~ Chapter Six ~

A month went by. Anna got a wonderful grade on her final art project; the teacher praised her for creating an entire comic book, even though it was in black and white and only a dozen pages. She graduated in the top fifteen percent of her class, and enjoyed the lame, nerdy fun of the grad party held on the school property, rather than the drunken debauchery of a house party. Kristoff said he would have liked to at least check one out, but without Anna along it wouldn't have been the same.

It had taken two days for Anna to finally work up the nerve to eat Elsa's leftover waffles. At first, she really did consider bronzing them, but decided that was the stupidest notion of all time - no matter whose waffles they were. She tried not to blush at the idea of eating the same thing as her idol. What kind of weirdo was she, anyway?

There was nothing on any social media about her meeting Elsa, or her being spotted at the diner... nothing. She hadn't really hoped she would make some kind of public announcement, and was relieved that she wouldn't have to fight off a bunch of questions from random internet people, but she couldn't help but feel a very slight tinge of disappointment. Ridiculous as the thought was, she had begun to feel close to Elsa by the end of their brunch... but it was probably just the wishful thinking of a superfan.

Until she got the DM.

~ o ~

"Pick up," she muttered as she listened to Skype's ringtone coming out of her phone. "Come on, pick up, pick UP!"

Finally, the bleary voice of Kristoff demanded, "What?"

"I'm sending y... did you just wake up?"

"Yeah."

She glanced over at the old Mickey Mouse clock on her wall. "It's almost one in the afternoon, what are you doing with your life?!"

"Just... shut up and tell me what you want, okay? I was up all night on Minecraft."

"Fine, you loser - just look at this screenshot."

Tapping the screen, she sent the pertinent picture through the app to her friend. She watched his sleepy face as he opened it once it arrived. His eyes squinted even more than they were before, then flew wide.

"Wh... wait, is this a fake?"

"Not a fake made by me!" Anna hissed, still not letting herself feel the excitement she felt bubbling up inside. Not yet. "S-so... did she get her account hacked? Am I dreaming? Or like... is this legit?"

By that point, Kristoff was sitting up slightly. He was indeed wearing the same old plain lavender t-shirt he'd been wearing the day before, wrinkled and rumpled as his hair. "Dude, you have to find out. Message her back."

"I can't send a DM to ELSA! Are you crazy?! She's way too important!"

"Then... aren't you being rude? If she really sent you one, isn't it a dick move to ignore it?"

That easily, she felt her face going white. "No... oh my God, you're right, I c-can't be rude to her, I'd never forgive myself. But what do I say?!"

"Okay, calm down," he told her, even though he was getting less calm by the second himself. "Just... you said she really seemed to relax once you guys were talking like normal people, right? So do that again. Say what you'd say to anyone else who DM'ed you."

"You mean 'who is this?' I don't think that works in her case, Kristoff!"

"No, no- somebody you DO know."

Anna took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, I'm going in, I'll call you back if she replies. You, uh, probably want to go back to sleep."

"No, no, I'm up now. Think I have a Monster in the fridge. Let me know what's up."

"Okay." Thumbing the "end call" button, she switched back to Twitter and stared at the four simple words. Four words that didn't seem like they could have come from the blonde superstar. No matter how many times she read them, she still couldn't believe she was in this position.

Hello, this is Elsa.

Swallowing her fears and anxieties, Anna let her thumbtips take control, and typed in the simplest thing she could, hitting send before rereading it.

Hey! What's up? Simple, unassuming, effective - and it contained a question that would at least leave the door open for a response. Should Elsa want to give one for whatever reason.

Anna sat the phone down on the corner of her bedside table, next to her glasses and the charger cord, the spare change, and a stack of novels that she had barely made a dent in. After taking a deep breath, she stood to walk downstairs and get a glass of water, to hopefully give herself an opportunity to breathe.

Until she heard the alert sound that told her she had a response. That fast. She had taken almost thirty minutes to reply to the initial message, and hadn't expected Elsa to even reply again at all - much less so suddenly! Her hand snatched at the phone - and sent it bouncing across the carpet.

"UGH, FUCK!" she breathed, cringing. What on earth would she do if she had broken her phone, right at such a crucial moment?!

But it was fine. More than fine; once she unlocked the screen, she was staring at the strangest sentence she'd ever seen. It was feeling more and more like someone hacked Elsa's account; she wouldn't possibly have sent that.

Six hour layover, I have precheck. Do you want to grab lunch?

Six hours. Have lunch. With HER. With irritating fangirl Anna Mayberry, who had practically force-fed her waffles once already! What the hell was she supposed to respond to that with?

There weren't many options. Where?

~ o ~

When Anna pulled up in front of Gerda's, she instantly spotted Elsa leaning up against the wall. This time, her gray hoodie was pulled up over her head, as Anna recommended to her a lifetime ago. Below that were jeans and hi-top gray sneakers that matched the exact shade of the hoodie. And, of course, sunglasses.

Before getting out of the car, Anna patted down her furiously-braided hair, her reasonably-clean cardigan and her flouncy skirt, stared at the little scuffmark on her ballet flats that she wished she had noticed before choosing them. Stalling wasn't going to help anything. With a deep, bracing breath, she pushed open the door and walked over toward her.

"Hey!" she called out, just stopping herself from adding Elsa's name. "Um, hi!"

"Hi," Elsa said with a little smile, pushing off from the wall to stride toward her. "It's good to see you again."

"It is?! I mean... y-yes, you, too!" She pointed at the front door. "So, you ready?"

Taking her arm - and thereby making Anna's blood pressure triple - she leaned in and said, "Actually, I've been thinking. It's been some time since I've been able to go see a movie. Are... you interested? Do you like movies?"

"Who doesn't like movies?" They both laughed a little. "B-but we could totally eat first if you're hungry."

"No, I had a pretzel in the airport." When Anna put her hands on her hips, Elsa held up a hand. "Please, don't lecture. But I promise I'll buy a snack at the theater if it puts your mind at ease."

"Deal."

Once they were strapped into the car, Anna looked over at her as she turned the ignition. "Okay, so I do have to ask something... how did you even find my Twitter?"

Against all odds, Elsa blushed very slightly. "Well... I will admit, I'd been searching for it ever since we touched down here and I learned we would have a layover. Originally, I was just going to ask if you wanted to come to the airport for a quick coffee, but then my connecting flight was delayed by an extra four hours."

"And you... found me. Just by scrolling. You have a million followers, how could you find me?"

"That wasn't easy. But your name being 'Anna Banana' helped, plus the location on your profile being accurate. I..." She looked down at her hands shyly. SHYLY - Elsa, the diva from SEEK, acting shy. What alternate universe were they inhabiting?! "You probably think I'm odd, trying that hard to find you. But you were so kind to me - and genuinely kind, not just gushy and 'fangirly' - that it really stayed with me. So when I realised I was closeby again, and would be for a while..."

Elsa remembered her. Not just the way she had in the bathroom, when she vaguely remembered her face and asking after her health. The busy pop star had committed their interactions to long-term memory; thought of them fondly. She was something close to resembling being Elsa's actual... friend.

"WATCH OUT!"

Anna blinked and slammed her foot down on the brake, her bumper inches from the bushes just over the curb. Her brain had been spinning around in circles so fast that she had completely forgotten to pay attention to where she was going.

"Oh... oh holy shit, I'm sorry, I'm so stupid, I'm stupid, stupid, STUPID!"

"It's okay," Elsa reassured her, putting her hand on Anna's forearm - and feeling how taut the muscles there were, she squeezed a little in reassurance. "This is my fault; I really came out of nowhere with this invite, didn't I?"

"No, it's mine. I should know better, I should... you never get behind the wheel if you can't focus on what you're doing, my dad always told me that. M-maybe you should get a cab back to the airport so I don't..." Her eyes pricked with tears. "I almost hurt Elsa."

"Stop that. Stop it right now." When Anna didn't respond, she shook her slightly. "You didn't ram us into a wall at top speed, just almost coasted into a bush. I doubt that would have even scratched the car much, let alone hurt either of us. Please don't be so hard on yourself."

After a few slow, calming breaths, Anna managed to open her eyes again. She dealt with this the only way she could: with humour. "Oh, like scratches could matter much to this old rustbucket."

"There you go," she whispered with a gentle smile. "Better. Now, let's get to the theater; tell me which one we're going to and I'll look up showtimes while you drive, see what's even playing. Are... they still making those 'Potter' films?"

No matter who Elsa was to her, or the world at large, Anna couldn't help but mutter, "Boy, it really has been a while for you."

~ To Be Continued ~