It had been exactly six months since Puck had left to go gallivanting around the world with Jake, and if you were to ask Sabrina, she couldn't have cared less. Of course, that was a lie—and she knew it, too—but no one, except possibly Daphne, would ever point that out.

A couple months ago, they'd moved back to Manhattan and gotten a three-bedroom apartment for a questionably low price. After three days at a new school, Daphne was practically the queen of the third grade. Sabrina, however, struggled with the abrupt normalcy that surrounded her on a daily basis now. Slowly, she adjusted back to life in Manhattan, and she started to feel normal again. Sabrina made friends, she had sleepovers, she took Daphne out to get ice cream and walk around Central Park, she attended school basketball games, and she went to see movies with her friends, where they'd buy a ridiculously large bucket of popcorn.

But when James from her U.S. history class asked her to the winter formal, she hesitated. He was a nice guy, and Sabrina had to admit he was pretty cute, too. But she just wasn't sure.

When she lived in Ferryport Landing, there was nothing Sabrina wanted more than normalcy in her life. Since she was nine years old, her life has been interesting, sure, but it has also been more difficult than she'd ever imagined. And now that her life was as normal as it gets, she couldn't help but feel that something was missing, like maybe what she wanted all along wasn't what her heart truly desired.

She said yes to James.

Veronica took her shopping for a dress to wear to the dance, and James bought her a corsage to go on her wrist. And when the night of the dance arrived, he showed up at her house, and Henry interrogated the boy about his "intentions" with his daughter. The dance was held in their school gym, and Sabrina thought it smelled like dirty socks, but it was actually a really fun night. She and James awkwardly danced to a song or two before spending the rest of the night with their friends, hanging out by the refreshments. And when he walked her home, he stopped and gave her a hug before she entered her apartment building.

After telling her parents about her night and changing into her pajamas, Sabrina decided to head to bed, but as she was getting in bed, she noticed something peeking out from under her pillow.

A envelope. It was oddly shiny, and when she picked it up, her body tingled as if it had been touched by some form of magic. Considering the six months it had been since magic was part of her life, Sabrina thought it was odd that tonight a magic envelope would show up under her pillow—of all places. As she ripped apart the envelope to see its contents, she contemplated running to find her mom, her dad, or Daphne. As far as Sabrina was concerned, this envelope could contain a direct threat to her family from some re-established group of the Scarlet Hand, but her curiosity outweighed her concern for her own safety.

Her thoughts were a jumble of emotions: intrigued, scared, worried, and excited. And then she saw the handwriting and the way it addressed her, and despite the fact that she doesn't care about him at all, her face broke out in the biggest smile she'd had all night.

Donkeyface,

I heard from a little birdie (Jake, obviously) that you had a date tonight. Ew.

Wow. I can't believe you replaced me so quickly. I'm your future husband, after all. I think I deserve some sort of warning.

You're probably wondering where I am and what I've been doing. Well, I'm saving the world—or ruining it, depending on the way you look at it. And as far as where I am, I don't have a single clue. Somewhere. We're in a desert or something. I don't really know.

I just thought I'd send my regards to your poor boyfriend, whoever he is (seriously, he has no clue what he's getting into), and I also thought I should probably let you know I'm alive. You know, since you're in love with me or something like that.

Anyway, I hope your date wasn't too awful. Or maybe I do hope it was awful. I don't really know. This whole growing-up thing kind of stinks.

I'll see you one day! I would tell you when, but I'm not really sure. Bye!

- Puck

Sabrina fell back on her bed in shock. It had been six months since he left, and not once had he ever even bothered to call. Jake had called, of course, but Puck? She hadn't heard a word from him since he left.

Sabrina felt this feeling in her gut, a feeling she knew far too well when concerned with Puck: anger. He hadn't bothered to call to even let her know he was safe, but now that she showed any sort of interest in a guy who actually liked her, he decided she was worth his time.

But it didn't matter—she didn't care about him at all. Definitely not. And even if she did (which she doesn't), she certainly wouldn't let herself pine over a guy who refused to care for her except for when he felt like it.

Despite the anger building up in her chest and the fact that she really just wanted to throw the letter out her window, she found herself conflicted. She wanted to be angry. Heck, she wanted to hate him. But she didn't think she could.

Although he annoyed her to an endless degree, tormented her with pranks, and insulted her on a daily basis, he had his sweet moments, and Sabrina hated to admit it—but they were friends. He had never underestimated her, and he always had her back. As wrong as it seemed, they worked well together, and she kind of missed him.

Sabrina set his letter down on her bed and sat down at her desk, grabbing a pencil and a piece of paper. She had no clue what she even wanted to say, but nevertheless, she started writing.

Puck,

I can't believe I finally heard from you. I thought, for sure, you'd been eaten by a dragon or something.

Just to be clear, we are never getting married. Also, my "date" tonight wasn't a date. And he's not my boyfriend. We just went to some dance at my middle school together. He was nicer than you, though.

I am actually glad to hear from you. Life's been kind of boring around here. I remember NYC being so much more exciting when I was younger.

I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for out there. Maybe then you could come back to Ferryport Landing and stay with Granny. She'd love it. Plus, you'd bring some sort of entertainment back into my life. I never thought I'd miss arguing with someone, but now my life is entirely too peaceful.

Not that I miss you or anything. Because I don't. But I wouldn't mind having something a little abnormal in my life again—that's all.

Bye, Stinkpot.

- Sabrina

Sabrina sighed. Now that she'd written the letter, she'd just realized that she had no clue where to send a letter. He said he was in a desert, but there are many deserts in the world. She had no clue if he was even on this continent or not.

All of a sudden, a thought popped into Sabrina's head that she would've wondered minutes ago, had she not been so distracted by the fact that Puck had finally contacted her.

If a letter he wrote to her was under her pillow, had he been here?

That's when Sabrina felt a draft of cool air coming from her window. It was cracked, just barely, as if someone had meant to close it but failed to latch it correctly.

She stood up and walked to her window, pressing it open farther until goosebumps covered her arms in reaction to the cool air. She looked up at the sky to make sure he wasn't flying above her, and then she looked around her windowsill and in her room, checking for anything—any sign of him.

But there was nothing that hadn't been there when she left earlier. Not a single thing. It was as if he was never there.

Sabrina was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions she didn't understand. She didn't know if she was sad, mad, or disappointed, and more than anything else, she was confused with herself because she thought she didn't care about him. But the torpedo of emotions hitting her chest seemed to be telling her otherwise.

She took the letter she wrote him and crumpled it in her hands, and then she threw it across the room, where it rolled underneath her dresser, and she wouldn't see it again for years. She crawled into her bed and covered herself with blankets, hoping sleep would find her soon.

As she was falling asleep, she thought she heard something, which would have alarmed her when she lived in Ferryport Landing. But now that her life was so inherently normal, she had no reason for alarm, and in her sleepy state, she pulled the blankets even farther over her head before drifting off to sleep.

If Sabrina had just lifted her head to see what the commotion was, she would have seen a certain pink-winged fairy at her window (which she had forgotten to close in her upset state), slowly closing it to ensure her a safe and restful sleep, before flying away, disappearing behind the clouds. But she didn't lift her head.

And the next morning, when she awoke and her bedroom window was closed, she assumed she had done so before she went to bed.

But Puck, who had made it halfway across the country by morning, was somewhere in a desert with Jake, and he spent most of his morning being visibly upset for what seemed to be no reason. In truth, though, Puck had hoped that when he closed Sabrina's window, she would have lifted her head to investigate the noise. And for some reason, it bothered him that she didn't.