The alarm on Angela's cell phone scared her awake, making her kick her old dog off her bed and onto the hard carpet. "Oh King! I'm sorry girl!" she said, throwing her covers off and hugging the poor animal. She scruffed the dog's head and headed for the door with a big yawn and a stretch. "Good morning Angel Wings" her father greeted her. "Morning dad" she responded and kissed his cheek. "So, you ready for your first day of college baby?" her mother asked as she set the 18-year-old's breakfast down in front of her. Angela huffed "I guess so. At least I'll feel less stress than at high school. And best of all, I'll be away from Nanette Manoir again! She'd never go to a community college; that's too beneath her." "Well you should get dressed honey, you've gotta leave soon."

She threw on the grungiest clothes she had "Why should it matter?" she said to herself "It's not like anyone's going to be interested in me…or even care." She opened her sock drawer, uncovering an orange scarf that was worn and had lost some colour from multiple washes. The teen sighed and wrapped it around her neck, tucking it into the zipped hoodie she was wearing. "Later mom! Later dad! I will text you when class is over!" she called as she walked out the door, bookbag slung around her shoulder. As she walked to her hand-me-down car, she had this overwhelming feeling something bad was going to surface today, so she tried to shake the feeling.

"Sweet! I got front row parking on account of the fact I left earlier than I was going to. Today might not be so bad after all!" she thought to herself. The professor wrote her name and course on the board as a few students poured in almost late. A bright haired girl caught Angela's eyes, making her look nonchalantly to her left, her head still resting boredly in her hand. She did a double take and glared at the girl beside her "Nanette Manoir! That bitch is here!? How!? Her family couldn't afford to send her far away to some fake French school for girl's who acted French when they really weren't!? Grrrr!" she ranted in her head.

As if her thoughts were pebbles to a second-story window in the middle of the night, Nanette finally looked at the mental thrower. Her face was full of shock and guilt, the guilt being the only thing Angela didn't read. "Angela, I'm so glad to see you!" she whispered and graced a smile. "Can it bitch!" Angela whispered back harshly "Don't you ever talk to me! Don't you even so much as look at me, understand!?" Taken aback, Nanette leaned closer to her "At least hear me out real quick. Look…I'm so sorry for how I treated you in the past." "Seven years! That's two years less than half my life filled with torment from you! Why should I accept your apology!?" "I'm not expecting you too Angie. I just wanted you to know I acknowledge what I did was horribly and cruelly wrong and, if I could take it all back, I would." Angela still glared at her. She's only dreamed Nanette would've said something like that, and yet…it didn't satisfy her to actually hear it. She got up and headed to the door "Where are you going…?" "Angela Anaconda. I'm going to the bathroom to splash some water on my face on account of the fact I don't feel too well." "Okay." Not a second had passed, before Nanette trailed off as well. Both girls took their bookbags with them, not planning on coming back to class.

The girls' bathroom door flung open, Angela stormed in "Why me!? Why I ask you!?" she growled, slamming and punching stall doors. She hung her head over the sink, face and hair dripping wet from the water she wetted it with, her arms holding stiff to each side of the cold porcelain. The increasing crack in the bathroom door caught her in her peripheral. Her eyes shot up, only to see the one person she didn't want to see right now. "Stay away from me!" "Please Angie let me explain!" "No!" she pushed past her and headed out the bathroom, but was caught just outside of it; Nanette grasped her left bicep "Let go of me before I bring you back in there and give you a swirly!" she said sternly through her teeth. "Please, please, please, please, please let me tell you something. You need to know this at least. Don't go." Angela stared harshly at the cheap carpeting before looking back up at her "…Fine." "Well, let's get out of here; we don't need people hearing this-" "-There is no "we" Ninnie! The only "oui" is in the only French you do know!" "Touché" Angela rolled her eyes at the admitted defeat…in French.

Nanette lead them to a grassy area that no one ever ventured to; a giant oak tree inhabited the corner. She took a deep, shaking breath as she prepared herself for what she was about to confess. "A-Angela?…I…I know I've been a horrible, horrible little demon to everyone I knew, but especially you" "Oh, suddenly I matter to you!?" "-You've always mattered to me!" her eyes grew wide with her own outburst. "What now? You mean to tell me you tormented me all this time because you cared about me? Oh well in that case…What the fuck Nanette!?" "I knooow I'm sorryyy!" she gripped her hair, squinting her eyes in frustration. "I still don't get it. Why the hell would you treat someone so badly if you cared about them so much?" Nanette looked hopelessly into her eyes "Because I was afraid of…" her voice trailed off. "Afraid of what?" "I was afraid of the feelings for you that were growing okay? I said it."

"You're a liar! You're lying about this like you lied about being French-Which you are most definitely not!" "I felt like an idiot. That is why I took French in high school." "I'm impressed. Say something, and actually translate it right for once." Nanette blushed "…Je t'aime" "What does that mean?" "I…love you", she answered cringingly. Angela's eyes grew wide, her cheeks flush. Not a sound escaped her. "Uhmm, Angie?" She still stared at the blonde in shock "Nghh!-I…No way. You, you're serious aren't you?"

The blonde looked down at her fidgeting hands in embarrassment. "Look, I just thought you should know. So call me whatever you want; call me a stupid fag if you wish, I deserve it." Angela's eyes started tearing, she clutched her scarf subconsciously. The action made Nanette look up. She squinted a tad, trying to see past the girl's right hand. She smiled, eyes twinkling when she saw the orange "You kept it?" Angela's eyes shot at her "-I uhh..No! W-what are you referring to?" "You know what I mean! That scarf I gave you that one Christmas! I felt bad about trading it and giving you a crappy gift. I just had to buy you another one."

"It was the only time you were truly nice to me. It's helped me feel like there was a tiny shred of heart in you." Nanette took Angela's hand off the scarf and held it to her own heart with both hands. Angela blushed harder, she could feel her warmth, her every heartbeat…it was in time with her own. "Oh gawd…" she murmured, her heart rate steadily increasing. She took her hand away hyperventilating, and put her hands on her thighs, lurched over. "Are you okay Angie?" Nanette asked sweetly, putting her hand on the girl's back. "I…I gotta go home" she panted "I can't be here-This is too much!" "Angie! Angie! Calm down sweetheart. It's okay." "It feels like my heart's going to explode from all this! It just does not compute! I must be in a coma!" she said frantically, clinging to her for comfort anyway. "If you're going home, can I come with you?" Angela calmed a bit before answering "I guess…What would we do about your car?" "Aww! You'd offer to drive! That's adorable! But I don't have a car, Alfredo drives me still. I can call him and tell him not to pick me up." "Okay then." The blonde whipped out her cell and called her butler "Alfredo? I won't be needing a ride home from school today, I'm going home with my friend Angela…Yes, her. Okay, thank you. Bye"

Angela unlocked her car with the key fob as they neared it. They threw their bags in the backseat before they got in. She put the key in the ignition and turned it. The motor didn't sound too loud or too quiet, neither did it have an embarrassing rattle like some old cars have. Just before she switched to D4 after she backed out of the space, she turned the radio on. A CD was already in; the hypnotic beat played "Violently happy! Come calm me down before I get into trouble…" "Who is this? Sounds familiar-The voice I mean" Nanette asked. "It's Björk. I love her music, it's…Different. She's Icelandic." "You're so cultured!" "I suppose so. I also like Rammstein as well, and Yelle." "Oh my gawd, I love Yelle!" "Ha! I figured you would." "I like a lot of techno sounding songs I realized." "So since you like Yelle, can you dance Tektonik?" "Haha a little bit; I'm not that good." "Well maybe I can show you. I've been told I'm pretty good-especially when I dance with another person or other people." "Yeah, I'm afraid to dance alone, because people will think I've got problems." Both girls laughed at the statement.

"Okay" Angela said as they pulled into the driveway "My parents are going to be flipped when they see you and I calmly together, so-" "-Argue? Okay." "No. I mean we'll have to explain this whole thing. My parents don't even know I'm gay…At least I don't think they do. Either way, we're explaining something when we go in there." "Alright, I'm here for you." The two walked inside. The parents were at the dinner table. Her father reading an article in some science magazine, her mother sketching out some idea for her current project, LuLu playing with her teddy bear and other toys. "Hey sweetheart!" her mother greeted, not looking up from her work "You're home pretty early." The lack of a response made Gen and Bill look to see what was up. "Uhh, you know she's right by you right Angela? I mean you were saying how…" The girl sighed "We need to talk."

"Sure Angelfish. What is it you wanna say?" her father asked. Angela pulled a chair out for Nanette then plopped into a seat herself. She took a deep breath "Pretty much…Nanette has had a crush on me since we were little, and she thought those feelings were bad, so she hid them from me, which in turn from her anger made me hate her so much, when really I felt the same way towards her!" she panted at releasing all that information in one exhale. An awkward silence fell upon the room like snow avalanching off a roof. LuLu got up and walked to her, still holding a Barbie doll, and smacked Angela on the forearm hard "You're gay! Baaad. Bad Angela!" Angela scowled at her, but let overwhelming shame sedate her and dropped her head on the dinner table. "Angela?" her mom said softly. The girl started sobbing lightly. "Angie!" Nanette pulled her up by her shoulder "Poor babyyy" she said as she dried her tears with her sleeve. "I don't want to make this anymore awkward, but…Sweetheart…We kind of figured that long ago" Bill assured her. Angela smacked herself in the head and grunted "I'm an idiot!" "Don't say that Angie! You are very intelligent!" Nanette retorted, letting her cling to her for physical comfort. "I'm going to my room. Don't anyone bother me okay? Please?" "What..What do I do?" "Come with me."

"Isn't your sister going to get in trouble for acting like that Angela?" "Yeaaah. My parents aren't the type to call you out in front of others. I mean they'll say something like "don't say that", otherwise, they just wait till people are gone." Not long after, they heard LuLu crying to her room. "See" said Angela as she then climbed onto the ledge of her window above her bed and gazed at the rain clouds outside. Nanette sat on the bed and looked around the room in silence. She was slightly startled when Angela decided to speak. "They're all gone…" "Who?" "My friends…Gordy Reinhart and his family moved to Michigan. Gina Lash to Oregon for college. That drive by with Johnny Abatti…" "He was killed in a drive by!?" "You don't read the newspaper huh? He wasn't killed, uncle Nicky was. Johnny was so heartbroken, he swore to avenge him and killed the guy who did it. I defended Johnny's honor as best as I could, but they still put him away." "Is he going to get the death penalty?" "I don't think so, on account of the fact he's partially retarded." "Come on Angela!" "I'm serious, he is! Just like Candy May!" she sighed grievously and asked softly "I'm never going to see them again am I?" With that, tears started gliding down her cheeks like paratroopers.

"Angieee, come heeere." Angela got off the ledge and back onto her bed, face to face with Nanette. "I don't know what will happen, but as long as I live, I will do every thing in my power to make you feel better." "You can't make them come back!" she cried. Nanette didn't know what to say…The only thing she could think to do was…

Angela sat there with her eyes closed, her body limp with overwhelming satisfaction. "Did..Did you just kiss me?" she muttered. "Yes…Yes I did. I'm sorry, it was the only thing I could think of!" "No, no. That was…" "You liked it then?" Without an answer or warning, Angela lunged forward and kissed her passionately. Nanette giggled and blushed, as she put her hand half way on Angela's thigh. "Ow! Hssst rrrg!" "Oh my gawd, I'm so sorry! What did I do?" "Nothing" Angela groaned "It's just…nothing." A small spot of blood showed through her jeans in that area. "Are you okay?" Angela blushed "Uhh-uh-Yeah! I'm fine, totally fine! I just need a Band-Aid is all. Be right back!"

She went into the bathroom she had connected to her room, a plus that came with the new house. She sighed as she dropped her pants, exposing her boxer-briefs. "Fuck!" she muttered, wiping the blood off her wound. Nanette knocked softly on the bathroom door and walked in, very much like a doctor does. "Hey get out!" Angela shouted in surprise, covering up her thighs as much as possible. "What's wrong Angie? Let me see!" "No! You can't!" "Why not?" "Uhhhh because!" "Oh that's a perfect reason, now show me!" Nanette was finally able to remove Angela's hands off her wound. She gasped "Angela! What did you do!?" "Not so loud! I don't my parents knowing okay!?" "Angela…why?" she asked as she looked for other cuts. "Because I hate myself okay!? It's tiny reminders not to be such a loser! Besides shit with you, my friends all left, I get shitty grades that make my parents get mad at me all the time, my brothers tell me I'll never amount to anything-which may be true, seeing that they're successful when they've both been such assholes to me all these years. I can't take it!"

Nanette looked at her as if all of this was her fault; like she perpetuated a system of events. "I'm sorry" "Nuhh, come on. You didn't do anything. Well other than before, but we're good now, so…It's not your fault." Nanette cleaned and dressed Angela's cut. She kissed it, making Angela get the chills…the good kind. She got up and started to pull her jeans up and giggled. Nanette grabbed Angela's jeans and yanked them up hard "Think it's funny huh?" Angela grunted then fixed her pants "It wasn't about that, it was…Never mind haha!" "What?" "You were just dangerously close ta my…" "Oh…yeaaah" Nanette blushed "Well maybe I'll be that close again later." "Really now?" "I said maybe. It wasn't a promise. Only if you're good." "Hey I think I've done my fair share of goodness dude!" Nanette chuckled "You're so cute! You called me dude, when you're more like one than I am." "Hey!" "-And I love you for it" with that, Nanette pulled the waist of her jeans to her and kissed her, putting her other hand behind her neck then ran her fingers up into her hair.