Disclaimer: I own these characters. Don't use them without my permission. Not that you would want to use them.

Warning(s): There will be a minimum of violence in this story but even if a little bit makes you squeamish you should move on. Swearing, however, will happen often. The main character is quite the potty mouth. :) There are people smoking weed in this story as well. Seeing as I don't smoke weed, I apologize if I describe it incorrectly. This story also deals with girlxgirl relationships. If that's not your cup of tea, kindly move on. Feel free to flame me but I doubt I will take it seriously.

Author's Note: As of right now, this will most likely be a short story. Things change though, so who knows what it will really end up being. I hope you enjoy it, whatever it is!

There are two words that every teenager hates to hear when they are stuck riding the bus and Vanessa Chassis couldn't believe it when she heard the bus driver say them to her.

"What the fuck do you mean by 'assigned seats'?" she asked as she leveled a glare at the balding, overweight man sitting in the seat in front of the wheel. It would have worked if he had been their usual bus driver. Unfortunately, he had made it quite clear that their old driver would not be coming back any time soon, thanks to the antics of the older students on the bus. He had also made it quite clear that he didn't like nonsense and that he would take all the necessary measures to make sure he didn't have to put up with any. The assigned seats were one of those 'necessary measures' and they were also the reasons for Vanessa's outburst.

"It means you'll be sitting up here. It also means you'll be watching your mouth when you're riding," he answered in a gruff voice, his throat most likely destroyed from sucking on sticks of death, also known as cigarettes. He didn't bother to look over at the irate teenager, instead choosing to stare out the large window of the vehicle, waiting for the others to board the bus. Vanessa balled her hands up into fists as she debated continuing the argument before her common sense told her to go sit down.

"Stupid, old fucker," the dark-haired teenager muttered under her breath as she tossed her shoulder bag towards the window and slid in next to it before resting her head against the dull, green leather of the high bus seat. She knew she was probably going to have to move in five minutes when they came to the next stop but she had decided that it wouldn't hurt to enjoy the seat she had to herself for a little while.

To her surprise, she managed to remain sitting by herself when they reached the next stop. After three more stops, it seemed as if she was going to be home free and earn a seat by herself. She should have known better than that. She cursed her luck as they pulled up to the stop in front of a house with faded yellow paint that stood out in the darkness of the early morning. She watched as a trail of teenagers crowded the doorway of the bus, each groaning as they were told where they would sit. Vanessa couldn't help but pray that if she did get stuck sitting with someone it would at least be one of her friends.

She watched her prayers go unanswered when the new driver directed a small, strawberry-blonde wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses to her seat. A groan managed to escape her when she saw the girl in the pink winter coat standing in the aisle with a shy but polite smile on her face as she waited for Vanessa to make a move.

"He um... He said I'm supposed to sit here," the blonde offered as an explanation when Vanessa made no attempt to make room.

"Yeah? And what the fuck do you want me to do about it?" Came the cool response from the dark-haired teenager.

"Will you just move your ass, Vanessa? We all want to get on the bus. It's fuckin' freezing out here!" one of her friends still waiting to sit down yelled at her. Vanessa rolled her eyes but she did move over to the window seat, placing the heavy bag on her lap as she muttered curse words under her breath. She had to stop herself from growling when the blonde sat down next to her.

“I’m Alyssa Collins,” the other girl introduced herself as the bus doors closed and the bus continued its trek down the icy street.

“I don‘t care who the hell you are,” Vanessa said, trying to make sure that no other attempts at conversation were made. The truth was, she already knew who Alyssa Collins was. It would be surprising to meet a senior at Brancho High School that hadn‘t heard of the green-eyed bookworm.

She was forced to literally come out of the closet when she was found making-out with Erika Johnson at the beginning of their junior year. It would seem that the supply closet was a bad choice for a hiding spot and Alyssa had paid a heavy price when she was outed. The fact that Erika claimed that the smaller teenager had forced herself on her was just icing on the cake. Soon, Alyssa had become the least popular girl in the class of ‘08. Vanessa didn’t plan on ruining her own reputation by talking to her.

“You’re Vanessa Chassis, right?” she heard the blonde ask in a hesitant voice, despite the fact that she had blown off her introduction.

“Yeah,” she grunted in response, hoping that the other girl would stop talking to her if she proved to be a horrible conversationalist.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Alyssa said, successfully crushing Vanessa’s hopes before adding on, “and I think you’re in my communications class, too.”

“Look, Blondie. I don’t feel like listening to you talk and I sure as hell don’t feel like talking to you, so would you just shut the fuck up and let me sleep?” she asked, not bothering to look over at her seat partner.

“Sorry...” the blonde apologized in a contrite voice before looking down at her lap. Vanessa felt a little guilty when she saw the crushed look appear on Alyssa’s face; but then ten seconds went by and the feeling passed. Satisfied that the other girl wouldn’t be talking to her for the rest of the ride, Vanessa leaned her head against the window and allowed her thoughts to wander as she closed her blue eyes.

She didn’t believe the rumor that Erika had spread about the girl sitting next to her. It wasn’t just because she knew that Erika was a lying, backstabbing bitch, either. Vanessa had been in a few classes with the blonde before the outing and during that time Alyssa had been known as a quiet scholar that did her best to stay out of everyone’s way and to make others happy. She was definitely the perfect student and teachers loved her for it. There was no way that someone like her would try to make another person do what they didn’t want to do.

‘What the fuck? I didn’t even want to talk to her so why the hell am I thinking about her now?’ Vanessa wondered before trying to clear her mind so she could doze for a few minutes more. Her attempts were unsuccessful and she quickly found her thoughts making their way back to the blonde sitting next to her.

After the outing, Vanessa had watched as things plummeted for the cheerful teenager. People went out of their way to make things hard for her; like knocking books out of her hand, tripping her in the crowded hallways, and stealing her homework. She had even seen a few of her teachers treating the girl differently. Vanessa couldn’t say that she agreed with the treatment, but she never stopped her own tough bunch of friends from harassing the girl. In fact, half of the time she laughed right along with them.

The jerking of the bus as it came to its final stop in front of the school made Vanessa hit her head on the hard window, pulling the sleepy teenager out of her thoughts and placing her back in the real world as she muttered obscenities under her breath. She looked over to see a concerned pair of eyes looking at her from behind a pair of glasses but she ignored them.

“Are you gonna move or am I gonna have to push you out of here?” she growled before giving the blonde a firm shove into the aisle, stopping anyone else from getting through. Vanessa grabbed her bag and pushed past Alyssa. Soon she was standing outside in the cold wind waiting for her friends to get off the large vehicle. Once the last of them was stepping off of the last step of the bus, the small group of friends was bustling towards the doors that led into the school, the tallest one pushing thoughts of her seat partner to the back of her mind.

While most students considered themselves to be in a prison once they walked through the large, metal doors into the school, Vanessa and her friends felt as if they were free as a bird once they reached school grounds. Of course, they didn’t spend their days in the classrooms like most of the students. Rather than go to class, the group of friends usually wandered the halls, seeing how long they could avoid the hall monitors. Most of the time they found themselves in the tunnels beneath the school. That day had been no different and by the time the bell for third period was ringing throughout the school, Vanessa and her friends were down in the tunnels, passing a joint around.

“So how is it sitting with the local lesbian on the bus? Has she made any passes at you yet?” her friend Daniel asked before taking a hit. The slim, young man struggled not to cough as he passed the joint to the next person. The red-head was new to smoking and the others always gave him a hard time about it, but Vanessa considered him to be her closest friend; or at least the closest thing to a good friend that she had.

“Are you kiddin’ me, man? If that blonde bitch made a pass at Vanessa, she’d be eating through a straw for the rest of her life,” came the next comment from her friend Denise. She had known the girl with the multi-colored hair since they had been in fourth grade. “Isn’t that right, Nessy?”

“First of all, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?” Vanessa asked as she took the joint away from her and took a hit herself. “Second,” she said, letting out a breath of smoke, “she wouldn’t be conscious for the rest of her life if she ever made a pass at me.” The remark made the group chuckle but Vanessa couldn’t help but feel an emptiness inside her as she passed the joint to Steven.

Despite the fact that these people had been her friends for so long, they didn’t know the first thing about her. She knew she wasn’t a very open person but she had hoped that after so many years together her friends would know that she only fought when someone gave her a good reason to.

“Nah. I think I’m done for now,” she said, declining the offer when Denise tried to give her the joint a few minutes later.

“Aw. We didn’t upset you by bringing up the blonde, did we?” Steven asked with a goofy grin on his pale face. “Didn’t know it was so bad sitting by her.”

“I just don’t want anymore. Now shut the fuck up before I shove the burning end right into your damn eye socket,” she threatened in a low growl. The group received the message and Alyssa wasn’t brought up for the rest of the day.

By the time the last bell rang, Vanessa and her friends were already outside waiting for the busses to arrive. While it wasn’t a long period of time, the frigid air and biting wind made the short wait feel like an eternity of torture. Judging by the dark clouds in the sky, Vanessa guessed that the town was going to be hit by a snowstorm soon.

‘Jesus, I hate Mother Nature,’ she complained to herself as she tugged her coat tighter around herself. She wished she had decided to bring her hat to school so that her ears would be warm; but of course she had decided that looking like a tough bitch was more important than warding off frostbite so she had opted to leave the pink, fluffy hat on the counter that morning.

“Finally,” she said with a sigh of relief when she saw the bus pull up in front of the school. Her ears thanked her as she hurried up the steps and into the warmth of the vehicle. Not forgetting to shoot a glare at the bus driver, Vanessa quickly made her way to her seat and sat down near the window. After dropping her bag on the floor beneath the seat, she wrapped her arms around herself. She found herself wishing that Alyssa would hurry up and get on the bus so that the extra body heat could warm her up faster.

‘What the fuck? Where did that come from?’ she wondered. Before she could question herself further, her seat-mate was stepping onto the bus. Vanessa was just barely able to stop herself from laughing when she saw the blonde’s appearance. Whereas she had decided to leave her hat behind, Alyssa certainly hadn’t let her reputation get in the way of keeping herself warm.

She was wearing a green hat with a red puffball on the top that tended to wobble whenever she took a step. It was pulled down over her ears and was nearly covering her eyes. The only thing that stopped the ridiculous hat from falling in front of the green irises were the black-rimmed glasses that she wore. Thin, green gloves with red stripes were pulled over her hands, matching the hat.

“Shouldn’t you be in Santa’s Workshop, Blondie?” Vanessa asked when the strawberry-blonde took a seat next to her.

“Huh? Oh... I didn’t um... buy this. My mom got it for me,” Alyssa explained as a blush spread across her face.

“Ah. So you’re a bookworm and a Mama’s Girl,” the taller teenager said, causing the other girl’s face to turn an even darker shade of red.

“Haha, very funny,” was the sarcastic response before the roar of the engine cut off the conversation. Soon the bus was pulling out of the school and the darker of the two girls sitting at the front of the vehicle once again tried to lean against the window and fall asleep. The sound of Alyssa’s voice thwarted her attempts and she quickly gave up on the idea.

“You know, you missed out on the details of our project in communications,” the blonde informed her, somehow getting the strange notion that Vanessa was remotely interested in what she had missed while she was down in the tunnels getting high. “She’s starting the speeches this Friday which I really don’t think is fair. I mean, at least give us a few days to get things together. How does she expect us to get our visual aids done and get our speeches memorized by then?”

“Yeah,” Vanessa responded, not really paying attention to what the other girl was saying. Instead, she was occupying her time by counting the trees as they passed by. In the background she could hear Alyssa chatting away about fifth period, accompanied by the words of some obnoxious rap song playing on the radio.

“Oh, this is my stop,” the blonde said, pointing out the obvious as the bus slowed down. “It was um... Look, I’m sorry you got stuck with me. I’m sure you’d rather be with your friends. I appreciate you actually listening to me talk, though,” she said awkwardly.

“Whatever,” the darker girl grunted. She missed the smile that Alyssa gave her before the blonde got off the bus. All Vanessa knew was that once she had the seat to herself, the bus seemed too quiet and she found herself missing the blonde‘s company.

For the next few days, the ride to and from school was quiet. Vanessa figured it was because after their first day sitting next to each other, Alyssa had learned that she was not the best person to hold a conversation with. Still, Vanessa was curious about the blonde sitting next to her. She seemed to be the type that would start a conversation with anyone, not because she liked the sound of her own voice, but because she truly enjoyed interacting with others.

'So why has she only tried to talk to me and no one else?' Vanessa wondered as she glanced at the profile of the girl next to her. Alyssa had beat her to the bus that afternoon so she had been the lucky one to get the seat by the window. Sunlight was streaming through the glass, occasionally bringing out the blonde highlights of the other girl's hair. 'Why would someone like her want to talk to someone like me and no one else? Does she like me or something?'

At that thought, the teenager felt a shudder travel up her spine. She could just imagine how that would affect her image. She'd be a walking stereotype of a butch dyke, which was something she was not interested in. Not that she wasn't already labeled as a druggie with no future, but that one she didn't mind as much. That was one label that she could always prove wrong and she knew it.

"Why do you ride the bus?" The unexpected inquiry jolted Vanessa out of her thoughts. Once she had regained her bearings, she saw emerald eyes looking at her in curiosity. For a moment she debated whether or not she should tell the girl or not.

"To go to school. Why the fuck else would I ride this piece of shit on wheels?" she answered with a shrug. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the frustrated look on the smaller girl's face.

"That was very informative," Alyssa said with a roll of her eyes. "What I mean is, why don't you drive to school? I mean, you're a senior and you just said yourself that you don't find the bus to be an adequate mode of transportation."

"What? You don't like having me as a seat partner?" Vanessa asked, feigning hurt by placing her hand over her chest. "Blondie, I think you just broke my heart."

"No, no, no! That's not... well, that's not what I was trying to say. I was just... wondering," Alyssa stammered. Vanessa loved seeing the little blonde so flustered. "I was just curious."

"I'm not the only senior that rides the bus, y'know. In fact, the last time I checked I was sitting next to one," she reminded the girl. There was a confused expression on Alyssa's face before realization dawned on her. For someone so smart, Vanessa had to admit that the girl could be pretty dense sometimes.

"Well uh... I kind of didn't pass the driver's test," she explained, her face turning red with embarrassment.

"You do know that you can take the test over, right?"

"Oh, I have. Actually, I think that by now the instructor that gives the test dreads my visits. Every time we go out, I ruin some article of his clothing. The poor guy has resorted to never wearing decent shirts when he knows I'm coming in to take the test again."

"So the bookworm isn't perfect. That's a surprise," Vanessa teased, hoping to get the girl to blush again. Instead, the blonde's face fell and she quickly turned to look out the window.

"No, I'm not perfect... And I never will be," she heard Alyssa murmur to the transparent surface.

"Excuse me?" Vanessa started, taken aback by the blonde's sudden mood change. "I know what kind of fucking grades you get so how the hell can you sit there and say that you're not perfect? You're every parent's dream."

Emerald eyes entranced her as they looked away from the window and seemed to regard Vanessa through the lenses of her glasses as she thought of an answer. After a few moments passed, the blonde sighed and looked down, apparently finding something interesting on her blue jeans. The darker girl was beginning to think that Alyssa wasn't going to tell her what she had meant when she heard a soft voice come from beside her.

"You know who I am." It was a statement, not a question; but Vanessa decided to answer it anyways.

"Yes, I know who you are. You told me the first day we sat together." She could see half of a smile cross the blonde's features as she shook her head at Vanessa's answer.

"I'm aware of that. You knew who I was before I even introduced myself, though," she clarified, receiving a hesitant nod in response. "Then you should know perfectly well what I am and what everyone says about me. Since you know that, then you already have the answer to your question."

Vanessa allowed the bookworm's words to sink in completely, allowing a now comfortable silence to fall over them as she thought about what the blonde had said. She couldn't imagine getting perfect grades in school, only to be told that she still wasn't good enough just because she didn't like boys. Not that she would ever get perfect grades. She had the mind to do well but lacked the motivation. She personally preferred being an underachiever; and it wasn't like her parents would notice if her grade point average suddenly rose.

Turning her attention back to Alyssa, who had taken to staring out the window again, she realized that she couldn't come close to fathoming how the blonde felt about everything that went on about her at the school. She could easily tell, however, that her parents' thoughts of her were a topic that she would rather not discuss. Usually not one to care about another person's feelings, Vanessa surprised herself when she spoke up and made the direction of the conversation make a sharp U-turn; an illegal one at that, seeing as she directed the attention back on herself.

"I had an accident," she said, which startled the blonde out of her trance. She had to fight back a blush when she saw the green eyes drop to her pants. "Not that kind of fucking accident!"

"Oh! Sorry," Alyssa apologized, not quite able to stop the blood from rushing to her face like Vanessa had. The dark-haired teenager rolled her eyes and shook her head before continuing.

"That's why I'm riding the bus. My car is one big pile of scrap metal at the moment. I won't be driving to school again until it gets back from the shop," she explained. She was trying to decide whether or not she should tell Alyssa what had happened when they pulled up to the front of the house with the faded, yellow paint. "I guess you don't get to hear the whole sob story."

"What do you mean?"

"We're at your stop, Goldilocks," Vanessa said, nodding her head towards the window before getting up from her seat so the blonde could get out.

"Oh! Right... Well then, I'll see you tomorrow at our usual time," the spectacled girl said as she got up and made her way into the aisle.

"It's a date," the darker girl responded, immediately regretting her choice of words when she saw the questioning looks that the other students on the bus gave her. "Not that kind of date. I mean um..."

"I know what you meant. I'll see you tomorrow," Alyssa assured her with a smirk, obviously enjoying seeing the usually calm and collected teenager uncharacteristically flustered. Vanessa silently vowed to herself as she sat down that it wouldn't happen again. She couldn't let the little elf think she had some kind of affect on her now, could she? While she mentally kept telling herself that Alyssa didn't influence her feelings in any way, somewhere in the back of Vanessa's mind was a little voice laughing at her denial.

To Be Continued...