Author's Note: Here we go, finally. My apologies for the hiatus. There was a lot going on at school along with a battle against writer's block.

This update was hard to write because I find Elsa hard to write, especially within a home situation that can easily become cliched and offensive if I go about it wrong. I thank you all for your readership and support, especially S, like wow. Your review let me know I'm doing everything I intended with this fic. I would have thanked you personally if you hadn't posted as a guest.

Enjoy.

She nodded to her mother before retreating to her room. When Elsa heard the door click she breathed out, and counted to ten. This was nothing unusual. It was a trip to the ice cream parlor, and she happened to see someone from school while she was there.

And she'd invited Anna to sit with her, hadn't she?

Elsa started across the room, arms folding over her chest. She didn't know how to place it. What had been happening these past couple weeks wasn't new, when she thought about it. But it was so large and sudden and terrifying, and refused to go away. Elsa usually dealt with her problems by suppressing them, and oh, did she try. Maybe that's what crumbled her resolution this time around. She was so used to denying things and pretending they weren't there, and nineteen years later she finally ended up with one little problem stacked on top of everything else that shattered the last thread of sanity in her and made her irrational!

She was only kidding herself. Anna wasn't a little problem.

Elsa slumped on the wall, dragging towards the floor. A minute later she still hadn't come to a solution. She lifted her head and looked at the cross above her bookshelf. Her family was more conservative than most, and while they could talk about small things like how she was doing and what she did in school and where she was going with her friends, she didn't feel confident telling them about real things.

If she did real things in the first place. She'd seen others at school, the way they swore and slacked and acted casual. They went seemingly without a thought about carrying in a way that reflected well on their families. Elsa found the behavior crude and uncivilized, but at the same time it looked so relieving.

And the majority of her peers acted like this. Maybe it was normal, at least for high school. She didn't know. She'd had a mind to ask her parents, but they would find a way to dance around the topic and talk about something else. That's the thing, we're always dancing around questions, Elsa thought.

She supposed she could turn to faith, but that felt like a betrayal. Seeking absolution from something so clearly marked as wrong? It was only worse that, for whatever reason, she couldn't quash this infatuation the way she had the others.

It was an infatuation, wasn't it.

If Elsa weren't taught to raise her voice, she'd have screamed. A boy, why couldn't it have been a boy, she cursed to herself. That would have solved the problem. Boy asks her out, she takes him home, Mother and Father either approve or disapprove. Not with Anna. Anna…well, Elsa's father might go very white, before speaking in a tone he fought to control as his face grew to deeper and deeper shades of red. Maybe he'd explode, tossing Anna to the sidewalk before telling Elsa in great detail why she disgraced the family. Inside her head that almost sounded funny, but her mother would certainly turn faint and cry, wondering where she went wrong; despite herself, Elsa felt a chip of guilt.

She huddled in the dark, suddenly paranoid. She imagined herself a wicked thing, quarantined away while her mother went about below. Every day before leaving the house she'd tell herself, if you see Anna, you won't do anything. You might smile, or be friendly, but only out of proper custom.

And every time she saw Anna the vow broke. She'd sense the blood rising in her cheeks, the flutter in her heart. The voice inside her head would immediately be drowned away by something she couldn't explain but already knew. And Anna, if Elsa was reading correctly, had the same thoughts. Anna, who was brazen and rude, unintentionally, but still never having learned to hold her tongue.

Though it wasn't always a bad thing. In that moment Elsa recalled some of the things Anna said when they were alone, and she couldn't help biting her lip.

And the strangest thing about it all was that normally Elsa wouldn't even consider someone like Anna a friend! She was a good person, by all accounts and means, but Elsa was so quiet and dignified while Anna was so…Anna. They were very different. At least, on the surface.

They had to have more in common. That was the only way this could make sense.

They bumped into each other, by accident; Elsa had been looking through her purse and Anna was marveling over a new iPhone. They met at the curb.

"Sorry!" they said, and for the briefest moment they halted.

"Oh…hi," said Anna then, tucking the phone into her sweatshirt pocket.

Elsa blinked. "Did you get that today?" she finally asked.

"Yeah," Anna replied. "My old one was outdated, so I figured it was time to replace it."

"Well, that makes sense." Elsa struggled for more. "Sorry about the bump. I was trying to find the grocery list."

"Oh no, it's fine. I'm usually clumsier. Like you've seen." Anna hesitated, and she looked uneasily at Elsa.

Elsa giggled. "I have seen."

They continued down the road that Saturday afternoon, trying to think of things to say. "What's your hardest class?" Anna asked.

"Probably history," said Elsa. "I have a rough time matching the dates with the names."

"Mine is definitely math. I mean, all my classes are hard to some extent, but pre-cal? I don't understand the half of it." Anna was talking with her hands, moving in grand directions as they walked. "History's not too bad, even if the teacher kind of creeps me out. I pretend to be in the lessons, like I'm acting it out."

"Oh, do you?" said Elsa, her eyes lighting.

"Yeah. Joan of Arc didn't end well though."

They laughed. Elsa waited as Anna hit the Walk button at an intersection. "What is it about pre-cal that's so hard?"

"It's not visual. It's numbers that go together to make another number, with all these formulas that change depending on how those numbers are ordered. And the signs, and don't even get me started on when they mix letters into it."

"I can help you," said Elsa, and it startled her.

Anna stopped. "You can?"

For a second Elsa thought about cutting her off. "Yes," she said. "I understand math very well. If you wanted me to, I could help you. And"—she looked at Anna with a twinkle in her eye—"maybe you could help me with acting in those history plays."

It was as though Anna had gone completely mute, until she burst into the hugest grin. "Oh yes! That sounds great! Uh…should it be in the library after school?"

"Sounds fine to me," said Elsa.

"Awesome! Well, I have to get home now, so I'll see you then!" The Walk sign changed, and Anna gave Elsa a wave before bounding across the street. Elsa waved back, surprised by her choice, and then she went to the grocery store coyly and with great satisfaction.