On an unusually bright afternoon, students flocked to the ice cream parlor after school. Rapunzel had to be goaded into going.
"Come on," Anna said. "Pretty soon, it's gonna hit subzero temperature out there. It's gonna be so cold, not even you would want to eat that triple strawberry chunk you lust after in summer."
"I can wait," muttered Rapunzel.
"And then the snow will fall, coating the streets in a dangerous slickness," said Merida. "Bums will die. The price of heating will rise. Classes will take place in the boiler room to avoid turning students to ice. And you'll be wandering home one day, the wind biting at your ears, and you'll think, 'Why didn't I get the ice cream when I had the chance?'"
"You guys know why!" said Rapunzel.
She started twisting her hair. The others quieted.
"Hey, hey," said Vanessa softly. "Don't freak out. We can get around this. They were just joking."
"Yeah," said Anna uneasily, as Merida rubbed her arm.
Rapunzel still had her back to them. Her teeth left her lip when Vanessa came closer. "We can figure this out, easy. We convinced her to let you work on this robot, right?" Rapunzel didn't answer. "Right?"
Rapunzel sniffed back a tear. "Right."
"So we'll convince her to let you do this too. Let's go to your house. And you"—Vanessa looked at Anna and Merida, sharply—"should pay for the ice cream."
The bus stopped a block from the parlor. The group spilled out, righting themselves before looking at the dismal sight ahead.
"Did you guys finally fix the top window?" asked Merida, genuinely trying to be nice. "It looks great."
Rapunzel sighed and shuffled across the street. The others followed, at a distance.
A lone car crossed the road, exhaust fuming from its engine. The impact kicked up a plastic grocery bag, which rustled as it floated in the air. After that it was dead silent. They reached the house. Beyond the dark window, a figure came into view.
"Get down," hissed Anna, shoving Merida into a rosebush.
The silhouette faced the window. Rapunzel cringed as the person went still. For a moment, no one moved.
"We're all rooting for you, Rapunzel," whispered Anna.
Rapunzel walked onto the cracked wooden patio. The door flew open before she found her key. "There you are, Rapunzel," said the woman inside, in a voice both grand and accusing. "Whatever took you so long?"
Rapunzel stood under the drooping canopy, her head down. "Well, we were thinking about going to the ice cream parlor—"
"What was that, Rapunzel, you're mumbling." The woman's tone was dismissive. Rapunzel breathed in and tried again.
"It's a really nice day, you know, and the sun, and I was wondering about going to the ice cream parlor."
Her eyes flicked to the side. Her grandmother's hand lifted off her hip, covering her forehead as she threw it back. "Oh, Rapunzel," she said dramatically. "I do wish you'd be happy with what I provide you. Don't you remember that pie we baked last night?"
"Yes, Mother Gothel," said Rapunzel quietly. "It was very nice."
"Then you can have that for a dessert instead of wasting money on some factory-produced ice cream." Rapunzel's gaze burned into the patio. Anna said nothing. She could not help.
Rapunzel's grandmother looked above her head. "Who's this?" she said to Vanessa.
"I'm Vanessa, ma'am," she said, stepping forward. A strand of hair was tucked behind her ear as she continued. "I've been eating lunch with Rapunzel since the beginning of the school year." She stopped next to the brunette, putting her hands on her shoulders. "I bet it must be pretty annoying for us to just load a request on you like this."
"Yeah, sure," said Anna, scuffing the sidewalk.
One of Gothel's eyebrows lifted. "You have that right," she said.
"I mean, it's just such a nice day, and we got ahead of ourselves, you know? And we were going to work on designs for the competition while we were at the parlor. You do know about the competition, right?" Gothel nodded. "It seemed like a good idea. But we wanted to ask you permission, first."
Gothel leaned out from the doorway. "And that DunBroch girl isn't around?"
"Not today, ma'am," Vanessa said. "She had to go home right after school. Something about being in trouble with her mom."
The curtain in Gothel's eyes brightened just a little. "Well, I suppose having you out this one day wouldn't be too bad," she said, making Rapunzel stare in wonder. Gothel swung the door all the way open, motioning for them to come inside. "Just don't make this a regular thing, okay, sweetie?"
"Yes, Mother Gothel," said Rapunzel, scurrying inside.
The house was nice enough, for something falling apart; its dark rooms furnished with necessities and a few other objects. Despite this, the whole place had an eerie glow from its cleanliness. "I need to get to my room," said Rapunzel when the others came in. "I should get more pencils."
"I'll go with you," Anna said quickly, giving Gothel a half-smile before speeding through the living room.
They walked up the unusually long staircase, adjusting to the dimming light. The floorboards creaked under Anna's feet as they rounded the top. Rapunzel, barely weighing anything, didn't make a noise on the way to her room.
It had the same unfilled spaciousness as the rest of the house, with gray walls and spider webs cobbling the gaps. Rapunzel waded through paper on the floor, avoiding paint splatters on her way to the dresser. Gothel didn't mind so much if Rapunzel's room was dirty.
Anna waited at the closed door as Rapunzel opened the top drawer. She didn't have a desk, so some of her art supplies were set over her clothes. She picked out a few colored pencils and a sharpener, slipping them inside her worn jeans. Anna looked at the easel next to the window.
"So what's this one?"
"Chameleon," Rapunzel said, though Anna could tell right away. Anna's gaze shifted from the unfinished painting to the stuffed animal on Rapunzel's bed. Pascal, she called it.
Anna looked at the photo hung on the wall. Framed and perfect, it depicted a man and woman with a smiling baby in their arms. Rapunzel's mother had died of illness early in her daughter's life, sending her husband into great stress. The widowed father tried to care for Rapunzel on his own, but turned to vice on her sixth birthday. In his mad grief he overdosed two years later, leaving Rapunzel sobbing on his chest through the night. A background check showed her grandmother as her closest living relative. Rapunzel was dumped, Rapunzel was left to fend on her own, and art was her biggest escape. She did not show interest in much else, and was never encouraged to. Anna traced carefully over the family portrait, analyzing the soft expressions, the gentle curves that transferred to Rapunzel's face.
Rapunzel was waiting in the middle of the room. "So, we ready to go?"
"Ready," said Anna, jumping to attention.
A high, lilting cackle echoed up the stairs as they exited, a noise rarely heard in the house. Gothel laughed again as Vanessa said some other funny thing in the living room. "Oh, you are a doll, Vanessa, really," she said, holding her stomach.
"Um, we're ready to go," said Rapunzel behind her.
Gothel turned. She could have been pretty, if her eyes didn't sag and bulge beneath her curly black hair. "Well, don't stay out too late," she said. "And do work hard to make a winning design." She patted Rapunzel's head, mussing her hair. "Make Mama proud."
"I will," said Rapunzel.
They waited outside until Gothel went to her room. Anna returned to the side of the house and pulled Merida out of the rosebush. Merida coughed, wiping a cut on her cheek.
"I know her grandma thinks I'm the worst influence of them all, but you could find a less painful way to keep me out of sight."
The parlor was loud and packed, a jarring shift from Rapunzel's home. A long row of students chattered while waiting for their turn to order. The faint smell of ice cream lingered under many glass panels.
Anna started past the bright red walls. "I am so ready for that double fudge, you guys." They headed toward the line, squeezing by people getting to seats. When they passed a booth someone looked up. Anna slowed. The voices meshed into meaningless noise as Elsa stared hunched from a small glass cup, clear and intricate. Anna turned red. The bottom of Elsa's eyes crinkled, and she shyly waved.
Rapunzel was already sketching when Anna got to the line. "What took you so long?" Merida asked.
"Um, I got distracted," said Anna. Merida leaned over to check out the booths.
Her back hit the wall in exasperation. "Oh my god, you're still pining after her." She picked out another leaf from her shirt.
Anna pouted. "It hasn't been that long."
"No, this is getting painful, seriously." Merida pushed Anna farther up the line. "I'm not sure what I want yet. You can go ahead of me."
"Wait, are you sure?"
"As sure as ever, sunshine."
"Well—here, Rapunzel," said Anna, handing her a ten-dollar bill. "I'm paying, remember? Get whatever you want."
Her stomach growled when her food was placed upon the counter. "Thanks," said Anna, pocketing the change and leaving the register. The others were still deciding. Anna went to find a booth, her chest whirring with a nervous jilt.
"Are you waiting for your friends?"
Anna stopped. Elsa was on her left.
"Um, yes?"
"You can sit here while you wait."
"Um, okay!" Flustered, Anna joined the booth. Her ice cream was in a large paper cup, and she hoped she didn't look like a pig.
"I'm not alone, either," Elsa went on. "Jane and Belle are in the market looking for some new books. Sometimes I think they'd use reading for food, if that were possible."
Anna snorted, trying to follow. Pleasure burst across her tongue as she started eating. She swallowed loudly, feeling the chocolate drop like a pit into her stomach. "Oh man, that's amazing," she said. "So do you guys know what you're doing for the competition?"
"They've already passed the blueprint stage," said Elsa. "It's incredible how fast they can work on the weekends." She shaved another scoop of ice cream onto her spoon, smoothly and elegantly, and put it in her mouth. Anna paused to watch Elsa's eyes close, and all of a sudden she imagined that mouth going elsewhere, so dainty and gentle, how she dabbed her lips clean with a nearby napkin on the table…
"Hey," said Rapunzel, bending in from the aisle. "We got an idea."
Anna blinked. Rapunzel was looking at her weirdly.
She noticed her food melting. "Right!" She jammed in another bite, chocolate running down her chin. "Oh god." Elsa's eyelids rose, and she pushed a napkin Anna's way. "Sorry," said Anna, wiping the stains.
Someone burst into giggles. Elsa's friends had appeared by her side, books in their arms. The one with the bow on her ponytail waved apologetically at Anna.
"Oh god." Anna stood abruptly. "You guys can have the seat. Of course you can, I mean, you're her friends, right? Bye!" she said to Elsa before rushing off to the others.
"So how'd it go, big girl?" said Merida at their booth, not looking up from her sundae.
Anna crossed her arms. "It went just fine," she said petulantly.
She sat down. Rapunzel jittered before showing them her sketchbook. "Vanessa was telling me about some of the other robot designs. And I think our final idea is to build something that can record sound and wheel the cassette back to us." Her smile was wider than they'd seen in days. Vanessa at her pecan ice cream quietly, her eyes trailing along the sketch.
"That…you know what, that sounds doable," said Anna. "I think we finally have a direction."
Rapunzel looked excitedly at Merida. She nodded. Rapunzel squealed. "Great!" She sat down and ate her strawberries, beaming. Everyone ate content.
"So what did Elsa say?"
Merida had ducked from the shop among a crowd, blending out of sight from Gothel's gaze across the street. Rapunzel was opening her door at that moment. Vanessa insisted on walking to a bus stop that would get home in one trip. Anna felt annoyed that she was asking so quickly.
"We talked a little about the competition," she responded. "That's all."
"Oh." Vanessa turned to a moth fluttering in the air. "So what was she eating?"
"Vanilla ice cream, from a small glass cup."
"The fancy stuff, huh? Figures."
"Is that a bad thing?" Anna questioned, a little short.
"No. It just doesn't surprise me that she'd refuse to get a paper cup like the rest of us."
"I don't think she'd refuse—"
"Then she would have taken one." Vanessa stared Anna in the eye.
Anna stayed quiet on the empty sidewalk, her loyalties conflicted. "Well, maybe," she finally said. "But I don't think she's that stuck-up." Vanessa turned pleasantly and kept walking.
"I wonder what her house is like," Anna said later, to fill the silence.
"You seen the clothes she comes to school in? She has to be rich," said Vanessa, pushing the Walk button on a pole by the curb. The cars kept moving under a green light.
"Well, yeah, she dresses better than others," said Anna. "But like, I wonder about her parents."
"They probably shelter her and treat her like a little queen," said Vanessa. Anna's heart tripped at her casual tone. "That's why her friends are all those intellectual types. They don't want her hanging out with anyone they don't approve of."
"We don't know that," said Anna, desperately hoping she was a person Elsa's parents would approve of.
"Sure, it's just speculation." Vanessa shrugged. "But she's probably still used to being waited on hand and foot. Doesn't have to do anything for anyone unless she wants to."
"Um, yeah," muttered Anna, and then she saw an opportunity to grovel. "And what if she doesn't know anything about dating?"
"She might not." Vanessa was looking at the other side of the street.
"Yeah," continued Anna. "And imagine her if, like, she got someone into bed with her. She'd probably be so lazy about it. Like the world's biggest pillow princess."
The moment the words escaped her lips she felt unbelievably vile. A wave of revulsion washed over her chest, and she wished Vanessa wasn't laughing. Shamefully she checked to make sure no one else was there.
"Ah, you're a riot, Anna," said Vanessa, shaking her head as the Walk sign appeared. "An absolute riot."
Dinner that night was tasteless, and Anna wondered if she could bring herself to look Elsa in the face next time.