A/N: For those of you who read the story on my old account, this is going to be a revised version of that story with some new content. As I re-read the original version of this story, I felt as if I had rushed a few things and, since I lost access to that account over the years, I've decided to revise it on a new account and give the story a more detail ending instead of ending it so abruptly. As always, thanks for reading.

Alex Cabot was awoken from her dream by the obnoxious ringing from the alarm clock on her nightstand. She was tempted to hit the snooze button, but she knew no matter how much she tried, she would never be able to return to the dream about her girlfriend. While still half asleep, she tried to remember why she had set an alarm for 6 o'clock. She glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall and saw that today's date was circled in red ink.

"No, not the first day of school," she groaned and then closed her eyes again.

"Alexandra," her mom said as she knocked on the door half an hour later. "You're going to be late."

Alex slowly made her way out of bed and glanced at the un-ironed outfit she had laid out last night. She had every intention of ironing it before she went to bed but instead she spent nearly the whole night on the phone with her girlfriend. There was so much she had to do to prepare for the first day of her senior year, but she could never resist Casey. Their phone conversation wasn't important, but Alex didn't care. She willingly stayed on the phone with Casey for five hours as they talked about the new school year and argued over who was cuter.

Alex grabbed a pair of underwear from her drawer, kissed a picture of Casey, and finally made her way to the shower. She knew she wouldn't have time to iron her outfit so she planned to just toss on a t-shirt and jeans and throw her hair back in a ponytail. It was a far cry from how she had wanted to look on the first day of her senior year, but she knew last night's phone conversation with Casey was worth it.

Olivia Benson glanced at her watch and noticed that her best friend Alex was ten minutes late. It wasn't like Alex to be late, but Olivia knew there was a certain redhead occupying Alex's time.

"You look...nice," Olivia said hesitantly as she got into the passenger seat of Alex's car and saw that her best friend looked half asleep and didn't have a stitch of makeup on.

"No, I don't," Alex said as she tried not to yawn.

"Casey keep you up all night?" Olivia asked even though she already knew the answer.

Alex gave her a half smile and Olivia started looking for something decent to listen to on the radio. She quickly changed all the love songs and settled on Nirvana.

"Casey loves Nirvana," Alex said to Olivia.

"You say that every time we hear one of their songs," Olivia teased. "I'm just glad we don't have to listen to Amy Grant again."

"Oh, and MC Hammer is so much better?" Alex asked sarcastically. "For the record, Olivia, it will never be Hammertime in this car."

Olivia and Alex looked at each other and started laughing. It had been six months since Casey told Alex she was in love with her and, ever since then, Alex had been listening to nothing but sappy love songs, many of which contained the words "babe" or "baby." Olivia missed Alex's old taste in music, but she tried to be happy for her best friend. She only wished that she could find a girlfriend of her own, or at least a girl to date. Her girlfriend of ten months had broken up with her at the beginning of summer and, although many people thought Olivia was beautiful, she knew her high school didn't exactly have the largest lesbian dating pool. Every girl she knew was either straight or had a girlfriend. She was reminded of this when Alex stopped the car and her other best friend Abbie hopped in with Serena, her new girl toy.

Abbie Carmichael couldn't contain her excitement when she and Serena got into the backseat of Alex's car.

"It's senior year!" she said. "We've been waiting forever for this moment! Why are you both acting like someone died?"

"Olivia is still heartbroken," Alex told Abbie glumly.

"And Alex was up all night talking to Casey," Olivia informed her.

"Oh," Abbie averted her eyes and prepared for the inevitable awkward silence. She then squeezed Serena's hand and hoped that gesture would convey how sorry she was for the way her friends were acting.

Olivia turned around to face Serena in the backseat. "Consider yourself lucky."

"Why?" Serena asked with a confused look on her face.

Alex glanced at the rearview mirror so she could see Serena. "You're a junior and you're riding to school with us. My girlfriend is a junior and she couldn't even get a ride with us."

"Alex," Abbie scoffed. "Casey lives right across the street from our school. She doesn't need a ride. And we've known Serena since we were in junior high. Stop talking like she's some random girl."

Serena smiled at Abbie and pulled her in by the collar. When she saw Serena kiss Abbie, Olivia shifted her focus from the two of them to the sight of her town whizzing by at 45 mph. Fallbrook, New York, had been Olivia's home since preschool and, although she had spent most of her teen years wishing she could live somewhere glamorous like New York City or LA, now that the first day of her senior year had approached, she wanted to hold onto small town life for as long as she could. She was riding to school in a car with her best friends just nine months before graduation and, in that moment, Olivia realized she was exactly where she wanted to be regardless of her relationship status.

"Hey, lovebirds," Olivia turned around to tease Abbie and Serena. "Time to stop kissing. We're almost to the parking lot."

Abbie reluctantly stopped kissing Serena and gathered her stuff together so she could get out as soon as Alex parked the car. She had hoped to hang out in the parking lot like they did their first day of junior year but they were running late and they still had to pick up their class schedules. When she was sure that nobody other than Alex and Olivia were in sight, she kissed Serena one more time.

"This is it," Abbie said as they left the parking lot and made their way over to the quad. "It's senior year. I think this is the year I finally come out to my family."

"This is the year I finally find a girl worth dating," Olivia told them.

Alex started blushing. "And this is the year I'm finally going to make love to Casey."

"This is the third year you've said that, Alex," Olivia pointed out.

"And she still hasn't let you make it past first base," Abbe added.

"I know," Alex sighed. "I was wrong about sophomore year being the year and junior year being the year, but senior year is definitely the year."

Abbie had a feeling Alex wouldn't make it past second base this school year, but she didn't have the heart to tell her. Instead, she looked at Serena and started to feel grateful that she was with a girl who let her get to third base on the first date.

"I'm gonna go to the Juniors' table to get my schedule," Serena told them. "The line is getting long."

"Not as long as the Freshman and Sophomore tables," Olivia pointed out, but Serena had already taken off. She turned to Abbie and Alex. "Look how empty the Senior table is. I think everyone is waiting for the last possible second to get their schedule."

"Senioritis strikes early," Abbie quipped.

"Not for me," Alex insisted. "If I'm going to be valedictorian, I need to have a strong start. I'll meet you girls at the table so we can compare schedules."

"She's going to be valedictorian," Olivia bragged when she knew Alex was out of earshot. "There's no doubt about it. Alex is smart and determined and, whenever she has a goal, she works so hard to achieve it."

"Yeah, Lex is brilliant. Blah, blah, blah," Abbie laughed. "We all know it, Liv. We've known it since we were kids."

"She's been my friend since preschool," Olivia pointed out. "I'm proud of her. I'm proud of you, too."

"Liv," Abbie said as she put her arm around her. "That whole thing about this being the year you find a girl worth dating, well, I think you've already found her."

"Who?" Olivia asked, although she already knew the answer.

"Just admit it."

"She's with Casey and she's happy," Olivia reminded her. "What kind of friend would I be if I ruined that?"

"You'd be her girlfriend," Abbie pointed out. "Face it, Liv. It's not your ex that has you heartbroken. Jenny was just a distraction."

"Abbie, no," Olivia shook her head. "Alex can't be the only girl in the world who can make me happy. I'm sure there's some other girl who is beautiful and-"

"Sorry, Liv," Abbie interrupted her. "I know you're hinting at something, but you don't put out the way Serena does."

"What?" Olivia asked as her eyes widened.

"Gotcha," Abbie laughed.

"You are so dead, Carmichael."

Abbie took off running to the quad with Olivia trailing behind her. Although Olivia was also an athlete, Abbie's years of experience in track always worked to her advantage.

They stopped short of the Senior table and noticed Alex was already scanning her schedule. "Welcome back, Class of 1992," the banner above the table read. The sight of those words brought a chill to Abbie. She looked at their senior class president checking in students and handing out their schedules. It dawned on her that this would be the last time she picked up a new schedule from that school and the last time she'd experience the first day of school with her best friends. She noticed Olivia looking adoringly at Alex as Alex talked about how happy she was that the three of them were going to have the same physics class. "This is definitely going to be their year," Abbie thought.