After two years of freedom; lived and gained through obtaining a new name, a new life, a new vision of herself that Amelia portrayed both internally and externally, Emma returned to her on a cool October night when the summer had begun to enter the final phase of its dying; the leaves had began to turn and clutter her yard as the thoughts would come to clutter her life fallowing Emma's return.

That night, Amelia was distraught at the coming of winter and the growing grip that autumn had around her sanity; the savoir of spring would not arrive for at least half a year and she would have to wait quietly until then, wait for Zinnia to return from South America, where she lived in the winters. This left her alone with thoughts of Emma.

She supposed that she was lucky, at least vaguely. Since Emma had gone, she had been feeling at least partially better, almost like she did when she was six and seven and not like when she was eight and nine, ten and eleven, twelve and thirteen; when Emma had come to take away the rest of her childhood and worsen the pain of puberty.

Of course, those years weren't completely terrible, they did bring with them the arrival of Zinnia, who both she and Emma took to as a friend. On the day that Zinnia arrived, which was a day in late April when they were eleven, she had carried with her an exotic sense and a scent of strawberries in her hair, which resembled dark chocolate and was always perfectly straight, even - as Amelia could imagine - while it flowed in the warm, Hawaiian breeze.

Amelia's hair, on the contrary, had always been curled, wavy mess, and people always told her that she had been born in the wrong decade because she would have made a fantastic 80's girl. She'd like to take a time machine and travel back to her parents' adolescence, and then she wouldn't have the most troubled hair there.

On that night, her hair did not appear so distraught as she was. It had been washed, combed, and straightened, and as she looked into a mirror she felt worse, she resembled herself at a younger age whenever she would groom her hair. She looked away from her mirror and when she looked back, she saw that there was another girl with her reflected in it.

"Hi!" Emma said, carrying a scent of snow and frost with her into Amelia's bedroom, though it was still a bit too early for it. Emma ran to hug her and Amelia smiled into the hug, appearing happy to see her.

"Sorry," said Emma, passively as she flopped onto Amelia's bed and fiddled with her light brown hair, "I knocked but no one answered, so I just let myself in, knew you wouldn't mind."

That night, Amelia allowed Emma to spend the night with her, and in the morning, they went to school and talked about dishwashers, the twins, and the whether. They did this until the fallowing April until Emma left and returned to the U.S, where she would live until next winter when she would come again, and they would talk about dishwashers, the twins, and the whether.

In late April, Zinnia came to live with her aunt for a while, as she did every year, and on the first day she decided to visit Amelia and spend the night with her. At Zinnia's knock, Amelia went to answer the door, happy to see her.

"Hi!" Amelia said, opening her arms to hug her, and she did. Zinnia removed her flip-flops, though it wasn't quite the whether for them yet, and then they went into the living room to talk.

"I was really happy to hear that you were coming back again this year," said Amelia, sipping at her lemonade as she sat across from her friend. To her surprise, Zinnia hadn't yet touched hers. "I don't really like being left alone with Emma when you're gone. I don't have too many friends, you know…"

Zinnia looked to her lemonade glass, as if to study it, but still did not touch it. She then looked to Amelia, gave her a small smile, and asked, "Emma? Who's that?"