Winning the World at a Carnival.

As Ryan and Spencer walked into the lounge, Brendon ran over to Spencer and hugged her. “I’m sorry Spencer, I didn’t mean to be an idiot, I should have told you all about Pete this morning.”

“She’ll be fine.” Ryan said. “But I promised her a rehearsal. You up for it?”

“Oh, I think I can deal with that.” Jon stretched his arms up. He stood up and walked to Spencer. “Can I have a hug too?”

Brendon took his arms away from Spencer and Jon moved his arms around Spencer. Ryan looked on at the scene, slightly jealous. He had always been jealous of anyone hugging Spencer. And when Spencer had been dating Haley (despite it lasting just mere weeks) he had felt at his lowest.

He couldn’t say why, but he had always felt slightly protective over Spencer. Always felt jealous. Always felt in love.

“So, rehearsal. Come on!” Brendon grinned, grabbing Ryan’s hand and pulling him into the dining room, which had been made into their rehearsal room. Ryan and Brendon picked up their guitars while Jon got his bass. Spencer watched them, then sat behind the drum kit. She picked up her drumsticks and twirled them between her fingers.

“So, shall we work on something new or play some old stuff?” Ryan asked, tuning his guitar. Jon was playing a little bass line and Brendon had just finished tuning.

“How about a couple of old ones, then we can work on the new stuff.” Jon said, still playing the same little riff.

“Hang on, Jon, what’s that you’re playing?” Brendon asked. “I like it.”

“Just something I started playing just now.” He replied.

“I think we can work with that. It’s pretty cool.” Ryan said. “What do you think, Spencer?”

Spencer nodded. “It’s pretty good.” She started to bring the bass drum into it, then the whole kit.

She watched Ryan nodding his head, smiling. He started to play something, Brendon adding occasional chords, working out what would work.

“That is so going on the album.” Brendon said after a few minutes of playing.

“I say, we work on this for a while, then I also promised Spencer we’d go shopping.”

“Shoe shopping to be more specific.” Spencer smiled at Ryan.

“Shoe shopping with Spencer?” Jon said. “Ryan, we love you and we’re going to miss you.”

“Oh, fuck you Walker.” Spencer said, flipping him off.

“I’d rather not, dude.”

Spencer grinned. They were all acting like they had when she was a guy. That’s why she loved Jon and Brendon. Brendon would accept almost everything, and Jon… well, some things took him a while to get used to (it was a few months after he joined the band that he felt properly comfortable with Ryan, Spencer and Brendon) but this, he’d accepted Spencer within the space of a few hours.

And Ryan, he had known about all of this for years, but in a snap, he’d got used to Spencer being like this.

She loved her friends for that. That just made them the best fucking people in the world. Not that they weren’t before, but they were even better now.

“Spencer, you ok?” She heard Brendon say, snapping his fingers in front of her face. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She replied, shaking her head of her thoughts.

“You were just spaced out there.” Jon said.

“I was just thinking about things.” She told them. Ryan gave her a look.

“Tell you what, how about we go shopping now?” He asked her. “I mean, you and shoes are gonna take a while.”

“It’s not my fault that I have an amazing eye for shoes.” She threw one of her drumsticks at Ryan’s head, who dodged it. “But I’ll take up the offer of going shopping now.”

“Fine. Jon and I can work on this a little.” Brendon told her. “You go kill Ryan with your shopping.”

“Go to hell.” Spencer threw her other drumstick at Brendon, who didn’t quite dodge it in time.

“Dude, ow!”

Spencer and Ryan laughed as they walked out of the room. “Spencer Smith, where do you think you’re going?” Ryan asked as Spencer walked to the door and put her coat on.

“Uh-”

“Make up and hair, remember?” Ryan dragged her upstairs.

Spencer groaned. “I’d hoped you’d forgotten about that.”

“Tough luck. Come on, princess.”

Half an hour later, Spencer pulled on her coat again, feeling just a little self conscious. Ryan had, true to his word, only used eyeliner and a light coloured eye shadow, but he had gone all out with her hair. He had straightened most of it, then curled half of it.

“I think you should get it cut.” Ryan said, running his fingers through it. “I mean, this is pretty long for you.”

“Yeah, but I’m also a girl. Girls do have long hair, Ry.” Spencer rolled her eyes, grinning.

They walked out to the car and Ryan drove. They knew the nearest mall was only about 20 minutes away. Spencer looked out of the window and drummed her fingernails against her lap.

“So, Brendon said that he was going to tell Pete he was sick and couldn’t sing, so there was no point in him coming up today.” Ryan said after a few minutes silence. Spencer looked over at Ryan. “He figured since Pete coming up was his fault, he should fix it. You know he’s stupid, but he doesn’t want you to be feeling awkward.”

“When did he tell you that?” Spencer asked.

“When you were in the bathroom.” Ryan replied with a slight smile. “Just because you’re a girl now doesn’t mean you can spend as much time in the bathroom as Pete.”

“Hey!” Spencer pouted. “I wasn’t that long.” She paused. “And I thought you said that I was a woman, not a girl.”

“Girl, woman, female, no penis, it’s all the same to be fair.” Ryan stopped at a red light and looked over at Spencer. “To be honest, if I were you, I would have been freaking out, like, a lot by now.”

Spencer shrugged. “I was born a girl. I should have been like this for the last 10 years. I don’t know, I just, I guess that because I was a girl for nearly 10 years, it’s coming to me naturally.” She shrugged again.

“Would you change back? If you could?”

“Ry, it’s only been a few hours, seriously! I’m not entirely used to this still, despite it feeling natural. Ask me in a week.”

“How about when you start PMSing?” Ryan asked innocently.

Spencer glared at him and proved that even though she wasn’t a man anymore, it didn’t stop the muscles she had built up as a drummer from weakening. “Why don’t you suck Brendon’s cock?” She snapped.

“Uh, because Urie has herpes.”

“That isn’t true.” Spencer sighed.

“Yeah I know. It’s Chlamydia.”

Spencer grinned. “Stop being an idiot.”

They pulled up at the mall and Spencer put on a pair of sunglasses, only to have Ryan steal them off of her. “Hey!”

“I spent good time on your make up, you are so not hiding it.” Ryan told her. “Besides, you don’t need to hide. You don’t look like Spencer Smith right now. Not all styled like that.”

“Fine.” Spencer sulked. “But these shoes had better be fucking amazing.”

“I’m sure they will, Spence.” Ryan flung an arm around her, putting the sunglasses on. Spencer may not be noticeable to fans anymore, but Ryan sure as hell was still.

“Ry, don’t call me Spence.”

Ryan flinched. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. Forgive me?” He asked, pulling her into a hug and putting a puppy pout that Spencer had assumed he had perfected from Brendon.

“Of course I do, you dork.” She flicked him on the nose.