Disclaimers:

These are obviously not my characters, I'm just borrowing them from Joss Whedon and anyone else who owns them.

If you have issues with people of the same sex loving each other, or live someplace where that's illegal (in which case, consider moving) please move on.

Tara Maclay walked through the halls of a large high school. It was nearing the end of the school year, and she was one of the only people in school unhappy about this fact. Though she had no real friends in school, at least it kept her busy. During the summer she'd have nothing to do but sit at her house. Her mother had just finished a course of chemotherapy for the breast cancer that had been diagnosed last fall. The doctors said she'd gone into remission, but she was having a hard time with the emotional aspect, and so the woman who'd once been close to her only daughter had been pushing her away lately.

She sat down in her US History class, in her traditional seat in the back.

"I know you are all ready for school to be over, but in an effort to make the last few weeks interesting, we're going to do a project in pairs that will count for half of your final exam."

Tara cringed. Group projects were her least favorite part of school. People were already starting to look around the room for partners, but the teacher put a stop to that.

"I've assigned you partners and projects, listed on this paper. Come find your partner and we'll head to the library in a few minutes to start some preliminary research." She posted a paper up on the blackboard.

By the time Tara got up to the board, most people were paired off. She looked up her name and found it listed with Amanda Brooks. Well, it could have been worse. Amanda was in the popular crowd, but she seemed to be relatively intelligent. She looked around and identified her partner, who apparently had no idea who she was.

"Amanda?"

"Oh! Tara?"

Tara nodded.

"So I guess our topic is the space race, huh. That's pretty cool."

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US History was one of the few classes in which the teacher was actually attempting to wring work out of the students, and consequently they had plenty of time to spend on the project. A couple Saturdays later, Amanda and Tara were in Amanda's room, working on a timeline of Russian space flights when the brunette got a phone call. Tara tried to focus on the work and not appear to be eavesdropping.

Amanda hung up the phone. "That was Christy, we're going to go see the new Will Smith movie tonight."

Tara nodded politely.

"Do you, um, want to come with us?"

Tara peered up from beneath a curtain of hair. "M-me?"

"Sure, why not?"

"You d-don't have to invite me b-because I was here when she called." She pointed out.

"I'm not! I like hanging out with you."

Her heart skipped a beat. She liked hanging out with Amanda too – possibly more than she wanted to admit to herself. She was sad when their study sessions ended, and she found herself thinking about the girl for no reason throughout the day. Sometimes they'd walk past each other in the hall, and Amanda would smile or say hello. It didn't bother her so much that she had a crush on a girl, but Amanda was popular, and she was…just Tara.

So a few hours later, Tara found herself sitting in a movie theater, at the end of a row of popular girls, next to Amanda. The other girls had given Amanda some strange looks when she'd shown up with Tara in tow, but they hadn't actually said anything outright mean to either of them.

Tara rested her elbows on the armrests and settled in to enjoy the show. A few minutes later, she felt a warmth on her right elbow as Amanda's left positioned itself next to hers. The entire rest of the movie she was distracted, wondering if Amanda would move it, wondering if it was accidental or if she wanted to be in contact with Tara. She shifted a few times, but never in such a way to disrupt the contact. She wasn't complaining, but it was certainly confusing.