That stinking feeling

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A/N - I know this chapter was meant to be posted after 'prince Randal' but I thought, last minute, it'd be better to swap them around.

Also, I've had a few people message me about my upload schedule so I thought I'd put it on here. I'll be updating this story on the first of every month. If, once I've finished all the chapters for the main story and I still have a bunch to post, I'll be uploading them all at once. I have about nine more chapters to write before this part of the story is finished, it'll then only be the movies to do.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A new day brought the kids of third street school a new recess, with the fourth and fifth graders playing a big game of rugby.

All kids were lined up, Gus was unfortunately in front of Gellman, who growled at him, making Gus back up slightly. "Uh, guys, a little help here?"

Koreo was behind Lawson, doing the counts to start the match. "13, 21. Hut-1 , hut-2 , hike."

Lawson passed the ball to him and as the fourth graders tried to get to him, they were all getting held back. As Koreo went to pass the ball to his open teammate, Spinelli blocked him. "Going somewhere with that ball, pally?" She tackled Koreo down to the ground, before standing up and dusting her hands off. "I think not."

Spinelli's group of friends all approached her, cheering, at their win of that round.

TJ was the first to reach her. "Whoo-hoo! Way to go, Spinelli."

Vince pumps his fist in the air. "Nice sack."

"If we can just hold them for one more play, we win the game." Gretchen says to her friends.

Koreo sits up as Dede and Spinelli high fives and cowers when Spinelli looks over at him. "One more time, you're going down."

Koreo stands up before running off, crying. "Mommy!"

Lawson just stands there and watches his quarterback run off before he turns to look at Spinelli. "Thanks a lot, Spinelli, there goes another quarterback."

Dede looks at Lawson, raising an eyebrow, before she smirks. "Well, you could always do it, Lawson."

Lawson shakes his head at Dede. "What do I look like, dumb?" Lawson looks over at his side bench, ignoring Dede's quiet laughs. "Now, let's see who I can get. Johnny V., you're in."

Spinelli spits out her drink as she laughs when she hears who Lawson had called. "Johnny V.?"

Johnny walks over. "Gee, thanks a lot,

Lawson."

Lawson dismissed Johnny's thankfulness. "Yeah, yeah, don't thank me. Just throw the ball, Ok?"

Vince also couldn't hold all his laughter in as he watched Lawson and Johnny interact. "Oh, man, they're using baby-tooth Johnny as quarterback. This is going to be a cinch."

TJ looks over at his friend, hoping to stop Vince's overconfidence before it was too much. "Don't be so sure, Vince,We got one more down before the bell rings. Johnny V. Might pull something big."

Spinelli moves to stand closer to her friends. "Yeah, maybe he'll finally lose that baby tooth of his and get the tooth fairy to help them win the game."

After both Spinelli and Vince were done laughing the game started back up. Johnny was standing behind Lawson, taking his position as quarterback. "76, 73, hut 1, hut 2, hike."

As the fourth grader we're trying to get Johnny to get the ball, Menlo was off to the side cheering for them, while doing a little dance. "Here we go, fourth graders! Here we go! Here we go, fourth graders! Here we go!"

Spinelli was able to easily make it past all the fifth graders and run straight for Johnny. "Sorry, baby-tooth. It's time to get pulled out."

However just as Spinelli was about to tackle Johnny, she all of a sudden stopped, allowing Johnny a free pass to throw the ball to Lawson who scored at touchdown. "Woo-hoo, 12 plus 6 is... 17! We win!" Lawson threw the ball down, but it bounced back and hit him in the stomach.

Dede ran over to her friend, seeing that Spinelli was just standing there. "Spinelli, are you okay?"

Spinelli looks at Dede before she shakes her head in confusion. "Uh! I don't get it. I had that stupid baby-tooth dead in my sights, and I just choked."

Vince rested his hands on his hips as he looked at Spinelli. "It was kind of weird, Spinelli."

"Maybe you're hungry." Mikey suggested.

Spinelli shakes her head, disagreeing with Mikey. "No! My stomach is feeling kind of woozy."

"Perhaps you're suffering from some physiological malady that could easily be uncovered by running an ekg. I'll get my equipment." Gretchen theorised before she turned to walk away.

TJ stops Gretchen before she gets too far away. "wait, Gretch, I think Spinelli should just go see the nurse."

Spinelli shrugs. "Why not? There's got to be something wrong."

Dede wraps her arm around Spinelli's shoulder. "Come on, I'll go with you." With that the two girls left their other friends behind as they walked to the nurses office. When they entered Dede saw the school nurse sitting at her desk. "Nurse Kay, Spinelli isn't feeling well."

Hearing the new voices in the room, nurse Kay looks over and sees the two girls standing by the door. "Okay, let's have a look. Please take a seat Spinelli." Spinelli sat up on the bed that was in the nurse's office as nurse Kay grabbed a thermometer. "Well, you don't have a temperature." Nurse Kay says when she takes the thermometer out of Spinelli's mouth.

Spinelli just looks up at nurse Kay confused. "Then how come I can't cream

Johnny V.?"

Nurse Kay looks back at the girls. "I don't know that name. Have I examined him?"

Spinelli rolls her eyes slightly at the thought of Johnny. "He's that freckle-faced, baby-toothed, fifth-grade dope."

Dede smiles at her friend's abrasiveness before she looks at the nurse. "We were all playing a game of rugby and as Spinelli was about to tackle him, she just froze up."

Nurse Kay smiles when she hears this. "Oh, I see."

Spinelli grumbled as she looked at the nurse. "Well, I don't. What gives, nurse Kay?"

Nurse Kay helps Spinelli off of the bed. "Run along, miss Spinelli, There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. This is all just a part of your blooming."

By this point the nurse had ushered the two girls out of the office before closing the door. "Blooming? What does she think I am, a daffodil?"

Dede just shrugs with a smile of her own. "You make a beautiful daffodil." Dede laughed as Spinelli playfully shoved her away.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Later on in the evening Spinelli was at her house watching wrestling with her dad. "Boy! Doesn't get better than this, huh, pookie?" Bob asked as he ate some snacks

Spinelli sighs, uninterested. "Yeah, I guess."

Bob immediately turns his attention to his daughter at her lacklustre answer. "Is something the matter, kiddo? I mean, we got a 'death cage' matchup on the tube, and you act like we're watching the peace and humanity channel."

"Sorry, Dad."

"Come on. What's wrong? You know, you can tell your old man anything."

"Well, you see, Dad, there's this boy at school, and --"

Bob immediately stops Spinelli before she could continue. "Stop right there. Honey!" He shouts out to his wife.

Flo walks into the living room, having just finished painting her nails. "What is it, dear?"

Bob looks at his wife, hoping she could make some sense of what was happening. "Yo! It's pookie. She doesn't care about wrestling, and there's a boy at school."

Flo was shocked at this before she turned her attention to her daughter. "Really? Tell me, sweetie, does it feel like somebody punched you in the stomach?"

Spinelli shrugged. "Sort of."

This made Flo squeal in excitement "Aw. Our little pookie has a crush."

Spinelli's reaction was the complete opposite. "I got a what?"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The next day at school the group of seven all walked up to Spinelli who was sitting on a swing. "Hey, Spinelli, you want to play this new old game like you heard about? It's called kickety-can." TJ asked.

Spinelli looks down at the ground, away from all her friends. "No, thanks, Teej. I got a lot on my mind right now."

Gus tried to change her mind. "You sure? This game sounds really neat."

Gretchen throws in her two senses. "Yes! According to the rules, teams of players repeatedly kick a can until said can is completely crumpled and mashed."

Paloma nods, agreeing with both Gus and Gretchen. "Yeah, we were planning on doing a boys VS girls match."

"Maybe another time, guys. I got some thinking to do. Later, Ok?" Spinelli stood up and walked away as her friends all just watched her go.

Vince was the first to break the silence. "Spinelli thinking rather than kicking something?"

"I never thought I would see the day." Mikey says.

Gus nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's been acting really weird lately."

"I have a thought." Gretchen says as she takes out her Galileo. "My galileo computer is equipped with a personality

analyzer program. All i have to do is input the data on Spinelli. And It'll explain what's going on in her head."

The little green frog appears on the screen. "Hello, Gretchen, I'd be delighted

to receive your data."

Dede rests her fist under her chin. "First of all, Spinelli failed to tackle Johnny V."

Paloma was the next to list off what had happened. "Then she started complaining about a woozy stomach."

TJ was the last to throw in his observations. "Then she started thinking

instead of kicking."

Galileo just laughs to himself, making Gretchen look down at him. "What is it?"

Galileo happily answered. "Calculating for age and time zone, I'd say your Spinelli has an infatuation."

"An infatuation?" Mikey asked, not knowing what that meant.

Gus also didn't know what it was. "Is it fatal?"

Galileo was quick to put their worries at ease. "No, Gus. What I mean is, Spinelli is smitten. She has a crush, presumably on this Johnny V. Character."

This made all seven of them gasp in shock, after all Spinelli was the last person they thought would ever get a crush. "A cru--" Dede was quick to slap her hand over Gus' mouth before he could shout it out.

TJ looked thankfully at Dede's quick reaction. "Guys, for Spinelli's sake, this can never, and I mean never, get out.

Agreed?"

They all put their hands together in the middle before saying all together. "Agreed."

Unfortunately, none of them were aware that they were being spied on by Randall, who was writing all that he heard down. "Ha ha ha. How delightful."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

At lunch Dede was waiting for her friends to grab their food, while holding her lunchbox, before they'd all walk over to Spinelli together. Spinelli looked up when her friends all surrounded her together, smiling big at her. "What are you monkeys smiling at?"

"Just the fruits of cupid's folly." Mikey answered for them all.

Spinelli was obviously confused by this. "Somebody want to translate that?"

TJ was the one to elaborate. "You know, your you-know-what on you-know-who."

Vince leaned over to whisper to Spinelli. "Don't worry, Spinelli. Your secret's safe with us."

Spinelli was still looking confused but before she could ask what her friends were on about, they all heard Randall's voice from above as he used a megaphone to make sure all kids in the cafeteria heard him. "Attention, kids. Now hear this… Spinelli has a crush on Johnny V. I repeat, the great Spinelli is a boy-liker."

This made all the other kids laugh. Spinelli was obviously angry and she stood up and faced everyone. "Knock it off or I'll smack you!"

"Yeah, right in the kisser." A random kid calls out as they all laugh again.

It was at this point that Johnny V walked into the cafeteria. "What's so funny?" Through all the laughing Spinelli ran out, ashamed.

After the rest of the gang caught up to Spinelli, they found she was sitting on the roundabout. "How come I'm the one who had to get a stupid crush on some stupid boy?" Spinelli asked when Dede sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I think it's sweet."

Spinelli rolls her eyes. "Sweet is me clobbering that clown with my monster moves, but this... this stinks. My whole life is messed up royally now."

Vince shrugs. "Come on, we're part of your life and nothing's changed between us."

"Right, even if you are a boy-liker. And I'm not saying you are, we're going to treat you like the same old Spinelli." TJ agrees.

Gus nods. "Yhea! I'm still going to be afraid you'll punch me in the arm."

Spinelli looks up at this. "Really? You guys don't feel differently about me?"

Dede hugs Spinelli tightly to her side. "Of course not."

Paloma joins the hug on Spinelli's other side. "You'll always be the toughest member of this group."

Spinelli smiles at her friends. "Gee, guys, I don't know what to say."

"Well, I say let's play." TJ said before they all got up to find something to play.

Despite the boys saying they wouldn't treat Spinelli any differently, they did not hold up to this. As the group ran through a puddle of mudd Mikey stopped Spinelli and took his shirt off, laying it over the puddle. Spinelli glared at him before just walking around the shirt and puddle, leaving Mikey to frown and Dede to shake her head at him.

When they reached the jungle gym, Vince and TJ were climbing the ladder after Paloma but both jumped down when they saw Spinelli behind them, this made her glare at them both before walking off and Dede to facepalm, not believing the boys were doing this.

Dede and Spinelli were in line at the drinking fountain. Dede had just finished and had stepped aside so Spinelli could take a drink when Gus held the button down for her. Spinelli groaned before she splashed Gus with the water coming from the fountain, before leaving as Dede just sighs in disappointment.

After that disaster Dede knew just what to do to cheer Spinelli up, she gathered her friends and showed them all a blueprint for a new prank she wanted to do on Principal Prickly. TJ read the plan from over Dedes shoulder and took out some binoculars to make sure that Prickly was distracted. "Okay, operation mango fritter is a go. Vince, Gretch, you got your assignments." Those two nodded after they read the plan from over Dedes shoulder. "Now we need someone to cover the flank."

Dede smiled and looked over at Spinelli. "That's where Spinelli comes in Teej."

Spinelli smiled at this, happy that one of her friends was still treating her as normal, this happiness was short-lived though as TJ shook his head. "That's Ok, Dee, Spinelli doesn't need to worry her pretty little head." TJ turned to look at Spinelli. "You just keep thinking about songs and junk. Gus, you take the flank."

Dede watched sadly as Spinelli walked off, before someone snapped their fingers in front of her face, she looked over and saw it was Vince. "Hey, you okay? You spaced out there."

Dede just nodded before she handed the blueprints to TJ. "Yeah, I'm just going to check up on Spinelli. She's feeling left out since everyone knows about her crush and you all excluding her isn't helping." As Dede left to look for her friend she didn't notice her other friends look down in sadness, realising that they haven't been treating her as they normally would.

Over with Spinelli she was sitting on one of the tires outside the Ashley clubhouse as that was the only place she could be alone, though that didn't last long as Ashley A greeted her. "Hey, Spinelli."

"Oh, great. Now you powder puffs Are going to start with me."

Ashley B waved her hands in front of her. "No, Spinelli, We, like, understand."

Spinelli raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

Ashley Q nods. "Come, follow us."

Spinelli stands up and follows the Ashley's into their clubhouse. "All right, what's so important you had to--" she gasped when she saw the inside. "What the…"

"See, Spinelli, we're boy-likers, too." Ashley A said.

"And these are the boys we adore." Ashley Q gestured to the wall covered in pictures.

Spinelli was confused. "Boys? That one looks like a girl."

Ashley Q sighs. "Isn't he dreamy?"

"This is Jed Marker, who Ashley T. Loves, and this is Bret Jamal for Ashley Q., and Kip Parker for Ashley B., and Cody Hunter III for moi, and this one is for you." Ashley A points to each boy on the wall before all of them scream. "Caravaggio."

"Isn't he, like, the cutest?" Asked Ashley Q.

"Please, you're going to make me barf my lunch." Spinelli covers her mouth.

Ashley A shrugs. "Fine. Then keep your Johnny V."

"But I don't want Johnny V." Spinelli shakes her head.

Ashley B rested her hand on Ashley A's shoulderz "Some boy-liker she turned out to be."

Spinelli leaves the Ashley's clubhouse in a mood and this is where Dede was able to catch up to her. "Hey, there you are. I'm sorry about the prank, I made that so you could have a specific part— hey, are you okay?"

Dede stopped when she saw the angry look on Spinelli's face, Spinelli just nodded as she growled out. "Lousy rotten Ashleys and their lousy rotten wall of boys. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if I never see that rotten Johnny V. again!"

As Spinelli was ranting to dede they didn't notice they were about to run into someone until it was too late. They ran into Johnny V and his friends, both Spinelli and Johnny V screamed at the sight of each other and ran off, with their respective friend following. Ms Finster watched this happen. "Hmm. Strange goings on."

When the two girls were far enough away, Spinelli snuck into Principal Prickly's garden and grabbed a flower to do that hole 'he like me, he likes me not' thing, but because this is Spinelli it was more like 'I hate him. I hate him more. I hate him. I hate him more.'

Dede gave a gentle smile to Spinelli as she sat next to her, sighing. "You know, having a crush isn't that bad, it gets easier to hide."

Spinelli places the now petal less flower next to her and looks at her friend. "And how would you know? You've never had a crush." Dede just blushed and looked away from Spinelli. "Wait? You have a crush?" Dede just nods her head slowly. "Wha- who? It's not your secret admirer is it? How come none of us knew?"

Dede shakes her head. "No it's not my secret admirer. After his birthday I can't get it out of my head that it's Randall and he'll be the last person I ever have a crush on."

Spinelli leans in closer. "Then who is it?"

Dede blushed again before looking around. "You have to promise not to tell anybody."

Spinelli nods. "I promise!" Dede looks around again making sure no one is near before she leans over and whispers into Spinelli's ear. "WHAT!?!"

Dede quickly covered Spinelli's mouth. "Shhh. You promised."

Spinelli nodded and Dede removed her hands. "But, how? When?"

Dede shrug, still sporting a little blush. "It just sort of happened and because I don't see him everyday it's easy to hide it from everyone, now that I'm used to these feelings I'm able to hide them around him. That's how I know it will get easier."

Spinelli smiled at her friend, relieved that she wasn't the only one going through this. "Thanks Candy, I really needed to hear that."

Dede and Spinelli share a hug. "Of course Ashley. You know I'll always be here for you. I love you sis."

Spinelli hugs Dede tighter. "I love you too sis."

Their sisterly moment was cut short by Ms Finster. "Well, well, well, if it isn't little Spinelli and King."

The girls broke the hug, wondering seeing Ms Finster was there before Spinelli gasped, remembering the flower next to her, quickly grabbing it and hiding it behind her. "Miss finster, I didn't pick anything out of prickly's private garden."

Ms Finster waved her hands in front of her. "Zip it, girly, no need to hand me a line. I see what's going on here."

The two girls look at each other. "You... you do?"

"Sure. Running away from boys, getting laughed at by your peers. Ah! It's an age-old story. Women of power like us, we're not allowed to have emotions."

Spinelli looked down as Ms Finster sat next to the two girls. "You can say that again."

"First you worry that you're going soft, then you get that woozy feeling in your stomach." The two girls nod, understanding what she was saying. "Then the family sawbones tells you it's not a peptic ulcer, so that leaves just one possibility... love."

"Love! Ew! My life is over." Spinelli groaned as Dede was confused, she always thought a crush and love were completely different things.

"Oh! That's where you're wrong, kiddo. This is just the beginning. From now on, you're going to be faced With feelings like this every day, feelings that are going to make you want to stand on the rooftop and yell to the heavens, feelings that are going to make you Crawl into a hole and pull off your skin. But even if he does leave you in Paris with no money and a broken axle in the VW, in the end, it's all worth it. 'Cause it's better to feel something than nothing at all." Ms Finster could see that the girls were think about what she said, so she decided to tell them something that'll comfort them, no matter how they feel about the current situation. "And I'll tell you something else. The rest of the kids out there, they don't know it yet, but they're going to have those feelings too someday, and that someday is coming sooner than they think."

Spinelli raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?"

"Positive. I doesn't matter how busy someone is or what their dreams for the future are, everyone will experience these feelings." Ms Finster looks over Spinelli's shoulder to Dede and gave her an understanding smile, knowing it was hard to like someone when you constantly have to lie to those you love in order to protect them. "So do me a favour girls, get back out there and play."

Dede smiles at Ms Finster before she stands up and holds her hand out for Spinelli to take. Spinelli looks from her teacher, to her friend to finally the field where her other friends were playing rugby again. "Well, here goes nothing." She grabs Dedes hand and the two of them run over to their friends.

Ms Finster sighs as she stays on the bench to watch the two girls she's grown fond of. "L'amour, toujour l'amour."

"They're creaming us!" TJ says as their team was grouped up.

Vince shrugs. "That's 'cause we've got no pass rushing and we're down one receiver."

"This is bad." Said Gretchen.

"We're doomed." Mikey cried out.

Spinelli and Dede walked over to them. "Don't worry, guys. The Spinelli express just pulled into the station."

All the friends cheer when they see the two girls. "What are you doing here?" Vince asked.

"Heard you need a pass rusher and receiver." Dede rolls her eyes playfully.

"What about your condition?" TJ asked.

"My condition has nothing to do with playing football." Spinelli said before she ran onto the field. "Now let's do it."

Johnny V sees Spinelli and backs up. "Oh, no, it's her. She might try and kiss me."

Lawson smirked. "Relax, baby-tooth. She can't touch you now. She's in love, remember?"

This for some reason seemed to calm Johnny V down. "Oh, yeah."

"Now let's go for the bmb and end this thing."

With that, everyone got into their positions. "17, 66, hike!"

Spinelli managed to sneak past Lawson and ran straight for Johnny V. "You're going down, baby-tooth."

She managed to knock Johnny V down and allow Vince to grab the ball and win the game. Everyone was cheering as Johnny V sat up. "Whoa, Spinelli, you creamed me." Johnny V realised he wasn't talking with his lisp anymore and felt that his tooth was knocked out. "And you knocked out my baby tooth. Wow. Thanks."

Lawson ran up to Johnny V. "Who cares about your stupid tooth, baby? We lost the game."

"And I lost a nickname. See ya." Johnny V waved as he ran off.

The friends watched as Lawson threw his hat to the ground before he stormed off. "Good to have you back, Spinelli." TJ said.

"Good to be back." Spinelli sighed.

Dede smiles at her friend, knowing she is going to be okay just as the bell rings. "Well, we best get to class." The others all nod and leave.

Spinelli sighed and was about to follow her friends when something on the ground caught her attention, looking down she saw it was Johnny V's tooth. She bends down and picks it up before pocketing it. "Hey, guys, wait up." She ran after her friends.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The end

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.