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 81st cycle. Now cycle 82!

"Shake & Hide"
Grace (OC)/Nora (AU!Beth), (Emily (OC; Nellie V.), (Older) Finn
Sunshine Girls 2 series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Going back through the door and into her house had felt stranger to Grace than it ever had done before. Her mother and younger brother were not home yet, though it was only a matter of time before they were. As was becoming routine for her, she'd gone and sat to do her homework while she was alone. Her face still stung, and the makeup caked on top only made her itchy and uncomfortable, so finally she'd left her desk and gone into the bathroom to wash her face clean. It was slow going, any pressure causing her pain, but finally with a last splash of water, it was gone, leaving only her pale freckled face and the bruise.

She could still hear the snap of her mother's hand, the way she'd staggered out of surprise. She'd looked back up, hoping to see something in her mother's face like shock, or regret, something to tell Grace that she hadn't meant it, that she'd gotten carried away and she was sorry. But she'd gotten none of that. Instead she had gotten words… She did not want to remember those.

She'd just finished her homework when she heard the door downstairs. Her brother had soccer practice that afternoon and wouldn't be home until later when he'd be dropped off, so it was just the two of them for now. Grace didn't know what to do. Her mother would know she was back. If she stayed up in her room, would it be any worse than if she went down there to see her?

Fifteen minutes had gone by since her mother had arrived when the doorbell rang. Grace got up and stepped out of her room, about to go and answer, when she heard her mother coming from downstairs and decided against it. Instead, she waited at the top of the stairs and waited to see who it was.

"Mr. Hudson," she heard her mother's voice, and she froze.

"Hope I'm not bothering you, I was hoping to talk to you, I…" He stopped, his eyes having found the girl at the top of the stairs. Grace swallowed back her gasp and she retreated into her room, shutting the door. She could hear from downstairs that Nora's stepfather had come into the house. She went to take her phone from the desk and put in the call to Nora's phone.

"Grace, I…"

"You told them, didn't you?" she tried to keep her voice down, finding it very difficult with the urgency running through her.

"I had to. My mother found out I wasn't really at Emily's last night, and if I didn't do anything they would have kept digging and…"

"I begged you not to say, I thought you'd understand!"

"I do, Grace, of course I do. But, look, it's done now, and maybe it'll be for the best."

"How can it?" she frowned nervously. "I'll deal with it myself."

She hung up, afraid of herself and what she might say, with the way she was feeling now. At this point, the stinging in her face only aggravated the way she was feeling. She moved to stand at the door, wondering if she might hear anything, but she couldn't, so she quietly pulled the door open a crack.

Had they gone? No, she could hear, but it was faint… Maybe they were in the kitchen? She wasn't going to go down there, not until Nora's stepfather was gone. What about after he's gone?

Deep down she knew that Nora had told the truth, that she'd had no choice, that she was trying to help, the same way she knew that it wasn't her she was upset at. She only wanted this to be over, for her to have a nice, normal family at home, and to be happy with her girlfriend, without being afraid of what it might cost her.

She stood still as a statue when she heard the steps that brought Finn back into view, while he was making for the door to leave. Once he'd gone, she shut her door again, backing up to sit on her bed. What would happen now? That was the most terrifying part. Would her mother call her downstairs? Would she come up to her room, and would she knock before she walked in?

Her mother's entire image, Grace's memories of her, had started to feel wrong from the moment her hand had connected with her face. Hadn't she been kind and protective, hadn't she supported her all her life, to the point where she'd stood up and made it so that her children could stay in Lima if that was what they wanted? Hadn't she been kind to Nora whenever she was at their house? All those times, in those nearly seven years of knowing her, she'd come over, shared their meals, slept over… She knew her mother was aware of Nora's sexuality, because Nora had brought it up one day when she was having dinner with them, Grace couldn't remember in what context.

Her mother had not changed the way she behaved around Nora after she found out, so she figured she was okay with it. She remembered being proud of her for it. Had it all been a lie? Had her mother only tolerated Nora's presence since that day because she was Grace's friend? After all, at the end of the day, she had her own home to go back to somewhere else than under their roof. The things she said, after she hit me… What she said about her…

There were steps on the stairs, and Grace tensed, sitting up. She didn't want to have another fight. If they weren't going to get along, she would almost have preferred for them not to talk, to be two ships in the sea, one going one way, the other going the opposite way. It was better than for her to have to face her mother, to have more and more of her memories of their life together start to feel like illusions more than anything else. She was never going to deny what she felt for Nora, not for her mother or for anyone else, and when her mother came into her room, that was what she kept reminding herself.

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!