"So, let's check her out on facebook! See what kind of wingman she'll be!"

"Pru, first of all, I already know who she is. I mean every swimmer in the state knows who Emily Fields is."

"But you've never facebook-stalked her?"

"No, because, second of all, I don't need a wingman. Sean and I are very happy, remember? I'm not going to Stanford to meet cute guys."

"Well, that doesn't mean you can't – holy fuck! She's fricken hot, Paige!"

"Pru, just send her the friend request, okay? We're going to be roommates, so we may as well get to know each other."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm looking through her facebook. Okay, all her friends are hot. I'm not sure you can sit with them, Paige. Ooh – here are her prom pics. Great looking gown, and – oh. Shit."

"What? You don't approve of her boyfriend?"

"Um, yeah. About that – it's not a boyfriend."

"GASP! She's… the L word?" Paige mocked a stunned reaction.

"I'm serious, Paige!"

"So what? Since when do you care that someone's gay?"

"Not just someone! She's going to be your roommate, Paige."

"So?"

"So, she's going to be living in the same room with you. Watching you get dressed. Watching you while you sleep."

"God, seriously, Pru? That's what you think lesbians do? They're just waiting for the opportunity to see a girl naked?"

"I'm just saying, if I were rooming with a hot guy, I'd definitely be grabbing eyefuls. Handfuls, too!"

"Pru, we're not having this conversation. You know that there were gays on the swim team, right? Do you think that they were creeping around in the locker room the whole time?"

"That's just my point! There are gays on the swim team! So why did they put her with you? Wouldn't they, like, ask if you were gay and put you with someone else gay, so that it's not awkward?"

"There were some questions about roommate selection – religious, sexual preference, stuff like that. I put that I was okay with anyone. I can get along with anyone!"

"Why would you do that, Paige? That's probably why they put you two together!"

"No, they probably put us together because we're both from the same state and we both went to the finals. We'll probably be on the same training schedules, so it just makes sense that we live together. I mean, they probably assumed that we already know each other."

"Well, let's just hope that she gets a girlfriend right away and spends all of her time in her girlfriend's room."

Paige looked over at her laptop. "It says that she's in a relationship with Maya St. Germain."

"Yeah. I looked her up. She's going to Danby next year. Those long distance things never work out."

"Uh, Pru!" Paige gave her friend a punch on the shoulder. "What about Sean and me? We're going to be long-distance, remember?"

Emily sat down to lunch with her three best friends. "So, Spencer. I got my roommate assignment at Stanford."

"Wow, Emily! It's all starting to feel real now, isn't it?"

"Yeah. But guess who she is."

"Who?"

"Paige McCullers!"

"No way! She's going to Stanford?"

"Apparently so!"

"Well, all I can say is, you'd better sleep with one eye open!"

"Who's Paige McCullers?" Aria asked.

"She's one of the top swimmers in the state. I've competed against her a couple of times. She's definitely hardcore."

"Yeah," Spencer agreed, "Hardcore is an understatement. Paige the enforcer. We named a penalty after her."

"Oh! She's the one who…" Hanna began before Spencer cut her off with a sharp glare. "Well, that's good, Emily! If she's as badass as Spencer makes her out to be, no one will mess with you! You'll have your own built in bodyguard when the shit goes down!"

"And just why do you think I need a bodyguard?"

"Because you'll be freshmen. You know all the hazing and stuff. Besides, it's California! That's where all the gangsta stuff comes from!"

"Hanna," Spencer chided, "I highly doubt that the gangster culture runs rampant at Stanford." Turning her attention to Emily, she replied, "Trust me, the biggest thing you'll need to worry about will be Paige McCullers."

"Oh, Spencer. We'll be on the same team."

"Wait, you mean she's…"

"No, Hanna, that's not what I mean. I mean I won't be competing against her, so there's no reason for her to threaten me."

"You'll be competing for spots on the team, Emily." Spencer reminded her.

Aria linked arms with Emily. "Guys. Stop trying to scare her. Emily's getting away from all the drama of Rosewood and high school. Let's just wish her well. Emily, you're going to have a great year. And I predict that you and Paige are going to end up being best friends."

"Wait – not best friends!" Hanna interjected.

"Of course not, Hanna. You'll always be my best friend," Emily replied perfunctorily.

Hanna hugged her. "Damn right, I am!"

"Is it okay if I bring my girlfriend?" Emily was a little nervous as she asked this question. She and Paige had facebook-chatted a couple of times and gotten to know each other a little bit. They were on the phone discussing meeting for lunch in Philadelphia. The subject of Emily's sexuality had never really come up, although Emily certainly made no secret of it. She knew that Paige had to know about Maya, because Maya was all over her facebook. Still, this was Emily's first time bringing up the subject, and she wasn't sure how Paige would react.

"As long as I can bring my boyfriend," Paige said, not missing a beat. "He's almost completely housetrained, I promise!"

Emily laughed. It felt good, knowing that Paige didn't see gender as an issue. That had been one of her biggest worries about living in a dorm with a roommate. She well remembered the reaction from some of her teammates when she had been outed in her sophomore year.

"So," Paige continued, "There's a place down on Callowhill near my dad's office in Philly. It's really expensive for dinner, but, if we meet for lunch, it's reasonable."

Sean and Paige decided to take the train into the city for their lunch date with Emily and Maya. Paige used the time to brief him on the whole roommate situation, worried that he would react the way that Pru had reacted and say something to embarrass himself – and her.

"So, you're really okay with this roommate?"

"Sean, there's nothing to be okay with. We're roommates. We're adults. It's not as though she's going to try to recruit me."

"You don't know that."

"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about. Don't say ignorant shit like that at lunch, okay?"

"What? I'm just saying…"

"Besides, this is a positive. I'm going to college to broaden my mind, broaden my experiences. I don't want to hang out only with people who are like me. I want to experience all the diversity of college life."

"Wait, you mean, you're – have you had gay thoughts?"

"No, Sean. Seriously?" Paige couldn't believe how small her boyfriend's view of the world is. "I mean I'm sure that Emily's had struggles and challenges simply because she's openly gay in a small town. I've never experienced that. I want to know what it's like. I want to see a lot of different perspectives – people who've had to face racial discrimination, people who came to this country just to go to Stanford. I haven't had to face a lot of that. I want to learn from them."

"So, Emily will be, like, your social experiment?"

"Emily will be my friend. And I hope to have lots of friends who see the world from a different perspective than I do. That's what college is all about!"

Sean got quiet. "So, when you come back, will I still be enough for you?"

Paige gave her boyfriend a kiss. "Yes, Sean. We're both going to grow over these four years. We're both going to be different, but we're not going to do it a vacuum. We've always worked on our relationship, and we have to continue to do that."

"What if we find out that we're too different?"

"Then, let's promise each other that we'll still be friends." Sean didn't look convinced. "Sean, that can happen whether we're 3000 miles away or we're living under the same roof. I love you. We've grown so much over the past couple of years. I don't see that changing, but, let's face it, we don't know what the next four years has in store. Let's just enjoy the ride, okay?"

Paige and Sean were standing outside of the Rose Tattoo when she got the text from Emily saying that they were looking for parking. A couple of minutes later, she saw a couple approaching and knew that it had to be Emily and Maya. They greeted each other with hugs. "This place looks like a dive on the outside, but, trust me, it's nice on the inside."

The four were escorted to a table where they placed their orders. Paige and Emily hit it off immediately, swapping war stories of first times in the pool, diabolical coaches, and summer swim camps. Sean did his best to engage Maya in conversation, but she seemed a little aloof. And clingy. Sean put it down to sadness because her girlfriend was going to be leaving for the other side of the country in a month. He finally gave up trying to draw her out of her shell and just played with his silverware till the food, mercifully, arrived.

"So," Maya chimed in at a lull in the conversation, "I heard that they call you the Barracuda!"

Paige almost dropped her fork. Sean rubbed her shoulder to calm her down. Emily shot her girlfriend a glare. "Oh," Maya backtracked, "I'm sorry. I just – I thought it was a joke."

Paige swallowed the food that was in her mouth. She put her hands at her side to calm herself. "No, it's okay. I – it's true, I tend to get a little competitive in the pool. It's not the thing that I'm proudest of. I guess it's just my Dad – constantly drilling it into me since I was a kid – you have to be the best; take no prisoners."

"Well, that's the kind of teammate you want," Emily said, trying to redeem her girlfriend's comment so that it didn't injure Paige. "You may swim like a barracuda, but you were always a good sport whenever we faced off. Win or lose, you were always the first person from the other team to come up and congratulate me after we raced."

Paige smiled, raising her water glass. She appreciated what Emily was trying to do, but she hated the fact that her girlfriend saw her as a barracuda. One reason that she chose Stanford was so that she could get a fresh start, away from her reputation. It seemed that her reputation was going to be right there with her, sleeping in the next bed.

"What the hell were you thinking, Maya? You say two words all throughout lunch, and then you pull that barracuda comment out of your ass?"

"I said I was sorry. I didn't know that it was a bad thing. I don't know the whole swimmer lingo!"

"Exactly. So where did you even come up with that word?"

"From Spencer."

"From Spencer? And you're going to pretend that you didn't know that it was a bad thing?"

"What? I didn't?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Maya. You know how Spencer feels about her. I know how Spencer feels about her, so I can only imagine what the two of you were talking about!"

"Emily, why do we have to fight all the time? I just made a mistake, and I said I'm sorry! Paige was okay with it!"

"Paige was not okay with it, Maya." Emily paused, trying to cool down. "Nobody wants to be called a barracuda."

After Emily dropped Maya off at home, she did some yoga, took a quick run, and grabbed a shower. When she finished, she checked facebook to see whether or not Paige was on.

Emily Fields: Hey…..

Paige McCullers: Hey.

Emily Fields: So, I guess I should ask you, do you know Spencer Hastings? Plays field hockey for Rosewood High?

Paige McCullers: Oh, yeah. Spencer. I don't think that I'm on her Christmas card list. :P

Emily Fields: Yeah.
Emily Fields: So. Evidently, she and Maya were talking.
Emily Fields: Hence the B-word.

Paige McCullers: K

Emily Fields: I mean, I didn't want you to think that she got it from me. Not that it's any better coming from Spencer. Just – idk what I mean. Sorry – she should never have said it. & that's not how I see you.

Paige McCullers: Ok. Thx for letting me know.

Paige felt better knowing that Maya hadn't heard that word from Emily.

Emily Fields: I meant what I said, though. I respect your competitive spirit, but I really appreciate your sportsmanship.
Emily Fields: In and out of the pool.

Paige McCullers: Thx, Em. That means a lot.

Emily put her fingers over those two letters on the screen and smiled. Why did it feel so good to have Paige use that nickname?