"So...she was the real reason you went to detention," Spence said later as the two stood on the basketball court behind the high school. He dribbled the ball for a minute before shooting it and missing the hoop by a good five inches. Catching the ball when it bounced back, he tossed it to Coop who caught it easily and took a shot of his own. Basketball wasn't really either of their sport. "You could've just said so."

"She wasn't."

Spence shot him a doubtful look but then shrugged. "If you say so." The two took turns shooting the ball for a few minutes in silence, but eventually, Spence couldn't stop himself from bringing it up again. Coop should've expected as much; Spence wasn't a fan of overly long silences. "She's kind of cute, don't you think? In that shy, kind of nerdy way. I could almost see why Matt would leave Sera for her. I mean, she'd be lower maintenance, don't you think?"

Coop shrugged, ignoring the watchful gaze of his friend. There was no comparing Candy to someone like Sera. They were as different as any two people could be. You could see it just by looking at Sera with her perfectly manicured hands, designer clothes, perfectly put-on make-up, and static-free hair. Sera was all about the spotlight while Candy shied away from it.

"Well she didn't seem all that interested in you," Spence mused. "Do you think she's actually seeing him?"

"I don't know." Coop's mind flashed back to her conversation in the parking lot with Jay. Was something going on there? Not that he cared, of course. Who she was or wasn't dating held no significance to him.

"Maybe I'll ask her out and see for myself. You don't mind, do you?"

That snapped Coop out of his musings and back to reality. He turned his head to find Spence watching him a little too closely. "No," he said after a silence that was probably just a little too long. "Why would I?"

Spence shrugged and tossed the basketball back at Coop before pulling his cell phone out to check the time. "I don't know, but hey, I've gotta get back. Told my mom I'd watch Willow tonight while she and my dad have their date night. Later man."

***

Friday morning came accompanied by bright and welcoming sunshine, which, Candice felt quite bitterly, was just Mother Nature's way of mocking her dark and forbidding mood. This week was turning out to be quite the opposite of normal and she resented the changes with every fiber of her being. Stepping off the bus and heading for the school's main entrance, she was bombarded with further proof of this by the blue-eyed boy from detention the previous day. Spence was leaning against the stair railing grinning at her, and after briefly considering her options, Candice decided it would simply be too rude to look away and try to hurry past now. After all, they'd already made eye contact, and it was obvious he was waiting for her.

As she got to the top step, he straightened up and fell into step beside her. "Hey!"

"Good morning," she replied politely, eyeing him speculatively. He wore a pair of blue and grey Nikes and faded black jeans with a green T-shirt inviting people to kiss him accompanied by a large four-leaf clover. He did know it was nowhere near St. Patrick's Day, didn't he? His hair was black and held up in tiny little spikes with just enough gel to look good. None of that, of course, told her why he'd been waiting for her, or why he was walking beside her now.

"So, I heard you've had a rough week."

She frowned at his words. Rough seemed to be understating it just a bit. She cast him another assessing glance and clutched the strap of her bookbag just a little tighter. "It's been unusual."

He nodded, as if in agreement, but how did he know her weeks weren't normally like this? They'd never spoken before yesterday afternoon. "My name's Spencer by the way. People call me Spence."

"I know. We met yesterday."

His grin widened and he stopped next to her when she came to her locker. He leaned against the locker to the left. "Right. So are you dating Matt Hanson?"

That caught her off guard. Her head, which had been hidden within the depths of her locker, shot back up and she stared at him as if he'd just declared the moon was made of cheese. "No, of course not."

Spence only kept on grinning, "Well good, then there's no reason for you to say no when I ask you out then."

"When you...ask me out?" Her brows furrowed in confusion. Every day only seemed to become even more crazy than the day before. She felt like her world was in complete upheaval lately.

"To a movie or something," he clarified.

She shook her head as if to clear it, "I don't understand. I−"

He waved her off with an easy smile, "Hey just think about it. I'll see you around. After all," he pinched the fabric of his shirt and pointed at it, "it's always lucky to kiss an Irishman."

Her eyes widened and she leaned away as if he may very well try to kiss her right there. "I don't think that's what that means."

Spence only winked at her and took a step back. "I'd be happy to put it to the test. See you around, Candy."

She watched him disappear into the crowded hall with her mouth open in bewilderment, but then she remembered herself and quickly turned to collect the rest of her things.

***

"I don't think anyone's ever asked her out before," Spence confided to Coop just a few minutes later as he lit his cigarette. "She looked completely terrified. It was kind of cute, you know? Different from the games all the rest of the girls here want to play."

Coop gritted his teeth and wondered just when Spence had become so damned irritating. "If she looked terrified, it's probably because she's not interested."

"Maybe not yet," Spence conceded. "But she hardly knows me."

"A girl like her either already has a boyfriend, or isn't interested."

"She said she wasn't dating Matt."

"He's not the only guy in the school, dumbass."

Spence raised his left brow at that. "Since when do you care whether or not they have boyfriends anyway? And what happened to them all being the same?"

Fed up with the conversation, Coop dropped his cigarette and ground it into the pavement. "I'm getting out of here. Nothing is happening anyway."

Spence's right brow rose to greet the left one. "Yeah, okay man. See you."

***

"So Jay said you got out of detention early yesterday with Cooper Daniels," Faith said by way of greeting when Candice reached the table she always met her friends by before class.

"Wait, what?" Cyn pulled an earbud out of one ear and turned her attention on Candice with surprised interest. "Really? Why?"

Candice's face grew hot, and she shot Faith an irritated look. "When you word it like that, you make it sound like more than it is. I wasn't feeling well, and Mrs. Taft let me leave early so that I could go home and rest. I can't control when he enters and exits a building and whether or not it coincides with my comings and goings." She'd said it in what she hoped sounded like a calm and unconcerned voice, but Faith was staring at her in the way she did when she knew someone was lying and she was just trying to figure out what their motivation was.

"Then why did he offer you a ride home?"

"Oooo?" Hope chimed in, suddenly interested as she leaned in closer from across the table. "Why was he offering you a ride, Candy? I didn't realize you knew him."

"Of course, I know him," Candice replied primly. "We all know him; we go to school with him."

"Me thinks the lady doth protest too much," Cyn commented dryly with a smirk. "He showed up to English yesterday and he was staring pretty hard at her. Even tried to catch her attention, but she flew out of class like her pants were on fire."

Faith raised a brow at that and looked to Candice expectantly, "Is that true?"

Candice shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of three pairs of eyes. "I think you're all making a mountain out of a molehill, to be honest. Yes, he went to class yesterday, but that hardly had anything to do with me. And if he was staring at me, it was because he had the seat directly behind me and I was in his direct line of sight.

"And he obviously thought I was someone else when he offered me a ride. He came up from behind me. There are quite a few girls with brown hair at this school. I'm sure I look like at least three of them from the back."

"You expect us to believe that?" Faith asked bluntly.

"You know you can tell us anything, Candy. We're always on your side," Hope said softly.

"One hundred percent," Cyn agreed with a short nod.

"Yes well," Candice huffed in irritation, "I don't have anything to tell you right now because nothing is going on. I have to get to class. See you all at lunch."

Candice's next encounter with Spence was her second period. He grinned when he saw her, waved, and then made his way over to the seat right beside her. "Hey, Candy!"

She returned the greeting with a small smile as she organized her desk. "Hello."

"I didn't realize we had Mr. Johnson together. Guess I should show up to class more often. How are you?"

Before she could answer, the bell rang and Mr. Johnson started class. She cast Spence what she hoped looked like an apologetic shrug and turned to the front. Satisfied that that was the end of it, she focused all of her attention on the lecture and notebook. Until a folded-up piece of paper landed right next to her pencil. After a moment's hesitation, she picked it up and unfolded it.

"Have you decided on a movie yet?" She stared blankly at the words and then lifted her head to glance over at the boy behind them. Spence smiled at her. Glancing up to make sure Mr. Johnson's back was still turned, she scrawled her quick reply. She'd never passed notes in class before, it would be just her luck if she were to get caught.

"I'm sorry, I don't think it's a good idea." Folding it back up, she dragged it to the edge of her desk and held it out as low as she could. He took it, brushing his fingers against hers. She pulled her hand back immediately.

She heard his soft chuckle while she tried to focus on the whiteboard in the front. After a few minutes passed, the note landed back on her desk. "The bad ones are usually the most fun. Raincheck."

He didn't try to talk to her for the rest of the period, but she felt his eyes on her for the next half an hour and struggled to ignore it and continue with her schoolwork. Still, she was almost as relieved when the bell rang after class as she had been the day before when it had been Cooper she'd been running from.

Cyn appeared at her side and they walked to their third-period class together. After a minute, Cyn spoke. "Sorry, we bombarded you."

Candy bumped her shoulder companionably into Cyn's and shook her head. "No, you're not. I'm sorry I was rude."

"I know we were joking about it, but all jokes aside, Candy; Coop isn't exactly a good guy. Which you already know, and I know you'd be the last one of us to fall for some guy's crap."

"He's just trying to entertain himself," Candy assured her friend with a roll of her eyes. "He found himself an easily flustered and embarrassed target and he's having his fun. It's nothing more than that, trust me."

"Well that's shitty of him," Cyn said in a tone laden with disapproval. "If you want Fay and I to take care of him, we can."

Candy laughed at the image. "I don't think that would work out quite the way you wanted it to, but thanks anyway."

Cyn shrugged as they turned into their classroom. "Worth a shot."