The first time Tiffany saw her was in AP Biology.

    Technically speaking, Tiffany shouldn’t have been in that class. AP courses were reserved for seniors exclusively. The spots in the class were limited, and the coursework was generally seen as too difficult for junior-year students to handle. However, when it came to Diamond Bar’s “beloved track star/head cheerleader/future valedictorian”, nothing but the best would do. There hadn’t even been a question about it, or a special request. She’d simply applied for the class, just as a senior would, and gotten in almost immediately. Her parents were ecstatic.

Tiffany, on the other hand, had grown jaded to her own so-called accomplishments. At this point, she was merely going through the motions in order to keep her family happy. So of course she jumped up and down and celebrated when she received the news, smiled that big wide smile that people just seemed to love so much, giggled like an overjoyed hyena. And then she came into class, that same smile painted on her face, saying hello to all of her classmates who pretended to be surprised that she was there, taking her seat right in the center of the room, where people expected her to be. At the center of everything.

She talked mainly to a fellow track team member, Irene Bae, a stunningly gorgeous girl who she’d known for awhile now. They spoke of mundane things: parties and gossip and other nonsense that Tiffany really couldn’t care less about. To be honest, Tiffany wouldn’t have spoken to Irene as much if she hadn’t found the older girl so attractive. She had a mature-yet-youthful vibe about her that was downright enrapturing, something that very few students their age were able to pull off. Tiffany felt a bit superficial for using this as the main reason for speaking to someone, but was it really that bad? She suspected that Irene only spoke to her in order to keep up appearances, to make herself seem more important than she was. So what was the harm if Tiffany’s eyes drifted down to appreciate those well-toned, porcelain thighs? So what was the harm if they just so happened to change together in the locker room sometimes, and Tiffany just so happened to sneak a tiny peek at Irene’s bra-clad chest, so voluminous, practically bursting from their black cloth containers? As long as no one knew, there were no problems.

    Three weeks into the school year, Tiffany walked into class, biding farewell to her usual crowd of cheerleaders, making an unconscious beeline for her usual seat beside Irene. But before she could reach the fourth row, she noticed someone. Someone sitting in the corner of the room, someone unfamiliar to her, someone who appeared as if they were trying their best to be as small and hidden as possible. Even her clothes gave off the impression that they were trying to blend in, with their muted pinks and whites that fit every middle of the road fashion trend to a T. And it probably worked. This new girl, this petite, diminutive-looking Asian girl, most likely blended right into the background for everyone else. Just another person in the class, just another face in the crowd.

    But not for Tiffany. No, she stole every ounce of Tiffany’s attention without haste. The new girl was pixie-like, a dancing fairy swathed in plainclothes, an incognito muse that only Tiffany could properly see. The way she crossed her legs, leaning up against the wall with her delicate shoulders, doe-like eyes darting around in fright, it awoke something within the cheerleader. A natural instinct to protect her, to keep her safe, to make her feel like she didn’t need to hide herself anymore. All of these sensations, so novel and fresh, bombarded Tiffany within the span of a second, nearly freezing her in place. She wouldn’t have regained her bearings nearly as fast had the new girl’s eyes (those deep, mysterious circles of brown) not locked directly onto hers.

    Tiffany felt her heart drop to her stomach and her forehead break into a sweat. She allowed her body to move itself, unthinkingly turning away and half-throwing herself forward and into her seat. Irene greeted her with the usual slew of boring conversation, but Tiffany found that she held no interest all in what the older girl had to say. She couldn’t get that fairy out of her head.

***

    The second time Tiffany saw her was at lunch that same day.

    She was seated a few tables down, at the edge of a table, eating and reading from a textbook. This time, her attempt to blend in was much less successful; perhaps she wasn’t aware of it, but the other people at that table were mostly freshmen, and many of them belonged to the “band” crowd. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it was clear that Taeyeon wasn’t one of them.

    “What’re you looking at?” Tiffany’s best friend, Sunny, asked, leaning into her in order to see from her point of view.

    Tiffany shoved Sunny off to the side, clicking her tongue in annoyance before pretending to return to her food.

    “Nothing, I just zoned out.”

    Sunny cocked an accusingly skeptical eyebrow as her eyes settled on the new girl.

    “Her?” the older girl’s voice dropped to a whisper then, pointedly looking around to ensure that none of their other friends heard her, “I’ve never seen her before.”

    “Neither have I. She’s… interesting.”

    Sunny laughed pointedly, a mocking kind of laugh that Tiffany knew was in good spirits, but one that still annoyed her regardless.

    “You have a little crush, don’t you?”

    Sunny was the only one who knew about Tiffany’s ual inclination. Not on purpose, either; while Tiffany considered the older girl to be her closest friend, she also would rather have kept the fact that she was attracted to women as her own well-guarded secret. No, Sunny had walked in on Tiffany at a very sensitive moment, between the sheets with a particular girl, a girl who Tiffany would rather not think of for ext