Hi, everyone! Here's chapter one of some teen AO fluff. Let me know what you think. Feedback is always appreciated and thank you for reading. :)
Alexandra Cabot glanced at the clock radio on her nightstand that was now blaring a song from a local Top 40 station. Alex had never particularly liked that song, but now that it had startled her awake at 4 a.m., she liked it even less.
Before the start of her freshman year, Alex tried to make herself feel better about starting high school by reminding herself that there were only 720 school days until graduation. 719 of those days were now behind her and that morning she was going to get ready for the 720th and final day of her high school career.
She wanted to shut off her alarm and wake up at 6 like usual until she remembered the reason why she was getting up so early. Her friends were due to arrive in an hour to watch the sunrise from the deck in her backyard. It had been a tradition of theirs for the past three years －the morning of the first day of school they'd get together to talk about their plans for the year and what they were most looking forward to and the last day was to celebrate all they had accomplished and how far they'd come over the past nine months.
The dreaded alarm clock read 4:07 when Alex finally got out of bed thanks, in part, to a song that she and her best friend Serena used to sing along to whenever it was on the radio in either her or Serena's car. Alex had felt so free the first time she heard it. She had just gotten her license and her parents had let her and Serena drive around town to celebrate. Two years had passed since that moment, but it felt like a lifetime for Alex.
Friends had come and gone since then, but she knew the ones who remained would be her friends for life regardless of the distance that college would put between them.
The first to arrive at her house was Casey Novak. Casey had been her friend since the two of them were on their middle school debate team. As pre-teens, their school didn't allow students to debate any controversial topics, so their assigned topic ended up being about whether or not fairytales affect children's perception of reality. Casey and Alex may have only been in sixth and seventh grade at the time, but they had a feeling that they were assigned a fairytale topic because they were girls, so they decided to give it their all and present the argument that fairytales limit girls and affect adults' perception of what girls are truly capable of. Their debate sparked a short-lived movement among their female classmates, but the only true change that resulted was the fact that Casey and Alex were given detention for the very first time. Casey considered them political prisoners and attempted to take the matter to the school board before Mr. and Mrs. Novak pleaded with their daughter to just accept the one hour of detention. Casey told them she was going to accept her punishment because of what her parents said, but in reality it was because the district office was too far for eleven-year-old Casey and twelve-year-old Alex to travel by bike. It was because of that project that Alex and Serena's twosome became a trio and the three of them had been inseparable ever since .
That same eleven-year-old girl was now an incoming senior and it was evident by the ensemble she was wearing. As was tradition, most (if not all) incoming senior girls were wearing blue t-shirts with 'Seniors '93' printed on them. There was still one day left at that school for the Class of 1992, but as far as the '93-ers were concerned, the school was already theirs and they were ready to assert their dominance over all the other classes, particularly the incoming freshmen.
Serena Southerlyn was the next to arrive, clad in the uniform of a private school ten miles away from their neighborhood. Serena had lived across the street from Alex ever since her family moved into the neighborhood from Connecticut when Serena and Alex were seven-years-old. Although Serena and Alex had attended the same school and even managed to be in the same classes, an encounter with a girl on her tennis team led to everything changing for the two of them. Mr. and Mrs. Southerlyn had always considered themselves to be liberal and open-minded, but after they caught their daughter kissing another girl, it was a mere two weeks before she was pulled out of school and forced to attend a private school a couple of towns over in hopes that a change of scenery would cure her even if it meant missing out on her junior and senior year with her friends. The entire situation was a running joke among their group. How Mr. and Mrs. Southerlyn thought sending their lesbian daughter to an all-girls school would stop her from liking girls was beyond all of them, especially because it was at that school that Serena met her current girlfriend Abbie Carmichael, but when the jokes subsided, the reality of her parents' actions dawned on all of them. Serena was their daughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Southerlyn were willing to do anything they could to keep her from being who she truly was.
Mr. and Mrs. Southerlyn had always wanted their daughter to go to Yale－their alma mater－but Serena now wanted nothing to do with the future they had planned for her. She wanted to pave her own way and－for Serena－that meant leaving their quiet New England small town for northern California so she could attend Berkeley. She would be living just outside of San Francisco and she knew it was a place she could finally be free from the girl her parents wanted her to be.
Alex knew she'd be saying goodbye to her best friend in three short months, but her goal that summer was to forget about the distance that would soon be between them and focus on having as much fun as she possibly could with her friends while they were still in the same town.
"Connie is bringing Olivia," Casey brought to their attention when they were preparing refreshments in the kitchen.
Those four words caused Alex to nearly drop the cups of silverware she was holding and remind her of the other goal she had. Olivia had been her crush since the first time she laid eyes on her in AP English class that past September. She had found out Olivia had moved from Manhattan to their small town in late August. English had never been Alex's favorite subject, but that fifty minute class period soon became the highlight of her day for the sheer fact that Olivia participated more than any other student, which gave Alex the opportunity to get to know her through her insights on literature. She knew that Olivia's mom was an English lit professor at Columbia University and where Olivia stood politically－things she revealed in class discussions－but throughout that entire nine-month period of being in the same class, Alex couldn't gather the nerve to make small talk with her to ask her how her weekend was or even compliment one of her outfits. Olivia was confident, but not cocky, and her burgundy lipstick, dark nail polish, and unbuttoned flannels over tank tops were unlike anything worn by their other female classmates. She was a mix of grunge and glam and Alex saw her style as a type of sophistication that came from growing up in a metropolitan area－kind of the way her good friend Connie Rubirosa could put together any outfit and make it work for her because she had the confidence and the know-how that came with growing up in Los Angeles. Just when Alex was starting to wonder if that burgundy lipstick rubbed off when Olivia was kissed, she remembered that her two best friends were waiting for some type of response from her. "Olivia Benson?" she asked nervously.
"There's no other Olivia at our－I mean your school," Serena reminded her. She grabbed the cups of silverware from Alex and placed them on the table next to the bagels and fruit platter that the three of them had set up.
"Olivia can't come here." Alex started to panic. "I'm not ready for her. This is not how this was supposed to happen."
Serena grabbed one of the juice boxes they had set on the table and struggled with taking the straw out of the wrapper. "How was this supposed to happen?"
Alex took the still-wrapped straw from her friend and took it out of the plastic wrapping. "I made her a mix-tape and was going to－"
"No!" Casey and Serena said in unison, Serena's eyes widened and Casey covered her face with her hands and shook her head.
"You've never even had a full-on conversation with Olivia," Casey reminded her.
"Alex, you can't just go from zero to mix-tape," Serena pointed out. "You have to flirt with her. You have to compliment her. At the very least, you have to have an actual conversation with her."
"I don't even know how to flirt," Alex confessed.
"It's easy," Serena responded. "I can show you. First, what do you like about her?"
"Physically...everything," Alex gushed. "Her smile, the way her hair isn't quite long enough to put in a high ponytail so little strands in the back get loose from her scrunchie, and since the weather has been hot she's been wearing a tank top and shorts and I－"
"You need a girlfriend," Casey interrupted her.
"Isn't that the point of this?" Alex asked in a confused tone of voice.
"I think she means you need a girlfriend," Serena reiterated. "You are wound up way too tight, Alex. Yes, you're valedictorian and, yes, you got into Harvard, but tomorrow is the start of summer break and you can relax now. I went through a lot the past couple of years and I didn't like having to leave my friends and my school, but getting into bed with Miss Tall, Tan, and Texan a couple of times a week definitely helps. Not to mention, she's my girlfriend and every day I'm with her, I fall in love with her even more and every time Abbie and I kiss I feel like I'm so hers and she's mine. When I'm with her, there's nowhere else I'd rather be and, if you take the first step and talk to her this morning, you can eventually have that with Olivia."
"Oh, barf," Casey responded. She took a sip from her juice box and then set it down, prepared to impart some wisdom on her friends. "That might be all fine and good for Serena and Miss Texas, but some of us are normal and Olivia seems normal. What you have with Olivia could be like the relationship I have with Tony. Yes, he's my boyfriend and I love him and I know he loves me, too,, but our relationship isn't based on some kind of fairytale. You do remember our history with fairytales, right, Alex? Tony and I have the same hobbies and we have a lot of fun together and we can sleep together without it being some kind of overly sappy experience like Serena here. We're confident enough in our relationship to not have to say 'I love you' every five seconds and I think Olivia is going to prefer it that way, too. She doesn't seem like a hearts and flowers type of girl. Anything too sappy could scare her away."
"Regardless, Olivia should be here any second now," Serena pointed out. "You're beautiful and smart and fun to be around, Alex. Just be yourself and Olivia will be yours in no time."
"What if she's not even gay?" Alex asked nervously. "What if we've been wrong this whole time and she has a boyfriend back in Manhattan?"
"I saw her slug Tim in the arm after he said she shot free throws like a girl," Casey pointed out. "Not like a flirtatious little tap and then giggle. She full on slugged him in the arm and then proceeded to sink the next three pointer. Trust me, she's gay."
"Okay, what language are you speaking?" Serena asked. "Translate it for those of us who aren't tomboys. The only thing in that sentence that interested me is 'she's gay.'"
"Casey, you're good at sports and you're straight," Alex reminded her. "That little anecdote of yours doesn't tell me if Olivia is gay or straight."
"Well, maybe not," Casey shrugged. "But she hangs out with Tim and Brad and Travis and those guys and－"
"Jock Tim or Sketchy Tim?" Serena interrupted.
"Jock Tim," Casey responded.
Serena seemed pensive. "Skater Brad or Stoner Brad?"
"Definitely Skater Brad," Casey told her before turning to Alex. "Olivia knows how to grind and kickflip. She's so...cool. I think I might even have a crush on her."
"I don't think that's the grind Alex is interested in," Serena smiled. "But, Alex, I'm sure Olivia would much rather grind on you."
"What I was trying to get at before I was interrupted by our favorite girl-obsessed nymphomaniac," Casey glared at Serena. "...is that Olivia is totally gay and I know this because Connie and I did some reconnaissance for you. We observed her with her friends and we heard her talking about girls in general but we made sure she wasn't flirting with any girls. Plus, Connie told me that last night her boyfriend heard from Michelle Anderson who heard that Skater Brad said that Jock Tim told him that Olivia said there was a girl in her English class that she thinks is cute. And that's why Connie invited her over to your house this morning."
"But there's twelve other girls in our English class," Alex pointed out. "What if I'm not the girl she's referring to?"
"I know you're the valedictorian, but you are absolutely clueless when it comes to love," Serena teased her. "You and Olivia aren't friends, so why would she be coming to your house this early in the morning if she didn't have a crush on you? Before the sun rises, I want you to ask her to hang out in the park with us after school and, before we leave the park, you're going to ask her to go somewhere－anywhere－just the two of you and, before the night is through, you're going to kiss her and not a kiss on the cheek, Alex. I want you to call me when you get home and tell me that you made out with Olivia."
Alex chewed on a grape while trying to register what her friend had told her. "So, let me get this straight. You say I can't go from zero to mix-tape, but yet I can go from zero to making out?"
"I hope your parents are getting you calling cards for your going away present because Boston to Berkeley is one hell of a long distance bill," Serena reminded her. "And you are going to need my advice every step of the way when it comes to dating in college."
Alex covered her face with her hands. "College didn't even cross my mind. I'll be at Harvard. I don't even know what school Olivia is going to this fall. What if she's thousands of miles away?"
Casey stuck the straw in her second juice box. "She's going to Hudson. That's not that far away. And I heard from Sketchy Tim who heard from Beer Pong Brian that－"
Before Casey could even finish her story, the girls were startled by the sound of the doorbell ringing.
Alex looked down at her outfit and the Harvard t-shirt and denim shorts that seemed okay thirty minutes ago when she thought she'd be sitting outside with just her friends suddenly made her feel like she wasn't putting in enough effort. Why didn't I wear a cute summer dress? But with no further time to prepare, Alex asked Casey and Serena if she looked okay and then made her way over to the door. You can do this, Alex. She wouldn't be here at 5:30 a.m. if she wasn't interested in you...