"Em!" Hanna yelled from her spot in the quad.
"Hey Han." Emily said deflated.
"What's wrong?" Hanna asked.
"It's been two months Hanna. Aren't you at least a little concerned that you haven't heard from Caleb?" Emily asked.
"He'll come back." Hanna said.
"How are you so sure?" Emily asked.
"Hey Emily!" A voice from behind the pair broke Hanna from responding.
"Hey Sydney." Emily said. Sydney was a new swimmer on the team that transferred onto their team two weeks ago.
"I was wondering if you would want to do some training after school today. Coach said that you were the one to see about training." Sydney said.
"Yea. I don't work tonight. What were you thinking? Pool or workout?" Emily asked.
"Pool?" Sydney asked.
"Sounds good. I'll meet you in the natatorium at 3." Emily said and the girl walked away from them.
"Crush." Hanna said.
"What?" Emily asked.
"That girl has a crush on you." Hanna said pointedly. "Can't you tell?"
"No she doesn't. You don't even know she is gay." Emily said with a laugh as she started eating her salad.
"Please. I'm not gay and I could feel how much she wants you. I'm not even gay and I can say your hot." Hanna said.
"Oh, Hanna. Do you have a crush on me?" Emily asked with a smirk.
"Better tell Paige to watch her back." Hanna said, looking up when she didn't hear Emily say anything only to see the girl was almost in tears. "Hey. She will be back Em."
"I just miss her Han. Maybe working out and taking out my feelings will be a good thing." Emily said after she calmed down. "You could always join me."
"Uh, no. I'm not really the workout type. I'm more of a read a fashion magazine and indulged my feelings in ice cream and sad movies." Hanna said.
"Will you at least come watch?" Emily asked. Even since Paige and the gang walked out of the McCullers backyard two months ago, Emily had been hanging out with Hanna almost everyday.
"Sydney will be there." Hanna said. "And I don't want to interrupt anything."
"There won't be anything to interrupt." Emily said flatly.
"Sure there won't. But no, seriously Em. I'm not going to go watch you swim laps in the pool when someone else is there that can time you." Hanna said. "I have some magazines to catch up on anyway."
"Fine. See you in the morning?" Emily asked as she started to collect her things.
"Yup. I'll be ready on time tomorrow. I promise." Hanna said as she stood to walk away.
"Don't make false promises, Marin!" Emily yelled after her.
Later that day found Emily and Sydney in the pool doing laps. They had been there for an hour already as Emily pulled herself out of the pool.
"Alright. Let's time you and see how fast you can go." She said she she picked up the stopwatch coach let her borrow. "Go!"
Sydney jumped off the diving block when she heard Emily yell and put all the strength she could into her strokes. Pulling herself out of the pool after her last lap, she felt Emily rest her hand on her shoulder.
"Wow Syd! That was really good." Emily smiled brightly at the girl, looking back down at the stop watch.
"Thanks Emily." Sydney said before leaning in and kissing Emily. The kiss caught Emily off guard and she didn't pull back at first. Sydney thought that this was a sign that Emily wanted it and tried to deepen the kiss. Emily at first, let it happen before breaking out of her stopper.
"Shit." Emily muttered as she pulled back.
"I'm sorry." Sydney said.
"It's ok, Sydney. It's just…" Emily couldn't finish before Sydney was rambling again.
"You're not gay, are you?" Sydney said. "Laura said you were, she must have lied so that I'd embarrass myself."
"That's not it at all. Im very gay. I'm just dating someone." Emily said.
"Oh no." Sydney muttered. "I'm sorry. It's just, Laura said you were gay. And the only person I see you talking to is Hanna. Wait, are you dating Hanna?"
"Oh God no." Emily said with a laugh. "A little too high maintenance for me."
"Tell me about it. I hope this doesn't ruin me getting to work out with you?" Sydney said.
"Of course not. Actually. I was going to leave here and go for a run up to Points Place. Want to join me?" Emily asked.
"Sure. Just let me go change." Sydney said, turning and heading into the girls locker room.
"What the hell Emily." Emily said to herself as she cleaned up her paperwork and stopwatch. 'Why was I about to let her kiss me like that? Your head over heels for Paige. She only left because you told her too. And now you kiss someone else.' Emily was broke out of her thoughts when Sydney came out and said she was ready. Emily went into the locker room and changed into her running gear before the two took off in a sprint towards Points Place.
"If we just cut through here, we can see the whole town." Emily yelled over her shoulder to the girl behind her.
"How the hell do you manage to do this without sounding winded?" Sydney asked as they came to a stop at a small opening in the woods. It did in fact look over the whole town.
"I train a lot during swim season. This is nothing." Emily said as she took on the view of the town, now getting dusk. "Maybe we should start heading back."
"Yea. I don't want to be out here in the dark." Sydney said. After a few steps she asked, "so who's the lucky girl?"
"What?" Emily asked.
"The one that your dating." Sydney clarified.
"Oh right. Sorry. Her name is Paige." Emily said.
"That used to be on the team?" Sydney asked.
"The one." Emily said with a smile.
"I heard she was really good." Sydney said.
"She is amazing." Emily couldn't stop thinking about the girl that she had been missing the past two months. She was still thinking about her when she heard movement behind her and heard Sydney screaming, before being knocked to the ground on her front.
