(no subject)
Title: Two Princes
Part 2
Summary:
Another take on those fics where the team is in high school. Will be Reid-centric and include him meeting two guys who seem interested in him. Featuring Hotch as a prep, Morgan as a gang member, Emily as a goth and Gideon as a concerned dad. Slash!
Rating: PG-13
2: The First Day
That morning, Spencer woke with a very definite ill feeling in his stomach, lying awake and staring at the ceiling for almost forty minutes before his alarm went off.
When his father knocked on his door ten minutes later, he almost wanted to tell the man he didn't want to go to school, or that he was sick maybe.
He thought he might feel homesick but the truth was there was nothing for him back in Vegas, no one who would miss him except for his mom.
The thought of her was what finally made him get up and get ready. She was always so proud of his scholastic achievements, always telling him how much more precious and special than all those other children he was and how far he was going to get in his life.
Sadly for Spencer, she seemed to be the only one to think that which resulted in him not only having her words but also constant bruises from being slammed into lockers and shoved around by older kids as an incentive to be excellent and get out of high school as quickly as possible.
Better get it over with, he told himself…ripping of the bandage and all that rot.
Maybe, he thought as he sat at the kitchen table with his father busily reading the newspaper and effectively ignoring his presence, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Over the years he had gotten pretty good at being invisible.
He was taken by surprise when Jason finally did say something, looking at him in a way that still seemed kind of uncertain, if not awkward. It was obvious Jason Gideon was not used to being around people much, much less to taking care of teenagers.
"I arranged a job for you after school. It's in the library a couple of blocks from the school. You can start tomorrow if you want to."
At that, Spencer finally felt a spark of happiness; perking up, he nodded: "That's great. Thank you."
It was great. His mother had lived on the verge of poverty, not being able to work in her condition and Gideon obviously wasn't making a fortune either as a small town officer.
So he could use some money for college next year -plus it would keep him occupied during the afternoons and he would be around hundreds of lovely, lovely books every day.
Suddenly the day didn't seem quite as grey as before and he even smiled a little when he assembled his school bag and followed Jason to his car. They were just getting in when raised voices from close by had him looking up.
Sure enough, the owner of the voice was just stomping out of a house close by. It was a girl who looked to be about his age; she was completely dressed in black from what he could see and she was shouting over her shoulder angrily as she stormed towards a waiting car.
Spencer couldn't quite understand what she was saying, and when there was no response from the house she simply got into the car next to a dark haired young man whose face Reid couldn't see.
He started the car and Spencer could clearly see them continue the argument as they were driving away.
Jason's sigh made him look around and he saw his father shake his head in an exhausted manner: "That girl…nothing but trouble."
He shook his head once more, then motioned for Spencer to get in the car.
The drive to the school was mostly silent, their attempts at conversation as strained as ever. It wasn't that Jason wasn´t trying and Spencer was sure he was a good man, but he had a feeling their relationship would function best if they each just kept living their separate lives and occasionally meeting for dinner.
And maybe it would be nice to have a father figure to depend on, someone who was responsible instead of him for once, maybe they would even get to know and care for each other over time.
Maybe.
Spencer was almost glad to get out of the sticky atmosphere of the car when they pulled into the high schools parking lot.
"Alright, call me when you want me to pick you up.", Jason told him, leaning out of the car´s window. He smiled reassuringly, as if wishing him good luck: "Unless you've found a friend who´ll give you a ride by then."
Spencer just stared at him for a long moment; clearly it would take a lot more for them to get to know each other.
"I´ll call you."
The school was about the same size as his old one which gave him hope that he might actually have a shot at his plan of becoming the invisible man.
For a moment, Spencer looked after his father's car and then at the little crowds of teenagers assembled on the parking lot. There were the usual different groups and he could already feel dread rising inside of him at the sight of the jocks, standing by their cars with one cheerleader each in their arms, bragging about their cars and distributing mock punches.
Suddenly anxious to get away, Spencer turned around quickly, hurrying towards the school building.
He didn't get very far.
He had taken but two steps, his eyes still glued to the jocks behind him when something bright pink and definitely metallic slammed into him, knocking him off his feet with a huff.
Spencer went down hard and winced at the concrete scratching his palms, more hearing than seeing his books landing in a messy pile all around him.
Less than five minutes before the first assault. Wow, that had to be a new record even for him. Great, he thought, biting back a sob…hadn't he known it…
"Oh, Gaga! I'm so sorry!", a high pitched voice squeaked from the side and he barely had time to register where it came from when someone grabbed his arms and pulled.
Spencer jerked away instinctively, but stilled in surprise when he came face to face not with a new bully but with the most colorful girl he´d ever seen.
She looked to be about eighteen and had light blonde hair with purple strands in it, her nails and summer dress as hot pink as the bicycle she had apparently just run him over with.
"Oh, no, it's ok, sweetie.", she reassured him, helping him off the ground: "I didn't see you there. Are you ok?"
Spencer stared at the girl like she was an apparition as she looked at him out of huge blue eyes that also sparked with glittery eye shadow. He had never met anyone dressed like that before -much less anyone to help him up after he had gotten knocked down.
"Yeah, I'm fine.", he got out after a moment, awkwardly pressing his books to his chest as he got up.
The girl eyed him up and down like she didn't believe him, then smiled brightly, holding his messenger bag open so he could drop the books back in.
"Good, I'm glad. That would have been a sucky first day for both of us.", she eyed him again, curious this time: "I don´t remember you seeing you before. Are you starting freshman year?"
Spencer who found himself relaxing quickly despite his instincts in the bright girls presence shook his head shyly: "Actually, I'm a senior this year."
"Shut up!"
He flinched but she was still smiling so he figured he must be ok despite her exclamation.
"Are you kidding me? You look barely fifteen!"
"I just turned sixteen actually. I…uh skipped some grades."
"So you're like a progeny or something?", she asked, her grin growing wider by the second.
Spencer didn't know whether to be worried or happy about her reaction; he was staring to get a little overwhelmed with her directness and apparent inability to shut up herself.
"That's so cool, I bet you´re like Brainiac! Hey, can you help me with my math homework? I bet you can. That's so cool…"
She broke off eventually at seeing his overcharged expression, slapping her own forehead in embarrassment: "I'm sorry. I wish I could say I don´t usually ramble like that. I´m Penelope. You can call me Pen, Penny or Goddess of All Technology."
"Uh…", he hesitated, nto sure how to answer that.
Luckily, Peneolpe didnt seem to mind him being so quiet but kept right on talking:
"And what´s your name, boy wonder?"
Now he couldnt help but blink in surprise at the nick name, but only replied: "I'm Spencer Jason Reid-Gideon."
"Wow, that's a mouth full. So your friends call you Spence, or what?"
"Um, I don't know…", Spencer shrugged shyly, unwilling to admit he´d never really had that many friends: "Everyone just calls me Reid, I guess."
"Huh.", Peneolope frowned slightly, but then shrugged, accepting it: "I may have to stick with that until I´ve found an appropriate nickname for you."
Before either of them could say anythign else they were interrupted by the ringing of the school bell. Penelope sighed heavily before starting to push her bike in the direction of the building, gesturing for Spencer to follow her,
"So where are you headed?", she asked.
"The secretary's office."
"´Course. Do you want me to show you were it is?"
"Um yeah, but don't you have class?"
Penelope just gave him a bright, guiltfree smile: "Oh, don't sweat it, sweet cheeks, Mr. Rossi knows from last year than I'm a lost cause in Italian. Nothing left to save there."
"Oh, ok…thanks…"
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Half an hour later Spencer made it out of the office with his new schedule. He was taking Advanced Calc along with some other advanced classes. At the moment, he was late for Spanish.
He spent some time wandering the deserted hallways in search of the right room, trying to get a feel for the building. So far everything had gone surprisingly well except for his little accident -but then he hadn't met all that many students yet.
Penelope seemed like a nice girl and she had left him with the promise to find him during lunch but he wasn't sure if she had actually meant it. Sure, she seemed a little bit crazy but surely she had enough friends to not have to waste her time with someone like him? Maybe she´d said it because she still felt guilty about running him over.
He shrugged to himself as he finally found the room and then knocked on the door tentatively.
There was a lot of noise coming from out of the room and he had to knock three times before anyone even answered. Then though, a middle aged woman with light hair and a strict expression opened the door for him, eyeing him with mild interest.
"Can I help you?", she asked and Spencer handed her his hall pass.
"I'm a new student here.", he said quietly: "My name is Spencer Reid."
"Oh, of course. My name is Ms Strauss. Come on in."
She stepped aside and he walked into a classroom that was even louder and more chaotic at a closer look. There were nearly thirty teenagers in the course, most of them lounging in their desks with their legs thrown over the tables, and chatting loudly with their neighbors, laughing and yelling. Some of them were even listening to music.
"Alright, class, settle down. The summer is officially over.", Ms Strauss raised her voice and it got a little quieter: "Class, this is our newest addition to the school, Spencer Reid. He just moved here and doesn't know anyone so please be kind to him. Spencer, why don't you find a seat?"
Spencer gulped, his heart falling as he looked around. He could feel everyone staring at him, silently measuring him up and between his overly large clothes hanging from his lanky frame, his geeky messenger bag and his messy, long hair he just knew that he was getting off well.
Obviously they were all older than him, but this class seemed to be mostly made up of the kind of teenagers one saw on reality TV shows, the kind with baggy pants and ghetto blasters who couldn't spell orange if Snoop Dog´s life depended on it.
Spencer had made some rather traumatizing experiences with that kind of group before and knew he desperately needed to avoid any combination of hormonal frustration and poor impulse control fueled by rap songs.
Luckily, the class´ interest seemed to fade within seconds and no one was fixating him so he calmed down a bit.
His eyes quickly assessed the room and he steered clear of the left corner where a larger group of burly teenage boys, two white and four black, with base caps and muscle shirts sat.
Instead, he chose to sit in the second row next to a pretty blonde who looked a little less imposing.
"Hi.", she smiled at him, waving slightly while Ms Strauss continued with her class: "I'm Jennifer, but everyone calls me JJ."
Spencer smiled back tentatively. This was the second friendly person he´d met in less than an hour.
Maybe his first day wouldn't be so bad after all.
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Alright, so I introduced everyone except for Elle, Hotch and Morgan, right?
Ok, that´ll be next chapter.
By the way, I haven't made up my mind how this will go yet and I like both pairings equally so you can cast votes on who Spencer should end up with -even if you might want to wait until you've seen him interact with Hotch and Morgan.
Please tell me how you liked this. Thanks!