The home economics room was beginning to smell like cheese pizza, and the scent drifted slowly into the hallway.

Lorelei and Anya hadn't gotten much done.

The two had been forced to be partners to make a pizza because everyone else was so used to them going together that no one bothered asking to pair up with either of them.

Currently, they weren't speaking to each other. Anya had started off by saying, "Lorelei…" to which Lorelei replied "What." Then Anya chickened out and asked if she would tie her apron in the back for her, a task Lorelei usually did for her without being asked. So Lorelei double knotted the ties, trying to make it as tight as a corset.

Needless to say, there was an awkward silence between the two.

Lorelei decided she just wanted to make the damn pizza. She didn't care if she had to do everything, even if Anya got the same mark as her for not doing any work.

"Will you pass me the freaking rolling pin?" she asked pleasantly.

Anya glanced at her, picked up the dough-covered rolling pin, and as she handed it over to her, said, "What do you want me to do to help?"

"Sit there and look pretty, Anya. It's what you're good at."

"Lorelei--" she pleaded.

"Forget it."

"Here, I'll start working on the sauce, okay?"

"I don't want your help," she snapped. "I'd rather fuck up on my own and get an F then get an A working with you."

Mrs. Richards came over to see how things were turning out. She frowned upon seeing that they hadn't even made the crust. "Not a whole lot of work being done, is there, girls?"

"Nope," Lorelei replied.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to work with her."

"You don't want to work with Anya?" Mrs. Richards asked, baffled.

"Nope."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't trust her with my pizza!"

"Umm, okay," she said slowly. "I'll check on you in ten minutes. I expect to see some progress, girls."

Lorelei picked up the rolling pin like a weapon and glared at the shapeless mound of dough. Then she looked over at Anya, who was busy trying to grate the block of cheese. "Hey, get away from my cheese."

Anya looked up at her, with her eyes stinging with tears of humiliation. "Lorelei, stop. I didn't know, okay? I didn't know you liked him and if I had known, I never would have--I kissed him twice. That's all that happened, and it hasn't happened since I found out that you like him."

"And the award for best friend of the year goes to…"

"Come on, Lie, please just forgive me? You don't have to forget what I did to you, but just believe me that I'm sorry."

"Why, so you can feel better when you're boinking him?"

"I'm not 'boinking' him--Good Lord, Lorelei."

She scoffed. "Oh, right. I forgot what an immaculate virgin you are."

Anya dropped the cheese grater suddenly. "That's enough. Just stop, dammit! He's all yours! I've known you for thirteen years Lorelei, and I never knew that you would throw away that many years of friendship over one guy. But if he means that much to you, do it."

"Oh, I'm the one throwing our friendship away? Who's the one that cheated on her boyfriend with the guy her best friend liked?"

"I already said, I didn't know!" Anya cried.

"But after you did know, what happened, Anya?" she demanded smugly. "You can't settle for having half the guys in this school salivating after you everywhere you turn--"

"Oh, would you just stop? That's not true at all."

"Shut up! Do you know how hard it is living in your shadow?"

"God, I didn't know what a burden it was being my friend, Lorelei."

Lorelei shrugged. "At least I'm good enough for your leftovers."

"What?"

"Your ex-boyfriend."

"What?" she repeated.

"Teddy said Reese's just using me, but I don't know, Anya--it felt pretty sincere when he was kissing me."

"Lorelei! You hate Reese! You always have!" Anya cried. "Oh my God, don't settle like this just to get back at me. You have every reason to hate me right now, but Reese isn't making out with you just because he realized how amazing you are."

Lorelei leaned forward into their workstation, putting her head on her arms and smearing flour on her forehead, which Anya brushed off for her. "I don't know what I'm doing, Anya, everything's so fucked up right now…"

"I'm so sorry, Lorelei."

"I just don't get how you can always have someone. And then I'm just the loser that's had one boyfriend in her entire life, which, by the way, only lasted for a week before he found out he was gay."

Anya put her hand on her friend's back. "You're not a loser. You're my best friend. I've seen you at your bests and your worsts. And believe me, even when you're at your worst, you're incredible. I don't know who it will be, but someone is going to see you like how I see you--the real Lorelei with quirks and faults and everything--and you're just going to blow them away with how beautiful you really are."

"Did you rehearse that?" she asked. "I liked it."

"I'm not seeing Chris, Lorelei," Anya murmured. "I couldn't do that to you, not when I knew how much you liked him too. I'm sorry I didn't tell you what had happened between him and me, but I got scared and I didn't want you to hate me."

"Anya--" Lorelei said, startled.

"It's okay. There's other fish in the sea."

"You hate fish. And you like Chris," she said. "And Chris likes you back. It wouldn't be fair of me to say you couldn't be with him just because I want him; that'd be a double standard. Besides, I like fish. Lots of fish for me!"

Anya giggled. "I love you, you strange little cookie."

Lorelei looked up at her. "Wait, a few minutes ago, did you call me a lesbian?"

Her laughter sounding depressed but relieved, Anya asked, "What?"

"What does quirk mean?"

Giggling, she replied, "All the little parts of your personality that make you, you."

"Oh good. I thought it meant something else." She grinned. "Quirk. That's a good word."

Mrs. Richards returned. "How are we doing here?"

Lorelei beamed up at the teacher. "I'm a quirk!"

In the end, they got an F on their pizza due to the fact that they never made one. But at least they earned that F together.