Emily slipped out of her window that evening. Her parents were fighting, and her friend Georgina, Gina for short, invited her over to watch a movie on her datapad. So she snuck into Gina's house and they cuddled up with an earphone each to watch a sci-fi flick about a world at the other side of a wormhole.
They lazed too long after the movie finished, and Elijah knocked on the open window. When Gina cautiously raised the blind, he said, "Hey, imps, I'm pretty sure we agreed you'd tell us when you decided to do sleepovers? You scared your mom to death, Em. When you didn't come out for supper and you weren't in your room, she thought you ran away."
"If I was going to run away, I'd take my gear, and I'd go right after breakfast to get a good head start before you missed me," Emily grumbled. "Plus, how was I supposed to say, "You guys, I don't want to listen to you b****ing at each other about me, so I'm going out."? Anyway, she wants to send me to Earth, so it's not like my being away for one night should bother her."
Elijah cringed and jumped up to sit on the window sill. "You heard that, huh? She's just after what she thinks is best for you, that's all. I take it you already made up your mind?"
Gina looked back and forth between them and said, "Erm, Excuse me? What the hell is this c*** about Em going away?"
Emily shrugged and glared at Elijah before she replied, "Nothing. I'm not going anywhere. Professor Hamilton wants to upgrade my scholarship so I can live in a stuffy room in a dirty city where she can keep me as her pet prodigy to trot out for sponsors and suffocate me with "extended learning" while I get fat and asthmatic from lack of fun and actual air. Sound about right, dad?"
Elijah failed to suppress his amusement, and confirmed, "Yeah. Don't say it like that to your mom though. She grew up in a stuffy room buried in books and s***, doing lecture tours with her professor. She came out alright."
"Wait, your professor wants to personally tutor you? That's f***ing sweet! How did you not tell me about this?" Gina demanded.
"Same reason I didn't tell mom and dad. I'm not going. So there's nothing to talk about."
"Nothing to talk about? It's a Harvard scholarship!"
"For a degree I'm already doing; and I'm already fourth in my year group, too. I don't need it, let alone want it."
"Em, seriously, you always dreamed of being the next Grissom, talking to new aliens and s***. This is your shot. Why would you say no to this?"
"Steady, Gina," Elijah interjected. "You might be part of the answer to that question."
Gina frowned and looked askance at Emily. "What? Em, is that true?"
Emily shrugged, nodded, gesticulated, then finally stormed to the window to push her dad out of it and slam it in his face. She nearly tore the blinds down she shut them so violently.
"Em?"
"Just – screw it. Yes. It's true. You're my best friend in the whole universe, and I am not going to leave you because I want a better grade at school, not even if we could vidcall every single day, which we couldn't no matter how much we wanted to.
I – we – you – Gina – oh what the hell? "Best friends forever" is sweet, "sisters" is cute, but you're more than that – or, at least I want us to be more than that. I'm so loony for you I nearly didn't go on this year's hunt because I didn't want to miss our cuddles, so how the hell am I supposed to go to another planet for years and maybe never come back? Giving you up is way too high a price and I'm not going to do it now or ever no matter what mom says." She paused for breath and realised how much she had said. "S***. Gina, I'm sorry – say something. Please?"
A hesitant, but long hug was all the response she got until they woke up in the morning. Emily had her sleeping bag on the floor, as usual, and Gina had her bed. Gina was awake first for once. Emily's first peek at the new day was of Gina watching her.
"Morning," Gina said in a strange voice.
"Did you sleep?" Emily asked.
"Not much. How long have you had a crush on me?"
Emily tried to look casual and muttered that she didn't know.
"You were hitting on me at Chis and Marcy's wedding, weren't you? I just thought you were being silly. The dance, when you got all flirty, remember?"
Emily felt her face get hot.
"You were!" Gina exclaimed. "Don't even hide in the sleeping bag, tomato face." She grinned and prodded Emily's stomach a few times through the bag.
"Ow! Stop it!" Emily complained without much conviction. She stayed in the bag and it muffled her when she finally asked, "Is that ok?"
"Huh? Oh." The room was silent. All Emily heard for thirty-nine heartbeats was her own breathing and the slight movement it made in the bag. Then suddenly Gina slid down onto her and smothered her in a bear hug.
"Mmf. Can't breathe," Emily said without trying to move. "Does this mean yes?"
Gina shifted so as not to crush her and told her, "I dunno, not yet. But we're best friends either way."
Emily bit her lip and wriggled closer to Gina. After a while she said, still from inside the sleeping bag, "This must be our weirdest hug yet."
Gina wasn't Emily's only friend, though she was her closest by far. They grew up together from when they were babies. Georgina was a straight up nerd when it came to anything "sciency". She got on really well with Sophia. Then came Alice. She made like she was dumb and flirted like crazy with the guys, but she quietly aced most of her subjects, and she could talk for hours about video games and computers in general. Last but not least, Fiona was actually older than the others. Her dad was one of the few administrators who died during the uprising, and her mum got so much abuse for his sake that she eventually took her own life. The trouble put Fiona back a year in school, but she had then been adopted into the clan by the other three.
Things were awkward for all of them after Emily's bombshell. Alice and Fiona didn't know anything except that Emily had said something to upset Gina, and that Gina insisted Emily hadn't done anything of the sort. Meanwhile, Emily point blank refused to accept the upgraded scholarship, regardless of how many compromises Sophia concocted. Whenever Sophia asked what it would take, Emily shrugged and walked away. She spent an inordinate amount of time and ammo on practice targets in the fields despite the rain.
A fortnight later, Emily's omnitool sang the tune that meant Gina was calling. Emily literally dropped the rifle to answer it. "Heya, Gina. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. You look soaked. Are you outside? It's pouring."
Emily peered around the field as each drop dove into the waterlogged ground with a dirty splash.
Gina said goodbye to someone outside Emily's field of view and said, "You wanna talk? I'll get some towels for you to dry off, and we can cuddle on the couch by the heater. Mom and dad are going out for a couple of hours."
"Ok. I'm a while away. But I'll come."
They talked for hours. When Gina's parents came home, the girls moved to Gina's room. Gina said she never thought of Emily that way before. She wasn't saying she couldn't, but it was weird and new to her. She was worried it could ruin their friendship. She still wanted to try a relationship though, on the understanding that there'd be no hard feelings either way if she pulled out.
Over the next few months, Emily blossomed. Elijah and Sophia thought it was because they let her have her way about the scholarship, until they spied the two girls kissing. It was a "secret" until Christmas, when Emily and Gina broke the news all their friends knew long before.
Sophia took Emily for a long walk on boxing day, just her and "her baby girl." Emily was worried she disapproved, but she didn't. She let Emily suffer for half a mile, and then said, "I'm proud of you, Emily." Emily didn't know how to react, and Sophia explained, "You know what you want, and you know how to enjoy it when you get it. And, you're humble enough to know when your ambition is a bad thing. I'm sorry I tried to push you for the scholarship."
Emily hooked her arm through Sophia's and said, "I guess I learned from the best."
"Me? Oh no, Em. I chose my career over some incredible chances when I was younger. Just don't hang everything on one hook unless you're sure, because if it lets you down, you'll have nothing else holding you up."
"I don't think I mind Gina getting her hooks into me even if she does disappoint me. It'll be worth every breath. Um, that came out dirtier than I meant. Sorry."
Sophia's eyebrows took a quizzical shape for a moment, then one of realisation.
Emily's own mind had moved onto what Sophia had told her. "Does Dad know about those other incredible chances, mom?" she asked.
"Emily!"
"What?" Emily asked with an exaggerated look of innocence. "Well does he?"
"Oh, I'll have you know young lady, I fell so hot and fast for your father I don't think he'll ever be jealous."
Emily wrinkled her nose and made as though she'd tasted something sour. "Ugh. Way, way too much information."