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There's a dark room at Rydell High. It's not used often, the photography club wasn't popular enough. Susan has a key to it though. She's always loved photography. A way to create physical memories, and photos are easily hidden away. She had a box of photos she'd taken and developed herself shoved under her bed.
There was something so beautiful in looking back at some of the happiest moments of her life. Or looking through her camera at the beauty that was something simple. She kept the photos for another reason too though.
Jane grabbed her hand and pulled her along through the field. Susan grinned and awkwardly raised her camera to take a picture. She took the photo just as Jane looked back and smiled at her.
"You're beautiful," Susan told her quietly as she lowered the camera. Jane blushed and mumbled a thank you.
It was a little risky Susan supposed, going on a picnic date in broad daylight. But well, the flower meadow they'd found was empty except for them. Besides, it'd be easy to pretend they were just friends if someone else did show up. It was worth it though, spending time with Jane was always something she loved.
Three days later, and a date later, Susan had filled up the film and had the dark room to herself. The process was calming. Going through the familiar movements gave her time to switch off. To relax slightly, think through her day. She'd already gotten more film, she made sure to buy plenty every time she could.
Eventually she was done and could take the photos. She pulled her small box from her bag and carefully stacked them all into it. Once she was home, and alone, she would sort them into the photo album she had stuffed away.
It was later that night, after her parents had gone out on a date and Jane had snuck over, that Susan pulled the album out. Jane had only seen it once before, but she loved it nearly as much as Susan did. Though she wasn't really sure why Susan kept it. Jane watched as Susan wrote notes on the back of each photo before carefully putting them into the folder.
"Why do you do this?" Jane asked quietly. The moment seemed like quiet was what it needed.
"One day a love like ours isn't going to be frowned upon, and I want those people to look back and see that people have always been this way," Susan explained quietly. She looked up then and met Jane's eye. "I want our story to live on." Jane nodded then, and looked to the photo album.
The only picture in that part so far was a photo from their picnic. Both of them had flower crowns on their head, Susan had held the camera at a bit of an awkward angle to take the photo of them. The picnic basket was between them, but they had leant over it to kiss. It was possibly her favourite photo. Jane wished she could frame it and keep it in her room.
She hoped one day people would look at this photo and know that women had always loved other women. She understood then why Susan did this. It made so much sense. She wondered if there would be some sort of collection for it to be displayed in some time in the future. Perhaps alongside older things showing women always loving women. These photos would live on longer than they ever could, and it was their story.
"I hope one day someone will find it and understand us," Jane said, leaning over the album to kiss her.