SYNOPSIS:

Casey and Izzie are excited to finally spend some time together but are quickly interrupted by the recklessness of Paige Hardaway

Izzie Taylor was never really extroverted in the sense that she rarely left her home to hang out with friends. During her time at Clayton, she's made many friends and many of those friends turned to her when they wanted some fun. Because the truth is, Izzie is a really fun person to be around. Her witty banter, her hilarious political opinions and her listening ear made everyone crave her attention.

    But when she would reach home, she barely looked at her phone and never met up with those friends unless it was truly necessary. It was always in the back of her mind that she was not one of those Clayton kids, she didn't actually care about a popularity status and she definitely did not bother about the latest gossip.

    It was draining to put up the act in school. And even more draining to come home to her crying siblings and the absence of her mother. Even if she did want to hang out with friends, she couldn't afford the time.

    All that changed when a certain Casey Gardner entered the school. Of course, Izzie felt threatened by the fact that there was a new girl that was as good, or even better than her at running. But she knew the "popular and mean track captain" act would scare Casey away from her territory, so that's exactly what she did during her first interaction with Casey.

    But something weird had happened. This time, it didn't work. It scared and confused Izzie that it didn't work because she actually found herself gaining a soft spot for the new girl. The way Casey hated the prim and proper bullshit Clayton offered, the way Casey understood the world the same way Izzie did... the way Casey just got her.

    "You're like my new favourite person..." Izzie had told Casey in the pillow fort they had built. Izzie's heart warmed when Casey said it back.

    And as all friendships do, Casey and Izzie had problems. Many problems. But it hurt them both to just bury it into a hole because they found themselves always going back to each other.

    Casey's boyfriend Evan was a hindrance to Izzie and she felt guilty about that. The way Casey smiled everytime she talked about him, the way Casey's eyes light up when he messages her... they all hurt Izzie deeply.

    Because now her "popular and mean track captain" persona was starting to fall for the new girl.

    Izzie didn't know what exactly spurred her to tell Casey about her feelings. She figured she had nothing to lose. Casey would always be her friend.

    But she started to doubt that when all Casey did after that was ignore her and find every possible excuse to be away from her.

    When Izzie found Casey at the track that night, the cold air against her skin and the quiet surrounding them were enough to make Izzie go crazy when she looked at Casey. She was hurt. Hell, she was mad at Casey.

    Her confrontation was quickly cut off when Casey took matters into her own hands and kissed Izzie, quite frankly, tired of hearing Izzie spew lies and bullshit about Casey "not feeling the same."

    The dating process was exciting and confusing. Because now, Izzie always wanted to hang out. More specifically with Casey. She was willing to see her at 3am to learn how to ride a bike, desperate to catch her for even just 5 seconds between classes, and treasured training sessions a lot more because she got to see her girlfriend.

    Unfortunately, both their dreams of getting into UCLA were starting to become an annoyance because the extra intense training was snatching away their time together.

    "See you tonight"s slowly became "I can't make it today"s.

    "Do you wanna go get slurpees"s slowly turned into "Crowley's keeping me back for extra training"s

    All-nighter phone calls were now boiled down to 5 minute quick conversations on text before they both headed to bed.

    Which was exactly why Izzie was excited for tonight.

    They were both done with track season, already met with recruiters and did basically everything that was needed for them to get into UCLA. Now all they had to do was wait.

    Crowley had finally given the lovebirds a break, allowing them to take the week off. That meant no training, indulgence of junk food and date nights.

    For the first time ever, Izzie was actually nervous to enter the Gardner household. She hadn't come here for 2 weeks and the last time she did, it was only to return Casey's Math textbook.

    Izzie's heart raced when she got the text message from Casey 2 hours earlier.

    Casey: I got the house to myself tonight!! Wanna hang out?

    Izzie wasn't exactly sure of what they were going to do but she was excited nonetheless.

    When the door had opened, Casey's smile immediately matched Izzie's as she brought her in for a hug.

    "Welcome to my humble abode Ms Taylor," Casey said, moving aside to allow Izzie to enter. Izzie rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's antics before stepping inside.

    "It smells amazing," Izzie complimented, her eyes darting to the kitchen. "Elsa made more pies again. That woman is the death of me," Casey grumbled, closing the door.

    "Help yourself," Casey continued, waving her arm dramatically over the pies as if to present them to Izzie.

    The two girls spent the next 30 minutes or so, eating pie together in the kitchen, Casey sitting on the table top while listening to her girlfriend who settled on sitting on the stool. They had taken caution to ensure they didn't bring up anything about track. Tonight was their night to put all that stress behind them.

    Izzie was finishing up her story about how she absolutely failed at making dinner for her siblings the other night. Casey laughed hard about it and also quickly told Izzie that she could bring them over for dinner any time cooking got too hectic.

    Izzie looked at her in gratitude before shaking her head. Casey knew her girlfriend would never want to depend on her for help. Sometimes though, she wished Izzie would just let her.

    Right now, the quietness of the night had crept up on them. It was around 8pm but they knew they had the entire night ahead of them.

    No words were spoken and right now they communicated with their eyes. Casey subtly looked between Izzie's eyes and her lips. She realised she hadn't properly kissed her girlfriend for days now and she remembered how sometimes, in the middle of the night while she was doing her homework, she would think about the taste of Izzie's lips and how much she missed it.

    Casey was emboldened to lean forward and finally pressed her lips onto Izzie's. Casey was glad to feel her girlfriend kiss her back. She knew, after all, that Izzie had been missing this too.

    When she pulled away, her heart melted at the sight. Although pulling away is probably the worst part about kissing, she actually loved looking at Izzie's face after every kiss they shared. She would be flushed, and biting her lip. Casey never failed to make her shy.

    Both girls simultaneously giggled which only indicated that they both wanted to kiss again.

    But the opportunity was lost when the door slammed open and they whipped their heads around. Casey was scared because she knew her brother had already moved into his new apartment with Zahid and her parents were out of town. Who could that possibly be?

    Her question was answered in the next second and she didn't exactly like the answer.

    Paige stepped in, looking clearly flustered, as she paced around the room. "Woahhh PP Hardaway. What're you doing here? Sam's not here right now," Casey said. She was hoping to get Paige away as soon as possible so that she could go back to her beautiful girlfriend.

    "No, I'm here," Another familiar voice added as Sam Gardner walked into the house. "And so am I. Ooo, I smell pie!"

    Now, Paige, Sam and Zahid were standing at the doorway. Sam looked rather bored, Zahid was eyeing the pie and Paige was going crazy.

    "So nice of all of you to join us on our date!" Casey exclaimed, huffing in frustration at the end.

    "You're welcome. But we are not here to crash your date," Sam said bluntly, moving into the little space between Casey and Izzie.

    He rummaged through his bag and took out one of his notebooks.

    "Were you two on a date?" Zahid asked, stealing Izzie's fork and plate of pie. "Yeah. And I thought you and Sam moving in together would mean I would actually be able to spend time with my girlfriend on these dates," Casey groaned and Zahid smirked.

    "Sam, buddy, we're pussyblocking them right now. I think we can help Paige by ourselves," Zahid said while Casey and Izzie turned a deep red.

    "No, you can't! We need Casey's car, that's why we're here!" Paige screeched from behind. For a moment, everyone forgot she was there.

    "Woah, woah... what got your panties in a twist PP?" Casey asked, getting off the table top.

    "He's gone! Larry's gone!" She cried.

    "Larry?" Izzie asked in confusion as Sam showed her a list titled, "Possible places Larry is in".

    "My pig! He ran off!"

    "Dude, he's a pig. How far could he have gotten?" Casey asked, scoffing before returning to her spot next to Izzie.

    Izzie felt Casey's fingers tug at hers, showing how frustrated she was right now by the unwanted company.

    "Far enough! Casey please you're the only one who can drive!"

    "Take a cab! I'm on a date!"

    Casey continued to devour her pie until she noticed that everyone had gone quiet. She looked up to see everyone looking at her and she started to get freaked out. "What?" She mumbled before looking at Izzie.

    "Come on, let's just go. It could be fun!" Izzie said and Casey stared at her, wide-eyed and in disbelief.

    "Didn't know this 'date' was turning into a five-way thing," Casey grumbled, grabbing her jacket.

    Paige sighed in relief before running out of the house, Zahid and Sam following behind her. Casey was now in a bad mood.

    She sulked as she dug through the drawers to find her keys. "Hey... we can have plenty of time for ourselves later," Her girlfriend reassured, gently gripping onto Casey's arm.

    Casey most definitely wasn't happy that her girlfriend had changed their plans. She simply mumbled an "Mm" before leaving the house, hearing her girlfriend sigh behind her.

    "So what's the plan? We find the pig and bring it to a slaughter farm after that?" Casey joked, with only Zahid laughing along with her.

    "Nope, we bring it back to our apartment and have a bacon feast!" Zahid added, entering Casey's car.

    "You guys! It's not funny! Larry's all alone out there and he's probably cold and scared without his mama," Paige sulked.

    "What are you, a pig whisperer?" Casey shot back, earning a light slap on the arm from Izzie who was in the passenger seat next to her.

    "Pig's have feelings, Casey. Would you like to be all alone and lost at night?"

    "Humans have feelings too..." Casey mumbled, side-glancing at Izzie who immediately got the hint.

    "Paige, how did you even lose your pig?" Izzie asked. "My baby had a sinus infection so as all good pig owners do, I brought him to the vet. When I picked him up after that, I left him in the car to quickly go get some pig food for him and I cracked open the window. When I returned, he was gone!"

    "He probably thought it was finally his chance to escape," Casey said.

    Casey absolutely loved to bully Paige. It was her favourite thing. But she most definitely didn't despise her. In fact, she couldn't see anyone else being a better match for her brother and that's a huge deal because Casey protects Sam with her life. But Paige was an oddball, which Casey was fond of, and so, she took every opportunity to tease and mock her. But right now, she felt she was doing it to get her mind off her frustration of not being back at the house alone with Izzie.

    She had so many things planned for them. She picked out movies, was going to build a fort, and was ready to drive around with her to get slurpees at 3 in the morning.

    And now, she was letting a pig ruin all that!

    "Well, first on the list of the places Larry could be at... the pig food shop. It's around 2 miles from here," Sam said, circling his notebook.

    "It's already 10. Why would the shop be open?" Casey scoffed. "It should be. I know because the last time Larry was having a bad day, I ran him a nice warm bath and popped down to the shop at night to get him his favourite snacks!"

    "Why didn't you just throw some hay at him?"

    "Pigs don't eat hay. They eat lots of crops for example, barley, wheat and corn. Why would they eat hay, they're not horses," Sam chimed in, laughing a little at the end.

    "I'm with you on this Casey. I never thought I would be spending my Friday night on a pig scavenger hunt," Zahid agreed and Casey smirked.

    There was a point when they drove past the 711, Casey and Izzie's usual hang out spot to get their forever loved slurpees.

    Izzie noticed the disappointment on Casey's face and reached out to grab her hand. Zahid, Sam and Paige were now engaged in their own separate conversation.

    "I'm sorry for being so whiny," Casey mumbled and Izzie could not help but rub her thumb on the side of her hand. "It's okay. I know we haven't spent a lot of time together lately but hey, when we're done with this I'm all yours, I promise," Izzie said with a sincere smile.

    "Hey Paige, you ever consider going back to work at that potato place?" Zahid asked and Paige returned a scoff. "Please. I could never go back to that hell."

    One thing Izzie loved about dating Casey were the other people that came with it. She absolutely adored Sam ever since she first met him. She found herself always laughing at Zahid's jokes and Paige always brought some spice to the gathering if you will. Which is exactly why she didn't mind following this crazy bunch to find a pig. Even if it meant she would have to put hers and Casey's alone time on hold.

    "Sooo... what have you two munchkins been up to?" Paige spoke and Casey narrowed her eyebrows at her. "I mean you and Izzie."

    "Training, school, homework... and then good ol' Larry ruined everything," Casey grumbled. "Guys... I've been holding off telling you guys this but..." Paige started.

    "I think Larry has depression..." She whispered and Casey snorted. "A depressed pig? Because of its owner?"

    "It's true. Pigs can get depression. It usually happens in industrial pigs. But it could also happen during circumstance changes like in their diet," Sam read out from his phone. "This Larry is quite a character huh?" Zahid said.

    "This is all my fault. I should have never challenged you to get a pig," Casey said. "It truly is the best decision I've ever made though," Paige sighed, looking out of the window. "Where are you my baby..." She whispered to herself.

    Izzie turned to her girlfriend and mouthed an "I love you" which made Casey feel all warm and bubbly inside. "I love you too," she mouthed back but this was quickly caught by the eyes of Zahid.

    "Wow... so you guys are really deep into the relationship huh? Already got the 'I love you's down," He said.

    Before either one of the girls could answer, Paige scared them with a screech. "Here's the store! Everyone split up! Sam come with me to the back of the store, Zahid and Izzie you guys look down the aisles and Casey you check the cages-"

    "NOPE! I am not checking any of those filthy cages. And why am I alone?! Can't I go with Izzie?" Casey exclaimed.

    "No can do. I would love to spend some time getting to know your mamacita if you don't mind. I think our brains are wired to work well together," Zahid commented, earning a giggle from Izzie as they both exited the car.

    Casey groaned before exiting as well.

    "UGH! IT'S CLOSED!" Everyone turned to Paige who wore a defeated look on her face. "Great, let's go," Casey said monotonously before turning around back to the car. Izzie held onto her hand and stopped her. "I know you're dying to get back to our date and so am I but this is the first night since forever where we've spent more than 2 hours together. We just happen to have other people around us."

    That did make sense to Casey. She felt petty now. She shot her girlfriend a apologetic smile before Izzie pressed her lips against the corner of hers.

    "We could always just break in," Zahid said, gripping onto the handles of the doors before shaking them violently. "We can't do that. We'll go to jail," Sam said.

    "Why don't we just come back when it opens? Or go to our next plan? Sam, what's the next place on your list?" Izzie asked. "The pet shop is the only thing. Logically speaking, when you consider the time frame, the size of Larry's feet and his weight, he couldn't have gone further than into the pet shop."

    "We cannot come back tomorrow! Larry needs his sinus medicine! He can't sleep peacefully without it!" Paige exclaimed, smushing her face against the doors to look through.

    "This isn't a dream is it," Casey mumbled to Izzie who giggled.

    "Ah! A key under the mat. Some responsible shop owner..." Zahid mumbled, picking up the key from under the mat. Paige heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the key like it was golden treasure.

    "Um, you guys do know that it's still breaking in right?" Casey said. "Duh, but at least we won't have to break the glass," Zahid replied before wiggling the key in the hole and pushing the door open.

    Izzie felt a heat of thrill rise in her. She never got to do things like that. She was always stuck at home, looking after her siblings and only experienced true fun once she met Casey. And now, she was going to break into a shop. Add that to her short list of crazy and stupid experiences.

    "LARRY!!!" Paige screamed and Casey's eyes widened before she covered Paige's mouth with her hand. "It's like you want us to get our asses in jail," She whispered. Paige looked at Casey in fear before nodding.

    Once Casey let go of her, she realised that the rest had already gone into the shop to look for this certain pig.

    She saw Izzie and Zahid looking around the aisles and sharing corny jokes and laughing together. It's not that Casey was jealous. Izzie wasn't into guys and Zahid was obsessed with his new girlfriend anyways. It was just stemming from her previous frustrations. Her mind raced to what her and Izzie could be doing right now.

    They could watch rip-off sitcoms and make out or even burn the kitchen down making brownies. Literally anything but this!

    Casey shivered when she entered the place where they kept the cages. Thankfully, there were no animals and she guessed that they probably slept somewhere else for the night.

    Casey found herself immaturely grumbling to herself as she aimlessly walked down the cages. "Why would a pig even be here? I swear PP is crazy..." She whispered.

    "Hey," She heard a familiar voice and her heart fluttered as she turned around. "Why hello there Izzie Taylor," Casey replied, earning an eye roll from her girlfriend. "Zahid, Paige and Sam are arguing outside about pig food or something like that. So I thought I'd come visit you at your new job."

    "Of course, I'm loving my new job as a professional pig finder. Very, very rewarding work and love that I get to contribute to the society. The PP society to be exact," She said, walking towards her girlfriend and taking her face into her hands.

    "Well, you just happen to be contributing to the Izzie society as well..." Izzie mumbled, playing with the buttons on Casey's shirt. Casey rolled her eyes before bending down to kiss her.

    Izzie led her hands to the back of Casey's neck, pulling her deeper in. The last time they kissed, they were interrupted.

    They were loving this. Even though they were in aisles of animal cages. Casey pulled away first.

    "You wanna bet the pig is dead?" Casey said, earning a slap on the arm. "Don't say that!" Izzie exclaimed, but she also had an amused smile on her face.

    "What about... we lie to them that we've searched every nook and corner of this place so that we can get out of here and go back to my place?" Casey suggested and the smile her girlfriend returned confirmed that she wanted the same thing.

    Casey opened the door slowly. Zahid, Paige and Sam were still in their heated argument. "Wouldn't I know what food a pig needs? After all I am a certified pig owner," Paige snapped at Zahid. "Pigs are just like humans! Just sneak some weed into Larry's food and his sinus will for sure disappear," He replied while Paige gasped in offence.

    "Hey, hey losers," Casey spoke, getting their attention as they looked up. "Izzie and I have searched everywhere twice. I'm sorry to say that Larry just isn't here," Casey said, ending off with a fake sigh.

    "No, no, no! This can't be! Larry I have failed you," Paige cried, setting guilt in Casey's stomach. "Don't worry Paige. I mean we could always just come back in the morning," Casey suggested, while Izzie walked out.

    Suddenly, the group heard an oink come from behind. Everyone's eyes widened as a plump and pink pig waddled from inside the room.

    "LARRY!" Paige screamed, running to pick him up. "You decide to come now?" Casey muttered, staring angrily at the pig.

    "Aw, he's so cute!" Izzie exclaimed, going to pet his head. "You sure you checked the entire room Casey?" Paige asked and Casey rolled her eyes. "Oh give me a break PP. Remember I'm your ride home!"

    Zahid and Sam continued to look at the scene in front of them in amusement.

    During the ride back to Paige's house and Sam and Zahid's apartment, Casey continued to ridicule Paige's pet owner skills and Izzie found herself becoming very fond of the cuteness of the animal. Zahid was still insisting they feed the pig some weed and Sam was on his phone researching about their diets once again.

    Casey was happy about the scavenger hunt after all.

    When she dropped the other three back home, she realised it was already 1 in the morning. She'd better get Izzie back home soon. They would just have to have their date another time. Unfortunately, Casey had no idea when that would be and she didn't reckon it would be any time soon.

    No words were spoken as they continued their drive.

    When Casey turned into Izzie's street, Izzie turned to look at her girlfriend in shock. "Excuse me? Why are we going back to my place?" Izzie asked and Casey looked at her in confusion before slowing down and stopping.

    "The night is still young Romeo," She whispered, leaning over and planting a kiss on her girlfriend's lips.

    "You know I had lots of fun with you today. And with Paige. And Sam. And Zahid," Casey said sincerely. "I know you did. But you're right. It's hard for us to be alone," Izzie replied and Casey slowly nodded.

    "Which is exactly why you need to turn this car around and drive off into the night with me," Izzie whispered into her ear.

    "Slurpee night?" Casey asked.

    "Slurpee night it is."

    As they blasted music and drove to the furthest 711 they could fine, the happiness that radiated from both the girls, the hand-holding and all the inside jokes made them realise.

    They had the rest of their lives to do crazy stuff together.

    And they really wouldn't have it any other way.