Hey guys! Once again, really sorry that it took so long for me to update! I know a 6 month break is a lot, so I made this chapter longer than the previous ones have been to try and make up for the lack of posting! Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you guys think!

-athlete12

"Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Time!" Coach Thomas yelled to the athletes in the weight room. Due to one of the biggest snow storms Pennsylvania had seen years, outdoor track practice was impossible and led to indoor machines such as exercise bikes and treadmills as the only viable training option. Coach Thomas's most recent countdown had ended the fifteenth and final sprint his athletes had done, leaving them completely exhausted and drenched with sweat. Of course, that didn't stop Spencer and Emily from wanting more.

"Come on coach! One more set!" whined Spencer.

"Yeah coach just one more! I can feel this one being the best one yet!" Emily chimed in.

Their teammates looked at the two like they were crazy and continued to try to slowly and painfully make their way to the locker room before Coach Thomas could add on another set.

"C'mon girls, fifteen was definitely more than enough. You don't want to burn yourselves out before the season starts do you?" Coach Thomas questioned.

The two girls had been training like madwomen ever since they met a month ago and with the beginning of the season rapidly approaching Coach Thomas was worried about the possibility of them injuring themselves before the first meet.

"Why don't you just take it easy for the rest of the day? Maybe just hang out like normal teenage girls for once?" And with that he shooed them out of the weight room and locked the door behind them.

"I guess he's right... What do you wanna do Spence?" Emily asked as she pulled on a sweatshirt.

"Well.. I guess we could go hang out at my place? Toby and the others are going to come over later for game night, does that sound like fun?"

"Sure, but I should probably shower first don't you think?"

"Em we've got like a hundred showers at my house; I'm sure my mom would allow you to use one of them" Spencer replied with a laugh.

"Alright alright you've got me convinced. Let me just grab a change of clothes out of my locker and I'll be right over ok?"

With a nod of agreement from Spencer, Emily jogged into the front of the school.

Spencer sat nervously in her living room waited for Emily to arrive. This was the first time Emily will have been in her house. She'd been there plenty of times over the past month to pick Spencer up for their workouts, but she had never been inside her house. Spencer knew this shouldn't be a big deal, but it sure felt like one to her. After the initial shock of learning Emily's sexuality, it had never come up again. With the exception of a few questionably flirty texts every once and a while, things had been pretty normal. So why all of a sudden was Spencer nervous about her new friend being inside her house? Luckily she had no time to further stress out about it as she finally heard the buzzing of the doorbell alerting her to Emily' arrival.

"Hi, hello!" Spencer stammered nervously as she let Emily in.

"Haha hi Spencer? You do remember that we were just with each other like ten minutes ago, right?"

"Oh... Yeah I know! I was just... Welcoming you into my home?" Spencer exclaimed while making an awkward gesture towards her home.

"Haha ok well thank you! So is there a specific shower that you want me to use or am I free to any of them? Also, where are they?" Emily asked.

"Oh.. uh.. Actually you can shower out in the barn"

"Um... What? I have to shower in a barn? Spence if I knew that I probably would've just gone home!" Emily laughed.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry! It's not a barn anymore I'm just so used to calling it that! I recently converted our barn into somewhat of an apartment space that I hang out in! Here I'll show you!"

Spencer grabbed the other girl's hand and led her through the kitchen to the back yard. As they entered the barn she heard Emily gasp.

"Wow Spence! Did you design all of this yourself?"

"I mean... Toby helped me with some of it, but yeah it was mostly my idea. I wanted something that was modern and professional, but also functional you know?"

"Yeah totally. Spence this is awesome! Anyway could you point me towards the bathroom? I'd rather not be totally repulsive and sweaty when your friends come over later..."

"Oh yeah sure! It's down the hall and the second door on your right. You can use anything in there and there should be some extra towels hanging in there"

"Okay thanks!" Emily said as she made her way towards the bathroom.

Ten minutes later Emily emerged from the hallway wearing only a towel.

"Sorry! I totally forgot my gym bag with all my clothes in it out here!" she exclaimed as she reached for her gym bag.

"I- uh- that's fine..." Spencer managed to stammer out. She was lucky she was even able to say anything as all she could focus on was the towel clad girl in front of her. She had seen Emily in a sports bra before as they'd changed together in the locker room many times, but this was somehow different. Maybe it was the way the excess water dripping from her hair made her skin glisten or maybe it was something else, but Spencer could not take her eyes off of her.

"Um... Spence?"

The other girl's questioning tone snapped Spencer back to reality.

"Yeah? Sorry!"

"It's fine. I was just wondering if you wanted me to change somewhere else so you could shower?" asked the girl with a faint smirk on her face.

"Uh, oh yeah! Sure! Just right across the hall from the bathroom is totally fine, thanks!"

And with that Emily grabbed her bag and went to the other room to change, leaving an embarrassed Spencer hoping that Emily didn't notice her obvious staring.

"Challenge!" Emily shouted.

The gang was all there and they had decided on playing Scrabble in pairs. Obviously the two actual couples wanted to be together, which left Spencer and Emily to be the third pair. This left Spencer a little uneasy as she was usually paired with Toby, who was used to and very tolerant of her extremely competitive nature, and was a little worried as to how Emily would perceive this. A few minutes into the game she realized she had nothing to worry about though, as Emily was very competitive herself.

"Jeez Emily, you don't have to yell. And by the way, I know for a fact that "Prada" is a word" Hanna said with a smirk.

"Yes, but it's a proper noun, which is not allowed in Scrabble, so challenge!" Emily fired back.

"God... I can't believe that there's actually two of them..." Hanna muttered referring to Spencer and Emily. "Can't we have just one game night that isn't played to the death?!"

"What's the fun in that, right Spence?" Emily asked while looking at Spencer.

Spencer smiled as this and looked over at Toby who had a smirk on his face at Emily's use of the nickname.

The group then went on to play several other games, which Spencer and Emily dominated in, and then settled on ending the night with a movie. Hanna, Caleb, Aria, and Toby had coupled up on the two ends of the couch, leaving Emily and Spencer with just the one armchair. Spencer, being a good host allowed Emily to take the chair while she took to the floor in front of it.

"Really, I don't mind!" she insisted as Emily started to argue. "It's totally fine"

Halfway through the movie Spencer started to feel her hair being moved. Being as high strung as she was, she whipped her head around to find Emily braiding her hair.

"Sorry... Do you not like your hair braided? I was just getting a little bored of the movie and your hair looked so soft. I'll stop though no worries." Emily said with an apologetic look.

"No- it- it's fine... It felt kind of nice actually..." Spencer replied shyly.

Emily smiled back at her.

"Okay then well turn back around so I can finish!"

Spencer turned around and leaned back into the foot of the chair. She felt Emily softly take ahold of her hair, which made Spencer blush. Aria and Hanna braid her hair all the time and it never made her blush, but the way Emily gently ran her fingers through her hair was making Spencer feel feelings she had never really felt about another girl before. She just felt so comfortable and safe. She wished it could go on forever. Unfortunately, the movie ended quickly after that and Spencer jumped up to turn it off. Both couples on the couch were too busy making out to notice that the movie had ended. Spencer rolled her eyes at this and then looked over at Emily, who was sitting in the chair smiling at her. This made Spencer blush hard once again, which made her extremely grateful that she had yet to turn the lights on. She waited until her face felt cool enough and flicked on the lights, alerting the rest of her friends that the movie was over.

After everything had been cleaned up and put away, Caleb, Hanna, Aria and Toby gave their goodbyes and drove off, leaving Spencer and Emily alone.

"I had a great time tonight Spence. I hope your friends don't think I'm crazy after how competitive I was with the games"

"Oh don't worry about that. We've been playing games for years so they're totally used to my level of competitive-nature"

Both girls laughed at this a little.

"Okay well thanks for having me over. I really did enjoy getting to hang out with you outside of just our training sessions you know?"

"Oh yeah totally! We should hang out again sometime!"

"For sure! Well... I'll see you Monday at school?"

"Yeah definitely! See you then."

"Okay... Bye Spence" and with that Emily placed a light kiss on Spencer's cheek and left.

"I- uh- b- bye..." Spencer managed to choke out. And for the third time that night, Spencer blushed.