Disclaimer: In no way do I own any characters, places, or things belonging to the show, but I do own Ethan and Camelia. What can I say? I was in the mood to write in crazy/mean people.

Ashley's Point of View

I didn't see Ricky for the rest of that night, Griffin had come over not even two minutes after I was out of the shower, and Ricky didn't show up in the living room much. I hadn't run into him at all today either, which was strange considering that it was a school day and all.

"Ash, sleeping over at my place tonight?" Griffin said, walking up to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.

"No." I said.

"Why?" Griffin asked confused.

"Because you and my dad are playing a game of 'Ashley and Ricky Stay Away' and whoever can keep us away from each other for the longest time earns a gold star." I said in an annoyed tone.

"We just want to keep you two from starting a relationship." Griffin said.

"We won't start a relationship. I don't do the Romeo&Juliet thing." I said as Griffin and I walked into our third period English class.

"I don't know about that. The two of you are the star-crossed lovers, and he is the enemy." Griffin said as we sat in our usual seats at the back.

"So now Ricky's the enemy? Don't you think that at some point we can stop referring to him using terms like 'devil' and 'enemy'?" I asked.

"Maybe, if those terms stopped making perfect sense." Griffin said.

"Huh." I said.

Before Griffin could say anything else, a supply teacher came in. The teacher had reddish-brown hair, blue eyes, looked late thirties – early forties, and was in a wheelchair.

"So, my name is Ms. Landins" The teacher said, writing her name on the middle of the board.

I kid in the class, Ethan, raised his hand and I knew that whatever he had to say wouldn't be a good thing. Ethan was the kind of guy that had general popularity just because he could bounce a ball and talk big, the kind of jerk that was rude to all the girls but still got them to look in his direction. The kind of guy that I got annoyed with so easily just because he acted like an arrogant jerk all the time.

"Yes?" Ms. Landins asked.

"I can't see the name on the board." Ethan said.

Griffin and I both glared at him, as did a few other people, but of course all his friends found it so funny that he was practically shoving a woman's disability in front of her face.

Ms. Landins took a deep breath and erased the name on the board and put it a little higher, but she knew as well as everyone else did that he could see it. Ethan and his friends only occupied the second and third row chairs and they weren't short guys. That, and Ms. Landins wasn't a name that could easily be misspelled or even said wrong, so if he couldn't see it he would still know how to say it.

"I still can't see it." Ethan said.

This is why supply teachers always get annoyed easily, the students suck and then complain when the supply teachers leave notes behind or yell as if they had no clue why that happened.

"Once again, my name is Ms. Landins." Ms. Landins said, emphasizing her name.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Ethan said, putting his hand behind his right ear.

Before she could say anything I found myself getting up, going to the board, erasing her name and re-writing it on the very top of the board and then walked back to my seat.

I had chalk dust on my hand and as I passed Ethan I blew some of it in his face and asked in a sickly sweet tone, "High enough for you?"

Ethan glared at me and I glared right back at him, almost daring him to try anything. I was more than willing to fight with him on this. I tried to do the right thing according to me, and sometimes that led me to fights or problems, but it was something I tried to do. That being said, if Ethan wanted to say stuff or get upset with me, fine. If he wanted to be an idiot, fine. Ethan turned away from me and slid back into his seat sulking.

I walked back to my seat and saw the teacher mouth 'Thank you' to me and I gave her a slight nod.

Twenty minutes later Griffin jokingly whispered, "Are you planning on beating him up after school is over?"

"I don't think he's worth a suspension." I said.

"Aw... I was hoping to see something interesting today." Griffin said pouting, but then brightened and asked, "What about Adrian? Is she keeping the baby? Is she talking to Ricky?"

"As far as I know they aren't speaking and she is getting an abortion this weekend." I whispered.

"That is five days from now." Griffin said.

"You gossip like Lauren and Madison, you know that?"

"Oh god, please take that back. I'm not as bad as them am I?"

"Well maybe not as bad, but bad just the same." I said.

"That deeply disturbs me."

Class passed by much in that same fashion, Griffin and I whispered while completing our work, and Ethan glared at me a few times, but didn't say anything to me or try anything. Fifteen minutes before the bell was supposed to ring Ms. Landins called me to where she was sitting.

"Yeah Ms. Landins?" I asked.

"Can you please was the board? I wouldn't ask but..." Ms. Landins trailed off and I agreed to washing the board for her and took a hall pass in search for a bucket of water and a sponge in the janitor's closet.

When I opened the door, it hit someone on the other side and I heard a muffled 'ouch' and some stuff falling.

"Sorry. Are you okay?" I asked the person on the ground.

"Yeah, Ashley, I'm fine." A voice I recognized as Ricky said. I closed the door.

Hm, well about time he fell to the ground first. Ricky got up and leaned back against the wall.

"So what brings you to the janitor's closet? A little quickie during class with a girl? Maybe a mop stealing adventure?" I asked smirking down at him.

"I'm ditching class." Ricky said.

"You're ditching class, yet you haven't even left the building... while in the janitor's closet." I said.

"I'm avoiding Camelia." Ricky confessed.

"Who?" I asked while looking for a bucket.

"I slept with her once and now she is clinging to me like Grant clings to you." Ricky said.

"You mean she calls you, shows up randomly, and all around smashes a glass to the ground if she sees you talking to another girl?" I said as I picked up the bucket and started the hunt for a sponge.

"She brought me flowers. Apparently the name meaning of Camelia in some country is a flower or at least has flower in the meaning." Ricky said.

"How many flowers?" I asked.

"I didn't really count, but as many as she could get in my locker."

I started laughing and said through my laughter, "That's funny."

"No it's not. Camelia somehow managed to get the combination, and do I look like the kind of guy that wants flowers and cards and new shoes?" Ricky asked, obviously upset.

"She got you new shoes too?" I asked, laughing harder now.

"They're Italian." Ricky said, his scowl more prominent when tears welled up in my eyes from laughing so hard.

"So you've been hiding here all day?" I asked.

"In between classes and this entire period because it's a class I share with her." Ricky said.

"Why don't you tell her that it was just a one night thing?" I asked.

Ricky flinched and said, "I did."

"And?" I prompted.

"She laughed, pinched my cheeks, and said I was so cute in my denial." Ricky said.

A whole new fit of laughter came over me, "See. This is why you shouldn't have so many one night stands. Some of them like attachments."

"This is why you shouldn't sleep with Grant." Ricky said.

"I won't, and I told him this morning that we would make better friends."

"Why? Not that I'm not happy."

"He was too clingy. I don't do clingy, sometimes I just need to be by myself." I said, filling the bucket halfway with water and dropping the sponge in.

It was Ricky's turn to laugh.

"Ricky, you're the one with the stalker that bought you Italian shoes, flowers, and cute little cards that probably said something like, 'I love you. Please be mine.' clearance half-off old valentine's day cards. Okay, just so we are clear, you are on a whole other level of stalked." I said.

"Hey, but I'm safe here. She doesn't like the smell, it makes her gag."

"Have fun. If you have another class with her today at least clean the sink in here." I said, opening the door and leaving, the bell would ring any minute and I would be late for my next class if I didn't hurry.

I made it back to class just as the bell rand and Ms. Landins said that she would write me a note for my next class so that I wouldn't get in trouble. As my English class left, I began washing the board and as I washed it I said, "Usually the board is cleaned at the end of the day, or at least during lunch."

"I know, but this period the class is going to the library to select a poem and begin their in depth analysis." Ms. Landins said.

I nodded and as everyone in the next class filed in I continued my washing and after Ms. Landins had introduced herself and explained where they were spending the period without difficulty, I left, having finished.

The rest of the day passed relatively normal, at least as normal as it got around here, which, when I think about it, wasn't all that normal. Griffin and I did pass by Ricky's locker of flowers a few times though. I didn't mention the conversation Ricky and I had had in the janitor's closet, Griffin wouldn't like it, so I just let him ponder how the garden that was blossoming in Ricky's locker got there.

"She bakes." Ricky said as he placed a plate of cookies on the table. I looked up from the book I was reading and stared at him and then the cookies and said, "I am not eating them. I don't trust it."

Mom and Dad were out for the night, something about dating or whatever and Ricky and I were left alone to babysit. I guess Dad lost the game, or Griffin did, depending on whose shift it was.

"This has to end. It has been one day. Only one day of her with her shoes, flowers, cards, cookies, and pinching of my cheeks. It has to end, because if it doesn't I will hurt someone."

The doorbell rang and I went to get it, but instead of a person there, right in front of the door was a dead rat, decomposing, and a little card was placed on top of it, blood spatters and all.

Ashley,

I request that you please stop your 'friendship'

with Ricky. I also ask that you please do not

take offence at the rat, I found him and thought of you.

Perhaps one day when Ricky and I are together you may

attend our wedding, but for now I ask that you do not

make the same choices as your sister when it pertains to Ricky.

-Camelia

I almost threw up at the sight of the rat, but instead I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed Ricky by the arm, brought him to the door, and told him to read the card.

"Ashley..." Ricky looked at me.

"She gags at a janitor closet but can tolerate putting dead rats in front of people's doors!" I shouted at him.

"What do you want me to do!" Ricky shouted back.

"Fix it! Before she hires someone to kill me!"

"How?" Ricky asked.

"I don't know how! But I don't want dead things on my doorstep." I said.

I picked up the plate of cookies and threw everything out into the garbage, and if we weren't in a house with two children I would have lit it on fire for good measure, but as it happens we were, and I couldn't.

I took the broom and got the thing away from the door and into a plastic garbage bag. One thing was obvious, things were about to get a lot more interesting, and not in a good way.