Chapter 10

The school bus was just approaching the diner, when a burst of laughter disrupted its silence.

"I am so proud of you right now!" Victoria exclaimed with a firm voice after she stopped laughing, as Kate just finished explaining the whole affair with Warren, Brooke and Max to her. Now, Kate got another reward for it, because Victoria couldn't stop laughing, and all Kate could wish for, is to see her happy. Unfortunately, the guilt of making fun of someone still followed her.

"Thanks I guess. Should I join the Vortex Club, now that I mock people and make fun of them?" she said, with a voice hiding mixed emotions, and looked down. The happiness at making Victoria laugh and the joy of avenging a friend were fighting the terrible feeling of having hurt someone. Victoria must have noticed it, for she put on a serious expression, turned to Kate, and put a hand on her shoulder. Not only was it a comforting thing to do to Kate, it also was a step towards the goal of making their contacts closer, which Victoria constantly worked on. She addressed Kate with a serious tone.

"Listen Katie." Both of them used any moment when the other was distracted to shorten each other's name. "Warren was obviously a dick. He didn't even think about Brooke, whilst she did so much effort for him. You know he deserved that. Plus, it's just a dumb crush, he will recuperate", she continued. Her arguments seemed to work on Kate, as she slowly pushed the guilt into the back of her thoughts, and focused on the happiness of spending yet another moment alone with Victoria.

The bus just stopped in front of the diner, and so the two exited it and made their way there. Kate suddenly remembered something.

"You mentioned someone joining us for breakfast?" she inquired with a careful voice, not wanting to spoil a surprise if it would have been one. Victoria responded energetically, as she was quite curious about what Kate's reaction would be.

"Yeah! You know, Rachel and Chloe said they also wanted to eat at the Two Whales, so they suggested that we meet there." Victoria saw how obviously surprised Kate was at how chill she was about meeting with Rachel, and especially Chloe. "You're fine with that, right?" she added. "They were your friends, last time I checked."

Kate smiled. "Is it some part of Max's plotting? Or is Victoria really becoming friends with some nicer people?" she thought to herself, while saying "Yeah, I just thought… Well… I don't remember you being too friendly towards Chloe…" with a careful voice, just as they were entering the diner. They chose one of the tables in the left part of the building.

Victoria was quite happy to be able to just speak the truth for once. "I just thought that… You know… As I seem to spend quite a lot of time with you these days… And I would like to keep on doing that… I just thought that I should become friend with your friends!" Victoria was carefully picking her words, not wanting to embarrass Kate, whilst also giving her clues about her emotions, hoping that she would understand.

Thankfully, she did, and after overcoming her surprise at such a random honest expression of feelings from Victoria, who normally always seemed to hide her true intentions behind carefully crafted sentences, Kate decided to play dumb, in hope of amusing the other girl.

"You mean like… Working on another project together?" she said with an innocent tone, but then, after Victoria gave her a careful look to check whether she was joking or not, she couldn't keep it up and bursted with laughter, and she was quickly joined by Victoria.

After telling Joyce that they would order only once the other half of their group got there, they spent about fifteen minutes passing their time with smalltalk, but also getting more and more hungry, and so the two decided to order four portions of the breakfast set, which proved a good choice, for Rachel and Chloe entered just as their food got on the table.

"What took you two so long?" Victoria exclaimed, after hellos were said. The other's pair problems were apparently caused by Chloe not agreeing upon the outfit that Rachel picked out for her for this day. Fortunately, as Chloe only did art ever so often, and Rachel was actually seriously interested in fashion, she ended up agreeing to Rachel's idea. Apparently Max just let them wear whatever they felt like for their project, because she felt like "if she forced them to wear something, the whole photo would seem fake and forced".

"Ah, Max and her hipster bullshit!" Victoria exclaimed, with a large smile to assure the others that she was only referencing the time when she was jealous of her, which was fortunately gone. The two now led a rather neutral friendship, with both being ready to help the other in times of need, but not really showing any need or intent on spending free time together. The reference, though, made the group laugh.

The four girls spent good fourty minutes in the diner, mostly joking around, but then their joyful moment has ended due to Maxine Caufield storming into the diner. Even she couldn't help but get surprised at the composition of the group she saw, but her anger must have been more important at the moment, for after winking at Kate, she proceeded to shout at Rachel and Chloe.

"Guys! We're so late right now!" she shouted out, only to have confused stares answer her. "Don't tell me…" Max said, now disappointed. "I didn't tell you? I forgot again?" she exclaimed with disappointment. The pair she was addressing starting moving their heads up and down in synchronization, with large smiles on their faces.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head Max!" Rachel exclaimed after a second, always wanting to cheer people up. "We'll do whatever you thought about tomorrow morning" she said, with a confident and commanding voice, and Kate thought that she was definitely the one organizing the work in their group. "But you're also right, we should get to work now." Rachel added, which resulted in a disappointed and lazy mumble from Chloe, but there was no saying 'no' to Rachel. She thanked the other pair of eating with them, bent down to whisper something into Victoria's ear (which Kate thought had something to do with "should", "ask" and "out", but she decided not to assume anything because that would have been her dream), and then pulled Chloe out, and she was followed by Max, who, just before leaving, waved at Kate and Victoria a last time.

The two were then left alone again, and as they were done with the food, they decided to head back to Blackwell to get around finishing their project. Kate had to finish her drawings, and Victoria had pick out the best photos from their shoot yesterday, and then make them perfect using her wide array of photo software. And last of all, they had to put all of their work together, which would also take a long time, so they decided not to waste any more of it.

Max got Rachel and Chloe in such a hurry that they forgot to pay for themselves, but Victoria instantly showed intent of paying for everyone's meal. Kate insisted on paying for herself, because Victoria buying yet another thing for her would make her feel just a tad too guilty, but as Kate's wallet wasn't exactly overflowing, she let Victoria pay for the other two girls. The two then went to the dorm, and emerged themselves in the work.

Both of them acted as if they were really into the thing they were doing, but each time they thought the other wouldn't be looking at them, they shot dreamful gazes at them, each time getting instantly back to work at the very moment the other would move their head. Unfortunately for Kate, at one point she got so deep into her thoughts that she didn't notice Victoria raising her head. After a moment of surprise, Victoria, instead of asking Kate about it, decided to savor the moment and just stared back, and the two just sat there smiling at each other, before Kate 'woke up', and instantly blushed and apologized. "I am so sorry Vic, I just..." Kate said, and ended there, not knowing what to say, with the embarrassment of the lack of words adding to the embarrassment of the situation.

For quite some time now, the two were falling further and further in love with each other, but as Kate was shy, and Victoria insecure, they were stuck in the unfortunate situation of being uncertain of each other's emotions, while wishing to just be together. Victoria was hating it more and more, because she didn't want to get too attached to Kate in that way, if she didn't reflect her feelings. And so, she decided to put an end to it, be it a good end or a bad end.

"Kate, can we talk about something?" she asked with a serious tone, which unfortunately resulted in Kate wrongly assuming that Victoria was angry at her behavior, and so she started to mumble and try to apologize, with her face still completely red.

"I'm sorry, I know, I must seem like a stalker, I am so sorry, I feel so dumb now-" she started saying, but she was cut off by the other girl.

"Kate!", Victoria exclaimed. "Listen to me. I like you. I liked you for a while. The last two days have been one of my most fun days at Blackwell" she started saying in a firm voice, at first really wanting to just say it and be done with it, but it was easier said than done. Meanwhile, Kate was sitting there, stunned, with her smile growing bigger and bigger. "So… Would you like to… Maybe… Gooutwithme?" Victoria mumbled, with the last words being spit out to get them out as fast as possible, before she would get too nervous to ask that at all. Then, it was her turn to get embarrassed and start apologizing.

"I'm sorry Kate, you're just such a nice person, I don't know what I was thinking, we just became temporary friends for this project and I-". This time it was Kate's turn to cut her off, but she did so not with words, but with a something a lot more effective at shutting people up.

While Victoria was getting embarrassed and she looked down, Kate stood up from the floor where she was working on her drawings, approached Victoria, bent down, and after lifting her head up, stopped Victoria from talking with an unsure kiss, for it was Kate's first time, but she saw people kissing, and she did her best at imitating them.

The moment their lips touched, Victoria's eyes opened as wide as they could with surprise, but after a second, she put her hand on the sides of Kate's face, and pulled her closer in. They made the kiss last, partially happy to finally be able to be honest with each other, partially unsure of what they could say after separating from it.

Kate, after she prepared a sentence in her head, pulled away.

"So! Where are you taking me on this date?" she said, with the best confident smirk she could manage with her heartbeat insanely fast from the adrenaline of what just happened. Victoria's heart was no different, and she was also stunned at the fact that it was Kate, who she considered being the shy one, who just kissed her like that. After taking a few deep breaths, she finally pulled herself together.

"Hmm... Movie? Movie and restaurant?" she said, after giving it some thought. She was already planning a first date that she hoped Kate would remember.

"Anywhere you want", Kate replied with a smile. "But let's get this work done now, so that we can take the day off tomorrow, okay?" she added.

"Yes, boss!" Victoria exclaimed, but she decided to, instead of continuing the work at her desk, take her laptop and sit down should-to-shoulder next to Kate. Now that they were actually together, she didn't want to waste any time she could spend with her. The pair's work then went a lot quicker, because not only were they a lot more eager to help on another, they also joked with one another, and their work went along a lot easier when they were happy.

The two managed to finish their project and prepare the file to print out on the next day, and as it wasn't too late and the two wanted to spend as much time together as possible, they, again, fell asleep in front of a movie, this time just honestly cuddling.