This is my one chance, to take back, no regrets.

[Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau]

Seraphim really didn't know what was up, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to know what was up.

Between Leigh and Tatum, something was most definitely up, but she couldn't quite put her finger onto it. Again, wasn't sure that she wanted to. It had seemed weird right from last night, when Ophelia's terribly loud Yugo had pulled up to the house, and let Tatum off. She had seemed suspicious from the get-go, grinning at Sera in such a silly way, and then denying holding any sort of secret. Seraphim wasn't stupid, and her sister wasn't subtle, and she had known from the beginning that Tatum was up to something. And this morning, Tatum had woken up on time. She had actually been awake, not dragged out of bed, actually awake and sitting in the living room with her bag, and waiting to go to school.

Definitely, something was amiss.

She had made pancakes too, which Sera also found suspicious. Tatum only made pancakes when she was trying to butter Seraphim up for something. But she hadn't asked for any money, or homework help, so Sera didn't know what to expect, or when to expect it. And then there had been Leigh, acting so weird too, in a way that Sera found very strange and confusing. And she kept exchanging glances with Tatum, every time that the sophomores had a chance to cross paths with the seniors. Something was definitely up, oh god, it sure was, and it was putting Seraphim on edge, wondering just what it could be.

As the lunch bell rang, and the students practically knocked over their desks in order to escape the dreaded mathematics classroom, Sera glanced up from her text book. She wasn't feeling particularly hungry. Not near as hungry as she was curious. Sure, she could go for a sandwich, and maybe some juice, and maybe even a chocolate bar sounded pretty appetizing.. but she half expected that if she went to the cafeteria, Leigh and Tatum might spring on her. Possibly in unison.

Ignoring the shouting and footfalls of her rowdy classmates, Sera simply pushed up her glasses a bit, and turned the page of her math book.

She had a couple of chapters to skim ahead on, anyway.

Food could wait.

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh crept into the doorway, it wasn't hard to find Sera. It never was, the blonde knew all of Sera's classes, all of her clubs, and when they met. It came free with the memory-territory, but since they were all being honest now, Leigh was always especially interested in whatever her best friend was doing.

Sera was sitting at her desk, head bent over the open text book, wearing those silly glasses that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but somehow just endearing on brunette. Leigh bit on her lip before resolutely stepping into the room and easing the door shut behind her...not closed, but now far from open.

"Hey Sera," Leigh said softly. "I was, um, wondering if we could talk a minute?"

[Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau]

She had been rather immersed in her current page, and didn't even notice Leigh had arrived, until the other girl was speaking to her. Sera jumped just a little, lifting her head up to peer over at her friend and where she was standing by the partially shut door. Her stomach clenched a little, in worry, but she cleared her throat simply, reaching up and taking off her glasses, folding them over and settling them down onto her book.

"Of course," she replied. "What's on your mind?"

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh fidgeted a little. She was well inept in any kind of romance, and she knew it. And frankly, any classical sort of romance wouldn't work on Seraphim anyway, and frankly, if it did, she wouldn't be Sera anymore. Leigh moved forward and first stood, and then took the seat next to the brunette, and then stood again, adjusting her weight from foot to foot. The blonde frowned. Damnit, this was Sera! Her best friend, the person she could talk to about anything! The person she had admitted to knowing what color socks that the principal had been wearing almost every day for the past semester. The person she trusted more than anything, who she played soccer with, and...well, now the person who seemed to be getting a little impatient.

"Well, um. I was talking to Tatum yesterday," Leigh began. "And, Ser, I've kind of got a confession, of sorts, to make."

[Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau]

Seraphim had stayed quiet, waiting for the explanation that took it's time to arrive. She observed Leigh's fidgeting, and her inability to sit still, and it didn't help to make Sera feel any less worried. It was weird to see Leigh worked up like this, unless it was something particularly big; she remembered a bit fit like this during their ninth grade exams, but it was the last she could think of. So something was definitely going on, and Sera would try to help her through it, even if it was a bit frustrating to watch her being so absent and fidgety. It was making the brunette's head spin a little.

Reaching out to pick up her glasses, and beginning a bit of fidgeting of her own, as she flicked them up, and then closed again, Sera listened to the explanation she was offered. It caused her to raise an eyebrow, turning back to face Leigh again. "You were talking to my sister, and now you've got a confession.. this can't be any sort of good, can it? Are you two forming some sort of anorexia club, or is it something else I should worry about? Because frankly, I think you're quite nice the way you are, so if that's the case, then she can just start her club with Jude instead."

[Leigh O'Conner]

"No! No, nothing like that," Leigh blushed a little at the backhand compliment. "Absolutely not. You know me, I love food way too much to join in that madness. Frankly, I'm worried about Tatum's eating, anyway." Feeling her very pointed direction starting to slide, Leigh shook her head, as if to clear it. "It's, uh, something a lot less about Tate and more about me. See, Sera...I kind of, well. Oh, jeez, you know I'm no good at this. I think I, well, like someone." Leigh bit her bottom lip again, and paused.

Leigh wasn't the sort to pick up crushes really. She was usually too focused on soccer or working on her journalism, or whatever plot that Sera had dragged her along on. It wasn't like Leigh, and she was a little worried about how her best friend would take the news. And maybe it was better like this. First deal with the crush...then deal with the subject of said crush...right?

[Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau]

"You have a crush?" Seraphim replied, brows furrowing a bit, rolling over the word as if more than just a little confused, trying it on for size in the situation. "You? Have actually got a crush? You like somebody? Other than Principal During, then?" she continued, trailing off a bit, to consider this new found information. If she knew Leigh, and she most certainly did, the blonde focusing of something outside of soccer, work, or journalism was almost unheard of. Unless it involved one of her friends, whom she always managed to make time for, thankfully. Many a time Seraphim had been thankful for that.

That wasn't the point though. It explained, mostly, the strange behavior between both Tatum and Leigh. Well, it somewhat explained it; Leigh was acting weird because of her crush, and Tatum was acting the perfect part of secret keeper, buttering Seraphim up so she wouldn't need to spill before the time was right. There was all of that logically dealt with and filed away, then.

Smiling fondly at Leigh's nervousness, Seraphim lifted her glasses to her face, putting them on again, and pushing them up a bit as she spoke to her friend. "That isn't like you, I would say I was a little disappointed, but then again, you've always been such a dreadfully teenage girl on the inside. Who are you wanting to shack up with, or are you not going to tell me? Just tell me that it isn't my sister. Or my brother."

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh obeyed her instinctive urge to stick out her tongue as Sera called her such a teenaged girl (and, frankly, for the Principal During comment...she couldn't help but notice when he had brought out the lime-green argyle socks. Or her subsequent semester of noticing). Especially since it was true, but was promptly distracted by being distraught by thoughts of liking either of Seraphim's older siblings. "Don't get me wrong, Ser, I love Tatum, but Ophelia would murder me twice before I could even think of like-liking her. And Rath? Seriously? Mr. I-need-video-games-more-than-relationships? Or people....at all. Come on, I'm not that bad!

"And being that you're so rife with mockery of my poor teenaged-girl status," Leigh teased, but her stomach was still in knots, "would you please just humor me and do me a favor and promise me that you won't get mad at me for telling you...or at least really think about it before you get mad?"

[Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau]

"You make a valid point. I forget that Tatum has her attack Wainwright sometimes, and you're far too un-pixelated for Rath's enjoyment. I guess neither of those would exactly be matches made in any sort of heaven," Sera sighed, shaking her head a bit. She felt her own stomach in a bit of a knot, and she didn't exactly know why, wasn't sure what the big deal was. She had logically dealt with the issue, and decided that things were okay now, but they weren't. At least, she wasn't physically feeling it. She still felt nervous, on edge, about what Leigh had to say. Who she might say she liked; Sera hoped it was someone nice, someone attainable, who would treat her nicely, and would still let her spend time with her friends. She didn't want to see Leigh fall into the trap that so many teenage girls did, with their first serious relationship, completely dropping their friends and focusing all of their attention onto the significant other, and then having no one when it was all over.. it happened in movies, it happened in books, it happened in real life.

Not that it would happen to Leigh. For one, Seraphim wouldn't let it happen; even if her best friend did find some new boyfriend, and decide to ditch out on her, she knew she wouldn't be able to cut her off completely when it was over, and she came crawling back. She could never say 'no' to Leigh, and she certainly couldn't imagine not having her friend by her side.

Most of all, she hoped it was-- no, she wasn't going to have those thoughts. She was an adult, she was going to refrain.

"I live to mock the sub-humans around me. It's my world, you simply play in it, dear Leigh," Sera teased back, reclining some in her chair, and closing her eyes as she did so. "I'll humor you though, since we're best friends. I won't get mad, and if I think I'm going to get mad, I'll think on it before I do, sounds simple enough. I highly doubt that it will be an issue, since I think you're trying to imply you might like someone whom I like. But I don't like anyone, so whoever you like, just go for it. They're free for the taking, go wild. I'll watch, and write a book about it."

[Leigh O'Conner]

"No, you won't," Leigh answered softly, somewhere between absolute terror, wanting to run screaming from the room, and a nervous sickness, because all of a sudden, she knew exactly what she was going to do, and she had no idea how she was going to be brave enough to do it. "You hate writing first person," Leigh finished, hooked her finger under the brunette's chin, upturned her face slightly (after all, she was still standing where Sera was sitting) and lowered her lips onto Sera's. It was hardly a kiss, just a press of lips on lips, but Leigh immediately pulled back, stared down at the linoleum, and a rush of tears burned at the corner of her eyes. She had no idea how she managed to do that, but it all she could do now was wait for Sera's reaction... and hope...

[Tatum Donnelly]

Seraphim had furrowed her eyebrows, and just parted her lips in order to speak, intending to question just why she would be writing a first person perspective for a story about Leigh, but her mind went immediately blank when Leigh had tipped her head up a bit, and pressed her lips against her. It had happened in a split second, before Sera had a chance to think, protest, or question, and then it was over just as quick, and she felt absolutely stunned, and a little hurt, seeing how upset Leigh looked now, not willing to meet her gaze.

For the first time in her life, Seraphim Donnelly-Rousseau felt at a total loss for words, in a way that her sister experienced on a daily basis. It was completely unlike her to not have a come back, a witty remark, but this had done it.

Lifting her hand from her text book page, the brunette gently ran her index finger over her own lower lip, blinking a couple of times in order to snap out of her haze, as she looked over at her best friend beside her.

"... Me?"

[Leigh O'Conner]

Leigh bit her lip at the question, still unsure how she could meet Sera's gaze just yet. She hoped that Seraphim was looking at her, because she couldn't find her voice, and merely nodded. She had her arms now wrapped firmly around her middle, feeling mysteriously small and understandably scared.

[Tatum Donnelly]

This definitely tossed a kink into the plan. Which, originally, had been to support Leigh in whatever she chose to do, with a bit of good natured teasing on the side, and maybe some of Seraphim's usual pretentious advice column. That had been before though, before she had put herself this closely into the equation; she was the equation, the problem, the issue. Unexpected, but true. And not at all unweclome, she quickly realized. She wasn't much the type for romance, for soft words and gentle caresses, but if she was going to share that with somebody, she wanted it to be Leigh. There could be no one better. Her mind was moving a mile a minute, out of it's hazy state, running over the pro list as well as the cons.

Putting their friendship at sake was the first and foremost issue, but she immediately told herself that even if this didn't work out, she'd still want to be Leigh's friend. To not be, would be a bit like being told to stop breathing, or blinking. It just came naturally. This was just going to be an enhanced friendship, something more special, something they had been working toward for years, in retrospect. Everyone else had probably seen it coming a mile away, probably noticed Leigh's crush. Everyone except poor emotionally crippled Seraphim. Her intelligence was rampant, but her common sense was certainly lacking. How long had this been right in front of her face?

Finally giving up all of her thinking and processing, Sera allowed herself to do something that she rarely did, allowing her body to do the moving before her mind was able to catch up and calculate the entire process. Pushing back the chair she was sitting in, the brunette stepped away from the small school desk, and moved closer to Leigh, standing beside her and reaching over to give her arm a little tug, beckoning her to move closer, close the distance between them. "It's okay."

[Leigh O'Conner]

The first reaction was relief, and she dropped her arms, and she dared to look at Sera, willing the tears still in her eyes to disappear. They disobliged her, and she wiped at them quickly, attempting to be coy about it. Pointless, of course, this being Sera, but she certainly didn't want to cry. Leigh almost never cried...she got frazzled, sure. Stressed? Of course. Ridiculously involved into affairs she shouldn't to assuage her rampant curiosity, and then got tied into them...too often for her own good, but Sera could almost always manage to pull her out of it. But she never cried. The last time she'd cried in front of Sera, besides at funerals, was when Michael had first left for college, and hadn't been there when she had needed him. And that was a bad day overall.

"You mean it?" Leigh asked hopefully. "You're not mad at me? I promise, I won't...won't bother you about it. But, you needed to know. I-I didn't want...I can't keep stuff from you, and...you're really not mad?"

[Tatum Donnelly]

Seeing tears, even just hints of them, immediately took Seraphim by surprise. She knew Leigh well, and she knew that Leigh wasn't the crying type; that was Tatum, not Leigh. She was used to her sister crying, but seeing her best friend crying, when she so rarely did so, was quite a shock. And she immediately felt bad, knowing she was at least partially responsible, though it hadn't been her intention. "Oh jesus, don't cry," was all she managed, a little shakily, a little breathlessly, unsure of what else to say. It wasn't much comfort, but it was all she could think of, wanting the blonde to stop.

Maybe explaining would help.

"I'd never be mad at you over this! Do you really think I'm that much of a heartless witch? I mean, I know I'm a bit strange, but I'm not a total frigid piece, y'know," the brunette began slowly, trailing off a bit, as if trying to think where to go next. "I mean it, one hundred percent. And really, I'm not bothered. You don't bother me. Well, you bother me when you call me when I'm trying to read, or when you put raspberry in my lattes, or when you won't pass during a game, and.. well, you know when you're being a bother. But this isn't the same. In fact, I'm.. r-really glad that you told me."

She paused, just for a moment, before taking two steps closer, leaning over to lightly press her lips against the corner of Leigh's mouth; the best she could do, at their awkward angle. It was short, a little shaky, but spoke volumes. "I like you, too."