Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 70th cycle. Now cycle 71!

"Smiling & Knowing"
Nora (AU!Beth), Emily (OC; Nellie V), Grace (OC)
Sunshine Girls 2 series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

They hadn't heard back from Emily since she'd left on Friday night for her date with Kelly, except in a short text Saturday morning to let them know that everything had 'gone well,' which was barely anything to go on. They knew their friend enough to know that they'd get the whole story eventually, and more than likely she wanted to keep the story for herself at the moment, so they let her have it. Come Monday morning though, they'd be due one story.

When Grace arrived at school, she hadn't made it to her locker that Nora appeared out of nowhere and tugged at her arm. "Come here," she whispered with a grin, and Grace could only follow.

"Come where?" she asked, as Nora pulled her behind an open door and pointed down the hall. Grace looked, and when she gasped, Nora nearly had to smack her hand over her mouth.

Further down the hall, she had seen what Nora had seen a few moments ago. She saw Emily, standing with Kelly at his locker, but more importantly, she saw the way she'd smile, and how even the usually very shy and very quiet Kelly looked suddenly slightly more animated than usual. When he'd closed his locker door, the two of them had faced each other and, after a few seconds of hesitation and tentative reaching, he had held out his hand and she'd given him hers. They went on down the halls and, before they could see them, Nora had pulled Grace into the room whose door they'd been hiding behind.

"I think it's safe to say it went well," Nora laughed, while Grace couldn't stop smiling.

"Did you see her face? I don't think I've ever seen her like that." Of the three of them, Grace had always been known as the most 'romantically inclined,' and Nora could just feel the excitement radiating off of her at the thought that their best friend, so discouraged over her chances, had gone and found someone who made her that happy already.

"He better keep her that way is all I have to say," Nora nodded along. Emily had been her best friend very literally for as long as she could remember. She was closer to a sister than a friend on most days.

"After second period we can ask her how it went," Grace moved back to the door, to make sure they could go without Emily or Kelly seeing them.

"So you're not seeing anyone right now, are you?" Nora asked, and Grace had her back turned, a blessing as far as she was concerned. It gave her a few seconds to recover before she turned around again.

"I… No, not right now. Why?"

"Well, we've never been in a situation like this before, but Emily has Kelly, who looks to be heading the right way to becoming a boyfriend, and I have Francesca… You know Em, what do you think she's going to do?" Grace understood. She was the only single one out of the three.

"She's going to try and set me up with someone," Grace felt a chill. She couldn't help from staring into the blonde's face, trying to see some sign that she wanted nothing less than to see her be with someone else. She couldn't even tell.

"It might not be so bad. And knowing Emily, whoever she did find for you, it'd be someone good," Nora tried to sound encouraging.

"No, I know, but… I don't want to start going with someone just for that," she tried to explain.

"And you shouldn't, not if you don't want to," Nora agreed. "Look, whatever you want, that's the right choice, just… remember it when we get out there, if she does try and go all matchmaker on you."

"Right," Grace smiled. "I will."

She couldn't tell Nora, but Grace was almost certain Emily would not actually try and fix her up with anyone. Emily knew her secret, and Nora didn't… couldn't. She wouldn't know that Emily knew Grace had started to see she had feelings for her, and that she wasn't saying anything, out of respect for her relationship with Francesca. Grace was in a confused and fragile place, and Emily had been very understanding for it.

After second period, as agreed, they had been able to go to Emily and find her alone. She still had a look on her that said plainly 'I am happy and I'm a bit freaked out that everyone can see it.' But then she saw her friends coming, and she knew what that would mean.

"Alright," she greeted them.

She told them how her date with Kelly on Friday had been a bit awkward in the beginning, with neither of them knowing exactly where to start. It was in his nature to be quiet, and it was in hers to be anything but, though she tried to keep her tongue in check. Eventually they had started pulling their heads out of the sand, and they'd started talking. ("I'd never heard him talk so much at once, it was kind of unsettling, but in a good way.") At the end of the night, Emily had very nearly asked him if he wanted to come and sleep over, just so they wouldn't have to break off the evening they'd been having, but, remembering he was a guy, she'd known how it would have come off and held her tongue. Instead, she'd asked if he wanted to come and hang out, maybe study together the next day. And he'd said yes.

So on Saturday, Kelly had come by the house. He'd met Emily's aunt and uncle, and he'd met her little cousins. He was actually really good with the pair of them, though that hadn't been too much of a surprise. The bigger surprise had been that her aunt and uncle hadn't been weird and embarrassing at all. They liked Kelly, too, which they made sure to mention only once he'd left.

When he had been leaving, it had now been Kelly who had turned to Emily and asked if she wanted to hang out the next day. He had just received his new bookshelves, three of them, and asked if she wanted to come and help, because he remembered her telling him on Friday about the time she and Nora had assembled a swing set and how she loved putting furniture together. ("You said what?" Nora would have had a spit take.) Emily had quickly agreed, and on Sunday she had gone to his house, where she met his father – his mother had died when he was eleven – and his four sisters. ("He never gets to put a word in, no wonder he's so quiet.") They had put the shelves together, and then spent another little while filling them with the stacks of books practically showering out of his one overloaded shelf.

"So you've kind of gone out three times now," Nora was stunned. Emily had gone red, much to her friends' amusement.

"And you were worried," Grace chuckled. Emily gave them both a squinting glare.

"Alright, knock it off," she tried not to smile. She failed miserably.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!