Note: Hello. This is my first South of Nowhere fanfiction. I just want to say that while there is a small supernatural element in this story (because I consider the idea of fate supernatural, just my personal opinion, don't judge), I do not consider it that kind of story. Also, I do not actually believe the stuff I am talking about, like soul mates, destiny, and stuff. It's just for the sake of the story. I'm way too logic oriented for that (not that I have anything against people who do believe, I actually envy you. I wish I had your faith). And yes, the story is named after the band Escape the Fate and all of the chapters will be song titles from them. I'll try to make the titles make sense with what the chapter is about, but don't keep your hopes up.

On another note, yes this is in fact a Spashley story. You're just going to have to be patient.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the show, but I can't imagine anyone thinking I do.

CHAPTER ONE: On To The Next One

Spencer was sweating. It was mid-February and she was sweating. It was mid-February, she was outside, and she was sweating.

Welcome to Texas.

She stood outside her new home in her new neighborhood in Dallas. She had only been in Texas for a week and she was already sick of the heat. Sure, Ohio got hot, but in the summer. It was winter. Right now the lawn of her new home should be covered in snow and she should be wearing jeans with long underwear underneath and four layers over her torso to keep her warm. She should have on the nice leather gloves that she had received two years ago for Christmas. The sad thought came to her that she would probably never get to wear them again. At least not without her hands sweating profusely.

Instead of snow, her lawn was empty, save the bright green, well kept, grass and the two trees that stood on it. Instead of wearing multiple layers to keep warm, Spencer was wearing a pair of forest green khaki shorts and a plain white tee shirt with flip flops. She felt very odd wearing such clothes in February, but it was appropriate for the weather, and she was still sweating.

Looking up at her new home, she couldn't get over how big it was compared to the one she had grown up in. She had asked her father how they could afford such a home and he had told her that her mother made more money at the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital than the one where she had worked before and in addition, it was much cheaper to live in Texas than in Ohio. In fact, they were saving so much money that her parents could afford to send her and her two brothers to private school.

Spencer wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sure it was a better education, but she had always remembered the people who had gone to private school in her old town in Ohio being particularly rude and in general, full of themselves. True, her old town had been much smaller than the major metropolis of Dallas, and there had been only one private school and one public school, the majority of kids, the less wealthy ones, going to the public school. But here, she had learned that along with several public schools, there were several, if not just as many, private schools and many more kids attended them. It seemed that here, going to a private school was less of an accomplishment, and so, there was less to boast about. Despite this, she still made a silent vow in her head to never let the fact that she was getting a college preparatory education make her into one of the snobby girls she had hated back in Ohio.

Clay, one of Spencer's older brothers, was ecstatic about attending a private school. He was pretty much the nerd of the siblings, if they had to be labeled, and he was looking forward to the more challenging classes he was offered.

Glen, her other brother, couldn't really care less. To be honest, the whole family was surprised he was even able to get into the school seeing as how you had to pass a test to be admitted. But he passed, albeit, barely.

They had all just received their letters from the school earlier in the day saying that they were admitted and could start next week at the beginning of the trimester.

There was another thing that was weird. Trimester. Not semester. Trimester. In her new school the year was divided into three parts instead of two. Weird.

Spencer clutched at the acceptance letter in her hand.

If she or either of her siblings had not been accepted (as if Clay ever didn't have a chance), then her parents would have enrolled them at the public school for her district, Hillcrest High School. But this was not the case and Spencer would never know what Texas public school was like.

She heard a small 'meow' below her and looked down to see a tan and brown cat at her feet, rubbing it's body against her ankles. She picked the feline up and cradled him with one arm, the cat burrowing into her chest and looking up at his owner affectionately.

She looked back down at the paper in her hand. This Monday, Spencer would start her first day at Greenhill School. She couldn't tell whether she was scared or excited. Probably both.

XXX

"Holy shit! This place is huge!" Glen exclaimed as he drove through the open gates of Greenhill School to into the parking lot. He was right. The campus was massive, but both Spencer and Clay had already known that seeing as they had bothered to look at the map that the school had provided them along with their acceptance letters.

"And this is just the Upper School area," Clay commented.

"Upper School?" Glen asked, confused as he searched for a parking spot.

"Did you even glance at the packet they gave us?" Spencer questioned.

"They gave us a packet?"

Spencer simply rolled her eyes at her brother's oblivion to anything that didn't have to do with basketball and girls.

"Hey, there's a spot!" Glen yelled as he pulled into the available space.

"No! You can't park there!" Clay yelled. "Don't you see the big FACULTY painted on it?!"

"So what?"

"Glen, pull out!"

"That's what she said!" Glen's eyes sparkled in amusement at the overdone, yet somehow still funny joke. Spencer and Clay couldn't help but give in to a little laugh at this while Glen backed out of the spot and went in search of another.

Five minutes later the three siblings were making their way to the Dean's office with Clay's directions as he looked at the map. They were getting a lot of stares as they walked through the quad to the main building of the Upper School and Spencer began to feel self-conscious on top of her already nervous state, wondering if her attire was acceptable. She made sure to take into account the school's dress code when she picked out her clothes this morning. She was wearing a pair of somewhat baggy black Capri pants with cargo pockets topped with a multicolored cloth belt, a blue tank top, and red low-top converse. Glen was winking at cute girls, comfortable in his camouflage cargo shorts, an old white Ohio State tee shirt, and his signature flip-flops. Clay was too focused on the map to notice anyone staring at him, but his attire was always presentable and inoffensive and today was no different as he wore his typical khaki pants, a pale orange collared knit shirt, and a pair of Nike trainers.

They walked through a covered area with a bunch of tables and chairs into the building and Clay immediately stopped once they were inside.

"What is it, Clay?" Spencer asked.

"According to my map, the Dean's office should be right…" Clay turned his whole body to the left. "Here."

Sure enough, right in front them was a clear glass door with "Dean's Office" written on it in green. It seemed like a random place for an office seeing as how the rest of the space appeared to be a student hang out.

With Clay in the lead, the three approached the clear door where they could see a bald African American man sitting behind a desk looking through papers. Tentatively, Clay knocked on the door. The man behind the desk looked up and smiled at them before a look of confusion flashed across his face and then went back to smiling, motioning for them to come in.

At first, Spencer had an internal sigh of relief at the nice and understanding face of the man, but the small questioning glance had flooded her with nerves all over again.

The three walked into the office while the Dean got up and waited for them to all get inside before he closed the door and went back to his desk.

"Well, I'm assuming you three are the Carlin's. Am I correct?" he asked as he gestured for them to all pull up a seat. While Spencer sat in the one seat that was already in front of the desk, Glen and Clay took two of the other few chairs that were in the room against one of the walls and dragged them to the desk next to their sister and sat down on either side of her. The Dean couldn't help but take note of this. It was like the two brothers were surrounding their younger sister as if to protect her.

"Yes, Sir. We're the Carlin's," Clay answered as he sat down.

The Dean didn't even take a second questioning glance at Clay when he said this, which the boy and his brother and sister appreciated. While Glen and Spencer easily looked like brother and sister with blond hair and blues eyes, Clay stuck out most obviously because of his skin color. The young black boy had been adopted by the Carlin's when he was eight and while he always understood why people usually questioned his relation to his siblings as well as mother and father, it still annoyed him.

No, the questioning glance instead went to Spencer. The Dean had been made to believe that all three of the siblings were male, but here they were, sitting in his office making it apparent that he was wrong.

"Well, I'm Al Knoll, Dean of the Upper School, but you can just call me Dean. Now," his gaze stayed on Spencer for a moment before he let it wander between them all, "who's who?"

"I'm Glen, this is Spencer, and that's Clay," the blond boy said, pointing to each of his siblings as he said their name.

"Okay," the Dean began, "I'm afraid to say there has been a small mix up." He glanced at Spencer when he said this, doubling her nerves as she began to feel the build up of a nervous sweat at her hairline. She couldn't help but think that she would constantly be sweating thanks to this geographical move her family had made. "In your file that we have started for you," he said still looking at Spencer, "it was written that you were male. I can see now that it was a mistake."

Spencer let out a small sigh of relief that this was the problem. 'Spencer' wasn't exactly a common girls name, but she always felt that it suited her, and so she never minded that much when people only going off of her name assumed that she was a boy. She was, however, slightly irritated because she knew for a fact that when she and her father had been filling out her forms, neither of them checked the box marked 'male.'

"I marked 'female' in all the forms," she said, her slight irritation giving her a sort of confidence boost. The high and mighty private school wasn't perfect after all.

"Hmmm," the Dean said as he opened up another folder on his desk and looked through it. "Ah, yes. Here it is, and you are right. You did mark 'female.' Not that I thought you were lying, I assure you."

Spencer was almost positive that if anyone else had said that she would have rolled her eyes, but he was so sincere. It didn't sound like he had ever accused her of marking the wrong box, but was simply trying to be thorough in finding the root of the problem. She was now officially positive that she liked this man.

"Uh oh," the Dean started again. "It seems you also checked the box marked 'sophomore' and I have you here as a junior. It will just take a few minutes to get a new schedule for you." He then picked up his office phone and pressed a few numbers. "Pam? … It seems that we've made a bit of a mistake. Spencer Carlin is a sophomore, not a junior. Could you- …Yes. Oh, andwe've also been mistaken in her gender. Spencer is female … Great. Thank you." He hung up the phone and turned back to the Carlin children.

"Okay then. I'm sorry about that, but it's all worked out now."

Spencer just smiled and gave a small nod.

"Well, Glen and Clay, here are your schedules. You're both juniors and male, right?" He said with a small smile on his face, handing the papers to the boys, his voice laced with humor for the second part of the question and a hint of real concern for the first.

"Yes and definitely yes," Glen said as he and his brother took their schedules.

The Dean smiled again and then made the siblings aware of three students standing outside the door waiting. He waved them in smiling, but his eyes widened in realization as his took in a tall boy, about Glen's height, with messy dark hair and green eyes.

"Oh, no, Spencer, I'm sorry. We tried to pick students that you each shared several classes with to show you around on your first day, but because we had you down as a junior, we assigned you a junior who you would have had a few classes with. Would you like me to find you a sophomore to show you around?" He said, his hand going for the phone on his desk.

"No, no," she insisted, standing up, along with her brothers. "I can figure it out on my own."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I can still show you around," the tall green-eyed boy who was standing next to two other students kindly offered, making Spencer turn around.

"Are you sure, Aiden?" the Dean asked.

"Of course," the boy identified as Aiden said. He then finally focused his attention on the girl he would be showing around and when their eyes met, something inside both of them clicked and they both couldn't help but smiled at each other.

"Great," the Dean said. "Clay, you and Sean," he waved over a black boy with a small afro and studs in his ears, "are both primarily in honors and AP classes, and Clay, you were on the Chess Team at your old high school. Well, Sean here is the Captain of it. I'm sure you two will get along great."

The two boys shook hands and exchanged short pleasantries before heading out the door in search of their classes.

"And Glen, you and Madison share three classes, one of which starts in five minutes, so you better get going."

All Glen needed to do was take one look at the very attractive girl named Madison and he was as happy as could be. She was clearly Hispanic with dark skin and hair with highlights. She wore a black and blue plaid skirt with heels and a button up teal green shirt.

It was clear that Madison approved of Glen's outer appearance as well by the smirk on her face.

"After you," Glen said, gesturing with his arm for the girl to exit the office first and the two walked away, starting up a small, but playfully friendly conversation.

The Dean turned to Spencer and Aiden, who had yet to say anything to each other, but for some reason found each other's presence comforting.

"Spencer, once we get your new schedule, you two can be one your way and I'll write notes for each of you to be excused for being late to your first class. Aiden, I want you to keep the note and continue to use it for each of your classes in case you're late while you show Spencer around on her first day. I'll include that in the note, so don't worry."

The Dean quickly wrote up the notes and handed them over to the respective students. He then took in Spencer's clothes. "Spencer, could you please lift up your arms?" he asked.

Spencer set down her light blue messenger bag for the first time since being on the campus and complied. The Dean was satisfied when the tank top still covered her midriff.

"And place your first three fingers over the strap of your shirt."

Again, Spencer complied and again the Dean was satisfied when the strap of the top was a little wider than the width of her three fingers.

"Good," the Dean approved. "You're aware of our dress code then?"

Spencer nodded. After her and her mother, Paula, had read over Greenhill's dress code, the two went shopping to expand her school wardrobe. It wasn't that most of her clothes were terribly inappropriate and none of them could be considered slutty, but the school had a strict dress code policy that her old school didn't and they saw no reason to take chances.

Spencer picked up her bag again and slung it over her neck to rest on her opposite shoulder where it had previously been.

There was a small moment of silence before a woman walked through the open door of the office with a piece of paper in her hand and a cheery and warm smile on her face.

"Hello, Pam," the Dean said to the woman, identifying her as the person he had spoken to on the phone earlier.

"Hello, Mr. Knoll." Her voice was sincere and she gave off a vibe that said 'you can trust me.' She looked to Spencer and her smile grew. "You must be Spencer. I'm Pam Kinhops, the Office Coordinator." She held out her hand and Spencer gladly shook it, instantly liking the woman.

"Nice to meet you," Spencer replied, once again, brightening the woman's smile.

"Here's your new schedule." The woman held out the piece of paper she had been holding and Spencer shyly reached out and took it. "Sorry about the confusion."

"It's no problem."

"Feel free to stop by my office if you ever need anything or just wanna say 'hi.' Aiden can show you where it is." She kindly rested a hand on the boys arm and he nodded in compliance.

"Thank you."

"Well, I better get going. I hope you have a good first day!" She flashed Spencer one more smile and was off.

The Dean took a look at his watch and frowned. "Get going, you two. First period has started."

"I didn't hear a bell," Spencer started to panic, worried that their bell was some special sound that she couldn't hear for some reason, or perhaps is was just some ordinary sound that she didn't think anything of and so she would never be on time to class.

"There is no bell," Aiden told her, shoving his hands in the front pockets of his blue jeans.

"It's your responsibility to keep track of the time," the Dean told her, his voice now taking on a somewhat stern, but still gentle tone. "There are clocks in every room of every building and outside in the quad we have the clock tower, so you will always be able to tell what time it is."

Spencer nodded, relieved that she didn't miss the bell, but a little nervous about now having to manage the time in her day. "I hope someone tells Glen or he'll never get to class." She wasn't worried about Clay. He was always early to class anyway.

"Well, he has Madison to show him around and teachers should be lenient on his first day. He'll figure it out."

"You'd think so, but…."

Aiden and the Dean chuckled a little before the older man began to usher the two out of his office.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him and tell him if I see him," he reassured the young girl.

"Thank you," she smiled at the kind man one last time before following the tall boy out of the office and through another pair of glass doors, which lead to a much larger room covered in grey carpet where many students were studying at tables.

"Noah, do you have first period free?" the Dean asked a lone student sitting down at a table with a PSP in his hands with a voice that said 'I already know the answer to this question.'

The boy looked down sheepishly and put his game away before grabbing his bag and standing up, heading towards the other pair of glass doors that lead to the same large, grey-carpeted room.

"That's what I thought." The Dean then retreated into his office and closed the door before sitting down at his desk and starting on some mindless paperwork.

XXX

Spencer sat in her first period class, European History. The teacher had excused her for being late as it was her first day before he even saw the note. When she presented it to him he made a lame attempt at a terribly forgettable joke and Spencer was the only one to respond with the courteous 'I'm smiling at this joke because you are an authority figure and not because it is funny' smile, simply because he was looking right at her. The rest of the class rolled their eyes behind him and one boy even held up a hand to his head as if it were a gun and pretended to shoot himself.

She turned back around to Aiden and thanked him, the two sharing one last brief moment of eye contact and a secret smile before she moved to find an empty seat in the classroom of around fifteen students. She had only moved one step when the teacher stopped her and had her stand in front of the class and introduce herself.

"Um, I'm Spencer Carlin," she said nervously.

She received from the class a various assortment of grunts and sighs that all loosely translated in 'hey.'

"Hello, Spencer. I'm Mr. Planter," the teacher identified himself. "Now before we get back to the lessen, I want you to first tell us where you're from and something about yourself."

Spencer nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Okay. I'm from Orange, Ohio and-"

"Were you born there or did you just grow up there?" Mr. Planter interrupted. Spencer looked at the teacher curiously as if to say, 'Why do you care?'

"I was born in Cleveland, and, uh, my family moved to Orange when I was seven." He nodded for her to continue. "I uh…" Her shoulders began to rise in a shrug, saying with her body language that she wasn't sure what she should say next.

"Just any old random fact about yourself," the teacher prodded.

"I have a cat." It came out as more of a question than a statement.

"What's its name?"

"Clark." Spencer was now very glad that when she received the then kitten on her 10th birthday that no one in her family allowed her to name him Mr. Fuzzywuzzyton as that would be particularly embarrassing to say now to a room of her classmates as a high school student. The name 'Clark' came to her the next day when she came across one of Clay's Superman comics.

"Next, I need someone to volunteer to lend Ms. Carlin his or her notes from the past trimesters so that she can get caught up."

Several boys and a few girls raised their hands, the girls seeming to do so out of kindness or to get in the teachers good graces, and the boys for reasons south of their waistlines.

"Ms. Woods, you always take good notes."

The boys lowered their hands dejected and the two other girls didn't seem to care either way as Mr. Planter motioned for Spencer to sit next to the girl who was the last to put her hand down.

Spencer ducked her head and made her way to her desk in the back row, although with the way the desks were arraigned it wasn't as out of the way as she would have liked. The back row, where she found her seat next to an empty desk and the brunette girl who would be providing her with notes, were all pushed together so all the desks were touching and the last few desks on the end curved inward. The next row up was shorter than the last one and the ends were not turned in, but the desks were still all pushed together. And that was it. There were only those two rows in the classroom and at the front was a bigger table for the teacher and behind that a white board.

As Spencer sat down and Mr. Planter continued on with his lecture, Spencer looked to the empty desk to her left and couldn't help but wonder if the teacher had chosen this girl for her note-taking skills or because she was one of two students who had an empty desk next to her, the other being the person two desks to her left, and he didn't raise his hand.

"I'm Kyla," the brunette next to her whispered as Spencer pulled out a notebook and pencil.

"Hi." Spencer saw no need to restate her name.

"We can talk after class about the notes."

Spencer nodded and turned her eyes forward, trying to focus on what the teacher was saying about the British Empire. Kyla seemed like a person who cared about school, so Spencer concluded that she probably did have good notes.

Spencer spent the rest of first period taking down the occasional important fact and mindlessly doodling in the margins of her notebook. It was only later that she realized that if you looked at the doodles carefully, they all spelled out the name 'Aiden.'

Note: Well, that was the first chapter. And I know, I know. It seems that right now it's going to be a Spencer and Aiden story, but I promise it's not. Just hang in there. Oh, and please review.

Get it. Got it. Good.