It's not until two days later that Lisa sees Jennie again.

"You weren't in yesterday. Are you okay?" Is the first thing Lisa asks when she lays eyes on Jennie.

Jennie rolls her eyes in response but Lisa is persistent and refuses to move until Jennie answers the question.

"Fine," Jennie replies, "My mum wanted me to stay at home yesterday so she could keep an eye on me. I mean I still had to beg her to let me come in today."

"Why did you want to come to school?" Lisa says, turning her nose up in disgust.

"To see your gorgeous face of course."

Jennie winks at Lisa and Lisa can feel her cheeks flush. Because Lisa still hasn't stopped thinking about the texts that Jennie sent last night, hasn't stopped trying to find some underlying meaning that means that Jennie isn't flirting with her. Perhaps Lisa is overreacting; perhaps all friends send each other texts alluding to wanting to try out sexual acts with each other. But somehow Lisa thinks maybe not.

"Are you coming or what?"

It is only then that Lisa realises she still hasn't moved and that Jennie is talking to her from halfway down the corridor with an impatient expression on her face as if Lisa exasperates her more than anything else.

"Yeah."

Lisa's mind seems to be all over the place this morning as her attention flits to the numerous couples making out in the middle of the corridor to the brightly coloured posters that are seemingly blue tacked to every single surface.

"So do you want to come round to mine tomorrow?" Jennie's voice brings Lisa out of his reverie.

"Do you want me to?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

"Cause I like spending time with you dumbass," Jennie sighs, and Lisa gets the feeling that she might be starting to get on Jennie's nerves.

"I meant is there a specific reason?"

"Well there's a girl's football match on we could watch together."

"Hell no, I'm not watching football, I actually have no idea what happens during those matches, all they do is kick the ball around."

"There'll be eye candy," Jennie pouts.

Lisa snorts at that. As if she could be bribed by something as petty as cute girls, does Jennie know nothing about her?

"Please Lili." Jennie says shuffling closer to her, "I really want to watch the match with you."

"Will there be food?"

"Of course."

"What kind of food."

"Is food all you think about?" Jennie asks. "Because how the hell do you maintain your figure if it is?"

"Are you asking me for dieting tips?"

"I'm just saying that you seem to eat a lot and I have no idea where you put it."

The two descend into a comfortable silence as they think about the possibility before Lisa realises that her question still hasn't been answered.

"So what food will there be?" She asks.

"Chocolate, marshmallows, even pizza if you're lucky," Jennie tells her.

"That sounds like the unhealthiest meal ever - I'm in."

Jennie lets out a laugh at that and Lisa looks over at her. Lisa hadn't realised that their shoulders were brushing against each other but now it's all that she can think about. It's the lightest touch but it feels like Jennie's shoulder is exerting some great pressure. Does Jennie realise? Does she even care? Lisa isn't even sure why she does.

Lisa tries to clear her head of these thoughts. Tries to remind herself that she does not like Jennie Kim, at least not in that way. But Lisa is quickly starting to realise that forcing herself to get rid of these feelings is not working. Because it's not like it's a switch that can be flicked one way or another, these are emotions that have developed over thousands of memories, emotions that have been a part of Lisa for so long that she's not sure who she'd be now if they'd never existed. And Lis knows that the whole thing is dangerous, because there's a friendship at stake here, and so she tries to maintain a neutral expression and refuses to meet Jennie's eye.

"You okay there Lisa?"

"Peachy thanks."

xxx

Today is one of those days when Jennie wishes she had mind reading abilities, Lisa seems to have suddenly retreated back into her metaphorical shell and Jennie is desperate to know why.

Not that Jennie is totally all there today either. Her mind keeps on straying back to the texts she sent yesterday and wondering how on earth she could possibly explain those to Lisa. "Look Lisa, I know I sent you flirty text messages and basically asked you to have sex with me but I didn't mean it, not that I don't want to have sex with you, just y'know, I like boys." Jennie can imagine how well that would go over.

"You okay there?"

Jennie returns from her thoughts to find Lisa staring at her with a concerned expression on her face, because apparently their friendship solely consists of them worrying about each other.

"Fine."

"Really, cause we've been in English for ten minutes now and you've spent the entirety of it staring out of the window like somebody's murdered your father and you're planning on seeking revenge. You're not are you?"

"My father is very much alive," Jennie assures Lisa, "but thanks for your concern."

"What are friends for?" Lisa replies.

Jennie plans on returning to her thoughts - because she really doesn't feel capable of concentrating today and she's pretty sure she can mooch notes off of Lisa later anyway – when she feels Lisa sit up straight next to her.

"What's wrong," Jennie asks, nudging Lisa lightly with her shoulder.

"Nothing?"

"You can't fool me Lili."

"Damn it," Lisa says lightly, "and here I was thinking I was doing a brilliant job."

"Newsflash, you're not," Jennie tells her teasingly, "so come on, what's up?"

"They're talking about us," Lisa explains, gesturing with her chin in the direction of where two boys are sat at a table in the corner.

"So?"

"They think you're cute."

"Well looks like they've got common sense then."

"They think I'm, quote, a greasy haired geek, unquote."

"Or maybe not," Jennie says, "is it bothering you?"

"Well y'know when someone suggests that I'm 'too ugly to be friends with Jennie Kim' then yeah, my feelings are a little bit hurt," Lisa replies sarcastically.

"You know that they're wrong don't you?"

Lisa shrugs and turns her attention to the piece of paper in front of her that appears to be empty, maybe Jennie won't be getting those notes after all.

"Cause they're wrong," Jennie continues, "your hair isn't greasy, it's fabulous, and I'd run my hands through it cause it looks really soft if that wouldn't be so weird and if anything I'm not awesome enough to be friends with you."

"What the hell Jennie?" Lisa splutters, trying to keep her voice down. "How the hell are you not awesome enough to be friends with me?"

"Well I know nothing about videogames and you're funnier than me and I'm honestly jealous of your hair, seriously, what shampoo do you use?"

Jennie allows herself to crack a small smile when Lisa turns to look at her in disbelief.

"It's a secret," Lisa says.

Jennie is relieved to see that an easy grin has slipped onto the other girl's face too, and she nudges Lisa with her shoulder once again.

"And just so you know Lili, if I swung that way, you'd be the first to know," Jennie says, offering Lisa a sly wink.

Jennie is satisfied to see that Lisa's cheeks flush furiously.

"Don't let other people get you down," Jennie tells Lisa, "you gotta own your awesome and don't let anybody take it away. You're not what other people say you are, you're what you say you are. So you can be as awesome as you want, just as long as you don't let other people try to convince you otherwise."

"So are you saying ignore the haters?"

"Nah," Jennie replies, "I'm saying listen to the fans."

Lisa cracks a smile and Jennie decides then that her mission for the day is completed, not that she'd known that that was what she wanted to do when she woke up this morning but when Lisa smiles, Jennie just wants to make her smile again and again.

"Thanks," Lisa says simply.

"What for?"

"Not being a bitch. There are a lot of people who'd say I was overreacting and just tell me to move on."

"You've been through a lot," Jennie says, and she can see Lisa wince, Jennie gets the impression that she usually avoids thinking about it, "and it's made you insecure, it would make anyone feel that way. And if it takes me reminding you how awesome you are on a regular basis to make you feel as good about yourself as you should then I'm not going to complain. I just want you to realise how amazing you are Lili, cause there aren't many people like you in the world, so embrace your uniqueness, cause it's what makes people remember you."

"You should be a motivational speaker or something," Lisa says teasingly.

Jennie just shakes her head.

"So are you okay now?" Jennie asks. "Or do I need to give you a list of one hundred things I love about you."

"Well I'm fine but you can rattle off that list anyway if you want to."

"Now, now, now Lili, don't be demanding," Jennie says, "it doesn't look good on you."

"What does look good on me then?" Lisa asks.

"A smile," Jennie replies without thinking, "oh god that sounded so cheesy and so creepy I'm really sorry."

Jennie is surprised to find that Lisa is staring at her with a massive grin on her face.

"S'okay," Lisa assures her, "I was beginning to think that you never suffered from word vomit anyway."

"Word vomit?"

"So you know foodgasm but not word vomit? What language do you even speak Jennie Kim?"

"Korean."

"Really, cause I thought it was more like garbage," Lisa replies teasingly.

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

"And now I regret being nice to you."

"Please forgive me."

"No."

"Please."

Jennie looks over at Lisa who has now stuck out her bottom lip and is staring at Jennie wide eyes.

"Fine," Jennie huffs, "consider yourself forgiven."