A/N: Forgot to put an author's note so I'm adding one. It seems like a few people are reading this now. Hi people! How excited are you for season 2? I have no idea when it's coming out but I'm ready for it. Hahahaha


"Assignments in your desk,"

"Thanks,"

That was what Ben Gross and Alice Lee's text messages consisted of. Alice didn't know what she was expecting, but the next few days flew by in total normalcy... until Friday.

"Tomorrow is the swim meet, meet you at school at 8 am,"

Oh crud. She had totally forgotten that the swim meet was a Saturday. She'd have to tell her mom, and her mom wouldn't be happy with her sudden change of plans.

"What's this school event you need to go to again? Why hadn't I heard about it earlier?" Her mom questioned, still kneading dough while looking at her piercingly at the same time. Alice's mother had dyed hair. The tawny colour suited her well and complemented her pale yet angular face. She had striking cat-like eyes, just like Alice. It made the "mother's stare" that much more intense.

"I completely forgot about it ma," Alice confessed and placed both her arms on the kitchen counter.

"Sureeeeee." Her mother stopped kneading the dough, "You've never missed an event for the newspaper club before, what's going on?" You know it's serious when mom starts wiping her hands and places them on her hips. "...and Alice... The swim meet... Are you sure you want to go?"

Alice opened her mouth to say something but it got caught in her throat. Her mind reeled back to memories of her childhood. Big, lapping waves hovering over her head and coming down at her in full force. Her head surfaces, but another one crashes down on her and she starts to gasp for air in the little gaps between waves. Her legs were getting tired—

"I—" Alice started, pulling herself away from the memory, "will be okay, ma." She hadn't told her mom that she was now juggling a completely different club. She hadn't told her as well that she was trying to—or at least wanting to—get over her fear of the water.

Her mom raised her eyebrows, and sighed a long one. "Alright, if you say so Alice. You've never given me a reason to doubt you before, so I'm gunna have to believe you,"

Internally, she heaved a sigh of relief. Outwardly, she merely rolled her eyes. She had a habit of doing that. "It's just swim meet ma. Nothing interesting. Plus, Simone is competing!"

When Saturday came the spirit of sportsmanship was on an all time high. Cheerleaders were chattering amongst themselves. The swimmers—some of the most popular guys in school, including Paxton Hall-Yoshida—were talking amongst themselves and giving each other fist bumps.

She was like a stick in the mud. She stood out way too much with her lavender backpack and large DSLR around her neck. The discomfort made her pick up the Canon in her hands and turn it on. She realized there was no memory card so there was nothing to see. She awkwardly put it back down.

It felt like near a century when Ben Gross finally showed up with his signature collar shirt and jeans. "Come on, let's go," he said right after handing the now empty memory card to her. "Wait, what?" She muttered while following in a hurry, pushing the memory card into the correct slot.

An actual shiver ran through her spine when she realized Ben Gross was walking towards the school team bus. Both cheerleaders and the swimming team took the school team bus. At the back of her mind she was expecting to take the school bus, but actually taking it was akin to cage diving with sharks.

It was brutally uncomfortable and yet exhilarating.

Ben sat down at the third row, it was a two seater. Alice took a moment, looking around her before moving to sit at the fourth row, just behind Ben.

"Where are you going?" Ben asked incredulously, looking up at her with his mouth agape, expression blank.

"I was going to sit there?" Alice said, not meaning for her statement to come off as a question and pointed at the seat behind him.

"Why? There's a seat right here." His thumb jutted out to point at the seat next to him. "And also if you don't know, the bus capacity is nearly full, you'll be sitting next to a stranger either way," his as-a-matter-of-fact voice served to slightly piss her off, but at the same time the swimming team started to clamber up the bus. Lo and behold, Simone was the first one to appear.

Simone's eyes perked up when she saw her best friend, Alice smiled at her and she ignored Ben's protest about her seat choice, still ending up sitting on the row behind him, motioning for Simone to sit next to her.

Ben's eyebrows furrow at the interaction and then it occurred to him that Alice did have friends. Unlike him, she probably had a few more social connections than he did. Well, at least maybe she had real ones whereas his social connections were...a girlfriend who only cared about his money—He wasn't stupid, he knew what Shira was after—and his academic rival Devi Vishwakumar. Ben would call that relationship slightly shambled and fragile: like trying to carry a carton of eggs: one wrong move and who knows which egg will break?

There was a slight hope in his chest that he successfully buried away: he'd hoped that Alice would at least sit next to him and not make him feel like a stick in the mud in this jock and hormone high bus. But that was totally fine. He's good to sit by himself. Nothing special, nothing new. Just another day.

"Sooo...?" Simone asked as she plopped on the seat next to Alice. "How has it been, working with... Mr. Gross?" She hadn't toned down her voice at all, and Alice was sure that Ben could hear every word but he didn't turn around.

"It's been fine," Alice locked eyes with her best friend, raising her eyebrows in silent communication. Her eyes darted sideways, telling Simone that Ben Gross was sitting just in front of them. Simone smirked. She knew. "...and I've been getting my end of the deal too, so, can't complain at the moment." Alice finished.

Simone gave her friend a knowing look and nodded slowly, "Coool..." but her face straightened and her brows connected with worry, "...but, Alice. You don't like going to swim meet..." Alice pursed her lips and bobbed her head up and down absentmindedly.

"Well... it's probably time I start getting over it."

Alice smiled at her friend and Simone smiled back, feeling proud. Simone put her fist up and Alice connected their fists, a silent good luck to both of them.

"Get over what?"

Ben Gross thought to himself, staring out the window and listening to the conversation in a nonchalant way. The bus had started moving at this point, the small chatter and murmurs between and among different people had started to get louder. No one sat next to him, and yet when he looked around it seemed as if everyone was sitting with someone. He shook his head, deciding that no one would hold a decent conversation here anyway, what with their high testosterone levels and low IQ. So instead, he pushed his headphones in place over his head.

40 minutes later they had arrived at the venue. Simone had to leave with her team and it was now, yet again, just Alice and Ben. Alice actually had a good time. She thought that being on the bus would be like being in a wedding reception where you didn't know half the people, but Simone being there made it 1000% enjoyable.

Ben, on the other hand, just took it in stride. Just another day in school. Just another assignment. "Alright, the first match starts in 20 minutes, I got front row seats so make sure you snap the most popular people in the team. People love that on the yearbook." He grumbled the last part out, as if not wanting to admit that these photos were necessary.

"So... you mean Paxton?" Alice asked as they both started walking, looking up at him for confirmation. For a split second she thought that Ben had rolled his eyes, but it was such a fleeting action that she wasn't even sure it happened.

"There are other popular people in the team, but yes, I suppose Paxton Hall-Yoshida is the one who has ladies kissing his feet and men turning gay," Ben grumbled this whole sentence out. Alice craned her neck forward, her mouth opening in slight shock at Ben's semi-rant. It sounded to her like someone was a bit jealous.

Alice didn't poke on it nor say anything else. She wasn't quite sure what to say. It was the first time she'd heard or seen Ben riled up in some sort of way and she wasn't ready to address that part of him, so she ignored it.

Once they sat down on their seats she made preparations by fiddling with the DSLR, trying out the settings and taking trial shots.

"Oh hey!" Alice and Ben looked up from their respective preparation making to see a half naked guy standing in front of them, looking down at Alice and beaming at her.

Alice couldn't remember for the life of her who this guy was.

"Uh... Hi." Alice started, still staring at the guy and trying to connect faces to names.

"Cool seeing you here, you took my photos a week ago. They blew up!" The guy started tapping on his phone and opening his social media, shoving the screen on Alice's face. It was a photo of him, also half naked in his swimming trunks, except that somehow, Alice had managed to highlight his abs. The photo had nearly 500 likes.

Half naked photos do that.

"Alright man, peace out," the guy called, snatching his phone up and going on his merry way. Alice stared after him for a bit, before shrugging and continuing to prep.

"You're pretty popular too, come to think of it," Ben piped up.

Alice didn't bother looking at him as she fiddled with the camera buttons. "I'm only popular when people need me to be popular," she started.

She took the camera up to her eye level and snapped a photo "99% of these people wouldn't even look my way if I didn't offer them photography services." She wasn't bitter about it at all. All she wanted from these people were their money, and in turn, they wanted good photos.

Kind of like...

"Kind of like... This," She put the camera down and waved a hand between him and her. Indicating that she was talking about the two of them. "You wouldn't have talked to me at all, if not for me being good at this whole photo-taking thing."

Ben blinked. His words were stuck in his throat. He looked away because he had no comeback prepared. She had simply stated the truth. He sat on the irony that all of his relationships were probably based on popularity too. People feeding off of his wealth and he realized that Alice was no different from the other people in his life.

Alice wanted money and good grades, Ben wanted good photos.

Simple transaction.

"They're starting," Alice's words knocked Ben out of his trance and made him face forward. Alice stood, trying not to get in the way of other spectators but also trying to get a good shot of the competitors. She moved slightly closer to the pool. She didn't dare go any nearer.

Paxton was in the first lineup. Thankfully, the DSLR's zoom function was magical. Alice could see his perfect jawline and angular face. She wondered how much Devi would pay for a photo like this. She smirked before snapping the photo.

The swim meet played on with total normalcy. When it was Simone's turn Alice made sure that she was the loudest cheerer there. Simone definitely heard her, what with the sudden head turn and slight laughter at her lips.

It was at that moment that someone had shoved her forward, making her take a few steps in shock. She didn't realize how close she really was to the pool. Her next step didn't connect with pavement and she felt herself trying to hold on to nothing to prevent herself from falling.

The next instant, someone grabbed her arm and hauled her away from the edge.

"Watch it, the camera's expensive." Ben hissed at some passer-by who had knocked Alice off her feet. Ben's hand was tightly wound around Alice's arm. He had pulled her back completely unscathed and dry. The passer-by muttered a soft apology.

All around her it felt as if time had stopped. Alice could still hear the whistle signalling the swimmers to start. She could still hear the splashes as competitors jumped into the water, but it was mixed with screaming. Gurgling. Violent splashes of water. Kicking her feet as hard as she could. Flailing her arms all around. A wave washing over her cry for help—

"Pay attention will you?" She snapped back to reality and was suddenly face to face with Ben, her mouth agape. Ben was saying something about not damaging the camera, he didn't want to go waste time and buy another one. She shut her eyes tight and shook her head to clear her thoughts, looking back up at him with greater clarity.

"...Yeah, yeah... Sure. Thanks." She said dismissively, going back to snapping photos. This time, she stuck close to their seats.

Ben set his gaze on her for a moment more, studying her weird attitude today. He wanted to ask what in the world had her so peeved today but at the same time he didn't really care.

This was a simple transaction:

Money and good grades for photos.