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goggles-mcgee · 3 years

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Revolt Of The Akuma [Commission for @miner249er]

As the title says, this is a commission for @miner249er

Summary: There’s only so much a person can take and Marinette is almost certain she has reached that point. What with Lila and her seemingly never-ending lies, Adrien and his nonexistent spine, Chat and his stubbornness, Hawkmoth and his akumas, Paris and their expectations, it’s all too much. She’s going to snap sooner or later. At least she has Luka and Kagami on her side, right? Right?

[Contains: Class Salt, Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir Salt, Lila Rossi Salt, Angst, Misunderstandings, Slight Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng Salt, Slight Tikki Salt, Akumanette]

It was rare for her to be surrounded by quiet, even more so to need that blanket of security that quietness can give, and yet here she was. The pink of her room had never seemed more faded or dull even with the lights on. Realistically she knew it was not quiet, her home was never quiet, there was always the bustle of business from the bakery downstairs, the sound of traffic outside, usually the sound of music coming from her phone or computer, and as always the chatter from her Kwami. Though Tikki’s words at the moment sounded like they were being spoken from above water whereas Marinette was under said water, deep under. Her eyes glanced at the mess she had made around her, the pictures of past friends as she’s come to understand all too well these past couple of months, to the torn and destroyed gifts she had given them returned to her solely for the sake of making her heart wrench painfully beneath her skin, from there to the piles of used tissues thrown about during her silent cries, and finally to the thing that had hurt the most and had been sitting in her lap, limp, shredded, basically lifeless, her sketchbook. The sight caused Marinette’s heart to clench in pain once more and she could feel tears pool her eyes yet again, but she forced them to stay, she was tired of crying.

Noise flooded back to her almost making her flinch. There was the soft ding of the bell from the bakery’s door downstairs signaling a customer’s arrival or departure, there were the car engines and the horns beeping, peoples soft voices floating in, and of course Tikki’s worried voice. Everything in her yearned for the quietness but she knew she had to deal with everything eventually and eventually meant now, so she didn’t worry her parents if they came to check on her at any point. If they even noticed her mood change from lunch, she thought bitterly and felt immediate guilt at the thought.

“Marinette…”

“Tikki.”

“Were you listening to me?” Tikki asked, and even though she knew Tikki wasn’t saying it in an admonishing tone, the girl couldn’t help the tiny wince she gave in return as she finally stood up and picked up the tissue piles. Truthfully she hadn’t but she could guess what the kwami had been saying. It was the same thing every time something happened between her and her class. That, they would come around, they were just acting out of misplaced trust and love, they would realize their mistakes and come back to Marinette and everything would go back to normal, but she had to get a handle on her feelings in the meantime so she wouldn’t be akumatized. No that wasn’t right. So that Ladybug wouldn’t be akumatized, but how could she after the day she had?

Lila made good on her promise. Marinette didn’t have a friend left in her class, maybe not all of them thought her the awful bully that Lila painted her out to be, but they didn’t stand up for her, they didn’t talk to her in or out of class, and they wouldn’t meet her eye when she desperately looked around for at least one supportive pair of eyes. It had never been this bad with Chloe. At least with Chloe she knew what she was getting into, she knew the brand of teasing and insults that Chloe Bourgeois used, and she knew that people were scared to stand up to her, but even then they would still flash each other a look of comfort, a look of strength. Those looks let all of them know they weren’t alone, that others saw them struggling, saw them hurting, and were offering comfort. Things truly were simpler then. Lila was something more than Chloe, more than any other bully she had ever seen or encountered. She had a silver-tongue that just seemed to gain more power the more she used it. Her lies were outlandish at this point and yet, no one saw it, no one but Marinette and maybe others outside her class but she wasn’t. The awful truth of it all was that Marinette had no one.

Sure Adrien had said he would be there for her, but that had been the biggest lie Marinette had ever been told, even with Lila spouting nonsense like knowing Jagged Stone because she saved his ‘kitten.’ She was always prepared for Lila to lie, could count on it, and she had become accustomed to her friends falling for the lies, but she had thought she had at least one person by her side. That had quickly been disproven again and again, and it felt like parts of her heart chipped away every time it happened. Adrien, once considered the love of her life, did nothing to ease her aching heart. There were no comforting hugs or even a hand on her shoulder to let her know that she wasn’t alone in the class of sheep. There were no glances shared between the two to let her know that he was just as fed up with Lila’s lies as she. Most importantly, and the one that hurt the most, there were no texts or calls or even letters that offered her any amount of support. That’s not to say he never texted her, but when he did it was never about anything important, it was always mundane and dare she say superficial, and sometimes, sometimes he texted her about her situation but it was never anything helpful, if anything they made her feel worse. They were always about how she was “provoking” Lila and, “what happened to taking the high road Marinette?” At first they had made her cry, she wasn’t provoking Lila, Lila was provoking her, how had Adrien not seen that? Sadness grew into anger, blinding anger, anger that caused her to rip every poster down, change her computer background with such force she nearly broke the mouse, and gave away every planned gift for every occasion, and afterwards all she felt was numb. In the beginning the numbness scared her, but it grew on her like a second skin, it protected her sometimes so she welcomed it.

“Marinette!” Again she was wrenched from her thoughts by the yell of her kwami’s voice.

It took her a couple of seconds to focus, “Yes, Tikki?”

“I lost you again. Where were you?” Tikki asked softly as she flew closer to Marinette’s face.

“Sorry. Nowhere,” Everywhere, ”just thinking.” An apology and a half answer, when was the last time she actually told someone how she was feeling without holding back? Too long, her mind supplied.

“...About today?”

“In a way.”

“Oh Marinette, things will start to get better, don’t let today get to you.” Don’t let it get to Ladybug.

“I know Tikki.” Hollow words, but they were expected, she even threw in a small smile, it was the most she could manage. It was the response of habit she gave, even to her parents, though she had the feeling they wouldn’t notice even if she did show some of her real feelings, some of her hurt. They were just so busy with the bakery sometimes that Marinette couldn’t help but feel that their attention to her was more obligation than anything else, and wow, wasn’t that just the cherry on top of everything? They had even forgotten to ask how her day was today, and though she wasn’t going to tell them, it still would have brought her some comfort to know they cared or pretended to care. At this point she would take what she could get. Today had been another rough one, but it had started out like her new normal, she would go to school and be ignored by her classmates or get glares and sneers that she in turn would ignore. Then she would go to her locker and put the bare minimum of her belongings in, that she prayed would not be destroyed (“improved”) or stolen, she did her best to boobytrap anything of importance like she did her diary since having a lock on her locker was supposedly unheard of at this school. After that was class itself where she expected her seat to be sticky or wet with something but she took to bringing wet cloths and paper towels with her since this was so common. ‘Just harmless pranks.’ Mme Bustier claimed when she first went to talk with her about the behavior. Honestly she didn’t know what she had been expecting when she went to her teacher for help, but she was not going to make that useless of a mistake again. What followed though was weird, she still found rude little notes but none of her classmates went out of their way to glare at her, or make snide comments about her, she wasn’t even tripped if they walked too close to her. To some people it would mean a break, but it only put her more on edge, like something bigger was coming, because Lila was acting strange.

She hadn’t spouted one lie about Marinette, she still lied, just nothing about Marinette, which was odd. Though Marinette pushed it from her mind in order to get some help from Mme Mendeleiev for her homework packet that was due tomorrow. Some problems were proving difficult and she knew the teacher was more than willing to help students out if they went to her, so that’s exactly what Marinette did for lunch time. She even brought a packed lunch so she could eat and work with the teacher so they had more time, it was actually rather nice. Mme Mendeleiev, though stern and strict, was a real teacher. She wanted her students to learn and Marinette yearned for that, she yearned to be one of her pupils. There was a part of her that thought that maybe the teacher wanted that as well. It was an impossible thought, she tried to transfer once, it hadn’t ended well for her. Lila spun it around when she had heard, claimed Marinette was doing it to abandon them and leave them without a class president. Oh how she spun her web of deceit and claimed Marinette was doing it for attention, to get back at the class for not believing her ‘lies.’ Of course the class and Mme Bustier believed her, because why wouldn’t they? Then Mme Bustier went behind her back and spoke to Principal Damocles and whatever they spoke about resulted in her staying in the class no matter what she tried or whatever papers she managed to get her parents to sign that would allow her a class transfer. She was stuck in the class. In her prison.

After lunch is when everything had blown up, and some twisted part of Marinette was thankful it happened sooner rather than later. Lila had made a show of holding something, some papers that looked destroyed, to her chest and “crying.” If you could call over the top whimpering crying. Marinette didn’t have to prepare herself since she had been prepared all day for something to happen when Lila and her herd of sheep came to her and yelled at her for ruining Lila’s homework and something about writing something on her locker too? She just didn’t care anymore, she still claimed her innocence and that there was no way she could have done it, but no one was listening and Adrien was just standing there frowning at her in disappointment and all she could think was, right back at you boy. Mme Bustier joined in and Marinette just stood there as the teacher of course fell for whatever scheme Lila cooked up and then held back a sigh when said teacher started to lecture her there in the hallway for everyone to see. Of course they had to make a spectacle of it, of course they did. Damocles decided to join in and Marinette thought it was for sure going to be another expulsion, some part of her hoped for it. She knew that was bad but she was just so freaking tired of dealing with it all, but to her surprise Mme Mendeleiev was her knight in shining lab coat so to say.

“Marinette didn’t do it. She was with me the entire lunch period so unless she managed to defy all laws of physics and was in two or three places at once I would say she’s being framed.” Mme Mendeleiev’s voice had commanded attention and even Lila couldn’t spin it around to keep Marinette in trouble. Even her classmates had stopped their incessant murmuring.

“But Lila said she saw her running away from her locker!” Kim had yelled in return. It spoke of Mme Bustier’s character and control of her class that she hadn’t even attempted to reprimand Kim for raising his voice to another teacher.

Marinette saw Mme Mendeleiev give Mme Bustier a look that had the younger teacher trying to reign in her rowdy class after they had all been yelling their own affirmations that yes, that was what Lila had said. “Then either Mlle Rossi needs to get her eyes checked or she saw someone else, or she’s lying.”

“Demeter! I’m sure Lila didn’t mean for this...little misunderstanding to happen. I'm sure she saw someone who looked like Marinette.” Mme Bustier had tried to reason.

“If I’m not mistaken Caline, this is not the first time this has happened to Marinette. Her being accused of something in this school and getting punished unjustly with no proof. Forgive me, or not, but I’m not going to overlook this like you. Those are serious accusations to throw at someone. It would be wrong not to investigate. Right, Damocles?” No one spoke throughout Mme Medeleiev’s little speech but Marinette saw the glare Lila was giving the teacher and Marinette was tempted to tell Mendeleiev to just drop it.

“Er, yes, of course.” Principal Damocles had stuttered out. How he had managed to be a principal Marinette would never know. Once upon a time she had thought him an awkward but good guy all around, but that was not the case anymore.

“I suspect we call Mlle Rossi’s mother to speak about this. I’m sure she would love to know that her daughter is being...if not bullied then the start of being bullied. Then we will gather students who match Marinette’s description. It’s not much but it’s the best we got. I’ll go take pictures of the locker in question.”

“Oh-Oh we really don’t have to do that. I’m sure it really is all a misunderstanding! I wouldn’t want to bother my mother!” Lila had desperately claimed.

“How is this a misunderstanding Mlle Rossi? Please explain. Because from where we teachers stand this is clearly bullying and we will not tolerate that at this school.” Mme Mendeleiev said with such authority, one would think she was the principal.

Somehow, Marinette didn’t know how, but Lila had talked her way out of having to have her mother called to the school even though Mme Mendeleiev had strongly insisted to Principal Damocles that they call her and have a sit down with her over her daughter’s wellbeing and school life. Though she honestly shouldn’t have been surprised that nothing had been done. It was Damocles after all. Lila probably said it would be best not to disturb her very busy, very important, diplomat mother and Damocles with his nonexistent spine folded. Though with all the wrong type of attention the incident had brought for the lying vixen Marinette had a relatively “relaxed” rest of her day. No one outright apologized for just blaming her for destroying another person’s work and defacing public property with no proof but at least they didn’t glare at her or make snide remarks for the rest of the day. Adrien even managed not to give her one of his lectures at the end of the day which was a big welcome on Marinette’s end. She could only deal with him being on his high-horse and looking down on her for so long and more often than not she wouldn’t even argue back she would just end the conversation with,*“Il n’y a pas plus sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre.”

The day had started to look up for her and she was going to strike the iron while it was hot so to say. Her steps felt lighter. It’s like Mme Mendeleiv’s belief in her gave her invincibility for the day and she found herself actually looking forward to seeing Luka and Kagami at the end of the school day since she would finally have something good to share rather than her usual bouquet of gloom. The sun seemed brighter when she remembered that fencing practice was cancelled that day due to M D’Argencourt having some appointment to go to and a substitute couldn’t be found so the fencing club students had the day off. Marinette had excitedly texted Kagami that they should meet up after school and hang out earlier than the trio had planned since the girl had more free time. Kagami had agreed but said she would meet Marinette at her house as she had some things to take care of there at the school that she wanted to finish up before they met up. Of course Marinette had agreed without question, Kagami liked things to be in order before she had her free time and Marinette understood that. Now, Marinette didn’t remember what she had forgotten, but she knew she had forgotten something in her locker and had rushed from her home to grab it, not wanting her luck to run out for the day. She didn’t know why but since she was back at the school she felt the need to go talk with Mme Medeleiev and thank her once more for what she had done that day for Marinette. Whether the teacher knew it or not, she had given Marinette some hope back.

So she was going to do just that when she had heard familiar voices. Luka and Kagami? Kagami she could understand but why had Luka been there? He was supposed to meet them at Marinette’s house so she was immensely confused to hear his soft voice echo the halls. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her then and she had followed its call. She had not expected to find the scene she had stumbled upon, and the way her heart lurched with such pain. You would think I’d be used to it by now. Her eyes watered as she watched Kagami and Luka, her closest and only friends sitting with Lila and looking at her with such concern and half hugging her to give her comfort. She couldn’t hear what was being said but she would wager it was about her, she saw the disapproving frowns both Luka and Kagami gave in response to whatever Lila had said and all Marinette could think was, I’ve lost them too. She took them from me too. Before she knew it she had ran back home, to her room and had, well, she wasn’t too sure to be completely honest. It all went by in a blur, but she did remember texting Kagami and Luka and saying she wasn’t feeling well and maybe they could hang out together tomorrow, despite knowing Luka would have band practice and Kagami would have fencing practice. Then threw her phone onto her chaise and looked at her pictures of her friends she still had on her walls, she thought of the gifts she had given and all she had felt was this white hot rage and sadness that consumed her.

She heard, more than felt the ripping and smashing of the things that reminded her of a past she could never get back. Marinette was done listening to Tikki in that moment, and she was done believing she had anyone on her side like she thought she did. Kagami and Luka, they both held little pieces of what was left of her heart and she could feel those pieces breaking with every thing she destroyed. Now here she sat in the aftermath of her destruction and she didn’t even feel satisfied. A small part of her still felt hurt, she was sure she had to have made noise, quite a bit of it, and yet neither of her parents had checked on her. It was just another drop added to her already too-full cup.

“I’m sure it wasn’t what it looked like, Marinette.” Tikki chirped as she flew to Marinette’s sink and back with a wet cloth in her hand to help Marinette clean her face.

“What?”

“Luka and Kagami.” Tikki said their names so simply, “I’m sure it wasn’t what you’re thinking. You’ll see! We have to see them for patrol tonight. I’m sure you can ask them subtly about it as a concerned hero of Paris.”

The only concerned hero. Her mind bitterly spat out without warning. The thought almost made her wince in shock at the venom that came from it. Though she found herself not apologetic in the least, Chat had been proving himself to be unreliable. At first she had brushed off his behavior as his usual antics and she had been beating herself over the head about it everyday it seemed like. He became more aggressive in his flirting and really that’s what it was, it wasn’t passionate, it wasn’t some misguided persistence, it wasn’t just him being a “boy”, he became aggressive in his affection for her. He started asking her on more and more dates, bringing her more and more gifts and each time she rejected him, reminding him they had work to do, or she had plans, or that his timing was not the best, or of course that she had feelings for someone else, he started “punishing” her and Paris as a result. He would refuse to help, sometimes he wouldn’t show up to a battle at all, he would only call to ask her if she had come to her senses and realized she loved him and when she wouldn’t give him the answer he wanted he would hang up and the battle would be a lonely one. She had tried to get Master Fu to do something about it but he had brushed it off much like she had in the beginning. Seemed like he still had faith in the cat, Marinette wished she could say the same but it would be a lie, besides she had kind of announced she no longer trusted Chat to help her since she gave Luka and Kagami their individual Miraculous back but to permanently use to help her defend the city. So instead of Ladybug and Chat Noir defending Paris, it was Ladybug, Viperion and Ryuuko.

“I think I want to go out a little early Tikki. Maybe the fresh air and time out will do me some good.” Marinette said with forced cheer as she stood and stretched her arms high above her head.

“I think that’s a good idea Marinette!” Tikki chirped as she zipped through the air to hover at Marinette’s shoulder and she couldn’t help but chuckle. With a quick saying of the magic words and one transformation later, Marinette was out slinging from rooftop to rooftop. There was no destination in mind just yet, she just wanted to simply be for a while. Everything finally felt okay and she was ready to actually head to the top of the Eiffel Tower to wait for Luka and Kagami as their hero forms so they could start actual patrol when she heard their voices. It sounded like they were trying to keep quiet about something. She didn’t want to pry but it was late and if they were out this late as their civilian selves she had a duty to them to make sure they were okay. With a quick swing she was at the Château Edmond de Rothschild where the voices seemed to come from, it was supposed to be not accessible to the public, so why were they there?

A quick peek was all it took to understand why and Marinette had to stop herself from making any noise, whether it be a sob or a scream or a gasp. She couldn’t risk it if what she was seeing was real, but there it was right in front of her. Luka and Kagami were sitting in their hero forms holding a charm of some kind between them and they both had the sickening violet glow of Hawkmoth around their eyes. They didn’t seem angry or sad, or even like they were being akumatized so she wasn’t really sure what was going on but she was going to put an end to it. Now.

“Yes Hawkmoth. Ladybug trusts us completely, we are doing our part.” Kagami said.

“But...Chat Noir has yet to show up. That has helped us get closer to Ladybug yes, but it means we don’t know where the Black Cat Miraculous is for you.” Luka had added on and it was another stab to Marinette’s heart. They, her most trusted allies, her friends, her maybe something more’s, were working with...oh god she was going to be sick. She had to get out of there. She didn’t know how long she had swung but at some point she hadn’t been thinking about where her yoyo should attach itself and she fell down into a garden. No, she couldn’t identify the garden because she couldn’t see past the tears. Marinette didn’t know how long she laid there crying but she quickly took off her earrings and just as soon as she did Tikki zipped out.

“Marinette…”

“You said things would get better Tikki. How? How is this supposed to get better? Luka and Kagami...they are...they’re working for HIM!” She screamed and she didn’t care who heard, she was tired of suffering in silence.

“I’m sure it wasn't-”

“What? What, it looked like?....I’m done. I’m done sacrificing everything for this city. Sacrificing my feelings. I need to feel Tikki!” Without waiting for a response, Marinette threw the earrings and ran further into the park. She sobbed as loud and she had wanted to, needed to, and she couldn’t stop. She collapsed yet again, this time in a patch of butterfly bushes, though she hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t the only thing she hadn’t noticed, there was an akuma flying her way, but by the time she heard the tell-tale sign of the flap of its wings it was too late. The thing had already morphed with something on her person and all she could do was gasp.

______________________________________________________

Gabriel Agreste couldn’t help the tiny shout of joy he let out because finally, finally he had managed to snag his masterpiece. She had evaded him for so long, her will over her emotions had always seemed so iron strong but finally, Marinette Dupain Cheng was akumatized, and she was going to be the one to get him the Miraculi he craved. He could feel it. He turned to brag to his swarm of butterflies seeing how Nathalie wasn’t in the lair but when he did so he paused. All his butterflies were gone. Honestly he had to just stand and stare because where could they have gone? And why hadn’t he noticed or heard them leave?

No matter. The important thing was that he had Marinette Dupain Cheng under his control and it was going to be glorious. She would make quite the spectacle for Ladybug and, well, the heroes and Chat Noir when she appeared tomorrow. Victory was close, he could practically taste it.

__________________________________________________________

Wang Fu had made many mistakes in his life and he regretted every single one, but this one, this one was causing him the most pain. Marinette, the girl he had chosen to be Paris’s pillar of hope, the girl he had seen as a granddaughter, the girl he had failed to protect when she needed him, was in danger. He had been sleeping when Tikki had come flying into his shop wailing about Marinette. At first he and Wayzz couldn’t understand her, when she managed to calm down some she gave him some of the most devastating news he had ever received. Marinette Dupain Cheng had given up the mantle of Ladybug and had been akumatized. He had been desperate to know why and know why Tikki looked so guilty because surely it could not be her fault. Then the kwami had spilled everything, she told of the situation at school, the situation with Chat Noir, with Adrien that he himself had thought was nothing more than him being a stubborn boy, and she had told him how even she believed her user was somehow something more than human and would be able to handle it all. She had been angry at Marinette for throwing her away but had realized that it wasn’t her fault and had tried to find the girl to talk to her but by the time she had found her...it had been too late. So here he sat after calling Chat Noir to his shop and hoping the young hero...no, the young boy, would show.

“Master Fu?” Adrien asked softly as he entered the shop, it was almost easy to believe that the young boy wasn’t wayward and that Fu hadn’t made yet another mistake.

“In here Adrien.”

“Uh, what’s the matter Master Fu? You never call me Adrien. You said this was about Ladybug. Did she...Did she say something to you?” Near the end it was easy to see now the hidden anger the boy held, why hadn’t he seen it?

“No. This is something...far worse I’m afraid. Ladybug has been…”

“Ladybug has been defeated.” Tikki finished for him.

He watched as Adrien’s eyes widened and he gaped at Tikki, he looked as though he didn’t want to believe it. Fu wanted to yell at the boy. He had no right to stand there and act like he cared about Marinette. “That is not all. A young girl has been akumatized and I fear she may be the strongest akuma Hawkmoth has ever made.”

“What do you mean Ladybug has been defeated!? Defeated by who!?”

“By the akuma,” Fu lied, though was it really a lie?

“What akuma?”

“Not what. Who. The akuma is Marinette Dupain Cheng and from what Tikki and Ladybug have told me...Hawkmoth has been wanting to akumatize her for a long time. Whatever sent her to his side...I’ve met the girl. She is a kind soul and to know that he has her under his control...Adrien. You have to stop her. After that...after that is when you and I will sit down and have another talk, but in the meantime find Mlle Dupain Cheng and help her.” Fu pleaded, and he couldn’t help the tear that escaped.

The emotion seemed to hit Adrien, though it didn’t seem to be the only thing. “Marinette is the akuma? How?”

“I think you know the answer to that Agreste.” Tikki answered with a glare from where she was being held by Plagg who honestly looked like he wanted to scratch his owner's eyes out.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“We don’t have time for this. Adrien, just please, go and find her. Help her.” Fu watched as Adrien had left, it was almost morning now and he had work to do as well. He had to retrieve the Snake and Dragon Miraculi before their current users handed them off to Hawkmoth, as he doubted they would help in the fight to save Marinette, and he didn’t trust them enough to let them try.

“We’ll get her back Tikki. We will.”

______________________________________________________________

Adrien was not having a good morning, he had spent the early hours of it searching for his friend and coming up empty, and the more he came out with nothing the easier it was to be frustrated. Though it seemed like frustration was something to be shared in the Agreste home since his father also seemed to be irritable that morning. More than that, he and Nathalie seemed off and they were the most put together people he knew. Them being off, threw him off, thankfully he was still at school on time, which is too say he wasn’t his usual early self, but he was there a couple minutes before the bell would ring which gave him a very small window of time to search for Marinette before class began. Though he’s not entirely sure she would even show up at school if she was an akuma but where else would she go? She had a problem with Lila and Lila was at school so the answer had to be there right? God he hoped so.

The bell was about to ring though so he ran back to class after searching the locker rooms and barely made it to his seat when the bell did ring. Marinette wasn’t there. But she was going to show up, he just knew it. She had to. Lila was the source of her anger probably, even if it was childish, she would come to settle the score and that’s when he would swoop in and save the day. Then maybe just maybe, Ladybug would finally see that they were meant to be and realize how amazing he was. The thought had made him smile, almost losing himself in the daydream, that is until he saw a familiar pair of pink pants enter the room. He was at immediate attention and was alert because Marinette...didn’t look like an akuma. She looked like normal herself, but she was an akuma right? So why didn’t she look like one?

“Marinette. Late again?” Mme Bustier asked even though it was obvious.

“I won’t be long Caline.” Marinette replied and her voice...it was just off. Yes it was Marinette but at the same time it wasn’t.

“Marinette! You will speak to me respectfully or I will have no choice but to-”

“To what? Tell me to be a better example? I’m tired Caline, I’m tired of being your doll that you dress up and play pretend with. I’m not a doll, and I’m not a teacher’s assistant, though it seems like that’s what you believe me to be seeing as you push me to do your job. Constantly, so don’t even try to deny it. It’s the teacher’s job to placate their students and make sure that their classroom environment is a healthy one. You allow bullies to reign free from punishment and in turn punish the victims. Do you ever get tired of being the indirect cause of akumas? Because really how many of your students have been akumatized and you have the gall to say you’re a great teacher, everyone’s favorite teacher no less.” Everyone in the room was dead silent. This wasn’t Marinette at all, but before anyone could say anything the akuma continued, though they didn’t know she was an akuma and Adrien so badly wanted to shout it out to warn everybody.

“Then there is all of you sheep. I had the absolute displeasure of once being your friend, but I realized you were never my friends to begin with. If you were you wouldn’t have believed lies over me.”

“Is this really what this is about Girl?” Alya shouted.

“Alya, it seems like you want me to start with you. You claim to be a journalist, a seeker of the truth, but that is the biggest lie you have ever sold yourself beside Ladybug’s best friend over there. You are a hypocrite. You say you are a defender against bullies and villains. Well you Alya Cesaire are one of the biggest bullies by association I know. You turned your back on me. On the truth. You refused to open your eyes and see what was truly there. You became a bully and enjoyed it. You took pleasure in everything you did to make me miserable alongside Lila. Well congratulations Rena Rouge you have been outfoxed and it isn’t because of some sapotis or illusions. I was wrong to ever trust you.”

Everyone watched as Alya grew pale and just sat there with her mouth agape. “Nino, Kim, Alix, Ivan. You became destroyers rather than the protectors of the weak you boasted about to make yourselves feel better. Well guess what Nino? There’s no shell to protect you from the truth! You are a bully, bigger than Chloe! Because instead of not doing anything like you had last time I was bullied for years on end, this time you partook in the “merriment.” Kim. How I ever trusted you with anything is beyond me. You know in China to call a child a monkey is a great compliment, to call you anything similar would be a great disrespect. How you held the title of the monkey king...I’ll never understand it. Alix, you always liked to believe you were as fast as a rabbit both in mind and body, well the rabbit is dead. Your time will never come again I’ll see to it. Your most prized possession, your watch, I helped you restore it after it had been broken and I even gave it back to you but that was a mistake on my part as you never deserved it in the first place. Ivan, who helped you during Stoneheart? Who? Oh that’s right it was me? I helped you see you weren’t that monster but I was wrong. I was very wrong.” The words were cruel and Adrien didn’t know where all this anger was coming from. Lila was the target right? Shouldn’t she only be going after her, not their friends? He had to sneak out and transform, he didn’t know where her item was but he would find it and put an end to all this unnecessary hurt.

“Oh Adrien, where do you think you’re going? You’re at the top of my list.”

“Your list?” He asked as though he hadn’t been caught trying to get out of his seat.

“Yes. The list of people who have wronged me. The list of people who have turned me into the current me. The list of people I hate. Sorry, but not sorry If you can’t handle hearing how imperfect you are but you will listen to what I have to say.”

Adrien didn’t understand why everyone gasped but he was hurt to hear that Marinette hated him. No it had to be the akuma’s influence, it just had to be. “I’m sorry you feel that way Marinette.”

Marinette walked up to him and took both his hands in hers, it would have been a sweet gesture if it weren’t for the added pressure. “Save it. I don’t want your superficial pity. You Adrien Agreste are the biggest liar I know next to Lila. You knew she was lying. You knew she was lying from the start seeing how Ladybug told you herself that Lila and her were not friends. Oh yeah I know about that, in the park, or how about when Lila was akumatized to be the Chameleon, which by the way Lila very unoriginal and I’m fairly certain you were akumatized on purpose but hey what proof do I have right? And she pretended to be you because she didn’t like what you had to say about her lying. Yet you still didn’t tell your so called friends about her, because you don’t care about anyone but yourself! I learned that the hard way. I believed you when you said we were in this together and that if we both knew then that was enough and that we should take the moral highroad. What a joke! I am truly disgusted with myself for ever thinking I was in love with you.”

What!?

_____________________________________________________________

Luka couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he and Kagami had rushed to Marinette’s class after they had each gotten a call from her mother asking if either one of them had seen Marinette. Apparently they went up to her room and realized she was missing but thought maybe she had told them she was spending the night at Alya’s and they maybe just hadn’t heard but when they had called her and texted her with no response they had gotten worried. More so when she hadn’t shown up that morning. Luka had immediately felt his heart drop. Marinette was, well, she was his melody and to think that something could have happened to her, it made him get on his bike and search as many places as he could think of. It seemed like Kagami had the same idea because he ran into her and her car before they decided it would be better to search together. He felt awful about her cancelling their plans yesterday but figured she just genuinely wasn’t feeling well. Luka was beating himself over the head because obviously that wasn’t the case.

Maybe if him and Kagami hadn’t been so focused on helping get evidence that Lila was a liar and who Hawkmoth could be they wouldn’t be in this mess, but they had done all that for Marinette. They had seen what Lila had done to her and Kagami had been the one to say she didn’t trust Lila and proposed they help Marinette expose her for the lying weasel she was. Luka had been all for it, even if they had to pretend to be nice. When they found out that Lila actually didn’t like Ladybug well, that had been a shock but they had played into it. Both he and Kagami had acted like they too despised the superheroine and finally they saw Lila, the real Lila, or at least a small glimpse of her. She believed they really didn’t like Marinette and Ladybug, she believed they were her spies on Marinette, and then she admitted something that genuinely made Luka sick to his stomach.

Lila was working with Hawkmoth. And she wanted them to help them and join their “team.”

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. It was more evidence against Lila Ross and it was a way to help Ladybug who had seemed like she was being spread thin thanks to that no good Chat. So him and Kagami agreed to help. Then Ladybug asked them to be permanent heroes. They told Hawkmoth in order to gain trust from him and he had seemed pleased. Fake working with him was disgusting but him and Kagami felt like they were getting close to figuring out who he could be or what his ultimate goal was, but one thing was for certain and that was, for some odd unexplainable reason, Hawkmoth wanted to akumatize Marinette. He wanted Luka and Kagami to help, they had been hoping to unmask him before it came to that, but hearing Marinette now and seeing her...that was not Marinette. Hawkmoth succeeded somehow. Because that in there was an akuma and it was breaking Luka’s heart, more so when he realized it had way more information about people and the Miraculi than anyone would other than Ladybug herself.

“Luka...that’s.” Kagami had never sounded so lost.

“I know. Marinette was, is, Ladybug.”

“What do we do?”

“We save her. And...and we tell her the truth.”

They were ready, they were opening their mouths to say their separate transformation phrases when a window in the classroom broke. They turned to look inside to see if it was Marinette running out and finally showing an akuma form, but all they saw was a green blur and Marinette leisurely following after the blur out of the school to the park outside. Of course they followed, but when they went to transform they both realized, their respective Miraculous was gone. What did they do now?

_____________________________________________________

Fu had done it. He had retrieved the Dragon and Snake Miraculous, with help from Tikki as she took them from their holders as he caused a distraction as Jade Turtle. It was never easy to hold his transformation but he had done it for the short while he had to. That was one, kind of two, problems out of the way, now all he had to do was wait for Adrien to save Marinette. “He will do it”

“He will, Master.” Tikki muttered from his shoulder as Wayzz nodded his agreement from Fu’s other shoulder.

“I doubt it.” Fu nearly fell with how he stumbled back at what had landed in front of him. It was Marinette but also not. He didn’t want to call her an akuma because even that felt like a wrong description. She felt like something else entirely, looked it too. She wore some armor like that of a knight over what appeared to be a black body suit, but one made of light. Her freckles seemed more like stars and if he looked closer each star was unique, and almost seemed to resemble every past akuma

“Marinette...what...what are you?”

“A protector, the Protector.” Marinette answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

______________________________________________

As soon as Marinette felt the akuma merge with her, because truly it felt like it merged with her and not an object, she felt so much. She could feel the butterfly feel her pain, her anger, could feel it soak up her negativity. She in turn could feel its pain and anger, its sadness too. Her heart filled with so much empathy. Then it was like the voice of the butterfly doubled, then tripled, then there were too many voices to be heard but Marinette understood. She felt their pain because it was the same as hers. All of them had been used, all of them together had put their trust in people they shouldn’t have. Though she had no way to see it, Marinette just knew she was covered in butterflies because she refused to call them akumas, they were victims just as she was, just as Paris was too, to Hawkmoth.

They told her they wouldn’t let him harm her. That they would protect her. That was the moment that Marinette felt that she and them were one and she vowed to protect them just as they vowed to protect her. She accepted them, she let them and her truly become one, because at that moment they were her only friends, her only family, and she was going to protect them from their abuser. They sung her praises, they gave her strength, they whispered a name and place. Their former owner. She listened and she heard and Marinette followed where they led. The closer they got to the Agreste Mansion, the louder the cries of Nooroo she could hear, could feel. She vowed she would protect him as well. He was her family, her friend too, just like the butterflies. A part of her felt like she should have been surprised that Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth and that so, Nathaniel Sancoeur was most likely Mayura, but really she just felt anger. Gabriel and Nathalie were to face justice. Her justice.

They would pay for their crimes against Paris, and their abuse of the Miraculi, kwami, and butterflies. She was the Protector and nothing would stand in her way.

_________________________________________________

“I don’t wish to fight you, but I see you believe me to be an akuma. I’m not. I don’t expect you to believe me but it’s the truth. I am merely the Protector now. As a sign of good faith,” Marinette, or Protector held out a hand to Fu, one he was reluctant to reach out for. “Here.”

It seemed like she caught on to his hesitation because Marinette threw whatever had been in her hand to him. Tikki and Wayzz had quickly helped catch them and when he saw what Marinette had tossed him he felt faint. Whether it was from relief or fear he didn’t know. Marinette had given him the Peacock and Cat Miraculi. “And what of the Butterfly Miraculous?”

“I’m keeping it. You couldn't protect it, so I will in your place. Nooroo and I decided it is what is best.” At the mention of the kwami, said kwami fly out into the open to sit in Marinette’s open palm.

“Marinette I can’t let you do that.”

“We’re not asking permission.” Nooroo stated as he nuzzled Marinette’s thumb that was caressing his head. “Marinette and I have suffered at the hands of Paris long enough.”

“This was merely me wanting to say goodbye face to face. Don’t come looking for me Fu.”

Fu could only watch at Marinette, Nooroo, and a swarm of white akumas jumped away from him and his kwami. He didn’t know what else he could do. He was too old to run after her, and he didn’t have anyone he could trust with a Miraculous with to send after her. So he just watched as Marinette continued to get smaller and smaller in his vision, until she was gone. Though she asked not to be looked for, he would do it, because Marinette deserved to be found and talked some sense into. When he found her, an apology didn’t feel good enough, but he would give her the biggest most heartfelt apology. She was a kind soul, and truly deserved none of this.

______________________________________________________

It was chaos. Tom and Sabine had closed the bakery but it was still filled with people, only it was Marinette’s class and Luka and Kagami. They didn’t dare call this class their daughter’s friends after they finally learned what had really been happening at the school. Luka and Kagami had told them everything and Sabine, Sabine sobbed and had called out for her baby girl till her voice was hoarse. What had they done to her baby girl? But they apologized to them, they said they were tricked. It felt more like they were trying to trick them, but nonetheless they needed help figuring out where Marinette could be and they were offering to help. Tom said it was out of guilt and had wanted to kick them out but Sabine convinced him it would be more manpower to help with the search. Truth was, they were just as guilty, they hadn’t realized something was wrong with their daughter until she was missing.

Adrien had come in with his arm in a cast, when they asked what happened, the class claimed it was Marinette when she was an akuma. Adrien hadn’t denied it, in fact he looked angry, every time Marinette was mentioned he would frown, and Tom had been so so close to just tossing the boy out, but they heard the kids gossiping and saying that someone had broken into the Agreste Mansion and had beaten Gabriel and his assistant pretty badly. When asked about it Adrien would get really quiet but would confirm that his father and Nathalie were in the hospital due to injuries. He looked a mess.

Luka and Kagami though,...those two looked worse. They looked as though someone had ripped out their hearts. They were there physically, helping wherever they could and however they could, but one glance and you could tell they weren’t there in spirit. It was awful. Paris was celebrating the supposed defeat and disappearance of Hawkmoth and Mayura, but how could Tom and Sabine join in the merriment when they couldn’t share that joy with their pride and joy? The guilt of being so busy had never hit them so hard, but they vowed that once they found Marinette, they would do everything in their power to make it up to her.

____________________________________________________________

It was quiet, actually it was more like her ears were ringing so loud that it was impossible to hear anything. Her body collapsed from exhaustion, she couldn’t travel any further but she felt the distance. It felt safe. She felt safe and maybe that’s why her body just kind of shut itself down, maybe that’s why when the butterflies and Nooroo prodded at her mind if she was willing to give up the akuma and drop the transformation and which she did, that didn’t mean that Marinette wasn’t going to fight to stay conscious even if it was a losing battle. But she was so tired and she could feel Nooroo reassuring her that they were safe and that? That was enough for her. She quickly slipped into unconsciousness and for once didn’t fear the possibility of nightmares, because she knew when she woke up she wouldn’t be back in Paris anymore. Though with falling unconscious she did fail to introduce herself to those who found her, right away.

“I’m telling you guys I saw something wash up on the beach from my house!” A boy said as he and his friends made their way down the beach.

“Yeah? Last time you said that and dragged us here it was just a piece of driftwood.” Another boy piped in with a point of his finger.

“And you claimed it was a real mermaid this time.” His twin sister added.

“Guys be nice I’m sure it’s an actual real mermaid this time.” A girl laughed as she walked ahead to walk side by side with the first boy.

“Actually there are many documents of mermaids you know.” The third boy of the group said matter-of-factly.

“Any of them driftwood mermaids?” the fourth boy of the group asked with a laugh.

“Ha ha ha, very funny. But I’m telling you I really saw...someone. Oh my gods.” The first boy had started before he actually did see the slumped form of Marinette just lying there.

*Il n’y a pas plus sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre Translation: No one is as deaf as the one who does not want to listen.

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artificialqueens · 5 years

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Dancing into your arms (branjie) - multifandomgeek

A/N: This is originally a multichapter fic but is posted here in its totality. If you guys like it and want to let me know, leave a comment on the AO3 post and make my day <3

Summary:

Brooke is a very strict dance teacher that is taking a select group of girls to a dance camp where they will be able to learn from the best. She, however, is not very good at meeting new people and may not have a very good time at this week-long event.

Vanessa is a teacher who worked her ass off to get these girls into this dance camp. If only they could stop getting in trouble, maybe she could get a second of peace to get to know this beautiful blonde who she stumbled into a little better.

wordcount: 18359

Chapter 1: A vision in a red dress

Brooke was sitting in the front of the bus, looking out of the window watching the trees go by in a bored but content state of mind. Her students were relatively quiet for a group of high school girls going on a school trip for the week, but that wasn’t very surprising. They were on their way to a dance camping, and Brooke selected these girls not for their dance abilities or the grades they achieved in her class, but because she knew they took their discipline seriously and would make the most of this opportunity.

She took her gaze away from the outside and turned her head to glance at her students. Some were chatting between themselves, some were looking out the window like she was doing herself a moment ago. She didn’t know if they were friends with each other when she chose them. That didn’t really matter for the purposes of this trip, but she couldn’t help but wonder while she studied their faces now. God, she was so proud of them, every single one. There was so much potential in this bus alone, she couldn’t wait to see what they would end up doing.

Sitting alone on the opposite side from her was Nina, her absolute favorite student. Not that Brooke would ever admit that out loud, of course. She was heavier and with a different body type than most of the girls in her class, or maybe any dance class, and was not by a long shot the best dancer in her school, but nobody loved dancing more than Nina. She tried her best every time, practiced harder than anyone. But her best quality wasn’t even in her dedication, but in the way she lifted the spirit of everybody else in the room, being able not only to brush off her peers’ laughter and teasing with an ease that Brooke truly envied, but to also laugh at herself, cracking jokes about her lack of rhythm or falls, making it easier for everybody else to deal with their mistakes too.

She was the first name Brooke put on the list when the opportunity to come to this camp presented itself. It was a very selected experience, a place where the girls would be able to focus on learning according to their own preferences with several of the best dancers and professors of the country. Of course Nina had to be there. Even if the school wouldn’t, Brooke would find a way to get the girl in.

“I can see the sign already, miss Hytes!” said Nina excitedly, turning to Brooke, who had been staring at the girl with a fond smile like a proud mom. She averted her gaze, blushing.

“Good!” She said. “I’m excited! If any of you guys didn’t fill in your schedules online or have any questions about that, we will check in first and then address that, all right?” The girls’ chatter became louder as they started talking to each other about the things they were looking forward to do.

“What will you do, miss Hytes?” asked another girl, Yvie.

“Me? Well…” responded Brooke, surprised. She hadn’t really thought about that. “I’ll take care of you girls, of course. And meet people, learn things too. It will be fun,” she said, smiling assuringly.

She turned back to the window, her smile faltering. She wasn’t the best with people, and to be honest she had had her own share of lectures and classes and new techniques outside of the classes she taught. This was a huge opportunity for her girls, and she was here to assure that they took it, that was it. Sure, there were a few activities for the teachers chaperoning their students, but those were just not her thing. Too social for her liking. Mostly, the teachers were supposed to keep their prone-to-trouble teenagers in line, but she wouldn’t have that kind of problem. She sighed. Maybe she should have brought an extra book or two.

–

The first day was supposed to be the easy one and Brooke was already going crazy. The stupid guy on the reception desk couldn’t get his head around the fact that someone spelled Yvie name as Eve on his computer, but that didn’t mean he was getting a freaking terrorist in if he could just accept her I.D. and let them in. It took them a whole hour to solve this stupid problem, and a whole lot of self-control for Brooke not to punch anyone in the process.

After they finally got that sorted out and got their things in their cabins, they went to the main hall, where some groups were already mingling between themselves and eating while others were arriving like them. There was a booth at one corner of the salon for those who wanted to go over their schedules for the week and some people in uniform giving information, as well as some camp teachers already talking to eager students and teachers from groups that arrived earlier. So many people, and no alcohol in sight.

There would be a performance later that night and that was it for the day. Classes started only tomorrow, today was supposed to be about integration between schools and students, for everybody to feel comfortable at “their home for the week”. Useless, in Brooke’s opinion, but the girls were excited and already pointing and gasping at people.

“Go on,” she said. “I’m not your nanny, just be polite for the love of God.” She waved them away, trusting their common sense. She knew them well, after all, there was nothing to be worried about. She made a B line for the buffet and gathered some things out on a plate, leaning against a wall and keeping an eye on her students just in case, but staying away from any casual conversation. She was so tired already.

A while later, could have been five minutes or five hours for what she could tell, she noticed Nina holding a plate by the buffet, with a girl in front of her gesticulating wildly. Brooke couldn’t see this girl’s face, but she could tell something was wrong because Nina was frowning.

She approached casually, and as she got closer she noticed the other girl was talking very loudly. With the chatter and the number of people already in the room, it wasn’t too shocking, but it was loud enough for her to be able to tell this was not a friendly conversation going on. She quickened her pace.

“… think you are better than me, right? Just because of your fancy school and your fancy clothes and this fancy place,” said the girl.

“What? No! What?” said Nina.

“Don’t think I don’t know what kind of girl you are I can read you from miles away.”

“Why are you yelling?” said Nina.

“What’s going on?” said Brooke, putting a protective hand on Nina’s shoulder.

“Nothing!” said Nina, quickly changing her expression, smiling at Brooke. “We were just talking Miss Hytes. This is Rajah, she actually goes to school across town from us. Isn’t that amazing, that we would meet so far away?”

“Amazing indeed,” said Brooke unimpressed, crossing her arms and looking at Rajah with raised eyebrows. She looked like she was ready to throw back a punch if Brooke so much as blinked at her. “Are you-”

“Rajah why you look like you about to slap a bitch, calm yourself down girl nobody trying to steal your man down here” came a voice from behind Brooke. The girl, Rajah, visibly relaxed, looking down and even chuckling a little bit. Brooke was confused, to say the least, looking for the person where that gruff voice came from, expecting anything else than the woman she actually saw.

She was small, smaller even than her student, with short blond hair that fell in barely-there waves stopping just before reaching her shoulders. She was wearing a dark red dress that complimented her tone of skin wonderfully and hugged her tiny waist perfectly before flowing in a loose skirt that Brooke would love to see her twirl in, just so she could take a better look at those incredible legs. Her make-up was flawless and she looked like she was glowing. But what made Brooke’s jaw really drop was the smile that she flashed while extending Brooke her hand. It took a minute for her to process that she was actually talking to her. Nina snorted discreetly at her side.

“Hi, I’m Vanessa,” she said.

“Brooke. Brooke Lynn. Brooke Lynn Hytes. My name is Brooke Lynn Hytes, hi, nice to meet you. Hi,” she shook Vanessa’s hand briefly while suppressing herself from hiding her face behind her hands while simultaneously elbowing Nina who was failing tragically at not-laughing beside her.

Vanessa chuckled and looked Brooke from head to toe, her whole body language changing completely just for a second, before she caught herself and remembered why she had come over in the first place.

“This your student?” asked Vanessa, pointing at Nina, ”were they fighting or something?”

“Yes, this is my student, Nina, and I don’t know, were you fighting?”, asked Brooke, recovering her poise and looking at Nina, who was surprised to have the attention turned at her all of a sudden.

“No! No no no, it was just a misunderstanding,” she said.

“Sorry, miss V,” said Rajah finally, “I was stressed out because of earlier and let it out on her.”

“Girl, let it go,” said Vanessa, shaking her head at Rajah with a knowing look on her face.

“I know,” the girl responded. Vanessa kept looking at her pointedly until Rajah rolled her eyes and looked at Nina. “I’m sorry, Nina. I’m sorry, Miss Hytes.”

“No worries,” said Nina promptly. ”Come on, let me introduce you to my friends,” she said, swiftly pulling Rajah, practically dragging her across the room. Brooke looked over at them suspiciously, guessing that the fast exit was not exclusive for the benefit of the girls’ friendship. Not that she was going to complain.

“Sorry about Rajah, she’s a very good girl beneath that explosive temper of hers,” said Vanessa, pulling Brooke’s attention back to her.

“It’s fine, I think Nina was more confused than pressed about it anyway,” she said.

“Good. Hmm…” said Vanessa, checking Brooke out again, not very subtly.

“Yeah. So… uh,” said Brooke, taking the oportunity to do the same.

They found themselves staring at each other. There were plenty of things they could be talking about. Brooke already knew they were from the same town, for example. They could be talking about that, or the food, about dance, about anything at all. But it was like all thought processes were too complicated, the only thing Brooke’s brain was capable of processing right now was brown eyes and plump lips.

Brooke licked her lips, and Vanessa caught the movement, mimicking it. Brooke smirked and Vanessa caught her eye. The tension between them grew as they kept staring without saying a word.God, she’s so beautiful, Brook though, taking a step closer before she could talk herself out of it. Vanessa gasped, a brief intake of air that Brooke wouldn’t have noticed if she wasn’t so close. She swallowed. Vanessa reached for her hand.

“Excuse me, ladies,” said a chubby guy, coming between them none the wiser to grab at a sushi plate. They were right next to the buffet after all. “Thank you,” he said with a smile, going away to the next assortment of delicacies.

Brooke blinked and looked at Vanessa, who was looking at the guy as if he personally offended her.

“Who does that?” she said with a hand on her hip, not loud enough for him to hear but not quietly either. Brooke laughed. Vanessa turned back to her, looking like she was going to say something, but her eyes quickly diverted, pulled by something happening behind the blonde.

“Goddamnit, A’keria,” she said, pursing her lips, “these girls will be the death of me, I swear.”

She hastily placed a lock of hair behind her ear with a worried look, taking a step or two in the direction she was looking. But before she could stomp away, she took the time to look over her shoulder and say: “we’ll finish this later” and wink, leaving a love-struck Brooke sad to see her leave, but happy to watch her go.

Chapter 2: Yes, Miss Hytes

“You’re staring”

Brooke Lynn Hytes had been dragged out of her daydreaming by a smug looking Nina, who was sitting across from her at the breakfast table, fingers crossed casually over an empty bowl of cereal, elbows resting at each side of it. She was looking right at Brooke with a sideways smile and knowing eyes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, said Brooke, in way of the playful “fuck off” she really wanted to say. Truth is, she really had been staring. How couldn’t she?

The camp’s cafeteria was ordinary, with big tables to accommodate all the people that would be there for the week. Brooke’s group got there earlier than most, even with the time she took to give everyone a big speech about how they were representing their school and Brooke’s own personal reputation. She was expecting nothing less than their best behavior and spotless accounts of discipline and dedication from the camp’s staff. She would not tolerate any foolishness and would not hesitate to send someone back if she deemed they were waisting their opportunity here and jeopardizing the school’s privilege of coming again in future chances.

The girls were used to this kind of discourse coming from their dance teacher, and signaled their understanding, heading to the cafeteria in polite conversation. Brooke was proud and trusted them, but a good reminder was never too much, even though with their tight schedules and the eagerness they were showing to actually take the classes offered she doubted they would have much mindspace for trouble.

After they were well into their breakfast, Vanessa’s group arrived. Not that Brooke noticed, or was expecting to see her, looking anxiously at the door every time a new group of people made their way in. Nope, she was absolutely focusing on her own students and barely touched plate of food.

Vanessa’s group was small, 5 or 6 girls maybe, but they were hard to miss. They talked happily and loudly between themselves, their teacher the loudest of all. The first time Brooke heard Vanessa laugh that morning, she found it absolutely impossible to hold her own smile back, and maybe she was more infatuated than she thought. They sat all the way across the cafeteria, but Brooke could still see Vanessa clearly, not missing the quick glances the other woman threw at her every now and them. She was barely wearing any make-up today, her hair was a little disheveled and she was dressed in a simple t-shirt and shorts, and somehow she managed to be even more stunning than last night.

So maybe Brooke had been chewing on the same bite of cantaloupe for the last 10 minutes, elbow on the table, head resting on her elbow, sighing like a horny teenager who’s got the hots for her math teacher and can’t make a long division because he is just so dreamy she can’t even pay attention. Ugh, what’s going on with her today?

“So, I was texting Rajah,” said Nina, suspiciously trying to hide the fact that she was looking at her phone in her lap, even though Brooke had nothing against them using their phones outside of classes.

“You two really became friends? That’s… surprising.”

“I’m friends with everybody,” said Nina, and Brooke couldn’t disagree on that. “Anyway, I know you want to make sure we are okay, but our classes are all set, we know where we are going for the day-”

“Actually-” interrupted Plastique, who was sitting next to Nina, but she suddenly stopped talking, looking at Yvie who was on her other side with a painful expression.

“You don’t have to worry about us at all, miss Hytes,” continued Nina, unphased. “But Rajah’s group…” she made an exaggerated pitiful expression. “You know, they got the call to come here really last minute. Miss Vanjie - that’s their teacher, Miss Vanjie - really had to bust her a- really had to work hard to get them here, they didn’t get to work on their schedules beforehand at all. Plus, the system is really getting the best of them.” Nina made a dramatic pause. At this point, the whole table was quiet, pretending not to pay attention. Brooke had to make a real effort not to roll her eyes at their subtlety. “You helped us so much with our planning miss Hytes, you should go help them! I know you get to have some free time after breakfast.”

“You are such a good person, miss Hytes, I think they will really appreciate it,” said Plastique, innocently. Poor Plastique, someone should really fill her in on the story later.

Brooke looked at Vanessa. She wouldn’t mind an excuse to talk to her at all, much less one that would offer a chance for them to spend some time together.

“Nina, if you are making this up, I swear to God,” she said quietly, leaning on the table so (hopefully) just Nina would hear her.

“Okay, call me Britney ‘cause I’m not that innocent,” responded Nina, leaning in too and lowering her tone of voice. “I know you know what I’m doing, but they really do need help, miss Hytes! They are so disorganized, and the camp’s system is like a whole new technology for them! Plus, Miss Vanjie is no Steve Jobs, they were trying to figure it out all night and still don’t have anything booked!”

“All right,” said Brooke, sitting back on her chair and addressing the whole group. “I’m sure you girls will be fine, we have gone over your classes and your behavior already, so… I’ll see you guys later. Don’t think I won’t be checking in with the other teachers, though. You’re not here for fun.”

They all nodded, serious. Brooke hated when they said “Yes, miss Hytes” like a chorus of preschoolers and they knew that, so they stayed quiet. As they finished eating and left, she stayed put, trying to figure out how to approach this good-samaritan situation. It was way out of her personality, it wasn’t something she would normally go out of her way to do.

“I told Rajah already that you would help them, so just go over there and say hi”, said Nina, standing by her side, like a coach encouraging her pupil. Brooke looked up at her, surprised. Nina smiled broadly. “Have fun!” she said, with all the sincerity in the world, and left. Brooke loved her so much she could almost shed a tear.

–

Get over there and say hi was much easier said than done, but Brooke eventually managed it. She was overthinking the whole situation, having replayed the little moment the two of them had last night way too many times in her head. By now, it was like a movie scene, soundtrack and all, when in actuality it was just a few seconds of something that was probably only in Brooke’s head. She wasn’t even sure about the “We’ll finish this later” thing anymore. Maybe Vanessa had said “I’ll see you later” and Brooke’s lonely brain heard what it wanted to hear. Or maybe she meant something about the students. She didn’t know anything anymore. The fact was that she was approaching Vanessa’s table with a completely irrational rapid heartbeat. She took a deep breath and reminded herself again that she was, in fact, 33 years old and not 16 about to talk to her first crush.

But Vanessa noticed her approaching, and her smiled threw all Brooke’s poise out the window. She smiled back and did a little wave that she was just not going to think about.

“Hi,” said Vanessa.

“Good morning,” said Brooke. They were ready to start staring at each other again, but Rajah came to the rescue.

“Oh yeah, Miss V, Miss Hytes is gonna help us with the schedule thing,” she said, mater of factly.

“She is? Well thank God, my brain was gonna get fried before I could get you girls into any classes,” she said, grabbing Brooke’s arm for a moment. “Well, let’s go then!” She got up and the girls followed. Brooke was still feeling her warmth on her skin before she registered she was supposed to be following. Damn the woman was fast.

–

It turned out that scheduling these girls really was a nightmare. The system was working all right, but they just could not figure out what they wanted to do. They were all talking at the same time and they had been trying to do this for an hour already. Brooke didn’t know if she wanted to cry or punch someone. She took a deep breath for the hundreth time. They were on Vanessa’s cabin, Brooke sitting on a bed with a laptop on her lap while everyone else was standing up. Whether they were fighting or friendly discussing she had no idea.

Up until now, she was trying not to meddle too much on the way Vanessa was dealing with her students. It was clear that the girls respected their Miss Vanjie very much, and got her back just as much as their teacher got theirs, and were very grateful, in their own way, for all the trouble the teacher had gone through to bring them here. But that was about it, there was no hierarchy, no authority, Vanessa talked to her students like she was their friend, let them talk over her, interrupt her, curse at her. Brooke was screaming internally while she watched it all unfold, but as much as none of that was her business, if she wanted to get some alone time with the other woman - which was the real reason she was here, let’s be honest - she needed to get these fucking schedules done, and the way this was going the ETA for that was never.

“Guys, guys, GUYS”, yelled Brooke. She got up, her posture and her height giving her an air of authority that she knew how to use very well. Everyone got quiet and turned to look at her. “Here is what we are going to do: I’m going to sit on this bed and everyone else is going to leave the room. I will call you back inside in alphabetical order and we will schedule your classes one by one. I don’t care if you want to be in the same classes as your best friend. I don’t care if you don’t like to wake up early in the morning. I don’t care if you want to set a break between classes. You will come here, tell me your personal DANCE interests, we will do this in 15 minutes tops and we. will. be. done. If you can not figure yourself out in that timeframe you might as well go home because I will not help you anymore. Is that understood?”

“Yes, miss Hytes” they said in chorus, Vanessa included. This time, Brooke didn’t hate it so much.

“Good. Now leave. Quietly, please. A’keria, you stay,” she sat back down on the bed signaling for A’keria to sit by her side. She waited for the rest of the girls to leave, not missing the almost predatory way Vanessa looked at her before closing the door.

–

Finally, finally the last girl left with a neat schedule set up, excited about her first class in a few minutes, leaving Brooke and Vanessa alone in the secluded cabin, away from all the movement that was happening in the classrooms and recreational areas right now. Brooke was leaning outside by the door, eyes closed, relishing in the silence for a second. She was tired, it had been too much too early in the morning. She would give anything for a cigarette right now.

“Thank you,” said Vanessa, quietly, and Brooke opened her eyes to look at her. “For real. I don’t know what I was gonna do, man. Nobody wanted to help me with this shit.”

“You’re welcome,” Brooke said. “I’m glad they can really enjoy the camp now.”

“I owe you one,” Vanessa said. There was a moment of silence while they just breathed, both feeling the satisfaction after a job well done. Vanessa moved to stand beside Brooke, leaning against the outer wall of the cabin, looking in the general direction of the main buildings. “I kind of want to go after them, you know? Make sure they are going in the right classrooms, not sassing their teachers, not getting into stupid fights.” She slid down, sitting with her arms on her knees. Brooke sit down too, stretching her long legs on the cement floor.

“Are they really that bad? They don’t seem like it,” she said.

“What do you mean?” asked Vanessa, turning to look at Brooke.

“Well, the way you worry you make me think they get into a fight every five minutes. Even last night, you were all over the place and I didn’t see anything happen.”

“Because I stopped it! Didn’t you see Rajah almost going at it with your Nina?”

“Yeah, kinda. I don’t think it would have gone that far though. Especially after knowing her a little better today.” There was a light breeze touching them, and Brooke reached to fix a strand lock of hair away from Vanessa’s face. “I think you can relax a little, trust them a little more.”

“You don’t get it, they don’t always have someone there for them. They are counting on me to have their back if they fuck it up.”

“I know,” Brooke was still touching her hair, with no excuse, and Vanessa was leaning into it. “I do, I get it. But you can’t be there all the time, you’re only human. They have to learn to take the consequences themselves. You’ll be there when it matters.” Vanessa sighed, like she already knew but didn’t want to agree.

“You know, I didn’t expect that coming from you, miss Hytes” she said, getting away from Brooke’s touch in favor of turning and sitting facing her. She had a playful smirk on her face. “Going all military sergeant in there, having me all hot and bothered going ‘yes ma'am, yes sir’, and now you’re telling me to chill? I thought you was gonna put my girls on boot camp or some shit.”

“Oh, so you were all hot and bothered huh?”

“Don’t come at me like you don’t know what you were doing,” Vanessa said, leaning closer, one hand lightly caressing Brooke’s thigh .

“Oh I certainly knew,” said Brooke, completing the distance and kissing her.

It was unreal, the feeling of the wind, the sound of the birds, the smell of her hair. Vanessa’s hand suddenly a solid weight on her thigh, the other flying to Brooke’s neck the moment their lips came together. Vanessa let out a strained noise as their tongues touched and Brooke found herself leaning into her, trying to get closer and deepen the kiss, her hands snaking to Vanessa’s waist, pulling her in.

Vanessa pulled back, pushing Brooke to lean back against the wall again, while she sat closer, both hands framing Brooke’s face. She pressed her thumb against Brooke’s bottom lip, sliding it in a movement that was almost painful and absolutely hot.

“You’re so sexy it should be a crime,” she said in a husky voice, never taking her eyes off of Brooke’s lip, who surged forward with a hand behind Vanessa’s head to bite her bottom lip.

“Look who’s talking,” she practically whispered into her mouth, but before they could resume their passionate kiss or even evolve it into something more, they were startled by the sound of a vibrating phone.

“Jesus Christ!”

“It’s mine,” said Brooke, already picking it up, worried. “Hello?”

She got up in a flash, getting inside the cabin for just enough time to gather her things, with the phone still in her ears. She didn’t say another word.

“Is everything ok?” asked Vanessa, already ready to go too.

“No,” Brooke responded, covering the bottom of her phone so whoever called wouldn’t hear. “It’s Nina. She’s crying.”

Chapter 3: Teenagers, am I right?

“Where is she?” asked Vanessa as they power walked their way to the main buildings.

“Nina where are you?”, asked Brooke to the phone. She was visibly freaking out. “I can’t understand a word,” she huffed at Vanjie, frustrated.

“Gi’me the phone,” responded Vanessa, already taking it from Brooke’s hand. “Nina it’s miss Vanjie, give the phone to whoever is with you sweetie, it’s gonna be alright, don’t you worry.”

“I’ve never seen her cry, Vanessa,” said Brooke, and Vanessa took her hand, giving it a squeeze and not letting it go, hopefully grounding her and letting her know through gesture that she was not alone in this.

“We’re behind the blue building, next to the playground,” came a voice from the phone.

“Playground? A’keria is that you? Wait, there’s a playground here?”

“I know where that is!” said Brooke Lynn, already pulling her to take a right.

“Don’t be mad at me, miss V, I found them like this already”, said A’keria.

“Is someone hurt?” asked Vanessa, and Brooke stopped abruptly to listen to the answer.

“Not physically,” responded A’keria, and Vanessa exhaled, shaking her head at Brooke who quickly resumed her pace.

“What is going on, child?” she asked A’keria.

“I don’t know, I just found them!”

“Them who?”

“Rajah and some girl.”

“We’re almost there,” said Brooke.

“We’re almost there, don’t budge,” said Vanessa.

“You got it,” said A’keria.

The playground was located in the center of a round patio between two large buildings, and Vanjie guessed it wasn’t used very often. It was a gloomy place, almost completely in the shade, the modern playing structures painted in shades of grey and dark red, giving the whole thing a creepy vibe. Nina and Rajah were on a bench by the side of it, Rajah laying down with her head on Nina’s lap, looking at the sky like nothing really mattered anymore. She had clearly been crying but wasn’t doing so anymore. Nina was still crying, but not so much like she was on the phone, just silent tears falling down her red cheeks. She was petting Rajah’s short hair absentmindedly, with a lost expression on her face.

A’keria was sitting on a swing and was the first to see the two teachers arriving, looking like she was ready to bolt the minute they were at a hearing distance. “You stay right there,” said Vanessa pointing at her, predicting what was going to coming out of the girls’ mouth.

Brooke let go of her hand in favor of reaching for Nina, who was just now realizing they were there. Vanessa couldn’t tell when was the last time she had held hands with someone who wasn’t a student. She hadn’t known she missed it.

“Nina, what’s wrong?” asked Brooke, touching the girls’ face delicately. Nina tried to hastily wipe away her tears and smile at her teacher, shaking her head, trying to mutter some excuse, some ‘I’m fine’, but it didn’t work, and the tears kept falling, her face turning even redder. Rajah had sat up at this point, and Brooke pulled Nina off the bench to hug her fiercely. She had been so worried, she had been sure Nina was hurt. She didn’t say it, but Vanjie knew. Just like she knew that, right now, Brooke just needed to feel Nina in her arms and make sure she was safe. A crying mess, but a safe crying mess. She left the two of them to it and sat down next to Rajah, who had her elbows on her knees and her face on her hands.

“So,” she said, a little louder than strictly necessary, but who cares. “What did I do to you that you are actively trying to make me have a heart attack Rajah?” she said, leaning back on the bench and spreading her arms. Rajah shook her head slightly but didn’t move otherwise. Not even a little chuckle. Well, that was worrying. “What did you do, huh? Did you punch Nina on the boob?” she tried. Nothing. “Did Nina punch you on the boob?” She was really starting to get worried now. “Did A’keria punch you and Nina on the boob and went to look at Twitter over there like the little psycho we all knew she was?” She said, winking at A’keria so the girl knew she wasn’t being serious. For a moment she thought she got something out of Rajah and the girl finally laughed a little bit, but on a second glance she realized she had started crying again, silently, trying to hide it. Vanessa’s heart all but broke.

“Rajah, baby,” she said, changing her tone completely and taking the girl’s hands away from her face “talk to me girl. You know I’m here for you, what’s going on? I can’t help you if you hide stuff from me, you know that.” Rajah looked at her, but that only made the tears fall faster.

“I’m going home, that’s all,” she managed to say between sobs. “I don’t belong here, miss V. All these people… I’m sorry, I love you so much miss V, I’m sorry, I just wanna go home.” She said finally, hugging Vanessa and crying on her shoulder.

“A’keria…?” tried Vanjie, hugging Rajah back, confused.

“I told you, I have no idea!” said A’keria from her swing, looking frustrated but sympathetic.

Vanessa turned to Brooke, who was still shushing Nina, but the girl seemed a lot better now. Brooke’s top was a mess from Nina’s tears and maybe even a little snot, but she didn’t look like she cared, gently looking down at her student’s face, her hand in a tight grip around her shoulders like she didn’t want to let her go ever again.

Nina was wiping her face and trying to pull herself together, clearly building up to say something. The adults were waiting, trying not to rush her but at the same time just dying to know what the hell happened.

“Let’s sit down,” said Brooke, guiding her to the bench next to where Rajah and Vanessa were. Nina looked at A’keria hesitantly, very quickly, but Vanjie didn’t miss it.

“A’keria go find a bottle of water for these girls. And I don’t want any gossiping on the way,” she said.

“What do you take me for?” A’keria said.

“A teenager,” responded Vanessa, daring the girl to talk back at her with just a look, but she seemed to get the message and left. When the teacher turned back, Nina looked a bit more at ease.

“So, uh… Rajah had a Modern Dance class with me this morning, with professor Jenkins, from New York?” started Nina. “Except she was late, because of the schedule problem you guys were having. And it’s the first day, you know, some people are gonna be late, it’s normal, but he was being a real dick about it. Sorry, miss Hytes.”

“Curse all you want Nina,” said Brooke encouragingly, petting the girl’s hair with affection. “Just… don’t tell anyone later.”

“Anyway, the class had already started and he was treating us like we were already in college or something, using all these difficult terms, foreign words and all. I was having a hard time following and I had actually heard about it before. Rajah looked really lost, plus the guy had called her out at the beginning. Then we got to practice, and he started to use difficult words again, and not being patient at all, and everyone was having a hard time, but he was being extra harsh on her, I mean, oof, really unnecessary. He gave a whole speech about how people who don’t give their all don’t getting anywhere in life, all this BS about dedicating your whole life to dancing and the arts and being sophisticated and, I mean, I’m really sugar coating it here. It had nothing to do with what we were doing it was just to push her buttons.Then he started to correct people’s postures, and I was almost crying myself because everybody knows I’m a sack of potatoes in any dance class but Rajah, oh my god, it was like he was trying to make her lose her mind, I swear. So she left, obviously, I don’t know how she made it so far.”

“I went after her, ‘cause she was really upset. We ended up here, and I was trying to tell her to not listen to the guy, but then she started to tell me about home. She told me her mom is not there anymore, and she has to take care of her home and her baby brother, who by the way is an actual baby. And how is she going to dedicate her whole life to dance when she literally has to change diapers and cook dinner until her dad comes home? And then she has to deal with all her school work on top of that? And dancing is technically an after-school activity, right? She’s not even allowed to do that! Miss Vanjie had to bend her time backward so she could attend it and…” tears started to form at her eyes again, but she wiped them away, determined to continue, “how was she supposed to know all this fancy wording, we are here to learn not to show off! How dare he come here to humiliate us? But we can’t do anything, he’s a teacher and we are students… but even so, he’s right, dance is hard to do, it is just hard to do! It’s not an easy money job, it’s not something you study on the bus on your way to your part-time job after school, you have to practice, you have to have time, you have to have means, and Rajah is so talented miss Hytes, you had to see her, she was better than everybody, even not knowing the proper terms or never seeing the movements before, even with how mad she was. But she doesn’t have the privilege she doesn’t have the time and there’s nothing I can do, I’m useless, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing I can do for her to be able to do this!”

“Oh, Nina,” said Brooke, enveloping her in a hug once more.

“Then she started crying, then I started crying, and she wanted to run away, and I wanted to stop her and I didn’t know what to do! I tried to think of things, I’ve thought of so many things, but nothing seemed like an actual plan, and then she looked like she was really going to run off on me and I felt so useless. I have got all these things and all this time and I can’t do anything for her, it’s not fair, why doesn’t she get to have it, you know? Why is the world like this, she doesn’t deserve all this dumped on her…”

“You’re rambling sweetie,” said Vanessa kindly.

“I’m sorry,” said Nina, looking down. “I’m sorry I got you guys so worried, I’m sorry if I interrupted something, but Rajah was literally running away and I got so scared.”

“No, you don’t have to be sorry,” said Brooke, “you don’t have to hesitate to call me, ever. I’m your teacher, you have a problem you call me.” She took Nina’s face in her hands to force the girl to look into her eyes. “Are we clear on that?”

Brooke meant to be deadly serious, but she made Nina go a little cross-eyed, so the girl had a laugh suppressed at the corner of her mouth as she nodded. Vanessa, however, had not been trained to be scared of Brooke, and laughed loud and clear.

“You’re gonna turn the girl blind, come on,” she said, and Nina laughed at last, making Brooke smile too, which was a great change of air.

Now Rajah was another story. She had stopped crying sometime in the middle of Nina’s account, but had not yet emerged from her place on Vanessa’s arms. The teacher already knew about all of that, of course. In fact, most of her students had something similar to tell. It was not an easy life, and maybe they would not go on to be professional dancers or whatever life they dreamed of, but that didn’t mean dance couldn’t be an important part of their lives, like it was an important part of hers. And, most importantly, that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to be whatever they wanted to be, just like every other kid on this camp. Maybe it would be harder for them, but it sure as hell wasn’t impossible.

Vanessa felt for Rajah, she really did. She hugged her and placed a kiss on the top of her head while she desperately thought on what to say to convince this wonderful girl that she was worth it, even if just for today. Because she knew there was nothing nobody could do that would help her until she convinced herself that she could make it, and Vanjie had been trying to get this thick-skulled girl to understand how talented and capable she was for months now.

“Now what I’m trying to decide is,” she finally said. “Do I kill the motherfucker or just scare him so bad that he gets away scarred for life?”

This time, she could feel Rajah laughing. Thank God.

–

It took some time and a great deal of Nina to convince Rajah to attend her next class. It helped that Brooke knew the teacher and could say in advance that she was, in fact, not a jerk. It also helped that A’keria was in that class too, and Rajah went in already feeling more at ease. Nina was still a little shook, feeling like her optimistic world had shattered around her, alternating between making plans to change the world in a day and talking like it was all pointless every five minutes, but they gathered she would be fine.

Vanessa was already over it, it was not her first rodeo with dramatic teenagers nor entitled dickheads who called themselves educators. But Brooke Lynn, she was livid. She was still sitting on that playground bench when Vanjie returned from delivering Rajah and A’keria to their class, taking a moment to have a word with the teacher while she was at it, just in case.

Brooke was a vision: Her legs were crossed, her spine so straight it looked like it was about to snap, one hand resting delicately on her leg while the other brushed at her jaw. She was looking straight forward, but her eyes were unfocused. She had her jaw clenched and her nostrils were flaring. Vanjie wanted to take a picture. Would that be creepy? Probably. Besides, it felt like she was walking towards a lioness who was ready to pounce at any minute.

“You look like you’re plotting a murder,” she said. Brooke didn’t budge a hair, only moving her eyes in the fraction of a second to look at Vanessa as she approached.

“I am,” she said, and Vanessa didn’t know if she was turned on or scared.

“I don’t think we can do anything,” she said, finding herself torn between sitting practically on Brooke’s lap or a little far away so she could just look at her better. What was going on with her today? She chose to sit casually close, rolling her eyes at herself. “I would be the first to go there and point my finger at the guy’s face and yell at him for the whole place to hear, believe me. But I’ve been there, done that, and it just makes you look bad. He didn’t really do anything wrong, you know?”

“No crime in being an asshole,” said Brooke, deflating a little.

“Exactly.”

Brooke gave a deep sigh, leaning to rest her head on Vanessa’s shoulder, whose insides did a somersault at the unexpected touch. She inhaled deeply, trying to imprint the other woman’s smell to memory, and took her hand again, just because, lacing their finger together and caressing the back of it, feeling the softness of her skin.

“I see why Nina was so upset, this is frustrating,” she said quietly.

“She’s really something else, huh?”

“She’s amazing. And the son of a bitch made her cry,” said Brooke, squeezing Vanessa’s hand in a burst of anger.

“You know, we could file a complaint or whatever and it’ll be the end of it,” said Vanessa, biting her lip and asking the heavens what was it about this girl that made her feel like she was 15 again. “OR we could take the immature path and key his car or something.”

“You’re serious?“ asked Brooke, getting up to look at Vanessa, who couldn’t help but smile at her eagerness.

“I am if you are,” she responded.

“What could we do though?” Brooke smiled. She was excited already and Vanessa loved it. “Not key his car, I think there are cameras on the parking lot.”

“Not that I have any experience with this kind of stuff, I’m a very good girl, very nice past, clean record and all,” said Vanessa, “but we should learn a little bit of his habits and whatnot, see what he does, what would piss him off the most. Revenge is a bitch better served cold, you know.”

“A dish,” laughed Brooke.

“What?” said Vanessa, confused.

“Never mind,” responded Brooke, planting a firm kiss on Vanessa’s mouth before getting up. “Let’s do this.”

“What, right now?”, but she was already being dragged across that creepy playground by a determined Brooke, ready to pull a prank on a teacher for the first time in years. Sure, because she was mad for Rajah, but a lot more because she wanted to impress Brooke. She was supposed to be keeping the teenagers at bay here, but apparently she forgot to take a look at her own 15-year-old self.

Chapter 4: A lesbian thing

Nina West’s mind was going a million miles per hour. She was sitting under a gorgeous shade tree almost at the edge of the camp, with a diet soda on one hand and her phone on the other, thumbing through dozens of open tabs on charity organizations, efficient ways to deal with complicated problems, how to better use your privilege, how art helps save the world, and several other search results. Every article sparkled a new idea or inspired a new question and she was getting a little overwhelmed.

She wasn’t missing any class, her day had already ended, but she was starting to consider that maybe dancing wasn’t supposed to be her schtick after all. There was just so much she could be doing, in so many ways, in so many different areas. She was really good with people, maybe that could be useful not only to stop her friends from running away, like she did this morning, but to be useful in a meaningful way, in a long term way, to help lots and lots of people!

Help lots of people with what though? Save the world from what? There was so much going on! So many problems! So many wonderful causes! Ugh, she really needed to focus.

She put her phone down for a second while she sipped the last stale drops of her soda and tried to think straight. She needed a cause. She was just one girl, she couldn’t help feed the poor and clean the oceans at the same time. She read that during her research, by the way. Maybe she could, though, if she planned it right. How many things could a person do at once?

She was just about to plunge into research again when her thoughts were completely led astray as she spotted two figures making their way behind the administration building. Nina could only see them because she was right at the edge of the property, and could see both the long stretch of buildings in front of her and some of the ones that went into the side, right at the very back, before a stretch of lawn and then the woods. Which meant there was no reason for someone to be there if not to do something they didn’t want anyone else to see. Now, when that involved two people… suffice it to say, Nina got very interested.

She perked her neck to try and see if she could recognize who it was. She hadn’t had time to get to know everybody on camp yet, but she had noticed there weren’t many boys so if it was a straight couple or two guys, it wouldn’t be too hard to spot later on. She was cheering for that only for the sake of brevity, but no luck, even from that distance she could already see both were pretty curvy.

They were getting closer, but slowly. The taller one was acting like she was the comic relief of a bad detective movie. Nina laughed through her nose, what were they up to? It seemed like the couple had stopped to whisper-fight, so she risked getting up and quickly making her way to the outer wall closest to her, since they probably wouldn’t spot her while they were turned to each other. She pushed her phone and the empty can of soda into her skirt pockets the quietest way possible and took a peak, keeping most of her body hidden behind the corner.

She was much closer now, and could see the couple crouched under a large window a few yards away from her. She still couldn’t hear them but there was no mistaking who they were. Her jaw all but dropped to the floor because never in her wildest dreams she thought she would see her elegant, serious and disciplined dance teacher crouched down, hiding, looking shady as fuck, behind a building, giggling. But the mystery was solved as soon as she identified figure number 2 as none other than miss Vanjie, who was actually trying to make Miss Hytes stop giggling, with no success whatsoever. She had a hand on Miss Hytes’ cheek and was talking to her. It seemed to be working for a moment, but she must have said something wrong, because the next moment Miss Hytes was falling on the grass butt first, her whole body shaking with laughter. She actually laid down, with Miss Vanjie covering her mouth and gesturing her to keep it quiet, but smiling widely herself. As Miss Hytes’ laughter died down, Miss Vanjie took her hand away from her mouth, and they stayed there, looking at each other and smiling.

Nina took a picture. It was just too cute.

Miss Vanjie leaned down to kiss Miss Hytes on the lips. Nina’s eyebrows shot up, surprised. She knew there was something going on with the two of them, and was very proud of herself to have meddled her way into making it happen, but she didn’t expect to see it like that. She felt like intruding an intimate moment, but she couldn’t stop staring. They were very good looking.

It was over before she had time to overthink it. Miss Vanjie offer a hand and Miss Hytes got up, the couple resuming their amateur-spies activities, crouching at eye level with a large window, looking inside, seemingly waiting for something to happen.

After a few minutes, Nina became impatient.

–

They were looking inside the office, trying to identify something, anything that could give them a clue, a piece of inside information on this uptight new yorker dancer that could result in a good enough prank. Something to give them an idea good enough to leave them with a feeling of satisfaction, of “I bet you don’t like that very much huh, dickhead”. It was hard when the guy had been there just for a day, though. Which had been the answer for pretty much all they had done and thought about since deciding they would do this ridiculous thing.

Brooke had felt excited at first, like she was doing something rebellious, courageous. Then she felt giddy, like she was doing something wrong and maybe she would get caught. Like she was being very badass and Vanessa was seeing it. But now, sitting duck at this dusty window, she was just feeling stupid. Maybe this was too much.

“What you guys doing?” came a voice from behind them, and Brooke was pretty sure her soul jumped right out of her body and rubber banded itself back.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” said Vanessa, as her nails dug into Brooke’s arm.

They turned/fell to see a smiling Nina, looking innocent as all heaven. But Brooke knew her better, she looked like she was having fun. She squinted her eyes at her and the girl chuckled.

“You guys missed the adm building, you came too far,” she said, pointing to the obvious division between the two buildings just a few feet away from them. Brooke Lynn hid her face behind her hands.

“So what are you guys doing?” said Nina again, sitting on the grass like she was making herself comfortable for a long session of storytelling.

“None of your business, weren’t you having an identity crisis this morning? Why don’t you go back to that?” said Vanessa.

“Yeah, I’m all about helping now,” said Nina, still smiling, “you guys seem like you need help.”

“Maybe we just want to be alone, Nina,” said Brooke, frustrated. She could deal with being childish to herself or Vanessa, but not in front of one of her students! Nina looked at her skeptically but didn’t say anything. For some reason, Brooke felt grateful for that.

“Nina I’m gonna be honest with you,” said Vanessa.

“No, don’t be honest with her!” said Brooke.

“We’re doing a thing. You can’t be part of it,” said Vanessa.

“Why not?” asked Nina.

“That’s a good question,” said Vanessa. ”Brooke?” both Vanessa and Nina turned to look at her, who just gaped like a fish for a second.

“Uh… because…” she looked at Nina, who was so smart and so sweet. She didn’t deserve this. But before Brooke could come clean and end all this buffoonery, Vanessa caught the look on her face and interrupted.

“Alright, Brooke doesn’t wanna say it, I didn’t wanna say, but we love you, you deserve the truth, Nina. You don’t deserve lies we make up at the moment,” said Vanessa, and for a moment Brooke really believed she would tell the truth. ”It’s a lesbian thing. I can’t say no more,” she said, throwing her hands up with an air of surrender.

“What?” exclaimed Nina, and Brooke almost did the same, but caught herself in time.

“Yes,” she completed instead, surprised with her own seriousness, looking right at Nina and putting her classroom face on. “I’m sorry but we can’t discuss it with you. It would be inappropriate. I’m sure you can understand.” Nina’s eyes were wide and her face as red as a tomato in a split second.

“Oh my God!”, said Nina, getting up in a flash. “I’m gonna go, I’m sorry I was so intrusive! I didn’t realize, I thought you guys were spying on someone! I’m so sorry, I…” she said, giving a few steps away. “What is it though?” she asked, turning back. “No, I really don’t wanna know! Nope!” she said, walking away again. “But is it, like, something sexual?” she came back to whisper. “Oh wow, I should not have asked that, forget I said that!” she said, turning back again, “‘cause it doesn’t make sense with the window, I mean, is it a fetish?” she came back once again to ask, “oh my God what am I doing? Goodbye!” she said, going away for good this time, and the teachers could hear her talking to herself and see her gesticulating when they couldn’t hear her anymore. It was a true miracle both Vanessa and Brooke managed to wait until the girl was completely out of view to explode in laughter, leaning on each other, trying to keep it down just in case Nina could still hear them.

“‘A lesbian thing’, oh my god,” said Brooke as tears of laughter fell from her eyes.

“I can’t believe it worked,” said Vanessa in a similar state, lying on the ground with her arm on her own shaking stomach.

By the time they calmed down, they were both lying down on the grass, tears in their eyes and stomachs and cheeks aching. Vanessa propped her head on Brooke’s belly, who put one hand on the shorter woman’s hair and the other resting on her stomach.

“I really should feel bad for lying to her,” said Brooke, still having a few spasms of laughter here and there.

“It is a thing that two lesbians are doing, it was not a lie,” said Vanessa.

“Well, when you say it like that… And it would be inappropriate to discuss with her.”

“See? It all works out fine!” said Vanessa, taking Brooke’s hand to fidget with her fingers.

“Maybe we should call it out,” said Brooke.

“What, you’re not angry anymore?”

“I am! It just feels… I don’t know, I’ve never done something like this before.”

“You never pulled a prank before?” asked Vanessa, getting up to look at Brooke’s face. “Not even on Halloween or April fools or when your ex cheated on you or something?”

“No,” said Brooke, “how boring, right?”

“Baby, you are everything but boring,” said Vanessa seriously. “Now we have no choice, we have to do it!” Brooke smiled and sat up too, getting her mouth very close to Vanessa’s ear to whisper:

“So you wanna turn me into a bad girl?”

She didn’t know if Vanessa found it sexy or cheesy, but it earned her a kiss anyway.

–

They didn’t have much time to spend together after that. Classes were over and both went to tend to their students. With all that happened between Nina and Rajah, they thought it would be nice if they mixed their groups during dinner, which ended up being fun, if exhausting. Brooke also took it as an opportunity to fix Rajah’s schedule so she wouldn’t have any more classes with Dickhead New-yorker. Suddenly everyone wanted to do the same in solidarity, and it was a whole ordeal in itself, but they could all see how happy Rajah was by the end of it, so it was worth it. By the time the night rolled in, they barely had time to say goodbye to each other before herding their tired students to their cabins.

Next morning they sat together again, and Brooke noticed some of her girls were talking louder than usual already. She smiled, finding she didn’t mind it at all. However, she didn’t spare them of a reminder to behave well in their classes after breakfast, but if she added a casual “have fun” at the end of her speech, it was nobody’s business.

The two teachers stayed at the table as their students went away. Brooke was staring unashamedly at Vanessa, already thinking about what they could spend their morning doing. It involved an empty cabin and a locked door.

“Miss Brooke Lynn Hytes?” asked a young man in a uniform, pulling Brooke away from her fantasies. “And you are Miss Vanessa Mateo, right? How convenient I would find both of you together!,” he said, chirpily. Brooke had a bad feeling about this. “Mrs Smith wants to see you both in her office.”

“Who dat?” asked Vanessa. Brooke chuckled.

“She’s the camp’s administrator,” she told Vanessa.

“Oh, right.”

“Are you guys finished eating? I can accompany you to her office,” said the young man politely. They obliged.

“Why are we being called to the principal’s office? We did nothing yet,” whispered Vanessa while they walked side by side a few steps behind the guy, towards the administration building. “Did we do something that I don’t know about?”

“I didn’t do anything by myself if that’s what you’re asking,” whispered Brooke back. “Stop acting guilty, it could be anything,” Vanessa only responded to that with a cynical facial expression. In all honesty, Brooke was kind of nervous too. She had been acting out of her normal controlled self and couldn’t help but think she was being punished for it, even if it didn’t make any sense. She also couldn’t shake away the thought that the universe was punishing her for believing she could have something as good and easy as Vanessa in her life.

She felt her hand being taken by the other woman, as if on cue. She looked at her as she gave a reassuring smile and a quick squeeze to her fingers, letting it go before they arrived at Mrs Smith’s office.

It wasn’t the most impressive office Brooke had ever been in, but it was clearly the biggest she would find in this place, with a simple but elegant decoration on the wooden shelves and a decent sized mahogany desk. Mrs. Smith was on the chair behind it with a neutral expression, politely listening to the man sat across from her.

It was Jenkins, aka Dickhead New-yorker.

Chapter 5: The dance

Notes:

In my head, the song they dance to is Orpheus by Sara Bareilles, but in your head it can be another one!

In her many years as a teacher, Brooke had sat through countless speeches she had had to just hold on until they were over. Entitled parents were the most common, those who believed their offspring were somehow better than the other students and therefore deserved special treatment and better grades just for being the special flowers their parents believed them to be. Arrogant men were another common one, those who saw in her beauty or simply her gender a sign that she should be explained even the most basic concepts, even though she was quite literally an educator herself. She was learning how to deal with her annoyance in those situations better lately, feeling less and less like one of these days she would just slap someone in the face just to shut them up.

Which was exactly how she was feeling right now. She was grasping at the armrest of her chair as she listened to Jenkins talk. Turns out he had noticed the sudden drop of numbers on his classes, as not only had both Vanessa and Brooke’s entire groups dropped out at once, several other students also removed themselves after some good old gossip got around. But since their groups were the only ones to do so entirely and at the same time, it was not so hard to figure out they were at the bottom of this. From what Brooke could gather so far, he had more than half his students quit overnight, and was making sure to make a whole drama about it.

The speech was long, and had too many unnecessary tangents, but it was clear he knew the whole thing had blown out of proportion after he had someone leave his class on the verge of crying. On his account, he was making Rajah sound like a gangster member who was spitting on his floor and flipping him the finger while Nina cheered her on. It was infuriating and borderline racist.

Brooke was struggling to maintain her calm, but she was more worried about Vanessa. She had both arms and legs crossed and was shaking her foot that wasn’t on the floor rhythmically. Brooke couldn’t see her face because of the way their chairs were turned, but she could kind of picture it and it wasn’t good.

It all turned south when the Dickhead started, unsurprisingly, to talk about discipline. Brooke had seen this coming, and had expected some talk about behavior in the classroom, and some responsibility about the situation to fall on Vanessa. But he was actually questioning the camp’s decision to accept Vanessa’s group entirely. He was talking about standards and jeopardizing the other student’s opportunity and all this bullshit that had absolutely nothing to do with what happened at all. He hadn’t even met Vanessa or the other girls, for Christ sake! Granted, they weren’t the quietest or most eloquent of people, but they were honest and talented and bottom-line good people, he had no right to criticize any of that or their right to be here!

They had previously agreed to let him finish his story first before any of them laid their 2 cents about anything at all, but this was just too much. Vanessa uncrossed her legs and leaned forward to point a finger at Jenkins’ face in one angry movement.

“Listen,” said Vanessa, but it was too late because Brooke was already mid-sentence and this ship had sailed miss thing, and she was not stopping.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Smith but it is of my understanding that none of the schools that currently take part on this camp were evaluated to meet any sort of criteria by your administration as long as the documentation they submitted were in order, am I correct?

“Well, yes, that’s true,” said Mrs. Smith, “but if we could please wait for Mr. Jen-”

“In that same sense no student has been submitted to any kind of test or audition to be here, and it would have been quite contrary to the camp’s own purposes to do so since, I don’t know if you are aware Mr. Jenkins, we are all looking to provide a diverse and comprehensive opportunity for the students here, so they can be inspired and better grounded as they grow up and trace their own path in the professional dance environment, values that are completely opposite to what you have provided in your classes here.” Brooke was looking him dead in the eye and was pleased to see he was speechless, if not a little afraid. “I have read the literature that backs up this whole program with care, Mr. Jenkins, something you appear to not have done yourself. I would have not brought my very selected group of students here had I not expected this place to offer every bit of diversity in curriculum and in people that it does, and even in two days I’m already seeing the benefits for my students and even for myself. I will not sit here and hear you suggest that art should be restricted and dance should be a privilege. Even if I was to entertain the idea that any skillset should be a criteria for learning, which sounds ridiculous and let me remind you that we are talking about children here, not adults or even undergraduates, I’m certain that most of miss Mateo’s students would surpass my own in any given evaluation, since I took the time to actually know them individually before laying any judgements.” She turned to Mrs. Smith. “I must say, I am very disappointed at the camp’s decision to bring this gentleman here and submit hundreds of children to this kind of point of view.” Brooke got up. Her heart was pounding and everybody else in the room had a look of surprise on their faces. The dickhead flinched slightly at her imposing presence. She didn’t even want to look at him anymore. “If you still wish to talk to me about this decision I will be at your disposal, Mrs. Smith. As it is, I believe my and Miss Mateo’s intentions are clear and I don’t think there’s anything else to say about it.” She nodded and left.

“If you want, Mrs. Smith, you can ask the other teachers about my girls. They are very grateful and happy to here, and I am too,” said Vanessa getting up too and extending her hand to shake Mrs. Smith’s. “Have a nice day,” she flashed a charming smile at the woman and turned to follow Brooke, who was already leaving.

Brooke was stomping, walking fast and in large steps as she made her way through the corridors. Where to, she didn’t know, she was too angry to think about that right now. It took a moment until Vanessa managed to catch up. They were going through a large hallway now, and Brooke’s steps were echoing as her heels hit the floor hard.

“Bitch! What was that? Now if you had a cape, the exit you did, it would’ve looked like a movie, you went Malef- Malo- what’s the bitch called? You went all bad witch of the west, north, and south on them hoes,” Vanessa was talking, laughing and gesticulating, ”and the look on your face? Ooh, if looks could kill the guy would be dead, muerto, buried 10 feet down, turned into a zombie and eaten alive, haha!”

“That’s not how zombies work,” said Brooke, pulling Vanessa into a dark nook between the exit door of the building and the end of the hallway.

“I was gonna give it to him too, you know, but you did good,” she said, still looking energized, like she didn’t even realize Brooke had maneuvered her to stand against the wall.

“Are you mad I stepped over you?” asked Brooke, taking a metaphorical step back, trying to come down from the anger-fuelled high she was riding right now. This was something she tended to do and didn’t like very much about herself. Vanessa smiled though, hooking her fingers on Brooke’s belt loops to pull her closer.

“No. Keep going,” she said, and Brooke did, doing what she wanted to do from the moment they stepped foot outside of that office and took Vanessa by her thighs to hoist her up and against the wall, where her small frame fit perfectly against Brooke’s taller built. Vanessa gasped, hooking her legs tightly at Brooke’s hip. She promptly threw her arms at Brooke’s shoulders to hold on and leaned down as hungrily as Brooke leaned up, and they met in the middle in a fierce kiss.

It was bitey and forceful and perfect. Brooke was getting hot all over and risking losing her balance from how much Vanessa was moving against her, seemingly trying to get even closer. She started rolling her hips and tangle her fingers in Brooke’s hair and she would have given anything to have a bed close by right now.

“I hear something,” Vanessa pulled back to say, breathlessly.

“What?” said Brooke, her eyes still half closed, her mind foggy.

“Shit, I think it’s lunchtime already,” said Vanessa squirming. “Put me down,” she laughed, slapping Brooke in the shoulders.

“Oh, right,” Brooke responded, obliging. Vanessa reached up to fix her lipstick for her before she tried to pull herself together. Brooke’s brain came back online just in time for her to fix her hair before they were emerging from their nook to join a few students who were making their way to the cafeteria. It wasn’t as busy as a regular school’s hallway, which made it much easier from them to be spotted from yards away by a group of their own students.

“Of course,” murmured Brooke, praying she wasn’t blushing like the teenage girl she might as well just admit she had already become. As the girls got closer they all had knowing smiles in their faces, and they started walking to the cafeteria together, because what else could they do?

“I wonder what you guys might have been doing out there?” asked Yvie, tapping her chin theatrically.

“Oh I don’t know, Yvie, so many things to be doing in a dark corner that goes nowhere,” completed A’keria with a sideways smile.

“I’m so tired of you girls I swear to God,” said Vanessa, rolling her eyes.

They had to suffer the teasing all the way to the cafeteria, until Nina said something on the lines of “I’m so happy for you guys” and nobody had the heart to make mean jokes anymore.

–

The afternoon passed in a blur. They ended up having to talk to Mrs. Smith again because, as it turns out, storming off in the middle of a meeting doesn’t close down administration files. They did so separately, and Nina and Rajah had to go in too, to tell their version of the story and clear everything up.

It ended in nothing, just as they predicted it would if they had opened a complaint themselves. The camp’s activities were set to continue as normal, including Jenkins’s classes, even with half the number of students.

However, their accidental silent protest had a better result than any administrative action or successful prank ever could: his ego got real hurt. Jenkins was pissed at Brooke and made sure everybody knew, and became even more pissed that she didn’t give two shits about it. He was used to being treated like an esteemed professor, not a teacher that nobody liked or cared about.

By the time dinner rolled by, he could be spotted fuming at the guest teacher’s table, trying to find someone new to complain to, without any success. Vanessa even changed seats, sacrificing her usual spot in front of Brooke in favor of sitting on the other corner of the table so she could just look at him and even give him a little wave once or twice just to see him get even madder.

Everybody left the cafeteria in a good mood. The girls were chatting happily about their next day, who would be the last day of classes. Both their groups were set to leave Friday morning, so they could get home by late afternoon since they lived a few hours away from camp. Brooke already knew that, of course, but her insides clenched as she realized tomorrow was the last day she would spend on her summer-romance bubble with Vanessa. She had a gloomy look as she said goodbye and went with her girls to their cabin.

She left them to their own night routine and went to get some fresh air. They all looked so tired she didn’t even worry they would do anything else than sleep. She didn’t go far, sitting down on the grass with a clear view from the sky but also a clear view from her cabin door (you could never be too careful). She laid down completely and looked up. She didn’t know any constellations, but she didn’t have to to admire how pretty it was to look at the night sky from the countryside.

She was trying to organize her thoughts, but it was like her mind already knew it was going to be useless, and it couldn’t have been more than five minutes before she felt another body lying down beside her. She smiled. She didn’t even have to look to know who it was.

“I swear it was like I knew you were gonna show up,” she said.

“Am I that predictable?” said Vanessa.

“Not by a long shot,” said Brooke, turning her head to look at her, who did the same. “Maybe I beetlejuiced you here with my thoughts.”

“Would have been easier to call,” said Vanessa.

“I couldn’t,” said Brooke looking down and reaching to touch her fingers. “I don’t have your number.”

Vanessa looked dumbfounded for a second. Then she exploded in laughter and Brooke jumped up to shush her as quickly as possible so they could remain unperturbed.

“I can’t believe you almost fucked me against a wall today and I haven’t even given you my number, what kind of a cheap corner prostitute am I?” said Vanessa, shaking her head with a hand on her forehead. Brooke couldn’t help but laugh with her, as she laid on her side with her head propped up.

“The kind that needs a business card down her bra?”

“Funny,” responded Vanessa sarcastically. “Give me your phone then,” she said, extending her hand. Brooke smiled shyly as she did so. She felt giddy, and it didn’t make sense because obviously they would exchange numbers, but it felt like an achievement nonetheless.

“What are you doing?” asked Brooke, because Vanessa bit her tongue and smiled goofily as she typed. She tried to take a peak but Vanessa turned the phone away.

“I’m putting down my name and sending a text to myself, you’ll see it later,” she said, before closing everything down and locking the screen, and instead of giving the phone back on Brooke’s hand, she put it directly inside her pocket. Brooke didn’t mind, knowing she would have a sure reason to smile later on.

Vanessa’s smile was starting to fade, her eyes searching Brooke’s with an expressing she didn’t know yet. Brooke didn’t want to have a serious conversation. She wanted to live in this happy, easy bubble for one more day, just one more day. Tomorrow night they could talk about it and make promises to each other just to spend the night thinking if the other one would really keep it or not, if they would be able to keep it themselves. Tomorrow she could start counting how many ways this could go wrong. They didn’t have to do this right now.

Vanessa inhaled sharply, as if to say something.

Brooke sat up and caught her hand between hers.

“Dance with me,” she whispered. Vanessa exhaled.

“Okay,” said Vanessa sitting up too.

Brooke flipped her phone so the loudspeakers were pointing outside of her pocket, setting the music loud enough so they could hear it but not too much so they wouldn’t worry about it calling any unwanted attention. She picked a song she was listening to recently almost at random, one that she liked the beat, didn’t think about it too much.

She put her hands on Vanessa’s waist, who put her hands on Brooke’s shoulders. They swayed slowly and hesitantly for the first beats of the song. What a beautiful song, Brooke thought, what a beautiful woman. Her heartbeat increased as the singer let out the first verses. Vanessa closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the song. Brooke suddenly realized they were both dancers, they didn’t need to sway like shy prom dates. She slid one of her hands to the small of Vanessa’s back while the other reached to take the shorter woman’s hand from her shoulder. Brooke’s posture changed and she felt Vanessa’s body understand what she was doing. She felt her spine align and her step grow lighter. Her smile changed and her eyes opened with a new shine.

Brooke guided Vanessa into a swirl, experimentally, and it was wonderful, both in sight and in sensation. She didn’t have to think to know she didn’t have to hold back as they moved freely into the song. Brooke could feel how her precise movements complemented Vanessa’s unstoppable energy, as she watched and felt her partner arching and twirling and going away only to get closer again. At one point she actually lifted Vanessa up with no words exchanged between them, holding her as they spun and Vanessa threw her head and arms back, smiling, flying, and then came back, touching Brooke’s face and neck as she put her down and they resumed their movements on the ground.

The song ended with them enveloped in a tight hug, Vanessa on her tiptoes. Brooke didn’t want to let her go, ever. She never experienced something like this in her entire life.

“I missed dancing,” Brooke felt more than heard Vanessa murmur, her face pressed against her neck.

Brook kept quiet, burying her nose on the other woman’s hair, afraid of what might come out of her mouth if she let herself speak. Eventually, she felt Vanessa loosening her grip to fall back on the balls of her feet. She framed her face and kissed her, a sweet, short kiss, but it felt like the most important kiss they had shared so far.

When she pulled back, Vanessa’s eyes looked watery.

She yawned.

“Sorry, baby,” she said, still yawning. Brooked chuckled fondly, and then yawned too.

“Maybe we should go to bed,” she said, trying to hold it back and failing.

“Yeah,” responded Vanessa. They still walked together to Brooke’s cabin, very very slowly, but didn’t say anything else, still drunk on dance and each other. “Sweet dreams,” said Vanessa as they got to Brooke’s door, giving her a kiss on the cheek before she continued to her own cabin.

Brooke opened the door with a smile that just wouldn’t go away. As she got inside, she noticed movement on the bed by the window. Nina’s bed.

“If you filmed the dance send it to me,” she got close to whisper into the girl’s ear.

“Okay”, Nina whispered back.

Chapter 6: The picnic

Brooke had noticed Nina was up and ready earlier than the rest of the group. She pulled her aside to ask if she was okay, but let her be and leave early if she wanted to. It was none of her business, really, and she seemed her usual happy self. She was sure there was nothing to worry about, there was no reason for her to be nosy.

Maybe she should have been a little nosy, after all.

They were walking lazily to breakfast when Nina showed up out of nowhere and hooked her arm with Brooke’s, catching her by surprise and pulling her aside to a hidden path between the trees.

“What the hell Nina?” she exclaimed, already hidden by the trees when she managed to pull back and stop herself from being dragged away (wow, Nina was strong!).

“Come on, I wanna show you something,” Nina responded, excited.

“No, no come on. You don’t just drag people to the woods like that, I didn’t even say anything to the girls, what’s going on?”

“Oh, don’t worry about them, they know,” Nina said, dismissively, catching Brooke’s arm again and resuming their walk. Brooke decided to humor her for now.

“What do you mean they know? What do they know?”

“It’s a surprise,” Nina said, with an adorable smile. Sometimes Brooke wished she could hate her just a little bit. “It’s gonna be wonderful! And don’t worry, this time I’m not gonna peak, I promise. Besides, we all have class anyway. I’m telling you too much, put these on!” She said, putting a sleep mask over Brooke’s head.

“What-“ said Brooke, already reaching to take it off, but Nina caught both her hands, guiding her a few more steps forward.

“It’s fine, we’re already here, sit down now,” she said, gently pulling her down. Brooke was so confused she couldn’t even be mad.

“Nina what are you doing? Are you sure you’re okay? Did someone give you something?” said Brooke worried. Her mind didn’t even consider that Nina could be setting her up to something bad-intentioned, this was just… weird. But Nina was still holding her hands, patting them reassuringly, and it wasn’t long until Brooke heard it and it all started to make sense.

“… I will whoop your ass girl, I don’t care if it’s child abuse, it’s goddamn self-defense is what it is, if you think I’m not gonna do it just because I love you, you got another thing coming! You mother… effing children playing with me like I’m your goddamn dolls. A’KERIA I CAN HEAR YOU LAUGHING let’s see how funny it is when I tell your grandmama you out here playing kidnapping, how about that? I will laugh at your face then see how you like someone making a fool out of you,” Brooke could hear Vanessa speaking from far away until she was, she guessed, right in front of her. It was all in one breath too, god knows how she did it.

“Sit down and… be quiet for a second miss V, we’re here, you’ll see…” said A’keria, clearly struggling.

“No, I’ll not be quiet, who do you think you are to tell me to be quiet?” said Vanessa even louder, “I’m your teacher, I tell you to be quiet not the other way around. Stop fighting me! Why is no one helping me what is this place, child murder camp?”

“I’m here too if that helps,” said Brooke, who was still blindfolded but much calmer now that she could kind of figure out what the girls have been planning. She could hear that the commotion Vanessa was causing went down significantly once she heard her voice

“It’s a good surprise miss Vanjie! Come one, sit down,” said Nina, and Brooke felt her going away, presumably to help guide Vanessa down like she did to her.

“Well you could have just said that,” said Vanessa, much calmer but still with an edge.

“We did!” Said A’keria and another voice in chorus. Apparently, Vanessa had needed 2 girls to drag her over. Brooke chuckled at the thought.

“Can I take this thing out of my face now?” asked Brooke.

“Wait! Not yet!” said Nina, “let me just-“

“Girl, it’s perfect, come on, let’s leave them alone,” said A’keria.

“Alright,” said Nina. “We’re going. You guys count until 10 or something and then you can take the blindfolds off.”

“Bye,” they said all together, and Brooke could hear their steps and giggles going away. She had butterflies in her stomach and a stupid smile on her face.

“Ready?” she said to Vanessa, which felt weird because everything was so silent now she just had to trust she was there.

“I feel stupid,” she heard her response back.

“I’ll take that as a yes. I’m taking it off,” she announced as she lifted the sleep mask from her face.

They were in a beautiful grove, surrounded by big trees with thick layers of leaves that created almost a magical atmosphere around them. The light breeze, the sound of the birds and the scattered rays of sunlight that managed to get through making it all seem kind of ethereal. They were sat over a thick cloth in an earthy tone of yellow, with about a dozen paper plates with plenty of food items carefully arranged sitting between them, and colorful wildflowers scattered around. It was beautiful, and the effort paired with the simplicity made it the most heartwarming thing Brooke had seen in her entire life.

“They made us a fucking picnic,” said Vanessa, who was sitting across from her, having taken her blindfold off and looking around too. She looked a little disheveled, probably a result of the fight she put up against her students until they got her here. Her hair was wilder than usual, moving with the breeze that also moved the leaves all around them. She could have stepped right out of Brooke’s dreams.

“They did,” she said. She didn’t know what to do, what else to say. It was perfect. Scary perfect. “Hi,” she settled for.

Vanessa looked into her eyes, then started crying.

“Oh, no no no,” Brooke said, getting up to carefully get around their food and sit beside Vanessa to pull her into a comforting hug. “Why are you crying, baby? Don’t cry.”

“Look how fucking nice this is!” she said, “I can’t count how many times I had to yell at A’keria because she was late to school, but she woke up at the crack of dawn today to do this for me?” she said. Brooke couldn’t say anything, she felt a sting behind her eyes for the same reasons herself. She let Vanessa cry, shushing her in her arms and smiling fondly, feeling her own heart swell because she felt like the luckiest person in the entire world. After a moment, Vanessa calmed down and pulled back from Brooke’s embrace to look at her face seriously. “I think I slapped her back there, for real.”

Brooke snorted. She really tried to keep it in because Vanessa looked so guilty and she didn’t want to offend her by mistake, but it was impossible. She covered her mouth but the laughter escaped by her nose, her body shaking. Vanessa pursed her lips and pushed her back, but in a second she was laughing too.

Her smile, Brooke didn’t think she had ever seen a girl with a prettier smile.

“You look right out of a fairytale,” she said, without thinking. When did she become so corny?

“I bet, after being kidnapped, blindfolded and crying?” Vanessa responded, wiping her tears self-consciously. Brooke reached up to touch her face and wipe a tear from the corner of her eye with her thumb. Vanessa honest-to-god sighed, leaning in to kiss her in the cheek for a long moment. She pulled back but surged forward to kiss her in the lips as if she was being pulled by some sort of magnetic force. Brooke tilted her head and deepened the kiss, but Vanessa pulled back. There she was with that expression again, searching Brooke’s eyes for something she didn’t recognize. “I wear my heart on my sleeve, you know,” she said, quietly. “You’re not like that,” Brooke must have shown something on her face when hearing that, because Vanessa quickly put a hand on her arm to reassure her. “No, let me finish. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s just who you are, boo, and I like who you are, I-” she paused, looked away for a second, “I really like you, actually, ” she said, looking into Brooke’s eyes again. “But I have no idea what you think of me. I know we barely know each other and this is all, I don’t know…”

“Like a very nice bubble,” completed Brooke.

“Yeah. But it’s about to pop, baby. Tomorrow we’re gone but it’s not like we’re gonna be that far apart. You’re not going to the other side of the country, we’re gonna be 15 minutes away, you know what I mean? I can’t just pretend I haven’t been thinking about that! But you, I don’t know what’s been going on that pretty little head of yours, not unless you tell me,” she said. She looked at Brooke like she asked a question and was waiting for an answer. But Brooke didn’t know what to give her. Didn’t know how to say what Vanessa wanted to hear.

“I like you too,” said Brooke, looking down. “I like being with you.” She wasn’t good at this kind of conversation. Everything else with Vanessa had been so easy, so carefree. She wanted this to be too, but it wasn’t. She felt the anxiety crippling inside of her and her defense mechanisms going off automatically and shutting her down, despite all the sentimental things she wanted to say, all the promises she wanted to make, despite for once in her life not worrying if she looked stupid or foolish or naive for wanting the things she wanted right now. “Can’t we just enjoy today?”

She could immediately see in Vanessa’s face that this was the wrong answer, but it was a blink and you miss it kind of expression. She looked hurt for a millisecond before putting a smile and acting like it didn’t bother her.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. Let’s do that,” said Vanessa, giving Brooke a kiss so dry it could have come from another person entirely. “Now let’s see what these children stole for us,” she said, quickly grabbing a muffin and biting it. She was not a good actress, and Brooke’s heart sank in her belly as she tried to focus on the food that was in front of her. It didn’t even look as pretty anymore. Maybe in a moment this awkwardness would pass and they would just go back to being happy and free together. She really hoped so.

“Oh my god, there’s no coffee!” Brooke exclaimed with horror. At least Vanessa laughed for real.

–

The picnic was a disaster, full of fake smiles and awkward silences, which was bad on its own without the guilt of waisting Nina and the other’s effort to make such a nice gesture for them. Brooke was feeling awful as they walked back in silence with most of the food packed the best they could to return it to the kitchen (it was too much for just the two of them). She felt even worse as Vanessa tried to come up with an excuse to go back to her own cabin without Brooke, but she didn’t question her. She probably could use the alone time too actually, to try and sit down, breathe, think, understand.

It wasn’t hard to put up a smile at lunch, they were both pretty happy with their students, both as teachers and as humans. They felt loved, regardless of their feelings or issues with each other, and that was an amazing thing to have.

Early afternoon would be the last of their alone time together. At the end of camp, all teachers would come together in a meeting to discuss students, classes, goals, things to improve, all the shenanigans. It promised to be a long, boring, tiring affair that would have everyone involved walking like zombies to their beds with at least a mild headache. Meanwhile, the camp would offer a farewell party to the students. Not fair at all.

Brooke didn’t want to waste those few hours, but more importantly, she wanted to fix this. Vanessa had been a pleasant surprise and a wonderful experience, but she didn’t want to go home tomorrow and forget about her. She didn’t want this to be a story, she wanted it to be a beginning.

Her anxiety was at it again, even though she knew she didn’t have to do a grand gesture of affection, a romantic, end-of-the-movie sort of production. She just needed to sit down and have a sincere talk, but that was the hardest part of all. Maybe it would have been easier if she could just sing at the bleachers or do something else that would embarrass herself in front of everybody and be done, without exposing her real feelings and fears.

She tried her best to swallow down her insecurities without falling into the overly serious posture she knew she was prone to when she didn’t want to show she wasn’t confident. She knew Vanessa needed her vulnerable, the least she could do was try.

She saw Vanessa walking out of the cafeteria and caught up to her. The plan was just to ask her to sit down and talk. Simple, mature, nothing to worry over.

“Are you free Saturday night?” she asked instead.

“What?” said Vanessa, surprised.

“If you’re not it can be Sunday. Maybe Saturday at lunch?”

“Yeah I’m free, what are you up to?” responded Vanessa already with a small smile creeping up on the corner of her mouth. Alright, this was going well.

“Wanna go to dinner with me?” asked Brooke. Vanessa would say yes and that was it, it was all solved and done, good job Brooke.

Vanessa squinted her eyes at her and stopped walking instead. “You look funny”, she said.

“What? No, I don’t. What do you mean funny?”

“Sit your ass down,” said Vanessa, pulling her down into a bench. It was quiet, most people in class already or enjoying the day elsewhere. Brooke was sweating. “Why you look like you’re lying or something while you’re asking me out?”

“I’m not very good at serious conversations,” blurted out Brooke.

“Look, I-” started Vanessa apologetically.

“So you gotta let me finish or I’ll never get it out,” she interrupted. Vanessa looked surprised, but nodded and zipped an imaginary zipper over her mouth, locking it and throwing the imaginary key away while she was at it. Brooke chuckled lightly before she took a deep breath and continued. “God, this sounds like I’m telling you someone died or something, Jesus Christ. Alright. I know this morning I sounded like I wanted to forget you the moment we jumped on the bus but that’s not… It’s not what I want. I really meant it when I said I like you. It’s just… When I’m with you, it’s not the regular me, okay? I’m not fun and spontaneous, I don’t laugh a lot, I-” she couldn’t look at Vanessa while she was saying this. “I guess I’m just scared you won’t like the real me once we’re out in the real world. Maybe I just wanted to milk it for all it’s worth for one more day because I was sure once you got a look at me out there you would be gone in a flash,“ she felt tears behind her eyes and knew it was because she wasn’t used to this, but she kept going anyway. “I thought that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but the idea that I would never see you again, I mean… I got a taste of that today and it’s… It just seems wrong… Look at me, I was so scared I would end up pushing you away that I went out and did it on purpose,” she finished with a sad smile.

“Can I talk now?” mumbled Vanessa, only letting the corner of her mouth open.

“Yes,” laughed Brooke, but it actually took a moment for her to talk. Vanessa sighed and ran her fingers through her own hair before she said anything else.

“First of all, yes to dinner Saturday. Just so we’re clear on that,” she said. She reached to touch Brooke’s hair, much like Brooke had done to her the first time they kissed. “I can’t tell you I’m like this all the time either, you know. You think I’m out there spying on windows and laying down the grass, smiling like all is great in the world? Girl, I’m either at work, going to work, going home from work or sleeping, that’s it. I wish I was crying from laughter with gorgeous blondes every other day.”

“So any gorgeous blonde will do?” said Brooke with a crooked smile.

“Oh yeah there’s a line by my door, let me tell you. All around the block!” joked Vanessa. “I mean, I don’t know,” she said, serious again, “maybe it’s too much fresh air but, I wanna see if you’re that boring for myself. If you don’t want to, if you don’t have time for it, just tell me. But if it’s just because you’re afraid… well, I’m afraid too. I don’t know how it’s gonna be either. I wanna just, try, and, you know… We’ll see.”

Brooke looked at her. She was beautiful, but that was not all. She made Brooke feel lighter, better. She made her hopeful, made her wanna fight for her and chill with her and she made it so that Brooke couldn’t conceive how would her life be if she didn’t see her face every single day. She turned her life upside down and fixed it at the same time. Brooke felt like if she had Vanessa, for however long, and lost her, it would be the worst thing she would ever have to go through. And if she already felt that way in a week, how bad would it be in a month? A year? How much bigger would the pain be then?

It scared her shitless.

“You’re right. I want to. Absolutely.” said Brooke, and she meant it. She turned to face Vanessa and touched her cheek, caressing it. “And even if I don’t have time, I’ll make time for you.”

She was always telling her students about not letting opportunities go, maybe it was about time she listened to her own advice.

“I’ll hold you to that,” smiled Vanessa, leaning in. Brooke met her in the middle. It was a gentle kiss, full of meaning, and over way too soon for Brooke’s liking.

“That’s all I get?” Brooke whined.

“Someone’s greedy today,” responded Vanessa playfully. She got up and walked away with a sway to her hips and a wink, and Brooke gave herself a minute to watch before she eagerly followed.

They went back to Vanessa’s cabin, which was closer, as quickly as possible without actually running. They were ready to press each other against the closed door, but as soon as they got inside their mood got completely cut off by A’keria, who was holding up two different earrings against her ears in front of a mirror.

“What?” she said, looking at their frustrated expressions, “there’s a party today, I gotta get ready,” she said, unphased. “Don’t bother going over to miss Hytes’ either, Plastique and Rajah are over there,” she yelled helpfully as they left.

–

Their meeting started too soon, and it was exhausting, even if they were extremely proud of their students, especially Vanessa, whose girls received some extra attention after the whole Jenkins drama, and did not disappoint any teacher who was kind enough to believe in their talent. Nevertheless, they went to bed too late into the night to wake up too early the next morning. Dealing with packing and bus drivers on top of it, they barely had time to see each other before it was time to say goodbye.

“I wish you could sneak into my bus without your driver noticing and they would just have to deal with it until we got there,” Brooke said to Vanessa over the loud chatter between their groups in the parking lot.

“Do you want a dead girlfrie- Are you trying to get me killed? ‘cause they’re gonna kill me if I do that to them” responded Vanessa, getting all flustered with her slip of the tongue. Brooke pretended she didn’t hear it, but it definitely put a smile on her face. “You do it and come with us, then we can get full high school and ride on the back, if you know what I’m saying,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

“As if your girls would let us,” laughed Brooke. Truth is, she wouldn’t mind the constant teasing, but she couldn’t let her student travel alone, neither could Vanessa, and both of them knew that. Entertaining this idea was just another way of telling each other I will miss you.

Vanessa’s group left earlier. There were hugs, thank-yous, promises to hang out and even a few tears between the students. Brooke really hoped their friendship would last, they were good for each other. The teachers didn’t want to kiss or hug in front of the girls, and Brooke said a whispered “I’ll see you tomorrow then” in lieu of goodbye. As they went back to the camp to finish their packing and maybe eat a little less hurriedly, Brooke couldn’t help but take a long look at the whole place, feeling nostalgic already at how much more than she had expected all of them ended up getting out of this experience.

Girlfriend, she had said. Brooke never had a girlfriend before, despite her age. She was already stressing out thinking about where to take Vanessa on their first date, afraid once again that all the ease that had accompanied them through the week wouldn’t get beyond the highway. She was lost in thought when she felt her phone buzz.

Vanessa: I like sushi Vanessa: Just so you know ;)

Then again, maybe they would be just fine.

Epilogue

Brooke woke up Saturday morning feeling wonderful. She was so happy to be back in her own bed, even more so to rise with no alarm and to a beautiful sunny day. She stretched under the covers and smiled, because the first thing she thought about was Vanessa.

She didn’t remember when was the last time she had been in such a good mood. She even retrieved an old loudspeaker from the bottom of a drawer so she could set up some upbeat music while she tidied up her apartment. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t expecting something to happen tonight, with so many times she and Vanessa had almost crossed that line already but couldn’t on the account of where they were. She would be happy to just spend time with her, of course, and if nothing happened, nothing happened. But she sure as hell would put on some nice lingerie and invite her in.

The day went by, and Brooke found herself half naked staring at her closet, unsure. It was easy to pick what to wear when you have a small suitcase of choices, but wanting to cause a good impression she suddenly understood the ridiculous phrase “I have nothing to wear” as she looked through her dozens of clothes.

This was dumb. Vanessa wouldn’t care. Right? She would just text her and ask.

Brooke: What are you wearing today?

Being open and honest with Vanessa had only been good for her so far, it was better not let her mind jump into conclusions or make her nervous unnecessarily.

Vanessa: OMG mami Vanessa: I’m not against this but I’m in public right now

Brooke almost dropped her phone.

Brooke: that’s not what I meant!!! Brooke: I swear!!!!! Brooke: I’m sorry!!!! Brooke: I was just asking because I don’t want to overdress or underdress Brooke: for our date

She knew Vanessa couldn’t see her but she hid behind a hanging coat anyway. “Oh my god,” she mumbled, her face pressed to the fabric.

Vanessa: LMFAO Vanessa: You’re so cute Vanessa: I’m gonna wear a dress Vanessa: Don’t stress yourself out, wear whatever you want Vanessa: or don’t wear anything Vanessa: I’m gonna like it anyway :P

Brooke couldn’t help but laugh. Guess she didn’t have to worry about her clothes, they wouldn’t embarrass her more than she already embarrassed herself.

–

The date was fantastic. They enjoyed each other’s company just like they had before, and took the opportunity to talk about things they still hadn’t, like their families and some of their past, letting their trust grow deeper. It was easy like Brooke longed for it to be.

“I heard of this place that has social dance nights,” said Vanessa as they walked through the parking lot, hand in hand, “they have one night a week that’s LGBT night, I’m not sure which one though, I’ll have to look.”

“Nice,” responded Brooke.

“We should go,” said Vanessa, “I wanna dance with you again.”

“I would like nothing more,” said Brooke sincerely. They had arrived at her car, and Vanessa stopped to lean up and kiss Brooke. They both smiled as they pulled back.

“I know I’m supposed to wait until you walked me to the door or some shit, but I didn’t want to,” said Vanessa.

“Why were you supposed to wait?”

“‘Cause it’s our first date.”

“Hmmm, is it though?” said Brooke, faking a pensive expression while she pulled Vanessa close. “I mean, I saw you on 6 different days already, doesn’t that count?” she said, enveloping the smaller woman in her arms and placing small kisses on her temple and the side of her face, making her way back to her lips. “I kissed you,” she paused for a kiss, “I don’t know,” another, “five of those days?” and another. Vanessa had an easy smile playing at the corners of her lips. “I think we don’t have to stick to the rule of the first date,” she finished, kissing her on the lips again.

“Hmm,” said Vanessa, “and what does your mathematic say we should do?”

“I was thinking,” said Brooke. This time, Vanessa was the one peppering her face with kisses. “That maybe we could go back to my place. Where I live alone. You know, no one to interrupt anything that we might want to do,” she finished, noticing her eyes had closed on their own.

Vanessa pulled back abruptly, smiling wildly.

“What are we waiting for then, let’s go?” she nearly yelled, provoking a burst of laughing on a startled Brooke.

–

Vanessa woke up on Brooke’s bed for the first time the next morning. She looked around as the early morning light allowed her to take in all the details she had missed last night, and thought she wouldn’t mind getting used to it. She looked at Brooke’s drooling sleeping face, disheveled hair and weirdly bent arm and though she really, really wouldn’t mind at all. She got down from the bed quietly, not yet knowing that Brooke was a very heavy sleeper, and made her way to the kitchen for the first time. She had trouble reaching for a cup, stored too high up. She hadn’t had the chance yet to put all the most used items at a reasonable height.

She drank a cup of water and considered going back to bed, looking around at the monochromatic decoration, where her colorful touch hadn’t reached yet, and the art they would buy on their trip to Mexico was not hung on the wall yet. She put her cup on the sink and walked back to the bedroom, letting her fingers trail on the back of the couch on the way, where the fabric wasn’t full of their kitten’s hairs yet.

She stopped on the bathroom on the way, noticing how tidy Brooke kept her cosmetics, not yet knowing this was only because she didn’t want Vanessa to see how messy she really was. She washed her hands looking at that mirror for the first time, not yet knowing she would get used to putting her make up on under those lights while telling Brooke she should keep her shit organized or one of these days she would end up putting Vanessa’s foundation by mistake.

She went back to bed to snuggle up against a still asleep Brooke for the first time. She had turned around but had no signs of waking up anytime soon. Vanessa put her hand on her waist, spooning her, relishing in her smell that was everywhere around her. She made herself comfortable, fitting against Brooke’s body and closed her eyes, content, safe.

Vanessa fell asleep next to Brooke for the second time, both of them unaware of all the things yet to come, but both hopeful before their own willingness to give their best so every single one of those things had every chance of happening.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #nina west #branjie #fluff #lesbian au #dance au #dancing into your arms #multifandomgeek #submission #s11

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