I had some Paily in middle school feels a while ago, so I wrote this. Hope you enjoy!

Her smile. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. And she knew that because it was the one thing she thought it was so cute, so cute that gave her the urge to just hug Emily tight, like a teddy bear.

Every time she saw it, she could feel her chest getting warmer and her stomach doing a little spin. She didn't know what it meant and it felt almost uncomfortable, but the involuntary smile that crossed her lips whenever she saw it let her know that what she was feeling couldn't be wrong because it brought her happiness and as far as she knew there was nothing wrong with happiness. Today, however, Emily wasn't with it. Actually she was with the opposite of it when Paige found her alone in the classroom.

It was Father's day and everyone was outside playing games with their dads, giving them letters they wrote. Paige noticed Emily had come today with her mom and got worried for a minute, thinking that the brunette might had been upset. But it seemed that she was having fun, at least until a few minutes ago when she heard Emily saying that she needed to go to the bathroom and went inside the school.

It was almost Mrs. Fields and Emily's turn on the three legged race, so Paige ran after Emily to tell her not to take much longer on the toilet. On her way to the first floor lady's room she heard someone crying from inside a classroom. Her heart dropped; she knew it was Emily, not only because the girl had gone inside the school five minutes ago but also because Paige could imagine how painful it was not spending Father's day with her dad. Her own dad had said he might not be able to come today too, but thankfully he did.

Paige got inside the classroom and crouched right in from of Emily who was sitting on the corner with her knees up and her face buried on them.

"Did you go to the toilet already? It's almost your turn."

The girl in front of her sniffed and answered without changing her position. "I don't care about the race."

"But last week you said you wanted to win it."

"I still do, but not without my dad."

Paige took a deep breath. She didn't like to see Emily like this; she liked when Emily was happy, when Emily was smiling. She needed to do something about it.

"Why is he not here today?"

The sincere concern in Paige's voice made Emily meet the brown eyes in front of her. "He's in the Army. He had to work."

The brunette noticed that Paige seemed very worried, then she watched the other girl getting up and running out of the classroom. Emily went back to her original position since she thought that Paige had left her alone, but she didn't have time to start crying again because Paige came back running as fast as she could, she stood up in front of her breathing heavily and with her hands resting on her thighs in an attempt to catch her breath. Emily looked at the other girl's hands, she was holding some flowers, blue, pink and white ones. She probably got them from the school's greenhouse because the flowers still had some dirty on them. She was also really impressed at how fast Paige apparently could run, since the greenhouse was located on the back of school, almost in the woods and was usually closed.

"For you." She handed the flowers to the crying girl in front of her. Paige could tell she was surprised, intrigued actually, as she accepted the flowers. She looked at them fighting her tears.

"Why?" Emily asked looking at her.

"On the first day of school... I remembered you saying that you liked colorful flowers and funny jokes. I'm not good with jokes, so there were only the flowers left"

Emily got up and walked towards the small sink located on the other side of the classroom to clean all the dirty left on stalk of the flowers. Paige followed her, still wondering if her effort to make Em smile again worked. At least she had stopped crying.

"Where did you get them?"

"The greenhouse" Paige answered giving the paper towel to her.

"Wasn't it locked?"

She caressed the back of her neck a little embarrassed. "There was a window opened..."

"You jumped?!"

Paige head dipped and put her hands on her pockets, extremely embarrassed now for being caught on doing something wrong. Then she heard it. At first she thought she was hearing things but when she raised her head she knew it was true. Emily was giggling and not only giggling, giggling because of her. She made Emily smile; she made Emily laugh, and Paige could never feel more proud of herself than she was at that moment, because Emily smiling like this was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

The urge of hugging Emily she usually felt was clouding her head. The weight and the warmth on her chest were unbearable, she needed to breathe, so she did the only thing that would allow her to. She hugged Emily. Tight. Like when she felt lonely at home and hugged her teddy bear looking for comfort. The brunette hugged her back still sniffing and laughing; it made Paige take a deep breath and from now on the lavender scent would always make her remember of Emily.

After a while she stepped back, Emily still wiping the last tears from her cheeks.

"Will it make you feel better if I win the three legged race?". The brunette raised an eyebrow.

"How do you winning would make me feel any better?"

"Because since you lost your turn, if I win the race, when your dad comes back you can race against me and my dad for the medal."

"Yeah, that could work." Emily said with a wide smile.

"Deal. I'll win the race for you."

_x_

Emily was on Paige's room looking through her drawers for something to wear. She pulled out a jeans and a tank top but when she wore the jeans she felt something on the back pocket. She checked it and her knees got weak when she looked at the gold object in her hands. Memories travelled her mind and she had the biggest smile on her face when she remembered that her girlfriend was such a gent even when she was that young.

"You never gave me the chance to win that medal". She said throwing it to Paige as the girl got out of the bathroom. Her girlfriend sat on the bed with a grin on her face, moving the little object between her fingers.

"Well, both of our dads are downstairs. Maybe they're up to a three legged race before dinner."

"I hope they don't think we're too old for that". Emily said laughing. And Paige was sure now, that was the most beautiful thing she had and probably will ever see.