Soulmates

***Soulmates*** is the fifth chapter of *Winter's Tales*.

## Synopsis

Winter is starstruck upon encountering the intelligent, quick-thinking, and witty Daniela, and together, the two's relationship blossoms into a deep friendship. But with more interactions and close contact, Winter feels like she and Dani are meant to be something deeper than a friendship, something more powerful - yet she doesn't know if Dani will feel that they could be star-crossed soulmates.

## Disclaimer

*Varien will be referred to with female pronouns in part of the chapter in reference to the two years after coming out before he used masculine pronouns again. The events in the chapter have been mirrored to match real life; Varien will be referred to with his correct pronouns in a later chapter.*

## Transcript

*"So show me, the nights I dream about..."*

*"Enchant me, let my illusions out..."*

*Love.*

*A tempting, seductive influence, a ripple on an untouched surface, an incursion into being taken higher than the ceiling, to a ground no human has traversed before.*

*We're all not strangers to love and its many transient forms. Familial love, the gift of a mother's love, the hearty love of a strict yet doting father, and the gentle calm of what the other members of the family may bring.*

*Platonic love, love of a friend who vowed to be your best buddy, stuck beside you for life, two peas in a pod, Bonnie and Clyde.*

*But the love that flashes its peacock feathers the most often is romance. Sure, it's very cliché and can be utterly disgusting when used in a horrific context and overexaggerated, but there is something truly remarkable and unbelievable when it comes to being loved.*

*Affection is one of the most powerful and silkiest vehemences the earth has to offer. To know that you're loved, to know that you can share an intimate, close-contact space with someone of your choosing, is a divine aspect of human life, the finest of blessings, and a crack into the holiest, fluid emotions that soon overtake the body, lighting the way for a united, colorful, vivid future.*

*Like a lightning strike sent by Zeus, love is one of the greatest phenomenons on earth, unbridled, witty, and enigmatic. It always finds a way to us, even when we think it's lost, evaporated to the hands of time. Love doesn't respect the boundaries and the playbook. Love isn't a play-to-win game at the arcade. Love is an open, bleeding wound that can't be staunched.*

*Yet love can be on the forbidden shores, cast aside and cloaked. Some have malice-laden intentions lying in their hearts and will forbid a true love's flower to restore order to their will. Some face rejection for the love they face and the love they express. Burdens. Desolation. An inability to be consoled from losing the other half to waters gone toxic.*

*Love can be closeted, tucked away as if it were curtains blocking light to the outside, but it can never stay in a cage forever. A caged animal deserves to run free.*

*Hate spews into the world for many reasons, and love is in that group of reasons. Traditional romance has always been seen as a girl and boy chasing each other before sharing a sloppy first kiss and making it official. It's been that way for centuries.*

*Is it so wrong for a boy to kiss a boy, legs tangled up in fishnet knots? It is so wrong for a girl to kiss a girl, to profess her love of girl, nestled under the shadows of the clouds or in a starlit bedroom?*

*Love is simple, or it's complicated. Awkward, or perfection. Insecure, or uncomfortable. Paging for the beauty and anxious butterflies, dancing under the light of a million stars.*

*As you are all aware, my story with love is a painstaking one, but to summarize it, you're going to need to look back to where it all began, where my first love made her being ignite in front of me.*

*I'd dreamt of kissing girls, swimming underwater with the fish and corals with a girl just like me. I'd dreamt of girls luring me off to adventures, to worlds unknown.*

*I was a proud, proud lesbian, and whenever the perfect girl would find me, I'd let her in, and we'd be the yin to each other's yang.*

*Was I truly ready for the drug-inducing real love, though? There was only one way to find that out.*

Springtime still ran high in the cool breeze gripping Pineshadow, and the flowers were in full bloom, allergies budding at every petal. Jesus, where is the allergy medicine when we need it? My nose was Niagara Falls in the springtime and it still is. Gross.

With the flowers and the stench of springy pollen and the sneezing and snuffles and the green green *green* grass and trees, so green that you could collapse on the ground and have a seizure, Father was working his ass off to tend to Mom's garden, and he had done remarkably well. He had bought more seeds and tilled the dirt, watering the bleeding hearts (none died, what a welcome surprise). Unlike Mom, he did *not* like the bees. *The Wicker Man* had clearly traumatized him.

Nevertheless, the bees and the buzz aside, Father's deeds would have made Mom smile. She was smiling up there when the stars came out, I was certain. Mom always found a way to make her presence known.

Hey Mom, as I narrate my story, can you smite Father again? Signed, Winter.

In school, I was *excelling*. Soaring, flying even, and making the *High School Musical* fans weep. When you spend too much time watching your musicals, you aren't the ones paying attention to class and getting the work done, even if it's like standing in a rosebush. I don't even understand what some of you see in Vanessa Hudgens.

Anywho, I received *attention*. *Lots* of an attention. A pot of *gold* worth of affection.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to my head, shaved clear on both sides, hair drooping over my forehead, an oddball strand hanging off one of the front tips. My style matched *no one's*.

*Zero*.

The box office reception to my *glamorous* look was *mixed*.

"Wow, Winterlyn! Impressive!"

"Did you do that *yourself*?"

"You look too much like a boy..."

"Um, are you a boy or are you a girl? You sure look rather boyish..."

Thank you, thank you! I appreciate your compliments and you guys telling me I'm a tomboy. Congrats for missing the *entire point*.

The point being, I *was* a tomboy. I *am* a tomboy. My look can be however it wants, but if people wanted to shed crocodile tears over my lack of feminity, they could go ahead and fill up the water canister kept on Ms. Smallbison's desk. I'm sure she would enjoy the free drink.

But even so, the praise outweighed the criticisms, and even Ms. Smallbison offered me acclaim for the hairstyle, as she had always been fond of people who had defied the norm in the old times and the new. It gave her hope for the next generation wielding the flames of the future.

In one of our history lessons, she taught us about Two-Spirits, Native peoples that fulfilled multi-gender roles in their hiearchies, and when contrasting, she often picked me, the tomboy of the class, as the teacher's pet to drive home her point.

I miss Ms. Smallbison. She was definitely one of the best teachers I ever had. Anyway.

Stares were scorching my body when I sat down in class, stares of the scornful, who believed I looked like a boy with a sloppy hairdo, and the stares of the grateful, who shared a common brain cell with me and liked the way I chose to live my life.

*One* person in particular *liked* my style.

He was a good pupil, but always seemed to have his nose stuck in sportsball, never shut up about football, and had chalky-brown hair slicked up with shiny gel, muscle forming in his chest and arms.

That enough context clues for you?

If you guessed that *Lars Miller* was the fanboy, you've won *The Price Is Right*. Go get your free car now.

Lars was seated next to me, and when his dark blue eyes scanned my body, he always seemed to be more *animated*. He saw something of *worth* in me, something he *desired*.

I was the polar opposite of him, as after all this time, I *still* genuinely failed to see why girls would swoon over him. He was *nothing special*. He was just *a guy*.

I'd never be into him romantically. I was a lesbian; falling for him was biologically *impossible* for me. I'd rather kiss a rock and get a germ infection than kiss someone with as much personality as a piece of freaking *sandpaper*.

Our relationship started out *simple* at first, not too shabby and awkward enough for me to have my cheeks redden when he'd give me compliments.

"Hey, Winterlyn, you look kinda cool with your hair done like that," he said.

"Thanks," I responded curtly, one eye giving him the attention he craved, the other on my right hand as it wrote English notes on the paper.

The next compliment had more flavor.

"Ugh, why can't our classmates be more *grateful* that you have a different *flair*?" he scoffed as my class went to the cafeteria for lunch. "I think your hair's neat, Winterlyn. People who claim it makes you look less... fem... ah what's the word..."

"Feminine."

"Feminine, yeah. They're *wrong*. Want to throw my football at them."

Thanks, Lars, but I could easily hold my own. You play your football, I use the temper I inherited from Father to my advantage.

I didn't mind Lars being a *friend*, as long as he didn't violate my personal boundaries and kept the compliments short, sweet, and not full of gems he'd sacrifice his spleen for to buy at Pandora. As long as he didn't serve as my darling white knight in shining armor and rescued me from an imaginary damsel-in-distress situation in the musty wine cellar, then he was *fine*.

To the (un)surprise of me, Lars quickly evidenced that he was far more of a complex person than the kind boy who spoke football, sweat, and acrid football turf. He inched closer to me, crossing the personal lines in the sand, and whenever I wished to be alone, he was my witch's familiar and *never* let me be.

He was *clingy*. He had to follow me wherever I went and couldn't stand a moment where I was *without him*. If I left him to use the restroom, he'd put his hand on my seat, saying that he was attempting to make sure no one stole it (although Ms. Smallbison had prohibited musical chairs for a reason).

He organized my supplies, more or less appalling me (I put my pencil next to the *sharpener*, not the *eraser*; this isn't rocket science).

When someone complained about me, he defended me in ten seconds flat, even though I had resilience and could *very well* defend my territory. I wasn't Lars' damsel-in-distress. I wasn't Rapunzel trapped in a tower consuming stale hazelnut soup.

I wasn't Belle needing Gaston to spice up her life.

Lars *begged* me at every corner to be partners on every assignment, every project, though half the time, I said *no*, needing my own headspace to come up with something *creative* for Ms. Smallbison.

Or I pleaded for the fiery Sigourney Wenhaven, and my request was fulfilled. We did come up with one hell of a presentation that one time...

Lars wasn't dissuaded by the word *no*, treating it like a brutal football game in the rain, and he pulled out all the stops, all of the compliments to make a girl faint at her feet.

Problem was, I was *not* the girl who fell for the guy and kissed the guy and had the fairytale ending in queue.

My destiny was to be with a *girl*. Lars had no sense of *dignity* and had such an *ego* of appealing to women of all types.

He had been drawn to the impeccable tomboy with an attitude, and that tomboy would have to *show him* that she didn't take romantic crap from men.

Lars *embarrassed me*. He was a *bother* to be around, a lap dog wanting pets and attention and the love in the world, something I couldn't give or summon in my heart. A lesbian feels nothing for a man *romantically*.

I had wanted to view Lars as my friend, too, but I couldn't if he was liking me the way he was.

I just wanted to be *alone* in the fog of my mind, curled up at home, in my blankets, relistening to *The Ancient & Arcane* and *My Prayers Have Become Ghosts*.

I needed to find a way to shake Lars off and encourage him to move to a girl who suited his demands better *and* fairer than I.

Who else in my life knew about romance? Father. A risk because of his morals, but the reward was greater. I explained to him in great detail about Lars' actions, how he had stuck to me like a burr and hadn't taken the hint that he was humiliating me.

"Oh yes, Lars is a type of boy I know *quite frankly*," he told me. "Judging from the evidence, he does seem to have a crush on you, Winterlyn."

"And the problem is I don't share his feelings. He's not my type," I replied, lying under my breath so as to not drop the coming out of the closet bombshell on Father (more on that soon). Ew, Lars *liked me liked me*. That wasn't shocking since his actions proved that, but it mildly disgusted me.

"Lars is young, and his mindset is developing. You're further ahead than him and think with the facts and awareness first, not with the feelings and yearnings. Winterlyn, for now, ignore him and what he says. Don't give him too much attention, but if his compliments become backhanded or too embarrassing for you to stomach, talk to your teacher and tell Lars to stop. Until he matures, this is the most viable advice I can provide."

I nodded. Father did bring up some solid points, and I stored his advice in my head, using it to nullify the Lars-isms in class. Peace returned, and my cheeks were no longer dappled with the pink blobs of globby embarrassment. Lars quieted, but he was a dog to its bone: unable to accept something lying down.

On a sunny weekend, Father and I had a park day, mostly so I could extract the sequel of Lars mania from my head. The air was crisp, carrying the faintest traces of summer on the horizon, and the leaves gently rustled, tugged and pulled by the wind. Woodchips crunched under my shoes, and a finch chirped in the distance...

"*Hi Winterlyn*!"

...and there was also Lars. At the *park*. In my *personal space*. During my hiatus from Lars mania.

Goddamn it, why must you ruin such a serene moment?

I whipped around to face him, hairs on the back of my neck standing erect, and I cocked my brows at high mast.

"Lars, *what are you doing*?" I demanded, unbothered by how I wasn't concealing my distrust.

"I saw you and I just wanted to hang out! You've been *super* busy in class lately! And... you're also *pretty*!"

*Ew*. Red flag. Red flag. Stranger danger!

"Lars, *leave*. You're in my bubble," I warned him, arms folded and boots planted firmly in the woodchips. You want a girl to stand her ground, and you'll *get* it.

Lars asked for it.

"Winterlyn! Lemme play with you!" he exclaimed, leaping toward me, and jumping back, I commanded my body to *run*.

Chestnut eyes watched the scene unfolding. Father had left me to handle Lars on my own; he would not intervene unless I was in *critical danger*. Plus, he didn't want to scar Lars permanently by brandishing a *pocket knife* on him. Father wasn't *cruel*.

Aged like spoiled milk, but back to the story.

The chase went on for two minutes. I swerved around poles and hidey-holes, stumbling, as Lars' brute strength propelled him toward me.

God, he was aiming to *hug me* and tell me a hundred things I was better off *not* knowing. I couldn't be touched.

It was *Hammer Time*.

You can't touch me, Lars. Not in your wildest dreams.

"Come back, Winterlyn! Though I gotta admit, if we're playing tag, I'm gonna get ya eventually!"

*Zeus, please zap this guy with your thunderbolt*, I pleaded, but the sky was clear and cloudless. Zeus was spending the day sleeping in.

I kept running, running, and running in circles, Lars behind me, locked onto sight. I *had* to lose him. I couldn't call for Father and *spook him*, give him the impression that he *despised* him.

How could I handle this neutrally? What options did I have?

As I was mulling over decisions, I failed to see that someone else had stopped in front of me.

Without warning, I smashed into them before I could skid to a stop, and we tumbled in a heap into one of the hidey-hole dips in the grounds making up Pinelake Park. Lars ran right past the hole, missing us completely.

It was dark, shadows creeping in around the edges, and I shifted, dusting off a few woodchips that had sunk into my clothing. I heard the confused pants of the other person occupying the hole, and blinking, I discovered that the person was another girl my age.

She had pale skin, like mine but just a few shades different, black hair tied into a bun with two strands hanging over her ears, and a set of confused, orange-amber eyes that squinted at me as she rubbed her head.

"Oof..." she uttered, slow to regain her bearings.

"Crap, I'm sorry about that!" I apologized swiftly, hoping she wasn't too frazzled by the collision. "Are you hurt?"

The stranger shook her head. "Nah, I've been banged up worse. Who were you running from?"

Hmm, she seemed friendly... and not antagonistic. Why not open up a little? It couldn't do me any harm.

"One of my classmates... he has a *huuuuuuge* crush on me that I don't return. I barely even like him."

"Can relate. Classmates are snobs sometimes."

"Do they ever just make you want to rip your hair out?"

"Dude, there was a guy who lacerated my finger by jettisoning a *Beyblade* at me!"

"What's a... Beyblade?" I asked, unable to eat this girl's word salad, but being able to comprehend that she was *definitely* likeable.

She was similar to me... and had a lot of the same experiences under her belt.

"It's a top with *blades*. My teacher blew her stack and went *cattywampus*!"

"*Huh*?" I leaned my head, the word salad jumbling me up even more.

The girl blushed, looking at her shoes nervously and smoothing her hair strands. "Sorry, I'm pretty intelligent for someone my age. Consuming vocabulary and knowledge is kinda... my thing."

"No, you shouldn't apologize for that!" I suddenly exclaimed, moving up to her, and surprised, she looked at me.

We didn't speak to each other for a second, and I scratched the bottom of my throat, tucking myself into the oversized Varien shirt Father had bought me recently at Hot Topic.

"Uh... I should be the one apologizing. For colliding with you. I could have given you a woodchip to the eye..."

"Hey, no sweat, dude," she reassured, her amber eyes gleaming, "it's fine. Accidents happen. By the way... I *really* like that short hair of yours."

Calling me a *dude* and *acknowledging* my tomboy status? Wow, she seriously was cooler than I thought...

"Thank you!" I huffed, allowing my chest to puff out of pride.

I glanced at her, finding her shirt to be a light blue one - also oversized, fittingly - it had clouds on the sleeves and a rainbow over the chest.

"Aww, your shirt's cute," I complimented, and she smiled, giving an anxious chuckle.

"Heh... thank you. Did you notice we both match?"

"The oversized shirts?"

"*Yeah*! What were our parents each thinking?"

"Order the large when we're both smalls, go figure," I snorted with a sarcastic edge, and I realized with a pin drop in my stomach that I should probably have introduced myself to the girl. Silly me! I cleared my throat and beckoned her attention onto me.

"I'm Winterlyn McCormick. Should've introduced myself earlier."

The girl nodded in understanding. "Agree. And I'm Daniela, full name Daniela Burton Vunquist. You can just call me Dani."

*Dani*. What a lovely name. She had a cute complexion, an innocent demeanor, mellow attitude, and a *sharp*, intelligent mind. What else could she have?

I guess I'd have to socialize with her more and get to know her better. I was *itching* to.

Something about Dani was promising, the most promise I'd seen in someone I'd first met in a *long* time.

"Do you... want to tell me more? About you?" I asked, and smiling widely (and adorably) at the question, Dani nodded.

"There's a *lot* I want to say... but it's mostly gonna come out as a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to you. Cool beans?"

"Cool beans," I whispered as I shook her hand, and Dani spoke away, telling me that from a young age, she knew she was going to conquer the *entire world*. Her view of world dominion: going to an institution known as an "Ivy League" school.

Her mother had told her that she could end up at Harvard - when she was four, she was breaking testing computers and could name animals by scientific name *flawlessly*. She could do this math thing I always forgot about (PEMDAS) and could calculate square roots (WHAT ARE THOSE) and other mathmatical combinations meant for a middle schooler or even a freshman in high school.

She was also pretty strong and was able to effortlessly lift up a water crate with just *one arm* once.

"Nah, I don't go to the gym. I do my workouts at home, but I'm fairly buff."

"Gonna give those boys a run for their money?"

"They'll be wallowing in their sorrows at the top of Confusion Hill!"

"Bet!"

"Bet."

Dani was a chatterbox, and every word that came out of her mouth was a film reel detailing her life, her recollections almost flawless, and I was *snared* right into her world.

Would it be so wrong if Dani stayed *just* a bit longer? If we could have the whole park to ourselves just for today? She was just so *entertaining*.

*Madly* entertaining. My heart was knocking on the walls of my chest, telling me to *stay* with her.

I hesitated, though, since Dani didn't downright say we were friends, and I didn't want to vex her.

After she had finished telling me about some funny shenanigans from her youth and how she had used to crush hardcore on Tom Parker of The Wanted, she turned to me, her knees tucked into herself. She looked like a cozy roly poly.

"So, tomboy, fancy telling me about *yourself*?" she drawled, just a tiny smirk on her face.

Oh, she had the cards to play on me, and she had me *enticed*, hook, line, and sinker.

That was an offer I wouldn't reject. Dani had *class*.

She had *dignity*, unlike Lars.

And unlike Lars, she didn't treat me like a *shiny toy*. She treated me like the *real* tomboy I was.

"Mine's a bit more... complicated to explain," I started. "For starters, I have a huge family."

"How many members?"

"Uh... I have-"

Sudddenly, from the outside, a familiar voice called.

"Winterlyn! Time to go home!"

Dang it, Father, just when I was ready to share my convuluted family history with my new confidante. Oh well.

I emerged from the hidey-hole, Dani not far behind me, and Father's brows elevated in the tiniest bit of shock at the sight of her.

"Who's this?"

"Dad, this is Dani. We, uh, ran into each other when I was fleeing Lars. Speaking of Lars, is he gone?" I questioned, meticiously swiveling my head around to make sure that we weren't about to be ambushed by a lovesick football nerd.

"Yes. He called it quits a while ago. So, the kiddo here is Dani?"

"Yep, me," responded Dani, who pointed to herself and shifted in her light blue pair of Converses. "I'm Daniela. Your daughter's neat! We got along quite well."

"Glad to hear that, and it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Winterlyn's father." In a twist Father move, he let Dani shake his hand, and she smiled, flustered, the dimple near her lip quivering.

As I left, walking side-by-side with Father, I turned back, and Dani waved at me. Looking at her, I felt as if all was peaceful in the world, all in balance, and it made me forget that earlier Lars was stomping around the park trying to confiscate my tomboy self to add fuel to his slanted crush.

Dani was *amazing*. She was clever, an in-depth thinker, and had a witty, *charming* sense of humor and courage. She was rough and tumble, willing to get down in muck and not losing her sanity in the worst outcomes. She reminded me a lot of myself, and we held a candle to our traits.

I didn't know if we were friends yet... but there wasn't a single thing wrong with dreaming of another interaction between us.

Dreaming of writing the next part of a blank page... with a *friend* in tow.

Did Dani think of me that way?

As I'd discover, there was an inkwell and a feather pen awaiting that blank page.

The next time I ventured to Pinelake Park, I had walked under a slide when I heard the *wumps* of footsteps above me.

"Hey! Up here!"

Looking up, I found Dani peering down at me through the railing. She was sitting near the pink swirly slide, and I shimmeyed up the structure, joining her side.

"Hi Dani! Whatcha doing up here?" I greeted, butting her shoulder playfully.

"I'm *admiring* the view," she replied, her amber eyes fixated on the distant mountains. The trees behind us in the Piney Woods let out a *creak* in the wind, a telling tale of their ancient presence.

I, too, joined the view, following the clouds as they slowly trudged along the cyan sky, crossing my legs in the exact same pose Dani had them in.

"I was hoping I'd see you again," I admitted then, sighing in peace and inhaling Washington's signature mountain air free of charge. Dani turned toward me, an eyebrow raised with a bright, tiny grin on her face.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're fun."

That was the *truth*. Dani was a chance encounter, but she'd proven her worth in just a few sentences or less.

There was so much more I had yet to learn about her... so much still unwritten...

"Aw, shucks! You know, I can't color myself in stupor... because I wanted to see you again too. I mean, you have such a *defiant* proclamation of a hairstyle! And you're a *tomboy*! Truth be told, I'm just as much as a tomboy... even if my shirt conveys otherwise."

My mouth floundered open; Dani had me *floored* with that confession. Her? A fellow tomboy? Me and her sitting in this space gazing across Washington's scenery?

My heart was kicking my ribcage, and my eyes widened. Dani was a *special someone*.

Whatever this girl had in her, it was *perplexing*, and she had me twined on an invisible thread. I tapped my feet excitedly on the floor of the park structure.

"Did I grab your tongue?" Dani prompted, and I laughed.

"Ho-ho! Dani, we're *both* tomboys! This is *awesome*!" I cheered, spilling my thoughts with Dani's, and her eyes were *shimmering*.

We'd just grown *closer*. We were getting *somewhere*. And we had only just met a few days ago too!

"I guess we're two of a kind, eh, Winter?"

*Wait a damn minute*.

I paused, my mouth forming a confused *o*. Before now, *absolutely not a single person in the world* had shortened my name and called me *Winter*.

Everyone referred to me as *Winterlyn*. Dani had just dropped the *lyn*.

*Winter*.

The season. My mind was *whirling*. Dani, on the other had, had frowned, and she bit her lip, glancing at the floor and jiggling self-consciously.

"Oh, uh... have I done something wrong?" she nervously questioned with a squeak in her voice, shrinking, and she seemed as timid as a dormouse. I lightened up, snapping myself out of my frozen state and rapidly shaking my head.

"No, no! You haven't, I promise. People have always called me by my full name, not the short version."

Dani looked *relieved* and straightened back up, her shoulders at ease. Curiously, she scooted over, facing me in my ice-blue eyes.

"Do you want me to call you Winterlyn, then? I don't want to make you uncomfy."

With a welling determination, I whispered to her, "No. You shouldn't. Thinking about it... I *like* you calling me Winter. It's refreshing from all the times my full name is used."

Another pure truth let go and into Dani's hands. *Winter* was something I'd have to get used to, but it sounded so *pretty*. It sounded *smoother*, *shorter*, and *simple*, like the necklace around my neck.

Dani had said it so effortlessly, so confidently too, and I could *never* fault her for that. She could give me as many nicknames as she pleased, and I'd enjoy every last one.

"Well, *Winter* oughta do!" Dani declared, brightening, and she bopped my own shoulder. That would *definitely* be a thing between us and us only.

One more question was left unanswered, though, and twiddling her fingers, Dani tested the waters of our relationship.

"Winter, I'd wanted to ask, but... are we friends?"

*Friends*. *Friends*. *Friends*. Dani wanted to be *friends*, and I had wanted to be *friends*.

We'd reached step two, and I, for one, could have thrown a fiesta. I could have celebrated for a month.

"*Yes*!" I declared. "Dani, I'd wanted to ask you that since we *met*! One, you're freaking *awesome*. Two, you're *intelligent*. Three, you're spunky! Four, you're a *tomboy*! I *like* all those things about you, and there is no *way* anyone's gonna force me to reject your offer."

Dani blushed, the compliments flattering her so much that I swore her whole face looked dunked in cherry juice. "Winter, you're embarrassing me! It's nothing..."

"Pfft, *nothing*? O Great One, share with me your intelligence, fresh off the grapevine!"

I was being a *lunatic*, and Father would eyeball me severely for the way I was behaving if he was witnessing this. But Dani *made* me want to be so *derpy*. She was my *friend*, and who said friends couldn't mimic or *become* their inner child?

We had so much to *do*, and me and Dani were *ready*.

"Okay. Fourteen countries compose Oceania, which is Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea..."

She named them all in a minute, and I laughed.

"You're a *wizard*!"

"Nah, I'm a *witch*. I don't associate myself with a simpleton like Harry Potter."

"What do you think I am, then?"

"You'd be my witch's familiar. I'd turn you into a black cat."

"Wouldn't that make you unlucky?"

"Myth! Black cats make for *purrfect* pets!"

We couldn't stop ourselves from rolling around on the park structure and toppling down the slide, laughing like we were hyenas, uncontrollably, laughing so hard that tears were leaking out of our eyes.

We played tag, leaping around the park and spooking each other in the shadowy pits. Our minigames ranged from short-stories to cloak and dagger (we all know who's fault that is) to Hunt the Invisible Enemy.

Dani and I were *dynamic*, the most dynamic duo in the history of dynamic duos. We had the makings of *something* far bigger than both of us *combined*.

Something that Father's clueless tradition-bound self could not see.

Something that Mom, up in her starry hideaway, detected and would approve of with two thumbs composed of stars.

Me and Dani had risen into the limelight, and we were going to breach the containment wards.

Our friendship had only just begun, and with it, the adventures, foraging, and *change*.

That empty book was about to be scrawled with messy pen ink - not with one set of earthy hands, but with two.

Looking back when she was young, living wild and free

Hangouts at the park went from meet-and-greets and one-and-dones to *hours* of playing pretend and chasing, our feet gliding across the woodchips, and we lay in the grasses, tickled by their pointy tops. Laughs were exchanged, smiles a plenty.

Father soon was introduced to Dani's mother, Rexalia, who went by Rex. *Odd name,* I thought. *You'd almost think she'd be descended from a dinosaur.*

Her life, an empty book filled with magic memories

Rex's appearance was also foreign to me - she had no resemblance to Dani, and it barely seemed like the two were related or lived in the same house, but that was an inappropriate thought that I deleted with a shake of my head. Dani's personal life was *none* of my business, and I shouldn't get involved unless she wanted me to learn close-guarded details. Decency is a virtue!

But Rex was a treasuring mother to Dani, having spoiled her sometimes, and she was very loving and lenient. She trusted Dani with being an independent woman who could be resolute and show the world that she was going to burn bright as the sun.

My first encounter with Rex was when I went to my first playdate at Dani's house, which had a *spacious* front yard with flowerbeds at the front and ornate windows with drapes on the inside. She opened the door and smiled at me.

Who is she now? The girl who fell down

"Hi, Winter! Welcome to me and Dani's place! It's wonderful to have you over."

Her voice oozed with a liking of me, and beaming, I trotted inside. *Whoa*, Dani's house was *huge*.

It had two stories, and her living room had a full rug, TV, bookshelves, and a kitchen right behind it, as well as a patio, a rectangular back yard, and a basement that Dani claimed was always infested with silverfish. Gross!

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

Her house was so cozy and quaint in spite of the size, and I let myself fill with awe and intrigue. Our house was *dwarfed* by this *masterpiece*.

"Wow, Dani. Just *wow*. You have the *dream life*!" I exclaimed.

"To be fair, mom works *extremely* hard. When you're the principal of your future middle school and have to deal with rowdy children, cafeteria fights, and fire drills gone wrong, it's more of a job than you initially realize."

"I support the statement on the drills," shouted Rex from the kitchen.

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

Dani and I would spend hours in her bedroom - which to my disbelief, was scarcely decorated (Dani said she didn't have a vision of how to decorate it), playing games, testing our brains (I'm pathetic in comparison to Dani), and taking a half-snooze before Father would come and pick me up.

An observation I made was that Dani seemed to be *missing* a parent, but I didn't comment on it, knowing it was not my place to. She likely sensed Mom's absence, but also didn't pry. Respectful partners-in-crime, we were.

Dani's turn came to visit my place, and she loved the tiny atmosphere, stating that it reminded her of a cottage. She loved the kitchen and the smell of spices, and *begged* Father to spare some of the yields from Mom's garden for Rex. I see someone was a fan of the seeds of life Mom left behind.

Oh, Mom... were you witnessing this?

Not only that, but Dani saw the Stars of David hanging above the fireplace, turned to me, and said:

"Winter, you're *Jewish*?"

"Yep," I lied, noting to myself that I'd have to admit I was an athiest to her later.

"That's super cool! Send me some Passover food sometime, will ya?"

Father stared at her, stunned that she was so drawn to our family culture (not mine), and he skimmed over the recipes that he knew of in his head.

Dani took an immense penchant for my bedroom, which was accented with brown, blue, and orange, as well as the racecar sets on the walls and some of my Varien merch; her amber eyes were amber *hearts*. No need to fret about my style choices when my friend was in a *nosedive* over them.

All the stories in her mind, they'll never grow old

Next up in our hangout plans was the Pineshadow Outdoor Mall, a sprawling shopping haven Dani *loved* just as much as I did (she'd been hoping Forever 21 would come, but they couldn't find a leasing permit). She'd spend *hours* here, looking at trends in stores or getting her nose in all of the educational books at Barnes & Noble.

"I come here for the fashion and to augment my steadily-acculmulating brain cells!" Dani proclaimed as she leapt on top of the fountain, and a leaf from the trees adjacent to the awnings blew onto her face. She stumbled, but regained herself in time before she plummeted into the cold fountain water.

I jumped up onto the concrete, displeasing Mr. Paul Blart nearby, but he could slam into the birdbath next to Pandora for all I cared.

"And I come to sink in the feeling of being alive!" I declared alongside her, and her shoulder brushed mine.

Bringing comfort to her life as new chapters do unfold

"World takeover when?"

"Now is fine. Let's go!"

We would slink into Hot Topic, buying posters, shirts, and fangear for our favorite artists. Here Dani revealed herself to be a fan of Rihanna, swooning over her endless beauty and her grip on the music industry.

"She's so... I can't find the right word... would *attractive* work?" Dani said, staring at a t-shirt of her and *blushing*.

Ah yes, the power of Barbadian Jesus.

Who is she now? The girl who fell down

"Yes, *definitely*. I even shaved my hair to be like her."

"*Get out*!"

"I have photographic proof if you wanna see sometime."

"*Winter*. **Show me**."

I giggled. "If you say so, Dani."

Dani also confirmed that she was "slightly emo" that day. Talk about some aptitude!

More mall days were spent chucking coins into the fountain, making light *splashes* in the clear surface, spending *wayyyy* too long in Yankee Candle, and staring at Abercrombie and Hollister with utmost disappointment. Curse you Mike Jeffries!

On mornings where the birds would sing and the grass would be dampened with the *hisss* of the sprinklers, Dani and I would stuff ourselves chock full with pancakes, daring to eat as many as we could before we had to call game.

"Last one to finish these flapjacks has to dab in front of my mother!" Dani dared me once.

"Really? You *had* to pick that one?"

Looking back when she was young, living wild and free

"Dare you object, Winter?"

"*Never*. I accept your challenge!"

We ate away, so stuffed I desired to beg for a taxi driver, though Father would have told me I was being ludacris. It was hard lugging my body out of the café, and in the car, Dani would collapse with exhaustion.

Her life, an empty book filled with magic memories

"Ate too much..." she mumbled, rubbing crumbs off her face.

"We're so doing that again next time," I teased, and Dani blinked, gagging. She proceeded to throw up out the rear window.

"Yes..."

Who is she now? The girl who fell down

During walks in the morning or afternoon around the neighborhood, Dani would tell me of her background and her academic pride. She didn't attend my elementary school, but another one ten minutes down the road, and she was very involved in charity sessions, raising money for the local animal shelter, The Haven, and campaigns to end homelessness and child hunger.

"A happier world is one not impoverished nor suffering from famine, humans and animals alike," she'd tell me.

Dani's favorite class was, to my *horror*, math. How on *earth* did she find *math* beguiling? *Math*, an eye-grating, boredom-stuffed subject that made every school kid cry in defeat?

"Dani, *math*? Of all things?"

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

"Who says I can't enjoy math? Cracking problems is a serotonin rush, and it awakens my brain in the morning."

"You are so weird," I told her, rolling my eyes.

"Weirdo. You're *weirder*!" she retorted.

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

I'd walk close by her side, so close that our shoulders nearly grazed, and I was intent on listening to her stories, her oddball personality, and her charities. She had her laurels, and they glimmered in the afternoon sun, diamonds, rubies, pearls, and emeralds.

Being with Dani was a tale unfolding, and it made me feel so much *freer*. A certain word was trying to come together in the back of my head, something that described me and Dani's relationship.

It was friendship, that's what I thought. We were *friends*. *Best friends*.

Dani was my *best friend*, a little ray of sun, a little ray of the moon, cute... and quirky, not in the edgy emo way, but in a... a *humorous* way.

Idiotic, but adorable. That was Daniela.

It wasn't Dani without mention of her *golden boy*, however, and that was her crush, Damian Wilkes.

"Damian is *attractive* as *hell*, Winter, you gotta believe me! Dark amber eyes that'll paralyze you on the spot, not too muscle meat, but not too shabby, a bit shy and awkward, but congenial. His hair is floppy and it looks so *fluffy*... oooh, you would *not* understand."

Well, she was right about that because, unbeknownst to her, I was very much a lesbian, and Damian was pitifully average. I'd never tell her such a thing, no. Dani was head-over-heels for Damian, and the least I could do was hope that she'd end up with him in the future.

He did come off as the type of guy that would fit her type. A less outspoken boy complimented by a bold-faced tomboy? Match made in heaven.

What could she do to get the boy? I had to help somehow... hmm...

"Why don't you write Damian a letter? You excel at English," I suggested, and Dani snapped her fingers.

"Brilliant! He's gonna love it, Winter. I swear, if I end up with him, I will send you chocolates every single living day of my life."

"How would you be able to afford that?"

"Oop... you got me." We chuckled, elbowing each other and taking off in a run.

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

Our playdates kept becoming more frequent and *more* frequent until they were happening nearly *every week*. Dani and I couldn't get enough of each other and the link we had.

At my house, we'd crawl under the duvets making up Father's bed, camping out in a makeshift tent, and we proclaimed it as our "meeting place."

In our meeting place, we shared *everything*. Secrets, like:

"I bought my necklace from Hot Topic without my father's permission."

"Dude, were you hunted down for theft?"

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

"No... I had my ways." That secret wasn't even fully shared - I wasn't ready to discuss Mom and her death with Dani, and I wanted to have her put the pieces together herself.

Dani had her fair share of secrets, too:

"When my mom worked as a nurse, I secretly stole some of her lollipops and gave them to the babies. She never questioned who was taking her things."

"Smooth criminal."

Dreaming of the world she used to know so long ago

"*Stealthy* criminal."

Secrets weren't just exchanged, but stories were swapped, too, about how our curiosity got us in massive trouble in our youths, about the times we pulled tricks on our parents, and stories about how creative and confident we were.

They went on, and on, and on, and Dani and I, in the meantime, were just growing undeniably closer to each other.

Dani was a fluid piece of art, having many pieces that made her a whole person, a *human*, soft, compassionate, witty, and endearing. She was *fun*.

She was my closest link since *Father*, someone I *needed*. What would I be if she deserted me?

Nothing. Nothing, lost and confused, dazed even.

There was something in the way Dani moved, the way she spoke, and the way that she made my heart flutter and eyes widen and legs itch, the way she made the world tune out for just the two of us, was something *outstanding*.

Promises were carried on the wind with our bonding.

Our friendship was *unbreakable*, forged of stone and rock-solid diamond.

If a wall got in our way, we'd dismantle it, and build with its remains a skyscraper of our successes.

Spring departed in the months following, and summer slunk right in, diaphanous and hot, banishing thoughts of school to the next dimension to give way for break. Yet it was not too hot to prevent hours of summer fun outside, for it never ended in the three months following.

Dani and I spent our summer running outside, chugging bottles of ice-cold water and Caprisuns, waltzing through the splash pads installed at the mall (uninstalled a year later because a child got a bacterial infection, freaky), where we were soaked by jets of icy water, and going to the arcade, cashing in on numerous tickets to win oversized plushies and flimsy gadgets.

Summer also meant that it was prime sweet-treat season, and so Father or Rex took us to Häagen-Dazs for sherbert popsicles that dyed our tongues orange and pink (that's quite lesbian, actually...), bars of chocolate ice cream, or a fresh scoop of fudge brownie with sprinkles that we split. Lips were smeared with chocolate mustaches that we promptly licked off with quiet giggles.

Our favorite activity was playing with water balloons in Rex's yard, and we went to war, chucking sky-blues that landed on the side of the house (the plants tipped their hats off to us) or hit our targets. It was impossible to catch Dani; she was strong and capable of doging the myriad of shots I lobbed at her.

She always managed to strike me, drenching my bangs, which became plastered to the side of my face, cowering in fear from Dani's waterwar prowess. Why did I agree to this if I didn't like getting wet or the rain?

I couldn't say no to more fun with Dani. I never could. She was just too much of a merrymaker to neglect.

Also, Dani ended up giving me a headache after our water balloon wars were over since she threw the balloons with an alarming amount of force, and when they landed on my face and exploded, they *hurt*.

I didn't tell her that I was hurt, but she saw it for herself when my cheeks had dark blotches on them.

"Oh my god Winter I'm sorry! Does it hurt?"

"A little, but you throw water balloons like a madman, and you're naturally strong."

She'd stop worrying then and there and would lead me inside. We'd wrap ourselves in fuzzy towels and lay on the sofa, relaxing, the air conditioning hitting our backs while the next episode of *Total Drama Island* aired.

I looked at Dani, who soon fell asleep, softly snoring in her burrito, and I blushed. Aww, what a baby...

Wait... did I just call Dani a *baby*? Eh, forget it, Winter, I'm sure that's not relevant to your thoughts.

As we longed for even more summer vacation capers, I was the first of us to propose that we have a *sleepover*.

*Sleepovers*. An event where one person stayed the night at the other's place, engaging in nighttime mischief, overeating, dares, and refusing to go to bed until it was three in the morning.

Dani and I had *never* had sleepovers before. I wasn't *exactly* a social outcast, but I wasn't exactly popular, either. Dani had some allies at her school, but she knew they wouldn't be interested in having a sleepover - no pre-teen was as close to her as I was.

They could *never* have the bond, this *link*, that we had. They could long to be like us, groupies, partners in crime, rock n' roll stars, but they'd be in the back of the class while we were first class.

Dani had excitedly agreed to the sleepover the second I proposed it, and we both agreed.

It was going to be hosted at my house.

It was going to *be epic*.

Cue the realization that the house had to be nice and tidy for the sleepover and I had to prepare to *sleep next to my best friend*.

Sleeping next to another human, my friend, her body... why was I sweating at the base of my neck? Did Father turn the thermostat up too high? Ugh...

Safe to say Father and I had the job cut out for us, and we spent hours cleaning the house and preparing for the sleepover. *Okay, Winter, you got this. Play it cool and make it a night to remember for Dani,* I mentally reminded myself a little before my friend's awaited arrival.

Half an hour later, *ding-dong*; Dani had been dropped off. I opened the door and she bounced around me like a frog on cocaine, making her star-studded entrance.

"Aaah hiya! I'm so excited, Winter! What do you wanna do first? I am... all out of options!" she questioned, flopping forward with outstretched hands. Who put Dani in the wringer and gave her *Flat Stanley* mannerisms?

"How about we go to my room?" I recommended, motioning down the hall, and she nodded. We trotted in, and she flopped onto my bed, her belly facing the ceiling and her tied-back hair flattening in black tendrils on the mattress.

"Are you already tired?" I inquired, my left brow raised, and I sat on the bed next to her.

"No... I'm getting used to your bed."

*Huh?* I wondered. Then I remembered that she was here for our *sleepover*. *Our* sleepover.

Right, testing the bed was important.

We were noobs at this.

Dani then sat up, gazing at the wall, which had the Hot Wheels sets and posters mounted on it all around. "Never would've guessed you'd be the type of guy to play with racecars."

I snorted. "Dad used to complain about that because I chose not to be the type of girl to play dolls and makeup." Insert moment of cringe here and imitation of asphyxiation also here.

"That's dumb! Girls chase girls, boys chase boys, girls chase boys, girls can faint at anything that's not creepy dolls or leaky cheap makeup from Victoria's Secret!"

*Ew*, Victoria's Secret. Thanks for reminding me I despised that store, Dani. I pretended to gag, at the same time demonstrating my agreement with my best friend.

"*Dumb* and *dumber*, if you get my gist," I added.

We spent an hour talking, fiddling with the racecars, and playing my banged-up *Connect 4* game, where Dani beat me *every time* because she had obvious professional gamer skills.

This is what happened when you were best friends with society's up-and-coming *prodigy*, who could do ninth grade-level math in her head, become a flamingo and stand on one leg for an hour, explain the Pythagorean theorem in five minutes, pull off all kinds of voice impressions, write an essay in twenty minutes... world, you were *not prepared* for the rise of Daniela Burton Vunquist. Never...

Father ordered pizza and served it to us on two paper plates. "Dinner, my ladies. Enjoy your night, and if you require my assistance, I'll be watching *Always Sunny* in the living room."

"Dad, you're just watching that episode to see Danny DeVito curse someone out on the phone."

"Winterlyn!" Father uttered, embarrassed, and with a tinge of red on his cheeks and a pat on my head, he lightly closed the door on us. Dani chuckled, showcasing a snicker, and she turned to me.

"A night to ourselves, huh?" she whispered in my ear, smirking, and I smirked back.

Oh *yeah*. Time to let the real fun and games *begin*.

We wolfed down the pizza, and using my phone, we binged *Total Drama* and cheered on the resident teal-black-haired tomboy Gwen as she beat everyone at their game and survived the gut-wrenching, spine-crushing, eyeball-losing shenanigans to win one of the dumbest awards in all of mankind. LeShawna deserved better, poor girl.

After that, we played *Astro Party* - and here, I triumphed over Dani with my insane astro-teering skills, shooting her dead with lazers and bombs strategically placed in the matrix, rivaling her own craft.

"Haha! Finally, you've met your match, Dani! Wanna give up before I *destroy you* with space lasers?" I teased, reddening her face, and she let out a mock snarl.

"In your dreams, Winter! I'll find a way to beat you at your game, and then you'll come crying to *me* begging for mercy! Woe is you!"

"Woe is *you*!" I spat back, proving her wrong by winning the next few rounds. She collapsed on the bed, defeated and ego deflated.

"Alright, I concede!"

"You stupid idiot," I murmured, flicking a strand of her hair with my fingers.

With *Astro Party* coming to a close, it was nine o' clock. Staring at my bedside; I supposed it would be time for us to prepare for the real meat of the sleepover - bedtime, the inevitable warmth, the rations of the infernal darkness connecting us together under the silky blankets.

It was dark out, and Father would want us in bed before ten.

"We should get ready for bed," I stated, letting out an appropriate yawn, and I fluffed up my pillow.

"Okay! I'll get changed." Dani fished out a set of pajamas from her sleeping bag - a matching pink shirt and shorts, compared to my mismatched gray shirt and red shorts - and went off to the bathroom.

While she was gone, I felt my heart tug me down to my box, which was stowed away safely under my bed, protected by the fabric of my blankets drooping over the edge. Dani wasn't aware of the box and the photographs it enclosed in its blessed wooden delights. I wasn't *ready* to confide in her about that yet.

These memories were *beyond sacred* to who I was, so personal that only *I* could view them. I *needed* to be at the stage with Dani so that I *knew* I could trust her with the most precious, vital memories and information of my entire life. Was I, or did I need more time, which was sands slipping through my growing fingers?

This information was the treasure hewn between me and Father. It told the tale of memories past, *sacred*, *pinnacle* information that revealed a five-layer chocolate cake of emotion and depth within me and the McCormick name.

Including the information regarding my dead mother. *Mom*.

Oh, Mom...

I kneeled down, pulling out the box from its hiding place and sitting it in my lap, cradling its silver etchings, which told a tale of blacksmithing, God's creations, and a snowstorm I was born in.

A finger deftly lifted up the latch, and I stared at the photographs somberly, my eyes stinging with an all-too-familiar sensation.

A sensation that released as I picked up the photo of my family celebrating Christmas and saw young me so giddy and innocent, in the photo a smiling Father and Mom.

One of those family members had passed on to the great heavens to run with the starry, translucent animal spirits in the Great Black Blanket.

Mom wasn't here to see my budding friendship with Dani, or see just how marvelous of a human Dani was, or be proud of me for expanding my social boundaries and meeting someone like Dani.

Blinking, I let the tears fall, and I put another finger, my thumb, to the outline of Mom.

"I miss you, Mom... I wish you'd have gotten the chance to meet Dani..."

Tears leaked down my face, and I stared at the photo, too lost in thought to notice Dani enter with a subtle *click* and a *tap tap* of her white socks on the floorboards.

"I'm back! Do you like my PJs-"

Suddenly, she froze, seeing that I was wearily peering at a photo with a mysterious box in my lap, and the damn holding back my tears had cracked, and my ears were red at the tips. The telltale signs that I was in emotional freefall.

"Winter? What's.... what's wrong?" she demanded nervously, having no clue as to what was going on inside of me, and she sat down by my side. I hid the photo from her view, the words I longed to speak lodged deep within me.

On the night of our sleepover, which was supposed to be full of fun and mischief, I had gotten somber and brittle over Mom's death and blinded by memories of the past. I was *ruining it*. No, I couldn't *ruin* this for Dani! I donned my brave face and sucked up as much depression as I could manage.

"I'm f-fine," I stuttered, but I was unable to conceal the quiver in my voice, the shake of my hands against the surface of the box, and the tears that had dampened my pinkish cheeks.

It surprised me when Dani didn't ogle into the box to grab its contents, and it *astounded me* when she didn't pressure me into revealing what was wrong, why I had broke down all of a sudden with no warning in advance. She just sat there, patiently, not getting into my business.

That just made me so *grateful*. She wasn't putting her hands where they weren't meant to be, just like I had done. She respected my personal space.

*Thank you, Dani... thank you,* I thanked her silently, tempted to give her a shoulder pat, but I wasn't in the heart for it.

"Hey... I know you're in visible pain right now, and I feel like I'm interrupting a time where you need to be alone. It's our sleepover, but if you just need thinking time... I'll abscond, okay? Just give the cue and I'll leave."

I didn't know what the *hell* abscond meant at the time, but I gave her a weak smile, thanking her repeatedly in silence for her understanding of the situation. But she wasn't *interrupting* anything.

Rather, her being here was *comforting*, and her respect and her compassion above truth-seeking had made the emotions in me settle considerably.

"No," I managed to say at last, "you should stay... I appreciate your patience, and I'm sorry for getting into an emotional trainwreck. It's just..."

"Sssh," Dani assured me, and in a move I didn't even see coming, she gently held my hands. We hadn't held hands until that tense, soothing moment.

I blushed. She blushed. The blush faded. We went back to the brevity and the bubble, and the world tuned out. Us against the world.

"Winter, it's okay. You don't have to talk about anything you aren't comfortable venting about to me. It's not my place to demand you tell me *everything*."

Smiling once more, I brushed my thumb on the top of her hand and raised the photo, putting it face-down on the top of the box, which I had shut when she had come in.

Her tolerance, sympathy, matured, level-headed tone, and her companionship was all I needed to sit up and move just an inch closer to her, a gap remaining for space so we could breathe.

"Dani... would you mind if I opened up about something to you?"

"You can tell me about *whatever* you want to say, my friend. I'll listen."

Nodding, I faced away from her, shuffling my legs that were dangling over the edge of the bed limply.

"You've... probably already figured it out, but..." I paused, lip quivering, and I faced the photo. A cry escaped my lips, but I brushed away the tears. My body wouldn't let me speak the quiet part out loud.

With my lack of words, I let the photo do the talking, and I flipped it over, showing her a happy, long-haired me, Father, and Mom.

All bunched together in Christmas glee, a picture-perfect family that couldn't be torn apart.

Except that my mother was sentenced to *death* by lupus and pneumonia. It was just me and Father.

"You don't have your mother," Dani breathed, her amber eyes glazed over with solemness, and gingerly, she tightened her grip on my hands. "I'm sorry, Winter... I'm so sorry. I can't *imagine* how you're feeling right now."

"I just... thought of her dying before she ever got the chance to meet *you*. She would have *adored you*, Dani... I miss her."

"I know how you feel." Dipping her head, she pressed her shoulder against mine, letting in the peace from her calm but gloomy body, and we sat there, overtaken by silence. The spell was broken when Dani spoke, gazing at me with relaxed, condoling eyes.

"What else do you feel reminiscing about your mother?"

"Sadness, definitely sadness. And longing. I miss her, but a feeling tells me she's guiding me from the stars, one of her favorite things to study."

I sniffed, a stray tear falling from my left eye, and it splashed onto my shorts.

"I'm just so sorry, Winter... I had a feeling something was up, but I didn't pry, and I can completely see why. This is incredibly personal for you to open up about... it takes a lot of strength to do that, yknow?"

"Yeah," I agreed, facing Dani earnestly.

She relaxed, still holding my hands and cradling them.

"If you don't mind me asking... what happened to her?"

"She died of pneumonia in the fall... she'd been sickly for years, though."

Dani nodded, her hand resting on my shoulder blade, and she rubbed it, massaged it, and it loosened in her grip. I leaned in, savoring the touch, which was even more of a safety blanket, and sighed, the serenity and its ocean waves washing over me.

"Your mom's free of her pain now, remember that. She's going to watch over you when the stars come out each nightfall, Winter. She raised someone beautiful... someone just like you," Dani remarked.

Life, smooth like honey and delicate as the petals of the bleeding heart, flooded through my veins when she said that... she genuinely thought I was beautiful.

*Dani* thought I was *beautiful*. If I wasn't overwhelmed by emotion, I would've blushed.

"And," Dani went on, "you aren't the only one who's missing a parent."

It was her turn now to stare at her feet and face away from me, dropping her hands and putting them in her lap. I faced the door, listening to her as she confessed to what I had previously suspected before:

"I don't... I don't have a *father*. Never did. He divorced my mom and left before I was even born. My only parent is my mom..."

That made two of us, and I eased, brushing away the tears. Dani had *also* lost her father, not to death, but to divorce, and she hadn't even gotten the chance to see him before he had disappeared.

We were both children with a sole parent, but we weren't alone.

We still maintained a family link... and we had *each other*. Nothing could split us apart.

In this somber, tear-streaked, and lumpy, painful moment, *we had each other*.

*Together*.

"We aren't alone," I said as I yanked Dani into a hug, which she reciprocated, and five seconds were spent of us placing our chins on the other's shoulder, enfolding in the warmth and the beating of our hearts.

We were two friends with a flame that couldn't be extinguished; we had our lows, but we could rebuild and go higher, and higher. We were just two birds on a wire, connected because of our half-families, tomboy attitudes, and the molecules making us the children we were.

Once that was over, we shut off the light and crawled into my bed, throwing the sheets over us.

Like many kids our age, we didn't immediately shut our eyes and drift off to sleep.

"This is cozy... and awkward," Daniela muttered, applying pressure on her pillow to suit her needs.

"Totally weird," I concurred, facing Dani, who tugged at the back of her hair and let it fall, long, sleek black strands draping over her shoulders.

*Damn*. Dani looked *pretty* with long hair... sometime, I'd have to insist to her that she wear it down, but I was too sleepy to annoy her about it.

The door cracked open, and Father's face appeared. "Goodnight, girls! Sweet dreams!" Then, the door shut, and the light cascading into the room from the living room went stagnant.

We were in the dark. I didn't have any fears, and Dani was resting, her backside stretched out neatly.

"Night, Winter," she called.

I moved up to her shoulder, whispering a "Goodnight!" that made her blade twitch in acknowledgement, and I closed my eyes, peacefully dreaming the night away.

Our sleepover had gone by as-planned, and not a single disturbance awoke me or Dani. Morning hit with the sound of Father preparing breakfast, and blinking open my eyes, I found myself almost *nose-to-nose* with Dani.

The gap effaced. She must have rolled *toward me* in her sleep, or *I* rolled to her.

Either way, that was *close*! Close... but I liked it. It gave me time to admire Dani with her eyes closed, strangely not snoring like she did at her house when she was taking a nap.

*She must have found solace with my bed,* I noted.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." I tapped her on the nose, and she blinked her eyes open.

"Morning," she mumbled, closing them, and I tapped her nose again to see her reaction. *Blink*.

"Winter, let me sleep in-"

"No. Dad's making pancakes. You aren't missing out on that."

"You can't make me get up-"

Yes, I *could*. I started tickling her under her chin, and she shot wide awake in laughter.

"Aahahaha Winter stop that! Winter, that tickles!"

She rolled around, but alas, there was no escape from me, and she surrendered, speeding to the kitchen for a fresh serving of powered strawberry pancakes.

The way Dani had slept (with her hair down, a rarity, of all things!), the way she had soothed me and stood by me when I had gotten candid about Mom, the way she never pried but waited for her moment, the way she scarfed down the pancakes as if she had been starved for a week, and the way she just was *pretty* and *cute*, was making my heart swell and making me resolve to be my *best* for her.

Dani was capturing my heart for her own, and I was willing to let her take it.

Why?

Change was on the horizon, and I could sense it. And taste it in Father's delicious strawberry pancakes.

Summer progressed at a sluggish pace (or was it the sun beating down on me with hammers for rays?), and Dani and I took advantage of the free time we had to escape the confines of home, marching on escapades into the unknown, into the realm of the third eye...

...*our realm*.

We don't belong

Making ladders out of cardboard sheets

Mornings were spent consuming savory breakfasts outside and plucking flowers to put in our hair, though with the short hairdo I had rocking, the flowers stuck me the middle finger and fluttered back to the blades of the grass. Dani had stuck two daisies on the top of her ears, but they looked very mismatched in general.

"You look like a fairy who can't figure out how earrings function, Dani."

She'd spit at me on accident from laughter, and I rubbed it off, my body internally screaming *gross* and my foreskin screaming in pompous amusement, back squishing the grass and the poor unfortunate souls of the flowers that had fallen. May they rest in peace.

We will be gone

While we're counting stars, they're counting sheep

Money was deposited on the counter at Häagen-Dazs ever so frequently, and we'd lick every flavor of popsicle offered, every scoop of ice cream, tinting our tongues the colors of the rainbow and the full pride flag.

"So this is what Skittles advertisers meant by "contract the rainbow, taste the rainbow," huh?" Dani questioned, sticking her blue tongue out at me.

"I taste the rainbow... very fruity in the..."

Peter, hold your breath; don't make a sound

Just keep running, and keep running, and keep running

"Ass?"

I facepalmed and craned my head in the direction of Father, who was in line for a wine-flavored ice cream. "Dani, we're in public!"

"Sorry! The other word was... eh..."

Middle of the day outings were adventures in which Dani and I would play rag-tag in our yards, rolling around in the grass and smelling of a freshly-mowed lawn (and fertilzer... yuck). We'd stare at butterflies and snap some pictures for our phones (conserving the Polaroid's long lifespan was the unspoken holy virtue in the McCormick house). Dani made a picture of a swallowtail her phone background until the winter time.

In our heads, we're ten feet off the ground

Just keep running, and keep running

(Keep running, keep running, keep running)

Pinelake Park became our secondary meeting place besides under Father's duvet, and we'd sprint across the woodchips, ducking under bars and structures and hiding together, glued by our shoulders and unable to be separated.

We just had to keep running, and running, and running, to find that summer fun, to make it all worthwhile. Personally, *everything* was *worthwhile*, because of Dani. Dani was the person in life I'd never realize I'd depend on, but she was my *friend*.

My companion. And my partner in crime. We were going to run Pineshadow and garner the respect of *millions*. How? We were mere children, but we were children of a *feather*, and the aces were in our caps.

The water balloon war raged on, with more water bombs hitting me in the head courtesy of Dani and her muscular arms (BUFF), though I finally deduced how to score hits on her via tracking her movements and distracting her. Her clothing was a sopping wet mess, and her bun had pretty much fallen loose, slicked back and dripping ice water.

You know that place between asleep and awake

Where you can still remember dreams

That's where I'll always love you

Anything was *possible* between me and Dani when we paired our brains together and unlocked our realm.

On a late June day, she took me to the Pineshadow Community Pool, a pool that was usually secluded and for high-paying members who lived in the apartments nearby, but we passed as minors, who had a low enter fee of only five dollars. Cash was something Dani had *plenty* of in hand, and we got in.

The water was a crystalline, chlorine ocean, with adults lounging at the edge with margaritas and cocktails and others sunning themselves in the blue deck chairs under the umbrellas (ella, ella, eh, eh- okay I'll stop).

Dani dipped her toe in and gave the all clear: it was time to *swim*. Swimming was a thing we were both okay at, though in my youth I had struggled to stay afloat and had nearly drowned in front of Mom, and she had to *literally* fish me out with a net.

You know that place between asleep and awake

Where you can still remember dreams

That's where I'll always love you

And that's where I'll be waiting

"Cannonball!" Dani shouted as she dived, did a flip, and landed in the water with a *splash*. Cyan droplets tickled my toes, and water lapped against the hot sandstone surrounding the pool as Dani resurfaced, her black hair completely unfurled and damp, stretching past her shoulders.

"Whoa."

"Are you gonna come in here or leave me to swim by myself?"

Counterargument unnecessary. At once, I plunged in, but a bit more awkwardly as I fell face first into the pool, flipped right-side up, and bobbed up like a buoy in the Pacific, spitting out the chlorine water in my mouth.

"Bleh. Tastes like stale Playdoh."

That's where I'll be waiting

Dani giggled, slapping the water hard with her hand, and a cyan wave careened into my face. My eyes closed *just* in the nick of time.

"Hey!" I spat, sticking out my tongue.

"Oooh, someone is angryyyyy..."

I slapped a wave of water in her face, causing her facial features to scrunch up. She was an adorable angry squeaking toad.

"*Now* you're the one eating your words."

"Whatever," Dani rolled her eyes affectionately, swimming toward me, and I swam toward her.

That's where I'll be waiting

We swam in circles around each other, attempting to grab each other, to play tag in the water, which would suffice for the lack of a beach ball or volleyball to be used for water polo. The adults drinking their flagrant margaritas side-eyed us; children and their gimmicks were disorderly conduct-makers at the pool.

We, for one, digressed.

The pool was *ours*.

Feeling alone

Never thought I'd see this place again

Dani then dipped underwater, a ripple on the surface insinuating what she had done, and with a sudden pull from my heart, I dived after her.

Under the water's surface was an underrated *paradise*.

Everything was cyan, blue, the ground shimmering shoals of blue tile. Dani floated, her aura inviting and contentful, her black hair held above her head, long and *beautiful*.

I'm growing old

In a different world, you stay the same

(Same, same, same)

Dani, underwater and on the surface, looked *stunning* with her hair free from the bun she tied it in. She looked so *naturally beautiful*, and I wanted to tell her.

Opening my mouth and inhaling chlorine and pool chemicals would clog my esophagus. Compliments would have to be put aside.

Meanwhile, I had my hair tied back, and the red band was wrapped around extra tight to ensure my spiked bun wouldn't come loose itself. My tips drifted up above my forehead, the underwater gravity yanking them upwards.

I just hold my breath; don't make a sound

I'm running, I keep running, I keep running

Under here, while I was holding my breath, I remembered the dream of my youth where I had dreamt myself under the sea with a girl who *loved me*. There we had swam, danced with the colorful lights of the corals and through the bubbles of our subtle breathing.

That dream made me realize I *loved* girls. I *wanted* to feel the sensation of a girl's lips meeting mine, calmly, not in a frenzy, and soft.

A collision that would make the sun set and rise five times in a day, that would have thunder shake the earth from its roots, that would have a forest grow in place of a desert.

My imagination spilled into reality, and just for the briefest of seconds, in place of Dani was the mysterious brown-haired girl, who swam up to me, holding my hands gently, bubbles parting from our lips and nostrils.

Cause I can't see you quite as clearly now

I'm running, I keep running, I keep running

Close. My cheeks were heating up from her company. Was she going to lean over and kiss me, seal the deal? I could visualize angelic wings appearing from behind her back, and us ascending to gasp the open air, but not before our fingers twined and we shared a kiss where no adult could judge us for who we were.

Her reflection flickered, and I reached out to grab her, to persuade her to stay, but it faded, and I found myself aiming my hand at *Dani*.

*Dani*. *Thump*, *thump*, went my heart, and I blushed, my hand now resting on her shoulder. The water sewed our mouths shut, but the look in our eyes told us that this moment was *personal*.

Deeper than any of our moments so far. Without even thinking of the consequences, I held Dani's hands, and she blushed, touched by the move, but she nodded, seemingly encouraging me to keep going.

You know that place between asleep and awake

Where you can still remember dreams

That's where I'll always love you

Her orange-amber eyes had this *shine* in them. Of an emotion I couldn't quite detect... yet it was something like a *rose*.

Something *darling*.

We stared deep into each other's eyes, a kinetic electricity roaring to life in our bones, and it shot through mine, shocking Dani with its volts. The energy glowed brighter and combusted, each pulling us closer, and closer, until there was less than three inches parting our noses.

We had seconds to spare before our bodies wouldn't be able to handle being underwater for as long as we were, and I took it taking in Dani's features, what made her *Dani*. Her bulky, strong frame, dimple curved in the left side of her lips.

You know that place between asleep and awake

Where you can still remember dreams

That's where I'll always love you

And that's where I'll be waiting

An angular face, black hair tied almost *always* in a bun, with strands flopping over her ears, at certain angles masking them from view.

Orange-amber eyes that lit up like *fires* when she was elated and had climbed every obstacle in her path.

She was a Thesauraus, speaking of vocabulary stumping my smaller brain, but it was a special knack that she had. She was strong, capable of smashing wooden planks and stone to grasp her goals and smash them.

She was my *best friend*, someone who was my companion, my soldier. If I fell, she'd have me. If we were stranded in a strange world, she'd have my back. If I was struggling with the bereft memories from Mom's death, she'd be beside me, her light banishing the mist and serving as my waypoint.

Dani was someone *special* to me, *more* than special. Something *more* to me than she had ever known.

Alas, before I could dwell more, each of our throats stabbed us from the inside, and we broke through the lapping cyan waters of the surface, gasping in air, our eyes stinging. We grabbed a towel from near Rex's deck chair and blotted our eyes, enabling us to see the world in high definition once again.

That's where I'll be waiting

"That," Dani coughed out, pulling her body up onto the sandstone, "was *ethereal*."

"Uh?" I spat out in turn, lugging my body back onto the sandstone and wrapping a towel around my swimsuit.

"It was a perfect moment... to me."

"Me too," I agreed, smiles lighting up on our faces, and maybe just the faintest of blushes.

Before I forgot, I gave Dani the compliment that I had stored in the compartments of my heart.

"You look really pretty with down hair."

Dani's head snapped up to face me, and her whole face went *red*. "I... I do?" she asked in a stuttery whisper, and I nodded.

"Thanks, Winter. I wear my hair up a lot, but I'll maybe retire the bun a few times... for you."

Those words resulted in the briefest of hugs, and then we were back in the direction of home.

That's where I'll be waiting

(Where I'll be waiting, where I'll be waiting, where I'll be waiting)

Thinking about it, there was a magnetic tug that had me falling into Dani's arms when we were together. An undeniable force, a craving of my heart, that I could not ignore.

It was a foreign feeling being led astray by someone who, a few months ago, had been a random stranger I had bowled over at the park. That person was a shooting star crashing into my arms from the depths of outer space.

What made me consider a word spoken many times in the McCormick house: a blessing.

Dani was a *blessing*. *My blessing*. One half combined with another half to form one whole person. A duo with the mightiest of roots forming a wild weave that kept us intertwined.

And the more I dwelled, the more I began to see what was clear, from the way I was blushing, the way I had held Dani's hands, the way I had wished for Dani and I to have magical moments, to fill the pages of an empty, dusty book, the way I had imagined she was a *girl* I had *kissed* in the sea...

That *feeling*, that *desire*, was a familiar, welcome feeling that coiled around my heartstrings, telling me what I needed to know, and what happened next laid the foundation for an *astrophysical* memory - one that would, again, alter the winding golden path of my life.

It had been an afternoon when Father's phone rang (Father, please make your ringtone anything *other* than the opening of *Poker Face*). He picked it up and nodded.

"Mhm? She'd like it? That's a done deal." He placed the phone down on the kitchen table.

"Winterlyn, Daniela called. She wants to know if you wanna attend an immersive art experience?"

*An immersive art experience*. *Art*. Not something I illustrated, but something I'd *admire*. Pieces of a story painted and drawn, new to old, ancient and arcane, dark and dreary. Art was a dreamscape to the fictitious gates of *heaven*.

With Dani, though? That imagination was *bound* to create a whole *new* dreamscape that we could explore *hand-in-hand*. Cue serious blushing.

"*Sure*! You know I can't say no to anything Dani suggests."

"Alright. Have fun, darling. Rex is gonna have to take you, since I have a busy weekend."

Father, your busy weekend was spending a few hours sending emails on the computer and watching *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia*, but alright. Rex was awesome anyway.

Saturday came, and I had dressed in the still-oversized Varien shirt, jeans, and calf-length boots. The most Winter of Winter outfits possibly crafted. Yes, it's terrible, feel free to judge me for my abhorrent fashion sense.

Rex arrived in her SUV, and speeding out was Dani; she zipped toward me faster than light and hugged me, black hair strands flying into my face.

Overload of sweet, sweet Dani goodness. My heart was *screaming* at me to pay attention to its musings, but now was not the time for a lecture. It was time for the *arts*.

And time for another Winter-Dani escapade.

The drive to the immersive art place, known as Looking Glass, took around twenty minutes, and it was in its own lot near a power center. The parking lot was *jam-packed* with cars, kids yelling, and parents trying to settle said kids before the tantrum was uploaded to YouTube.

"I can't *believe* we're at Looking Glass! I've been *pining* to go to this place for *years*!" Dani exclaimed, gazing up at the magnifying glass that enlarged and shrunk the logo in a bizarre optical illusion.

"For years because they didn't expand the parking lot and it was nigh-impossible to park," Rex added under her breath, ushering us forward as we looked at each other in amazement.

We paid our tickets at the front desk and went through a pitch-black tunnel. On the other side was another *planet*.

I had expected an art museum, but instead, I was in the *ocean*. Visuals of the sea painted onto the walls, glowing neon blue and green, fish swimming on the floor and the walls, flickering in and out. Corals glowed in reds, greens, yellows, and purples at the fringes, and galactical music played lightly over the speakers, looped over and over.

"Damn, I didn't think of this to be *that* immersive!" I yelled over the chatter of the patrons, and Dani seized my hand.

"That's an art experience for you! Come on, we have ground to cover!"

We then moved into a room full of ticking clocks, grandfather clocks, wall clocks, and a wall clock that was suspiciously taking after the appearance of Cheshire Cat.

"Watch your step!" Dani warned, and I nearly stumbled over an intentional dip in the tile floor.

"Got it..."

This wasn't just an art experience, but a *planet* of unorthodox, life-size art and murals, neon and *trippy*. My brain was whirling, and the outer lense of my vision was blurring out.

We were *in* this haven. We fit right in. And there was *still* areas yet to be graced by us.

The next area was an upside-down desert, complete with little holes in the flooring that shot canned air at our feet.

"It actually feels like cactus spines!" I noted, jumping in surprise.

"At least they're not real, then I'd be begging mom to pay our hospital bill!" Dani quipped in response. Off we went to the next area, a land of thunderstorms, and our steps were taken on fluffy gray "clouds." Water dripped onto our heads from nasty dark gray storm clouds above, and flashes of lighting broke through our vision.

Following that land was a land made of candy, but it was not edible. A child bit into what she thought was a Hershey's bar, only to taste the cold painted metal of a pole.

We went through various light tunnels flashing with the whole color spectrum, into the dark, into the light, and finally, into my favorite area of all - and Dani's favorite - the *forest*.

It was a life-sized forest with giant mushrooms, realistic patches of grass, abundances of vivid flowers in reds and pinks. A river ran under a wide log, which served as a bridge connecting both side of the chamber.

*Wow*. I never could have imagined or *dreamed* of art being so *real*. So *pleasing*.

So *extraordinary*.

"It's a wonderland," I murmured, relishing in the awe, and Dani danced around me.

"It's a *forest* of *anyone's imagination*. What you dream of can come to life in the Looking Glass. Let's cross to the other side and discover what's next!"

I bounded forward, but my foot lodged in a faux rock, and I felt myself be sucked to the floor by gravity.

My hands caught other hands, warm, inviting, and... hold on.

I glanced up to find Dani clutching me, steadying me back on my feet, and we were so close.

The lights that were providing visuals for the room swirled around us, dancing in the passion and draping us in all sorts of colors, lighting us up like flares on the Fourth of July.

We had each other's hands, facing ourselves eye-to-eye, no words spoken, yet a thousand emotions awakening from the stone they were imprisoned in.

Nearly nose-to-nose. Close, again, personal, again.

Dani's grip tightened, and I couldn't resist pulling her closer to me, longing for her touch, her *embrace*.

For her eyes to shine with her adventurous, know-it-all glimmer, of the star that communicated her innermost feelings.

The rest of Looking Glass departed, and all of the humans had vanished. It was just us, alone, with a million colors, a hundred shades of the limelight, and a guarded forest.

We were by the riverbank and holding hands.

Without thinking, I pressed my forehead to Dani's, and a *rapture* erupted, sending a shockwave around the room that made the magic aura radiating off the mushrooms expand higher.

Dani pushed back, and the friction was making me *tremble*. My heart was ringing bells and *hollering* at me to listen. I *was* listening.

Because I knew what I was doing with Dani now was *right*.

"This is perfect," I whispered, moving up to her wrists. Dani let go, but put her hands on my shoulders.

"More than you could ever realize," she whispered back, taking my hands once more, her amber eyes *electric*.

Minutes ticked by. We kept holding hands, refused to let go, refused to violate such a moment of intimate contact. I was *burning up*, feverish with the *desire* I had felt back in the pool.

To be *alone* with Dani, where it was just us bathing in colors, being this close, being where we could do the things no one would expect us to do or be.

To be Dani's *one and only*.

To be her *soulmate*.

The denial was over - *I loved Daniela Burton Vunquist*.

When our moment had sadly concluded, we advanced on to the end of the experience, Rex in tow, and we talked about it for *hours* as Dani would proceed to crash at my place because Father was unable to say no to her company.

Every time Dani smiled and described the art and what we accomplished, I wanted to faint from just how her adorable gooey goodness made me melt in a heap.

In the present day, I can't fathom how I was *miraculously* keeping my sanity in check after discovering my crush on Dani. Wherever I went, whatever I thought, it *involved her*.

Dani had breached the barrier shielding my dreams, and she had come to me, whispering to me promises of something *alluring*, before we'd collide and become one.

She had been so tempting, so *real*... and then I blinked open my eyes in my room to find myself almost accidentally drooling on my pillow and bedsheets because my mind *constantly* shifted to Dani and not waking up with my stomach growling for breakfast.

Dani was *beautiful*, so *beautiful*, in the real world and in dreams, where she seemed to be *extra* charming. My heart was begging me, knocking down the doors of my brain, igniting lightning bugs to make me see that I *had* to ask Dani out and formally propose we start dating.

But brain, there was just a *minor* setback.

For starters, I didn't know if Dani *felt* that way about me. Could it be possible she had the same feelings encased in amber clandestine? Totally. Yet it was *also* a possibility that she saw me as a friend and no more.

I couldn't chance my relationship for a *crush*. Biding my time was key, but I needed to be steered in the correct direction.

The person in my life who *could* advise me on love - one who had been through euphoric highs and steep lows - was Father.

Which also meant that I had to lie to him for the millionth time via a feigned interest in men. *Disgusting*.

I approached him when he was tidying up the kitchen. "Hey, dad."

"Heya, Winterlyn. What brings you in to the kitchen?" he asked.

"I... um, I have a crush."

Father perked up instantly, appearing to be delighted, and he leaned back on the countertop. "A *crush*? What great news!"

"Yeah, it is, but I need your advice. He's... super smart, sassy, and defiant. He doesn't take nonsense, and I want to ask him out formally soon, but I don't know if he shares my feelings. What should I do?"

Yuck, transforming Dani into a boy here made me want to barf into the sink and bleach my mouth out with Clorox. Father, on the other hand, was smiling, pleased that I had found love.

His eyes were slightly vacant, however, and I knew what he was feeling in there. A hollow feeling that he had his own doubts on love, too. He told me outright before I met Dani that he wouldn't remarry; there was no person that could replace the void Mom left upon her departure for heaven, and I agreed.

I didn't *want* a stepmother that'd be expected to *be* what Mom was.

That doubt and unfilled space in eyes brimmed with chestnut a second later, and he faced me.

"Love is... intricate in many ways. It can hurt, and sway you into doing misdeeds..." I gulped, momentarily believing that Father was remembering the Torah, and that in turn made me think about commandment one hundred fifty-seven: *not to have homosexual relations*.

Had Father seen through my lies?

No. He hadn't. He went on.

"However, love is a beautiful, blossoming thing, one of the finest facets the earth has to offer... I was very lucky to have met Lorelei, and you should be very lucky to have met your crush. What I'll tell you is this: *don't* jump the gun and ask him out when you're uncomfortable and only at the first base. A messy romantic moment can have its pros, but also its cons."

I nodded. That was a fair point.

"Stay calm, and keep your feelings for him at bay. Know what you feel in your heart is the *truth* and listen to it when it tells you what to do. In time, you'll have yourself a loving boyfriend, when you're wiser and older..."

His eyes glassed over for a second time, and it was my time to leave, knowing Father was enveloped in his memories of Mom. "Thanks, dad! Really appreciate it!" I called out, heading to my bedroom.

Remember my debacle with Lars earlier? Yeah, he took no hints that I was preoccupied with Dani and *still* was a stupid burr that stuck its prickles into my skin and latched on for a piggyback ride *months* following the conclusion of fourth grade and the approach of fifth grade.

"Hiii, Winterlyn! How's your dayyyyyy?" he greeted in a singsong voice when I was at the park in late July, and I let out a quiet groan.

"*Fine*," I growled, but Lars, being a lovesick football boy, patted me on the shoulder and passed something into my hand, crinkly but solid.

It was a piece of a KitKat that had seen *better days*.

"Uh, what's this-"

"A gift of my gratitude for you being my classmate in the fourth grade year. Can't wait to have you in fifth grade!"

I knew it was leaning into my hot-head side, but I gave him a foul look, like he had just slapped a raw egg in my face and expected me to enjoy it.

Me? Spend my fifth grade with *this obsessed loser*? Give me a *break*.

"Thanks," I said through gritted teeth.

"Eat it! Please!"

I death-glared him, feeling the fires stoke in me. "Lars, why now? Can't I just eat it when I get home?"

"I wanted to know if you liked KitKats. They're my favorite candy."

My eyes widened, and sniffing, I begrudgingly split the wrapper and plopped the KitKat into my mouth.

It tasted like cardboard... *great*.

"Tastes like heaven," I muttered sarcastically after swallowing. Lars didn't take the hint, failing so epicly it could be chronicled in an episode of *Curb Your Enthusiasm*, and he put my hand on my shoulder.

I *tensed*.

Oh crap, this was violating *numerous* boundaries.

"Lars, you don't have my *consent* to touch me," I pointed out. "Let go."

Lars obeyed, to my surprise, but as I tried to walk away, he followed.

"What'cha plan on doing today?" he questioned.

"*Existing*," I retorted. Could this guy *please* explode and leave me the *hell* alone?

If there was a time in day where I *needed* Dani, it was now. She wasn't here.

Thinking of Dani made my heart throb.

"Can I join youuuuu?" Lars interrupted my thoughts, and I felt his hand *dangerously* close to my hand.

I froze, mind shutting down. Oh god, this was too close. Lars was *way* too close. He should've known I didn't feel that way for him! Why couldn't he see this was *pointless*?

"Winterlyn, can we go up to the spot up there and look at the mountains-"

It was at this moment that Lars knew he screwed up.

And also at this moment did heaven *finally* send an angel.

Woodchips were sent flying, and Dani skidded up to me from behind Lars, her orange-amber eyes hardening furiously, and she had a fist clenched.

She had been there! My prayers had been *answered*.

"Get *away* from Winter, you dramatic idiot!" she snapped, and Lars, sent reeling by her sudden appearance, took a few steps backwards.

"Why? She likes me as a-"

"Friend that violates her personal boundaries and is obsessed with a girl who's obviously *not* into him... noted."

Lars' mouth fell open, and I put a hand on her shoulder, warning her to not be too harsh with Lars. After all, he was ten years old, like I was, and Dani was eleven, keeping in mind her intelligence and attitude.

"Sorry..." Lars murmured in regret before he walked off, leaving us to ourselves.

I faced Dani, shocked at her sheer bravery, and I saw the stars glimmering in her eyes.

"I had no idea you were so *courageous*!"

"Eh... self-esteem is sometimes hard to come by for me. I only was so *hellish* because that guy was clearly trying to win you over... but I'd do *anything* for you."

That was a surprise to me - Dani *wasn't* always as confident as she seemed to be. Either way, she did a rather stunning job at slitting the vocal chords of Lars, who typically was not able to be silenced.

She'd do anything for me. *Anything*. Would she be willing to *love* me as a lover?

We sat at the edge of the playground, staring at the ancient, massive trees that defined the Piney Woods.

A place Father *still* told me not to go into - he didn't trust it. The trees were supposedly claustrophobic, a menace more than an ally, and it was dark, gloomy, and *dreaded*. You could get lost in there for *hours* without food or water.

"Dad, can I go into the Piney Woods now?"

"Until you're thirteen, *no*."

"But *why*? If I can be on social media, why not the Piney Woods?"

"You can't go in there without adult supervision, and either way, I'm not taking you in there. It's a *labyrinth* to navigate and it gets *very* claustrophobic for me. At night, it's even more of a danger, because you could accidentally provoke the wildlife and get injured. And you don't want that, do you?"

"No..."

"Atta girl. Just look to when you're thirteen, and I'll reconsider my viewpoints around then."

Was it really that bad? Initial impressions communicated that the woods were harmless.

A barn swallow, to emphasize my point, flew into a tree bordering the entry into the Piney Woods, settling in its nest. The breeze rustled, taking with it some leaves, and some pine needles clattered to the ground.

If the animals could live so happily in the woods, why wasn't *I* allowed to roam freely in there and explore? To see what laid beyond?

"Seems like the Piney Woods is a haven for the animals of Pineshadow," I randomly commented, peering at the woods with hands on my cheeks.

"It is, Winter. The trees seem to span on *forever*, you can see the sky in some parts, and there's this brook... I *know* the place where it starts. I've been through it so many times on walks with mom."

I gasped, *stunned*. Dani *had* been into the Piney Woods! With her *mother*! She knew what was in there, what I wasn't glimpsing, and she had been *spellbound*.

I was prohibited from entering those woods and seeing if there was magic hidden in the tall trees.

"You've *been* into the Piney Woods???" I inquired, my pupils probably dilating to cat's length. "What was it *like* in there? Spooky?"

"Spooky? Pah! Bunch of claptrap. It's *wonderful*. Mythical. You feel... *safe* there, like you're in a dome... here, I can show you!"

She picked up my hand, preparing to yank me right into the maw of the woods, but my feet were planted into the ground.

Father had told me I should not go into the woods. He'd be furious if I disobeyed him even if he knew of how close Dani was to me.

Or worse, brand Dani as a terrible infleuence, a notion that nearly made me violently ill.

"Winter, why are you hesitating?" Dani asked, confused.

I gulped, staring at my rather-unappealing boots stuck in the mud. "My dad doesn't want me to go in there."

Sheepishly, my eyes didn't return to Dani, who prompted me with a, "Why?"

"He says it could pose a threat to me. He's been saying that since my youth... and he doesn't want me exploring until I'm older... I just don't want to disobey him."

Anxiety awakened in my stomach, and I stared at the woods, uncertain of it, *confused* by it. What was in there? Was it the hideaway Dani had described, or was it dark and dreadful like in Father's version?

"Don't wanna disobey him?" Dani questioned, her eyes glinting with a mischievous smirk on her face. "I say we *should* disobey him."

I opened my mouth to protest that Father had a history of being protective of me, but Dani would stick the nail in the coffin before I could even say one word.

"Winter, your father is just being overprotective of you. I may not know how your relationship works down to the bone, but I *do* know that he loves you so much and doesn't want you to get hurt. But he shouldn't keep you in from the natural wonders Pineshadow has to offer. Push your boundaries!"

*Damn*, she was *accurate* to Father. I trusted him, but I also trusted Dani with my *life*. The Piney Woods couldn't be harmful if the animals liked it and if it appeared so *innocent* in the daytime.

Making up my mind, I let Father's stories crumble. "You described my dad perfectly. I've wanted to shy away from his influence more... for *years*. He has his fears, and I have mine, but nature has greeted me since I was a *baby*. I can't let this opportunity slip, so let's go in. Take me to your world, Dani."

With a smile and a blush that could have turned me into mushroom soup, Dani pulled my hand and let me into the Piney Woods for the very first time.

The ground underfoot became darker, strewn with pinecones and needles fallen from the trees, and above us, the tree branches closed over the sky, the blue breaking through small gaps. The light was minimal, yet the space was... the opposite of *harrowing*.

It was *peaceful*.

Deep in the ruins, there's a glisten

A light that no one can see

Light twinkled in from the parted branches, and it was a cat-and-mouse game as it freckled the forest floor. The path into the woods was going farther and farther away from the comfort of the outside.

What outside comfort? I was perfectly sane here. I had Dani and an unfamiliar territory mesmerizing me with its beauty.

The breeze drifted by, carrying my hair tips, and it was cooling, a source of relaxation from the July heat. Birds chirped and called, and I heard the *skid* of an animal running in the distance. A deer, maybe?

Dust is in the air

And there's a mysterious gust of iridescent breeze

"Come on, Winter!" Dani tagged me, bounding forward and summoning clouds of dusts with a sweep of her foot. I joined her, leaping onto a hollow stump of a long-axed tree and standing defiantly.

We had read *Narnia* in class before the end of the year, and so, I raised my fist and yelled, "*For Narnia*!"

Dani laughed, sitting on a pile of pine needles and clapping. "Bravo, bravo! Encore!"

Never seen the sky so starry

I can see the world so clearly

What I had thought were shadows building up the interior of the woods were actually just patches caused by the blockage of light from the trees. It was dim, but in a strange way that had me *hooked*. The Piney Woods was something magical.

It was half-shadow, half-light, and filled with *exciting wonders*.

Patches of grass were eyesores to the bundles of pine needles, but on them were a bunch of flowers, including a lone Pacific bleeding heart that had caught a beam of precious sunlight.

"A bleeding heart! They were mom's favorite flower," I told Dani, and she caressed its petals.

"It's a sign. She must have approved of your sally into here."

Didn't think that I'd uncover

Another world that's undiscovered

I squealed at her words. *Mom* was watching over us as I'd hoped, and if the bleeding heart was there, it was part of the *prophecy*.

She was making sure Father wouldn't hold me back from seeing the *world*. From crawling and escaping the pressure into comformity into *embracing* the rebellious tomboy that I was.

A tomboy that *loved* nature and had a *connection* to it like no other.

The woods had always called me. It was time I called it back.

Now you've wandered into this place

Realize it's my sacred space

Dani and I continued our walk, and we found patches of mushrooms growing under trees, a tree with two broken branches that looked ever-so-close to just giving up and crashing to the ground, an area where the sun dappled the pine needles in a game of whack-a-mole.

There was *more* to be seen, *more* hidden from view.

Special features only accessed by those who *dared* enter the woods.

Dani and I were laughing as we found the brook she had described - a narrow stream running from a tunnel carved into the dirt that went in the direction opposite of where we were headed. We splashed through it as we chased, kicking up pine needles and hugging lichen-abundant trees.

We discovered a hollowed log, staring at each other through its holes, and we waved and blew raspberries.

The canopies of the trees grew tighter, giving the illusion that the whole woods was a dome for its residents, a protection that also served a *haven*. Dani was so *right* at every checkbox it was *inconceivable* to me that I almost plead against going in here because of Father.

Sorry, Father, but the woods and I were meant to be. Claustrophobia wasn't going to dent that.

"And here's the best part, Winter!" Dani suddenly shouted to me, and holding my hand, we both walked into where the trees had parted in a wide circle, the sky above us spanning miles, dotted here and there with puffy clouds.

It was a clearing, a grassy one with a wide fallen log and patches of mushrooms and flowers in the corners. The trees had thinned out. In fact, there were no trees in the clearing!

*Me oh my*, this was a space untouched by a human with the sole exception of Dani and her mother.

I just stared, open-mouthed, taking everything in, the *beauty*, the *breathtaking*-ness, the *seclusion*.

Just us in a land that defied what was real *and* fake at the same time.

And here begins our story

When we've fallen and our paths have crossed

Our time will slowly drift away

"Dani, this is *beautiful*! You were right. I should have **never** listened to my dad! This place, these woods... I'm *meant* to be here," I admitted, taking up her hands.

"And it's *all ours*. The clearing is where I go to think with mom, to have some time shed dwelling on the past and present."

"The place where anyone's fantasy can come to life," I murmured, hands moving up to Dani's shoulders. "We should meet here."

"Build a world of our own?"

When it's over and we stand alone

The spirits softly wisp away

"*More* than a world... something *more* than either us can know." My body acted on impulse, and I put my forehead to Dani's, hearing the chirping of the lightning bugs and the hoot of an owl and the buzz of a hummingbird, even though it was broad daylight and not twilight. I heard the sounds of the forest - the forest I myself had visualized back when I first heard the title track to *The Ancient & Arcane*.

Just like that, the clearing *became* that forest, except that the mountains were more defined and snowy, and the breeze was stronger, and the woods carried an essence of sacred magic.

Then it hit me. *Another* one of Varien's songs was influencing my thought and formulating in front of me.

*Sacred Woods*.

The Piney Woods were Varien's *Sacred Woods*, described by the passionate Skyelle in a sweet, arcane tone mirroring that of Varien's previous work.

But now the stars have spoken

And there's nothing left that we can do

"Dani, these woods are *sacred*. We *have* to protect it as best as we can. It reminds me of one of Varien's songs, where there this's beautiful forest, but it's losing magic. It's *our* responsibility to protect this wonder. We *must*!"

Dani responded by pressing her forehead on mine, and the forest vision seemed to intensify until *she* was in my visions as well, glowing with a blue aura that matched mine.

"We may not be environmental activists, and we're children... but we *can* do this. This woods is *anything* we dream it to be."

Once in a lifetime

There's a chance that we'd change everything

"Is there real magic here?" I asked.

"I believe in nymphs. Fairies that grow trees and tend to the water. Maybe the Piney Woods has survived so long because of their care."

"And at night, when the stars are at their highest, there's spirit animals that run amuck, and you can see the stars in their fur!"

Follow footsteps from the past

And I can't help but wonder

If this world is sacred to me, to me

"Foxes, owls, deer..."

"The canopies rustle in the wind, but they part so you can take in the sky..."

"The stars cover the night sky and light the way for the animals!" Dani tacked on a, "There could be more nymphs that are crepuscular..."

"Huh?"

"Twilight-dwellers..."

"Oh. When it snows, the whole ground is covered in white, and the foxes play and the bears hibernate..."

"And when they die, they become constellations in the sky..."

Deep in the ruins, there's a glisten

A light that no one can see

"Watching over the animals from afar and giving protection to those who seek it!"

*That* was me and Dani's world. Our dreams of a *sacred woods*, where the gusts and the snows washed our worries off our backs, where the trees were infinite and grew forever, where the cycle of life and death was in righteousness, enshrined in the holiest of the magnificent boulders and trees, the latter of which climbed into the sky to meet the spirits of the past.

This was our *home* away from *home*, where we could be without interruption.

Dust is in the air

And there's a mysterious gust of iridescent breeze

Our parents were back at the park, unknowing of where we had *gone*. Who cared if Father threw a five-alarm-fire tantrum? I was *safe*, *unscathed*, and had *vitality*.

I was going to dominate with Dani by my side.

We were *limitless*.

Never seen the sky so starry

I can see the world so clearly

The vision of the woods waned, and we took off running, inhaling the crisp air, hopping off the tree trunks, touching the trees, to grace them with our blessings.

We sat on logs, cloud-watching through the branches and making up distended shapes in our heads.

"What do you think that one looks like?" I questioned, pointing to a small one.

"An egg. Nah, it looks like a spearhead."

Didn't think that I'd uncover

Another world that's undiscovered

"How about that one?" I pointed Dani to a bigger cloud.

"The head of a rake."

"It looks like a hydra to me."

"You've *heard* of hydras?"

"Those fantasy books at Barnes & Noble have educated me a fair share about my fantasy creatures."

"Enlighten me, Fairest Winter!" Dani demanded playfully, her cheeks a rosy pink, and mine were red as rubies as I drawled about the creatures I uncovered.

Now you've wandered into this place

Realize it's my sacred space

Afterwards, we played tag, ducking behind trees, under logs, and in shrubs and bushes, seeking each other out and landing in heaps on the floor of the woods, tangled up in each other's arms.

In some cases, I'd land on *top* of Dani, and we were both *tomato-faced*.

"Get off me you oaf!" Dani protested.

"And what if I *didn't*?" I remarked, making Dani's eyes widen in disbelief, and she became flustered. Pushing boundaries was fun, but *this*?

When we've fallen and our paths have crossed

Our time will slowly drift away

This was the euphoria of being in the woods for the first time, with my *crush*, with my *best friend*.

When unified, we made our vow to protect the woods.

And in the woods, we could do *virtually whatever* we wanted.

Including some *misadventures*.

"I might as well do **this**!" Dani startled me by flipping me over with her brute strength, pinning me to the forest floor and smirking.

"Gotcha."

"I surrender!" Laughing, we ran off.

When it's over and we stand alone

The spirits softly wisp away

We scaled some low-hanging trees, gaining a view of the Piney Woods all in harmony, in *unity*.

Without even thinking about it, I had slid my hand over to Dani's and held it. It was so *warm*, reminding me of what I had secretly been waiting to ask her for: the notion of *dating me*.

If she loved me back, Pineshadow knew. I was just a mortal kid who lacked clairvoyance.

But now the stars have spoken

And there's nothing left that we can do

Soon, our time came to bid our farewells to the woods for the time being. We found the path we took originally, Dani being an expert at retracing her footsteps (she must have a degree in reading detective novels), and we emerged.

"Okay, that was a *hell* of a trip," I quipped to her, mesmerized again by her amber eyes.

I didn't realize I was gripping her hand. *Tightly*.

"Trust me, Winter. Now that you've become *one* with the woods... you'll return to it."

"And plant the seeds of the woods' future?"

"For sure. We'll do it... *together*."

Once in a lifetime

There's a chance that we'd change everything

We pressed our foreheads together, and there was a *bzzzz*. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pudgy calliope hummingbird flitting above an arrowleaf balsamroot.

Seeing it buzz around so happily, and feeling the energy, the *buzz* me and Dani elicited when connected, when *twined*, made me hope that we could make a *change*.

Make something more than a ripple on the ocean, something we could get lost in.

My heart had swollen immensely, with my love of Dani, with my love of nature, and my newfound love of the Piney Woods.

That love melted into gooey *conviction*.

Follow footsteps from the past

And I can't help but wonder

If this world is sacred to me, to me

No matter what *anyone* told me, no matter what anyone complained, I wasn't going to follow the rules.

Dani had my heart on a golden pedestal, stolen it oh-so-cutely, and it was laced in velvet and vermilion.

And she was going to take me to any place she - *we* - desired.

Rules were made to be broken.

*Society* would be getting an earful from me and Dani, the dream team, the dynamic duo.

Plus, with a budding hope in my innermost depths... lovers in the making?

A concept not so far-fetched, so it would come to be, as I glanced back at the Piney Woods for the last time and waved farewell.

Weeks passed like a stray leaf caught in the mountain wind. Since I had inhaled the breeze, touched the tree trunks, mushrooms, and flora of the Piney Woods, I had felt my heart grow more adventurous, hanging onto the memories Dani and I had shared in our locked-stare moment and the world we had created.

There was so much more to explore and exhume. So much *we* had yet to see.

What was out there?

As the weeks passed me by, I was laying on fluffy marshmellow clouds, dreaming about my future and the ornaments that hung over my head, glittering with seductive temptation.

My thoughts had been tainted by Dani until I just couldn't erase her from the nooks and crannies of my brain. My memories of her were stored there, as were the memories we had together, and my cheeks *burned* and my heart *ached* with the longing to tell her that I *loved her*.

Yet she was a bleeding heart just too high and out of my grasp. Rushing in to a relationship *wasn't* viable, and as Father had advised, I had to be careful so as to not insult her or *ruin* the friendship.

Friendships were to be *ruined* in favor of the *love* another time. Another time came sooner than I had ever believed.

It was a late evening, and I was watching the sunset out the window when Father got a phone call. He didn't really talk to anyone over the phone, so I already knew that it was Rex he was answering.

"Hmm? Hey, Rexalia. Sleepover? Again? Daniela sure can't stay away for long... alright, drop her off." Father ended the call with a chuckle.

"She just loves our humble abode, doesn't she, Winterlyn?" he asked me, relaxing in the cushions of the sofa.

"Yeah," I said, my mind enclosed in the fog of wonderous elation. Another sleepover with Dani? Where I could see her with her down hair and sleep next to her, then wake up and tickle her until she was awake and ready for breakfast? Hell *yeah*.

My precious *Dani* - wait, did I say *that*? Lord I was off the *deep end*.

An ember hissed in my rapidly-beating heart. Was tonight *the night* I professed my feelings? Asked Dani if she would like the honor of being my *partner*?

Someone put peach juice on my cheeks, and it definitely didn't belong to Father.

I think the one to blame was Dani.

After an hour, Dani arrived, *flying* into my arms like she just saw a lifesize cardboard cutout of Rihanna, and we went toppling onto the floor.

"Hi!"

"Hi..." I murmured, the wind knocked out of my body.

"Gracious, Daniela, you almost flattened poor Winterlyn!" Father exclaimed, helping her and a flustered me back up.

We settled down and *zipped* around the house for an hour, watching an Alan Watts documentary that dived into the concept of life, the past, present, future, and the universes not even scientists could discover.

The world was something no human and no scientist could fully *understand*. Few of us could claim such monumental feats, but there was always more that couldn't be detected by the naked eye.

Something rested in the gravity on our feet, the atoms, molecules, and functions building us from bottom and top. We didn't question these ways, for they were part of life for generations.

Why were things this way? Would time bend forward or back? What else was in the universe?

And what did the universe prophesize? Fortune? Love? Healing? Taxes and death?

It confirmed me and Dani's joint hypothesis: the world stored secrets *deep* in its core. Perhaps it was possible for us to unearth them?

Was it possible that Dani had a crush on *me*? Were we meant to be and two halves of a heart coming together and mending?

I had yet to know.

We had yet to know of *all* of our combined secrets.

When documentary time concluded, we played board games in my room, hid under Father's duvet to spread the good word and swap stories, and ate dinner while watching *more* Alan Watts.

All that time, Dani had been a busy bee, flying around the house, jumbling her concise words out of excitement, and accidentally raking her fingers against mine, her breathing steady. Was it just me, or was there an arcane aura in the air?

And were Dani's moves *truly* accidental?

When we finished dinner, I went outside for a moment and sat on the porch, glancing up at the vast array of white and blue flecks, letting them silently speak to me from above.

I held up my hand, pretending to hold them, and a chill wind cut through my hair tips.

"Mom, is that you?" I questioned in a whisper, shutting my eyes and imagining that she was in the sky, waving toward me with her ever-sweet smile, washing me in a calm the equivalent of the morning dewdrops.

The breeze came back, uplifiting my heart further. "Mom, if you're listening to me... do you think I could *be* in a romantic relationship with Dani? If Dani even has feelings for me?"

The stars seemed to glow brighter, lighting up the night sky, and the crickets began their song as old as time. *Chirp*. *Chirp*. *Chirp*.

*Snap*. That was *not* a cricket, and I flinched, glancing behind me and expecting to see the five million eyes of mayhem upon me.

But it was Dani, who was holding the *Polaroid* in her hands, and a freshly-inked picture of me and the stars relaxed in each other's company.

"Sorry, Winter. Didn't mean to startle ya. You looked really... *nice* in the moonlight *and* the starlight, and I wanted to capture it..."

She took a photo of me because I looked *nice* in the nightlights? A gift reeking of the heavens and the cravings of affection? Oh, Dani had my heart perched on her sleeve.

Blushing, I examined it, and it was *perfection*. "Pretty... take it inside and show dad. He'll put it somewhere safe so it can dry."

I made a mental note to myself to put it in my box later.

Dani went back inside and popped out less than a minute later, her hair tips bobbing with the movement of her head, and her feet tapped on the floorboards in front of me. "Done. What do you wanna do now?"

I thought for a moment, and seeing the yard untouched in its glory, I motioned to her. "We can lay in the grass. It's peaceful out tonight."

We trotted up to the stalks of grass and laid down side-by-side, our eyes meeting the knotted nebulas of the stars.

Moon, moonlight

*Everything* stood still, and the world revolved, not a stir on the fine night it was, sans the crickets and the faintest rustle of the trees in the yards surrounding us.

*We* were at peace, innermost and outermost.

I held my hand up to the stars, nudging Dani so she could see what I was doing. "One of my favorite things in nature is to glance up at the stars at night," I admitted. "I feel so *close* to them, like I'm *there* in the galaxy, floating, and there isn't a person who can tether me down to earth..."

Dani nodded, her hand rising up to the sky. "Stars are peculiar little things. They're puffy balls of hot gas. Tiny versions of the sun, the *biggest* star in the whole universe."

Caught in the breath of the mountain

Ooh, ooh

"They're strange, but they're *waypoints* for when we're lost or seeking counsel. You know how I said my mom's with them?"

"Yeah."

"She's with us. Tonight. I can detect her... in the wind *and* in the stars."

"You could say she's distantly related to Mother Nature, huh?"

Tangling stars in your lashes

Ooh, ooh

"I bet she always was," I stated. The grass stalks crunched; Dani had shifted an *eensy* bit closer to me.

She was in breathing room, and my cheeks flushed, but my heart thumped, sensing that our kinetic spark was beginning to kindle into a flare.

Dani sighed, relaxing, and she crossed her arms over her belly. "These past few months have been *bombastic*," she admitted, turning to me. "Hell, I didn't expect a *wildstyle* tomboy to careen into me and take me down at the park. Meeting that tomboy... you hoisted so many flags in my world, Winter. You could never guess just how much you mean to me..."

I blushed *harder*. Was Dani trying to tell me something? She *really* liked me, bordering on *adoring me* the way I adored her. Her amber-eyes were neatly rounded, cutely begging me to reply, and I could never deny such a request from a queen.

Caught in the breath of the mountain

Hearing your voice in the air like ooh, ooh

"Dani... I don't think you realize how much you mean to *me*. You think *like* me. Two peas in a pod, partners in crime, *whatever*. I can't lie to you. Before I met you... I was a social outcast, not that it was the most *dreadful* thing. Then I met you, and it's like a whole forest has grown *in me*. A sacred, magical forest you and I can share."

"You make me want to listen to Varien again. She's rad."

"I knew you'd see that Varien is my *god*..."

"We see eye-to-eye, how could I not?"

Tangling stars in your lashes

Wearing the wind in my hair like ooh, ooh

We laughed, and the adrenaline heated up my veins and my bones, showering me in petals - Dani's petals, and I observed the glimmering spark fizzling in her eyes.

"It's crazy how we've gotten so close, but there's still secrets we haven't found," I commented, and Dani shifted again, her feet ruffling the grass stalks.

"Oh, Winter, you haven't seen all of me, contrary to what you might believe. I bring the fire."

"You don't know any of my closest secrets, Dani. Even when they're obvious."

Carrying over the ocean

Your words settle into my chest like ooh, ooh

"Like what? Tell me one, if you're up to a challenge..."

She smirked, and an ocean's worth of affection descended upon me, eliciting a giggle and an eyeroll.

I couldn't say no. There wasn't a *no* with Dani. She was just so *inviting*, so *unreal*, so *luminous* in the light from the crescent moon perched among the stars.

A *beautiful* girl... and my crush.

Tugging away at my heartstrings

Puddles of rain reflect back the moon

Moonlight, ooh

"I'm a *hardcore* athiest." That wasn't my *locked up super tight in a treasure chest* secret - that was my feelings for Dani and being a closeted lesbian for a few years - but a secret I was sure would rock her.

She gasped, effectively proving my suspicion.

"*Winter*! Are you *serious*? I'm not overdosing on LSD?"

"It's something I'll explain another day... but my god is not Yahweh."

Ooh, yeah yeah

Ooh, yeah (ooh)

She faced me with wide orange-amber eyes, the tiny white sparks expanding bigger... and *brighter* in the lush moonlight.

"It's really *Varien*?"

"She is my escape from reality and one of the factors that convinced me to break away from my dad's example," I confessed brazenly, and Dani clapped, the encore worthy of a bouquet of starlit roses.

"You're such a dork... an adorable one."

She blushed, surprised she'd even call me that, but I gave her my approval by moving closer to her myself, taking up her hands, smooth and lit by the silvery moonlight.

We lie alone only for a while

We lie alone only for a while

She picked up my hands, willingly pulling me into her web, and I rolled in, snug and cozy, unbothered by the sharp blades of uncut grass. Dani drifted closer until our foreheads were at two inches apart, and I was tempted to undo Dani's bun and let her black hair spill out into the grass.

I didn't, though, knowing that it was my heart trying to use my feelings to keep her close.

Electricity flowed through where our hands met, flowing into *us* and lighting up the sparks in our bodies. I was trembling, my heart whining and pouting. It knew as well as I did what the moment was and had the potential to be.

The moment I braved the chasm of fate and professed to Dani my love of her, set in stone and unbroken.

I *had* my chance, and I prepared myself mentally for what I was going to tell her. That I was a lesbian, first, and then, the *truth*.

*I love you so intensely, Dani.*

But before I let my mouth part and my feelings launch me into the night sky like a rocket, Dani interrupted, her tone honest and slightly... *nervous*.

We lie alone only for a while

We lie alone only for a while

A shade of her had arisen, taken by the moon's rays, and as the words seeped out of her mouth and into me, I'd come to remember what Alan Watts discussed about life *and* the universe.

"Winter... I feel like the time's come for me to share something with you. Something that's been happening these past few months, since we've met..."

"Yes?" I prompted, inclining my head and listening.

"I don't have a crush on Damian anymore."

*We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world*

My mouth curved in a *very* surprised o. Damian Wilkes, the boy Dani had *fawned* over and blabbered about on so many of our outings, *wasn't* meant to be her dream boy.

"I thought you were going to ask him out sometime."

"Yeah, I did too... but lately, my heart's been tugging me in all sorts of directions. Other boys... they've been more *alluring*. They have more charm, dignity, *dynamite*..."

*We give little thought of the machinery that*

*Generates the sunlight and makes life possible*

"Can't relate," I huffed, glancing up the sky, and Dani gave me a stunned look. She sure didn't expect *that* coming from me.

She continued, though, knowing that the peace and buildup to the moment of truth could not be shattered.

"However, I've begun to feel *different*. When I stare at a boy, I see potential, someone I *like*, but I couldn't find a *match*, my *soulmate*."

*Soulmate*. Dani had wanted a *soulmate*. The person of angelic wings and golden halos that would spoil her rotten with gifts and kisses.

*To the gravity that glues us to the earth that*

*Would otherwise send us spinning off into space*

Just *who* was her soulmate?

"Boys are cute... and even then, I'm going the *other* way. Loving people I'd never thought I could find a love with. Breaking away from tradition..."

*Ding ding ding ding ding*. I *knew* what was coming, and I knew it so damn well.

Breaking from tradition, huh, Dani? Your lesbian best friend knew it all.

*Or to the atoms that which we are made,*

*And on who's stability we fundamentally depend*

And when she yanked my hands up to her *chest* and said aloud the next few words, my chest *tightened* with sheer conviction, of passion, and *longing*.

*Yearning*.

"Winter... I like *girls* too. *Girls* are so *beautiful* to me; they shine in the daytime and in the starlight, and they're like a gift from God..."

"Go on," I encouraged, giving her a smile that made her smile *bigger*. My heart was melting into a pile of goop.

*Few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way it is*

*Where the cosmos came from*

"I've fallen hard for girls, Winter. They have the same charm as men, and this *feeling* in me is something I can't shake. I'm bisexual."

The atmosphere in our moment *pitched* sharply from a peaceful night under the moon and stars to one where heartstrings had danced in the moonlight, and the stars glimmered with every romantic blessing and word pooling into one massive heart of gold.

Nature was *strange*. Love was *also* strange.

We didn't know the full extent of ourselves. But we depended on each *other* to *thrive*.

Dani was *bisexual*, a lover of both men and women. She was queer like me, too. I erased one inch of our forehead space, and we were *so close* to touching.

*Whether it was always there*

*If time will one day flow backward*

To me sealing the deal with Dani.

"Dani, I... that's one of the most *beautiful* things you've ever told me. I'm so happy for you... congrats, my friend."

"T-Thanks, Winter," she stuttered, pressing my hands into her chest. She wasn't done. The air around us grew warm, and the breeze whistled through the trees, bringing a song of passion and joy.

"There's something else I have to tell you... I've put it off for a while because I'm not sure if you'd agree..."

My heart fluttered, and my body was *quivering* with anticipation of what she had been keeping from me. Was it *true*? Was I the one overdosing on LSD?

*Or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know*

*What is the smallest piece of matter*

Dani gulped, then open her mouth, and what she proceeded to admit to me was a *meteor* roaring through the cosmos, colliding with the earth and uniting us *both* in a shockwave.

"Winter, I *like you*. You're the flame, and I'm the silly moth falling into your light. I can't deny I'm *into you*. I can't deny that I *like you* the way I do. My heart is *screaming* for you. It's *begging* for you."

Color me five hundred million shades of *holy shrimp* and *this is actually happening*.

All this time, unbeknownst to me, Dani *was* crushing on me. She *loved me* more than a friend. She had been *enticed* by me and all of the things *composing me*, the tiniest pieces of matter to my atoms, and I was drawn right back to her.

She was a *flame*, pulsing this red-orange fire, and had long, silky black hair tied up in a precious bun. She was bulky and strong, yet fluffy and had the heart of a puppy, outlined in the richest of gold.

While I was cinnamon, born with a raging temper and a spice a man couldn't rival, Dani was nutmeg, just as potent but sweeter.

*Why we remember the past and not the future*

*And why there is a universe*

Dani wasn't just my *best friend*. She wasn't just my partner in crime or my confidante.

She was my *soulmate*.

She also interrupted my train of thought that chugged toward the Tunnel of Love.

"Winter, I love you so absolutely much. Would you like to... be my girlfriend?"

*Bam*. I froze for a moment, questioning if this was real, if this was *actually* happening.

Caught in the breath of the mountain

Hearing your voice in the air like ooh, ooh

*Dani asked me out. Dani asked me out. DANI ASKED ME OUT AND SHE'S GAY AND SHE LOVES ME.*

My brain was short-circuiting, mouth open, and my hands were twitching in hers.

The silence had made Dani believe I was astonished into keeping my lips pressed closed. "Uh, I'm sorry if I insulted you-"

Then, I broke free to the surface and pressed my forehead to hers, making sure she was listening, that she was *understood*.

That I shared what *she* shared.

That I *loved her* more than I could love myself, more than I could love Father, or *anyone* on the entire freaking planet.

Tangling stars in your lashes

Wearing the wind in my hair like ooh, ooh

I turned the *tables* on my brilliant, moonlight-stricken crush.

"Dani, you're a silly goose. I'm not offended... because for a while, I've loved you back, loved every part of you, the blissful, the innocent, the good, the bad, all that. I've been a lesbian for, like, two years... and I know in my heart I can tell you I love you again and *mean* it."

At once, Dani grinned, showing all of her shining white teeth, and her forehead rubbed against mine, sparks flying, fires forming, crickets chirping, stars shimmering, swirling, and lifting us up in our embrace.

"You r-r-really l-love me? This is true and I'm not dreaming?" she asked in disbelief, and I held her cheek, our eyes meeting. I was in literal tears now as Dani let me feel her cheek for the very first time, and I held it.

It was time to *enshrine* this moment. *Forever*.

Carrying over the ocean

Your words settle into my chest like ooh, ooh

"If this were a dream, we'd have awoken. But we haven't, which means that it's real... real as our love. Dani, I *love you*... and it would be the cherry on top if you dated me."

I didn't need to speak no more.

"I'm the cherry to your pie, then... okay, Winter. I'm in... and I love you, too."

And all of my wishing, my dreams, and my patience, as well as Father's advice, had *paid off*.

Tugging away at my heartstrings

Puddles of rain reflect back the moon

Moonlight

*Dani* was *mine*. We were *ours*.

We stared at each other fondly, so fondly, our love burning bright, and I could swear we were enveloped in the silver glow of the moonlight, and I *swear* I saw the stars flickering in the depths of her amber eyes.

Crystalline and *fiery*.

With our hearts set aflame and the petals of love having fallen, we hugged, wound up together on the grass, nested in each other's arms, holding each other close. I put my chin on Dani's shoulder, and she put her chin on my back. Warmth flooded us, and for a moment, I imagined us back at Looking Glass, doused in the colors of the rainbow, painted in fluorescent light.

*And why there is a universe*

Ooh

Our time was *here*, in the moonlight and the starlight that protected us, that lit us up when all of the world was dark and asleep. Were you watching us, Mom? I bet you were, because you gave us your approval. Your blessing from so far away.

We were on top of the world, resting on the clouds, where we could grab the stars and put them in our hair. I kept Dani close to me, and I didn't mind it at all when she put her head on my chest, snuggling up against my frame, and I scratched her behind the ears, causing her to lightly sigh.

*You are so beautiful, so adorable... I'm proud to have you as my partner, Dani,* I quietly told her in thought.

Dani looked up at the stars. "Hey, Winter?"

"Mmm?"

Ooh, yeah yeah

Ooh, yeah yeah

"Do I have your consent for a... a kiss?"

I blinked. I hadn't thought about me and Dani's first *kiss*, that type of kiss where lips lock and jazz happens and the taste of one-on-one contact.

I was only ten years old. She was eleven. We were *very* young for a first kiss.

It wasn't time yet. Father told me to wait until I was wiser and older for love, and I had gotten that love, but a kiss? Too early.

"We can kiss when we're older... but for now, I think snuggles and touching will do," I whispered.

Heartstrings, heartstrings

Ooh, yeah yeah

Ooh, yeah yeah

"Okay. That's fine," Dani responded, going back to snuggling on my chest.

I thought of another idea. Father and I did do this when I was little...

"We can eskimo kiss. Nose-to-nose."

Delighted, Dani rolled off of me and put her nose to mine. "Heh, that tickles."

"It does, but I *love* it."

"Just as much as I love you."

For the rest of our time outside, we rested on the grass, gazing up at the stars, hands held, heads close, snuggles abundant. Dani was a big, lovable sweetheart who I could hold in my arms and eskimo kiss for the rest of my life, and she had me, who had dreamed of kissing girls under the sea and finally finding love when she had least expected it.

We lie alone only for a while

We lie alone only for a while

We had achieved what we *needed* to say. We'd found love hiding in the blue, eskimo kissed, professed our love, our feelings, and our secrets, and had come together, united and ready for our future, whatever it brought.

Alan Watts was right. There *was* a universe meant for us. We'd tapped right into one of the world's hidden secrets.

We *were* lovers.

When Father called us inside, I was abuzz with joy and success. I *had* my special someone, the perfect girl, the girl I had *dreamed* of meeting underwater and kissing, hugging me, gallivanting on a reef of corals and stones.

I finally found my *soulmate*.

Dani and I were meant to *be*.

Nothing would come in the way of our relationship and our love. Nothing would make us turn against each other.

We lie alone only for a while

We lie alone only for a while

Like the stars in outer space, we were *forever*.

Was I too quick to assume we'd be forever?

Love affects us all in mysterious ways. One second we're swooning over someone realistically out of our league, and the next, we've found *that* someone, a treasure in the sea and a quest for adventure.

Love leads to salvation, but it can also lead to ruin. It's unpredictable and *wild*.

But when it's found, barriers are broken, the norm is tossed aside, and lovers unite to defy gravity and shock the world.

Being so young, me and Dani started slow and worked our way from there. When we were older, we'd go deeper. There were many roads to take, but we'd face the adversity and rockslides as *one*.

Other issues were to come, but we'd get through them.

As long as Dani was by my side, my heart was fortified, and I'd forever fall into her arms.

What I didn't realize was that a heart was fragile... and that it could easily be fractured on the killing floor.

## Cast

* **Mae Whitman** as Winter
* **Dee Bradley Baker** and **Kari Wahlgren** as additional voices
* **Kate Oxley** as Lars
* **Jim Pirri** as Edwin
* **Eden Riegel** as Daniela
* **Nora Dunn** as Rex

## Songs

* Tut Tut Child - *Fell Down* (ft. Holly Drummond)
* Rich Edwards - *Where I'll Be Waiting* (ft. Cozi Zuehlsdorff)
* Rameses B (ft. Veela) - *Spacewalk* (snippets)
* Varien - *Sacred Woods* (ft. Skyelle)
* Rameses B - *Moonlight* (ft. Miyoki)

## Trivia

* The chapter is partially named after the Dodie song *Sick of Losing Soulmates*.
* The poster for *Soulmates* is inspired by the Lumity handhold from *The Owl House* episode *Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door* as well as the Kovu and Kiara stargazing scene from *The Lion King II: Simba's Pride*.
* The song Winter quotes in the beginning is *Hypnotique*.
* When Winter mentions that no one is a stranger to love, she references the infamous *Never Gonna Give You Up* by Rick Astley, effectively meaning that she has rickrolled the reader.
* Winter's allusions to Zeus and lighting in the chapter are references to the "And then along came Zeus" meme from *Hercules*.
* Winter comparing losing a love interest to water going toxic is an allusion to the Aether song *Just Exist*.
* After Winter questions if it's so wrong for two men to be in love, she mentions their legs being tied up in knots, a reference to *Hayloft* by Mother Mother. *Hayloft* is a notable Winiela anthem alongside its sequel.
* When Winter describes loves, she says, "Paging for the beauty and anxious butterflies, dancing under the light of a million stars," referencing the Danyka Nadeau song *Toi*. In comparison to *Hayloft*, *Toi* is a ship anthem for Wimira.
* Winter joking that her father despises bees due to *The Wicker Man* is a nod to the famous "Not the bees!" scene from the film.
* When Winter pokes fun at *High School Musical*, she references *Breaking Free* ("We're soarin', flyin'").
* It is revealed that:
	+ Lars developed a crush on Winter in fourth grade that she never returned, and despite her evidencing that his feelings were unrequited repeatedly, he refused to be deterred from her until Daniela told him outright that Winter didn't like him.
	+ Winter first met Daniela when she accidentally ran into her at Pinelake Park. The two immediately hit it off, and on their next meeting, proclaimed themselves as friends. Daniela was also the first to call Winter by the short version of her name instead of the full version.
	+ Daniela is acutely intelligent for someone of her age, having displayed advanced thinking since her youth and being able to calculate high-school math problems. She aimed to attend an Ivy League institution, with her mother believing that she'd attend Harvard. This was previously hinted in Season 1.
	+ Daniela had a crush on The Wanted frontman Tom Parker.
	+ Forever 21 did not come to the mall until *Dancing in the Dark* because of a failure to obtain a leasing permit.
	+ Daniela used to be a fan of Rihanna, even finding her attractive (an early hint to her bisexuality). She is also "slightly" emo.
	+ Winter and Daniela spent much of their time together, pooling their interests and growing their bond.
	+ Daniela actually enjoyed school, with her favorite subject being math. She had a crush on a boy named Damian Wilkes.
	+ Daniela donated to The Haven before she would later end up volunteering for it in *Two-Sided*.
	+ Winter told Daniela what happened to her mother on a sleepover after her friend had caught staring at one of her photos in tears. In turn, Daniela revealed to her that her father was absent from her life. In the process, the two held hands and hugged for the first time.
	+ During their hangouts in the summer, Winter started to fall in love with Daniela, especially after swimming with her, though she did not recognize her true feelings until coming in close contact with her at an immersive art exhibition called Looking Glass.
	+ Edwin told Winter he would not remarry, as he (and Winter) believed that no person could ever replace Lorelei.
	+ Daniela sometimes had self-esteem issues.
	+ Despite having technology and social media, Winter was still forbidden from going into the Piney Woods by her father, who held his belief that the woods were dangerous. However, with encouragement from Daniela, Winter went inside and admired the woods for their beauty and mystery.
	+ Daniela was the one that took the eighth photo in Winter's collection.
	+ On a starry night, Daniela confessed to Winter that she fell out of love with Damian and found herself invested in women as she is with men, coming out as bisexual to her. She also professed her feelings for Winter, which Winter swiftly returned, and the two started dating. They both agreed to kiss when they were older.
* This is the first and only piece of *Evie and Mya* media where Kate Oxley voices Lars, as his older appearances are voiced by Clifford Chapin.
* Winter contrasting herself from Rapunzel eating hazelnut soup is a reference to the scenes in *Tangled* where Mother Gothel says she is making hazelnut soup.
* During the chase scene at Pinelake Park, Winter references the MC Hammer song *U Can't Touch This* by fleeing from Lars and declaring herself untouchable.
* Daniela having a finger cut by a Beyblade is a reference to a real event from Av's youth, in which a Beyblade accidentally snagged in her hair and resulted in some of it being cut.
* Winter and Daniela being noted to laugh like hyenas is a reference to a similar scene between Evie and Mya in *There's Something About Mya*.
* As Winter and Daniela bond with each other, the Tut Tut Child song *Fell Down* is played in the background.
* Winter calling Rihanna "Barbadian Jesus" is actually an old name Av used to give Rihanna herself.
* There is a frequent running gag in the chapter: Winter accidentally describing Daniela in a romantic context before and after falling in love with her.
* Winter telling her father that he's watching *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia* only to see Danny DeVito curse someone out over the phone is a reference to the scene in which DeVito states, "Ah, so you come crawling back, you cheap sack of s\*it."
* Daniela being ticklish is a parallel to Evie being ticklish herself.
* When Winter and Daniela continue hanging out following the sleepover and go swimming at the pool, the Rich Edwards song *Where I'll Be Waiting* is audible in the background.
* What Daniela was supposed to say at Häagen-Dazs was "fruity in the booty," a reference to a drink featured in an ad for infamous queer Webtoon *Boyfriends*.
* Winter notably sings a partial verse from the Rihanna song *Umbrella* when she mentions umbrellas on the poolside.
* When Winter splashes water on Daniela's face, she compares her to an "angry squeaking toad," alluding to the appearance of an agitated desert rain frog.
* Edwin having *Poker Face* as his ringtone is ironic, as not long after *Soulmates*, Lady Gaga would release *Born This Way*, a song recognized as one of the most famous LGBTQ+ anthems. While Edwin has never been supportive of that community, Lady Gaga has been for years. He likely discreetly changed it following the release of *Born This Way*.
* Looking Glass, the immersive art experience, is heavily inspired by Omega Mart in Las Vegas. It also has some theming inspired by Disney's 1951 version of *Alice in Wonderland*.
* As Winter and Daniela tour Looking Glass, a loop of the opening seconds to the Rameses B song *Spacewalk* plays.
* Winter references the "It was at this moment he knew he f\*cked up" meme when Lars gets accosted by Daniela over hounding her friend.
* While Winter and Daniela explore the Piney Woods, the Varien song *Sacred Woods* is heard in the background. Winter also notes *Sacred Woods* when she and Daniela visualize a more fantasy-esque version of the woods.
* Winter and Daniela watching documentaries on Alan Watts was inspired by the 2012 Rameses B song *Moonlight*, which features a spoken sample from Watts about the mysteries of life and science.
	+ The 2017 edit of *Moonlight*, featuring vocals from Miyoki, subsequently makes an appearance in *Soulmates* and plays as Winter and Daniela confess their feelings for one another and start dating. Watts' words are heavily tied into the early beginnings of their relationship.