[Guess who's gay: Surprise, it's everyone. Everyone's gay! No one is safe! I took some major backstory liberties, hope you don't mind. Also, this story might feel a little bit confusing if you haven't read the main Arcadia Gays story]

It was the first day back after winter break, and the few scattered members of the Vortex Club had been brought together, taking refuge from the cold in one of the empty classrooms of Blackwell Academy. Those who remained steadfast were understandably confused that Victoria was not in front of them. Rather, it was Taylor and Courtney, who no one tended to pay much mind to. They were secondary at most, and even that was stretching it.

But just as everyone had seen Victoria change over the last semester, so too had they watched as the pair become more confident, more sure. They stood now with heads held high. Taylor began, "We welcome you to a new and different Vortex Club. We are, as ever, an exclusive and premier group of the best and brightest Blackwell has to offer."

"There will still be parties, but there will also be so much more," Courtney continued. They spoke as a single unit, and Victoria finally understood what it was she'd been blind to for the last few months.

…

It was the day after Thanksgiving and Victoria had just gone running out of Courtney's room that the two shared a knowing look and amused smiles. They were normally considered little more than minions, vultures who liked to hang about Victoria in order to bask in some of her greatness, enjoying the popularity that trickled down to them. Those things were generally true, but they did not make up their entire characters.

Taylor had found the Vortex club to be an excellent way to deal with her mom's problems. The woman was strong, but she had always been in pain. The surgery had helped, but not as much as anyone hoped. She didn't move like a woman in her fifties, she had a cane and hobbled sometimes. It wasn't easy to watch, and sometimes Taylor desperately needed to let loose, get drunk, and hook up with some random stranger.

Courtney's story was a mystery to everyone but Victoria and Taylor. Above all, she loved fashion. But it had become important to her in a way that few other people would ever be able to relate to. Her own mother had left when she was barely a year old. Her father watched out for her all on his own. He never dated, he never took another wife, never had another kid. It was just the two of them. For years they lived on the bare necessities, and then he finally caught a windfall. Her father had finally hit the big time, some important job. Courtney had money, but no longer the attention she'd grown accustomed to. She learned to be beautiful. She bought magazines and watched tutorials online. By the time she reached Blackwell, not even Victoria could handle her skill to look impeccable. She craved attention, and the Vortex club provided a permanent spotlight.

Everyone had a story. And Taylor and Courtney were eager to finally see theirs play out. Some truly bizarre things had been happening lately. Max proved to be pretty cool, and had predictably hooked up with that blue-haired drop-out. Then Dana and Juliet. And now Victoria seemed to completely lose her cool every time Kate was around. She had it bad, and they knew it. It made sense, considering how much she'd tormented her, and then how quickly she turned into her silent (and not-so-silent) protector. And, OMG, the Halloween party had really been the icing on the cake.

Not that they could judge. For them, things had started when Taylor's mom went in for surgery. She had to go back home to see her and couldn't do it alone. So Courtney offered to drive her. She held her hand when they went into see her pre-op, and immediately fell in love with the woman. In the span of an hour, Mrs. Christensen had all but declared her like a second daughter, and Courtney wondered if she finally had herself a mother. While she was in surgery, Courtney held Taylor while she cried. And when surgery was over and the doctor reported that everything would be fine, she acted as a hug stand-in since Taylor was freaked out about fucking up her mom's back all over again.

She'd driven her back to Blackwell, and they got back at nearly 2 in the morning with class the next day. Courtney refused to let Taylor be alone, even if everything was fine, and they spent the night together, only platonically. Of course. Nothing more. Courtney would gently stroke her hair and think about all the rumors she'd heard that Taylor refused to dance with anyone at the End of the World party until she was relieved from door duty. It never happened, and she'd spent all night dancing by her lonesome.

At Dana's Halloween party, they watched from the sidelines as they drank from a flask. They watched Victoria dance with Kate, they saw her argue with Chloe, only to spend the rest of the night partying with those nerds. What Courtney and Taylor lacked in smarts, they made up for in intuition. They could read social situations better than anyone. Nathan had been sent away and their remaining beloved leader was losing herself in her former victim. The Vortex Club wasn't even hosting parties anymore, and membership was flaking off daily. The few times they did hang out as a group, they marveled at the way Tori so casually dragged one of her new friends along, as though this wasn't the biggest news they'd had in weeks.

Every time the two hung out together, they generally only talked about one thing – the future of the Vortex Club. It was dying, and they refused to let an institution flare out in shame when they could do a million things to make it better. Unlike poor Victoria, who could often be as bashful and uncertain as any high school girl, things were far more... natural between them. One night they'd gotten pleasantly drunk and were chilling on Taylor's bed, and they had been snuggling and plotting. "Soon enough, we'll be the new queens of Blackwell. No more of this stupid, petty shit, and no more murderers for teachers. We'll raise money, we'll do outreach, and we'll party every fucking weekend..." Taylor had said, feeling hopeful, powerful even. In a flash, Courtney had pulled her into a deep kiss, finally letting go with a ragged little laugh.

"You're so sexy when you're optimistic." There was no blushing, no fumbling, and definitely no more conversation. They didn't need it. They knew, they weren't stupid.

They were inseparable from that point on. Admittedly, they were already joined at the hip, but they made no attempt to hide their affection for one another. If anyone asked what the deal was, they were told to mind their own fucking business, with middle fingers for quotation marks on either end. Those they still considered worth their time were at least allowed in on the bare minimum of information.

There had been only one more thing to take care of. They found Victoria in her room, who was presently on her phone and trying to act like she wasn't texting one of her new gal pals. It was oddly sweet, how bashful she'd become, how secretive. The real Victoria they'd seen in private was finally making herself more public. It was healthy. "Taylor, Courtney... To what do I owe the pleasure?" Victoria immediately locked her phone and put it to the side, screen-down. Her face was flushed.

"Tori, you can stop playing coy. You've had hearts for eyes for a while now. I'm happy for you" Taylor cooed, making her approval known.

Courtney piped up with a wide grin. "It's cute! You have this whole new posse. I've never seen you so happy!"

Victoria was turning redder by the second, and her arms were now crossing over her chest as she eyed them both. "Did you come here to confirm your suspicions, or was there something you actually wanted to talk about?"

"The Vortex Club. We want it." Taylor admitted. No point in hiding it, that was what they'd been working on for a while. And Victoria had already all but abdicated her position. The club hadn't actually done a damn thing since the End of the World.

But even so, having it finally pulled out into the open didn't make Victoria terribly happy. She retained her standoffish posture and eyed them both carefully. "So, what, you'll be the new Nathan and Victoria? You'll set up parties where people do stupid shit and end up drugged and..." She stopped herself, getting visibly upset. The poor thing, she was so madly in love, wasn't she? They couldn't blame her.

"No, Tori," Courtney said sweetly, and sat beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're not replacing anyone. But we haven't done jack shit in months and we have some really great ideas. We don't want the group's legacy to be nothing but fucked up garbage. Can you imagine what would happen if we left, and all the seniors next year just let it die, like all we were was some stain on the school's reputation?"

"I don't want that to happen. I really don't."

"Then don't think of it as us taking it away from you. You're... bequeathing it to us!" Taylor spoke so eagerly. Being chipper was kind of her thing. "You care about the Club, but you care about... other stuff too. So push all the responsibility on us, let us take care of things, and you can focus on the new developments in your life~"

Victoria glared at them, but they could see the sparkle behind her eyes. "When the hell did you two get so fucking devious?"

Courtney shrugged and hopped back up to her feet, looping arms with Taylor and resting her head playfully on her shoulder. "We learned from the best, love"

…

As Taylor and Courtney finished up their little presentation, the very first thing they heard was the sound of Victoria applauding. Everyone was still used to following her lead and quickly joined in. It got louder, and their blonde fan even went so far as to give them a loud cheer.

Unable to help herself, Taylor snagged a little victory kiss from her fellow leader. Their spring semester looked promising.