Chapter Two

When Lisa wakes the next morning, she is annoyed about her alarm clock interrupting her dream that she almost does not notice her mother standing in the doorway with a tray in hand.


However, when she hears her nervous knock on the door she looks upwards to see her concerned face and smiles, because she's relieved to know that her mother found out yesterday and yet somehow does not mind.


"Morning."-is all she says as she places the tray down on the bedside table next to Lisa.


Lisa can always tell when her mother is worried about her as she always acts the exact same way. She makes her breakfast, brings it up to her in bed and always tried to bring up whatever she's worried about into conversation.


"Morning."-Lisa relplies.


Straight away she picks the fruit juice up off the tray and drinks. It is a way for her to prolong her mother's questioning for just a little a bit longer. She places the glass down only when she realises it has been empty for a few minutes now.


"The school called."-her mother starts. "they told me you hadn't  showed up for registration but that Rosé had told them you were definitely in that day."


"I left."-Lisa tells her.


"Am I allowed to know why?"


"It happened again."


"Are you okay?"


"I'm fine."


"Where did you go?"-her mother asks. "I hate to think of you being on your own so upset."


"I wasn't alone."Lisa says simply.


Her mother cocks a single eyebrow and stares at her questioningly.


"Girl or boy?"


"Girl."


"Friend or more?"


Even before she answers, her mother is looking at her with narrowed eyes, another reminder that it is impossible for Lisa to lie to her mother.


"Just a friend."


"Well as long as you're happy."


With that, Lisa's mother places a soft kiss on her head and departs from the room leaving Lisa with a tray of food and feeling in a much better mood.


Lisa thinks, not so for the first time-just how relieved she is to have a mother like her own. She always seems to be able to tell when she needs a little pick me up. Breakfast in bed is just one of the many solutions Lisa's mother whips out when the occasion calls.


It does not take long before all that is left on Lisa's tray is on empty plate, cup and mug and she wipes her hand across her face to rid her mouth at any stray crumbs.


Lisa has never taken very long to get ready for school in the morning. However today, she cannot stop checking to see if she looks okay in the mirror. But today she has to look perfect, today Jennie Kim is going to decide whether she want to be friends with Lisa or not and Lisa can't bear for her to say no.


The bus ride to school consists of Lisa nervously fidgeting, her leg jiggling up and down until the person sat in front of Lisa is forced to turn around and ask her to stop. Lisa apologises profusely but there's still seems to be a lot of pent up energy inside of her.


If she is being totally honest, Lisa would like to be asleep right now. Not because she misses her bed - although she does, that bed has seen her through a large portion of her life - but rather because that way she wouldn't have to think. In sleep, Jennie Kim does not plague Lisa's brain and if she does, it is often in some absurb role in one of Lisa's dream.


And so Lisa would really like to sleep right now, because when she's asleep Lisa does not find herself wondering if Jennie is going to decide to be friends with her or not.


Lisa is on the bus through now and so returning home is difficult. As a result Lisa decides to stand a little taller and walk into school appearing as confident as she can possibly can. Maybe if she acts like she deserves to be friends with Jennie then Jennie will let her.


The illusion is shattered quickly when Lisa's steps falters and she trips as soon as she lays eyes on Jennie.


"You okay there?"-Jennie asks.


There is a tone of light teasing in her voice but Lisa can sense the underlying concern and so she looks up at Jennie and smiles, a proper smile, the kind that feels like it's damaging all sort of muscles. For a moment Jennie seems taken aback before returning Lisa's smile with her gummy smile.


"I was wondering if you'd even talk to me today."-Lisa admits.


"Why wouldn't I?"


"I wasn't sure if we were still friends or if that was just a one time thing."


"You're not getting rid of me that easily."


Jennie falls into step beside Lisa as she walks beside her, telling her all about some new CD that's coming out soon. Lisa tries to focus, she really does, but she's too busy thinking about all the eyes that are starring at this new development and trying to figure out what on earth they could be thinking. Lisa is pretty sure that its not a good thing.


It is only when Lisa walks straight past her locker that Jennie realises she's distracted.


"You've missed your locker."-she tells Lisa kindly. "You sure you're okay?"


"Fine."


"Lisa?"


"People are staring."she whispers. "They think this is weird."


"It is weird."-Jennie says and Lisa felt her heart sank. "but that's why it's so awesome, nothing cool is ever normal."


"You're cool."-Lisa points out.


"But I'm definitely not normal."


"Well I've realised that."


_


When Jennie enters English classroom she swallows deeply. She knows what she wants to do, but she's yet to decide whether she has the courage to do it.


She's one of the first to arrive and Jennie is tempted to delay the decision for even longer by standing awkwardly in the doorway until her friends arrive. Then Jennie takes a deep breath, remembers she's supposed to be emulating Lisa's bravery and makes her way towards the third row and take a seat.


Its not her usual seat, but she'd quite like it to be her new seat.


Any doubt still lingering in her mind evaporates when Lisa walks into her room. As soon as Lisa's eyes land on Jennie, her expression transfigures into one of shock and she nervously takes her usual seat right next to Jennie.


"What are you doing?"-Lisa whispers, leaning in towards Jennie so that no one else will over hear them.


"I'm sitting and waiting for the lesson to start."


Of course Jennie knows what exactly Lisa is asking but Jennie quite likes seeing the look of exasperation settle on Lisa's face, she doesn't feel all that bad for annoying her.


"I mean, why are you sitting next to me?"


"I'm sorry."-Jennie says teasingly. "Is this seat reserved?"


"Well, no."


"Then I'm sure I'm allowed to sit here whether you want me to or not."


"And if I don't want to?"-Lisa asks.


'Then you're meaner than I thought you were."


"You'll get used to it."


'What if I don't want to?"-Jennie says teasingly.


"Then tough."


Jennie feels a smile slip onto her face and can see her expression is being mirrored by Lisa. That only makes Jennie's smile grow wider until she seems to be in some sort of competition over who can beam brightest. Jennie maybe biased, but she's pretty sure she's won judging by the way that her cheek muscles are starting to strain.


The smile falls off her face as quickly as it appeared when her friends walk into the room. Jennie knows exactly what is about to happen and she's gone over what she's going to say so many times but she can still feel her palms beginning to sweat.


"Jennie!"


It's Chahee who spots Jennie first although it takes a few for her to take in the full sight of who Jennie is sat next to and then her eyes narrowed and Jennie watches in as she inhales deeply.


"Jennie."-she says. "you don't want to sit next to us?"


Jennie tries to remember the mini conversation she prepared in advance, the only problem is she's worried Chahee and her other friends won't stick to the script.


"I like the idea of change."


"You changing your sexuality too?"


Whilst Lisa had not been entirely relaxed before, Jennie can feel her sit up straighter in her seat as soon as Chahee moves the conversation into dangerous water.


"Believe it or not,"-Jennie replies. "straight people can be friends with gay people."


Chahee stares for a few moment, her gaze hardening when it lands on Lisa. And then she takes a deep breath before responding to Jennie's comment.


"I don't understand why you'd want to change from us to her."-Chahee says.


If anybody else had said it, Jennie might have thought they were jealous but Chahee's tone is spiteful and she seems to be more intent on making Lisa feel bad than she is on trying to get Jennie to change her seat back.


"Maybe I was just sick of sitting with homophobic assholes."-Jennie says simply.


Shock is evident on Chahee's face and for the first time during the conversation she looks Jennie in the eye. Jennie holds her stare, challenging her and can't help but feel proud when Chahee is the one to look away first.


Chahee takes one more look at Jennie and then she turns and leaves, knocking Lisa's desk with her hip as she leaves.


Jennie turns to Lisa with an apologetic look on her face and offers a smile but it is Lisa who speaks first.


"I'm sorry,"-she says. " you can sit with them if you want."


"Why would I want to sit with them? They can't recognise the fact that their opinion are stupid, they're stuck in their views and refuse to accept change."-Jennie says. "So yeah, I'd rather sit next to you."


"They're your friends though Jennie."


"Yeah. And sometimes I wonder why."


The two settle into a comfortable silence after that and the lesson proceed in the same monotonous fashion as most do. Jennie finds herself doodling cute dumplings in the corner of her notebook and watching Lisa in her peripheral.


Jennie has always had a habit of trying to put herself in other people's shoe. She'd do it when she was out and about and spotted someone who looked interesting. She tried to imagine she was them and what her life would be like, what they'd be thinking about and today she wondered what it was like to be Lisa.


From the short time she had spent with the blonde, Jennie could already conclude that it didn't seem fun. Lisa seemed to spend most of her time trying to ignore people telling her that the choices she made in life were wrong, although Jennie had to admit that Lisa seemed to do a much better job of it than she imagined most people would.


That didn't mean that Jennie thought Lisa loved her life, the brief few moments Jennie had watched Lisa in the bathroom yesterday had shown her that Lisa found dealing with life as hard as anyone else, and given her situation  Jennie couldn't say she blamed her.


"What are you looking at?"-Lisa asked Jennie when she caught the brunette looking.


"Nothing."


"Why don't I believe you?"


"Because you have trust issues."


"Seriously Jennie, What were you looking at?"-Lisa insists.


"You."-Jennie finally answered. "I was admiring your unhealthy hairline."


"My hairline is not unhealthy!"


"Sure it is, you're definitely looking thinner on top. It's probably all that hair dye."


"I'm not going bald."


"Whatever you say Lalisa."


"Shut up."







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Dang. I'm sorry for the slow updates, I'm just really, really lazy af 😬

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