"Casey sweetheart, are you coming down for breakfast?"

It was now the next day and Casey has been awake since 9am but she never left the bed. She heard the voice of her mother from the other side of the door and glanced at the clock- 10am.

"I'm not hungry," Casey said back, hoping to get more time to herself. There was no response from the other side and she assumed that she had gotten rid of Elsa, until the door started to creak open.

"Is there something on your mind Case?" Elsa asked softly and Casey moved her face further into her pillow. She heard her mother walk towards the bed before sitting at the end of it. "I'm always here if you need to talk."

Casey groaned as she sat up and leaned against the headboard. Elsa's eyes dropped at the sight of Casey. Her eyes were red, she looked sick and her eyes somehow seemed darker. "Did something happen on the trip?" Elsa asked softly and Casey held back tears.

"Um... I... I broke up with Evan," was what she decided to start with to make things less confusing. "I'm so sorry Casey. What happened?"

"I fell in love with someone else."

Elsa's eyes widened as she tried to mask her shock. "Oh... who?"

"Izzie."

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a while as Elsa processed her words. "We dated for a bit."

"Congratulations Case..." Elsa whispered with a smile and Casey looked at her, her lips quivering.

"Oh... dated."

"She broke up with me. There was this... never mind, it's too complicated to explain. But I just feel like she... she slipped out of my hands. And it hurts like hell."

Elsa slowly rubbed her back and ran her fingers through her hair. "Is this weird for you? Knowing that I... was into a girl."

"Oh honey, no way. But... are you lesbian? Or bi? Do you know yet?"

"I didn't really think about it... Izzie's like the first girl I've been attracted to."

"Well, you don't have to figure out anything. You don't even need to put a label on it. You'll know when you do."

...

School had officially started again at Newton and Clayton and neither Casey nor Izzie were looking forward to it.

Elsa had tried to make the first day back extra special with a pancake breakfast for Casey and Sam in the morning while Sasha Taylor, on the other hand, wasn't even home to send her kids to school.

As usual, Izzie had to wake up extra early to the surprise (or not so surprise) of her mother not being at home. She got the kids ready for school before putting on her own Clayton blazer. She looked into the mirror and sighed, knowing that she would have to put up with a lot today. Quinn and Penelope had advised her not to let anyone get to her but it was easier said than done.

Izzie's mind also raced to Casey. She must be getting ready for school too. If everything had been perfect, she would expect Casey to be parked right outside her house right now, ready to send her to school. She would expect make out sessions in Casey's car in the Clayton car park before Casey realised she was really late for school.

She brushed her hair back into a ponytail before grabbing her bag and running out of the house. Quinn was parked outside and Penelope was in the passenger seat.

"Hey girl!" Quinn exclaimed as Izzie got in. "Hey you guys. Please tell me you're no where close to do with summer homework," Izzie groaned and they scoffed. "I haven't even started. Keep up babes!" Penelope said and Izzie giggled.

On the ride there, the girls talked about everything that had nothing to do with Casey or the entire video tape situation.

Casey was now walking through the corridors, forcing a smile at her classmates who she hadn't seen in a while. She opened her locker and started to gather her things for first period when Sharice came up to her.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Sharice said with a smile and Casey looked at her with guilt. "Sorry Sharice. Things have been crazy," She replied. "Don't worry, I understand. And you talk about it when you want to, okay?" Sharice reassured before leaning against the locker next to Casey's.

"Alright so I hate to ask you this but, could I borrow some money. I completely forgot to bring my wallet today. Just not used to the whole school routine," Sharice groaned and Casey giggled before retrieving her wallet from her pocket to fish out some cash.

"There you go!" As she pulled out a wad of notes, something from the wallet slipped out and fell to the floor. The girls looked down and immediately realised it was a polaroid of Casey and Izzie that Casey had been kept hiding away in her wallet, too heart broken to even look at it.

Sharice noticed the hurt on Casey's face as she picked it up and looked at it for a while.

"Casey...? You good?" Sharice slowly asked as Casey let out a deep sigh.

"She's so pretty," Casey whispered, her eyes never leaving the polaroid.

Sharice didn't know what to say, not sure if Casey was about to break down or she was struck with amazement at this girl's beauty.

"Casey, you know if you ever wanna talk about th-"

"No! No, I'm sorry for being... weird. I'm just... getting used to everything," Casey mumbled and the other girl nodded. "Anyways, we better get to first period. What do you have?"

"Math," Casey groaned before pretending to gag. "Yikes, good luck with that. I've got Social Studies," Sharice said proudly. "You're just excited because Matthew is in that class."

"Yes I am, indeed. Let me live dude!"

Casey laughed as she watched Sharice walk away from her. She looked back down at the polaroid and let her eyes linger for a bit longer. She heard the hurried shuffling of the students behind her and realised that she probably should start walking to class.

She didn't put the polaroid back in her wallet, but instead, pinned it up in her locker. After all, no matter what, Izzie was always be the first face Casey wants to see in the early ungodly hours of the morning.

...

Izzie walked through the corridors of Clayton with Quinn and Penelope walking on either side of her. She felt different this time. She felt vulnerable. For the first time, she was walking into Clayton not as Nate's girlfriend anymore. She was walking into Clayton with a body that half the school population had seen half naked. She was walking into Clayton with a horrible pang of insecurity that everyone knew she was gay. That everyone was going to treat her differently because "she had done it with a girl".

Izzie received eyes from many people but they were immediately shot down by Quinn and Penelope giving them death stares.

"Okay, I am praying right now that you guys have Bio first period," Penelope said as they reached their lockers. The other two girls shook their heads no and Penelope threw her head back onto the locker. "I HATE bio. It's just useless facts about bio."

"Casey said the same thing," Izzie said casually before her eyes widened. "I mean! Sorry, I don't know why I brought her up," She said nervously and the other two girls smiled at her nervousness. "So someone's been thinking about Casey huh?"

"I swear, I haven't."

"Well, you guys did talk that night before Penelope's party," Quinn said and Izzie furrowed her eyebrows. "You know about that?" She asked and Quinn's eyes widened in realisation.

"She told me! Casey told me..."

"Casey and you talked?"

"Pft, I mean we don't talk THAT much. We just ran into each other after that and she told me," Quinn nervously said. Izzie nodded slowly as she tried to piece everything together but before she could, Penelope started to speak again.

"So! I think we're gonna be late for first period. We should get going."

"Oh shoot," Izzie mumbled, grabbing her things from the locker. "I'm late for Math. See you guys after school."

Quinn and Penelope waited until she turned the corner and disappeared. "Thank God. I nearly exposed us!" Quinn sighed and Penelope took out her phone to message Casey.

...

The final bell rang and Casey felt a wave of relief go through her. First day back is seriously tough. She had managed to slip out of the class before the teacher realised she hadn't submitted her homework and went straight to her locker.

On the way there, she took out her phone to look at her messages.

Penelope: come to clayton when you're done with school. we're reporting that motherfucker to the principal and we want you to witness it

Penelope: also all the best for your first day, love you

Casey gasped at the message and quickly dumped her things back into the locker and also took some stuff she needed to study at home.

Casey was nervous on the way to Clayton. Her assumptions of Clayton kids being stuck up and bratty were changed by meeting Quinn, Penelope and of course, her darling devil Izzie Taylor. But she knew not all of them were as nice. Plus, some of the Clayton kids who went on the ski trip knew of her as Izzie's roommate and they would definitely be confused as to why she was at their school.

She parked in the parking lot behind the school where Quinn and Penelope were waiting.

"Alright we're gonna wait here for a bit until all the students clear out. Then we're going straight to Vice Principal Patrick. I printed out all the screenshots," Quinn said, folding up a file.

"Okay so we'll tell him-"

"Where's Izzie?" Casey cut Penelope off and they looked at her in amusement. "Sorry! Sorry for cutting you off I just... I wouldn't want her to see us."

"Don't worry. She's already on the way home."

"Okay. Okay, good." It would definitely be hard for Casey to explain what she was doing at her ex-girlfriend's school if Izzie were to see her.

After about 5 minutes, they saw that less people were coming out of the school which meant that most had already left. Quinn gave them the signal to go as they slowly walked into the school.

As they turned the corner, Casey suddenly felt herself get yanked on the arm by Quinn. She looked at them in confusion before looking up to see Izzie facing her locker. She started to turn around and Quinn and Penelope ran to opposite sides to hide behind the lockers but Casey was not so lucky as she stood rooted to the ground, unable to move.

"Casey?" Izzie questioned, stepping back. "Izzie! Hey... um..."

"What're you doing here?" Izzie asked in confusion and Casey went red. "I just um... I was... I was um... you know..."

Izzie furrowed her eyebrows and slowly nodded. "Well I was on my way home and I came back to get something..." Izzie explained and Casey bit her lip.

"I came to... check out your track team. I heard you guys are good," Casey had managed to say and Izzie's smiled indicated that she bought it. "Why? You thinking of joining us?" Izzie laughed and Casey smiled and looked down.

Casey wanted to ask Izzie how her family was doing but refrained from it, knowing that Quinn and Penelope were overhearing their conversation. "Well, there's no training today. You can come back tomorrow if you'd like," Izzie said, closing the locker door.

"So how was your first day back?" Casey continued. Behind the lockers, Quinn and Penelope were looking at each other, knowing that they had to get to Patrick's office soon, but they also knew that this conversation between Casey and Izzie was equally important.

"It was alright. What about you?"

"Yeah it was cool. Fell asleep in class a couple of times and already failed a pop quiz but you know, it's going perfect," Casey replied and Izzie giggled. Casey's heart melted at hearing it.

"Hey do you wanna... get dinner some time? Only if you want to! I mean... that's what friends do right?" Izzie asked and Casey felt blood rush to her face. "Yeah! Yeah, we definitely should. When are you free?"

"What about tonight?"

Casey remembered that Elsa was cooking dinner tonight- an apparent special dinner because it was the first day back at school. But she knew Elsa wouldn't mind Casey skipping tonight to go see Izzie.

"Tonight's perfect."

"Great! I'll text you."

They waved at each other awkwardly before Izzie walked past her. After a while, Quinn and Penelope appeared from their hiding spots, a smirk plastered on their faces.

"What?" Casey asked.

"Going on a date with Izzie huh?" Quinn teased and she rolled her eyes. "It's not a date! We're just getting dinner!"

"Dinner with your pretty ex? Yeah, definitely not a date," Penelope giggled. "Alright, alright let's get these pictures to Patrick."

Quinn knocked on the door before they timidly entered the room to see a short man sitting at his desk, chewing on what appeared to be a brownie. He looked up with his eyes widened as he set the dessert down and stood up.

"Ah, Quinn, Penelope and... who are you?"

"I'm Casey Gardner, sir. I'm from Newton High," she introduced and he seemed to have a spark of realisation on his face. "You're the star tracker, aren't you? Very nice to meet you. If you ever would like a spot here just give me a call!" He said, before sitting back down to return to his brownie.

"Oh... okay. Thank you."

"Have you girls heard of Claire's Bake Shop? Excellent brownies they have there!" He exclaimed and Casey couldn't help but smile at his mannerism. "Vice Principal Patrick, one of your students has committed a truly grave mistake and we feel that he needs to be sentenced to life imprisonment," Penelope said, rubbing her hands in glee.

"What? Who? Just tell me, I could never be angry when I have a sweet brownie in my hand."

"We WANT you to be angry Vice Principal Patrick! Take a look at this," Quinn continued as she placed the file in front of him, on his table. He furrowed his eyebrows before taking the file and opening it. "These are screenshots from Nate's computer. The captain of the lacrosse team. Suspend him and arrest him immediately," Penelope said and he gasped.

"This is horrible! Wait... what do you have to do with this again?" He asked, pointing at Casey. "Ummm... we're all friends with Izzie Taylor. I met them on the ski trip. One of the videos has Izzie in it. So the three of us got together to find some evidence that it was him," Casey explained and he nodded reluctantly.

"Well Clayton's policy certainly doesn't tolerate any kind of behaviour like this," He bellowed, closing the file. The girls smirked at each other, excited to hear what punishment was coming to him.

"Thank you for having the moral courage to tell me. He will be pulled from next week's game," He said with a smile before picking up his brownie.

"WHAT?! That's it? He should be expelled!" Casey immediately yelled. "Ms Gardner, it is not that simple. Here at Clayton, we don't like to subject our students to harsh punishments."

"Yeah well clearly, your nice guy policy doesn't teach your students to not be perverts!"

Quinn and Penelope held Casey's arm, not wanting her to say something she would soon regret. "Are you questioning my policy-making Ms Gardner?" He questioned with an eyebrow raised. "Tell me this then. If Izzie had done the same thing, would you have just pulled her out from one meet? Or would you have revoked her scholarship?"

He sat there, not saying a word, his fists clenched. "That's what I thought. You need Nate's families donations but when it comes to Izzie this school couldn't give two fucks about her. She worked hard, she got in without money, she takes care of her siblings, she barely has parents and you STILL wouldn't give a fuck unless she threw some money at you, right?!"

Casey quickly wiped the tear that rolled down her cheek. She took a deep breath. By now, Quinn and Penelope knew there was nothing they could do to stop Casey so they just stood and watched. "Izzie deserves to go to a school where she feels safe. I won't let her in walk into a school that has Nate in it. He gets expelled and you make sure all those videos and pictures are gone from his possession, or anyone's possession."

And with that, Casey stormed out of the office, not waiting for Quinn and Penelope to catch up.

...

Casey felt like the days were getting more stressful as they went by. She had to think about this dinner thing tonight too. Elsa had thankfully allowed Casey to skip dinner tonight, knowing that meeting Izzie was important. She had to admit, she did try to look good. She didn't wanna come off as too strong but she wanted to make an impression on this girl that stole her heart and then smashed it into a million pieces.

"This red jacket. Izzie likes this one on me," she thought to herself as she took it out of the closet.

Casey: hey! i'm outside your house.

Izzie: coming!

Casey was now parked outside the Taylor household as she took in a deep breath. This was just a casual dinner between two friends. She didn't want to raise the expectations too high for herself, only to be disappointed later on.

She watched as Izzie left her house and walked down the small steps to the pavement. She looked absolutely stunning. Casey realised she was wearing an outfit that she had also worn on the ski trip and Casey had told her how much she loved it. Was Izzie trying to impress her too?

Casey got out of the car and they smiled at each other. "Hey!"

"Hey... you look great..." Izzie mumbled and Casey blushed immediately which the other girl found adorable.

"So... where do you wanna eat?" Casey asked as they got into the car. "There's this really cool pasta place somewhere around the corner. It's pretty expensive though. But I thought it would be worth it for this nice occasion of us meeting up again after the trip," Izzie said with a genuine smile.

"Cool. Let's hope they have a table then."

...

"I'm sorry ma'am but we are fully booked for tonight."

Casey and Izzie looked at each other in disappointment. "Are there any other places to eat here?" Izzie asked the waiter and he started to list a few places. A burger and hot dog truck then caught Casey's eye. "Actually, I think we found a place," She said, looking at the truck.

Izzie giggled as they walked towards it. "Not really how I imagined our night to go but I'm not complaining," Izzie said as she controlled herself from fitting her hand into Casey's.

They bought a whole feast, way too much for just the two of them. Hotdogs, burgers, nachos, milkshakes, all the works. Right now, they were shamelessly devouring the food together and it felt like old times. It wasn't awkward anymore and both girls had somehow managed to keep their past relationship out of the conversation.

"It was crazy! Chloe spilled the juice all over Dani's project so we stayed up all night to redo it together. Honestly, it was one of the best things we've done together," Izzie laughed. "Well, how did she do on the project?"

"Oh she did horrible. But the time spent together was worth it, right?"

Casey laughed for the thousandth time that night and Izzie seriously could never get sick of hearing that laugh. "What about you Gardner? What trouble have you been up to?"

"Actually I bumped into your vice principal just now. He told me to give him a call if I wanted a scholarship at Clayton." Casey knew this was probably not going to happen after pissing him off and plus, she never could see herself as a Clayton girl. "Really? Are you gonna do it?"

"I have no idea yet. Those uniforms do look scratchy," She said. "Of course! In Clayton, you need to wear posh blazers and uncomfortable ties and probably get sent to school by a British butler to pass off as an actual student. Lucky for me, I only stop at the uniform part," She said with a smirk before biting into her burger.

"I'll think about it. But if I do wanna go, will you put in a good word for me track captain?" Casey asked and Izzie blushed. "Of course."

"I have to get home soon. My mum isn't home so I have to make sure they're okay," Izzie said, looking at the time and Casey nodded.

...

On the way home, Casey drove Izzie to pick up the laundry that she had forgotten and now, she was helping to carry the heavy bag to her house. Izzie unlocked the door and Casey gave her the bag. She placed her hands in her pockets awkwardly as she waited for Izzie to put the bag inside the house. She noticed a little girl run up to her and Casey immediately knew it was Chloe.

"Hey kiddo," Casey said with a smile and Chloe looked at her in awe, holding a purple monkey soft toy next to her. Izzie came back to the door and ran her fingers through her hair. "Chloe say hi to my friend Casey," Izzie whispered as Chloe moved closer to Izzie's leg. "Hi," She mumbled slowly and Casey's heart melted. She noticed she had similar eyes as Izzie. Casey remembered Izzie had told her that her mum had Chloe with her previous boyfriend.

"I think she's really tired. Chloe, go upstairs first, I'll come soon," Izzie said softly to her and she ran off.

"She's adorable," Casey said and Izzie smiled.

They felt the awkwardness come back to them. "So thank you for today... I had lots of fun," Izzie started. She slowly moved forward and placed her hand on Casey's cheek. Casey audibly gasped at the touch. "It was really nice seeing you again Casey."

Izzie leaned up on her tiptoes before planting a kiss on Casey's cheek. She turned to walk back into the house when Casey held onto her wrist, turning her around to face her again.

"Do you still love me?" Casey whispered and Izzie's lips quivered.

Casey pulled her closer and Izzie allowed her as their noses touched. "I do."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Casey allowed Izzie to take her time, wanting her to initiate the next move.

"But we can't Casey. We can't be together," She said, moving away from her. Casey felt weak as she lost Izzie's touch. She watched her go back into her house before closing the door and Casey found herself unable to leave the front porch.