Gwen walked beside Shawn, both of them following Cory down the hall to find Eric since was their ride home. They stopped by the editor's office when they heard a girl's voice say, "Oh, Eric, yes. That feels so good. Don't stop."

"Okay, we found my brother." Cory noticed. He opened the door to the editor's office that was already slightly opened and the trio peeked inside.

"This personality profile of our new Principal is superlative." The girl at the computer said as the trio looked further into the room to see Eric was giving the girl a shoulder message.

Eric shrugs. "Oh, the man lives next door. Glad I could give some help."

The brunette-haired girl nods and glances at him. "Yes, well, you give a wonderful neck message."

"You know, Molly, I'm more than just a pair of strong, masculine hands." Eric voiced.

"Well, of course you are, my little cabana boy." Molly stops typing. "Well, finis!"

Eric laughs a bit and stops messaging her shoulders. "No, no. It's Feeny." When the girl gives him a look, he continues to speak. "His name is Feeny."

"Finis is French for finished." Molly informed him.

"Ah, the French." Eric comments. "Our neighbors to the north."

"Hello." Cory greeted.

Eric turns to the trio with an annoyed look. "Not now. I'm working."

Gwen raises her eyebrows at him, walking further into the office with the boys. "Giving a shoulder message is your job?" Eric shot her a glare in response.

"You said you'd drive us home." Cory reminded his brother, setting a cage of rats on the desk causing Molly to scream as she got up.

"Hey, babe, you're wigging out the rats." Shawn voiced, picking up the cage.

Molly looks at him with wide eyes. "Rats?"

"Yeah," Cory nods. "We're studying natural selection. We're gonna see if rats know the difference between natural cheddar and 'I can't believe it's not cheese'."

"Yep, our D-plus rests on furry little Gwen, Shawn, and Cory." Shawn spoke, looking at the three rats that were in the cage.

Eric chuckles. "You named them after yourselves?"

Gwen shrugs her shoulders and smiles a bit. "Yeah, why not?"

"Yeah," Cory agrees, glancing at the rats with a smile. "Shawn's the one chewing on the lock, Gwen looks like she's falling asleep, and I'm the one with the skin disease."

A yawn escapes Gwen's lips and she sheepishly smiles after catching the amused look Shawn sent her way. "I think they fit us pretty well." She commented.

"Just keep your little vermin away from tomorrow's edition of the school paper." Molly spoke.

"Yeah, come on." Eric heads to the door, gesturing for the trio to follow him. "Let's go. All six of you rats."

"Um," Shawn bends down to pick up the cage, noticing something was different. "All five of us rats."

Gwen glances at the cage, letting out a laugh. "I'm not surprised Little Shawn broke out." She noticed Little Shawn near the desk, and it seemed Cory did too because he went over to that area and bent down to pick up Little Shawn.

Cory goes over to Molly, holding out the rat to her. "He wants to kiss you."

Molly screams again, running out of the room. "Please. He loves you." Cory calls after her. "Come on, you kiss my brother!"

Eric looks at Cory with offense. "Hey, thank you." He looks at the trio with annoyance as Cory put Little Shawn back in the cage and Shawn locked the cage up. "Thank you very much. I finally get a brainy girl interested in me, and you guys screw it up." He turned to the door to open it, but pushed on it instead of pull.

Gwen rolls her eyes. "It's a pull door, you dummy."

"Oh, right." Eric chuckled, looking back at her, Cory, and Shawn with a sheepish expression before running out the door.

"Hey, that floor is real slick out there!" The janitor in the hallway called out to Eric.

Gwen's raises her eyebrows when she heard Eric's scream and a loud thud. She chuckled, assuming that he fell and crashed into something. She turned her attention to Shawn when he speaks.

"I got to get home." Shawn sets the cage on a table in the office. "I promised mom I'd crack her back before American Gladiators."

Gwen glances over at her curly-haired best friend to see he was sitting at the computer. She sighs heavily. "Cory, you're not gonna mess anything up, are you?"

"No, I'm just looking." Cory replies as the janitor walked in the office to get the trash. "You guys, come check this out."

Gwen and Shawn walk over to him, both standing beside each side of Cory. "Oh! A full screen of Feen."

"He's going to be on the front page of the school paper?" Cory questioned.

Gwen nods. "That what it looks like."

"Won't it scare children?" Shawn asked.

Gwen shrugs. "It might."

"It won't scare them if he's..." Cory changed the 'f' in 'Feeny' to a 't'. "Teeny."

Shawn chuckles. "This has definite possibilities." He pushes Cory out of the way and Gwen moves to stand where he stood a few seconds ago since Cory now stood in her place. "Let me in there."

"Okay, new Principal is..." Shawn changes the first letter of 'Feeny' to a different letter each time. "Beeny? Deeny? Geeny? Leeny?" When he changed it to 'Weeny', Cory and Shawn shared a look. Gwen kind of felt bad for laughing along with the boys because she knew doing this was wrong.

"'New Principal is Weeny'." Cory read off what the school newspaper now said. "Can you imagine two-thousand students reading this?"

Shawn nods. "Power. Ultimate power."

"You guys," Gwen sighs. "Maybe you shouldn't do this."

"Yeah, she's right." Cory agrees and then glanced at Shawn with confusion. "Right?"

Shawn grins at the computer. "Power."

Gwen groans. "We lost him."

Shawn turns to face her and Cory with a grin. "We'd be notorious. We would be legends."

"What do you mean?" Cory asked.

"Well, what are we now?" Shawn questioned.

"We are lowly seventh grade sewer scum who name rats after ourselves to feel important." Cory answered.

Shawn nods. "And how do you feel about that?"

"Better with the guy's with no rats!" Cory replied.

"Hey, you guys, wouldn't you rather be something special or would you rather be us?" Shawn inquired.

Gwen resisted the urge to say 'you're special to me' knowing that would make things weird and maybe even give away the fact she has feelings for him. "Shawn, power like that in the wrong hands, it's dangerous." Cory said to the dark-haired boy, the two boys looking back at the computer. Cory reached forward to change 'Weeny' back to 'Feeny'.

"Alright, come on." Cory gestures for his best friends to follow him as he grabs his backpack he had sat down on the floor earlier. "Let's go."

"Yeah, wrong hands, wrong hands." Shawn voiced. Gwen went over to pick up the cage of rats, glancing back at Shawn to see he was still sitting at the computer.

She raises her eyebrows at him, tilting her head to the side. "Shawnie, you coming?"

Shawn looks at her and nods, sending her a smile. "Yeah, I'll be right behind ya." Gwen nodded and walked out the door.

****

At school the next day Gwen noticed how everyone was laughing at the newspaper. She knew that Shawn didn't listen and must've did something to change it when she walked away. She should've stayed back to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid like that. She felt bad about this. Mr. Feeny shouldn't be disrespected like this, especially since he's new to the school just like they are.

"Shawn, are you farther gone than I've ever imagined?" Cory asked Shawn, showing him the front of the newspaper.

Shawn puts his hands on Cory's shoulder. "No, no, I'm not gone. I've arrived." He takes his hands off Cory's shoulder and points at himself. "I am known. I rule this school. My fame here will live forever."

Gwen shakes her head. "Shawnie, nobody knows it was you who did it."

Shawn looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. "What, you think that bothers me? I know I did it, and that's good enough for me."

"I wonder who did this." The trio looks over when two older girls walked by them. "If it was my boyfriend, I would do anything for him."

Shawn looks at the blonde-haired girl as she walks by with her friend with an awe-struck expression. Gwen rolls her eyes at him and crosses her arms. Shawn's shoulders slump in defeat and he frowns, continuing to watch the blonde-haired girl girl walk away. "Oh, it's killing me."

****

In English they were reading the book The Scarlett Letter. "Okay, in The Scarlett Letter Hester Prynne has a red letter 'A' on her dress." Jonathan writes a capital 'A' on the chalkboard. "Now, everybody knows what the 'A' stands for, right?"

"Boring?" Cory spoke in a sassy tone.

When some of the class laughed at his guess Jonathan points at everyone. "Hey, everybody, don't laugh at Matthews, okay? He's never seen a 'A' before."

Gwen laughed along with the rest of the class this time at her uncle's remark. "The buzz is all over the Massachusetts colony that Hester has taken the pure out of puritan." Her uncle continues. He sets down The Scarlett Letter to pick up a school newspaper off of one of the students desk. "It's scandal. It's gossip. It's good comedy. It could've come right out of today's headlines."

The class laughs at seeing the headline on the newspaper just when Mr. Feeny happened to walk in. No one realized he had walked in until he cleared his throat, and the room went silent. "Mr. Feeny, good morning." Jonathan greeted him.

"Actually, Mr. Turner, I've had better." Mr. Feeny said as he walks to the front of the classroom. "You see, I have been forced on this particular morning to go from room to room," He takes the newspaper from Jonathan, showing the front of the paper to the class. "Asking anyone with information about this little journalistic prank to come forward."

When the class stays quiet, he continues. "I will go a lot easier on the perpetrator if he or she or they voluntarily confess." Once again, the class remained silent. "No? Very well." He lays the newspaper on Jonathan's desk. "I will now return you to your lecture on..." He glances at the chalkboard. "On the letter 'A'." He nods at Jonathan and walks to the door. "Keep up the good work."

Gwen slumped in her seat and stared at her desk with a frown, feeling guilty. She shouldn't feel guilty though because she's not the one who did anything. Shawn is the one who did it. But if she had stopped Shawn from doing it then Mr. Feeny wouldn't have gotten disrespected.

****

The next day people were still talking about what happened with the school newspaper. Gwen really hoped that it would just blow over, but she should've known better. She notices that Shawn seemed to be more enthusiastic than the day before. "Okay," Shawn wraps his arms around Cory's and Gwen's shoulders to pull them over to the side in the hallway. He then takes his arms off their shoulders, turning to face them. "A rumor was going around school that the 'Weeny' headline was just a typo, like nobody did it. Like I don't exist."

Gwen's shoulders slump, having a feeling she knew where this was going and it wasn't good. "Oh no. You did something stupid again, didn't you?"

"Check it out. Now I exist. I am somebody!" Gwen got her answer when she and Cory followed Shawn to Mr. Feeny's office. Her eyes widened upon seeing Shawn changed Mr. Feeny's name to 'Weeny' on the door. Cory gasped, staring at the door with wide eyes.

"A thing of a beauty, eh?" Shawn asked. Cory gasped again, pointing at the door.

"No, not a thing of a beauty." Gwen points at Shawn and scolds him. "It's a stupid stupid thing you did."

Shawn rolls his eyes and grins. "I think what I did was quite funny. I snuck in early this morning and changed it. Looks like the real thing, doesn't it?"

Cory moves towards the door, touching the 'w' to wipe away the drip. "Except for this drip."

Gwen sighs. "It's not that funny."

Cory turns to Shawn. "Shawn, you're out of control."

"Yeah, I am." Shawn nods, putting a hand on Cory's shoulder. "Tell your friends."

"Shawnie, being out of control isn't a good thing." Gwen told him as he walked away.

****

At the end of the day Gwen was stopped by Mr. Feeny before she left. He had asked her if she had any information that she can share about what happened that day, saying that Janitor Bud said he saw Cory, another boy, and a girl with him. Gwen stayed silent, knowing if she lied, she would feel worse than she already did. But now Gwen has to meet Mr. Feeny the next day in his office after school.

Gwen was home and surprisingly so was her dad. A weird thing about her parents were that they were great parents on their own and maybe with other people, just not together. Although she did prefer her dad and got along much better with her dad. She didn't get along with her mom that much.

"So, Gwenny, how was today?" Gwen's dad, Ian, asked her as he walked down the steps to the living room where she was watching tv. If it wasn't obvious by now Gwenny was a nickname her family only used. At first her uncle started calling her it when she was little and the nickname just stuck. If someone else called her that nickname she wouldn't like it that much unless that person was really important to her.

Gwen bit her lower lip. She didn't want to rat out Shawn, but she also didn't want to lie to her dad. "Oh, um, you know, the usual. Just a boring day."

"Ah." Ian nods, now standing in the living room, and he glances at her with raised eyebrows. "So that call I got from Mr. Feeny about you having to meet with him tomorrow isn't anything important?"

Gwen turns around so she's facing the left arm of the couch, looking at her dad with wide eyes. "Wait, he-he called you?"

"Yes, he did." Ian replies in a firm, looking at her with a upset expression. It wasn't like Gwen to get called to the principal's office. She rarely got in trouble and he wondered what made her do whatever she did that would get her sent to the principal's office. "What's the problem?" His expression softens and he crosses his arms. "Gwenny, you know you can tell me anything."

Gwen sighs, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "I'm kind of in a tough situation and I don't know what to do." Ian stays silent, silently urging her to explain, and she does. "There's this friend of mine who pulled this prank at school."

Ian nods and speaks as if the person he had was the obvious one Gwen is talking about. "Shawn."

Gwen points at him, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "No, not him. I didn't say the friend I'm talking about is a him."

Ian points at her and then lowers his arm. "You didn't deny it either."

Gwen lowers her arm, staring at him with a slightly annoyed look. "Anyway, this friend," She quickly adds, "Who's not Shawn. This friend of mine did something with the school's-"

"Newspaper headline." Ian interrupts her. When she looks at him with surprise, he nods. "Yeah, Mr. Feeny told me that someone messed it up."

"Okay," Gwen nods, thinking that made more sense as to why he knew what happened. "So, Mr. Feeny thinks I know who did do it. He asked me today if I had any information of whoever did it, but I didn't say anything."

Ian nods, running a hand through his dark hair. "Yeah, I wouldn't have said anything either if I was covering up for my friend." He walks around the couch, standing behind her and she faces him. "Listen, no matter who the friend is," He leans his arms on the top of the couch, whispering to Gwen. "Shawn."

Gwen shakes her head, whispering back to him, "Not Shawn."

Ian straightens up so he's not leaning over anymore and speaks normally. "A friend doesn't rat out a friend."

"Okay, okay," Gwen caves in. "It was Shawn."

Ian pretends to look surprised. "Oh, really? I had no idea." Gwen chuckled and rolled her eyes. She playfully shoved him, earning a chuckle from him.

"Gwenny, what made him do something like this? He's a good kid." Ian tilts his head to the side, rethinking what he just said. He shrugs his shoulders. "For the most part."

"I really wish I knew why." Gwen sighs. "He did say he wanted to feel special and not some seventh grade nothing." She shakes her head, running a hand through her brunette-colored hair. I don't know how changing the school's newspaper headline would make him feel special."

"Hopefully when he's older and a little more mature he'll realize that stunts like this won't make him special." Ian spoke in a soft tone.

Gwen nods in agreement. "Yeah, me too." She looks at him with worried eyes. "You're not mad about me getting kind of in trouble, are you?"

"Just a little bit." Ian admits. Gwen frowns, looking at her lap and fiddles with her hands. She hated making people she cared about mad, especially her family. Ian puts a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention, and she looks up at him. "But I know you got in trouble for a good reason. You have a good heart, Gwenny."

****

The next day of school Gwen sat on the right edge of the bench in the hallway that Shawn is sitting on and Cory stood beside them.

"So, you two gonna be shooting some hoops with me after school?" Shawn asked.

"Nope. We're busy." Gwen replies. "Cory and I have to meet with Mr. Feeny after school."

Shawn looks at her and Cory with furrowed eyebrows. Cory nods. "He's going to ask us some questions about something we didn't do and if we don't tell him did, we get suspended."

Shawn stands up as he grabs his backpack, looking at his two best friends with a smile. "And I totally appreciate you guys doing this for me. I mean, after I blew up that mailbox last year, dad said one more screw up and he'd ship me off to military school."

"Shawnie, Cor and I can't cover for you forever." Gwen reminded the dark-haired boy, sending him a small smile.

"How long?" Shawn asked.

"Weeny, Weeny, Weeny, Weeny, Weeny, Weeny, and Weeny." The trio looks over to see Mr. Feeny walking by, reading the school's newspaper. He glances at Cory and Gwen. "Don't be late, Mr. Matthews, and Ms. Calloway."

****

Cory and Gwen takes a seat in front of Mr. Feeny's desk in the principal's office after school that day. "Listen...About the headline and all...Well, we're sorry for what happened." Cory voices and Gwen nods in agreement. "It must've hurt being called...You know."

"Oh, it wasn't as if I'd never heard it before. It was practically my nickname growing up." Mr. Feeny admits and he froze as if he just realized he admitted that out loud. He points at Cory and Gwen, looking at them with a stern expression. "Uh, that's not to leave this room."

"We didn't realize how big of a deal this would be." Gwen sighed.

"As the principal of this high school, I'm expected to keep order." Mr. Feeny explains. "Unchecked, these pranks undermine my authority and breed disrespect."

A frown tugs on Gwen's lips. "We're gonna get punished for something we didn't do, aren't we?"

"Name the person who did, and you walk out of here scot-free." Mr. Feeny responded.

Cory and Gwen exchange a glance and nods at each other before they looked back at Mr. Feeny with apologetic expressions. "Well, then, we're sorry." Gwen apologized.

"We can't do that." Cory added.

"You two have thought about this and that's your final decision?" Mr. Feeny questioned.

Cory and Gwen nod, both speaking the same thing at the same time. "Yeah."

"You two decided that protecting a friendship is more important than the grisly punishment I shall now dispense?" Mr. Feeny inquired.

"Yeah," Gwen nods. She was upset that she would have to face a punishment for something she didn't do, but it was worth it if it meant she was protecting Shawn. "Mr. Feeny, he had no intentions of hurting anyone and I'm sure you know that. All he wanted was to do something that would make him somebody special."

"Ah...To be somebody special is a quality from within, Ms. Calloway." Mr. Feeny informs her. He points at her and Cory. "To give you two an example, I think it's a very rare quality for you to put a friend's welfare before your own."

Cory looks at him with confusion. "But just a second ago, you wanted us to rat on him."

"As the new principal, yes," Mr. Feeny nods. "But as your teacher, as someone who has lived next door to you," He points at Cory. He then points at him and Gwen. "And someone who watched you both grow up, I never expected it for a moment."

Gwen smiled upon noticing Mr. Feeny looking at them with a small smile. She knew that he liked them and most likely Shawn as well whether he wanted to admit it or not.

****

"So, how long are we suspended for?" Cory asked as he and Gwen followed Mr. Feeny out of his office.

"You're not." Mr. Feeny replies. "Detention for five days-one day for each letter in Weeny which in this instance," Cory and Gwen move to the side when he closed his door and that's when Gwen noticed Shawn standing near the office, eating a candy bar. "Should be spelled 'W-E-E-E-N-I-E', shouldn't it Mr. Hunter?"

Shawn goes over to stand in front of his two best friends, demanding, "You told him?"

Gwen shakes her head. "You know we wouldn't."

Shawn glances at her, his fierce expression softening. "Yeah, you're right." He squeezes his eyes shut. "I'm an idiot."

"They refused to rat you out, Mr. Hunter." Mr. Feeny tells Shawn and the dark-haired boy turned to face him. "And now they are facing a week of detention in your honor, but the punishment for not being caught, Mr. Hunter, is far, far worse."

Shawn looks at him with a shocked expression for a few seconds before he sheepishly smiles and outstretches his arms. "I did it, Mr. Feeny! I confess."

"I will be watching you every moment of your high school career which in your case could be decades." Mr. Feeny voiced. An amused expression was on Gwen's face as she watched what was happening in front of her.

A panicked expression forms on Shawn's face. "But I just confessed!"

"Too late, Mr. Hunter!" Mr. Feeny said. "You are my new special friend."

Shawn turns to face Cory and Gwen with an upset expression. "Why didn't you guys turn me in?"

While Cory looks at him with a 'are you serious' expression, Gwen rolls her eyes. "Shawnie, you're our best friend." She smiles at the dark-haired boy who now looked at her with a small smile. "We would go to a great length to protect you and if that meant being suspended then we would."

Shawn's smile widens, feeling butterflies swarm in his stomach. "Thank you."

A/N i love the trio of cory, gwen & shawn so so much ! also gwen & shawn are cuties