"What time is it?" I mumbled. Harper looked up, startled.

"Oh, you're awake. I'm not sure for you, but it's about 4 P.M. here."

"I'm too tired to do the math." I rubbed my eyes and sat up, picking up my phone from my nightstand. The time read 9:03. I focused on the talking I heard earlier and realized it was from Harper.

"Who's talking?"

"Oh, you can hear that?" Harper looked embarrassed. She grabbed a remote and pointed it somewhere, pressing a button a couple of times. "I was watching a show."

"Oh. What show?"

Harper shook her head. "Just a show. So I talked to my brother last night and since then I've thought of things we should probably talk about eventually."

"Okay. . . Like what?" I sat up, fixing my hair. Harper pulled out a piece of paper to read it.

"Okay. So what I wrote first was about when we meet. You're a year older than me, right? 16?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm 16. So then you're 15?"

"Yes, I am. So, since you turn 18 first, you'll have a flight first and I was wondering how exactly that'd go."

"What do you mean?"

"Just, well, we're going to live together eventually, right? And sooner rather than later? I was wondering if when you come here if you were going to get a return ticket or one way. Some people, when meeting their soulmates, move in with them whenever they come, and some just visit for no more than a week and go back to their homeplace and return upon a later date, or the other soulmate goes there, and of course tons more ways. I was wondering which way we'd be doing this."

"Well... I guess I was going to keep it a surprise but now I can't. I was thinking that since I'll graduate before you I'll just be together your last year of school, and then we could decide from there. Maybe you could even come to see Arizona." I smiled at Harper and she smiled back.

"Yeah, maybe. That sounds like a good idea." She cleared her throat and looked back at the paper. "So, how are we on going on dates and dating people before we meet? I haven't been with anyone or done anything but my brother's situation reminded me I should ask."

"I don't have a 'situation.' I have a soulmate and I have a girlfriend so I don't make a fool in front of said soulmate when we meet." A brunette boy poked his head into Harper's room in the background. I recognized his hair and realized it was his room where Harper slept her previous night. The boy gave a cheeky smile and left. Harper merely shook her head.

"Anyway, what about you?"

"Oh, yeah. No, I haven't done anything. Haven't been with anyone in any way. Are we going to keep it like that?"

"I mean, I don't see why not. You're 16 and coming here when you're 18, so that's only 2. . . Only 2 years until we meet. . ." Harper trailed off and stared into space. I blinked. Was it really that close? "Um..." Harper shook her head slightly to get her to focus. "So that's only 2 years, I don't see the point in dating in any way starting now." I nodded.

"I see where you're coming from, yeah. So no dating. We will both be innocent in every way that matters until each other." Harper's face burned and she buried it in her palms while I grinned.

"Callie!" I heard my name called from somewhere outside my room.

"Continue this call later?" I asked Harper. Her face was still buried in her palms, but I could tell from her ears her face was still burning. She nodded at me and I gently smiled at her. "Okay. Talk later."

She looked at me and I hung up the call. I looked at how long the call had been going. 8 hours, wow. She didn't hang up while I was asleep.

"Callie!" My name was called again, with more urgency this time. I stood up and stretched and yawned, then went downstairs and saw mom at the bottom of the stairs.

"What is it?" Mom looked at my still semi messy hair, my crop top, and my shorts and she probably sighed mentally. Well, who can blame me for having just woken up? She looked even more tired than I was, so she probably just woke up, too.

"Alex is here." She walked back towards her room.

I walked down the stairs and to the door, rubbing my arms when the slightly cold outside air was getting inside. Fall's temperatures were approaching, it seemed.

"Hey." I smiled at Alex and she smiled at me.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

"We decided to hang out, right?" Alex looked confused and now I was confused.

"When?"

"Yesterday? I don't really remember when but I thought we had agreed?"

"I don't remember that," I shrugged. "But we totally can, come on in. Do you know if anyone else is coming over, too?"

"I don't know," Alex shrugged and I shrugged back.

"Let's grab my phone and we can go somewhere." We went upstairs and I grabbed my phone and my car keys.

"Where should we go?" I asked as we stepped off the stairs.

"Ooh, going somewhere secretive so you can catfish this 'Harper' again, are you?" Scarlett came to the ground floor and moved her hands as if she were trying to imitate a ghost.

"Oh my God, Scarlett, I already told you I'm not catfishing anyone, and I know this 'Harper.'" I mimicked her air quotes on Harper's name. She rolled her eyes at me.

"Whatever. If you're going out, take the shopping list."

"Fine."

Scarlett rolled her eyes one last time and went back to her room. I put my jacket on and grabbed the slip of paper off the fridge. "Let's go." Alex shrugged at my outfit; my short, crop top, and bright jacket, and we left.

***

We got to the store and got everything on the list and were now waiting in line for check out. There wasn't much on the list itself (that mom wrote), so Alex and I ended up throwing in a couple of things for ourselves and the group, like soda and chips, and we decided on candy, too, though maybe it's too early for that.

"So, how's your soulmate?" I asked while we were waiting and bored. The person in front of us had a lot of stuff.

"He's fine. He has a math test on Monday, I think, so he's been stressing."

"Really? He's probably going to do great."

Alex shrugged and I raised an eyebrow. "Math is the hardest for him, you know, with the way it builds each year, unlike other subjects. It makes it difficult for him." 

"Ah, I see, you depend on the specifics of the previous years' teachings in math but not other classes typically."

"Yeah, exactly. I hope he does well, though. What about you? How's Harper?"

"Oh, she's doing fine." When Alex said Harper and I said she, a couple people in line looked at us but I just shrugged them off. Yeah, I have a girl soulmate, get over it. "She was saying something about how her twin brother Oliver and her haven't been getting along recently, but I think she said they stayed up last night and talked and sorted it all out."

"That's good. Twins are often super close, so I can't imagine what it'd be like arguing with them or not getting along suddenly. I feel like it'd be as if we randomly started arguing, or us and anyone else in our friend group."

"Yeah. She's just been having a rough time, so I'm glad she's getting along with her brother again. At least he can help as much as possible until I'm 18 and there."

"Speaking of which," Alex stopped after we finished loading our stuff onto the conveyer belt. "What's your plan? You're a year older than Harper, right?"

"Yeah. We talked and I think we decided on me living in England for her last year of school and me getting a job and my own place, and just going from there. We were talking about how I wanted her to come here at least once, so we'll probably do that at one point in the year I'm there."

"Man, you guys are so prepared. Me and my soulmate haven't really talked about the future much." Alex chuckled nervously as we loaded our groceries back into our cart. 

"If it makes you feel any better," I said, "we literally only talked about it this morning." We chuckled and walked outside. "Text the group and see if they wanna come over and watch a movie because our food is perfect for that.

"Okay.
 I opened one of the water bottles we got and drank some while Alex texted them, and my phone went off at the texts respectively. I put the water bottle in the cart and we started loading the bags in my car, Alex telling me what they were saying while I started the car and we left.

"Emma came up with a movie idea: A LGBT movie." I looked at Alex momentarily.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Uh..." She watched her screen, no doubt reading a long Emma text to summarize it. "She says that because you're LGBT and we're all 'straight uneducated ones,' it could help us understand or get used to Harper being a girl. She didn't say Harper's name," Alex turned and looked at me. "Just that it'll help us get used to you not having a boy soulmate." She sat back in her seat. "So, what do you think?"

"I mean, I'm all up for it, but I'm not sure if the other girls are gonna be up to it." That was a lie, and both Alex and I knew it. They'd love to if it meant something to me, and I wasn't actually sure how to feel about watching an LGBT movie with them. I haven't even watched one alone.

"Hey, if you don't want to, we don't have to. If you haven't watched any yet and it'll be weird to have your first time watching an LGBT movie be with us, then we don't need to watch one today. It's completely fine." Alex spoke up, putting her hand on my upper arm. 

"It's okay. You guys are my best friends, and if I can't watch it with you guys I can't watch it with anyone. We'll just need to search for one that we know won't have sex in it or like that. That would be weird."

"Yes, yes it would be," Alex agreed with a laugh. "Do you know any off the top of your head that would or wouldn't work?"

"Um..." Despite not having seen any, I looked up a lot of movies and was trying to work myself up to watching them when I first made the connection that Harper wasn't a guy but forgot about it. "Princess Cyd, Below Her Mouth, Blue Is The Warmest Color, and I can't remember the name of another. I think I'd recognize it if I saw it."

"Okay..." She said as she typed. She looked at me. "How about we just look at Netflix when we get back to your house?"

"Okay. That works." I took a deep breath. "Let's see how my mom feels when we tell her," I spoke as I parked.

"Indeed," Alex agreed. We got out of the car, grabbing the bags, and went inside. 

"I'm home with groceries!" I shouted as I walked inside. Mom came out of her room a moment later, she probably woke up at the door. She had her hair in a messy bun now but was wearing the same big red sweater and black spandex shorts.

"Thanks for doing the shopping, Cal." Mom hugged me and kissed my forehead.

"Yeah, no problem. Alex and I wanted to go out to do something anyway."

"Okay." Mom moved into the kitchen where we put the bags and moved to put the food away.

"Oh, mom, everyone should be coming over, is that okay?"

"Yeah, totally, just try to be quiet, I'm going to try to sleep again."

"Okay. Love you!" I called out when she was opening her door and she held up a heart with her hands and went in. I spun on my toes and faced Alex. "So, when should they be here?"

"Uh..." Alex turned on her phone. "Around now, actu-," the knocking on the front door cut her off. "-ally. That would be them," she finished. I got up and let them in. 

"Wow, Callie your hair needs fixing," Emma said as soon as she walked in. She stopped right where she was, in the middle of the doorway, and fixed my hair while everyone just moved past her. "There! Much better." She smiled at me and I smiled back, clapping my hands together.

"So, Alex mentioned watching an LGBT movie? I think it was your idea, right, Emma?" I walk to the family room, where the TV was.

"Yup!"

"We were just thinking of scrolling through Netflix and seeing what there was," Alex speaks.

"Actually," I say. I've laid down on one of the couches and looked at the ceiling. "I would feel better if we watched something else. I don't know, I just feel like I'd rather watch my first blatantly LGBT movie alone." I didn't look away from the ceiling until then, and then I sat up, too. "Sorry, guys."

"Hey, it's totally fine!" Shaylynn smiled.

"We don't wanna pressure you to do anything you aren't up to. I actually have a list of movies we can watch that I've been dying to see."

"Oh, yeah?" I smile at her, propping myself up on my elbows.

"Okay. So," she pulls out her phone, taps away on it, then starts reading out, "Barely Lethal, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, I Am Number Four-"

"Wait," interrupts Emma. She sits forward on the couch. "Isn't that a book?"

"Is it? It's also a movie." Shaylynn shrugs.

"Why don't we watch it, then?" Shaylyee suggests.

I shrug. I've never read the book but I think Emma has. If anyone is going to get mad at the possible inaccuracies it'd be her. "Just don't yell at us when it ends up being inaccurate to the book, Emma," I speak out loud as I turn it on. Emma mutters something I couldn't hear and we start the movie.

***

A/N: Continued on part 2! The chapter was longer than the 15,000 character limit so I had to split it a bit unfortunately ;-;