Memories are the key, not to the past, but to the future.

-Corrie Ten Boom

Thursday was off to a bad start and Cory was afraid it was about to get worse when the bell rang dismissing his last class before his lunch break. The bad start included three run-ins with Mrs. Leander who expected him to take her after school activities because she wanted to take half-day for a doctor's appointment. Cory had finally wised up to what she was actually doing on these half-days and had started turning her down like many of the other veteran teachers. She tried to manipulate one of the younger teachers into doing her duties but apparently failed and was now back to him. She admitted that she was going to cancel the appointment and go shopping with her daughter if her daughter could get out of her college classes. With a wink-wink-nudge-nudge she suggested Cory pick a date to make a "doctor's appointment" and she would repay the favor. But Cory, whether he liked it or not, still did the right thing even when no one else around him did. Mrs. Leander made it no secret that she was very unhappy with him and told everyone about it.

Now with lunch around the corner, the day was about to get much worse. Cory sat at his desk staring bleakly at the wall as his students filtered out of his room.

"Daddy?" Riley approached him with concern in her dark eyes. She'd never seen her father look so depressed at school. "Are you okay?"

Cory look at her and blinked several times. "It's lunch," he said with dissatisfaction.

"Yeah, but it's the last Thursday of the month. Aren't you meeting with Uncle Jon like you always do?"

Her father seemed to sink further into his depression. "Yes, I am."

"Is that a problem?"

"Yes, it is."

"Why?" asked Riley, very alarmed. She had not ever known a time when meeting with Uncle Jon was a bad thing. "Is everything okay with you and Uncle Jon?"

"Yes, yes," Cory sighed dejectedly as he tried to reassure her. "Uncle Jon and I are good."

That made no sense to the girl. "Then what's wrong?"

Cory's frown deepened and his grip on the pencil in hands tightened until his knuckles where white. "It's the last Thursday of the month. My lunch with Jon. And she'll be there."

The pencil broke with a loud snap.

"Oh," Riley said, looking apologetic. "That blonde lady from the Park?"

"Uh-huh." His face twisted into a silent growl.

Riley was relieved. That made much more sense. "Why does she come to lunch with Uncle Jon?"

"I dunno, Riley, I think she may just hate me."

"Why?" To Riley, her father was the most wonderful man in the world. Anyone who would hate him had to be the worst person in the world.

"Because Uncle Shawn and I used to sleep through her class. I don't think she'll ever forgive me for that."

"So?" the girl blinked, confused again. "You and Uncle Shawn slept through Uncle Jon's and Mr. Feeny's classes, too They don't hate you guys."

"Yeah, but Miss Tompkins is...different."

The look on his face was not a look she saw much and she wondered if she should give up her lunch with Maya and their friends to stay with him. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I guess," he replied with a lifeless shrug.

"Do I need to call Mom?"

"No," Cory snapped back to reality, annoyed at the suggestion he needed Topanga to hold his hand through lunch. "you do not need to call Mom. Riley, I'll be fine. Just go to your next class."

Maya watched a strangely quiet Mr. Matthews shoo his daughter out of his room then joined Riley as she exited the classroom.

"Everything okay, Riles?"

"I hope so. Uncle Jon is coming to lunch today."

"Yeah?" Maya perked up at this. Maybe she'd be able to sneak down to the cafeteria and say hello to her future grandfather before he left.

"Yeah."

"Is that bad?"

"That blonde lady is coming. Daddy doesn't like her."

"Blonde lady? You mean the one with a thing for your uncle?" Maya thought it might be wise to skip her next class altogether and go to lunch now. Mr. Turner might need her.

Riley looked appalled. "Uncle Jon is married, Maya! How could you forget that?"

"I didn't forget," she said defensively. "And I didn't say Granddad was had a thing for her. I said she had a thing for him."

Riley immediately forgot about Miss Tompkins. "Granddad?" she asked incredulously. A delighted grin slowly spread over her face.

Maya shrugged and put her hands in her pockets. "I'm just trying that out. Granddad sounds a little cooler that Grandpa or Grandfather. I don't really like Pops or Pa for him. Can't think of a better one."

"We need something to go with Glamma."

Maya looked displeased. "I am not calling Audrey Glamma, Riles. Gigi maybe."

Riley gave her best friend a knowing smile and linked arms with her as they walked down the hallway.

Cory trudged towards the cafeteria with a heavy weight pressing into his shoulders. Katherine Tompkins killed his appetite as well as his mood. He dreaded having to sit through a 45 minute period with her. She made sure that not only did she dominate the conversation but also made him feel like a dumb little kid. Sitting in her presence sent him straight back to high school when Jon would chat with him and Shawn at lunch and sometimes even sit with them. Then she would come in, push them to the side, and demand Jon's full attention. Back then, she and Jon were dating. She would always make these snide remarks putting them down and making them seem so ridiculous. These darts were always delivered in sugary sweet remarks that somehow made other adults think that he and Shawn really were childish little nothings. Except for Jon. He would always make her stop, yet still she won because he would also always leave with her. In nearly twenty years, nothing had changed.

A flash of deviousness darted across Cory's mind and he entertained the idea of calling Audrey and making up some excuse to get her to come down and join them. Audrey could get revenge for him simply by being there. In spite of being married for almost eighteen years, Jon still adored Audrey like he did in the beginning. Now that was a luncheon he wouldn't mind if Katherine attended! Reluctantly, he dismissed the idea. Audrey didn't need to be involved, unfortunately.

Immediately upon reaching the cafeteria, Cory scanned the area looking for his nemesis. His gaze fell on the teacher's area where he saw that, much to his surprise, Jon sat alone at their table. Instantly his suspicion was raised. He wasn't about to be fooled again. Too many times it had happened that he saw Jon alone, then he'd get comfortable thinking they'd have a Katherine-free meal and as just as he let his guard down there she was to ruin the day.

Just after he finished greeting Jon and was about to sit down, Cory saw a figure emerge from around the corner. It was not his former teacher but rather his best friend that was sauntering over to his table with what looked like lunch in his hands.

"You!" Cory lunged across the table and jabbed an accusatory finger at Shawn who stared at him in bewilderment.

"Yeah. Me!" Shawn shot back, trying to get away from him. Cory was practically kneeling on the table.

"Why are you here?!"

Shawn made a face at him and stood next to Jon. "What's your problem? It's lunch and I didn't have anything to do so I met up with Dad and came with him."

This was unacceptable. The man he called his best friend knew that he was owed back-lunches with Jon alone. "Why didn't you go home for lunch?"

"I did that yesterday."

"So go again today."

"Nice to see you too, bud." Shawn started to take a seat.

"Do not sit there!"

Cory's shriek was so startling that Shawn jumped up and away from the seat, worried there was something dangerous on the spot.

"That's my seat," the teacher harrumphed. He got off of the table and walked behind Jon to give Shawn a shove to the side. "Do you know what day it is?"

"It's Thursday," Shawn snapped. He was beginning to get a little annoyed with Cory's antics.

"Which Thursday is it?"

"What?"

"What Thursday is it, Shawn?" Cory punctuated every word by stabbing his finger into the table top.

"What difference does it make?" Shawn scratched his head, rolled his eyes, and took a seat on the other side of Jon.

"It's the last Thursday of the month, Shawn."

"So?"

"So?" How could his so-called best friend not care about the significance of this particular day? "So it's my Thursday, Shawn. My Thursday that I have lunch with Jon. Alone."

"Oh, com'n Cory," Jon said. All this arguing about nothing was wasting time. "It's Shawn."

The social studies frowned at him. "Stay outta this, Jon. It's got nothin' to do with you!"

At that Jon rolled his eyes and open his packet of utensils. "Do what you want, I'm gonna eat."

"Look, Cory," Shawn said firmly. "I'm here. I have food. I'm staying."

"Fine." Cory opened his milk and stabbed a straw into to it. He pointed to a empty table with food strewn all over it. "Go sit over there."

"You cannot be serious." Shawn stopped unzipping his lunch bag to stare at him. "But of course you are."

Cory slapped his palm on the table. "Of course I am."

"Cor, look around." Shawn gestured to the crowded place they were in. "Who don't you see here?"

Cory looked around suspiciously, then looked back at Shawn, and shrugged. "That blonde lady from the park," he said, repeating how Riley had referred to Miss Tompkins. He drew curious looks from both of the men at the table.

Shawn sniffed. "You're welcome."

"Why?"

"I'm a pretty good Miss Tompkins repellent," he shrugged and unzipped his bag all the way. "She said she had stuff to do on her lunch break. I didn't ask for details because I didn't care and didn't think anyone else would either."

The other two men nodded in agreement with his assessment.

"Oh, fine," Cory said, finally allowing himself to relax. "If you being here means she won't be, you can stay."

"Thanks, Cor." Shawn shot him a sarcastic smile. "You know how to make a guy feel welcomed."

"Are you two done?" Jon asked mildly annoyed. "I'd like to eat in peace if that's possible."

The two younger men began to eat when Jon noticed Shawn's lunch. It looked very familiar and nothing like he and Cory had been saddled with from the cafeteria. "Where'd you get that?"

"Mom," Shawn swallowed, feeling a bit guilty that he was eating much better than they were.

"She made you lunch?" Jon scowled at his school cafeteria tray and muttered, "She didn't make me lunch."

"Well," Shawn rubbed the back of his neck. "I kinda stopped by home on the way here."

Jon gave him a put out look. "Next time, if you don't bring me lunch from home, too, don't come," he told him.

Shawn grinned and nodded

"Next time just don't come," Cory muttered under his breath.

Shawn responded by throwing a wadded up napkin at him. Cory took it, wiped the corners of his mouth with it, and threw it back.

"What if someone sees you do that, Mr. Matthews?" Shawn teased him. "It might be said you are tryin to start a food fight."

"Napkin fight," Cory corrected him gleefully then swatted at the air with an open palm. "Let 'em see me."

"Your students may approve, but I don't think your colleagues will." Shawn nodded to the surrounding faculty tables who were throwing steady looks of disapproval at them.

"What're they gonna do?" the teacher scoffed. "Get me fired? Ha! The only one who can do that," he put his hand on Jon's shoulder. " is sittin' right here and he's not gonna."

Jon gave him a sideways look. "Matthews, if you don't let me eat, I just might."

Cory gave him a sheepish look, then patted his shoulder gently and removed his hand.

Shawn continued to laugh.

As the lunch period went on, Shawn wondered why it was that Cory was so protective of these lunches with Jon beyond simply trying to get the older man to relax a bit. The conversation did not seem particularly personal or at least was nothing that Shawn hadn't heard before. Some of the school stuff was new but both Jon and Cory seemed to avoid talking directly about those matters. After awhile Shawn noticed that their table was drawing a lot of looks and a whole lot of whispers.

"What's this all about?" he asked, subtly jerking his head at the table of women and a few men behind them who seemed particularly interested in them.

"Some people seem to think that my speakin' to a teacher about anything other than 'business' is favoritism," Jon harrumphed.

"They're jealous," Cory said matter-a-factly.

"Of what?"

"That Jon likes me better than them."

"Cory!" It wasn't so much what the younger man said, but rather how loud he said it that made Jon snap at him. He already got an earful from these people about the social studies teacher, he didn't need Cory giving them any more fuel.

Cory looked concerned. "Don't you?"

Jon shot him a look and went back to eating.

The teacher shrugged, then frowned when he saw the look Shawn was giving him. His best friend was clearly trying to non-verbally communicate something to him. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to read Shawn's mind anymore than he could read Topanga's.

"So, Dad," Shawn hoped Cory would remember the one thing Topanga wanted them to find out from Jon about Katherine's hiring. "Do you hire everyone in the district?"

"No," he said. "Thankfully, I don't."

"You hired Cory didn't you?"

"Well, yeah. But that was different," he answered cutting into the mystery meat on his tray. He took a sniff of it before putting it into his mouth and made a face. "I was the principal here then. Principals hire their own staff."

Cory felt that Shawn's kick under the table was presumptuous and unnecessary- he did remember what they were suppose to ask Jon about. He tried to return the kick but met the table leg instead. Wincing, he said, "But you hire own staff as superintendent, don't you?"

Jon put down his fork and gave Cory an exasperated look. "You know that sayin' we teachers have about there being no dumb questions?"

"Yeah?"

"That was a dumb question."

Cory and Shawn both chuckled at this as they knew what the answer was and that Jon knew that they did.

"So why didn't you get to hire your own staff?" Shawn asked.

Jon shrugged. "I was outta of town."

Cory frowned. "I kinda thought you'd have to approve the hiring, though."

Jon shook his head. "Usually, I do. But someone else approved the hiring of my secretary and there was nothin' I could do about it."

Cory and Shawn exchanged frowns.

"Who else would have the authority to do that?" Shawn asked, playing with the carrots Audrey had packed for him.

Jon clearly wasn't interested in this topic of conversation. "In normal circumstances, the assistant superintendent could do it."

"But there is no assistant superintendent," Cory reminded him. "So who could have done it?"

"Look guys," Jon pushed himself away from the table exasperated. "I don't know, I don't care, and I don't wanna talk politics of any kind, especially not school politics! Change the subject please."

Faced with yet another dead end, Cory and Shawn exchanged frowns again, not sure who they could find out this information from if Jon wouldn't help them.

Shawn took his phone from his pocket and held it under the table. He texted Cory to tell him that he felt another conference between the three of them was in order. When Cory saw the text he looked across the table at his best friend and nodded solemnly.

Katherine wasn't in the office when they returned from lunch, much to Shawn's surprise. The less he had to deal with her the better, however her frequent absences were concerning. There was no way she'd abandoned her mission, of that he was sure. But not having any idea what she was up to was worrying.

Jon went straight to his office and Shawn followed. Just before he sat down, Jon noticed that he was out of notepads and went to get some from the supply closet. Shawn settled into the corner of the office to work on finalizing his article for NYC Lifestyle. Within thirty seconds of proofing what he'd written so far, his attention started to wander. Shawn's gaze fell over Jon's desk then drifted to the wall of sports memorabilia. He did a double-take.

Something wasn't right with the desk.

Shawn got up and stood behind Jon's chair in order to properly assess the desk and its contents. Something was wrong with it but he couldn't put his finger on it. It took him a long while to figure out what it was but when he saw it was so obvious that he didn't know how he missed it to begin with; the picture of Jon with Audrey and the one of Audrey and himself were gone.

Shawn stepped back and looked around the office. The pictures were where they always set when he stopped by earlier to pick Jon up for lunch at the junior high. It made no sense that they were gone now. He walked around to the front of the desk and scanned the area. Nothing else was out of place.

Before long he heard Jon talking to Russ in the outer office. He quickly dropped to his knees to search the floor. Nothing. As he stood up, the light coming in through the window near the corner of the office where his laptop was caught off something shiny in the trash can at the end of the desk and reflected into his eyes.

A sliver of silver buried under a bunch of crumpled up papers lay in the waste receptacle. The wrinkled papers were blank. He frowned as he examined the receptacle's contents. It looked like someone had used the paper to make a lot of extra trash. Jon would never throw away unused printer paper like this. Shawn pushed the discarded paper away and saw the framed picture of himself and Audrey smiling up at him. He picked the picture up and dug a little further before he found the second missing photo. Suppressing a growl, Shawn wiped the frame with Jon and Audrey's picture with his shirt and put it in it's place. There was no doubt in his mind who did this.

He was wiping down the second photo when Jon walked in and saw him. "So you're the one whose been moving stuff on my desk around, huh?" he remarked with a smile.

Shawn shook his head. "Just admiring this one. I really love it."

Jon looked pleased. "So do I."

"So, stuff on your desk's been moved around?"

"Yeah, it's weird. And random." Jon sat down and turned his computer on from sleep mode. "You know, Big E comes in and cleans and everything is always in the right place. I go out during the day and stuff gets moved."

"Why would someone do that?" Shawn asked casually, though he already knew the answer.

"I guess someone thinks they can decorate my office better than me." Jon picked up the picture of him and Audrey and lightly touched the glass over Audrey's image. "I found this back behind my Lundqvist jersey a few weeks ago."

"You don't find that a little strange?"

Jon shrugged. "The boys came down with Cory one afternoon while you were working. It seems like something they would do."

Shawn didn't agree but he said nothing. While it wasn't impossible that his brothers would play with what was on Jon's desk and not put it back, but hiding the photo of their parents just didn't seem like something they would do. Jamie, perhaps, but not Grayson. There was only one person he knew of that would enter a private space without permission and target the photos with him and Audrey in them while leaving everything else untouched. There was only one person who had a history of this. What bothered him the most was not that Katherine had trashed the pictures- that was predictable- but it meant that she had a key to Jon's office. Before they went to Cory's school Shawn had locked Jon's door himself went they left.

As he took his seat across from Jon, the calendar on his desk caught his eye. March 1st. Shawn's breathe caught in his throat as he felt a strong sense of deja vu. March 1st of his sophomore year began a tumultuous storm that culminated in the worst May of his life. And it began in the same way- with a stolen key. He felt sick. What had happened before was happening again, but this time he couldn't prove it.

0o0o0o0o

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb was a goofy adult saying that Shawn had heard most of his life but never understood it until that year. March of '96 roared it's arrival by radically changing his home life. On March 1st, Shawn woke up on the couch of the apartment with his feet propped up on a pillow. He sat up, yawned, ran his fingers through his hair, and sleepily blinked several times. His feet were on a pillow on Audrey's lap. Audrey was curled up against Jon with her head on his chest. Jon's arms were wrapped around her. Both were still asleep.

Shawn blinked again, this time in confusion and he couldn't remember what the date was. Was it December? No, he thought, December was a few months ago. Was he dreaming about December? No, he wasn't dreaming about Christmas again because his stomach was growling far too loudly for him to still be asleep. But this had to be a dream because they were at the apartment not Audrey's house. Shawn rested his head against the arm of the couch as he tried to understand where the three of them were that they could be together like this.

Maybe he'd successfully conned Jon into staying overnight at Audrey's. That had to be it. They were at Audrey's and he was just confused. They couldn't be at Jon's because too many people wandered in and out, mostly because Eli was bad at locking the door when he came in and Jon was worse at locking the door when Eli went out. Shawn started to go to sleep again when he heard a familiar set of footsteps.

Eli!

Shawn sat up suddenly panicked as everything became crystal clear. They were at the apartment. It was March 1st and it was Monday morning!

The clock on the wall showed 6:30 am. How in the world could he explain why Audrey was there so early and asleep on Jon? He jumped up, careful not to kick Audrey awake. However the teen had no problem punching Jon in the shoulder to wake him up.

Jon glared at him, clearly not appreciating the rude awakening. He hugged Audrey tighter and closed his eyes again.

Shawn stomped his foot trying to get the man's attention. "Eli's here!"

"What!?" In an instant, Jon was fully awake. He heard the door knob rattle. He was sitting upright but the girl in his arms was still asleep. "Audrey, wake up!"

Shawn raced to the door to check to make sure the deadbolt lock was secured. It was. Eli pounded on the door right where Shawn's ear was.

"Hmmm?" She mumbled drowsily.

Jon shot an annoyed look at the door. "Eli's here."

"Oh? That's nice." The redhead sighed and snuggled closer to him.

Jon and Shawn stared at each other, neither quite sure what to do.

"Hey, Jonny!" Eli called. "Open the door!"

Shawn threw his arms out to the side. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm takin' her to your room. Stall 'im," he said as he picked up the sleeping girl and started to carry her to the back bedroom. "Then you come and stay with her. Eli can't see her walkin' out of a bedroom this early!"

"Then what?" the teen demanded. "Eli's gonna expect you to go with him to school and me to go with Cory. How are we gonna get Audrey out without her being seen and so she's not late to school? If we don't leave by 7 we're all gonna be late."

Jon stared at Shawn for a moment wondering why he was suddenly so concerned with everyone showing up to John Adams High on time. Then he realized the kid was right. "Get her get fully awake. You get ready for school. Then go with her to meet Cory. Use the fire escape."

"Great idea, there's just one problem with that."

"What?"

"You made it so my window won't open all the way."

Jon twisted his lips into a tight, closed "o". "I'll take her to my room. After you're ready, take her out my window."

Shawn grinned. This was the most exciting morning he'd had since he moved in with Jon.

To make up for the excitement of the morning, that afternoon Mr. Feeny handed him a stack of incomplete papers that he'd been hiding from Jon. Shawn was not allowed to go the afternoon's pep rally for the upcoming football game. Instead he had to go to a tutoring session to get caught up. It wasn't all bad, however. After Jon chewed him out for his academic shortcomings, he got to spend the rest of the day with his tutor who turned out to be Audrey. It surprised him some that Mr. Feeny chose her to oversee him, but then she was pretty much the last one standing- none of the other tutors could handle him. Or wanted to.

Shawn didn't mind missing the pep rally. He didn't care much for football and being with Audrey in the library was most certainly better than sitting in a crowded gymnasium shouting at his friends to only be partially heard. Catching up on missing work wasn't all that bad either as Audrey allowed him to talk so long as he worked.

About half-way through the stack of work a tall, thin shadow fell across the paper he was working on, blocking his light. He looked up sharply into the hazel green eyes of his nemesis. He gritted his teeth together and glared at her.

"Hello, Shawn," Miss Tompkins said brightly. Her smile was thin and condescending. "How's your work coming?"

"None of your business," he snorted, flipping his paper upside down so that she couldn't see anything.

Audrey gave him a warning poke on the arm.

"Lovely attitude there, Shawn." She gave him a faux smile as she snatched the English paper he was working on.

"Hey!" he cried, shoving his chair back and jumping up. "I'm working on that!"

"I suppose you could call this work," she said with a disdainful edge in her voice. "Shawn, isn't this for Jon's class?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So why do you do this, Shawn?" She put her hand on her hips, with her talons still gripping his paper. "After all he's done for you and you can't even bother to complete the assignments he gives you?"

He despised the way she kept saying his name. Defensiveness and fear cloaked in rebellion consumed Shawn as he tried to get his paper away from her. "I got busy and forgot."

It was the truth, too. Audrey came over the night before it was due and in his rush to get his work done so he could spend time with her, he overlooked Jon's assignment. Although he was kept on the hook for it at school, at home there were no consequences. Jon had rushed through checking his homework in so he could spend time with Audrey and missed that Shawn hadn't completed the paper for his class. His said they were both at fault on this one and couldn't a give Shawn a punishment without giving one to himself.

"Oh, Shawn," she shook her head as though he was the most pathetic and hopeless creature to ever walk the earth. "How is poor Jon ever going to be able to trust you?"

"I'll take that, thank you." Audrey sweetly stepped in between the two and firmly took the paper away from Katherine, much to the older woman's surprise. She held the teacher's gaze and gave her a charming smile. "I think poor Jon will trust Shawn just fine."

Shawn lifted his chin so that he was looking down his nose at Miss Tompkins and gave her a triumphant smirk.

The social studies teacher seemed to have difficulty acknowledging Audrey's presence. It was as though she preferred to act as if the younger woman didn't exist. Finally, she turned on the girl with a razor-sharp smile that was almost a sneer. "This isn't your concern, hun."

"It is when you disrupt my tutoring session. "Audrey was much better at presenting a very sweet, childlike demeanor to mask the cunning fox underneath than Katherine was.

"Oh, honey." She was even more condescending to Audrey that she was to Shawn. "I know that at your age you think you know everything, but you are too young to know how to deal with," she cast a withering look at Shawn, "high school boys."

By this time Shawn had taken his seat again per Audrey's prodding and very clearly heard her mutter, "okay, Grandma," under her breath. He nearly choked trying to contain his laughter. His teacher lightly smacked his knee and frowned at him to stop. For her, he complied.

Katherine put her hand on the chair in front of her, the one Shawn had hung his leather jacket on, and leaned forward, suspicious of what Audrey mumbled. Her fingers curled around the broken-in leather clothing. Suddenly she straighten up, pulling the jacket off of the chair and onto the floor. Shawn dove forward to catch it but Miss Tompkins was too close for him to get it first. She held the jacket up and scrutinized it.

Shawn's pulse raced and the muscles in his upper back cramped in tension. He did not want her touching his things, especially not that jacket.

The teacher looked the jacket over thoroughly before tossing it onto the table. She slipped her hands in her pockets and gave the teen a hard look.

"Finish your paper, Shawn," Audrey told him after he settled the jacket on his chair back, ignoring the other woman's frozen expression of disapproval.

Shawn looked Miss Tompkins right in the eye and said respectfully. "Yes, Miss Andrews. Whatever you say." Then he seriously started to work while keeping an on the other teacher.

Miss Tompkins had clearly lost whatever battle she had come to fight, but she wasn't going to go in complete defeat. She straightened the collar of her denim shirt and lightly cleared her throat.

"I expect that you'll have this done tonight before I come over?"

This remark stopped both Shawn and Audrey dead but Audrey, given the situation that she was in, could not react. Shawn refrained from looking at Audrey and giving her away. Not reacting was extremely difficult.

"I'll have it done before this period is over with if you'll leave me alone."

Katherine straightened up. "I'll see you tonight then."

Shawn couldn't resist taking the bait. "What're you talking about?"

"What does 'I'll see you tonight' usually mean, Shawn?"

"Jon and I have plans together tonight. We won't be home," he frowned. Audrey also had the same plans with them. He wasn't sure how Katherine figured she'd worm her way into this.

"That's not a problem," she laughed as though he'd just said the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

"We'll be out late," he said flatly.

"You won't be that late. It's a school night," she told him good-naturedly. She leaned over and reached her hand out to him. He recoiled. She gave him a sly smile. "I have a few things to do after school, too. If I miss you then I'll just wait for you guys to come back. I have a key, you know."

She pinched his cheek. Hard. Then Katherine Tompkins sauntered out of the library, leaving Shawn and Audrey sitting in stunned silence.

Jonathan Turner managed to escape from the pep-less pep rally while Mr. Feeny was busy arguing with Frankie Stecchino's father who was unhappy with the lackluster event and wanted to liven it up himself. He made a beeline to the library where he found Audrey and Shawn hunkered down at a table that was hidden behind the bookcases farthest from the door.

He thought they'd be happy to see him. They weren't.

Shawn glared at him then resumed chewing on his pencil as Audrey, who didn't bother to acknowledge that he was there, looked over the teen's work.

"Hi, guys," he said, giving Shawn a look of inquiry. "You two are in great moods. What gives?"

Shawn said nothing and turned his back on his teacher.

"What is that about?" Jon asked. He took a chair and turned it around backwards before sitting down.

Audrey looked at Shawn then at Jon. The seas were choppy and stormy again; a dark gray against green and blue. He hated to see her eyes like that; there was never anything good beneath that look.

"Aud?"

They had to walk on eggshells now more than before given that their relationship had changed. Audrey couldn't just come out and tell him what was upsetting her, not here. Even though she and Shawn had moved to a back table after their encounter with Katherine, they still had to be very careful about who saw them together. She couldn't lose control nor show any emotion. She looked at Shawn again and nodded curtly to him giving him permission to voice what she could not.

"Miss Tompkins has a key." The accusation was sharp and bitter. Shawn turned on him and looked at him directly. His eyes had the very same look as Audrey's but more turbulent. "You lied to me. You said you took your key back from her."

Jon's mouth hung open as he wondered what alternate universe he stumbled into. He could not understand where this key nonsense came from or why Audrey seemed to hold the same belief the boy did.

"She doesn't have a key. I did take it back," he insisted.

Audrey pursed her lips and sat back in her chair, staring at her hands. Shawn turned his back on him again.

"What is this about?"

"Katherine came in here," she told him, very quietly. "She said she would see you tonight. If you were out, she'd be waiting. She said she had a key."

"She said that?" Fear sank into Jon. "In front of you? She said she had a key and was coming over in front of you?" His heart began to race at the thought that Katherine might suspect that Audrey was spending time at his place. Could Eli have said something? His best friend knew that Audrey being over in the afternoon's was a big NO in Feeny's book and Eli had no problem keeping this secret from the principal. But the media arts teacher did not know exactly how much time the three of them were actually spending together. Given that Kat used to be his girlfriend Eli might have offhandedly said something to her, not knowing that he shouldn't. Mentally, he cursed himself for not taking Eli into his confidence more.

"Uh-huh."

Jon pulled his keys from his pocket and laid them out on the table. "Shawn, you know there are four keys to my place. You both have one. And I have two," he said, pointing to the twin number 8 keys on the key ring. "She absolutely does not have a key."

Audrey was so relieved she felt like she might pass out.

Shawn was not so easily convinced. "Then why would she say that she did?" he demanded.

"I dunno," Jon said. His brow knit together in deep distress. "She may suspect something. We have got to be more careful."

Audrey nodded. A few students drifted in and caught her attention. She handed Jon one of Shawn's books and a paper of his. The English Lit teacher looked confused for a moment then understood what she was doing. He opened the book and pretended to check over the paper.

The student teacher scooted closer to Shawn and pointed to the sheet of scratch paper in front of him as though there was an error to correct on the blank page. "You aren't dating her anymore," she said in quiet frustration. "Does she really think that pretending that you are will change anything? You and Shawn are not her business anymore."

"And it was never George's business in the first place!" he growled, giving the pages of the book irritated flips. "But here we are hidin' the back of the library like we're plannin' a heist!"

"Plannin' a heist?" This comparison sound so absurd that Shawn couldn't help but laugh.

Jon smiled. "Anyone watchin' us probably thinks we did or will commit a crime the way we've been sneakin' around."

Shawn thought about the absurdity then became sullen. "We have to sneak around to do what other people do out in the open everyday," he said morosely. He crossed his arms in a protective way over his chest. "We're not doing anything at wrong, but we have to hide. It's not fair."

"Three more months, Shawn," Jon reassured him. He reached across the table to take hold of the teen's forearm in a fatherly gesture. "Audrey's done here at the end of May." He looked at his student teacher then back to his student. "Then we can steps to make this thing we got here real."

Shawn stared at him, mouth agape, brow furrowed, trying to grasp what his teacher was saying. All Jon had ever said to him was to forget about him and Audrey getting together: it wasn't possible, she was too young, the age gap was too great, he wasn't right for her. Something had radically changed in Jon and somehow, Shawn had missed it.

"What do you mean make this thing real?" he asked suspiciously, half-afraid that the answer would not be what he hoped it would be.

Jon glanced at Audrey, suddenly very nervous. He had never said aloud to anyone what he had been thinking about since Christmas. "Well," he said taking a deep inhale, "we gotta take things a step at a time, but you know, start moving toward making the three of a us a permanent thing."

Jon's words came as even more of a surprise to Audrey than they did to Shawn, but there wasn't time to mull them over. Students were swarming the hallway after being dismissed from the event in the gym. "We shouldn't be talking about this here, Jon. The pep rally is over."

He nodded. "We've got plenty of time to talk later."

Shawn looked back and forth between the two adults, unable to believe what he was hearing. Ever since Audrey showed up in September he'd been daydreaming about this very thing: marriage and adoption. Now Jon was saying that is what they would actually do. Shawn should have been elated, but he wasn't. He knew better than to get his hopes up. It was simply too good to be true. And nothing good ever happened to Shawn Hunter.

Hesitantly, he asked, "We just have to make it to the end of May?"

Jon nodded. "We just have to make it to the end of May then we're home free."

Cory and Topanga caught up with Shawn after the pep rally by the lockers. The boys collected their belongings before heading to their sixth period class together. The day was almost over and Shawn couldn't wait to get home.

"Boy, I have got somethin' to tell you guys," he said letting out a low whistle.

"Yeah?" Cory hoped that his best friend had something interesting planned to make up for that poor excuse for a pep rally.

"I can't tell you anything here."

Topanga gave him an amused smile and assumed he'd had some adventure during his tutoring time. "Why not?" she asked.

"Can't risk the wrong person overhearing."

As Shawn stuffed five shirts that had accumulated in his locker over the week into his book bag a very pretty brunette sauntered up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hiiiii, Shawn," she greeted him flirtatiously.

"Yeah, hi, Veronica," he said dismissively. Turning back to his friends he asked, "Any chance you can both walk home with me?"

Cory and Topanga exchanged shocked looks. Did Shawn Hunter just ignore Veronica Watson- the girl he went to such great lengths to spend time alone with at the beginning of the school year?

"Shawn," Veronica tried again. This time she took hold of his collar and leaned close to him. "I just broke up with my boyfriend again. I'm free Friday night." She batted her eyelashes at him with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah? That's nice. See ya." With that he pulled Cory, who pulled Topanga, away from Veronica and the lockers.

"You just turned down Veronica Watson!" Topanga cried still stunned.

"Did I?" Shawn looked confused, then shrugged.

"Yeah, you did," Cory confirmed. "What's going on that's better Veronica?"

When he saw the dirty look Topanga was giving him he quickly added, "that isn't Topanga I mean."

"It's major!" It was so hard not to just tell them right then but he was very concerned Miss Tompkins might be shadowing them or might have hired some dumb kid to spy on him. "I mean change my life kind of major."

"Tell us now!" Cory demanded.

Shawn began his routine end of the day to make sure he had everything that was most important to take home like his leather jacket and his key.

"Can't. Not here..." Shawn's voice trailed off as he patted his pockets. "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh what?"

"Uh-oh my key," he said worriedly. "I can't find my key." He patted himself down several times but came up empty handed. "Not again," he grumbled, puffing his bangs out of his face.

It wasn't the first time he'd lost his key to Jon's apartment and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Still Shawn felt like an idiot for making such a big deal out of keys earlier only to lose his. An insistent nagging tugged at his gut as he searched the pockets of his jacket again. He knew he had had the key on him and that there was no way he could have accidentally dropped it.

Previously, he'd lost the key because he never secured it properly or paid much attention to it until it came up missing. The last time he lost it, Jon refused to make another key 1) because Shawn needed to learn to be responsible and 2) he didn't want a bunch of copies of the key to their home floating around for just anyone to find and use. In order to avoid long hours detained at school waiting for Jon to finish his day so he could get into his home, Shawn had resolved not to lose the key again. And when he did find it- in the outside pocket of his book bag- he had managed to hold onto it ever since. That was nearly two months ago. He knew he had it with him when he left the apartment that morning. It had been concealed in the interior pocket of his leather jacket- the pocket without any holes. He had worn his jacket most of the day with the few exceptions when it was in his locker. He didn't know where he could have lost it.

As he went over every conceivable place he been that day, he remembered his jacket being tossed to the floor by Miss Tompkins. "Oh, no!"

"Now what?" Cory asked with concern.

"The library! I think it fell out of my pocket in the library!"

Cory and Topanga faithfully helped him search for the missing key in the library and everywhere else Shawn went that day but they couldn't find it. Shawn had to face Jon after school to admit his mistake. When he went to deliver the bad news, he was surprised to find the classroom door locked. Audrey opened it for him, but didn't let him in right away. She stood in the doorway holding the door halfway shut while leaning against the door frame.

"Sorry," she told him in a low whisper. "We didn't want any uninvited visitors after school and I thought I saw a blonde lurking around outside the door. Pretty sure it was just Wendy Jansen but I couldn't take the chance that it was someone much, much older."

Shawn grinned. He brushed up against her as he entered the classroom and for a brief moment he wondered if he could pickpocket her key in order to avoid getting into trouble. Jon wouldn't be upset with her if she lost her key; he'd gladly make her as many copies as she wanted. But he dismissed the idea, took a deep breath, and admitted to his teacher what happened.

Jon hung his head in exasperation. He couldn't quite believe the key was missing yet again, even though he knew he should've seen it coming. "What am I gonna do with you, Hunter?" he sighed.

"I tried," Shawn said thinking his effort to hang onto the key this long should count for something. "I did really good for a while."

Audrey walked up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. "He can use my key," she offered.

"Oh, no, he can't." Jon said sitting on his desk. He laid an arm over his stomach and covered his mouth with his other hand. "Maybe it's at the apartment," he said after a while." It was kinda crazy with Eli coming over so early and Audrey still there."

"Maybe," Shawn said, but he knew it wasn't. He was positive he had it that morning when he and Audrey climbed down the fire escape.

Jon could have punished the teen, and himself, by dragging out his after school duties to delay going home and making Shawn spend more time at school. He decided against it, however. Key or no key, they had plans.

As they walked out of the classroom, with Audrey had going on ahead so that it wouldn't look the three were together, Jon put a hand on the teen's shoulder and gripped it tight.

"If Kat is waitin' for us when we get back tonight," he said in a low growl. "You are in so much trouble."

Shawn nodded his head in understanding. "If she's waitin' for us when we get back that'll be worse than anything you can come up with."

Shawn's key wasn't at the apartment and Katherine wasn't waiting when they got back from their evening out, but the mystery of the missing key still bugged him because he knew it wasn't due to him being irresponsible.

The next day at school he and Cory met up at their lockers before heading to Mr. Feeny's class. Cory opened his locker with a sharp yank. While he rummaged around looking for his book for his next class, Shawn leaned against the open door.

"Hey, Shawn, I need more light in here. I can't see nothin!"

Considering how much Cory had crammed in his locker, light wasn't going to reach very far in no matter how much was let in, but Shawn obliged by stepping back and holding the door open as far as it would go. As he did this something caught his eye. There was something small and shiny wedged in the vents of the door.

"Hey, Cor, what's this?"

"Huh?" Cory stopped his search and looked up. "I don't know. It looks like a key or somethin."

"Weird," Shawn muttered. He grabbed a wooden ruler that was sticking out of a book in the locker and stuck it into the vent. The object fell out and hit the floor.

Cory retrieved it and brought it to Shawn with a strange look on his face. "It's your key, isn't it?"

"My key? What?" He took the key from his friend and examined it. Sure enough it was his brass key with a number 8 on it. "How did it get in there?"

"Beats me," Cory said, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't do it."

"Neither did I."

"Guys," Topanga called out cheerily as she walked up to them. "What's up?"

"Found my key." Shawn held it up to her.

"Where?"

The boys showed her. She wrinkled her nose and studied the locker and key.

"I think someone took it and tried to return it," she said matter-a-factly.

The boys squinted curiously at her.

"What makes you think that?" Cory asked.

"Well, if I had taken something like this and wanted to return it without giving it directly to the person, then I'd probably put it in the locker through the vents, too."

Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and considered what she was saying seriously. "What makes you think it was taken and I didn't just lose it?"

"It's your key but it was in Cory's locker. So there's really only two possibilities that make sense: someone took, it got spooked, and put in the wrong locker or they took it and returned it but got your lockers mixed up. Or..." her voice trailed off as she scrutinized the key further.

"Or what?" Shawn asked, putting his nose up to the key in her hand.

"Or you've started wearing Chanel in vamp and someone just found this key, knew it was yours, and tried to return it," she said with a smirk.

"Chanel in Vamp. What's that?" he asked, straightening up. Whatever is was sounded edgy and interesting.

"It's a really popular nail polish color," she said. Topanga held the key out to him and pointed to a deep red splotch on one side of the key over the eight. "It looks exactly like that."

Cory shrugged. "A girl stole the key. So Shawn's got another secret admirer. What else is new?"

Shawn stared at the red mark with a frown. Why would anyone, especially a girl, take his key and then return it without doing anything with it or letting him know they were interested in some way? There was something more to it and Shawn had a sinking feeling that it was something not good.

"Could the nail polish be Audrey's?" Cory asked.

Topanga shook her head. "Audrey wear either Essie's Ballet Slippers or Hard Candy in sky or mint. But mostly she wears Ballet Slippers."

The boys stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

"What?!" she cried defensively. "Trini's really into nail polish lately."

Shawn took a deep breath. "Well, Jon'll be happy I found my key. I just hope he doesn't ask where I found it."

Alan Matthews was sitting on his couch waiting for his children to leave the house on Friday night when heard a truck pull into his driveway.

"Amy," he called out. "Jon's here to pick up Cory and Topanga."

"Oh, good!" she cried, running into the living room. "I'm glad he's here early."

"Amy," Alan said sternly, giving his wife a concerned look. "Do not jump him the way you did last time."

"I did not jump him." she said in exasperation. "Oh, Alan, why do you say things like that? I was just very excited to tell him about Kristin, that's all."

Alan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, he wasn't very excited about it. Amy, every couple of weeks, Jon takes Cory off our hands while the other two are with friends. If you don't stop doing this to him, he's going to stop coming over here and taking Cory off our hands and we're going to stop having quiet evenings every couple of weeks. I like these quiet evenings."

"So, do I, Alan." She stood behind him, leaned over to put her arms around him, and kissed his cheek. "But this new girl at work, Grace, is such a sweet girl and so perfect for him! I just it know it!"

"You knew it the other nine times, too," he muttered. A little louder he pleaded, "Amy, leave the man alone!"

"Hey," Cory said, running into the living from the backyard with Topanga at his heels. "I thought I heard Mr. Turner pull up."

"Yeah, you did." Alan stood up and walked over to him. Whispering in his son's ear he said, "Don't waste time talking here. Just get out."

"You wanna be alone with Mom that bad, huh?"

"No, I don't want your teacher to fail you for any reason other than sleeping in class and not doing your work."

Cory nodded in understanding. "Mom's tryin' to set Mr. Turner up with another one of her friends, isn't she?"

"Yeah."

"C'mon, Topanga," he said, waving his girlfriend over. "Let's go meet 'em outside."

"Oh, Cory. Its early." Mrs. Matthews put her arms around Topanga's shoulders and held onto her. Topanga looked conflicted for a moment then looked up at her and smiled.

Betrayed by his own girlfriend, Cory flopped onto the couch. The second he did the doorbell rang. Alan barely had the door unlocked when Shawn barreled through it.

"Hi, Mr. Matthews. Hi, Mrs. Matthews. Cory, let's go."

"Can't," Cory said with a look of defeat on his face. His shoulders slumped forward. "The mother is holding the girlfriend hostage."

Shawn glanced at Mrs. Matthews and Topanga. "Too bad. Later, Topanga!"

"Shawn!" Topanga cried, pulling away from Amy slightly.

"You might as well have a seat, Shawn," Cory sighed. "I'm sorry. I tried."

"I know." Shawn ran his hand through his hair, trying to find a way out for all three of them. "Thanks, anyway."

"Oh, Jonathan!" Amy let go of Topanga as soon as the English Lit teacher walked through the door.

Jon gave Alan a curious look and the older man mouthed an apology. Jon's eyes went wide and he looked worried. He nodded down at his side. Alan looked, quickly turned to his wife, and intercepted her. "Amy, look, Audrey's here, too."

"Oh, hello, sweetheart," Amy stopped suddenly to greet her. "I didn't know you were coming. It's so good to see you."

"Hi, Mrs. Matthews," she smiled shyly. "It's nice to see you again."

"Oh look at the time," Alan said, looking at the wrist that didn't have a watch on it. "I'm sure you guys wanna get going. And so do I."

Jon concealed a laugh as Amy gave her husband a dirty look. "I'll have Cory back by 9," he promised.

"Keep him all night," Alan said only half-jokingly. "Actually, keep him all weekend."

The group said their goodbyes then Alan closed the door and locked it. He turned around to see his wife standing at the end of the couch with her arms crossed over her chest and her lips pursed into a thin line.

"Why didn't you let me tell Jonathan about Grace?"

"Amy, he's not interested." He regarded her curiously. It wasn't like her to miss something so obvious.

"How do you know? Did you talk to him?"

"I didn't have to."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Alan walked over to his wife and unfolded her arms before putting his around her. "Amy, ever since Christmas, whenever Jon picks up Cory up, Miss Andrews is always with him."

Amy didn't seem to understand what he was saying. She was still thinking about Grace. "Well, of course, she is. He's her supervisor for her student teaching."

"Right. Her supervisor, not her babysitter."

"So you think...?" Amy looked at him quizzically.

"It's pretty obvious."

She smiled in embarrassment and leaned her head against his chest. "I guess you're right. Poor Grace, she was really excited to meet him."

"I'm surprised you're disappointed by this," he remarked. "You were the one who wanted Jon and Audrey to get together the very first time she came over."

"I did, didn't I?"

"You were right. She's good for both Jon and Shawn."

She smiled to herself. "I was right, wasn't I?" After a moment she said, "You know I think I can still help Grace out."

Alan smiled in relief. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled."

"I'll tell George we don't need to bother setting Jon up anymore."

"Amy," Alan caught her arm as she started to leave. "I don't think you should."

"Why not?"

"George didn't really approve of Jon taking Shawn in. Somehow I think he'd approve of this even less. Let's just stay out it and let whatever happens happen."

Amy considered this for a moment then nodded her agreement.

After dropping Cory and Topanga off at their respective homes, it was a little after 9:15. The sound of the local classic rock station greeted them as Jon, Shawn, and Audrey walked through the door.

Jon turned off the radio and gave Shawn a miffed looked. "Really, Shawn? Could you not have turned this off before we left?"

"I didn't have it on," the teen protested, flopping down on the couch and putting his feet on the coffee table. "That's your music. I don't listen to your music."

"Well, someone left it off on."

"Probably the guy who listens to that noise."

Jon leaned over the couch so that he was looking down at Shawn. "You wanna say that again?"

Shawn looked up at him and said in all seriousness, "I didn't do it."

"Fine," the teacher said deciding this wasn't a battle worth fighting. He turned to Audrey. "I'll be back in just a minute."

As he turned to go to his room, he noticed a light coming down the hallway." Hunter! You didn't leave the radio so tell me who didn't leave the lights on in your room?"

Shawn twisted around on the couch to face his teacher. "Huh? I didn't."

"Shawn," Jon walked back down to the living room, "who else is gonna turn the lights on in your room?"

"I dunno, but I didn't!

"You know electricity isn't free!"

"Stooop," the teen whined putting his hands over his hears. When Jon was in lecture mode as he was as bad as Mr. Matthews. "You sound like such a dad."

"Guess what? I'm gonna sound even more like one in two seconds."

Because of the look Audrey was giving him, Shawn sat on the couch in silence as Jon scolded him for wasting resources. His attitude was lousy, however, as he was pretty sure he didn't leave the lights on in room. He couldn't be 100% sure though as he was in big hurry to leave earlier. The radio, however, he did not even have on and he was not about to let that one go.

"Fine," he huffed. "I'm sorry about the lights. But I didn't leave the radio on."

"So what- we got ghosts now that like to listen to the radio and are afraid of the dark?" the teacher asked sarcastically.

"I dunno," he shrugged defensively. "But Jon, if the radio had been left on wouldn't you have heard it before we left and told me to turn it off?"

Jon considered this and had to acknowledge that the kid was right. The radio was not on when they left. "Okay, I'll give you that one. May there was a power surge or something that kicked it on."

"Thank you." He slid back down on the couch and slouched down, still irritated by the accusations.

Jon got up from the couch and gave Audrey's arm a squeeze. "I'll be back in a minute. I wanna change this shirt."

His bedroom was dark when he walked in, except for the thin ray of light coming from underneath the closet door. There shouldn't have been a light coming from anywhere in the room. He didn't even go into his closet after school; he just discarded his tie on the bed before he and Shawn left again to meet with Audrey and pick up Shawn's friends.

Cautiously, he approached the door and gingerly opened it. There was nothing inside that shouldn't have been. He frowned. He didn't remember leaving the light on earlier in the day. Unlike Shawn, he was pretty good about turning them off. But this along with the radio and the lights on in Shawn's room filled him with foreboding. He turned on his heel and left the closet. Flipping on the lights, he checked his bedroom thoroughly to make sure there was nothing out of place. Nothing was as far as he could tell. He slowly backed out of room and went straight Shawn's room. Nothing in the boy's room seemed amiss either but he didn't know Shawn's room well.

"Shawn," he said rejoining Audrey in the living room with a dark look on his face. "Go check your room out and make sure everything is where it should be."

"Why?" Shawn had found something he wanted to watch on TV and didn't appreciate being disturbed.

"Just do it, huh?"

Shawn shrugged and did what he was told. When he returned to take back his seat on the couch both Jon and Audrey looked deeply concerned.

"What? I didn't do it." This was one time he absolutely had nothing to do with whatever was going on.

"Yeah, I know," Jon said seriously. "I don't think you left the lights or the radio on either."

Shawn sat on the edge of the couch cushion, suddenly worried. Both of his teachers were tense and somber. "What changed your mind?"

"My closet light was on."

Shawn looked at the adults not sure he was understanding Jon correctly. "Wait, you think someone's been here?"

"Looks like it."

"Who?"

"No idea."

Shawn was very concerned now. Briefly he wondered if any of his family or friends from the trailer park had paid them a visit. "How'd they get in? It doesn't look like anyone broke in."

"I don't know," Jon said quietly. He took Audrey's hand in his more for his comfort than hers.

"We're the only ones with keys," Shawn said slowly.

"Yeah," Jon said pressing his lips together in a thin line. "That's what I can't figure out."

The next morning, Shawn found himself alone in the kitchen for much longer than was normal on a Saturday. Twice he'd yelled at Jon to hurry up, Audrey would be over soon. Twice his teacher had yelled back that he was getting dressed. Shawn grabbed a handful of Lucky Charms and shoved them into his mouth. Jon was taking forever to get ready this morning and they weren't even doing anything special.

Jon walked out of his closet in jeans and a tank top. "Hunter, have you been borrowin' my clothes lately?"

Shawn gave him an offended look and through the cereal in his mouth said, "I haven't shopped in your closet in forever. You don't have much I like. Your style is better than Cory's but not by a whole lot."

Jon gave him a withering look. "Have you been stashin' any of my stuff at Audrey's again?"

"Uh-uh."

"Then have you seen my black sweater with the red stripe across it?"

"Not since you last wore it."

Jon snorted in annoyance. The sweater couldn't have just disappeared. "You sure you don't have it?"

Shawn rolled his eyes as he took another handful of cereal. "Have you ever seen me wear anything that would make you'd think I want it?"

"You could just say no."

"No."

Jon returned to his bedroom muttering something that sounded very rude under his breath. His mood wasn't much better when he returned to the living just as Audrey was walking in.

"Mornin'," he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey." She returned the kiss the caught his expression and a frown touched her features. "What's going on?"

Shawn bounced on the couch with the box of cereal. "Jon's mad he can't find one of his ugly sweaters."

In response, Jon picked up one of the couch pillow and smacked the back of the teen's head with it. Shawn grabbed the other pillow and returned fire. He managed to completely miss Jon but sank the pillow into the fish tank by the window. It was a one in a million shot and he was pretty pleased with himself.

Audrey laughed. "What sweater are you missing?"

"The black one with the red stripe."

She wrinkle her nose in thought. "You haven't worn that one in awhile but it was in your closet when I did laundry Thursday."

"Yeah, about that, Aud," Jon said momentarily forgetting about his lost clothing. "You gotta stop doing our laundry, and the cleaning, and the cooking."

"Why?" asked Shawn. "She does a lot better job that either of us."

"That's the problem," Jon told him. "She's doing our work and she doesn't even live here." Immediately, Shawn jumped with a goofy grin on his face. Jon put his hand up. "And before you say anything about that, the chores around here from now on are going to be done by us on a weekly basis. That's non-negotiable."

Shawn smirked and sat back down. For all the times Jon had said that, very little ever changed.

School was not something Shawn ever really looked forward to, but since Audrey started spending the weekends exclusively with them he was less that enthused about it. Mondays now meant the three of them had to go back to pretending that they barely knew Audrey and that they had to have a story made up in case someone asked about their weekend.

Monday also brought with it social studies. Social studies with Miss Tompkins was his most dreaded and hated class because she would look for the slightest little thing to call a conference with Jon over. One time it was because his pencil broke in the middle of a test and he had to ask Cory to borrow one. One time it was because he kept sneezing. She claimed, in this case, that he was sneezing at her. Not only was this not true, he was hardly the only one sneezing- everyone was, including Miss Tompkins, because of Jeffery Olander's cheap cologne that he drenched himself in before coming to class that day.

He also hated her class because it was so boring. If you weren't a perfect student, forget it, you weren't getting anything out of it. Even the perfect students like Topanga found it to be on the dry side. Very safe and bland- a stark contrast to Jon's teaching. Even Mr. Feeny's class was more interesting largely because he was far more likable than Miss Tompkins was.

Sleeping in her class and not doing her homework were two things Jon had forbidden him to do anymore and it had nothing to do with the pink slips and to having to deal with Feeny. It had everything to do with her. He threatened to take away every privilege Shawn had-and ones he didn't- if he didn't tow the line in her class. Jon said she was using the petty stuff as excuse together with him and those meetings ended up having nothing to with Shawn. He did not want the teen to give her a legitimate reason to call him in. Shawn had no issue with this even though staying awake was impossibly hard at times.

Monday afternoon he was woken abruptly by the ringing of the bell announcing the class change and Cory hitting his shoulder as hard as he could.

"We feel asleep!" Cory hissed in his ear.

"Huh? Who's class?"

"Hers."

Shawn sat up abruptly, bracing himself for the fallout from the nap. Miss Tompkins watched pleasantly from her desk as student filtered out. She said nothing to them.

Cory and Shawn exchanged looks. There was no way she didn't see them asleep in the back of the room but she acted as though they had been paying attention the entire period. Cautiously, they approached her desk. They had no choice but to pass by her; there was only one way out. Miss Tompkins saw them hedging towards the door, smiled brightly and said, "Have a good afternoon, boys."

Cory looked over his shoulder at with a befuddled look. Shawn was equally fazed but not enough to hang around and find out what was going. He put his hands on the middle of Cory's back and pushed him out of the classroom.

School lunches were never Jon's favorite time of day but at least with Eli teaching at John Adams High it gave him a chance to catch up with his best friend. Audrey did not come with him. She had a paper to write regarding her student teaching experience thus far and was taking lunch in the classroom she said. Although he wanted to stay with her doing so would cause a lot talk. He had no choice but to head to the cafeteria.

Lunch had become even less enjoyable since the last time he broke it off with Katherine. Initially, she had spent the period in Mr. Feeny's office for several weeks before venturing back to the cafeteria. Then she would isolate herself at another table away from the rest of the faculty looking forlorn and sighing into her Jello until George would feel bad for her and convince her to sit with the rest of them. George always had her sit next to Jon. It was awkward, to say the least. Mr. Feeny only added to this as he was determined to play cupid and reunite the former couple. This made Eli uncomfortable and he would often bail as soon as he'd finished eating leaving Jon alone with Katherine and the principal. None of the other teachers seemed to stick around either for whatever reason.

Today was no different. However, Eli stayed in spite of the awkwardness. Katherine was in a favorable mood, neither sullen or needy, just very cheerful and friendly. The conversation was natural and comfortable. Surprisingly, Katherine paid no more attention to Jon than she did any one else at the table.

Just as Jon relaxed, he felt something nosing around the cuff of his pant leg. He adjusted his position and continued eating. The sensation didn't go away, it got more insistent. He moved again, but he couldn't get away from whatever it was without causing a scene.

Probably a mouse, he thought with a shiver. The new custodian crew who replaced Janitor Bud was nothing to brag about and it wouldn't surprise him a bit if rodents had taken up residence in John Adams High.

After a moment that mouse moved up his ankle and he realized with a jolt what was going on. He shoved his chair back from the table and looked up sharply at Katherine. The woman across from him smiled innocently at him and bit her lower lip.

"Stop it," he spat.

Everyone was staring at him as Katherine played innocent. "Stop what?"

"What's wrong, Jonathan?" Mr. Feeny queried, regarding the younger man curiously.

Jon debated whether or not he should say anything, knowing that it would sound ridiculous to the other men. Even Eli was likely to laugh at him.

"Nothin'," he said angrily.

The others at the table went back to their conversation while Jon sat as far back from the table as he could. Halfway through the lunch period, Andrea Nguyen joined their table. Jon liked the art teacher- she was a good friend of Audrey's. He moved his chair to let her in but Katherine was watching him. She moved with him then invited Andrea to sit next to her. Jon bit back a growl and ignored the woman next to him. After awhile he felt a hand on his leg and that hand did not stay put. Jon had had enough.

"Get your hands off of me," he snapped furiously, jumping up from his seat. Lunch was over for him; he had no appetite left.

The English Lit teacher knew he was making a scene and drawing a lot of looks from teachers and students alike, but he didn't care. He grabbed his tray and headed toward the cafeteria doors as fast as he could without running.

The hallway was mercifully quiet- he didn't care to deal with anyone at the moment. He was about to turn a corner when he heard a familiar authoritative voice called out,

"Jonathan."

He kept walking. It was his lunch break and he didn't have duty this week.

"Mr. Turner!"

Jon stopped abruptly and gritted his teeth. Slowly, he turned on his heel to face his principal.

Mr. Feeny walked up to him looking concerned.

"What is going on, Jonathan? You're behavior just now was quite out of the ordinary."

Jon didn't answer right away. What was he supposed to say? She's touching me? It sounded childish and ridiculous.

"I don't wanna sit next to Kat," he said which sounded even more childish and ridiculous.

George raised an eyebrow. "You don't think that your actions were a bit dramatic?"

"She had her hands and feet all over me. I didn't care for it, okay."

Unfortunately for Jon, his reputation with women preceded him and the man in front of him didn't seem to believe that attention from a woman actually bothered him. The principal considered this for a moment, then said, "Where are you going?"

"Back to the classroom."

"Is Miss Andrews there?"

Jon bit back a sarcastic response. "Yeah, she is. She's workin' on her paper for school."

The principal shook his head with a grave look on his face. "Return to the cafeteria, Mr. Turner."

Jon stared at him.

"Excuse me?"

"Jonathan, it is not a good idea to go back to your room if she's there. Return to the cafeteria."

Jon pursed his lips into a tight line as his anger built. He looked the man in the eyes. As much as he respected George Feeny, the man was overstepping his authority as far as he was concerned. A stubbornness rose within him.

"No."

It was the principal's turn to stare at him.

"What did you say?"

"No. I'm goin' to my classroom."

"Mr Turner..."

"What are you going to do, George?" he snapped. "Fire me for eating lunch in my own classroom during a week I'm not on duty? Fine. Fire Me. You want me to send Audrey down to the cafeteria for your peace of mind? Fine. Kat won't harass her."

With that the English lit teacher turned and stormed off down the hall.

The principal watch him go, carefully considering the situation. He didn't approve of Jonathan being alone with his student teacher, but there was something in what he said that was alarming- "Kat won't harass her." He was quite fond of Miss Tompkins. He thought she was a very sweet woman and a competent teacher. He felt that her romantic pairing with Jonathan was a very good one and that they should try to work on their relationship. But he had to acknowledge that he didn't know her very well outside of school. It was a possibility that she was not quite as sweet as she seemed. It was also a possibility that Jonathan was reacting the way he was because of guilty conscience. The principal returned to the cafeteria deeply concerned over the state of his faculty.

Monday came and went as did Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of school, the trio only saw each other during the school day. Jon and Audrey felt it was best is they only got together on the weekends.

The first time Audrey saw Jon since Thursday at the end of the school day was early Friday morning about an hour before homeroom. The second time she saw him was about twenty minutes before first period outside of the teacher's lounge where he and Mr. Feeny stood talking. Audrey approached the men quietly not wanting to interrupt them. She was hoping Jon would see her and be able to slip away from the principal so she could spend a little time with him before the day started. She didn't get to speak to him the night before; he'd been unavailable before she went to work and it was too late call by the time she got home.

Walking up behind Mr. Feeny, she just caught Jon's attention when Katherine walked up to the men and slipped her arm around Jon. Audrey could see him visibly stiffen when she touched him.

Audrey paused and slipped behind the principal as she did not want the other woman to see her. She was just about to leave for the classroom when she heard Katherine say, "Oh, Jon, you left these and I thought I'd bring them to you."

Her words stuck a strange chord with Audrey and a cold feeling settled in her gut. Jon left what where and when?

Jon was unprepared for what she brought out. Making sure that Mr. Feeny was watching, Katherine held out a paper bag to him. Mr. Feeny smirked slightly- he'd seen this song and dance from them before.

"What is it?" Jon regarded the bag warily as he accepted it.

"Open it."

Audrey watched Jon's expression change from curious suspicion to confusion to anger.

Katherine gave the principal a smile and shrug. "It's not that embarrassing," she said with a light laugh.

Jon could say nothing for fear of what might come out of his mouth. He clenched his jaw, shaking slightly as he tried to control his temper. Mr. Feeny gave the teachers a knowing, amused smile as Katherine pulled out a pair of Jon's jeans, boxers, and a black sweater with a red stripe in the center.

Audrey froze as tears pricked her eyes. She didn't understand what was going on. Katherine had Jon's clothes and as far as she knew there was only one way for her to get them, but she couldn't believe that Jon would betray her like that. When she thought about it, they had only seen each other at school lately and she couldn't get a hold of him last night when Shawn was with Cory. With Mr. Feeny and Katherine present, there was no way for her to get any answers from him. The only thing Audrey could do was to remove herself from the situation.

"I'm very happy to see that you two have worked things out," the principal chuckled his approval.

Jon stood in between the two, wavering being anger and numbness. All he could see was the look on Audrey's face as she rushed past them. He couldn't go after her to assure her that what Katherine was implying was a lie. Frustrated and humiliated, he stood staring at the floor, trying to make sense of what his ex-girlfriend was trying to do. The longer he stood there listening to them, it slowly began to sink in that these were the clothes that had gone missing over the weekend.

While Mr. Feeny congratulated Katherine and told him how pleased he was to see that he'd made the right choice, Jon's thoughts turned from Kat to Audrey. Did Audrey hear any of this? He prayed she hadn't. And he prayed that she be willing to listen to him. After the principal finally left and as the bell rang to start the day, Jon glared at the woman next him, snatched the bag from her and stormed off down the hall.

Shawn had gone to school with Jon that morning and was loitering in the hall while Jon was in the teacher's lounge. Topanga came up to him just as Jon and Mr. Feeny walked into the hallway.

"Hey," he greeted her as he adjusted the book bag on his shoulder. "How's Cory?"

"Pathetic," she said rolling her eyes.

Shawn grinned. They had a big history test coming up in Mr. Feeny's class and while he'd been forced to study, Cory had gleefully ignored the impending test. His best friend, in a panic, called Shawn to tell him he was going to do everything he could to get sick before he had to leave for school. "Is he coming to school today?"

"He'll be late but he'll be here."

"What happened? I didn't get a chance to talk to him again before I left for here."

Topanga shook her head with a smile. "He injured himself trying to get out of the history test he didn't prepared for."

"What'd he do?"

"Stuck a thermometer in hot coffee then stuck it in his mouth."

"Again?"

"You'd think he'd have learned the first time wouldn't you?"

"I know I did."

Topanga laughed. Then her smile faded as she looked down the hall. "What's going on there?" she asked pointing at the teachers in the hallway. Miss Tompkins had now joined them.

"I don't know." He squinted at the adults with a suspicious frown. Shawn took Topanga by the arm and moved them closer to the adults so that they could hear what was being said. The friends stood near the lockers and Shawn opened an empty one and let the door hang open so he and Topanga wouldn't be so noticeable.

When Katherine pulled Jon's clothes out of the bag, Shawn's face and body language mirrored Jon's. Rage swept over him as the realization of what Katherine was doing and how she'd acquired his mentor's clothing hit him.

"She stole those clothes!" he hissed angrily in the girl's ear.

Topanga was as confused as she was horrified. "How could she steal Mr. Turner's clothes? Has she been over lately?"

"No she hasn't," Shawn growled.

"Well, has he-?"

"No!" Shawn didn't want to hear her finish that sentence. "He definitely hasn't."

Topanga bit her bottom lip and watched worriedly as the social studies teacher preened under Mr. Feeny's congratulations. Neither of them saw Audrey leave because of the locker door.

Shawn glared daggers at the blonde with her arms around Jon. "Topanga," he said bleakly, "you said you thought my key was stolen."

"Yeah."

"I know who stole it."

Topanga whipped around to face him with her hair flying in his face as she did. "You don't really think Miss Tompkins would do that? Steal a house key from a student?"

"Yeah, I do." A thousand dark thoughts about Miss Tompkins flew threw his mind.

"Oh, Shawn, I think you're wrong. I think-" Her voice trailed off as she stared at the adults.

"What?"

"I think you're right," she said in dismay. She sounded almost ill. "Look at her nail polish."

Shawn, who rarely noticed such things teen girls and never noticed them on adults, studied Miss Tompkins' nails careful and it only took a second to see what Topanga saw. The color of the polish on the teacher's nails was an exact match for the streak on Shawn's key.

Topanga was incredibly upset that a teacher would do something like this. It caused so much cognitive dissonance for her that even Shawn noticed how upset she was and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Topanga?"

"Yeah?"

"If I have the nail polish splotch on the key," he said slowly as an idea began to stitch itself together. " If I have three witnesses to the fact that the day after my key was returned Jon's clothes are missing and lights have been left at our place. If I have Miss Tompkins showing up with the missing stuff- would I have a case against her?"

"Not a strong one." Shawn's question was a welcome distraction for her. "You'd need more evidence. If you had your key back before those things were taken, how could she have used it to get in?" Topanga's brow furrowed and she shook her head. "I thought she and Mr. Turner were over with for good. Does she still have a key?"

"Nope," he confirmed. "Jon's got her key and his on his key ring."

The young girl put a hand to her head. "Then you have to prove that she did get into your plan and used a key."

"That's what I thought. I hope Cory makes it in today or it's gonna be just you and me."

"Why?"

Shawn narrowed his eyes as he zeroed his gaze onto the social studies teacher." Because I gotta see a guy about stolen keys. I gotta see an expert in makin' copies of stolen keys. I gotta see Uncle Mike."

AN: Please don't forget about the poll in my profile.;) Also if your reading and are enjoying the story, I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

Also, the amazing Vanessa has agreed to illustrate this story. So if you visit Autumn in Philadelphia on Archive of Our Own or Wattpad you can see the illustrations. First chapter illustrated is State of Grace. I am very grateful she's doing this. I really love her work.