The mood at Anne's house on Saturday was far more sombre, the fact that Lucia wasn't coming was in the forefront of their minds. It wasn't helped when Pete asked "Susan, where's your partner in crime?"

"She was banned from coming to any more movie nights." Susan confessed, "because her mum doesn't like her associating with gay people."

"What! In this day and age?" Pete asked astounded that people could be so closed minded.

"It's a religious thing." She explained, shaking her head.

"So, you didn't suggest that perhaps Jo sits this one out, perhaps alternate months?" Pete suggested, "It seems like a pretty knee jerk reaction."

"It didn't help that she lied and saw Jo at school, apparently their mosque has all their children spying on her."

"Well, I can see that looks bad, so now she's having to avoid Jo at school too?" He asked, feeling bad for the girl.

"And me." Susan said quietly, averting her eyes.

"She's avoiding you? But you guys have been inseparable since the begining of highschool!" He frowned, "what happened?"

She met his eyes again and squeezed out, "I'm Jo's girlfriend."

Pete could see she was close to tears, "Oh no, come here!" He said and gathered her in a hug. "It's not your fault, you can't help who you're attracted to." He rubbed her back, "There, there, at least she still has Anne and the girls, I'm glad they don't have to deal with this bigotry." This just caused Susan to cry more and left him wondering what he had said wrong.

They ate their pizza and didn't linger for long downstairs, even the film was quiet, the choice hadn't helped.

"I'm not sure having Bowie in it helped…" Heather mused.

"It was, erm, pretty weird." Agreed Jenny, "is that what they mean when they say it's an 'arthouse' film?"

"I quite liked it, it was thought provoking. It's all about people's fear of the unknown and the removal of personal liberties. The filmography was a little distracting though." Jo felt she needed to defend the movie for Susans sake but she did genuinely like it.

"Thanks Jo, I think perhaps it was just the wrong day for it. And I can admit, it looks like it bored Kelly to tears!" Susan said, accepting the film hadn't gone down well. "How about we watch another Bowie classic?" She held up another DVD, "labyrinth!"

There were cheers of acceptance. "You know, apparently there's a drinking game people do whilst watching this? You drink every time you see Bowie's … package, as it were." Jenny explained, "I think we should do that, cheer and take a slug of our drinks, it's symbolic!"

"You didn't spike the punch did you Jenny?" Anne joked.

"What punch?" Jenny asked, not getting the joke.

"Never mind, put the film on, let's do this!" Anne raised her glass, "charge your glasses girls!"

Labyrinth cheered them up, it was a fun film and the faux drinking game made it even more entertaining. Had they been drinking spirits they would all have been hammered by the end of the movie.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

It was still relatively early when the films finished so Jo led them in a singalong, just a few songs but it was fun, even Mae joined in.

When Susan drew the next film it was Jo again, "I ring the bullshit bell, it's rigged!" Susan called.

"What do you mean? It was your choice this week!" Anne asked her.

"Oh, shit, we never did tell you, did we? Jo cheated for me and put my choice on her paper too." She looked suitably embarrassed.

"So that film was Jo's fault! I think it's a redraw, Susan can't draw if it wasn't her film!" Abby insisted. The film went back in the bag and Jo drew the next film.

"Okay, sorry guys, it must be rigged! Next month's movie is 'Rain Man' . That was my choice." She handed Anne the paper to prove it.

There were choruses of "Redraw!" But Anne spoke up in her best courtroom voice, "There's no rule against drawing your own film, the selection stands!"

Once the "awws" had died down she continued "Before we split up and do our teeth, it's my birthday this week. I was wondering if people might like to come ice-skating with me next Saturday?"

"I forgot Anne was the baby of the group! She always acts so mature." Heather teased, "holy cow, you're going to be stuck at home for months after we're old enough to go to the pub!"

"Good point, I must be seven months older than you! Geez, who'd have thought?" Jo said in amazement.

"It's just because I'm so much smarter than you all!" Anne defended herself, they went through this almost every year.

"So, are you staying on for a sixth year?" Mae asked in her quiet voice.

This was a new one for Anne, normally they just teased her, "I wasn't planning it, I think everyone else is applying for uni this year. No way I'm letting these idiots get ahead of me, they might start forgetting how smart I am!"

"So, you're applying before Christmas and hoping for conditional acceptance?" Mae continued, this was obviously a topic she was interested in.

"Well, yeah, my grades are good so I don't expect to fail anything. And I'm planning on applying for something science related, possibly applied chemistry or materials science. I mean, I'm pretty much top of the class in all the sciences and maths." She glanced at Susan, "And there was a suggestion we should all apply for the local university, if so the entrance requirements are lower than some of the places I was looking at."

"Are you talking about Heather's dream of a shared flat like in friends?" Jenny asked.

"It does sound nice, perhaps two flats like they had, across the hall." Anne said wistfully.

Mae fidgeted with her pajama buttons for a second, "Could I join in? Get a nearby flat? All my friends at school are going all over the place, one is even going to study in Canada. I was thinking I could wait a year and see where everyone got accepted so I could follow someone but then I would be in the wrong year, and hardly any of my friends are doing a sixth year."

"Hey, at the moment we haven't decided but if you don't mind being close to home, sure. We'll need to get our parents on board though." Anne assured her.

"Hey, speak for yourself! It's that or nothing for me, I'm relying on handouts to be able to afford even that." Jo piped up. "I don't know how the scholarship works, whether I would get an accomodations allowance or if I need to commute from home but I would like to live near all you guys."

"So, how's the application going?" Heather asked, "anything you need help with."

"Nope, Jenny's mum helped me and it's already been collected and submitted. She seemed really upset I wasn't into those lgbgt rallys and gay rights shenanagins but you know, I'm just not into that stuff. Being a gay teenager is hard enough without having to protest all the time."

"Pretty sure that's a car Jo." Abby sniggered.

"You're thinking mgbgt, but I don't think it's right either." Heather corrected her.

"Well, the alphabet soup crowd. I don't know, lesbian is enough of a stigmatic label for me."

"Hey, you sidetracked my birthday arrangements!" Anne exclaimed just having realised no one had said they were coming.

"Yeah, we'll all be there." Heather said dismissively, "so, how's this flat thing going to work? How do we find multiple flats in the same building? Do we get our parents to buy them as an investment or just rent?"