Chapter Text
Karolina sat between Chase and Nico while the latter argued with Alex as to whether or not their parents should go to open house tomorrow.
“Do you want our parent’s to find another victim Nico? They don’t need to get any ideas.” Alex said.
Nico frowned then argued, “They’re our parents. How are we going to stop them. And you know that they only use runaways. If someone is showing up to an open house of all things they probably aren’t going to drop everything in their life and run away.”
Alex frowned too. “Well-”
Needless to say, Karolina wasn’t exactly having a good time. Sitting next to Chase didn’t make it any better, especially after last night. She wished she had just flat out told him she didn’t like him before he kissed her but she didn’t. She couldn’t, but that didn’t matter did it? Half of her felt bad for possibly leading him on but the other half of her felt that it wasn’t her fault. She tried to show her discomfort whenever he got close to her but he just wasn’t taking a hint. She didn’t really know if not telling him made her a bad person but she didn’t really feel responsible for him. Karolina mostly felt remorse for Gert. Her crush on the jock wasn’t exactly subtle and she wished there was an easier way to let the other girl know that she didn’t have to worry that she would take Chase.
She sighed and got up to get another drink before noticing Gert was getting up to at the same time, it looked like she’d get her chance to apologize sooner rather than later.
Gert followed her over to the far side of the room and once they were out of hearing range she placed a hand on her shoulder. She started fidgeting before speaking. “I’m, uh, sorry. About last night I mean” Gert said. She was noticeably quieter. “I realize now that I probably shouldn't have brought up something like that without making sure you were okay with, uh, talking about something like that.” At least she wasn’t just getting mad at her and Karolina appreciated the attempt at friendliness and let out a sigh.
“I’m sorry too. I reacted badly and shouldn’t have gotten mad at you for figuring it out.” She apologized. Gert’s eyes widened.
“So you do have a crush on her? On Nico?”
“Yeah. I have a crush on Nico.” It felt liberating to say. Karolina didn’t really have anyone in her life that she could talk to about things like this. Even if she had a crush on a guy she wouldn’t. Her mom was too invested in the church and her dad just didn’t really understand how to have a conversation about something like that. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, it’s just that he seemed far away most of the time, distant and smiling. He could be a bit like a cloud, she supposed. Gert’s grin snapped her out of her thoughts and Karolina blushed. Finally being able to talk about it didn’t exactly make it less embarrassing.
“Wait. That’s your first time saying that, isn’t it?” Karolina’s blush deepened and she nodded. Gert’s grin dropped. “God now I feel way worse. You’re just a baby gay and I forced you out of the closet without even thinking about it. At a party too. Seriously I’m sorry if I’d have known you weren’t-”
Baby gay. That was a new one. She supposed it was better than “Cult Girl” though and Gert didn’t seem to mean it as an insult.
“It’s okay. There was no way for you to have known that I wasn’t all that comfortable about it yet.” She said and smiled. She didn’t have any ill will towards the girl and was glad they could move on after she lashed out at her.
Gert held out her hand.“Truce?”
Before she shook it, as if by divine intervention, Nico met her eyes across the room and she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. How did she always get to her like this? Always when it would matter? It was like a magic Nico didn’t even need her staff for. It was inherent and subconscious and if her bracelet fell off in that moment she didn’t even think she would notice because the warmth spreading through her body would be the same.
She made a split second decision.
“How about I do you one better?” She said and grabbed both of Gert’s hands. “How about an alliance? You help me I help you?” Gert tensed but didn’t pull away.
“Like a mutually beneficial partnership? Wing-women?”
Karolina nodded, “Yeah that. I help you, you help me. You get the guy and I get the girl and we both end up happy.”
Gert raised an eyebrow. “And you think we can do this? You think we won’t screw it up? We both haven’t exactly been lucky in the romance department.”
Karolina grasped the other girl’s shoulder and leaned in. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life.” And she meant it.
Gert came by her house the next day prepared.
Actually, prepared was an understatement.
Karolina was sitting in her room while Gert held a pointer to a graphic display.
“This is the situation we have right now. I-”
She smacked the pointer onto a picture of her frowning.
“Have a crush on Chase-”
Was that a picture of his butt? That’s kind of creepy.
“Who has a crush on you-”
Wow. Real mature. It was just a picture of her from an interview about the church with a bunch of rainbow stickers on it.
“And you have a crush on Nico-”
Aw. Nico was flipping off the camera but she still had a little smile on her face. Adorable.
“Who’s with Alex-”
It was just his yearbook picture from last year and it had the same mopey face and two shirt outfit he normally wears.
“And unrelated we have Molly.”
A picture of her sleeping, which is all she seemed to do when she was with them now.
“Thank god she isn’t involved in any of this. Bless her soul. My little sister is an angel.”
She smacked the center of the board and crossed her arms. “We have a real mess here Karolina. Seriously. We could give Glee a run for it’s money, that’s how bad this situation is.” She turned around and took a step back to look at the board. She sighed, then turned to Karolina. “How do you want to go about this? Do you want to concoct a scheme together? Need me to lock you guys in a room together? Wait, no, we need to break her up with Alex first. He’s kind of depressing and prone to game addiction so we probably just need to get him a World of Warcraft subscription.”
“Gert that’s mean. And I don’t want to actively break them up. That’s wrong and I’d feel like a jerk. Like, I’m only okay with her deciding that they should end things on her own.”
Gert nodded. “Jealousy it is. So, obviously the easiest way to do this is to have a girl fake date you so that she knows you’re gay too but if you can’t do that I suppose we can use a guy. I have a candidate in mind but trust me you don’t want to resort to that.”
She knew Gert was right, fake dating a girl would definitely be smarter but that would inevitably mean coming out to her parents sooner rather than later. It wouldn’t be easy. She’d have to do it anyways though and she’d rather do it on her own terms. “Let’s do this properly. I’ll fake date a girl.”
Gert grinned. “Great! I’ll be your fake girlfriend! Thank god we don’t have to use who I had in mind. I was worried I’d have to set you up with that kid who made a shirt with my name on it.”
Karolina blinked. “Wait. How would that help our situation? What if Chase thinks you’re gay too? Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose? And why does a kid have a shirt with your name on it?”
“The kid’s weird, also, I am literally our schools most obvious bisexual. Come on Karolina, the alternative hair color combined with the intense passion for politics, you didn’t notice any of that? I literally have the bisexual bob. Last week I talked about heteronormativity for Gib’s sake. You were right there sitting next to me! That didn’t strike you as, oh, I don’t know, not straight?”
“I just thought you were a feminist.” Karolina mumbled.
“Sure I am, a hella bi feminist. Anyways, besides you, I think everyone else knows. This way you get someone who knows all about the plan and is definitely on your side, no loose cannon. Heck, maybe Chase’ll get jealous too and we’ll get two birds with one stone.”
She nodded. This was probably why Gert would make a good politician. She was smart, passionate, and wanted to get the job done. “Yeah, alright. Let’s do it. What’s first on the fake girlfriend agenda?”
Gert pulled out her phone and tapped out a text. A second later Karolina’s phone beeped.
MEET UP BEFORE OPEN HOUSE. NEED TO ANALYZE BOOK OF GIBBORIM AND DO SOME GOOGLING 3 PM TOMORROW BE THERE OR BE MURDERED BY YOUR PARENTS
“Now we just need to figure out how to act as nauseatingly in love as possible. Any suggestions Ms. Rainbow?”