Happier

2

They met in freshman year. Lauren was popular; Camila was not.

-

"And then he-"

Camila gasps out loud, which causes, like, four people to turn to her, but she doesn't even seem to notice because she's staring at something right over Ally's shoulder.

Ally frowns. "What?"

"Who. Is. That?" Camila enunciates each word slowly and carefully, not-so-subtly pointing a finger at a tall dark-haired girl across the choir room.

Ally cranes her neck to look. "Oh! That's Lauren. She's new. She just moved here, like, two days ago." She watches as Lauren runs a hand through her hair. She's talking to Ashley, who Camila's not quite a fan of, but Ally thinks she's nice enough. "She must be good if Ms. Stefani let her in this late in the year."

"She's..." Camila is still ogling her. "Dude, she's freaking gorgeous."

Ally scans Lauren. It's true. She is. With her long, glossy hair, sparkling green eyes, full lips, and fair skin, Lauren reminds her of what she thinks a Grecian goddess would look like. And she seems really sweet.

Ally decides she's going to try to befriend Lauren.

(Based on the look on Camila's face, Ally thinks she's interested in maybe something else than friends.)

"Sorry I'm late!" Their choir director, Ms. Stefani, breezes into the room. Her platinum-blonde hair is straightened and her red lipstick is impeccable, and when she sets her stuff down, she shoots a blinding smile at Lauren. "Nice to see you here, Lauren. Hopefully Frangipane didn't scare you off yet, hun."

"Hey!" Ashley protests. She crosses her arms and pouts at Ms. Stefani, who ignores it and gestures to the class to stand up, which they do, and then they start warm-ups.

Lauren stands in the same row as Camila, but far to the right of her. Ally stands in the front row, because she's one of the shortest in the class, but she still knows that from Camila's spot she can see Lauren's side profile perfectly, and Camila can mostly get away with staring without others noticing.

Ally knows this because Camila tells her so.

-

It's the third week of November- almost a week and a half after Lauren first transferred to their high school- when Camila talks to Lauren for the first time. 

It apparently happened because they're lab partners in biology, which Ally discovers one morning in choir when she and Camila walk in together and Lauren stops her conversation with Ashley and calls cheerfully, "Hey, Karla!" accompanied by a wave. Camila waves back, but when they get to their spots she's blushing like mad, so Ally asks her when she and Lauren became friends.

That led to a dreamy-eyed Camila, a gushy Camila, a Camila that Ally's so familiar with because Camila's a hopeless romantic. Ally's aware of this fact because Camila has been in love a total of five times so far (according to her) and whenever she talks about it Ally endures Camila's soft eyes and blushing smiles and rants about how cute her newest fixation is.

Ally realizes that Lauren's different when Camila doesn't talk about how beautiful Lauren's eyes are or how silky her hair looks. Instead, she talks about how passionate Lauren is. She talks about how she loves the way Lauren's mind works. She talks about Lauren's drive and her determination, how open-minded she is, how much she inspires Camila to be just as dedicated to everything she does.

It's over winter break when Ally gently suggests that Camila might be in love with her.

Camila simply looks at her. "I thought that was obvious," she says. "I knew the day I met her she would be special to me, Ally."