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She didn’t know why she sent a text. She didn’t know why she wanted to talk. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have other people to turn to, but… she turned to her. She could feel her heart thump loudly in her ears as she brought her phone up to her ear.

“Hello?” She shut her eyes and realized what she was doing. She quietly sighed and leaned back against wall opposite of Nastia and Shawn’s door. “Alicia, if you’re there, answer me.”

“Hey,” She reluctantly replied back, trying to keep a light tone despite her raspy voice. She wrapped her free arm around herself as she looked up at the ceiling, wondering what she was meaning to say.

“Hey, what’s up?” Nathan’s voice sent tingles up her spine and she didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing.

“Nothing really, how are you?” Alicia heard the quiet laugh from Nathan and deeply sighed.

“You can skip the small talk, you know that?” The other woman responded back.

“Life sucks,” Alicia flatly replied back, only to hear another chuckle from the other woman. She glanced down the hallways, hoping no one would hear her.

“No duh, life sucks; we can’t do anything about it but move on and deal with it. But that wasn’t what you were about say.” Another silence hovered onto the conversation and it seemed that nothing else would be said. Alicia remained hesitant, she feared that saying too much would be completely stupid considering Nathan was practically a stranger to her, but the amount of hesitancy wasn’t strong enough since she still made contact with the other woman. She opened her mouth, ready to say something, when she heard another voice through the line.

“Nathanial!” A female voice called out from the other end, drawling the name. Alicia heard a loud grunt and supposed it was Nathan.

“Lindsay! Ugh, get off! I’m trying to talk to someone here!”

“Is it Alicia?” The Brown gymnast froze in the hallway. The idea of being caught-that didn’t appeal to Alicia at all.

“Ugh, none of your business dear friend, now please get-ugh!” A muffled thud and laughter sounded through the line.

“Nathanial!” Another female voice called out.

“Riley, get off! What’s with you two?” Alicia shut her eyes once again when she realized her conversation with Nathan had been completely interrupted.

“Seriously, is that Alicia?” Alicia heard the voice and guessed it was Lindsay. She was praying strongly, hoping that Nathan wouldn’t reveal her.

“Why do you think it’s Alicia and why would you care?” Nathan’s tone and reply was somehow comforting.

“Okay, well you and Alicia Sacramone have been pretty close these couple of days. And I care because you managed to make me care. Tell her I’m sorry about insulting her.” Alicia furrowed her brow and scratched her head. She was gaining some sort of apology?

“Whatever you say, now…” The line went silent until Alicia heard a faint thud and a grunt. “I’m going to take this call outside. I’ll be back.” The sound of footsteps, heavy breathing and a door clicking open then close occurred. “So, yeah, what were we saying before I got my behind jumped?”

“She’s apologizing?” Alicia immediately asked, unsure of how to take the indirect apology from the UCLA gymnast.

“Yeah, Lindsay apologized… sort of.”

“Why?”

“Because I decided to put everything in perspective for her; she went on a guilt trip and everything happened from there. I said that I would talk to her, didn’t I? Anyways, are you okay?” Nathan explained, only to cut to the main point.

“I’m perfectly peachy,” Alicia lied; wondering if that would throw the other woman off. She heard the scoff and knew what she said didn’t do anything.

“I saw the look on your face earlier. Dude, I didn’t know if you were about to run off, cry, or knock me out.” The line fell silent and Nathan wondered if Alicia had hung up on her. She leaned back against a wall and waited for some kind of response.

“You suck, you know that?” Nathan raised her eyebrow at the words. She started to make her way down the hallway.

“I do?” She heard a loud exasperated sigh and knew she was about to hear an emotional response.

“Because you do! I mean, you’re so logical it’s sickening! The way you perform during competitions, it’s way too perfect! Everyone’s brushing me aside because of you, you’re suddenly the number one player and I’m some washed up has been. I decided to try gymnastics one last time, but then you appear and completely wipe the mats with me and it isn’t fair! I wanted to have a great final run, but then you decided to play Houdini and ruin it for me! You totally suck!” Alicia retorted back, nearly yelling into her cellphone. She took a deep breath and ran her free hand through her hair. Nathan, on the other hand, cringed at the reply. She had a feeling Alicia was holding back her emotions, but she had no idea how much she was holding back.

“I didn’t mean to-”

“You didn’t mean to show up out of nowhere and blow me out of the water? Bullshit, I bet you totally planned this out! You knew that I wouldn’t be in shape to perform and that would give you enough time to plan out a new strategy!” Alicia shut her eyes and slammed her free hand against the wall near her. “Holy shit man! I’m trying to do my best here and I want to be remembered for something more than falling during the Olympics, but you… you show up and screwed things up! NCAA should be mine! Sure, I sound like a selfish jerk, but it sucks like hell that I’m starting to be pushed aside so easily!” Nathan raised her eyebrows and deeply sighed, running her hand through her own hair. She turned the corner of the hallway and saw Alicia pacing feverishly down one end, away from her.

“Alicia…” was all she whispered as she noticed the frustration in the other woman’s actions.

“Damn it, Nate, it’s not fair! I just… I don’t want to feel so weak!” Nathan took a quiet breath and walked down the hallway, her free hand behind her neck.

“I know it’s not fair, Alicia, but you have to take it into stride. You overcame Beijing and you can overcome this. I’m sorry you feel that I’m upstaging you, but I didn’t plan on it and you know that. I worked my ass off to get where I am and you worked yours to get to Beijing and you made it!” Nathan stopped herself and knew her tone started to sound unbecoming. She shook her head and tried to remain cool as she continued, “You worked yourself so hard that of course you’ll feel weak; you practically kicked your ass to make it on the Olympic Team. You recovered from the Olympics, but did you really recover? There will always be that thought that if you came back, would you really have anything left after the Olympics? You went back to Brown and then you’re back on the gymnastics team. You’re ready to run yourself into the ground.” Alicia clenched her free hand into a fist and faced the wall, leaning her forehead against it as she let out a shaky breath. She felt tears begin to sting her eyes, but she let them fall; fighting them didn’t seem worth it.

“You’re so… logical.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Alicia, I’m here to talk. I told you, if you need or want to talk, just call me and you did. I’ll only tell you generally what you should hear and it’ll be your choice if you heed or ignore it.”

“Why do you care?” Alicia quietly asked, her voice breaking near the end, with tears falling down her face.

“Because I do… turn around,” Nathan whispered as she stopped walking and watched as Alicia slowly turned to her direction. She closed her phone and placed it into her pocket when she saw the other woman tightly clutch the phone and run towards her. She quietly grunted when Alicia ran into her, arms around her body; crying. She didn’t expect the reaction she received, but nonetheless, all she could do was carefully wrap her arms around the shorter woman, letting her cry. “Alicia…”

“I hate this, Nate… I hate this…” Alicia whispered, clutching onto Nathan as tight as she could. Her thoughts stopped running and all she could do was cry. All the pent up emotion within her started to pour out with every word, every tear and every breath. Her energy began to disappear with the release of emotion and the next thing she knew, her legs gave way underneath her, but Nathan managed to catch her before she fell.

“Alicia, we should get to your room,” Nathan quietly suggested, knowing the hallway wasn’t an ideal place to be. She looked down and saw Alicia’s face buried against her shirt, remaining unmoved even with the broken sobs against her chest. She felt her heart break with every choked breath and it made her sick to think that Alicia thought of herself as weak when she wasn’t.

“No,” the other woman flatly answered, turning her head slightly to breathe.

“But-”

“Let’s go for a drive,” Alicia croaked, hoping Nathan would say yes. She refused to see any of her teammates or her friends in the current state she was in, it was too… humiliating.

“Are you sure-”

“Yes, please… I need to get out of here.” Nathan took a deep breath as she reluctantly agreed, carefully standing up, helping Alicia onto her feet.

“It’ll be okay.” The two walked down the hallway to the elevator, both with relatively heavy hearts. Their departure, however, wasn’t left unseen.

The next day wasn’t as bad as before, she managed to keep herself falling, but she still found herself short from getting top marks… or runner up… she nearly missed placing at all. It ended with Team Finals Vault, she should’ve been able to wipe the competition with it, but she didn’t. She looked to her far left and saw the gymnastics team from LSU and found Nathan’s UCLA team at the top spot. She faintly smiled at the LSU gymnasts and almost fully smiled towards Nathan, despite the sinking feeling she felt. As they all moved from their spots, she found a flurry of smiles directed at her; most of them were from her teammates, but a few of them were from her teammates.

“What are you all doing here?” She looked in disbelief at her younger friends: Shawn, Nastia, Samantha, Bridget and Chellsie, all of them had smiles on their faces.

“Why wouldn’t we be here? You said that you were hanging up the leotard,” Nastia started, only to have Chellsie continue.

“But then we found out you were still competing and we decided to get our butts over here.”

“Don’t you guys have classes? Do your parents even know you’re all here?” Alicia questioned her friends, wondering how they managed to arrive in Lincoln with their school schedules as well with their parents’ consent. As much as she was glad for their appearance, she didn’t want to know that they were in trouble because of her.

“Okay, dude, duh we have classes but we managed to find out you were still competing so we all called each other up and flew over here. And, all our parents know-do you honestly think Nastia and Shawn can just appear here without permission?” Samantha immediately answered, cutting off the older gymnast. Alicia bit her lower lip and quietly laughed as she saw the glares from the mentioned women sent toward Samantha.

“Anyways, you did awesome, and I swear that you totally got ripped off by that UCLA girl,” Bridget said as moved the attention from Samantha.

“Yeah, but her vault was still amazing,” Shawn unknowingly answered, only to receive glares from the others, except for Alicia, who chuckled. She bit her lower lip and realized what she said.

“Yeah, Nathan’s vault was amazing, so it’s no surprise that her team won, right?” Alicia asked as she turned to look for the UCLA team. She saw the bright smile on Nathan’s face as well as the wide grins on the rest of the Bruins team. She was happy for them, that they won and that they had an excellent teammate, but it still hurt her to know that she nearly missed placing. When she turned back to her friends, she saw their concerned looks on their faces. Her face, in turn, pulled into confusion as she said, “What?”

“Are you okay, Alicia?” Nastia placed her hand on the older woman’s shoulder, noting the odd look Alicia had when she looked at the UCLA team. She also sensed the sadness in Alicia’s voice as she spoke.

“I’m okay-I’m okay Nast,” Alicia faintly smiled. She knew her friends weren’t convinced, but she really had nothing else to say.

“Hey Sacramone, you did awesome today!” The six young women turned to find the UCLA gymnast approach them, with a bright smile on her face, alone. Alicia looked up at the taller woman and quietly said a word of thanks.

“Thanks, you completely wiped us out of here.” Nathan sheepishly smiled and shook her head. “You were great though.”

“Thanks, but you still did awesome. A few of the other gymnasts, from other colleges, are gonna head out right now for a bit to a restaurant and chill out, do you want to come?” Alicia glanced back to her friends before she looked back up at Nathan. She solemnly shook her head and bit her lower lip.

“Thanks, but I have…” Nathan looked past the other gymnast and saw the rest of the Olympic Team before a smile crossed her lips.

“No problem, it’s all good. It’s nice to see you all.” The five other gymnasts smiled at the other woman and nodded in reply. They watched as Nathan turned back to Alicia and place a hand on their former captain’s shoulder. “I should get going; I’ll see you tomorrow at Event Finals.”

“I’ll see you later,” Alicia whispered back as she hugged the other gymnast.

“Of course, stay cool, okay?” Nathan whispered back, knowing Alicia would be the only one to hear her. She pulled back far enough to kiss the shorter gymnast’s temple before pulling away completely. She took one last glance at the other gymnasts before saying goodbye and departing.

“She seems really cool,” Bridget said as she watched the taller woman exit the gymnasium.

“Yeah… she is. Come on; let’s go back to the hotel and catch up, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Alicia deeply breathed as she turned to her friends with a forced smile on her face. She wanted to leave the gymnasium, everything seemed to go downhill; she needed to unwind.

***

The six young women stayed in Shawn and Nastia’s room for the remainder of the afternoon, watching occasional episodes of Gossip Girl, and catching up with each others’ lives. There were laughs, but a few tears were shed during their reminiscing.

“I’m glad for this, you know?” Alicia said as she looked at her friends across the beds, smiles on their faces.

“I missed this, I missed you all,” Shawn added as she turned to all of her friends. Alicia smiled and nodded as she picked at the comforter they sat upon. Her sudden quiet demeanour wasn’t lost to her once teammates and now friends; it wasn’t like Alicia to remain quiet for so long, unless something bothered her.

“Hey Ace, is there an ice cream parlour around?” The sound of Nastia’s voice pulled Alicia out of whatever reverie she was in. The older woman glanced at the blonde and saw a knowing look on her face which made her nod.

“Yeah, it’s not that far from here.”

“Good, let’s go get some ice cream,” Nastia stated as she moved from the bed, waiting for her friend to follow her. “We’ll be right back.” Alicia slowly followed her out of the room as they made their way down the hallway to the elevator of the hotel. Once they entered an elevator car, sure that it was only them, Nastia looked at the brunette whose expression made evident that she was in another world.

“It sucks, you know.” Nastia turned to her friend and saw the silent tear that ran down her face.

“What does?” was all she could say as she wiped the tear away.

“I’m feeling like a weak gymnast and the NCAA is completely kicking my ass,” Alicia quietly said as she gripped the railing of the elevator, her gaze directed to the floor. She felt a sinking feeling within her and she hated it. She didn’t feel the arm Nastia wrapped around her shoulders for comfort; it felt numb.

“You aren’t weak, Alicia, your body’s beat up tremendously. Besides, you can’t win everything,” Nastia replied back, suddenly feeling her friend freeze against her. The silence hovered in the elevator and it bothered her, she felt so helpless.

“It’s not about the winning anymore, Nast. I go out there and compete and it’s okay that… I’m not doing well, but it seriously sucks that I’m being pushed to the side so easily. I-I just don’t-I hate feeling so…”

“Washed up?” Nastia quietly suggested as she saw Alicia nod.

“I wanted to give gymnastics one last go before I officially retire, but it’s not going my way. Some people are so hung up when I fall because of the Olympics and I’ve gotten over it-” The words that came from Alicia’s mouth abruptly stopped. She remembered the day before when Lindsay openly insulted her, using Beijing as support, and the want to punch her out was strong. Then, the recollection of her at the bar came to her mind. Everything seemed to go against her and it made her feel sicker.

The elevator bell tolled and the doors opened. Alicia immediately exited with Nastia following behind her, worry written all over her face. She briskly walked through the lobby and ended up walking into another person. She muttered a word of apology, but found a hand wrapped around her wrist.

“Slow down, where’s the fire at?” Alicia tensed at the sound of the familiar voice. Was it a sign?

“N-Nathan,” The name barely slipped through Alicia’s lips as she looked up at the taller woman. Here she was once again, when she felt like dirt. She saw the suddenly concerned look on Nathan’s face and realized she must have pulled some kind of expression without knowing it. She felt the hold on her wrist tighten and she knew she should be talking; however, she didn’t speak when the hold on her wrist turned into a hold on her hand.

“Nathanial, hurry your butt!” Nathan looked down at their clasped hands and slowly dragged her thumb along the palm of Alicia’s hand. She glanced at the shorter woman and saw her gaze directed at the ink inside her hand.

“Coming!” Nathan called out as she gently squeezed Alicia’s hand before letting her go and turning to Nastia with a small smile on her face. She patted them both on the shoulder before running off to the elevator where most of her friends were.

Alicia deeply sighed and balled her hands into fists as she shut her eyes, turning away. She started to walk out of the hotel without a second thought. Nastia looked back to where Nathan disappeared to and wondered what the exchange between the two was about. She furrowed her brow and turned back to look at Alicia, only to realize she was already halfway out the door.

“Alicia!” she cried out as she ran after the older woman.

***

The two returned to the hotel with a small carton of vanilla ice cream in tow, but the earlier low moods remained. Alicia stayed silent throughout the small walk and remained so when they returned to the hotel room. The others picked up on the mood, but decided not to push on it, knowing Alicia would eventually voice her troubles. They ended up quietly watching Grey’s Anatomy, though the heavy mood lingered on everyone’s mind.

During a later episode, Nastia noticed as Alicia pulled out her cellphone and glanced at her left palm before sending a text. She furrowed her brow and watched as Alicia speedily typed in a text and put her phone away, only to have it ringing a few moments later.

“Hey, I’ve got to take this, I’ll be right back,” Alicia stated as she stood up and left the hotel room without another word.

She wasn’t supposed to fall like that. She wasn’t supposed to fall period. It was a Floor Exercise, she was supposed to be pro at it, but she fell. She fell at the Olympics and now she fell once again at the NCAA. She was nervous and it wasn’t fair because this wasn’t the Olympics, it was another college competition… against other colleges in the country. Now, here she was, sitting at the bleachers waiting for her next event as she saw her name drop on the scoreboard.

“Bears are supposed to be fierce, not clumsy.” She looked to the side and found two women approach her in their sweats; one of them with an evident smug smirk on her face, while the other had an exasperated look. She clenched her fists and fought the urge to punch this know-it-all for insulting her indirectly.

“And what are you supposed to be, a blueberry?” Alicia retorted back as she looked at the full blue and white leotards and sweats the other young women had on. She unintentionally pulled on a glare and watched as the one with the smug smirk glare back at her.

“Blue bears with a punch,” The woman who had an exasperated look quietly said as she looked to the floor, not noticing the blank look on Alicia’s face.

“At least we weren’t the ones who cost America gold at the Olympics.” Alicia flinched at the words and was ready to stand up when the quiet gymnast quickly spoke.

“Okay, let’s go because I have a Floor Routine to get to,” The gymnast quickly interjected as she wrapped an arm around her verbal teammate and dragged her off to the other end of the bleachers. Alicia blankly watched as they walked away, but she saw that young woman look back towards her mouthing a word of apology.

***

The NCAA Championships preliminaries ended with a heavy blow to Alicia. She deeply sighed and found herself fifth beneath a Stanford gymnast and that UCLA gymnast whose friend offended her. The loss and the words spoken to her hurt her deeply despite hearing it before and it unfortunately led her to the bar of the hotel most of the teams stayed at for the NCAA Championships. She sat at the bar and hadn’t bought a drink… yet. The bartender approached her once again, the third time that evening, and asked her if she wanted some kind of refreshment. Her mind juggled between yes and no; it wouldn’t be a great idea if someone from the other teams or judging panel saw her drinking.

“No, she was waiting for me.” Alicia turned around on her stool to figure out where the voice came from and who discouraged her drink. She saw a tall female wearing a baby blue loose top with a denim skirt and white shoes while her dark hair flowed down her shoulders. She furrowed her brow and wondered who this woman was when she recognized the worry lines on the woman’s forehead. She watched as the woman approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her. “Come on; let’s go, sorry about the wait.”

“Oh, weren’t you the one in the top three from today’s competition in gymnastics?” The bartender’s question caught both Alicia and the woman by surprise; a bartender knew about gymnastics? Alicia looked over at the other woman and forced herself from smirking.

“Me? Nah, you probably have me confused with someone else. Anyways, let’s go,” The woman brightly smiled as she grabbed Alicia’s hand and practically dragged her off of the stool and off to the main lobby.

“You lied,” Alicia flatly stated as she looked up at the taller woman. Her eyes gazed from their clasped hands back up to the woman’s face.

“So sue me,” The woman jokingly said as she finally let go of Alicia’s hand as they entered the main lobby. She collapsed onto a chair and looked over at the other woman whose look of disapproval made her laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Alicia asked; her brow knitted together as she spoke.

“Do you ever notice that you’re giving off some kind of look?” The next look that came about was a confused one.

“What?”

“Right before you asked me what was funny; you gave me this really annoyed look or something. Like earlier, when you gave us a comeback about being blueberries, you glared at us,” The woman answered back, only to be receive a blank look from Alicia.

“I glared at you?” The woman nodded which made Alicia frown. “Hey, you guys insulted me.”

“Yeah, that was Lindsay’s doing, not mine. The only reason I said anything was to try and lighten the mood and to keep you two from killing each other on the spot. With Lindsay, agreeing with her takes less effort because what she said was obscure-mentioning the Olympics was low, yes I know-but everything else could’ve been taken by stride. I, eventually, talk to her and get her to understand what our perspectives are.”

“You sound like a sheep,” Alicia scoffed at the explanation.

“Okay, if I disagreed on the spot, then there would be a heck of a lot of more pointless bickering between all three of us. Which would you choose? Bickering on and on about nothing or agreeing and just moving on, letting me talk to her after and get her to apologize?” The woman asked back as she backed up her thought. She saw the conflict in Alicia’s eyes and knew she delivered her point across.

“Okay, I’ll give you that, but why did you have to drag me from getting a drink?”

“You know what, come with me.” Alicia watched as the woman stood up and extended her hand towards her. She raised an eyebrow and questioningly looked at the practical stranger.

“And I’m going to trust a stranger, why?”

“Because this stranger saved you from being possibly attacked by the other teams and your coach if they found out you were about to get drunk because you lost today.” Alicia glared at the woman for assuming such a thing, but that rationalization was relatively dead on.

“What makes you think I was gonna get drunk because of losing?”

“Come with me and I’ll tell you. If I’m wrong, you can tell me why I was wrong.” Alicia looked between the woman’s face and the hand extended towards her. She knew that saying yes would be completely unorthodox because the woman was a stranger and saying yes could lead her to her demise. Without full thought, she placed her hand in the other woman’s and allowed herself to be taken away.

***

The two drove up to a barren lot that overlooked Nebraska and exited the rental car, approaching the guard railing. Alicia smiled at the skyline; the city lights brightened her mood. She looked up at the sky and saw the many stars and the bright moon; her negativity disappeared. She leaned against the hood of the car and turned to her companion who, too, sat on the hood beside her.

“How did you know about this place?” Alicia watched as her companion crossed her arms over her chest and smiled.

“My brother stayed in Nebraska, went to university here and he showed me a few places where it’s pretty quiet so he can get away.”

“Your brother went to Nebraska? Then why are you in UCLA?” A quiet laugh was all Alicia heard. She watched as the other woman nodded and looked at her.

“Yeah, my brother went to Nebraska because he was a big writer and wanted to get some exposure with the U of Nebraska Press. As for me, I went to UCLA because L.A. has something there I like and between UCLA and Stanford… UCLA’s mascot seemed more appealing than Stanford’s.” The explanation about the choice of mascots made Alicia chuckle, even if she had to choose between UCLA and Stanford by mascot, she would’ve picked UCLA any day.

“A tree doesn’t seem that appealing unlike a bruin,” Alicia smiled as she turned her gaze back to the skyline in front of her.

“And drinking during a competition doesn’t seem appealing either.” Alicia froze. She really didn’t want to talk about the incident at the hotel’s bar… at all.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Don’t even think of closing up on me now!” Alicia deeply sighed and moved from the hood and re-entered the car. She leaned the seat back as far as it could and stared at the ceiling of the car, hearing and seeing her companion enter the driver’s side. She remained silent and clasped her hands over her abdomen, trying to think of a decent explanation for being at the bar.

“You were right.” She looked over at the other woman and saw her seat tilted back all the way, lying on her side towards her with her elbow propped against the seat and her head resting against her hand.

“Go on…” Alicia sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“I was at the bar… because I lost today,” She reluctantly answered. She turned back to the other woman and saw an expression that spoke words to her; she knew her companion wanted to hear more.

“I’m not judging you.”

“Well… okay, it was Beijing… when I fell… twice. It sucked, man, feeling like you cost your team gold. I know that mathematically we wouldn’t have won, but still, my falls just happened to be icing on the cake-makes me instant scapegoat. Ugh, when that… teammate of yours decided to bring that up, I wanted to punch her out because she didn’t know what I felt that moment, what we were going through! I just wanted to momentarily forget about it, you know?”

“Alicia, this is alcohol we’re talking about. If you keep turning for a bottle of booze every time you feel like crap, you will be like crap. I mean, if you wanted to momentarily forget, talk to you friends or something. Look here, I took you up here and you looked down at the rest of the city and you forgot about Beijing and about losing.” Alicia looked back up at the ceiling and smiled because that was true, she did forget about the negativity when she looked down at the city.

“Are you always this right?” The other woman laughed and sighed. Alicia turned back to her companion when she felt a hand clasp with her own.

“Seriously, though, don’t turn to alcohol because it isn’t worth it. Talk to your friends, talk to your family, hell, talk to me for all I care, just don’t drink.”

“What happens if I want to talk to you and we’re not in the same competition-hypothetically speaking, of course?” Alicia watched as the woman released her hand, sat up, pulled out a pen from the visor and grabbed her hand, writing numbers against her palm. “You’re writing your phone number?”

“Cellphone, feel free to call whenever you like-or text, I don’t think it’s possible to answer calls in the middle of class.”

“Are you serious?” Alicia asked incredulously.

“My words might not sound serious, but I am. If you need to talk, want to talk, just call me if you have no one else around or if you just want to talk to me period. Keep the drinking at parties or none at all, okay?” The woman stated firmly as she made sure her phone number was inked into Alicia’s hand before she clasped that hand once again.

“You’re really serious?” The incredulous look never left Alicia’s face.

“I already wrote my number, so of course I’m serious. Come on; please set your seat in an upright position because we are heading back to the hotel.”

“Already?” Alicia watched as their hands disconnected and her companion replaced her seat back to its original position. She eventually complied and moved her seat back, but her gaze never left the other woman.

“It’s getting late and we have another competition tomorrow.”

“Oh great…” Alicia groaned as she pulled her seat belt on.

***

Alicia headed back to her hotel room with the other woman beside her. They remained relatively silent with the occasional small talk in the mix. When Alicia arrived to the door of her room, she looked up at her companion and smiled, quietly thanking her for the reality check.

“It’s okay, I’m glad to have distracted you somehow.”

“Still, thank you.” Alicia felt a small kiss pressed against her forehead and then it dawned upon her. “Wait, I never got your name.”

“Nathanial, but I go by Nathan or Nate. I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym okay, Sacramone?” Alicia raised her eyebrow at the odd choice of name for a female, but nodded nonetheless as she watched the other woman walked down the hallway.

The quiet din of cars passing through the streets beneath the hotel did nothing to calm the Russian Olympic medalist. Nastia Liukin, America’s golden Olympian, who seemed to be able to focus, concentrate and take control of any situation given to her, felt at a loss.

To her honesty, Nastia felt challenged; more challenged than being in the Olympics. She had no idea why one little thought kept her from staying calm and collected. Every time she thought about that one little idea, she seemed to unravel and lose control; falling into the abyss she called her feelings.

A crush.

That was the ‘little idea’ that constantly put Nastia swirl into a spiral of inner conflict. To Nastia, a crush was simply something small and nothing to lose sleep over; her many boy crushes never affected her so much, but this crush was more than she expected. That one night where she watched Shawn sleep soundly on the bus had her emotionally and mentally conflicted. The way the younger girl managed to unintentionally put her entranced had her reeling. She had no explanation why that night made her see Shawn in a different light, but it did and she knew that her life changed from that night.

Tonight, Nastia began to examine the thoughts and feelings she felt that night and everything seemed to fall back to something that told her she had a crush on her best friend; not a friendly crush that meant admiration or adoration, but a crush that involved the longing for the other to like them in the same way. She knew it was completely irrational to have a crush on her best friend because for one thing, they were girls and girls do not have these kind of crushes on other girls; theoretically. However, theory exists so much in the real world and in the real world, unexpected things are bound to happen, and this was completely unexpected.

An anxious groan came from Nastia as she started to delve deeper into her feelings once again. She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into her pillow as thoughts began to rush into her mind. All the ‘what if’ questions bombarded her; what if she really did have a crush on Shawn, what if Shawn found out, what if her parents found out, what if everyone found out, what if she liked Shawn for more than a friend, what if she did succumb to her crush? The questions continued to pile into her head and Nastia could do nothing to make it stop. She tried to think of something else, but it somehow led back to Shawn and her crush, which was driving her to the edge.

The quiet monotonous sound from the vibrations of the cellphone had Nastia blindly reaching out for the device. She wondered who would be calling her at that ungodly hour, but any distraction would suffice (in her mind) to keep her on track. She found her phone and lifted her head to see who was calling.

“Is this a sign or something?” Nastia muttered to herself incredulously, noticing it was Shawn who was trying to contact her. She realized that Shawn left her a message and she flicked her phone to read the little note.

‘Hey Nast, are you asleep? Sorry if I woke you, I really can’t sleep.’ Nastia quietly chuckled at the text message; that was Shawn for her, the text messages in the early mornings asking if she was awake. Usually, she would actually be asleep only to wake up and answer the text, but tonight was not one of those nights; she was awake, wide awake. Though conflicted, Nastia answered the text replying that she was awake and that it was okay for her to message her; they were best friends after all. She sighed and buried her face back into her pillow, holding her phone in her hand.

“Should I really be doing this, right now?” Nastia mumbled to herself against her pillow. Before she could go into an internal monologue about what she was doing, her cellphone began to vibrate in her hand. Once again, she pulled her head away from her pillow to look at the display on her phone and saw Shawn actually calling her.

“This is a sign, isn’t it?” She smirked and answered her phone. “Hey, what’s up?” A quiet breathing was all Nastia could hear and she wondered what was going on.

“Hey, you sound really awake,” Shawn whispered, noting Nastia’s bright voice. She rarely ever found Nastia awake so early and so chipper, but there was a first time for anything, right?

“I couldn’t really sleep… too much on my mind I guess,” Nastia quietly replied back, holding herself back with the thought that something might slip. She heard a suppressed laugh from the other line and it made her smile.

“Miss Nastia Liukin, unable to sleep because she has too much on her mind? You slept like a baby before every competition, what changed?” Nastia half-heartedly laugh at Shawn’s response; always the observant one.

“You,” Nastia whispered back and her eyes completely widened at what she said. She pressed her face into her pillow and moved her phone away, groaning loudly into her pillow, realizing she said something that she did not mean to say. She brought her phone back to her ear, waiting for a reply; hoping that Shawn did not hear her whatsoever. Thoughts began to rush madly back into her mind and new ‘what-if’ questions appeared; this was not good. She waited and waited, but there was a silence and it was beginning to make her nervous. She felt her heart thundering in her ears from the anxiety and her palms growing sweatier by the passing second. Did Shawn hear her?

“What was that? I sort of spaced out…” Shawn trailed off into a silence. Little did she know that Nastia was ready to pass out in her room. However, she did hear a deep sigh from the other end of the line, but she thought nothing of it, thinking that Nastia was annoyed that she spaced out.

“Stupid Freudian slips…” Nastia breathed, rubbing her free hand over her face.

“What was that?” Nastia froze and cleared her throat, slapping her forehead.

“Nothing, I think I’m just tired- making me speak really random things,” She replied back, trying to sound as inconspicuous as possible, but her tone sounded otherwise. Luckily, she managed to keep herself from rambling on and eventually setting herself up for defeat.

“Oh… do you want me to leave you alone?” Nastia smacked her forehead again and rubbed her face; wondering what was going on with her. She took a deep breath and tried to collect herself so something she actually wanted to say would come out instead of some random thing.

“No, it’s okay, it’s not like I’m tired to the point of passing out, just tired because it’s late. You don’t have to leave, you’re not doing anything,” Nastia took a deep breath and realized she did not completely withhold herself entirely from rambling. “No, don’t leave me alone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Shawn, always the thoughtful one,” Nastia thought, rolling onto her back as she looked up at the ceiling. “Yes, I’m sure. Anyways, Miss Johnson, why are you still awake?” She heard Shawn giggle on the other end, making her smile.

“If you must know, the tour’s starting to get to me actually; I can’t sleep, I’m getting kind of homesick,” Shawn quietly replied back, answering Nastia’s question.

Nastia quietly sighed at Shawn’s statement. She knew how much the other girl missed being at home after arriving from Beijing; she said so during one of the day offs in the tour. She, too, also missed home; all the interviews and all the promotions she had to do was starting to take a toll on her as well. Even if all she did was fun, it was still tiring.

“So do I, Shawn, so do I. Once the tour is over, we can go home and just relax,” Nastia replied back, hearing a quiet snort from the other line.

“Will I still get to see you?” Shawn’s voice pulled at Nastia’s heart; the sound of apprehension and anxiety evident. The possible look of sadness on Shawn’s face passed through Nastia’s mind and it made her frown; she wanted to run to Shawn and hold her and tell her that everything would be okay.

“Yeah, of course you’ll see me, why do you think you won’t?” Nastia quietly asked, knowing that Shawn would give her an explanation that would undoubtedly have her thinking, after hearing her sigh.

“Come on Nast, what do you think? Once the tour is over, you’ll either be doing more interviews or promos so that will obviously take up your time and those times when you actually have time to breathe, you’d probably want to spend your down time alone after spending nearly three months with other people. Besides, you’ll be occupied trying to figure out university because you’ll be starting off not so later after the tour, so I won’t be able to see you. When you go to SMU, then you’ll be completely occupied, so seriously Nast… will I still get to see you?” Nastia fell silent. All that Shawn said was true, she would become busier once the tour was over; university, possibly more endorsements, there may be little time for herself when she thought about it. She deeply sighed and covered her eyes with her free hand and really wondered what she was going to say. She did not want to raise Shawn’s hopes with her own uncertainty and she did not want to lie to Shawn for the sake of making her feel better or herself better.

“Shawn…” Was all she could muster up and say.

“Nastia… will I see you when all of this is over?” Shawn’s voice started to make Nastia break; the fear in Shawn was starting to go through her.

“Yes… yes you will. I will do whatever I can to see you, okay? We’re best friends, and best friends always stick together, right? I’m not going to let you go or stop seeing you, so stop acting like we’ll never see each other again, got that?” Nastia was determined to convince Shawn that things would turn out. She had no idea how things would turn out because it was still early to say anything for sure, but some things were definite such as university.

“Are you by yourself?” Shawn’s question caught Nastia off guard, throwing her into a loop.

Title: Who Do You Think You Are
Rating: G
Fandom: USWGT
Song: Who Do You Think You Are – Spice Girls
Notes: I do not own the people referred in here nor do I own the song that is featured and the song that is mentioned. I heard the song and I had to write something on it. Completely Alternate Universe-it almost went with the tour timeline, but apparently not.
Summary: One song, one impromptu dance party, one party pooper. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Luckily, that night was one of the nights where everyone could finally relax. Alicia, Shawn, Bridget, Chellsie and Samantha all barged into Nastia’s hotel room, dragging a large stereo with them. Nastia had no say as to whether or not everyone could simply waltz into her room considering Alicia nearly brought down her door with her pounding and that everyone was yelling to get in. Unfortunately for her, sleeping early was completely gone. She sat on the edge of her bed as she watched as Alicia dropped the large stereo on the floor while Samantha pulled out a CD from a case she was holding. She had no idea why everyone wanted to be in her room at that hour; 10:00 being quite late in her eyes, with a stereo. Suddenly, music began to loudly blare from the speakers of the stereo and all that Nastia could do was fall back onto her bed and grab her pillow, pulling it onto her face.

“The race is on to get out of the bottom,” Alicia half-sang, half-called out as she hopped towards Samantha.

“The top is high so your roots are forgotten,” Samantha half-sang as well, looking at Alicia.

“Giving is good, as long as you’re getting,” Chellsie loudly sang, looking over at Bridget.

“What’s driving you is ambition and betting,” Shawn sang, walking over to Nastia and ripping the pillow away from the older girl’s face. She grinned at the exasperated look on Nastia’s face as she pulled her up onto her feet.

“I said-ah who do you think you are, do you think you are, I said-ah who some kind of superstar, you have got to!” Bridget continued on, looking over her shoulder at Shawn and Nastia; noticing the deadpanned look on Nastia’s face.

“Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show me how good you are! Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show how good you are!” Nastia’s jaw dropped during the chorus and she fell back onto her bed when she saw all of her friends doing the same choreography-the exact choreography for the song that the Spice Girls did for their concerts. She thought that the Soulja Boi dance was something she would never understand, but this, this took the cake. However, she found herself being pulled back onto her feet when Shawn grabbed her hands and pulled her up; the younger girl was not going to leave her on the bed.

“Don’t be a party pooper, Nast!” Shawn called out, over the loud music. She pulled Nastia further from the bed to make sure she would not collapse on it again. She was determined to get Nastia to dance, even if it meant coercing her to do so.

“You’re swelling out in the wrong direction,” Alicia sang, taking Samantha’s hands into her own; both of them jumping onto the bed and leaping on it.

“You’ve got the bug, superstar you’ve been bitten!” Samantha half-sang and half-laughed as she and Alicia kept jumping on the bed.

“Your trumpet’s blowing for far too long!” Shawn and Chellsie cried out.

“Climbing the snake up the ladder, but you’re wrong!” Samantha and Alicia both called out, jumping off the bed and landing beside Nastia and Shawn, completely ignoring the tenants beneath them.

“I said-ah who do you think you are, do you think are! I said-ah who some kind of superstar, you have go to!” Bridget came in, taking Chellsie’s hand and pulling her to create a small circle around Nastia and Shawn. Nastia sighed and covered her face with her hands as her friends began to do the same choreographed routine for the chorus again. All of them were singing loudly and she knew that she would get kicked out of her room or the hotel for that matter because of this.

“Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show me how good you are! Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show how good you are!” Everyone began to hip bump each other during the small break; everyone was laughing and smiling during the entire thing despite Nastia completely staying silent and giving everyone death glares that could have possibly killed them all. Suddenly, everyone stopped and Shawn pulled away Nastia’s hands from her face and pointed towards the older girl. Nastia could see the determination on Shawn’s face, but she was not going to give in; not now, not ever.

“You have got to reach on up, never lose your soul. You have got to reach on up, never lose control!” Shawn sung by herself, pointing from Nastia to the ceiling, slowly wagging her finger down before pointing back to Nastia and doing the same actions again.

“Come on, Nastia, you can’t beat us or girl power!” Alicia called out, trying to coax the other girl into joining them.

“I said-ah who do you think you are, do you think are! I said-ah who some kind of superstar, you have go to!” Everyone, but Nastia, loudly sang, noticing the unchanged deadpanned look on the Russian’s face. However, when the chorus came, they heard a loud grunt in disapproval, but saw faint smile on Nastia’s face.

“Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show me how good you are! Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are? Trust it, use it, prove it, groove, show how good you are!” Nastia finally joined in, realizing that if she couldn’t beat them that she would have to join them. She shook her head as she took part of the group choreographed routine for the chorus but when the chorus came up again, she sang all the other parts and grabbed Shawn’s hands, swinging her around.

“Swing! Shake! Move it! Make it! Trust it! Use it! Prove it! Groove it!” Nastia sang quite loudly, louder than the others and as the song came to an end, she collapsed on her bed, pulling Shawn down with her. The two looked at each other and the others all looked at each other and grinned before quickly bolting out of the room, dimming the lights down. To their unknown amusement, 2 Become 1 began to play.

The sun shone brightly through the curtains of the hotel room, seeming to have brought a better day than before, but the emotions ran the same as the week before. Alicia kept to herself all through the mornings, passing through breakfast and passing every opportunity of going sightseeing with the other girls. She, however, still decided to take a shower- by means of threatening promises from her roommate.

Despite managing to get Alicia out of her bed and into the shower, Samantha failed to get her out of the hotel room all together. She thought of attempting to trick Alicia into going into the hallway so she could shove and lock her out, but she knew the chances were slim because she knew that Alicia would either muscle her way back in or get a spare keycard; both ending with Alicia possibly even more irritated than before. Instead, she sat on her bed, looking at the older girl whose back was facing towards her.

“I know I said before that I’ll let you brood, but I really don’t know anymore,” Samantha quietly said, staring at Alicia. She could see the other girl’s shoulders faintly shudder and she could hear the other girl’s breathing attempt to even out, but she knew Alicia was crying. She deeply sighed and climbed out of her bed, making her way onto Alicia’s; sitting on the edge.

“I’m okay,” Alicia croaked, her voice betraying her. Samantha placed her hand on Alicia’s arm, gently squeezing her.

“If you’re really okay, then you would’ve answered your cellphone whenever Nastia called because you seem keen on not talking to her,” Samantha retorted back, feeling Alicia freeze under her hand.

“Did you look at my phone log? I thought you were better than that!” Alicia snapped, rolling over to look at Samantha; a look of irritation and disbelief on her face. The blonde shook her head and looked away, moving off from the bed. Alicia sat up on her bed and felt her temper beginning to flare.

“No, I didn’t look at your log, there was no reason to. Nastia called me and asked me why you weren’t answering and I didn’t know what to say. Talk to her Alicia because she obviously wants to talk to you.” Alicia looked up at her best friend and saw the concern in her eyes. She could see that all the other girl wanted to do was make sure she was okay and all that she did was accuse her of invading her privacy. She felt her guilt begin to run through her at the realization.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… I-”

“Don’t apologize, just talk to her because she really wants to talk to you,” Samantha explained, hearing Nastia’s voice run through her mind. She deeply sighed and started to turn for the door.

“Where are you going?” Alicia looked up to find Samantha halfway out the door. Samantha held the door handle tightly and her gaze turned to the floor.

“I’m going to see if there’s anyone left that I can hang out with. I really need some air. Please don’t do anything drastic,” Samantha replied back, walking out the door and closing it without giving Alicia time to answer. Alicia heard the door click and it made her heart break again.

“What’s wrong with me?” Alicia breathed, looking down at her hands.

-    -    -

Samantha leant back against the door and ran her hands over her face. She couldn’t believe she walked out on Alicia when she could be needing her.

“Damn it…” She sighed, balling her hands into fists. She couldn’t understand why she let herself walk out, but Nastia’s voice went through her mind. The sadness in the older girl’s voice made her heart pull.

“Hey Sam, is Alicia around?” Samantha kept her attention on the laptop in front of her on the bed.

“Yeah, she’s around, what’s up?” A brief silence occurred and it made Samantha question if everything was okay. “What’s wrong?” The silence remained, but a faint sigh sounded.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s nothing.” Samantha furrowed her brow and closed her laptop, leaning back against the wall of her bed. There was a tone in Nastia’s voice that made her heart drop.

“Nastia…” Samantha quietly drawled the other girl’s name out. She looked over at Alicia’s ‘sleeping form’ and closed her eyes.

“She hasn’t returned any of my calls and I don’t know what to think of it. I’ve called her so many times, but I got nothing.” Nastia sounded distressed and scared, but she remained calm.

“I’ll talk to her, don’t worry. It’s going to be okay,” Samantha answered back, hearing a sigh of relief on the line.

“Thank you Sam.”

“No problem,” Samantha smiled before hanging up.

“Sam?” The blonde broke out of her reverie to the sound of her name. She turned her head towards the sound and saw someone she really wanted to see.

“Shawn John… you and I are having lunch, right now,” Samantha stated, quickly walking up to the other girl and grabbing her hand before dragging her to the elevator. Shawn furrowed her brow and realized she couldn’t object when she found herself in an elevator, watching Samantha press a button.

“O-Okay…” Shawn muttered, unable to figure out what was happening. She looked up at the other blonde and saw a frustration and confusion on her face. “Sam, what’s wrong?”

“Man, apparently that’s the million dollar question,” Samantha sighed, leaning back against the elevator. She shut her eyes and deeply sighed.

“What happened?”

“If I only knew Shawn John, if I only knew. All I do know is that two people aren’t talking to each other,” Samantha replied back, keeping Nastia and Alicia anonymous.

“Is it Alicia and Nastia?” Samantha opened her eyes and glanced towards the younger girl, questioning what gave her that idea.

“Do you know something I don’t?” Samantha asked, furrowing her brow. The elevator door opened and the two headed to the small in-hotel restaurant.

“I don’t know, but it seems to be the most obvious, considering I watched Nastia use her cellphone every five seconds last night and I have a feeling she was calling Alicia. Why Alicia? Alicia and Nastia were talking and Alicia came out- she looked sad and I don’t think it was because of the finals. Nastia didn’t tell me anything, but… I don’t know,” Shawn explained, following Samantha to a table. They sat across from each other and Shawn could see a very distinct look on Samantha’s face that made her know she set herself up for something.

“Shawn… there’s more to that. You can’t lie for your life because you never stop at ‘but’ and you never- you don’t do what you just did. So… they were talking… and you… did you hear them?” Shawn looked down at the table and she could hear Samantha sigh.

“Please don’t tell Nastia or Alicia I listened in because they’ll have my head!” Shawn stated, looking up at the other girl; fear stricken across her face. Samantha was taken aback from the other girl’s reaction. She smiled and reached out to Shawn, covering the other girl’s hand with hers.

“Calm down, I won’t tell anyone anything. Will you tell me what happened?,” Samantha whispered, waiting for Shawn to answer. Before Shawn could say a word, the waiter came up to them and took their orders which seemed to have happened on the fly when Samantha quickly spoke their orders without letting Shawn speak. Luckily for Shawn, the other girl happened to know what she like. As the waiter walked away, Shawn started to talk.

“Well… I forgot my keycard in the hotel room and I knew Nastia was there so I went there to get it. I walked up to the door and I heard Nastia’s voice and I heard Alicia’s. I really didn’t want to interrupt so I quickly got my keycard, but curiosity got me so I went back when Nastia closed the door. The next thing I heard was “you don’t love me like that, you love her” and I guess Alicia was referring to me.” Samantha’s jaw dropped and she leant back against her chair.

“Oh… you’re kidding me,” Samantha breathed, resting her arms on the armrests. Shawn raised an eyebrow and looked at Samantha.

“What?” Shawn, honestly, knew what happened that night, but she wanted to know that Samantha was on the same page as her.

“I don’t know if I should-”

“If it means that one of the two loves the other… I probably know,” Shawn interjected, giving Samantha a knowing look. Samantha raised her eyebrows and an understanding look completely crossed her face.

“Okay, whatever, we’re throwing caution to the wind because they’re our friends and we should try to help them. I’d rather help them now because waiting until we get back home… things might get ugly. She said she wasn’t obvious,” Samantha groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“She was very obvious,” Shawn chuckled.

“Nastia’s so subtle until we deal with love, apparently,” Samantha chuckled, shaking her head. She looked over at Shawn and saw a completely lost look on her face.

“Nastia? Wait, which she are we talking about?”

“I’m talking about Nastia… who are you talking about?”

“Alicia… I keep catching Alicia staring at Nastia with doe eyes that are so obvious making it hard not to say it’s not obvious. Why are you talking about Nastia?” Shawn furrowed her brow and saw the confusion on Samantha’s face. The blonde leant forward and propped an elbow on the table, leaning her head on her hand.

“Alicia? I caught Nastia staring at Alicia with a very big obvious crush in her eyes and she practically begged me not to tell. I bet you had the same talk with Alicia, right?” Shawn nodded and bit her lower lip.

“I bet it really killed Alicia when Nast hugged me,” Shawn sighed, picking at the table cloth. She recalled that night when Nastia hugged her and she knew that the possibility of Alicia watching as high. She started to feel bad about what happened, but before she could berate herself, she found Samantha’s hand back onto hers.

“Shawn… don’t feel bad because you didn’t do anything technically wrong. You and Nastia are best friends and best friends are entitled to hug each other whenever they want. For all I know, Nastia felt the same way when Alicia and I hug.” Shawn looked up and smiled.

“Who would’ve thought that we would be our own friends’ enemies?” Samantha chuckled and gently squeezed Shawn’s hand.

“So true, so true and we don’t even know it. I really don’t get how we never saw our best friend’s crushes. We saw our other friend’s, but- this is amazing. We have to do something about this,” Samantha half-smiled, furrowing her brow. A smile slowly graced her lips and Shawn could see a plan in her eyes.

“Samantha Peszek… what are you thinking?” Shawn reluctantly asked, watching as Samantha pull her hand away as the waiter placed their food on the table. The blonde mischievously smiled and began to eat, remaining silent. Shawn could feel her heart start to race when as tried to eat.

“You’ll see Shawn John, you’ll see,” Samantha replied back, looking over at the younger girl.

“What did I get myself into?” Shawn sighed, taking a bite of her food.

-    -    -
Alicia looked at herself in the mirror and stood there, staring at her reflection. She was disappointed with herself for walking out on Nastia and for snapping at Samantha. Everything seemed to have gone down the drain for her and she really didn’t know what to do. Well, she did know what to do, but she didn’t know how to act upon her decisions.

“Alicia? Are you here?” Alicia turned from the mirror and walked over to the door, wrapping her hand around the handle. She closed her eyes and questioned if she should open the door or not.

“I’ll kick myself later if I have to,” Alicia muttered to herself as she turned the handle and opened the door. She saw Shawn standing in front of her with a small smile on her face, looking up at her.

“Hey,” Shawn breathed, looking at the distraught look on Alicia’s face.

“Hey,” Alicia whispered back.

“Can I come in?” Shawn reluctantly asked, pointing into the room. She watched as Alicia slowly sidestepped out of the way, letting her in. She walked into the room and she could feel a heavy weight rest on her shoulders.

“Is there something you wanted to talk about, Shawn?” Alicia quietly asked, remaining cautious with her tone and temper. She watched as the other girl sat on her bed, looking up at her with a look that seemed to bore right through her.

“Is there something you wanted to talk about?” Shawn retorted back, watching as the other girl smirk and shake her head.

“No, I’m-”

“If you’re going to say you’re fine, please don’t because you obviously aren’t or else you wouldn’t be ignoring everyone, especially Nastia,” Shawn interjected, suddenly noticing Alicia’s eyes flare with emotion.

“Why is it always about Nastia? The world doesn’t revolve around her!” Alicia snapped, causing the younger girl to jump in her seat. Shawn took a deep breath and prayed that what she would say next didn’t cross the line.

“But your world does! You love her!” Shawn stated, catching Alicia off guard. She closed her eyes and balled up her hands into fists as a sudden silence hovered into the room, but it didn’t last long when a loud crack rang throughout.

“Oh my- Shawn, I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to do that,” Alicia eyes widened as she quickly fell onto her knees in front of the younger girl, seeing the reddening mark on Shawn’s cheek. She reached out, trying to cup Shawn’s face in her hands, but the other girl shook her head and whimpered.

“Alicia… you have to talk to her…” Shawn whispered, eyes still closed as the stinging pain ran through her face. She slowly opened her eyes, feeling tears slowly fall down her face from the slap. She knew Alicia was hurting, and she knew she wasn’t going to retaliate because everything Alicia did was greatly affecting her.

“Shawn… she loves you,” Alicia breathed, feeling tears fall down her face as guilt ran through her for mindlessly attacking the younger girl. She waited for Shawn to slap her back, but it never happened. The younger girl pulled her into a hug and that action alone had her crying.

“Alicia… she loves you,” Shawn breathed, hoping her emphasis would send the message across. Unfortunately, Alicia had completely broke down in Shawn’s arm and Shawn’s words didn’t register to her in the way it was meant to.

-    -    -

Sam quietly walked down the hallway, approaching a room she so hoped wasn’t empty. She continually ran through scenarios of what was happening between Shawn and Alicia through her head; all of them ending in something happy, or relatively in a positive manner.

“Hey Sam!” The blonde broke out of her thoughts at the sound of her name. She looked over to the sound of the voice and found Nastia walking up to her.

“At least looking for her won’t be too difficult,” Samantha thought as she continued to walk over to the older girl.

“Hey-”

“Can we talk?” Samantha was about to reply, but she found herself being dragged by the taller girl.

“O-okay.” Nastia pulled the other girl with her to her and Shawn’s room. The other blonde found herself practically thrown into the room while Nastia shut the door.

“Sam, did you talk to Alicia?” Samantha raised her eyebrows and nodded, feeling her heart beat relentlessly against her chest. She began to see the fierce look on Nastia’s face and she knew she wasn’t safe.

“Yes, I did,” Samantha simply answered, seeing the unfaltering look on Nastia’s face. “Huh… she beat me to it.”

“Then why is she still not talking to me? She’s blocking me out entirely, and it freaking hurts; it’s making me go insane!” Nastia exclaimed back, standing in front of Samantha; raw emotions radiating off of her, indicating her feelings.

“I know it hurts Nastia-”

“No you don’t! You’re not the one-”

“Nastia-”

“-Being shut out of-”

“Could you-”

“-Her life. Yeah, I make it look like everything’s fine, but it still hurts! Don’t you get it?” Samantha deeply sighed and tried to keep her cool, despite the other girl continually cutting her off.

“Can’t you look at this in her eyes?-”

“How can I if I can’t understand-”

“Nast-”

“How do you-” Suddenly, Nastia found herself looking away from Samantha with tears brimming in her eyes and a burning heat across her face.. She looked over at the younger blonde who had irritation present on her face.

“Would you wait one freaking second and let me speak?! You’re not the only one being shut out here and I’m trying to make things work!” Samantha shouted, trying to get a word in without Nastia constantly interjecting every time. She showed no remorse for slapping Nastia- it seemed to be the only way to get her to stop talking and knock some rationality back into her, of which seemed lost. Sadly, this was Nastia and Nastia was going to fight back. She saw the other girl’s eyes flare with anger and she knew that nothing she said registered and that hell was probably about to break loose.

“Don’t… slap me!” Nastia retorted back, punching Samantha across the face. The younger blonde touched her cheek and eye, feeling  the burn from Nastia’s fist, but she immediately stood up and tackled the other girl onto the other bed.

“Don’t punch me!” Samantha cried out, trying to pin the other girl down, but unfortunately, she was flipped onto her back and her entire intent was to try and defend herself. Nastia and Samantha completely lost their rational sides and began to slap, punch and beat each other out of anger. There was no valid reason for their violence; they were angry that the other hit them. The two continually rolled around on the bed, trying to gain the upper hand, but it seemed that Nastia was winning.

“Nastia? Nastia! Sam! Hey! Stop it!” Shawn cried out as she ran into the room, shutting the door with her foot, with hopes of separate the duelling blondes. She managed to pull Samantha away when she flipped Nastia over, but she ended up being on the receiving end of her best friend’s slap.

“Ow!” Shawn cried out, as she spun around, ducking and rolling away from Samantha’s punch. She stood up, trying to regain her gears, but it wasn’t too long when the only thing that ran through her was retribution. By now, Samantha and Nastia were standing, still beating on each other, but now Shawn was determined to bring the two down.

“Hey!” Nastia exclaimed, deflecting one of Samantha’s punch. Shawn growled and jumped, catching both Nastia and Samantha’s ears, pinching them.

“Stop, both of you!” Shawn shouted, watching as both of her friends began to keel over onto their knees in pain.

“Ow, ow… you can let go Shawn… ow!” Samantha winced at the stinging pain that was running through her body. Nastia’s slaps did not compare whatsoever to the pinching pain Shawn was inflicting and Nastia seemed to agree as well.

“Shawn… ow, that hurts… ow… let go,” Nastia muttered, wrapping her hands over Shawn’s, trying to pry them away, but the younger girl had no intent of letting go.

“You two are going to act like your age, right?” Shawn asked, looking between the two in her grasp, watching them nod frantically. She reluctantly let go of the two, but they broke out into a fight once again. “No!” Shawn quickly grasped the two’s ears and they keeled over once again.

“Ow… okay, okay! I think I’m going to leave, so you can let me go!” Samantha called out, feeling her ear go numb. She felt Shawn’s hand loosen up and she immediately stood up and walked out of the room, holding her ear. Nastia, however, wasn’t so lucky. Shawn kept her hold on the older girl for a few more seconds before letting go.

“Ow! What was that for?!” Nastia angrily looked up at her best friend, holding her ear. Her freezing gaze on Shawn didn’t seem to affect her, rather amuse her.

“If you think glaring at me is going to do anything, think again; I’m immune to it by now. What I’m not immune to is getting slapped by my best friend and nearly punched by my other friend. Both of you- what was that? Luckily our time in Beijing is over or else we could’ve messed up big time! Now tell me, what happened?”  Shawn stated, hands on her hips with the entire intent of figuring out what had just happened between her friends.

“Sam slapped me!” Nastia fired back, noticing the smirk on Shawn’s face.

“Why did she slap you?”

“Because- because…”

“You two were fighting for no reason! You know what, I’m going to go check on Sam, make sure you didn’t do any permanent damage,” Shawn sighed, turning for the door.

“What? You’re worried about Sam?” Nastia asked in disbelief, watching Shawn shake her head.

“Nastia, didn’t you see the bruise that’s growing on Sam’s face?” Nastia fell silent when she remembered how hard she punched Samantha across the face. Shawn walked out of the room, closing the door behind her before looking down the hall, finding Samantha sitting against a wall with her eyes closed. She quietly walked over to the other girl and sat beside her, leaning her head against the other girl’s shoulder.

“You know, you almost punched me,” Shawn whispered, closing her eyes as she felt Samantha chuckle under her.

“I’m sorry, it was reflex. You didn’t have to pinch so hard, you know,” Samantha retorted back, opening her eyes (even though one hurt more than the other) to look at the other girl. She managed to get a glimpse of the reddening patch of skin on Shawn’s face which made her heart sink.

“Those two slap really hard,” Shawn muttered, gently running a hand over her cheek.

“Two? Nast… Oh my- Shawn…” Samantha whispered, moving away from Shawn, far enough to wrap an arm around the younger girl.

“No… I’m okay, taking you two down numbed out the pain,” Shawn chuckled, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes.

“Too bad nothing really numbed Nastia’s punch. The girl is fierce!” Samantha half-heartedly chuckled, raising her hand over her left eye, feeling it swell. She felt Shawn stir against her and abruptly jerk her head, which hit her eye unfortunately. “Ow!”

“Oh my- I’m sorry, but she really punched you?” Shawn asked in shock, noticing the growing black eye on the other girl. She saw the half-smile on Samantha’s face as the other girl tried to shield her battle wound.

“She has a mean right hook- she should be in boxing,” Samantha joked, fanning her eye. Her eyes remained closed, knowing that tears would slowly fall if she opened them. However, she did remain oblivious to the look Shawn was giving her; a look of compassion and concern. Shawn gently placed a soft kiss on Samantha’s eye, feeling the other girl pull back from pain.

“Sorry, I-” Samantha raised her hand before opening her eyes.

“Let’s hope that makes this feel better faster. I really need ice right now,” Samantha groaned, fanning her eye again as she stood up. Shawn briefly smiled and stood up as well, looking up at the other girl.

“Um… where are we going to go? My room is obviously a no go… Alicia is probably still sulking for slapping me… Bridget and Chellsie will ask what the heck happened and going to our coaches won’t be the greatest idea.” Samantha deeply sighed, realizing their options were heavily limited.

“If we can get ice for me, we can go for a walk,” Samantha suggested, watching as Shawn nod as they headed for the elevators. “And rethink this entire thing.”

-    -    -

An hour passed until Shawn returned to her room with Nastia. She was relatively calmer than earlier, but she still felt upset about the result of the entire day. She thought things would look up if she and Samantha talked with Nastia and Alicia, but that wasn’t the case. Both of the young girls ended up being subjected to physical damage, Samantha being more wounded than Shawn.

Shawn walked into the room and was glad the lights were off. She quietly approached her bed, hoping the other girl was asleep.

“Shawn?” Not the luck the younger girl was hoping for. She quickly climbed into her bed and rolled onto her side, back facing the other girl. To Shawn’s demise, Nastia flicked on the lights and approached her bed, pulling the covers off her face.

“Not now Nastia,” Shawn muttered, trying to pull the covers back over her face. Unfortunately, Nastia wouldn’t have it, so she pulled the covers away completely and rolled Shawn over to look at her.

“Shawn, I’m really sorry, but things happen and you know it. Are you okay?” Shawn sighed and rolled over again, but Nastia’s kept her on her back.

“How am I okay? I was just slapped by my friends,” Shawn retorted back. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the other girl, but the gasp that came from her made her think twice.

“Friends? What? I was the only one who slapped you- you got out of Sam’s way… did someone else slap you?” Nastia choked out, when the entire reality of the day began to dawn on her. Tears were brimming her eyes, as she sat on the edge of Shawn’s bed, waiting for a response. The younger girl deeply sighed and pulled herself up into a sitting position, reaching out and taking Nastia’s hands into her own.

-    -    -
Samantha stood at the door of the room, praying that Alicia was asleep or else she would face 20 questions right off the bat. She slowly turned the handle of the door and carefully opened the door, cautiously poking her head through to make sure the lights were off. Luckily for her, the lights were off, but she remained far from easy.

As Samantha walked through the door, closing it behind her, she approached her bed; internally thanking whoever made her choose the bed closest to the door. Unfortunately for her, the thanks ended abruptly when the lights suddenly turned on.

“Damn it!” Samantha turned to the light switch and found Alicia leaning against the wall with a look of concern on her face which was suddenly wiped away with a look of anger. “That’s not good… Oh… help me…”

“Sam! What happened to you? Who punched you? Where is he?!” Alicia exclaimed, walking over to her best friend, scrutinizing the growing bruise. Samantha tried to turn away, but Alicia had her head in her hands; keeping her from hiding.

“I had a mishap with a wall, no one punched me,” Samantha lied, knowing that Alicia would call her lie.

“Bull, what the hell happened? No one punches out my best friend!” Alicia continued to shout, heading for the door. Samantha’s eyes opened wide, but immediately closed from the pain. She grabbed Alicia’s arm and tried to keep her from possibly starting a war that could potentially end several friendships.

“No! Alicia! Don’t!” Samantha cried out, trying to hold the other girl down. Alicia turned to her best friend and saw the tears that began to fall. Her anger started to falter when she realized that Samantha didn’t want her to go off and do something irrational. Instead, she turned to Samantha and placed her hands on her shoulders, looking at her.

“Sam… who did this? Do the others know? Does Shawn know? Chellsie or Bridget?” Alicia softly asked, watching the blonde shake her head every time. “What about… Nastia?” Alicia breathed, finding the Russian’s name hard to say. To Samantha’s dismay, her body told Alicia that Nastia knew.

“Oh crap… relax… relax!” Samantha felt Alicia’s hands tighten on her shoulders. She knew her body suddenly tensed at Nastia’s name and she knew that Alicia would figure everything out.

“Nastia knows? Does she know who did it? Sam, look at me,” Alicia whispered, trying to get the other girl to answer her.

“I’m so sorry…” Samantha looked up at Alicia and she knew right then and there that her eyes conveyed the entire truth. Her heart sank when she saw Alicia’s eyes grow wide in shock and understanding; she knew that everything was about to change.

“Sh-She punched you, didn’t she?” Alicia muttered more to herself than to Samantha, but the other girl silently nodded, tears cascading down her face.

“It was an accident-” Alicia immediately turned around and ripped the door open, stepping out into the hallway, all of her intent to talk to Nastia. No one punched her best friend without having to deal with her. Samantha started to run after her, hoping to stop her before anything drastic happened.

“Nastia, wait! It wasn’t on purpose!” Alicia heard Shawn’s voice loud and clear, watching as Nastia leave her room and enter the hallway as well; her demeanour completely dark, with Shawn fearfully following behind her.

“You!” Nastia and Alicia called out simultaneously. Shawn and Samantha stopped walking and looked at each other across the hall with fear completely striking them still.

“How dare you slap my best friend!” Nastia shouted, stalking towards the older girl.

“How dare you punch my best friend!” Alicia shouted back, growing ever closer to Nastia. The other two girls started to panic internally, knowing the two were capable of fighting each other.

“How dare I? Sam slapped me first!” Alicia growled at Nastia’s retort and shoved her back, turning to point at Samantha.

“Shawn looks fine doesn’t she? Look at Sam, she’s got a black eye!” Nastia retaliated by shoving Alicia back, pointing back to Shawn.

“I fought back, but I’m sorry! You slapped Shawn for no reason! What kind of friend are you?” Alicia stepped back, unable to comprehend Nastia’s words.

“What kind of friend am I? You punched Sam, what kind of friend does that?”

“Says the girl who punched her friend and knocked him out- try again!” Nastia called out, taking no prisoners. Alicia growled and walked over to Nastia, glaring at her.

“What are you trying to say, that I’m not a good friend?” Alicia strongly whispered, stepping into Nastia’s space. Nastia glared back, trying to gain an upper hand.

“Are you really a good friend? Hurting everyone who loves you?” Alicia felt an internal trigger and raised her hand. A loud clap ran through the hallway and Shawn and Samantha froze. A second crack rang through the hallway and the two younger gymnasts saw Alicia falter back. They saw Nastia holding Alicia’s left hand with hers, while her right was crossed in front of her.

“Don’t you dare slap me because I’m saying what’s true! You need to wake up Alicia!” Nastia cried out, looking at the stunned look on the older girl’s face.

“Oh… crap…” Samantha whispered, noticing the growing broken look on Alicia’s face. She looked past the two older gymnasts and looked at Shawn; complete shock had overtaken her features.

“I’m sorry…” Alicia murmured before pulling her hand out of Nastia’s and running off down the hallway, past Shawn.

“Alicia! Wait!” Samantha cried out, running after the older girl, as she grabbed Shawn’s hand to make her follow her. Leaving Alicia alone now, that was not the smartest idea at all.

Nastia remained frozen in her spot; the sound of Alicia’s voice cutting through her like knives and the destroyed look on her face made her feel even worse. “Why did I just slap her? Why the hell am I still standing here?” With that, Nastia bolted after the other girls; her main intent to fix everything.

-    -    -

Alicia rushed down the stairs of the hotel, tears cascading ruthlessly down her face, partially blinding her vision. Her heart felt as if it was haphazardly glued together, but broken into pieces once again. She believed her heart was healing after that night, but it didn’t stand a chance this night. She couldn’t believe Nastia slapped her, but it was justifiable unlike her failed attempt.

“Yeah, so smart- slapping her?” Alicia continued to fly down the stairs, without caring who could possibly see her.

*    *    *

Nastia managed to catch up with the other two girls as she bursted through the door for the stairwell. She started to jump most of the stairs, but then she slowed down when the other two appeared in front of her.

“Damn it! Why did she have to run so freaking fast?” Samantha breathed, grabbing onto the handrail as she turned for the next flight of stairs.

“She runs faster than Wall-E, what did you expect?” Shawn grunted as she jumped a few steps, to the landing.

“Less talking! More running!” Nastia called out as she started to jump most of the steps asides from running down them.

“Says the girl whose the reason for this whole fiasco!” Samantha retorted back, continuing her flight down the stairs.

As the three broke through the door to the lobby, they all halted to look for Alicia; turning in every direction. Luckily for Nastia, her small height advantage was useful. She somehow managed to spot Alicia right when she was running through the door. Immediately, her feet started towards the door.

“Nastia!” Shawn called out, watching her best friend run off. This time it was her turn to grab Samantha’s hand, dragging her with her.

Nastia blasted through the door of the hotel and was lucky enough not to barrel anyone down. She, however, was hit with a torrent of rain that blinded her vision, but she immediately wiped away the water in her eyes and she continued to run.

Shawn and Samantha also bolted through the door and were both pelted with rain.

“It’s raining and they’re still- ah!” Shawn screamed when a bolt of lightning crossed the sky and a crash of thunder occurred. She clutched onto Samantha tightly, ducking her head into the taller girl’s shoulder. Samantha stumbled back when Shawn grabbed onto her.

“Okay, we obviously can’t leave them in this weather-”

“Okay, let’s go,” Shawn shuddered, slowly pulling away from the older girl. Samantha looked at the younger girl and saw the fear in her eyes, but there was still a determination still evident.

“Are you sure? I don’t-”

“Our friends will need us, now come on,” Shawn breathed, taking Samantha’s hand into her own and pulling her to the direction Nastia ran off to.

*    *    *

Alicia continued to run, passing through everyone she approached and shoving through everyone who tried to stop her. Unfortunately for her, the rain blinded her vision so she had no idea where she was running to, but it didn’t matter to her; she needed to get away.

“Alicia!” Suddenly, a crash of thunder rang through China as well as a blaring car horn.

“Shawn! Watch out!” Samantha cried out, pulling Shawn back towards her as a car sped by in front of them.

Alicia hit the ground square on her back with a heavy weight on top of her. She felt all of the air in her gone and a throbbing headache when her head hit the ground. She opened her eyes and saw Nastia lying on top of her, eyes closed.

“Why did you do that?” Alicia muttered, ignoring the pelting rain on her face. She was entirely fascinated as to why Nastia saved her from a possible car accident after telling her off. Nastia slowly opened her eyes and looked at the other girl.

“What kind of friend would I be if I let you get hurt. I’d rather die than see you get hurt,” Nastia whispered back, looking straight into Alicia’s eyes. She knew what her eyes conveyed, but she needed to speak.

“Nastia, Alicia, are you okay?” Samantha asked, with Shawn beside her, as they ran up to the two girls on the sidewalk. Alicia and Nastia slowly stood up, turning to the other two.

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Nastia breathed, wiping the excess water and hair from her face. Alicia cleared her throat and nodded. As the two older gymnasts started to regain their composure, they noticed the changing looks on Shawn and Samantha’s faces.

“Okay, you know what! You two are coming back with us to the hotel and we’re locking you in a room, got that!” Shawn clearly stated, taking Nastia’s hand while Samantha took Alicia’s.

“And you two are going to talk in a civilized manner like the women you are, okay!” Samantha added, dragging Alicia with her as she followed Shawn in front of her. Suddenly, another crash of thunder rang through the streets of Beijing and Shawn instantly let go of Nastia’s hand, spun around and clung onto Samantha once again. Alicia and Nastia looked between the two before glancing at each other.

-    -    -

As the quartet of girls headed back to the hotel, they all returned to Nastia and Shawn’s room. Shawn and Samantha shoved Nastia and Alicia into the room and held onto the door handle, making sure no one walked out or in.

Alicia and Nastia stumbled into the room and fell into a silence. They looked at each other and reluctantly sat on a bed in front of each other. Both of them were dripping with water head to toe, but they didn’t care whatsoever. They occasionally looked at each other, but constantly looked away after because of fears and nerves. It took several minutes until they managed to suppress their nerves long enough to talk.

“I’m sorry…” The two girls simultaneously stated as they looked at each other.

“No, go ahead,” They simultaneously stated once again. The two deeply breathed, chuckling.

“Okay… I’ll go first. Alicia, last week, when you told me about your feelings for me, you didn’t have to walk out,” Alicia was ready to interject, but Nastia gave her a glare that made her stop. “You may have felt the need and want to walk out, but you didn’t have to- you shouldn’t have. You shouldn’t have left without letting me speak and explain. Yes, I love Shawnie, but as a best friend and nothing more. Damn it Alicia, I love you! Not just as a friend, but I have this big crush on you that’s apparently really obvious to Samantha. I had to beg her not to tell you or anyone, but I love you and I started to die a little inside every time you ignored me. I would have died entirely if I didn’t get you out of that car’s way. Alicia Sacramone, if you love me as you say you do, you have to be able to talk to me- you can trust me like I trust you.” Alicia looked at the other girl and nodded, looking down to the floor. She felt horrible when she started to relive the entire night in her head. She walked out of frustration and anger without rationally thinking any of her actions, but then again, can you rationally think anything in that state of mind? She felt tears running down her face and she was about to wipe them away when she felt Nastia’s hands on her face; her thumb brushing them away.

“I’m sorry when I did that, I was so… I felt like a failure and I felt that I failed you during the finals. I wanted to say how much I was sorry, but then I said I love you, but I don’t regret it. I love you, but coming from my perspective, do you know how hard it is to stay level headed? I love you Nastia, but I jumped to conclusions and I’m sorry for walking out. I’m also sorry for slapping Shawn,” Alicia replied back, noticing the understanding look on Nastia’s face.

“I’m sorry for punching Samantha… she slapped me, I just… fought back,” Nastia sighed, brushing the stray piece of wet hair out of Alicia’s face. She saw a lighter look grow on the older girl’s face and she pulled her into a hug.

“So we basically love each other and never saw it?” Alicia whispered, pulling away. She heard Nastia laugh and nod.

“We never saw it, but Sam obviously did.”

“And so did Shawn, considering she caught me staring at you,” Alicia chuckled, turning away when she felt her cheeks begin to burn.

“So basically, those two knew we were obsessed with each other and they never told us?” Nastia furrowed her brow, looking at Alicia.

“Yeah, I know right? Sam talks to you, Shawn talks to me- aren’t our best friends supposed to tell us?” Alicia smirked, realizing how much their own best friends kept from them.

“Well, they did what they did. Too bad they got caught in the crossfire, right?” Nastia whispered, remembering the amount of violence that occurred in one day. Alicia groaned and nodded, rubbing her cheek where Nastia slapped her.

“I’m sorry for nearly taking out Sam… and you,” Nastia whispered, gently pressing her lips on Alicia’s cheek. When she pulled back, she saw the other girl blushing.

“The two took a serious beating because of us, huh?” Alicia whispered, trying to keep her relentless heart rate down.

“Yeah… punching, slapping, beating… I’m glad they’re still our friends,” Nastia replied back, looking at the door where the other two were potentially standing behind.

“I’m glad we’re still friends,” Alicia said, looking over at Nastia. She watched as the other girl turn back towards her, a soft smile on her face.

“Are we just friends?” Nastia asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively. Alicia smirked and stood up and straddled Nastia’s lap before cupping her face and pressing her lips against Nastia’s. The kiss was chaste, but the two were happy with it. They looked at each other and smiled, hugging each other.

“We should check on the other two…” Alicia whispered, pulling away and stepping away from Nastia, extending her hand towards the other girl; who gratefully accepted. They headed to the door together and opened it, finding a surprising scene.

There sat, in their wet clothes, against the wall opposite of the door, were Shawn and Samantha. They were leaning against each other, asleep, but their hands were entwined together. Nastia and Alicia looked at each other and smiled.

“You know… these two have been pretty close lately,” Nastia whispered, noticing the other girl nod.

“They’re secretly together…” Alicia quietly giggled, trying to keep herself silent.

“Have you seen the way they look at each other?” Nastia bit her lower lip to keep from laughing.

“Should we get them together?” Alicia asked, knowing the answer. Nastia nodded in reply and walked over to the sleeping beauties.

“First off, let’s get them dried off,” Nastia whispered, gently prodding Shawn’s shoulder as Alicia poked Samantha. The two immediately jumped awake and looked around, finding their best friends looking at them with smiles on their faces.

“You two civil?” Samantha sleepily asked, rubbing her decent eye.

“Yeah, thanks to you two,” Alicia answered, helping the blonde up while Nastia did the same with Shawn.

“I’m just glad we’re all happy,” Shawn yawned, as she was led into the hotel room with help from Nastia.

“So are we, but I think we’ll all be happier if we weren’t all soaking wet,” Nastia smiled, as she watched Shawn collapse onto the edge of the bed. She turned around and found Alicia leading Samantha in as well, seating her beside Shawn.

“You two are going to change into these clothes and sleep, okay?” Alicia quietly stated as she caught a pair of clothes from Nastia, throwing them over to the sleepy girls who lazily caught them and slowly changed into them. She also caught clothes for herself and changed into them as well did Nastia. When Nastia and Alicia changed into their new clothes, they turned to the other two and saw them lying on the bed, snuggling with each other.

“Shall we take after them?” Nastia muttered, looking over at Alicia who smiled and nodded. They both rounded the empty bed and climbed in and under the sheets, lying beside each other; snuggling. Nastia laid her head on Alicia’s shoulder and wrapped her arm around the other girl’s abdomen, feeling the other girl’s arm wrap around her.

“I love you, Nastia,” Alicia whispered, looking at the other girl who looked back up at her.

“I love you too, Alicia,” Nastia whispered back, placing a soft kiss on Alicia’s lips. She moved her head back and closed her eyes, feeling Alicia press her lips against the top of her head.

Now, Alicia felt her heart begin to piece back together. She was happy that things turned out in the end, despite all the unnecessary violence and heartbreak. She felt every ounce of sadness begin to lift off of her and she was glad for it. Now, a grin crossed her face and a fuzzy feeling went through her. She was in love and it turned out well in the end.

“Everything is perfect… everything is perfect.” Alicia smiled and pressed one last kiss on Nastia’s head before closing her eyes and pulling the covers closer against them. Tonight would be the starting point for a new life for not only two people, but possibly four.

Title: Decisions

Pairing: Kennedy/ Original Character

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Rating: PG (unless otherwise specified)

Summary: An old friend returns from a distant past, but what lies in store for the gang when she returns?

Notes: I do not own the characters featured in this story, however I do own two Original Characters; Nicole and Ashley. I do not own the series either, rather Joss Whedon does. I did rewrite this after I read it again; I can’t believe I used to write like I did.

“Tell me why you did that!” Kennedy’s voice loudly rang throughout the lecture hall; anger blatantly laced within her voice. She stalked towards Amy, the intent of retribution clearly within her mind, but she was stopped when Amy used magic to propel her across the hall floor.

“Fools, you’d think that they’d learn never to mess with magic,” Amy smugly smirked as she watched as Kennedy pulled herself up off of the floor. Now, the look of anger on Kennedy’s face had faded into irritation when she realized that she was going to have trouble defeating another witch.

“Tell me, why did you do that to Willow?” Kennedy asked more gently, hoping she could get Amy distracted long enough to attack her, or at least get her to relinquish the spell she had on Willow. Amy was ready to answer, but it seemed another person wanted to answer for her.

“It was a Penance Malediction spell; she cursed her to live her past-for killing Warren and nearly destroying the rest of the world.” Amy and Kennedy looked around the lecture hall to find the source of the voice. Kennedy feared that another foe had come in, but she forced herself to remain cool despite the reality that was starting to unfold in front of her. She looked over at Amy and saw the questioning and fear that started to dwell on her features as well.

“Who’s there?” Amy called out, believing that it would coax the other person from their concealed position. She looked around, hoping to be able to see the other person, she used her magic to further her sight, but she still found no one. Kennedy remained cautious of her surroundings; she had no weapons to protect herself.

“So help me if it’s a two against one battle,” Kennedy breathed, feeling her heart beat relentlessly against her chest.

“What, you don’t remember me?” The person called out, remaining hidden. The two women on the lecture hall floor looked around, wondering what was happening.

“Who the hell are you? Get down here, now!” Amy hollered, wanting to know who was out there with them. She wanted to know if this person was a threat or another feeble being.

“I’ll see to it that Willow returns back to her original self,” The person confidently stated. Amy began to feel her patience run, but, nonetheless, she put up an invisible barrier around herself for protection.

“Who are you?!” Amy cried out from frustration.

“Oh come on Amy, you casted a spell on me because I knew about your affiliations with the darker side of life and you made me suffer because of it,” The person replied back, recalling a previous moment in time that seemed to have struck the witch. Kennedy looked over at Amy and saw the expression on her face; she appeared to have seen a ghost.

“N-No, it can’t be,” Amy stammered, noticing a shadow on the floor of the lecture hall. She looked up and saw a person jumping from the beams and somersaulting straight to the floor, half-kneeling with their gaze on the floor. Kennedy looked at the person standing in between her and Amy; the person wore a fedora hat over the dark brunette hair, shirt, jeans, combat boots, fingerless gloves, and a leather long jacket, all in black.

“Of course it’s me, I never stopped looking for you when I managed to get rid of your spell,” The person stated, standing up and pulling out the two swords strapped on her back and linking them to the swords strapped around her waist, creating a version of the “Ronin Double-Bladed Sword.”

“N-Nicole, you’re alive,” Amy breathed, the colour on her face disappearing. Out of quick thinking, she ran away from the other girl.

“Oh no you don’t, you’re not running away from me again!” The person, Nicole, called out, dropping one of the double-bladed swords, as she waved her now free hand at Amy. The witch found herself hitting an invisible barrier, leaving her unable to get out. By now, Kennedy had no idea what to do. She could only watch the exchange between the two and the thought of whether or not Nicole was a friend or foe stayed at the back of her mind.

“Holy… crap,” Kennedy breathed, watching as the taller girl turned towards her. Nicole retrieved the sword she dropped and made her way to the potential slayer. Kennedy looked past the other girl and saw Amy quietly chanting; an ever-growing ball of fire appearing in the palm of the witch’s hand. The fireball suddenly began to fly towards them and out of instinct, Kennedy jumped towards Nicole, knocking her to the floor.

“Ugh!” Nicole grunted as she hit the floor square with her back with Kennedy on top of her. She quickly rolled them over, making sure that Kennedy was still okay.

“Damn it,” Kennedy breathed, feeling a burning sensation on her calf. She shut her eyes, trying to drown out the pain. Nicole pushed herself off of the floor and knelt beside Kennedy, frustration building within her.

“Damn it is right; you nearly impaled yourself with my swords,” Nicole muttered, looking at the burn on Kennedy’s leg. “It’s only a minor burn, but it isn’t minor enough to keep me from taking you out,” Nicole stated, looking towards Amy. She stood up and grabbed one of her double-bladed swords, stalking towards Amy with a furious look about her face.

“What are you going to do, cut me up with your swords?” Amy mocked, noticing the unchanged expression on Nicole’s face.

“That’s the intent!” Nicole growled, forcefully striking one end of the sword at Amy, which in turn was halted by the barrier. She heard the smug laughter coming from the witch, but it didn’t faze her, but made her smile.

“You can’t break this barrier, you have to have some magical relation,” Amy stated, not bothering to notice the growing smile on Nicole’s face.

“See, that thing called a blade, will cut through that thing called a body,” Nicole retorted back as she kept the force steady against her sword.

“You don’t know any magic to break past this,” Amy confidently said.

“Are you sure about that?” Nicole asked, half-smiling as she stepped back to split the double-blade sword in her hands into two individual swords.

“Give up?” Amy questioned, sending another ball of fire towards her opponent. Nicole was ready to deflect the shot, but Kennedy jumped on her once again and this time she was burning on her arm.

“Kenn, you really have to stop doing that unless you can heal yourself,” Nicole sighed, rolling themselves over once again. She picked up one of her swords that lied near her and started to murmur a chant. The sword in her hand started to glow from the handle all the way to the tip and it started to make Amy nervous.

“What are you doing?” Amy started to tremble as she felt an unfamiliar force that radiated from the sword. The blade of the sword had a blue light pulsing all around it, while blue orbs of light orbited around Nicole’s wielding hand.

“Something I should’ve done when I had a chance. I showed you mercy then, but now… mercy is no option,” Nicole briefly explained, charging towards Amy; sword pointed towards the witch. She watched as Amy attempted to reinforce her barrier that protected her, but it only made her smile.

“You are not passing through!” Amy cried out, watching the sword come ever closer towards her.

“You will fall!” Nicole shouted, striking her sword down the witch. Out of shock, Amy blankly stared at her foe as she felt the cold steel cut through her so easily. Both she and Nicole heard the surprised gasp from Kennedy, but they ignored her, remaining focused on them.

“You learned magic?” Amy questioned quietly, as she felt her life force starting to drain away from her. Nicole looked at her with sympathy that was interlaced with pity and nodded.

“You should have trusted me back then, maybe we could’ve avoided this,” Nicole breathed, pulling her sword out of Amy. No blood was left on the sword, and no blood began to rush out of the attacked young woman; the only thing to rush out from her was guilt and sadness.

“I’m sorry…” Amy whispered, before collapsing towards the floor. Instead of hearing a thud as she fell to the floor, a silence occurred. Her body disappeared into thin air, leaving Nicole and Kennedy alone.

“So am I,” Nicole murmured, looking at where Amy had stood not so long ago. She slowly turned around and looked over at Kennedy, noticing the stunned and frightened look on her face. The pulsing blue light around the blade of the sword began to fade away as well as the bright blue orbs of light around her hand. She replaced the sword back into one of the four sheaths strapped around her before walking towards Kennedy, extending a helping hand.

“Uh…” Kennedy pushed herself away from the other girl, finally remembering that she had no idea as to whether or not Nicole was friend or foe.

“Kennedy, I’m not going to hurt you; I’m not here to diminish what’s left of the slayer line. What might actually hurt you would be those burns on your arm and on your leg,” Nicole assured, moving closer towards the other girl.

“How can I trust you? How do I know that you’re not the First?” Kennedy retorted back, watching as the other girl flinch at the mention of the First. Nicole sighed and picked up her other swords, dismantling them and putting them back into their individual sheaths.

“If I was the First, I wouldn’t have bothered killing Amy; she isn’t a threat unless she was trying to defeat ‘me’. Besides, I would’ve killed you right on the spot if I was the First; no need to help you. Theoretically, I should simply be able to wipe you all out, but I’m not the First. Take it or leave it,” Nicole explained, turning back to Kennedy as she buried her hands into her jacket pockets, pulling out two bandanas; a black one and a white one.

“You could be toying with me,” Kennedy shot back, watching the taller girl sigh.

“Whatever floats your boat, but you need to be looked after or those burns may become something your humanly body can’t handle. Besides, you need to get Willow out of her state of disillusion,” Nicole replied back, kneeling down in front of Kennedy, wrapping a bandana over each burn. Kennedy furrowed her brow at the other girl.

“How do you know Willow?” Nicole chuckled and helped Kennedy up, immediately teleporting her back to the Summers’ backyard, alone.

“I’ll see you around Kenn,” Nicole’s voice rang in the air. Kennedy looked around and found the owner of the voice gone, but the owner of her heart in front of her. She quickly ran over to Willow, helping her get through the spell.

Title: I Love You From Afar

Pairing: Alicia/ Nastia, Shawn/Nastia (squint for this pairing) Alicia/Sam (squint for this one too)

Song: What Hurts the Most – Rascal Flatts/ Cascada/ Jo O’ Meara

Rating: PG

Notes: I do not own the song, nor the characters. This is rather angsty stuff, so be warned- if you’re depressed, don’t read this yet. Takes place during the Beijing Olympics. Please note that I may be emphasizing some things that may be seen disagreeable (it’s in the first couple of lines… ha… ha…), but consider it from the character’s point of view, not mine.

Summary: She has to smile even when it hurts.

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house

That don’t bother me

I can take a few tears now and then and just let ‘em out

I’m not afraid to cry every once in a while

Even though going on with you gone still upsets me

There are days every now and again I pretend I’m ok

But that’s not what gets me

What hurts the most

Was being so close

And having so much to say

And watching you walk away

And never knowing

What could have been

And not seeing that loving you

Is what I was tryin’ to do

It’s hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go

But I’m doin’ It

It’s hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I’m alone

Still Harder

Getting up, getting dressed, livin’ with this regret

But I know if I could do it over

I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart

That I left unspoken

What hurts the most

Is being so close

And having so much to say

And watching you walk away

And never knowing

What could have been

And not seeing that loving you

Is what I was trying to do

What hurts the most was being

so close

And having so much to say

And watching you walk away

And never knowing

What could have been

And not seeing that loving you

Is what I was trying to do

I’m saying that loving you

That’s what I was tryin’ to do

Alicia dejectedly walked into the room she shared with Samantha, despite their efforts of winning silver in the gymnastics team finals. Even though the majority of the team suffered point deductions throughout the finals, she felt that she made the team suffer immensely with her performances. She fell off the balance beam from a mount she had continuously attempted to perfect prior the Olympics and she fell again in her floor routine. It was supposed to be her moment; a comeback, but it turned out disastrous. She was supposed to be seen as the one who had the experience to keep her cool during these kinds of times, but she let her nerves get to her, making her do those avoidable mistakes.

“Alicia… it’s not your fault,” Samantha whispered, trying to console the other girl. She watched as Alicia pad for her bed, climbing in and sitting at the head of the bed, with her knees pulled up and arms around her legs. She followed the other girl and sat beside her, wrapping a comforting arm around her.

“How the hell isn’t it my fault?” Alicia thought, leaning her head against her knees. She believed that because of her falls, it degraded the morale of the team, which made Nastia and Shawn step out of bounds during their floor routine.

“Alicia, it could’ve happened to anyone at anytime. You can’t blame yourself for this because you’re a great gymnast and all great gymnasts will have their faults,” Samantha tried to explain, rubbing her hand across Alicia’s back. Unfortunately for her, she was met with a very strong reply.

“How do I not blame myself, Sam? I was supposed to be the comeback kid and be that gymnast that would secure the U. S. Team the gold, but no, I came back and ended up screwing us over!” Alicia snapped back, her anger and frustration resonating in her voice. She looked over at the other girl and saw the shocked look on her face which made her mentally curse herself.

“Alicia-” Alicia raised her hand and interjected.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of said that.” Samantha sighed, but nodded. She knew what the other girl was going through, so she couldn’t tell her off about getting over what she was feeling- not yet. Instead, she pulled Alicia into a hug and kissed her on the temple.

“I’ll let you brood… but if you’re still brooding by the time we get back to America… well be prepared to deal with me,” Samantha snickered, pulling away, looking over at the other girl. She saw the faint smile on Alicia’s face which made her smile.

“Thanks…” Alicia whispered, watching the other girl stand up from the bed.

“I’m here for you if you need to talk, okay?” Alicia half-smiled and nodded, watching the other girl nod back towards her before walking towards the bathroom. She leant her head back against her knees as she heard the bathroom door close and the shower run. The feelings of guilt, frustration and anger surged through her, but she couldn’t do anything about; well she could, but it would have counted as something irrational.

“Augh.” Alicia groaned and realized staying in the room wasn’t going to make her feel any better. She climbed out of the bed and looked at herself in the mirror, staring at the silver medal that hung around her neck. Out of irritation, she pulled the medal off of her neck and tossed it onto the bed before changing out of her uniform into a pair of jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt.

As she headed towards the door of the room, Alicia half-opened the door before questioning whether or not she should tell Samantha she was leaving; for all she knew, the other girl might jump to conclusions about her disappearance. She risked it, walking out of the door without a word.

Samantha, realizing she forgot something, went back into the bedroom. She opened the bathroom door to find Alicia still brooding on the bed, but the other girl wasn’t there. She didn’t let it faze her, knowing that the older girl needed her space and that she wanted to process all that had happened on her own. She also noticed that Alicia’s medal was lying haphazardly on the bed with her uniform. She walked over to the bed and sat on the edge, noticing the slightly torn seam on the ribbon. Picking up the medal in one hand, Samantha started to the trace the medal with her other hand.

“Oh Alicia…” Samantha whispered, covering the medal with both of her hands.

***

Alicia started to make her way down the long hallway towards the elevator. She believed that a walk outside would be nice or at least a break outside would do her some good. She clasped her hands behind her neck as she kept her gaze towards the floor, trying to understand how she could do perform so bad that night. Her teammates were doing so well with their events, but when it came to her, where it mattered possibly the most, she failed. The first fall on the beam was something she could live with and get over, but falling a second time on the floor; that was simply much more harder to live with. She felt that her falls shook the rest of the team up which led to their faults, but it could have been much more complicated than that. Nonetheless, she felt responsible for the team’s loss; especially one person’s loss.

“It’s going to be okay…” A sweet voice whispered inside her head.

As Alicia continued to walk down the hallway, she remained mentally preoccupied which led her to walking into someone. She stumbled back a few steps, but remained standing, as she was pulled out of her thoughts.

“S-Sorry,” Alicia stammered, apologizing for the minor accident. She didn’t even bother looking up to see who she walked into, but rather kept walking along. As she took a few steps, she felt a hand cover her shoulder.

“I said I was-”

“Alicia, it’s only me, breathe.” Alicia moved her hands from behind her neck to her sides as she turned around to see who it was. She looked to see who she walked into and saw it was Nastia. Despite her feeling of comfort that it was only her teammate she walked into and not another person, she still felt anxious.

“Oh… Hey Nastia, sorry I walked into you,” Alicia breathed, turning her gaze away from the other girl. She waited for a word of dismissal, but heard none.

“It’s all right. Have you been crying?” Alicia turned her gaze back to Nastia, wondering where the other girl gained that idea. To her surprise, Alicia found tears on her cheeks as she lifted a hand to touch her face. Mildly chuckling, she wiped them away.

“Apparently,” Alicia answered, hoping she could leave. She looked over at Nastia and saw a look of worry on her face which made her even more anxious.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Nastia softly asked, placing a hand on Alicia’s shoulder. She saw the internal conflict in the other girl’s eyes and she kept silent, not wanting to pressure the other girl to do something she didn’t want to.

“Sure,” Alicia breathed, only to blink several times at what she said. She didn’t mean to agree with her, she was supposed to say ‘no, it’s okay’ and move along. Before she could say anything, Alicia found herself being led down the hallway. She looked down and saw her hand clasped with Nastia’s and it made her faintly smile.

As they arrived at a door, Nastia released Alicia’s hand and pulled out her keycard, swiping it in and unlocking the door. She opened the door, and walked in, but looked back to see Alicia planted outside in the hallway.

“You can come in, it’ll be the two of us. Shawn’s parents took her out and she won’t be back until later,” Nastia explained, noticing the hesitation on Alicia’s face. She saw the other girl remain out in the hallway so out of quick-thinking, she pulled Alicia inside, closing the door behind her.

Alicia bit her lower lip as she walked in, noticing the cleanliness of the space compared to her room with Samantha. She saw Nastia’s clothes neatly folded on one of the beds and took on a seat on the edge of that bed with her hands clasped in her lap. She watched as Nastia walk over to the other bed and sit across from her, eyes boring through her.

“What’s wrong Alicia, besides the obvious?” Nastia cautiously asked, making sure she worded her question wisely.

“Nothing else is wrong, Nastia! I’m pissed off that I fell twice, that’s all,” Alicia snapped back, causing the other girl to flinch. She didn’t mean to reply like that and not to her. She rubbed her face with her hands and deeply sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Nastia reached out and took Alicia’s hands into her own, holding them. She knelt down in front of Alicia to get her to look at her and what she saw made her heart break. There were more tears falling down Alicia’s face and there was a deeper look of pain in her eyes, and from that, Nastia knew that Alicia was hurting for more than what she said.

“Alicia, tell me what’s wrong. Don’t tell me nothing else is wrong because I can see it in your eyes. Please Alicia, talk to me,” Nastia pled, looking up at the other girl. She tightened her grip around Alicia’s hands, hoping to urge her on.

“Nastia…” Alicia whispered, feeling herself continue to break inside. She looked straight down towards her lap and the tears had forcefully made their way down her cheeks.

“Alicia…it’s going to be okay,” Nastia whispered, moving from the floor. She released Alicia’s hands and sat beside her, holding her. She felt Alicia’s arms wrap around her and then she felt something go through her.

“It’s… not… going to… be okay…” Alicia stammered, trying to stay relatively coherent. She felt the arms around her tighten and it both comforted and hurt her.

“Alicia… tell me what’s wrong,” Nastia whispered, rubbing one of her hands across Alicia’s back. She pulled away as Alicia tried to look at her. She watched as the older girl took a deep breath and wiped her face with one of her hands.

“I love you,” Alicia whispered, trying to explain her pain. She saw the confused look on the other girl’s face.

“I love you too, you know that,” Nastia replied back, noticing the unease from the other girl. Alicia looked up at her and tried to speak to her with her eyes. She saw the slow understanding from Nastia.

“Alicia-”

“Nastia?” The two girls looked over at the door, hearing another voice from the other side of it.

“Yeah?” Nastia called out, wishing that the interruption didn’t occur.

“Can you let me in, I kind of forgot my keycard.” Nastia shut her eyes and released an irritated breath. She released her hold on Alicia and stood up, walking over to the side table and retrieving the spare keycard that was on top of it. She walked over to the door and opened it, looking down at the other person.

“Explain to me how you can forget your keycard,” Nastia stated, raising an eyebrow at her roommate as she held up the card in front of her.

“I’m sorry, but I forgot to put it back in my wallet before I went to sleep,” Shawn honestly explained, looking up at her best friend. She started to put on a pout, hoping she could get away with this mistake knowing how much Nastia would be annoyed. She saw the rather frustrated look on the blonde’s face and saw that she started to soften. She heard the taller girl release an irritated sigh before pulling her into a hug.

“If you weren’t cute, I would kick you out,” Nastia stated, lightly squeezing the other girl.

Alicia stood up from the bed and cautiously look around the corner to see Nastia and Shawn hugging each other. She wiped her tears with the back of her hands despite the feeling of new tears starting to brim in her eyes. She felt her heart break at the sight and she knew that she didn’t have a chance.

“All right, all right, I’m sorry about my keycard, but I really have to go. My parents are waiting for me,” Shawn stated, pulling away from Nastia. She saw the questioning look on Nastia’s face and sighed.

“You didn’t leave yet?”

“They asked me if I had my keycard and I checked my wallet only to remember I left if here. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some shopping to do,” Shawn brightly smiled, hugging Nastia once more before taking her keycard and taking off down the hallway. Nastia lightly laughed before walking back into her room. She closed the door and saw Alicia even more broken than before. She was about to say something, but the older girl raised her hand and walked past her.

“It’s about you two, not you and me,” Alicia breathed as she kept stepping back towards the door.

“Alicia…” Nastia whispered.

“You don’t love me like that, you love her,” Alicia stated, wiping her face one last time before turning around and opening the door. She blindly walked out, only to walk into someone once again.

“Oh, sorry,” Shawn apologized, stepping back to see who she walked into. Alicia shut her eyes and plastered on a smile as she turned towards the younger girl.

“It’s okay,” Alicia replied back, keeping her eyes shut. To her surprise, she found herself enveloped into another hug which opened her eyes.

“It’ll be okay, Alicia. You have your friends to back you up and never forget you’re alone,” Shawn whispered, instantly thinking that it was the finals that was unnerving the other girl. However, she did know the real reason why Alicia was feeling what she felt; she could see.

“Thanks Shawn,” Alicia whispered, hugging the other girl.

“You’ll get through this… and what you truly feel,” Shawn quietly whispered, hoping Nastia didn’t hear her. She pulled away from the taller girl and smiled at her, noticing the relative shock on Alicia’s face. She gave Alicia a knowing look which spoke words to her.

“I’ll see you two later…” Alicia whispered, before walking away.

As Alicia turned the corner, Nastia looked over at Shawn with a questioning look. The younger girl looked up at her and shrugged.

“What? I forgot my hat,” Shawn replied back, walking past the other girl. Nastia shook her head as she watched the other girl walk into the room. She couldn’t help but think of what Alicia said and how she looked at her. She knew what the older girl meant and she wanted to talk to her, but she walked away. She knew she had to talk to her again, hopefully with no disruptions.

***

As Alicia walked into her shared hotel room, she saw Samantha newly showered wearing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt sitting on her bed, holding her medal. The younger girl stood up and dropped the medal on the bed before walking towards her, pulling her into a hug. Now, the onslaught of tears had come; Alicia couldn’t hold them back anymore.

“It’s going to be okay,” Samantha whispered, rubbing her hand across Alicia’s back. Alicia kept crying, thinking about everything.

“I wanted to say thank you for being there for me. I wanted to say I’m sorry for ruining our chances. I wanted to say I hate it when I love you because it hurts. I wanted to say that I loved those times we spent together. I wanted to say that I felt special every time you came to me for help. I wanted you to be proud of me today, but I failed. Now, I failed again… I just walked away from you and all I wanted to do was love you.”

***

Here’s the thing, I feel that this is complete, but still incomplete. I would continue on, but then I would need another song. Here’s the deal: would you like to see a sequel to this? If so, should I continue the pairing, or change it to the latter of the three pairings listed?

Autumn leaves turn to brown
Just like dreams get swept away
Spring always comes around
Till the first summer’s day
And I hope there never comes a time
Where life seems to pass you by
Cause you must realize

Cause everything in life will change
With every rainbow there is rain
Nothing stays the same
Years will pass and we will grow
One thing you’ll always know
That I love you now for all the things you are
And all that you’ll be

Even if we don’t have it all
We have all that we need
You know I’ll catch you when you fall
You start to doubt
But you believe
The future is impossible to see
And no matter what we become
You’ll be a part of me

Cause everything in life will change
With every rainbow there is rain
Nothing stays the same
Years will pass and we will grow
One thing you’ll always know
That I love you now for all the things you are
And all that you’ll be

You don’t have to worry about a thing
We move in different ways
But we’re still the same
And I will love
All that you’ll be

Cause everything in life will change
With every rainbow there is rain
Nothing stays the same
Years will pass and we will grow
One thing you’ll always know
That I love you now for all the things you are
And for everything you become
Cause I love who you are
And all that you’ll be

Shawn laid on her stomach on her hotel room bed, staring mindlessly at the laptop screen in front of her. She had her headphones plugged in and in her ears. She was tuned in an online radio station and she had requested a song that managed to reach the top of queue, considering it started to play instantly. She loved the song and she loved its melody, but she didn’t love the feeling it gave her.

Shawn felt displaced every time she listened to the song. She knew the song’s meaning could be used in a platonic friendship or a very deep relationship, but she always saw the song with a deep meaning and it made her hurt in a way that was confusing unto herself.

The song itself had a dedication and it was said on-air, but Shawn knew that the recipient of the dedication was not tuned in– it was an online radio station. The DJ of the radio station had let the song fade out before coming in to do a short voice segment.

“That was Emma Bunton with All That You’ll Be, dedicated to Miss Anastasia Liukin by ‘a special friend’ of yours. Tonight is slow jam request night, so keep sending in those requests. Keep it locked here on PhoenixTrance Online or (for those of you listening on radio) 105.3 FM.” Shawn flinched at the bump made by the DJ. She didn’t realize that the online radio station also had a radio frequency which made her think that maybe, just maybe, that Nastia could have been tuned in. Then again, the odds of that happening were slim to none.

Another song began to play and it started to wrench Shawn’s heart, so the young girl pulled off her headphones, but to her misfortune, she pulled out the headphones out of the jack as well and the song began to play from the speakers. She deeply sighed and turned the speakers off before laying her head against the bed. She closed her eyes and groaned, wishing that such songs didn’t affect her like so.

“It’s only a song…a song that means so much to me,” Shawn whimpered, opening her eyes as she began to trace the pattern on her blanket. She began to feel a burning sensation cross over her eyes and before she knew it, tears began to fall. She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it, hoping that it would keep herself in tact, which wasn’t the case. Tears began to flow freely and soak her pillow, feelings began to overwhelm her and it scared her.

“Shawn?” The young gymnast froze at the call of her name. She knew whose voice was calling out to her, but she refused to move. She heard footsteps come closer to her bed and it made her grow anxious with every step.

“Oh crap…” Shawn thought to herself when she felt the side of her bed sink. She gripped her pillow even tighter in her hands, hoping that the other person would get the idea to leave her alone.

“Shawn, are you okay?” Shawn nodded into her pillow, hoping that it was good enough to send the other person away.

“No you’re not.”

“Well if you knew that answer all along, why did you ask?” Shawn snapped. She flinched at her action and she looked up at the other person, noticing the hurt look. “I’m sorry, Nastia– ignore what I just said.” Shawn turned away and buried her face back into her pillow, feeling a rush of guilt run through her.

“Shawn, what’s wrong?” Nastia softly asked, reaching out towards the other girl. She touched Shawn’s shoulder, but the younger girl recoiled away from her.

“Please Nast… just drop it,” Shawn whispered, pulling her face out of the pillow long enough to talk. Nastia bit her lower lip, she felt so helpless. The saddened look on Shawn’s face sunk her heart, but the tears that stained the younger girl’s face made her heart break. She wanted to pull the other girl into a hug and tell her that everything would turn out okay, but she didn’t want to risk another recoil again.

Instead, Nastia carefully turned towards the laptop that was still on and opened in front of her. She noticed the dedication page that was opened and she couldn’t help but read what was on it. She read the sent dedication and she couldn’t help but smile.

Quietly, Nastia typed in a request and a shout out, hoping the DJ would instantly bump the station with what she asked for, despite the knowledge that several other people were also waiting in line to get their requests in as well. She was ready to click send, but she saw another window opened, so she clicked the other window. The window read:

Hey Shawn John,

Thanks for tuning in on my radio station and I’m glad that it gives you your musical satisfaction. Hopefully you’re spreading the word about my station, I’m kidding, simple promotion couldn’t hurt, right? Anyways, when word had gotten out you listen to this station (which led to my getting several thousand hits), I ended up expanding my station online so many more people can tune in and I’ve also managed to find an empty frequency in nearly every major city in the world so people who don’t have a computer can listen to me on the radio. I managed to find several dedicated people around the world to collaborate with and now their home city is able to locally listen to my station on the radio. Thank you for being a listener and because of what you gave me (which was a large audience and a really huge opportunity) I’m going to give you (along with a few special other people) top queue during request times. If you have a request that you would like to have played immediately, send your request to the link provided below. Feel free to use it as many times as you like, but do keep in mind about the other listeners as well. Anyways, I will not keep you any longer so I once again say thank you and continue to listen.

DJ PhoenixTrance

Nastia raised an eyebrow and smiled as she copied and pasted her request and shout out to the new window the link in the message had provided. She typed in her name and prayed that the DJ would accept it. As she clicked ‘send,’ a feeling of nervousness and excitement began to overwhelm her.

A couple seconds passed when Nastia noticed a reply message from the DJ. She read it and smiled, realizing that her dedicated request would play right after the song being played. She checked the laptop and turned on the speaker volume. The last song was nearing it’s end and it slowly faded out. Nastia crossed her fingers, hoping that the DJ would pull their weight.

“All right guys, we have another special request tonight and we’ll be having a bit of a replay. The song is All That You’ll Be by Miss Emma Bunton, once again. This is dedicated to Miss Shawn Johnson by Miss Anastasia Liukin. I quote, “You don’t have to worry about a thing, we move in different ways, but we’re still the same and I will love all that you’ll be. I love you no matter and you will always be a part of me.” Miss Shawn Johnson, you have a great friend and hopefully you’re tuned in. Here we go, All That You’ll Be,” The DJ announced before playing the song.

As the song began to play, Nastia found herself smiling when the dedication was announced. She bit her lower lip as she glanced over at Shawn, who still hadn’t moved. However, as the song continued, Nastia could feel her heart clench and feel butterflies flutter in her stomach. She waited for Shawn to move, but the younger girl remained still.

The song continued to play and Nastia’s doubts as to whether or not Shawn would move at all started to run through her mind. She began to question if what she did was a reasonable thing to do, considering the circumstances present. The tension that filled the air started to choke her; she wanted to know that the other girl was actually okay and not feigning her feelings so she would leave.

As the song made it to the bridge, Nastia started to see Shawn’s shoulders begin to shake. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, listening to the other girl; realizing that she was crying hard into her pillow. Without a second thought, Nastia laid down beside Shawn and pulled her up against her body.

“Shawn?” Nastia quietly whispered, leaning her mouth close to Shawn’s ear. She carefully brushed Shawn’s hair away from her face, but the other girl buried her face deep into the pillow.

Shawn continued to sob deeply into her pillow, never letting up despite Nastia’s attempt to comfort her. The song started to pull at her heart and all she could do was continue to cry. She didn’t want to speak, she didn’t want to move form her position, she only wanted to cry.

Several minutes passed until Shawn’s tears subsided and she moved the pillow off of her face, letting herself breathe. She rolled onto her side, but kept her back towards the older girl. She clutched onto her pillow tightly, curling herself into a tight ball. She felt Nastia wrapping an arm around her waist.

“Shawn… talk to me,” Nastia whispered, leaning her forehead against Shawn’s head. She tightened her hold around Shawn’s, keeping her close.

“Did you mean it?” Shawn croaked, steeling herself for what was to come. Nastia deeply breathed and slowly exhaled. She contemplated as to what to say; would what she say comfort Shawn or continue to make her hurt?

“I did mean it, I do love you. You’re my best friend and you will always be a part of me,” Nastia explained, feeling Shawn go rigid against her. She raised her hand and blindly searched for Shawn’s hands, covering one of them with her own.

“Nastia…” Shawn quietly whimpered, closing her eyes.

“Shawn… tell me what’s wrong,” Nastia whispered. She closed her eyes and patiently waited.

Even more minutes passed, but Nastia remained patient. Music still played in the air, smoothly easing the tension that was in the air.

“I love you… that’s what’s wrong,” Shawn muttered, eyes still closed. She felt Nastia’s thumb stroking the back of her hand. She didn’t know how to react to the situation at hand; she was broken and her best friend was trying to pick up the pieces in a way that spoke so deeply within her.

“Why… why is it wrong?” Nastia whispered back, slowly opening her eyes. She felt Shawn shake against her; be it from anxiety or tears ready to spill out once again, she didn’t know.

Another few minutes passed once again, and silence encompassed the room. Nastia’s eyelids started to droop as time continued to pass by. Her arm remained around Shawn and her hand still covered the other girl’s. When Shawn stirred, Nastia blinked a few times, watching as the younger girl turned towards her. The torn look on Shawn’s face, mixed with the bloodshot and puffy eyes was enough to make Nastia pull the other girl into a hug, but she didn’t. Nastia didn’t want to ruin the moment if this was going to be the only opportunity Shawn was going to talk to her.

“Because… I really love you. You don’t get it Nastia,” Shawn muttered, eyes looking straight into Nastia’s. Nastia looked into Shawn’s eyes and knew what she meant. She faintly smiled and closed her eyes.

“Shawn, I love you. Maybe I haven’t actually showed it to you in a way that you would know, but the way we act is on the fence between just friends and more than friends. Shawnie, I love you with all my heart– you’re not the only one whose made radio dedications,” Nastia whispered, looking towards the other girl. She saw the confused look on Shawn’s face because she just did a dedication right in front of her, but then a knowing look crossed Shawn’s face.

“Y-you made up those dedications for me?” Shawn questioned, eyes full of hope. Nastia’s smile grew and she nodded.

“Ever since you told me about the radio station, I kept listening to it. I ended up sending my own requests and well, I remained unnamed. Luckily, the DJ played those songs immediately and you were listening,” Nastia quietly chuckled, closing her eyes.

Shawn quietly looked at Nastia, wondering if everything that was happening was real. Were they really having this conversation? Was Nastia actually telling her she loves her? Was Nastia really defining their relationship in a way that Shawn really wanted? Or was this all a dream that Shawn was living in?

“Nastia… do you really love me?” The older girl looked at Shawn quizzically.

“Shawn, I really do love you. I know you probably think that I don’t mean it in a way that you want, but I do. Shawn, there’s a reason why I always chose you to be by my side, there’s a reason why you’re my best friend, there’s a reason why dedicate those songs to you… Shawn, there’s a reason why I’m here holding you, trying to make you smile. I see the way you look at me, the way you act around me differently compared to everyone else– I notice. Shawn, would you believe me that whenever I’m with one of the other girls, I wish it was you? Would you believe me that every time I’m sad, I want you there with me; to hold me? Even if we’re in different places, if we’re in competition, I still hold you in my heart. If you look into your heart, you’ll find out that what you’re hearing is what you want to hear and need to hear.” By now, Shawn had started to cry once again; tears numbly flowing off her face.

Nastia sat up and pulled Shawn up against her, holding her. She felt the younger girl’s arms snake around her waist, clutching onto her for dear life. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she ignored it. She pulled away and pressed her lips against Shawn’s forehead before slowly pulling away and lightly pressing her lips against Shawn’s.

Suddenly, the entire world seemed lost to them. The music still sounded, but everything else seemed to stop for them.

Nastia slowly pulled away and looked down at Shawn, noticing her eyes were closed. She briefly smiled before leaning her head against Shawn’s.

Shawn could feel her heart beating against her chest after the kiss. She never felt so alive and open before. She was in love with her best friend and her best friend was in love with her. She knew things were going to change from that point on, but she knew that she had Nastia by her side. She knew that even though things may or may not work out for her, that Nastia would still love her and that she would love Nastia. The future was certainly out of sight at this moment, but she knew that she wasn’t alone in the journey to find out what would lie ahead of her and them.

“I love you Shawn, and I want you to know that you will always be a part of me. I don’t ever want to let you go or lose you– I always want you here with me,” Nastia whispered, watching as Shawn’s eyes slowly opened.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” Shawn muttered, catching Nastia off guard. She saw the other girl flinch, but immediately softened at the question.

“Will you be mine?” Nastia questioned back, earning a smile from the other girl. She softly smiled and leant down for another kiss, knowing Shawn was ready to be with her.

“This isn’t like her,” Manny could only think. Her mind was boggled by the reality that was settling in front of her. There she was with Darcy and Peter in the gymnasium; Darcy and herself wearing provocative appearing clothes while Peter took pictures of them.

Manny knew Darcy was not that kind of ‘cookie cutter’ girl people may perceive her to be. The time when she wanted revenge on Paige, Darcy took part in the plan; which seemed to be a testament as to what the girl would do later on.

Manny learned about Darcy taking part in the after school Christian youth group a year ago and she believed that Darcy was ‘cleaning’ herself from that mess that happened the previous year. She never thought about Darcy becoming something so different once again.

Manny believed that being raised in a devout Christian family would have strict rules and regulations about how to act and how to think, but apparently it never washed ‘completely’ on Darcy. Why does she think so? Here they were taking provocative pictures, in very ‘less than Christian’ like behaviour. They were both wearing really short shorts and revealing tops– there, in no way, would anyone perceive as Darcy being a devout Christian.

People would mistakenly think that the two were up to no good, but their intentions were not anything bad, their method of achieving their intentions were. Manny went along with the entire photoshoot, only wanting to achieve something with Darcy that could be of good use. It was for the money; it was about new uniforms for their squad. Maybe their idea of achieving the money was not that of something great, but it was what they could think of on such short notice. Peter wasn’t disagreeing with their method, but rather approved of it.

During the whole shoot, Manny would look at Darcy, seeing if the other girl was actually comfortable with the whole thing. Manny could have cared less about the shoot, but it was Darcy– a girl with different ideals from her. Darcy appeared to be having fun and gave no sense of insecurity with the whole thing, but then again, looks can be deceiving.

Manny managed to catch Darcy’s gaze several times, but only for such short moments. Despite the fact that Darcy appeared to be completely fine with everything, there was a look in her eyes that said something completely different. There were brief moments were Darcy’s insecurities seemed to shine through and Manny thought that Darcy’s ‘real self’ was trying to break through, but it seemed to fail. She thought that every time she caught Darcy’s eye, she could feel some kind of personal connection with her. She felt as if Darcy’s ‘real self’ was trying to call out to her for help, but all she could do was watch and go along with the entire thing.

Now, the photoshoot was almost at an end and it felt as if it was going well. Some shots Manny thought were better than others, from what she could ‘see’, but all of them were in the same plane. Most of the shots ended up having the two girls do things that would have been perceived as ‘slut-like’ but apparently ‘sex sells’ in society right now.

A couple years ago, Manny wouldn’t have thought that she would have the opportunity to be so ‘close’ to Darcy in the way she was this day. Some poses seemed to be relaxed, while others seemed to be down-right forced. Manny could feel those tense moments when she was leaning against Darcy, but it seemed that as time would pass, the other girl would relax into her. Manny thought those tense moments would only occur when they were doing very personal poses, but those poses also seemed to blend into those relaxed moments which really confused her.

When those intimate poses would happen while Darcy was relaxed, Manny believed that these poses were deliberately meant for her. When Peter wasn’t looking, there were these looks on Darcy directed towards her and it made her feel very special, but it made her feel something indescribable.

Manny wanted to ask Darcy what those looks meant, but she didn’t have the courage to ask; reason being that she might have been reading those looks in a wrong way. However, it always kept her hanging; wanting to know more and wanting more in general. Those subtle looks seemed to be interlaced with longing and a bit of something else that Manny couldn’t figure out.

Now, the photoshoot was over and Peter had left, leaving Manny and Darcy to head into the washrooms to change and wear something more appropriate. Manny pulled on her clothes, but she kept a steady eye on Darcy, noticing that the other girl was looking at her. Despite the silence between them, there was some form of unsaid communication between them.

When Darcy pulled her other clothes back on, she walked over to Manny and stood in front of her, silently looking at her. Manny stood still, not knowing what to do or what to say to the other girl. She could sense a feeling of tension in Darcy, but she chose to remain unmoved.

Darcy moved closer to Manny and wrapped her arms around the other girl’s waist, leaning her chin against Manny’s shoulder. Manny blinked a few times before wrapping her arms around Darcy, holding her.

“There’s some things I’m willing to do only with you and you only,” Darcy whispered, lightly pressing her lips against Manny’s cheek before pulling away and stepping back from the other girl. Manny furrowed her brow and noticed the mischievous look on Darcy’s face. Darcy walked out of the washroom with her bag, leaving Manny with her thoughts. It took a few minutes until Darcy’s words dawned on Manny, leaving her taken aback.

“Wait, Darcy, wait!” Manny called out, gathering her belongings as she tried to go after the other girl, wanting to know what she meant.

Rating: T unless otherwise specified

Fandom: Degrassi: The Next Generation

Disclaimer: My first Degrassi fic, so please bear with me. I haven’t watched much of the show ever since Alex left, so this is strictly AU, considering there is an OC thrown in here. I don’t own the characters nor the show, but rather Yan Moore and Linda Schuyler do, however I do own the OC.

Pairing: Darcy/OC

Summary: There was a girl named Darcy Edwards. She was open-minded, but one person made her open-minded. This person was new to Degrassi. She knew what she was getting herself into. All she did was care for someone who was scared.

-ICWYWS-

Darcy sat on her bed, scribbling something in her notebook as she glanced over to the small cot that was across her bed. She couldn’t help but smile at the sprawled form that was on the cot, especially since that form was all but ready to fall onto the floor.

Darcy moved her notebook to the side and slowly crawled over to the end of her bed, looking over towards where her guest was sleeping. She didn’t understand why the cot was across her bed instead of beside it, but she really didn’t care considering its occupant was on it; barely. She shook her head, crawling back to her earlier sitting position and continued writing in her notebook.

Kamryn, the only reason everything’s the way it is now. She’s over there sleeping on the cot, stretched out like a sheet over a bed. I really wonder how she’s staying on the thing; she’s already halfway onto the floor. Her blanket is barely on her now. Five minutes ago, she was snuggled in her blanket, curled up in a ball and now she’s all over the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if I find her on the floor tomorrow morning. Hopefully I don’t accidentally walk all over her. That’s a sight.

Kam looks so peaceful right now, it’s really adorable. I’m glad that she came into my life; she changed a lot of what I believed in. Well, changed might not be fitting; opened me to new perspectives seems better. I really thank God for bringing Kamryn into my life; she’s really affected me in a profound and positive manner. She’s a great person and I’m grateful and thankful she stayed with me even through all the hardships we faced; especially the trials and tribulations I made her go through. I’m so stubborn, but at least she still stood by my side. Kamryn; she cared for me when I was scared out of my mind. Right now, I hope we’ll always be together because she makes me happy.

Darcy ended the final sentence and smiled, closing the notebook before tucking it away in her bedside table. She took one final glance towards the older girl across from her before lying on her bed, clicking off the lamp on the table beside her.

-ICWYWS-

It all started a few months ago when Darcy took her regular seat in her English class. She had her notebook on her desk and a pen out, ready to take on the day’s notes. She watched as everyone took their seats and waited for class to start.

“Class, apparently we have a new student,” The teacher announced. Immediately, Darcy could hear the blatant whispers of every person in the class questioning whether or not the student was a guy or a girl. She could hear the distinct messages being passed around, questions regarding if the student was hot and where this person had come from. She could only smirk at the repetitive questions, waiting for this person to walk into the classroom.

The whispers that were crossing the classroom had stopped dramatically and it made Darcy look around for the reason as to why time had practically stopped. She saw the surprised looks on everyone’s faces and they all seemed to have been directed to the front of the room. There, she realized why everything around her stopped.

“Everyone, this is Kamryn Parker. Please welcome her with open arms,” The teacher announced, introducing the tall girl beside her. All eyes were on the tall girl whose skin seemed to be carefully sun-kissed. Her long chestnut brown hair was pulled into a loose ponytail and her bangs framed her face. She seemed to be the immediate eye candy of all the guys in the room; her white tank top and black and red cargo capri pants seemed to have an affect on the young men.

Darcy blinked a few times before she ran her eyes over the other girl. She didn’t know what to make of her; the white running shoes, black capri pants and white tank top seemed to be coordinated. She deeply sighed, hearing another round of whispers crossing the room. She looked around and couldn’t understand why everyone had to start talking all over again. She saw the smirks and heard the chuckles knowing that everyone was probably starting rumours about Kamryn. It was Degrassi, how could rumours not start?

Darcy looked back towards the front of the room where Kamryn still stood, her backpack loosely slung over her right shoulder, waiting to be seated. She saw the passive look across her face and she didn’t know whether or not she was annoyed with the whispering going on.

“So, let’s get this class started. Miss Parker, would please take a seat with Darcy?” Kamryn raised an eyebrow and looked over at the teacher, wondering what Earth she was from to expect her to know who Darcy was.

“Darcy, and who is that?” Kamryn asked, furrowing her brow as she turned back to look around the room to find out who that person was. She saw a hand rise immediately and assumed that was the girl she was supposed to sit beside. She turned to the teacher and saw her nod. Kamryn nodded as well before walking to the empty desk to the right of Darcy, dropping her bag to the floor, pulling out her notebook and pen.

“Hey, I’m Darcy Edwards,” Darcy whispered, looking over at the girl beside her who turned towards her. She saw a half-smile across the other girl’s face and in turn she smiled back.

“Kamryn Parker, as you heard,” Kamryn whispered back, glad that she managed to strike up a conversation with someone she had never met.

The two continued to talk to each other, seeming to ignore what the teacher was trying to instil to them. They were occasionally stopped because the class suddenly grew quiet, but they were never caught.

-ICWYWS-

Lunch immediately approached and Darcy and Kamryn had separated paths. Darcy already made her way to her friends, Emma, Manny and Chantay, taking seats with them.

“So, there’s a new girl, any thoughts?” Manny asked, looking around the group of girls. She saw them all beginning to think, ready to bring out their thoughts.

“She’s a nice person,” Darcy stated, gaining a sudden silence which made her furrow her brow. She looked around and saw everyone blankly staring at her.

“Well someone is really uninformed,” Emma smirked, looking down at her lunch before bringing her eyes back up to Darcy. She saw the vacant look on Darcy’s face indicating she had no idea what she was talking about.

“What?” Darcy asked.

“Wow, this is Degrassi, how do you not hear anything? The girl’s rich,” Emma answered, propping her elbow on the table, resting her chin on it.

“Rich? Then, why would she be here?” Manny asked, hearing an exasperated sigh from the blonde.

“Because, I can be.” Everyone around the table immediately froze up hearing the female voice. They all turned around and saw Kamryn standing behind them, smirking. Everyone fell silent and they had nothing to say. Kamryn on the other hand glanced over at Darcy, shaking her head.

“Hey Kamryn, are you coming or what?” All the girls turned to source of the call and saw Jimmy waving Kamryn over.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there!” Kamryn called back, jogging over to Jimmy whom she had met after accidentally having her foot run over by his wheelchair.

All the other girls watched as the new girl began playing basketball with the rest of the guys and a collective sound of disgust ran through the group. All the girls continued running their thoughts about Kamryn, assuming she was up to nothing good in their school. However, Darcy stayed defensive about the new girl, knowing things that her friends had no idea about. She knew that Kamryn was good person; well at least from what she heard when she talked to her.

“Do you think she’s from Lakehurst?” Emma quietly asked, glancing over at Kamryn who was now playing basketball with most of the guys. Everyone moved their gazes to the basketball court, watching Kamryn sink a lay up.

“Who knows where she’s from. All I know is she’s not your average girl,” Manny stated, noticing how aggressive Kamryn was playing with the guys.

“Are you saying,” Emma quickly glanced over Manny, seeing a look on her face.

“Well, what else could she be saying? Chantay smirked, retrieving all the gazes back into the group.

“What are you all going on about?” Darcy questioned, furrowing her brow in complete confusion. She couldn’t understand what her friends were going on about and it was starting to annoy her.

“She’s the next Alexandra Nuñez,” Chantay answered, unable to believe her friend’s incapability to understand that. A blank look crossed Darcy’s face and only quiet sounds of chuckling made itself around the group.

“Now, who’s going to be the next Paige Michalchuk?” The giggles grew louder at the joke and immediately Darcy huffed, taking to her feet, taking her bag and lunch with her.

“Hey, where are you going?” Manny called out, watching her friend begin to depart from the table. Darcy looked at them and snorted.

“Somewhere where the prejudice is lacking,” Darcy retorted back, making her way to the basketball court. The other girls look at each other and shook their heads.

“You’d think we were putting down her girlfriend,” Chantay smirked, watching Darcy take a seat at one of the benches near the court.

-ICWYWS-

The end of the school day had come and Kamryn lacked those classes with Darcy, leaving the two unspoken with each other. Kamryn pulled on her ear buds, starting up her iPod as she headed to the bike rack at the front of the school. She loosely slung on her backpack and pocketed her mp3 player as she began unlocking her black and silver text bicycle. She lowered her backpack and placed the locks inside before snugly pulling the bag on her back and riding off.

As her music began drowning out the rest of the world, she slowly rode off, not hearing the cries for her to stop. Kamryn was deaf to Darcy’s calls as well as blind to the other girl’s attempt to run after her. Darcy jogged after her, but the realization that her sandals were going to get her nowhere; she stopped and picked up a pebble, throwing it at Kamryn. Fortunately for her, the pebble managed to strike Kamryn’s head and forced her to stop which gave her time to catch up with her.

Kamryn buckled at the hit and pulled out one of her ear buds as she turned to see who hit her. She knitted her brow in annoyance, but as she saw the person who potentially have thrown the object at her head, her face softened. There was Darcy Edwards running after her in sandals that are not meant to be used to run with.

Darcy finally caught up with Kamryn who was crossing her arms. She stood beside the other girl and began panting, realizing how much of a drag running in sandals was. She took a deep breath and began regaining her composure.

“You chucked a rock?” Kamryn questioned, raising an eyebrow at the brunette that stood in beside her. A faint blush crept onto Darcy’s face and it made Kamryn chuckle.

“I’m sorry, but you kept riding away,” Darcy replied back, seeing a smile place itself on Kamryn’s lips. She felt better knowing that Kamryn wasn’t angry at her for throwing a possible projectile at her head.

“That will be my bad then. So, what brings you?” Kamryn curiously asked, unfolding her arms as she waited for an answer. Darcy flinched when she realized she didn’t really have much of a definite answer. She did want to talk to the other girl since the little event at lunch, but that seemed like a next day conversation.

“I was wondering what happened at lunch,” Darcy answered, leaving no time for her mind to actually comprehend what she was saying. She began to mentally scold herself, wondering why she brought that up. She watched as Kamryn raise her eyebrows before pulling out the other ear bud from her ear.

“What about it?” Kamryn simply replied back, wondering where Darcy was going to take the conversation.

“You looked at me and shook your head,” Darcy quietly said, unable to look at Kamryn in the eye. She felt dumb bringing that part of the event, but the look and the action made her feel guilty for some reason. She heard the other girl sigh and it made her feel really awkward as if she was under intense scrutiny.

“Darcy,” Kamryn started, hoping to get the other girl’s gaze back towards her. She saw the shorter girl slowly look up at her and there was a hesitation in her eye that was intriguing. “I did what I did because after what I heard from Jimmy and what I heard from you, I thought you had friends that weren’t into gossip, but then again who doesn’t buy that stuff. I guess I was a little disappointed from what they assumed,” Kamryn continued.

“You were disappointed?”

“Yeah, I’m used to the fact people assume things of me, but you’re a really nice person from what I know of you and I didn’t think you’d hang out with people like that. Though, you choose your friends and you hang out with who you like, so I don’t know,” Kamryn explained, shrugging at the end. She watched the other girl bow her head, clasping her hands together.

“They just don’t know you. Maybe if we hung out together, they’d find out you were a great person,” Darcy replied back, looking up at the taller girl.

“One day, D, one day we’ll hang out all together. Also, I’m a great person? We’ve only met for not even one school day and you think I’m great?” Kamryn chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest again. She saw Darcy begin to blush again.

“Yeah, I mean you’re a really nice person. We had a nice talk during English class,” Darcy explained, watching Kamryn smile and nod in reply.

“That was nice. However, are you heading home right now?” Kamryn asked, realizing that she was probably delaying the other girl’s departure.

“Oh, yeah I am.”

“Walking or is someone driving you?”

“Walking, lovely exercise,” Darcy laughed. Kamryn began to chuckle once again when she pictured Darcy walking long distances in her sandals.

“Hey, I’ll walk you home,” Kamryn suggested, placing her hands on her lap, waiting for an answer.

“No, it’s okay,” Darcy interjected, not wanting to waste the other girl’s time.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like I have anywhere else to go,” Kamryn replied back, seeing the other girl begin to contemplate for an answer.

“Okay, but don’t blame me if you had to go straight home,” Darcy stated as she began to ready herself for the walk.

“I’ll take the blame. Although, how far do you live?”

“Like 20 minutes in that direction,” Darcy answered, pointing down the road. She heard Kamryn chuckle once again.

“Yeah, not going to let you walk,” Kamryn smirked, wondering what possessed the other girl to wear footwear she did for a kind of walk like that. Then again, she pondered on the thought of Darcy wearing the same footwear in the mall and it seemed evident the other girl would manage.

“What?”

“Next thing you know, I’m on the next block on the bike. That time, you’ll probably chuck your sandal at my head,” Kamryn laughed, imagining the incident taking place. She saw the amused look on Darcy’s face and took that as something good.

“So, what do you propose I do?” Darcy asked, curious as to what Kamryn was thinking of.

“If you weren’t wearing that white skirt and carrying a purse, I would let you sit on the bike while I pedal. Then again, you’re wearing sandals, so I don’t know how you’d pedal. So! I propose you side saddle the frame and I’ll just pedal you home,” Kamryn explained, earning a surprised look from the other girl.

“You want me to what?”

“Come here and sit on the frame like it’s a bench. Have you seen the ‘Princess Diaries’?” Darcy nodded her head.

“Cross your legs in the princess manner and I guess hold onto me or the frame,” Kamryn explained, still getting an odd look from Darcy. She pulled the other girl towards the bike and motioned for her to sit on it as she had explained. Darcy reluctantly sat on the frame and realized that it was taller than what she had suspected. She was glad Kamryn had her feet planted on the ground and her left arm on the handlebar or she was sure they would have toppled over onto the ground. She held onto her purse and firmly gripped the frame beneath her and soon they were moving.

-ICWYWS-

A few minutes had passed and the two girls stayed silent, with the occasional directional instruction by Darcy. There was an immediate incident after the two took off from the school where the bike hit a bump and Darcy almost fell off the bike. Kamryn had stopped the bike and somewhat repositioned Darcy on the frame. Darcy was moved closer to Kamryn and her left hand was gripping the frame while her right arm was around Kamryn’s body.

“Why do I feel so weird? Maybe the fact that I’m holding onto Kamryn for dear life is making me feel so, but I don’t know.” Darcy could feel an undeniable knot forming in her stomach and she didn’t know what to make of it. She dismissed it, thinking it was hunger.

“So, here we are,” Kamryn stated, slowing the bike to a stop in front of what was Darcy’s house. She moved her hands from the handlebars and tilted to the side far enough for Darcy to touch the ground.

“Do you want to come in?” Darcy asked, too fast for her mind to think. She saw the look on Kamryn’s face and she didn’t know whether it read shock or happiness.

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t your parents wonder why you’re bringing home a stranger?” Kamryn quipped, smiling. She chuckled when Darcy playfully shoved her against the shoulders.

“Yes I’m sure. My parents are very willing to meet my friends. Besides, what kind of stranger would you be if I hang out with you? You also said ‘You don’t have anywhere else to go’” Darcy retorted back, heading towards her house.

“All right then, I’ll just do my homework here,” Kamryn chuckled, wheeling her bike into the yard. She followed Darcy into the house after locking up her bike in the yard. As they walked in, Darcy walked to the kitchen, leaving Kamryn to wander around the house. The other girl removed her shoes at the doorway and headed into the living room, dropping her backpack on the floor before heading through the dining room and to the kitchen.

“Nice place.” Darcy smirked at the comment, pulling out a can of soda from the fridge.

“Thanks, I think. Do you want a drink?” Kamryn raised an eyebrow and looked at the can in Darcy’s hand before nodding in reply. She retrieved the can of soda from Darcy and leaned against the countertop, looking around the kitchen.

“So, where are your folks?” Kamryn asked, noticing the lack of adults in the household. She watched as Darcy smile and nod.

“My parents are at work until six, and my sister is at a friend’s house, so I usually I’m home alone for an hour,” Darcy explained, heading towards the living room. Kamryn followed suit and watched as the other girl collapse on a chair, leaving her to collapse on the couch.

“Sister, eh? Younger, older?”

“Younger, her name’s Claire,” Darcy answered, reaching for the remote on the table, flipping the television on.

“Cool.”

“What about you? Do you have any siblings?” Kamryn nodded, taking a sip of her soda before placing it on the table.

“I have an older brother and an older sister as well as a younger brother and a younger sister,” Kamryn replied back, seeing a bright smile on Darcy’s face.

“Aww, you have a big family,” Darcy smiled. Kamryn nodded her head and sighed.

“It only gets bigger with all the extended family,” Kamryn explained, this time shaking her head.

“Yeah, I can imagine.”

“Anyways, did you finish the assignment we had for English?” Kamryn asked, as she retrieved her backpack from the floor, pulling out her English textbook and notebook.

“We had an assignment?” Darcy monotonously asked, unable to recall any homework.

“Yeah, we have to read the first chapter and summarize it. Were you really out of it when we were talking?” Kamryn laughed, seeing the shocked look on Darcy’s face.

“We had an assignment?” Darcy repeated.

“All right, to the living room we go. Let’s get the homework done and then we’ll chat,” Kamryn smiled, taking to her feet, holding her things under one arm, while extending the other towards Darcy who groaned, reaching out for Kamryn’s hand. She felt sudden warmth in her arm and she flinched, but she didn’t let go.

-ICWYWS-

A long while had passed and Darcy and Kamryn were still in the dining room doing their homework. Well, they finished, but they ended up staying there, talking and eating something Kamryn had whipped up.

“Darcy, honey, we’re home!” A male voice called out into the house.

“Darcy, we hope you had a good day at school-oh, who’s this young lady with you?” Kamryn and Darcy looked up at the door and saw Darcy’s parents at the doorway, looking at them. Kamryn quickly stood up and walked over to the adults and extended her right hand towards them.

“Hi, I’m Kamryn Parker, Darcy’s classmate,” Kamryn explained, shaking each of the two’s hands. She saw a look on their faces, but it wasn’t of negativity which comforted her.

“It’s nice to meet you Kamryn. Are you new because I haven’t seen you here before,” Mr. Edwards asked, motioning for Kamryn to return to her earlier seat as he and his wife sat across from the two teenage girls.

“Yeah, I moved to Degrassi this year,” Kamryn answered, noticing the wary eye of Mrs. Edwards towards the food in front of Darcy’s plate.

“It’s noodles. I hope you don’t mind if I used them, I was getting a little hungry and I wasn’t exactly keen on buying take out.” Mrs. Edwards turned towards Kamryn and smiled.

“It’s okay, the noodles were probably sitting in the cupboards waiting to be cooked,” Mrs. Edwards chuckled. Darcy twirled her fork in the noodles and handed it over to her mother, letting her taste what was made. She and Kamryn glanced at each other, waiting for some kind of positive answer, or any answer from the older woman. No answer had come about; rather the other woman took another twirl of noodles from Darcy’s plate. Kamryn let out a sigh and was glad her food was a hit.

“Where did you learn to cook?” Mrs. Edwards asked, handing the fork over to her husband, letting him try it.

“My mother taught me to took, she’s all about fending for yourself if you’re home alone or not fond of take out,” Kamryn chuckled.

“This is good,” Mr. Edwards said, as he began to eat the noodles as well.

“Thanks, props to my mom.” The two adults continued to eat which left a silence run over them.

“So, mom, dad, you’re a bit late,” Darcy stated, wanting to rid of the silence.

“Sorry about that, we took a little detour to the soup kitchen,” Mr. Edwards answered, taking a sip of water from Darcy’s glass.

“Oh, what about Claire, did she call you guys?”

“Yeah, she said she was sleeping over at her friend’s house tonight.” Kamryn furrowed her brow as she glanced at her watch. Her eyes opened wide when she saw it was nearly nine. She didn’t realize how much time had gone by with all the fun she had with Darcy. She whipped out her cellphone and began calling home. Everyone around her watched her curiously, wondering what was happening. Apparently, no one answered since Kamryn replaced her cellphone and stood up.

“Hey, I have to go now.”

“Already?” Darcy asked, standing up with Kamryn.

“Yeah, there’s an early curfew on school nights. My younger brother and sister aren’t answering, so they might be out. Basically, it’s a rush to meet the nine or nine-thirty curfew,” Kamryn chuckled, walking around the dining room table, bowing in front of the adults.

“Curfew? What?” Kamryn shook Mr. and Mrs. Edwards’s hands once again before heading to the living room to retrieve her backpack.

“My parents and older siblings went out for a business trip leaving me with the young ones to keep an eye out. There’s a rule that if the folks or older siblings are gone, a curfew of nine or nine-thirty is enabled during school nights. Tonight is a school night, so I have to get going,” Kamryn sighed, pulling on her backpack before turning towards Darcy.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Darcy asked, feeling quite sad that Kamryn was leaving already.

“Of course, we go to the same school don’t we? Again, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, it was a pleasure meeting you,” Kamryn stated, nodding towards the adults before racing out the door to the yard, where she still had to unlock her bike.

“Pleasure as well,” Mr. Edwards replied back, watching the girl wave to them before riding off. Darcy faintly smiled before walking inside the house towards her bedroom.

“She’s a nice girl,” Mrs. Edwards stated, watching as the darkening silhouette of what was Kamryn disappeared.

“She is from what I’ve heard,” Mr. Edwards added, watching Kamryn disappear into the night.

Rating – T

Fandom – House M.D.

Pairing – Cameron/ Thirteen

Disclaimer – I do not own the show or its characters, rather Fox, Global and David Shore. I own the twist in the plot and the imagination for this story. This takes place in 4.14 “Living the Dream”. Spoiler alert if you have not seen this episode.

Summary – What if Cameron’s feelings for Chase were simply stepping stones for something bigger? It’s either a dream she’s living in or she’s living the dream.

Thirteen; an odd number and, by superstitious means, is unlucky. However, that number continually runs through Cameron’s head repeatedly. Thirteen times she would possibly end up at the main doors of the ER; thirteen times she would retrieve a cup of coffee to stay awake during those long days and nights, thirteen sutures she would have to give to that guy who would always appear in the ER, thirteen beats her heart would skip whenever she would see a certain someone. Cameron could never understand why that number would appear everywhere-she believed that these kinds of coincidences would occur in dreams, then again, were these really coincidences?

Thirteen; along with that long list of events, is how many times Cameron would feel the same odd feeling strike through her whenever she was with Chase. She had no idea what to make of the feeling because it crossed from feeling bad and good. She was happy with Chase and he was good to her, but the continuous pangs of emotion were beginning to annoy her. Those pangs only occurred recently when she took a job in the ER of Princeton-Plainsboro and they refuse to leave her ever since. Thirteen times she felt her heart wrench whenever she saw a certain someone look distraught or scared whenever something happened. She wanted to understand why she felt such feelings, but no answer would ever be given.

Thirteen; the number of times Cameron believed that what was happening only occurred in really bad soap operas, but somehow it was happening in her reality. She reluctantly broke off her relationship with Chase, hoping that what she did was not a mistake. She refused to hurt the other man deliberately; she needed time to think and space to sort herself out.

Unfortunately for Cameron, her space was immediately invaded or practically thrown out the window when she was assigned to sort out House’s unorganized files. She was stuck sitting behind a desk, writing on pink post-it notes, highlighting information with a yellow highlighter and forcing herself from stealing blatant glances over towards a certain brunette in the same room. She plastered on a passive look, hoping to look calm and rather neutral as opposed to nervous and frantic; the feelings in her heart.

When Cameron explained that the actor could have pinched a nerve in his ankle, her eyes were fixed on House, but she could see the intrigued stare the other female in the room was giving her from the corner of her eye. She knew something was going to give way if she dwelled on the other female’s gaze any longer.

While Cameron continued to sort out the multiple charts, forms, files of every patient House had dealt with; she was caught in the crossfire of how to get the current patient to “engorge the way God intended” which led to House questioning both her and his brunette colleague’s chest. That made Cameron either jealous or severely annoyed that House would even think of getting her or his colleague to reveal themselves to prove a simple test. Thankfully, it was House and she was able to redirect the man’s motives to his second drawer.

When Cameron laid a few forms in front of House during his consult with his team, she let herself get into the debates in regards as to what symptoms and what diseases that the patient was feeling; the minimal joys she felt during those moments were great to her, but when she heard House say he would fire the only female fellow on his team to get her back made her flinch. She quickly glanced towards the female brunette fellow behind her and saw her eyes show fear of being fired, but a silent smirk crossed her lips.

“Or was it a smile?” Cameron thought, as she quickly gathered a reply for House. She remained passive to that gesture, knowing she would have most likely melted into a puddle on the floor if she chose to go back to House’s team, but then again, what would she gain?

Now, it had been thirteen hours since that case was solved and Cameron was lying in bed. Funny thing was the bed was not hers. Thirteen; that was how many times she questioned what had happened ever since she left the hospital with the brunette doctor. First, it was an innocent conversation in the locker room with the brunette fellow and somehow it had escalated to a nervous kiss. Cameron was ready to bail from the locker room, but the other doctor refused to let her leave. She began explaining that the kiss was a mistake, but the brunette would not take it and kissed her again.

Thirteen; the number of times that annoying feeling coursed through Cameron’s body, but this time it was less of a nuisance but more of a high. It made the blonde lose any of her inhibitions she had regarding her feelings towards the other doctor and it made her happy.

Thirteen; the number of times Cameron prayed that she what was happening was not a dream. She truly liked the other female doctor and she really did not want any of what was happening to be a trick of her subconscious.

Thirteen; the number of times Cameron came at the hands of the other doctor. She knew there that what she was experiencing was not a dream, but reality. She never realized how much she wanted to be with the other doctor until then. She never felt so high in her life and alive, not when she was with Chase. She realized that her feelings for Chase were mere stepping stones for something bigger.

Thirteen; the number of minutes Cameron watched the other brunette doctor sleep. She laid her head gingerly on the other woman’s shoulder, careful not to wake her. She saw how much more beautiful the other doctor was as the rising sun penetrated through the curtains, washing its rays on the brunette’s face.

Thirteen; the number of times Cameron told herself things will be okay because she was with her. She knew that the feelings she felt for the brunette were mutual. There was a look in her eyes that assured Cameron that everything was going to be all right.

From an innocent conversation, to a kiss, to a night of pure bliss and contentment, Cameron learned that she was living the dream and that everything was not simply coincidental.

Thirteen; the doctor that fulfilled her dream.