A cry sounded out in the darkness, its voice frightened and pleading. Anna stirred, unable to place the strange noise, a mess of red hair blocking what little vision she had in the dim room. The cry sounded again and Anna jerked up. Adrenaline flooded her system as recognition hit her. Olaf!
She threw on a bathrobe as she rushed out of her room. Something was wrong, and she was going to find out what. She had to protect her baby.
In seconds she was at the door to Olaf's room, the light from his nightlight brightening the hall outside his door. She heard footsteps coming from another direction, but ignoring them she pushed open the door and charged in. She saw Olaf crying on the bed, clutching his plush Charmander, his blond hair sweaty and matted.
"Mama?" he asked, his voice raspy and thick from his screams. How long had he been crying before I woke up?
"It's okay, Olaf. I'm here." She crept over to the bed and held her son in her arms, rocking him back and forth. "What happened?"
"The monster was gonna get me! It grabbed me! I was so scared, Mama! Don't let it hurt me."
Tears fell from her eyes as she held her child closer. "It's okay, Olaf. I'm here, the monster can't get you. It was just a dream." The footsteps halted in the hallway, hesitating.
"But it felt so real! I remember everything! It hurt Lilo and then it was coming for me! It grabbed me with its tentaclaw! I was scared, Mama. It was gonna eat me!" His body shook as his sobs resumed. "Don't let it get me, Mama!"
Anna ran her fingers through his straw-colored hair as he cried. When his tears slowed, she pulled his head back to look into his teal eyes, little mirrors of her own, as she insisted "You're safe. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere." She planted a kiss on his forehead.
He nuzzled gently against her. "But it was so real!"
"It was just a dream. I'll be right here, go back to sleep."
"You promise?" He pleaded, tears threatening to spill forth once again.
"I promise, Olaf. I'll be here the whole time. Just lay back down and close your eyes."
He did so, clutching Charmander tight as his mother wrapped a blanket around him and resumed stroking his hair.
The other footsteps grew louder again as a large blond man rushed in through the door. "What happened?" Kristoff asked.
Anna stared back at the man, her face a mess of emotions. "It's okay, he's fine now. Go back to bed."
"He's my kid too, Anna, I want to be here for him."
"Daddy?" Olaf asked, stirring.
"It's okay, slugger," Kristoff smiled. "I'm right here," he rested a reassuring hand on the boy's back as he curled into his blanket.
Anna stared at the man. What are you even thinking, Anna? Trying to throw Olaf's father out of the room when he just had a nightmare. He needs us both, you can't be selfish here. "Kristoff," she began.
"Anna, stop. I'm here for our son, I'm not trying for anything more," he sat on the bed, facing away from the redhead, his hand still resting upon their son's back.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried to stop you. He needs you too."
A pained smile contorted Kristoff's face. "Thanks." He hesitated for a full minute before finally asking, "What happened, Anna? We used to be so happy. Now I barely even see you. Do you know how hard it is to barely see someone you live with?"
Anna did know precisely how hard it was; she had been intentionally avoiding him, and the task had not been an easy one. "We just don't work anymore."
"Did I do something? Anna, I'm sorry for whatever I did. I just want things to be good for Olaf. I love you, Anna."
Anna hesitated, staring at the Power Rangers themed rug on the floor at her feet. "Not in front of Olaf, Kristoff. I don't want to upset him," she looked at the child's gently snoring form, "or wake him."
Kristoff stared blankly at her before nodding his assent. "Tonight? Over dinner?"
Anna faltered. "Tonight, I'm eating with some friends though, so after dinner." Great, now I really need to find a friend free for dinner tonight. Why couldn't I have just agreed to dinner?
"Good," he smiled back emptily, petting his boy's back. "I've got him if you want to go back to sleep."
Anna stared into the hallway, wishing that she could take him up on that offer. "No, I promised him I'd be here. I'll stay, you go get some sleep."
Kristoff stared back at her, looking for any further meaning in her blue-green eyes. Finding only fear and pain, he slowly nodded. "Okay, I'll let you be. I'll talk to you tonight." He glumly loped out of the room, leaving Anna with their son and her thoughts.
Anna woke up a few hours later, the sky still dark outside. She was still in Olaf's bed, holding her child, as he in turn held the stuffed fire Pokemon. She planted a kiss upon his head and slid away from him. As much as she hated to leave Olaf alone, it was very likely time to go to work.
Upon reaching the bathroom, the clock on the sink counter read 5:00. Good, I'm not running late. She brushed her teeth and showered, then began to work at the mass of tangles that was her hair. After almost five minutes of brushing, it was finally neat enough that she could put it into a reasonable bun instead of having a strange mass of ruddy matter atop her head.
She dressed in a neon green blouse with a floral print skirt and finished it off with pink ballet flats. Her loud outfits were all she had left of her old job, and she was going to keep them. She wandered back into Olaf's room and kissed his forehead. He had dropped Charmander at some point while she was getting ready, so she picked him up off the floor and placed the toy into her son's empty arms. I hate leaving him after that scare he had last night. Kristoff would take him to school, as he always did, so she knew that she didn't have to worry, but she still felt like she was breaking her promise. "I love you" she said, and received a sleepy murmur in response. A fond smile lit up her face as she walked to her car.
When the pink Kia pulled into the parking lot of the high school at seven in the morning, Anna's slight sense of cheer had been replaced with a sense of dread. Of all the recent changes in her life, the new school was by far the worst, even worse than losing Kristoff was looking likely to be. As she stepped out of the car she looked more like an inmate walking into a prison than a woman walking into the job she'd dreamed of having her entire life.
The back of the building by where she had parked had several broken bottles on the ground and poor examples of graffiti on the wall, nothing coming close to the art that adorned some of the buildings when she'd last visited Elsa in New York eight years ago. Several teenagers were smoking and she greeted them with a glower. The smell of tobacco and marijuana filled her nose. One of the students flicked a cigarette butt at her, leaving a stain of ash on her blouse.
She inhaled in a loud huff, placing her hands on her hips and began, "And just what do you think you're doing, young man?"
"Smoking," he snickered back, his friends joining in the laughter.
"And how old are you?" Anna asked, leaning forward slightly, as she attempted to look down at the boy who was her exact height.
"Eighteen," he tried.
"Really? Because you're in my freshman class, Hiro, so I think that would be an awfully impressive feat. I suppose I'll simply have to ask your mother. I'm sure she'll know if you're really eighteen."
His face grew pale. "You wouldn't!" he stammered.
"Oh, wouldn't I?" She retorted, all of her contempt for the recent events in her life showing in her voice.
"Please, Mrs. Bjorgman, don't tell my mom!" He begged, his eyes starting to water.
Anna cringed at the name. "Apologize for flicking your cigarette at me and ruining my clothes."
"That shirt was already ruined," one of the boys replied.
"I'm sorry," the one she was addressing insisted. "I was just being dumb. I'm so sorry, Mrs. Bjorgman. It won't happen again."
"Will I catch you smoking again?"
"No, ma'am," he sputtered.
"Will you be late for my class again?"
"No, Mrs Bjorgman, I promise."
"All right, then I won't tell your mother, but if you break your word, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to give her a phone call. " He nodded his ascent. "The same goes for the rest of you," Anna added, as she continued inside, wiping at the mark on her blouse with her thumb. She felt powerful, it was the closest thing to happy she'd been at this new school. It also felt gross. She tried to ignore that part, and continued to her classroom, now risking being late.
The bell sounded exactly as she walked through her door. Her class was already sitting in their seats, half asleep. She knew how they felt. Nap time? "Did any of you do your reading?" Half of the class muttered something that sounded vaguely like yes. This likely meant no. Well, they are actually ahead of schedule. We made it through Romeo and Juliette really quickly. "All right, since none of you read it, we're going to all take turns reading out loud. Do I have any volunteers?"
A skinny boy wearing a large pair of round glasses raised his hand, as he always did. "Go ahead, Timon," Anna allowed, since no one else seemed keen to read.
He began to read a page of Good Earth with an exaggerated Chinese accent, prompting several other students to roll their eyes. "Now Timon, you know that that's offensive."
"But I'm just trying to be funny, Mrs. Bjorgman," he pleaded.
Anna managed to avoid wincing, "Making fun of other people's accents isn't funny, Timon. How would you like it if people made fun of your voice?"
"They do!" Timon insisted.
"And do you like it?" Anna reasoned.
"No," the boy sighed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bjorgman."
The class resumed taking turns, Anna calling upon people whenever no volunteers offered themselves, until the end of class. They had finished both the chapter that was due that day, and the one for the next, so they didn't have any homework except for their weekly journal entry that would be due on Friday. Anna released them when the bell rang, and proceeded to endure the rest of her day.
After several more classes full of rambunctious youngsters, and several more boring books Anna would have never read nor expected students to read if the school board didn't force her, Anna had time off for lunch. She chewed pensively on the salad that she had packed, and messaged several of her friends and coworkers, attempting to find out if any of them were free for dinner.
Nani was, as ever, busy, Giselle had plans, and both Gogo and Milo never got back to her. A few minutes after she'd sent the message out, a dark skinned, raven haired woman swooshed into her classroom. Stealing a piece of Anna's salad with her bare hand, Esmeralda announced "I'd love to, where'd you wanna go?"
Anna stared at the Romani woman before her. "I don't know, I just need to do something, I'm feeling so cooped up of late."
Taking another piece of Anna's salad uninvited, the music teacher inquired "Oh, is something going on with you and Kristoff?"
Tears threatened to spill forth as Anna choked on her reply. She wanted to lie, to pretend that it wasn't so, but she'd already confided in one person, what more harm could telling another cause? The deed was already done. "Yes. We're splitting up, and he wants to talk when I get home. He wants to try to fix things."
"Oh my god, I'm sorry, Anna. I had no idea! What happened? Did he sleep with Nani?" Esmeralda's mind tended to wander off on random fancies.
"What? No! I mean, I sure don't think so. Things have just been falling apart for a long while. It's no specific thing. I just," she hesitated, "I don't love him anymore."
"Oh," Esmeralda gasped. "How about sushi?"
Anna almost had whiplash from the one minute conversation, "I don't really feel like sushi. Maybe Mexican?"
"I could go for some tacos." An idea struck her. "Do you like Greek food?"
I'm not sure I've ever had it. "Sure."
"Then I know the best Greek place in town. Thanks for the salad, feisty-pants, I'll see you for dinner," Esmeralda wandered away.
Anna stared after her, feeling as confused as she always was after talking to the younger woman.
When lunch ended, Anna's freshman class filed in to the room. Hiro was the first to enter, and he sat quietly at his desk, waiting for the lecture to begin. Once the bell had rung and the rest of the class took their seats, Anna stood before the blackboard. "All right, I hope you're ready for today's test." She was answered with a chorus of groans. "You've known this test was coming for over a week, you have no excuse not to be ready."
"My mom ate my homework," a redheaded kid named Kion joked.
Anna rolled her eyes and continued, "The test is open book, so if you've actually done the reading, you shouldn't have any trouble finding the answers. Raise your hand if you have any questions." She sat down at her desk and nursed an apple juice she'd snagged from a vending machine. The class worked quietly, while Anna checked her Facebook. Giselle had tagged her in a number of images about what it's like to be a teacher. Anna tried not to laugh as she went through the notifications.
On the fourth image, a chuckle fell from her lips, and Anna stared out at the class wide eyed, as some of them turned to her quizzically. Anna ignored the looks and switched to playing some puzzle game that she was terrible at.
Just as she lost a level, one of the students turning in their tests asked her a question. She hadn't been paying enough attention, so she closed out of the game and turned to look at the pale girl with black hair and red lips. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Anna asked.
"What's your name going to be?" The young girl asked, smiling sweetly.
"What?" Anna stared at her, confusion evident upon her face.
"I heard you talking to Esmeralda earlier-"
"That's Ms Agnes," Anna corrected.
"She says to call her Esmeralda," the girl continued. "I heard you telling her that you were getting a divorce. So what should we call you?"
Anna's face went red. Whether through genuine caring or malice, the young girl had just announced her personal business to the entire class. Almost every head stared up at her, several of the boys eyeing her like a piece of meat.
"Mrs. Bjorgman?" the girl asked, waiting for an answer.
"You're getting divorced?" A girl in the back called.
"So you're single?" a boy in the front inquired.
"What happened? Does he beat you?" Kion checked.
Hiro smirked slightly. Tears filled Anna's eyes, threatening to spill forth. "That's none of your business," she insisted.
"Is it Mrs. Bjorgwoman then?" the fair girl before her chuckled. The bitch.
"No talking during the test," Anna muttered, trying to collect herself.
"We're just concerned about you, Mrs. Bjorgman," Hiro insisted.
"Focus on the test or you'll be getting a zero."
"But I already finished it," he smiled wickedly.
"We just want to know that you're okay," the black haired girl reasoned.
"We have to keep our teacher safe," Kion chipped in.
The tears were quickly escaping from their captivity in the corner of her eyes and sliding down her face. I hate high school. "Stop asking about my personal life, sit down, and be quiet or you're getting detention."
The girl smirked. The damage had already been done. Anna excused herself to the restroom, trusting the class to not cheat in her absence. She sat in a stall and cried. This is just like my freshman year all over again. She dabbed at her eyes with toilet paper. Some teacher you are, letting your class bully you like that.
After several minutes of crying, she managed to compose herself and splashed some water on her face. Her reflection looked ghastly, but she had left her purse in the classroom and had no way to attempt to conceal the red of her eyes. Hope those little wretches didn't steal my wallet. She marched back to the classroom, her head held high, and found it empty.
All of the tests were piled on her desk and her purse was where she left it, completely untouched, and it was only five minutes before the end of the class. She couldn't reasonably explain why she had left her class unattended during a test, and she was never going to admit that her students were bullying her, so she decided that there wasn't anything she could do about it. She grabbed some concealer from her purse and did her best to salvage her appearance before the bell rang.
Her remaining classes were uneventful and when the day ended at 2:45, she took only a few minutes to tidy up before making a dash for her car. She had nowhere to be until dinner, but she couldn't stand spending another minute in that building. Tears spilled forth again once she was safely behind the wheel.
After texting Esmeralda that they would meet at six, Anna went to pick up Olaf from kindergarten. His classes ended at 2:30, but they allowed pickup until 3:30. It only works because Kristoff drops him off before his work and I pick him up after mine, how am I going to do this on my own? She was of course ignoring the school bus as an obvious solution so that she could wallow in her own self-pity more.
When she arrived, Olaf's teacher, Mrs. Fitzherbert, greeted Anna warmly. She had taught at Anna's old school and the two had been somewhat close, but Anna had trouble concealing her resentment over Rapunzel receiving the better new job when they had been redistributed throughout the city. "Good afternoon, Anna. Olaf's over there playing with Lilo." She indicated the blonde boy, who was building a city of blocks while his best friend destroyed it with a dinosaur doll.
"Olaf, it's time to go home," Anna announced, sparing only a nod for her old friend.
"Okay, mama. Bye, Lilo, I'll see you tomorrow," he chirped, hugging his friend tightly. To her credit, Lilo did not bite him this time.
"Bye, Lilo," Anna bid the young girl farewell as she escorted Olaf to her car.
As she drove, Olaf chattered from his booster seat in the back. "Mrs. Fitzherbert taught us so much today, Mama. We were learning to write the letter M, like moo. Lilo and I kept mooing! Mrs. Fitzherbert started to get mad, but she kept laughing every time. She also taught us that the Earth um, goes around the sun, but I already knew that from when you took me to the – what was that place called?"
"The planetarium?" Anna offered
"Yeah, Mama! The planerium! But I liked the mooing more. Then we did math. Math is hard!"
"I know it is, Olaf."
"Moo!"
Anna smiled back at her son in the rear-view mirror as she drove them home. When she pulled into the driveway, it was almost four, and Olaf bounced out of the car. One of his cartoons came on at four, and he was determined not to miss it. Anna opened up her laptop on the recliner next to the couch that Olaf was sprawled upon, and checked her emails while Olaf watched his cartoon.
"Can I have a snack, Mama?" Olaf asked, the theme song sounding loudly from the TV.
"No, honey, you'll have dinner after your daddy gets home," Anna replied, scanning through the messages.
"Please, Mama!"
"No honey," she concluded the discussion as the song ended and Olaf settled in for the show proper.
A new email arrived, her computer announcing it with a ding. It was from Elsa. She opened it.
As she read, her mouth ran dry and the blood rushed to her head. She felt dizzy. How had she never told me? I have lots of gay friends- wait, no I actually don't. How do I live in Portland and not know any gay people? Do I just not seem like the type of person you could tell that to? Well clearly I don't or else Elsa would have told me. Why didn't she tell me? I wasn't homophobic or anything. Was I? I mean I don't recall ever being so. I'm pretty sure I was always pretty cool about that stuff. Would I have been weirded out by it? Why wouldn't she trust me?
Wait, what if she liked me? Anna paused, astonished with her own absurdity. She's your sister, that's ridiculous. But if Elsa is gay then anyone could be gay! How did she even know she was gay? What if I was gay? Would I ever know?
I mean I have a husband I lo- oh, no I don't. But I like men! What am I even thinking, of course I'm not gay. Doesn't it often run in the family though? I mean there is at least a genetic aspect from what I've heard about it. If one sibling is somewhere in the LGBT community then it's likely that another one is. It's no guarantee though, I mean I'm definitely straight. If I was straight would I even be questioning it? That's just silly, I'm just surprised that my sister's gay and am going off on tangents like I always do.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her husband returning home. The garage door's loud sound stirred her from her reverie, and his walking into the room cemented the loss of that train of thought. "You two have fun, I'll see you tonight, I'm meeting Esmeralda for dinner!" she announced, before Kristoff had a chance to say anything, rushing out of the house.
Anna sat at a table in the restaurant. Esmeralda and she had agreed upon Phil's. It was the best Greek place in town and its prices were pretty reasonable. It was 6:15 and Esmeralda was still a no show. Anna was beginning to grow worried that she was being stood up.
"I'll be there in five, sorry," her phone announced in a text, after a brief chirp.
Ten minutes later, Esmeralda was there. She gave Anna a great big hug and kissed her cheek, then sat across from her. "How's it going?" she asked, helping herself to the bread the waiter had brought out while the redhead had waited.
How do you think? "Complicated," she replied coolly. "How about you?"
"Well my girlfriend and I broke up last week, so not horrible. We'd been going out for a whole month, I've never really been one for the whole going steady thing," Esmeralda informed her indifferently.
Anna stared at the younger girl. Seriously, why does no one tell me that they're gay? She tried to remain nonchalant. "Wait, you're gay?" She failed.
Esmeralda stared at her. "No, why?"
"You just said you broke up with your girlfriend," Anna tried, confused.
"Yeah, I did."
Anna gaped at the raven haired beauty.
"Oh, you didn't know I was pan?" She asked, taking a sip of the water the waiter had just set in front of her. "I'll have the lamb gyro," she informed the waiter.
He turned to Anna, "Oh, um, I'll have the salmon." He nodded silently and walked off, presumably in the direction of the kitchen, but Anna was still too busy staring dumbfounded at Esmeralda to notice. "How was I supposed to know?"
"Well I kept flirting with you, for starters," Esmeralda retorted.
If it was possible to grow any more dumbfounded than she had already been, then Anna was surely there. She was unable to formulate an answer to what the other woman had said, capable only of looking blankly into her green eyes. Do I find her cute? How do you even know if a girl's cute? Would someone who likes girls not know that?
Esmeralda giggled and took a larger drink of her water. "I really do love this place. The food isn't the most authentic, which is strange since Phil is actually from Greece, but the atmosphere is just right."
"You were flir-" the rest of the younger woman's words finally caught up to Anna and she saved herself from finishing that sentence. "You've been to Greece?" This woman was just full of surprises.
"Oh yeah, I've been everywhere. I spent a summer in Greece when I was eighteen. Dropped acid with some locals and had some of the best food I've ever eaten. Of course, it turned out it was actually a bale of hay, and believe me that stuff never gets out of your teeth."
The most interesting experience Anna had that could compare was the pot brownie she ate in college. It had been fun, but she would have rather just had a regular brownie, the pot ruined the taste. "That's some story," she managed.
"I'm sure you have plenty of your own. I mean hell, your sisters dating probably the most famous lesbian in the world, family reunions have to be interesting at the very least."
Did literally everyone except for me know? "You know about Tiana?"
"Yeah, she's kinda famous."
"No, I mean you know that she's dating my sister?"
"Yeah, I saw your and Elsa's pictures together on Facebook, she's in a lot of magazines with Tiana. She goes to a lot of her restaurant openings and stuff. I think I even saw her interviewed on TV once. You never saw any of that?"
"No, I just found out my sister was gay two hours ago!" Anna screamed, attracting the attention of all of the other patrons. She put her hand to her mouth, her cheeks growing red.
Esmeralda stared at her. It was finally her turn to be the dumbfounded one. "How didn't you know?"
"What do you mean?" Anna coughed back, trying not to cry.
Their food arrived, and Esmeralda took a large bite of her gyro before replying. "Mmm, this is delicious. I mean you never met any of her girlfriends or anything? Never caught her with some porn?"
Anna only shook her head.
"Huh. Weird." She stabbed a fork into Anna's fish and took a bite. "Not bad. Fish is definitely not what I come here for, their lamb is amazing."
Anna stared at her plate, her mind too full of thoughts to even begin to consider food. "How did you know?"
Esmeralda looked at her blankly. "That Elsa was gay? I told you."
"No, how did you know you were gay? Pan, I mean," Anna asked earnestly.
"I just always knew. I mean I liked girls, I liked guys, I liked nonbinary people, what's not to like?"
Anna nodded slowly. "So if you don't know then you're just straight?"
"I mean I guess that depends on the person." Esmeralda chewed Anna's words along with her gyro. "You think you might be gay?"
Anna looked back at her, confusion plaguing her features. "I don't know. I've only ever been with Kristoff. I don't know what I liked, it never even occurred to me that there were other options until Elsa confessed her sexuality to me earlier tonight."
"So you've never been attracted to a girl?" She held her gyro out to Anna, who took a hesitant bite of it, chewing carefully.
"Okay, wow, this is really good," she admitted. "But no, I don't think I have. I mean how do you even know? I don't know if I've ever been attracted to anyone that wasn't Kristoff. Maybe even anyone at all. Is that a thing?"
"Well I mean you could be asexual. Or hell, if you're thinking you may be gay you could be a deeply closeted lesbian. You're gonna have to figure that out yourself."
"How do I figure it out?"
Esmeralda looked at the older girl curiously. She was clearly resisting saying something. After a moment she decided against it. "Take your time, let yourself be without Kristoff for a while, figure out what you want." She took another bite of Anna's fish. "And hey, feisty-pants, if you decide you're gonna go the sapphic way, I'd be more than happy to help you figure things out."
Anna returned home from dinner even more confused than she had been beforehand. As she walked in through the garage, she heard the sound of Olaf playing on his Nintendo Switch in his room. She went to the kitchen to grab a water bottle from the fridge and heard someone clearing their throat behind her.
She turned and saw Kristoff. She had completely forgotten that she'd promised to talk to him after dinner. I guess I can't put it off any longer. She sat down at the kitchen table across from him. He was nursing a beer, with an empty bottle sitting next to it on the table. "Hi," she tried, unsure of what to say.
The heartbroken look in his brown eyes filled her with a sense of guilt. "I miss you."
She considered his words. Do I miss him? "I'm sorry." I miss having a friend to talk to after my day. I miss sex. I miss a warm body holding me tight at night. But no, I don't miss him. I don't know why, but there's just nothing there. Fondness, perhaps, but not love, and not missing. Missingness? Great, being an English teacher is getting to me.
"Will you at least tell me what I did?" he begged.
She wished that she'd grabbed a beer herself instead of her water. It would be much more conducive to this conversation. "You didn't do anything, Kristoff. I don't know what's wrong, but I've felt this way for at least two years now. I just don't want to be with you anymore."
"That's not how things work!" He insisted, love expert that he was. "When you really love someone things can always work out. I love you, Anna, and I know you still love me."
Anna looked sadly at Kristoff, she knew the words were going to hurt him, but not saying them would only make him believe that things could still be salvaged. "I don't love you."
He stared at her for a long minute. She didn't say anything more. After what felt like an eternity of his eyes boring into her own, he stood up, chugged the rest of his beer, and walked off, slamming his fist into the kitchen's door frame as he headed for the stairs.
As Anna performed her pre-bed rituals – brushing her teeth, moisturizing, and the like, it occurred to her that she had never actually replied to her sister's email. A pang of guilt hit her at this realization. I'm so self-involved I couldn't even let my sister know that everything was fine after she bared her soul to me.
When she was finished berating herself and preparing for bed, she grabbed her phone and opened Elsa's email. She sent her a reply before setting her alarm and laying down to sleep. "I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hurt that you never told me our entire lives. I want to tell you that you knew that I would have supported you, but how could you have known? You were practically my mother at that point and you had more than enough on your plate. I shouldn't have expected you to shoulder that burden and I was so obsessed with my own relationship that I never even tried to find out if you were in one. At least I got Olaf out of that. I love you, Elsa, who you love doesn't change that. Though you have me really wondering if I'm gay too, I mean if I was dumb enough to not notice that my sister was gay, then I am clearly not smart enough to know what the hell I am. I think I'm joking, maybe. Partially.
You're not a bad person, Elsa! I don't know what this case is about, but nothing could ever convince me that you're a bad person. It's like you told me back when you were first considering law school, everyone is entitled to a defense. It doesn't matter if it's the worst person in the world, it doesn't matter if it's civil or criminal (those are the terms, right?), everyone deserves to be represented. You providing that representation does not make you a bad person. You are not the person you're defending, you're you, my amazing, beautiful, brilliant sister, the best damn lawyer in the world. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise. I've missed you so much, I'm glad we're talking again.
All my love, and a million apologies for not being there over the years,
Anna.
PS: I would love to meet her, I mean of course I would, she's Tiana Rose, who wouldn't want to meet her?"
