It held up.
Since then, every time Sam came by and said hello (which was damn near every day now), we shared a brief hug before he left.
When the first day of winter rolled around, I wasn't sure what to expect it to look like outside. If I could wake up one day and have the leaves be an entirely different color, then wake up one day 28 days later and have the leaves be… another entirely different color, I was sure I was going to be floored by whatever I saw.
And I was. Where I was raised, it snowed a lot in the cold months, so I wasn't so much surprised by the amount of snow on the ground. Rather, I was nearly blinded by how purely white it was. I'd been nearly blinded by sunlight reflecting off snow before, but this was an entirely new level. I covered my eyes and, for a second, was concerned that I wouldn't be able to see even after I uncovered them. Fortunately, my eyes were okay.
I then noticed, and was surprised by, how quickly the trees had gotten completely bare. There was still a good amount of leaves on them the previous day, and it was like something in the night had taken a vacuum to every tree across the land.
Anyway, that day, I went and fished as per usual, but as I approached the bridge to the beach, a kid's voice called out to me.
"Hey, Rachael!" it called.
I stopped in my tracks (nearly losing my balance, actually, due to some ice that was under the snow) and turned around to see three people looking at me. One was a little boy, who I now knew to be Vincent, a little girl in a purple dress with a beautiful bow in her hair (I'd only seen her at the Egg Festival and on the calendar), and a woman in a yellow blouse with vibrant orange hair. That in itself got my attention for a brief moment; did she dye it?
I then realized I'd heard this kid's voice somewhere before: the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies. So he was the one who'd made everyone aware of the rare green jelly.
Vincent then yelled "My brother thinks you're cute!"
The woman that was with the two children sort of scolded him, but I just had to laugh. It was both an "A child's innocence has warmed my heart" laugh and a "Hah, you're really funny" laugh. My heart was beating faster too, but that's not important.
"I'm really sorry about that," the woman said to me.
"It's okay," I assured her.
She then led the children away, over toward the museum. I headed toward the beach to fish, and think about that.
Something was different, though.
Whenever anything regarding Sam and/or whether I had a chance with him happened, I usually spent too much time feeling my mind go haywire with "There's no way I have a chance with him" and "He's just being nice", and by extension, "Everyone around you is just being nice and nobody will ever genuinely love you." It was the way my brain worked; it was a defense mechanism taken too far by some overly chaotic force.
There was none of that today. Instead, there was only "That made me feel nice, whether it was true or whether it was the work of a mischievous child." If it was the former, well, awesome! Despite everything, I couldn't deny I was falling for the dude with the yellow hair. If it was the latter, it was amusing. I could only imagine how Sam would have reacted had he heard Vincent tell me that. Maybe Vincent would have a snowball sent his way. Maybe Sam would become a blushing, stuttering mess, only proving Vincent's point. Maybe Sam would sternly deny it, disproving Vincent's point. Maybe Sam would hide, and pretend he hadn't heard anything. Oh, the possibilities!
A week after that, I decided to drop by the Festival of Ice. The day before, I'd heard about the ice fishing competition from both a letter in the mail and Willy, who'd asked "You're entering the ice fishing competition tomorrow, right?" as if he was going to be disappointed if I hadn't.
I got there, and the first thing I noticed were the little pools of water in an even bigger patch of ice. I also noticed that the river nearby, in addition to another lake, hadn't frozen at all.
I walked up to the pools of water, which were probably for the fishing competition, and studied them, trying to figure out the science behind why this area was frozen and the rest of the water wasn't. Soon, though, Mayor Lewis approached me.
"Hello, Rachael!" he said. "Are you entering the ice fishing contest?"
"Sure am!" I replied.
"Wonderful!" Mayor Lewis smiled. "We'll be beginning shortly, so don't go too far away!"
"Got'cha!" I smiled and nodded.
Mayor Lewis then went to talk to other people who were standing close to the contest area. I looked around. I first spotted Sam talking to his mother and Vincent, then looked some more and saw Sebastian and Abigail talking.
At one point, the chatter quieted down just enough so that I could hear Sebastian say something to Abigail.
That something sounded like "…wants her to sing for the band sometimes, for some reason." I couldn't be sure, though.
Normally, that would have weighed on my mind like a broken cinder brick, with all sorts of jagged edges poking into my brain. Now, though, it was just a side note. I didn't obsess over it. I simply wondered about it, and only until Mayor Lewis called out to everyone that the competition was about to start.
I saw one of the little lakes and felt lucky about it, so I dashed over to it as to claim it for myself. Within a couple of minutes, the prince-looking dude, Willy, and a woman I'd spoken to once before chose their own lakes in the area. As Mayor Lewis was giving a speech to kick things off, I looked around.
Eventually, my eyes landed on Sam, who was standing beside Sebastian. Without really thinking, I smiled, blushed, and looked away when I noticed that he was looking directly at me.
It was nice. It was a big deal… but not in a life-or-death kinda way anymore.
I felt nothing but confidence as the contest began, and I dropped my line into my lake.
I couldn't keep decent track of how I was doing, but I did notice that exactly after I reeled in my 6th fish, the crowd went wild. I could even make out Sam's cheers over the noise.
Soon enough, a whistle was blown, and the contest was over.
In the moments leading up to the announcement of the winner, and I didn't know why at the time, everyone's faces were filled with suspense.
I started to piece together why when, after I was announced to be the winner, everyone cheered wildly again. When Mayor Lewis turned to me with something that appeared to be a treasure chest, I walked up to him and took it.
"This is the first time someone has beat Willy in years," Mayor Lewis told me, clearly in awe. "Truly a wonderful job."
"Thanks," I said, taking the chest.
This just felt surreal. As everyone went back to their business, I spent a solid few seconds pinching myself, plugging my nose and trying to breathe through it, and looking around to make sure I wasn't about to wake up from some weird dream. I mean… this was my first ever attempt at this contest. Yeah, I'd been fishing for a while… but a while as in a few seasons. I'd just succeeded in defeating a man who'd been doing it for years… right? No way.
Right as I was about to slap myself in the face again for good measure, I heard Willy tell me "You can quit hurtin' yourself, Rachael. You've really done it."
I turned to my right to face Willy, who I was afraid was about to cry. He had his right hand extended, and I reached out and shook it.
"I'm proud," he smiled. "You've really excelled in the art of fishing. I'm so happy to see it."
"…Willy…" I smiled back. "You encouraged me to start fishing. I could never thank you enough for that."
"Keep up the great work," said Willy.
"Thank you," I smiled. He walked off.
Then, there was Sam. He was standing in front of me in so little time that I was half convinced he was waiting his turn.
"I knew you could do it!" he told me, holding up his hand. We then shared a high-five.
"Did you?" I asked.
"Yeah, I did," Sam nodded. "I mean… you've been fishing every day for how long now? I was going to be surprised if you didn't at least get second place."
"I appreciate your confidence in me," I blushed.
Later on, I was back home. I was in bed, and Laslow had decided to plop down on my feet. I was a little annoyed because my ankles were starting to get uncomfortably warm.
Not only was I too tired to care, though… but he deserved to sleep wherever he wanted, at least for tonight.
Even if the guy I liked was just being kind and didn't mean anything else by it… I could come home to Laslow.
Even if nobody ever talked to me again… yeah, that would suck, but I could come home to Laslow.
No matter what I looked like, or what I did (to a certain degree), Laslow would always be there to curl up either on or beside me and purr like a motor. He was a car part in feline form, I swear to (insert higher power here).
Knowing that, I could have a crush on someone without feeling like dying due to the mere chance of him not feeling the same way. Yeah, I'd be sad if I found that out, but sad in the way one would feel after accidentally letting a plant die, not in the way one would feel if they were locked in some kind of cage and left all alone.
Knowing that Laslow loved me… I never had to doubt that there was love in my life again.
And that security felt pretty damn good.
Author's note: If you're reading this, thank you. While this was mostly to practice my writing and help me through something going on in my mind, it's also fantastic that there are other eyes on it. It feels good knowing that someone saw what I've put out and thought it was interesting to spend their valuable time reading. I may add to this, but it's not certain. If I do, maybe I'll see you again. If not, thank you for joining me on this journey.