Day sixteen – Monday

Making a plan that will completely change your life is easy. Carrying that plan out is much harder.

Last night I'd wandered the town until about ten at night, my head buzzing with plans about what I was going to do with my life. I'd considered jobs from primary school teacher to psychiatrist. I'd imagined hundreds of different scenarios where I apologised to Elsa and she had apologised for running off and had completely forgiven me for springing such a surprise on her.

In the cold light of day all of my dreams disappeared, and I was left with the cold truth. I couldn't find another job. I'd already spent weeks looking, and all I'd found had been Arendelle Café. The reality of the matter was that I would probably never see Elsa or Anna again.

I walked to work, my hands in my pockets.

That was the problem with all the mad ideas that I had ever dreamed up late one night. They all disappeared when the sun rose.

The sun made everything seem so much better, so much brighter, convincing me that I didn't need to carry out those plans that I made up; that I could get by without. So I'd just been drifting for my entire life, never really moving forwards because I thought I was fine where I was.

I sighed as I listened to Kristoff's plans to extend the café. "We're getting so many more customers now," he said. We were sitting at one of the tables, just after we'd closed the café. He was holding a coke in his left hand, which meant that it was being waved through the air as he gestured expansively at the room. I eyed it with suspicion as I sipped a coffee. "Haven't you noticed the café getting more and more crowded at lunchtime? We just don't have enough people either – Anna!"

I looked up in surprise. I'd been avoiding Anna for almost a week now, mostly successfully, may I add, as I wait for your admiring applause. Anna was really difficult to hide from; she would search tirelessly for me, just to ask if I could watch Olaf. She would search even harder if she wanted to ask me about Elsa (which she had).

As I looked at her now, I knew that something had changed. There was something in her mind, something cautious, and I knew that Elsa had finally told her. I tensed, waiting for her fear, but it wasn't forthcoming. I looked at her again, carefully touching her mind. I stopped in amazement.

Anna, who had no powers, who had only a small idea of the burdens that powers could be, was more understanding than Elsa, who had suffered terribly from her particular 'gift'.

The irony of it made me want to laugh.

She smiled at Kristoff and then looked at me. "Can you spare a few minutes?" she asked. "Elsa wants to talk to you." I stood instantly, coffee forgotten, fumbling for my phone. Thankfully she anticipated my question. "She's by the car." Without a word of goodbye I raced from the café, through the kitchens and out of the door.

I glanced frantically around the street – there! I spotted her car, and there she was, standing awkwardly next to it and watching the cars.

I walked towards her and resisted the urge to rifle through her thoughts. I had been dreading this meeting for days, imagining what she would say, planning how I would apologise, but as I walked closer, I made a decision.

I would not apologise for my powers. I couldn't stop them or change them, so I was not responsible for them, so I should not have to apologise for them.

As I walked towards her I got more and more nervous, frantically searching for something to say. I gripped my phone tightly, as though it could provide me with answers. I took a deep breath.

"Hi, Elsa."

What Anna had said had aggravated my conscience, leaving me with a constant feeling of guilt for what I had said to Taelor.

His talents were just like mine – he couldn't help the fact that he had a talent or stop himself having that talent.

I shouldn't have hurt him so much.

I of all people knew how that felt.

I had just been so scared. The thought that he knew my innermost secrets, everything that I kept hidden, even from myself, had just terrified me.

I've only just got used to touching people, to talking to them and actually talking about things that mattered.

The thought of discussing emotions, or fears, or of even opening up to someone is enough to make me cautious. The thought that someone could just breeze through my mind and find out whatever they wanted to know...

I shuddered and wrapped my arms tighter around me.

It wasn't the cold that affected me. It never had been the cold that I was trying to ward when I adopted this position. It was always the truth.

The truth that I had hurt Anna – twice.

The truth that my powers were in the open.

The truth that I had treated Taelor terribly, when he was the one person who might understand what I had been through – what I was still going through – and that he was the one person who deserved my sympathy more than everything, because I understood what he was going through, and what he had been through.

This truth had hit me hard last night.

And that truth was much colder than the temperature could ever be. Or so I thought.

"Hi, Elsa."

Wow, two chapters up in one day (one was for UDWL). Summer holidays rock. I love all of this free time :) I'm unsure about this chapter; it didn't turn out quite the way that I expected. let me know what you think?