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 64th cycle. Now cycle 66!

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

If Nora had reached Emily a minute earlier, she might have been able to tell her the thing she wanted to tell her, the thing she'd been keeping to herself since that afternoon she'd had with Francesca. But then she'd barely had time to make it to her friend's locker, doing the usual catching up and discussing what this boy or that girl was up to these days, when Grace had come up the other way, and she knew she wasn't going to be telling Emily anything, not this, not now, not when Grace was there.

"Did you tell her yet?" Grace asked her, and for a moment she felt her face get hot. There was no way, she couldn't know. Francesca wouldn't have told, would she?

"Tell me what?" Emily asked, oblivious.

"Well, it's…" Nora started slowly, looking back to Grace. If it was what she thought it was, then a smile was definitely not what she'd expected to find on the redhead's face.

"We won, well I won, but we both entered at the same time. I won this coupon, worth one dinner for two at that new restaurant at the mall. And we decided you should take it and finally ask Kelly out." Nora had been near to holding her breath all this time, and now that she remembered this thing, which they had in fact agreed on together a few days back, she could feel herself relax again. Emily was having a different reaction, moving away from relaxation.

"What, wait, hold on," she sputtered.

"You like him, you told me so once," Grace bowed her head and lifted it again.

"I, well… in confidence," Emily frowned.

"Um, hello?" Nora spoke up, and Emily turned an awkward smile toward her.

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that Grace is right. You're always there, nudging us, well, guess what. We're nudging back now. Go over there, I saw him at his locker, and ask him out."

"Are you crazy? I can't do that," she tried to not draw attention to them.

"If you have to wait on him to get up the courage, it could take forever. Those coupons aren't going to last forever," Nora nodded to Grace, who had pulled the aforementioned coupon from her bag and presented it to Emily.

"He's not going to say no, is he?" Grace beamed. "He's crazy about you."

"You guys are mean. Mean, mean…"

"Go!" Nora and Grace spoke at once, and Emily shut her locker and marched off, leaving the other two to smirk at each other. It had gone away after a few seconds, for reasons neither of them would share or recognize.

Instead they'd watched as Emily went up to Kelly, who was in Glee Club with them, and did her usual Emily thing, before finally asking him to the dinner, which they guessed when they saw the sudden look of surprise on Kelly's face. He'd barely had time to reply with a nod before Emily said something they guessed was along the lines of 'see you there' and walked off back to them.

"Mean, mean… So now I have a date, you better help me."

Saturday afternoon, Nora and Grace had gone to Emily's house, to help her prepare for her first date with Kelly. For however many times she had swept in like their fairy godmother, giving them any and all needed assistance, the girl they found had absolutely no idea what to do for herself.

"This is not going to go well," she shook her head, standing in front of her closet.

"Sure it will," Grace insisted.

"He's so shy, he won't say a word. I'm not shy, I'll say too many words. It'll be awkward, and then he'll speak even less. He'll quit Glee Club, we'll lose the trophy because that silent dude can sing his butt off, and then it'll be my fault and damn Bailey is going to chew me out for the next three years."

"Okay, settle down, settle," Nora pulled her from the closet. "Everything's going to be fine, don't start packing your things to go live on the other side of the country just yet."

"California does sound nice," Emily commented, while Grace went digging in her closet.

"What about this?" she held out a dress.

"It's a first date, Grace," Emily shook her head immediately. "Think more nun's day off."

"Emily, don't you dare. Grace, give me that dress," Nora held out her hand, Grace handed her the dress, and she passed it on to Emily. "Go put it on, right now."

"Okay, is this what I sound like when you guys have dates? Because I am sorry, sincerely."

"Quit stalling, Holt," Grace told her, and Emily frowned, pulling off her shirt and pants before slipping on the dress. Nora went to zip her up, getting her to turn in front of the mirror.

"You look hot," Nora smirked at her ear.

"Well, coming from you, that's encouraging. Just going by my track record though, I don't know if that's the right approach. This is Kelly we're talking about." Emily sighed, looking at herself.

"Go and sit so I can do your hair," Nora told her with a smile. Emily did as told, and Nora went to sit behind her, while Grace took on assisting duties, handing Nora whatever she needed. "It'll be great, really."

"I can't tell if I'm nervous because I'm excited or because I'm just expecting the worst case scenario."

"No, but Nora's right," Grace told her. "It can be wonderful."

"Fine, tell me about your best date," Emily dared her.

"Oh, well that's not…" Grace instantly bowed her head, focused on her pins.

"No, come on, please? You two wrangled me into this, so pay up," Emily begged her, and it was only now as she saw the hesitation on the Scottish girl's face that she realized her misstep. Only Grace was in this position of not being able to say why this was a problem, not when Nora was right there, waiting on the story, so she finally looked up again, taking a breath.

"Well… best date, I guess… that'd be the second time I went out with Jay."

THE END/TO BE CONTINUED (DAY 1400)

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!