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A vibration came from the bag Ellie was holding, and she reached in to grab her phone. Her eyes went wide when she looked down at it. “It’s the zoo.”

Ellie’s top choice for a job was the zoo that was located about twenty minutes from school. She didn’t think she wanted that to be her lifelong career, but since she knew she wanted to do something where she worked with or researched animals, she figured that was the perfect place to start.

Sierra nudged her. “Answer it.”

Ellie chewed on her bottom lip. “What if it’s bad news?”

“Better to know than to wonder, right?”

Ellie nodded, then picked up the phone and walked away from the group. Everyone was silent as they waited for what felt like forever for Ellie’s conversation to end.

When Ellie walked back toward them with her eyes pointed at the ground, Sierra figured she must have gotten badnews. The sick feeling had just started to form in her stomach when Ellie looked up at her with a huge smile on her face. She picked Sierra up and twirled her around in a circle. “I got the job. Baby, we don’t have to be apart. I got the job.”

Sierra’s heart burst with joy. Just when she thought this day couldn’t get any better, it went and proved her wrong. Life was so good she didn’t know how it could possibly go up from here, but with Ellie by her side, life kept getting better and better.

*1 year later*

Ellie

Ellie paced back and forth while she waited for Sierra’s race to start. She had continued to blow everyone’s expectations this year, and it had all come down to this moment. She was in the finals for the 400 at the national meet and since nine runners made finals, one of them wouldn’t receive the All-American trophy. She only had to beat one person, but that wasn’t going to be easy when she was the one ranked ninth going into the race. Even though it was a huge accomplishment just to make it into finals, she knew Sierra wouldn’t be satisfied with that, and all she wanted was for her girlfriend to be happy.

Heavy hands landed on Ellie’s shoulders, and she looked up to find Juniper smiling at her. “Would you calm down? She’s going to do amazing.”

Ellie was so lucky to have Juniper. She and Chris had flown down to Florida for nationals with her so they could all cheer on Sierra. Over the past year, they had become even closer, and Ellie, Sierra, Chris, and Juniper spent the majority of their free time together. Ellie couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of Juniper being at Sierra’s meet when just two years earlier she was telling her that they had to make Sierra’s life hell to get her to leave West End.Thank god that didn’t work.

“Why are you laughing?” Juniper asked. “Are you completely losing it?”

“I’m just happy.”

“Of course you are. You’re so in love it’s disgusting.” Juniper stuck her tongue out at Ellie, and Ellie stuck hers out back at her.

“Like you have any room to talk.”

Juniper put her arm around Chris. “How could I resist? Look how cute he is.” Juniper pointed toward the track. “Speaking of cute.”

Ellie looked at the track to see Sierra taking her place. She was always cute, but with her eyebrows creased in total focused determination, she was sexy as hell right now.

Ellie couldn’t help but lick her lips as she watched her, heart pounding when she heard the gun go off.She just needs to beat one person. Just one person.

Sierra was in the innermost lane which worked to her benefit, because she could see all the other runners. She was so competitive, Ellie had no doubt she would catch one of them. By the second turn of the race, Sierra had made up the stagger and passed one runner. Ellie jumped up and down as she shouted for her. All she needed to do was stay ahead of that girl and she would get All-American. As she went around the turn, she not only stayed ahead of that girl, but passed another one.

Ellie screamed even louder as Sierra reached the final straight away. The two girls she had passed were well behind her, and now she was neck and neck with two other girls. Ellie watched in amazement as she closed the distance, passing by one and then the other right at the finish line, putting her in fifth place.

Ellie gave both Juniper and Chris big hugs as they all celebrated together. Once Sierra gained some semblance of life back, her eyes scanned the crowd and quickly found Ellie’s.When Ellie gave her two thumbs up, Sierra ran over to where she was standing outside of the track and jumped into her arms.

Ellie held her tight and spun her around. When she set her back down, she placed a quick, but hard, kiss on her lips. She put her arm around Sierra’s waist as they both turned to look at the times as they came up on the big screen. Ellie’s eyes went wide when she saw the time that was better than anything she had run in her whole career. If this was anyone else, Ellie would be disappointed that her school record had already been broken, but she was happy for Sierra. She saw how hard she worked and couldn’t be more proud of her.

Ellie pulled Sierra even closer to her as proud tears stung at her eyes. “New school record! Dude, I’m so proud of you.”

Sierra turned to face Ellie fully, studying her face as she rested her hands on her hips. “That’s crazy. I hear the girl who had it before me was super fast.”

“Not as fast as her girlfriend. Turns out her girlfriend’s better than her.”

Sierra leaned in and rubbed her nose against Ellie’s, causing Ellie’s heart to grow even bigger. “Maybe we’re just better together.”

“We’re definitely better together. I love you, Sierra No-Middle-Name Finnegan.”

“I love you, Ellie Patty.”