I'm so sorry for the almost-three-week-hiatus but the story just hasn't been flowing like it has been and I apologize greatly for that. But here it is, Ch 8 as you have all been waiting for :) If this chapter sucks then I am really sorry but hey, I tried. Well anyways, I hope you enjoy it and please review it as well; I absolutely LOVE every single review I get from you guys. Seriously, you rock, all of you. If I haven't stated before, I'll do so now, I fully accept constructive criticism as long as it's constructive.

Oh well, I've kept you long enough. Please continue to enjoy and review. Hopefully Ch. 9 wont take quite as long...

"Alright, I seriously believe that Mr. Misora is out to get me," Hanna complained, setting her fork down, "I worked my ass of on that video I made and I got a 70% because it didn't include EVERY single thing that was on the sheet I turned in. I mean, forgive me for coming up with something better later on. And the spit-take I added was priceless."

"You had absolutely no reason for that spit-take!" Spencer exclaimed, taking a sip of her apple juice, "It was placed in between the mall and the parking lot scenes."

"Hey," Hanna interjected, "you should have seen the price of those shoes they had in there! Talk about a rip off!"

"But there weren't any shoes in the video; you can't have a scene in a video based off of something that's not even in the video to begin with!" Spencer argued.

"Bu.. I.."

"Exactly." Spencer concluded, taking a bite of her half-eaten pizza. This entire conversation remained a blur to Emily, who was just beginning to snap back into reality.

"Are you alright, Em? You look kind of... distracted." Aria inquired. By now all three girls were focused on an obviously dazed Emily.

Emily, prior to being snapped back into reality, was reminiscing on her night with Paige; she kissed her, and she kissed her back. How she had managed to conjure up the courage to do that she wasn't sure, but she was glad she did. After her and Paige had arrived back at her place, they lead Joey back in his stall before heading back to the house to make some well needed hot chocolate. Though before she could finish drinking it, Emily's mom had text her saying she needed to be home to help with a few things and get dinner ready. They had left with an awkward goodbye, as Paige's parents were lounging in the living room right next to them. Before driving off, Emily had received a text from Paige telling her she had an amazing time today and that hopefully she could see her after school tomorrow as well; of course Emily said yes and proceeded to drive back home, with a smile perched across her face.

"Huh, w-what?" Emily asked, catching the eyes of her three friends.

"You were daydreaming, Em." Aria mentioned.

"Yeah," Hanna blurted, "probably about the new girl again haha; so tell us the deets!"

"Hanna, there probably aren't any 'deets' to be told. They've only known each other barely a week." Spencer interjected. Emily knew that only a week was enough time to get to know Paige well enough to kiss her, but she didn't want her friends to know, in fear of Paige not wanting to be outed; that would probably end up being a gradual process. Paige didn't seem like the "open" type, considering Emily's observations about her over the past week.

"There's nothing going on between us," Emily lied, hoping they wouldn't catch on to her fib, "we're just friends and she may or may not be gay anyways so why push the issue?"

"Well right now Hanna's the only one pushing anything." Spencer remarked.

"Okay, well excuse me for being curious about the non-existent love life of Emily Fields and wanting her to be with someone special." Hanna defended.

"It's alright, Hanna; I know your intentions are nothing but good. I just don't like you guys thinking that me being single is causing me to be unhappy, you know?"

"I know." Hanna replied, "I just feel like you are left out when it comes to relationships because we've got our hotties, and you're just, well, this lonely hottie in the background."

"Hanna!" Spencer chastised.

"What? I'm trying to be considerate of her situation!"

"Well you're doing a piss-poor job of it!"

"Guys," Emily interrupted, "really, I'm alright and so is Hanna. If it makes you feel any better I'll keep you up-to-date with Paige and I, okay?" Emily knew this was only half true, considering not wanting to 'out' Paige, but still true when it came to their friendship.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and all four girls threw away their garbage and headed towards their designated classes. Emily arriving a little earlier than usual to Chemistry...

Strolling through the doorway to AP Chem, Emily's smile could be seen from space as she walked towards her lab partner who was smiling back at her. Emily sits down, her knee barely coming into contact with Paige's; neither of them moving from their positions.

"Hey, partner." Paige greets with a warm smile, her dark brown eyes never leaving Emily's.

"Hey, partner. Finish the homework? Because I didn't." Emily said with a chuckle, to which Paige returned and pulled out her finished assignment and laid it in front of Emily to copy down before class started. Emily was rather content with her relationship with Paige at the moment, although she still was unsure of what that kiss really meant. Did this mean they were together? It seemed as though Paige was obviously in to her, but she still wasn't quite sure how Paige views their relationship as of right now. Her thoughts were interrupted when the bell rang and Mr. Dyck started handing back completed assignments while passing out a review assignment for the test tomorrow. Emily had just finished copying Paige's homework as the teacher came around and collected both of their sheets.

"Thank God there's nothing else included in this chapter, otherwise my brain would explode." Emily rejoiced, earning a slight chuckle from Paige.

"Well, I'd be more than happy to help but I refuse to let you cheat off of me on the test if that's what you were planning on doing, because that goes against my morals." Paige said, smiling, assuring Emily she was half joking about it.

"I wouldn't ask you to do that," Emily replied, "it goes against my morals too; but I feel as though the best I could do without your help is a C- or worse. If my GPA drops any lower I can't swim until it goes up again."

"Well, how about you do the entire review sheet by yourself, and I'll check your work; whatever you don't understand I'll help you with after school. How's that sound?"

"That sounds great, actually." Emily replied, "Hey, do you need a ride home after swim practice? If I'm going to your house then I figure we could just save your parents the time and effort, right?"

"Well, I was going to take the shuttle bus, but I guess we can do that." Paige replied, smiling as she began working on the review sheet in front of her. Emily took this as a sign that it was about time she worked on her review sheet as well, but the continuous contact between her and Paige's knees was pretty distracting. Thankfully though she was somehow able to work throughout the rest of the period.

Paige had finished her work early, so, as always, she pulled out her sketchbook and continued drawing a picture of Joey that she had already began the day before. Apparently, at about five minutes before the bell rang, Noel Kahn decided it was a good idea to come over and "introduce" himself.

"Hey there, girls," he began, traversing near the rear of the classroom, "how's that chemistry comin' along?" Both girls looked up from what they were doing; Emily scoffed at the thought of Noel coming over there, his intentions obvious: flirt with the new girl. Paige had looked up, and went straight back to working on her drawing when Noel tried to continue a conversation with them.

"Looks like you two are working hard; what's that? A horse? It's really good; hey, maybe you should be an art teacher or something." Emily scoffed again. Paige just continued to brush off his comments.

"Look, Noel," Emily started, "you and I both know why you're over here. Just shoo before you make a fool of yourself."

"Well, now, that's harsh, Emily." Noel remarked, "I hardly know what you're talking about; I just wanted to come over and introduce myself." Noel turned his attention towards Paige, who was now looking up at him. "Hi, I'm Noel Kahn. Captain of the varsity football team and I play a little soccer and lacrosse as well. And if you haven't heard I throw pretty awesome parties as well. There's one this Saturday at my parents' cabin if you would like to go. I'm sure Emily could show you where it is." He paused, looking towards Emily, and then back to Paige, "Well, anyways, I was just coming over here to let you know, if you need any help with anything, like schoolwork, or finding suitable friends..." his attention turned back towards Emily again, who was glaring at him, only to return his attention back to the auburn haired girl in front of him, "that I would be more than happy to assist you."

Emily really wanted the bell to ring soon; she wanted him to leave. But Paige's "are you kidding me?" look along with a slight chuckle at his statement was enough to shoot him down on the spot. "Well, alright then, I guess I'll take that as a 'get the hell away from me' and I'll just be on my way." He left them, and Emily couldn't help but smile at Paige's blatant rejection of Noel Kahn.

"Good thing his 'charm' didn't get to you." Emily stated, hoping that the reason for that was the same reason she had kissed her the other day.

"It's not too difficult to see what guys like him are really like, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Emily returned. She had just finished the last problem of her review sheet and placed it in her folder. She looked at the clock and noticed there was about four minutes left of class and decided to utilize that time to admire Paige's artistic ability and leaned in closer to her, brushing against Paige's knee in the process. Emily noticed a smile spread across Paige's face as she continued to work on her drawing. Emily scoots closer, almost resting her head on Paige's left shoulder. She stayed in that position as the bell rang, signaling the end of 4th period.

Walking together, Paige and Emily headed towards the locker rooms. Emily was grateful for the fact that she and Paige were locker neighbors; getting to stand next to her and gawk at the perfectness that is Paige's abs, was too good to pass up.

"I hope coach doesn't work us too hard today before swim practice." Emily stated, grabbing her t-shirt and putting it over her head. Although she couldn't deny the fact she was interested in seeing Paige's body covered in sweat, she really didn't want a hard workout before practice.

"I agree," Paige admitted, closing her locker door, "it makes for bad swim times during practice. My dad wants me to be the anchor for the next meet but I highly doubt he'll get his wish. You're just too fast for me, Fields."

"Hey, I'm not the one breaking school records during the first practice, McCullers. You actually have a real shot. If you do make anchor, you will definitely deserve it." Emily replied, walking towards the gym.

"Thanks." Paige smiled, blushing slightly, and following behind Emily.

Throughout their gym period, Emily would find any excuse to come into contact with Paige, whether it be a high five, a brushing of their shoulders or hands, anything really. Coach had set up a lighter routine for the swimmers and other athletes competing in a winter sport, knowing that their usual workouts plus the hard routine for the rest of the class would be too much for them to handle. The routine consisted of twenty minutes of walking/jogging the indoor track and the rest of the period in the weight room doing the usual pushups, situps, and general use of the workout machines. Afterwords, Paige and Emily both went their separate ways and headed to the last period of the day.

Swim practice was routine and went by pretty fast. Although they were both pretty sore afterwords, they couldn't say that they didn't enjoy themselves while swimming. They both had a passion for it and that pretty much made up for whatever repercussions it had on their bodies.

They both met up at Emily's locker after swim practice. They grabbed their chemistry books and headed out towards Emily's vehicle. Once they arrived at Paige's house, they had found a note on the kitchen table stating that both her parents were out on business and will not be back until later that night or early the next morning. Emily couldn't deny the fact that she was glad they were out for the night; and neither could Paige.

They climbed the stairs and entered Paige's room and immediately made themselves comfortable on Paige's bed while pulling out their chemistry homework. Paige began looking over Emily's review sheet while showing Emily the problems she missed and why she missed them.

"Oh, that makes sense," Emily concluded, "so really all it was was I understood about 95% of it but because of that I would have missed small steps and gotten them wrong. So I understood it, but not quite fully."

"Yeah, you got the gist of it but it's those tiny steps that kill you in the end. Gotta watch out for those." Paige chuckled, earning a smile from Emily. Once she corrected her review sheet she put it back in her folder for tomorrow's test.

"Guess that was actually easier than I thought; where were you when I was taking AP Biology?" Emily joked

'Well, I was probably in this room right here and spending most of my time on my laptop surfing the internet or watching Sister Act. Which reminds me, we never finished watching that; you wanna watch it now? We got time. I mean, you finished the homework faster than I had anticipated."

"Oh, so I'm not as dumb as you thought I was?"

"No, I.. w-what I meant was..." Paige fumbled with her words.

"I'm just kidding, jeeze, man take a joke."

"Oh, ha... That's a relief." Paige mustered, "So, how 'bout that movie, eh?"

"Sounds good, wanna make some popcorn? Or do you have any?"

"Oh, we have popcorn, with extra butter and seasoning salt. I'll put the movie in and be right back."

Paige hopped off the bed and grabbed the movie from the shelf and slipped it in the DVD player.

"Make yourself comfortable and I'll bring up the popcorn in a bit."

Paige left the room and proceeded downstairs to the kitchen. Emily leaned back against the headboard and watched the previews as the smell of the freshly microwaved popcorn filled the house. Paige returned shortly with a bowl of popcorn and a couple bottles of water.

"I wasn't sure what you wanted, so I figured water was a safe bet." Paige said, switching the light off and heading back towards Emily. "It's alright if I have the light off, right?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Emily answered, internally thanking Paige for doing so. They settled in her bed just as the movie was about to start. They were close enough to be touching each others shoulders lightly, which didn't bother Emily one bit. They laid there, sipping their water and munching on the popcorn on Paige's lap. Emily took advantage of that and would occasionally brush her hand against hers while reaching for the popcorn.

By time the movie had ended, the popcorn was gone and their water bottles were empty. Their positions had changed to where Paige was now laying on her back and Emily was curled up next to her with her arm resting on Paige's stomach and Paige's arm around her and resting on her back. How they ended up that way, neither of them were sure how, or when it happened, but neither of them decided to question it. They laid there in silence as the credits rolled and the screen turned to black.

"Hey Paige..." Emily began.

"Hmm?"

"What exactly, is this?" Emily asked, slightly lifting her thumb that was resting on Paige's abdomen.

"Well..." she began, "I was hoping you could tell me. This.." she paused, "...this is completely new territory for me."

"Same here." Emily answered. "Do your parents know? I mean you guys seem to share a lot considering their extensive knowledge about your school life and everything and how you, I guess, deal with school and your classmates."

"Ha. If they knew they'd send me away to some 'gay away' camp or some shit like that. Honestly my parents don't give a shit about me or my mental health. As long as I have good grades and swim times, they couldn't care less whether or not I was a mess on the inside. They only make people think they do; once they're gone, it's a whole different world around here. Right now the only thing keeping me sane is staying busy and being with Joey." Paige answered. It appeared to Emily that Paige's life was a lot worse than she thought it was; and she was bound determined to help her get through it the best she could.

"I'm so sorry; when my parents found out I thought that would happen too, but as it turns out they were a lot more accepting than I first thought. But everyone's situation is different, I guess."

Paige nodded; a silence fell between them and Emily held Paige closer and in return Paige did the same. They laid there in silence for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes before Emily continued.

"Hey, my friends know as well, would it be possible for you to tell them and have a larger support system? I know that helps a lot; it did when I first came out."

"Honestly, I really don't feel comfortable telling anyone at this point. It's not easy telling people you've only known a week. I'm surprised I even told you to be honest." Paige's voice fell, and a silence filled the room again.

"Well, I guess it can be our little secret for the time being; but eventually you will have to let people know, preferably starting with my friends. I know they will be 100% supportive of you, of us."

"Maybe..." Paige mustered, "I'll try."

"That's all I can ask for, Paige."Emily said, smiling. She looked up at Paige, who was looking down at her. Paige leaned down and captured her lips in a soft, sweet kiss.

"That's all I can ask for as well." Paige stated. And with that, they both drifted off into a deep slumber.