Sink to Swim

“….Meaning?”

Meaning the lemon square is theirs. 

“Really? You’re really going to try and take my food right in front of me?”

They paid already.

“I know we agreed on waiting until the end of the summer to talk about it, but if you think about it, that doesn’t really make much sense,” Ginny spoke.  She didn’t know why she was getting nervous, it was just Lila, and she thought Lila would agree with where she was going with the conversation.  Or at least that’s what she was hoping.

Lila was speechless, it was a lot for her to take in. When people wrote to her advice blog, Lila often told them to try not to go to college with a boyfriend or girlfriend. In Lila’s eyes, starting college with a boyfriend or girlfriend would hold you back. Now, she was confused because Lila never thought she would date someone during high school, so she would never have to make this decision. Was she a hypocrite if she agreed to go long distance?

“Who would I even be without me ego,” Ginny teased back.  As much as Ginny loved talking about Cavitt and Uriah, she was also selfish and wanted to get back on to the topic of why she’d really set everything up for Lila, and the reason she’d created the scavenger hunt.

“I mean obviously,” Ginny tilted her head with a smirk and giggled, “You can’t get much better than me.”  The blonde then imagined Uriah and Cavitt together at prom.  She still wasn’t sold on him and would have to do some digging him to determine if he had any skeletons in his closet.  “Well let’s hope everything about their evening was tasteful,” she stated.

“Please stop before you float away because of your inflated ego,” Lila teased, rolling her eyes despite how ironic it was for her to say that. Lila never outgrew her fangirl phase, she just became better at hiding it. She was a pro at leaving subtle tweets about her fandoms now. Along with her advice blog, Lila also had a secret fandom blog filled with her meta and edits for her many fandoms. You might even say she rivaled Oliver Scott when it came to potential couples. “Uriah’s a gentlemen. Plus he’s too innocent to make the first move,” Lila replied.

“I’ve been to prom before, so I know how it works,” Ginny shrugged, “Only this year I’m hoping there won’t be a shooting.”  Ginny remembered the awful shooting and had gone to painstaking effort to make sure security measures were in place at prom this year to prevent a repeat of what had happened the year before.  “I’ll have to talk to Cavitt and find out how it went,” Ginny spoke.  She wasn’t sure what it was about the two, but she was oddly invested in them.

“Well, I do think this year’s prom is better than last year in terms of decoration and execution,” Lila admitted to Ginny. However, at the same time Lila refused to admit that her girlfriend did a better coordinating prom than she did last year when she assisted Hollis. Just like she still didn’t tell Ginny that Harvard waitlisted her. Lila Evers was just too prideful, a trait that reminded her too much of her mother. “Knowing those two, I’m sure it was a splendid night filled with adoration and lots of dancing,” Lila could picture the two juniors in her head doing exactly just that.

“It’s really not a big deal,” Ginny assured her girlfriend, “I was just so caught up in planning prom that I found myself not even really wanting to go, so I created an alternative.  And this seemed like the best kind of alternative,” she explained.  She could tell that Lila thought it was silly, but Ginny honestly just loved being busy and constantly working on some project or another.

“If you say so,” Lila took a seat on one of the pillows laid out, “I don’t think we’re missing much at prom anyways.” Lila stared at the chocolate covered strawberries, she didn’t like to think about it too much but her relationship with Ginny was serious. They were even planning on spending the summer together. The familiar thoughts came back to her as she realized that senior year was ending soon. After the summer, there would be an entire ocean between them. Pushing the thoughts aside for Ginny’s sake, Lila focused on enjoying the night.

Ginny stood up the moment she heard Lila come through the garden.  Quickly realizing it would be impossible to walk over to her in her heels, she shed them and approached her girlfriend.  “You made it,” she grinned, before throwing her arms over Lila’s shoulders and placing a quick peck on her lips.

“Oh,” Lila said once she heard Ginny’s answer, “I’m sorry I forgot about our six month anniversary. I just had been so busy with studying for AP exams, calling people for the senior project, and working on my draft for the graduation. It just went over my head.” Lila did feel bad, but at the same time she wasn’t even aware that couples celebrated their six month anniversaries. Especially high school couples. It didn’t seem like a significant event to her, however this was also her first relationship so what would she know? Was she supposed to have a gift ready?

It was getting late and Ginny hoped that Lila was almost at the last clue.  She hadn’t bothered to hide the last clue, instead leaving it propped on her bed beside a lily flower.  In fact, the last clue wasn’t even technically a clue, it was an invitation.  Ginny had set up the scavenger hunt to both give herself time to get to the final destination before Lila and because she thought it was a cute idea to remind Lila of some of the places they’d both fucked and fucked up at, because that was the definition of their relationship, ups and downs.  The final clue, the invitation, read, “Outside you will find a driver waiting outside a car, who will take you to your final destination (aka me, not anything morbid).  See you soon.  Love, G.”

Lila turned on the lights in Ginny’s room, prepared to search for the next clue. Seeing it propped on the bed was definitely a surprise for her. Walking over to the bed, Lila picked up the clue and read the clue. Ginny must had impeccable timing, Lila thought. Also Lila couldn’t help but wonder what the surprise was. It had to be big enough if Ginny was willing to leave prom early, she pondered as she walked the stairs.  There was not a car waiting for her when she arrived at Atwell Manor, but there was one waiting at the front of Atwell when she walked out the front door.

Ginny had had to get creative when it came to setting up the second to last clue.  There weren’t many hidden places in the courtyard by the fountain.  Being there still made Ginny melancholy.  She remembered the day she learned of the kidnappings.  She and Lila had been sitting on the edge of the fountain, still learning how to be together when a freshman and come up to them with the news.  After she’d decided where the clue would be, Ginny had decided to place it in a well sealed plastic bag and sink it in the fountain along with a lucky penny.

There were not many places Ginny could had hid her next clue, Lila thought as she approached the fountain. The fountain was gorgeous at night and the lights were turned on which helped spot the clue plastic bag almost instantly. Lila started to look for a stick to help pull the plastic bag towards her. She finally found a long enough stick near an old oak tree and used it to drag the plastic bag towards her seat at the edge of the fountain. Picking up the plastic bag, she walked over to the trash and tossed the plastic bag away before reading the next clue.

Ginny had started laying out the clues for her girlfriend after school hours on Thursday.  They hadn’t taken long, but she had wanted to make sure no one was around to see her do it, she didn’t want to risk them being moved.  When she had placed the third clue in her old freshman year history classroom, however, Mr. Matthews had returned, having forgotten his briefcase there.  His sudden appearance had surprised Ginny, but she’d managed to make up a believable lie about being a nostalgic senior.  She’d walked out of the classroom with Mr. Matthews, but not before she’d left the clue reading “We hadn’t even been officially dating two weeks when the kidnappings happened.  This is where we were when I found out my best friend was missing.  And I was with you,” under a flower pot.

Turning on the lights in Mr. Matthews’s classroom, Lila looked around the empty classroom. She always knew the security at North Shore wasn’t the best from personal experience, but leaving a classroom unlocked this night was ridiculous on Mr. Matthews’. However, it did make things easy for a freshman to break in and steal the answers to exams. Mr. Matthews was always too trusting, Lila thought as she looked through Mr. Matthews’ stuff on his desk. The next clue wasn’t under the desk or under one of his drawers. Lila was about to give up when she jerked her arm back and knocked the flower pot on the desk to the ground. She picked up the next envelope and read the clue, before she wrote a reminder on her phone to buy Mr. Matthews a new flower pot and a new plant.

Ginny had hidden the second clue under the windowsill of one of the windows in the hallway where Lila had punched her.  When deciding where to place the clues, Ginny had had a fun time trying to pick places that Lila would find amusing.  Obviously the first hadn’t been amusing when it became an important spot for them, but looking back on it, Ginny found it funny.  Just in case someone had found the clue in the hallway, Ginny had made sure it was vague enough so that only Lila could understand it.  “We first met as freshmen.  We were seated alphabetically in our first class of freshman year and I remember you sat beside me, because you never stopped raising your hand.  I remember thinking it was annoying.”

After checking the lockers, Lila started to look around the hallway for the next envelope. She was glad that school kept the lights on just in chance a student decided to skip prom. Thinking like Ginny, Lila started to examine her surroundings. She realized the lockers would had been too obvious, so she started to think of less obvious hiding spots. The water foundation nearby would had worked, but Lila would had to get on knees which Ginny would had expected and would want her to avoid. Lila decided the windows were the next most promising candidates and walked over towards the windows looking for the next envelope.