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It was Summer, when they first met. He remembers that much. He doesn't know whether it was his teacher who introduced him or he introduced himself, but before long just plain 'Tony' soon became 'Tony and Spencer'. He didn't know what love was like at 4 years old, as no one does, but Spencer, with his black curls and big eyes, was the perfect best friend.

They did everything together those days, gaming (Spencer always won), trips away (rarely thanks to Spencer's long list of allergies and his custody visits with his dad, but camping in Tony's backyard counted, he guessed), school projects.

You name it, Tony and Spencer did it. Until 7th grade that is.

Tony didn't mean to hurt Spencer. In fact, if he was honest with himself back then, Tony /never/ wanted to hurt Spencer, but...things just happened that way.

It all started at the beginning of 6th grade, if he could really pinpoint an actual time.

He'd been playing football since he could walk, so it was no surprise that come a Friday, there was always a game on. Spencer's mom would always bring him after his after school classes to let him watch and cheer him on and then, they would go to Denny's afterwards, whether his team won or lost, to celebrate.

It should've been a normal game, but to Tony, it stood out as it was the beginning of the end for his and Spencer's friendship as they knew it. For it ceased to be friendship and turned into something...more. Different. Terrifying.

Tony should have been concentrating on the game, that what he'd told himself, but Spencer's eyes and red cheeks as well as his jumping up and down in excitement distracted him more than usual today. Soon enough, even after that football game, his presence alone was enough to make Tony shy, different, his heart racing every time Spencer came over or was with him.

Almost as if he was...falling in love with him.

Now, by this time in their lives, Tony had amassed a pretty substantial line of long forgotten ex-girlfriends, so he had a pretty clear feeling of what love, or at least it's barest form, was like. He refused outright for a long time to believe that he felt the same with Spencer.

Yet he knew it was true.

He couldn't deal with it, this new development in their lives. He wouldn't have minded something else, a new friend or son, as him and Spencer could work around that, but gay? No. His father was long gone, his mother was a church goer. He read and studied the Bible like it was a football strategy and went to church on Sundays, singing for Grace and the Lord himself. He couldn't by gay. He just...couldn't. Scared, panicked and upset, Tony finally stopped being friends with Spencer, thinking that maybe, maybe if he hoped hard enough, the feelings would go away, like they should.

Except they didn't.

By the time Tony was now 'Fridge' and Spencer had fallen down the ladder to become 'Werid Kid', the feelings (now well hidden) were still there. Still brewing under the skin. Burning and buzzing and making it hard for Fridge to keep his cool, on and off the football field.

He knew it had been a bad idea to rope Spencer into doing his homework for him from the start, but if it gave him a chance to see him where he didn't look like he was lovesick, it was worth it. He hated what he had to do to him to hide the truth, but if Brantford found out that one of the senior stars of their local high school football team was gay...small towns do what small towns do.

He will well admit that when the plan fell to pieces, he had hated Spencer for it, but really only had himself to blame. He had used his heart instead of his head for once and had paid the price.

Finding Jumanji however, turned out to be both his waking nightmare and of course, his saving grace. Funny how a stupid game can cause so much shit to come to the surface.