Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Jake met a girl,” Charles said, as soon as they sat down. 

“Impressive,” Gina smiled. “Who is she?”

Jake pointed over to a table across the hall, then narrowed it down to the brown-haired one without the glasses next to the blonde one. Gina narrowed her eyes and nodded, vaguely recognising her from classes. He went on to explain her entire personality and their extremely boring (but apparently pivotal) interactions. Charles was nodding along as Jake spoke, adding his own useless knowledge like, “Oh, and she goes to that book club!” and “She wants to be a police officer, so her and Jake are meant to be.” 

“Sounds cool,” Rosa said, when they were done (they only stopped because the bell rung). Jake grinned and him, Charles and Terry turned to leave.

Gina turned to Rosa as soon as they were gone, asking, “Really?”

“No.” She looked across the hall. Amy and the blonde were walking the same way as Jake, which Charles immediately jumped on. “But Jake likes her, so.” She shrugged and left. 

Gina repeated that sentiment in her head as she watched Amy and Jake speak.

Gina’s last class of the day was History. She had arrived relatively early to see if she could interrogate any of the nerd-table members on Amy, when the perfect opportunity fell into her lap. Amy was already in the class, speaking to Mr. Cozner. In the environment of the familiar classroom, Gina instantly recognised Amy as the insufferable suck-up always by Mr. Cozner’s side. 

She stepped in and the teacher smiled in acknowledgment at her. Amy turned to see her and her eyes widened slightly. She soon finished her conversation with Cozner and walked up to Gina’s desk.

“You’re Jake’s friend,” she pointed out.

Gina looked up, studied her for a moment, then nodded. “Since diapers,” she drawled in agreement. “Why’d you bring it up?”

“I just thought I’d introduce myself,” she smiled, “since Jake and I are becoming friends. Amy Santiago.” She held her hand out. Gina shook it.

“Gina Linetti.”

Amy finished up their conversation, a little awkwardly, then sat down at the table in front of Gina. Gina watched her closely for the remainder of the lesson. She even sat nerdily. Her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, though a few loose strands had escaped throughout the school day. Her posture was ridiculously straight. She had just pulled a clear pencil case out of her bag, and was arranging all of it’s belongings out in front of her.

“Here!” she called when Cozner called out her name, looking up from her work to smile.

Gina tried to remember what it was Rosa had said about why she needed to be civil about Jake and Amy’s whole thing, but when she watched Amy stroll up to the teacher at the end of the lesson and ask for extra homework, she couldn’t help but mumble a tiny, harmless insult under her breath as she left.

Luckily for Gina, the Jake and Amy thing didn’t last for long. Within just a few weeks of having to endure the girl outside of class, Amy had rejected him. (Gina had hoped Jake would see his worth and Amy’s lack of and it would be him who eventually rejected her, but whatever.)

Problem was, Amy was still there. She still showed up, the next day, when Gina had been gearing up to verbalise every single prepared criticism she had of her.

Gina never really would understand why Amy was still apart of their group. At first, she’d tolerated it because Jake had a thing for her and was certain Amy liked him back (spoiler: she didn’t). After Amy had awkwardly rejected him, Gina had assumed she could finally talk about all the small, annoying things Amy did, but apparently, much to Gina’s dismay, they’d promised to still be friends. She was still forced to tolerate Amy, but she didn’t have to respect her or anything anymore. So there were a few unexpected bonuses.

“I still don’t get why he had to take my seat,” Amy grumbled into her cupped hand, eyes narrowed towards her ex-boyfriend, Teddy, who had stolen her seat upon finding out there was no authority willing to reprimand him for it. When she had asked for it back, he had flashed a smile and said, “If you kiss me.” She made a gagging noise and willingly let Gina drag her by the arm to an empty table.

They were the only ones of their group in this specific class (everybody just assumed Gina had cheated to get into higher classes, but she had just done the tests—they wasn’t nearly as hard as people made out) so when they were given a substitute teacher, they were forced to pair up together. A miserable fate, really, but Gina settled for mocking Amy for an hour.

“Who cares?” Amy sent her a look and she rolled her eyes. “Leave your teacher’s pet duties for once and relax. Seriously, are you not tired of it?”

“I take pride in being loyal to the people shaping my mind!” Gina snorted. “I do. You should.”

“Take a break and you’ll see how miserable you actually are.” Leaning back slightly in her seat, she cocked her head to the side and smiled. “And who better to enjoy yourself with, anyway?”

“You said that exact same thing that night you tried to get me drunk,” Amy pointed out, deadpan. “You use the same tactics to try to get to me every time, Gina.”

Gina held her hands up in surrender. “I just wanted you to have fun! I assumed you would as long as we were outside of school, but no. You still can’t bear to break the rules.”

Amy gaped. “That is not true, I can break rules! I can be cool!” she protested but Gina tittered mockingly. “I can.”

“Prove it,” Gina challenged half-heartedly.

“I am proving it!” Amy gestured around herself frantically, almost hitting Gina in the face in the process. “Look at me!”

“Please, everybody breaks these kind of rules,” Gina said, pointing to the class of rule-breakers surrounding them. Amy deflated a bit at that, brows creasing as Gina’s words set in. “I mean actual rules that matter.”

Amy’s frown deepened as she turned to face Gina. “What do you consider actual rules that matter?”

“I don’t know. Drinking tequila or skipping school.” She paused. “Never mind, I meant rules that are fun to break.”

“Figures,” Amy mumbled, turning away so she wasn’t facing her friend (?) anymore. Her eyes dropped to Teddy again. He was laughing with his friend and pointing in the direction of their substitute teacher. If even he—who had been given the exclusive title of ‘most boring man in America’ by her friend group—could break a few rules, surely she could, too. Surely, she wasn’t on the same level as him. Gina didn’t think that lowly of her. Surely. “You said, before, to prove that I can be cool,” Amy reminded her, hesitance clear in her tone as she resumed her previous position. Gina raised a brow slightly at the sudden continuation of a boring conversation.

“Yeah,” she shrugged.

“What would that entail? How could I prove myself?”

“…Oh.” Gina’s expression changed from that of contempt to genuine interest. She shifted in her seat. “Well, I guess you’d just break rules. That would show you’re cool. Not just any rules, though, I’d have to choose. I don’t want you taking the easy route.”

“Then, uh, why don’t we do that? You— you could make a list of all the rules and then I can just… break them. And then I’d be cool and you’d have to stop being mean to me.”

Gina snorted. “Okay. If you can do it, I’ll stop being bitchy.” Amy instinctively winced at the use of profanity during school and Gina quirked a brow. “If you can’t do it, you have to stop hanging out with us. You can go back to Teddy and Kylie and the remaining geek squad members.”

“I hate Teddy, too, but leave Kylie alone,” Amy ordered, sending Gina a look. Gina gave no acknowledgment.

“Have we got a deal or not?”

Amy hesitated but nodded. “…Yes. Yes, I can do that.” Gina’s anticipatory smile turned devious. She grabbed the sheet of paper they were supposed to be working on and started scribbling down ideas. At that, Amy felt the dread begin to build up. “So, uh, what are we doing first?” Gina looked back up at Amy. That glance alone was enough to send Amy into a spiral of panic. “Wait!” she exclaimed, halting any answer she didn’t want. “I’m setting a few ground rules.” Gina rolled her eyes and scoffed at that, but continued to hold eye-contact to show she was listening. “Nothing that will affect my reputation, especially with the teachers. And nothing my parents will find out about.”

“Fine, fine,” Gina nodded, waving her hand. “But that’s it. You can’t just make up more rules halfway through.”

Amy nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Gina agreed, then turned back to her planning of Amy’s demise. A few minutes later, when Amy had been ordered to look away and the paper was full of random ideas in no actual order, Gina spoke again. “Here’s the deal: five rules to break, of my choosing.” Amy nodded slowly. “We start next week, one rule for each day. How’s that?”

“Good. I think.”

Gina broke into that cheshire-cat smile again. Amy’s stomach dipped.

At dinner, the whole group gathered round onto a circular table. Gina, Jake and Charles were gathered round a little closer at one end, all surrounding the sheet of paper holding Amy’s fate on it. When Gina vocalised what Amy had agreed to, Terry and Rosa sent her cautious and curious looks, but she had nothing to reply. She accepted the distraction when Rosa pulled out some clearly old homework and asked Amy for help, just to occupy her.

She was grateful for that. 

She wasn’t grateful for the gleeful look Gina kept giving her over the paper she was holding in her hands, but whatever. 

“Why would you agree to that?” Rosa wrote on the edge of the paper at one point, distracting Amy from her answering of the actual questions.

“To prove I’m cool,” Amy replied.

“I love you and all and I know how you are with competition but this is a suicide mission,” Rosa scribbled. “Gina’s not gonna go easy on you, she hates you.”

Amy scoffed as Rosa slid the paper back over. “She doesn’t hate me.”

“She does.”

“She doesn’t like me that much, maybe, but she doesn’t hate me.”

“She hates you. She tried to get you out of the group as soon as you and Jake didn’t work out.”

Amy’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, are you not joking?”

Rosa sent her a quizzical look. “No. Did you not realise this? She’s mean to you all the time.”

“I thought she just found me a bit annoying, I didn’t think she hated me.” Amy’s face contorted into a hurt expression as her eyes drifted to the opposite side of the table, where Gina was hunched over and didn’t notice any change in Amy. Sure, Amy didn’t really like Gina that much either, but she never could’ve hated her. She never would.

“I can get you out of doing this if you want.” She drew a little knife next to the sentence, which Amy immediately scribbled out in objection. Rosa rolled her eyes.

“No. If Gina actually hates me that much, how spineless am I gonna seem if I just give up? This is my chance to make her like me.”

Rosa sent her a disbelieving look as soon as she read the sheet, but Amy didn’t falter. “That is not going to work,” she said aloud. The rest of the table turned to look at them and Amy’s eyes darted to Gina, who quirked an eyebrow at both the statement and whatever look Amy was incidentally giving her.

“What are we talking about?” Jake inquired.

“Just my newest plan,” Amy answered before Rosa could, not bowing away from Gina’s sharp stare as usual. Gina only seemed more amused, her lips curving upwards.

“Plan?” Gina repeated, curious.

Amy smiled, narrowing her eyes. “Yeah.”

“It’s not going to work,” Rosa reiterated, looking pointedly at Amy. “You get that, right?”

Amy looked back to Rosa. “We’ll just have to see,” she shrugged, still smiling.

Rosa resisted the urge to face-palm, instead mumbling an unenthusiastic, “Good luck.”

“O-kay,” Jake called, chuckling and sharing looks with most of his equally confused friends. He turned back to his conversation with Charles.

Gina didn’t look away.

She had her very own plan.

Of all the ideas her friends had developed for her, she could pick out the rules Amy was required to break. She had decided that her first three would be relatively easy, then would progressively become harder. As her finishing number, she would add a bonus step, that Amy would stay completely unaware of until the last moment.

She had decided, that final jump had to be terrifying. She’d be able to see the shock and horror on Amy’s face and it could stay a perfect memory forever. On her deathbed, just as she felt her life slipping away, she would be able to imagine that image of Amy and let out one singular snort of a laugh before collapsing.

Problem was, she was still struggling for that idea. It had to be heartbreaking for Amy and simultaneously perfect for Gina’s enjoyance. None of the ideas she had formulated seemed worthy enough just yet.

The bell rung intrusively through the hall. Gina packed away her belongings with a sigh and grabbed Amy’s arm before she ran off.

“You could’ve just said my name,” Amy said, brows furrowed as she eyed the hand on her arm. “I would’ve stopped.”

“This method has proved to be fool-proof, don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, Amy. Even you’ve gotta know that.”

“I just wanna get to class.” Amy sent her a look, attempting to tug her arm out of the grasp.

“That’s why I stopped you,” Gina claimed, lifting herself up from the table and slinging her bag over her shoulder. Amy raised a brow. “What do we have?”

“History.” Amy ripped the hand away and started walking. “And I don’t wanna be late, so you better know your power-walking.”

Gina snorted. “If you think I’m running to that class just so you can suck up to Kev, you’re wrong.”

Amy sent her a hard look. “Mr. Cozner,” she corrected firmly, earning a characteristic eye-roll.

When they made it to the door, Amy took a deep sigh in, brushed her hands across her outfit, and stepped in. She followed her usual routine of which she always greeted Cozner with, and Gina turned away, deciding she had never done anything to deserve the torture that was watching that interaction.

Gina hadn’t paid any attention to the lesson. She spent the entire time working on her plan while watching the way the wind hit random strands of Amy’s hair out of place. When Amy left, later than all the other students, she was holding a sheet of paper.

Gina started walking and gestured to it. “What’s that?”

Amy beamed. “Mr. Cozner gave me extra work!” she squealed, holding the paper to her chest and closing her eyes. “We’re forming a bond. I can feel it.”

“Huh, this rule-breaking thing really is gonna be good for you.” Amy ignored her, too happy with her approval from Cozner to care about Gina’s bitchiness.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Jake ran up to them and gestured to another spot. “Guys, everybody’s over here.” He lead them over.

Amy raised a brow at the group they had formed. “Why are we all together? Are you guys not going home?”

“Oh, no,” Jake chuckled, drumming his fingers against each other dramatically. “We are not.”

Amy gave him a curious look, waiting for him to continue, but he never did. When Rosa walked up a few moments later, Amy stepped closer to her.

“Do you know what’s going on?”

“Did nobody tell you?” Amy shook her head. “We’re heading out to Jake’s. He’s got water guns.”

“Oh.” Amy nodded, still a little lost.

“You coming?”

She pondered for a moment, considering all the possible downsides. “Sure,” she agreed, meeting Rosa’s eyes. “I guess I can fit that into my sched.”

“Amy’s coming,” she spoke a little louder to the group. Jake nodded.

“Damn right he is!” Adrian called, suddenly behind them. Amused, Rosa quirked a brow at him.

“I said Amy.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Well, they’re kind of similar, right?”

Jake swayed his head from side to side. “Eh…”

“You’re so stupid,” Rosa said fondly. 

“You’re weird,” Adrian shot back, and then they were kissing. Amy twirled around and inched closer to Terry, who grimaced at Rosa and Adrian’s interaction.

As soon as the squad arrived at Jake’s, they had ten minutes to prepare for the Water Gun War.

See, Amy had merely been told that Jake had water guns. That statement didn’t nearly scratch the surface of the actual truth. As any sane person would have done, she plainly assumed that whoever was willing could have a little water gun fight for a small game to speed up time. The fun type. 

How wrong she was.

Jake’s little squad had been planning the massive Water Gun War for the entire month, something Amy had not been notified on. There were two teams pit against each other. In Jake’s team, there was Charles, Doug Judy and Sophia. Amy had only met Doug Judy and Sophia briefly, but apparently Jake knew them well.

“Well, now…” Jake started, pacing in front of the line-up of a group over-dramatically, “we’re in quite the predicament here.”

On The G’s, Gina was predictably the leader, with Rosa, Adrian and Terry accompanying her. 

With Amy joining them, there was an uneven number and therefore they were in, as Jake had claimed, quite the predicament. 

“I could just be the judge..?” Amy offered, stepping forward from the group. “I wasn't exactly prepared anyway—“

“Nope! There is no getting out of this whatsoever, Amy!” 

“I wasn’t—“

“Ah! Bup-bup-bup.” Amy walked back with a roll of her eyes, leaning back against the wall. “We need a compromise. And what better than Rock, Paper, Scissors?” After no protest, Gina and Jake took their respective positions in the middle of the room, both holding their hands out ready. “Winner gets Amy.”

“Well, I might be rooting to lose. She’s not exactly a prize.”

“Thanks, Gina,” Amy deadpanned, shooting her a look.

Gina winked and clicked her tongue, sending a two finger salute in reply. “Anytime, girl,” she promised.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” they counted in unison. “Shoot!” 

Gina chose scissors, defeating Jake’s paper.

“Ugh, alright. Amy, you’re with me!”

“I realise.”

Amy moved across the room, standing with The G’s.

“Alright, everybody, listen up!” Everybody leaned in. “You’ve prepared for this, squad. 5 minutes to prepare..." Jake paused, setting up the timer on his clock, then holding it high above his head so everyone could see. Amy was about to interject that no, she had not prepared for this, before Jake cut her off. “Go!”

“Okay, G’s! Scatter!” Gina ordered, and all of The G’s did so immediately, save Amy. She stood there awkwardly, glancing around for any sort of sign of what she was supposed to do. “Amy, you’re with me! Follow!”

Gina and Amy ran into Jake’s kitchen, bumping into Sophia on the way. Amy had tried to apologise quickly, but Gina had hurled extremely specific insults and shouted at Amy to, “Go! Go! Go!”

“Grab as many water balloons as you can and bring them back to the box with my face on it at our HQ!” Gina exclaimed, leaving Amy with a million questions. 

“Water balloons, too?!” was the only one she managed before Gina was already running back, balancing water balloons in her hands. Amy quickly followed suit, figuring out where there HQ was from a frantic Terry. 

After filling the water balloon box, Rosa grabbed Amy’s arm so they were walking together and she could explain to Amy everyone’s roles in the groups as the two of them figured out hiding spots around their designated section of the garden.

"Gina’s our leader," Rosa said, stuffing a balloon behind a pillow nonchalantly. “Terry is the main gun shooter and I'm the main water balloon thrower.”

“And Adrian?” Amy prompted as she knelt down, glancing under the benches.

“He was originally the gun shooter, but we found out he gets…” Rosa paused to consider her wording, pursing her lips for a moment, “very passionate.” Amy nodded hesitantly, glancing over to Adrien, who was setting up a stack of boxes by one section of the garden and watching Jake, momentarily. “So, we switched him to lookout. Gina also gave him the permission to shout insults at the other team.”

“…Oh. Do you know what I should do for my job?"

“No idea,” Rosa shrugged. “Check with Gina.” 

Rosa walked away, back to the water balloon box. 

“Last 2 minutes!” Jake declared. Amy stabilised her hiding spot behind a bush and waved Gina over as soon as she came running outside.

“Gina!”

“From now on, you have to refer to me as ‘boss lady’.”

Amy ignored her. “Rosa told me about everyone else, what’s my job?”

Gina paused, considering, then shrugged. “Don’t be annoying.”

“Gina.”

“That’s not my name.”

“Boss lady.”

Gina smiled, pleased with the submission and a little more open to cooperation with Amy. “You wanna be a detective when you’re older, right?” Amy nodded. “Okay, grab a gun, you can shoot whoever you want. Normal police rules.”

“That’s— that’s not—“

A screeching noise rang through. Rosa and Terry found their respective spots in seconds and Amy took it as a hint to duck down. She grabbed a gun that had been thrown onto the ground around them and looked at Jake’s side. There was no sight of movement, until Adrian started screaming for The G’s to attack, so Amy just shot blindly under the pressure. She ended up shooting water straight into Adrian’s eye, but he just clenched it shut and congratulated Amy on her energy.

The fight lasted an entire hour of shooting and throwing and hiding and a little bit of crying. Amy was told afterwards that it was an annual thing, and only felt more freaked out.

“Alright, I’m leaving,” she declared. Everybody said their separate goodbyes, but Gina’s was especially unique. She held two fingers up and mouthed, “Two days,” and winked tauntingly.

Amy left Jake’s house with a striking feeling of dread flowing through her. She started Monday with that same thing.

Chapter Text

Step 1: be late to a class

Gina read over her first rule for the second time, making sure it was the perfect start. It was as boring as humanly possible, but she knew exactly how Amy would react. She would put a hand to her heart in horror and drop down onto her knees to beg Gina to take mercy on her (or something along those lines, anyway).

When Gina had arrived and scanned her eyes across the school grounds, she instantly felt Amy’s eyes on her, and quickly found them. She couldn’t help but break out into a toothy grin at the visible panic in her friend’s demeanour.

“Heyyy, Ames,” she greeted, dropping her arm to lean against Amy’s shoulder and interrupting whatever Kylie had been talking about. “Ya excited?”

“Gina,” Amy mumbled in that specific voice; the not-a-scold-voice but also the definitely-about-to-be-a-scold-voice-so-watch-yourself-voice. She gestured to Kylie with her eyes. “Can we do this in a bit? I want to talk to Kylie.”

Amy’s guilt over spending more time with Jake’s group than Kylie was clear to anyone with eyes. And without, to be fair. You could sense her discomfort in the air. As much as Gina would love to bring that topic up in their conversation and watch all the blood drain from Amy’s face, she took mercy on her. 

“Alright,” Gina agreed, looking between them, then sending Amy a quick look before turning away. “But don’t think you’ve gotten out of this.”

Kylie veered to watch Gina leave, then looked back to Amy. “What’s ‘this’?”

Amy let out a sigh. “Gina’s helping me become cool, or something. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”

Kylie hesitated, then smiled. “Okay. Still on for book club tomorrow?”

Amy matched the smile and nodded. “Definitely!” she agreed, then said her goodbyes to join Gina. Gina eyed Kylie from behind Amy as soon as she stepped in front of her.

“You know, it’s not that hard to drop someone. You just stop talking to them.”

“I don’t want to stop talking to Kylie!” Amy countered. “We’re good friends. We’ve just been a little distant lately.”

“Riiight,” Gina drawled, raising a brow. Amy quickly changed the subject, visibly uncomfortable.

“Have you decided what rule I’m going to break?”

Gina smiled. “Oh, yeah. You ready for this week?”

Amy weakly matched the smile, her lack of enthusiasm clear. “As I’ll ever be.”

Gina hummed in acknowledgment, giggling. “Cool,” she said, then reached into her pocket to pull out a crumpled piece of paper. She handed it to Amy. “Your first of many.”

Amy unravelled it to reveal her fate.

She stared at it for a few long moments. “P-shaw!” she cried, trying to laugh. “I can— I can be late to class. I have been late to class. Many-a-time.”

Gina was still smiling, unwavering. “Name one other time.”

“…No?” A beat. “Okay, so maybe I haven’t. But I can. I can totally do this.”

“That’s the mindset you gotta have,” Gina agreed, nodding along. “Oh, but I should specify. Ten minutes late. You aren’t loop-hole-ing your way outta this one.”

“That is not fair!” Amy exclaimed, then pointed uselessly at the piece of paper. “You— you should have said here! You can’t just change the—“

Gina put a finger on Amy’s lips to stop her. “Ames. I am the almighty. I can do as I please.”

Amy’s brows were furrowed as she slowly peeled Gina’s hand away from her face. “What does that make me?”

Gina studied her for a few moments. “I don’t know. A rat or something.”

Amy lifted her chin. “Well, rats are actually incredibly intelligent creatures, and I am—“

“Bored now,” Gina called, interrupting her. “I’ll see you when you’re ready for your task. Come find me.”

Amy grimaced as she watched Gina walk away.

At dinner, Gina didn’t talk to Amy. She made a beeline for Jake.

In the same atmosphere, Rosa’s words from Friday rung in her head. She recalled all of her and Gina’s previous interactions; none of which were necessarily friendly, to say the least. But none particularly unfriendly, either. She couldn’t understand what that meant.

She sighed and dropped her chin to rest on her fist. Sure, her and Gina’s dynamic had always been a little weird. She had always known that, already accepted it as something that couldn’t be changed. Adding in the fact that Gina had actually never liked her at all this whole time, was just weird. It felt unnervingly permanent; their relationship forever this uncomfortable. 

There had to be a way to fix that. There was simply no point in it. All it was going to was drive a wedge between their group, and she knew neither of them wanted that at all.

So Amy would fix it.

Amy was woken from her stupor when Rosa slid a piece of paper over to her.

“Are you good?” it read. Amy turned to her friend and nodded, sending her a look.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked quietly.

Rosa sent a cautious look towards their other friends then grabbed Amy’s hand, mumbling, “Come with me.”

Rosa guided her to the girl’s bathroom, ignoring Amy’s complaints of ‘not needing to be dragged around’. She glared enough that any other girls that had actually needed the bathroom would leave them alone. As soon as the door shut, she leaned against it and crossed her arms, raising a brow in Amy’s direction.

“Are you seriously still going through with this Gina thing?” 

“Yes,” Amy said, enunciating. “Why wouldn’t I be doing?”

“Because it’s dumb. And it’s only gonna hurt you. I don’t get why you’re doing it.” 

“Don’t you see it? I have the chance to actually affect Gina with this, Rosa! Not many people can say that. I can have an actual impact on her if I do this right.”

Rosa blew out a long breath, clearly exasperated. “Look, man, I’m trying to stop you from getting hurt. You need to realise this is just your weird need to please everyone.”

Amy scoffed. “I do not have a ‘weird need to please everyone’,” she claimed, brows raised. “I am just a very determined person.” 

Rosa raised one brow slowly. “It doesn’t matter how you say it, it’s still the same thing.”

The bell rung through.

Amy walked up to the door, then paused to look at Rosa as she was halfway through stepping out. “Just you wait,” she warned, smiling sweetly. Rosa raised a brow, unimpressed. “A month from now, maybe Gina will have replaced you. Maybe we’ll be wearing matching best friends necklaces.”

Amy left before she could hear the scoff.

Gina caught Amy walking to their next class and grabbed her arm. Amy grimaced, sending the hand gripping her bicep a dirty look.

“Why do people keep doing that?” she mumbled, but Gina ignored her, checking around the corner briefly before pulling Amy forward. Amy gave up on protesting.

“I’ve got a good place for us to hide for ten minutes, then you can sprint to tell Miss. Crawford whichever excuse you’ve come up with.”

“I had to come up with an excuse?!” Amy whisper-shouted. “I assumed you had one prepared. You’re the one making me do this.”

Gina snorted. “Oh, no. I’ve saved the excuses for the last of the rules, those are the hard ones. You have to do the work for these ones.”

Amy blew out a breath, but before she could complain, Gina randomly ducked under the staircase she had chosen and tugged Amy down with her.

“You couldn’t have warned me?!” Amy asked, grabbing at the walls around them for stability. Gina sat herself into the furthest corner and giggled, shaking her head shamelessly. Amy sat beside Gina and awkwardly pulled her knees up to her chest, uncomfortable in the tiny amount of space Gina had chosen for them. Bringing up her claustrophobia would just make Gina respect her less, though.

In the silence, Amy only grew more nervous. Gina examined her nails, uninterested in any more unneeded interaction between them. Maybe that should’ve scared Amy off. 

But she couldn’t let her research be in vain.

“So, uh—“ she cleared her throat, and Gina raised a brow slowly, “did you see that last season of The Real World? Hah, that Stephen and Irene thing was crazy, right?”

Gina studied her for a few seconds, amused, confused and kind of excited at the same time. “Since when do you watch The Real World?”

“Hah!” Amy scoffed, then threw her hand over her mouth when she realised she’d been too loud. Gina still looked amused. “Um— since forever, girl.”

“Oh, yeah?” 

“Yeah!” Amy laughed, as if it was something that would be obvious. It wasn’t. She knew that. Gina knew that. She scanned her mind for any other facts she could remember about the show. “I’m still worried about Lindsay. After all she went through, I feel like I still need an update. To make sure she’s good.”

“Well, the last episode made it pretty clear she’s doing better now.”

Amy’s eyes widened a bit. “Well— yeah. Obviously, I knew that. I was just saying. You know.” 

Gina watched her a few more moments before shifting in her position. “Amy, you told me in detail why you hate all reality TV shows about a month ago.”

Amy’s eyes didn’t meet hers. “People change. Stephen got anger management classes and changed. I’m like Stephen.”

“Did you pay my mom to give you a summary of The Real World or something?” Gina goaded, brows creased and lips curved just the slightest bit upwards. Amy’s attempts at being cool were better entertainment than she would have ever thought. “Is this supposed to be an extra thing to prove you’re cool?”

Amy stopped herself from letting out too loud a laugh, and instead altered her loud laugh into just a bit of a wheeze. “Yeah, right! I’m just enjoying girl-talk… girl.” 

“Mkay,” Gina drawled after another scrutinisation of Amy. She decided to play into the act. “Who was your favourite one, then?”

Amy had already forgotten all the other names. “Uh. Stephen?”

Gina’s eyebrows climbed further up her forehead. “That dude is in bucket-loads of denial, you’re into that?”

Amy blinked. “How do you mean?”

“That is a gay man,” Gina clarified. “I’ve dealt with some homophobic dicks, and no straight guy cares about gay people that much.” Amy still looked a little lost, and Gina smiled. “It’s called internalised homophobia, sweetie.”

“He said he wasn’t gay,” Amy said, unsure of whether she was recalling her information wrong. 

“That’s what he said,” Gina confirmed. “We gotta watch the show back or something, I can point out to you every scene it’s obvious.” 

Amy still didn’t really understand what their conversation had turned to, but something in her brain clicked when Gina said that. Gina had never said they should do something together without an underlying joke at Amy’s expense.

Progress.

“You’re staring into space, have you figured out it’s been way longer than ten minutes yet?”

“What?!” Amy exclaimed, too loud, shooting up from her spot and promptly hitting her head. Gina laughed and helped her up. She still seemed amused with Amy, but not in that cruel, mocking way she so often did; a more personal, affectionate way.

Progress.

Luckily, Miss. Crawford had believed Amy’s lame excuse. Or she had taken pity on Amy, assuming she wouldn’t have missed the first section of class on purpose. Amy had been able to think as highly as herself just a week ago.

When they were leaving class, Amy caught up to Gina. “We should watch that show some time together, like you said,” she suggested, and Gina turned to look at her from over her shoulder, having been unaware that Amy was with her. “It would be fun. Just some day after school or… whenever you’re free.”

Gina paused, then shrugged. “Eh. If you bring Jake or something.” 

Amy let herself fall into the crowd, away from Gina. Showing her disappointment would just make her less worthy of the cool title she was trying to earn. 

Two steps forward, one step back is still one step forward, she told herself. 

Progress? Progress.

Chapter Text

Step 2: surprise!

Gina drew a little winky face next to the word and folded the paper between her fingers, content. She smiled to herself. 

Jake was the first to arrive after her. “You’re early,” he mumbled, sitting next to her and unzipping his bag at the same time. He pulled out a granola bar (with chocolate chips, of course).

She waved the slice of paper in the air. “I have to try and catch Amy in the mornings. I already looked in the library.”

He shrugged. “She’s usually just walking around, whenever I see her in the mornings. I think she might be a part-time hall monitor, or something.”

Gina giggled, smiling to herself. “Probably.”

“What have you got for her today, anyway?”

“It’s a surprise.”

He paused, half expecting her to continue. “What, for me, too? I thought they were all surprises for her.”

“Yeah, but this one she can’t prepare for during the day. She’ll have to sit and fidget. And then deny fidgeting when I call it out.”

After a few beats, Gina noticed Jake’s gaze on her and turned. His brows were furrowed. He averted his gaze when he realised he’d been staring.

“You’ve really studied her, huh?”

“I have to, if I’m gonna win this bet.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “I wondered why.”

She nodded, looking down at the ground. Amy still wasn’t around. “You could come, if you want.”

He looked up. “What?”

“We’re doing it after school. You could come. Give me a break from her as my only social interaction for the week.”

He gave a weak laugh, after recognising her words as a joke. “I can’t, I’m busy.”

She sighed melodramatically. “Wow. Alright, best friend of 18 years, I don’t care about you either.”

He smiled. “You can’t blame me, you know you have to book my time! I’m very popular.”

“No, you’re not,” she countered. “You’re just with Charles every waking minute.”

He looked away, but his smile didn’t fade; cheeks just flushed, a little. She watched him more closely. “Yeah,” he agreed, noncommittal.

At that moment, Charles appeared behind them, as if summoned by his name. Gina wouldn’t be surprised if he had been; hiding down in the sewers with the rest of his rat family, just waiting for someone to say it.

Both Jake and Gina said Charles’ name, in extremely differing tones. Jake was grinning and Gina was looking at him expectantly.

“Gina?” Charles continued, confused as to why she would be talking to him. Jake only looked a little hurt.

“Have you seen Amy?” 

“Oh, yes!” he smiled. “She told me to stop running in the halls in the math block.”

“Math block. Got it. Shoulda known.” Gina jumped up from the bench she had been perched on, grabbed her bag and ran. She didn’t bother saying her goodbyes to either of her friends, assuming they were probably too busy with each other anyway.

“No running in the—“ Amy stopped walking, turning in place. She pursed her lips. “Gina?”

“The one and only,” Gina agreed, shoving Step 2 into her victim’s hands.

Amy eyed Gina from over the piece of paper. “You may be the one and only, but that doesn’t mean you can— ‘surprise’?” Amy lifted the paper closer to her face, squinting her eyes as if it would change what Gina had written. “What does this even mean?”

“It’s like… something that you won’t expect. I’m not gonna tell you what it is yet.”

“I know what a surprise is, Gina,” Amy deadpanned. “What’s the point of making one of the steps a surprise?”

Gina’s lips quirked upwards. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s not a reason, maybe it’s just for fun. Or maybe it’s extremely well thought out.” She shrugged, her lips tugging into a full grin. “You don’t know my mind.” The bell rung though. Gina paused, looking up for a few moments, then grimaced. “Ugh, I have math,” she mumbled. “You wait for me at the end of the day. You better be prepared.”

“How can I even—“ Gina had already turned the corner. Amy blew out a long breath, brows furrowed. “You’re right,” she mumbled, setting off in the direction of her next class. “I’ll never understand your mind.”

Amy’s hair wasn’t in a ponytail today. It was one of the first things Gina had noticed about her.

Maybe it was another sad attempt to be cool, or something. Or maybe she’d just forgotten. Gina’s nose scrunched at that; that didn’t sound like Amy. She didn’t really forget about anything. She must’ve just decided against the ponytail, for reasons Gina couldn’t fathom. 

The ends of Amy’s hair met Gina’s desk. The desks had all been pushed too close for comfort because the classroom was so small. It meant that if Gina unfolded her arms, moved her hand just a bit closer, she could reach for a strand of Amy’s hair.  

Amy was suddenly turning in her chair, leaning herself against Gina’s desk. Their hands touched due to Amy’s random placement, and Gina quickly retracted hers, dropping it to her lap.

“Alright, so what I think is—“

“Why are you talking to me?” Gina asked, her automatic reaction. She’d never been good with having a filter. 

Amy blinked, visibly confused. “Miss said to pair up. I saw you looking at me, so I just assumed…”

Gina paused, realising she had in fact been staring. “Oh. Oh, yeah. Right.” She looked down at the worksheet beneath her and grimaced. “Are we seriously doing poems again?”

Amy still looked confused. “Yes. We’re doing them for the whole semester, didn’t you know?”

Gina shrugged. “I don’t really listen.”

Amy eyed the lack of notes on Gina’s page. “Do you need my help?”

“Why? Do you know how to make this interesting?”

“Well, I—“ Amy cut herself off. Finding poetry interesting wasn’t gonna make her cool. “Yeah. I’d prefer to not be doing work right now,” she agreed, forcing a laugh.

Gina couldn’t stop the smile from instantly growing. “Aw, you don’t have to pretend to hate this stuff for me. Like what you want, just don’t make me do a test on it.”

Amy refrained from telling Gina there was a test on Friday. Don’t kill the vibe, Amy. “I wasn’t pretending,” she murmured meekly.

“Oh, so you really don’t like it? Why? Is it not advanced enough for you?” Gina queried. Amy faltered, struggling for a response.

“Girls.” The teacher was suddenly leering over Gina’s desk. Amy looked petrified, but Gina was just giving the teacher an unimpressed look. “I assume you’re talking about the work?”

“Yes, Miss,” Amy agreed immediately. Gina just nodded. 

She left Gina with one last look before leaving.

“Bitch. She’s not even hiding the favouritism.” 

“Don’t call her that,” Amy mumbled. Gina raised a brow, but Amy wouldn’t look at her. She was absorbed back into her work, terrified of being caught doing anything else again. Gina just rolled her eyes, turning to her own work.

“Your hair looks nice down,” Gina added, when they were leaving. Amy looked up at her, eyes wide and twinkling, then quickly the expression was blinked away.

“Oh.” She fidgeted with her hands, tapping two fingers just slightly. Gina didn’t comment on it. “Thanks.”

When they made it to the lunch hall, Gina instantly made a bee-line for where Rosa was sat, but Amy grabbed her arm at the last moment.

“Um—“ Gina raised a brow, looking at the hand holding her in place then back at the person responsible. Amy silently cursed herself for breaking the friendly atmosphere just starting to develop. “Where should I meet you, after school?”

Gina paused. “What’s your last class?”

“Chemistry.” 

“Hmm. I’ll come find you, then.”

Amy’s brows furrowed. “Um. Okay. Thanks.”

“Cool,” Gina drawled, then dropped her eyes to Amy’s arm again. 

“Oh!” Amy pulled her hand away, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Gina left to sit beside Rosa. Rosa ended up leaving their table to hang out with Adrian, so Amy awkwardly shuffled around to make it so she was sat next to Gina, trying to make it seem more coincidence than anything else. Gina didn’t say anything, if she thought any differently.

Amy’s eyes traveled nervously across the halls, searching for any place she could’ve missed a hiding Gina. Maybe the whole step was just that she had to find where Gina was hiding. It would’ve been much more bearable than any of the other horror stories Amy was making up in her head. Gina knew her well, if she had really known it would stress her out this much to have no idea what rule she was to be breaking. Or law. She wouldn’t put it past Gina.

Just as Amy began contemplating whether this was a big prank and if she should just leave, Gina rounded the corner.

“Gina!” Amy reprimanded, flashing her watch into view. “I have been waiting ten minutes for you.”

“I knowwww, girl, I’m sorry.” Gina gestured with her finger for Amy to follow her, then completely switched her direction down an entirely new hall. She continued talking and didn’t acknowledge Amy’s initial struggle to keep up with her. “I had to grab some stuff. Then get myself out of a detention.” Amy gasped and sent Gina a look. Gina just waved her hand. “Long story. Important thing is, I got myself out of it.”

“Important thing is why you got in it in the first place.”

“Important Thing is Why You Got in it in The First Place: title of your sex tape!” Jake called, running up behind them.

Amy stared at him for a few moments, bewildered. “Were— were you following us, just in case you would be able to make that joke?”

He smiled at the sentiment but shook his head. “No, I was following you because I wanted to scare you, then I saw the opportunity and couldn’t resist. What are you guys doing?”

Amy looked expectantly at Gina.

“Trashing this teacher’s room.”

Amy gasped loudly and stopped in place. Jake just gave a vaguely interested look.

“Cool, cool, cool. Good luck not getting caught. I’m gonna go find Rosa.”

“Why are you finding Rosa?” Gina inquired offhandedly. 

“Making a bet.”

“What bet? I’ll get in on that. I’m the most intuitive person I know, I’ll have the answer no matter what it is.”

Jake paused mid-stride, turning to look between the two. He pursed his lips, then pulled them into a line and shrugged. “It’s nothing interesting,” he said, then continued to walk away much faster.

“Huh,” Gina said, watching Jake leave. She felt Amy’s eyes burning into her side and turned. “Oh. Forgot about you. How long have you had your mouth open like that?”

“Trash a teacher’s room?!”

“Okay, do you want us to get caught before we’ve even started?”

“What reason could there possibly be to justify doing that?” Amy asked, at least whisper-shouting this time. 

“He gives way too many pop quizzes. This’ll teach him.”

“What?”

“Ugh, just come on,” Gina grumbled, dragging Amy by the wrist.

“Are you kidding me? This is inhumane, Gina!” Gina stopped in front of a door Amy didn’t recognise. “I’m not in this class,” Amy observed, looking over the door.

“Do you wanna be cool or not?”

Amy stammered for a few moments. “What— what is cool about this?”

“Look, I’m not just doing this to be a dick. I can say with absolute certainty that this guy is a dick.”

Amy crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. “Why are you doing this, then?”

Gina shrugged. “I said. Too many pop quizzes.” She groaned after enough scrutinisation from Amy. “Look, he’s not gone for long. It’s now or never. Are you cool or not?”

Amy still looked hesitant. “You’ve put a lot of effort into this.”

“I like creating chaos,” Gina said nonchalantly, looking at the door and not Amy. She snook a look through the window. “Are you coming or not?”

Amy watched her for a few moments more, before letting out a long groan and grumbling, “Fine.”

Gina grinned. “Knew you had it in ya,” she praised, then pulled the door open.

“Was that not—“

“I had Rosa show me how to jimmy the lock. That’s what I was off doing before,” Gina explained quickly, shuttling the door behind Amy, who cautiously looked around the room.

“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Amg murmured to herself, slowly walking through the classroom.

“You can leave whenever you want,” Gina reminded her from across the room, where she was finding her way into the locked closet. “Just remember the bet.”

“Right.” After watching Gina struggle to open the closet for a while, Amy spoke up again. “Uh, what should I do? I don’t exactly do this often. I don’t really know what to—“

Gina waved a hand. “Just mess up his desk a little.”

Amy looked down at the desk she was already stood in front of. “Right. Okay.”

Gina pulled one last time and the closet door flew open. She practically cackled. She pulled out a bottle of shaving cream from her jacket pocket and shook it, smiling much too wide for Amy’s comfort.

She forced herself to look away from Gina and turned her attention to the trinkets lining the desk. She flipped a few upside down, then worked on slowly moving them all in random directions. When she looked up, she noticed Gina was watching her. Her smile wasn’t exactly fond, but she didn’t seem displeased, either. Just mildly amused.

A little nervous, Amy smiled tightly at Gina. 

Then they heard it. Footsteps.

Amy almost fell over. Gina looked at her with wide eyes then frantically gestured for Amy to come over to her. Just as Amy was about to ask what her plan was, Gina stuffed her into the closet and then slotted herself next to her.

“Not my first time hiding in a closet,” Gina mumbled, looking around at their limited space.

“You do this often?”

“What? What do you think I’m talking about?”

“Oh, God, I can’t do this.”

“Shh,” Gina mumbled.

“I am extremely claustrophobic.”

For a split-second, Gina looked worried. That could’ve been the dark playing tricks on Amy, though. “Two minutes, max, Ames, I promise. It can’t be the teacher, he’s at a meeting.”

“How much effort have you—“

“Shh,” Gina reiterated.

When the footsteps seemed far enough away, Gina pushed the door open and Amy jumped out. She held herself firmly against one of the desks and squeezed her eyes shut.

“I think I’m gonna throw up,” she breathed. Gina pulled a face as she wiped the remnants of shaving cream off of Amy’s skin.

“If you do, can you do it on his seat?” Amy veered to glare at Gina, who just shrugged, looking at least mildly apologetic. She let Amy catch her breath before continuing. “Are you good?”

Before Amy could answer, the footsteps sounded again.

“No! No, I cannot go back in there—“

“I’m not gonna make you,” Gina clarified, grabbing Amy’s hands, “don’t panic. We’re gonna have to make a break for it.”

Amy looked more panicked than before. “What—“

“Just hold on to me, okay? Even if you hear anything, don’t look back.” Amy nodded, gripping onto Gina’s right hand as said girl cracked open the door to check if the footsteps were coming from anyone close. After one last careful look, she ran.

Amy heard someone shouting, at one point, but she made sure not to look back. When they were just running out of the front doors to the school and they were sure they’d lost whoever had noticed them, Gina did look back, smiling blindly and blindingly at Amy. She couldn’t stop laughing, Amy noticed. She’d been laughing since they first set off and Amy nearly tripped over herself.

Amy couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Gina looked with the adrenaline running through her, how free she seemed. It looked so natural for her to have that joy. On Amy, though, it probably looked fake, wrong. But, maybe, hopefully, like someone who was trying, nonetheless. 

They stopped running when they were far enough away from the school. Gina still hadn’t really stopped laughing, and Amy still hadn’t stopped smiling. When she started to take stock of her surroundings, she faltered.

“My bus stops there,” she mused, then her face fell. “Oh my God, what time is it?” One glance at her watch had her on the edge of a spiral. “I missed the bus,” she breathed. “Oh my God, my parents are gonna kill me. Oh, no, this is—“

“Amy,” Gina grabbed her hands, “stop panicking. You’re fine.”

Amy held a hand up to the bridge of her nose, still not really breathing right. “I think that closet thing really freaked me out.”

Gina grunted. “Did for me the first time, too.”

Amy didn’t seem to hear her. “Oh, God. I can’t even call my parents. When is the next bus?”

She didn’t want to say it, but as soon as she thought about it, it was too late. The words just fell. “I live nearby.” Amy turned and sent her a surprised look. “You could use the landline to call your parents.”

Amy blinked a few times. The opportunity she had to get closer to Gina was extremely daunting. “How, uh, how close are you?”

Gina pointed just behind her. “There.”

“Oh.” Amy smiled.

“Huh,” Gina continued, when they were at the door and she was reaching for her key. “Can’t believe this is your first time going to a friends house in your seventeen years of living.”

Amy turned to her, brows furrowed, finger raised ready to deny the accusation, then paused. She blinked. “Uncalled for.”

“Okay,” Gina drawled. “Do you know your home number or do I gotta find my mom’s book?”

Amy scoffed. “Of course I know the number,” she said, sending Gina an amused look before turning back to the phone and typing in said number. Gina slumped against the wall and watched Amy take the call. “Hi, is this, um— Dad!” A wide smile grew and she held the phone closer to her. Gina probably would’ve done the exact opposite if her dad had called, but she refrained from mentioning it. “Hey, I’m so sorry I’m not home yet. I missed the bus and it doesn’t come for another—“ Amy’s smile dropped. “Why did I miss it?” she repeated, voice ice cold. Her gaze glided over to Gina as she struggled to come up with an answer.

“Your club ran over,” Gina whispered.

Amy nodded vigorously. “Yes! Uh, the club, it…” She seemed to process what Gina had said and her look altered into one of confusion. Her brows twisted as she scrutinised Gina. “My club ran over,” she mumbled, and Gina heard her father’s soft chuckle. She dropped eye-contact with Amy when the look became too piercing. Over the course of the call, Amy continued to give her that same look.

“Why were you giving me that look?” Gina asked after the call had ended.

Amy glared at her. “You knew I had my club tonight? You couldn’t have reminded me?”

Gina watched her for a few moments, having not expected that of all things. Eventually, she shrugged weakly. “Didn’t think you had forgotten. I thought you were just trying to avoid Kylie, like I said.” When Amy didn’t say anything, she added, “Plus, it worked better for my plan, anyway.”

Amy stared at her, speechless. “Oh my God, Gina!” she exclaimed with a humourless laugh. Gina’s brows furrowed. “Do you ever think about anyone but yourself?!” Gina’s look changed to one much colder, but Amy didn’t seem to notice. Her gaze never tore away from Amy. “Even tonight!” she continued. “You ruined that poor man’s room just for doing his job! I mean, too many pop quizzes, really, Gina? If you could just—“

“He cheated on my mom.”

Amy stopped, turned on the spot and stared at Gina. The voice didn’t even sound like hers. She had never noticed how eccentric every-day-Gina was until she wasn’t there anymore. Now she was slumped against the wall, arms crossed around herself protectively, brows furrowed, face twisted into a look of contempt. 

Amy blinked. “What?” she breathed, voice much quieter than before.

Gina paused for a few moments before elaborating. “My mom and him have been going out for a few months. She’s just found out he’s been cheating on her for four out of five of them.” She lifted five fingers up, then raised her brows as she dropped four of them into her palm. She looked oddly menacing. Her posture shifted, eyes dragged themselves away from Amy. “She’s trying to make it so I don’t notice but I keep finding her crying and… stuff. I don’t want her to deal with this and him to deal with nothing.” She shrugged. “And, yeah, the pop quizzes were annoying.”

Amy stared at her silently. For much too long, probably. But the sight of an emotionally vulnerable Gina was almost too much for her to process. “I’m— I’m sorry,” she forced out. “I didn’t know.” She knew she had to say more, but she couldn’t find the words to. 

Gina looked her up and down, eyes narrowing, before saying, “‘Kay,” and pushing past Amy to make her way up the stairs. “You’ll have to stay in my room for a bit, if you’re waiting for the next bus. It’s a while.”

Amy physically cringed, grateful for the fact Gina couldn’t see her, but nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

Gina hummed in acknowledgment. After a moment to compose herself, Amy followed her up to her own room.

In Gina’s room, Amy couldn’t help but want to look around. She looked at the countless posters plastered across the room, most of them with women she didn’t recognise on. She recognised the poster of Taylor Hanson, but she had to assume that was useless, because it was screwed up on the floor. 

“What happened to that?” she asked after building up the courage to speak again. “Did you stop liking him?”

Gina gave her an unreadable expression for a long moment before answering. “He represents denial that lasted way too long, he can stay on the ground.”

“Oh.” Amy nodded, not at all understanding. She decided asking would probably make Gina respect her less, though. “She’s pretty,” she mumbled, weakly lifting her finger to point at a specific poster. 

Gina looked where Amy was and nodded. “Well, yeah. She’s there for a reason.”

“Right,” Amy nodded. “Yeah. Of course.” Then, her eyes fell to the desk Gina was sitting at. There was stacks of papers in front of her, but she was focusing on doodling on a scrap piece of paper instead. Amy blinked, then hesitantly walked closer. The air still felt stale between them. “What are you doing?”

“Drawing a cat.”

“And, uh… what are these?” Gina looked up to see what Amy was talking about and she made a vague gesture to the stacks of paper. 

“Oh. Some homework, I think.”

Amy’s eyes lit up, though there was also a part of her that felt horrified. But, also, homework. Even Gina had to see the fun in that.

“Are you, uh.” Amy walked closer, leaning against the desk just slightly. “Are you planning on doing it now?”

Gina eyed her for a few moments. Amy silently wondered whether she could even remember their argument, because she was weirdly… normal. Usually in a fight, she would make all her problems known and out in the open until they were solved.

She shrugged. “Not really planning on doing it ever.”

Amy paused, genuinely puzzled, then laughed, assuming Gina must be joking. When Gina didn’t laugh with her, she stopped and stared at her.

“What?”

“Most of it’s overdue. I just trick the teachers so I don’t have to do it.”

“You don’t like doing homework?”

Gina slowly raised a brow. “Do you?”

Amy recognised the look Gina was giving her and backtracked. “Well, I mean… no. Not really. I just, you know, think it’s worth doing.”

Gina turned away. “Do it, then.”

Amy took her words seriously and grabbed the first piece she could. “Astrology. You have an astrology class?”

“Yeah, it’s a club thing. I had to sign up for one and that sounded like it’d have the most girls in it.”

“Oh.” Amy’s brows furrowed. “That’s why you picked it?”

She shrugged. “Mainly. It’d be cool to make stars references, too.”

“Oh, well.” Amy smiled. “How many can you make so far?”

Gina looked up and stared at her blankly. “One.”

“What?!” Amy exclaimed, dropping the piece of homework. “Which one?”

“Me.”

Amy stared at her, eyes blown wide. “Do you need tutoring?”

Gina cocked her head. “You know astrology?”

“I know more than you.”

Gina folded her lips together in thought. “Sure.”

Amy placed the homework over Gina’s doodles and started looking around. “Please tell me you have the textbook.”

“Oh, that thing. It’s here.” She pulled the book out of a drawer and Amy grabbed it, promptly pulling it open. She blinked.

“Gina, you haven’t even opened this yet,” she pointed out, flexing the pages.

“Does anybody really read them, anyway?” Gina prompted, and Amy just looked more confused.

They spent the rest of Amy’s time there going over the book. After enough time, Gina looked as though she might be taking an actual interest in the subject, but Amy didn’t let herself get her hopes up. She just left the thought in the back of her mind to add notes to later. 

Besides, there were more important things right now.

She stopped at the door, just as Gina was ushering her out. She earned a raised brow in response, but she didn’t let it deter her. “I’m sorry,” she said, and Gina paused, expression morphing into something Amy couldn’t recognise. “For what I said before. All the things I said, I mean. You were completely in the right, for what you did to him,” she admitted, eyes meekly meeting Gina’s. “It’s really sweet, what you did for your mom.”

After a few moments of silence, Gina nodded. “Yeah. I’m a very caring person.”

Amy smiled tightly. It didn’t feel like the apology had really done anything, she could still feel the strange atmosphere between them, but she ignored it and forced herself to turn and walk away. She’d done everything she could have, anyway. 

“Thank you,” Gina added, too quiet for someone like her, and Amy stopped in place. “We’re good.” She felt the tension fade. Her lips tugged themselves into a wide smile. 

She carried on walking when she heard the door click behind her.

Chapter Text

Step 3: don’t do Cozner’s homework and don’t compliment Cheddar

Gina knew this rule would be torture for Amy. Mr. Cozner was undoubtedly Amy’s favourite teacher. She did everything to try and impress him. And his dog, strangely, who was pretty much always there, just watching them through the portrait he hung above his desk.

Every time they entered his class, she had the same routine; compliment something random about Cheddar, then greet his owner who was already happy because anyone who complimented his dog was a good person in his book—could be a mass murderer, he would not care—then would walk up to his desk and ask something about what they would be learning that day. They would continue like that until everyone else entered, because Amy had already gotten in early enough for her perfect conversation. She’d walk over to her chair with a little grin she thought nobody could see.

Gina wondered half-heartedly when she’d become so observant of Amy but shoved the thought to the dark place in her mind she only visited at night while staring up at the blank ceiling of her room. At that moment, the devil herself came strolling on up to Gina, demanding to know of her fate. A smirk appeared on Gina’s face as she handed Amy the paper and Amy sent her a fearful look, silently begging for something easy.

When her eyes landed on the piece of paper, all hope drained from her eyes. The sight made Gina cackle.

“You have got to be kidding this time!” Amy cried, holding the sheet out in front of her. “This— this can’t be serious, I can’t—“

“Ames!” Gina sung teasingly, holding a finger in front of her. “Do you wanna be cool or not?”

“You can’t do this to me,” she breathed. 

The bell rang, and Amy’s panicked look intensified.

“No, I can’t.” Gina shrugged. “It’s your choice.” She smiled, leaving Amy with a wink and lifting herself off of the table she had perched herself on, brushing past Amy to leave to her first class. Amy still had that horrified expression, ignoring the way her skin tingled as Gina pushed past it.

At recess, Amy found Gina as soon as possible, dragging her away from her conversation with Jake. Being distracted by thoughts of Gina in class of all places (she was supposed to be able to focus and enjoy that time!) had frustrated Amy greatly.

“Wow. Jealous, much?”

Amy let go of her arm, furrowing her brows. “What? No! I just need to talk to you about the bet.”

Gina’s expression shifted. “You’re calling it off already, huh? We haven’t even gotten to the hard part yet.”

“No, I’m just—“ Amy paused, “this isn’t the hard part?” Gina raised her brows, then shook her head slowly. Amy stared at her for a moment. “You’re insane,” she breathed, then shook her head in an attempt to regain her composure. “I was, uhm, I wanted to know if I can have a say in the rules I have to break. For today.”

“Ah-ah, we did the negotiating at the start. You can’t change anything now. It’s all or nothing.”

“But this one is ridiculous!” Amy exclaimed. She held the sheet up, pointing to Gina’s writing. “Not doing the homework, Gina? Who wouldn’t do that?!”

“I would bet money Jake hasn’t done any homework this entire semester.”

Amy’s nose scrunched. “Oh my God.” She sighed. “What would I even do with the homework? I’ve already done it.”

Gina shrugged. “Just put it in the trash.”

Amy gasped loudly. “The trash?” Gina shrugged in response to the accusing look Amy gave her. “I don’t understand you. At all.”

“Likewise. Hey, can I copy the homework? I didn’t do mine.” 

Amy sighed. “I’ll teach you,” she said begrudgingly, pulling the homework out of her bag. Gina swooped in to grab it and crumpled it up into a ball, then held it up in the air, gearing up to aim it into the trash can a bit away from them. Amy grabbed her wrists to stop her, shouting, “Wait!” Expectantly, Gina looked at her. “Can I at least keep it in my room as memorabilia?” 

Gina narrowed her eyes at her, but there was a small smile she was struggling to hide. “Fine,” she agreed, dropping the sheet to be picked up by the wind. Immediately, Amy saved it and started scrambling to neaten it up. “But only because I’m scared you’ll disintegrate if you don’t.” Amy just nodded offhandedly, not really paying attention. Her eyes scanned over the entire homework piece. Gina watched her silently for a moment. “‘Kay, I’ll see you in History. No homework, remember?” 

“No homework,” Amy mumbled in begrudging agreement, watching Gina walk away.

Walking into Mr Cozner’s class was torture, to say the least. For one, Amy had been later than usual (which wasn’t late-late but still) due to Gina’s antics. He looked up from his desk expectantly, sending a small, signature smile Amy’s way. Her stomach turned.

“Um, I don’t—“

Amy looked between Cozner and Gina, blinking. When she hesitated, Gina’s hand landed on her back to softly guide her to her seat. She automatically shook her head, uncomfortable with the touch, and pulled away, backing away to the door.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t— I don’t know—“

“Ames?” she heard Gina call, but she didn’t see her. “Amy, honey, do you need me to—“

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

She felt the door behind her. She didn’t realise until she was already falling backwards. 

Hands were on her as soon as she was on the ground. She pulled her knees up to her chest and shook her head, failing to shove the hands or the voices away. She closed her eyes tightly and folded into herself as tightly as she could. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t stop.

After a few moments, it stopped. Amy heard a louder voice speak over them all, silence the rest of them. She didn’t shift.

She flinched away when a hand touched hers, and the hand pulled away immediately. 

“Ames? Can you speak?” Amy closed her eyes tighter. For some reason, having a person talking to her made everything even more overwhelming. It took her a moment to process, but she shook her head. “Take your time,” Gina mumbled, having noticed Amy’s hesitance. “Can you look up for me?” Amy shook her head. “Okay. Can you, uh…” Gina trailed off, seeming to struggle for words. Amy just kept shaking. It was colder than usual. Then, noticing her ragged breaths, Gina continued, “Can you breathe with me?” Amy nodded her head, and Gina promptly started breathing slower, trying to help Amy copy her. Amy did, but she was still shaking. 

“I don’t know what to do,” Amy murmured, when she felt her voice was back. 

“Look, you’re just panicking, okay? It’s fine. I promise, you’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Amy nodded weakly. Gina watched as she slowly lifted her head up, resting her chin on her knee. She wiped a tear stain away quickly. 

They were outside the classroom door, which had since shut. Amy was on the ground and Gina was kneeled in front of her, still watching her. She hadn’t looked away. 

“I’m taking you to the nurse,” Gina said, after watching her for a moment longer. She stood from the ground and held her hand out, patiently waiting for Amy to take it. When she did, Gina pulled her up and let go afterwards, but Amy immediately looked uncomfortable, so she put her hand on Amy’s waist to help guide her. Amy leaned her body against Gina’s and dropped her head on to Gina’s shoulder as they walked. 

Gina didn’t mention it.

The nurse didn’t say anything was actually wrong with Amy and that there wasn’t much she could do, but Gina glared at her enough that she at least gave Amy a ‘well done!’ sticker, which Amy did actually seem at least a  little happy about.

“I’m sorry,” Amy mumbled when they were walking back to class. “I do that sometimes. I didn’t, um…” She hesitated when she saw Gina’s eyes on her. “I didn’t think it’d happen because of something like that.”

Gina stayed silent for a beat. “It was my bad,” she countered. “Should’ve known that making it about Kev would be too far.” Amy nodded weakly and stayed silent, so Gina continued. “You’ve still got the homework, right?”

Amy’s eyes widened. “Are you gonna make me throw it away?” she whispered. 

“No, you can go give it to him now. Class will be over by the time we get back there.” 

Amy stared at her, brows pulled together. “Wouldn’t that mean I’d lose the bet?”

Gina waved a hand. “You can get a freebie. I think full-on panic attacks warrant that.” 

Amy smiled, looking down. “Probably,” she agreed with a soft titter. “Thank you for helping me, by the way.” She looked up, but Gina immediately looked away.

“Sure.”

Amy watched her out of the corner of her eye as they walked.

They stopped outside the door of the classroom, letting the kids filter out and push past them to leave the school. Amy smoothed over the barely crumpled piece of paper a few more times, took a deep breath, then stepped into the room. Gina leaned on the door to listen to their conversation. 

“Amy,” Kevin acknowledged, looking up from his desk. “Hello. How are you feeling?”

Amy smiled tightly. “Better. Thank you, Sir.” She stepped up to his desk, diligently handing her homework over. His eyes skimmed over the sheet, then met hers again.

“Of course,” he nodded. “I appreciate the dedication, but are you sure you’re alright? I wasn’t sure how to help.” His eyes drifted over to Gina. “Of course, Miss Linetti, you were a great help. Well done.”

Gina smiled, cocking her head. “C’mon, Kev, we’re past that. It’s Gina.”

He nodded, smiling. “Well done, Gina.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m great.”

“Yes,” he agreed with a curt nod, then looked back at Amy. She was smiling at Gina’s antics, looking down. “Please, do talk to me if you feel you need to,” he said, and she looked back up. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

Amy swallowed, but smiled politely. “I will.” She checked her watch. “Um— I should probably go now. Gotta catch the bus.”

“Of course. I will speak to you tomorrow.” 

Amy nodded eagerly, then walked backwards to leave, then realised he might think that looked stupid, then tried to walk normally, then accidentally walked into Gina, then simply speed-walked out. Gina shut the door behind them, giggling when Amy closed her eyes tightly and leaned against the wall behind her, grimacing.

“I think that went well.” Amy groaned. “Well, it actually did, for the most part. Then you… did that.”

“I’m so, so—“

The door opened. 

Kevin’s eyes flicked between the two of them.

“Hello,” he greeted, visibly confused. “I was just going to the office. Weren’t you two leaving?”

“Yes,” Amy squeaked. Gina’s brows raised. “Of course, Sir. Just, uhm, catching my breath.”

Kevin blinked. “I’m sorry, is this… humour?”

“Uh, yes,” Amy said, deciding it was her best chance of getting out of it. “Definitely. Sorry.”

“Okay.” Kevin nodded slowly, then just walked away, deciding there was nothing more he could get out of the conversation.

As soon as Cozner stepped out of view, all air left Amy’s chest and she flew backwards. Gina caught her in her arms and leaned her against her own body to steady her.

“You did good, kid,” she mused, chuckling.

Amy peeled open an eye to look up at Gina. “I think I’m gonna pass out.”

“All apart of the job.”

“You have put me in actual danger with this dumb challenge. I need a nurse, now. Please.”

Gina scoffed, fake-offended. “What, no mouth-to-mouth?”

“Gina.”

“Oh, take a break, Mom. I’m going.”

Chapter Text

Step 4: skip school with me and get normal clothes

This was it. This was the big leap from her easy steps.

Gina knew Amy would be paranoid, she knew she’d probably just stare silently at Gina for ten minutes while she processed then break into a much-too-long rant (lecture) about the importance of school rules. But she had to remind herself that was the whole reason she had put Amy up to the bet. 

To break her.

The idea had kind of lost its novelty over time, but Gina didn’t dwell on that. She didn’t have the time to. It would all be worth it once the bet was over, so she stuck to the plan. She smiled when Amy approached her, already ready for Amy’s inevitably disturbed reaction. 

“Oh, God,” Amy grumbled, stopping in front of Gina. “You should know, that look has been in my nightmares. You give me the same one every time you’re about to tell me to do something horrific.”

“Oh, it just gets better, Ames. This one is the big leap.”

Amy gaped. “Those weren’t big?”

“No. Besides the Cozner thing, maybe that was a little harsh.”

Amy just looked more and more petrified the more Gina spoke. “It’s too late to give in, isn’t it? Oh, God.”

“Here.” Gina handed her the traditional slice of paper. Amy took the paper, suspicious eyes not leaving Gina’s face. She searched it, long and hard, then sighed and looked down to unfold her fate. For a few moments, she could only stare. Gina leaned over after a while, standing on her tiptoes and asking “Ya good?” in a long drawl.

“Okay— first of all, what’s the point of getting rid of the ‘are’? Second of all, my clothes aren’t that bad. And third of all,” Amy held the rule in the air, “is this a joke?”

“I’m a very serious person.”

Amy narrowed her eyes. “That answered none of my questions.”

Gina simply shrugged. “Gotta keep you guessing, right?” Then, before Amy could protest, the bell rang, and Gina was walking away after leaving her with one last smirk. Amy tried and failed to follow her.

Then the panic set in.

Amy was cautious in her trek to her first class. Watching for any sudden movements, she walked slowly through the halls, half-expecting Gina to jump out at any moment, grab her, and make a run for it. And then a teacher would find them because of Gina’s poorly constructed plan. And then Amy’s parents would know. And then Amy would be moved to the spot of third favourite child, and being second to David was already grating on her enough. Point was: this was a very, very bad idea.

When she did get to her class, Gina’s eyes were on her instantly. Amy ignored them.

She sat a few seats away from Gina, and only noticed Gina has scooted up closer to her when she heard Gina answer her name. It wasn’t her assigned seat, they both knew. The teacher didn’t seem to mind, but Amy’s skin was crawling.

“You’re not supposed to be sat there.”

“And you’re not supposed to welcome guests like that. A smile woulda been nice.” 

“I don’t trust you,” Amy mumbled, then turned to look pointedly forward and at the teacher. Gina rolled her eyes. The conversation only started back up when Amy’s stomach growled, and Gina turned to her with a raised brow. Amy watched her out of the corner of her eye and sighed. “I’ve not eaten much today.”

Gina lifted in her chin in acknowledgment, eyes not leaving Amy no matter how hard she tried to pull away. “You want some of my food?” Gina asked. Amy heard a faint rumbling beneath the table and narrowed her eyes, confused.

“You’re not allowed to eat in class,” she clarified. 

Gina quirked a brow, slowly raising a Cosmic Brownie from under the table. She paused when it reached her face, turning to look at it with a scrunch of her nose. “Smells like concrete,” she mumbled, then leaned forward  and took a big bite of it. “Bodega probably laced it with something.”

Amy’s nose scrunched as she watched Gina, her brows pulling together. “How can you say that and then continue eating it?”

Gina just grinned. “Care for a hit?” she teased, shoving it towards Amy, who hesitated for a long moment, looking around the class, then grabbed it quickly and hid it under the table. 

Uncomfortable, Amy turned to stare forward again. When the teacher turned, Amy whipped the brownie up quickly, grimaced for a split-second when she recognised the smell Gina had described, then took a bigger bite then Gina. She only looked increasingly nervous as she continued eating, and Gina watched with crinkled eyes. 

She giggled, trying to signal to Amy where the mess on her face was but eventually just wiping it away herself when Amy wasn’t understanding. She put her thumb on the side of Amy’s lips to wipe away the bit of smudged chocolate that had appeared due to Amy’s rushed attempt to hide her heinous rule-breaking from the teacher. “You’re so cute, you dork. You’re acting like I just guaranteed you a spot in Hell.”

Embarrassed, Amy flushed and ducked her head away from Gina so she would stop grinning at her like that. After regaining her composure, she looked back at Gina and tried to refuel that banter that they were starting to become accustomed to. 

“So, this is two rules I’m breaking in one day,” she pointed out, and Gina raised her brow, intrigued to where Amy was going with her point. “Isn’t this a form of cheating on your part?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m reeeaaally bringing you over to the dark side now,” Gina teased. “Where you subconsciously break rules. Really drillin’ it in there.”

Amy nodded along, but was actually a little thrown off by that. She didn’t like the thought. “Cool,” she mumbled, nodding and shifting in her chair. “Righteous. Tubular.”

Gina just giggled again, giving Amy one last delighted look before turning back to making her notes. 

Amy watched her silently, noticing the amount of work Gina was actually doing. She wasn’t sure why she was blushing now, because she wasn’t embarrassed anymore, but she decided to ignore it. That’s what Gina would do, and if Amy was really going to become cool, ‘What would Gina do?’ would inevitably have to become her newest mantra.

By the time class ended, Amy was being led by the school by Gina. She’d given up on objecting to the grabbing-of-the-arm as a form of guidance, because it was clear Gina was never gonna stop. She’d pretty much become accustomed to being dragged about by Gina. 

“Where are we even going?”

“There’s a way out I found at the back,” Gina explained, voice quieter than usual. “I’ve got all our excuses and everything set in place, you’ll be fine. No overbearing parents and weirdly observant teachers will ever find out of the Great Amy Santiago’s crimes.” She turned a corner swiftly, almost knocking Amy over. “I’ve planned this all out.”

Amy wouldn’t admit it, but she was a little impressed and the tiniest bit flattered that Gina had out so much thought into this. “Oh, so you can’t plan when we have a pop quiz coming up, but you can when it comes to messing with my morals?” 

Gina grinned, pleased with the summarisation. “Yeah, exactly that.” 

The further and further they got from the school, the more uncomfortable Amy become, the more real the situation felt. If her parents ever found out, her picture would probably be removed from its place on the staircase. She wouldn’t even have a place on the mantel, in fact, they’d just throw away the picture of her altogether. She could forget a future in policing, Amy would be behind bars by eighteen. And Gina would probably be there with her, the sole reasons Amy’s life was ruined in the first place. 

“Wow, it’s like you’re brainwashed and I’m the hero who comes to save you.”

Amy turned. “What?”

“All consuming anxiety, party of one. You look traumatised and we aren’t even fully out yet.”

Amy faltered, turning away. She scrunched her nose but followed after Gina down the sidewalk. “Whatever,” she mumbled, folding her arms around herself, as if to protect from the weird insightfulness of Gina. “I’m just— thinking.”

“I know, you never stop,” Gina muttered, not looking at her either. “My mission is to make you stop. Even if borderline impossible.” She gestured around. “You haven’t been to this part of the city before, right?”

Amy looked around. “Not really. I live kinda far from here.” 

“Sucks. But it means I can show you around.”

Amy was about to nod, but then Gina was manhandling her (again) through the town and giving absolutely zero warning to her very sudden turns. Eventually, Gina stopped in front of a small store on a corner. She seemed to scrutinise it, then touched Amy’s shoulder as she started to walk in and told her not to follow. Confused, Amy stood in that same spot, aimless. She smiled awkwardly at the people who had to manoeuvre past her.

When Gina came back out of the store, she was smiling and holding a paper bag. She beckoned with her finger for Amy to follow her as she walked to their next location.

“What’s in the bag?” Amy inquired. 

“Have you tried mochi before?” 

Amy’s eyes dropped to the bag then Gina. “No.” 

Gina held up a pink-ish piece from the bag. “Here, I’m guessing you’re still hungry. These are fun to snack on.”

Amy took the doughy sweet from Gina’s hand and held it between two fingers. “It’s not exactly healthy to snack all day instead of eating actual meals,” she mumbled, then tried the food. “You are what you eat,” she struggled to say through a mouthful of food, not realising she probably should have just taken little bites like Gina was doing. 

“That makes zero sense,” Gina countered, pulling her into a new store. Amy was immediately met with the very strong scent of some kind of incense. “How would that even work?”

Amy sighed. “It’s not meant to be taken literally.”

“Isn’t art supposed to be subjective?”

“Are we having the same conversation right now?” Amy asked, confused by Gina’s contributions. “And where are we?”

“Crystal store,” Gina said, already leaving Amy’s side to find another section of the store. Amy was accustomed to following by now. She looked over the selection of crystals, then to Amy. “Any calling to ya?”

“‘Calling to me’?” Amy repeated. 

“Like, you have to feel a connection to the crystal. It’s a whole thing.” 

“You really believe in that stuff?” Amy mumbled, skeptical. “You feel connected to your crystals?”

Gina simpered. “Well, not all. I’ve got a whole ass shrine back at home.”

“You have a shrine?”

“Oh, quit it with your judgy eyes. Let me convert you, you’re being so boring.”

“I’m not being boring!” Amy tried. “And I’m not trying to judge you. I just don’t really get it.”

“All the crystals help you with different stuff in your life, basically. Rose quartz is love, pyrite is abundance, yada yada. You gettin’ it?” Amy hesitated, but nodded slowly. Gina sighed and suddenly guided her backwards. “Okay— just look at all of them. See if one picks you.”

Amy agreed, stepping into place and staring at the stacks of crystal types. She eventually pointed at a pink, pointy one. A little giddy, Gina moved to pick it up and showed it to Amy up closer. 

“Rose quartz, like I said before.” She clicked her tongue, examining it. “Kinda basic, but I like it. Good pick.” 

Amy nodded along, taking the crystal into her own hands. “So this means I need to find a guy?” Gina sent her a confused look. “You said it’s for love.”

“Oh. Well, it could be. It’s self-love, too. Whatever you’re most in need of.” She tilted her head. “Just unconditional, basically. Don’t question the Universe.”

Amy gave a small smile at the gesture Gina made upwards. “Of course.”

After that, Gina left to look through the incense section, came back for her own crystal  (“Oh, was that calling to you?” “No. Just glittery.”) and then they left. For the remainder of what should have been the school day, she dragged Amy through different thrift stores—she tried really, really hard to help Amy’s fashion sense, but Amy really didn’t understand the tragedy that was her wardrobe—and others. Amy just followed blindly, amused to how much Gina had planned. 

Problem was, every time Amy was starting to settle and feel more comfortable in Gina’s idea of fun, the image of all the valuable learning time she was losing would flash in her head again. Gina seemed to notice, because she kept jumping from store to store with different ideas to keep her distracted.

Gina looked around her as she exited one store. “Okay. We’ve just got the one place left now.” 

Amy caught up to her, feeling a little weighed down with the amount of bags Gina had her carry. “Oh? What’s so special about it that you’ve saved it till last?”

Gina swayed her head from side to side. “Well, it’s not the best. Not exactly up to my standards, but it’s the type of things you’re into. So I can power through.”

Curious, Amy quirked a brow. “That’s… mysterious. And kind of scary.”

“And that’s exactly my type of thing, right? You should be used to this.”

Then Gina stopped and gestured forward, and Amy looked away from Gina’s face to see an old-looking building. She sent Gina a curious look before she walked inside.

Amy gasped when she realised what type of building they were in. She turned to send Gina an incredulous look, who smiled and quirked a brow, arms crossed. 

“Oh my God, this has absolutely made everything you’ve put me through worth it,” she grinned, now the one to lead Gina through the book store. Gina giggled gently as she was pulled along. 

“Careful. I could make you regret that tomorrow.” 

Amy sent her a look, still looking happy and presumably on whatever high being around books must give her, since she was so enthusiastic about them. “I’m a big girl, Gina, I think I can get through one last thing. I’ve lasted so far, haven’t I?”

“Mm,” Gina hummed, nodding. The acknowledgment that the whole bet was close to its end was weird, to say the least. She’d forgotten she still needed to figure out her last bonus rule to freak Amy out and inevitably make her lose the bet and beg for mercy. “You’ve not done half bad, Santiago. So far.” Amy just grinned, nodding. She turned away from Gina, walking over to a new section of the book store. Gina followed behind her at a slower pace. “C’mon then, big girl, you better show me around. Find me my perfect book and then I’ll end up like you.”

A little blood rushed to Amy’s face at Gina’s tone when she said ‘big girl’ (she had a weird talent for making anything sound flirtatious; Amy was half-convinced Gina didn’t even realise she did it). “I don’t know what kind of books you like,” Amy said, taking Gina’s words seriously but keeping the playful atmosphere between them. “Surely you’ve read something before, right?”

“Bitch.” Gina pushed past her while Amy laughed softly and looked over the books Amy was examining. She pointed at one. “I’ve read that one.”

Amy’s brows furrowed and she pushed her lips together. “The Bell Jar? Really?” 

“Mhmm. Not a fan?”

“No, no, I love this book! I just— didn’t think it would be your thing.” 

Gina shrugged. “Yeah, well, don’t go spreading it around. Probably wouldn’t do much for my reputation.”

“Oh, of course,” Amy teased, then spent the next thirty minutes scouring around the store for a book similar. Gina kept trying to tell her she didn’t actually care that much, but Amy seemed to enjoy this more than shopping for herself, anyway.

After Gina had managed to pull Amy out of her dream store, they grabbed their respective flavours of coffee and set off for the closest bus stop Amy had found.

Amy smiled as she looked down at the coffee in her hands, random thoughts of their day together circulating around her head. “I thought today was going to be a lot worse,” she said, breaking the silence for no apparent reason. Gina gave her a shrewd look.

“Damn, girl, you’ve been doubting me this whole time. This was, like, the first thing I planned out.” She took a long sip of her drink, turning to look forward. “Besides the last part. I just added that earlier.”

Amy smiled, bumping her shoulder against Gina’s. “That was sweet of you,” she said, quiet as if to shield the rest of the world from ever finding out Gina could be a little bit nice sometimes. This was their little secret.

“Don’t get your hopes up. It was purely for my benefit so you wouldn’t be whining the whole time.”

Amy sent her a look. “Sure.” She took a sip of her coffee. “You helped me today, whether it was for your own benefit or not. I had fun. You’re good at being distracting.” She wasn’t sure why, but she felt a little hurt when Gina didn’t contribute more than a hum of agreement. A weirdly suggestive comeback would’ve been nice. She pushed away her thoughts with a quick furrow of her brows and nose scrunch. “Did you tell the others we were leaving today, or will they be wondering where we are?”

Gina snorted. “Trust me, at most, Rosa will have noticed. Jake and Charles don’t notice anything other than each other, and Terry’s too busy trying to suck up to his art teacher.”

Amy grinned. “Jake and Charles are pretty weird with each other, huh?”

Gina was at the end of her coffee by now. The loud, obnoxious slurping complimented her words. “That’s one way to put it.” Prolonged attempt to drink the very last remainder of coffee. “The other way would probably include the slur, so I’ll just keep quiet.”

Amy struggled to piece together what Gina was saying. “What do you mean?”

Brow raised, Gina looked at her. “What, you want me to say it?”

“Say what?”

“The slur.”

“What slur? For… men?”

“What are you talking about?”

“How could there be a slur about them?”

Gina stared at her for a long moment, mouth moving to form words then pausing. She narrowed her eyes then they widened. “Oh, you don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Amy asked, looking as confused as Gina had. 

“Doesn’t matter. You’ll figure it out someday, kiddo.” 

Amy stammered for a response. “But why can’t you just—“

Gina gestured forward to the bust stop they had been looking for and interrupted Amy. “Too late now. Sucks.”

Amy looked at the sign, then back at Gina. “The bus is here in five minutes. You have the time to tell me.”

“You’re supposed to be a wannabe detective, you should’ve figured this out yourself. I’m trying to help you become independent.”

“I’m a very independent person.”

“But you’re not a very independent detective, are ya?” Amy pushed her lips together, annoyed at not getting her answer. Gina giggled. “Don’t pout, you moron. You’ll figure it out soon. Trust me, it’s glaringly obvious.”

“Okay.” Amy shrugged. “I’ll look for it tomorrow, I guess.”

“Attagirl. Now, I gotta start heading back to my place. Make sure you get sleep for tomorrow.”

Instantly, Amy looked terrified and intrigued and excited all in one. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Gina confirmed while walking backwards and grinning much too wide for Amy’s comfort.

Chapter Text

Step 5: go to an actual party

Amy arrived at school later than Gina. Still early, but an odd sight, nevertheless. Gina didn’t feel deterred, though; she was still grinning while watching Amy make a beeline for her as soon as she noticed Gina’s eyes following her. Amy had a kind-of half-smile.

“I’m ready,” Amy declared instantly with a gesture out with her hands, and Gina’s brow quirked.

She tutted, patting the spot next to her so Amy would sit. “And why are you so confident?”

Upon seeing the look Gina was trying to give her, Amy rolled her eyes. “Just tell me.”

“You’re so bossy,” Gina said whilst reaching into her pocket. She handed Amy the classic slip of paper. “Kind of sad that it’s the last one, huh?” she added whilst Amy was smoothing out the paper. 

Amy smiled genuinely now. Her focus wasn’t on the paper. “You going soft on me, Linetti?” she goaded, enjoying the playful atmosphere the two kept naturally falling into. Gina looked caught off guard for a moment, then played it off. Amy watched every movement.

“I didn’t mean sad like that. Just sad like… weird.” She looked around at anything but Amy. “I guess a winner’s gotta be crowned tonight, hmm? You better hope you’re actually strong enough to do this one, or you’re out of the group.”

She was really, really starting to regret the rules she’d created for the bet.

“I know you wouldn’t actually kick me out of the group,” Amy admitted, still smiling at her. She hadn’t even looked at the new rule yet.

Gina’s head snapped towards her. “What?”

Amy’s brow quirked. She jumped at the chance to be the one teasing Gina. “I don’t think you could’ve done it. I think you secretly like me.”

Gina just stared incredulously at her for a few moments, then looked away and blew out a breath. “You are confident. You’re acting like you’ve already won.” Amy just hummed with a shrug, like the winning thing really was inevitable. “Hey, you can’t be all proud just because you’ve figured one thing out about me. I know way more about you.”

Amy scoffed. “Such as?”

“I know you never actually watched the Real World and you just wanted to impress me.” 

Amy actually faltered at that, having not expected much of an answer at all. She should’ve known Gina was always true to her word. When they were threats, especially. 

“Yeah, well.” She looked down at her folded arms, struggling for defence. Gina was still watching her. “We’ll have to watch it together, right? Because I am actually curious about Stephen.” 

Gina hated herself for smiling. “You better book it in. I’m a very popular person, hang outs with me are rare.”

“Really?” Amy’s brows raised as her lips quirked upwards. “Well, lately—“

Gina whacked at the hand holding the forgotten piece of paper. “Come on.”

Amy’s smirk faded when she read Gina’s order. She raised her brows from over the paper. “What does this mean, exactly?”

“This,” Gina turned pointedly towards her, “means an actual party. None of that, “Oh, it’s my mom’s birthday” crap. This is the real deal, Santiago.” The bell cut their conversation short and Gina briefly hesitated. “And there’s no way I'm letting you dress yourself, by the way. My place, after school. I’ll tell you the deets at lunch, yeah?”

“It— it was actually my mom’s birthday when I told you that,” Amy tried to add, but Gina was already walking away. Amy folded her lips together.

“So, uhm.” Amy dropped her lunch box and took the seat next to Gina. “What’s the plan? How’re we gonna do this?”

“Bold of you to assume I have a plan,” Gina mumbled, not looking up from her food. 

“I know you have a plan,” Amy countered, unfaltering despite Gina’s tone. “When it’s something like this, I know you plan at least half as much as I do. I told you I know you.” She smiled. “Plus, you promised my parents couldn’t find out about any of the rules, so you’re obliged to.”

Gina just scrunched her nose. “Yeah, whatever. Don’t analyse me.”

Amy’s grin grew brighter. “No promises,” she said, holding a hand up, then turned back to her food. “So what’s the plan?”

“Tell your parents you’re having a sleepover at my place, then come back to mine for 6.”

Amy raised her brows. “Am I having a sleepover with you?”

“Probably.” Gina shrugged. “We’ll stay at Brandon Bliss’ party for a few hours and then you can crash at mine. My mom’s out of town for the weekend.” She paused. “Oh, and one more thing— do not tell Jake. He’s ruined too many parties like this for me. This is prestigious stuff.”

Amy couldn’t help the look she gave Gina. “Are you sure ‘prestigious’ is the right word?” 

“You’ll understand soon. You’re still so new to this world.”

Amy just narrowed her eyes a little before dropping the conversation. She looked over the table to their friends. “You’ve still not helped me with the Charles and Jake thing,” she whispered like it was another one of their secrets. She liked having secrets with Gina. 

Gina groaned, long and dramatic. “God, you still haven’t figured it out?” She leaned back. “This is not detective behaviour. Literally everyone knows.”

“Everyone?”

Gina looked around and shrugged. “Everyone worthy enough to be acknowledged. So probably, like, 5 people.”

Amy blinked a few times. “Am I worthy of being acknowledged?”

Gina paused, considering. “Well, clearly not, if you can’t crack this case.” Amy sighed, dropping her chin into her hand and facing Jake and Charles, watching their interactions closely. Gina giggled whilst watching her, patting her head. “You’ll figure it out soon.”

Gina was immediately by her side when Amy started to make her way out of school. “Don’t try to ditch me, or something. My place at 6.” 

Amy nodded. “I’ll be there. Am I bringing my own clothes, or would that physically hurt you?”

Gina grimaced, eyes falling to Amy’s way-too-formal button-up shirt. “Don’t understate it. It would kill me, Ames. Keep that stuff away from me.”

Amy giggled softly. “Of course,” she breathed. “I can pack my own pyjamas, though, right?”

Gina considered it for a moment. “If they’re ugly, I’m throwing them away and getting you one of my wolf sets. But, sure, you can try.”

Amy just nodded. 

When Amy made it home, she didn’t listen to any of her brothers’ remarks about what caused the spring in her step. She made a bee-line for her mom and put on her smile that best resembled David’s. She wasn’t past those tactics.

“Hey, Mom,” she smiled, leaning on the doorframe. Her mom gave her a one-over, looking unimpressed, then made a quick motion with her finger that told Amy to fix her posture. She did, then walked forward with a slightly less enthusiastic smile. “So, uh, I was wondering if I could have a sleepover tonight. With a friend.”

Her mom looked like many, many different emotions at once when she pivoted on the spot to look at Amy, who’d lost the David smile and was now just hoping her own would be convincing enough. 

“Friend? Which friend?”

Realising her mother would probably have very, very specific rules for who Amy would be allowed to hang out with overnight, Amy paused. All the boys she knew wouldn’t work, and Gina definitely wouldn’t work if Amy’s dad decided to do some research on her. Rosa was an okay option, but it still felt unsafe.

“Kylie.” 

“Oh.” Camila smiled slightly. “I thought you two had drifted apart.”

Amy felt a smidge of guilt but nodded along. “Nope. Closer than ever!” she laughed. It came out forced. She hated lying. “So, uh—  could I, possibly?”

Camila scrutinised her for a long moment, then nodded with a soft sigh. “You need to be back early in the morning for your book club. Your father can pick you up.” 

“Oh.” Amy considered whether Victor would realise it wasn’t Kylie’s house. She scrunched her nose. “Uh, sure. Thank you.”

Her mother nodded. “Make sure you tell me sooner next time.”

“Yep!” Amy called, already halfway up the stairs. Camila twisted her head around the corner and narrowed her eyes as she watched her daughter practically run up the stairs. 

After Amy had neatly packed her necessities into a bag, she immediately felt much more nervous with the overwhelming lack of distractions. She had about half an hour until she’d have to set off and, while she would usually use the free-time to study, she found herself sat at the edge of her bed, uncomfortable. She could see herself at the opposite corner of the room through her mirror.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she was in one of those button-up shirts Gina hated. Amy stared at herself in the mirror as her hands fidgeted in her lap. 

Eventually, she pulled her hair out of its prison, remembering the comment Gina had made about her hair a while ago. She stood and made her way over to her mostly-abandoned make-up bag, pulling out the lipstick she liked. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to do this, but maybe Gina would be happy if she saw Amy was putting in some effort for this party.

Amy said goodbye to her dad and strolled up to Gina’s front door. She rung the bell but no answer came besides the uninterrupted Madonna song Gina was blasting from her room. After five more minutes of impatiently pounding on the door and waiting for an answer, Amy rolled her eyes and walked backwards so she could see Gina’s window. She could see Gina through it, fully absorbed in applying her makeup. After one careful look around her, Amy reached down to find something harmless to throw at Gina’s window to get her attention. 

When the stone made contact, Gina’s head instantly turned towards Amy. She seemed instantly amused, made clearer when she stood and opened it to lean her head out.

“Property damage, Santiago! I could sue you for that.”

Amy sent Gina her best unimpressed look. “I could have got brain damage from that song! Why has it played three times already? Do you not know how to change it?”

Gina shrugged, then pulled away from the window. “It’s a good song.” 

When Gina unlocked the door for Amy, she stood and stared at her for a moment. Amy sent her a questioning glance. 

“You’re wearing lipstick.”

A weird nervousness overtook her suddenly. “Uh— yeah. I don’t know, I thought it might be good for the party. Is it too much?”

Gina scrutinised her a moment longer. “It’s cute,” she said, then she was immediately guiding Amy up the stairs. “I picked out some dresses for you already. You see which one you like best while I finish with my face.”

“Okay,” Amy nodded, still a little nervous. She dropped what she had packed for the sleepover on Gina’s floor and looked through the dresses Gina had left hung along her door. Gina resumed her song and sat back down at her vanity, leaving Amy on her own. 

Amy swiped through the dresses, and then eventually decided on a black, meticulously patterned one. She turned around to show Gina, who had just finished her makeup. Gina nodded slowly, looking back and forth from the dress to Amy.

“Good?” Amy prompted, uncomfortable with the silence filled only by Madonna. 

“Mhm,” Gina hummed, eyes still wandering across the dress. Amy just stood awkwardly until Gina’s eyes lifted. “Do you wanna try it on?”

“That’d be a good idea,” Amy nodded, then looked around. “Should I, uh—“

“Bathroom’s down the hall,” Gina prompted, already back in her chair and with her hands in her hair. Amy nodded swiftly and left to try on the dress.

When she was finished, she turned to the mirror and smoothed her hands over the front of the dress. Being a person that rarely ever even had reasons to wear dresses, Amy felt a little out of place. She didn’t hate it, at least.

Amy jumped when she heard knocking on the door, sending an accusing look to it. She unlocked the door for Gina. Her hair was finished now, curled and perfected.

“Did you get lost, or something?”

Amy cringed. “I’m sorry, I was just— looking.” Gina leaned against the door, eyes dropping to Amy’s dress. She sucked in a breath. “How’d you like it?”

“Uh, I’m not sure,” she smiled tightly. “I don’t know if it suits me. Is it too much?”

Gina looked at the outfit a moment longer. “It’s not enough,” she clarified, grabbing Amy’s wrist to bring her back to her room. “I’m only half done with you.”

Amy hesitated, but nodded. She stood in the middle of the room and watched Gina make her way around it, grabbing random things as she walked. She led Amy to sit at her vanity and stood behind her. Leaning down, and with her hands on Amy’s shoulder to steady herself, so she could see Amy in the mirror, Gina draped a silver necklace with a small wolf pendant at the bottom (Amy took it as a sign that Gina definitely liked her now) across her neck, noting subconsciously how Amy’s eyes darted away from hers the moment they met. Her cheeks had grown redder than before, Gina observed. She narrowed her eyes at her through the reflection.

“You don’t want to do this, do you?”

Amy’s eyes shot up. “What?”

“This whole party. You’ve been all quiet and jumpy since you came here.”

Guiltily, Amy looked away. “I do want to go to the party. It sounds exciting, even if my parents would kill me if they knew.” 

Gina’s look grew more intense. “Is that why you’re so worried, then?”

“I don’t know,” Amy mumbled. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. Maybe I’m just sad about it all ending.” She shrugged, looking back up. Gina held her gaze then grunted, accepting the answer begrudgingly.

Gina started running her brush through Amy’s hair. “Well, you know, I did actually have another thing planned after this last rule.”

Amy’s brows furrowed. “What ‘thing’?”

“Like, an entry level requirement. To becoming cool. If you can get through the last rule.”

Amy cocked her head, smiling a little. “You added an extra step? That has to be breaking the rules.”

“Which is what you’ve done all week,” Gina grinned. “I’m the lesser of two evil’s, here.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Sure,” she said, then her expression changed. “So what is the last step?”

Gina froze at that. She didn’t even know yet.

“You’re not allowed to know yet,” she said, just making up whatever she could. Amy sent her a curious look. Gina focused on her hair.

After she was finished, Gina spread Amy’s wavy hair out evenly and stared at her through the mirror for a moment, eyes narrowing and lips pushing into a line. Then she made Amy turn to her and grabbed her makeup bag. 

“Eyeliner, eyeshadow and blush. Maybe new lipstick. Is that good?”

Amy blinked, realising she had just been staring into Gina’s eyes interrupted for a good minute or two, and nodded promptly with a weak, unconvincing smile. 

“Why do we have to get so dressed up for some high school party, anyway?” Amy asked as Gina swiped pink across her cheeks. 

“Try not to move your face,” Gina murmured, then gestured for Amy to close her eyes. “Two reasons. First: guys. Second: it’s fun.”

Amy tried to smooth out the automatic furrow in her brows. “You want to impress the guys there?”

“Not really. It’s complicated.” She shrugged. “I don’t like any of them, obviously. But I need some of them attached, just in case.”

Amy still didn’t really understand, but she hummed in the affirmative and stayed quiet. 

About an hour later, Amy had left to sit downstairs with a book she had found while admiring (snooping around) Gina’s house. She wasn’t sure if it belonged to Gina or her mom, but she was interested either way. 

At some point Gina had come downstairs and started watching Amy hunched over the stolen book with a fond smile. When Amy noticed it, she yelped and dropped the book. Then she froze, after trying to look up to give an awkward laugh and cover her tracks, but instead being caught of guard by Gina’s dress. 

She had a hand on her hip, and she was still giving Amy that look, and that just seemed to make Amy all the more overwhelmed. She wore a black V-neck and skirt reaching down to her knees. Weirdly, it felt like it was lacking something. It was oddly Gina-less.  

Then Amy looked up and realised Gina was clipping dangling wolf earrings into place, and it looked a lot more natural. She smiled. 

“You’re nosey,” Gina pointed out when Amy was broken out of her trance. “How’s the book?”

Amy smiled tightly, picking up the book. “Interesting. Is it yours?”

“No, it’s my mom’s.” She smiled. “Sorry, hon,  you’re not getting anything more out of me tonight.”

She was walking towards the door, and it wasn’t like Amy could ever reply anyway, so she just grabbed her bag and followed. 

“Brandon’s picking us up,” Gina let Amy know once they were outside. They waited at the end of the street. “If he tries to speak to you, just shut him down, okay?”

Amy sent her a skeptical look, smiling like she expected it to be a joke. “I thought he was your friend.”

Gina didn’t match her smile. “It doesn’t really work like that with him,” she said plainly. “Don’t speak to him. Or any of the guys at the party, on that note. They’re pretty much all creeps.”

Amy looked more confused. “Why do you like these parties, again?”

Gina shrugged, looking out at the road. “It’s complicated.” 

“That’s not an answer.”

Gina looked at her, surprised at the answer. Luckily, Brandon’s car pulled up at that moment, so she didn’t have to try to explain herself further to Amy. She sat herself in the passenger seat and Amy climbed into the back.

Brandon kissed Gina as soon as she sat down, then turned to Amy and grinned. 

“Who’s your friend?” he asked, teeth flashing. Amy was almost 100% sure she looked like the biggest idiot ever to him, because her jaw was still hanging open from watching Brandon and Gina’s brief kiss. Then, when she had forced herself to regain her composure and pushed the thoughts away for later, she had to consider whether introducing herself was too much for what Gina wanted her to say.

“Amy. It’s her first one, so make sure they go easy on her.”

He laughed, looking at Amy like she was a monkey in the zoo. She still didn’t know what to think. “She doesn’t talk much, does she?”

Gina widened her eyes subtly at Amy as they firmly held eye-contact. “Mhmm, she should definitely speak at least a little bit more than that.”

Amy cleared her throat. “Yeah, sorry, just, uh, nervous. You know how it goes.” 

That was definitely too much, because Gina was barely concealing her glare. Maybe Amy should’ve prepared more. Flashcards would’ve been perfect. 

“Sure.” He started driving and stopped looking at Amy. She silently thanked God, but she could tell Gina was still looking at her through the rear-view mirror. 

Gina and Brandon spoke briefly but Amy struggled to hear it so she just stayed quiet. She didn’t understand the way Gina’s whole personality changed once she was with Brandon either, so she wouldn’t even know what to say.

When the car pulled up at Brandon’s house, he turned to the two and smiled again. “You ladies ready to party?”

“I love to party,” Gina claimed, matching his smile. The two then turned to Amy and she stared back at them, having been unaware she also needed to give an answer.

“Ye—Yeah!” she tried, nodding vigorously to support her faux enthusiasm. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand!”

He looked confused, but laughed and started to get out of the car. Gina was staring at her like she’d just murdered her entire family. Amy sunk into her seat with a nervous smile.

Once they were walking into the party, Amy found her way to Gina’s side. “Was that way too much?” she mumbled so Brandon, who was walking in front of them, wouldn’t hear.

Gina sent her an incredulous look, but she seemed at least a little amused. “You’re lucky you’re pretty.”

Not knowing how to react, Amy just smiled weakly. The smell of booze and sweat and weed hit her all in one once the door had opened. It was also unnaturally warm, but she didn’t want to think about that.

Brandon pointed to a table as soon as they were inside. “You can put your coats there. How many shots?”

“Hmm?” Gina prompted, Amy following close behind her. 

“Tequila.”

“Oh.” She scrunched her nose. “Save it.”

“Come on, you’re way funner once you’ve had a drink,” Brandon persisted, shoving a shot glass into her hands. Gina forced a laugh. “Admit it.”

“One shot,” she agreed, and he nodded, then his eyes were on Amy again. 

“And?”

“Uh—“

“She’s good,” Gina answered, then grabbed Amy’s arm to drag her away. She discarded the drink on a random table while passing by.

Amy watched her, hesitant to speak. When she stopped them where most other people were, Amy spoke up.

“Are you two together?” she asked, apprehensive for the answer. 

Gina scrunched her nose and shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

Amy’s stomach dipped. “You can’t keep using that as an answer. That’s too vague to take anything from.”

Gina actually looked at her, giving her a small smile. “What’s it to you, anyway?”

“I’m just— interested. You seem different around him.” Gina’s smile faded at that, and Amy stammered weakly. “I’m trying to look out for you, I guess. You’re my friend.”

Gina waved her hand. “Just don’t think about him too much, ‘kay?” Amy hesitated, curious to know more, but nodded. “C’mon, let’s have some fun.”

Amy looked around. She didn’t understand anything about what they did at parties other than drugs and alcohol, and that seemed to be off-limits tonight, based on Gina’s behaviour. 

“How do we do that?”

“Depends on which crowd you get stuck with,” Gina barely explained, leaning against the doorframe as her eyes scanned the room. Amy copied.

“Everybody’s drinking,” Amy mumbled, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “I don’t think we can do much else.”

“They’re playing truth or dare over there,” Gina pointed out, then turned to Amy. “How’s that?”

Amy nodded along, smiling. “I can totally do that. With a bunch of people I’ve never spoken to before. For sure.”

“I’ll make sure they don’t push their luck, okay?” Gina grinned at her as she pulled Amy through the party to a few people huddled round a table. 

The game didn’t turn out to be too bad, luckily. Gina introduced herself and Amy and they all seemed too drunk to realise they’d never met before. Amy just had to answer a few awkward truths and small dares. Gina never picked truth. 

The problem was when Brandon came around. Gina instantly seized up next to Amy, who only noticed because of that. She looked up and saw him stood behind their chairs. He whispered something indecipherable to Amy over the music into Gina’s ear. 

“Will you be okay without me?” she asked, leaning closer to Amy, their foreheads close to meeting. Amy could smell the beer Gina had been forced to down on one of her previous dares. She only briefly considered saying no.

“Where are you going?”

Gina’s eyes wandered. “Brandon wants me for a bit. If they’re being weird then just get up and leave, okay? I won’t be gone long.” Amy nodded as Gina spoke, looking at Brandon out of the corner of her eye. Gina’s hand was in his. “Don’t take any drinks from skeevy guys, promise?”

“Promise.”

Amy watched Gina be dragged along by Brandon, until she was led up the stairs and eventually out of Amy’s sight. Then, she realised everyone’s eyes were on her.

“Uh, sorry?” She smiled politely.

“It’s your turn,” one said. “Truth or Dare?”

She hesitated. “Dare.”

The guy grinned much too wide for Amy’s comfort. She tried ignoring the empty space beside her when she heard a door shut upstairs.

“Take a shot, salt and lime.” 

Amy bit at her lip. Gina would be pulling her away, assuming that this was way too far for Amy based on previous experiences. But Amy knew she was different now. She’d nearly passed the whole test Gina had set up for her. 

When she made no complaints, the group handed her the shot, lime wedge and salt packet. 

“Um—“ She held her shot and lime up. “Do I just… put it in?” When the whole group laughed at her, she had to assume that was wrong. They tried to explain it to her but eventually some girl had to demonstrate for her to get it. 

The game finished soon after she finished her dare. She didn’t leave that group, though.

Gina tried to peel herself off of Brandon, but she was struggling against the vigour of which he kissed her. She found an out by pushing against his shoulders.

“Shouldn’t we get back to the party?” she tried, putting on her best convincing voice. 

He seemed immediately exasperated. “I told you you were better when you’ve had a drink. You’re not so uptight.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He moved closer to her. “C’mon,” he mumbled, unzipping his pants. She gritted her teeth, searching silently for a way to escape. Then he was pushing her head down, and she supposed there wasn’t much else she could really do.

It had probably been barely over ten minutes, but Amy still felt something was wrong. Gina kept becoming so bland every time she was with him, and she wouldn’t disclose anything about their relationship to Amy, and just everything about her tonight was raising alarm bells. Also she might be a light-weight. 

She’s trudged her way upstairs, determined to find her friend, but there were about 4 different doors she could try. She called out Gina’s name quietly, wandering down the hall.

It was on the second door she opened that she saw Gina. She was being pushed to the floor by Brandon, but her head was turned to the door. She must’ve heard Amy calling her name.  

Again, alarm bells.

On autopilot, Amy just walked towards Gina and held her hand out. Then, she realised that Brandon was looking at her, so she probably had to speak. “I need Gina to, uh, help me with something.” 

It was kind of on purpose that she was so unconvincing with it, just to see that look on his face. As soon as Gina took her hand, she left the room as fast as she could.

Amy slammed the door shut and stopped walking, turning to face Gina, who still looked to be in some kind of daze. She was just staring at Amy.

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” she asked, pulling her hands away from Gina. “I think your eyes are watering.”

“I’m good,” Gina murmured, barely blinking. “It’s— It was fine, you didn’t have to come in there.”

But the fact she was shakily gripping Amy’s hand and practically hauling her down the stairs made Amy feel differently. 

When they made it downstairs, they were greeted with the image of about 15 teenagers circled around an empty beer bottle. Gina seemed immediately appreciative for the distraction. Amy decided she couldn’t ruin that, though she wanted to ask Gina more.

“Sorry, uh— how do I play this?” Amy asked nervously, pretty sure she already knew the answer but fearful anyway. 

“You spin the bottle and kiss whoever it lands on.”

Amy struggled to hide her apprehension, but tried to for Gina’s sake. “Oh.”

“It’s only a peck,” Gina reassured her. Amy was still just staring forward. “We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

Amy turned to look at her. “No, no— it’s fine. I can do this.” Confused, Gina stared at her for a moment. Amy leaned away, trying to figure out why Gina was looking at her so strangely. “What?”

“Your breath.” Amy’s eyes widened slightly, but she tried to play it off. Gina’s mouth opened wide. “You’ve been drinking!” 

“It was a dare,” Amy whispered. “I just— I figured I might as well. I’ve broken so many rules already.”

Gina stared at her, but her gape was slowly turning to a smile. “I don’t even know you anymore,” she teased, then she was tugging Amy to join her in the circle. Amy tried to silence her nervous thoughts.

When the first person—some girl Amy vaguely recognised from her Math class—span, it barely missed Amy, and she failed at not becoming very, very nervous. She just kept her head bowed. The bottle had landed on Gina once or twice but, again, Amy looked away. She only pulled her head up when it was Gina’s turn, watching nervously. She hadn’t even thought of the possibility it would land on her, until it did. Her eyes widened and she turned to look at Gina, expecting some confident look, but Gina looked just as caught-off guard.

“That doesn’t count. I didn’t spin it hard enough, it didn’t go in a full circle. I have to spin again.”

It was true, she had given a weak spin and the bottle had noisily rattled across the floor until it found Amy, which was unlike any of the previous spins. But Amy couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Which she just assumed was because she was so uncomfortable with being surrounded by people she didn’t know, and Gina was the only real candidate for her. Or, she would have been.

Once it was her turn, there was no way to get out of it. Maybe if she made it land on herself she could get away with it.

But there was no time for her to try and figure out what her options were, because everyone was waiting on her to take her go. She twirled the bottle and looked away. The sound of it wobbling against the floor as it made its decision was haunting.

She only looked back at it when she was sure it had stopped. He was just some normal guy, there were no overwhelming pros or cons, but Amy froze. She just stared at him for a moment. 

Eventually a warm hand was on her cold one and she was being pulled up. People in the group either started booing, laughing or just watching silently and curiously. Amy ducked her head down in embarrassment and let Gina pull her away. She was just happy Jake wasn’t here, because there was no way she would be able to live that down. Gina grabbed their coats from next to the door whilst they were walking.

Gina let go of her hand once they were at the very edge of Brandon’s garden, taking a seat on a smooth rock lining his pathway. Amy took the space next to her and bit her lips nervously, immediately wrapping her coat around herself. She didn’t know how to feel about the silence.

“Sorry I just grabbed you,” Gina said, looking at her. Amy struggled to look back. “I couldn’t tell if you were gonna, like, collapse at the concept of kissing a guy.” She paused. “Which I get, by the way. They stink. Not stink as in suck, stink as in I actually wonder whether any men know the amount they’re supposed to shower a week.”

Amy still wasn’t looking at her, instead chewing at her bottom lip and looking down at her bouncing foot, so Gina stopped. She waited for Amy to speak.

“I know you’ll just think I’m lame, or whatever, but I want my first kiss to be with someone— you know, who I actually like? And who likes me back.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, blowing out a breath. “Not some drunk guy I’ll never talk to again.”

Unfaltering, Gina was still gazing at her. It took a few beats of silence but Amy did eventually look back at her.

“Nah, it’s not as lame as you think,” she admitted while pulling a cigarette and a lighter out of her pocket. “I wish I’d done that.”

“Oh,” Amy breathed, genuinely surprised. Her face contorted the same way it would if she saw a lost kitten. “I’m sorry.”

“So you’ve never kissed anyone?” Amy gave an embarrassed smile, but nodded. “Didn’t you go out with Teddy for, like, a month?”

Amy looked more uncomfortable at that. “Yeah, he, uh, he wanted to but I really couldn’t. I’d just, like, panic.” She sighed. “I don’t know why.”

Gina nodded, looking like she was having a million different thoughts at once begore taking another drag of her cigarette. She pulled a face and sighed. “I don’t even know why I still do this, I hate these things.” She eyed the cigarette. “Brandon told me it was good for stress, or something. I guess he’s not the most reliable source.”

“I’ve never tried them,” Amy mumbled, unsure what to contribute. Gina held it towards her.

“You want to?” Amy hesitated. “It’s a question,” Gina smiled, amused. “You’re allowed to say no, I think you need to start understanding that.”

“No, I could— I could try it.” Amy smiled reassuringly and took it from Gina’s hands, trying to mimicking the way she held it. She sent one last cautious look to Gina, then took a drag. 

It ended in a massive coughing fit. Not on Gina’s end, obviously; she was laughing.

“Not a fan, huh?”

Amy pushed on her chest and coughed. “I didn’t say that. It was okay, just— I think I had a bit too much.”

Gina was still smiling. “You get used to it.”

“Sure,” Amy smiled softly, taking another drag then handing it back to Gina. Silence overtook them. Amy felt the need to fill it. “Hey, you still haven’t told me about Jake and Charles.”

Gina gave an amused look. “Wasn’t gonna. If you can’t figure it out yourself, I can’t just give you the answer.”

Amy sent her a look. “C’mon. Just tell me already.”

Gina’s grin just grew larger at the unimpressed look Amy gave her. “I don’t know,” she sung, dropping her head from side to side. “Think Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.”

“Are they… fans?”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Their community is, sure. Can you name that community?”

“Can you stop talking in riddles?”

“Aren’t you, like, the number #1 puzzles fan? I don’t know why you’re complaining. Especially when this one is such an easy solve.”

Exasperated, Amy groaned. “Just tell me.”

“You’re so lucky I’m gonna take pity on you,” Gina pointed out. “They’re dating, idiot.”

“They’re—“ Amy laughed. “No, they’re—“ She paused, brows furrowing. “They’re not… they—“ Her mouth gaped open. Gina grinned when she saw that specific look, nodding along. “No, they are not!” she gasped.

“They are!” Gina giggled. “I’ve known for weeks, you failure of a detective.” 

“How did you know?”

Gina scoffed. “Ames, they’re with each other every waking second. It’s hard to miss. I knew for sure the first time I talked to Charles alone, but I think that was before they got together, because Jake was still crazy for you.”

Amy hesitated. She didn’t want to treat it like it was forbidden, or something, but she wasn’t sure how else to word it. “He told you?” she asked in a whisper, though nobody was nearby.

“Uh, no.” Gina pointed to her head. “I used my big detective brain, you should invest in one.” She smiled when Amy’s didn’t seem to know how to react. “We were talking about how weird it is that half our friends all wanna be detectives and he said that he actually didn’t want to that much and that he wanted to be a professional cook and food critic but he liked the idea of spending the rest of his life with Jake.” Amy tilted her head and made a quiet ‘aww,’ sound. “So I was like, wow, that’s not gay at all, and then he just tripped over his words trying to deny it for a whole minute and… that was enough, really. They don’t know I know.”

“I wonder why they never told us,” Amy mumbled.

Gina just continued her own train of thought. “I mean, I already knew Jake was bi because of his whole thing with Brandon in middle school so, you know, it was never that much of a surprise.”

The acknowledgment of Brandon threw Amy off, and she hesitated from speaking. She looked at Gina from the corner of her eye. “I still don’t understand what you and Brandon are.”

Gina made a disgusted sound. “I don’t know. I just need him to keep my reputation up and I gotta do shit in return, you know? It’s weird.” She groaned when she saw the sad look Amy was giving her. “This is why, “it’s complicated,” works way better. You don’t give me the pity looks.” 

“Sorry,” Amy murmured, looking away. “That’s just a bit sad. I’m sure you could stay popular without him.”

“Too far to quit now. Senior year’s almost over and then I can never speak to these people again.” She dropped her cigarette on the floor and stomped her heel on it. Amy watched silently. “I don’t even like guys,” Gina grumbled, leaning back and looking up at the sky. The winter night sky was a dark one, but the lights wrapped around the house offered some support. “I just do it for the brownie points.”

Amy sent her a half-amused look. “You’ll like a guy, some day. You can’t just rule it off altogether because of this one guy.”

“Uh, yes, I can,” Gina countered. “All men are secretly horrible people. Without fail.” 

Amy blew out a breath. “So you’re never gonna date a guy ever, huh?” she said like she was teasing. Gina raised a brow.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Really?” Amy asked, still believing she was joking.

“What, did you think I had some change of heart tonight? I told you, I don’t really like him.”

Amy’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘change of heart’?” 

Gina gave her an equally confused look. “Like, a whole sexuality change.” Amy shook her head, befuddled. “What aren’t you getting? I’m saying, did you think I’d turned straight tonight, or something?”

Amy stammered for a moment. “You’re… not straight?”

Gina’s brows climbed higher up her forehead. “Please tell me you’re joking. You did not just ask me that.” Amy looked more conflicted and Gina gasped. “You actual dumbass.”

“But you— I—“

“Amy, I have literally had conversations with you about how hot girls are.”

Amy’s cheeks were glowing red with embarrassment. “I just thought you were being a feminist or something!” she exclaimed. “I mean— I say stuff like that. I think it’s pretty normal to.”

Gina raised her eyebrow. “Ames.”

“What?”

“Amy.”

“What?”

Gina sent her a meaningful look, but Amy struggled for an answer, so she just rolled her eyes and moved on. Amy didn’t look pleased. 

“I swear, I have brought up being gay so many times to you.”

“I don’t remember it once,” Amy countered weakly. “Did you just figure it out, or something?”

Gina couldn’t hold in her laugh. “I’ve known since, like, birth. I already got bullied in junior high for it and that’s when I was closeted, so there was no point in not just being out and proud forever.” She shrugged, dropping her chin to rest in her hands.

“You got bullied?” 

“Mhmm.” 

“Oh.” Amy’s lips pulled into a line. “I wouldn’t have thought that. You seem, like, indestructible. I can’t imagine anyone being mean to you.”

Gina snorted. “Yeah, well, they were. That’s why I became indestructible, I guess.” She was still looking at the ground, sighing gently. Amy watched from above her. She guessed a conversation change would be the best thing to go with.

“So, I guess I’m cool now, huh?” she lamented bitter-sweetly, and Gina twisted around to look at her, not understanding. Amy elaborated, “‘Cause of the bet.”

“Oh.” Gina nodded slowly. “Well, actually, no. We still got the last, secret rule now.”

“Oh, yeah.” Amy lit up. “I forgot about that. Do I go through with it today, or…?”

Gina paused. “I still don’t know, actually,” she admitted. “I haven’t figured out what it is yet. I just know it has to be good.”

“That’s vague.” Amy folded her lips together. “You don’t have any ideas?”

“Nothing good enough. Maybe we should go see a horror movie so I can get some ideas.”

Amy sent her an amused look. “Sure.”

Gina just smiled back. They held eye contact for a long moment, before Amy’s cheeks flushed a little and she pulled her eyes away. As she put pieces together in her head, Gina’s eyes narrowed while she watched Amy. 

“What about you?”

“…Huh?”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Well, it’s pretty low to ask me to create my own final challenge.”

Gina shrugged guiltlessly. “You know yourself best, presumably.”

Amy smiled softly. Then, “No. I don’t. Have any ideas, I mean.”

“Hmm,” Gina hummed, still watching Amy intently. Amy’s eyes met and strayed away from Gina’s inexplicably. “Hey, sorry if it freaked you out inside. When the bottle landed on you.”

“Oh.” Amy’s cheeks grew warmer, which felt odd considering the biting cold surrounding them. “No, that was okay.” Gina’s brows pulled together and Amy panicked. “Well, because— I’d rather it be you than someone else. In there, I mean.” She groaned, burying her head into her hands. “Forget it.”

Gina giggled, peeling Amy’s hands away from her face. “Hey, it’s good. You can tell me you’re in love with me.”

Amy groaned louder. “Don’t make this harder for me,” she pleaded, and Gina tried to take her hands away, but Amy took them in hers suddenly. Gina raised a brow. “They’re warm,” she mumbled as a weak excuse. “Hey, c’mon, don’t get distracted. You still need to think of your big rule.”

Gina watched her. “I might’ve thought of one.”

Amy nodded. “Yeah?”

“Maybe,” Gina murmured, unwavering. She simply continued studying Amy silently. “It’s depends. Did you ever watch Ghostbusters?”

Amy gave her a look. “I think everyone did,” she smiled.

“Who was your favourite?”

“Oh, I really liked the girl. Dana, wasn’t it?”

Gina nodded slowly. “Okay, I think that confirms it,” she whispered, going through all the information she had in her head before she made the move.

“Huh?”

“Kiss me.”

Amy laughed at first, but Gina’s expression was dead serious. Then the panic set in and her smile dropped, her eyes widening. Her eyes narrowed and widened randomly as she struggled to comprehend the sudden demand.

“What?” she breathed.

“The last rule. Kiss me.”

“What?” Amy repeated.

Gina leaned in, lifting her hands from Amy’s grip to place one against Amy’s chest and the other on her cheek. She left time and space for Amy to move or tell her to stop, but Amy remained starstruck, staring into her eyes like she was waiting for a meteor to hit or something. Deciding there was no way of going back now, Gina closed the gap.

Gina’s lips were slow and soft against Amy’s, who only responded with small movements. Within seconds, Gina was pulling away. Amy’s hands dropped and her eyes were wide as she watched Gina pull away, studying Amy’s reaction. She was being hesitant, tentative in her movements for Amy’s sake. Amy couldn’t do anything but stare at her.

She didn’t remember much thought behind it, but before long she was surging forward and kissing Gina with a lot more urgency than Gina had done. Cupping Gina’s cheeks with her hands, Amy hummed in appreciation when Gina’s hands pulled her closer by her hips and Gina responded after her initial shock. Their lips melded together continuously as Amy’s breath grew heavier.

Amy didn’t know how much longer they stayed like that. She heard a bottle smash at the end of the garden and voices emerge from the house, and immediately jumped away from Gina like God himself had caught her. Eyes still wide, she wiped her mouth.

Then her eyes met Gina’s again, and then she was moving. She paced back and forth in small circles, trying to control her breathing. She tried to ignore the fact Gina was still sat there.

“I don’t know why I did that,” she breathed, chest heaving. “I shouldn’t have done that. Oh, fuck, I shouldn’t have—“

“Easy, girl—“ Gina tried standing up to help her but Amy shook her head vigorously, so she just fell back to her cold, makeshift seat a bit uselessly. 

“Why did I do that?” Amy stopped pacing, dropping back to her previous seat and pulling her knees up to her chest. “Oh my God, my mom would kill me. My family would hate me for this.”

“Who cares what they want?” Gina shrugged, not realising she was making it much worse. 

Amy stared at her. “I care! They’re my family, Gina!”

“Did you want to kiss me?”

Amy’s eyes grew wider. “No! This isn’t even about—“

“M’kay, so what the fuck was that if you didn’t wanna kiss me? I gave you every chance to stop.”

Amy stammered. “Don’t. Don’t. You know what you were doing.”

Gina snorted. “What, did I convert you?”

“Well, I wasn’t—“ Frustrated with articulating herself, Amy groaned. “I was never like that!”

Gina raised her eyebrows. “Okay, Stephen, so you’re in a supposed loving relationship with this guy, but the thought of kissing him makes you freeze up and panic?”

Amy gasped once she realised what Gina was talking about. “You barely even knew me, then! Not finding the right guy doesn’t mean I’m a fully-fledged lesbian!”

“Yeah, but when that’s a constant state, you kinda start to smell a rat.”

Upon failure to find a decent retort, Amy dropped her head her hands and groaned. She closed her eyes tightly. A few moments later, when Gina realised she was crying, she subtly moved closer and rubbed Amy’s back softly. Amy pulled herself up and suddenly hugged Gina tightly.

“I don’t know if you’re right,” she mumbled. “I don’t know. I didn’t— I never thought I would be. I don’t want to be.” Gina dropped the monotone voice that came with her anger and nodded, running her hands along Amy’s back soothingly. “My family would never accept me if I was. And I need to be the youngest female sergeant. And I need to have kids, or my mom will resent me. And—“

“Ames, you’re planning this out way too much.”

“But I have to!” Amy leaned back. “I can’t just drop everything for you, Gina. There’s so much I have to do.” 

Gina’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re saying it’s me or them?”

“I can’t give up the rest of my life for you,” Amy tried. 

“I’m not asking you to.”

“Look, there’s just— this is senior year, I’ve already missed out on so much studying. And I’d struggle so much more with my career and—“

“It’s fine,” Gina said, monotone. She pulled away so she was the one standing, now. “I don’t need the whole list of reasons you won’t be with me.”

“I would be with you,” Amy corrected instinctively, then winced. “I just can’t,” she added in a whisper, head bowed. 

“Okay.” Gina nodded slowly, lifting her arms to wrap around herself protectively. “Cool, well, I’ve gotta go.” She was apprehensive to leave Amy with the type of people Gina knew where there, but she trusted Amy could look after herself. 

“Gina,” Amy tried. “We— we can still be friends.”

Gina shook her head. “The rules of the bet. You lost.”

Amy’s eyes grew wide. “But I— I did it.”

“Yeah, but when people ask me what my big, secret last rule was, you’re not gonna wanna admit that you willingly kissed a girl.” When Amy just stammered, Gina continued. “So you lost. Use the phone in Brandon’s house, your parents should pick you up.”

Amy shook her head. “No! No, you promised that they couldn’t find out about any rules I’d broken.”

Gina sent her a cold look. “So you still want that sleepover, then? One night before the rest of your boring, heterosexual life?”

Amy paused, but shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

“Then we’re done.” 

“Okay.” Amy blinked. Gina was about to walk away forever, only looking at Amy from over her shoulder. “We’re done.” 

After Gina rounded the corner, it barely took her a second before she was turning back with a groan. Amy was staring at the floor, but her eyes lit up when she saw Gina.

“We’re still not speaking. But I’m not letting you take my dress and my best wolf necklace. You’re sleeping on the couch.” She made a motion for Amy to follow her, instead of just grabbing her like usual. “Then we’re done.”

Amy followed silently, deciding that was her best course of action to keep Gina pitying her. She knew the real reason Gina was letting her stay was because of what Amy’s parents might do, but she definitely couldn’t say that. They weren’t friends anymore.

She kept her head down; Gina didn’t need to know why her vision had become so blurred.

Chapter Text

The drive home was awkward, to say the least. Gina had forced one of Brandon’s friends to drive them and he had tried to make conversation, but Amy was curled up on the verge of tears in the backseat and Gina was staring forward at the road and didn’t even seem to hear him. He quickly quietened down.

Gina stayed true to her words. She stayed completely silent when showing Amy to the couch. She left a glass of water and the pyjamas Amy had left in her room downstairs, and only spoke to say she wouldn’t be coming back down. Amy didn’t really sleep.

In the morning, though, it was impossible to ignore each other. 

“My, uh, my dad should be here in an hour,” Amy spoke up meekly when she saw Gina go to the kitchen, in search of breakfast. Gina didn’t acknowledge her, if she did hear her. It took Amy another ten minutes before she worked up the courage to walk into the kitchen. She sat next to Gina, who focused steadfastly on eating her cereal. Amy cleared her throat. “We should work this out,” she forced out, and she didn’t miss the dirty look Gina sent her cereal instinctively. “I mean— the bet. Are you really gonna—“

“You agreed that if you lost then you would leave our group and go back to your old friends.” Gina still wasn’t looking up. “You knew the stakes.”

“But we both know that I did it.”

After a brief pause and a sigh, Gina sat up and looked directly at Amy. “Did what?”

Amy blinked. “I… what?”

“What did you do?”

“The secret rule, thing. You know what.”

“Say it.”

Amy’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “I—“ She let out a soft sigh, then continued in a quieter voice. “You kissed me.”

“And then?”

Amy met her eyes. “I kissed you.” Gina’s cold look was unfaltering. “Look, I did everything the bet asked for. We can still be friends.”

“Still be friends?” Amy nodded. Gina raised her brows, but Amy didn’t back down. “M’kay, well, I’m gonna tell you how that’ll go. We’re not just gonna be ‘friends’, because when I kissed you once, you kissed me for about five minutes, so obviously you haven’t figured that out. When you realise you can’t just be my friend, you’re gonna have another panic attack and then I’m gonna stay your little secret for the rest of senior year. Then you’re gonna ditch me the second you find a guy you’ve convinced yourself you like, and you’re gonna tell me it was all just a phase anyway. And then you’re gonna say that we can just be friends. And when you break up with him, you’ll come crying to me and the ‘just friends’ cycle will continue again.”

A beat.

“That’s—“ Amy’s brows furrowed. “That’s circumstantial. You don’t know that’ll happen.”

“You can’t even say that it won’t.”

Gina watched Amy struggle for a few more moments, before walking away and putting the remnants of her cereal away. Amy continued searching for something to say, but she didn’t have anything to prove Gina wrong.

She just stayed silent until she could leave. She only realised she had taken the wolf necklace with her hours later.

Walking in to school on Monday was torturous. The people who had seen her run away with Gina at the party were watching her and giggling, and the people who had heard Gina and her arguing had spread it around to everyone and their mothers, so the rest of the school was onto her, too. Amy was pretty sure even the teachers knew.

Classes were a good distraction, but it was unavoidable at lunch. Everybody’s eyes were on her again, as she looked between Jake and Kylie’s tables. 

When she walked up to Jake’s first, he was there to stop her. Charles and Gina were sat at the table, and Amy couldn’t see Rosa anywhere nearby, who would’ve probably been her only hope. Though she knew even Rosa couldn’t beat Gina. 

“You can’t sit with us anymore,” Jake said awkwardly, and Amy winced. “Sorry. Rules of the bet.” Amy just nodded, ready to walk away. “Um, I’m gonna miss you,” Jake added, then turned around swiftly to sit next to Gina, who was watching Amy with that same cold look. The permanence of it all made Amy ache. 

She just walked to Kylie with her head down. The table of her old friends fell silent when she walked up to it, and Amy lifted her head meekly to look at Kylie.

“Can I talk to you?” she asked quietly, and Kylie didn’t hesitate to lead her out of there. 

They stood outside the canteen. The silence felt fine until they were no longer walking, both the only people stationary in the hall. A few people walked past every once in a while, which was an odd comfort.

“You never showed up to our club. Last week.” Amy looked at her guiltily. “We always go together, remember?”

“I do,” Amy mumbled, biting at the inside of her cheek as some form of punishment. “I— I meant to find you during the week and apologise, but I… I don’t know, it felt busy, I guess.”

Kylie hesitated but nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, I noticed you and that girl got close. You were with her all the time so I… wasn’t really sure whether to come up to you or not.”

The thought of Kylie watching Amy without her knowledge made her heart ache. She sighed softly. “I missed us,” she admitted. “I should have spoken to you more, I’m sorry.” Kylie gave a shy smile and nodded. “Gina won’t be a problem now, anyway. She basically got a restraining order on me.”

“She got a—?”

“No, no! I’m just saying— she won’t let me anywhere near her.”

“Oh.” Kylie looked into the canteen at Gina briefly. She was staring at the food on her tray and not joining in on the thriving conversation around her. The girl with dark hair was staring right back at Kylie, so she quickly looked away. “I heard you guys had a fight.” 

Amy had since become lost in her own thoughts and began gazing on the floor, but her head snapped towards Kylie at that. “What?”

Kylie blinked. “Everybody’s talking about it. I didn’t know if it was true or just something Brandon Bliss made up.”

Amy winced at the name. “God, of course. He must’ve heard us, or something.” She let out a quiet groan, brushing her hand through her hair. “That must’ve been all he saw.”

“Did, uhm, did something else happen, then?”

Amy looked up at Kylie. She didn’t even really know what to tell her about her sexuality or Gina, she wasn’t sure she had the answers herself. “I don’t know,” she resorted to. “I don’t know, it’s complicated, I guess.”

“Oh.”

Amy nodded. Kylie only looked more suspicious that something was going on with Gina. Amy just kept her eyes trained on the ground.

The bell rang.

“I’ll see you later, right?” Kylie smiled. Amy looked up and nodded, trying to match the enthusiastic smile.

She was just glad for class.

She found a new routine. It was mostly like her life before Gina had taken the interest, so it wasn’t too much of an adjustment. She either ate in the toilets or with Kylie during lunch, and any other time she was solely focused on her studies. She ignored Gina the same way Gina ignored her. She didn’t mind it, really. If anything, Gina’s absence was just a blessing for Amy’s studies.

The problem was her classes with Gina. They were few, sure, but still torturous. Amy’s mind wondered and she couldn’t focus, and eventually she could bring her grades down with her. 

In History, Gina sat behind her. She didn’t know if she was imagining it, because Amy never dared to look back, but she could always feel eyes glaring into the back of her head. When they had to pair up with someone, Amy would always feel Gina’s eyes flick to hers before finding someone else. That was the thing, Gina had connections. Pretty much everyone in the school knew her for one reason or another. Not many people knew Amy at all. She usually requested to work alone, and most teachers seemed to like her enough to let her get away with it. She felt better on her own, anyway; work was less confusing than people.

One lunch, when on her way to her favourite bathroom stall, Amy had her arm grabbed. For a split second, hope filled her. Then she recognised the grip as different to Gina’s. Before she could say anything, she was stopped in a random, hidden spot in the school halls.

“Talk.”

Amy took a moment to recover, staring at Rosa incredulously. “What?”

“You and Gina. Something happened.”

“Oh, you’re good,” Amy praised sarcastically. She was glad to be talking to Rosa, because she was one of her best friends and they hadn’t spoken in a while, but the immediate topic of Gina was kind of a stab in the gut.

Rosa’s eyes narrowed. “Talk.”

“What do you mean, ‘talk’? What do you wanna know?”

“Why won’t Gina talk to you?”

Amy crossed her arms around herself. “The bet. I couldn’t go through with the last rule.” 

Rosa shook her head. “It’s more than that. Something else is up.”

Amy looked at her for a long moment, and then shrugged and dropped her eyes. “I don’t know,” she answered weakly. “Aren’t you banned from speaking to me, anyway?”

“Probably.” Rosa sat down, leaning her head against the wall. “I tried telling you it wouldn’t work out.”

“I know,” Amy sighed, sitting next to Rosa. She dropped her head to her shoulder, grateful that Rosa didn’t pull away. “I screwed up, okay?”

A beat.

“I broke up with Pimento.”

Amy blinked, surprised. Rosa would usually rather die than share anything even the tiniest bit personal, so the confession with zero prompting was surprising. “…Oh?” Amy shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to say to Rosa next. She was glad for the change in topic, though. “Why?”

Rosa’s nose scrunched. “He was getting all serious about everything. He started talking about we should get married some day and get an apartment together and it just felt… weird.” She huffed. “Like, he got more and more excited the more he spoke about it, but I just kept feeling more weirded out.”

“Oh.” Amy frowned. “I was like that with Teddy.” 

“He was a lot better than Teddy.”

Amy smiled softly. “I was trying to help,” she mumbled, nudging Rosa’s side. “Do you regret it?”

“What, breaking up with him?”

“Just, like, getting together with him in the first place.”

Rosa sighed. “It’s just weird. Every time I get with a guy, it turns out like this.” 

“Me, too,” Amy admitted. 

“You’ve only ever been with one guy.”

“I’ve tried with other guys. It never works.” She groaned when she failed to ignore Gina’s voice inside her head. “And now I’m just— I can’t stop thinking about it,” she whispered. “Gina said something to me.”

“What?” Rosa inquired with zero hesitation. 

“She thinks I’m—“ Amy frowned. “She kept asking me about Teddy all night, and then she was watching me when we did spin the bottle, and then she was asking me about girls and, like, studying me. It was weird.”

“What did she say?”

Amy really, really didn’t want to say it out loud, but, if there was anyone she could trust, it was Rosa. 

“She doesn’t think I like guys,” Amy mumbled. “I couldn’t kiss Teddy, and I couldn’t kiss Jake, and I couldn’t kiss the guy for the game, but I let her…” Amy froze, her stomach dipping when she realised how much she was saying. She pulled her head off of Rosa’s shoulder and pulled her knees up to her chest. Rosa didn’t comment on any of it. “Gina’s just… really confusing.”

Rosa snorted. “Understatement,” she said, and Amy smiled a little. There was silence while Rosa pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it. Amy didn’t say anything about the rules she was violating. “I’m bisexual,” she admitted, and it came out strained, so Amy stayed very, very quiet. “Don’t tell anyone. I just thought you should know since you told me your thing.”

Amy looked at her, surprised. She had a lto of different thoughts she couldn’t really articulate. “I won’t tell anyone,” she promised. “Can I— Can I ask you something?” she asked, hesitant.

“Shoot.” 

“How did you know?”

Rosa paused, then shrugged. “Kinda always did. I just didn’t realise it until I found out not everybody looks at girls the same way as guys.”

Amy bit at her bottom lip. “I don’t know what to think.” 

Rosa nodded. “It sucks. But you do figure it out, eventually. It’s just weird at first.”

“Yeah,” Amy sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall. “How much time do we have left?”

Rosa glanced at the watch on Amy’s wrist. “Ten minutes.” 

“Then let me have some of that.” Amy lifted her head and pointed at the cigarette between Rosa’s fingers.

Rosa raised an eyebrow, handing it to Amy anyway. “You smoke?” 

“I don’t know,” Amy grumbled, taking a drag nonetheless. 

Rosa watched her with amusement. “Man, the old Amy is gone. I wonder how many rules you’re breaking right now.”

Amy breathed out, looking at Rosa. “Three: underage smoking, smoking on school premises and being out of designated areas during Lunch-time.”

Rosa smirked. “And you’re still alive?”

Amy watched her out of the corner of her eye, before handing the cigarette back. “Just barely.”

Amy kept to herself as much as possible. She went by mostly unnoticed by her classmates, with the occasional acknowledgement from Rosa or Kylie and the awkward looks from Jake or Charles. Gina still avoided her at all costs. 

On Friday, Amy had extra work to give to Mr. Cozner and was searching around the school to find him after lessons had finished. She was content until she saw that Gina was still at the school, too. She wasn’t there for extra credit, though. 

Brandon was holding Gina up against a brick wall, kissing her like his life depended on it. Amy couldn’t really see him at her angle, though; just Gina, with her hand in his hair and her eyes clenched shut.

And then Gina was opening her eyes, and Amy had the abrupt realisation that she had stopped walking. Her old friend wasn’t giving her the usual cold look, but instead a more confusing one. She couldn’t really give a name to it; it seemed to be a multitude of things. She held that look until Brandon was about to turn around and Amy instinctively ducked her head down and kept walking. She didn’t look back, though she heard him start talking.

Eventually, Amy found Kevin the staff parking lot with his husband. She speed-walked over to him, eager to see him.

“Oh, hello, Amy,” he smiled when he caught her in his vision. He turned to his husband. “Raymond, this is Amy Santiago, my favourite student.”

She grinned, looking between the two men. She’d been eager to meet the famous Raymond Holt for years of being in Kevin’s class.

“Favouritism is unprofessional,” he said, leaning down to shake her hand firmly. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she considered whether or not he was about to insult her. “So you must be very special, for Kevin to bypass that.”

She couldn’t hide the smile. “Thank you, Sir.” She pulled out the piece of work from her bag and handed it to her teacher. “I just came to find you so you knew I finished the extra assignment.” When Kevin nodded and turned to look at his car, something in her faltered. “And, uh,” she started, abnormally loud, “I did have another thing. Unless you’re busy.”

Kevin glanced towards his car. “If it’s urgent, I can stay for a few more minutes,” he decided. Raymond nodded.

“Okay.” She nodded, trying to psyche herself up. “Okay, yeah. This might be too personal, so you don’t have to answer, but, uh…” Kevin quirked a brow, curious for the question. Raymond watched her. “How did you come out? What happened?”

Kevin was visibly taken aback by the question, but soon gathered his composure and started speaking. Amy was glad, because she was very ready to take back her question and run away.

“Well, I realised when I was quite young. I didn’t want to be, but I knew that wasn’t going to change anything, so I forced myself to come to terms with it,” he summarised. “My parents were unsupportive, still are.”

Amy stumbled over her words for a moment. “Does that not… affect you?”

“It does,” he nodded slowly. “But it’s something I’ve had to get used to. It’s easier, once you give it time.”

She nodded, looking away as she considered his words. She wasn’t sure how much it helped her, really.

“In my experience,” Raymond started. Amy turned to him, instantly meeting his gaze. “I quickly learned that denial was not going to change anything, and nothing ever would. It is hard, but…” he looked at Kevin, “I find it is worth it.”

Amy blinked as Kevin and Holt shared a fond look. “Okay.” She nodded slowly as she let the words sink in. “Thank you, Sirs. That helps.”

“You’re thinking of coming out to your family?” Kevin prompted and Amy felt an odd need to defend herself.

“Oh, I’m not—“ Amy opened her mouth to continue, then her eyes met Kevins, and she stopped. She didn’t exactly like the permanence of saying it out loud, but it felt like a whole other type of denial to avoid saying it all together. She was somewhere in the middle. “I’m not sure what I am, really,” she admitted, and hoped it was adequate enough. It felt weirdly intimate to be telling this to her teacher, but she had always felt a classic student-mentor bond forming between them. “I’m just trying to figure it out myself, right now.”

Kevin and Raymond nodded in unison. It seemed to be their primary method of communication. 

“Well, you’re always welcome to speak to me,” Kevin reassured her, then looked to his car again. “Is there anything else?”

“Oh, no, no. You can go. Sorry.” She smiled awkwardly, starting to back away.

“I’m glad I could support you,” he claimed, and she quickly left. She pretended she didn’t see that Gina and Brandon were leaving school separately. 

Chapter Text

After watching Amy leave her house, Gina wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to do. She’d already strayed way too far from the plan to take any comfort from its existence; if anything, it was more of a constant mockery now. Eventually, she stopped standing in place, just watching the empty spot where Amy had stood. She dug out her Dirty Dancing DVD (it was comfortingly lame) and grabbed the tub of mango ice cream she kept in preparation for a moment akin to this. Then she dialled Jake’s number.

“Hey—“

“I’m coming to Nanna’s place. Be there.”

Jake hesitated. “Gina, I’m kind of busy.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “How could you possibly be busy? Look, it’s urgent.”

There was a pause. “Urgent-urgent or you’re-bored-urgent?”

“Urgent-urgent,” Gina answered immediately, picking up her keys with her only remaining free-hand. “Will you be there?”

“Can I bring Charles?”

“Oh, you’re that kind of busy. I thought it was just that thing about wars in space.” She pursed her lips, considering. “Can he promise not to give unsolicited advice or get too absorbed in my personal life because of what I’m gonna be telling you guys?”

Gina heard whispering. “He makes no promises.”

She rolled her eyes. “See you in 20.”

Charles had been torn between listening to Gina and watching the movie. He seemed unable to comprehend the concept of finding a balance between the two options. Every once in a while, he would turn to Gina and ask her to re-explain her point. It was nice to confirm he was trying to listen, she reasoned with herself.

She dug her spoon into the ice cream. “Then I just dragged her out, because she was just staring at the guy the bottle landed on and I knew she was gonna make herself look bad.”

“That’s sweet,” Charles butted in absentmindedly, eyes on the TV screen.

“So what?” Jake asked, lost to how Gina had become so suddenly adamant that they couldn’t speak to Amy, which she had earlier declared at the door. “What happened after you left?”

“We sat in the garden together and just talked about stuff, I guess. I asked her about boys and she just…” Gina sighed, running her hand through her hair. “I don’t know. I was thinking about all the things she said and putting them all together and she doesn’t exactly seem… straight.”

Charles looked away from the screen to Gina’s eyes and Jake’s brows shot up.

Jake’s lips pulled into a line. “I never thought about it, I guess. That’s why you’re pissed at her?”

Gina rolled her eyes. “No, I—“ Gina stopped herself. “Okay, I admit this part was my fault and I shouldn’t have tried anything but she was asking me about the last rule and I just… I had the idea.”

“What happened?” Charles asked, looking fully starstruck by Gina’s storytelling now. Gina made a mental note that she’d have to skip the movie back soon when Charles had switched his attention focus once again. 

“I kissed her,” Gina admitted, looking somewhat guilty. 

“Shit,” Jake gasped. Charles’ gasp was much more dramatic. “What did she do?” 

“Well, she freaked out and then she kissed me, too.” Gina didn’t let herself reminisce too much. “Then she freaked out to the extreme. Like, if you think you’ve seen her bad, try giving her a sexuality crisis and see what happens.” Jake looked at her intently, waiting for the ending to the story. Gina wasn’t sure what else she wanted to say.

“Did she say something, or…?”

Gina frowned. “I don’t know. I’m not even mad at her for the shit she said, I get it. I’m just mad I let myself get this far.” She took another spoonful of ice cream. “So I’m not speaking to her. I know it’ll just mess us both up.”

Charles’ gasp was much too dramatic for Gina’s liking. “You’re not going to speak to her?”

“She couldn’t go through with the bet. She’s back with Kylie.”

Another gasp. “You said her name. You do care about Amy.”

“What?”

“Kylie. You usually just call her geek or something.”

“Oh.” Gina’s brows creased but she quickly softened them. “Whatever.” 

“You’re not going to talk to her at all?” Jake asked, not as adamant as Charles that it wasn’t an option. 

Gina nodded.

“No. No, this is not—“

“Charles,” Jake mumbled, stopping him. 

“But it could be so perfect!”

Gina rolled her eyes and turned pointedly towards the TV. She filtered out whatever Charles was saying to her.

When Nanna returned an hour or two later, she was immediately on Gina’s case about what was different.

“Ugh, it’s noticeable?” Gina groaned, rolling her eyes. “That bitch. This was her master plan all along.”

“Well—“

“Jake. You’re supposed to be my support.” 

Jake’s jaw clamped shut and he nodded diligently. Nanna watched the interaction with raised brows, looking between the two slowly. 

“Jacob, you can put the groceries away.” She dropped the bags in front of Jake and turned to look at Gina. “I’ll be talking to you away from the boys.” she said, walking through the apartment away from Jake and Charles. Gina followed, and re-explained the situation when Nanna asked, who gasped with just about every new development. She had been the one that had made Gina such a gossip, after all. Her gasps grew more indignant when Gina declared they weren’t going to be speaking anymore.

“Look, Nanna.” Gina leaned forward. “I need your wisdom. Jake has been pretty useless.”

“You need to talk to that girl,” Nanna decided, eyes wide, and Gina groaned.

“I can’t. It’s just gonna make it worse. Do you know how much denial she’s in?”

“You’ve never been one to give up,” Nanna said, shaking her head. Gina narrowed her eyes, considering the older woman’s words. “If you really like her, it shouldn’t stop you.”

“It’s more than that,” Gina sighed. “It’s not that easy. There’s other stuff. I’m still with Brandon.”

“And you’re in love with him?”

Gina let out a sharp laugh. “Yeah, no.”

“Then I still think you should talk to the girl you are in love with,” Nanna declared, standing to leave. Gina’s brows furrowed.

“I’m not in love with her,” she mumbled as a weak defence, but she was always transparent to her nanna, who just smiled and left. Gina stayed in her space for a while, staring down at the deteriorating carpet. 

By the time Gina returned to school on Monday, Jake had already educated the rest of her friends on the situation. Rosa kept shooting her suspicious looks and Terry just looked sad every time he saw her, so Gina knew instantly. She didn’t care to acknowledge it.

Nanna’s words had stuck, of course, but ultimately she wasn’t in control of the situation. It felt pathetic of her to admit it, but there were too many factors for her to disregard just because she would be able to kiss Amy again.

When she set her eyes on Amy, she didn’t let them soften. She knew how easily this situation could be dissolved and Amy could be undone, and Gina was too smart to let that happen. She just let Jake speak and returned Amy’s gaze, her eyes cold enough to sear. 

Her stomach sunk when Amy turned away, looking like a wounded gazelle as she turned to continue to walk across the canteen, lost and friendless. Gina looked away. 

The week had been borderline unbearable, with Amy constantly around and Rosa brooding and Jake worrying. The worst of it all had been when Gina had been supposed to make her big escape (3:00PM on a Friday), when Brandon had found her before she could leave.

“I haven’t seen you this week,” he said, grabbing her hand, and she didn’t suppress her groan.

“I nearly got away with it,” she quipped, smiling weakly.

“Are you busy this weekend?”

“Yes,” she answered on instinct. “Very.” 

He blew out a breath, exasperated. “So you’re missing all the parties?”

She shrugged, smiling. “The last one was a pretty big one, anyway. Call it a grace period.”

“Well, can we make up for time now?”

When he had leaned closer and she realised what he meant, she hadn’t mean to groan out loud. “Why?” she asked, frowning. Most people had filtered out of school by now, she noticed.

“‘Why’? I missed you.”

Her brows raised. “I don’t believe that. This is just a convenience thing, ‘kay, Bliss? In the moment. You can’t force the moment.”

He had most likely stopped listening as soon as she started talking, because he was kissing her before she could continue. His hands gripped at her hips and pushed her up against the wall, and she realised she should probably do something herself and lifted her hand into his hair.

His brown locks were too short in length for what she had been hoping for, what she had gripped onto last time. Amy had kissed just as frantically as Brandon did, but it wasn’t so unpleasant and instead more endearing than anything. Gina found the thrill of knowing she was enough to make Amy drop all her reservations just to prolong a touch or a kiss invigorating. 

Her nose scrunched as she realised Amy was on her mind and she forced her thoughts away. Then, for reasons she couldn’t quite place herself, she opened her eyes. 

Amy was watching her, a few feet away, wearing that same guilty, searching look Gina would see every once in a while, when they were leaving the same class or accidentally brushing past each other in the hallways. Gina always kept her head down, but now she didn’t really have the choice. She couldn’t even fake the cold look, only desiring to keep staring into brown eyes holding the overwhelming warmth of a burning fire. 

Then Amy’s head ducked down and she continued walking at a much faster pace, and Gina realised Brandon had noticed Gina’s faltering and turned to see Amy.

“Oh.” His teeth gleamed as he turned back to look at Gina, smiling in a way that made her stomach turn. “Should’ve guessed it was her, huh?”

Her eyes narrowed. “What?”

He chuckled. “I guess I shouldn’t have even tried with you. You’ve already been taken for a while.” 

He was pulling away from her, and she pulled away at twice the speed. Her mouth had grown dry. Her head tilted, a threatening welcome gesture for him to continue. “I’m not taken by any one,” she said, finally settling on what to respond to. 

That same laugh. “Just seems she was pretty clingy to you at the party. I mean, she couldn’t even let you be with me for ten minutes.” He blew out a breath, looking up. “And then that image of the little make-out sesh in my back garden.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Gina was seething and his eyes had returned to hers and his grin had become all the more unbearable. She had known it was coming. “Pretty incriminating stuff, huh?”

“You were watching me?” she growled, stepping even further away from him as her lip curled in disgust.

“I was just gonna come find you to ask what happened. I didn’t realise you two would be going at it.”

Her scowl deepened. “M’kay, we’re done,” she nodded. “I’m not doing this anymore.”

“We’re done?” he repeated, smirk only growing. Gina stopped mid-turn. “The rumours are only saying that you two had an argument, so far. Think about how much worse I could make them.”

Gina scoffed. “Like anyone would believe that. She’s too much of a goody-two-shoes for anyone to consider whatever you come up with.”

He wasn’t deterred. “No one will believe it, you’re right. But we both know what the look on her face will be the minute she hears about it. Then people might have the tiniest idea.” 

Gina’s glare intensified as the image appeared in her mind. That mortified look of betrayal as Amy’s eyes found Gina’s down a crowded hall.

“Okay, fine, you’re sure you wanna go there?” Gina asked, finally turning towards him. She walked up to him. “You can do what you want. But just know that I can make you just as miserable as you can make me.” Her.

His smile finally, finally dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“Everybody knows we had sex,” she said, her finger pointing towards him then herself. “For all anyone else knows, you have a tiny dick and a thing for anal.”

She felt delighted when she saw how his face reddened. She held the control again. “No one will believe you,” he said, his scoff coming out weak. 

Gina’s brow raised. She didn’t smile, only met his glare with equal intensity. “Are you willing to take that bet?” she goaded, eyes twinkling. When he didn’t respond, just stared, her grin broke through. “Trust me, Bliss, I can play the mean girl so much better than you can.” 

It was an odd feeling of being unnaturally untethered that accompanied Gina when she arrived home. Her mother looked away from the TV when she heard the door click shut.  

Darlene smiled. “Good day, Regina?”

Gina nodded softly after a moment of consideration. “I think so,” she said. “I broke it off with Brandon.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry,” she gushed but Gina shook her head. She wasn’t looking at Gina anymore.

“No. I’ve wanted to for a while.”

“And what did the doctors say?”

Gina looked away from the painting on the wall she had been eyeing and to her mother. She had a phone held to her ear and not the slightest clue that Gina was still behind her. The auburn frowned as Darlene’s conversation continued on, pivoting on the spot to make her way up to her room. She dialled Nanna’s number the moment she could. 

Amy had spent hours planning it. It hadn’t felt right to approach Gina at or after school, so she created the elaborate plan to show Gina her decision on their relationship. 

Amy wiped her damp palms against her pants as she lowered herself to sit on the picnic blanket she had laid down. The pillows, basket full of snacks and pillows offered an intimate atmosphere for what Amy hoped would become a date. She looked up, delighted to see the stars had already begun to become visible. 

Then she saw her: Gina, looking more confused than Amy had when she’d been kissed, strolling up the hill towards Amy. Her eyes trailed over every section of Amy’s set-up, until eventually meeting brown eyes. Her brow arched as her hand lifted to rest on her hip. 

“Is this as gay as when we hid in the closet together or are you still in all-consuming denial?”

Amy winced at the immediate approach to the topic, but supposed she shouldn’t have expected anything different from Gina. She was just glad to speak to her again. 

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said, reaching forward to grab Gina’s hand and tug her down so she was sitting beside Amy. “I just want to be with you. And…” she looked up, remembering the whole point of the set-up, “name stars with you.”

Gina looked from the sky to Amy, her eyes betraying her mistrust in Amy. “So you created your dream date?” she finally goaded, leaning closer. “Testing the girl of your dreams on the topic you’ve been teaching her about?”

Amy chuckled with a fond roll of her eyes, dropping against Gina as all the stress lifted from her body. She closed her eyes, smiling widely.

“I missed you,” she murmured, leaning up to kiss Gina, who hummed and nodded. 

“I know.”

A screeching noise rung through Amy’s room. She blinked her eyes open to see her alarm glaring right back at her, and quickly slammed her hand down on it to shut it up. She groaned and rubbed her hand across her face, falling further into her covers.

Then, her second alarm rung, and she lost all the excuses she might’ve had. She stood from her bed, not imagining Gina being left behind her. She ignored the fact she could see the necklace she’d forgotten to give Gina back on her desk.

“Amy,” Kylie greeted as soon as she sat down opposite Amy for lunch, and Amy usually wouldn’t have paid it much attention, but she heard the conspiratorial tone in her friend’s voice.

“What’s up?” she smiled. 

“I wanted to talk to you about, uh.” Kylie stopped herself, looking over her shoulder. “Gina.”

Amy stopped herself from physically flinching at the name, instead tucking her hair behind both ears as an excuse to move. She made sure her smile didn’t fade. “What about her?”

“I think you need to talk to her,” Kylie admitted guiltily, staring down at her food then back up at Amy every once in a while. “You’re really quiet and irritable and I keep catching her staring at you and, uhm, that other girl told me to ask you about it.” The last part of her sentence came me out incredibly rushed, and Amy knew in an instant Rosa had been way too threatening with her request for Kylie.

Amy sighed, wringing her hands together and dropping the smile. “I’m trying. She avoids me in every way she can. Even in classes, she’s bribed the teachers into moving me away from her.” She dropped her chin to rest in her hands, eyes looking behind Kylie to Jake’s table. Rosa’s eyes immediately met hers, then gestured for Amy to meet her outside the cafeteria. Amy groaned, but did leave when she made sure Kylie’s other friends had arrived, mumbling her apologies before walking out in sync to Rosa.

They left to their usual hidden spot. 

“Why do you keep staring at me?” Amy whispered as soon as they were hidden. “It’s off-putting.”

Rosa’s eyes narrowed. “I’m waiting for you to talk to Gina. I can’t deal with her much longer.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Well, if you’ve come to me to find out how to get her to leave you alone, I could give you a few tips on how to make her find you unbearable.”

“She still likes you.”

Amy let out a long sigh when her stomach still filled with that same feeling. “Shut up,” she mumbled, lifting her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I don’t wanna talk about that.”

“You instigated the conversation.”

“No, I didn’t!” 

Rosa shrugged. “You basically did.”

Amy dropped to lean against the wall and shook her head, sending Rosa one last warning look. Amy’s head leaned towards Rosa after a few moments of silence.

“Do you have any cigarettes left?” she asked quietly and Rosa rolled her eyes.

“Here,” she said, handing over her whole packet. “I’m stopping before it gets worse. I keep seeing those stupid fucking commercials about them.”

“Oh.” Amy took the packet hesitantly, balancing it between her fingers delicately. “Thank you.”

Amy’s eyes followed motion from the door as soon as Gina walked into Cozner’s class. Gina didn’t look at her.

She wasn’t even sure what sign she was looking for. All Amy knew was that she needed to do something, to change something, and therefore find the chance to speak to Gina. Her mentor’s words from Friday had stuck with her for the few days she spent away from school. She’d also formed the newfound goal of finding a way to speak to his husband more.

Gina had since moved from being so close to her table in this classroom. She was a few desks ahead now, leaving with Amy with just about zero ways of reaching her naturally. So the excuse of an accidental run-in was off the cards, Amy noted.

“I will be assigning partners for this next task,” Kevin said, standing from his seat to distribute sheets across the class. While the rest of the class groaned, Amy couldn’t help the quick feeling of relief that washed over her. She’d gotten used to the awkward feeling of having to nonchalantly search for whoever else was lacking in friends. Then, a moment later, that sweet feeling of relaxation was snatched away from her, when she noticed the meaningful look Kevin sent her as he dropped a sheet on her table. She was close to just reaching forward and begging him to stop, but he was already half-way through the list. There was no stopping the words coming out of his mouth. “And Gina and Amy. You may temporarily move seats if it is necessary. You have 15 minutes.”

Amy watched, her stomach sinking and her teeth worrying her bottom lip, as Gina’s head lifted from the table. She didn’t look back; she just stared forward. When she saw everyone else was moving, Amy stood with a nervous gulp and made her way over to Gina’s desk.

Emotions unclear, Gina looked up at her. Amy tucked her hair behind her ears under the strict gaze. She couldn’t remember the last time Gina had actually looked back at her.

“Hi,” Amy greeted, hands fidgeting. Gina continued to look at her blankly, before looking down and continuing with the work on her own. Amy awkwardly took the seat next to her, placing her sheet in front of her. She knew she couldn’t let the only chance she had to speak to Gina again go to waste; she just would’ve liked some time to prepare. “So, uh, I feel like we need to speak—“

“Do you know the answer to question 3?”

“Wha— I…” Amy paused, looking down to check. “No.” 

“‘Kay.” Gina looked at Amy for a long moment, then turned away again. “Then we don’t need to.”

A lump at the back of her throat prohibited Amy from speaking again. 

Amy let out a sigh as she dropped her head back against the wall after a particularly long drag of her cigarette. She folded her lips together, relishing in the short feeling of tranquility.

She hadn’t been able to speak to Gina, even when given the perfect circumstance. Gina haunted her thoughts every waking minute, but Amy still struggled to bring herself to speak another word after Gina had replied to her. It was like she could flick a switch in her mind and completely lose any care she might have over a situation. Amy wished she could feel that amount of ease in their specific situation.

Instead, here she was, feeling a great lack of any control, having to find a hidden spot within the school just to de-stress after attempting to speak to Gina. She felt pathetic.

She sighed and took another drag, closing her eyes and resting her cheek against the cold wall behind her. If she could just have this short moment, she could be calm again by the time she needed to meet with Kylie.

Then she heard footsteps.

Her eyes bulged open. “Shit!” she whisper-shouted, grabbing the spray she kept in her pocket to get rid of the smoke smell. She was mid-way through spraying it around herself when the man she wanted to see least stepped into view. “Hi!” she squeaked, taking an overly optimistic tone. “Hello, Sir, and how are you today?”

Cozner looked between Amy’s face and the cigarette still in her hand and barely hidden from sight. Said hand was also noticeably shaking, which didn’t help.

“I am shocked to see this from you, Amy,” he said, not even pretending to believe the act, and all breath flew out of Amy’s lungs. She’d disappointed him. “This is unacceptable. I need to confiscate this and anything else you have on you.” Amy’s teeth sunk into her lip when he held his hand out.

“Yes, Sir,” she stuttered, cheeks burning with embarrassment as she pulled the pack out of her pocket and handed it over, head bowed.

Cozner took a short pause. “Obviously, I will have to inform your parents about—“

“No!” Amy cried, head shooting up. “No, God, no! You can’t do that.”

He hesitated. “I’m afraid it’s school policy, I really don’t have a say.”

“Please. Please, I’ll do anything,” she begged, eyes wider than earlier. “You can’t tell them. Put me in detentions for the rest of senior year, just don’t—“

“Fine,” he said, holding a hand in the air to stop her talking. She was instantly quiet, which gave him the time to realise what he had agreed to and heave a long sigh. “Fine,” he repeated. “Only because I fear for your safety due to… prior knowledge.” Amy cheeks heated a little more but she nodded vigorously so he wouldn’t change his mind. “You will still be punished with detention. And I expect that you will stop this habit immediately.”

Another nod. “Of course. I’ll try.” Cozner paused, unappreciative of the noncommittal side of her statement. Her hands fidgeted guiltily under his watch. “I mean it, I’ll try. It’s just… hard.”

“Okay,” he agreed after a final pause. “You’ll be in detention after school today. I’ll tell your parents you had to stay later to complete extra work.” Amy nodded, appreciative. He scrutinised her for a moment. “I’m going to assume this is because of the incident in class.”

Amy bit the inside of her cheek. He knew. “I wouldn’t call it an incident,” she mumbled, averting her eyes. “Nothing happened. She just ignored me.”

He hummed. “Well, I am available if you need to speak.”

Amy smiled tightly. “Thank you, Sir.” 

He nodded curtly. “Make your way to my classroom when classes end. I’ll show you where to go.”

When Amy arrived at his classroom a few hours later, he was waiting for her by the door. He spoke before she could.

“A teacher in my department has had his room cluttered by a student a week or two ago,” he started, gesturing for her to walk with him. “You and another student will be cleaning it as your punishment. Obviously, this is more than a usual detention, so I won’t have to give you multiple.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, sort of glad that she would have the distraction of cleaning. She was sure whoever she was paired with would be quite fine with letting her do more work, too. This couldn’t turn out too bad. “Uh, thank you for all your help today.”

“You are welcome,” he smiled, then turned the corner, to which Amy followed. Eventually, he came to a stop at one door, and a horrible wave of déjà vu hit Amy. His description from earlier repeated in her head and she gasped softly. “Are you okay?”

“Good,” Amy breathed, remembering the second day of rule-breaking. How her view on Gina had gradually changed throughout the day. Her eyes remained glued to the door. “Great.” 

He didn’t say anything else. He unlocked the door and told Amy the other student would be arriving shortly, then walked away. 

She blew out a long breath when the door clicked closed and her eyes trailed across the classroom. It looked exactly the same as how they’d left it, stained by a few sorry attempts at cleaning it up that Amy had to assume had come from the teacher himself. 

She started work immediately. She sat a few of the discarded chairs upright and in line with the desks in front of them. As she turned to check the closet, the door obnoxiously announced a new intruder. 

Amy looked up. She decided in that very moment she might have to kill Cozner.

“Gina,” she breathed, surprised. “Hi.”

Gina looked at her for a long moment, then back to the door, then back to her again. She groaned quietly, which Amy made sure to remember as proof she did indeed care at least a little bit. She slumped down into the chair closest to her, crossing her arms in front of her.

Amy’s brows furrowed. “Are you gonna… help?”

“I’m not cleaning up after that dude,” Gina said plainly, leaning back in her chair. 

“Well, it’s not really—“ Amy shook her head, trying to re-focus her mind on what was most important. If she wanted to stop getting stuck with these problems, she needed to talk to Gina already. It wasn’t like there was any way to escape now. “Uhm, I have an apology to make.” Gina raised a brow, actually looking up to meet Amy’s gaze, who hesitated under the intensity of Gina’s. “I’m sorry I freaked out so much. And I was so dismissive about you. For how I handled everything, I guess.”

She looked up, expecting something from Gina, who was just staring at her blankly. After a moment, she hummed in the affirmative and nodded, before turning her attention back to judging her nails.

Amy frowned. “Is there anything… you wanna say?”

Gina looked up again. “Oh, were you trying to trick me into apologising? Are you still pissed about that kiss?”

“What? I— no.” Amy took a deep breath in. “No. No, I just mean… isn’t there anything you’ve been hoping to say? You don’t have a response?”

Gina shrugged. “I’m over it,” she mumbled, turning her eyes away again. 

“You’re over it?” Amy repeated, eyes narrowing. “Is ‘it’ me?” 

“Whatever you want it to be, hon,” Gina drawled, voice still quiet as if this was some unimportant conversation. Just another thing she needed to be done with. She stood from her chair to walk over to the closet, since Amy wasn’t going through it. She dug through the cluttered mess at the bottom, pulling out something specific, to which Amy turned, suspicious. “Huh. I knew I left my lipstick in here.” She turned, applying the lipstick over her lips.

Amy failed to hide her scowl at Gina immediately moving on from the topic. “I’m asking you to give me some kind of input about us. You’re telling me you don’t care at all now? You just… don’t?” Gina’s shoulders rose and fell again, indifference evident. Amy rolled her eyes. “Okay. We’re back to this.”

“Aha.”

Amy’s lip curled. “God, you can be so insufferable,” she finally grumbled, breaking out of whatever nice act she had been trying to preserve. 

Gina smiled, all teeth. “Thanks, babe, it’s an art.” 

Amy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her front. “Would it kill you to be serious just once? Would it be so hard to try?”

“Too much effort.”

“Right,” Amy sighed bitterly, nodding. “Because you don’t care. That’s, like, your whole thing.”

“And you care too much.”

Amy glared, then forced herself to look away. She couldn’t deal with staring at Gina for so long. She’d done it enough.

“Then I guess that’s why we worked out like we did,” she shrugged, moving to stand beside Gina so she could actually reorganise the closet, which Gina hadn’t so much had looked at after finding her lipstick. “We’re too different, right? We aren’t good for each other.”

She didn’t look back up from the closet, but she could feel how Gina’s eyes burned into her. 

“Sure,” she said, voice even. Amy guessed that was it. She stayed silent, accepting that this would be the last of her and Gina, who had already stopped caring about the relationship the moment it ended. Then, a weird sound somewhere between a sigh and a groan made Amy look up. “I’m not mad at you,” Gina admitted, voice more strained than before. “You think too much. You don’t need to apologise.”

Amy blinked, fully taken aback. “You’re not mad?” Gina shook her head. “But you won’t talk to me.”

“Rules of the bet.” 

“Oh.” Amy looked at her again, then away. She struggled in that cycle for a while. “But you’re talking to me now.”

Gina hummed with a shrug, leaning her hands against a table behind her. “Rules are made to be broken.”

“So you—“ Amy’s eyes narrowed as she put the pieces together. “Then why are you being so difficult with me?” Gina felt having to verbalise I’m in love with you and don’t want to be would be too difficult and embarrassing and mortifying, so she reverted to yet another shrug. It only seemed to stress Amy out more. “You have reasons for everything else,” she reasoned.

“I’m very complicated.”

Amy’s brows raised on instinct. “I’m a testament to that, I guess,” she laughed gently. “You really confuse me.”

“Confusing is the best way to be,” Gina claimed, and Amy’s lips pushed together as she considered her words. She decided to figure out how much she could get out of Gina now that she’d found herself at an impasse. 

“Well…” Amy cleared her throat. “We might as well be friends if you’ve already broken the rule, right? We just don’t have to be close.”

Gina hesitated. “Sure.”

“So, uh, what have you been getting up to?” She started re-organising the bottom of the closet again, lining up the material in lines. When Gina didn’t answer, Amy decided to offer her own answer first. “David moved out so my mom’s being more irritable than usual. She’s been calling him every day.” 

Gina took a long pause. “I broke up with Brandon.”

Amy’s hands stopped. 

“Oh.” She realised there wasn’t much more she could do with the closet and turned so she was facing Gina, closing the closet as she did. Their eyes met. “So you two were a thing?”

Gina shrugged. “He was getting too into it.”

“Right.” Amy nodded. “That’s you. No commitment type of gal.” She licked her lips. “Right?” Suspicious of the look Amy was giving her, Gina narrowed her eyes. She just nodded, deciding that a vague enough answer. “Right. How’d he take it?”

“Uh.” Gina’s brows pulled together. “He threatened to make up rumours about us and I told him I had much more dirt on him. So now he’s just left a little butt-hurt.”

Confused, Amy asked, “Us?”

“He saw us.” 

“Oh, I thought he only saw— oh.” Amy swallowed. “Right.”

“Trust me, he won’t say shit.”

“I do trust you,” Amy smiled, nodding and meeting her eyes again. “I just… didn’t realise. You don’t think any one else saw?”

“Nah. He would’ve enjoyed the power of keeping it all to himself.”

“Like he did with you?”

Surprised, Gina raised her brows, giggling. “Dang, Santiago. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

Amy flushed red but shrugged nonchalantly. “I never liked him.”

“Wonder why,” Gina quipped.

Amy laughed and rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t because of—“ She stopped herself, brows furrowing. “Huh. I guess it was.” 

The silent acknowledgment of feelings left a change in the atmosphere. They were no longer old friends sharing an inside joke; it became realer and realer every moment they simultaneously thought about it. Anxious, Amy bit the inside of her cheek.

“Sorry,” she laughed, too loud. “I didn’t mean to make it—“

“You didn’t.” Gina’s smile had faded. She’d settled on some unreadable look while Amy caught her own bearings. “You didn’t make it anything. I told you, you worry too much.”

“Sorry,” Amy grinned awkwardly.

“You apologise too much, too.” Gina’s smile was soft and small, and Amy swooned. She just nodded and averted her gaze, ignoring the urge to apologise again. “You need to chill.”

“I can be chill,” Amy mumbled, and Gina’s chuckle just came out automatically. “What? I have been chill! That was, like, the whole point of your big bet.”

“That was to make you cool.”

“Yeah, well. Didn’t work.”

Gina’s smile faded. “It came close,” she bargained. 

“Yeah.” Amy sighed. “It did.” She looked up again, seeing Gina’s gaze on Amy’s shoes instead of her face. Then, she saw the desk steadying Gina wobble and acted in instinct. 

A moment later, the desk had fallen and knocked another one behind it in a thankfully negligible domino effect. One of Amy’s hands had grabbed for Gina’s and the other was gripping her waist. She blinked.

Gina’s looked over her shoulder at the mess. “Huh.” She looked back up at Amy, lips pulling into an amused smile. “You saved me.” Amy smiled awkwardly, unsure of whether she should move away since Gina’s hands had moved from Amy’s but come to rest on her back. She wasn’t sure what to take from that. “You look taller like this.”

Amy tittered. “I do?”

“Mhm,” Gina nodded, grinning up at her. “Yeah, you should stop. This is doing stuff for me.” 

Amy didn’t know what came over her. She’d been looking for the chance and took it the moment she thought she might have it. She moved closer, and Gina didn’t move away, so she closed the final gap. It was only a small movement, their lips melding together slowly, but Amy instantly felt the dread pool in her stomach when she realised she had instigated that.

She pulled her face away, eyes searching Gina’s for any reaction. She just looked a little stunned. 

“Sorry,” Amy breathed. “Sorry, I thought you were telling me you liked it— I should’ve, uhm—“ She looked down, realising she still hadn’t moved, and began to pull her hands away. 

Gina stopped her, panicked to lose this again. She lifted her hands to the back of Amy’s neck, pulling her into a kiss. Amy couldn’t help the sound of surprise but quickly melded into the kiss. The kisses soon turned more frantic and, no matter how much she tried to avoid it, Amy had to pull away for air.

When she met Gina’s eyes, she giggled. “I thought you didn’t like me anymore,” she admitted quietly. 

Gina just pulled her into another kiss the first moment she could. Amy knew her smile must’ve made it difficult, but she found it too hard to stop.

“I tried not to,” she mumbled after breaking away momentarily. “It didn’t work.”

Amy hadn’t thought it would be possible for her smile to grow wider. “Me, too.”

Chapter Text

As she worked against the clock, Amy’s hand travelled frantically across the paper. She wrote as much as she could until her timer stopped her, leaving her to lean back in her chair and sigh. Most of her days had become centred around this routine. Of course, she had always put aside some time each day for studying, but, with her final exams approaching, the routine had grown more tiresome than anything. Allowing herself the break, she closed her eyes.

Click.

Amy’s eyes were open in an instant. They jumped to the window by her bed, where she was greeted with exactly what she had tried not to expect.

Harbouring at least enough humanity to look sheepish, Gina gave a smile as she slyly made her way into the room. She shut the window behind her, having no intention of leaving any time soon.

Amy gritted her teeth, not moving across the room as Gina situated herself on the edge of Amy’s neatly made bed. 

“I thought I told you to stop coming in through the window,” she whisper-shouted, earning a quirk of Gina’s brow. “Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

“Are you trying to make me die of boredom?” Gina countered, forever the fan of hyperbole. Her voice turned from accusatory to whiny. “You never hang out with me anymoreeee.”

“I spoke to you at school today.” 

“You spoke to everyone at school today!” Gina stressed. “I’m just tryna make it easier for you, bringing the Gina to you.” She shrugged. “But if you’re gonna take this for granted—“

“It’s very sweet, Gina,” Amy said, rolling her eyes affectionately. She made her way across the room, standing in front of Gina and slightly lifting her hands to cup Gina’s cheeks. She leaned down and planted a chaste kiss on her lips, then stayed at that level and widened her eyes in hopes Gina would understand her more. “But it puts me on edge. My parents could hear you.”

“You can hide me in the closet,” Gina offered, cocking her head. “For the symbolism.” 

Giggling softly, Amy’s eyes rolled. “Sure,” she mumbled, dropping to sit beside Gina on the bed. “I’m supposed to be studying.”

“You’re always studying.”

“School’s nearly over. What else would I be doing?”

“Kissing your girlfriend.”

Amy smiled. “I can do that after.”

They fell into a silence. Gina’s mind didn’t stop for a moment.

“You need, like, a Cameron moment.” Gina’s eyes dropped to Amy’s, and Amy, confused at the topic change, cocked her head and scrunched her nose.

“Huh?”

“From Ferris Bueller? You know, the end scene where he says he’s gonna stand up to his dad.” Amy blinked. “I can be Ferris, you can be Cameron.”

“Oh, I never watched it.” Amy smiled tightly. “My parents never liked it.”

Gina’s brows rose. “Point proven. You need to kick your parents’ car off the cliff.”

Amy stared at her. “…What?”

“It’s metaphorical!” Gina reasoned, looking towards Amy, who shifted uncomfortably. “You need to stop being so scared of them.” 

“You need to stop being so loud,” Amy argued, cocking her head, but Gina didn’t match the smile, making it soon drop to a frown. Amy studied her. “I don’t understand. What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t like seeing how you are with them,” Gina complained, her hand dropping to link with Amy’s. “You need to figure out who you are without them. They’re always at the back of your mind.”

Amy hesitated, but nodded. “Okay,” she said, soft and quiet, letting her head drop to rest on Gina’s. “I’ll— I’ll try.”

The silence only lasted a few moments longer, before Gina blew out a breath and straightened her posture.

“Now, you promised you’d help me with the prom posters. This is as good a time as any.”

Not being able to hold back the roll of her eyes, Amy cringed. The thought of Jake and Gina being advertised as a couple all around the school was enough to make her skin itch. Not even from jealousy, it was just wrong.

“I hoped you were joking about that.”

“Why?” Gina demanded. “We make an unstoppable duo! I’ve got the creativity and the pizzazz, you have the patience and… time”

“It’s not making the posters that I don’t like,” Amy clarified. “I’m just not sure how believable the Jake-Gina relationship is gonna be.”

Having had this conversation a few times before, Gina rolled her eyes. “Look, he’s my last choice. He’s like my brother. But Brandon’s gone now, and he was my sure fire ticket to Prom Queen, so I’ve gotta work with what I’ve got. Find some sort of way to fix Jake’s reputation.”

“After ‘the tattler’? I don’t think that’s gonna happen.” Gina looked away, so Amy continued on. “Look, I’ll help with the posters. But I’m saying ‘I told you so’ if this just makes Jake more unpopular.” 

“I’m very talented at cultivating identities,” Gina claimed, and Amy’s brows lifted in question, but Gina only offered a smile. “You’ll see.”

“Prom is soon.” 

Amy cringed as she stepped into her kitchen. Suddenly regretting making sure to be the first person down, she hesitantly took her seat at the table. 

“Yes,” she nodded, looking up at her parents fleetingly. 

“We need to discuss how you’re getting there,” her mom declared. “Any possibility of a boy taking you?”

Amy’s fork flicked at her food. “I think Gina’s mom was gonna take me,” she mumbled, shrugging. 

“Oh.” Camila and Victor shared a quick look. Amy tried not to notice it. “Well, that’s fine. We can take our pictures from home and then— who, again?”

“She’s called Darlene.” 

“Right.” Camila smiled. “Darlene.”

“So,” Victor cleared his throat, “any boys in the running for—“

Amy had never been so glad to hear David and the rest of her brothers making their way downstairs.

“Good weekend?” Amy prompted after catching up with Rosa on her path to school, who sent her a look.

“No small talk. I thought we were passed that.”

“It’s not small talk,” Amy scoffed, amused. “I’m interested in your life. It’s— girl talk.”

“No girl talk either.” When Amy made a face similar to a pout, Rosa raised a brow. “Would you understand better if I put it in a list?”

“I know you’re making fun of me but I would really appreciate it if you did start putting all your issues into lists for me. I feel like, as a society, we’ve stopped appreciating lists as we—“

“Nevermind,” Rosa decided. “My weekend was good. I’m guessing yours was, too, since you’re so perky.”

“Perky,” Amy repeated in yet another scoff, shaking her head. “Maybe I’m just a very positive person, Rosa.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

Amy gasped playfully, about to shoot an equally witty response back when

“The tattler?”

“Gina Linetti and him have been friends since forever. There’s no way they’re actually dating.” 

“Apparently they’ve been dating for that long.” 

“Wasn’t she with Brandon for a while?”

“I’ve heard monogamy isn’t much her thing.” 

As soon as Amy entered the school gates, the sounds had flooded her ears like radio feedback she didn’t want to hear but couldn’t escape. Sometimes, it stopped whenever she came near whoever was speaking, but she didn’t like to think about that due to the inevitable question of why. She would very easily spiral.

“You good?” Rosa mumbled to her, leaning closer, and Amy was nodding in an instance. 

“Great,” she nodded. “Tubular. Just, um, gonna take some getting used to this new… dynamic.”

Rosa narrowed her eyes. “I hate when you don’t explain what you actually mean.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “I don’t like the Jake and Gina thing.” When she saw the look, she sighed. “Not because of that stuff. It’s just gross.”

“Agreed,” Rosa said, before turning to leave, eyes suddenly gesturing to the side of them, where Amy saw where one of the posters Gina and her had spent their time designing had been hung. Nose crinkling, she cringed. She wasn’t even sure if she was jealous or just that damn uncomfortable.

When she let her eyes travel to the girl attaching the poster to the wall, her gaze softened. 

“I can’t believe you’re at school earlier than me,” Amy grumbled on her way to Gina, alerting her of her presence. “I could’ve come with you.”

Gina threw a smile over her shoulder, and Amy beamed at the simple gesture Gina wouldn’t have given another. “I sort of had to go with Jake, girl, sorry. I gotta get the rumours starting as early as possible so people can get invested.” 

“Right,” Amy nodded, smile having dropped a tad at the inevitable Jake mention. “That makes sense.”

“Hmm,” Gina hummed in agreement, turning fully once she had finished with the poster and casting a final glance around their surroundings. Without warning, she grabbed hold of Amy’s collar and tugged it down to bring her into a kiss. Then, she pulled away with a mischievous grin as the antithesis to Amy’s surprised look. She kept her hand on Amy’s collar, leaning against her slightly. “Were you looking for me?”

“No,” Amy smiled. “You just happened to be here.”

“Damn. The Universe loves us.”

Amy’s smile grew. “You’ve never kissed me in school before,” she pointed out, her adoration accidentally filtering out the accusatory tone.

“I was just thinking, you know. I've heard a lot about myself and my… preferences in the past hour, but I haven’t heard one person mention you.” She seemed almost giddy as she leaned in for another chaste kiss. “We’re great at this.”

Amy nodded, lacking the words to articulate her response. She wasn’t sure what she could even say to Gina to make her understand the appreciation and simultaneously longing she felt. Her look was the only chance of conveying it, really.

“It’s exciting,” she said simply, because maybe there was nothing else to be said, anyway.

“So.” Charles plopped himself down opposite Amy, who looked above her book suspiciously. He was grinning much too enigmatically for her liking. “How did it go?”

Brown eyes followed the librarian as Amy waited for the chance to speak. “What?” she whispered, meeting his eyes.

“The promposal,” he explained eagerly. “I’ve been stopping myself from asking because I assumed Gina would be telling us all soon enough, but I can’t wait any longer!” A ‘Shh!’ came from across the library, and his tone lowered. At Amy’s complete loss for words and awkward stammering, he said, “Ohhh. Are you saving it ‘till the last moment to make her start to wonder if you’re going to do it at all?”

Amy fumbled for words for a few moments more, before she leaned forward and uttered in a hushed tone, “She wants me to do that?”

Amy was sure Charles gasp would get them kicked out of the library, but it thankfully earned nothing but another glare. The built up reputation of Amy must’ve saved them. The thing that did get them kicked out of the library was Charles’ immediate lecture and his demands that Amy should feel ashamed. They walked the halls.

“So she’s been expecting this?”

“Who wouldn’t?” Charles demanded. “How else can she know you love her.”

“Well, we haven’t said that yet,” Amy grumbled, but he was long past listening. “I just assumed we would be going together. Anything else is so elaborate—“

“I knew I should’ve been more controlling. Rosa told me that you’d be fine.”

“Right,” Amy mumbled, nodding along lamely. 

“Look, it’s— it’s okay,” he decided, yet the tinted colour to his cheeks suggested otherwise to Amy. She said nothing of it. “We can still fix this. We have about a week before Gina will break up with you.”

“You think she’s gonna—“

“Ever since our parents have consummated, me and Gina hold a bond that you cannot understand.”

Amy’s nose wrinkled, but she couldn’t offer anything else but, “It’s Gina and I.”

“Why can’t you just admit that you were wrong?”

“Because I wasn’t,” Rosa replied evenly. “I told you not to do it because you were gonna freak Amy out and everybody would suffer for it. I was right, because now Amy can barely speak to Gina anymore.”

“It’s no wonder!” Charles exclaimed. “Us Boyle’s are perfect for this job, we’re born to be matchmakers. Amy’s panic can help.”

Rosa’s eyes rolled. “Help with what?”

“Help with romance.” Rosa breathed out a breath. “This is the natural order of our world.”

“Romance is not—“

The phone ringing interrupted them. The two looked across the room to where Rosa’s phone was resting. With a final glance to Charles, Rosa hesitantly made her way across. Charles followed like a clumsy puppy.

“What’s up?”

“Rosa!” Amy gasped across the line. “I— I need your help. You know more about girls than I do.” Amy took a quick breath in as Rosa rolled her eyes, aware she wouldn’t get a word in for a while. “Do you have to get the other person flowers when you’re lesbians?”

“Who cares?” When she heard the breath in, Rosa groaned. “Okay, fine, yes. Sometimes.”

“Okay,” Amy said. “Okay, okay. Do you both do it? If not, who and how do you determine it?”

“I may not be of your— experience,” Charles cut in, his words accompanied by Amy’s scream of surprise for his presence. “But if this is about Gina and your promposal, then definitely you. And absolutely in the form of a corsage!”

“A corsage. Right. But—“ Amy hesitated. “Which flowers? I was thinking of a bouquet, but how do I figure out which ones?”

“Red gardenia for her corsage, and pink camellia with white carnation for whatever else you’re planning,” Rosa said. The silence from both Charles and Amy was painful. Rosa continued in an irritated tone after a groan, “I— I know a lot about flower meanings. Just trust me.” Silence. “And neither of you can ever tell anybody about that.”

“Of course. Right.”

“Yes. Okay.”

Amy leaned back on her heels, eyes narrowing as she judged her work on the sign. Charles copied. “Is it enough glitter?”

“The writing is in glitter,” Rosa clarified, raising a brow at the two.

“Yeah, but Gina needs, like, excessive amounts of glitter,” Amy claimed, looking over her shoulder at Rosa. “I don’t wanna imply that she’s basic by using a basic amount of glitter.”

“How could—“

“I didn’t wanna be the one to say it,” Charles admitted, “but we need much, much more glitter.”

Rosa rolled her eyes, groaning when Charles brought out a whole other container of glitter. Suddenly, she remembered why she had made sure her friends couldn’t come to her apartment before.

Amy had spent the Friday night perfecting her plan, with Charles on speed-dial for the chance she might catch a hurdle. When the Saturday came, she was at Gina’s house bright and early, greeting her with a bouquet of pink camellias paired with white carnations and a promise of a picnic date. 

“You seem nervous today,” Gina pointed out as they made their way up the hill, eyes finding those which wouldn’t meet hers. “Actually, you’re nervous pretty much constantly lately.”

“I just want this to go well,” Amy didn’t lie. She pulled the bag tighter over her shoulder, aware of its physical and metaphoric weight. 

“Why?” Gina pried. Amy didn’t reply, swiftly changing the conversation to how spectacular the weather was.

When they found their way to the top of the hill, Amy lay out the blanket and set out the food she had packed. Gina was hesitant to sit on the ground but sat cross-legged on the blanket across from Amy, taking her pick of whatever called to her from the food. She was very, very grateful that most of it was store bought and not an Amy Special (though there was, of course, at least one Amy Special). 

“You still haven’t explained to me what’s so special about today,” Gina pointed out while delicately biting around a cherry. The juice painted her lips, and Amy stopped herself from licking it off. 

“Well, um.” Amy looked around cautiously. “I guess now is as good a time as any to explain why I’ve been… kind-of on edge.”

“Kind-of?” Gina repeated with a pull of hee brows. “You’ve been spending half your time with Charles and braiding your hair compulsively.”

“Yes,” Amy nodded, eyes falling to the side. “All for good reason, I guess.” Gina’s brows furrowed and Amy’s heart beat a little faster. “I just want you to know that I really care for you and I really, really like you. And you deserve the best you can get and… I don’t want you to ever feel like you can’t get it from me.”

“Mmmm-kay,” Gina drawled, nodding slowly and suspiciously. 

“Okay,” Amy agreed. “I guess there’s nothing else to say but, uh—“ She leaned down, quickly pulling apart the folded promposal sign and holding it up. “Gina L— shit.” The paper folded into itself and Amy pulled at it, holding it tighter and meeting Gina’s eyes as she did. “Will you go to prom with me?”

Delightedly, Gina gasped, her lips pulling into a surprised smile. She leaned forward, pulling down the sign and draping her arms behind Amy’s neck before kissing her.

“I didn’t think this was your sort of thing,” she admitted, leaning in again. She stopped inches before Amy’s face, studying her odd expression.

“Well, ha-ha-ha,” Amy fake-laughed nervously. “I… knew that you would love it. Eventually.”

Gina stared at her for a moment. “Charles got to you, didn’t he?”

The breath of relief released in an instance. “Yes, yes, he did,” Amy nodded very seriously. “He’s surprisingly scary when he thinks I’ve wronged you.”

Gina giggled softly, kissing her again and again and again. 

When the day of prom did arrive, Amy was surprisingly calm for the majority of the day. She spent the first third of the day reading, the second getting ready with her mom for prom, and the third was to be the prom itself.

After Camila finished with perfecting Amy’s classic wavy hair look, she helped Amy into her dress. Amy’s eyes trailed over it in the mirror, as she imagined what Gina would think. They’d agreed not to see each others dresses until the day of, which Amy was starting to regret now that all the pressure had built up. Gina wasn’t very often a fan of Amy’s style.

It felt okay, though. It was a long, pale dress adorned by golden designs across it with an elegant halter neckline. It had a small, modest enough slit along the skirt. Amy tried not to think about how it would likely contrast to whatever Gina’s dress would be.

“You look beautiful,” Camila said. 

Amy beamed. “Thank you.”

“I remember David’s senior prom. We picked up his date and everything. It was perfect.” Amy didn’t say anything, but the fading of her smile might’ve spoken for her, because Camila was soon moving again. “Now, let’s get you downstairs to take pictures with your father.”

Amy nodded, following her mother to tread softly down the stairs, struggling a little in her heels. She hugged her dad, accepted the compliments, and didn’t think about telling them the truth about her lack of date to the prom. When her dad pulled her close for the picture, she didn’t think about how easy it would be to lean up and mumble that she’d made a little discovery in the last few months.

The photos were done much quicker than she had expected. Soon enough, she was being rushed away to the limo outside her house. She left her parents with a hug and tried not to look intimidated or surprised as she found a seat in the limo. 

“Hi, Miss Linetti,” she greeted, smiling tightly. 

Darlene waved a hand at her. “It’s Darlene, honey,” she said, and Amy nodded dutifully. She had trained for this moment, this classic Meet the Parents and she wasn’t gonna screw it up now.

“I didn’t realise you were actually getting a limo. I thought Gina was joking.”

“Oh, of course,” Darlene claimed. “Only the best.”

“Definitely,” Amy agreed eagerly. “So is Gina ready?”

Darlene nodded. “Just the finishing touches now.”

Amy smiled, humming in the affirmative. She held the corsage in her hand tighter, until they were finally outside their destination, where Gina seemed to be using her smoke machine to reveal herself. Amy had been right that Gina’s dress was more revealing than hers, and she smiled brightly upon the realisation. She opened the door and made her way to Gina to see the deeply, deeply gold dress in better detail. 

“Wow, I thought I was gonna regret letting you pick your own dress.” Amy waited for the punchline as Gina’s eyes travelled down her body. “I guess I taught you well with your style, Santiago.” Amy flushed a little as her grin grew wider than she knew it could.

“You look good, too, Gina,” Amy deadpanned. “You don’t have to say it in so many words.”

“Words are, like, my hobby,” Gina countered.

Amy’s response was cut off by Darlene making her way out of the limo and practically begging to take pictures. She handed Gina the corsage, mentally memorised the look of surprise, and posed.

The prom itself was daunting, but Amy found comfort. At first, she lagged behind, watching Jake and Gina walk in together, but then she caught blue eyes searching for her and walked at a faster pace. Luckily, Jake and Gina’s forced relationship gradually faded throughout the night, once they settled into their own personal group. Amy kept herself around the table accompanied by her friends, and enjoyed the feeling of safety in their little cocoon away from the others. She rolled her eyes when Jake dramatically offered her a dance, smiled appreciatively when Rosa saved her a seat and, most of all, laughed with her friends. She felt utterly content.

Then the announcements were made, and Amy’s eyes turned to Gina.

“If all students can gather round for the prom queen and king announcement…” a teacher called, and Gina shot Amy an excited look. Amy smiled back at her eagerly. “For prom queen…” Jake started doing a solo drumroll, only joined by Charles. “Gina Linetti.”

Gina squealed, then quickly made her way up to the stage and accepted the flimsy, plastic crown. Her comically wide smile probably making her look a little crazy, Amy watched her all the way, clapping along with the rest of her group.

At once, the table’s eyes turned to Jake as the announcement continued. “And for prom king…” Charles hands gripped at Jake’s shoulders, seeming even more excited than Jake. Though, Jake had never fully seemed to want the title anyway. He seemed to be doing it for Gina more than anything. “Oh, uhm—“ A long pause. “A candidate that was not nominated has been chosen,” the voice said, suspiciously hesitant.

Amy watched how Gina’s eyes rolled back, realising their brains were making the same connection. Brandon. Amy’s head spun with possibilities; he must’ve rigged it, but why? Recently, he had mostly given up on Gina, found himself otherwise occupied, so what reason would he have to

“Amy Santiago.”

Their tiny bubble burst as all eyes in the room turned to Amy’s table. Some were laughing, some looked like they were feeling the embarrassment for her. They all knew, she realised. She wasn’t safe. She wasn’t hidden. Everyone knew. Amy looked up, meeting the final pair of eyes on the stage. 

As the music and the eyes and the warmth of the gym became too much, Amy’s final straw was finding Brandon’s eyes. She searched for any smidge of guilt or even amusement; anything to prove he’d done it. She stood up, pushed her way away from the table and turned the opposite way from the stage, rushing out of the gym to the hall outside. 

Amy sucked in a breath as soon as she slammed the door shut, appreciating the cold air for the first time in her life. She stumbled, finding her way against the wall, taking deep breaths. 

The door opened beside her and she flinched, before recognising auburn hair and specks of gold through her blurry vision. Oh, God, when did her vision get blurry?

“Ames—“

“Everybody knows,” she finally said out loud. “That’s— that’s the only thing that could mean.” At the lost look Gina gave her, Amy groaned and closed her eyes, holding her palms hard against her eyes. She knew Gina wasn’t really great with the comforting, and much preferred the revenge part, but Amy couldn’t help but wish for the former. There wasn’t much that could be said to comfort her, anyway. “Maybe they’ve always known,” she murmured against her damp hands. “Maybe my parents know. Maybe everybody’s just been pretending because it’s so obvious that they feel bad for me.”

“That’s not true,” Gina shook her head, stepping closer and pulling Amy’s hands away. Amy opened her eyes, a little embarrassed of letting Gina see her cry, but having no other option. She held her gaze, waiting for anything. “Those guys are cowards.”

“What does that make me?” Amy groaned, clenching her eyes shut and turning her jaw to the side. Gina never looked away from her.

“Anything but a coward, ‘cause you’re gonna go out there,” Gina answered evenly, and Amy immediately looked at her, eyes even wider than before.

“What?” Amy breathed, brows furrowed to a ridiculous extent.

“You can’t let them ruin your night!” Gina exclaimed. “You’re never gonna see this scumbags after tonight, so who cares? This can be your final dismissal of them.” Amy shook her head softly, disbelieving as she considered the situation in her head. “The way I see it, you won something you didn’t even try to win. That says something about you, doesn’t it?”

Amy wanted to counter with something, but she just laughed. “Of course you’d see it like that,” she murmured.

Gina reached up, wiping at any smudges in Amy’s makeup. She smiled at her encouragingly.

“Come with me,” she offered, her hand falling to Amy’s, who followed after another second of hesitation. Gina guided her back into the gym, where all eyes fell to them again and all dancing stopped. Feeling her cheeks blush a deep shade of red, Amy kept her head down and avoided the eyes. 

When they stood on the stage, Gina dropped Amy’s hand and proudly placed the crown back on her head. The teacher who had been making the announcements rushed back onto the stage, handing Amy a differently shaped crown. She eyed it with contempt for a moment, fingers roaming over the cheap material and design, before placing it on her head.

The applause sounded. It didn’t feel like the power grab Gina had made it out to be. As soon as Amy was ready to walk off the stage, despising the applause they were forced to receive, the teacher spoke up again, reminding Amy of the tradition of the first dance for the prom queen and king. When she met his eyes, glaring, he simply made a motion for the two to get down from the stage, and she sighed in realisation that she had no other choice. 

The two stepped down as the students were told to create a circle in the middle for the prom queen and king to dance.

Amy awkwardly followed Gina’s confident stride into their spot. She gulped when Gina’s hands met her body, telling her of the proper stance, as she realised that she was very, very unprepared for this. Still, Amy’s nerves melted when she met Gina’s eyes, holding a strong amount of reassurance. She smiled, finding the stance, and followed Gina’s subtle guidance. 

As her eyes lifted up from Gina’s, Amy realised belatedly that other couples around them were dancing. Suddenly, she noticed new pairs of eyes on her; this time admiring and appreciated. Kevin and his husband were watching them, along with Rosa, Kylie and Charles. Amy smiled brightly, feeling much less alone in the otherwise daunting room. Her eyes fell to Gina again, full of appreciation and admiration and everything in between. 

Amy leaned her forehead against Gina’s, never dropping her gaze. “Thank you,” she whispered for only them to hear. Then, after a long pause, she added, “I love you.”

Gina’s grin was immediate, and much more overwhelming for Amy to look at without matching the smile than anything else had been that night. Amy realised she had become too wrapt in Gina, as her feet stumbled and she accidentally stepped on Gina’s entire foot. She pulled back, about to apologise when Gina pulled her close again and repeated Amy’s own words about a million times as her arms wrapped around her back. 

“Ten bucks, Peralta,” Rosa said, holding her hand out. Jake only tried to feign ignorance for a moment before he groaned in defeat, slapping the money into Rosa’s hand.

“I’m never taking a bet from you again, Diaz,” Jake threatened, jabbing a finger at her and earning a brow raise. 

Whether clueless or not, Amy watched her friends’ interactions gleefully and stumbled over with Gina, exclaiming over the music about how she had lasted at least a minute without messing up, to which Gina cut in with a thinly veiled insult of Amy’s dance ability for that minute.