Angie had always been a bit of tomboy. That's what most kids thought. She never dressed in a way to prove them wrong. She liked 'boyish' clothes. Button up shirts and jeans... she was sporty and she liked simplicity. She liked looking cute too. But... she'd passed the mark to try looking cute ages ago. Now she had a style, a way of being. Everyone had slowly accepted how she was and she didn't want to get any special attention. It had been hard enough to get everyone to stop teasing her about the... the first incident. She hated to think of it. In the first grade she's had some issues with a public confession of love... to a girl. Now she blended in and played with the sporty group. A couple of guys and girls who were sociable and well liked. It was easy enough to stick with them and be accepted as apart of the group. But she knew if she wanted to stay a part of it, changing up her fashion was not really on the table. Sometimes she experimented with makeup for fun at home... lipsticks and eyeliner... she looked up some tutorials on youtube from time to time. But she never showed anyway. Once she wore some lipgloss to school and her friend group wouldn't stop teasing her. She decided it was best to keep it simple and the same. Easy and simple.
Peggy, on the other hand, was sounded and looked a bit posh. She always dressed fashionably. Girly is what Angie would call it. Mostly blacks and greys and reds... sometimes blue and white. But always attractive and well coordinated. She sometimes wore bows. Angie secretly envied her a little... and wouldn't admit to anyone how attractive she thought Peggy's bright red lipstick was. She didn't always wear it, but Peggy did always wear make up, and it always suited her. Once they'd stood next to each other and Angie could just feel the attractiveness radiating off Peggy... although it could have been a bit of her perfume. She couldn't remember it clearly... but she did have a very clear impression that Peggy smelled wonderful. Much too wonderful. As soon as she'd gotten to the school she's fallen in easily with a couple of girls. Fashionable and interesting enough. Peggy felt compelled to stay with them because... she didn't really know anyone. She didn't hate them or love them. She just found them okay. Which was better than eating alone, she figured. Peggy loved reading mysteries... and watching shows. Like those spy ones and the cop shows... she loved seeing how it all unraveled, and learning trips. Sometimes she liked to spend time online looking things like 'How to Pick Locks' and 'How to Tail Someone.' Of course, she hadn't really had any opportunities to use this knowledge, but she'd wanted to. Her new friends didn't really have the same interests. She still got to message her friends online but it really wasn't the same. She wanted to catch up with them, and hug them and have long talks about ridiculous things like how logically you would get an elephant in a room. Maybe you could take off the room? What would be the most cost effective and efficient way? It wasn't the same to talk about that stuff online. Besides her old friends were still busy with her old life. Another thing she missed was the sport. At her old school she always played games and had arm-wrestling matches at lunchtimes and stuff. Not many people seemed to do that her. Especially not her new friends. She did sometimes notice this one group that always played games, but they seemed to be quite exclusive. Although she did notice this one girl... Angie her name was. With an especially cute face.
That was another thing... she wasn't out to anyone here. And she still had her friends online, but she felt silly trying to complain online just randomly. It seemed petty and unnecessary. But this was new. She'd tried to talk with her friends about it a little. But they didn't really get it, or know what to say. When she was with Steve... well, it had been kinda simple. When she talked about girls occasionally her friends were fine with it. But now she actually kind of did have a crush on this one girl... and she had no idea what to do. Neither did her old friends, and she certainly wasn't going to tell her new friends. She had no idea how they'd react but she'd barely heard anyone say anything about lesbian, gay or bi people... or anything else like that. Except when the teacher made a vague joke one time, and everyone laughed hysterically... except Angie. She noticed Angie in the crowd... not laughing. She was glad. She knew that didn't confirm anything much about her, and just becWause she dressed that way, it didn't say anything about her sexuality. That was ridiculous. She probably was just a really nice, accepting straight girl... or maybe not... maybe she was bi? Peggy sighed. it was best not to over-think it. But she did anyway.
When they finally started doing sports, Peggy was excited. She hadn't really done any sport for ages. She loved team sport, and competition. it was so much fun. But on the first day she was accidentally running late. Well, more like she was taking her time and sitting down... maybe to catch Angie? Maybe that was really invasive and maybe she wasn't actually doing that. She was just slow and preferred to change alone? She spent a while thinking up an excuse... and finally decided to start changing. That was the best way to go casually about it. Almost everyone had left. Well, she thought everyone had left, but where was Angie? Peggy walked around a couple of times in her underwear... that way it wasn't so suspicious... she was just... looking for something... in the middle of changing. Totally not suspicious. But she got so lost in thought that when she suddenly hit something and fell over, she finally found Angie.
"Oh God, I'm sorry!" Peggy started, and then looked over to see Angie lying on the ground. Then she realised the idiocy of her plan. She was almost naked in front of the cutest girl in the school and had just run into her... This wasn't clever at all. Subtle... smooth... Peggy told herself. So smooth... She internally groaned.
"Hi..." Angie replied nervously... Peggy was blushing quite a lot, almost as much as Angie, but they both avoiding looking directly at each other... and so didn't notice, until Angie realised where she was looking. "Oh I mean... I uh... sorry I gotta get dressed."
"Oh... me too. Why don't you uh... come sit with me so... we can uh, walk out together." Peggy couldn't believe how much of a wanker she was being.
Angie didn't seem to notice. "Oh... yeah... I guess sure?" She had actually just realised that Peggy didn't know about her being a lesbian... about everyone mocking her and calling her names... about sneaking into the changing rooms after everyone left... about being late to every P.E. class... about even the teacher understanding why...
They awkwardly walked together to get dressed near Peggy's bag, barely talking or looking at each other... geez... this was embarrassing...
As soon as they got to the sports area, they separated. Both embarrassed, and both trying pretend they weren't watching each other. As they did so... Angie noticed Peggy's skill in well... almost everything. She could be a little clumsy, but very... determined, and strong. She tried to keep her mind on the game, but she did find Peggy's legs in those shorts very distracting... She never wore anything like miniskirts or short shorts usually... so this was something... quite overwhelming for Angie. Although she tried to deny it in hermind. Her friends kept asking if she was sick, she blushed so much. When she said, uh... no just a bit hot. They started teasing her. "Oh? Hot for Peggy? Hot for the English girl? What did you two do in the dressing room?" And they all started laughing at her and one girl said, "Ew, that really is sick." And they all started telling her how sick she was... how disgusting she and Peggy were. Usually she could handle a little teasing... it had happened before, but not aimed at Peggy... not such a wonderful person called disgusting!
So she went off, tears in her eyes. She tried to defend Peggy but nothing seemed to work and she just couldn't be around them anymore. She decided to find somewhere... alone.. ish. Well, somewhere she wouldn't get told off for not playing sport and people would ignore her... when she found a place and then started scanning for Peggy she found that Peggy was already there, sitting in the corner and playing with some pieces of grass. She decided to walk over... though quite nervously... she saw tears in Peggy's eyes and couldn't bear to watch anyway without doing something.
“Hey, what’s up?” Angie asked carefully. Peggy kind of tried to play it off casually and look away, but then Angie got upset. “Did I do something wrong?”
And then Peggy realised how she looked and felt bad, “Oh no, no... I just, um... my friends... or well, those girls I thought were my friends were teasing you. Sorry, I just got a bit upset and mad. I can’t believe that would say those things!”
“What did they say?” Angie asked cautiously.
“That you’re a lesbian...” Peggy was still mad.
“Oh, well I am.” Angie replied, heartbroken.
“I know. I mean. I uh... no. I didn’t know. But I mean, uh. Sorry... foot in mouth and all that... but I meant that they said it like it was a bad thing. Because we were together or something. And I said it damn well didn’t matter. And they were being brats so I might have got a little violent...”
“Oh...” Angie blushed and didn’t know what to say, but got a little teary.
“Oh Angie I’m sorry I didn’t mean... Sorry. It’s them, they were teasing you! I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories or anything or like hurt you or offend you!” and she took Angie in her arms and hugged her. “Do you wanna go to the bathroom or something?”
Angie sniffled a bit and said “Sure.” While Peggy held her protectively, they walked together, and when they were finally out of sight Angie added, “But uh... I uh, I don’t mind. Like, it’s not... why I was crying. I just, no one’s been this nice to me before... I mean, offline.” and then she laughed a little.
“Oh Angie. How awful! Here, can we just sit down here?” she lead Angie willingly to sit underneath some trees so they could be in private. “Would you like to talk about it or anything? I’m sorry I didn’t know everyone was so cruel about that! I’m so insensitive sometimes...”
And Angie laughed again and leaned into Peggy, “No, no it’s good, it’s nice. I’m glad.”
And Peggy smiled, “Alright, good. Good. And don’t even worry about anything. I mean... n-not that you would. Or should! It’s not uh... it shouldn’t be the norm. But I’m uh... I’m bi myself so uh... don’t worry about me not getting it or anything. Like, if there’s anything you wanna talk about.”
And Angie laughed a little again, or tried to but it came about as a sob and Peggy said, “Oh Angie.” sympathetically.
Angie sobbed, “Oh, you’re so kind!” she started crying again. So Peggy pulled her into a tight hug.
They stayed there like that for a while, and then Angie started a little timidly, “Would you uh... maybe like to come over some time? I mean I’m Italian so uh, pasta... nice homemade cuisine... and uh, maybe we could play some video games or somethin’?”
"Really?" Peggy breathed, she could hardly believe this. Learning something about her crush and being able to comfort her and now...
"You jokin' English? 'Course!"
Peggy blushed and nodded vigorously. She couldn't wait.