Hello my lovely readers! Thank you so much for all the positive feedback. It's really encouraging. Sorry for the delay in updating. I've been in the process of traveling back home from a vacation. But lucky for you all, this meant I had an initial 5 hour plane ride, followed by a 2 hour plane ride, followed by a 4 hour car ride.. which means I had lots of time to write some more as well as brainstorm ideas for future chapters. Any further reviews are appreciated. Positive or negative, I'm all ears (or eyes in this case.) If you have questions about why I chose to include something the way I did or curious as to where an idea came from just ask! I'm super friendly and love the interaction.

I've got all these ideas I'm excited about and my "puzzle" pieces are slowly coming together. Pay attention to the small details. I love small details. ;) Alright well here are a few responses to some reviews I received and then on to the story!

Gloria: I'm glad you like the slight age difference I put between them. I wasn't sure how people would react to it, but I feel like it makes sense for where I'm taking their story. Thank you so much for such kind things. It's really encouraging.

HOOBASTOO: I'm super happy you love it so far! I received enough feedback telling me to keep going, so I am!

dayabieberxo: YES. I'm glad you like the idea. And YES, we've most certainly all been there! I think it's very relate-able.

lemonfi1: Happy to see you enjoyed it. :)

Psyro: Thank you. I hope this next chapter makes you just as excited as the first.

CiCi: I'm glad it put a smile on your face. I'm glad you like Paige's mannerisms. I agree she most definitely is "the mostly awkward redhead that belittles herself." I hope Emily's POV in this chapter doesn't disappoint. There will be MORE to come. I really wasn't sure if I was going to include her point of view, but realized almost soon after writing the first chapter, that it would help with the character building.. and yes, they are two years apart in this fic.

lina-sama28: I'm happy to hear you loved it. Here's some more. ;)

Paige was almost one hundred percent positive that Emily wasn't even gay and she could say for certain that she was one hundred percent sure that she, herself, wasn't gay. So in reality, it didn't matter what Paige thought, and it didn't matter if Emily was into girls or guys.

Paige had already been down that road. When she found herself at that intersection forcing herself to finally make a decision with which way she was going, she eventually decided that she was definitely going straight. She was straight and there would be no more questioning it.

A lack of experience with guys did not mean she might be gay. She had made a point to stay focused on school and swimming. She didn't have time or energy for messing around with boys, boys who she could hardly stand to be around, because of their lack of maturity and fixation on getting into any girl's pants.

There was never any spark between her and any of the past guys she had briefly dated. None of those relationships had lasted longer than a few weeks so it never got serious. In a way, she never allowed it to. She figured that the right one just hadn't come along yet because if he had, she was sure she wouldn't be single right now and she was sure she wouldn't be questioning her sexuality.

So, why, after all this time of figuring it all out was she beginning to question being straight again? She didn't want to admit that she already knew the answer to her question. But if anyone could have read her mind at that exact moment, the one thing that was on her mind was Emily Fields. Emily Fields was making Paige question again whether she was really straight or not.

Emily broke Paige's deep concentration on her thoughts.

"Well, I think we should probably head to the locker room, we normally meet up at the end of our practices to talk about how it went, and also announce anything that needs to be put out to the team."

"Oh yeah, right. Okay." Paige replied.

Emily stood up from her kneeling position and waited patiently as Paige picked her goggles up off the tile and came to a standing position as well. Paige was now directly face to face with Emily. Just then, she noticed Emily was actually shorter than her by a couple inches and for a few seconds got lost in Emily's mahogany colored brown eyes.

Emily held Paige's gaze with slight curiosity.

With expectant eyes and a tender smile she asked, "Something on your mind?"

"Oh uh, no. Nope. I uh—ha. No." Paige's face grew hot with embarrassment as she looked straight ahead to the bleachers that were located on the other side of the pool next to the locker room.

God, Paige, get yourself together. You probably just looked like a major creep. Avoid her eyes, they're making you act like a fool.

The last thing she wanted was to weird Emily out. But at the same time she was thinking maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if she did. Maybe Emily would lose interest in her and make it easier for Paige to avoid any future interactions.

Emily seemed to accept Paige's response because she didn't question any further.

The two girls walked along the width of the pool side by side. They were so close that Emily's forearm lightly grazed Paige's. Paige's breath caught in her throat. She literally felt like she had just been zapped by a small charge of electricity.

Woah, what was that, what just happened? That felt oddly weird yet amazing at the same time. It was nice. -Wait, stop it. Knock it off. Don't stand so close, that can't happen again. In fact, don't let it happen again.

Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Paige was sure Emily could hear her increased heart-rate because it was deafening in her own ears.

She quickly took a small side-step to the left but did it in such a manner that Emily didn't even really notice the added space between the two of them.

"So, Paige." Emily started.

"MMhhmm."

"You're new here, to the school, right? Because I'm pretty sure I would have noticed you before today if you'd been attending Rosewood."

"Uh yeah, actually I just transferred here. I went to Jefferson for my freshman year. I ended up doing some home-schooling over the summer through this most recent fall term. I finished out my fall classes with a private tutor and was able to transfer here, no big deal."

Paige didn't know why Emily made her feel so nervous; she was now looking down at her hands and fidgeting with her goggle straps.

"Now it's my turn to be nosey, if you'll allow. Jefferson has one of the best swim programs around. Why'd you transfer here to Rosewood? And why do home-schooling for such a short period of time? Sorry, I don't intend to pry. I'm just curious."

"Ummm, let's just say that I needed a fresh start somewhere new and leave it at that. Also, the home-schooling was my parent's idea. I suppose it helped me get ahead in school, so it wasn't so bad." Paige stated with furrowed eyebrows, hoping Emily wouldn't ask for more elaboration.

Paige wasn't comfortable enough with Emily to really disclose why she had transferred from her old school. She didn't want the reason why she had transferred to get around to others and have the same problem follow her to her new school. Sacrificing a well structured swim program that also had a history of winning and producing top athletes was worth it to get her out of that hell hole of a situation.

She had put up with being bullied for too long, and she was still dealing with the affects of it to this day. The bullying got so bad that it eventually led to self-destructive tendencies. She wasn't proud of it and she wasn't about to relapse.

Besides, when she left Jefferson, her dad wanted to make sure she'd stay in top swimming condition so he made sure to hire a private swim coach that had worked with her the last five months. She learned all her regimented workouts from him, and was now able to use what she had learned to keep in shape and stay on top of her swimming. Ultimately, her dad wanted her to get a full-ride swim scholarship to a top university, and right now, it was just about the only thing she had to look forward to.

Even through all her most recent heartaches, Paige always had swimming to fall back onto. The water had ways of healing her soul.

"Okay, fair enough. Well, like I mentioned earlier, I can already see you're a fast swimmer. No denying that. It was nice to have someone else out there with me. That's actually kind of why I was alone in the lane; everyone on the team prefers to leave me to my own lane because I tend to lap anyone sharing with me."

Paige didn't really know what to say. But she automatically felt the urge to apologize.

"Oh, um. I-I'm sorry I didn't know. I'll be sure to pick a different lane next time."

"No you must have misunderstood me; it was nice swimming with someone that could keep up. I don't really have any other competition on the team. Looks like I've met it today." Emily smiled and glanced over at Paige.

Paige caught Emily's eyes with her own and again averted her gaze back down to her hands that were still holding her goggles.

Paige looked back up. "Oh, yeah? Um, thanks. I was actually kind of thinking the same thing when I was about to pass you up."

"Ha, ABOUT to pass me up, that's funny because from my point of view I was still a good few strokes ahead of you. You weren't going to catch me that easily." Emily answered while lightly nudging Paige's shoulder.

Trying not to read too much into it Paige argued, "Yeah, well the whistle saved you because I'd have had you passed by the next turn around. And whelp, I guess we'll never really know who would have come out on top, huh?"

"Well you know what that means right?" Emily began.

Paige had a confused look plastered on her face, not really sure where Emily was going to go with her statement.

"We need a redo. Race each other, see who wins. It'll be fun. Winner gets bragging rights and the loser will have to accompany the winner to an outing of the winner's choice. The loser also reserves the right to cry themselves to sleep that night in shame."

"Ha, well I don't know about YOU, but I don't cry. My tear ducts are non-existent."

"So it's a deal?" Emily questioned with a hopeful smile on her face.

"Oh, right. Umm.. HHmm. I don't know. Can I think on it?"

Paige really didn't want to interact with Emily anymore then she had to. She could already tell this could be headed down a likely path of probably becoming friends. And Paige didn't think she could handle that at this point.

"Afraid you won't be able to beat me?"

"Ha no. I just, -I need to think about it. If anything I'm already feeling bad for you because I know there's not a snowball's chance in hell you'll win; yet, you seem to be under the false notion that you can and you will." Paige joked.

"Ooh, ho. OUCH. That stung a little. Alright, fair enough. No pressure. I totally understand if you're scared."

Emily was unknowingly making it very hard for Paige to resist her charm.

"Ha, scared? Me? No. I'm not scared. You don't scare me."

Paige had technically told a white lie; she was absolutely scared of Emily. But she wasn't going to let Emily know that. Plus she wasn't even scared for normal reasons one might usually be scared of someone. Emily scared Paige because she was causing feelings and thoughts to resurface that Paige had fought so hard to bury.

"So it's a deal?" Emily asked again.

Paige laughed. She thought Emily was incredibly cute and her persistence was endearing. But just as soon as Paige had allowed herself to think these things of Emily, she shook her thoughts and responded with, "Wow, you sure are persistent."

"I like to get what I want when I can help it." Emily now had a smirk spread across her face; one that told Paige she wasn't going to give up that easily.

"And what exactly is it that you want?"

Emily was making it harder for Paige to keep her guard up and maintain boundaries. Paige already told herself that she was going to avoid spending too much time with Emily, and now Emily had practically already set them up for an outing if they really did end up racing each other. This meant alone time with Emily, and for Paige's own sake she would try to do everything in her ability to not let that happen.

Before Emily could answer Paige's question and before Paige could give Emily a final answer, another girl from the team ran up, grabbed Emily by the arm, and pulled her over towards bleachers that were just outside the locker room.

It was apparent to Paige that this girl was very excited about telling Emily something. But just as Emily was being dragged off she managed to catch Paige's eyes and smile apologetically. Paige threw her a forgiving smile in return.

By this point the girls had already wandered only a few feet away from the entrance to the locker room so Paige just decided to go inside. She was actually kind of relieved this other girl had interrupted their conversation. She was hoping Emily might just give up or forget about it. But somehow, she could tell this was probably wishful thinking.

^^^^^^^^^ Emily's POV

Emily was caught completely off guard, she couldn't even get a word out to Paige to talk further about possible plans or even say bye. But she figured she'd catch her before she left for the evening.

"Woah, geez Marni, what gives? You almost made me fall on my face." Emily stated.

"Oh please, I doubt you would have actually cared once I told you my news."

"This better be good, I was kind of in the middle of a conversation, with Paige, that you so rudely interrupted."

"Paige? Who's that? -Ooh wait. The new girl, right. Yeah, who cares, she's just a sophomore anyways."

Marni had a tendency to disregard other people's feelings and half the time she could care less if she came across as being rude. She lacked a complete filter when it came to blurting out things that were on her mind. Marni was blunt and most people that met her for the first time described her as a total bitch. It was something Emily was used to by now. While she didn't love this quality about Marni, they'd known each other since Emily started her first swim lessons around the age of five. Lessons eventually led to them being on their first competitive swim team together and here they were now swimming on the varsity swim team their senior year of high school.

"Marni, I care. But whatever, you've got my full attention now, better use it wisely. What did you so badly need to tell me?"

"Well, you know Cole, from the guys varsity swim?

"Of course I do, you practically live and breathe Cole Jacobs. If you aren't mentioning him at least ten times on a daily basis, something isn't right."

"Ha, right. And oh please, exaggerate much? I do not obsess about him that much."

"Well we can agree to disagree. Please spill this important news. We need to get back in the locker room."

"Okay, okay. Well, Cole is having a HUGE, like super huge, party. We're talking probably over a few hundred people. His parents are going out of town next Friday so he's throwing a party at his parent's lake house."

"Marni, you pulled me away from a conversation I was in the middle of to tell me about a party that's happening in six days? Do you realize there was plenty of time between now and then to inform me of this earth shattering news?"

"Wow, well when you put it that way I guess th—no I don't care about how many days away the party is. You act as if you don't already know I'm an insensitive person. This is big news. I may finally get my chance to have my way with him. And then he'll have no choice but to want more. I mean can you imagine? I can totally already picture us being voted prom king and queen. It'll be perfect."

"Well before you start planning out your wedding and picking the names of all your children, you may want to consider the fact that he is still dating Rachel."

"Oh please, you think I didn't already consider this? Besides, if you were paying any attention to what I said, you would have heard that THIS party is what will get him to notice me, realize how big of a bimbo Rachel is, dump her, and be with me. It's brilliant."

"Wow, Marni. Really? You're going to be THAT girl. Super classy of you. Well, thank you so very much for this very enlightening conversation. I think what I've taken away from it is that you are completely fine with slutting it up in attempt to get a guy who's already in a committed relationship, who happens to be having a HUGE party next Friday. Six days from now. Correct me if I'm wrong." Emily said so matter-of-factly.

Marni looked at Emily with face that made it obvious she was processing what Emily had just said.

"Uh, nope. You summarized it really well I thought. And awwwhhh you WERE paying attention. I'm so glad. That makes me feel so loved."

At that moment both girls broke into laughter. Their conversations often went exactly like this. And Emily loved how straightforward she could be with Marni. There wasn't one thing she couldn't say to her face even if it came off as a bit harsh. Marni never took offense and Emily had learned not to take too much of what Marni said seriously. Their odd friendship worked and half the time Emily didn't even understand it.

"I don't know what to do with you sometimes." Emily stated.

"Just tell me you'll come with me to the party. Please?"

"Fine. Whatever. I don't think I could miss this for the world. It may just be the most entertaining thing I'll see all week long. Don't disappoint."

"That's my girl!" Marni shouted excitedly while jumping up and down.

"Okay, okay. Let's get to the locker room. We're already late enough as it is. I bet we just missed everything coach put out."

But really, all Emily was able to think about was if she'd already missed her chance to conclude her conversation with Paige.