Childish| Criminal Minds

2

Derek Morgan hides his awkwardness behind a facade of muscle and slightly inappropriate flirting. In fact, he got so caught up in his flirting that he didn't hear the bell ring.

He rushes through the hallway, knowing all-too-well if he was late to Math again he would have to serve lunch detention. Pushing past people as quickly as he can, he accidentally bumps into a scrawny kid with brown hair.

"Ow! What the hell, man?" he exclaims. Derek looks down and realizes the kid had dropped his glasses. They were cracked on both lenses, laying useless on the tile floor of the school hallway.

"I'm so sorry," Derek says.

"It's fine," Spencer stammers. He's clearly upset, and Derek doesn't know what to do. Spencer picks up his glasses from the ground before they can be trampled.

"I'll buy you new ones," Derek offers.

"Sure," Spencer sighs and hurries off. He doesn't feel like letting this make his day any worse.

Derek Morgan doesn't have any clue who Spencer is, but Spencer knows him. It's almost impossible to go to this high school and not know Derek Morgan. He's everywhere; a student athlete with support up to the top.

He's everything Spencer isn't. He's a sought-after high school jock who, to Spencer's knowledge, hasn't known a bad day in his whole life.

In some freak scheduling mistake, Derek ended up in AP computer science. He absolutely doesn't belong there, but his counselor is refusing to change his schedule.

There's only one upside to being in a class he doesn't like, and that is the cute girl with pink highlights and a pencil case full of glitter-pens. If Derek Morgan has a type, she would be the complete opposite of that. She's a rare bird, having both the geeks and jocks alike pining after her.

Penelope Garcia. And currently, as Morgan strolls into class late, he can see she's being escorted to the principal's office. It isn't the first time this has happened in even the last two weeks.

Penelope has a liking for hacking, something not taught in AP computer science. She learned on her own after her parents died, not having the energy to leave her room.

Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia have a friendship that the staff despise. A lot of what Derek says to Penelope is a little too risqué, resulting in their teacher often seating them on opposite sides of the computer lab.

Today wouldn't be one of those days. Derek sits down at his normal seat and logs into his computer, ignoring the teacher sighing being him. "Late again?" Mrs. Strauss exhales. She's not the best example. Half of the time she wreaks of alcohol, and the other half of the time she's hung over.

She's not the nicest of teachers either, but at least she doesn't care enough to fail kids who don't participate. Her genuine disinterest in teaching is the only reason Derek Morgan is passing. He pretty much spends the period texting Penelope under the desk, or verbally talking to her when Mrs. Strauss isn't paying attention.

A day in class without Penelope is a boring one for Derek, but now he has a new mission: finding out who he just practically assaulted in the hallway.

Derek shoots a text towards Penelope, hoping she can manage to sneak her phone out while the principal is deciding how to punish her. He sends her a short description of Spencer. Penelope knows pretty much everyone around here. She's as extroverted as they come.

Besides, if she didn't know him she could probably look for his student ID picture in the system.

After a few moments Penelope gets back to him. Her text reads,"That's Spencer Reid."

"Does he have like,, a phone number?" Derek texts.

"Nope. He doesn't even have a Facebook. Good luck, Chocolate Thunder." Derek can't help but giggle.

Derek doesn't even have time to process the sound of Mrs Strauss's disappointed sigh, as she snatches Derek's phone out of his hands. He's left in utter disbelief.

"You can't do that!" he yells. "That's my property!"

"Watch me." She takes Derek's phone and tucks it in her desk drawer, closing it and locking it. Derek slumps down in his chair. She hasn't cared enough to take away his phone before. What's gotten into her? "You can have it back after class."

"Fine," Derek says, deciding arguing will do him no good. Who the hell decided to hire her, anyway? She's not a good teacher. It's against the school rules to take away a student's property.

Derek gets away with playing computer games for the rest of the period, and when the lunch bell rings he practically steals his phone back from Erin Strauss. She doesn't mind very much, so he scurries off to find Spencer Reid.

Turning a few corners, he gets lucky. Spencer is walking with JJ towards the cafeteria, and Morgan slips him a small note with an apology and his phone number on it before disappearing into a crowd of students.

"What was that about?" JJ says.

"He's the one who broke my glasses," Spencer sighs. He unfolds the piece of binder paper and glances at Derek's poor hand-writing.

"Did he hurt you?" JJ asks.

"No- it was an accident. He bumped into me and they just- He said he'd buy me new ones," Spencer stammers. JJ pauses for a moment, trying to make light of the situation.

"Maybe this is a blessing in disguise," JJ suggests. "You could get contacts?"

"Sure, like that'll make a difference," Spencer complains. JJ gently nudges him out of the way of another kid, and Spencer sighs. "I can't see anything."

"I'll be your eyes," JJ says. "You can count on me."

"Thanks," Spencer smiles. "Hey, how did your project go?"

"It could have been worse. That Emily girl isn't half bad," JJ says.

"Really?" Spencer asks. He's genuinely surprised that JJ opened up to someone else.

"Yeah. Apparently she moved here from London. Her mom is a diplomat."

"I feel really bad for her," Spencer says. "From London to our town? That has to hurt."

A/N: hope y'all are enjoying :)
This is the first time I've written a chapter over 1,000 words since my hamilton days

Word count: 1052