For the next couple weeks, Lanie and Rachel continued to go to the board game club and hang out with Conner, Justin, and the other guys there. Outside of the club, Lanie practiced playing checkers at the orphanage with Rachel, Aaron, Trevor, and some of the other kids at the orphanage. It took some time, but she was able to improve. And it got to a point where one day, in the game club, Lanie actually beat Conner in a game of checkers. She felt proud of her victory-but she didn't let it cloud her feelings for Conner.

In spite of her feelings, Lanie wasn't sure she was ready to admit she had a crush on Conner. Right now, they were only on "just friends" terms, and she didn't want to risk damaging that by coming on too hard. But she should've realized she wasn't being too subtle with her flirting.

One Thursday morning, after Lanie had gotten out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body, she walked past Rachel braiding her long black hair at the bathroom sink. "Hey Lanie," said Rachel.

"Yeah?"

"Could I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you like Conner?"

Lanie paused at these words. "Uh...yeah," she said. "He's a nice guy, and he's-"

"No, I mean, do you like him, like, have a crush on him."

"Uh..."

"It's okay if you do!" said Rachel. "I won't tell anyone."

"No, you're right," Lanie admitted. "I do like Conner."

"I knew it!"

"How'd you know?"

"I've seen the way you look at him," Rachel answered. "And when you're talking to him, you always seem to be smiling. And you willingly ditched Diana's clique so you could hang out with Conner at the board game club."

Lanie should've felt relieved that she didn't have to keep her secret bottled up inside her anymore, but instead she felt embarrassed. She wished she'd been a little more subtle about her feelings for Conner. "I guess I-"

"Don't be embarrassed," said Rachel. "I've had crushes on guys before."

"You have?"

"Yeah. You and I are girls now, so it's not gay if we like guys."

"Huh." Lanie hadn't even considered that it might be "gay" for a guy to turn into a girl and then feel romantic attraction to another guy. But she knew Rachel was right: she was a girl now, so it wasn't homosexual.

"Well, if you want to try asking him out-"

"Rachel, you just said I'm a girl now!" said Lanie. "I can't ask a guy out!"

"Before you came to Pretty And Pink, I had a roommate who asked a guy out," said Rachel. "And Ruth kicked her out for it, but it's not like you have to worry about that happening to you."

"I mean...I don't know if I feel comfortable about doing that," said Lanie. "I've been hoping he'd ask me out, but I don't know if he..." She trailed off as an idea formed in her mind. "Hey, you have Second Period with him, right?"

"Right."

"Maybe you could talk to him? See if he might be interested in dating me?"

"I can try," said Rachel.

"Great," said Lanie. "Thank you so much."

***

When Rachel got to Second Period Geometry that day, she immediately started looking for Conner. Sure enough, there he was-at his table in the middle of the room with his tablemates Hugo, Joey, and David. But the four boys were deep in conversation with one another, and there was just a minute and a half before the bell rang, so Rachel knew now wasn't the time.

Fortunately, the time came halfway through the class when Mrs. Kirkland called a ten-minute break. This was something almost every teacher at Eastside High did-give their classes short breaks in the middle of their two-hour classes. Rachel suspected that the teachers did that because they understood teenagers.

Right when the break started, Rachel went over to Conner's table. "Hey Conner," she said, "Could we talk for a minute?"

"Ooh," said Hugo. "I think she likes you."

"Shut up, Hugo," said Conner. "She's just a friend." He got up and went with Rachel over to her table. "What's going on?"

Rachel was prepared. She'd rehearsed this conversation in her head for all of First Period. "You know Lanie?"

"Yeah, I do."

"You don't like her, do you?"

Conner wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Well...she is a nice girl," he said. "And she's kind of pretty, too."

"So you do like her?"

"What-I mean, she's a friend," said Conner, "But I don't, like, want to date her or anything."

"She told me she kind of likes you."

Conner's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Like, she wants to be more than friends."

For a few seconds, Conner wasn't sure what to say. "Wow," he said. "That's...that's surprising."

"Well? You wouldn't date her, would you?"

"If she wanted to, well..." Conner sighed. "I guess maybe I kind of like her, too."

"Great!" said Rachel. "Lanie's been hoping you'll ask her out, so if you do, then I think she'll say yes."

"Awesome," said Conner. "I'll have to do that."

***

"You're kidding me? It was that easy?" Lanie asked.

"Yes," said Rachel. "He said he kind of had the hots for you, too, so he'd be down for a date."

Lanie squealed in delight. "Thank you, Rachel, thank you!" she said, hugging Rachel deeply. "I owe you big-time for this!"

Rachel smiled and hugged Lanie back. "It's okay," she said. "It really wasn't any trouble for me to talk to Conner on your behalf."

"How about we go get lunch together? How's that sound?"

"Sounds good."

Lanie and Rachel both went down the school hallway toward the cafeteria. But when they rounded a corner, they ran into the three people they'd been trying to avoid: Diana Jackson, Penelope Christensen, and Nicole Collins. "Uh-oh," said Lanie. She and Rachel started to turn away, but it was too late. The other three girls had already seen them.

"Lanie! Rachel! There you are!" said Diana.

"Oh, fuck..." Lanie muttered.

"Where have you been?" Diana asked. "Why haven't you been hanging out with us at lunch?"

Lanie and Rachel were both at a loss for words. Neither of them wanted to admit that they'd been hanging around Cooper Hawkins, but they didn't have any good excuses.

"It's none of your business what we do at lunch," Rachel forced out.

"You've been hanging out with Conner Hawkins, haven't you?" Penelope asked.

"How did you know?" Lanie blurted out.

"Because I heard from someone who knew Justin Kathy, who told him you guys have been going to the board game club," Penelope replied. "Which Conner's a part of."

Lanie sighed. "You're right," she said. "We have been going to the board game club. And we haven't sat at your guys' lunch table because Diana said she wouldn't let us sit with you if we hung around her exes, so..."

"Yeah, I guess I did say that," Diana said, though she sounded more disappointed than angry.

For a few seconds, there was a silence between the five girls. It was broken when Lanie said "But if you want us to sit at your table, then we can-"

"Actually, that's not the real reason we were looking for you," said Diana.

"Oh?"

"You see, we had tickets for an Olivia Rodrigo concert tonight-me and Penelope and Nicole-and my cousins were supposed to go, but they had something come up at the last minute. So we thought maybe we could invite you guys to come with us?"

"Of course!" Rachel exclaimed. "I love Olivia Rodrigo!"

Diana nodded. "And you, Lanie?"

Lanie shrugged. "I guess," she said, "If you're offering."

"Great," said Diana. "The concert's at 7:00 tonight, so I'll come pick you up at 6:30."

"What-you have your own car?"

"Yes, I do," said Diana. "We'll get Penelope and Nicole, then go to the concert. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," said Rachel.

"Alright," said Diana. "See you at 6:30."

***

It took Lanie half an hour to find the right clothes to wear to the Olivia Rodrigo concert. She thought it would be easy to pick out the right outfit, but then Lanie realized all she had were jeans, T-shirts, a couple long-sleeve shirts, and a jacket. Not a whole lot of options, which now seemed like a pretty serious flaw in her wardrobe. With help from Rachel, Lanie managed to settle on her nicest pair of jeans and the best shirt she could find. But she made a mental note to go shopping for some better clothes when she had the chance.

Diana showed up at the front of the orphanage at 6:30 in her gray Hyundai Sonata. She watched as Lanie and Rachel both came out and got in the backseat of her sedan. "Hi guys," said Diana. She was wearing a leather jacket and thick, dark blue jeans with her hair tied back in a ponytail. "You look nice."

"You look pretty good yourself," said Lanie.

"Thanks," said Diana.

After they'd picked up Penelope and Nicole, they drove to the big theater where the Olivia Rodrigo concert was being held. After parking the car, the five of them got in line to enter the theater.

"You guys excited?" Diana asked as they were waiting in line.

"Of course!" Rachel answered. "Olivia Rodrigo's, like, my favorite singer ever!"

"What about you?" Nicole asked Lanie.

"Yeah, I'm excited," said Lanie. The truth was, she'd never been much of an Olivia Rodrigo fan. Even though she liked her music fine enough, she'd never been the type to obsess over celebrities and track every move of their careers. But the prospect of going to a theater that had a big stage with huge speakers and lights and a real, actual singer performing songs live without any lip-syncing or anything was pretty exciting in and of itself.

The girls entered the theater right as Olivia Rodrigo was coming onto the stage and starting to belt out "good 4 u." Diana and Rachel cheered with the rest of the crowd and even sang along when Olivia Rodrigo got to the chorus. At first, Lanie wasn't really doing anything, but after a couple songs, she started to get into the groove of things. She started cheering and chanting with the rest of her friends, watching as Olivia Rodrigo danced and sang about the stage. The combined experience of seeing an artist perform their songs live, being in the theater with a legion of fans, and sharing in the fun with everybody present, was better than anything Lanie had experienced in her life. She was too overjoyed, too exhilarated to think about anything else besides the concert-not even Angelina.

The last song Olivia Rodrigo performed was "driver's license." At the end of the song, she thanked everybody for coming to the concert and wished them a good night, to which everybody cheered. And Lanie had to admit, she felt kind of sad to see Olivia Rodrigo walk off the stage and out of sight. It meant that the night-this phenomenal night-was coming to an end.

"Wow," Rachel said as they left the theater. All of the girls were exhilarated by the experience of the concert, but especially Rachel. "That was amazing!"

"I know!" said Diana. "I've been wanting to see Olivia Rodrigo perform live for, like, a year!"

"I just wish there was a meet-and-greet," said Rachel. "Then I could get her autograph."

"Maybe someday," said Nicole.

"But this was still really awesome," said Lanie.

"Oh yeah," Diana agreed. "Are you glad you came?"

"Of course!" Lanie answered. "I've never been to an actual concert before!"

"Well, there's a first time for everything," said Diana.

***

Diana took Penelope and Nicole home before dropping off Lanie and Rachel. When she pulled up in front of the Orphanage For All Ages, she paused before unlocking the car doors. "Guys, before you go, there's something I want to say to you," Diana said.

"What is it?"

Diana took a deep breath before saying "I'm sorry for saying you couldn't hang out with me if you hung out with Conner."

"Oh...that's okay," said Lanie.

"I was still feeling bitter about Conner breaking up with me," Diana went on, "I was just so mad, I didn't even want my friends getting involved with him. But then when I talked to you guys earlier today, I realized I'd kind of pushed you away..."

"It's alright," said Lanie. "If Conner dumped me, I'd probably be pretty sour, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lanie hesitated before saying "I kind of have a crush on Conner."

"Oh, you do?" Diana asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"And I helped set them up earlier today," said Rachel.

"Wow!" said Diana. "Well, if you want to try dating Conner, then...go ahead!"

"What?"

"Yeah. You never know, it might work out between you!"

"Thank you," said Lanie. "And thanks for the concert, too."

"Anytime," said Diana. "Now you guys have a good night."

"You too."

To be continued...