#Eli rolled the bookworm trait!

[gourmetsimmer]

we've got a scout on our hands!

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

Pride Month ficlet: Mary had been searching for "the right one" in all the boys at Arcadia Oaks High and then some. She hadn't expected the right one to be the girl who sat next to her in her junior year math class. (Could be any f/f ship involving Mary)

The Art of Romance

Romance was an art.  One Mary Wang thought she’d mastered before she was even seventeen.  Though her birthday was in a few weeks, so she knew she needed to get a boyfriend again so he could properly romance her and give her gifts and everything.  Gifts from friends were fine and all, and she’d definitely celebrate with Darci and Claire.  Well, Darci now that Claire was headed across the country on what could only be the romantic getaway of a lifetime.  What Mary would give to get do something like that.  Travel without parents.  Without school or homework.  With someone she loved, like Claire, who…

Wait.  What was her train of thought again?  Oh, right.  Birthday.  Romance.  Mary doodled a trio of hearts in the corner of her math notebook.  Miss Janeth’s class was so boring.  Even after the “Secret Troll Apocalypse (That You Cannot Boast You Witnessed On Social Media, a Novel By Toby Domzalski)” and learning that her over-dramatic teacher could kick ass, math class was just so meh.  Like all of Miss Janeth’s awesomeness had been used during the troll apocalypse and now that things were getting back to normal, she’d gone back to her boring, old Math Teacher Template.  Seriously lady.  Would it hurt to permanently upgrade to something fresh and at least somewhat cool?  

Not that teachers could be cool.  They were teachers.  But still.  Mr. Strickler had at least gone from “Boring History Teacher Turned Principal Who Mysteriously Disappeared” to “Avocado Troll Teacher Who Runs Around In A Skirt Thing”, which had honestly been fun because Mary got to start an entire movement against him she called, “Put On Some Clothes, You Are Traumatizing The Children” with its own hashtag on the online Arcadia High Post-Weirdness Message Board (that she’d created and was an admin for—if she wasn’t allowed to talk on Twitter about Arcadia’s recent weird shit, well, she’d just find/create a place where she could) and everything.  Dude deserved the shade everyone had subsequently thrown at him through the ensuing week.  That’s what you get for criticizing girls for not wearing proper school attire, and then turning around and revealing yourself as a troll who runs around half naked.

The world was still learning there was no force more powerful than Mary Wang and her phone.

“Pssst!  Mary!”

Mary sighed.  “What is it, Shannon?”  She’d been in the middle of an internal monologue and so not interested in returning to the real world because that meant remembering she was in math class.  Oh and also she was in The Zone and her twenty-fifth doodled heart had almost come out completely perfect except now it was ruined forever.

Shannon jerked her head toward the front of the classroom.  Mary looked in that direction.  Miss Janeth was looking directly at her expectantly.  Too expectantly.

“Ms. Wang, we don’t have all day.  Please come to the board and show the class how you would answer this equation.”

Oh, shit.

Mary slid out of her desk.  Bit her tongue so a curse word wouldn’t slip out and she’d get in even more trouble.

As she passed Shannon’s desk, the other girl pressed a small piece of paper in her hand.  Mary managed to hide it and sneak a glance without Miss Janeth noticing.  On the paper was a mess of numbers and equations.  Something that, for anyone else, would be super hard to read, but she and Shannon had been passing notes since, well, since they first met freshman year.  Mary smiled.  So, answering the equation on the board wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“Darci, it’s not that simple.  It’s really not.  I have dated almost every single eligible guy at school and even a few forbidden fruit guys from the academy.  All the good ones, you know, except freaking Steve.  I can’t just pick a new one randomly.  Especially cause it’s my birthday.  These things take time.  Planning.”  Mary rolled her eyes and took a long sip from the orange juice bottle she’d packed in her lunch.

Dating guys was an art.  It took finesse.  Not that Darci could really understand that.  She’d gone for the first sweet guy to look her way.  Not that was a bad, if you liked that sort of thing.  Anyway, from her observations, Mary had decided Toby was worthy of dating her friend (even if he continued to perpetually frustrate her for being adamant about keeping the troll apocalypse a secret from her Twitter following).

“What about Eli?”  Shannon piped up.  “He’s nice.”

Mary wrapped an arm around the other girl’s shoulder.  “Not boyfriend material, Shan.”  Better put an end to that thought train before it went anywhere.  Shannon was nice.  Kind.  Good traits to have.  Except, of course, in high school.  Or when considering the art of dating.  “Let me tell you something about guys…”

Look, the point was, Mary knew everything there was to know about dating.  And she knew that every boy at their school, absolutely 100% all of them, were not worth Shannon’s time.  Shannon was smart.  A bit of a bookworm, but honestly there was nothing really wrong about that.  She was kind of cute when she started talking about something particularly interesting she’d read.  Especially when she came up with a pun or a joke and would laugh.  Her nose did this adorable crinkle thing and…

Anyway, they made the best team.  Shannon had the book smarts.  Mary, the street smarts.  Together, they were unstoppable at whatever they put their minds to.  It may have been Mary who got the campaign against Mr. Strickler’s troll attire started, but it was Shannon who really got it rolling and organized with the student body.

Why put a boy between that pure awesome sauce-ness?

Great, now Domzalski was rubbing off on her.

“Hey Mary, um can I talk to you for a second?  Privately?”  Shannon was looking at her and it occurred to Mary she’d gone monologuing in her head again.  Had any of that made it out into her external monologue to Shannon.  Crap.  Should she risk asking?  Is that why she wanted to talk privately?

Crap.  Crap.  Crap.

Mary followed Shannon over to an empty corner of Arcadia High’s yard.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”  Play it cool.  Play it cool.  Play it cool.  Mary’s brain reminded herself over and over again.

“Nothing bad, really.”  Shannon offered her a sheepish smile.  “It’s just…um…can you maybe not give me advice on how to date boys?  Like I get that you’re trying to be helpful and stuff but…it’s just…”  Shannon took a massive breath and exhaled it.  “I’m a lesbian.”  She looked Mary directly in the eye when she spoke.  “I…I like girls.  So I don’t really need advice on guys?”

“Oh, ok.”  Mary’s brain panicked.  Wait.  Why was it panicking?  It was totally fine that Shannon liked girls.  Mary herself had two dads.  She’d grown up knowing that Gayness Was A Thing.  It was fine.  Everything is fine.  “Cool.  Great.  I’ll remember that.  No more guy advice.”  Mary reassured Shannon, who breathed out in relief.

By Miss Janeth’s class the next day, Mary was still mulling over the Shannon Is A Lesbian thing.  Her brain wouldn’t let it go.  Or rather, she’d sort of realized she had this feeling.  This indescribable, kinda exhilarating feeling.

If Shannon was a lesbian, and she was.  That meant, that meant that girls could potentially date her.

And Mary was a girl.

Ok, a girl who had never really considered dating other girls before.  It was fun, after all, to be romanced by a guy (although most weren’t exactly great kissers, but whatever, she needed to get practice somehow).  But still, she was now in the category of Potential People Shannon Can Date.

Except did she want to date Shannon?  And would Shannon want to date her?  Mary hadn’t always been the nicest.  The time that she snapped at Shannon while they were both serving Saturday Detention came to mind.  Did Shannon remember that?  But wait, Mary had apologized for that, and for other stuff, when they started to hang out together a lot more after that day.  And they’d always been sort of friends since freshman year.  But for a good chunk of that time Mary hadn’t really taken Shannon seriously.  But they’d still been friends, hadn’t they?  So they could theoretically get along.

But could they get along like that?

Wait, why was she even considering this?  The entire plan had been to find a new guy to date so he could romance her for her birthday and stuff.  She didn’t even like girls.  Right?  Ok, again, she’d never thought about it in great detail.  Dating was something fun you did with whatever guy caught your attention.  But then that wasn’t the only way to date, was it?  So…

Mary’s mind went deeper and deeper into the idea all through math class.  She didn’t learn much that day, as her fresh notebook page was instead full of ideas and thoughts for something far, far more important.

The next day was the first day Mary had ever arrived early to math class, but she needed to get there before anyone else did (and that included Miss Janeth).  Quickly, before anyone could enter the room and catch her, Mary took out a small but well thought-out bouquet of flowers (yellow daffodils, vibrant orangey-red tulips, and, of course, a few red roses—all favorites of Shannon) and a card with a heartfelt poem she’d found online last night.

Mary had never really done the courting part of romance before.  But, in this instance, she definitely wanted to try.  Shannon deserved the very best and Mary, after all, was the Dating Expert (even if she was new to the whole romancing girls part).

After placing down her gifts on Shannon’s desk as carefully as humanely possible, Mary exited the classroom.  This way she could come in with everyone else, get to see Shannon’s surprise and her search around to see who her mysterious admirer was.  Mary wouldn’t tell her right then, in front of everyone (that would be really rude since Shannon wasn’t out to too many it didn’t seem like).  But since everyone also knew she, Mary, was the school’s Romance Expert, it would totally make sense for her to be the one to pull Shannon aside and give her “advice” on what to do (here “advice” meant reveal that the gift had come from her and maybe ask her out).  No one would suspect a thing.  It was the ultimate Romantic Move, made even better by the fact that it would be Mary doing it.

In hindsight, Mary should have considered potential disasters a bit more.

Steve and Eli were making some sort of disturbance out in the hall, which was strange because they’d been getting along recently (also since Steve cleaned up his whole bully act and started to make amends with people).  So everyone was gathered in a crowd and it delayed class.

Then, after breaking up the scene, Miss Janeth started class immediately as everyone filed into the math room.  So, even though Mary got to see Shannon’s eyes widen with surprise at her gift, she couldn’t really talk to her at all about it, and everything now sucked forever.

It was even worse when Mary noticed that, on her own desk, a “Secret Admirer” had put a cute little plushy teddy bear holding a deep violet rose (her ultimate favorite) and a calligraphed card asking her to meet by the soccer field after school.

Great, now some guy was trying to romance her while she was trying to romance Shannon.  Didn’t the universe know she’d made up her mind about the whole “who I’m dating” thing?  Guys were nice and whatever, but they weren’t Shannon.

Drama was so much more fun when it was about someone else.

Mary paced around in front of the goalie box at the end of the field.  Why wouldn’t the guy arrive already?  The sooner he arrived, the sooner she could turn him down, the sooner she could figure out her next step in trying to romance Shannon.  She needed to explain about the gift before someone else took all the credit and—

“Hi, Mary.”

Mary jumped.  Landed awkwardly.  Nearly fell over, but Shannon helped her catch her balance.

“Oh, um, hi.  Hi, Shannon.  What are you doing here?  Shouldn’t you be going home or something.”  Oh wait, it was Thursday,  Shannon had Book Club, so of course she’d still be here.  “Or in the library or…” Mary’s brain refused to slow down.  Why did it always have to get nervously excited around Shannon now.  Why, brain, why?

Shannon looked nervous herself.  “I, um, I asked you to meet me here?  In the card?  The gift in Miss Janeth’s class—”

“THAT WAS FROM ME, IF SOMEONE ELSE TOLD YOU OTHERWISE THEY’RE LYING!”  Mary slapped her hands over her mouth.  Classy.  Real classy.  “I…did you like it?  The flowers?”

“…yes.”  Shannon took the flowers out from the pocket of her backpack where she’d carefully stored them.  “These were from you?”

Mary could feel the blush burning her cheeks.  “Yes.  I…I, um, well, I…you’re really cute when you scrunch up your nose when you laugh at something funny and, um, I like you.  Like, like like you I think.  Not the friend like.  The other kind of like.  You know, like like.”  She took a deep breath.  This was stupid.  Why was she so awkward?  She was the Dating Expert.  She should be suave.  Sure of herself.  She’d never felt like this around any of the guys.  Finally something else dawned on Mary.  “Wait.  If those weren’t what you’re were talking about, then what…?”

Now, it was Shannon’s turn to blush awkwardly, which was oddly reassuring.  At least neither of them were being super great about this.  “I sorta got that teddy bear and the rose for you?  Cause I’ve sorta had the biggest crush on you since, well, for a while.  And I figured now that you know I like girls, I could maybe see if you wanted to go out?  But I was super nervous so I asked Steve and Eli to cause a distraction so I could sneak in and leave them for you.”  Shannon looked down at her hands and then back up at Mary.  “So, do you?  Want to go out with me, I mean?  It’s ok if you don’t want to, I get it.  I—”

“YES!”  Mary jumped.  Then laughed.  She’d given up all hope of being cool and she didn’t care who saw her honestly.  Even if none of this had gone according to her plan, it was still what she wanted.  She took a deep breath to collect herself.  “I would like that, like a lot.”  She bit her lip.  “But I don’t really know what I am yet.  I just figured out that I like you and I want to go out with you.  Like a lot.  But also there were all the guys, so I don’t know if I’m a lesbian or not yet.”

“That’s ok.”  Shannon smiled at her.  “You have time to figure you out.  Or we could figure it out together, if you’d like?”

“I’d like that too.”  Mary wrapped an arm around Shannon’s shoulders.  “So I know a great cafe we could go to or we could see what movies are playing?  That is, if you’re ok with missing Book Club?”  She stopped.  “Or we could go to your Book Club?”  Sure her reputation may take a hit going someplace so nerdy but whatever, there were more important things.

“I’ll be happy so long as we do whatever, we do together.”

That was the best thing Mary had heard all day.  The rest of the afternoon, and the future, was ahead of them and they could spend it having as much fun as they wanted.  Together.