A/N: This is another weird short, but I'm posting it because it'll help you understand what'll happen a bit later – I've actually started some planning for this fic, and I know what I'm going to do with it now, so this is more for character development than anything. Just letting you know.
Its late afternoon, and I have spent the entire day so far outside, enjoying the snow.
I know the school isn't here, and that there's no one to snowball fight with or anything, but I like it anyway – call me weird, but it's a lot of fun for me to just walk around the lake in the snow, bundled in all my winter gear, singing Christmas songs to no one in particular. I don't get to do that often, and I take advantage of every moment I can get, and I'm considerably happier for it.
When I go back inside, however, I find someone who is exactly the opposite.
Ainsley is lying on the dormitory floor, her hair fanned out all over the place, wearing nothing but plaid shorts and a sports bra. Her clothes are strewn across the lamps and beds, and she is breathing very heavily. I walk over to her, anxious; with Ainsley, I can never know what I'm in for each hour, let alone each day.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"No," she says.
"What happened?" Sometimes, when she's like this, it takes a few patient, over-obvious questions to get Ainsley to admit whatever is ailing her.
"I don't know." She turns her head to look at me. "I think I died today, Lils."
"Why?"
She shrugs and closes her eyes. "I threw up three times while you were out, and I didn't eat anything out of nausea. I had a bit of a fit as well, as you can see from all of my stuff being everywhere."
"Is there anything you want to talk about?" I sit down next to her.
She sighs. "I don't know what I'm feeling, so no, there's nothing to talk about. All I know is that I'm sick, I'm hurting, and I'm dying."
"What kind of a sick are you?" I ask her. "Is it that you have a stomach bug, or is it an emotional sickness?"
"Both," she says. "I feel something so raw in the pit of my stomach that it kills me. I don't know why it's there or what's causing it, but I need something. I also need to know what that something is so that I can bloody take it."
I nod, still uncomprehending. "I see. Well, if you understand it, then let me know, all right?"
"Sure," Ainsley says moodily, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face. "See you."
I leave the room moderately troubled; I adore her, but my best friend is probably one of the strangest people to walk the earth.