The Story of Us

Chapter 7- A Glimpse of the Past

~11 Years Ago~

Spencer Reid had never had many friends, or any, for that matter. It was always just him and his parents. Then his dad left. After that, it was just Spencer and his mom. It was hard. Spencer was only thirteen and he not only had to take care of himself but his mother as well. Maybe that's why he went to Caltech. It was close enough to home that he could travel back every day but also far enough that he could avoid the responsibilities that had been thrust upon him just a year ago. Little did he know, that decision would bring him the best thing in his life thus far.

Amanda Hotchner wasn't your average 13 year old, and not just because she was even smarter than Spencer. There was something about Amanda that drew anyone who met her in. Despite being 12 when she arrived at Caltech a few months prior, she had quickly become the most popular girl on campus. Everyone loved Amanda. She was bright, sunny, and beautiful. Anyone could see that she was beautiful but Spencer noticed it especially, being the same age and all.

Because of the way that Spencer is and the way that Amanda is, every rule in the world states that Amanda would be the predator and Spencer would be her prey, but that was just another thing that made Amanda different. She went out of her way to befriend Spencer and make sure no bully even got near him. During their short friendship, Spencer had learned that Amanda absolutely loathed her father because he hit her, her siblings, and her mother. She said that nothing could stop him and they all had to take it.

This is why, come Thanksgiving break, she had lied to her mother and said she couldn't afford a ticket back home and her father wasn't willing to pay for one. Her mother had been sad but agreed to let her stay in California after she told her she would be spending the holiday with a friend. Which was true. After learning that Spencer's mother didn't know how to cook and neither did he, she had taken it upon herself to invite herself to the Reid house for Thanksgiving in order to cook them 'the best Thanksgiving dinner they had ever eaten'.

Spencer had asked his mother, hoping she would say no, but she had jumped at the chance to meet Spencer's first friend. This made Spencer nervous as Amanda was Spencer's first and only friend and he feared that once Amanda saw his mother during one of her episodes it would scare her away. He had met her in his psychology class the same day he ran into her so he knew that she understood that his mother couldn't help it but he couldn't help that voice that always yelled in the back of his mind that Amanda was the bully and Spencer was the victim, she just needed that one push to make her that person.

Amanda would never do that. She had hated bullies her entire life, even taking it upon herself to bully bullies so they would know what it's like and stop bullying the kids in her neighborhood. It had worked, bullies in Terrace Heights knew that bullying would put them in the path of Amanda Hotchner's wrath and they did their best to stay away from her. It was the same thing she did at college, she just had a different method and a different reason. At home, she just went after bullies because she hated bullies almost as much as she hated racists but at college, she did it to protect her best friend: Spencer.

She was ecstatic when she discovered his mother had allowed him to bring her home with him and had bought them both tickets to Las Vegas being that Spencer had to take several different means of public transportation along with his bike to get to Caltech and Amy didn't have a bike. Spencer had never been on a plane before as his mother hated them but even if he had, he suspected it certainly wouldn't be first-class but then again, Amanda Hotchner didn't do anything without style.

By the time they actually arrived at Spencer's house, he was noticeably teeming with nerves. "What is wrong?" Amanda asks.

"I just don't like being home when I know that the people that used to pick on me are here too," he half-lies, something Amanda notices but doesn't mention.