A bit of a shorter chapter here, but I hope it's a good read all the same.

Chapter 3

Thinking Things Over

Later that day, after having returned from the beach trip, Freya went to her and Loki's room to think.

All the feelings she had felt, around Pandora specifically, they had to mean something, but she couldn't quite see what, not yet at least. Laying on the bed, she wracked her brain trying to piece it all together, hoping to see the larger picture, or at least a bigger part of it.

But try as she might, she remained none the wiser, the answer eluding her.

She thought about discussing it with her parents, but at the same time she didn't want to run to them with every little issue she might have. No, at least for now, she wanted to try and sort this out on her own first.

Well, maybe not entirely on her own.

For a few years now, she had been reading Teen Girl Magazine, a monthly magazine that targeted girls in their late pre teens and early teens, helping them through the various changes that they would go through, such as puberty and relations, while also including various other articles that might appeal to their intended audience.

At the moment, however, Freya focused on the readers' Q&A section, looking for any questions about similar feelings as she had had, though she also checked the index for any articles that might cover related subjects.

'Hopefully, this won't take too long.' she thought as she picked up the first magazine.

Hours soon passed, and Freya had more or less read every one of the magazines cover to cover, just to be on the safe side, and now had a lot to digest.

There had indeed been a lot of questions asked by other girls with questions about feelings very similar to what she was feeling, about other people around their own age, from what she could tell at least.

Still, the answers given were a bit on the vague side, aiming to guide the questioner in the right direction rather than mark a specific road for them to follow, as they were not always given all the details.

But it was still more than enough for Freya to come to a conclusion.

She was in love.

In love with Pandora.

She couldn't believe it, but the more she thought about it, the more she thought about Pandora, the more her stomach felt filled with butterflies, confirming her conclusion.

"Pandora… she was just so beautiful in that swimsuit…" she mused as she remembered the beach trip, her cheeks turning rosy at the thought. "Now that I think about it, she's really pretty all the time… has she always been that? How come I never noticed it before today?"

Getting up from bed, she started to pace back and forth in the room, thinking and muttering to herself.

"And what do I do about it? I guess I should tell her how I feel, that's what many of the magazines said, but how do I do that the best? I mean, just walking up to her and telling her that I love her, sure, it would be getting straight to the point, but… it just feels so… forced."

She stopped pacing and looked at her reflection in her full body mirror. She had a nervous expression on her face.

"Come on, girl, think! Pandora and the Hamato will only be here for a few more days, then who knows when we'll see each other again!"

Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to calm herself, to focus her thoughts, and avoid having them spiral into something that they weren't.

"No, gonna have to take it slow. I don't know for sure yet if I really am in love with Pandora. I need to think about this a bit, find a way to make sure this isn't just something I think is love."

Thinking and thinking, Freya's eyes wandered over her room, only to stop on her DVD collection.

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "I'll ask her to watch a movie with me! If I still feel the same as I did at the beach, the I have to be in love with her! And if that's the case, maybe I will even get a chance to tell her how I feel!"

With a plan of sorts in mind, Freya approached her movie collection and started looking through them, hoping to find one that they would both enjoy, and also be of a fitting theme.

Not the way I approached the issue of my first real crush, but I think she's handling it fairly well.
What about you?