Aubrey sat down next to Stacie, dropping her tray loudly. It was the fifth day in a row they'd had lunch with Beca and Stacie, and it always ended with her and Stacie arguing about something and Stacie kissing her cheek when the bell rang, before hurrying away to class. Aubrey knew she was only doing it to annoy her so she hadn't said anything, she didn't want her to know she was getting to her.

Chloe was already there talking to Beca. Stacie absentmindedly moved the textbook she was reading to the side so Aubrey could fit more comfortably. Chloe and Beca were talking about a mix Beca had sent Chloe the day before. Beca looked like she was about to melt from all the compliments she was getting from Chloe. Aubrey rolled her eyes and looked over at what Stacie was reading. It didn't look like any of her books. The only class they weren't together in was AP Physics so she assumed that's what it was. "Got a test?"

"Yeah, I still have two periods though." Stacie smiled at her and closed the book.

Aubrey quirked her eyebrow. "You're gonna study through History and Chem?"

Stacie shrugged. "I can go back to study and you can talk to them." Stacie motioned at Chloe and Beca with her head.

"I just meant that maybe you could have studied at home instead of during class." Aubrey grabbed her fork and turned toward her food. "But don't stop on my account, wouldn't want you to get a B."

Stacie scoffed. "Please, you know I haven't gotten a B since that insane lit teacher who insisted my interpretation of 1984 was wrong."

Aubrey smiled. "I remember that, you convinced our whole class to protest against his 'oppressive and archaic teaching system that doesn't allow for diversity of opinions and will ultimately lead to the downfall of society' or something." Stacie looked at her surprised. Aubrey half shrugged. "You took that sign everywhere for like a month."

Stacie laughed. "Yeah, well, I got my A in the end." She stuck out her tongue.

"I always suspected you didn't really care about the cause and it was all about your grade." Aubrey said narrowing her eyes and shaking her head.

"It wasn't! Art is open to interpretation, what it means to you is different than what it means to me, it could even mean something different than what it meant to the artist, and that doesn't make it wrong. My essay was good, I had strong arguments to support my opinion. I don't think even Orwell would have given me anything less than an A+." Stacie said seriously.

Aubrey looked at her thoughtfully. She hadn't actually had a real conversation with Stacie outside of class discussions before this week. She always knew Stacie was smart, no 10 year old built a functioning rocket from scratch without being some sort of genius, but she never thought she could actually enjoy talking to her until now. She noticed Stacie was smiling at her. "What?"

"You don't hate me." Stacie said teasingly.

Aubrey crossed her arms. "I do!"

The bell rang. "You totally don't." Stacie stood up and Aubrey unconsciously and almost imperceptibly tilted her head so Stacie could kiss her. Stacie noticed and hesitated for a moment before bending down and kissing her cheek softly. "See you in History."

"Beca!" Stacie yelled and ran at her, jumping on her back.

"Dude, get off me! You're going to kill me!" Beca lost her balance and they fell in the middle of the hallway. Beca was trapped under Stacie while she just lay there laughing. Beca squirmed trying to get out from under her. "You're really heavy, get off!"

Stacie jumped up and pulled Beca's hand to help her up. Beca dusted her uniform off while she glared at Stacie. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, it's Friday, I'm excited!" Stacie adjusted her backpack on her shoulders and followed Beca out. "What are we doing?"

"Umm I don't know, Chloe said she'd text me later to do something." Beca shrugged.

Stacie gasped and put her hand on her chest. "You're ditching me for Chloe already? You're not even dating yet!"

Beca rolled her eyes and chuckled. "I'm not ditching you. I guess you could come, it's not like a date date."

"No thanks, I'm not third wheeling you." They started walking back.

They lived in the same building. When Beca moved to New York the previous year, Stacie had gone over to check out the new neighbors immediately. They bonded right away when she saw Beca's studio. Her parents had divorced and she'd had to move to New York with her dad and his new wife, the deal was that she would go to school and then college and her dad would build her a state of the art recording studio in their apartment. Stacie thought it was the coolest thing ever and she had convinced Beca to let her record some songs that day. Beca had been surprised when Stacie had started singing, she had a really good voice. A fact she filed for later and had since made her record vocal tracks for some of her mixes.

Stacie then took her to her apartment to play guitar hero on her huge television. After laughing uncontrollably at Stacie's ridiculous fake guitar solos and at the way Beca jumped every time she got a note wrong, they became best friends.

Beca was thankful she had somewhere to escape to whenever her dad and the stepmonster got too annoying and Stacie liked having Beca around. She had never had a best friend, most people at school were either too stupid or too full of themselves, or Aubrey who hated her. Chloe was the closest thing to a friend she'd had but her being Aubrey's best friend limited their interaction a lot. Her world outside of school was too hectic to make friends.

She had started modelling for her mom a few years ago, after her big boob growth spurt between 8th and 9th grade, when her mom had needed someone to stand in for a model at a photoshoot. The photographer, and her mom, had immediately noticed her talent and she'd done a couple of shows and shoots since then. She didn't really like it but she liked spending time with her mom so she did it anyway. Most of the other models resented her because she had only gotten the job because of her mom, which was true but it wasn't really her fault. Others were nice, but only to get on her good side thinking it would advance their career. A few of them had even gone as far as trying to seduce her and, who was Stacie to deny a model?

A paparazzi found her making out with one of the models before a show and, as soon as Stace denied them having a relationship, her bad reputation started. Apparently other models, male and female, came out of the woodworks claiming they had been with Stacie. No one named anyone specific but the numbers were in the high 20s which was ridiculous; Stacie could count the people she had slept in one hand. Her mom had released a statement denying it but the damage was done. Everyone at school thought she slept around and she knew most people still talked about her behind her back. Only the fact that she was sort of famous prevented her from turning into a pariah at school but, aside from Chloe and now Beca, she didn't really trust anyone.

The elevator arrived to their floor and they stepped out. "Do you wanna come hang out until Chloe texts you?"

"Sure." Beca smiled. "I could tell her to bring Aubrey and we could all do something together."

"Why would I want to do something with her?" Stacie said frowning.

"Are you really going to deny it?" Beca raised her eyebrows.

"Deny what?" Beca tilted her head at Stacie's confused expression.

"You don't know?" Stacie shook her head. "You like her. You're like a kid pulling the braids of the girl she likes. Hell, you've been kissing her all week."

"To annoy her!" Stacie crossed her arms and walked to the kitchen grabbing a cookie jar from a shelf and putting some on a plate while Beca took out milk from the fridge and poured two glasses.

"Right, like you haven't been enjoying it." Beca said biting on a cookie with a smirk.

"I have not!" Stacie yelled taking the cookie plate from Beca and stomping away.

Beca rolled her eyes and followed her. "Fine, I won't tell Chloe to bring Aubrey then."

Stacie sat down in front of the television and frowned. "Thank you."

Stacie doodled on the corner of her notebook. It wasn't like her to not pay attention in class but she couldn't stop thinking about what Beca said last week. She didn't like Aubrey; she couldn't like Aubrey. They hated each other; they had always hated each other. She was a bitch, called her names, she suspected she had even tripped her once but there were too many people there for her to know for sure. And yes, maybe these past weeks they had sort of gotten along, and yes, maybe kissing her cheek every day for a week had been a bit too much, but that was only because they were making an effort for Chloe and Beca. They didn't actually like each other, it was more like the Christmas Truce of 1914 than Armistice Day.

Stacie had avoided them during lunch all week, telling Beca she had to study because she'd been busy with one of her mom's shows in the evenings. She needed time away from Aubrey to clear her head but it didn't seem to be working.

Stacie sighed and looked at the clock. They still had half an hour left in class. The teacher was walking around the room handing out a sheet. Stacie turned over the sheet and read it. There was a list of names of historical figures and a big 4A on the corner. "As I explained already, person A in your team has to pick a someone from the list and pretend to be this person while Person B interviews them. It has to be historically accurate; you can't ask John Adams what his favorite TV show is." Stacie looked around confused, thinking maybe she should have paid attention. "The number on your sheet is your team number, the letter is your role. You can use the time left in class to find your partner and start working out what you'll do."

Everyone stood up and started walking around the room. Stacie looked down at her sheet. She quickly read the instructions and then looked up, most people were paired up already. She looked around and saw Aubrey standing across the room by herself. Aubrey looked her way and quirked an eyebrow. Stacie held up four fingers. Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Miss Abernathy?"

"No, Aubrey, you can't change partners." The teacher responded without looking up.

"But-"

"No buts. And if you keep arguing your grade will start at B."

Aubrey huffed and walked up to Stacie, sitting down on the desk in front of her. "Looks like we're stuck together."

"Oh joy." Stacie responded dryly. Aubrey glared at her and Stacie sighed. "Look, we have to work together on this. Can't we just get along for a bit? We were doing a good enough job before."

"If you call disagreeing with everything I say getting along, then yes." Aubrey crossed her arms and straightened up.

"I don't disagree with everything you say" Aubrey raised her eyebrows. "Well I don't really, I just act like I do because you get so predictably mad." Stacie ran her hand through her hair. "Look, I promise to not actively try to annoy you if you promise to try to be nice."

Stacie held out her hand. Aubrey rolled her eyes and grabbed her hand. "Fine." They shook hands briefly. "So, who do you want to be?"

Stacie looked over the list biting her lip. "Andrew Jackson?"

"Really? Him?" Aubrey shook her head.

Stacie shrugged. "He had a fourteen hundred pound wheel of cheddar cheese at the White House once, I love cheese, and he had a parrot that cursed."

"He was also a murderer, a bigot, and he caused a financial crisis."

"Controversy is good for this." Stacie smiled biting her tongue.

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Andrew Jackson then. Do you want to get together after school to work on this?"

Stacie twisted her lower lip. "I have a shoot. But I should be done relatively early, do you want to meet me there? We can go to starbucks or something afterwards."

Aubrey had to remind herself she had promised to try to be nice, and going to a photo shoot sounded not so bad. "Yeah, that's fine."

"Cool, I'll text you the address."

Benji opened the door in front of the large warehouse in Red Hook. "Are you sure this is the place, Miss Posen?"

"I'm sure, Benji. I'll call you if I need you to pick me up somewhere." Aubrey said stepping out of the car and tightening her coat strap. She walked inside and was surprised when no one stopped her. She stopped when she saw Stacie. She was wearing a dress inspired by a bullfighter's outfit. It had a wide red skirt she held up with one hand, and a tight black vest with an elaborate embroidered design. Her hair was pinned back in a sort of ponytail, her hair falling down her back in perfectly crafted curls. She was holding in her other hand one of the sticks bullfighters carry. She lifted the stick above her head, curving her back and lifting the skirt high.

The photographer said something and she turned. She spotted Aubrey and smiled slightly. She lowered the stick. "Can we take five?"

The photographer nodded and lowered the camera. Aubrey got closer and Stacie walked away from the lights. Aubrey gave a small gasp when Stacie stopped in front of her. The vest was really tight, pushing her breasts up. She was wearing dark red lipstick and dark eye makeup, accentuating the green in her eyes. Her throat felt suddenly dry. She swallowed and tried to keep her eyes on Stacie's face but that only made her heart beat faster.

"I'm almost done, I just need to take a couple of shots stabbing a melon. I don't know why, it's supposed to be some kind of metaphor." Stacie shrugged. "There's food and coffee over there if you want to grab something while you wait."

It took Aubrey a minute to remember how to form words. "Okay, I'll wait over there. You look…"

"Ugh, I know, this dress is so heavy and I can barely breathe. I can't wait to take it off." Stacie pulled at the top of the vest making Aubrey look down. She stopped breathing and bit her lip. "I should get back so we can go."

Aubrey nodded and watched her walk back in front of the camera. She took one last look at Stacie and sighed, turning to walk to the table where the food was. She grabbed a styrofoam cup and poured herself some coffee just to have something to occupy her hands. She tried to focus on the other people there, the people moving the lights, the photographer, the hair and makeup people, but her eyes always ended up on Stacie.

After a while, the photographer said he had all the shots he needed and Stacie went to the back to change. She came out a few minutes later wearing torn jeans and a t-shirt, her hair in a high ponytail, the curls still visible. She had tried to remove her makeup but her lips still had a hint of red lipstick and she was still wearing more eyeliner than usual. Aubrey didn't understand how she looked just as beautiful in jeans and a t-shirt as she did in a couture dress. Aubrey shook her head. Everyone with eyes could see Stacie was beautiful but she had never stopped to think about it before today.

Stacie stopped in front of her and put her hands in her back pockets. "Ready?"

Aubrey nodded and they walked out of the warehouse. Stacie's car was waiting outside. "There's a coffee shop in Williamsburg I really like, they have big tables we can work on and it's quiet enough, do you wanna go there?"

"Sure." Aubrey got in the car while Stacie told the driver where to drop them off.

Stacie got out when the car stopped and walked to the door of what looked like a shop but it didn't have a sign, she held the door open for Aubrey who looked at her before stepping through. It looked like a normal coffee shop, there was a bar by the back wall and heavy oak tables scattered around. The music wasn't too high and there were only a few patrons. "How did you find this place?"

"Beca brought me once to their open mic night, a friend of hers from LA was playing." Stacie walked up to the register and ordered. Aubrey ordered a tea and they sat down on one of the tables.

Aubrey took out her notebook and a pen. "What I was thinking is we can work the questions around the answers instead of the other way around, that way we can make it more interesting."

"That sounds good." She took some books out of her bag. "I checked out these books for research, and we can look online later if we still feel like we need more stuff."

Aubrey pulled one of the books closer and smiled. "Good."

They worked in silence for a couple of hours, taking down notes on what they found and occasionally discussing certain things. By the time they walked out of the coffee shop it was starting to get dark. Stacie started walking down the street and Aubrey followed. "Do you wanna take the subway?"

"The subway?" Aubrey asked confused.

Stacie stopped and looked at her tilting her head. "You've never been on the subway, have you?"

Aubrey crossed her arms and shrugged. "I've never had to, I have a driver."

"I have a driver too but haven't you ever gone anywhere by yourself?"

"I guess. I don't know. I walk." Aubrey looked down.

"Well, I'm taking you on the subway, come on." Stacie took her hand and started walking down the block. When Aubrey started to follow her Stacie looked back and smiled, lacing their fingers together. Aubrey's stomach flipped but was immediately distracted when Stacie started going down the steps to the subway. Stacie let go of her hand when they reached the bottom and Aubrey frowned slightly at the loss of contact.

Stacie reached into her back pocket and took out a small yellow card, showing it to Aubrey. "This is a MetroCard. You use them to pay for the subway. You get them from that machine but I have enough on this for both of us."

Stacie walked to the turnstiles. "You just slide it here and go." She went through and passed the card back to Aubrey who bit her lip before sliding the card just as Stacie did. She smiled at Stacie when she reached the other side and handed her card back. Stacie shook her head. "You can keep it. You never know when you'll need it."

Aubrey's smile widened. "Thanks."

Stacie took her hand again and tugged her to the map of the city. "Okay so this is fairly easy, we're here…" She pointed at a spot on the map. "And we're trying to get here." She pointed at a spot close to Aubrey's street. "So we need to change here and here."

Stacie looked at Aubrey and she nodded. She was a bit confused by all the different colored lines. She decided to take a look at a subway map when she got home but for now she would just let Stacie lead. Aubrey thought it was weird that she wasn't nervous about someone else taking the lead for once but, maybe it was the way Stacie was explaining everything, or the fact that she was still holding her hand, or how she gave her reassuring smiles once in awhile, but she felt like she could trust Stacie.

The stood by the edge of the platform, just behind the yellow line. "And now we wait."

"For how long?" Stacie shrugged. "How often do the trains come?"

Stacie shrugged again. "It depends."

"Depends on what?" Stacie shrugged and Aubrey frowned at her.

She was starting to regret this and started calculating how long it would take Benji to get here when she heard the train coming. The loud noise and the movement startled her and she squeezed Stacie's hand, pressing herself to her side. Stacie pulled her close and wrapped her free arm around her. "It's okay."

Aubrey waited for the train to stop moving to let go of Stacie and gave her an apologetic smile. Anyone else would have made fun of her but Stacie just smiled warmly.

Stacie pulled them down to the nearest door and leaned to talk into Aubrey's ear. "So this works like an elevator, you wait for people to get out and then you get in."

Aubrey nodded once and stepped aside when the doors opened. They got into the car and stepped in front of the opposite door. "Now hold on to the railing, there's a lot of movement."

"I'm not touching that!" Aubrey said alarmed.

"Well you better hang on to something, we're going to start moving soon."

The train started moving and Aubrey stumbled forward but managed to catch herself. She smiled smugly at Stacie but she was squeezing her hand tightly. The train shook again sending her forward. Her free hand landed on Stacie's stomach, the hand holding Stacie's moved behind her. "I'm just going to stay here for now."

Stacie chuckled and Aubrey felt the vibrations on her hand. "Okay."

Aubrey suddenly realized how close she was to Stacie. Her head was near her shoulder and she could smell her perfume. Every time the car jumped, her hand shifted slightly over Stacie's stomach. Aubrey closed her eyes and leaned closer. She felt Stacie shift to get a better grip on her and her heart skipped a beat.

"We're getting off at the next stop." Aubrey shivered when she felt Stacie's breath in her ear.

They got off and Stacie led her through the station. Aubrey tried to pay attention but she couldn't stop thinking about the feeling of Stacie so close to her and how she hadn't let go of her hand yet.

The next two trains were less crowded so they sat. Aubrey was a little disappointed but she smiled when Stacie leaned her head on her shoulder on their last train. Aubrey let her stay there for a bit and then shrugged her off. "You can't fall asleep, I don't know where we're going."

"It's the fifth stop, you won't miss it." Stacie mumbled on her shoulder.

"Stacie!" Aubrey pushed her off again.

Stacie sat up and pouted. "Okay! Then tell me something so I don't fall asleep."

"Something like what?" Aubrey moved their joined hands to her lap and started playing with Stacie's fingers.

"I don't know, like why you've never taken the subway." Stacie said looking at her.

Aubrey shrugged. "I told you, I've never had to."

"Yeah but don't you ever just want to go somewhere? Away from your parents and your drivers and everyone who knows you? Don't you get tired of always having to be this perfect girl who does everything she's told?" Stacie squeezed Aubrey's hand.

"I guess I'm just not as brave as you. My dad would flip if he knew I was doing this right now." Aubrey looked up at Stacie and chuckled mirthlessly.

"It's a good thing he won't know then." Stacie smiled at her.

Aubrey smiled back and got lost in Stacie's eyes again. She was bumped out of her reverie when the train stopped making her crash against the brunette. She straightened herself again and looked down at their hands. "What about you? Why are you running away?"

Stacie shrugged. "I love my parents, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I feel like I'm a huge disappointment. They're artists and aside from a little singing I'm really not a creative person. I like science and facts and I don't know… I started modeling to make my mom happy."

Aubrey squeezed her hand. "You don't like it?"

"I don't hate it but I don't really like doing it." Stacie looked up when she felt the train slowing down. "We're here."

They got off the train and Stacie walked Aubrey to her building. Stacie let go of her hand when they got to her block and Aubrey had to stop herself from reaching out again. She turned to Stacie when they got to her door. "So do you want to come here tomorrow to finish the project?"

"Sure." Stacie nodded and turned to walk down to her place.

"Stace?" Stacie turned back. "Thanks for making me try new things."

Stacie smiled widely. "Anytime." Aubrey smiled at her one last time and waved before turning around and walking into her building. Stacie looked up and sighed. "Anytime."