Thanks so much for the reviews and alerts and reading and just loving Jemily. I know I haven't updated in a while, just hard finding time to write.

But I'll definitely (probably) never give up on this!

Emily had been raised very specifically: be patient, be kind, be determined, be respectful. Of course she wasn't perfect in any of these aspects, but she always strived to be as good as she could. Right now, for example, she was actually incredible happy that her mother always told her to be patient.

You can hurry love; no you just have to wait.

Of course she wasn't in love with Jenna (she was also taught to be completely loyal to her boyfriend. And, of course, that dating another girl would be wrong. Even though it would mean tasting those cherry lips…). But the same general saying applied. So she was going to be patient. She vowed to wait at least one whole week before bringing up the subject to Jenna again.

Alison enjoyed pestering her about that, but she also vowed not to let Ali win this time. Even without technically having the friendship yet, she valued that and Jenna far too much to betray it in any way. Alison was conniving, but Emily couldn't let it get to her. She had no secrets to tell, but even if she did, she wouldn't. She would never admit it, but Jenna was far more important than Alison. And relationships are built on trust, so that was it.

… But by not telling Alison anything, a brand new animosity was formed. At first Emily would just play dumb and act like she didn't know anything (which incidentally was not at all false). But Alison was a genius in that aspect, she quickly realized Emily wouldn't willingly tell anyways.

Willingly.

Which just meant Alison was going to have to figure things out another way. A bit more of a hassle, but it still would work. And what Emily didn't realize was that she was helping Alison by associating with Jenna in any way. This was truly Ali's game. And she controlled it all. It didn't matter if they didn't want to be a part of it. It didn't even matter is they didn't have any idea what they were truly doing. They were all Alison's players. And Alison wasn't going to lose. But she, too, had to be patient. So eventually the questions about Jenna stopped. The looks stopped. Everything went right back to normal. After only one more date, her relationship with Toby stopped. It all happened abruptly, and one day everything was just how it was before, like the entirety of the past 2 weeks didn't happen at all.

Noticing this change, Emily felt a new confidence. Alison played it off like it was nothing and Emily truly felt safe. So she was going to give it all one more attempt.

This time she decided to approach Jenna afterschool. She stayed cool in homeroom and simply read a book, not even making simple eye contact. She didn't want to seem too forward. And homeroom wasn't really a lot of time, nor was it private, and Jenna had a tendency to get away from Emily easily. But Emily planned it this time so that wouldn't happen this time. Swim practiced was cancelled that day, so she had time and opportunity. She approached Jenna's usual after school hangout place of the main stairs leading into the building. And luckily, Jenna was alone. Emily took a moment before entering Jenna's field of vision and calmed herself, thinking about exactly how to approach. Just play it cool. She proceeded to Jenna and sat down next to her.

"Hi, Jenna!" Emily said in the most chipper of voices.

"Ah, here we go," Jenna replied.

"So have you given any thought of what I said last time we spoke? And, if it sways you any, Alison has stopped talking about you. No questions in days. And you know she's even given up on Toby."

Jenna stiffened slightly at that name, but quickly calmed down. "I've thought about it. Talked about it with Mona too. I know she's a friend I can trust."

Emily felt a sudden pang of guilt when she thought of how Alison treated Mona, but didn't interrupt.

"That Alison… conniving, heartless Alison. She needs to know that she can't keep getting away with the things she does. So. I'm in."

"… Really?" Emily could hardly contain her joy.

"Really."

Emily couldn't contain her joy at all, so she leaped up and quickly embraced Jenna in a hug.

"Ok, chill!" Jenna yelled. "We still need an actual plan."

"Right. Luckily, I've been thinking about that too."

The way that Emily saw it, they had two possible choices for their general approach (and she overthought everything about them). One would be best friends who do everything together. Alison would see this and think that of course Emily was learning everything about Jenna and succeeding in the friendship. Which would probably lead to her constantly interrogating Emily. The other option would be only to be friends in secret. Of course Ali would know something was up, but remember, they were feeding her false information. So if Alison was to send spies or something drastic like that, it would seem more realistic as Ali would think they thought they were alone, confining only in each other. If they were openly friends, too feed false information would be too obvious. And Alison wouldn't be the only one to see it, everyone would. If everyone believes it it's probably true. If only one does, that one is crazy. And even though Alison plans her attacks, no amount of planning could change that.

"…Which is why we should be friends in 'secret' as she would see it. And when I'm hanging out only with Alison and the others, of course I'll avoid all questions about you. They'll know we're friends, but that's all they'll know. I still want a real friendship, so I still want to earn real trust." Emily concluded.

"… I'm so confused," Jenna replied.

"Don't be. Just, we won't flaunt our friendship. We'll meet and it'll just be us. Well, the information we feed her will be fake, but it'll just be us."

Jenna was still confused, but she nodded anyways. "Ok."

"Awesome! And other than that, really we'll just make it up as we go along."

"Great. So when does this start?"

"Well my parents won't be home tomorrow, which means I don't have to worry about them freaking you out. Why don't you come then?"

"Sure. I'll be there at 7," Jenna said. "I'll bring the booze!"

A look of terror crossed Emily's face.

"Kidding! Relax, will ya?" Jenna glanced at her watch. "Well, I gotta go. But I'll see you tomorrow.

Emily, still horrified at the thought of drinking at her age, simply waved good bye with a shy smile.

But then her smile became completely genuine.

Things were looking up.

Or so she thought…