The LGBT club meetings were held in a small room underneath the main auditorium on campus, a room reserved for club meetings, forums, and things of that nature. The walls were blue and lined with stacks of plastic chairs, and the ceiling, which was crowded with pipes and air conditioning ducts had been painted black.

Alex and Maggie stood in front of the far wall, next to the plastic table that housed the pizza, chips, and cupcakes. I couldn't help but notice how Maggie's eyebrows jumped in surprise when she saw me. "Little Danvers," she said as I approached. "Did Alex finally wear you down?"

Alex's expression remained neutral, like she wasn't surprised at all by my presence.

"I heard that there would be free pizza and cupcakes. Of course I came."

"And uh, who did you hear this from, exactly?" Alex asked, smiling smugly.

I felt Lena sidle up beside me. "From me, actually. I invited her."

Alex's smile grew only more smug. I rolled my eyes and ignored her, focusing my attention on Lena.

Lena. She took my breath away. It wasn't just her beauty, though she was absolutely stunning, as always. It was beyond that, beyond anything physical, despite being evident in the twinkle in her eye, the quirk of her smile, and the confidence and grace with which she carried herself. It was her. It was who she was. It was her essence, her aura, her soul.

Her.

It was then that I noticed the warmth in my chest and the giddiness in my stomach. Then that I realized just how much she had plagued my thoughts since I'd first met her. It was then that I knew.

"Don't worry. I made sure that there was going to be Hawaiian pizza," Lena said.

I had to take a moment to compose myself, even though Lena's statement was incredibly casual. "You know me well," I finally managed.

"I also ensured that we had Dr. Pepper. Speaking of which, can I get you some?"

I knew I was reading too much into the situation-way too much, most likely-but I couldn't help feeling in that moment that we were together. That she was my girlfriend offering to get me a drink at a party. Gosh, I was pathetic.

"Yeah. Dr. Pepper, yeah. That sounds great."

Lena left, and I just stood there, equal parts embarrassed at myself and wondering just what exactly I had gotten myself into.

She returned a few minutes later, two styrofoam cups in her hands and laughing at something that a guy had said. This guy followed her so that he easily slid into our conversation.

"Kara, this is my friend Justin. Justin, this is Kara."

Justin held out his hand. He looked like an athletic dude bro, with gym shorts, sports sandals, and a Nike t-shirt. He had spiky hair, a big nose, and a contagious smile.

I accepted his hand. "Nice to meet you, Justin."

"He's one of the people celebrating a birthday this week," Lena added.

"One of four." He shook his head goodnaturedly, like he was disappointed in the fact that he had such a common birthday week but responded to that disappointment with amusement. "But hey, any excuse for pizza."

"My motto," I said, nodding seriously.

Justin squinted at me. "Oh, I know you. You're Alex's sister, right?"

"The one and only."

"Man, I love Alex. Hearing her story--and Maggie's--was so helpful for me."

"Yeah, me too."

"Me three," Lena said.

"Right? They're the best." He clamped his hand on my shoulder. "You come from good stock, my friend."

I laughed awkwardly, knowing it wasn't the right time to tell him that I was adopted. Instead, I just said, "yeah, she's the best."

"That she is. Without her, I would not be the proud ace man that I am today." Not a second later, he said, "alright, I've gotta run. Catch you later."

Lena smiled as he jogged away. "He means well."

"No, he's sweet." I avoided looking at her, and not because it didn't want to.

"Oh, here's your drink."

I breathed a 'thanks,' and when I reached out to take it, my fingers brushed over hers. I felt tingles on my spine.

"So how was your day?" Lena asked.

"It was good. Great."

Lena stood very close to me. Perhaps a little bit closer than was necessary.

"Yeah?" She said in a low voice. "Mine was pretty good too. In case you were wondering."

"I was," I admitted.

Gosh, how could a human be so attractive? I mean, we were standing under fluorescent lights--fluorescent lights, which had the ability to make literal goddesses look sallow and splotchy--and somehow she looked as amazing as she always did.

Her lips parted slightly, and she carefully reached out and grabbed my hand. Well, grabbed wasn't the right word. What she did was so much subtler than just 'grabbing.' She took my hand. No, she touched my hand. Her fingers rested on the soft skin of my knuckles, her thumb absently stroking the inside of my hand.

"So listen," she murmured. Her lips parted again, the words dancing on the tip of her tongue. I nodded slowly, encouraging her to continue. "I--"

"Alright everybody!" Justin shouted from beside the refreshment table. "I'm starving. I want to eat. So we're going to go ahead and sing 'happy birthday' to Amy, Perry, Taylor, and I so that we can help ourselves to pizza and cupcakes." Justin started the birthday song in a lengendarily off-key voice, the rest of the room joining in.

I sang along, but had a hard time concentrating because of Lena's unfinished sentence, and the way my hand still tingled from her touch.

"How about you find us a great place to sit," I said to Lena after the song was sung and the four birthday kids were piling their plates with slices of meat lovers and double chocolate cupcakes. "And I'll go get our food."

Fortunately for us, I stepped in line before a third of the other club members, so I returned to where Lena had procured seats in a private corner of the room before most of the other people had even gotten their first slice.

"Nice," Lena said, taking her first bite. "Not quite as good as the Hawaiian that you got for me, but certainly pretty good."

I smiled at her as I licked some icing from my cupcake. "These cupcakes are super good too."

Lena picked up her cupcake as well. "Some people like to eat dessert before dinner. I like to eat dessert during dinner."

"Me too!" I exclaimed, my eyebrows jumping up in such surprise and excitement that I was afraid that they were going to pop off. "I do that all the time."

"Right? It saves time--"

"--and it's the perfect combination of sweet and salty."

Lena laughed, a sweet tinkly little giggle that made my heart swell. "I just want to say," she said, still grinning, "that I have never met anyone who has such similar food preferences as I do."

"I don't think I have either. Alex thinks that I'm way too picky."

"I think I'm way too picky."

I gave her a fake look of chastisement. "Hey, watch what you say about your food twin."

Her face also turned fake serious. "Wow. You're right. I am so, so sorry." Her face stayed serious after that. "Oh yeah, um...there was that thing that I wanted to talk to you about?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I'm dying of curiosity. Go ahead." Trying to be as chill as possible, I lifted my pizza to take a bite.

That was when disaster struck.

"So...I..." Lena started.

As I lifted my slice, still hot and steaming somehow, a huge glob of cheese and tomato sauce and pineapple slid off and plopped on the front of my dress. It took a couple seconds for my brain to register the searing pain. I squeaked.

Lena exclaimed when she noticed. "Napkins. We need napkins." She scrambled around, trying to find where I had put them. "Where are the napkins?"

I tried to pull the fabric of my dress away from my stomach. "Crap! I forgot to grab any."

The situation only got worse from there. Instead of asking Lena or literally anyone else to grab me some napkins, I decided that the only logical option was for me to stand up and get some myself. But of course, the slippery glob of pizza toppings was as susceptible to gravity as everything else, so when I stood up, it slid farther down the front of my dress and hurled headlong for the floor.

Lena, demonstrating much faster reflexes than I would have thought, shot her hand out and caught the handful of cheese.

"Nice catch," I said. I wasn't sure which felt hotter: the cheese-baked patch on my stomach or my entire face burning from embarrassment.

"Thanks," she replied, eyeing her handful of goop.

"I'm gonna grab some napkins."

I shuffled back to the refreshment table, squeezing my eyes shut. Gosh, why did these things always happen to me? And in front of Lena Luthor, no less.

The food line had reached its peak. Practically everyone was in line. I hovered around it, debating on whether I should hop in the back, even though that would take too long, or just squeeze in and grab a chunk of napkins super quickly.

Unfortunately for me, the group of people standing in front of the plates and napkins were in the middle of a very in depth conversation about--Pokémon, maybe? I didn't know, and it didn't matter. What did matter is that all of their backs were facing me and their conversation was so loud that even though I tried to interject an 'excuse me,' they couldn't hear.

I glanced down at my dress, at the giant orange stain clashing with the dove gray color and white polka dots. Then I glanced at Lena, who had sat back down, still shooting slightly grossed out glances at her handful of cheese.

I had to squeeze my eyes shut again in a truly desperate attempt to push away my mortification.

"Hey little homie. Need some help?"

I jumped, my eyes snapping open. Someone was standing beside me. They were pretty short, and dressed in head-to-toe black and electric blue, from their dyed hair to their shiny new Chucks.

"I am absolutely desperate for some napkins," I admitted to this person, gesturing at the stain and then at the gaggle of people gathered around the table.

They nodded slowly. "I gotcha."

Before I could do anything to stop them, they squeezed their way through the line while exclaiming, "hey! Excuse me! Grabbing some napkins here."

The person returned a few seconds later, shoving the napkins into my hands.

"Wow. Thanks."

They nodded. "I'm Seven. They/them pronouns."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Kara Danvers. She/her pronouns."

"One heck of a stain," Seven mumbled. Then, as fast as they had grabbed the napkins for me, they whipped a Tide-to-go pen out of their jean pocket and handed it to me. "Here you go."

"Wow, you're prepared."

"I'm a waiter, so." They shrugged.

"Well, thank you so much, Seven. I'll get this back to you as soon as I can't."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I have a whole pack back at my place."

I called 'thank you' to them one last time before they walked away.

"I just met an absolute angel of a human." I sat back down next to Lena and handed her a fistful of at least twenty napkins.

"Yeah, Seven. They are a sweet human." Lena scooped the goop off of her hand, then wiped away at the remaining bits.

I furiously scrubbed away at my dress with the pen. "I am so sorry about this mess."

"It's actually really funny. Not to make light of your pain, or anything."

"At least someone can find some humor in it." I wiped at the foam on my dress with a napkin.

"Honestly?" Lena said, giggling adorably. "I'm just glad that it didn't happen to me."

"You are way too cool to ever do something like this."

She scoffed. "I could tell some stories."

"I would love to hear them."

Lena stood up, gathering the soiled napkins as she did so. "I'm going to run to the bathroom and wash my hands."

"Okay. Hurry back." That was probably a stupid thing to say, but I had used up my embarrassment quota for the day, so I quickly pushed away my anxious thoughts.

Before Lena returned, Alex and Maggie sat down on the floor across from me.

Alex snickered and pointed. "You have a little dress on your stain, there."

"Very funny." I braved another bite of pizza, carefully holding my plate under it the whole time.

Lena returned soon, and the four of us spent the rest of the party talking and laughing, other club members weaving in and out of our conversation.

After a few hours, when the food was divided up among club members and everything was cleaned up, Lena and I walked back to the dorm together, since we lived in the same building. I walked her all the way to her door, trying not to feel like I was dropping her off after a date, failing, and then grinning at how giddy that thought made me.

Yeah. I was in trouble.

"You'd better come back next week," Lena said, leaning against her doorframe.

"I will. Definitely will. I had a ton of fun."

"So did I." She glanced over her shoulder into her room. "Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I said. As Lena started to shut her door, I exclaimed, "oh wait a second. What was that thing that you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh. Right." She pushed the door back open with her hip. I gulped. "I um, I wanted to..."

She froze, staring at me, like she was searching for words.

"Lena? You okay?" I asked after several silent seconds.

She shook her head. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just..." Then she sighed. "I have the worst roommate ever."

I blinked, slightly disapointed. A small part of me was hoping that she was going to ask me out. "What did she do now?"

"Her boyfriend is visiting again this weekend. Just over Saturday night. Would it be awful if I invited myself over again?"

"No, absolutely not," I said before I really thought it through. Last time Lena asked to stay in my dorm, I had been trying to come up with a reason why she couldn't. Now, I was trying to come up with a reason why she could. "I mean, my roommate is here this weekend, but she won't mind." I would make sure that she didn't mind.

"I'm sorry about making you do this again."

"Oh, it's no problem. We'll figure out the sleeping arrangements."

Her smile was almost the death of me. "You're the best, Kara."

I giggled--actually giggled--unable to come up with any sort of coherent reply.

"Alright, well. I'll see you Saturday."

"See you, Lena."