So, as a fan of Steven Universe and an avid shipper, it was inevitable that, upon seeing "Last One Out of Beach City," I would immediately become a Mystery Pearl shipper. However, as there have been no developments towards that in the canon(which is weird, because evidence suggests at least 3 months has canonically passed between that episode and the most recent), I thought I'd take a stab at exploring the interactions between Pearl and Mystery Girl(or, as I shall refer to her as, Sheena Ramone) through a series of short stories.

So, without any further ado, here is chapter 1: "Call me Maybe...Probably...Hopefully...Perhaps." I hope you all enjoy it.

You'll do it for her, you'll do it for her, you'll do it for her, you'll do it for her…

Pearl was in the process of repeating that lyric in her head over and over again as she held Steven's phone, trembling with fear, anticipation, and the slightest bit of excitement.

Amethyst, ever the wingman, is egging her on from the sidelines. So much for "start smaller," Pearl thought grimly, thinking back to Amethyst's initial discouragement and finding it a rather odd contrast. For some reason, her thinking of Amethyst's opinion that she wouldn't be able to talk to her gave her renewed confidence, and after many indecisive vocalations, Pearl finally gets the nerve to press the button and begin calling "S.," otherwise known as Mystery Girl.

As she held the phone on speaker in front of her, she couldn't help jittering a little. After all, not only was this her first real social interaction with an adult human and her first phone call, but also potentially her first "date." Okay, Pearl. Don't go that far. You've got enough to stress over as it is, she thought.

She counted the rings. First 2, then 3. 4. 5. 6. With each failed ring, Pearl felt simultaneously closer to failure and closer to success at the same time. If that makes any sense. The point is, she was both losing hope and tingling with anticipation.

Eventually, the phone stopped ringing and began to speak in Mystery Girl's voice, saying, "You've reached Sheena Ramone. Sorry I can't get to the phone right now. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

The phone then emitted a high pitched beep before the phone spoke in a robotic voice, instructing the caller to record their message at the tone. Pearl, of course, was unfamiliar with the concept of voicemails and thus did not know how she would record one, resulting in her panicking.

"Ah! What do I do now?!" she asked, a lot more hysterically than the situation called for.

"Relax, P," Amethyst replied, "You just gotta wait for the beep so you can deliver a message."

As they spoke, the phone beeped and Pearl was left speechless.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Record the message already!" Amethyst commanded.

"Okay, okay! Just give me a second!" Pearl yelled back, exasperated. She proceeded to record her message.

"Uh, hi, She-Sheena? Uh, this is P-Pearl. We met at that, uh..."

Amethyst whispered, "Mike Krol."

"That Mike Krol concert? Remember, the one in Ocean Town? Anyway, I did some looking around, and I found this small coffee shop in Ocean Town. So, uh, I was wondering if, uh, perhaps we could have a get together there tomorrow a-at 3?"

Pearl could see Amethyst facepalming and emitting a groan of disappointment, but she could deal with that later.

"Uh, anyway, just call me if you're interested, and uh, I'll see you, uh, later. Perhaps."

More groaning.

"Um, anyway, bye!"

Pearl hastily stopped the message and closed the phone as Amethyst criticized her.

"'Get together?' 'Get together?!'" she cried in frustration.

"I panicked! What was I supposed to say?!" Pearl shouted back.

"I don't know, something normal like, 'Let's hang out,' or 'Let's have a drink,' or, heck, even 'Let's go out' would be better than 'Get together!'"

"What's wrong with 'Get together?'"

"It sounds like you're either talking about your kid's playdate or the weekly game of bridge at the old folks' home."

"Well, pardon me for not being well versed in your urban slang!" Pearl retorted as she stormed off.

Amethyst was whispering to herself "Oh, P, if you think that's urban slang, you ain't heard nothin yet-" when a sudden sound drew their attention back to the phone.

Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum badada bum...

The chords to the "theme song" Steven wrote.

Someone was calling Steven's phone.

Pearl rushed to check the caller ID. In preparation, Pearl had already loaded the number into Steven's contacts as "Mystery Girl," as the others insisted on calling her that for some reason. She did a double take before looking up at Amethyst, who was hanging off the edge of the couch in anticipation.

"It's her." she said, barely above a whisper, as if she were in awe of the fact that this was actually happening.

"Well, what're you waiting for?! Answer it" Amethyst had scooted over so that Pearl could sit down. "Oh, oh, put it on speaker! I want to hear this!"

"Okay." Pearl replied. She swiped the accept icon, a phone in a green circle, and tensed up, preparing for the worst.

"Hello?" A voice queried.

Pearl nervously glanced at Amethyst before responding, "Uh, hi. Is this Sheena?"

The voice paused for a second before replying, "Yeah, this is Sheena."

The two Gems squealed slightly in their giddiness.

"Who is this?" Sheena asked.

Pearl quickly got back on track, trying hard not to stutter, "Uh, this is Pearl. We met at the Mike Krol concert in Ocean Town?"

Another pause, then a slight grunt of recognition. "Oh yeah!" Sheena exclaimed. "The girl in the ballerina outfit!"

Amethyst snickered at that, but Pearl tried to stay calm, despite blushing profusely. "Uh, yeah. That was me."

"Oh, man, we should totally hang out sometime!" Another pause. "Oh, I know! There's this Crimson 6 concert playing in Empire City next month, and I just won two tickets! Totally cool, right? And there were only 100,000 available!"

"A-a hundred thousand?" Pearl stammered.

"Well, yeah! I mean, it's a big stadium. Trust me, it'll be awesome! They've got massive stereos and food and glowsticks and-"

"Uh, that sounds nice," Pearl interjected, "but I was thinking somewhere a little...smaller? Like this small coffee shop in Ocean Town that I found?"

She paused again, "Oh, the one over by the electronics store?"

Pearl stopped to recall the details of the surrounding buildings before responding, "Uh, yeah, that's the one."

"Man, I love that place! Yeah, we should totally chill there!"

Chill? Pearl thought. Seems kind of counter-intuitive…"Oh? Uh, great! How does tomorrow at 3 sound?"

"Heck, why wait? It's like, what, 1:30 now?"

Pearl did another double take, but somewhat composed herself and responded, "Uh, sure! Yeah! Tha-that works!"

"Great! I get off work at 2:30. Should give me enough time to drive over there."

"Great!"

"So 3 today works for you?"

"Y-yeah! It works fine!"

One last, brief pause. "Alright! See you then!"

Pearl whispered, "Uh, yeah. S-see you," but the call had already ended.

I can't believe I just did that, she thought, failing to notice Amethyst running up to pull her into a massive bear hug, squealing at the top of her lungs.

"Woo hoo! Yeah, P!" she shouted to the mountaintops. Pearl was already starting to feel overwhelmed.

I can't believe I just did that! she thought.

Then Steven and Garnet showed up.

Apparently, they'd been sitting behind the counter, unbeknownst to the others, to observe, and were now congratulating Pearl on her success.

"That was amazing!" Steven exclaimed. "She was just sitting there like, 'Who is this?' and you were just like, 'This is Pearl,' like it was nothing! You're like, a total Casanova!"

Pearl was surprised at the level of excitement he had regarding her phone call(although also fairly curious as to who this "Casanova" is). "You really think so?"

"Yeah, you were pretty smooth," Garnet said.

Ordinarily, Pearl would feel very proud upon hearing those words. But unfortunately, now she was mainly focused on the feeling of dread in the region where, if she were human, her stomach would be. It was given form when Amethyst gave words to what she just did.

"You did it, P! You actually asked someone out!"

She shuddered before replying, "Yep. I did," as beads of sweat starting popping up all over her face.

I really can't believe I just did that.