". . . Alright: looks like our time is up. We'll continue this next time. Have a good weekend!" Danielle sighs, slipping her tablet into her bag before standing and pushing in her chair. As she walks out, she gathers her hair back, wrapping it into a messy bun to finally get it out of her face.

"Pretty boring today, huh?" One of her classmates, Kyle, asks, catching up to her in the hallway.

"Yea," Danielle laughs. "That would be the understatement of the century!"

The two continue down the hall, dodging groups of students milling outside of classes.

"Why can't he just give us the notes and be done like everyone else?"

"That is the million dollar question," she replies, pushing open the door, letting them out of the stuffy building and into the crisp air of a bright, sunshiny fall day.

"I mean you don't need to accompany every slide with a fifteen minute long story about your old Army days." The two classmates continue along the sidewalk, dodging students on bikes and skateboards, until Kyle gets called over by his friends.

"I guess I'll see you later," Kyle says, turning away from Danielle.

"Yeah," Dani nods. "Make sure you read the chapter this time! I can't keep covering your ass!" she calls to him as he walks away. She gets a fleeting wave as a response, and, shifting her tote bag on her shoulder, continues along the path, turning right up the walk to the campus center. Everyone is sitting outside on such a beautiful day, so it takes Danielle longer to find the group of friends she usually sits with.

"Hey!" Sam calls out to her.

"Hey!" Dani smiles, pulling out a chair at one of the two tables they had pushed together, and setting her bag at her feet.

"So, who died today?" Dani asked, shifting in her seat to look at her friend. Sam's class on the history of Los Angeles almost always resulted in discussion about death, and this weeks' lecture was no different.

"Anna Nicole Smith," Sam replies happily, holding up the three notebook pages full of notes she had taken that day as proof.

"Nice," Dani nods, pulling out her tablet and finishing off submitting an essay for her Western Civilizations class that was due that night. "Where is everyone?" She asks, noticing the lack of the rest of their usual group.

"Michael is at some rehearsal, Steven is in the lab, and Jo and Jae Jae are out getting 'B Roll'"

"Oh, okay," Dani nods, pulling out the sandwich she picked up before class, but hadn't had a chance to eat it until now.

"So, how was 'ole Eastman's class today?"

Sam's slightly sarcastic question made both friends laugh. They both had the professor in question, Danielle now and Sam the year before, and both knew about his tendency to go on completely irrelevant tangents.

"Oh it was the same," Dani shrugs. "Little actual classwork, a lot of him telling us about is adventures in the Army."

"Ah, sure don't miss that," Sam says, standing. "Be right back; gonna go get food. Don't let anyone take my spot!" she calls, walking away.

"Maybe!" Danielle laughs, watching her friend head of to find food, a middle finger held up in her direction.

Ten minutes later, Danielle looks up from her homework when she catches movement in her peripheral vision. "Took you long enough! Geeze!" she says to her friend, and another girl she doesn't recognize.

"Yeah, sorry," Sam says, sitting down, a chef salad and a bottle of green juice in her hands. She shakes the later before opening it and taking a long swig. The other girl clears her throat and Sam hums, twisting the lid back on her juice. "Oh! Danielle, this is Ashley. She's in my Econ class."

"Hi!" Dani smiles, moving over some of her crap to make room for the girl to sit.

"Hey," Ashley smiles, dimples appearing in her cheeks, sitting next to Sam and across from Dani, a tray of French fries in front of her.

"So Dani has Eastman this semester," Sam fills Ashley in, giving her friend a look.

"Really? I feel for you," Ashley comments, laying a hand on Danielle's arm that sends lightening through her whole body.

"Yeah," Dani breaths, trying to keep her heart rate under control, as if both her friends can hear it as well as she can. "It's pretty bad."

"So, what year are you?" Ashley asks, swallowing a bite.

"I'm a sophomore," Dani nods.

"Oh," Ashley hums.

"You?"

"I'm a junior," the brunette nods, looking at her cellphone as it chimes. "What are you majoring in?"

"Cinematography. And you're a screen writer with Sam, right?"

"Yeah," Ashley smiles, and bears her dimples again.

"That's cool," Dani nods, not knowing how to continue the conversation, until Sam reaches over and steals a fry, getting her hand slapped in response.

"Hey! Those are mine!" Ashley cries, feigning hurt.

"You can share!" Sam retorts, sticking her tongue out.

Danielle tunes out the exchange, taking in the new girl. Compared to her and Sam, who were dressed in jeans, t-shirts, flannels and converse, Ashley was much better put together.

Her long black hair was twisted into two braids by her ears that met in the back to form one longer braid, and the rest was stick straight and shiny. Gold eyeshadow brought out flecks of gold in her dark brown eyes. She's dressed in an army green baby doll dress, black tights and burgundy ballet flats.

"Dani? Dani! Danielle!"

Sam's shouts finally brought the blonde back to Earth.

"Huh? What?" Dani blinks, focusing her attention back to her friends.

"We're going to go see that new 'Paranormal Activity' movie on Friday, you in?"

"Yeah," Dani nods, still studying Ashley as the brunette taps away on her cell phone. "Yeah."

[] []

Friday night arrives, and the trio of girls leaves campus carpooling in Sam's car. And luckily for them they hit the freeway at just the right time and traffic is relatively light. The music is blasting, the windows rolled down; a perfect California Friday night.

"So, Dani! Tell me about you? Where did you grow up?" Ashley asks, from her spot in shotgun.

Dani laughs, not knowing where to start. "Well I grew up just outside of Manhattan."

"Wow, a New York girl, fancy," Ashley comments, stretching out the last word.

"Yeah it was pretty great," Danielle chuckles. "I'm the oldest of five; we're quintuplets."

"Wow! How did that happen?"

"What? Me being the oldest? Or the 'quintuplet' thing?"

"The last one."

"Um, my mom had trouble getting pregnant and she and my dad used fertility drugs. And then my mom got pregnant with four babies originally, but then one of the babies became identical twins, so there are five of us," she finishes, passing her phone to Ashley with a recent family photo pulled up on it.

"Aw! You guys are so cute!"

"Gee, thanks!" Dani replies, full of sarcasm.

"You know what I mean. So your two sisters are twins?" Ashley questions, looking at the photo again.

"You would think, right? Cause they look so much alike; but no. It's my brothers."

"Oh! Okay. I see it now," Ashley nods, handing the phone back. "So what do your parents do?"

"Well my mom's a captain of a precinct for the NYPD and before that she was a detective at the same precinct."

"Oh. Nice."

"Yeah. And my dad is an author."

"Anything I might have read?"

Dani's face turns hot. She knew it would come to this. "Um 'Heat Wave'? Storm Front?'

"Your dad is Richard Castle?"

"Yeah," Dani sighs, suddenly embarrassed.

"Very cool," Ashley smiles. "I love his books." And that was it. No fangirling; no immediate request for an autograph, like some people Danielle and her siblings have told it to.

"Okay, we're here!" Sam announces, pulling into a parking spot of the busy movie theater. The three pile out of the car, and for the next three hours not much talking goes on between them; unless you count the terrified screams from the horror movie they were watching as 'talking.'

[] []

The car door open in front of Danielle's dorm, and the echoes of female laughter could be heard as the blonde sophomore steps onto the pavement.

"Alright, I'll see you later," she says.

"Yeah; If we go to The Grove on Sunday, I'll text you," Sam tells her, speaking of possible weekend plans they had been conspiring during the night.

"Okay. Bye!" Dani calls once more before closing the door and heading up the path; her friends wait until she's safely inside before pulling away, headed for their respective apartments.

Dani takes the stairs to her third floor room, and her thigh are just starting to burn when she hits her floor and steps out into the noisy hallway. As she continues to her room, she nearly gets nailed in the face with a rogue beach ball, but she bats it away at the last second, much to the annoyance of the group using the hallway as their personal volleyball court.

"Hey!" She calls, pushing the door open so not to startle her other suitemates, which has happened; and though it was hilarious, it was also very horrible. But luckily the other three girls she shares a room with are out still.

Dani start off with making some tea, and while it's brewing, she heads for the bathroom to remove her makeup. Finally fresh-faced after a long, but fun day, she takes her tea and settles down in bed with her laptop and Netflix queue.

Two hours later, she's nearly done with 'The Notebook' when her roommate, Lindy, stumbles in. Her red heels are much too high for her to walk properly in and the scrap of black cloth meant to pass as a dress is slowly slipping down her chest.

"Did you have fun?" Dani asks, trying not to laugh.

"Oh, I'm not done yet," Lindy announces, standing at her dresser, looking in the mirror propped up on top. "Just came home to freshen up a bit. Landen is sneaking us into Blondies."

"Well have fun. Make smart choices."

Danielle sometimes feels like the mom to her roommates; especially since they are always going out and doing something, and she's not; not that she doesn't love it when she's out doing it, but her introverted personality just doesn't allow for a lot of partying.

Lindy finally heads back out with her friends, and Dani is just getting back into her movie when her phone chimes with a new notification.

It's a text message.

From Ashley.

Having only know the girl for less than a week, Danielle found it odd that she was texting her.

Hey!

Hi

Tonight was fun.

Yeah, it was. I forgot how much I love those movies.

Me too. I tried taking my sister to one a few years ago, but she chickened out halfway through.

Some people can't handle those kinds of movies! I think you sister would get along just fine with my sisters. They don't like horror movies either.

Really!?

Yes! They can't stand them! Sometimes I wonder if they are actually my sisters or if they were exchanged when we were babies.

Ha! Wouldn't that be great? If you mom had actually exchanged you guys. Like clothes or something?

Ha ha! It would! Oh my gosh!

The two talked for hours; long enough that the time was more morning than night.

Danielle learned that Ashley grew up in Murrieta, and that she's the middle of three kids. Her brother, Mateo, is twenty seven and works with her father as electricians, her younger sister Isabelle (nicknamed Izzy) is fifteen this year and in high school, and does cheerleading like Danielle. Her mother works the front office at the elementary school all three of the kids had gone too, and her father inherited the electrician business his dad had started forty years ago.

Oh my gosh! We stayed up all night.

Did we?
Oh God! We did. I'm sorry.

It's fine.

Butterflies flared up in Dani's stomach as she composed the next text message. She was hesitant to send it; not know how her new friend would react. She takes a breath, counts to three, and hits send.

I don't stay up all night for that many people. That makes you pretty special.

Then nothing.

For nearly three minutes there is nothing. Not even those little dots that signify Ashley is typing.

Dani wonders if she actually fell asleep, until her phone chimes once again.

Me too.

[] []

The phone and in-person conversations become more and more regular. Before class, during class (sometimes), after class. At lunch. At dinner. After dinner. All night. After the weekend of the movie, their talks become deeper and more personal; the girls feeling more and more comfortable with each other.

Dani talks about her family and growing up as a quintuplet and how they go so much attention and as much as it's cool; it get very annoying and intrusive after a while.

She tells Ashley about the time she and her sisters were out shopping for prom dresses and some woman was saying all these mean thing about Finn because of her CP and the crutches she used to walk.

"People suck," Ashley comments.

"You're preaching to the choir, honey," Dani replies, a lesson she, and her siblings, learned the hard way.

In return, Ashley tells Danielle about her family: large, loud and Mexican.

"Trust me, if you saw my family, you would understand," She explains one day as the two take a break on the, now dead, grass between classes about a month after their first meeting..

"I think I have a slight idea," Danielle nods. "My uncle is Mexican and I spent a lot of time with him and his family, so I can only imagine."

"Oh I think my family is ten times worse than anything you've ever been through," Ashley shudders.

"That's because their your family! You are automatically conditioned to think their awful when looking from the outside. I'm sure the're fine," She smiles, laying her head on Ashley's shoulder.

The brunette doesn't shrug her friend off, better yet she lays her head on top of Danielle's and the two stay like that talking about anything and everything until they have to leave for class.

Or, rather, Ashley has class; Danielle just offers to walk her to it.

[] []

The night before Thanksgiving break is set to start, Danielle is over at Ashley's apartment, a regular occurrence over the past few weeks. Ashley is bundled up in blankets, claiming it is freezing cold. Though at only sixty degrees, what is cold to Ashley, is perfectly content to Dani, who had experienced some very cold temperatures in her time.

"Aren't you cold?" Ashley asks for the tenth time that afternoon.

"No, I'm fine," Dani says, again. "I'm making food, you want some?" Danielle asks, getting up off the couch and moving into the kitchen, feeling very comfortable in her friend's place.

"Yes! Make me some of those Hot Pocket things we got the other day."

"You got it!" Dani pops a plate full of the frozen snack into the microwave, and sets it for the directed time before walking away and resuming her place on the couch.

"Oh, hey! They re-released Super Monkey Ball on iPhone!" Danielle happily cheers, leaning closer to her friend.

"What is that?" Ashley asks, her brow furrowing at the thumbnail for the game.

"It's this game my dad used to have and we played it all the time as kids. It was so fun! We used to get so mad at each other for reaching higher levels the rest of us hadn't. We fought so much my dad eventually took it away and didn't allow us to play it anymore. I'm getting it!" She announces, quickly buying and downloading the game just as the microwave goes off. As the game loads, she retrieves the hot plate and sets it between them on the couch, per routine.

Ashley doesn't wait for their dinner to cool off; she digs right in, crying out when the hot, molten interior burns the inside of her mouth.

"It's hot, smart one!" Danielle shouts at her friends' stupidity.

"Yep," Ashley sighs, tears in her eyes. "It's hot." She stets the bitten into piece back on the plate, willing them to cool off faster.

Dani laughs, and, shaking her head, she pulls up the classic video game.

"Alright, show me how to do this," Ashley instructs, scooting closer to Danielle, and her smart phone.

Danielle's nose instantly fills with Ashley's smell: the products her hair stylist used at the salon the other day, and the Vera Wang perfume she always wears; the one in the heart shaped bottle that always sits on her dresser.

The smell makes her heart race; butterflies flutter in her stomach.

"Okay," Dani sighs, trying to keep her voice steady. "It's really easy."

Ashley watches on as Dani plays through the first few levels, studying her movements as she turns her phone this way and that trying to reach to goal without falling.

"You wanna try?" Dani asks, passing the phone over.

"Yeah," Ashley nods, suddenly smug. She starts back at the beginning, and passes the first few levels with ease; but by the ninth, she's had to start over three times.

"Ugh!" She growls, really exaggerating her movements as she tries to beat the level.

"You got this," Danielle encourages.

Finally, eleven tries later, Ashely successfully reaches the goal, and the game sings her victory.

"Yes!" Ashely cheers, throwing her hands in the air, and nearly drops the phone on her face.

"You did it! I told you!" Dani adds to the noise, wrapping her friend in a hug.

When the two pull apart, the air is suddenly full of static; potential energy just waiting to be expensed.

The two girls lock eyes, their breathing timed perfectly in synch. In a split second Dani's eyes flick from Ashley's deep brown eyes, to her pink lips, and back again. And the next she's laying a hand on her cheek and leaning close. Ashley closes the imperceptible gap and their lips meet.

[] []

Thanksgiving break goes by with radio silence between Danielle and Ashley; possibly due to both of them visiting their families, or it could be the two are still processing what happened between the two of them the night before Danielle flew back to New York and Ashley made the two hour drive down to her family home.

A week of family, food, and playing with nieces and nephews who seem to be growing like weeds.

"Again!" Wyatt cheers as he flops backwards on the trampoline.

"Again?" Danielle asks her nephew, pulling on her pony tail to tighten it.

"Yeah!"

"Okay," Dani replies, getting a few jumps in before looking down at the young boy. "Ready?"

He nods, his face alight with joy. Dani jumps three more times before quickly double jumping her nephew and sending him flying into the air, the cold Fall night fills with his squeals of delight.

Parades were watched, the house filling with wonderful smells. Food was devoured and then cleaned up before nearly every member of the Castle family collapses onto the couch deep in the throes of a food coma.

Finally, the night of Black Friday, after being up since the wee hours of the morning getting Christmas and maybe some completely frivolous shopping done with her mom and sisters, Danielle is laying on the couch, cuddling her dog, watching cartoons with her nieces and nephew, when her phone goes off.

She would recognize that ring tone anywhere, and nearly jumps out of her skin when it comes on.

She pushes the home button to see the notification; eyes filling with tears as she reads the message.

It's only three words, but they are the best three words Danielle James Castle has read in the longest time.

I miss you.