“Shhh, shhh,” chuckled Sophie as she pulled Maria under the bleachers and waited.

“Hutcherson! Hawthorne!” the gym teacher yelled, stomping out onto the field. “You’re both going to be disciplined for this!”

“Hehehehe,” the two girls giggled, covering each other's mouths to silence each other.

“Laugh all you want!” she shouted. “When Principal Webb hears you two ruined the teacher’s bathroom with ketchup packets, you’re both getting written up!”

Both the girls waited for the gym teacher to march away before letting each other laugh out loud. It was their last week of their junior year of high school and the two of them decided it would be fun to make some trouble. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for Sophie, her Uncle Jack and Aunt Robin made sure she was enough of a troublemaker and threat to authority from a young age. Maria had never had the bravery to do something like that without her. The whole prank was Sophie’s idea anyway.

“Oh man, did you see how angry she looked,” Sophie laughed, falling back onto the grass.

“Hehe, how did you get all those ketchup packets anyway?” Maria asked.

“Oh, Ben’s great at snatching them while the lunch lady isn’t looking. The one time I can use my bro’s ability to do things without being seen.”

“Must be handy having a brother,” she chuckled.

“Well, sometimes it is. Other times, I feel like I’m already a parent.”

The two girls laughed again and laid down in the cool summer grass. They had grown close in the past couple years after Sophie and Maria had ditched her mean friends and forgoed being “popular girls” and just hung out with each other instead. They both had some other friends too, but they were besties.

“Hey Phi,” Maria said awkwardly, fiddling with her hair. “Have you ever found some girls… attractive?”

“Yeah,” Sophie nodded. “I mean, all the girls around school look so pretty.”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean like… have you ever wanted to… date one?”

“Date one…” she whispered, sitting up curiously. “I don’t think I’ve ever really given it much thought. Why?”

“Ah, it’s… it’s nothing,” Maria sighed, laying back in the grass.

“How about you? You wanted to date any girls around school?”

“What?! No, Mama wouldn’t like that probably, and nobody would really wanna-”

“But if you had the chance, would you?” Sophie repeated with a hidden smile.

“I don't know…” she mumbled. “Maybe… Forget it. It was a weird question to ask out of the blue like that-”

“Do you like me, Mars?” Sophie smirked, looking Maria in the face. The other girl’s expression was pure embarrassment as she turned red.

“O-Of… No, I… We’re besties!”

“Ah, I understand,” she shrugged. “I would’ve said yes too.”

“I… You would’ve…?”Maria asked quietly.

“Mhm, without a second thought.”

“I… Um…”

“Ha, I knew it!” Sophie exclaimed. “You do like me!”

“Don’t taunt me like that!” Maria fussed, giving Sophie a push. “But well… I um… If you were ok with it… You don’t have to or anything, but…”

“I’m holding my breath here,” she grinned, laying on her side. “No need to rush or anything.”

“Sophs, you’re the one I know who I can really see myself spending the rest of my life with!” Maria rushed out, turning a deeper red. “So um… if you feel the same maybe we could, you know, give it a try or something…”

“Ms. Maria Hawthorne, are you asking to date me?” Sophie teased again.

“Don’t make this so hard!” she groaned, trying to hide her face inside her hoodie.

“Well, I think we can give it a try,” Sophie smiled, trying to get Maria’s head out of her hoodie. “I haven’t thought of having a serious relationship before because nobody’s really interested me, but we’ve been close for a while, and I think I’d be comfortable with a relationship. Well, as long as you are.”

“Really…?” Maria asked, poking her head out. “But what if our parents don’t really understand or like it?”

“I dunno, maybe we’ll run away, being the starstruck lovers we are” she sighed while Maria chuckled. “Or maybe we’ll sneak out at night like Romeo and Juliet.”

“Hehe, so we’ll give it a try?”

“I think so, yeah,” Sophie smiled, pulling Maria up into a hug. “I love ya.”

“I… I love you too, Phi.”