Alex sat across from Mr. Benj who was now her regular lunch buddy, laughing as they discussed various musical and movie ships between different characters.

"For the last time Mr. Benj, Sharpay and Zeke make no sense together!" Alex giggled.

"Okay fine, but you try telling that to any child who loves 'High School Musical' and it will ruin them." retorted Mr. Benj, arms crossed. "But what about Evan and Conner?"

"No!" protested Alex in dismay. "There is absolutely no evidence of either one of them having feelings for the other, the only reason the entire DEH fandom ships them is because of how Evan created their friendship, but none of it was real. However, it kills me every day when I think that they were in the right spot to become friends, if the scene where Conner read Evan's letter would've gone differently then they could have helped each other get through life, but nooo."

"Touche."

"Now, Laurens and Hamilton are definitely gay for each other."

"That is very true, however, Hamilton and Eliza and just so perfect together."

"Agreed. That is until he cheats on her."

The two took one look at each other and started laughing. Once Alex was able to regain her composure, she took a bite of her sandwich but almost choked on it when Mr. Benj said: "Now you and Kata..." Alex felt her face go bright red. Sure, she and Kata worked well together, but they were just friends, maybe not even that yet, Alex wasn't really sure.

"Mr. Benj, I have no clue what you think you saw but Kata and I are just friends. Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm straight." Mr. Benj just laughed again.

"I was just joking Alex." Alex relaxed. She felt obliged to bring back the lighter attitude she just had.

"However, you and Mr. Faist...there's definitely something there." The words came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them, but once she saw that it was Mr. Benj's turn to almost choke, and his cheeks get rosy, she regretted nothing.

"Alex I-" but before he could say anything, Alex cut him off.

"Oh come on, I've seen the way you act around each other. Whenever either one of you are in the same room as the other, you manage to flirt while still somehow being completely oblivious to the fact that you clearly have feelings for each other."

By now, Mr. Benj's face was a bright shade of red, and Alex was smiling in satisfaction.

"Well," he said with a small smile. "I was thinking that I really want to ask him out, but I don't know if he's single or not." Then he added in a meek voice. "Also what if he says no?" He paused. "Ugh, I sound like a teenager, what have you guys done to me?" They both laughed, and then Alex's face lit up with an idea.

"Hey, I know! I'll go run reconnaissance during a free period, and maybe bring someone with me, and we'll find out for you," said Alex sweetly. Mr. Benj looked at her caringly.

"Aw, Alex you don't have to do that."

"But I'm going to." And with that, she stood up and walked out the door.

***

"Finally! I've been watching them flirt with each other for long enough, it's time they do something about their feelings." Kata exclaimed after Alex enlisted her help to go talk to Mr. Faist during advisory.

"I agree!" said Alex, as the girls walked through the halls to their lockers. Kata stopped towards the beginning of the eighth-grade hall.

"This is my locker," she said. "Meet you here so we can go to the choir room during advisory?"

"Sounds good," Alex replied.

Alex sat through history, doodling a layout for a piece of fanart she wanted to create on a piece of notebook paper. The class passed fairly quickly as Kata was also there, Alex forgetting that they shared the class. Kata made faces at her the entire time and Alex felt her stomach flip-flopping with happiness. It felt good to have a relationship like that again. Alex rushed out of the class as soon as the bell rang. She hastily threw her stuff in her locker, not bothering to organize it like she normally would, and walked to Kata's locker at the end of the hall.

Kata was waiting for her by the time she got there, and the two started walking to the other side of the school, falling in step with each other.

"I'm trusting you to do most of the talking just by the way," Alex said to Kata. "I'm not too good at interacting with people." Kata laughed which made Alex smile.

"You seem to do just fine when you're talking to me."

Alex paused for a moment. What Kata said was true, she had no problem talking to her. Then again, she didn't have too much of a problem talking to Carson either, so maybe she was just getting better at talking to people. However, instead of saying this, Alex kept up with their usual banter.

"You say, not remembering that I ran away from you two days ago." Kata laughed awkwardly but nudged Alex with her shoulder playfully.

The two made it across the school, and to the fine arts hall right before the bell rang. They ducked inside the choir room to see Mr. Faist helping a student with his scales, but other than that there was no one else in the room.

Kata pulled out a piece of homework from her binder. "I'm going to start working on this, and when he's done we'll talk to him, but my mother likes for me to get most of my homework done at school," Kata whispered. Alex nodded and sat down next to her.

"Do you want any help? I kinda put all my stuff back in my locker." she offered. Kata shook her head.

"No, you should work on some singing for the musical so that it looks like we came here for some reason other than interrogation."

Alex smiled. "Good point."

In a few minutes, Mr. Faist came over to them. "Hi Alex, Kata, what do y'all need help with?" He asked sweetly. When it became clear that Alex was struggling to come up with a valid reason to be in the choir room, Kata stood up from where she was on the risers.

"Alex wanted to work on a few of her singing parts, and I decided to come along for any blocking work she might want to do." Alex nodded agreeing with Kata's statement. "Plus," Kata added. "A little birdy told us that a teacher here at school wants to ask you out."

Mr. Faist's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yep," Kata answered. Alex sent her a glare, trying to tell her not to give too much away, but Kata just gave her a "chill the heck out" look.

"Who?" Mr. Faist asked timidly. Now not only was Mr. Benj acting like a middle schooler, but so was Mr. Faist, and Alex couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Now Mr. Faist, before this individual asked you out, they wanted to make sure you were single. You never seem to talk about your love life in GSA, so I couldn't answer that question for them." Kata continued. Mr. Faist went a little red in the face.

Alex hadn't known the school had a Gay-Straight-Alliance. She would have to go to a meeting sometime. She wondered what Kata identified as.

"Well, there's not much to share. I'm single and have been for a while. And besides, even if I wanted to ask out the person that I've developed feelings for, I don't think I'd be able to work up the nerve to do it. I'm not exactly the best person when it comes to starting relationships." Mr. Faist stated, finishing nervously.

Alex looked at the teacher with sympathy. She never really thought about the fact that adults experience nervousness around people they liked, even if said adults acted like children most of the time.

"I'm pretty sure this will solve your problem." Kata laughed. Mr. Faist smiled widely.

"I hope you're right," he said. "Anyways, Alex did you want any help with any of your songs?" Mr. Faist asked.

"Yeah, I'm having trouble with some of the sustained notes in 'We're All In This Together.'"

The two walked over to the piano and began working on the song. Kata watched them for a while and then turned back to her homework, attempting to get as much done as she could. Advisory passed quickly, and the two girls rushed off to their next class, parting ways at their lockers.

Alex then had yearbook with no one she knew, but she still enjoyed the class. She liked taking pictures and organizing them on the yearbook pages, it gave her a sense of control.

After yearbook was eighth period, the last period of the day, and Alex had math. She had realized not too long ago that she shared this class with Kata, who sat on the opposite end of the room.

Kata: I don't want to sound like a jerk but I just realized we had this class together

Alex looked at the text and silently thanked her mom for warning her to only have her phone on vibrate during school. She looked over at Kata who made a motion with her hand for Alex to check her phone. Alex shook her head vigorously.

Kata: It's fine. No one is paying attention. Remember that convo we had abt it being ok to get in trouble sometimes?

Alex rolled her eyes.

Alex: Fine but u sound like my mom

Alex glanced across the room at Kata who was smiling down at her lap where her phone was. It was kind of cute.

Kata: Ur mom's a smart person then

Alex saw Kata's head pop up as their teacher walked by, passing out notes. She waited until she passed before texting Alex again.

Kata: Besides I'm bored to death over here and we'll be getting a new seating chart soon I think so hopefully we won't have to txt in class for too many days

Alex shot a playful glare in Kata's direction, earning a smile from her, and Alex was soon smiling back.

The two girls texted throughout the class, but Alex was careful to take notes as well, and from the times she looked over at Kata, it seemed so was she. Once class ended, the two girls packed up and went back to their lockers. This time Kata found Alex at her locker and waited for her to pack up.

"Hurry up!" Kata laughed. "I want to see Mr. Benj..." But Kata didn't finish her sentence and instead shrunk back against the lockers. She had her eyes trained on a group of people walking down the center of the hallway together. One of them, a tall boy, came over to Kata and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Why aren't you walking out with your friends today?" he asked in a gravelly voice. Alex could see that Kata was trying to appear unshaken, but even though the boy was obviously trying to make his voice deeper than it was, Kata seemed intimidated. She straightened herself up and looked the boy in the eyes, despite the fact that she seemed to be nervously trying to find something to grip at.

"I found a new friend," she said, with much more confidence than she probably had. Alex saw Kata's hand still reaching out frantically like she was trying to find something to hold her to the ground. Before Alex could think too much about it, she took her hand and slipped it into Kata's. A look of shock and relief passed over Kata's face for a fraction of a second before her face hardened again and she took their joined hands and hid them behind their bodies, but not before the boy saw.

"Aw how cute, Kitty's got a girlfriend." He taunted. The boy turned his attention to Alex. "When you agreed to go out with her did you mistake her for a guy? It's okay, a common misconception for a lot of people, but despite her complete lack of anything remotely feminine on any part of her body, she is a girl, so if I were you I would dump her sorry ass." The boy scoffed. "Ooh unless you're a lesbo, in which case you could do so much better than Kitty over here."

Alex was vaguely aware of Kata digging her nails into the back of Alex's hand, but she couldn't really feel it. All Alex could feel was burning anger for this boy in front of her who thought it would be a good idea to insult her new friend who had been nothing but kind to her since they started talking a few days ago. She gritted her teeth. "Back off." She growled. The boy just started laughing.

"Am I supposed to be intimidated?" he scoffed. Kata gave Alex's hand a squeeze. All determination had gone from Kata, and her confidence looked shattered. Alex didn't know how to respond. She wanted to stand up for Kata, but she knew that she wasn't intimidating by any means, and she didn't have control over the situation. To her surprise, Kata spoke up.

"You heard what she said Hunter, fuck off." The boy, Hunter, held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Ok fine." he walked back to his group where a girl with short curly blond hair started telling him off, but he quickly laughed it off, and whatever he said seemed to calm the girl down. She intertwined her fingers in his. "See you tomorrow Kitty!" Hunter called to Kata as he walked off.

Kata scowled in Hunter's direction then let go of Alex's hand, and looked down at the ground, giving herself a moment to recover.

"Thanks for that," she said to Alex, gesturing at her hand. "I have a weird need to have something to hold onto whenever I feel uncomfortable." She didn't meet Alex's eye while saying this. When she looked up, however, she was back to her normal self. "So ready to go to rehearsal?" she asked.

Alex looked at her oddly. "Kata are you okay? Who was that? Are we going to pretend whatever just happened didn't happen?" Alex said all in one breath. "Sorry," she said once she realized she was pestering Kata with questions she may or may not want to answer. "I just worry about people. Especially my friends," she added after a beat. She worried too much lately.

"Friends?" Kata asked. Even though Alex was not one for hugs, she wanted to scoop Kata into one right then. It was like she didn't realize that what Alex had just done, she wouldn't have done if she didn't at least somewhat care about the person she was doing it for. It was like the girl wasn't used to having people care about her.

"Of course Kata," Alex answered in all sincerity. Kata smiled as the two began walking. They were quiet for a little while, both lost in their own thoughts.

"Thank you again for standing up for me, but I'm not ready to talk about it just yet if that's ok." Kata finally said, breaking the silence.

Alex looked at her. "That's ok, I know we're not super close. I do think it might be a good idea to talk about it with somebody though. It seemed like maybe that had happened more than once?"

Kata nodded solemnly, but before either one of them could say anything else, Mr. Benj came up to Kata and asked if he could steal her for a second. The girls exchanged a look, and Alex nodded for her to go. Kata went with Mr. Benj to one of the cafe tables with Zoe and a few of the other techs, and they all began talking. Carmen had all the actors start vocal warmups, and once they were done, rehearsal began.

***

When Alex told her teacher that Mr. Faist was single. Mr. Benj smiled wider than Alex thought she had ever seen him smile.

"I'm going to ask him out after rehearsals. Thanks for 'running reconnaissance' for me." he had said, laughing.

"Don't thank me," Alex replied. "Kata did most of the talking." Mr. Benj just smiled, and he kept smiling through the rehearsal.

Now Alex and Kata stood together, watching Mr. Benj talk to Mr. Faist. They whispered back and forth to each other.

"I don't think I've ever seen a grown man's cheeks so red." Kata laughed softly. Alex agreed with her, smiling at the fact that she could still laugh even after getting confronted in the hallway.

"Oh hey Kata?"

"Hm?"

"When does GSA meet?" Kata looked over at Alex with surprise written all over her face, but she was soon smiling.

"We actually aren't going to have a meeting for another month, we're on a break, but once we do I'll be sure to take you with me."

Alex smiled widely. Kata nudged her and Alex looked back to the two teachers just in time to see Mr. Faist take Mr. Benj's hand in his own, getting timid smiles out of the both of them. The two girls just watched in silence. The teachers talked for a moment before Mr. Benj hesitantly kissed Mr. Faist on the cheek. Mr. Faist blushed hard and then started walking towards the front doors. Mr. Benj came over to the two girls. They looked at him expectantly.

"I'm going on a date!" he exclaimed happily. Alex and Kata congratulated him, smiling widely, before heading out the cafeteria doors. They walked until Kata saw her mother's car.

"I should probably go," she said, walking toward the parking lot.

"Hey Kata?" Alex called.

"Yeah?"

"If you do end up wanting to talk about what happened, I'll be here."

"Thanks, Alex," Kata said, and then she turned around and walked off again. Alex watched her go before walking to get in her mom's car.

"Hola Mija, how was school?" her mom asked as Alex got into the passenger seat. Alex thought for a moment before answering. There had been Hunter but other than that Alex realized that she had been really happy the entire day. She smiled.

"It was good Mamá. It was really good." And she meant it.

***

A/N: Soooo I know I said pure fluff and wholesomeness but I couldn't help myself... *yeets this chapter at you and runs away*

Thank you all so much for reading! If you liked this chapter please consider leaving a vote or comment!!! Sorry about this chapter being so long!

-Sunny <3 <3 <3

***DISCLAIMER***

I clearly have anxiety about disclaimers since I keep putting them so...I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE MUSICAL CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER!!!!