Kenna made sure she was the first one to arrive at detention. She had found a janitor, not the one who had found her and Bash in the closet a few weeks ago, and made up a story of leaving her textbook in the theatre over the weekend. He hadn't cared too much and had left after he'd opened the doors for her. She stuck her headphones in her ears, music full blast, and got to work, fixing some lines and details on the storefronts she had been working on last week.

After a few minutes of working, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, but she kept her eyes firmly on the wood she was painting. She had almost refocused herself when there was a touch to her shoulder and she jolted, ripping her headphones out of one ear.

"Ms. Beaton, how did you get in here before me?" Mr. Brighs asked. He unwrapped the bright red scarf from his neck as he spoke and hung it on the little hook outside of his office door.

"Oh, I left a textbook in here Friday and I wanted to make sure it was actually here, so I asked a janitor to let me in. And then I was already here, so I figured I'd get started," she said. She had just started letting her hand rest for a minute, her wrist lying across her thigh to make sure the paintbrush didn't touch her, when Bash walked through the door. She smiled at Mr. Brighs and added, "Speaking of which, I should get back to it." He nodded at her and she slipped her ear bud back in, not sure if it was better or worse not to be able to hear Bash. Mr. Brighs stayed in the room a while with them, going over a checklist of what was done and what still needed to be done. Once that was done though, he left to go check the status of the costumes and Kenna could almost feel Bash looking at her. She was going to ignore him for the whole hour of detention, that was honestly her plan. However, when one of her songs ended, she heard him say her name in the brief window of silence.

She looked over at him, almost against her will and knew she couldn't pretend she didn't see him this time. She took her headphones out, but didn't say anything.

"You didn't call this weekend," he said. Kenna shrugged.

"I didn't think there was anything to talk about."

"Kenna. I know this doesn't excuse it, but I said those things about you before I knew you. Before two weeks ago, I didn't know that you take the best photographs of the trees changing in the fall or portraits that show who a person really is. I didn't know you hate your house and miss your dad. I mean, I didn't even know you'd lost your mom when you were little," he said, his voice gentle and almost pleading.

"I didn't show you any of my photographs," she said, refusing to meet his eyes.

"They were hanging up in your room when I came over last week. They were incredible, Kenna." She'd almost forgotten she'd hung up some of her work in her room. It was the only place she was allowed to, so she'd plastered one wall full of art, a mix of hers and her favorite artists.

"If you knew Catherine hated me that much, why did you have me over? That went way beyond a joke or an elaborate way to make her angry," she said, proud when her voice didn't waver.

"I wanted you to come over because I wanted it to be real. I want you to come to family dinners because you are my girlfriend, not for some petty game with Catherine. I want to walk you to class because I want to see you for a few minutes longer during the day, not because our classes are in the same direction. I like you, Kenna," he said. Kenna had raised her head to look him in the eye as he gave his speech, which in turn, left her speechless.

"Well, that. That changes a few things," she said. She cleared her throat. "Hypothetically, if I said I liked you as well, are the family dinners mandatory? Because, in case you hadn't realized, I'm not really as diplomatic as Mary. I'm not sure your family can handle another show down." He started smiling as she was talking and she smiled too, unable to refrain from it.

"I'm sure we can work something out. After all, I'm the one you're dating, not my whole family. We can make it work."

"Well, in that case," Kenna said, leaning forwards. She hadn't realized he'd been so close to her as they'd been speaking, but it worked out quite well to push herself forward and catch his lips in a sweet kiss. Her hands flew up to steady herself as the momentum propelled her towards him. One hand landed on his shoulder, the other tried to wrap around his neck but she realized a second too late she was still clutching the paint brush. He jolted as the cold paint touched his neck and he broke the kiss with a curse.

She met his surprise with wide eyes, the start of a smile fighting at her mouth.

"That was a complete accident, I swear it," she said, holding her hands up in surrender. He nodded gravely.

"I'm sure it was. As was… this," he said, dipping his fingers into the can of red paint and swiping it across her collarbone.

"Bash!" The fight evolved into an all-out war, she put her fingers over the bristles of the brush and sprayed it on him, the white dots peppering his face. He flicked a blob of green paint at her and it landed on her cheek, sliding down until the rest of it plopped onto her chest. They only called for a ceasefire when a small blob of red landed on the white background of the set they were working on. Kenna wiped the majority of it up and repainted it quickly, before Brighs came back and saw.

A few seconds after Kenna had fixed the set, Brighs did walk in and did a double take when he saw the state the two of them were in.

"Because you two have done so much work for me last week, I am going to walk into my office and pretend I didn't see you. In fact, I might stay in my office until seven, so I might not even see you again today," he said with a wink as he walked past them and shut the office door behind him. Kenna bit her lip and looked at Bash before dissolving into laughter again.

"Let's go get cleaned up," she said in between giggles. "If we have enough time before class, maybe we could go grab coffee from down on the corner." That was the agreed upon plan and Kenna found herself in the bathroom trying to scrub all of the paint off her face and neck with just water, hand soap, and paper towels. It was just as difficult as it sounded. Once she was sure she had scrubbed off the top layer of her skin completely, she called it good and changed. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she decided to get her hair out of her face and pulled it back into a braid.

"Ready?" she asked as she left the bathroom and found Bash waiting for her, where he had all of last week.

"Yes. We should have enough time to get coffee, if you still wanted to," he said. She nodded and they left the theatre and walked around the main building to get to the street and they made their way down to the little local coffee shop that flooded with people after school.

"So, I'm sure Catherine will be incredibly distraught when she finds out we made up," Kenna said, swinging her arms lightly by her sides, hoping he'd take the hint and grab her hand. Something about Bash made Kenna revert to acting like a middle schooler and she didn't even mind it.

"Catherine will also be distraught when she finds out I don't really give a damn what she thinks," Bash countered and slid his fingers through Kenna's, tangling them together. Kenna looked over at Bash and grinned. "And as long as she doesn't rattle you too much, I think we'll be okay." The street was noisy, full of parents dropping their children off early and just the general morning traffic. The sun was just rising over the houses across from the school, peeking over the roofs and flooding the street with soft light.

"I'll be fine. But if you have insulted me in the past anymore, you should probably come clean now so she doesn't blindside me again."

"I promise that was the only thing. Contrary to what Catherine made it seem like, I don't actually talk to her that much about people from school."

"That's fair enough." They walked into the coffee shop and Kenna inhaled deeply, the smell of coffee filling her lungs. The shop was small but cozy. There was room for a few oversized armchairs, each a different color. Artwork dotted the walls, from local artists, some of which Kenna recognized. "What do you want?" Bash ordered a medium black coffee and Kenna got a caramel macchiato. She dug some money out of her pocket and paid before Bash could and he shot her a look.

"What?"

"I could have paid."

"And so could I. You can get the next one," she said with a little shrug.

"I'm holding you to that," he said and she smiled.

"I'm counting on it." He tugged her closer and she went willingly, leaning up to catch his lips in a kiss that was toned down enough for a public space but showed Kenna just how pleasant any future time alone could prove to be. When she finally took a step back, he wrapped an arm around her waist and she leaned into his side, she turned her head to the counter to check on their drinks and saw Catherine looked at them. She stiffened and Bash followed her gaze. After a long, awkward moment of steady eye contact, Catherine inclined her head ever so slightly before taking her change from the cashier and stepping back to wait for her order.

"Was that Catherine's approval?" Kenna asked, whispering it into Bash's ear.

"I believe so," he said, sounding just as surprised as she felt. Their drinks came up and they took them outside, laughing once the door shut behind them. "That could have gone much worse."

"I wouldn't count us out of the woods yet. There were people around. Just wait until you're home alone with her later." Bash shuddered and Kenna laughed again, bumping her shoulder into his arm. They drank their coffee as they walked slowly back to school, trading kisses along the way, the bitter taste of Bash's coffee mingling with her own sweet one.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" Bash asked, once they had walked into school and Kenna was going through her locker, pulling out what she needed for the day.

"I have a paper I need to write and a few other things," she said, trying to remember everything she had written down in her planner.

"I have a take home test for my chemistry class," he said, nodding. "We should do something this weekend, a proper date."

"I'd love that. Friday?" she asked, confident she didn't have anything else going on that day.

"Works for me," he said. The bell rang and he squeezed her hand before kissing her goodbye. It quickly escalated with Kenna's back against the locker and her hands tangled in his hair. His hands were burning against her hips, one curving up around the side of her waist. He moved his fingers just slightly and Kenna broke out of the kiss, unable to hold back her laughter.

"Sorry, I am so ticklish there," she said, gasping a little from the jolt.

"Good to know," he said and Kenna didn't like the glint in his eye.

"No, not good to know. You should forget I said that," she said as he smiled at her and began walking down the hall to his classroom. "I mean it," she called after him before smiling to herself. She hooked her thumbs around her backpack's straps and walked to her own classroom.

"Kenna, what's in your hair?" Lola asked as they all sat at their usual lunch table. By some miracle, they'd all been assigned the same lunch period and they took advantage of the fact every day.

"What do you mean, where?" she asked, touching her braid.

"No, up here," Mary said, motioning to her own hairline. Kenna felt her forehead and tried to bite down the smile already overtaking her features when she touched a dry patch of paint against her hair. She didn't know how she'd missed it when she was cleaning up earlier.

"Oh, paint from this morning. Painting sets can be very messy," she said and Mary narrowed her eyes at her.

"You don't just magically get paint up there. Was there an incident with a certain person?" Mary asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kenna replied but the girls all jumped on her smile and demanded answers.

"I may have made up with Bash," she finally admitted and relished the girls' gasps and exclamations.

"I knew you would work it out," Greer said, a self-satisfied expression on her face.

"I'm glad someone had some faith in me and him," she said before stuffing a cucumber from her salad into her mouth. She crunched on that while the girls chattered about Bash and boys in general. She smiled at the scene. She couldn't be luckier, to have such amazing friends and now, hopefully a great boyfriend as well.