We flew out the doors of where my competition had just been held. I rubbed Anne's hand beneath my thumb as we walked through the sidewalks of LA. I never thought this would happen so quickly, Being honest nothing really changed from our usual dynamic, but now we just, you know, kiss. I've never been this excited to get ice cream before, I might even try bubblegum or coffee (Anne's second favorite flavor) even though the thought of it literally makes me gag. We walked quietly and peacefully, Anne always made me feel comfortable.

I kept walking as I felt Anne's hand tug me back. I realized I had walked right past the ice cream place and Anne laughed about it, I smiled and opened the door for her. The ice cream place was cold and had the signature floor cleaner smell mixed with the different flavors of ice cream the place had. Their were paintings of cats on the wall and Anne was the first one to point that out.

"Look Sash!" Anne said excitedly

I smiled "Aw that one looks like Domino."

Anne quickly took a picture on her phone and we ordered our flavors. They were out of bubblegum (Thank god) so Anne got coffee instead. After getting my mint chocolate chip scoop I sat by Anne in a booth. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little awkward for a second. It made me realize how childish this all really was. I mean we randomly kissed at my cheer competition and suddenly we're dating. I'm definitely not complaining but we were going to need to work on our dynamic if this was going to work. I looked over at Anne and her eyes met with mine. I quickly stared back at the table, this was unusual for me I've never been nervous to talk to someone before.

"Want to try my ice cream?" Anne asked

"Oh Um, sure" I replied looking up

Anne gave me her ice cream cone and I tried a little of it. I wasn't the biggest fan of coffee, but it really wasn't that bad. I faked a smile and I think Anne could tell because she began to laugh again.

"What it's good?" I asked trying to hold back a smile

Anne giggled "The pain in your eyes says otherwise."

"Here try mine" I said passing her my cone

Anne took a lick "Yup that's tooth paste."

"You just can't appreciate art" I said in a sassy tone

Anne teased "I guess that's why I'm dating you then."

"Low blow Boonchuy" I said nudging her

The awkward silence slowly creeped back in as our laughter subsided, out of fear I brought up a random topic.

"So do you still sword fight?" I mentally faced palmed after I asked that question, of course Anne doesn't sword fight.

Anne stared at me blankly "Okay this is embarrassing, but I've actually practiced in my room with one of my Moms mops."

I snorted out a laugh  "a mop?"

"We'll duh, it's not the easiest thing to get actually swords in LA." Anne said

I finished my laughter "I guess, I kind of smuggled the ones from Amphibia here."

"Yeah I saw them in your room, at the time I thought you were insane." Anne replied

I smirked "What makes you think I'm not now?"

Anne smiled back "Never said you weren't"

The silence came back again but it wasn't awkward, it was similar to the tension in the bathroom. I got up making the table squeak, and the chair fly back from my speed.

"Wanna be a little slower there?" Anne said standing up

"Sorry" I said blushing

I thought back to Marcy, we really didn't have that much time left with her. I stopped in my tracks causing Anne to stop too.

Anne stood beside me "What's the hold up?"

"I feel like we should help Marcy pack or something." I replied

Anne thought for a moment "That's a good idea"

I opened my texts with Marcy upon Anne's approval. I skimmed through my messages until I got to the bottom.

Mar Mar❤️

Sashimi💖: Hey Marbles want some help moving?

Seconds later Marcy responded

Mar Mar❤️: That would be awesome if you don't mind!

Sashimi💖: Cool we'll be right over 👌

Mar Mar❤️: Oh is Anne coming?

Sashimi💖: Yeah, we're also bringing you ice cream

Mar Mar❤️: YESSS 😎😎

Anne and I went back inside to get Marcy's favorite flavor which was also mint chocolate chip (a woman of taste.) It was a windy day so we wouldn't have to worry about the ice cream melting right away so we took our time getting to Marcy's house. Once we rang the doorbell Marcy's mom greeted us. She was proper, but always made you feel welcome. You could tell Marcy took after her Mom more for her looks, and more of her Dads personality. Once we made it to Marcy's room we both sprawled out on her bed.

"Get your lazy butts over here." Marcy said while spooning down her ice cream.

"We just walked 4 miles for you." Anne groaned while getting off the bed.

Marcy threw a huge ball of clothes at Anne to start sorting. I asked to borrow Marcy's gray sweatpants and a shirt so I wouldn't have to wear my cheer uniform while I wrapped Marcy's figurines. As we kept getting deeper into Marcy's closet more memories began to appear. We found a drawing book we had made in fourth grade together and man were my drawings atrocious. We all couldn't stop laughing at the quality difference between Marcy and I's artistic abilities. As we found more as we dug through piles of books I got this bitter-sweet feeling. Marcy was moving for real, and at this point I almost preferred being trapped in Amphibia to her leaving. I'd never say that though because I know Marcy still feels terrible about everything that happened. I think we all really grew from Amphibia, but we still have loads to learn.

The last box in Marcy's closet was the box with everything from Amphibia she took home. It had her journal, outfit, boots, arrow launcher thing, and her wilted flower crown. Anne brought up how we both kept our weapons and how crazy we were for doing that, I guess we could get in trouble with Mr. X if he were to find out but I didn't really think much of it since he had seemed to back off for the last few months. The flowers still smelled like Amphibia, like fresh rain mixed with the smell of slime (it's indescribable much like most of amphibia.) Marcy closed the box and decided she would carry it with her to her new house. We tucked it behind her bed frame so it wouldn't be taken by the movers accidentally.

Marcys Mom called us over to help pack up dishes. Anne kept dancing with the plates making me have a heart attack while Marcy laughed. Anne suddenly threw me two soup spoons and positioned herself like she was about to fight. I looked confused for a second until she charged towards me. I quickly blocked her, and I could tell she was just joking around. We both slid across Marcy's kitchen floor as we play sword fought. Eventually I surrendered and Anne jumped up in victory, I couldn't help but smile at how excited she was over something stupid like that. Marcy cheered and rewarded Anne by serving what Marcy told me was Douhua (Taiwanese tofu pudding.) I also got some too with enough begging and we sat on Marcy's bed to rest for a minute. Without warning Marcy threw a book at me, and by the color I instantly knew what it was. The god forsaken book was the book of losers, I opened it and saw Anne and Marcy's signatures all over the pages. I laughed to myself at how dumb this book was, I couldn't believe this was my idea. I flipped to the last written on page and it was signed Sprig and below that was polly.

"When did you guys do this?" I asked both of them

Marcy nervously talked "Oh sorry Sash that was before we made up, the Plantars stayed in Newtopia for a while."

"Yeah that night was crazy." Anne replied

"You guys are weird" I said closing the book

"What did you do for those few months anyway?" Anne made the mistake of asking

A five second long questions quickly turned into an hour of conversation. It started with me showing the scar I got from getting Grimes hammer, and it escalated from there. Marcy naturally wanted to know everything so she would point to a scar and I'd explain it. Eventually I ran out of scars to explain so I asked them about what they did. Turns out Anne and Marcy both had gotten scars as well. Most of Anne's were from bug attacks and crazy stories with a bunch of danger involved. Of course, Marcy's were mostly from her own clumsiness. I laughed at every scar Marcy explained. How could someone get a scar from playing flip-wart?

The evening sun began to fall and Marcy's window casted a golden hue into her room. It made Anne's curls look like they were a light brown and I stared at her for a moment until she caught me and stuck her tongue out. I apologized to Marcy for talking for so long instead of helping pack and she said she'd much rather have memories like that rather than organizing forks. I agreed and thought it would be time for Anne and I to walk to our houses together.

Both Marcy's parents had left to run errands a few hours back so it was just Marcy waving us goodbye as we walked down the sidewalk. I loved the evenings even though it was getting colder. Luckily I didn't have my legs exposed anymore so I wasn't really getting cold, Anne on the other hand looked blue. Without a word I took her ice cold hands and held one in my pant pocket. Her face looked over to mine and I kissed her forehead lightly. I don't know what had gotten into me but I just wanted to take care of her in that moment. Anne blushed making her warm again which meant my plan had worked.

********************************************

Being at School with Anne is a whole different experience than what it used to be. I used to desperately grasp anytime I had with her, but now I don't even have to check and I know she'll be beside me. PE was a blast, but we had one of those randomly assigned assignments that you get in PE sometimes to make sure we'd have enough points for it to count as a class. It was a slideshow project about why physical health is important, and I practically just typed a bunch of BS that I know my teacher would want to hear. Anne of course took it as an opportunity to make something funny, her whole slideshow had random images pop on screen and I couldn't stop laughing. We had always been the two in class that laughed at everything and I guess that hadn't changed even though we're dating.

We weren't really screaming out to the world "Hey we're girlfriends!" But we never really stopped ourselves from holding hands or I guess PDA, our teachers didn't really care because that kind of thing was normalized with bffs. We didn't ever kiss in school though, because we still hadn't told Marcy yet, and I was kind of dreading doing so. It's not like I think she'd be weird about it, but I just felt like it would be a betrayal I guess. It's hard to explain but it sucks when you have a three person friend group and two of them start dating, ultimately I just don't want her to think she's a third wheel or something. On another note, cheerleading has been awesome, and I've had more opportunities to watch Anne at practice and I have to admit it's more of a selfish thing because who doesn't want to watch their girlfriend play tennis.

It's kind of nerve racking being together especially in public. You never know who's watching and we've definitely got some weird looks before when we've made it too obvious. It doesn't really upset me though, and Anne doesn't seem to care either. I know she's gone through this crap before, and I'm glad we're in it together this time. I've thought about my Mom finding us in my room multiple times and to be honest I don't know how she'd react, maybe it depends on how much alcohol she's had. About that, I do have good news. My Mom recently got a huge raise and we can actually afford to keep the house. I immediately called Anne and Marcy after I heard and we all squealed together. I wish it would've turned out like that for Marcy, but everyday she gets closer to moving. Because of this Anne and I visit her anytime we can, I start to get teary eyed when I think of her leaving now. It's hard to believe this is actually our reality.

I want to cherish the few months left we have of school, I know everything is going to change once Marcy leaves and it scares me. I know I'll have to make more friends eventually, Anne being my girlfriend and only friend doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but at the same time that seems impossible after what we three went through. I feel like Amphibia is so buried deep within me that it's always going to be apart of me no matter what. And with the dreams I've been having it seems impossible to try and change that. With every dream I can't shake the feeling it's connected with Anne somehow. It's always Anne, and never Marcy and I don't understand why. I mean yeah she's my girlfriend but I feel like I should be dreaming about Marcy too because I see her just as much as Anne if not more. And another thing, our calamity powers I've noticed are related somehow.

I haven't told Anne about the dreams yet, but I feel like I should soon if this keeps happening. Amphibia is crazy and I guess I shouldn't have expected nothing to happen after we arrived back on earth. Even though my other dreams have happened less frequently they still happen. I'll still have moments throughout the week where I'll get that tense feeling in my chest and I'll need to sit down for a moment. They never happen around Anne which I'm thankful for, but I know even if they did Anne doesn't mind seeing my weakness and I've learned to be open around her even when I feel vulnerable.

So here I am now, with scissors beside my hand with half of my hair tied up. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but I was always scared too. I think the past few months have taught me to live in the moment, and you know what, frick it let's chop off my hair. I feared my Mom for a split second but then remembered she probably wouldn't even notice a difference, the one benefit to her drinking problem. I closed my eyes (huge mistake) and chopped off the first layer of hair. When I hesitantly opened my eyes I saw I had cut to the nape of my neck. Well, I had planned to have a shoulder length hair cut but this would work too I guess. I smiled and continued butchering my hair until the top layer was just above my ear. I looked really different, and in a way I liked that. I hadn't thought of it before I did this but what would Anne think? My eyes grew wide as I opened up my phone to call her, she immediately answered.

"Hey Sa..."

"ANNE" I yelled

"What?" Anne said alarmed

I swallowed "I'm sorry I completely didn't think of this before I did it, but how do you feel about a pixie cut."

Anne was silent for a moment while my heart raced.

"Sasha... did you actually?" Anne asked

"Um, yes" I whispered

"I'm just trying to imagine you with a pixie cut, I can't." Anne said

I turned my video on, "Here just look,"

Anne was silent again

Anne sighed "I'm breaking up with you"

"WHAT?!" I screamed dropping my phone

Anne giggled "I'm totally kidding I love it, I wanna see it in person."

I sighed in relief "Are you sure? I'm usually more girly." I said as I picked up my phone

"Yeah it actually suits you really well you look so cute." Anne said turning on her camera

"Thanks, I didn't mean to cut it this short but I closed my eyes when I did it." I replied

Anne laughed again "you're such a dork"

I smirked while fixing my hair "Yeah okay Ms. Suspicion island super fan."

Anne and I didn't end up getting off the phone until later that night. Most of the time it was just us flirting and we ended up watching a scary movie together. I loved it but Anne was horrified and she kept saying she wished I were there. It never failed to make me laugh, and at the end she immediately turned her lights back on. I heard Mrs. Boonchuy call Anne down for dinner so I told her I'd get off the phone. Once she hung up I sent a picture to Marcy and she approved, she said we were twins now even though Marcy had been growing her hair out. I went to bed happy, like I did most nights now that I was dating Anne. Everyday brought something new and my life started to feel somewhat normal again.

A/N
Hello! I said in my last authors note that updates would be every weekend but realistically for me currently I just don't have time for that, or the organization. I noticed if I try and rush myself I end up making chapters I don't really like, and I'd much prefer to have quality over quantity. Anyway, thank you for all of the comments and reads it seriously means the world. Thank you so much! (Updates will still be frequent, just a little more spaced out.)

-LavenderScentedHomo