swig from the bottle.

"Sure." the word was stretched and it was impossible to think that he believed what he was saying.

"I do."

"No. You don't." He pulled at the hem of my shirt feeling the fabric slowly, I could feel a knot of anticipation build in my body. His fingers were milometers from my skin and it tingled and burnt, "Today you look... cute." the last word was quiet and if the music hadn't taken a sudden dip I wouldn't have heard it at all.

"Excuse me?" my face flushed and I looked everywhere but at him, "did you just say I looked cute?"

"That's ridiculous," he laughed awkwardly not looking me in the eyes, "obviously you've had too much to drink." he took the bottle from me easily. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and put the bottle to his lips, draining the bottle and putting it down on the end table next to him before I could say anything against it.

"Hey?"

Without looking at me he spoke, "I'll get you some more..." he disappeared quickly into the kitchen.

"So do you like Spike or something?" Debbie's voice was quiet and seemingly came out of no where. Turning away from where Spike had just been I saw that Debbie had slid in next to me on the other side, silently like a spy or a ninja.

"Why would you say that?"

"Well we've been here for an hour or so and the only boy you've talked to extensively is Spike."

"Spike has been talking to me." I defended kind of nervous that the only boy I've talked to was indeed Spike. This was not the way to go about getting a boyfriend. This wasn't how Debbie was going to find out which boys liked me.

"Well he's going to scare all the other boys away Becks. Come on." She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the middle of the room where about fifteen people were dancing.

Top Five Reasons Debbie is Awesome

5) In spite of being a really girlie girl she loves me terribly and demands to hang out with me whenever I don't have practice. Which now is all the time

4) She's better than CNN. She knows everything that will effect my life almost immediately, seriously she should have her own show, or newspaper.

3) When I broke my arm the second time, which was during practice, yeah thanks a lot Spike, Debbie was the one to drive me to the doctors. She drove me to a doctors office the next town over in hopes to hide the fracture from dad and Patty. If the cast wouldn't have tipped them off the call from Coach Foster would have. Still the thought was pretty heart warming.

2) She is now dancing with me in the silly fun way that she usually reserves for family gatherings. She is laughing and doing The Sprinkler as we speak. She is making a fool out of herself because she is determined to find me a date to the upcoming dance if not several. I can tell her eyes are flitting about the room taking stock of the boys in the room, evaluating them. I think she might even have Susan in another room talking about me and noting the reactions.

1) The number one reason Debbie is awesome has got to be how far she is willing to go for me. Almost falling off the pyramid in order to get me the assistant coach position, wasting valuable boy time with me trying to prove Billy Patterson wrong. Her dedication to me and our family is mindboggling.

Bonus reason) A couple of summers ago she kept look out while I punched Murphy in the face after he told me I would never get on the junior varsity team because I was a girl. According to Murphy girls can't do anything and frankly that didn't fly with Debbie.

"Don't look now." Debbie quirked an eyebrow and indicated with a jerk of her elbow toward the kitchen.

I turned because don't look now almost always really means look at that. There leaning against the wall is Spike, he is holding two beers and chatting calmly with a girl who obviously wants his tongue in her mouth.

"Okay now we will find out how much Spike is into you."

"He's not into me." I sigh trying to put the cute comment and near touches out of my head.

"Oh he so is." Debbie is smirking and it looks unnaturally devious on her face, "See that." She all but points at the girl Spike is talking to. He looks disinterested as she points upstairs.

The girl looked flustered and storms away.

"That was Caroline Fletcher, she's the easiest senior at school. She just asked him to check out the bedrooms upstairs."

"How do you know that?"

Debbie shrugged, "Because I paid her five bucks."

I stopped dancing shocked at how underhanded this angelic looking blonde could be, "You what?"

"Oh don't look at me like that." she stopped dancing and grabbed a hold of my hand, "It was only five bucks if she was willing to do something like that for five bucks she was probably going to do it anyway."

"Why did you do that?"

"Well either we would find out how much he liked you, which by the way is a lot, or we'd get rid of him so other boys could make there intentions known."

"You've really thought this through."

"I'm an O'Shea of course I have a game plan." She smiled and I laughed a little, "Did you want to go over there and claim your beer? Which by the way we will talk about later."

"I don't like him."

"Okay."

"You don't believe me do you?"

She shook her head and disappeared into the crowd leaving me once again alone.

"Here." a dark open bottle of beer slid down my shoulder. Had Spike really entered the dance floor after me? Taking the beer and turning around I confirmed that yes indeed he had.

"Umm thanks..." The tempo of the pounding music suddenly dropped and a sweet slow melody pumped through the speakers.

"Is this The Beatles?" Spike spoke, his dark strong voice soft and gentle as he listened to the song.

It was actually Wings, it was Maybe I'm Amazed. But that's not what I was interested in at all. What had grabbed my attention was that we were in the middle of the room surrounded by slow dancing couples. Was he going to ask me to dance or was he going to stand there and talk about Paul McCartney and drink his beer. I think I was the most curious about which I wanted to happen the most.

"It's Wings actually." I whispered and taking a deep breath sucked back some of the bitter liquid. Not because I thought it would give me courage but more so because I needed something to do with my hands and my mouth.

Spike didn't ask me to dance. He just took my beer and using his long arms put it as well as his down on a table. Without a word he took a hold of my body and pushed it closer to his.

I swallowed hard and with slightly shaking hands tried to figure out where my hands were supposed to go.

"Give me this." He grabbed a shaking hand in his and we slowly swayed to the music.

The fact that I didn't punch him in the face probably meant that I wasn't entirely opposed to his touch. Was it possible that his James Dean, devil may care attitude had gotten to me without me knowing it. He had never treated me like a girl before and I was beginning to understand his appeal.

"Do you like me?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"I guess." Not exactly the declaration of love and passion I was expecting. The way Debbie talked I would have thought that he would lay his life down for me.

"I see."

"Do you like me?"

I shrugged, "Maybe." If he could be vague so could I. If this was a sport like Debbie seemed to make it out to be I was going to play. I had been playing this kind of game with Spike for years. Giving him what he gave me. While this had always meant a rough tackle and a blood stained jersey before I wasn't going to let Debbie down. I was an O'Shea and we played to win.

If he was surprised at my response he didn't show it and when the song ended he leaned down to look at me properly. His face was close to mine and I could feel the heat of his skin radiate, washing over me, speeding up my heart.

"You look good with your hair down like this." he smirked and walked calmly away.

I narrowed my eyes and exited the dance floor myself.

Game on Spike.