That night, they decided they would try out "David" at the mall. But not the local mall. A small strip mall that was an hour away. Casey wanted to be extra cautious with the trial run. She wore her largest hoodie and put the hood up with a beanie and completed the outfit with grey joggers. What was hilarious to Casey was that she didn't even have to try dressing up this way- it was extremely comfortable and kind of fit her original style anyways...but more dance jock "breakdance bboy" . With Izzie by her side, Casey couldn't help but think that they looked like one of this rapper couples, like Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Casey put on sunglasses and started making rap hands in the mirror.

"You are such a dork."

"YO YO YO BABE. Whatcha say we skiddaddle outta here."

"Please stop, or we are breaking up right now."

They went to the food court first. On the way from the parking lot, they held hands until where the Hot Dog On A Stick was. A sad pimply teenager was behind the till, looking bored of his mind.

"Welcome to Hot Dog On A Stick. May I take your order sir?"

He was pointedly looking at Casey, who was looking around to see who he was talking to.

"Oh! Me. Yes me, I am a sir. Ahem!" She made her voice deeper.

"I would like the green. Lemonade. A green medium please."

The cashier, who couldn't care less, keyed in the order.

"Is that all?"

"Ah, yes. Wait, no. Sorry." She turned to Izzie.

"It's working! Wait, do you want anything?" She said in a hushed but still very audible voice.

"I'm good."

"That'll be 3.04."

They walked around in every store, seeing if they'd get any stares. No one seemed to bat an eyelid...except for one very butch lady who worked at the tattoo parlour, but she gave them a massive smile and winked at them. Casey pulled the chords on her hoodie so that only her nose was visible.

"She knows!"

"Yeah, but that's probably because... you know."

"What?"

"She's gay!"

"You think?"

"Oh my god you suck at this!"

"Nuh Uh!"

"This is so ironic that I'm better than you at this."

"No it's not, you're gayer than I am!"

Casey felt instant regret when she saw how all mirth disappeared from Izzie's face and was replaced with worry.

"I know. And I still don't know if I'll ever feel that way about a guy. And there's so much expectation since I look like the straightest girl ever but this is who I am and I don't wanna change."

It was true. Casey thought Izzie would be the last person she would've thought was into girls. But then again, she was pretty oblivious about anyone's sexuality.

" I read all these articles and the queer community looks so scary and I don't think I'd fit it either and it's all just fucking terrifying." Izzie flashed back to a question that her aunties would keep telling: "Such a pretty girl like you is bound to be scooped up by a handsome fella!" To all the girls on the track team gushing about boys, and how her opinion seemed to matter the most. She lied so many about her opinions towards sex and love that she didn't really know how she felt. She just knew what everyone expected her to feel, and it was exhausting.

"Hey..." Casey our a consoling arm around her. "You don't need to be anyone but you. Fuck everyone. They can ...er, suck a bag of dicks. And and and, why be sad? We are literally playing it straight right now for - safety reasons. Like, we are literally pretending to be a boy and a girl right now." Izzie's face cracked into a small grin.

"I mean, if you wanted to look more gay, I dunno, wear more flannel or dye your hair blue, I don't know." Casey was thinking how the lady at that tattoo parlour dressed.

"An undercut? A middle nose ring thing?"

"Are you just describing that tattoo lady we just saw?"

"What? She was obviously..thingy, and we both knew it for some reason."

"Hmmm...maybe you're right."

By the end of the trial, Izzie had bought a fake septum ring, hair bleach, and 'David' invested in the baggiest sweat pants she had ever seen (They were only $5 at the Goodwill, after all.) When they got home, Izzie put in her fake piercing, and borrowed one of Casey's Hawaiian man tourist shirts and snapbacks.

"How do I look?" Izzie looked obviously uncomfortable, but she was trying to pass it off as a joke.

"You look super gay." Casey gave her a thumbs up.

Ugh. Izzie hated that. The description was somehow an insult, yet she didn't know why. Casey saw the frustration in her eyes.

"Take it off. You hate this." Izzie gladly stripped off and put back her outfit- daisy dukes and a leather crop jacket.

"It's just not your thing. Me, on the other hand..." Casey put on the outfit and looked like herself. She held herself so naturally. Izzie envied Casey for a moment before she went into Casey's closet in search for something.

"Here. Put this on." Izzie had fished out a long flowery mauve dress. It clearly had never been worn.

"Uh oh."

Casey stood in front of the mirror, face frowning like a unhappy 5 year old. Her arms were suddenly rigid and she crossed her arms with irk.

"Can I take it off now?"

"No, we have to accessorise!"

Izzie spent a good hour doing makeup and hair. The end product was a grumpy but very feminine and elegant Casey.

"God, it feels like there's a layer of thick powder on my face."

"There is."

"Is this the kind of shit that I have to wear to prom?"

"'Afraid so, Newton, but you look beautiful, if I do say so myself." Izzie whipped her phone out to take a selfie with the new glamorous Casey. Immediately afterwards, Casey took a massive wad of makeup remover strips to undo the damage. Izzie could only laugh, knowing that it was gonna be the first and only time she would ever see Casey wear that dress.

The summer holidays started smoothly. Sam was preparing to go to university by going through his required reading for each of the courses he was going to take.

"You know that no one actually reads those, right bud?" Doug tried to calm Sam's summer study frenzy. Elsa had tried to get in Sam's good graces by buying him some of the textbooks he needed for class.

"If it wasn't required, why did they put it on the required reading list? If it was optional, it would be under the optional list. Why would they do that if no one reads it anyways? Plus this stuff is great. It's all about the marine life that we're going to look at. Why wouldn't anyone want to read this?"

Casey decided that this summer she was going to read up more about potential scholarships she could apply for, but instead kicked off her vacation by lounging around and learning to play Steven Universe songs on the ukelele. After a month, Evan eventually texted Casey a funny dog meme, which she had interpreted as a sign of forgiveness. They still hadn't met up, but they were sending cute animal photos, so that couldn't be a bad sign. Izzie had taken up shifts at the local frozen yogurt shop, "Dairy Air", so Casey was getting her fill of free froyo since she pretty much went there to keep her company. The kids at Clayton seemed to all be away at their summer villas in various parts of Europe, which was sort of a relief.

Casey eventually told her family how she broke up with Evan over dinner after her dad had asked why he hadn't seen him around in a while.

"That's a shame...Evan was a nice guy."

"Dad, can you not!"

"Okay, okay! Jeez...Well, you look all loved up though! What, you got a new boyfriend already?"

"Not exactly." After a flurry of internal debate, Casey finally said it.

"I'm with Izzie."

"Yeah you're with her all the time."

"No, like, I am dating Izzie. We are dating. She's kind of my girlfriend. Like, actual girlfriend."

Obviously surprised, Casey appreciated how Doug tried to hide it.

"Oh. Good for you honey. She's a lovely girl."

Even though she had known they wouldn't take issue with it, it felt as though a huge physical weight had been lifted from her chest. Suddenly, she felt sad that Izzie had to keep something like this, something worth celebrating, all secret.

"But don't tell anyone. Izzie's folks are...not as great as you guys."

"Of course. It's nobody's business but yours." Doug continued to pick at the last of his peas. As Sam did indeed, launch into a rant about how homosexuality is really common in the animal kingdom (as Casey had predicted). He also mentioned abruptly that "Izzie's cool", and then said nothing else about it.

Casey wondered how long she would have to be "David", and how long they would be together. She never used to think so much about relationships and the future, but now that she had something to lose, the fear of losing that something preoccupied her mind. She worried what would happen if Izzie's family found out, and what people at school would say. Would people treat her any differently? Would she get called "dyke" in the hallways? Was there even a pride in their town? Who else was gay in their school? She'd pour over how different it was to date a girl, and how much more emotional it was. Izzie seemed to need constant reassurance, and could get rather clingy if Casey made other plans without telling her about them first. Casey finally mustered up the tolerance to talk to her mom about it all and she said that "Whatever happens, we are here for you. And we are here for Izzie too." After that, she wasn't so mad at her mom anymore. Casey was indulging in hew newfound queerness, finding jokes and relatable experiences that she didn't even realise were part of this LGBT+ experience. What was scary about all this was reading about the experiences of people coming out, and how some stories were life-affirming and uplifting, or would go really badly and end in suicide and homelessness. But overall, what was comforting about it all was that the message was this: it gets better. And Casey believed it. 100%.

Thank you for reading this fanfic. I may continue it depending on how I feel or whatever other creative idea happens upon me, but I wanted to end it on a happy and optimistic note in case it doesn't get renewed for a season 3. This is probably the most realistic ending I could've imagined for them. Please like and leave a review!