Chapter 3

A/N: Another day, another chapter! I hope you all enjoy this one, and again, there are more notes from me down below.

The Fifth and final week of summer school was finally upon them. For Lucia, it mostly revolved around taking all the tests she had missed at the end of the year, and she was fairly confident she had passed them. Eh, at least 80% sure. 70?

What this did mean, was that she was finally free and ready to enjoy her actual Summer vacation. Five full weeks were gone, four dedicated to actual study, with a week-long break in the middle, but at the very least she could take her time and enjoy the last eight or so she had left of Summer vacation.

She made her way through the halls of her school one last time, keeping her eyes open for Amelia. The two had grown a bit closer in the past few weeks since their lunch together, Amelia even starting to pull her hair up and revealing her ears after their first appearance, showing a newfound confidence in them after Lucia's talk. Despite being closer, though, they hadn't yet exchanged any contact information, and Lucia wanted to hang out without it being bound by school hours before Summer ended.

She'd spent twenty minutes wandering aimlessly, and was just about to give up her search when a pair of hands reached around the corner, grabbing her by the scruff of her shirt and pulling her around. Before she knew it, she was pinned to the wall, the very girl she was looking for right up in her face.

"'Sup, Noceda? Hope you weren't planning to ditch me without saying goodbye?"

Lucia suppressed a shudder, but it wasn't the bad kind. It was kind of hard for her to explain. "Nope, not at all, Bane. I was actually just looking for you, wanted to give you my number."

A brief flash of surprise went across Amelia's golden eyes, a bit of her dominance lost. The green haired girl shook her head, re-composing herself and slammed her hand against the wall beside Lucia's head, "Well- Good! I was about to do the same."

Lucia nodded quickly, "Good!"

The two stood awkwardly, staring at one another, then simultaneously took out their phones and exchanged numbers. Lucia managed to finish hers first, then snapped a quick picture of Amelia still typing on her phone to add as her icon, joining the vast collection of icons of people on their phones she had for her other family and friends.

As soon as Amelia was done, she returned to keeping Lucia against the wall, much to the Latina girl's confusion, She clearly wasn't going anywhere. Her green haired friend smirked playfully, "Say, you said you were a bad girl, right?"

The way Amelia said that made Lucia afraid it was awakening something inside of her, and she found her mouth feeling surprisingly dry, so just nodded.

"Well, why don't you and I go do something bad, then? Let's say, tomorrow night?"

Lucia's mouth fell open, wondering if she could have possibly heard that right. To her relief, Amelia looked just as mortified by her phrasing and hastily tried to correct herself, "Tagging! I wanna spray paint some stuff, and want you to come along!"

Lucia couldn't help but burst into nervous giggles, "Wow, gutsy of you to suggest doing something like that while still on school property."

"I already made it clear I meant the graffiti, you dolt!"

"That's what I was talking about!" Lucia grinned like a madwoman, and took the chance to pry away from the wall. She moved away from the flushed teen, shooting some finger guns Luz would be proud of, "Where do you wanna meet?"

Amelia pulled herself together, "There's a Burger Queen over on the corner of Jetson and Flintstone, we'll grab something to eat and head out then, if that's fine?"

"Sure thing!"

Lucia stood in front of her bedroom mirror, holding two different flannels up to her torso to compare how they looked on her. She'd been at this for the past twenty minutes, and had to leave soon, so a decision had to be made.

The green one looked good, but would that be weird, since it matched Amelia's hair? Or should she go with the red one, and risk looking like a lumberjack in front of her friend on their first outing together.

She didn't remember friendships being this hard back in middle school, when did that change?

She groaned, tossing aside the green and deciding on the red, tying it around her waist. It was still too hot during the day, and who was she to deprive the world of seeing her guns? She flexed in the mirror, gritting her teeth and making faces and being entirely too silly to try and get rid of the spike of nervousness that had settled in her gut.

The alarm on her phone went off. If she was going to make it on foot, she had to leave now. Quickly throwing on her shoes, Lucia burst out her bedroom door, sprinting down the hall and passing her mother, who'd managed to get the rare day off and was using it to do laundry, of which she had a basket in her arms.

"Have fun on your date, Lucia!" Camila called after her, stopping the teen in her tracks.

"It's not a date, mom!" She whined back, sounded exactly like every stereotype of a teenager on TV. She wasn't going to see some boy, she was going to hang out with Amelia, and do some delinquent activities that were demanded of people her age! Not that she was going to tell her mother that.

Before heading out the door, Lucia scooped up her gym bag, which was laden with some spare spray cans and a few other supplies, and barreled out the door. The Burger Queen they were meeting at was technically within walking distance, but it was really stretching that definition, so if she wanted to make good time she was going to have to book it.

She didn't get why her mom thought this was a date. It was just two like-minded girls, going to get some dinner together, and have some fun, right? She was pretty sure she'd know if this was meant to be a date. Not that she wanted it to be a date. She wasn't into girls. Right?

Luz had figured her own sexuality out when she was thirteen, and had always been very open about it ever since. Lucia was seventeen now, surely she would know if she wasn't straight. She slowed her run down to a crawl, and fished her phone out of her pocket, a message to her sister already halfway typed before she deleted it. She was not about to ask her little sister for advice on her love life. She had read Luz's fanfiction, and that girl had no sense of realism when it came to romance.

Lucia resumed her previous pace, and made it to the Burger Queen half an hour later, looking a lot less fresh and appealing than she had when she'd left her home. Her hair was frazzled, clothes rumpled, and there wasn't an inch of her that wasn't covered in sweat after running in the summer heat. The black tank top she'd decided to wear clung to her like a second skin, in contrast to the flannel tied around her waist, which was barely hanging on. She relished the sweet, sweet air conditioning as she stepped inside the greasy fast food joint, letting the cool air blow on her.

She'd barely taken a step inside before having a paper cup thrust into her hands. An amused Amelia greeted her, eyes looking her up and down, and cheeks flushed a deep crimson. Had she been running as well? No, she didn't look sweaty at all. Lucia didn't question it anymore, not with her brain this overheated, and took a drink from the straw, savoring the cool taste of the water inside, chugging it until there was nothing but the sound of suction on ice.

She handed the cup back to Amelia, who held it like she didn't know what to even do with it. "Thanks, I was really thirsty there."

Amelia gave a small nod, eyes still locked onto her friend's form, "Yeah, I'm pretty thirsty too."

Well, now Lucia felt bad for drinking all the water, "Oh, sorry. I chugged all of your water!"

"Wait, what?" Amelia stopped drinking in Lucia's form long enough to snap out of her daze. "Oh, uh, forget the drink for now, let's go."

Together the two made their way to an empty table, Amelia setting the empty cup down and Lucia removing her gym bag from around her arm and tossing it into one of the extra chairs. Within a few minutes, they'd both stepped up to the counter to order their individual meals, and were chowing down in their seats.

Burger Queen was like any other fast food establishment. Amazingly clean on every surface, yet still felt dirty just to be inside of it. Booths and tables, but no sense of privacy between how close they all were, and the big windows on every side of the building that left one feeling exposed. The food was beyond greasy, an unholy mess of bread, meat, cheese and vegetables that you would have to be exceedingly generous to call a burger, and yet it was exactly what the teenage body craved. Lucia had three with extra cheese, a luxury she rarely had at home due to Luz being lactose intolerant, and enjoyed every bite.

Amelia watched with sick fascination as Lucia scarfed down every last bite of her food, she herself only managing to put down most of a burger with a handful of fries on the side before being too full to manage anymore. Lucia pointed to Amelia's half eaten fries, and with a mouthful of food muffled out a "orh oo' gohnha eet 'at?"

Amelia shook her head, and pushed her tray of fries across to Lucia, who happily tossed a few in her mouth, and another few in between the buns of her burger. "You are… so disgusting." Amelia grinned, astounded at the sheer lack of table manners her companion had.

Lucia stopped, a fry halfway hanging out of her mouth, having the decency to look bit the fry in half, setting the uneaten end in her burger's wrapper and crumpled it up, tossing it from her seat over to the trash can by the exit, pumping her fist after scoring a perfect shot.

Turning her attention back to Amelia, she said "Sorry about that. Mealtimes with my sister tend to be a bit of a contest over who can shove the most in their face."

Amelia leaned against the table, "You're really attached to her, aren't you?"

Lucia rubbed the back of her neck, "Yeah, I do talk about her a lot, don't I? Sorry-"

"Don't be, it's cute." Amelia cut in with a wave of her hand, "I just kinda wish I knew what it was like. I don't think I have any siblings"

Lucia raised an eyebrow, "You don't think?"

"I'm adopted." Amelia said easily, in a practiced way that said she'd had this conversation before. "My parents found me one day, and decided to take me in. Or, well, that's the simple version of the story. I'm sure there was a lot of complicated paperwork and police involved. But since I don't know who my birth family is, who knows? I could have some brothers or sisters out there?"

Lucia leaned in, "Whoa, that's… actually pretty interesting! If you do, I hope you get to meet them someday. Siblings are a pain, but I wouldn't trade Luz away for the world."

Amelia barred a set of sharp teeth in a pleasant smile, "I can tell. Now, are you gonna tell me what's in the bag, or not?" She gestured to the gym bag Lucia had brought, which the other girl eagerly scooped up and unzipped, opening the flap enough for Amelia to get a peek inside.

"… Okay, what's with the bat?"

Lucia put her hand inside the bag, and scooped out a baseball mitt and a ball, and tossed it over to Amelia, who almost fumbled the surprise catch. "Plausible deniability. I know you're still new in town, but I know a great place to paint up that's half a block away from a baseball diamond. If anyone asks, we're on our way there to pitch a few balls."

Amelia slid her hand into the glove, tossing the ball against it to test it out, "That's pretty smart. Not your first time, then, huh?"

"Oh yeah, I can't wait to show you some of the stuff I've done."

Lucia wasn't kidding when she said she knew the perfect place. From the look of the building, a truly run down convenience store, it was a popular target for vandalism, and had probably been abandoned as long as Lucia and Amelia had been alive. The area around it was completely empty, just a dirt lot with one building on it, with the pavement and sidewalk that was there cracked and beaten. There wasn't an inch of the place that didn't look to be falling apart, from the walls to the broken in windows.

"This place has been in a land contract war for ages," Lucia explained, "Basically, some land development company owns all the other lots of land in this area except this building, and the owner of the place only holds onto it so he can demand a really high price when the land developers eventually cave to get their hands on it, to, I dunno, build a shopping center? Apartments? So it's gonna be torn down anyway, and isn't currently being used. No one really cares if we cover it in graffiti."

"Besides," the Latina girl added, "The building was always an eyesore, I think I've made it a lot better, don't you think?"

Amelia was too busy staring at the wall of the building and feeling a bit intimidated by the level of skill that she saw on display. She had just wanted to make some mischief, do something she shouldn't to get the blood pumping. Scribble a made up name on a wall and go home and be done with it.

Instead, this entire section of the wall was a mural of various different pieces of art, which if she was to believe, was all done by Lucia. The one section she was currently looking at looked like it had hopped out of a children's fairy tale.

Lucia took pride in Amelia's expression. The Noceda's were always creatively gifted. Camila could sew, from stitches on her patients at the vet, to a new outfit for one of her daughters, the needle and thread just came naturally to her. Luz liked colored pencils and markers the best, and was the only person Lucia knew who could make a perfect circle in one go.

Lucia preferred paints. Acrylics, oils, cans of spray paint. It was all the same to her. She had an easel in her room and plenty of brushes, but today's canvas would be this brick wall. She preferred to think of it less as graffiti, and more as art. She was improving this town, especially by covering up all the garbage other people had put up before she decided to come along.

Gang signs, wobbly, uneven swastikas and other racist eyesores, words that made her mother blush and cover Luz's eyes when they passed by on a drive. No one cared about this building, so they did whatever they wanted to it. Seeing as this was a small town in Connecticut, most of it was probably done by some edgy teenagers who didn't really grasp the full nature of what they painted, rather than any actual gang. It was all ugly nonetheless, and Lucia had changed that.

This section of the wall they stood in front of now had been dedicated to Luz's favorite heroine, Azura. She stood proudly in a heroic pose, brandishing her staff as if to cast out evil. Though, seeing as she was painted beside another image Lucia had done, of an explosion of muffins and cupcakes, she really just looked a bit silly.

"Wow. And here I just wanted to write something like, 'Bane was here'" Amelia breathed out, still taking in the work before here. Azura was far from the only character on the wall, after all.

Lucia snorted, "Not a great idea. Bane doesn't sound like a very common name, they'd either trace it back to you, or a Batman villain, and last I checked we're a good way from Gotham."

She reached into her bag, and tossed a spare can to her friend. "You can paint whatever, or wherever, if you want. I don't mind if you cover some of my stuff up, I come out and redo some art every once in a while anyway, since there's only so much space."

Amelia eyed the can in her hands, then nervously kicked her feet, "Cou-could you help me out? I'm not much of an artist. Unless you'd like to make something of your own?"

Lucia just grinned, "Don't worry about it, of course I'll help. Here." She grabbed Amelia by the hand, stepping behind her and guiding her hands. The green haired girl blushed, but didn't fight it.

"Just tell me what you want to make, and I'll guide you through it." Lucia spoke into her ear. Amelia gulped, and nodded.

"Well, there is one thing I've got in mind…"

The two painted together until it started to get dark. With Amelia's imagery and Lucia's talent, the two had managed to finish their creation, a small, pinkish creature that resembled a hairless mouse, with long oval ears, beady blue eyes, and buck teeth. In its hand was a needle and thread. Taking a step back, the two admired their work.

"So…" Lucia started, unsure as to what she was looking at, "What is it?"

Amelia stared at the picture, eyes glimmering. "A memory. I don't remember his name, but I know he's a character from something I liked when I was really small."

She turned to face Lucia, her usual playful smirk replaced with a genuine smile. "Thanks for this. I've never been artistically inclined, and could never get him out on paper. But he looks exactly like how I remember him."

Lucia was about to tell her that it was no problem, when she was taken off guard by the sudden embrace. Amelia had her face rested in the crook of her neck, arms around her waist, and Lucia suddenly had no idea what to do with her hands. A burning feeling rose to her cheeks. This was nothing like Luz's hugs.

Her mother's well wishes from before she left home entered her mind again, and where she was quick to dismiss them before, now she wasn't so sure. She felt she owed it to herself and Amelia to try and find out, and set things straight. If Amelia was- if she liked girls, like Luz did, she didn't want to lead her on, or anything. That wasn't right.

When the hug ended, Lucia decided to bite the bullet and get it over with, "Amelia, was this- is this a date?"

That smirk appeared again, grazing the other girl's lips. "Hm, I dunno…"

Amelia reached out, and gently gripped Lucia's hand, "What do you think?" She purred.

Lucia gaped like a fish for a moment, fighting off the embarrassment that was likely showing on her face. She'd known this was a possible answer when she asked that question, but still! "I- uh, I think-"

Amelia nodded slowly, looking at her expectedly, and Lucia fought to finish her sentence. "I -thhh think that I'm straight?"

The muted silence that fell between them couldn't be unstated. Amelia's eyes widened, and she dropped Lucia's hand in shock. "Oh… oh! I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!" She backpedaled, taking a step back to distance herself.

"It's alright, I was dumb and didn't catch on! I wasn't sure if you were actually flirting or if that was just you having a naturally flirty personality," Lucia insisted, knowing this had to be just as embarrassing for Amelia as it was for her. "I had no idea you actually liked me until just now!"

"I don't like you!" Amelia floundered, then cringed and tried to explain, "I mean, I do like you, but I don't, you know, like-like you? It's just… I'm now stuck in this new, small town, and I didn't want to be stuck single and bored."

She played nervously with her hair, "And, well, I've never been… bored. With you. Around you."

Lucia was overcome with bashfulness, unable to meet Amelia's eye, "Well, I feel the same. You're not boring either."

Lucia felt a playful punch to her shoulder and looked up to see Amelia smirking at her again, cheeks still rosy, "Are you sure you're straight? That sounded pretty gay to me."

"I am! Maybe?" Lucia said, wincing when it sounded like even she wasn't sure of herself.

"Maybe?!" Amelia repeated.

"I was pretty sure until you came along!" Lucia blurted out, then clamped her mouth shut, ignoring that her and Amelia's faces were back to resemble tomatoes at that statement.

Amelia eyed her, "so… you're questioning?"

Lucia shrugged, trying to play things cool, "I mean, a really pretty girl spent the last few weeks being flirty with me. I liked it. Or, well, I didn't dislike it. You were pretty obvious about it, but I just kinda thought it was your flirty personality and didn't look any deeper into it, but now that we're… here, I… don't know?"

Amelia gave her an understanding look and a nod of her head. "I… yeah, I can get your confusion, then. I wondered about myself for a little while. I didn't know for certain I liked girls until a really embarrassing incident in a locker room, when I realized… girls."

Amelia shrugged, wisely not deciding to explain anymore of her previous train of thought, "but if you're not sure, that's okay. Maybe you need time, or… maybe you just need one of those kinds of moments?"

Like a lightbulb had gone off in her head, Amelia grabbed Lucia by the shoulders, "Okay, I've got an idea. You don't have to go along with it, but it might just help you figure things out."

Lucia's shoulders felt warm at the contact, and she nodded her approval before her brain could even register what was said, "Alright, I-I say lets do it. Er, what is it?"

Lucia was suddenly dragged and pressed against the convenience store wall with enough force to knock some of the wind out of her lungs. Before she could recover, Amelia was pressed against her, body against body, chest against chest, faces inches away. "Here's the deal. I'm gonna stand here. I'm gonna close my eyes, and pucker my lips real good, and if you want to kiss me, go for it."

Lucia's eyes nearly burst out of her skull, and seeing her expression Amelia soothingly tried to calm her, despite the rising redness of her own cheeks, "You don't have to. If you're sure you're not into girls, or even just need more time, you can walk away. We can still be friends. It might be… a little humiliating to hang out, but you're still good company, and we can just pretend this never happened."

"Or, alternatively you can kiss me. Even if it's just because you're curious. It doesn't have to mean anything. If you kiss me and there is nothing there, it's still the same deal. We stay friends, but I got a kiss from a cute girl, and you figured out if you liked it or not. If you do like it, we go out on a few dates, see where this takes us, and get the best of both worlds." Amelia finished breathily, then suddenly didn't look so sure of herself. "So, what do you think? You can walk away, if I'm making you uncomfortable. No pressure, no judgement."

Lucia didn't really know what she wanted to do in this situation. A huge part of her wanted to push Amelia away, to run all the way home and bury her head in her pillow and hide from the world until her face stopped burning. Another part of her was curious about what it would feel like, and just wanted the answer to her damn question. In the end, the latter was louder, and she found herself nodding, "Yeah, this… this sounds like a plan."

Amelia smiled, and quickly closed her eyes, "Okay, good. Let's get this started, then."

Without another word, Amelia puckered up her lips for a kiss, and the weight of what was about to happen suddenly barreled into Lucia like a baseball going at one hundred miles an hour. She was pressed against a building, a gorgeous young woman's body pinned to hers, with the offer of a kiss. Her first kiss ever.

What if she did it wrong? Would Amelia be disappointed? Would she herself enjoy it? She could smell the onions from Amelia's burger on the girl's breath, and wondered if the taste was on her lips as well, and if that would be a good or a bad thing. Did she even want to kiss Amelia in the first place, or had she just been tricked into being talked into it?

She had to give Amelia some props for her patience. She'd been waiting, lips at the ready for over three minutes now while Lucia internally panicked. Dios mio, she was a coward. Luz figured this out years ago, and wasn't as much of a mess as she was being right now! Was she really going to let her little sister win? Just kiss the girl, and decide if you liked it or not later! Amelia would understand if she still needed a bit of time.

Lucia had made up her mind. She was going to do it. She was going to kiss Amelia. With shaky hands, she cupped the other woman's face, Amelia leaning into the touch, and Lucia moved her face forward. She didn't close her eyes, couldn't bring herself to do it. What if she closed her eyes and missed Amelia's mouth completely? Her eyes flickered, spotting movement just behind Amelia's head, but it was just a momentary distraction before they went back to staring at Amelia's pretty face.

Except that whatever she had seen was suddenly moving fast, drawing her eyes right back to it. She barely had time to react, "Amelia, look out!"

She shoved the girl off of her and to her left, with an ease that showed that Amelia had kept her word that Lucia could leave if she wanted despite seemingly being pressed against the wall. Lucia herself had no time to follow, instead choosing to drop like a rag doll as a clawed paw the size of her torso slammed into the wall where her head used to be, nails like daggers piercing the brick and mortar like cardboard.

"What," She could hear Amelia gasp out of eyesight as a set of glowing red eyes lowered to meet her own pair of brown, "The fuck is that?"

The quiet night became deafening as the monster reeled back and let out a mighty roar.

A/N: God, I love cliffhanger endings.

Not a lot to say here, outside of this being my favorite chapter so far. There's just something I find very genuine about two teenagers being nervous wrecks about a date that I love, even if Lucia hadn't known it was a date. Amelia's offer being filled with her rambling about her plan to let Lucia kiss her just reeks of a plan a hormonal teenager would come up with, too.

I always find it a bit funny that stories put so much emphasis on the couple GETTING together that most stories don't even entertain the idea that people just kinda… ask other people out on dates all the time? Even people they don't know all that well. You never see a love story about someone going up to a cutie at a bar and giving them their number, then them getting together that way and having a happy romance and a couple of kids.

I mean, that isn't how I ask people out either(I'm a big ol' coward, sue me), but it's still funny that's never explored in fiction.

As always, leave a comment if you liked this, I love them and I love you. Take care of yourselves and I hope to see you next chapter.