It was the next day of Winter and the day consisted of nothing in particular. It was a regular slow day, because this entire season was lined up with festivals—the Snow Festival, the Starry Night Festival, and New Year's—so otherwise the days moved rather slowly until we had reached those exciting days. In the meantime, I was sitting in my room and I decided to look at something I hadn't taken a peek at in a long while. I pulled out the dusty notebook that had been lying in a drawer in my nightstand, the notebook Sophia had used to write all of her little notes about the islands in. I blew the dust away and opened it, looking back and remembering the first few weeks of those hot summer days, living out of this book to learn the names and personalities of everyone. Since then it's rightful home had been in the nightstand drawer, where I figured I wouldn't need it, and since then, have never used it. But I was curious. I didn't flip through it all; I mainly just looked at the map and the descriptions of each of the villagers. But what else did my clever twin have to say about everyone?

I flipped through the pages tenderly and found more drawn out pictures. She drew me a diagram of Ranch Island, showing me where all the tools were and the names of each animal. She cared about them all to some extent to at least now the layout of the farm and the names of the animals. Fortunately after some time I brought them all back to life, however. I flipped further back.

This was when I found what I had needed in the beginning. It was her story on the islands. Written out originally in black ink, but eventually moved to blue ink. It must've taken her some time to write this. It was almost like a diary entry. I finally decided to start reading:

Chelsea-

Before you go anywhere and start anything, I recommend you read this. I probably should have started this notebook off with this but I got so caught up in making sure you knew everyone else that I didn't give you time to learn about yourself—or myself, rather. While my personality is the same you don't know the stories I have of living life on Sunshine Islands. Yes, I leave a lot, and yes, I keep to myself. But the reason for that relies within the relationship between Mark and Natalie.

Sigh. This is kind of hard to write. When you talk to people, it may be obvious the way certain people will act toward you, and you're probably not going to like it. Gosh, Chels, you're so down-to-earth and fun loving. It almost pains me that I asked you to do this, almost even more that you agreed to it. Pretty much, Mark and Natalie had been dating for a long time. I moved onto the islands and they were already dating beforehand, and they kept on for at least I wanna say another year. Mark likes to linger around the farm because he plans on being a farmer one day, and, well, he really wants me to get kicked off so he could take over. But one of those days he was at the farm, I dunno, Chels. He's a nice guy but I didn't want him to linger anymore. I figured that if I did something to make him hate me, then he'd leave my farm and me alone. I tried quite a few things—being rude, getting him injured—but nothing seemed to work. So I tried a different route. I'm not proud of it.

One day while Mark was at the farm, I decided to try flirting with him. I wanted to make him uncomfortable around me. I didn't want him to bother me anymore. While doing that, I invited him inside, thinking he'd be weird and leave. But he didn't. So I kept at it further. It's safe to say that I took it too far…Chels, you know me very well and you know that I've never done anything like this before. Sure, I'll hook up with multiple guys or get a bunch of numbers, and any other crazy things, but I respect the line when it comes to girls and their boyfriends and just relationships and lines being drawn. Well…I crossed over a line. A big line. We slept together, and I remember him leaving the house and me being miserable. I didn't know what had come over me. I wasn't close to anyone but I felt the need to talk about it with someone. I don't know why, but I decided to go to Julia. Which, in hindsight, was a mistake. As you may figure out, Julia and Natalie are best friends, inseparable almost. So when I told Julia about it, it got misconstrued into me trying to brag about it. Which is so far from true. I came to her in a panic of what to do, but I guess Julia didn't read me like that. Since that point, my life on the islands had turned around.

But, I can't leave. I have nowhere else to turn to. I can't stay at home with mom any longer, I mean you understand; she suffocates us. This is still the easiest thing I got going for me. Even with all of the villagers thinking of some awful slut. But after that moment Mark still didn't leave me alone. And he's actually a nice guy…but it sucks knowing when your intention for something doesn't work out, but now your actions have only increased the issue. I don't know why he kept coming back to my farm; I guess he really wants to be a farmer that bad. Go figure.

I'm sorry to lay this all on you. I'm such a burden. You're such an amazing sister; I really hope you know that. I wouldn't have asked you this, I didn't realize how awful my life was here. I hope you make the best of it this next year, I know you will.

I love you lots sissy! Enjoy Sunshine Islands as much as possible. I know you'll keep with amazing things. Love to love ya!

-Sophia

I stared at her beautifully scripted handwriting in disbelief. I sat there my fingertips clenched around the page. I turned it over and there was nothing left in the book. I sighed and slammed it shut, and threw it back in the nightstand drawer and closed it slowly.

I don't know how to properly react to what I had just read. Did I just read… that Sophia never meant to hurt Natalie? That none of this had to do with Natalie? It had to do with Sophia, her farm, and Mark. It was all just a plot that escalated a little too quickly.

Granted, Sophia shouldn't have flirted with Mark in the first place. She crossed that line (since she spoke of not meaning to cross any) but it obviously escalated into something much, much worse than that. Sophia wouldn't lie to me about something like this, especially in a written-out letter intended for me to read and use. She might've lied in a short conversation over the phone to save her ass, but she had no idea what I planned to do with this information. She wouldn't lie to me like this, because sure she was rough along the edges but her edges weren't daggers. She had a heart.

This was big. I ran my fingers through my hair because I just didn't know how to process—or use—this information that I've had for weeks now. Why had I never gone that far back in the book? When I decided to let my own personality shine through, I guess got overconfident. I shouldn't have done that, of course, but we all have perfect vision when using hindsight.

On that note, it left me with some things that I decided I needed to do. I needed to talk to Julia. I needed her to know who I was. Julia and I managed to get incredibly close over the course of the seasons and it wasn't fair that Mark and Denny know and she doesn't. I also needed to talk to her about her talking to Elliot, but that was a different story. I also wanted to talk to Julia about bringing back our plan to bring Natalie and Mark back together. Knowing now that literally everything was a complete misunderstanding, there's no way that I can't try and make them happy together again. I wasn't giving them their fair attention (I mean, I did promise myself I 'd try for them) just because I was caught up in liking Vaughn.

I also wanted to take Julia with me and talk to Natalie. Natalie needed to understand that I only wanted to be civil with her. I hope Julia kept word with what she said a long time ago, that she would put in good words for me to Natalie to hopefully have her trust me more.

And lastly, I needed to talk with Mark. I needed to show him what Sophia wrote about him in the notebook. I need him to understand why everything panned out the way it did. It was hard to bring it up to Natalie, considering I played with the idea that Sophia did this all in spite. Changing that reason why now would look obscure, and I couldn't blow my sister's cover so easily. That wouldn't be fair to her right now, considering she was so honest with me via letter. However, Mark did deserve to know at the very least. He is easily one of my best friends on the islands and he knows who I really am. I also think hearing this would put him at some ease with Natalie, even my sister.

I didn't know where to start. There was so much to do and so little time for me to do it. I panicked, and just decided to at least start with caring for my farm. I immediately went into the chicken coop, picked up and pet each animal and made sure they felt loved. I did the same thing when I walked into the stable, and pet all of my animals. I walked up to Pearl and smiled at her, and rubbed her nose as she pushed her head against my own. After all this time, it was such a rewarding feeling to truly feel the love I had with my animals.

I remember very early on the relationship my animals had with me, or at least with Sophia. Pearl was sick. Vaughn visited my farm every week to get her better, and since then I made sure that had never happened since then. I think it went unnoticed with Pearl; she continued to nuzzle against me and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. I remember when Vaughn sat in the chicken coop and all of them just were drawn to him. It was magical the way that worked. I remember being in so much disbelief.

If it weren't for those moments, Vaughn and I wouldn't talk as much as we do today. I also wouldn't have been able to see the sincere side of him that he tries so hard to keep from me. It was fascinating the way our relationship panned out. I wouldn't trade any experience with him for the world, just because it lead me to meet and grow close with one of the most stimulating, hard-working, humble and yet incredibly stubborn, and most definitely one of the most refreshing men I have ever been blessed to come by.

I sighed. I needed to talk to Julia. I knew I needed to do it now, but the second I made up my mind I was nearly dreading it. I panicked as I left the stable and started working my way down Ranch Island. How was she going to react to this? Was it going to ruin our friendship? Make it better? Denny took it so well when I told him. But then again, I was blacked out and he just wanted to make out with me. But he said it made sense when he thought back on it. Would Julia react the same way? The only obvious way to find out would be to ask her. The thought of her getting mad, or getting even remotely upset, made my palms sweat my stomach get queasy. I felt my face grow hot and warm and I pushed my bandana further back on my head to really remove any stray hairs from my eyes. In the process of doing that, I got sweat all over my forehead. It was disgusting and it only made me panic more. Why was I so nervous? I could only think of the reason being was that Mark was able to figure out it wasn't me, and I don't even remember telling Denny. Here I was, nearly approaching Julia's home, and I was about to be honest with her with everything, and the only reason being was that I felt she deserved to know as one of my best friends here on the islands.

I walked up to the front door and knocked. I didn't want to hesitate; I knew the longer I'd stand there, the more I'd decide that I didn't want to do it. So I figured I'd knock the second I got there, and that way there was no turning back. The door opened and there was Julia on the other side, still wearing a long shirt to cover her "baby bump." She smiled at me when she saw me on the other side of the door.

"Sophia! Hi! Come in!" she squeaked, letting me through the door.

I walked past her and said, "Is anyone else home?"

"Nah," she said, shutting the door behind me. "Mirabelle is having lunch with Felicia and I'm not sure where Vaughn is today. He usually just leaves without notice."

Perfect.

"So, um, can I talk to you about something?" I wondered, staring at her seriously. She must've noted my facial expression, because her normal smile dropped to a frown. Her eyes looked worrisome.

"Yeah, of course. Let's sit."

We walked over to the kitchen table and sat across from each other, the frown on her face not leaving. Everything beneath my skin was shaking: my bones, my blood, my insides, everything. I didn't know what to expect or how she was going to react to this, and the thought of it going badly terrified me.

I breathed. "This isn't easy," I started. "It's really, really not easy."

"Sophia, you're scaring me." Julia narrowed her eyes on me. "What's up?"

I let out a big sigh, my breath shaky when I did so. I clasped my clammy hands together and stared down at them when I decided to talk. I couldn't look her in the eyes just yet, I just couldn't. "Well, that's kind of it exactly. The whole 'Sophia' thing."

I looked up at her, her expression completely changed. She looked terribly confused with no intention to talk. So I took another breath, hoping it would give me the courage I needed to further this conversation, and kept going.

"I'm… not her. Um…" I stared down at my hands again. I couldn't look at her reaction. "I'm not Sophia."

Silence. I didn't look up just yet because I was awaiting an answer, but we just sat in silence. I peeked up at the look on her face was still horribly confused, except this time her mouth went agape a bit and her eyebrows were furrowed to touch her eyelashes.

"I know this isn't the right time to say anything, due to the fact that you're hormonal and whatnot," I said, "but I felt that you deserved to know. We've gotten so close and it's been so hard to not be honest with you. But I'm not Sophia."

"What does that mean?" she immediately retorted.

She was getting a little impatient and irritated. I shouldn't have expected less than that.

"I'm not Sophia…because I'm her sister. Her twin sister, rather."

Julia shut her mouth, her eyebrows went back to normal, and all she did was stare at me now. It was the most obscure reaction I could've received in this exact situation, but it was the one she was giving me. She sat across from me, a blank face as she gnawed at her lower lip. She finally let out a breath, and slowly leaned forward to stare at me further. There were no words, no sounds exchanged throughout the process. She just looked deep into my eyes, as if she were trying to find out who I really was.

"I don't…understand…" she whispered softly. "Sophia isn't here? You're her twin? She has a twin?"

I gave her a small smile as her voice increased in volume and nodded at her. I relaxed a bit in my chair, trying to be as comfortable as possible. "Julia, it's been me this entire time…me meaning not Sophia. My name is Chelsea, and I've been here since the top of Summer, trying to play as Sophia to do her a favor."

"What favor?" she wondered quickly.

"She's currently traveling the world with one of her best friends from home. She didn't want to get kicked off the island again so she called me."

She just leaned back in her chair, confusion flooding her face yet again. "So you're… not Sophia?"

"Right."

"You're Chelsea?"

"Correct."

"You're here… doing your sister a favor?"

"Mhm."

"Well, shit." She sighed, looking down at her lap, assuming she was looking at her hands. "No wonder you got all nice. If I had a sister that would act as me for a whole year I'd sure as hell be the bitchy twin too! You're too nice for that!"

I laughed. Wow, this was going better than I thought!

"I can't believe it," she started yet again, "you're not Sophia. All this time I thought you were a changed person, you just really did change places. You're not Sophia. You're Chelsea! Oh my Goddess, you're Chelsea!"

She quickly got up, ran around the table and dove in to hug me. I was taken back from the sudden reaction, and I hesitated a bit when I hugged her back. But soon after realizing what was going on, I sighed a large sigh of relief and hugged her back. The more people I told, the easier this was beginning to get. Julia released her hug and crouched down to stare at me. She had on a wide smile and her eyes were lined with tears.

"This is incredible," she said. "It's going to be so weird now referring to you as Chelsea when we're together. I didn't even know Sophia had a twin. She never talked about you."

I raised my eyebrows and rolled my eyes as I murmured, "So I've heard…"

"But this is going to get so confusing! I mean surely you'd much rather be called Chelsea when we're together, but then I'm going to have to call you Sophia in public? This is just ridiculous! I can't keep up!"

"Well," I started with a small smirk. "You won't be needing to do that in front of everyone. Mark and Denny both know."

"They know?" Julia growled. She quickly brought herself back down and said, "I mean, Mark I understand. You and Mark are always together. But Denny? Why Denny? Why Denny before me?"

"Easy," I said, trying to calm her down. "Telling Denny was a complete and utter accident. You, uh, remember that night when things got messy between Denny and I and we….y'know, almost…"

"Yes." She cut me short. Thankfully. "We all remember that night."

"Yeah, I told him while I was drunk when we were alone together. Totally wasn't meant to happen."

"Yeesh," Julia shuddered a tad. "That sucks."

"Eh, yeah," I shrugged, "but it's nice knowing that more people know who I am. It's really rough living like this sometimes."

"How so?"

I shrugged yet again, feeling somewhat indifferent about it. "Sometimes I feel like I'm going through an identity crisis. Like I don't really know who I am anymore, and there's three of us now."

"Three?"

"Yeah, well, there's me, Chelsea, there's Sophia, my sister, and then there's this new Sophia that everyone's seeing that isn't real. There is no 'nice, new personality Sophia' that this entire island thinks exists. That's just me… but everyone thinks I'm my sister. So there's just so many different traits being thrown around and I'm just having a little trouble here."

"Chelsea…"

"And the other day I was looking through this notebook my sister gave me right before she left me—I'll be sure to show it to you—and I think it's really important that Mark sees it. You too, actually! I didn't see it until earlier, and…and I think it'll clear up a lot in terms for my sister. Also for Mark and Natalie. Speaking of, can we talk to Natalie? I've been meaning to try and make us civil, for Sophia's sake. Also, I'd really like to try and set up a date between the two of them. Have they been talking?"

Julia sighed, rolling her eyes. "I've been hearing bits and pieces of it through Natalie whenever we decide to meet up. Apparently she's been seeing him more around the islands and they talk whenever they run into each other. I think she's finding feelings but she's trying to not do anything about it. But you still want to talk to her? After everything?"

I nodded. "That was my intention when I tried to turn things around. I want Sophia's life to be better here. So I'm trying to patch up all the holes, as many of them as possible."

"And… what is this notebook you're talking about?"

I laughed. "That one you're just gonna have to see for yourself."

Julia smiled at me. "Well then let's see this notebook then! And let's go bother Mark! And then Natalie! Wait, who should we go to first?"

I let out a laugh. I had already put myself through one painful conversation, the thought of two in a row would probably make my heart stop and my insides collapse. "Let's go to Mark first. He'd be a lot easier to talk to. Plus, we could let him know that you're now aware of the Chelsea secret."

Her eyes lit up. "Perfect! Let's go let's go let's goooo!"