Under The Nautical Star (Lesbian, GxG)

Three

Teegan and I don't have any classes together, but somehow our separate social circles take close enough spots to, well, socialize in the mornings and at lunch. In other words, it's common for us to greet each other at those times. My greeting tends to be flirtier, though. She hasn't pointed that out, yet.

Now in this fine cold morning, I'm sitting against a wall shivering my ass off while I'm writing. Can't blame anyone but myself for not wearing winter clothes; my tired brain thought it was a good idea this morning to mix navy-blue capris with a purple sweater halter top, complete with kick-ass black boots. And as much as I'd rather stay home and snuggle under the thick, cozy covers, the cold's doing a good job of being an inspiration.

Here, read this:

Ice is danglin' from the words

From my mouth, they threaten

To fall to where the unknown stays

As I say, with a bitter tone,

"You should have left then..."

See how much better it looks? Makes you want to throw pebbles at me instead of rotten tomatoes, right?

Teegan takes a spot on the wall. She slides down next to me. "Hey," she says.

"Hey." I inwardly cringe at how it came out. Like I said earlier, I somehow make my comments sound like I'm trying too hard to get it on.

"What are you writing?" She cranes her neck to get a better look. At the same time she's rubbing her right wrist, as if out of anxiety or maybe it plain itches. I can't see the tattoo she's rubbing over.

I scrawl off the last line I've put together. The paper gets into another set of hands.

"Any thoughts are welcome," I say as she reads it.

Slowly, she hands it back. "It's good so far," she comments. "Who the hell hurt you?"

"What? No one. It's cold, so I was more focused on that element."

"Oh." Teegan looks at the lyrics again. "You got that covered, alright. Got any instruments you can play to go with the song?"

"No." I play with the edges, feeling a little anxious. I don't know why. "I'm not the best at instruments. I even got kicked out of band in eighth grade."

Teegan laughed at my misfortune. God, it sounds lovely. Would it be weird to ask to record her laughter and set it as a ring tone? 

"Well, let me know when you finish it," she says. "'Cause now I won't stop thinking about how it ends until I actually read the rest."

With an assuring smile, I say, "I'll make sure you're top priority." She already is, but she doesn't need to know that.

"Good." She pulls her long sleeve over the tattoo she was rubbing over. "Have you thought about who you want to be Santa for?"

Of course. "Sort of," I say instead. "I gotta figure out which one would make my gift-shopping easier."

She nods. "If all else fails, you can get one of those bags of gum in the shape of those coals. YOu know the ones parents told us we'd get if we were on the naughty list."

That's a thing? I gotta look it up. 

"Thanks for the suggestion," I say over the sound of the bell.

As people get to leaving their friends to go to first period, Teegan winks at me. My stomach does a flip. "I got your back," she says.

I'd rather she 'got' my waist. But hey, I'll take what I can get.

__________

Mick slides into the seat in front of mine at the beginning of fourth period. Her face, usually difficult for me to read, can't contain her excitement, so whatever my friend wants to tell me has got to be good.

"My coach just confirmed I'm gonna be the basketball captain for next semester!" she blurts before I get the chance to ask.

My mouth drops. "Oh my god, that's awesome!" I exclaim. "What does your Okaa-san think?"

"I don't know, I haven't told her yet," she admits. "But I did tell Chichi this morning, and he was proud of me. Hopefully, she'll be just as happy."

I scoff. "Of course. She's never been disappointed by your achievements, so I doubt she'll start now."

Mick nods. "True." She changes subjects. "Here's another good news: I finally convinced my parents to go see Ani in Canada and leave me to take care of the house. You know what that means..."

She gives me the smile she uses whenever I'm supposed to fill in the blanks. However, I'm stuck with a word she said.

"'Ani' means your brother, right?"

My friend nods. "You got it."

"Cool." I don't show her but on the inside I'm legitimately happy to know one more word.

It gets difficult trying to learn the proper terms for everything in Japanese. Especially if there are several terms for each noun. I just learned the words you'd use for any of your family members changes depending on if you're talking about them or to them. And it doesn't end there. Thank god for Mick's patience with me.

She's staring at me. Right, I'm supposed to be filling the blank.

"Um, glug glug woo hoo?" I suggest.

"I... well, yeah. I'm gonna be hosting a party," she informs me. "But it's gonna be smaller than the usual parties the high school movies like to show."

Oh? "How so?"

Mick pulls out her organized binder. Opening to the end of it, she then shows me a short list of names. "There are few people I trust to not leave the house looking like Hangover Mansion, including you. So I'm planning on having this party a couple days after break starts. There's gonna be food, drinks, normal poker..."

"As opposed to what?" I pipe up.

She rolls her eyes in annoyance. "The people I don't trust are the people who think strip poker's the way to go," she tells me.

"I see."

"Yeah." Mick slides the open binder to me. "Can you look at the list?" she asked. "I have my own reasons, but I want a second opinion for these potential guests, you know?"

The teacher is standing up from his desk and writing on the board for when class starts in two minutes. Quickly, I glance over the list. All the people listed are either in Mick and my social group or the group Teegan's in.

I'm not kidding about how close our groups can get.

Alice is a good choice. Jon likes to party no matter what so he's cool. Donray might eat half the food so we'll have to bring a lot to make up for it. The rest I don't recognize by name.

"They're all good choices," I tell Mick as she puts the binder away. The teacher has started the class.

While reviewing the previous lesson, I remember something And lean over to Mick.

"You know Teegan, right?" I whisper. "Biker chick look?"

Mick nods. She waits for the teacher to be distracted by a student's phone to ask, "Do you want me to invite her, too?"

"Please?"

She tsks. The teacher's glancing our way as he picks up his lecture. Nearly ten minutes go by until he turns to write on the board. Mick leans back and whispers, "Only if she takes the Pledge."

Right. I'll have to ask Mick for a copy of it. "Thanks."