First story, read and review. All characters in explicit scenes are over 18
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All locations in the story are fictional but take place somewhere in Canada. This is a slow-burn lesbian romance, sex doesn't come until later.
"Excellent, excellent, you're here, sit down," Mr. Hanover said as I walked into the room. The sounds of the school echoed as I pulled the door to the principal's office shut behind me..
"You wanted to see me, sir?" I began, fiddling slightly with my hair. I didn't get called down here very often, and I was curious what this was about.
"Yes, Miss Jackson, I'll get right into it," Mr. Hanover replied, sitting down behind his desk so that we were at eye level. "As you're aware, you're one of our best students at McDonald High and we've seen how you are with other students here. I called you in here because we have a new student coming in, senior girl. With it already being January we want her to be able to get settled as quickly as possible with exams coming up soon, so I was thinking you could show her around, get to know the place. I've already cleared it with your teachers if you're willing to do it, so you won't miss any time. What do you think?"
I nodded along at his explanation, thinking to myself. I was Sarah Jackson, the top student in this school and would soon be off to university to really spread my wings. I could manage to be a tour guide for a day, it wouldn't be that big of a deal and then I could get back to my normal routine. "I'd be happy to help out, Mr. Hanover," I replied.
"Perfect, I knew I could count on you. She'll be here at 8:30 tomorrow morning in the office and you can meet her here," he finished. And with that, I could get back to class, now with one more appointment to take care of.
~~~
The next morning came around and I was at school bright and early, finding my way to the office. As expected, there was another person waiting for me there along with Mr. Hanover, a shorter, black-haired girl. Without having entered the room and alerted her to my presence, I took a moment to scan her through the window. She was wearing a plain hoodie and jeans and seemed to be fiddling with her hands. I took a deep breath to smooth out my clothes - no idea why, I just did this sometimes - and opened the door.
"Sarah! Glad you could make it," the principal's voice echoed in the small space. "This is Layla, she's just transferred in from another school and she'll be finishing out the year with us. Layla, this is Sarah Jackson, another of our seniors." I gave a confident wave to the new girl and got a shy one in return. No problem, probably just nervous to get to know people here.
"Shall we?" I began, gesturing out into the hallway, eliciting another shy nod from Layla. She didn't seem like the type who had many words in her, and that was fine. Sooner I could get back to my classes, anyway. We moved through the halls, pointing out various McDonald High landmarks. Along the way I noticed that Layla barely had a word to throw at a dog, only giving quiet assent when I pointed things out.
Soon we were at the end of the tour and Layla was still barely speaking, so I decided to pry a little deeper. "Hey, you doing okay? Noticed you didn't say much this morning," I tried. She simply shook her head, looking like she wanted to disappear into her long black hair and hoodie. "I've got an idea. We can grab lunch and find somewhere to sit, and I can get to know you a little since I never really did that out there," I said, gesturing to the school outside the office. I surprised even myself when I said this, given I was just doing this tour as a favour to the principal. To my surprise, she nodded and said in that same quiet voice, "Sure, that would be great."
Lunch was the same nondescript stuff as always, but we've at least got a nice campus so the view while eating was adequate. Once she'd had some food in her, Layla finally got to talking, though she was still quiet. "You probably want to know why I'm turning up here in the middle of the year. Right?" Her voice had a slightly chilly tone to it, almost aloof. "Turns out when you get bullied by the popular kids who also happen to be the school's best athletes, you just transfer to get out of it." Layla laughed at this, a laugh without humour behind it. "Thanks for your concern, but I'm just here to graduate and get out of this town," she finished. "No point planting roots when you're gone in a hurry."
We ate our lunch quietly before I broke the silence. "You know, it's a good crowd at this school. If you just gave it a chance I'm sure it'd be okay," I offered with a slight smile as I put my hand on the table between us, a literal and metaphorical gesture of friendship. I really don't know why I did it, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Layla laughed at this, though it wasn't an unkind laugh. "Yeah, that's easy for you to say with your perfect grades and looks," she shot back, leaving me unsure whether to be complimented or insulted. She put her hand on the table like mine and her sleeve pulled back to reveal a rainbow bracelet that had been hidden under the arm of her sweater. I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off. "Now you know why. Wouldn't want your friends seeing you with me." It wasn't a mean-spirited tone, but seemingly more of resignation. We sat quietly there until the bell rang and Layla went off to her next class, leaving with a quick thank-you for the tour.
~~~
Lying awake in bed later that night, my thoughts kept going back to the black-haired girl. Layla didn't want to be part of the school community, and it didn't take me long to put two and two together with her bracelet and the past bullying. Mostly, I just wasn't sure what to think about what she'd said to me last. We had out gay people at McDonald, but I didn't really know anything about them or roll in that crowd. She'd thought I was another person who would torment her, and while I wouldn't consider myself an ally or anything I knew I wasn't one of those people. My parents always reacted with dismissively changing the subject whenever it came up, but I wasn't one of them. Wasn't I?
More than anything, I was confused. Layla hadn't been receptive to the idea of opening up, but she'd voluntarily shown me her bracelet and she'd called my looks perfect, even with the surrounding context of that sentence dripping with sarcasm. And I had liked it, even now I was trying not to blush and failing. That was just something girls said to each other when they were friends, wasn't it? I called my friends pretty all the time and it was always just platonic, so that was what this was, right? I'd never dated a boy, since my parents had impressed a no-boyfriends rule on me, but I'd never really had my eye on anyone either.
I shook my head and padded out to my bathroom to splash water on my face. Shut up, Sarah, my brain told myself. There's nothing there, and it's not like you're going to come across her anytime soon so there's no point thinking about it. It was that thought that led me into a restless sleep.
~~~
That belief that I'd never have to deal with that line of thinking didn't even make it to the end of Monday, as I would soon discover. I had Chem first thing after lunch, which was a class I was really excited about and an area I wanted to go into in school. As usual, the beginning of the course was the assignment of lab partners and I had been in a class with most of the people here before, so I didn't think much of it. My gaze wandered over to the seat near the door, where a figure that had been in my mind the previous night was getting something out of her schoolbag. Looks like I'd be seeing more of Layla this term after all.
Pulling out my textbook as Ms. Pearson began the lecture, I tried to keep my mind on the lesson, but my mind kept wandering to a certain face. I shook my head and tuned back into the teacher's voice just in time to hear something that jolted me to attention.
"I have your lab partner assignments for the term here. You'll be working with this person for the next four months on the projects, so I expect you to get to know one another. I've selected the names at random, and I'll read them out now." Ms. Pearson read off several pairings of names before one got my attention. "Sarah Jackson," and now I was tuned in, "and Layla Chen". Well, this should be interesting.
After Ms. Pearson read off the last name, she told us to go sit by her partner, so I picked up my things and slid into the seat next to Layla. "Looks like we're stuck with each other," I joked, trying to break the tension. I could see her start to withdraw a bit from that joke, and my brain scrambled to fix that. "Hey, hey, it's alright. I don't bite, we'll be good as partners, y'know, for the labs."
Did I really just say that out loud? I hoped she hadn't caught the slip, or had I just said that without thinking? But then Layla smiled, the first real smile I'd seen on her face since I'd met her, and the tension was broken. "Yeah. We'll be good." I don't know why she occupied my mind so much, but all I knew in that moment was that I wanted to see that smile more.
~~~
The next few weeks seemed to go by without much fuss. I still went to my classes and hung out with my friends as I had in the fall term, but I found it as manageable as it had been before. I still had my one class with Layla, and we got along well when it was the course material we were discussing, but she always seemed to be in a hurry to leave once the bell rang and we never talked outside of class, and I didn't like it. I might have been top of my classes when it came to school subjects, but I wasn't any closer to figuring out my own thoughts and feelings. I wanted to see Layla smile and laugh, get to know the real girl behind the walls she had up, just be close to her. That was platonic, right? It wasn't anything more than that? My friends noticed me being more distracted when we sat together for lunch or hung out together, but they just assumed I was thinking about prom and boys like they were.
The distracting thoughts were starting to get more frequent, but I knew I just had to just think about them logically and they would go away, that's what I'd always done. Think, Sarah, look at this rationally. You're just classmates, she hasn't asked you to hang out or anything and she's always in a hurry to leave the room after the class is done. You're definitely not gay, you've never felt that way about a girl before. You just have to focus harder on your studies and it'll go away.
This continued on and I'd rationalize my way out of the thoughts whenever they came up, but I felt a sense of loss in doing so. When our hands would sometimes brush when passing equipment to each other during the labs my heart would skip a beat, and whenever this happened I always hoped my bulky lab goggles would hide the blush on my face, but fortunately for me Layla never noticed, or at least never said anything.
~~~
It was one of these typical February afternoons when Layla unexpectedly hung back after class. We sat together for the lessons and had graduated to friendly cordiality, though not sharing secret truths like my heart seemed to want.
"Hey, is it cool if I grab your number? My family's going on a trip for the long weekend and we're leaving early to get there, and I wanted to make sure I can get the notes for this class," she said quickly, her eyes darting around. I quickly nodded and handed my phone to her so she could add her number, sending herself a text and handing it back. Layla waved a quick goodbye and thanked me, and then she was rushing off as normal.
Me, but actually Layla - Hi.
Layla - Thanks. Figured since you're the one person I talk to in this class and you're on top of all this I can keep up with your notes.
