A/N There is some issue with formatting on this update for some reason. The scene separator will look a bit different. I tried to figure it out but nearly punched my computer in the process so I decided to just let it be :)

Thanks as always for your support on my stories, it's awesome. Shorter chapter so I hope to have another one ready for you midweek.

Chapter 4

Spencer's mouth hung open. There was no way she heard what she thought she heard. At least, that's what she tried to convince herself of. Spencer didn't think the fates could be that cruel.

Ashley was in just as much shock as the blonde. She had no idea how to react. A part of her was dreading the situation. Awkward wouldn't even cover what working with Spencer was going to be like. But there was another part of her that was secretly happy. It's not something she would ever admit to anyone, most of all herself.

"You're screwed, chica," Madison said with more glee than Ashley would have liked. She was laughing and so were her other friends who were sitting by them, including Aiden. "If I were you, I'd take an F and save yourself the embarrassment of working with that loser."

Like so many times when Madison slammed Spencer, Ashley wanted to tell her to shut the hell up. She wanted to scream that Spencer wasn't a loser or someone who deserved to be treated like she was nothing. But she didn't speak up. Ashley bit her tongue instead.

"Fat fucking chance!" Spencer exclaimed when she was finally able to react. She was boiling mad. "There is no way that's going to happen."

Ms. Devereux was caught off guard. Both by Spencer's reaction and the fact that it had come at her once she was done reading all the group names. "Watch your language, Spencer."

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" She asked. "Tell me this is some kind of sick fucking joke."

"One more outburst like that and you can go to the principal's office," Ms. Devereux warned. Although she had come to like Spencer in the short time she had been in her class, she wasn't going to let the blonde walk all over her. "Now, as I was saying—"

"Fuck this," Spencer replied, not caring about anything other than getting the hell away from school, Ashley and anything else that was likely to make her mad. She picked up her stuff and stormed out of the classroom.

She was so done with everything.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Where the hell were you and why haven't been you answering any of my messages?" Sean asked after he had burst into Spencer's bedroom.

The blonde didn't answer her friend. Her eyes were focused on the video game she'd been playing since she got home. It was the only thing that allowed her to stop thinking about the absolutely awful luck she apparently had. She had to come up with a way to avoid working with her Ashley. That was the only solution to her problem.

Somehow, though, Spencer knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

She might have loathed Madison, but Ashley was something else entirely. At least Madison had never been her friend, never pretended to be there for her, never let her down. And, most of all, Madison had never betrayed her like Ashley had.

Spencer still couldn't believe what had happened. She alternated to between rage and disbelief.

"Hello!" Sean called out. When he was ignored again, he stood in front of the TV. "What is wrong with you?"

"You better move," Spencer warned through gritted teeth. She paused her game but did not look up. There was nothing to talk about and nothing to discuss.

She had left school as soon as she had stormed out of class. Her dad had been home when she arrived but Spencer had mumbled some excuse for why she was back early before she took off for her room. There had been a time where he would have followed her to find out what was wrong. Those days were long gone.

Sean knelt down in front of Spencer; he was really concerned. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Spencer replied stubbornly.

"You know I'm not going to give up, so you might as well tell me," Sean countered.

"No."

"Tell me!"

"No!" It wasn't until Spencer looked at Sean that she realized her pride and embarrassment for how she had acted would have to be put aside. She already worried Sean enough as it was. "Fine! But you have to promise not to laugh at me." Once he had given the blonde his word, she started talking again. "You know how I was convinced that taking Home Ec was going to be an easy A for me?" Sean nodded, his mouth remained shut though. "Well that was the stupidest idea I've ever had. We have to work with someone in our class – someone my stupid teacher paired us up with – and pretend to be married for the semester."

"And you got some jock guy you can't stand?" Sean asked. It was the only thing that made sense to him.

"Worse," Spence groaned, she still couldn't believe how unlucky she was. "I got paired up with Ashley."

"Davies?" It was a reflexed response. "Your partner is a girl?"

Spencer covered her face with her hands, "Yes, you Neanderthal! Don't you know what year it is?"

"Uh, of course," Sean said, still a bit confused, "I just didn't realize your class was so progressive."

"Neither did I!" Spencer exclaimed, her face still buried.

Hesitant to aggravate his friend further, Sean continued to question her. "But what does that have to do with you cutting math? Or why you've been ignoring my texts? And why you're acting weird now?"

"Are you really that dense, Columbo?" Spencer wasn't trying to be rude. Sometimes her mouth just had a mind of its own. "You think I want to spend my time pretending to be married to Ashley? That shallow, selfish, stuck up, never-thinks-of-anybody-else-but-herself bitch?"

Sean knew that Spencer had been close with Ashley before, but he didn't know the circumstances that led them to stop being friends. He had his suspicions. But knowing it was a touchy for Spencer, he had never questioned her about it.

"I swore a couple of times at the teacher when I found out," Spencer admitted begrudgingly. She wanted to be doing anything right now other than talking about her joke of a life. "Instead of sticking around, I took off. Is that OK with you, mom?"

Sean took a seat beside his friend. He was trying to figure out the best way to respond. "If you're going to be mopey and grumpy all the time, you're doing it wrong."

Spencer whipped her head in Sean's direction. "Excuse me? What?"

"I'm just saying, if you're trying to pull off the 'woe is me, nobody gets me' angle, you need to have a better hobby than playing video games." Sean was fighting the urge to smile. "I mean, you're a tortured soul in high school, right? You should be writing poetry or playing the guitar or painting. That's much better than what you're doing."

"Are you kidding me?" Spencer couldn't believe that Sean was finding anything about her situation funny. "You're making jokes now?

Sean messed up the blonde's hair, much to her annoyance. "Well, it could have been worse—"

"How could it have been worse?" Spencer cut in, angrily.

"You could have been paired with Madison," Sean replied before cracking up laughing.

Spencer glared at him, her jaw set and her eyes blazing. But as heated as she was, it wasn't long though before her mouth was twitching just a little bit.

"You really do the overdramatic teenage girl thing well," Sean remarked incredibly pleased with himself, "but I think tomorrow you should dress all in black for dramatic effect."

Spencer shoved Sean so hard he toppled over. "You're a first-class douche bag, you know that?"

"Come on, Spence, it's not like it's the end of the world," Sean said after he'd sat back up.

"Ugh, I know," Spencer admitted, her cheeks burned a little with embarrassment. After she'd stopped being angry with her teacher, she realized she was most angry with herself. She wasn't supposed to care about anything to do with Ashley anymore. That Spencer belonged in the past. "I'm a moron."

"You're not a moron," Sean said reassuringly. "A little brooding and over emotional, sure, but not a moron."

"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better," Spencer replied sarcastically.

Sean grinned, "Glad to be of service. Now, if you're done freaking out, let's go get something to eat. Worrying about you has made me very hungry."

"You're paying," Spencer told him before turning off her game. She felt a little better about things but she was still dreading school tomorrow.

Having to speak to Ashley was not something she was looking forward to.

And that was putting it mildly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spencer had already apologized to Ms. Devereux before class began. She had found her teacher over lunch and put on quite a performance. The blonde claimed stress and a bad situation at home as the reasons behind her outburst. Not all lies, mind you. With a promise to be on her best behavior, Ms. Devereux accepted Spencer's apology, but did warn her that if anything like that happened again, she would have to face some consequences.

"Still got it," Spencer said happily to herself once she was out of the teacher's ear shot.

Her good mood lasted through the remainder of the day.

Then it was time for Home Ec and that good mood faded. Back was the anxiety and nervousness. Spencer's stomach did a double clench as she walked inside the room that she had fled from the day before. She wasn't going to let anyone see her sweat, though. Changing the expression on her face to one of smug indifference, the blonde was ready to face her one-time friend.

When Spencer stepped inside the classroom she was annoyed to see someone in her seat. Before she could kick the ass of the person who had taken it, she took another look around. When she realized that people were already sitting with their partners it made her instantly want to leave again.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Madison sneered when she spotted Spencer at the back of the room. She couldn't believe her good fortune. Not only was she really enjoying the fact that she'd get Aiden alone because of the change in seating arrangements, but now it was time to see her nemesis squirm. "You done throwing a hissy fit, or do you need another time out?"

"Tell me, Madison," Spencer started with an air of confidence in her voice. She had spotted the back of Ashley's head near the front, so even though it pained her greatly, she was going to go and sit beside her. She made sure to stroll casually by Madison on her way to her destination. "Have they figured out what to do with all the spare hair that grows on your face? Or are you planning to donate it to bald men who need a realistic looking toupee?"

The class tittered at the blonde's remark and she instantly felt better. Without looking at Ashley, she sat down and ignored her racing heartbeat.

"Glad to see you back, Spencer," Ms. Devereux said before things got out of control.

"Happy to be back, Ms. Devereux."

Madison growled when Spencer glanced her way to blow her a kiss. It took Aiden telling a joke to make her forget all about something horrible to say to the blonde, although the likelihood of that lasting was not very high.

Ashley snuck a peak at Spencer while trying to pretend she wasn't doing exactly that. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this close to Spencer. The last twenty-four hours had been a roller coaster of emotions for her as well. She alternated between hoping that Spencer would remain her partner to wishing that she would be assigned to work with someone else.

It didn't help matters that she'd been taking a lot of ribbing, mostly because of Madison, from her friends about having to work with Spencer. Ashley had shrugged off the remarks even though they stung a little.

Ashley jumped and let out a yelp when Spencer's head swung in her direction.

Her eyes cold, Spencer kept her voice low and her tone forceful. "Don't look at me, don't talk to me, don't breathe in my direction and don't you dare think that I care anything about having to work with you." She was gripping the pen in her hand very tightly. "If you even so much as sneeze in my direction, you and I are going to have a problem. Understand?"

Ashley nodded quickly while keeping her mouth shut. She hoped she didn't appear too terrified.

Well, things were off to a great start, weren't they?