"I know what you’re thinking," Bette said, crossing her arms, "And no."

"I was just telling you to give her your jacket, I mean you have a long sleeves on," Alice defended.

Bette sighed. Alice did have a point. She walked behind Tina and took off her jacket and placed it around Tina’s shoulder. She turned around to thank the gracious person.

"Thanks," Tina whispered, not doing a good job on hiding her smile. She put her arms through the sleeves and immediately felt warm.

"You’re welcome," Bette said. "So you wanted to talk to me?"

"Listen, about yesterday, I was out of hand. I was really mad at my mom and I took it out on you and I know I shouldn’t have."

"You don’t have to apologize. I said some pretty unthoughtful things too."

Without even realizing it, the two girls were stepping closer and closer to each other until they were whispering.

"You could tutor after school and before and at lunch. My mom doesn’t have to know," Tina suggested, forcing a smile.

"I don’t know if I could do that. I’m sorry," Bette whispered as she lowered her head. It wasn’t fair to the both of them if they saw each other in secret. "But we’re sophomores. We have the rest of our lives to hang out."

"Bette I wasn’t talking about hanging out," Tina corrected. "Like maybe going out?"

Bette bit her lip. "What about your mom?"

"She doesn’t have to know," Tina sighed, swaying from side to side.

Mrs. Espinosa passed by the two of them, counting how many students were there and groaned as she ended up being a few short. Everybody knew it was the cheerleaders and so did she but she still had to report it.

"So…" Tina continued. She didn’t want to admit it just yet but Bette looked really good in her Ralph Lauren button up shirt. "Ready for the tournament?"

"Yeah, of course," Bette answered, happy that they stopped talking about the two of them. There would be a time for that later. "And yes, I’d love to go out with you. But on one condition."

"What?" Tina prayed it wasn’t something life-altering or drastic.

"You never wear that to school again," Bette laughed. She knew that there were a lot of things that actually had to happen until they were an official couple but ‘going out’ didn’t technically they were girlfriends right? They two giggled as they walked into the school once they were given the "all-clear" signal.

Alice pulled Bette over to the side. "So how’s the girlfriend?"

"She’s not my girlfriend Alice" Bette tried to say with a straight face.

Tina overheard Alice’s and Bette’s conversation and tried not to look disappointed. Without warning, she was pulled to the side harshly by her elbow.

"Fuck! I knew it. You dumped me for a dyke," Henry seethed, tightening his grip on Tina’s elbow. She tried not to wince. "What the hell happened to your standards, Tina?"

"Leave me alone," Tina shouted. Some students looked their way but continued back in. It was normal to see a boy and girl argue on a daily basis.

"You know it’s never gonna last. Your mom would kill her, your friends would leave you, and you could kiss your cheerleading captain position next year goodbye. No one wants to see a dyke as a leader," he yelled right into Tina’s ear.

Tina tried to get away but it was no use. He had already grabbed her other elbow and started to shake her.

"I am not gonna have this school see me as the guy who got dumped for a girl!!!"

"I didn’t dump you for her. I dumped you because you are the biggest jerk ever!" With that, Tina used all her might to pull away and rushed back inside before Henry could chase her.

"I’ll tell the whole school what you are! Everyone here hates gays!" Henry yelled which caused Tina to stop in her tracks. She slowly walked in, petrified.

Hudson, watching the entire thing, bit down on his inside cheek. Maybe now was not the best time for him to come out…