*Sneaks in* Bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth. With the amount of work I've had to do lately it's certainly felt that way to me sometimes, too, but I'm slowly getting back into a groove with writing/editing.

Anyway, this chapter picks up immediately where we left the previous chapter and chapter 19 will follow this one. The timeline will pick up a bit soon. I know sometimes (A LOT) my stories move at a snail's pace when it comes to bigger moments/scenes and it's something I'm working on.

Thanks for your patience and your feedback. It means a lot. :-)

"How do we decide who asks first?"

"Well, we can go clockwise," Topanga suggested, "counterclockwise, or we can make it easy and go alphabetically."

"Let's do that one," Angela said.

"Says the person whose name starts with an A," someone called out sarcastically.

"You say that like it's my fault."

"I figured this would be a debate," Rachel said, holding up two hats. "The baseball cap is for determining who gets asked questions and I will draw names from this hat to-"

"Hey, I didn't say you could borrow my Goofy hat. He autographed it for me and everything. See, right under the ear is his signature. It was the first time in my life where someone writing to me in red ink wasn't a bad thing."

"Don't worry, Eric, we won't damage your hat. Okay, I'm pulling a name to see who asks a question first." She dug into the Goofy hat and pulled out a piece of paper. "Looks like it's sort of alphabetical to start. Angela, you ask first." She held out the baseball cap. "Draw a name and then think of a really personal question."

"Can I make a suggestion," Shawna asked. "I mean, I know I'm a guest here, but..."

"It's okay. What is it?"

"I've played these kinds of games before, too, and the questions people always ask are about your relationship. What do you dislike about your partner or what would you change...stuff like that. It made it boring. No one asked anything else. What my friends would do is after the person doing the asking got their question answered, they and their partner each had to answer a relationship question. This way there was a healthy variety." She glanced at Shawn, realizing they couldn't add to this particular topic. They'd only just met. She wasn't even sure this could be considered a date. "It's just a thought."

"No, it's good. I like it. We'll do it."

"Gee, Rach, you're not going to poll the room first," Cory teased.

"My dinner party my rules. If you don't like it you know where the door is." She smiled when he held up his hands in defeat. "Come on, Angela, draw a name."

She closed her eyes and shuffled the scraps of paper around the hat before choosing one. "Ooh, Topanga."

"Uh-oh. You are my roommate and best friend. You know too much about me."

"Let me think of a good one." After a minute or so she snapped her fingers. "I've got it. Topanga?"

"Yes?"

"How exactly did you become valedictorian?"

"What do you mean? I studied hard and worked my butt off."

"Oh, is that why the fiancé has yet to see it? It's disappeared? And here I thought it ran away from the atrocity on your head you're calling hair."

"Cory, I swear, you are on such thin ice right now."

"Honesty pact. You can't-"

"Most people would take studying and hard work at face value," Angela continued, "but then most people wouldn't remember you whining about how after all the work you put in you were still either going to tie or come in second to...what's his name...the blond guy with the glasses?"

"Stuart?"

"Minkus," Cory broke in after noticing Angela didn't recognize his first name.

"Yeah, Minkus. I can never remember that," she muttered and shook her head. "Anyway, you were upset you might have to share the valedictorian title, if not "settle" for being salutatorian depending on your grade point averages. And then one day you were no longer upset. You said whatever happens, happens and we have to wait and see. A few days later you were named valedictorian."

Topanga narrowed her eyes and stared down her friend. "Angela, what are you getting at?"

"All I'm saying is that when Minkus claimed you did something you did not deny it. You didn't confirm it either, but you did not deny. You just told him to go count those A's again."

"Yes and when he did he found that I had one more than him."

"But how?"

She glanced around the room and shifted in her chair. Everyone was staring at her. "You remember that last assignment Mr. Feeny gave us? The essay he said wouldn't count towards our grades?"

"Vaguely."

"I demanded an A for it," Topanga stated with a smirk and a shrug. She only hoped she gave off her typical aura of confidence. "He knew I deserved it so he gave it to me."

"Yeah," Angela answered slowly, dragging out the syllables, "I don't buy it."

"Excuse me?"

"There is no way he would let you intimidate him into giving you an A especially when no one else was even getting a grade, especially students with poor grades who could've benefitted from it- like Shawn."

"Hey!"

"It was a meaningless A, a vanity A. That's why he had no issue giving it to me."

"It was an A that could have tipped the scales in deciding who was going to be valedictorian. Mr. Feeny would not just give that away. He is nothing if not a fair man."

She shook her head. "I changed my mind. I don't want to play this game."

"But you already agreed to the rules," Rachel said, torn between wanting to keep the peace and find out what Topanga was hiding. "Besides, you and Cory are our 'honesty's the best thing ever' ambassadors."

"This whole honesty thing was your idea." Shawn was initially going to keep quiet, but Topanga brought this on herself. It was almost funny. He thought this was going to bite Cory on the ass, not her. "Remember what you said to Cory- total honesty. Now what, first question and you're going to be the one to bail?"

"I didn't do anything," she said, barely keeping the growl out of her voice. "I deserved to be valedictorian." She crossed her arms and stared directly at Angela. "I hate you for asking this, you know?"

"I'm just playing by your all honesty, all the time rules. If you have nothing to hide then what's the big deal?"

"For the record I would like to emphasize that I, personally, did nothing. Okay? Is that clear? I didn't even know anything had been done until afterwards. In fact I still don't know if anything was done. The guy could've been bluffing."

"What are you talking about," Cory asked.

"Do you remember Philip?"

"Was he the guy that carried a telescope everywhere?"

"It was a microscope. He kept it with him in his backpack in case he saw something he wanted to investigate."

"That doesn't make it any less weird."

"He was in my computer class and heard me talking about being neck and neck with Minkus. He'd hated Minkus ever since he lost to him in a chess tournament and said he could fix things for me so I was valedictorian. I thought he was joking so I laughed it off. A couple days later the announcements were made. I was valedictorian and Minkus was salutatorian. We were separated by one A and a tenth of a point in our grade point averages."

"Philip changed your grades?"

"That's what he claimed. I asked what he did and he said he added extra credit assignments to my English class. He swears he didn't change anything with Minkus's grades."

"How did he even know how to change grades?"

"I didn't ask any questions. I still wasn't sure he was serious."

"Why didn't you tell Mr. Feeny?"

"I had no proof. All I had was the word of a weirdo with a microscope. There was just as much a chance in my mind that Mr. Feeny gave me my bonus A. Besides, I worked my whole life to be valedictorian. I had come too far to come in second place or share the title. I deserved it."

"So did Minkus."

"What are you going to do, turn me in?"

"It's a little late for that." Cory shook his head. He knew his fiancée could get insanely competitive in her quest for academic perfection, but sometimes he forgot how much being the best mattered to her. "You were wrong, Topanga."

"But I didn't-"

"A lie of omission is still a lie. I think this falls into that category. Even if Phillip didn't change anything the possibility is out there. Now it makes sense why you had Shawn give the speech- you felt guilty. If you truly felt like you deserved it you would've delivered the speech you've had written since fourth grade."

"Yeah, she pawned the speech off on someone even less worthy than her," Shawn teased and lightly punched Topanga in the arm.

"It's not like Minkus is doing poorly. He got a free ride to MIT and according to Mr. Feeny already has a summer internship lined up at NASA. That's huge. He's going to be fine."

"That's some nice rationalization," Angela remarked.

"Why did you have to ask me about that," Topanga snapped. "Graduation was almost a year ago. Why bring it up now? I had finally stopped feeling guilty."

"Your guilt has nothing to do with me. I was just playing the game. The whole point is to get intimate and personal with these questions, right?"

"In that case, I believe it's yours' and Eric's turns to each answer a question about your relationship. Eric?"

"Yes," he responded with a hint of apprehension, not knowing what was going to follow.

"Name one thing you would change about Angela."

"Uhh-" He glanced at his girlfriend. "Something I'd change?"

"Eric, it's okay. I'm not perfect. There's got to be at least one thing that drives you crazy."

"Your pants."

She almost spit out her drink, not expecting that to come out of his mouth. "Excuse me?"

"I don't care about your clothes one way or another because you look amazing in everything. And it's not even the all the colors on them…although there are so many…but they're shiny. Why are your pants super shiny? It looks you raided a clown's pajama drawer."

Angela laughed before leaning in to kiss him. "You really don't like them?"

"I'm this close to giving you a rainbow wig and a big, red nose, Bozo."

"Okay."

"Nope, sorry," Rachel broke in. "We're going to need a little more than that."

"But I hate her pants. I answered the question honestly."

"I know you did. And you gave it that special Eric flair, too, but this is about getting to know each other better. There's got to be something else about Angela that irritates you."

"Come on," Angela said. "Let me have it."

He took a deep breath. "We were talking about this earlier, but you need to respect when I don't want to talk about something and just leave it alone. God help me if I press you when you're not ready to deal with a situation. You flip out. So I try to step back. I really wish you would give me that same respect instead of trying to make me talk. Sometimes I need to think things out for myself first. If I want to talk to you and get your opinion I know where to find you."

"You're right," she said. She took his hand and laced their fingers together. "I only do it because I want to help, but you're right. I need to respect you and give you space when you don't want to talk the same way to try to do for me. I'll work on that."

"Thank you."

"Angela, same question: what would you change about Eric?"

She debated momentarily before answering. "I wish you would let more people see the Eric that I get to see. You're such an amazing person with so much to offer. I'm honored to be the one you let in, but it kills me that you keep so much of yourself hidden from the world."

"Speaking for the world," Cory interrupted, raising his hand, "some of us have seen more of Eric than we'd care to lately."

"Cory!"

"Ow! Don't pinch me with your nails!"

"Topanga, what is he talking about?"

"We sort of walked in on you guys last night."

"Oh." She looked to Eric who simply shrugged. "Oh. I thought it was weird that you called saying you forgot your key. Now it makes sense. So, who's next?"

"That's all you're going to say," he exclaimed. "I may have been scarred for life. I still see you guys when I close my eyes. We're talking permanent retinal damage here."

"Cor," Eric broke in, "unless you're going to ask for make out tips- because I'm guessing you're a little boring in that department-"

"Hey! Topanga, defend me."

She buried her face in her hands. "Oh, my God!"

"If you're not asking for pointers then it's time for someone to pick a name from the hat."

The evening went on, the game continued amidst the appetizers and Rachel's apologies for the dinner delays. The oven was small and could only handle a couple hens at a time. She thought she had given herself enough time to cook them all. She hadn't. "This is a disaster," she cried.

"Come on, Rach, no, it's not. People are having fun."

"Only half of us have our dinner. That's the definition of a failed dinner party."

"We fed our guests first. That's important."

"Angela's a guest and she's not eating yet."

"Rachel, I'm good," she reassured her. "I'll eat with you guys and Eric. Besides, I'm sharing with him anyway."

"See? Everyone is happy."

"I'm not. You promised me tater tots and I haven't seen one sign of a tot."

"Eric, we only have one oven and you broke the deep fryer a few weeks ago when you filled it with marshmallows."

"Oh, yeah, forgot about that."

Angela frowned. "Marshmallows in the deep fryer?"

"I couldn't sleep, it was two in the morning, and the guy on one of those cooking shows did it and it worked!"

"Yes, but he also prepped them first," Rachel said. "That's the part Eric forgot. He just dumped an entire bag in. Jack and I woke up to this terrible smell and the smoke detector going off. And then the shouts of, 'go back to sleep, it's fine.' You know, real reassuring stuff especially coming from him."

"What do you mean especially-"

"Let's keep playing the game," Eric interjected. He appreciated how quick Angela was to come to his defense, but sometimes he just did stupid stuff- like marshmallows in the deep fryer at two in the morning kind of stupid. "There are just a couple names left, right?"

"Yeah, I can wait for more heart stopping revelations like Jack not being able to stand that I leave hair in the shower drain," Rachel teased. Jack sighed. "Come on, it took you twenty minutes and that was the best you could come up with. I don't buy it."

"Fine. I hate when you put me on the spot in front of people like you're doing right now. You do that all the time."

"See? That's real. That's all I wanted." She kissed his cheek before picking a name from the Goofy hat. "Topanga, you're turn to ask."

"Finally." She reached into the baseball cap and picked up the first piece of paper she felt. "Shawn."

"Oh, geez. This is almost as bad as Cory asking me a question."

One question popped into her head and, though a little voice told her not to ask, that it would only lead to trouble, she couldn't seem to help herself. "Shawn, if you could spend one night with anyone, no strings attached, who would it be with?"

"Anyone in the world with no strings?"

"Yep and remember, be honest."

"In that case I'd pick Angela."

"What the hell?" Eric slammed his glass onto the table before standing. "Are you kidding me right now?"

Angela grabbed his arm. "Eric, wait." She pulled him away from the group and into the kitchenette. "Just wait a minute."

"What?"

"Do you trust me," she repeated, taking his hands.

"Yes, but…"

She kissed him briefly, cutting off his response. "Then trust me."

"Angela…"

She pivoted on her heel and went back to the living area. "So with no strings, no commitment, and no emotional attachment you'd have sex with me?"

Shawn took a deep breath. "Yeah." He had nothing left to lose at this point. "What do you say to that?"

"Let's go."

"What," he choked out in response, sputtering the water he'd been sipping.

"You heard me."

He looked at Eric, but seething rage had been replaced with confusion. "I don't-"

"This is what you wanted right? Should we go into a bedroom or…no, I know, we'll do it right here, right now." Angela fell backwards and lay on the red couch. "Come on, Shawn. What are you waiting for? You do remember how this part works, right?"

"Why-"

"Why not? You obviously have such little respect for me and my relationship that it shouldn't matter where you take me."

Shawn was well aware that the entire room was watching him. "Not like this," he mumbled.

"You sure about that?" Angela jumped at the sound of a door slamming, the force of which shook the apartment. It took only a few seconds for her to realize that Eric was no longer here. Crap. She got up and dashed for the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to tighten the knots in my strings."

"Okay, I think it's time to ask the asker a question," Rachel jumped in, trying to keep things moving. "We'll do this together. Topanga, Cory, what would you change about your relationship?"

Cory put a finger to his chin and pondered the question. "Let's see, what would I change about a relationship that, to paraphrase Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way? That is a head scratcher."

"Come on, Cory, just make your joke about how we're going to die virgins so we can all move on with our lives."

"Actually I think I'd change your crazy need to be perfect all the time."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, you need to lighten up, Topanga. Relax a little."

"I don't need to be perfect."

"Please," he scoffed. "From preschool to college you have been obsessed with being the best at everything. You've always had to be number one. In fact you may have indirectly screwed Minkus out of being valedictorian in your quest for perfection."

"Oh yeah, if I want to be perfect so badly then why did I give up Yale? Why am I here with you?

"What?"

/

"Eric," Angela called out as she knocked on his door. "Can I come in?" Silence. "Eric?" She took a chance and turned the knob. Upon entering his room she found him sitting up against his headboard, arms crossed, and staring straight ahead. "You can't be that mad if you didn't bother to lock the door."

"I forgot. I guess I'm just stupid like that."

She took a seat on the bed and reached for him. "Hey, don't say-"

He shifted away from her. "Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm mad as hell and really don't want to see you right now."

She got up to give him some distance, but wasn't going to leave. Not until they talked about this. "Are you mad at me or Shawn?"

"You. I mean, yeah, I'm pissed at Shawn, but this is all on you."

"You know, technically, Topanga's the one who asked him the question. So she's the one who started it." He simply glared at her. "You said you trusted me."

"Uh-uh, no, don't pull that crap. You left out some fine print when you asked me that question. I didn't know when I said yes that I'd be watching you offer yourself up to your ex-boyfriend."

Angela winced. It sounded so much worse when she imagined it from his point of view. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to prove to Shawn that no matter how much he may have thought he'd want to-"

"I believe I told you to get out."

"But Eric-"

"What if he accepted?"

"What?"

"What if he took you up on your offer? Then what?"

"You don't honestly think that I'd-"

"Five minutes ago I'd say no, but then I saw you lying on my couch and telling Shawn to come get it."

Did she really say it like that? "So you don't trust me?"

"What if our positions were reversed? What if some old girlfriend was trying to get me back and I said what the hell? Let's have one more hook up."

Just the thought of any other girl touching Eric made her skin crawl. "I get it."

"We could even carpool with you and Shawn for a date. Relive some memories and save gas money. Benefits all around, right?"

"Okay! You made your point. I screwed up."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "big time."

Angela decided to take a chance and once again sat on his bed. When he didn't object she slid her hand into his and held it tight. "I made a mistake. I just…I wanted to call him out on his bullshit then and there. He gets away with stuff constantly and I didn't want to let him off the hook this time. He was disrespecting us and our relationship. He shouldn't get to slide on that." She shook her head. Vilifying Shawn's actions didn't justify her behavior. "It seemed like a good idea in my head but I guess I was too impulsive and didn't think it through."

Eric chuckled quietly and rolled his eyes. "I definitely know the feeling. I wrote the book on that."

"I wasn't trying to hurt you. I'm sorry I did."

"I know."

"You forgive me, right?"

"Give me time to get some images out of my mind, okay?"

"That sounds fair." A wave of relief washed over her when he squeezed her hand. "You know it doesn't matter what Shawn thinks, don't you?"

"You reacted the way you did and now you're saying-"

"Hey, I'm not claiming that I had a mature reaction. I just wanted him to answer for his behavior for once in his life. I know I handled it wrong. Either way what he thinks has nothing to do with us. He can want to be with me and want to get me back into bed all he wants, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen. If I wanted to be with him I would be, but I'm not, am I?"

He shook his head. "No."

"That's right." Angela brought her free hand up to his cheek. "I'm with you because I want to be with you. I really like you and being with you. I like the person I am when I'm around you and I like the way you make me feel. I only hope that's mutual for you. Shawn can think whatever he wants. It has nothing to do with you, me, or us. And that's where my focus is, on us. Not him or the past."

"Okay. I get it. And for the record, yes, all that good stuff is mutual for me, too."

She smiled. "Good." She drew him closer for a kiss and frowned when he pulled away. "What-"

"Images in my head…you gotta give me more than a few minutes."

"I'm sorry." She kissed his knuckles instead. "I was stupid."

"If I can't call myself stupid then you can't call yourself stupid either. What you did was stupid, no doubt. It probably ranks up there with some of my best in the stupid hall of fame-"

"Boy, I can feel the love."

"-but you are not stupid."

"Thanks. So what do you want to do now? Should we go back out there?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Come on, we can hang out in the kitchen and stay away from Shawn, okay? Who knows, maybe Rachel finally got your tater tots in the oven." His stomach growled at the mention of food, making them both laugh. "You can't lie and say you're not hungry."

"Fine, I'll go back out there but if Shawn says anything-"

"If anyone says anything then we come back here. We won't engage. We'll just walk away."

Eric reluctantly stood. "I'm only doing this because I don't want Rachel to think her first dinner party is a disaster. I know how important this is to her."

"You're a good friend."

"Do you think you could get her to spell that out in tater tots?"

/

"I knew it! I knew you resented giving up Yale for me."

"I gave up Yale for us, Cory. There is a big difference."

"Who wants parfaits," Jack asked, trying to break the tension. "Rachel and Angela made them. They've got fruit and some kind of cream and…" He realized no one was listening to him. "…all kinds of good stuff."

"I was just trying to prove a point," Topanga continued. "I wanted you to see that you were wrong."

"If you have to go that far to prove a point then maybe you should've gone to Yale. Maybe time apart would've been good for us."

"What does that mean? Like maybe we wouldn't be engaged right now? God, Cory, why do you have to take everything to the extreme? Rachel, thank you for a lovely evening but I'm leaving." She crouched down to retrieve her purse. When she stood up again she saw Angela and Eric coming back into the room.

"No, wait, you started this whole honesty thing," Cory continued, blocking the door. "You can't leave because things are getting uncomfortable."

"I would honestly rather discuss this with you in private."

"What's wrong, Topanga, can't handle the heat when it's your feet to the fire?"

She turned around and found Angela staring at her, arms crossed. "I don't know, I think I held my own pretty well when you lit the match earlier."

Everything suddenly made sense to her. "That's why you asked Shawn the question. You already knew what his answer would be but you were upset with me for the valedictorian thing."

"I earned the right to be valedictorian. How dare you try to take it away from me?"

"I'm not trying to take anything away from you. I was just curious."

"Topanga, please don't leave just yet," Rachel pleaded. "There's still dessert and…and look, each hat still has one name left."

"Rach, I think it's time for the game to die," Jack whispered.

She pulled a name from the Goofy hat anyway. "Cory! It's finally your turn to ask a question."

"Oh, goody," he fired back sarcastically. He took the baseball cap from Rachel and mimed swirling papers around before making his selection. "Gee, I wonder which one I should pick."

"Knock it off and pick the name."

He jumped, not used to hearing Rachel snap. "Jack."

"Don't ask a question about me," Shawn whispered. "Don't ask a question about me."

"Shawnie, what makes you think I'm asking Jack about you?"

"Because you're about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the skull."

"Well, I wasn't going to ask about you."

"Then what's your question?"

"Uhh…"

"I knew it."

"You know nothing. I've got a great question that has nothing to do with you. Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"What is one thing you've always wanted to say to someone in this room but haven't?"

"Anyone," Jack asked as he scanned the group.

"Anyone…could be your brother…or not your brother…whoever."

"Cory…"

"Anyone in this room," he repeated.

The elder Hunter exhaled. There was only one person that came to mind, but it wasn't going to be easy. He'd tried to have this conversation on a few different occasions but was either interrupted or lost his nerve. He got up and maneuvered around the chairs until he was standing in front of Angela. "Hi."

She smiled awkwardly, unsure of what else to do. "Hi, Jack, what's up?"

"Angela," Cory questioned with a frown. "There's nothing you have to say to your brother?"

"You're the one who said it could be to anybody in this room and I have something I need to say to Angela."

"What is it, Jack?"

All of a sudden he realized this was not something he wanted to say with an audience. "Can we go talk in the hall? Or maybe out to the fire escape?"

"What?"

"Well what I have to say I'd rather say in private, so-"

"Nope, no, if the rest of us got raked over the coals why should you be spared?"

"Because I think there's been enough drama for one night," Jack said in his own defense. "I don't want to add to it. Rachel worked hard to put together this dinner party and I don't want a part in ruining it."

"Thanks, honey, but I think that ship has sailed. Not because of you," she added, "but the rest of these people…well, I'm already writing this off as a disaster."

"It's okay, Jack," Angela said. "You can say whatever you need to say right here."

He rubbed the back of his head and shifted his weight back and forth between his feet. This was a bad idea. He knew it was. But everyone was telling him otherwise. "I'm sorry."

"Again with this? Look, I swear to you, whatever offense you think you committed couldn't have been that big a deal because I don't remember it. Whatever it was, consider yourself forgiven. Really, it's okay."

"It's not okay with me. I should've done something even if it was my brother. Instead I let you get hurt. Then I didn't even make sure you were okay before you left."

"What are you talking about?" She was starting to wonder if maybe he had a dream and imagined a scenario where he slighted her. It was the only thing that made sense. They never spent enough time together for him to-

"I'm sorry I didn't help you when Shawn got drunk and shoved you into the door." He got it all out in one breath, figuring if he didn't pause he couldn't chicken out. "I should've intervened but I didn't. I was in shock, frozen in place like a statue."

"Oh."

"I'm really sorry, Angela. I hope you can forgive me."

As for the Topanga, Minkus, and valedictorian situation- I don't know. He seemed quite convinced something was fishy. (And she never denied it.) Plus I don't believe Mr. Feeny would be intimidated by anyone, even Topanga, into giving them an extra A.