There is a great and noticeable difference between joy and happiness. Joy is long-lasting, it's persevering, it's utter completeness. Happiness is fleeting, extinguishable, shifting. The thing to understand though, about happiness, is that, it's not a destination. Many live life in what one could call "checkpoints", but that is no way to live at all. Living exclusively for that next exciting thing is truly sad indeed. Just because one hasn't reached what they believe their pinnacle of joy is, doesn't mean that they can't have or even deserve a little bit of happiness in the meantime.

Eminent Evergreen Quandary, or Evergreen to his friends and family, who also happened to be a brilliant wizard in his own right, and his dad, Peter figured that they deserved a slight change of scenery, all things considered, if only for a week. It was the summer before Evergreen's eighth-grade year at Ilvermorny, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and they figured they would spend the last week of July down south in California. Evergreen hadn't been to Disney or Universal Studios before, nor had he taken a plane. So, when Dad did yet again another surprising thing and came home from work with tickets to some of southern California's biggest attractions, Evergreen was floored.

They got all packed in just a few hours and two days later, were approaching the gate to board the plane. Evergreen had only ever seen airplanes on TV and as small, flashing points in the sky, so he didn't know what to expect. The Portland International Airport was large, with the video store carpet they've had for all time, and with plenty of places to get lost. Dad never got lost, though; it was a gift he had, that he could easily find his way from anywhere to anywhere else. The robotic, feminine voice overhead let them know not to leave their bags unattended. Since the attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, airport security has quintupled, according to Dad. When he was a kid, traveling was simple. You get your bags scanned and then you get on your way. Removing his shoes and his belt and completely emptying his pockets felt like overkill for Evergreen. So it was.

"Okay, it looks like we made it in time," Dad said, as they stopped a few paces from their gate in Concourse C.

"The plane doesn't even leave for another hour," Evergreen replied with a yawn. Waking up at 4 A.M. for a 6 A.M. flight also felt like overkill to him.

"It's better to play on the safer side of things, Evergreen." Said Seta, Evergreen's familiar and bunny companion.

There was some conversation that was had regarding Seta and this trip. Because Seta wasn't a dog, he couldn't be considered a 'service animal' and for that reason, he would need to fly with the other animals in cargo. He merely twirled one of his whiskers and assured the Quandarys that no such thing would be necessary. "You forget how much No-Majes miss," he had said. And so it was, during their passage through security, no one spared Seta so much as a single glance, which Evergreen found so interesting. The thing with people who didn't have a belief in magic was that if magic was staring them in the face, they would probably look straight through it.

The previous year was a whirlwind of some interesting drama and plenty of curious magic as well. Ilvermorny school was threatened by earthquakes that turned out to be the result of what was called a 'curse nebula' which was a blob of chaos magic that was unstable at best. With a few of his closest friends aiding him, Evergreen managed to destroy it that previous winter. Plus, he and his friends entered what was called "The Land of the Banished" which Evergreen had heard of and seen in visions he had, to save Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Tempest Woods from the horrors within. Professor Woods' true love and colleague, Miss Agatha Shadowmend, who taught history and was a vampire, had to turn her into a vampire as well to save her. Evergreen and his friends also met a Scarecrow, Fiyero, a Tin Man, Boq, and a Lion, Brr, who were good friends of Beatrice Gale-Larson's mom, Dorothy, and Evergreen's mom, Glinda. They had been planning to storm the castle that Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West lived in to get some answers and to hopefully rescue Mom in the process. Until then, Evergreen and Dad lived their lives, waiting to hear from their Ozian friends.

In all honesty, after what happened that winter, Evergreen had some trouble sleeping. He would lay awake every night hearing the screams and seeing the faces of the dwarf cannibals that he and his friends defended themselves against. He had never taken the life of something larger than a beetle until that fateful day. He found it quite difficult to come to terms with. So, to try and combat his remorse, he would lay awake, pretending to sleep, for Seta's benefit, and just listen to music through Pandora radio on his iPod touch. It worked at home, but only sometimes worked at school, so at school, he would just keep himself occupied by listing out facts in his mind about potions, dates of important events, and spells he was working on. If he couldn't sleep, he could always review, after all.

"So, should we get something to eat, cuz we got the time," Dad said, interrupting Evergreen's internal monologue.

"Yeah. Wanna get an English muffin with egg and orange juice?" Evergreen asked, righting his black and red carry-on bag.

"I guess so. The pickup window is literally right there." Dad replied, pointing toward a pair of yellow arches where a few other travelers were gathered.

"I don't know how you two manage to eat that sort of thing. It's ghastly." Seta quipped as he bristled his whiskers.

"It's a southern thing, I think." Dad replied with a laugh, "Quandary men fear no plate."

Dad and Evergreen shared a laugh at this while Seta shook his head. Sure, Evergreen knew that the greasy sandwich was one of the worst things he could put in his body, but he couldn't deny that there was something morbidly satisfying about eating it. A little after that, they all enjoyed a spot of breakfast, including Seta, who had picked up some local hay the previous day to enchant with his dietary potion on the go.

Once they got to their gate, Evergreen felt weird about Seta getting to go on the plane. What if someone sees him and doesn't let him on? What if he gets found out with all of these No-Majes around? Well, only one way to find out.

"Boarding pass?" asked the pretty lady at the gate dressed in black and red.

"Yes ma'am," Evergreen replied, handing over the ticket. He briefly glanced at Seta, who was seated on his carry-on, up against the handle.

"Have a nice flight!" she said, scanning his ticket, returning it, and also glancing briefly at Evergreen's carry-on. She said nothing further to him.

"What did I tell you?" Seta laughed.

Upon entering the plane, Evergreen and Dad were ushered forward by a man out within the ramp area wearing a reflective vest and a man with a black hat, and a woman wearing a cravat at the door of the plane. The pilot and a flight attendant, Evergreen guessed. The cockpit door was open, and Evergreen glanced through the opening at a massive window, and hundreds of little buttons, levers, and screens all lit up in one way or another. That's cool.

There were maybe 30 rows of seats all the way to the back. Each row had four seats, separated into pairs by the aisle. Dad had bought seats together, of course. They were about three-quarters of the way back and took their seats at 19 A and B, respectively. It took a while to get there though, because the flight was full. Dad picked up their carry-ons and put them up in the overhead compartments and then they sat down. They moved the armrest between them upward so Seta could take a seat between them.

When they took off, Evergreen looked in awe out of the window and watched and felt as they climbed thousands of feet in minutes. His ears popped a little bit, but not in a painful way, more of a surprising way. That is if he wasn't anticipating it, which he was. At some point, a few flight attendants came around and gave them something to drink and a little salty snack. Evergreen wasn't very hungry at that point, so he figured that he would just pocket the pretzels for a later time. Dad fell asleep during the flight, but Evergreen was pretty wired. He and Seta spent most of the time just talking quietly.

California was just as magical as Evergreen expected. Once they landed and got out into the open air, Evergreen noticed that the heat was different. It felt heavier than it did in Oregon. Plus, each street was lined with palm trees and most of the homes had flat roofs and had what Evergreen understood to be a Latin influence in their design. It made sense because he did notice more Latino people than they had back home. He felt like for every Caucasian there was at least one Latino. Considering how many restaurants near the airport had Hispanic/ Aztec cuisines, it made a lot of sense. Speaking of, it was about 9:00 and Evergreen was hungry again. I would literally kill for a breakfast burrito right about now.

So, at Evergreen's suggestion, after they took the shuttle toward the rental car place and got in their rental car, they started on their way to one of those restaurants. Evergreen ordered a breakfast burrito about the size of his head with hashbrowns, cheese, egg, sausage, and every color of bell pepper imaginable. Dad ate similarly, but with avocado for who knows why. Evergreen never enjoyed avocado. As far as he was concerned, it was a gritty cream-berry and that was one of the worst oxymorons he could think about.

They ended up going from the restaurant straight to Santa Monica Beach. Obviously, Evergreen had never been, but the chance to go to a fair-like thing was amazing. The Ferris wheel, the roller coaster, and the drop tower there at the Pacific Park were the perfect precursor to a week between Universal and Disney. They spent some of the afternoon there on the beach, just watching the waves and some of the people go about their thing. The three of them chatted idly, occasionally sharing a laugh, and then made their way back to the parking lot to drive off toward their hotel room.

The H3, or the Hollywood Hites Hotel, was conveniently located right smack dab between the parks just shy of the California State University campus. Evergreen was surprised at the traffic. He thought growing up near Portland gave him a taste of all the terrible traffic, but he was wrong indeed. During the lunch rush hour, the freeways were gridlocked and that was odd indeed. He and Dad could have legitimately got out of their rental and played some catch there down the interstate. Dad, in a rare moment of personal preservation, decided that they would leave the beach when the lunch rush ended, so that got them to the H3 by around 3PM, which gave them plenty of time for their 4PM check-in.

The hotel itself was modern style and blockish. There was glass everywhere and the colors were white and blue, which Evergreen found so pleasing for some reason. There were dozens of stories and the backdrop was some of the only mountains in the area. Well, if one could call them mountains. In Oregon, the mountains were tens of thousands of feet tall. These were maybe 1000 feet up. The effect was still quite nice though, the stark white building against the blacks, browns, and reds of the hilly area.

"Checking in?" asked a Latino man at the front wearing black slacks and what looked kind of like a red Hawaiian shirt.

"You bet we are, Luis," Dad replied, quickly reading the man's nametag.

"So, two for—"

"Quandary." Dad finished, slightly cutting off Luis.

"Okie dokie," Luis said, looking at a large computer monitor. "Two for Quandary. Room E7." Luis finished, handing over two key cards to the Quandarys.

"Thanks, Luis. Okay E.E., let's drop our stuff." Dad said, pulling all of their luggage toward the elevators.

Once they got to the fifth floor, the E floor, they quickly found their room off to the left. The room was big enough for the three of them, with two beds, a small dining area, and a small kitchenette. Just like the outside of the hotel, the room was also of that same basically modern style. Evergreen pretty much leaped over Dad, landing on a bed and sending Seta flying. The bunny did quickly right himself in midair though, and alighted gently on the bed next to the young wizard. How he managed to do that would forever remain a mystery to Evergreen. It was part of the little guy's magic no doubt. He sure did love that little bunny soldier, though, he considered as they shared a laugh.