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 79th cycle. Now cycle 80!

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

The doorbell rang from downstairs, and Nora heard Hailey bellowing that she wanted to get it. Knowing who it would be, Nora rushed down, bypassing her sister and sending her away. She'd be upset for now, but she'd had forgotten all about it by the time she got back. Nora opened the door herself, and there stood Grace Mackenna… She didn't think it was possible for her to still be caught off guard by her, but maybe it was that she knew why she was there, what this night would be, maybe it was the smile that lit up her face… Nora had never found her so stunning.

"Hi," Grace had laughter in her voice that said she was feeling the same thing Nora was: she was going out on a date with her best friend, and it was strange. "Ready to go?" she asked, and after grabbing her things, they were off.

"I hope the roads weren't too bad getting here," Nora played along, and Grace laughed once more.

"Not at all. Besides, I know a shortcut," Grace promised. "My car's this way."

All too aware that the line was so very thin between hanging out with Nora as a friend and then being on a date with her, Grace had made it a point for them not to go anywhere they'd been before. They would go to a restaurant first, and then they would decide what they wanted to do next. As they had established, she'd done the asking out, so she had set out the plan for this date as well.

She'd made a reservation, but even with this they had been forced to stand and wait until their table was ready for a solid fifteen minutes.

"I'm sorry this is taking so long," Grace turned to Nora as they waited.

"Don't worry about it," Nora shrugged. "The plan was for us to spend some time together alone, wasn't it?" she gestured around them, indicating they were in fact alone together. Grace smiled. "Mission accomplished."

"Right," Grace agreed with a nod.

"And since we're here waiting, can I just say… You look amazing tonight," Nora confided, and it was hard not to smile too hard as she said it. It wasn't as though she'd never complimented Grace before, but then she had usually tried to play it off, so she wouldn't get any ideas, especially since those ideas would have been entirely accurate. Now to get to say it earnest, and to see Grace's face flush, it was only making her feel more at ease.

"So do you," Grace finally replied, allowing herself to give her a once over. She'd always been aware of Nora, of how she looked, how she was made… She had found her beautiful, before she'd ever realized her attraction toward her, and now that she had realized it, the knowledge of it was just shy of overwhelming. "Sorry, I…" she blinked, wondering if she'd been staring at her too long. Nora only smiled, pretending she hadn't noticed, and that she wasn't feeling flustered all of a sudden.

"It's alright," she promised.

Finally, they had gotten their table, and they sat across from one another. Both looking at their menus, it felt like maybe they had gotten past the 'hard part' and were slowly settling into a new norm. But once they had placed their orders and were waiting on their plates, they were looking at one another from across the table, and neither of them knew exactly what to say.

"Okay, come on," Nora finally sat up. "You've been on dates, I've been on dates, and we're sitting here like we're not supposed to talk the way we always do. We're just kind of ahead of ourselves because we're already friends, but that's part of it, isn't it?"

"It is," Grace agreed.

"How was your day?" Nora asked, planting her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her joined hands, prone for listening.

"It was… long," Grace smirked. "Couldn't wait for it to be over. Oh! The cheerleading coach came in last period," she remembered.

"She did? What for?"

"She got into it with Mr. Clark about giving Samantha Willis a failing grade, now she can't be in the Cheerios until her grades are back up," Grace explained.

"Could have been worse. My mother's old coach would have ripped him a new one," Nora chuckled, thinking of all the stories she'd heard growing up.

They continued telling each other about their respective days, which deviated a few times into recollections and impressions, as they waited and then once they'd gotten their plates and started to eat. When it was over, they split the bill, though Grace had offered to pay for both, and they left the restaurant.

"You know what I feel like doing right now?" Nora asked, sidling along Grace. Her fingers brushed the back of her hand, and then Grace responded by slipping that hand in hers. Nora smiled, closing her fingers around hers. As she did, Grace felt something touch to her wrist and she looked down.

"You found it again," she blinked, looking at the old bracelet like a long lost friend, pulling the hand she held up so she could touch the threads with her free hand.

"I hid it," Nora admitted. Grace looked up. "I never took it off, never except… when I would go out with someone, it was just like… everything I felt about you, even though I didn't think it would ever get further than it was, the bracelet… that was what it represented. So when I would go out with a girl, I would leave it behind. Then when I started, with Francesca… I thought tonight it was finally time I put it back on." Grace kept staring at the bracelet, and Nora wondered what she was thinking. Then she'd turned it around, reaching for where the two ends were tied together, and for one split second Nora was worried she might take it away from her. Instead, Grace made a new knot, tugging on the ends and looking up at her with a smile, taking her hand up again.

"So what did you feel like doing?" she asked, and Nora beamed.

"Let's go dancing."

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!