Author's Note: After a two-month hiatus, the next update is here. Thank you for your patience.

I hope this contains enough relevance to not be filler, and that the transitioning between present and flashback is clear. And I didn't know which girl to use in Anna's flashback, so she was a random choice.

….I wrote Anna's flashback in a pizza parlor.


On better days Anna was sort of able to pay attention in school. She reminded herself this to justify her complete checkout the next Monday.

She had made contact with Elsa. They'd planned a meeting. They saw each other on their own accord, for a real reason, and had a good time.

What was next?

Anna didn't know much about dating. She never got this far with someone she liked on her own. Still, past experience was a place to start, so in her first two class periods she preoccupied herself with memories of her flings to figure out what to do about Elsa.

Math was easily washed out. Anna pondered while dimly registering a voice in the background. It didn't work. Images of Elsa kept flitting through her head, some more innocent than others. She blinked as she fumbled through questions on a worksheet—get in the game, Anna, you want to date her, not just…other things. She dashed out an answer using a formula Elsa had given her. Anna wondered what Elsa's family attended after she left the library.

Science was much the same way, except that now that she'd had time to wake up, Anna was more ready to focus on old relationship experience. But all she could think of that day in the lab was the time she went to the lock-in at church.

Her parents made her go; this was during their phase of trying to reconnect with their religious roots. Anna had been tolerated by her youth group, scratching her Sunday dress and making offhand comments. After all, even the rambunctious should be treated with politeness.

Middle school came, bringing a blooming interest in the unfamiliar. And Anna was a late bloomer. This was less devastating than she first imagined, given other girls never pointed it out. But she was curious, and wished she could start developing, for reference.

And so the miracle descended upon her that day her parents trundled her into that church room with many other children. They set her miniature suitcase down, reminded her to be good, and then turned out the door. Anna felt pressure standing there on her own, but all eyes soon went back to their previous business. Except for the pair watching from the corner of the room, their owner regarding her with a little smile. Later that night the girl poked Anna awake in her sleeping bag and among the mass of their sleeping peers asked if Anna wanted to feel up her shirt.

Anna could not remember, exactly, what this girl looked like, as she thought back to being led down the dark corridors of the church. She could have had brown hair, or black, and Anna distantly recalled a bow. She believed some weeks ago this girl complained to their group that she had seven annoying relatives. In the minutes of them winding through the labyrinth they passed a framed painting of Mother Mary. Anna saw those oil eyes peering into her and cringed. But she soon got over herself, because a girl was letting her feel up her shirt!

They found a room deep inside the church. Anna thought maybe a nursery; it was very small. They closed the door and the other girl leaned against the wall. She shrugged. Anna stood goofily a foot away, a nervous smile showing her teeth. The girl pinched the bottom of her pajama shirt, to prompt her. Mesmerized, Anna leaned in.

Oh, the glory of all she was handling! It was new and womanly and delightfully privileged. Anna stared in wonder as her hands roved under that pajama top, overwhelmed by the sensation. Praise God! she thought. Praise God and Jesus and Mary and Joseph for the answered hopes and dreams of her twelve-year-old self!

Maybe Anna stared too long, as all of a sudden the girl pushed her away. She'd tugged her pajamas down firmly this time, fitting it back into place. "I don't want to do this anymore," she said to the dumbfounded Anna. "Sorry," she added, like that would explain it.

They returned to the lock-in silently and didn't speak the next morning. They'd given each other quick smiles at a group activity but quickly looked away. Anna had scrunched her nose a second time at a few kids who tilted their heads. Her smile remained below blank eyes as her pastor spoke of the sanctity between a man and a woman.

That was where Anna had gotten when she found Vanessa in her face. Class was over, and Anna had moved on autopilot down the hallway.

She blinked. "Hi?"

"So I heard you were at a study party with Elsa a few days ago," Vanessa said.

Anna flinched in confusion. That wasn't a bad thing—right?

Her voice faltered. "How did you know about that?"

"I overheard some kids talking about it," Vanessa said. She checked her nails. "They said you looked like you were having a very fun time."

Bizarrely Anna felt guilty she didn't tell Elsa her flash cards were usually made last minute. "It was fun," she insisted. "But we were also studying."

"Of course you were. It was a study party, after all."

The hallways were thinning. Anna's English class was halfway across the school. She ducked her head. "Vanessa, I really need to go, we can talk about this la—"

"I wasn't done talking," Vanessa said, shunting into Anna's path. Anna shrank under her tone. Vanessa's gaze was cold, hard, and disapproving. "So what were you studying?"

"History," Anna mumbled.

Vanessa crossed her arms. "Is that all?"

Chemistry, Anna thought, and she fought not to smile. Tension hung in the air. Anna had to fill it. "What's so bad about a study party?" she asked. "She wanted help and I wanted help, and we were good at what the other needed."

"Anna, can you imagine if her parents wanted to meet you?"

In her head a conductor yanked a lever, throwing the train off its tracks. Anna swung her head toward Vanessa, bewildered.

"What if they did what?"

"Wanted to meet you." Vanessa said it plainly, sudden concern tinged into her exasperation. "And what if they thought you weren't good enough for their daughter, in any way? I mean, obviously they're pretty high-status people, given how frigid Elsa can be if she doesn't know you."

She waited for a response. Anna didn't have one. Her mind ran furiously, trying to link words to events.

"Then I just wouldn't meet her parents," she said, and it was feeble.

Vanessa regarded her another moment, then shrugged and walked past Anna to her science class. She opened the door and a pleasant expression came over her face. The door clicked shut. Anna was left alone in the hallway.

She got her English books, then slammed her locker and sprinted in a panic when the bell rang. That was the thing, she thought, when Merida and Rapunzel looked at her strangely as she limped through the doorway and to her seat. Even when Vanessa was trying to help someone, she couldn't take no for an answer.

Mrs. Wanda tutted and marked Anna late on her clipboard. Anna opened her notebook winded, making a mental note to ask Vanessa how the robotics campaign was going. She wanted to bring peace between them. But still, it was annoying how sometimes it was easier to not question Vanessa and just go with it.


After school Jane went with Belle to the nearby café to talk about class and television and their boyfriends and the books they were reading and why on earth Anna hadn't asked Elsa out when it was so obvious they had it for each other. "You saw the way she turned so red fourth period." "Of course I did! I've never seen her so embarrassed, it was almost difficult for me not to laugh along with the others…"

The bell above the door jingled as Elsa came in to meet them. They turned to her with expectant smiles in a way that let her know they had been talking about her. She waved at them, then weaved by the green patterned armchairs to order a drink before sitting at their table by the window.

She guessed what they'd said. Their English lecture had halted for everyone to gawk at her blushing, as Belle put it, "deep enough to be a rose" at the mention of Anna Karenina. It was rare that Elsa stopped paying attention, and when she came back into orbit she saw twenty-seven pairs of eyes staring right at her and a concerned teacher asking if she needed to go to the nurse. Elsa had quickly agreed, stumbling up for a pass before hurrying out of the room with her head down. She didn't really go to the nurse. She wandered up and down the halls without a change in pace until the computer teacher in the sub-basement leaned out of her classroom and asked if she was lost. Elsa returned to orbit again, seeing an eerie green glow over the teacher's shoulder. She'd stuttered no, that she remembered the way now, and dashed off with her shoulders bunched up until she reached a bathroom and laughed her lungs out. She returned to English pale as could be, a funny grin still cracking along her lips.

When the teacher asked, she said the nurse informed her she'd been faint and needed to lie down a while. Her friends hadn't bought it—"What?" she'd asked, though in good humor as they gave her wry glances in the back of the room—but they were over teasing her about it, as in the café now they were talking about the upcoming dance.

"I still don't think they needed to announce it two weeks ahead of time."

"Don't be daft, Belle, it's so the rest of them who don't have dates can get the courage to ask someone."

They stopped briefly, eyes flicking to the third chair at the table. Elsa sipped her coffee with an eyebrow raised, otherwise deadpan to their dialogue.

Jane opened one of her textbooks. "You know how the school likes making big fanfares over formal events," she went on. "Notices for prom are practically three months in advance. So," she said, putting her chin on her knuckles, "how do you think you're going to dress?"

"Well, Adam's grandmother had this really nice yellow dress they keep in the attic. I'm gonna see if I can find something like it."

How easy it was for them, discussing their relationships. Elsa took note of the things they said, though with a churn of envy she knew she didn't have the luxury to be so open. She looked at the coffee pooling across her mug.

She barely thought about the dance. She passed them by every semester, rejecting requests for accompaniment from both boys and girls. It seemed to have gotten her a few reputations. There wasn't much she could do about that. Though she still felt for that poor DunBroch girl, the way she'd cornered Elsa by the art room last year in a blur, sputtering out would you like to go with me to the dance maybe? Elsa's answer was no, it was always no, but she was caught off-guard by the cocky redhead's sudden transformation into a tongue-tied subordinate. Those seconds of shock must have given Merida hope, as her eyes noticeably glossed when Elsa said, "No. Sorry."

She'd never told, not a soul. Whether Merida stayed quiet was up for debate, as a few times Elsa had seen her walking by flanked by her two friends. They'd all see her, evidenced by Merida's ducking head and the brunette's tight-lipped spurt of laughter. But the third one would look at her shyly, half-embarrassed, the one with the freckles and streak of white in her hair…

that's how she first knew Anna.

Her eyebrows rose with the revelation as a car zoomed by on the street. Her friends pretended not to see, continuing their discussion on dresses and classwork. Elsa took another sip of her coffee, remembering.

She'd continued noticing Anna, subconsciously; over time she'd memorized where Anna might be at certain times and picked up enough to start looking around at sports events and ice cream socials. She'd questioned if this was normal or obsessive, but it's not like she was actively following Anna so she supposed she wasn't on her way to the evening news. At least, that's what she hoped while muttering prayers before bed.

Anna was so happy that year. Elsa never stayed close enough to catch more than a few words, but for all her unintended rudeness and social missteps, the girl's radiance was infectious. Elsa sometimes felt herself flustered walking past Anna chattering away. It was so open and so beautiful. Elsa wondered what her home life was like.

Playing those memories in her head, Elsa smiled into her mug at the café. Then she thought of Vanessa, and a frown struck across her face.