❝It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly where you needed to be.❞

Sarah Dessen

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"Hey, girlfriend."

"Hey, boyfriend."

Shawn stared at Elena in awe as he wrapped his arms around her and pushed his forehead against hers affectionately. "Say it again," He breathed out, knowing he would never get tired of hearing her say it.

Even though it had been months since they'd gotten together, it seemed Shawn Hunter still couldn't believe he was finally dating Elena Martinez. He wouldn't admit it out loud but he still felt butterflies in his stomach every time they kissed. Truth be told, he'd never been happier– not even the time Chet let him drive the trailer down a hill topped this.

Elena laughed warmly as her arms looped around his neck and she pressed her lips to his.

Cue butterflies.

The happy couple hadn't had much time to explore their new relationship, to no fault of their own. Almost immediately after the momentous Disney World trip, they'd both been whisked off onto summer-long trips by their fathers. Even still while they'd been apart physically, they spent all summer sending letters back and forth like the lovesick teens they were.

Upon returning to Philly they'd quickly decided on keeping their relationship a secret from their friends for a while. It was for no other reason than to avoid the unnecessary drama that they knew would ensue upon news of their newfound relationship becoming public knowledge.

Although, it seemed their relationship wouldn't be a secret for much longer. It was easier hiding a relationship when first of all, they were miles apart; and second, when they were together, they were miles apart from all their friends. Those two weeks where only Shawn and Elena had been back in Philly from their summer trips had undoubtedly been their favorite part of summer.

For wanting to keep their relationship a secret, they were not doing a good job. It actually seemed like they wanted to flaunt their relationship, seeing as how they were currently making out in their best friend's living room. It was a wonder no one from the Matthews' family had caught them yet.

They quickly pulled away when they heard a door slam upstairs, presumably Cory's.

"You're too close," Elena worried as she frantically wiped her deep red lipstick off his lips, "Now, stand over there."

"Okay, Lena-bug," Shawn smiled goofily as he took a step away from her.

"Why are all my nicknames bug-related?" She mused with a chuckle, "I mean, you guys know I hate bugs, right?"

"Hey, guys!" Cory called loudly as he joined his best friends, "How are ya?"

"Hey, Cor," Shawn nodded his head in greeting.

"Pebbles!" Eric sang as he rushed down the stairs and picked her up in a tight hug.

"Bamm-Bamm!" She laughed as he spun her around.

Cory's brows furrowed. "I thought it was Spongebob and Patrick?"

"It was Squidward and Patrick. And now it's Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm," Eric rolled his eyes, "Try to keep up, will ya?"

"We gotta keep things fresh, y'know, in case the codenames get compromised," Elena supplied helpfully before she shrugged, "Well, actually, that's just a lie to make us sound all smart. It's really just because The Flintstones is our favorite cartoon right now."

"So..." Cory drew out the word as he looked between his best friend expectantly, "How was your summer? Anything exciting happen? Y'know, anything your best buddy Cory should know about?" He emphasized loudly.

Shawn and Elena shared a look and shrugged as they shook their heads.

"Really?!" He scoffed heatedly, "Nothing? Nothing at all you want to tell best buddy Cory? Someone tell me what's going on in the world!" He demanded irritatedly.

"Stuff happened in some country, some team won a game and it's cold somewhere with a chance of I don't care. Am I all caught up?" Elena shrugged before she smiled as she thought of something he might be interested in, "Ooh!"

Cory's head snapped towards her impatiently and he grinned excitedly. "What? What is it? C'mon, lay it on me!"

"I got you something from France," She explained as she held her hands out to Shawn for her school bag which he'd insisted on carrying for her.

"That's all you got?!" He scoffed heatedly.

"Hey, it's better than what I got you," Shawn defended her immediately, "Nothing."

"Yeah, yeah," Cory brushed them off as he headed to the door, "C'mon."

Shawn and Elena stared at him for a moment, confused with his attitude before they followed after him. They figured he was just grumpy because he missed Topanga since she'd only just come back from her summer camp the night before. And because of that, like the good friends they were, they walked faster than usual to school so they could get Cory to Topanga faster.

"Y'know," Cory started after a few minutes of walking in silence, "I realize now that I was rude earlier about my gift. Elena, you are so considerate, isn't she considerate? And she's cute, too."

Shawn and Elena stopped walking as they stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

"Yeah, you know being gone really opened my eyes. You are one cutie patootie," He pinched her cheek before doing the same to Shawn, "And you're no slouch either my Shawn. You know what? You guys should date," His sickly sweet smile fell and he glared at them, "And then not tell me about it."

Shawn leaned towards Elena and whispered loudly. "I think he knows."

"Really? What gave it away?" She scoffed sarcastically.

"Well, what do we do?"

"Deny, deny, deny," Elena decided simply, already beginning to detail a clever way to throw Cory off their trail.

But before she could even get a single syllable out to Cory, Shawn beat her to it.

"There's nothing to tell," He laughed too loudly for it to be anything but nervous, "I would never date Elena. I don't like her and not just in the like-like way. I mean, I don't know how I'm even friends with her, man!" He rambled.

And just like Elena knew he would, Shawn took the lie too far to ever be believable and totally blew any chance they had at throwing Cory off.

She sighed and turned to Cory in defeat. "So, how did you find out?"

"I thought you said deny, deny, deny?" Shawn huffed as he stared at her in disbelief.

"That was before you opened your mouth," She gave him a blank look.

"You still like me though, right?"

"Of course I do," She laughed warmly as she patted his cheek affectionately, "Weren't you the one who spent years telling me you're my idiot?"

Shawn giggled goofily, seemingly having forgotten all about the fuming Cory on their hands. "Well, looks like I was right. I really am your idiot now, huh?"

"Looks like you're both idiots," Cory scoffed, reminding the two of his presence. He narrowed his eyes, "Maybe the next time you guys wanna keep a secret from me, you shouldn't have a spit-swap in the middle of my living room, Lena-bug."

The two smiled sheepishly and chuckled awkwardly.

"Yeah, that was pretty dumb," Shawn admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I still think you can do better than Lena-bug by the way," Elena sighed.

"All right, all right, I'll work on it," Shawn promised.

Cory's glare fell as he grinned excitedly. "Ooh! Ooh! Can I help?"

Elena paused and raised a brow. "If we say yes, will you not be mad at us?"

He nodded quickly. "You got yourself a deal... Lena-pie?" He suggested quickly.

"Yeah, no," She shook her head, clearly unimpressed, "Y'know what, you can just be mad at us."

"No! I'm sorry, I can do better I promise!" He cried desperately.

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"Pumpkin!" Elena grinned when she saw Topanga.

"Peaches!" Topanga rushed over to her and the friends hugged tightly.

Back in middle school, Elena and Topanga had never really been the closest of friends. Elena was always too busy making sure Shawn and Cory didn't kill themselves to ever really invest in any other friendship. And Topanga had never been particularly interested in going beyond their strictly school-friends status.

But as the years went by and they began making their way past childhood and into their teen years, the girls found themselves closer than ever. In fact, it was this very friendship that helped them through what they'd faced so far in the early stages of their teenhood. The two could talk to each other about things Cory and Shawn would never even begin to understand. They didn't need to explain to each other, they just understood. In fact, sometimes they didn't even need to talk at all to know what was going on.

And so, their once strictly school-friends status quickly blossomed into that of being best friends.

"So," Topanga sang, an excited glint in her eyes, "How are you and Shawn?"

Before today, Topanga had been the only one to know about Shawn and Elena dating.

Elena smiled at the mention of her boyfriend. "Well, Cory knows about us now."

"He was a mess wasn't he?" Topanga asked knowingly.

"When is he not?" Elena laughed teasingly as the two made their way over to their boyfriends.

"Yes. Fine. You're perfect," Cory complained as Shawn continued to fix his hair in his locker mirror, "Now, can we get out of the hallway where everyone can see me?"

"Hold on," Shawn brushed him flippantly, "Just need to get a little more hair in my eyes. Gotta make sure I look good for my Lena."

"You know I hate that," Cory grumbled and spun Shawn around and started frantically running his hands through Shawn's hair to mess it up.

Shawn pushed him off and turned back to his mirror before he nodded, delighted. "Also, good."

"Also good. Also good," Cory repeated darkly as he scratched his hair in disdain, "Move!"

"Whoa, whoa. Cory, come on," Shawn pulled his hands away worriedly, "You're gonna cut your fingers."

"You're right," Cory exhaled deeply, seeming to finally calm down, "I'm overreacting. It's just that between you and Eric, I feel like I'm surrounded by people with perfect hair."

"Hi, Cory," Topanga greeted as she and Elena finally joined them.

"Idiots," Elena greeted both of them with a teasing smile.

"No need to explain these relationships, is there?" Cory frowned exasperatedly as he motioned to the two beautiful girls.

"What are you guys talking about?" Topanga raised a brow.

"Nothing," Cory shook his head, "I'm just a little insecure today, but I'm sure it'll pass."

Just as he said that Dylan Banks joined them with a charming smile. "Hey, Topanga."

She smiled politely. "Hey, Dylan."

"So, you wanna go out this weekend?" He asked her casually, basically ignoring Cory whose arm was wrapped around her.

"Of course not," She scoffed heatedly as she glared at him, "I'm going out with Cory."

"Oh, you're still with him?" His eyes widened in disbelief, "I figured you'd have dumped him over the summer."

"I'm about to dump you into the trash can over there if you don't get moving," Elena snapped dryly as she pursed her lips.

Dylan smiled at her. "Elena, I didn't notice you over there."

Before he could say anything else, Shawn stormed up in front of him. "Good. Don't notice her. Stop noticing her!" He demanded when Dylan kept looking at her, "We're dating."

Dylann laughed, thinking this was like all the other times Shawn had said something along those lines when it was nowhere near the truth. "Yeah, yeah, Hunter. Get out of dreamland, already."

"It's true," Elena narrowed her eyes at him as she intertwined her hand with Shawn's, "He's my boyfriend."

"Oh," Dylan took a step back and held his hands up, "Okay. Well, if you do decide to dump them, here's my card."

He handed the two a card before he strolled away without a care.

"Locker number 168," Cory read off the card, "Huh. That's a nice locker."

"So, how often does that happen?" Shawn wondered as he looked down at Elena.

"How many times does it happen to you?" She raised a brow.

He shrugged. "At least four times on a bad day."

She smirked coyly. "Try double that on a bad day."

Shawn's jaw dropped. "No way! There is no way you get asked out nine times on a bad day!"

"Eight," She corrected before she grinned, "And it looks like you're finally not the hottest one in the relationship," She laughed.

He paused before he shrugged. "Eh. It's worth it ."

"Look, Cory, it's just some guy asking me out. It's no big deal," Topanga reassured him.

"Well, it's no big deal to you because you're the askee," He rolled his eyes, "And why are you the askee? You're always the askee because you are gorgeous."

"Well, thank you very much, but give me some credit. I know guys go out with girls because of how they look," She grabbed his hand and smiled warmly, "But you go out with me because of who I am inside. The only reason you think I'm good-looking is because you care about me."

"Not true," Shawn scoffed, "I don't need to care about a girl to think she's pretty."

Elena rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, do you think I'm prettier than all those pretty girls?"

"Always have, always will," He nodded with a shrug like that was something she should have already known.

Elena narrowed her eyes for a split second before a smile broke out on her face when she realized Shawn was being serious. He wasn't just saying that because he thought that's what she wanted to hear.

"And that's because while you don't care about those girls, you care about Elena," Topanga pointed out with a smile, clearly happy for Elena.

"Yeah, but, Topanga, Elena, I mean this is easy for you to say," Cory frowned as he pointed to his face, "You don't have a nose that takes up half your face, and hair like a Brillo pad."

"Come here," Topanga demanded as she held her hand out to him.

"What?" He cried gloomily, "You saw suds?"

"First of all, I love your face, and I love your hair, but most of all, I love you because of who you are. And I hope you love me because of who I am and not because of my face and hair."

"Topanga, if I looked in the mirror every morning and saw what you see, I'd feel real good about myself, too," Cory sighed, clearly exasperated with her attempts to cheer him up.

"Oh, so you think that's it? You think what gives me all my confidence is my face and hair."

"And the fact that they're perfect," He supplied helpfully, "Yeah, I think that puts a little spring in your step."

"Oh, yeah? Well, here's what I think," She pulled out a pair of scissors from her school bag.

Cory's eyes widened as she held it up to his face. "Words, Topanga. Use your words."

She rolled her eyes before she grabbed a handful of her hair, chopped it off, and handed it to Cory nonchalantly. "Well? Are we any different now?"

Elena stared at her in shock, her jaw dropped. Sure, she always admired Topanga's carefree attitude but she had a feeling her eccentric friend would soon come to regret this. She clutched her own hair sadly, almost as if seeing Topanga chop her hair off brought Elena pain.

"Well, somewhat less predictable," Cory said slowly as he looked down at the hair in his hands, still not sure this was actually happening, "But, no, you're right. I'd love you no matter what you looked like."

"Good. Glad you learned something," Elena managed to say, her eyes never leaving Topanga.

Cory paused and turned to her. "You agree with Topanga right?"

"More or less," She shrugged with a frown, still not over Topanga's ruthless hair chopping.

"So, then you would do the same thing?"

It took her a minute but she reluctantly nodded. "Yeah. For Shawn"

"Hey!" Cory cried out, his face scrunching up in hurt and betrayal.

"What?" She scoffed as she nodded to Topanga, "You got her, he doesn't got anybody."

Shawn nodded nonchalantly. "I got nobody."

"So he got me," Elena smiled up at him as she wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Best thing I ever got," Shawn breathed out happily as he stared down at her fondly.

"So, this really doesn't bother you?" Elena asked Topanga slowly as she took Topanga's severed tresses into her hands.

"Not at all," Topanga shook her head with a calm smile.

"Okay, pumpkin," Elena shrugged, clearly not convinced before she turned to her own locker mirror.

She pulled Topanga's hair onto her own and tilted her head to the side. She was using Topanga's hair, which was much lighter than her own, as makeshift extensions.

"Do you think I should get highlights?" She wondered as she fanned Topanga's hair out against her own.

Topanga stepped closer to her to get a better look, only to see her reflection in the mirror.

"She's gonna scream now," Shawn decided as Topanga stared at herself with wide eyes.

Just like he said, Topanga let out a shrill scream that had Elena clutching her ears in pain.

"Did you have to scream right in my face?!" She whined as Shawn quickly pulled her into his chest comfortingly.

Topanga's breathing got heavy and she couldn't tear her eyes away from the mirror as she stared at the uneven chunks of her hair. Elena frowned and looked down at her own hair that, like half of Topanga's own, reached just above her waist. She sighed and kneeled down, grabbing the discarded scissors.

"Lena..." Shawn called slowly, "What are you doing?"

"Something I'm going to regret," She said knowingly.

"Well, then why are you going to do it?" Cory asked incredulously. 

"Isn't this what you two always do?" She raised a brow.

The two shared a look before they nodded and stepped away from her.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Okay, go for it."

"You're lucky I love you," Elena grumbled to Topanga before she messily chopped off a section of her own hair.

"Oh, my God," Topanga breathed out as she stared at her in shock, "Peaches..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the best friend in the world," She huffed as she handed her a handful of hair before she started cutting at another section, "You couldn't have just cut the split ends, huh?" She complained, "Had to be dramatic and go for the gold."

"I can't believe you did this for me," Topanga was still shocked at Elena's uneven hair that now matched her own.

"It'll grow back," Elena brushed her off flippantly before she finally got a look at herself in the mirror.

"Now, she's going to scream," Cory pointed out.

Cue ear-piercing scream.

"It's okay. It's okay," Topanga grabbed her hand comfortingly, but she didn't know if she was trying to convince Elena or herself, "It's just a little hair. It has nothing to do with who we are."

Elena nodded slowly and let out a shaky breath. "Mhm. Yeah. I mean, I'm still Elena Martinez."

Topanga nodded with a weak smile. "And I'm still Topanga Lawrence. And nobody who cares about us will even notice, right?"

"Mr. Matthews. Mr. Hunter," Mr. Feeny greeted as he walked past the four. He froze and stared at the girls in shock, "Ooh. What the heck happened to you two?"

"Mr. Feeny, I cut our hair in an attempt to show Cory that physical appearance is secondary to inner beauty," Topanga managed to say strongly.

"And then when she realized she was wrong and got all sad I did it too because their stupidity rubbed off on me," Elena whined as she pointed to Shawn and Cory.

He nodded slowly. "Aha. Well, in that case, Miss Lawrence, Miss Martinez, I applaud your attempt at teaching a very valuable lesson during these extremely vulnerable teenage years."

The girls stared at him for a moment before their faces fell.

"You think we're ugly!" Topanga wailed before they ran off.

His eyes widened and he called after them desperately. "No! No! That is not what I meant."

"Nice going, Feeny," Shawn huffed at the older man.

"Oh, dear," He sighed anxiously, "If Lydia hears about this she'll have my neck."

When Theo and Elena had come back from their summer of traveling Europe, they found Lydia awaiting them at home. She'd promptly informed Theo that she was moving in before she ordered them to go eat the food she'd made while she went to have tea with George Feeny.

Shawn laughed at Mr. Feeny's expense. "Oh, you are a dead man, Geroge."

"And you will be too if you ever call me George again."

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"Martinez!" Jonathan called as he stood outside his classroom, "Put down your phone unless you're talking to the president and get to class."

"Actually, it's my hairdresser and he is a lot harder to get a hold of."

"Now, Martinez," He demanded sternly.

"Fine," She huffed as put the payphone back and turned to face him.

His eyes widened in shock, when he saw her hair, "Y'know what? Here's a quarter on me."

She frowned as she took the quarter and turned to start calling her hairdresser again.

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Cory was out of his mind with nerves as he and Shawn waited for their girlfriends at the salon. It seemed like the place was taunting him, everywhere he turned there was a mirror waiting for him. He was now wringing out his hands anxiously as he tried to look as innocent as possible.

In his insecure spiral, he'd tried to escape all the mirrors surrounding him in an effort to calm down. The only place in the entire salon that was relatively mirrorless was the shampoo station which was also where all the hair colors were prepped. And in typical Cory-like fashion, he'd managed to create a mess within the first two minutes of standing there.

While he's been rushing to get everything back in place before he got yelled at or kicked out, he knocked over blue hair dye into a prepped color bowl. He stared at it in horror as he tried to think of what to do. Of course, his solution only made everything worse. He decided it would be a good idea to add more blue into the bowl, mix it, and pretend nothing happened.

When the hair colorist's assistant came to grab the tampered bowl, Cory forgot how to breathe. Even the assistant looked down at the bowl with furrowed brows before he shrugged carelessly. His job was to help the colorist, not ask questions. Besides, he figured someone was going through a bad breakup or something and wanted a drastic change.

Without another thought, the assistant turned on his heel and went to dye some poor, unsuspecting client's hair a bright blue.

"I am a bad, bad person," Cory mumbled to himself.

Before he could dwell on misdeed much longer, Shawn joined him.

"I don't know, man. They've been in there an awful long time," He paced worriedly.

"What are you getting so crazy about?" Cory's brows furrowed, "They're just getting a haircut."

"No, Cory. We've known Topanga all her life, okay? She doesn't wear make-up. She's never been to a beauty parlor. She's completely natural. And Elena's sending boys to their knees with just a little lip gloss."

"Lipstick, actually," Cory corrected causally, "She doesn't like lipgloss, her hair gets all stuck in it. Anyway, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that they were beautiful before without anybody's help. Now they've got professional help. They're gonna be mega beautiful. We're not even gonna be able to look at them directly without burning our retinas," Shawn widened his eyes dramatically.

Just as he said that Topanga walked into the main hall of the beauty parlor with beautifully blown-out shoulder-length hair. The boys stared at her in stunned silence.

"Well, isn't somebody going to say something?" Topanga prompted them impatiently.

Before they could say anything else, they heard a shrill scream coming from the backroom.

Topanga's eyes widened upon realizing it was Elena. She glared at the boys. "What did you do?"

"Us?" Shawn's brows furrowed, "Why do you assume we did something."

"Yeah, Topanga, we've been out here the whole time," Cory defended, seemingly forgetting all about his color mixup earlier.

"What did you do?" Elena growled as she stomped out into the main hall.

"Oh, my God!" Topanga gasped, her jaw dropped.

"Wow," Shawn breathed out in awe as he stared at her.

"Uh-oh," Cory whimpered as he realized he really was the reason behind all of this.

Elena Martinez walked out with her once waist-length hair now reaching her mid-back and curled beautifully.

Oh, and it was now electric blue.

"I am going to kill you!" She screamed and lunged for Cory, knowing that guilt-ridden face all too well.

It took two grown men to keep her away from Cory in her blinding rage. She was seething. "You might not want to sleep at night anymore. Because maybe while you're asleep you lose a finger!"

"I'm seeing my life flash before my eyes!" Cory cried fearfully, "Topanga, hold me!"

"Or your whole head!" Elena continued heatedly.

The whole time, Shawn had been rooted in his place and his eyes trained his girlfriend. He felt his mouth go dry and his palms got clammy as he took in her new look. He was biting his lip to keep from saying something insane but he couldn't hold back for much longer.

"Oh, to heck with it!" Shawn burst out, finally finding himself able to move and talk, "Marry me! I live in a trailer park and I have no education, but my hair does this!" He ran his hand through his hair frantically to show off and hopefully convince her to say yes.

"You think I look good?" Elena asked slowly as she stared at him in shock, her anger dying down in favor of confusion.

"I think you look freaking amazing!" He corrected her earnestly.

"You do make the blue work," Topanga nodded seriously as she looked at Elena in awe.

Cory grinned and nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah, you make anything wo-"

"No," Elena growled, "You don't talk. You talk, I remember what you did, I plot your murder."

"Can you wax my mouth shut?" Cory begged one of the beauticians passing by.

"Shawn, you need to breathe," Topanga reminded him worriedly.

"Buddy, you gotta snap out of it," Cory whispered to him as he gave him a tentative shake.

They were worried when he seemed to fall back into his stunned stupor but it seemed Cory managed to snap him out of it.

"Shut up, man! I'm going for it!" Shawn turned to Elena, "I want to have your children."

Elena shrugged. "Well, as long as they're coming out of you and not me."

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〚𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄〛

I love Halsey. That's it.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter! It's so weird but exciting at the same time to finally be writing Shawn and Elena as a couple. How are you guys liking their dynamic so far? Also, Abuelita Lydia is now going to have a more recurring role. Please let me know what you thought about this chapter!

You guys might not remember (and if you did I love you!) but I mentioned in a previous Heart to Hart that Cory once dyed Elena's hair pink by accident. This was how that happened. Although, as you noticed I did change it from pink to blue just to fit with the whole Halsey Colors aesthetic of this season.

Is it bad if I admit I'm still laughing about the last chapter? I know it was a shocker but what did you guys think. Did you like it at least?

New season, new cover! What do we think? And if you missed it, please check out the chapter before this one for this season's mood board/aesthetic.

Please don't forget to vote and comment, comment, comment!

Please enjoy the mini graphics dump below and let me know what you think!

〚𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑〛

The Pantone mood board is a PSD from @peachresources on Tumblr!

Have a great day and stay safe ♥♥