February 2011

"Ten bucks says that she gives the anchor spot to Britney," Emily muttered, running her fingers through her hair. There had been an emergency swim meet called due to a change in lineup for the meet the following day.

"Are you kidding?" Alison demanded. "You have that spot in the bag. Twenty dollars says it goes to you."

"I hope you have that twenty on you, because I think I'll be in a caffeine mood after this," Emily muttered. "We have time to walk to the Brew before we walk home, right?"

"Why are you being such a downer?" Alison questioned, shaking her head. "You have just as much chance as any of us—better even!—to get this anchor spot."

"I guess… I just… my times are as good as any of the seniors in here, and they keep getting the spots. I mean, yeah, they're graduating this year, but if I was anchoring, the team would actually win a lot more," Emily reasoned.

Alison gave her a sad smile. "Well, too bad they don't all realize how impressive you are like I do."

Emily finally smiled—it was nearly impossible to do when Alison was being all sweet and nice. "Yeah, too bad you aren't the swim coach, huh?" Alison smirked and nudged her.

"Look, even if you don't get anchor, you can still be positive. I mean, as soon as you're not a freshman, you're going to be the anchor for every meet," Alison promised. "I'll even threaten Coach Fulton if I have to."

That got a laugh out of Emily, and Alison grinned, because she loved that she could always get Emily to relax. "But then you'd get kicked off the team, and swimming wouldn't be the same."

"Uh, did you not just hear what I said? I'm going to threaten the coach. She won't be able to kick me off the team," Alison stated matter-of-factly. Emily laughed against and shook her head.

"Whatever you say, Ali," she teased.

The coach finally entered the locker room, where all of the swim team girls were sitting around waiting—wondering if this emergency swim meet would involve actual swimming. Alison doubted it, though. "Sorry to call you all here unexpectedly. We have one change in line up for tomorrow's meet—Britney, you will be anchoring," Fulton stated, smiling at the senior, who broke out into a grin. Her less-than-able-to-anchor friends clapped for her, and the people who could easily have anchored only gave lazy claps. Emily wasn't going to clap at all until Alison nudged her to do so. "Next year, remember?" Alison reminded her, smiling.

Emily rolled her eyes, but she couldn't fight the small smile that appeared on her face.

February 2011

"Ali?" Emily called, glancing around the empty natatorium. It was getting late, and she wasn't exactly sure why the building hadn't been locked up yet. In fact, she wasn't even sure why she was here. Alison had texted her with explicit instructions: meet at the natatorium in ten. Ten minutes later, and here she was, but no Alison. "Alison?"

Suddenly, Emily felt two hands touch her waist and for a second, she tensed up and inhaled sharply—sure that some murderer had stolen Ali's phone and lured her here. It didn't take her long to recognize the touch, though, and completely relax as Alison slid her arms completely around the brunette. "Hi," Alison murmured, eliciting a smile from the other girl.

"Hey," Emily replied, melting into Alison. "What are we doing in here?"

"There's a debate competition happening in the cafeteria, so the whole school is unlocked for another hour at least," Alison explained as Emily turned herself around in her arms. They were now kissing distance apart, but Emily waited for Alison to finish talking. "So I figured that we could meet in here, since it's so cold outside."

Emily smiled, naturally leaning forward until her lips pressed softly against Alison's. Every time they kissed, Emily's insides jumped around with excitement, and her knees threatened to give way. Thankfully, Alison's grip around her waist was firm and protective. Emily loved that. Emily carefully pulled her lips from Alison's. "As long as we don't have to swim. I'm sore from practice."

Alison smiled softly, and her hands moved up from Emily's hips to her neck, where she rubbed Emily's muscles carefully. The brunette let out a relieved sigh at the feeling.

"Speaking of which, where were you at practice today?" Emily asked, tilting her head slightly.

A wide smile appeared on the blonde's face, and she pulled away from Emily to fumble with the pocket of her hoodie. When her hand emerged from it, she was clutching something. Emily felt a smile creeping onto her face. "I got us something."

Emily watched Alison unfolded her fist to reveal two carefully sewn, purple bracelets, with their names embroidered on each individual one. Dropping her own back into her hoodie pocket, Alison reached for Emily's wrist and pulled it up, before carefully clasping the bracelet. "It's awesome, Ali. Thank you."

Alison smiled and took hers back out. "Can you put mine on for me?" Emily couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face as she took the bracelet from Alison to carefully lock it onto her wrist.

They both admired the bracelets for a moment, and then Emily pulled Alison closer to her again, their lips meeting in a gentle kiss. When they pulled apart, Emily raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "You'll definitely be a practice tomorrow, though, right?"

February 2011

"Wanna hear a secret?" Alison asked the brunette, adjusting the position of her head resting on Emily's chest.

"Is it a real secret, or just a little secret?" Emily teased, smiling a little bit.

"Both?" Alison answered, smiling as well. "I put glue in Mona Vanderwaal's lip gloss today."

Emily's eyes bugged. "You did what?" Alison smiled devilishly as she readjusted her position again, getting more comfortable.

"I just wish I'd done it at the beginning of class instead of at the end so that I could see her put it on and flip out when she realized," Alison finished. "I bet she had a big struggle with it later."

"Will she know it was you?" Emily questioned, her eyes still wide.

"Please, Em, she doesn't even know I exist. She's a cool person remember? We are all the way down at the bottom," Alison stated, as if Emily had forgotten. "She'll probably think it was the nerd guy who sits next to her."

"Ali…" Emily's tone was naturally condescending sounding, because of course she disapproved of things like that. Alison nestled her head into Emily's boobs to cut off her words.

"Emily," she whined, "don't ruin the fun. She deserves it. She's a bitch to everybody."

The brunette couldn't help but smile as she ran her fingers carefully through Alison's hair. "Fine," Emily agreed. "It would be sort of funny to see her with her lips glued together."

"See? I'm not crazy!" Alison exclaimed, chuckling. "Her lips are so big too, it would be hysterical. Of course, she wouldn't find it funny. Not that she would be able to laugh about it with her lips stuck together if she did find it funny."

"You are horrible," Emily said, but she was giggling. "Seriously."

"But you like me anyway," Alison insisted, finally lifting her head and looking at Emily's face. She instantly leaned forward to capture her lips in her own, and Emily let an instantaneous sigh out against them. Her arm came up and around Alison's back, pulling her body completely on top of her, and deepening their kiss.