To the Unplanner: Bold of you to assume that I won't become the next J. K. Rowling and be all 'oh yeah, this guy was gay the entire time' or 'before they had plumbing, they just pooped on the floor and used magic to make it invisible!' But you've followed me for quite awhile, haven't you? I guess by this point you're used to my weird storytelling. xD As for Skuld, she's lucky that Ephemer is so familiar with her stress cues- the moment he stops paying attention to them could probably lead to Skuld hurting herself...

We made it to 10 chapters, ya'll! Now it's the time that I totally forget about this story and randomly start a new one! I'm joking. That was a joke. In all seriousness, while White Day may be our next 'milestone' chapter, I kinda don't want it to be? But there aren't a lot of holidays in between to make things more interesting (America has St Patricks and Mardi Gras, while Japan has Emperor's Day and Dolls' Festival [aka Girl Festival]). And since I did say we could talk about prom after the tenth chapter, I feel like there are other high school tropes we could dig at first. Anyone know any? I'd like to hear them.

Again, I feel bad that Skuld wasn't a major part of this chapter. But, if we're all honest here, Anora is pretty much the main character. Ephemer and Strelitzia are secondary, and Skuld is an occasionally glorified background character. I think the Foreteller/headmasters get more 'screen time' than her.

But it's all good, so thank you for reading!

Strelitzia could not remember the last time she felt this nervous. Her hands shook as she set Chirithy down on the concrete slab- she could barely keep steady as she placed a small note card in the toy's hands. Her knees felt like gelatin as she backed up to head to her usual place. Now all she had to do was wait.

Anora had not been expecting anything for Valentines Day. For the most part, she spent her day doing what she usually did on Fridays. So, when she saw a stuffed cat-like creature sitting at her usual skating spot, to say she was surprised would have been a bit of an understatement. She walked up to the thing and gave it a good stare- noting the small card attached to it, Anora decided to pick the toy up instead.

It was so… soft. Anora almost couldn't control herself as she pulled the stuffed toy into a tight hug. It had the perfect amount of stuffing too. Trying to pull herself together, Anora looked around the area. Did the person that gifted her chalk last month do this? Was this mysterious person still around, or did they only come to deliver the little stuffed animal before leaving again? Curious, Anora bent down to pick up the little card to read what had been written.

'His name is Chirithy. Please talk to him when you feel alone or sad, he can help cheer you up!'

A smile started to creep onto Anora's lips. "I will," she said to herself. But then she looked up and said again, much louder than before, "I will! I will! I will!"

If she could have seen her secret admirer, she would have seen how flushed her face had been. She never would have known that her admirer's heart fluttered and her stomach was in knots. Knowing that Anora had been so receptive to the toy was only one hurdle in the gift-giving race.

With her happy declaration out of the way, Anora then turned the doll around so they were looking each other in the eye.

"Hi Chirithy." she happily said to the toy. "My name is Anora. I like skating, but I do it in secret because I don't know if it's allowed on campus. Would you like to watch me?"

Anora made Chirithy nod its head, leading her to smile even brighter before setting the doll back on the ground. The girl then prepared herself for a small, improvised routine. It might have been one of her best yet. Normally, she didn't feel all too proud about her makeshift routines, but there was something about this one (or perhaps the situation that led up to it) seemed a lot more special than the others. When she was finished, she skated over to Chirithy and picked it up.

"How was that?" she cheerfully asked her new friend.

In her hiding place, Strelitzia let out a dreamy sigh. "It was perfect." she hummed to herself. "Absolutely perfect..."

. . .

Ephemer was all smiles for most of the day. Mostly because Skuld's macarons had turned out perfect, and another was because he had a pretty easy day so far. There were no quizzes planned, one of his teachers even gave out candy, and the weather promised to be one of the nicest pre-spring days yet.

The best part was when he happened to run into Anora. She didn't notice him at first, but when she did, she waved at him and came on over.

"Well someone looks happy today." he teased. "Did someone get something special from a secret admirer?"

Anora bashfully hid her face away from him as she let out a little giggle. Would she admit that Ephemer had been close to the truth? Of course not. But was it really that obvious that she was super happy about the surprise gift? Must have been.

"It's been a pretty good day so far, hasn't it?" Ephemer then mused. "The weather's nice, people are being super friendly to each other, and Skuld's macarons are the absolute best!"

For this, Anora tilted her head at him. When he noticed it, he quickly pulled out a small bag of macarons.

"Skuld made macarons for Valentines this year." he explained. He took one out of the bag and tried to give it to Anora. "Here, try one."

Anora looked at the macaron as if she had never seen one before. She carefully took it from him. Out of some new found curiosity, she looked over it for a moment before taking a rather generous bite. The taste was incredible! Anora's eyes rolled to the top of her head as she experienced the texture of the baked cookie. A loud noise close to a moan almost escaped her lips before she swallowed the treat down. She hungrily wolfed down the rest of the macaron with reckless abandon. Ephemer almost laughed at her.

"You've never had gourmet food before, huh?" he surmised with a grin. "Maybe next time we could join forces to get Skuld to bake more. Maybe then we'd have a fighting chance of getting taste tests."

Anora dreamily nodded her head in agreement before snapping herself out of her trance. She had something to do, and she had to do it before Ephemer left again.

"What's up?" he asked, sensing that she had something to say to him. Anora held a finger up to him for a moment before she started to dig around her backpack. Almost in a small flourish, she pulled out a medium sized goodie bag with hand drawn symbols all over it.

Ephemer was truly surprised. "For me?" he asked as Anora tried to hand the bag to him. She eagerly nodded as she all but placed the bag in his hands. The boy gave her a curious side glance before he started to look into the bag. Unfortunately, she had placed tissue paper on top she he couldn't see what was there, but he quickly removed it to find a good layer of candy and small toys.

"Thank you." he said, quite genuinely humbled. He looked up and saw her beaming face. It was then that he had an idea, so he said to her, "You know, I'm going to pay you back."

Anora's happy face quickly turned into one of confusion. Why would he do that? Ephemer was not blind to her expression, and so he gave her a proud smile.

"On White Day," he clarified, "You and I, we're going out. There's this seasonal fair not far from campus, we can go there!"

This did not help in the slightest. Anora's confusion scrunched into a mild distaste. Ephemer still took this as confusion before he realized something.

"Did you not know you could leave campus?" he asked her. Anora immediately shook her head- of course she didn't know that! If she did, then she wouldn't have been skating on a cramped concrete slab for the past month! Ephemer studied her expression with interest.

"You can." he told her. "As long as you're not out during school hours, of course. Well, I guess by then most folks don't need to- what with the cafeteria and school store having most of what everyone needs. But yeah, since it's Saturday, no one will question what two school kids are out doing by the fair. What do'ya say?"

Anora looked at him before thinking it over. Eventually, she looked him in the eye and nodded.

"Great!" he happily declared. "Meet me by the school gates around noon. Alright?"

And, like a fool, Anora agreed.

. . .

When she made it back to her room, Anora felt oddly tired all of a sudden. Had today really been that eventful? She had just agreed to go to a fair with Ephemer on White Day. If she looked over to the end of her bed, she would have seen a stuffed cat named Chirithy that a secret friend had made her. Anora sat down on her bed and looked over Chirithy again. There was so much detail put into the doll- it must have taken whoever made it days to work on it.

Anora gently stroked the back of Chirithy's ear as she thought back to Ephemer. He had promised to repay her just for giving him a bunch of candy and a few toys. He didn't know her, but he asked anyway. As Anora started to pull Chirithy into an absent hug, her mind started to formulate a single thought.

She was going to repay the person that had made Chirithy for her, may her heart be her guiding key.