Chapter Two

"So, what's up with the new chick?" Alice rudely asked when Bette had finally joined her at their lockers. Bette didn't respond, her mind was wandering elsewhere. She had just showed Tina how the lockers worked and had found it hard to part from the blonde. She was addictive - already.

"Porter!" Alice franctically waved her hands in front of the brunette's face. "Jeez, there must be something with her..."

"No, nothing," Bette shook her head. "She's... uhm... she's nice. Yeah. She's a nice girl."

"And damn hot, too! I say you go for it, Porter."

Bette smirked at this comment. "Did I give you the impression that wasn't the plan?"

Alice's eyes glistened with excitement. Alice Pieszecki loved two things: gossip and a girl-chasing. She particularly enjoyed how her best friend always managed to get any girl she wanted, even if she claimed to be straight on beforehand. It was where her own saying came from: Every girl's straight until Bette Porter.

"So, do you think she's an easy one?"

"Would I want her if I did?"

"I guess not. But you'll get her in the end anyway, so it doesn't matter. But I thought you were going to change course and go for the real challenges now?"

"She is a real challenge to me, Al, for reasons I won't tell you now and I swear to God that if you nag at me about it once I will take your tongue, cut it out and staple it on your forehead."

Alice's face was filled with an expression of pure and utter disgust. "Do you need to be so... expressive?"

"No," Bette smirked. "I just love your face when I am."

The bell rang, the sign for all students to go to their classrooms. Bette was normally not the girl to hurry, she adored the inventer of the term 'fashionably late'. But this time, she had to make sure she was one of the first ones there, so she would get the chance to sit near Tina and protect her from everyone else who would want a piece of her.

Bette squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and started making her way in the crowded hall. She bumped into several people who exclaimed loud screams of pain, but Bette couldn't care less. She had had to leave Tina behind at her locker to get her own stuff and Alice, who was now somewhere behind her sending out apologetic smiles.

The brunette grinned broadly when the door of the classroom came into sight. There she was, a glow surrounding her, a choir singing 'Hallelujah' in the background... Bette made the last confident steps, the door opened and Tina went inside, not having seen her friend. Bette fastened her pace, was right in front of the door and then... Eric stepped before her in a smooth movement and made a bee-line for the seat next to Tina. The seat on the other side was already taken by Amanda, a girl who seemed to think that if she would always be the first one at the classroom, she'd get a lot of money at her graduation.

Bette plumped down in the seat behind Tina with a very sour expression on her face. She didn't smile once that lesson and whenever she saw Eric lean in to Tina to whisper something to her, she felt a pang of jealousy that physically hurt. The smug grin on Erics face - well, she wasn't really sure as she only saw his profile, but she knew him - made her so angry she felt like banging his head on the wall so hard until there was enough blood to scare him. And knowing Eric Dumberson, one drop would do it. But one drop wouldn't do for her. Not by far.

Alice sometimes tried to interrupt her thoughts about various forms of torture, pain, sadism and vengeance, but soon noticed that it was to no avail. When Tina laughed at something Eric said, Bette's pencil snapped into. She considered throwing it to Erics neck, but then decided she didn't want Tina to get a wrong impression.

When the lesson was finally over, Alice was about to burst with curiosity. She didn't get the chance to ask what the hell all that had been about, though, because Bette had put her stuff away like a maniac and now stood in front of Tina with a huge smile on her face.

She felt her heart flutter when she saw Tina's light blush and happy eyes.

"So, Eric Dumberson seemed interested in you."

"Hm... I hope I can get more than that. I mean - he's nice, that's not the point. He's just being overly nice. He's I - want - you - in - my - bed - asap nice."

Yeah, well, who wouldn't, Bette thought, but she was wise enough not to say that aloud. Instead, she rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind him. Just try to avoid him as much as possible - you wouldn't be the first girl he falls hopelessly in love with and then tortures himself over."

"Thanks for the tip," Tina smiled. Bette melted, cleaned herself up with a towel and became Bette again. "So, what class do you have next?"

"English Lit., you?"

Tina's smile grew even brighter. "Me too! Is Ms Ferrer a good teacher?"

"Yeah, she's nice. It's a bit freaky how she acts with Jenny, though."

"Jenny?"

"Jenny Shecter, you'll hear about her. This self-declared writing wonder Princess of Darkness and Hell and the Underworld. Everyone thinks she has an affair with Ms Ferrer."

"And does she?"

Bette shrugged one shoulder. "No idea. I don't even want to think about it, to be honest."

They arrived at the classroom and to her great delight, there were lots and lots of empty seats of which Tina chose one with a lot of free places around it. Bette felt a lot better sitting next to the blonde, she was also less worried.

The students trickled in like water from a leaking tap. When Ms Ferrer came in, she immediately announced that today would be all about pairwork. The students clearly expressed their delight at this - it was always nicer to work with someone else and chat with them while doing a task.

Bette and Tina looked at each other at the same time and nodded. Ms Ferrer wrote the assignment on the blackboard and handed out some copies. Bette soon found out that Tina was a genius at English Literature, so much that it was almost scary.

They had most classes together and both of the girls were relieved about that. At the end of the day, they were walking towards the parking lot together. They had lunched together as well and had had a lot of fun. Bette had been very glad that Alice had had to go across town for one particular task. She hadn't talked to her best friend very much, wanting to savor every moment with Tina. She would explain later.

"So, I was thinking," Bette started. "Since I reckon your car won't be fixed overnight, you'll drive with me again tomorrow?"

Tina smiled. "That'd be great. Yeah, I'd like that very much."

"So if something happens - you run late or I do - we're going to need each other's cellphone numbers, right?"

They had reached the car and Bette was glad she had the distraction of looking for her keys and opening the door for Tina, because she was sure she blushed - for the first time in ages.

"You know, that's true. We really need that."

They exchanged their numbers by handing each other their cellphones. When Bette had saved her number into Tina's phone, she noticed her wallpaper - two women in a passionate kiss. Lovely. She decided not to mention it, though.

When Bette had dropped Tina off, she had waved at her extensively. She found it very hard to say goodbye, even if she would see her again in the morning. The weekend would surely kill her. She had waited until Tina had gone into the house and then drove home. Once her car was on the driveway, she shouted: "YES! Yes, Yes, YES! You're great, Porter. Very smooth. She's a keeper."

At first, Bette was confused by the last sentence she had uttered - had that actually been her? She looked around her to be sure, nobody in the neighbourhood. Holy crap! She hadn't been thinking about someone like that in how long? Four years? Slowly, a grin appeared on her features. She pumped her fist into the air and got out of her car, mustering all the self-control she had to stop herself from dancing. She entered the empty house and rushed to her room, where she grabbed her guitar, but then decided she'd rather play the piano. Maybe she could make a song for Tina? Not that she was going to sing that to her anytime soon, she didn't want to scare her away.

Her father came home very late and her sister would probably show up by the morning, having spent the night at a friend's house. It was long after her father had arrived that she yawned and put down her instruments. The music didn't bother her father, he couldn't care less. His only sign of the fact that he knew about Bette's passion was to express regularly that she better not turn out like her sister and become a useless, good - for - nothing musician.

She checked her Facebook one last time before going to sleep and almost jumped a whole in the roof when she saw that Tina had sent her a friend request. Bette immediately accepted it and looked at all the pictures of the pretty southern blonde. There were a whole bunch of them, but Bette truly couldn't care less. She put her computer off and went to bed with the lovely thought that she'd see Tina the next morning.

This was going to be one hell of a senior year.