We walked hand in hand ‘till we turned the last corner before we hit the school’s gate. Miss Hill stood there as always, checking the student’s uniforms. She greeted us when we came closer.

“Good morning ladies.”

“Good morning Miss Hill.” Both me and Ria replied.

“Where have you been these past couple of school days?”

“We were sick before the weekend and we had to do some extracurricular activities yesterday.” Ria replied before I could.

“I see, make sure to hand in your sick notes at the student administration’s office.”

“Should already be in order.” I smiled.

Miss Hill nodded contently. “Miss Beaumont, I must say I’m happily surprised.”

I had to hold myself back to start unbuttoning my jacket but I decided not to bother in the end and just shrugged it off.

“Good Rora!” Ria giggled and patted my head. She knows me too well.

We made it halfway to the school’s main building before Claire walked towards us with a huge smirk on her face, with Emma close in tow.

“Hey Claire, what’s up?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing at all.” She kept smirking as she looked at me and Ria.

“I’m sorry, Auro. The cat’s out of the bag already.” Em apologized as she caught up to Claire.

Claire reached out her right hand and put it on my shoulder. “Good job Aurora, I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks… I guess?”

“So, who confessed to who?” She signed us to follow along so we could talk while we were walking.

“It’s a bit complicated...”

“I confessed to her first.” Em stated, a bit faster than I had expected her to. But it was clear by the blush on her cheeks that she also didn’t expect it to come out as smoothly as it did.

“Then me and Rora got together first and then we got Emma in as well.” Ria smiled happily. Skillfully omitting the other details surrounding those events.

“I see.” Claire smiled. “Well, I’m very happy for you all that it turned out alright. It’s always nice to see the gardens of lilies grow in the fertile soil of love.”

I sighed. “I almost forgot we were talking to our class’ drama queen.”

“How could you ever forget such a thing!?” She dramatically put her hand to her chest and gasped before she started laughing. “But please, do tell me something.”

“About what?” I tilted my head.

Her smile turned into a devious smirk once more. “How exactly did you get the school to see hot, steamy lesbian sex as a valid extracurricular activity?”

My face shot bright red as I looked at Emma. “W-w-wha…”

Em quickly waved her hands, trying to shake off all the responsibility. Her face was also tomato red. “I-I-I didn’t tell her anything!!”

Claire’s smirk quickly faded into a face of bemused confusion. “Wait… really?”

Ria’s face was just frozen into an unmoving smile. I think her brain had stopped working the moment Claire had lured us out.

“By the Goddess… I was joking, I’d never expect that from the three of you… not that fast anyway…”

Claire’s comments definitely didn’t help to lessen our embarrassment.

We entered the classroom, faces red and with a smirking Claire behind us. A couple of our other classmates were looking at us momentarily with a bit of curiosity but they quickly went back to their own business. As usual Karin was already reading at her seat, however when she saw us enter she put down her book for a while.

“Hey Karin.” I walked over to her.

“Hello Aurora.” She replied and gave a nod to Ria as well.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You are coming over tomorrow?” She continued. It’s quite funny actually, I’ve never heard her say this much to us before.

“Apparently so. I’ll go buy you your sweets today so I can take them with me.” I smiled.

She smiled back and gave me a nod.

Ria sat down next to her best friend and gave her a hug. They didn’t even need words to communicate which was incredibly sweet.

I smiled again and sat down in between Emma and Claire.

“Does Pres know too?” I looked at both Em and Claire.

“She doesn’t yet.” Em shook her head. “Not as far as I know anyway.”

“Who knows. That girl is incredibly observant.” Claire nodded.

“That’s true and so are you.”

“I just developed an instinct for these kinds of things.” Claire winked.

“Hmm.” I chuckled. “Miss Drama llama’s gaydar?”

“Hah, I like that name, I'm going to write it down for some theatrical improv.” Em and I laughed while Claire took out her notepad.

Pres had come in right before the lesson started so we couldn’t really get a lot of conversation in before class. And because she had to do some sicknote administration in between the lessons we didn’t have any time either in the short inter-lesson break. It was only at the advent of the lunch break that we could finally speak and tell her about our newfound relationship.

“Ah, that’s how it is.” Pres looked completely unfazed by our announcement. She sipped from the last bit of tea in her cup.

“You don’t look very surprised.”

She shrugged while taking another sip. “You always had a certain chemistry. I’m more surprised about Emma and Corelia but then again...” Yet another sip later she continued. “Even that was something that was quite possible.”

Em and Ria looked at each other.

“Really?” Em asked.

Pres nodded. “It’s just a feeling I had.”

“Pres is truly a menace isn’t she?” Claire playfully poked me with her elbow.

“Yep.” I agreed before I turned back to Pres. “By the way, want to go and eat something at the French resto, Pres?”

“Sure. I want to try the new tea they have there anyway.”

“And you, Claire? I kinda want to ask you something as well.”

“Yeah, Sure thing.” She nodded. “Let me message Anya so she can come too. If you don’t mind.”

“Of course. The more the merrier.”

“Yay! Anya!” Ria called out enthusiastically.

“Or maybe I shouldn’t.” Claire teased.

“Nooooo!”

“Please don’t tease my girlfriends too much, Claire.” I put my hand on her shoulder while she sent the message.

“I’ll have to think about that.”

We waited at our classroom for Anya to join us and afterwards we went off to the French resto. Apparently not that many people had decided on a French lunch today so it was only us and two other groups that were present.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Claire sat down with a plate filled to the brim with croissants and charcuterie.

“Well…” I sat down with my own plate of food. I had picked an assortment of fruit, cheeses and bread. “I’m kinda interested in joining the fencing club…”

“Hmm?” Pres tilted her head but didn’t say anything else.

“Are you sure?” Claire looked at Emma and then at me. “Is Emma okay with that?”

Emma nodded. “Totally fine for me.”

Claire looked at us with a definite air of suspicion. “So, you are saying that after trying to get Aurora into the track club for that long you don’t mind it one bit that she would join another club just like that?”

“They’ve talked it through plentily, Claire.” Ria came in to back us up. She even used her serious voice which she didn’t do very often. It took Claire a bit off guard.

“Ah… Sorry for being that inquisitive.” Claire apologized.

“Thank you for watching out for me, though.” Em smiled.

This put Claire back at ease. “Alright then. I’ll ask Maya but I don’t think it should be an issue. If you want to, you can come with me after school.”

I looked at Em and Ria, they both gave me an affirmative nod. “Yeah, I don’t have anything planned today anyway.”

“No sexy time?” Claire winked.

Pres rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Could you please not while I’m drinking tea?”

“But you’re always drinking tea, Pres.”

“Yes, that’s the point.”

“Spoilsport.” Claire pouted while Pres just kept sipping tea indiscriminately.

The rest of our lunch break was just spent catching up with Anya since we hadn’t seen her in a while. We recounted to her how we got together without going into too much detail of course.

“I’m really happy for you all.” Anya smiled. “And I hope you can make this poly thing work out for you too.”

“It’s going pretty well so far.” I replied with a big smile of myself. “At least I think it is.”

“It’s true.” Em agreed. “Look what Ria gave us.”

Both Em and I took out our unbearably cute keychains and showed it to Anya. While Ria was blushing cutely at our side.

“Awwhh!” Anya folded her hands and her eyes had started to sparkle. “That’s so adorable.”

“I know, right?” Em smiled.

“When will we get something to match, Clairebun?” Anya poked Claire’s shoulder.

“Clairebun?” Em whispered into my ear.

“That’s pretty adorbs too, isn’t it?” I whispered back with a bit of a giggle.

“Aren’t my serenades and poems enough?”

“But I want plushies.”

“I wouldn’t get in between a girl and her will for plushies if I were you, Claire.” I chuckled.

Anya nodded aggressively.

“Fine… But first I need to find something that’s as adorable and cute as you. Which is close to an impossible task, just so you know.”

I saw Anya melt a little at her girlfriend’s line.

-Damn, that was incredibly smooth…-