I reached the table before Spencer and quickly sat down next to Aiden, as far from Madison as possible, not even acknowledging her presence as I completely avoided eye contact with her.  I felt her eyes shooting daggers at me from across the table, but I ignored it, much to her annoyance.

“Wow, such a pleasure to see you Ashley,” she said venomously.

“The pleasure’s all mine, really,” I said flatly, turning my attention to Aiden and lowering my voice.  “Why the hell is she still here?”

“I can’t get rid of her,” he whispered as Spencer sat down opposite me, next to Madison, and they struck up some no-doubt inane conversation.

“So try harder,” I hissed.

“She won’t take the hint,” he whined, sounding so pathetic it frustrated me.

“So grow some balls and tell her where to go!”  I demanded.

“Why don’t you?” he challenged.

“’Cos I’m determined not to waste my breath on her!”

“Fine!” he stated, finally looking towards Madison and opening his mouth as if to say something.  That’s when he noticed Spencer, and his eyes lit up for a moment, his rude dismissal of Madison obviously taking a back seat to a possible introduction to the hottest girl in Grey – not counting yours truly, of course!

“Aiden, this is Spencer,” Madison said, presumably noticing his goldfish-like expression as he stared at the blonde beauty in front of him.  He embarrassed me sometimes… in fact, he embarrassed me at all times!

Spencer blushed slightly as Aiden looked her up and down and extended his hand to her, shaking hers painfully slowly.

“Hey… haven’t I seen you around?” he asked, his eyebrow raising in a pathetic attempt to be sexy, maybe… I don’t know!  All I knew was that it was annoying me beyond belief and I couldn’t help the exasperated growl that came from my lips.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if you had, she’s -,” Madison began before being cut off.

“ – a cheerleader,” Spencer finished.  Gees, they even finish each other’s sentences, I frowned to myself.  Aiden probably couldn’t place where he recognised Spencer from due to the fact that during training it wasn’t exactly the cheerleaders’ facial features he would stare at.

“Ah, of course!” he exclaimed as if she had just cracked the enigma code all by herself.  He looked to me for the first time in ages and leaned towards my ear.  “You never said she was a cheerleader!”

“You didn’t give me the chance,” I scowled.

“She’s hot,” he winked.  I felt my heart sink and my stomach rise to my throat, knowing that it would be no time at all before Spencer was yet another notch on Aiden’s bed post.  I reached for my drink and took a much needed swig.

“Oh, and that’s Ashley,” Madison told Spencer, not even attempting to disguise the disdain for me in her voice.

I looked at Spence, wondering whether she was going to admit we were friends, or if she was intending to act like we had only just met so as to protect her reputation.

“Nice to meet you,” I muttered, unable to read the expression on her perfect face, and so taking it upon myself to preserve her unblemished social record.

“C’mon, don’t act like we don’t already know each other!” Spencer smiled, taking me completely by surprise.  I was almost proud of her.

“Wait, you know her?”  Madison asked accusingly.

“Yeah, so?”  Spencer challenged.

“Just… cool, whatever,” Madison sighed.

For the first time ever, I’d witnessed Madison Duarte back down from a possible confrontation/enforcement of her own opinions.  She just looked looked down at the drink that Spencer had placed before her, and wrapped her fingers around the stem of the glass.

Spencer caught my eye and smiled, inducing a huge grin in return.  Spencer 1 – Madison 0.