They were late to school and the glare from her sister as she and Raven took seats together towards the back of the classroom let Katie know that it hadn't gone unnoticed and she would be in for a lecture later. Fortunately, Emily didn't get a chance to talk to her until lunchtime. Raven had surprised her by sitting next to her, because she realised that she'd never really noticed Raven eating with anyone before and she couldn't help feeling a bit special. The feeling dissipated a moment later when Naomi and a scowling Emily sat down across from them. She sighed in anticipation of what was to come.
"You were late to school," Emily glowered, not bothering to greet either girl across from her.
Naomi, Katie noticed, at least had the decency to wave sheepishly at them.
Raven nodded back at Naomi, then, putting a hand on Katie's arm to silence the retort she'd been about to throw out, smiled and said, "Sorry. That was my fault."
"It was your fault she missed school yesterday afternoon too, right?" Emily turned her attention to Raven for the first time, jaw set hard. Katie didn't miss the disapproving look that Naomi shot Emily.
"No it wasn't. I could sit around and listen to all that romance bullshit in class, so I left!" Katie replied snidely. "And anyway, we only missed half an hour. Do you think we're going to not get accepted to uni because of thirty stupid minutes?"
"What if we'd learned something extremely important in those thirty minutes?" Emily shot back.
"Then I'd assume that my twin, who happens to share that class with me, would let me know what it was. Did we?" Katie retorted.
"No," Naomi replied softly when it became clear that Emily was only going to glare.
"My sister doesn't need to be missing school," Emily turned her scowl back to Raven.
"Ems, lay off her alright? She's had a rough morning!" Katie interjected. It really had been a rough morning, and a bit of an awkward one too, as Katie had looked up from her bowl of cereal to find Raven idly stirring hers as tears streamed down her face. Raven had apologised when she'd seen Katie looking at her and had said simply, "I really do love her a lot," by way of an explanation.
Emily raised a sceptical eyebrow, but her face softened just a little. She really wasn't the type to kick someone when they're down.
"She broke up with her girlfriend, for fuck's sake," Katie hissed at her sister, hoping that Raven wouldn't mind her sharing that information.
Naomi's eyes widened, but nowhere near as much as Emily's. "You're gay?" Emily asked, jaw hanging open in shock.
"Gaydar not fully functional yet then?" Raven tried to joke.
"And you're ok with her being gay? What you can have gay friends but not a gay sister?" Emily turned back to Katie.
Katie sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm fine with you being gay too, Ems." Katie realised, after she'd said it, that it really was starting to be true. "I just wish that sometimes you were still my sister, not just Naomi's girlfriend, yeah?" She neglected to add something disparaging about her sister's taste in women, given that of the two, the one she wanted to throttle least right then was by far Naomi.
Raven squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, feeling like she was intruding on some family drama.
Emily just gaped at her sister. "You think that I'm not...But I am! I am your sister! And you're still giving Naomi a fucking hard time and..."
Naomi cut Emily off by whispering, "Leave it, Em," in her ear. "So where are you from?" Naomi asked Raven, trying to change the subject.
"Here and there, really. My dad's had to move around a bit for work, so we were in Leeds for a bit, then Birmingham, London most recently, and now Bristol. Well, actually we were in Bristol when I was little as well. My dad kept the house here the whole time, so we'd visit in summers as my aunt lives here too. We just moved back over the summer though," Raven replied.
Katie's eyes widened when she realised that she knew none of this. She wondered why she hadn't bothered to ask the day before.
"What about you?" Raven inquired politely with a kind smile.
"Bristol born and raised," Naomi informed her with a strange mixture of bitterness and pride.
"Nice," Raven grinned. She felt Katie stiffen beside her as she said it and she turned to find Katie staring towards the door. Raven followed her gaze. "That's Effy, right?"
Katie just nodded as her hand automatically started to rise to the small scar on the side of her head and a shiver ran through her. Raven turned back to Katie in time to see the hand raising, and she captured it in hers and forced it back down. Katie looked at her in surprise, as Raven brought her own hand up to brush the hair covering the scar aside a bit and ran a finger softly along it. "I think she did you a favour. Makes you look distinguished, you know? I mean, clearly the rock to the head was quite shit, but the scar suits you, you know?"
Katie swallowed hard at the contact of Raven's cool finger with her head. "You think?" she whispered, quite oblivious to the way her sister's mouth was gaping open in shock and Naomi's eyes had widened.
"Definitely," Raven smiled at her and let her hand fall, tucking a stray strand of hair behind Katie's ear as she did so. She glanced sideways and caught the looks she was getting from the petite redhead and the blonde beside her. "What?" she asked self-consciously, pulling her hand quickly back to her own lap.
"She's just...You're the first person I've seen her let touch her scar since..." Naomi managed when it seemed that Emily was incapable of answering.
Katie's face flushed when she realised that what Naomi said was true.
Raven could sense Katie's embarrassment and knew that making a big deal about that fact would only make it worse, so despite her curiosity as to why she'd been allowed to touch Katie's scar, she just shrugged. "I could use a fag. Katie?" she inquired, glancing coldly in Effy's direction and finding piercing blue eyes watching the four of them curiously. Raven decided that Katie would probably be better off getting away from the brunette, so she tugged on Katie's arm as she stood.
Katie followed Raven thankfully, glad for the excuse to escape.
"Fag sounds good," Naomi muttered behind them and started to stand, but Emily grabbed her arm and held her back. "Or not," Naomi replied sourly as she watched Katie and Raven leave the building.
"She was flirting with her!" Emily exclaimed disapprovingly once the two were out of earshot.
"She wasn't, Em. She was just being nice to your sister without treating her like she was fragile. I think Katie appreciated it," Naomi replied with a sigh.
"I don't like her. She's a bad influence," Emily insisted stubbornly.
"Why? Because Katie missed a few classes while hanging out with her? It's hardly like Raven would have to twist her arm to get her to skip. This is Katie after all. Not exactly known for her stellar school record, now, is she? Besides, I dunno if you noticed this, but your sister actually seemed genuinely happy today," Naomi pointed out. It amazed her sometimes how two people so connected to each other could sometimes be so blind to each other at the same time. Then again, she wasn't sure why it surprised her, given how long Katie had been able to deny the fact that her sister fancied girls.
Emily glowered, but shot a glance in the direction of the door through which her sister and Raven had exited a few minutes before. Had her sister really been happy? It had been a while since she'd seen Katie smile a genuine smile, one that wasn't just for show to pretend that she was alright, but she remembered the look plastered on her sister's face when she and Raven had first arrived at school, and Emily was struck by the fact that it did, in fact, resemble happiness. "So what's changed?" she finally relented.
Naomi shrugged. "Maybe she just needed a friend outside of our fucked up incestuous little group from last year," she suggested. "She's been through a lot, and while she still manages to find it in her heart to generally be a complete bitch to me, she's lost a bit of her bite. People still gossip about her in the hallways all the time, and I imagine there's only so much of it that she can block out, don't you think? Maybe being friends with someone who's new here and doesn't have preconceived notions about her and doesn't want to use her as gossip fodder will help her get over last spring finally."
"When did you become so bloody insightful about my sister?" Emily asked, scowl still in place, but a hint of fondness in her voice.
Naomi rolled her eyes. "Apparently about the same time you decided to deprive me of a fag break, yeah?" Naomi hinted not so subtly, bringing her face a little closer to Emily's, looking her in the eye and quirking her mouth into a half smile.
Emily grinned at her then and placed a small kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "So we should go outside and join them then?"
"Please," Naomi nodded, before stealing another quick kiss and standing, linking her arm through Emily's once she had done the same.
"Your sister didn't seem thrilled with me," Raven commented as she exhaled slowly.
"She'll get over it. She's just annoyed at me. It hasn't really got anything to do with you," Katie explained. They stood in silence, smoking for a bit, Katie relishing in the feeling of being out from under Effy's gaze. She glanced at Raven out of the corner of her eyes and noted the strained look on her face. "You alright? I mean...after this morning and everything..."
Raven nodded, trying to stealthily wipe a tear from her eye without Katie noticing. "Yeah, I just was thinking about Grace again. Sorry. She's...You saw a bad side of her this morning, but she's great really."
"How did you know her if you're so new to the area?" Katie inquired curiously.
"She was one of my friends when I was little and lived here, and we kept in touch and hung out ever summer. Last Christmas we came to visit, and feelings had kind of been developing a bit before then, and we kissed at Christmas and then we got together officially about a month later. We'd go back and forth on weekends a lot of the time and at first it was amazing, but long distance started to be a strain after a few months. We thought that me moving here would solve everything...all the fights and whatnot. Turned out it didn't solve anything at all. We still bickered all the time, as you witnessed this morning," Raven sighed, remembering happier times wistfully. "Sorry...More than you asked for really."
Katie shook her head. "No. It's fine." She found herself wanting to know even more than the brunette had shared. More questions kept popping into her head. Then again, she'd always been a bit nosy, so it wasn't all that surprising.
"Guess your sister and Naomi decided to join us after all," Raven nodded towards the school.
Katie looked up and rolled her eyes when she saw that it was true. She really didn't feel like another lecture from her sister.
Emily and Naomi approached slowly, and once they were standing in front of Katie and Raven, Naomi nudged her girlfriend in the side. Emily cleared her throat and glanced up sheepishly at Raven. "Sorry I gave you a hard time in there," she murmured. "And sorry about your break up."
Raven smiled genuinely at her. "It's ok. No problem."
Emily shuffled her feet uncomfortably, knowing that she'd been a bit unreasonable, given how nice the girl seemed to be. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Thanks," Raven replied.
"Good," Emily relaxed a bit as Naomi put her hand in the small of her back.
"Mind if I bum a fag?" Naomi inquired of the tall brunette.
"Go ahead," Raven offered her the pack.
Naomi took one and then Raven offered the pack to Emily who offered the brunette a tentative smile and took one with a muttered, "Thanks."
They smoked in a somewhat uneasy silence, relaxing a bit as they adjusted to the presence of one another and the apparent shift in dynamics that the presence of a new person caused. Still, Raven couldn't help being a bit thankful when the bell rang for class.
