Spencer and Jennifer met during their sophomore year of high school when their Chemistry teacher paired them up to be lab partners. During high school, they also took Physics & AP Chemistry together, played on the same soccer team, and attended the same church, but there would be no sparks until college. This could have been caused by Spencer's bleached & spiky hair or the orange tux that he wore to prom. It could have been because Jennifer would let slip to Spencer's mom during Handbell practice that they had received tests back in AP Chemistry when Spencer had done poorly.

As destiny would have it, both Spencer and Jennifer ended up at the same university. During their first semester at Virginia Tech, they had dinner together just about every night with a bunch of their mutual friends from Chesapeake. By this time Spencer had cut his hair and Jennifer had learned to not mention school in front of his mother. Jennifer decided quite early on that she wanted to be more than just friends and, sharing the same group of friends, the news spread quickly to Spencer. Although Spencer was not opposed to dating her, he did want to get to know her a little bit more before starting a relationship. The next few weeks were spent doing exactly that. They hung out together outside of their group of friends, talked on AIM into the early morning hours, and spent the occasional night deep in conversation outside of the food court until two in the morning. Finally, on September 21, 2003 (a full three years after first being lab partners) Spencer asked Jennifer out on a date and the "Spennifer" journey began.