Sunlight beat down upon Anna as she awoke with a start, her body jerking as she shot upwards, screaming as she awoke; the terror from the dream slowly fading away. She had expected Rapunzel to burst through the door, worried about what was going on, but her roommate never came. Instead, the beam of the sun continued to rain down upon her body, glistening the sweat that dripped down the nape of her neck and soaked her shirt as it stuck to her back.

Glancing about, she took in the meager sight of her room once again and exhaled. It was a sad state of affair in which her room found itself; one she knew she would need to fix as soon as possible. And so, lifting herself from the sweat soaked bed sheets, she set to work; posters were brought out from their resting place in her closet and pictures were set on shelves and upon her desk as a reminder of what she was meant to be doing with her life. Though the thought still hurt her more than she would ever expect. When she finally finished, she took a step back—her body lightly brushing against the wooden door—and glanced around the room.

Her bedroom, once barren of life beyond the tussled, dark blue bed sheets now shone with the appearance that someone truly did live within the small space, imbuing their personality onto the walls. Posters of her favorite films, shows, and even boy band—Sev'ral Timez—littered the walls, detailing the enjoyment of a fun, bombastic, and outgoing person. And yet, Anna hardly felt like that person anymore. She needed to make a change; she needed to learn to become that person again. She continued to look around, her alarm clock shone its bright neon lettering; 12:47 p.m.

Shit. Shit shit. I have class in less than fifteen minutes. Her mind began to race and flip between thoughts; should she skip class or should she rush and do her best to make it? As the thoughts barrelled through her mind much like a bullet train through the stations, she seemed to have subconsciously made up her mind. Her hands threw open the door to the closet and she pulled down a plain, sky blue t-shirt alongside a sea-foam green and black plaid flannel button-up—which had its sleeves shortened. She shuffled over to her dresser and drew out a simple pair of blue jeans and a mismatched pair of undergarments.

"I'm going to class," she muttered. Carefully, she pulled off her outfit from the night before and dressed herself in the outfit she had cobbled together. Her reflection shone in the mirror as the light of afternoon sun beamed into the room; her hair was a cobweb of strands and she looked as though she had either been drinking all night, crying all night, or both. Unfortunately, she knew one was true. She glanced at the time once again: 12:53 p.m.

Her bag rested upon the ground by her desk and she swung her arm through its bands, slinging the modestly hefty canvas bag onto her back. She bolted through the door, dropping her phone and wallet into her pockets as she did. Lying upon the counter, as she passed it, was Rapunzel's beanie, royal purple purple with gold accents.

"Sorry, Punz. But my hair is in a serious state of dire help right now and I really need to borrow it." Anna whispered as she collected the garment and drew it onto her head, pushing as much hair as she could hide into it. Finally, she left the dorm completely and scrambled down the stairs to begin her rapid dash to her first class of the day.

Sprinting through the halls of the building, she crashed and glimpsed past many different people, students and professors alike. But none of that mattered now. She had to reach the door, dash to her car, drive to the Building of Applied Sciences, park, then make a rapid streak up three flights of stairs in order to make it to her class. Issue was, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it if she took her vehicle. It was an older model and knowing her luck, it would take minutes to start. Plus, she had to deal with finding a close enough parking spot.

I'm just going to sprint to the building. It isn't too far. Whenever Punz and I would walk there together, it would hardly be eight minutes total. She told herself as she burst through the front doors of the dorm hall, having received many awkward stares and glances that told her they had been through the same thing.

Sunlight beat down on Anna with a burning mockery. Its heat almost immediately drew a heavy bead of sweat onto her face, but she grimaced and tightened the straps of the canvas bag. Inhaling a deep breath, she readied herself to make the rush to the class. With her exhale, she pressed off from her right foot and began the run. Within a minute, she had cut through the parking lot and was nearly halfway to the trail that would lead directly to the Applied Sciences Building. She glanced at her watch, 12:57 p.m. If she was going to make it, she really needed to put the pedal to the metal. Unfortunately, she was beginning to feel the effects of her stint towards the building. Her chest was heaving with every breath she took, a sharp pain erupted from her side, her face was beat red and washed with sweat, and her calves felt like they had been dunked in the river styx.

Slowly, she turned around to head back to her dorm and leave the class be, but as she did, she saw a pale blue Toyota Prius pull up into the student parking lot.

"You can't be serious!" She huffed in exhausted breath. Carefully, she turned back around to the path and prepared herself for the sprint, the pain, and the inevitability that she would be late to class today.

By the time she made it to the class, swinging open the door to the small class of approximately thirty students, it was already in full swing. The professor, a burly man with light red hair hidden beneath a small hat—which Anna assumed was for some religion or practice as she had never seen its type before—a thick, bushy imperial mustache and voice and personality that seemed to completely contradict the bulk of the man. As the door swung open, all eyes seemed to draw to Anna as she huffed and wheezed, nearly collapsing from exhaustion. But slowly, she entered the room and sat down.

"Yoo-hoo! Miss? Name, please?" The professor asked, his Swedish—or Norwegian, Anna once again was not sure—accent resounding through the silent room.

"One…second," she panted. Taking a bit more time than necessary, she drew in a large deep breath before speaking once again. "Anna."

"Well, miss Anna, as I was discussing as you entered the room—and made a scene of yourself, might I add—we will be having a study session for the first test, not exam, next week during class time. As for today's lesson, we will be continuing our discussion of memory and how the brain learns various informations." He spoke kindly to her, but walked over to his laptop and quickly marked her attendance in the logs before returning to stand before the class and the screen.

"Thank you, Professor Oaken," She replied softly.

The class felt like it took an eternity to finish as Anna tried her best to pay attention while struggling to keep her breath. Luckily, she had the common sense to pull out her phone and snap photos of the board as he wrote or drew upon it. But if someone had asked her what the lesson covered or what it entailed, she would be helpless to answer. As soon as other students had begun packing up their notebooks, laptops, textbooks and whatever else, Anna immediately perked up, ready to get out of the classroom.

While she wasn't the biggest fan of going to class and being forced to pay attention to information that should be expressed through weeks worth of time, she did find one class she enjoyed a lot more than she reckoned she would. Following up from her Introduction to Psychology class, she had Creative Writing. It was a class she had chosen at random, looking for a class she could feasibly blow off in order to give herself more free time. But as the weeks had passed and she had gone through the class for a few days, she found herself more and more immersed in the lessons being taught by the professor. And she hoped today would be no better.

Sure enough, she was thoroughly immersed in the lesson as she had forgotten to write a short, three stanza poem to read aloud in front of the class in order for Professor Yelana—an older, middle aged woman with bright, snow white hair—to get a feeling for where the students' talents lied. She arrived in the classroom and saw many of the students tapping their legs or taking deep breaths, their notebooks or laptops open in front of them ready to share their poem and get the hard part over with.

"Hey, was the in-class poem read today?" She leaned to the student on her left, a young man with a round and cheery face—though not so cheery now—who she remembered was Ryder, a student she had gone through the orientation process with.

"Yeah. You ready?"

"No. I completely forgot!" She scrambled to her bag, unzipped it and pulled out her laptop so that she could come up with a poem before the professor entered the class. Her nerves were on edge, but she was confident with her skills, she had written poems before. Though they weren't poems she ever allowed people to see, sometimes due to the content of the poem and sometimes because she felt they needed to be revised.

But as she opened up her laptop, her issues became much worse. As she opened the dark gray laptop and turned it on, the LED backlighting of the keyboard shone and the machine whirred and hummed much like normal. But the screen remained black. Nothing shone upon the screen and she knew that she didn't have enough time to figure out her problem and get her makeshift poem completed. So, with a sigh of annoyance, she powered down the laptop and slid it back into its pocket within her bag before pulling out a notebook and a pencil. She tapped the eraser to her chin, contemplating what to write. The curious and watching eyes of Ryder lingered upon her as her pencil lowered to the paper and began to scrawl upon the off-white lines.

As she wrote, the world became a blur. Ryder no longer existed and in this moment, at this time, a single second lasted for hours. Hurriedly, she wrote and scrawled away at the page letting her emotions translate into words and the lingering pain that remained slipped away. If at least for this one moment; it became tangible and legible, hastened but interpreted into letters which became words of a story written onto the now filled paper. When she finally finished writing, Professor Yelana had made her way to the front of the class and began to take attendance. Name by name she called and they all spoke up or raised their hand as though they were still in high school. But it ensured they didn't miss points on the attendance policy.

"Alright everyone, so, as you all know, today is the day in which you were all told to prepare a poem of whatever style to read in class. I hope you are prepared because I'm ready to understand the thoughts trapped deep with you," Yelana chirped, "I want to feel the chills of horror, the sorrow of lost love, the grief of pained memories. All of it, doesn't matter what or how good. Great, so before we begin, let's go over some announcements."

Anna couldn't pay attention as Yelana spoke, going through the announcements for a short handful of minutes before calling up the first person: Ryder Anderson. When he stood up, she felt her heart race. Yelana was going alphabetically by last name, which saved her going first, but still put her at spot number four. On the opposite end, she was glad it wasn't alphabetical by first name, otherwise she was sure she would have a panic attack. And that wasn't what she needed right now.

"Anna Kristian." Anna's heart froze the moment she heard her name. Slowly, she slipped out from her seat, gripping the spine of the notebook as she slid it off of the desk and stalked towards the front. Come on, this is nothing. You have read papers before in front of crowds way bigger than this. Remember, in the library when you entertained a group of middle and high school students by reading Shakespeare? It's no different. The only difference is that the story you are reading is written by you and not some long dead poet. How hard can it be? She tried to reason with herself every step she took. And finally, she spun to read to the class.

"Uh, hi. I'm Anna and I don't really have a name for my poem. But if I had to give it one, I would call it Fading Pedals." A cough followed before she began reading,

"A pale blue flower

Lingering in the window

Dies in the sunlight

Blood drips down pedals

A cherry rose burst of red

Cradled in Death's embrace

Such sorrow to see

A dying love, desperate

of lingering warmth

I shall die, my dear

Or forever be haunted

of your pale nightmare

So sing me a song

For sweet is your lullaby

that resents me still

Death in your sunlight

I linger right before you

A pale, blue flower"

As she finished reading, her eyes burned and her cheeks were chilled as two tears stretched down their length. The room remained silent, watching her or focused upon themselves. No one spoke. Not a sound was heard. A few seconds more passed and Anna sniffled and gave a smile to the class and Professor Yelana before returning to her seat and remaining until the end of class.

"Katie? Katie Jane? Are you ready?" Yelana's voice trailed off as the next student shuffled out of her seat, the sound of the chair squeaking upon the linoleum floor as she stood ringing out throughout the room. But Anna paid no mind. Once again, her mind had subconsciously—or perhaps maybe consciously—reeled back to Elsa and their 'tour' of the campus which had amounted to not much being shown, but quite a bit being felt. She shook her head at the thought, knowing that she needed to get her head screwed back on. It was illogical for her to have taken Elsa's response so hard. They barely knew each other before they kissed. If you even bothered to consider it a kiss.

Slowly, the world began to come back into focus for Anna and she began to have thoughts of other topics. Her mind ran through the homework she had to do before her classes tomorrow, the names of the people she had met during orientation, how Kristoff and Sven were holding up, and even what books she had recently read—which wasn't much, unfortunately. Eventually, her mind came upon the thought of what she was going to do about her laptop and its recent failure.

As the class came to an end, the nerves of reading poems aloud to students who simultaneously didn't know you and didn't care to hear your work lessened. When the time came, and students began to shuffle out of the door with the well wishes of the teacher ringing out behind them, Anna barrelled to escape. When she finally exited the room, she felt as though the fog that was cluttering her mind was finally leaving and she could think properly again. And so, she made a dash for the IT department, hoping they were open at the time so she could fix her laptop.

It didn't take long for Anna to reach the IT department, having been located in the Mikael Jennsen Library—a meager two minute walk from the English building. As she entered, she was wafted with the scent of slowly dusting, aged books and coffee. It wasn't a terrible smell, in fact, Anna seemed to grow quite fond of it even as she stood within the doorframe of the massive, multistory building. The sounds were far different than what she expected as well. While the first few floors definitely weren't silent, there wasn't much chatter. Most of the sounds that surrounded her were the hustle and bustle of students coming in and out, typing away on computers, or pages being turned as a student does their best to read or find some information contained within. It was cozy.

Carefully, she walked up to the circulation desk in the center of the massive lobby. The desk was rounded, much like a doughnut, with a cherry red wood supporting a dark, black, granite countertop. A student sat directly in front of doors, awaiting students to walk in, but not caring enough to wait without stimulation so they had a book open upon the countertop and were flipping between pages. The student had dark, wavy hair—that had obviously been dyed as brown roots had begun to show—that bobbed just above their shoulders, barely covering the single stud earring in their left ear. Glasses sat upon their face, square framed and black in color, as they squinted in confusion at the hefty book they were reading.

"Um, excuse me?" Anna spoke, doing her best to stay moderately silent within the flurry of sounds around her. The student reading the book held up a finger in response, eyes continuing to scan the page they were on without even sparing a glance at Anna.

"Hold on for one second," they spouted. Anna remained, patiently waiting for the student to finish, but glancing at the clock hanging above in the very center of the circulation desk.

"WHAT?! There's no way Draknith could have been defeated with Staff of Chaos. He was a higher being!" The student's voice raised an octave as their voice carried off, getting lost in the shuffle of other sounds.

"Perhaps it was because Joslin infused her mortal core into the staff? Thus effectively creating a weapon that didn't focus on eliminating and destroying the physical body but the manifestation of the soul?" Anna chided, perked up at the sudden mention of an old book series she had loved as a child, though the author died before it could finish and no one carried on the stories.

"You know the Mortal Coil series? That's the first time I have ever heard someone else talk about it." Finally, the student looked up at Anna, quickly adjusting their glasses before continuing to speak. "Sorry, I was really into this and only had a few more pages left to go. Anyways, what can I help you with?"

"Oh, well, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the IT department? I remember my orientation leader saying it was in here."

"Oh, yeah, it is. Just head up the stairs, take a right then just head down the hall and you should find it. Name's Belle by the way. Just in case you ever wanted to talk about the Mortal Coil series some more. Because, honestly, I really need someone to rant to about Joslin's actions from book three. It's just…ugh!"

Anna glanced around the room, looking for the staircase before noticing the sign postings that pointed out that the stairs were behind a door not far from where she stood. "Oh yeah, my name is Anna," She quickly replied. "And I totally get you. When I was reading Threads of Danger, I nearly stopped reading just to throw my book across the room. Like, why would you do that when you are told exactly what is going to happen if you do, and you know for a fact that you can take the two days to figure out the second option. So annoying. Uh, thanks, by the way. I guess I will see you around." With that, Anna made her way to the staircase and ascended, taking the left and walking down the hall, passing multiple small rooms filled with students in the midst of study or just having a good time.

Finally, Anna made it to the IT room, a large white room filled with charging stations, tables of computers, workstations, and all sorts of other technological doohickies that she didn't know or care to know about. Carefully, she walked up to the front desk and rang the small silver bell in order to receive service. Which didn't take long at all as within minutes, Olaf strutted out from the back room with a jolly smile upon his face.

When he noticed who was waiting patiently for his service, Olaf's smile grew brighter and he shuffled around the desk in order to reach her. Without asking, he immediately drew her in for a warming and comforting hug. A hug in which Anna was very quick to reciprocate.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here! I thought I'd never see you again!" He chirped, gleeful as ever as he finally let go of her.

"We go to the same school, Olaf. You can see me nearly all the time. Plus, I need some help."

"Oh, of course. Relationship help? Mental help? Suicide help? Listen, I know some people who can really help. All you need to do is-"

"Tech help, Olaf." Anna couldn't help but chuckle at his enthusiasm and willingness to help her, even though they hardly met for even an hour.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I can do that. What do you need help with?" Though his boundless positivity remained, he grew a bit more serious as he remembered that his job was to help with IT.

"Well, I was in class and I turned on my laptop," she drew out her laptop from her bag, setting it down upon one of the nearby workstations, "and when I did, everything within seemed to turn on—it at least sounded like it did—but the screen wouldn't turn on. It remained black. As if I had never turned it on in the first place."

Olaf listened closely, lifting the laptop and inspecting it as she spoke. Anna knew she didn't understand what he was doing, so she just let him be, working on fixing her problem while she described it to him. Eventually, he opened it up and pressed the power button in order to see the issue for himself. A part of Anna worried that it was a one time issue and that as he booted the system up this time it would suddenly work. But to her favor, it displayed only a black screen once again. Viewing the issue, Olaf nodded and sighed before turning to her.

"Well, there are two ways in which this can be fixed. One of them isn't a guarantee but is free. The other way will require a bit of money," He stated.

"I don't have too much money right now to pay you with."

"No, silly. Not money to me. Money to buy a new graphics processor. Or to buy a new laptop in general. I wouldn't take your money, you are Elsa's friend."

"Oh." Anna felt like an idiot, but she didn't understand technology like Olaf did so she left herself feeling a bit better about her comment. "I, uh, I don't think I'm Elsa's friend, Olaf."

"What? Why not? Elsa was talking to me about you all night. Surely that means you are friends, right? Am I wrong?" Anna's face grew red with a blush as Olaf spoke, seeming to misunderstand what was going on.

"Surely it wasn't good stuff. I…I dunno, Olaf. Yesterday was a bit rough for me. I thought one thing and she seemed to think another. Let's just…Let's drop it okay, I don't want to think about it too much right now."

"Elsa would never say bad things about you, Anna. She really likes you and views you highly. She spent most of last night sharing the fun idiosyncrasies she noticed about you. The other part was her shaming herself and talking herself down. Something bad must have happened. But you are right, we shouldn't talk about it when your laptop needs fixing." As he finished speaking, he returned his attention to the laptop, setting out to work on it and fix it without costing her any money. Though while he did that, Anna's mind began to try and pick out what idiosyncrasies she has.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Elsa hummed in annoyance, for the first time wishing not to get up and face the day, let alone the consequences of her actions from the night prior. She had squandered her chance at romance, albeit with a girl she knew very little about but felt herself drawn. It was as though fate had linked the two, capitalizing on the rising phenomena of soulbound lovers tied together at the ends of a simple red string. It couldn't be cut or broken, not until one or the other died, but there until the end. It still felt like that to her. She wanted to reach out to Anna, to get in touch with her and apologize for her actions. But something within her ordered her to stay away, to conceal herself within the cold and calloused husk people knew her as.

After lying in the comfort of her bed, the warmth drawing her in and enticing her imagination, she finally turned over and glimpsed at the time: 7:16 a.m. That meant she had less than an hour and a half to get up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush her teeth, make her bed and do some early studying before she had her first class at nine o'clock—though she preferred to show up early to the class so that she could guarantee her favored spot.

Slowly, she slumped out of bed, kicking one foot out from underneath the snowy blue and black comforter before setting it upon the hardwood floor. She slipped off the comforter, revealing her slender legs as she was dressed in a pair of shorts and a concert t-shirt for her favorite band—Sev'ral Timez—when she had gone to see them on tour the previous year. As she stood next to her bed, she clasped her hands together and lifted them into the air, stretching her body with the yawn that escaped during it. Her shirt rose slightly, giving the empty space a glimpse at the pale skin that rested upon her torso. When she finally dropped her arms, she sauntered over to her closet and threw open the door with a nimble sophistication before taking a few steps in and flipping on the light.

To her left were racks of shoes, three shelves total and each shelf containing at most four pairs of shoes; tennis shoes, dress shoes, heels, sandals, skate, etc. Each pair had roughly the same color scheme of a snow blue or dark regal blue verging on black, regardless of the type. And each one appeared almost brand new. Except for three pairs—a pair of dark blue, leather lace-up boots which showed their wear but remained in a very good condition, a pair of snow blue high tops, and pair of dark blue calf-length heels which showed its wear but was trapped beneath the thickest layer of dust of all the shoes in the collection. Immediately to her right were her jackets, cardigans, sweaters, and other various clothing products meant to bring warmth, design, or both.

She continued further into the roughly seven foot long closet before stopping in the middle and glancing to her right, which contained a small, two foot wide dresser with three equal sized drawers. As she looked, her hand reached out and grabbed the top drawer and flitted through the various articles of bras, panties, and socks before selecting a pair opting for comfort rather than style. Her hand closed the drawer and dropped to the one beneath as it revealed pairs of slim fitting dress shirts, stacked and paired with a darker pair of dress pants or casual pants. Though she wasn't sure what she wanted to wear, something within her seemed to speak to a loose formal attire. And so, she pulled out a set of a navy blue straight legged pair of casual pants that matched well with its powder blue button up. She continued through the closet, matching different garments with like colors until she finally collected them all and made her way to the bathroom to shower.

As she passed through the small living room, she caught sight of her roommate Aurora cuddling against and sound asleep against her similarly asleep girlfriend Mal. Elsa couldn't help but softly grin at the sight, knowing the two must have returned to the dorm not too many hours ago. She didn't mind how often Aurora had her over, she only wished that she knew a bit more about Mal. Still though, it wasn't a problem for the time and she knew that if she continued to ponder and didn't continue running through her morning routine, she wouldn't get anything done. She hurried herself to the shower, turning the temperature to one she found the most relaxing but ensured it wasn't warm enough to entice her to stay in all night.

After spending roughly ten minutes in the shower, cleansed and refreshed, she swiftly turned the stainless steel handle until the shower stopped its rinse and dressed in her outfit. When she returned to the living room, she turned to find Mal standing up with a stretch before carefully lifting Aurora as if she weighed nothing at all, her golden hair streaming down Mal's arm. The two made eye contact and though she wasn't sure what Mal's eyes were saying, she could see the admiration and care she had for the blonde. Luckily, she didn't have to guess what Mal's eyes were saying as she slowly began to mouth out "She's so adorable…but she needs to sleep so I am going to take her to bed." And Elsa felt the sly smile return as she could tell just how excellent of a pair the two made, even if they did only start dating recently.

Hastily, Elsa returned to her room and made her bed, marking off half of her routine. But as she glanced at the clock—7:34 a.m.—she began to realize that she may have to skip some part of the remainder of her routine; either skip breakfast or skip studying for the morning. She saw both as extremely important, but after some careful deliberation amongst herself and within her head, she came to the decision to forgo studying for the morning.

With her routine cleared up, and the rest of her morning before class plotted out, she quickly set to work eating a healthy breakfast that ensured she felt satisfied but not bloated—which took up a decent amount of time to prepare and make. After, she took roughly five minutes to floss, brush her teeth, and rinse out her mouth. And following that, she swiftly strode into her room and gathered her messenger bag, phone, keys, sunglasses, and anything else she felt she needed before departing from her apartment at almost exactly 8:30 a.m. which ensured she arrived early for her class at nine.

Her first class of the day was a fairly easy class—at least she felt it was—as it was simply a 300 level English class where the teacher mostly talked and hardly assigned homework. But, their tests were where a lot of students slipped up. Luckily, she didn't have to worry about that as she had already had the teacher for one class before and was always diligent to study and understand the material. And as it turned out, today was no different. Slowly, she progressed through the courses, getting through her first two of four classes in the day before finally being permitted reprieve from lectures and walkthroughs on various topics.

As the class finally ended and she was finally given a break to go and complete whatever she was able to within the time before her next class, Elsa took a deep breath and decided to head back to the dorm to begin on the homework that had just been assigned. It wasn't a long walk from the building she was in to her car and as she got in, she began the short drive back to the dorm hall; a left, a right, straight for two lights, and finally a left into the parking lot. Whenever she drove, Elsa liked to pay attention to the small glimpses she got in her periphery while retaining a majority of her attention on her driving and the road. Though not too much ever really stood out to her, this time she spotted copper hair bobbing through the air as its own bounded towards the buildings harboring classes.

She was sure it was Anna.

Thoughts raced through her mind as she pulled into her typical spot of the student parking; should she help her and give her a ride or just let her be? Unfortunately, it didn't matter as Anna glanced at the vehicle, seeming to make eye contact with Elsa—though she wouldn't know as the windows were tinted dark enough to shadow anyone inside. And where their other glances upon one another seemed to last eternities, this one lasted a fraction of a fragment of a moment before Anna spun around and bolted off. Elsa was sure Anna was upset, and she didn't blame her.

She sat in the car for a short few minutes—watching and monitoring Anna from afar as she shrank smaller and smaller into the distance—before she finally unbuckled herself and exited the vehicle, entering into the red brick building. The building was decently packed with students bustling around, returning from somewhere or leaving to head someplace else, but she knew how to squeeze around the hustle of the bodies, helping to make efficient time on her arrival to her dorm upon the fourth floor of the building.

Slowly she ascended the stairs, passing couples and various other students talking and filling the stairwell with chatter. It was a cacophony of chaotic conversation and a part of her enjoyed it. Its sound was a vast degree different from the deafening silence she had grown up listening to within her family home. And though she knew almost none of the people milling about the staircase, it felt as though she had more of a family in them than she did back home.

But now was not the time for dwelling upon the past. She needed to get back to her dorm so that she could study and fix a small lunch before heading out to her next class at 2:00 p.m. Unfortunately, she began to fear she may not get that chance as a voice rang out behind her that was quickly nearing.

"Elsa! Hey! Wait!" The mysterious voice called out, getting louder as it came. And as the source continued to near, Elsa turned to see a lithe woman with long, golden blonde hair storming up to her. She didn't appear to be too happy. And though the woman didn't appear to have much weight on her, her look threw daggers at her and intimidated her.

"What the hell?!" The woman asked as she reached Elsa.

"I'm sorry?"

"What happened yesterday?!" Her glare pierced directly through her core.

"I'm not sure what you mean. I don't even know you." Elsa knew what the woman was referring to, but she didn't feel comfortable broaching the subject with some random stranger. Even if it was someone that Anna knew.

"Name's Rapunzel. I'm Anna's best friend and roommate. I've known her since we were young, and you hurt her. So what happened. Don't spare any detail either." Elsa was beginning to realize that she wasn't going to have the choice of not bringing up the topic.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it."

"I didn't ask if you cared to talk about it or not. I came here to get answers," Rapunzel's voice dropped its menace and softened as it revealed her compassion, "You really hurt Anna, you know. I just want to know what happened so I can do my best to help her, okay?"

Elsa took a deep breath before sighing. "Alright, but can we talk about this elsewhere?"

Rapunzel nodded. Elsa began to climb the stairs again, this time with Rapunzel tailing close behind her as they traveled to Elsa's dorm. It wasn't a long trek before they arrived. And as they did so, Elsa opened the door for the golden blonde, motioning to the couch so they could talk there.

"Okay, tell me exactly what happened." Rapunzel glared at Elsa as they sat, keeping a distance between them.

"Well, where to begin? I guess I'll start from the beginning," Elsa started, "As you probably know from Anna, we met each other at lunch about two weeks ago—and seemed to run into each other quite often—as she apparently noticed me from ARC 100 and needed to borrow my notes. At first, I paid her little attention, but let her borrow my notes. And yet, even as I sat across from her for even just a handful of minutes, I felt something change within me. It called out to her. She is infectious.

"From there, we parted ways and I thought that may be the last encounter I have with her, but fate seemed to favor me as we met up again yesterday morning. We had gotten to talking—though she seemed to be in a bit of a rush for something—and a feeling lingering within me took over and before I knew it, we were scheduled for a tour of the campus. But it never felt like just a tour. It felt like it was a first date, even though we knew next to nothing about each other. And I was ecstatic. When the time came, I led her to my car and we continued to just talk, but I said something and she began to cry. It hurt me to hear, so instead of starting the tour, I took her to my favorite comfort place, Northuldra Sweets. She has a childish nature to her, I noticed as her face beamed as we left my car and entered the building.

"At first, everything was great, she was choosing random candies—ones I'd heard of before but also ones I never even knew existed. Just seeing her happy with that glimmering smile made me the happiest I have ever been. And frankly, I wanted to see more of it. But, luck was not on my side and we ended up kissing. It wasn't purposeful. I…I mean, it was. But the reason it happened wasn't. We had both smelled chocolate—which I am to assume is her favorite candy as well—and turned to face one another. We were so close, and I honestly wanted to lean in and kiss her right then and there anyways. But it was far too soon, I knew that and I thought she understood that as well. Everything only went sideways when this random kid bumped into me, pushing me to her and our lips crashed together. It wasn't the greatest kiss, I can say that for certain, but it wasn't the worst. And I really enjoyed it.

"But I still knew that it was too soon for this. We hardly knew each other and for us to be kissing without knowledge of who the other is felt like a mistake that was waiting to hurt us later on if we continued. So, I asked her if we could forget it ever happened. I should have clarified further because what I meant was that I wanted our first kiss to be something truly memorable. Something that had passion and meaning behind it. Not an accidental kiss with little more behind it than lust and a lack of understanding the other. I didn't want that. I want a true relationship. Not a fling. Because for the first time ever, I feel something for someone that isn't a disgust or hatred against them due to circumstances. I fear I messed up though.

"I really hurt her, I know that. And I want to fix it, but I'm afraid. I don't want to rush things, but I also don't want to wait so long that I see her with some jock's arm around her shoulder as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. I want my arm to be around her. And I want her kiss to be on my cheek." As she finished speaking, she huffed. It felt as though a massive load had been taken off of her shoulders. And she began to realize that it helped to have someone else other than Olaf to talk to.

"I want what's best for her, you know that right?" Rapunzel asked, glancing up at Elsa through contemplative eyes.

"Yeah. I get it. Listen, if you don't want me near Anna right now or ever again, I'll understand."

"What? No. You are what Anna needs, I can see that clear as day. Sure, she is keen to rush into this relationship, but there is a reason behind it. She needs someone beyond me, Kristoff, Sven, and Flynn to be there for her," Rapunzel spoke calmly before her voice dropped to somber. "Life hasn't been good to her recently. She is hurting. Badly. She was hurting before you even did anything."

"Yeah, she said something of the sort. Though she didn't detail what was going on. If I knew, I'm sure I would understand."

Rapunzel shook her head, "It's not my place to tell what is going on. Only she can do that. She'll have to tell you herself. But for now, I suggest you get in touch with her as soon as possible, otherwise she may begin to see you as another thorne when she needs a beacon of sunshine through the branches that are suffocating and cutting her. In the meantime, I am going to plan something. Think of it as a moment for you guys to begin delving deeper into this romantic tension you have while getting to know each other better than ever before."

Elsa only nodded her head, her hands clasping together in a nervous movement.

"Mine and Anna's dorm is 21. So first floor. Swing by some time. And here is her number, since I doubt she gave it to you." Rapunzel told Elsa her number—to which she quickly pulled out a post-it note and scrawled the digits upon—before continuing to speak. "Contact her. And if she doesn't respond, keep trying. She will respond in time. Once she sees that you do care for her. Be the sunshine she needs, okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because I need to get to class. It's Ceramics 101, should be fun." Rapunzel chuckled as she rose from her seat and began towards the door.

"Mrs. Harper is a good teacher."

"So I've heard." She opened the door and called out right before shutting the door, "Take care, Elsa."

"You too." Elsa called back as the latch to the door locked shut and Rapunzel's footsteps receded down the stairs. When Elsa was left alone, she stared at the digits she wrote upon the post-it note. Her thoughts were scrambled and jumbled and her heart was beating faster than it ever had. Perhaps my chances aren't over yet. Only one way to find out. She thought as she dug into her pocket, fishing out her smartphone and opening it up and clicking on the Contacts application.