49: Plenty of Fish

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A/N:

Hi guys,

Sorry for not telling you when this update was going to be! There will only be one more update for this week since it's a very large chapter, and that'll be on Thursday. I appreciate you guys putting up with this hectic schedule. 

The first part of this chapter takes place in the lunch period before the events towards the end of the last chapter.

Enjoy, and thank you for all the support,

-Tera

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Cal, Kenzie, and Mark's usual lunch hideaway under the stairs at the end of a hallway had become relatively abandoned as it became warmer outside. It still wasn't hot by any means, but it was bearable to be outside since snow was less common in March.

The trio used this to their advantage since they were far more free of teacher supervision outside as opposed to inside. And that day they decided to spend their lunch period playing tennis at the court on the school grounds.

Since there was three of them as opposed to an even number, they had to work with imbalanced halves of the net. But it worked out since Cal was far more athletic than her uncoordinated friends, so she played alone against the two of them. They were still losing.

"You gotta chill out with those serves, Cal!" Kenzie yelled, leaning over to place her hands on her knees, out of breath. "This isn't the Olympics."

Cal rolled her eyes, spinning her racket in the air and catching it with one hand. "You guys are being dramatic. Maybe you should stop ditching gym class."

The three of them took a break to down their bottles of water on the side of the tennis court. Lunch period was almost over anyway, so Cal figured they might as well start packing up. She sighed when she remembered having to look forward to both sixth period and after school with Grace. The sociology group was meeting that day for the project.

There was more bickering and disagreement in group meetings than actual work. It was becoming tiring having to scramble something together after everyone gets too busy to meet up and being unable to make decent progress with assignments. It was already March, but summer seemed so unimaginably far away.

"Hey, Cal!"

Cal's head whipped around from the familiar voice, and sure enough, Dana was on the other side of the chain link fence that surrounded the tennis court. She was hand-in-hand with a tall, dark-haired guy wearing a letterman jacket. Cal didn't recognize him which made her consider that he was possibly a senior.

"Dana? What are you here for?" Cal asked.

"Oh, we were just walking back from the parking lot," Dana explained. "But I'm glad I ran into you! I wanted to ask you something!"

Cal was sort of surprised since Dana could've easily asked her during sixth period. Maybe she was planning on ditching? It wouldn't be that out of the norm for Dana, though she skipped sociology far less than she used to ditch Spanish class last semester.

"Sure, what's up?" Cal said.

"So next weekend we're having a get-together at my house," Dana replied. "It's gonna be a little going-away party since one of the guys from Isaac's baseball team is leaving the state."

When she said "Isaac", she tugged on the hand of the boy she'd been walking with, indicating that he was the person in question. He waved a little when he was mentioned, smiling a bit awkwardly.

"Is it gonna be like an actual party?" Cal questioned. She wasn't sure she was up for one of those, to be honest. She was never one for them in the first place – Kenzie and Mark were more keen on the dancing and underage drinking scene.

Dana shook her head. "Nope, it's really mostly for Isaac's friends. But I wanted some people I knew there to even the playing field a little." Her face suddenly stretched into her usual devious smile, and Cal instantly grew suspicious. "Plus, I have someone I want to introduce to you."

Cal folded her arms across her chest. "Oh yeah? Whose that?"

"Well, my cousin will be coming," Dana explained. "And you guys have...some things in common."

"Like what?"

"Like, you know...an appreciation for women?"

"You're trying to hook me up with someone, Dana?" Cal asked, somewhat surprised.

"No, no, no," Dana insisted. "Well...not exactly. But my cousin was really insistent that I invite you when I said I have a cute lesbian friend!"

Cal was rather hesitant about meeting Dana's cousin. She hadn't thought about casting her net out at all, and dating had been far from her mind. After her breakup with Grace, she'd been pretty uninterested in romance...meeting this girl sounded like more of a burden than anything.

However, Cal wondered why she was even hesitant in the first place. What was wrong with moving on and having fun with a girl? It didn't even have to be anything at all – if they got along, great, if they didn't, no big deal. She could probably use something to get her mind off Grace anyway.

Cal sighed. "You sure it's not gonna be some giant party?"

Dana nodded happily. "I promise! We're even just gonna watch movies and stuff! It'll be totally chill."

"...Alright, fine."

Dana literally leaped up in happiness. "Yay! I'd hug you if this fence wasn't in the way!"

Isaac, who Cal supposed was her boyfriend, tugged on her hand. "Hey, we're gonna be late, babe."

Dana seemed to snap out of her excitement to look at the tall boy. "Oh, right." She looked back at Cal and waved. "I'll send you my address and some info in a bit! See you in sixth!"

And with that, Isaac pulled the cheerleader away from the tennis court towards the school.

Cal immediately felt like she was going to regret the decision to go to Dana's get-together. Nothing good seemed to happen around the cheery blonde, but Cal felt like getting out might be good for her.

She turned to Kenzie and Mark who were standing with the tennis rackets only a few feet away.

"You make the strangest friends, Cal McCarthy," Kenzie said, heading over to the Cal and grabbing her arm to take them out of the court, Mark trailing behind. "You make me worry."

Cal laughed. "Yep, I hang out with the 'bad crowd'."

As they walked back to the school building, already making good time for a tardy to fifth period, Cal thought of something that made her a bit terrified of the whole ordeal with Dana's get-together.

What if she invited Grace?

No, Cal was sure that Dana would invite Grace. Every time Dana was around, Grace followed close behind, and the pretty blonde seemed to make sure that they all ended up together one way or another. The thought of seeing Grace at a small get-together filled her with dread.

But...was Cal going to let Grace scare her out of a friendship with Dana? Who was she to decide who Dana hung out with? She couldn't avoid seeing Grace the rest of the semester, so she shouldn't allow her ex-girlfriend to scare her from having fun or meeting someone knew. She'd just have to live with her presence, at least until the summer.

Filled with new conviction, Cal tried to convince herself that she didn't care. Plus, Dana inviting the honor student was one thing – her actually attending was another.

It was stupid to worry about, and frankly, Cal was tired of worrying.

---

A week seemed to pass rather quickly, and before she knew it, Cal found herself parked on the curb next to a two-story suburban home, lights illuminating the windows with an orange-yellow. She sighed and stepped out of the car, turning to see herself in the window reflection. She didn't dress up in anything crazy – just a jean jacket, white tank top, and black jeans. It was just a casual get-together anyway, and she wasn't going to go out of her way to impress this cousin of Dana's.

Cal felt a bit awkward as she headed up the driveway to Dana's front door. She opted not to bring Kenzie and Mark for backup since it felt inappropriate to bring them to a more intimate gathering. Cal kept wondering if she was going to see Grace's face when she walked in the door of the cheerleader's home.

She knocked after hesitating for a second, and it didn't take long for the front door to swing open.

"Cal! Hey!" Dana squealed, pulling Cal into a big hug. She released her and stepped to the side. "Come in!"

Cal did as she was told, stepping into the warmth of the indoors. It was a well-decorated but relatively normal home, which almost seemed strange for the over-the-top Dana. Her family must've been more average than their daughter.

Cal saw that most of the people were in the living room, and Dana had been right – it wasn't some giant party. There were only about ten people in there, not including Dana and Cal herself, mostly guys in letterman jackets who she assumed were part of Isaac's baseball team.

Isaac was sitting in the living room next to a more nerdy-looking guy with dark brown hair and glasses.

"Hey, everyone! This is Cal, my friend from school," Dana announced.

They waved and there were several "heys" before everyone went back to their prior conversations.

A small redheaded girl popped up from the group and headed over, a big smile on her face as her eyes fell on Cal.

"Cal, this is my cousin, Sydney," Dana introduced, a wide smile on her face.

"Oh, uh, hey," Cal said, feeling awkward about being so obviously set up. But the redhead didn't seem to mind the whole situation, and was beaming.

"Nice to meet you!" she said.

"I'm gonna go grab some dip from the kitchen," Dana said suddenly. "You guys go ahead and, uh...get to know each other?"

Dana flashed Cal a sly look, and Cal returned it with an unamused one.

She turned back to the much shorter girl, trying her best to be polite. She still felt incredibly awkward and unsure, in spite of the fact that so-called Sydney was admittedly cute.

Sydney seemed to recognize her discomfort and even took her hand. "Hey, let's go sit with everyone else," she said, pulling her to the living room.

They sat on a couple of folding chairs placed in the living room to provide enough seats for the guests. Cal was a bit surprised by Sydney's lack of shyness, but also grateful that the girl was there to keep her from being alone without Dana.

"So, are you a junior like Dana?" she asked, her bright green eyes giving full attention to Cal.

"Yeah, I am," Cal replied. "Are you, too?"

Sydney shook her head. "I'm actually a sophomore."

"Oh..." Cal trailed off awkwardly. It was like she'd lost all of her social skills somehow, in spite of being so extroverted before. Something in her seemed to want to resist hitting it off with a girl who was obviously interested in her.

"Are you nervous being here?" Sydney suddenly asked.

Cal's eyes snapped up, caught off guard by the question. "Not really, why? Do I seemed like I am?"

"Well...you just seem a bit on edge," she replied. "I figured you might be a bit shy."

Cal shook her head. "Nah, I'm not shy. It's just been a while since I've been to a party. Ah, but I guess it doesn't really count as a party."

Sydney giggled a bit, and Cal couldn't help but think it was a little cute. "No, I wouldn't say it's much of a party. But I get it. You don't seem like you know anyone but Dana here."

"Nah, not really."

Sydney smile lightly, and Cal stiffened as the girl's hand touched her arm ever so softy. She was leaning rather close, and Cal could pick up the smell of the redhead's shampoo. It was citrusy.

"I'm the same," she replied. "So I guess we'll have to stick together."

Her tone was most definitely flirty, but Cal was having trouble processing such a thing in her brain, and she couldn't look away from the girl's bright green eyes.

However, her gaze was finally torn away at the sound of a knock at the front door. She turned towards it, her stomach turning for some unknown reason.

Dana shot out of the kitchen to head to the door. She opened it, chatting with the new person, but their voices were out of Cal's earshot. She initially only saw the shuffle of a coat being removed and then racked next to the door, but when Dana moved aside, she saw her worst fears realized.

It was Grace. 

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