HEY GUYS. So, I know that a lot of you said popsicle, so here. IT. IS.

Today is MISTICLIGHT'S BIRTHDAY, SO EVERYONE PLEASE GIVE A BIG SHOUTOUT IN THE REVIEW AND SHOW HOW MUCH YOU LUV HER.

OR just review! That would be the best birthday gift ever.

Okay? Okay. Let's get this ball rolling. We hope you like this installment even more than the first one. :3

All the love in my heart,

MISTRO

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Margaret was not happy. In fact, happy was the last thing she wanted to be. She knew that it was childish to complain, but she couldn't help herself. It was the summer. School was for the horrible, dreary months where you were miserable every second of the day. Not when you had a grassy park waiting for you just around the corner.

Margaret's hair had gotten longer over the past few months, and though she looked different, she felt the same. Her imagination ran wild with dreams of Narnia and Aslan, not chemistry books and math papers.

At first, she swore she had dreamt it all. She was so afraid that it had been a fairytale inside of her head that she barely spoke a word about it to Annette for hours. It was only when Edmund finally mentioned something after school one day that she was able release a sigh of relief.

And yet, she was back in England. Rainy, gloomy England. The tall walls of her school looked down at her with hidden eyes. She knew that she would be late if she didn't go in now, but Margaret couldn't care less. I was a Lady of Narnia,she thought miserably to herself. Now I'm stuck here doing Chemistry papers when I could be swimming in the Narnian Sea.

"Margaret?"

The voice caught her off guard. She spun around to see a flustered Annette rushing towards her. "What on Earth are you doing just standingthere? We're both going to be late for class!" She tried to nudge her friend inside of the gothic building, but Margaret kept her position.

"Wait, Annette! How are you late? You're never late!" Margaret looked her friend up and down. "Not to mention, you're all sweaty. Have you been running? What were you doing; dreaming too much?"

Annette scoffed in annoyance. "Never mind that! Do you want us to get a mark on our first day?" Margaret shrugged. Annette should have known by then that Margaret didn't give a wink about her effort. "Don't grace that question with an answer. I'm certain I won't want to hear it."

The two girls made their way swiftly down the empty halls, despite Margaret's keen desire to be late on her first day of summer school. Only a few students were around the corridors: those who wanted to study for fun and those who didn't. Margaret and Annette were clearly the latter.

"Have you met him yet?" Margaret whispered as they entered the filled room. Sixteen pairs of eyes fell on them, and none with any warmth. Annette shivered under their watch and drug herself to the back of the room. "I thought maybe you were late because you were visiting the Pevensies."

"Who are you talking about?" Annette tried to keep her whispers quiet as she tugged her books from her rucksack.

"The cousin," Margaret mumbled as she took her seat beside her friend. "Eustace." The chair scraped out beneath her, causing the entire class to once again snap their attention towards the girls. Margaret couldn't help but laugh at the scene. "They hate me already and all I've done is pull out a chair."

Annette firmly grasped her friend's sleeve, yanking her down onto her stool. Margaret could feel the embarrassment on her friend's face without even having to look at her. "No, I haven't met him yet, and by the sound of it I don't rightly care to."

"Rightly so!" Margaret snickered. "He's the most spoiled creature I've ever met. If only Peter were here. He could teach that boy some sense."

Margaret had met Eustace Scrubb. He was a nasty little thing, as greedy and rude as they came. He was the kind of boy who tripped people for fun and refused to eat when his mother cooked a five-course meal. Margaret hated him before she even met him, and when she did, she didn't think it was possible to hate him even more. How wrong she was.

"At least Edmund is here," Annette offered with a smile. "He's much more mature now. Ever since Peter and Susan left, he's really taking care of things with Lucy. I'm sure he's handling things very well."

Margaret's concern suddenly flushed away at the mere mention of the boy's name. Annette was right. Edmund was becoming a bit more like his elder brother, only much more understanding. He was taking care of Lucy while Peter and Susan were in America, and he was certainly proving his worth. Not only that, but his desire to fight for his country made Margaret see the adult in him much more clearly. Secretly, his desire to fight worried her. But she always put on a smile when he brought it up.

Margaret knew how lucky she was. She would visit Edmund often during the week. He would take her to go see a film on some nights, and on others they would go to the diner. Sometimes she blushed when he held her hand, and other times, she would be the one to take his. She knew that she was in a relationship, but the idea was still so hard to comprehend that she often kept her thoughts to herself. Edmund never seemed to mind her timidity.

The best days were when they would lay on the grass in the park and talk about Narnia. They would laugh about Trumpkin, and awe over Aslan. Edmund would put on his best mouse voice and act like Reepicheep, which only made Margaret long to see her friends again. As much as they missed it, it worried them to go back. They had no inkling of how much Narnian time had gone by. It could have been thousands of years!

And that was why Annette rarely spoke about it. Caspian was waiting for her. She was waiting for her ticket. Margaret always heard her whispering prayers at night to keep him safe. Margaret knew how frightened she was. Annette could go back to Narnia, and Caspian might be eighty years old or dead. Or worse, he could have forgotten about her and married another.

Margaret could only smile and keep Annette busy to take her mind off of things. They had spent nearly every minute of the summer together so far, and neither one had grown tired of the other. It was a rare thing with friends, and both of them treasured the other for it. Not to mention, they each had a shoulder to cry on.

"Good morning, class."

"Oh, no." The thoughts stopped instantly in both of the girls' heads. Margaret's face slammed onto the table at the mere sound of the professor's voice.

Annette audibly gasped and nudged her friend. "Margaret, composure yourself!"

"It's just…" Margaret could hardly find the words. "It's chemistry! Do I look like a chemist? Remind me why I'm here again."

"No. You look like a foolish young girl who daydreamed too much in class, so she had to come and take summer lessons." Margaret shut her eyes as she felt the breath of her teacher trickling down the back of her neck. Her mother was going to kill her if she got sent home. "I heard you were going to be in my class, Miss Margaret."

Slowly, the blonde turned her head with a fake smile. She was slightly proud of her new reputation, although she knew she could not afford to fail this class. "I do hope we can get along this summer."

Mrs. Bird had a nose like a hook and eyes as small as buttons. Her teeth were far too yellow and they stuck out even more with her pasty skin. She was not a sight to behold, and Margaret would have given anything to be back in Narnia as she stared into her black eyes. "Oh, I'm sure we'll get along splendidly." Sarcasm dripped from every word.

Annette lightly grasped Margaret's knee under the table. She could read the gesture. Don't push it.

Listening to her friend's advice, Margaret turned around and said no more. She got her pencils and paper ready and waited for the day to be over. Unfortunately, as her eyes flickered towards the clock, she realized that she still had three hours and twenty-two minutes to go.

~.~.~.~.~

It was about two weeks before when Margaret first met Eustace Scrubb. It wasn't exactly how she had planned it to be, but then again, Lucy and Edmund had warned her. Margaret begged Annette to come and meet the devil with her, but her friend had no interest in snotty little boys. Books were a much more suitable company.

After making her way to the house, Margaret sat with Lucy in her new bedroom at her uncle's house. Her sheets were still flat, and Margaret wondered if she had even slept since she'd arrived. She doubted it. The walls were all white like a hospital, and the place reeked of dust. Margaret was there to make her comfortable though, so they sat on the windowsill and began a nice conversation.

"Her dress is lovely," Lucy mumbled about a young girl who walked by beneath her window. She stared down with twinkling eyes.

Margaret caught sight of the pink, frilled dress flipping out behind the girl's coat. A smile flickered onto her face. "Not half as lovely as the ones you wore in Narnia." Lucy lifted her eyes and managed a pathetic smile. Something wasn't right with the gesture, and Margaret picked it up right away. "What's the matter? Have you been missing it?"

"Of course I miss it! I would much rather be there than with my cousin, Eustace."

Margaret's confusion still ran high. "That's not what's bothering you though, is it?"

Lucy only smiled. "I guess you could say that I just don't feel like myself anymore. Everyone around me is getting older and more mature. Somehow, I feel like it's skipping me. I can't prove my worth because of my age, and no one knows the things that I've seen."

Margaret almost laughed at the girl. She was the most mature Pevensie of them all. "Oh, Lucy, surely you cannot believe those things. You have to know how strong you are. You were a Queen of Narnia, and you see goodness in even the worst of people." Margaret went to brush a strand of hair behind the girl's ear. "Don't ever put yourself down like that. You make me sad to hear it."

"Yes, but I'm not…" She struggled to find the words until her face went as red as her auburn hair.

"You're not…?"

"Pretty," she finally spat out. "I've never looked like Susan, and I'll never be anywhere near as elegant as you or Annette. You all have boys falling at your feet, and I'm just waiting here for some sort of consolation." Margaret was too confused by one sentence to properly take in all of them.

"Me?" She snickered. "Elegant? Oh, Lucy, you obviously haven't been paying much attention." Margaret sensed her words were not comforting. It took her a moment to understand the gravity of her confession. "Lucy, do you really not see how beautiful you are? You are as beautiful as they come! Inside and out-"

"Is this really happening?"

The shrilly voice took both of the girls off guard. A small boy with spider-like eyebrows leaned against the white doorframe. His scrawny arms were folded over his chest as if he were trying to make himself look tougher. Margaret knew who he was without an introduction. "Are you seriously talking about how pretty you are? It's straight out of a novel, if I've ever read one."

"Well, obviously, you haven't." Margaret spat in annoyance. She knew at that first moment they weren't going to get on well, so she didn't bother with her courtesies. Thank goodness her mother wasn't there.

"Who are you, anyway?" He stood up a bit straighter and let his arms drop to his sides. "This is my house. I don't ever remember letting a cheeky girl like you come in."

Lucy scoffed in annoyance. "Eustace, if we're bothering you so much, why don't you just leave? Trust me; everyone would be happier for it."

He only laughed this off before repositioning his gaze on Margaret. "Your hair is blonde. I've heard that makes people dumber. Turns out that you're living proof."

Margaret's brow rose in amusement. "You are so clever that it physically pains me…"

"The Pevensies are strange enough as it is, and now they're dragging their lunatic friends into my house!" His eyes caught sight of Margaret's school bag, where her Grimm Tales book tumbled halfway out. "Oh, brilliant. You believe in those fantasy words too? I should have known that my cousins would be hanging out with the likes of you."

He went to reach for the book, but Margaret's hand snapped down and snatched his wrist before he could see her coming. She made sure to keep it tight in her nails, and watched as pain flickered past his eyes. "You really shouldn't touch things that aren't yours."

Eustace was too surprised to speak. Eventually, Margaret let him go free, before he ran out of sight. "Insane!" She heard him scream as he bounded down the stairs. "They're all crazy! Every last one of them!"

"Oh, right," she grumbled. "Says the boy who collects bugs."

~.~.~.~.~

Now, Margaret was taking Chemistry class. It wasn't quite as bad as being with Eustace, but it was still making her skin crawl. Her eyes continued to flicker up towards the clock hands, but they had only moved twice since she had last looked.

"Margaret, stop staring at the time and take notes. Watching the clock only makes it worse." Annette noticed how distracted her friend was. There was no way they were going to pass their course if Margaret didn't step up her game.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she started copying her friend's notes. "I just can't wait to get out of here."

"Do you and Edmund have plans tonight?" Annette whispered quietly.

Margaret shook her head as her lead pencil dug firmly in the paper. "No, he's got to watch Eustace and I refused to be there with him."

Annette scoffed. Margaret wasn't exactly a perfect girlfriend. But, at least she can see the boy she cares for. Queasiness began to wash over Annette at the mere thought of her own affection.

Caspian and his dark eyes. Caspian and his thick accent and soft smile. She wished for nothing more than to be with him. Even for a moment. She felt a bit silly for thinking it, but somewhere inside, she prayed Aslan could hear her. She hoped he knew how much she missed Narnia. Naturally, she was glad to be with Margaret, but how much longer did they have to wait?

"Thanks for letting me copy."

Margaret made Annette snap from her thoughts. She only gave a small smile in response. The teacher's voice began to fade out as her eyes met the test tube that sat before her.

Chemistry,she thought. What an amazing thing. It can relate to a science and an emotion. In fact, love and science are practically one in the same.She hated to look at it that way, but it made sense in her head. Emotion brings people together. Oh, Science, if only you were that good. If only you could bring Caspian and I back together.

"What are you thinking about?" Margaret already knew the answer, despite her question.

"Nothing," Annette mumbled back silently. "Just some worn-out dreams."

They both went back to being quiet after that. Annette said all she needed to say. But, deep inside of her, she kept begging.

Please let me see him again. Please let it be soon.

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REVIEW AND MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. Sorry for the slow start. The ball will start to roll eventually, but we needed to post on this significant day. X3