Tina wet her lips seductively.  It wasn’t even fair, Bette thought, the way Tina could make Bette’s mouth water, yet keep her at bay.  Bette wasn’t stupid either.  She knew that Tina infatuation with her would not last much longer than a month.  Tina pressed Bette’s back against her locker, her lips only inches away from Bette’s mouth.

“It’s getting pretty serious now, Bette.  So, what’s next?”

Before Bette could answer, there was movement and loud noise coming from both ends of the hall.  Tina backed away as the football players came from one end and Bette’s friends coming from the other.

“See you later Bette.” Tina takes Henry’s hand with a smile.  As they pass, Bette can still hear their conversation.

“What were you doing hanging around Bette?”

“She’s tutoring me, in Bio.  We’re going over human anatomy.”

Alice shook her head, hearing most of the conversation as well, “Still messing with those straight girls?”

“I vaguely remember you being straight freshman year.  That is, until me.” Bette winked in Alice’s direction.

Though they were only together for a month and it was never serious, the connection between them was still really special.  They were each other’s firsts.

“So, what is going on with that Bette?” Dana asked

“I honestly don’t know.  I’m not usually into stealing someone’s girlfriend.”

“Bullshit.”

It was said under her breath.  She was only a few feet away and could hear the whole conversation and could see the interaction between Bette and Tina.

Helena, who’s locker was just beside Bette’s, walked up to the group of friends.  Though she knew them, she wasn’t very close to them.  Alice moved aside to let Helena in her locker.

Helena didn’t really know how to get close to people.  They only tended to use her, but she did long to be friends with these girls.  She’d watched Bette from afar since she moved to the United States and began attending West Hollywood High.  At first, it was with jealousy.  Bette was popular, beautiful, and smart.  But eventually, her jealousy turned into something that looked more like a crush.  It was starting to get excruciating to be near her, which was only made worse by their three shared classes—Biology, Painting, and English.

Assorted goodbyes were exchanged, leaving Bette and Helena alone.

“Hey, we’re choosing lab partners in Bio tomorrow.”

“I know.” Helena muddled in her locker to keep from making any eye contact.

“You wanna be partners?” Helena stopped all movement.  There was a long silence, “You know, I’m smart.  Just because I play sports it doesn’t mean that I’m dumb.  I could be a good lab partner.”

Helena caught herself smiling at Bette’s defensiveness.

“I know you’re smart.”  Their eyes met, but Helena broke contact immediately, “Yeah, we can be partners.”

Bette put her hands together and bowed to her jokingly, “Thank you.  You don’t understand how terrible a partner Alice is.”