Spencer and Atticus Headcanons

Bonus Content: Part l

a/n: ok, i've decided this book is now gonna be headcanons other ~exclusive~ content if you will since not everyone reads it. this particular part will be a one-shot type thing. 

now that that's out of the way, welcome to my high school AU meet-cute version of Atti and Spencer. since they were both ridiculously young in HS, i aged them up so they're 16 here. and ik they're from different states and no, i have no idea how they would end up in the same school give me a break this idea's messing with my sleep schedule and i haven't worked out all the details lol. also, other than their age everything about their backstories is pretty much the same except Atticus wouldn't be on hard drugs at this point and her parents would've left a little later. alright, enough talking let's get into this babes!<3

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If there was one thing Spencer Reid didn't expect when signing up for AP Chemistry, it was a pretty girl (quite possibly the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, according to him) to be enrolled in the same course. He'd seen her around the school before. Her hair was short and curly but styled to flick outwards, she had an almost olive skin tone, and although she was only about 5'4, her platform shoes added about 4 more inches. Now, what was even more unexpected was for said girl to sit next to him about a month into the semester.

He watched in awe (and he definitely wasn't nervous about it at all) as she took a seat across the lab bench from him while blowing a bubble with her gum.

"Ms. Parker, you know by now to throw the gum out before you come into class.", called the teacher upon hearing the small 'pop!' that echoed through the room.

"Right--sorry.", she pointed to the trashcan next to Spencer, "Could you pass me that trashcan?"

It took him a second to snap back into reality before he was scurrying to hand it to her.

She spat her gum into the trashcan while he was still holding it, "Thanks.", and the only response he could manage was a mere nod thought it didn't really help that she wasn't looking at him.

After a few minutes of receiving instructions and working in silence, she finally looked up at him, "Oh! I'm Atticus by the way.", she was smiling but that didn't stop Spencer from noticing the purple ring that surrounded her left eye.

"S-spencer. A-are you...alright?", he pointed in the general direction of the bruise on her face.

"This? It's nothin--don't worry about it.", she was quick to brush it off. But Spencer wasn't stupid. Based on how natural her reaction was and how she had flinched earlier when someone snapped a glove against their wrist, it didn't take a genius to piece the puzzle together. He must've been so caught up in his thought because he didn't even realize he was shaking her hand until it was over. Atticus devolved into ramblings about the experiment they were supposed to be doing, although he noticed that she had a tendency to bounce back and forth between topics rather quickly. He also noticed that she was a lot smarter than she let on. Within half an hour, she had written 4 1/2 pages worth of notes on every chemical reaction and why it happened. Even though, they were sitting in an AP class most of the kids surrounding them were easily below-average intelligence. Four kids had broken glass beakers, and the rest of them were just messing with the gas burners and seeing who would be dumb enough to burn themselves first. Because of this, most students were drifting over to Spencer and Atti's table to borrow one thing or another. Which also meant that all these kids who were potentially covered in germs were in close proximity to Spencer. He quickly pulled his hand away when someone else's brushed over it and Atticus gazed at him in confusion.

"Bit of a germaphobe."

"Germaphobe? What the hell are you doing here then? I mean, I know this is technically a lab so it has to be clean to a certain degree but this whole damn school is filthy."