“Hi Jua.” I answered. It was good to see her again.
“I see you're not alone. That the boy you’re bringin’ to the Bright Day after-party?” Jua lowed between munching.
“Fog!? No!” I felt myself go sweaty.
Fog immediately turned to me. “What did she say!?”
“She just asked me if you were my Bright Day after-party date. Which, I told her you weren’t.”
“There’s gonna be an after party?” Fog asked, surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, it isn’t going to be today. The Bright Day after party is just a get together of teens from near and far to celebrate the holiday. They’ll be music and a movie, and the BEST slushies in the metropolis. But that’s all tomorrow. Most people are bringing a date.” I informed him.
“Are you bringing a date?” Fog asked me.
“No. I can’t find anyone to go with me. But I’m just fine going alone.” both lies. I had waited for some boys to ask me to go but none did. Uh! I badly wanted to go with a boy, but I noticed I didn’t really have any crushes on any boys at my school at the moment. None of them seemed to intrigue me. What could I do?
“Where’s that party being held?” Fog asked me.
“Oh, at the edge of town near and at the beach. Why do you wanna know, you can’t go or anything.” I said meanly. I felt bad about saying that so hostile, so I followed up with, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound unpleasant, it’s just-”
“I get it.” Fog burst in. “I’m just asking as many questions as I can to absorb this place. “I’ve never been to Sun country, and I’ll probably never get to come back, but at least I can enjoy it now, hearing about traditions, and feeling the weather, finding out what teenagers do to have fun around here, you know, feeling what it’s like to be a local.” he smiled at me, then turned back to the cow field. I’ve seen that look on my father before. Fog was lost in thought.
“I wish you could come often too, there’s so much to show you in what feels like so little time.” I told him.
Instead of despaired, Fog seemed to look hopeful. “My father always said that a king should make the world better for those who come after him. Maybe, when I’m officially king, I’ll make peace treaty between Sun and Moon country, so that my kids can travel to Sun country whenever they want.”
“Fat chance Sun country will agree to that.” I couldn’t help but say.
The thought was sweet, but it seemed impossible to imagine peace between our countries when one thought the other a barbaric terrorist and the other thought the former were dysformed tech-zombies.
It got silent between us, then I heard some grass being crushed beneath someone’s feet.
I turned my head almost completely backwards to see someone very familiar walking through these fields.Where was she going all alone? I didn’t know her ‘walk’ involved heading into the cow fields. I may have let this mystery slide yesterday but that wasn’t happening today.
“Duck!” I told Fog, and he obeyed.
We turned to see her walk past us.
“Isn’t that your sister Sunny?” Fog whispered.
“Yes. What she’s doing here, I don’t know. I’m sorry to ditch you like this, but I have to follow her.” I felt guilty. I didn’t wanna leave Fog all alone, but I had to find out where my sister was escaping to these days. “You can explore more of the city on your own if you like. Just keep a low profile and no one will notice you. Bright-Day is filled with tourists so you’ll be hidden in your surroundings like a chameleon.”
“No way.” Fog said quickly after. “If you’re going after your sister, I’m coming too. Sounds like fun.”
I smiled, despite me thinking against him coming. After all, this was his first and last day in Sun country. “You’re sure you wanna come?”
“Of course. You’re my friend, Mist.”
For some reason, that warmed my heart.
Fog started to go after Sunny, but I put a hand in front of him. “Wait. let's let her get some distance away from us, then she won't hear us trailing after her in the grass.”
“What if she gets away while we’re waiting?”
“She won’t. It’s an open field, Fog. We're going to see her. If she turns around or something.”
“Oh,” Fog said, embarrassed, and we waited. Once Sunny got as far as I would allow, I started after her.
We stayed following her for a few minutes. I tried to match my footsteps with Sunny’s so that if I was making noise following her, it would be muffled by her own footsteps. I saw Sunny about to turn around, her lively green eyes already looking in my direction. I pushed me and Fog down into the grass. Good thing this grass was tall or she would have seen us laying on the ground. Fog, as if he could read my mind, knew why I did what I did and stayed quiet. I could almost feel Sunny’s piercing glare looking for something that could be following her.
Then, I heard her turn back around. Fog tapped me and made a walking motion with his hands. I already understood. We got back to moving. I was back into my she-step-I-step groove when she turned around again. I didn’t have to pull Fog down this time. He knew the drill.
It was a bit longer this time before Sunny turned back to her path. We followed her some more, then she turned again. Before I ducked I saw her face filled with anger. This was a surprise.
“To whoever's following me, I have a crossbow made of pure permanent ice, so stay back!” she yelled.
What!? She doesn't have that! I thought, but then I thought harder. Maybe she’s just fibbing so that if there really was a stalker, she might scare them. Aw, my poor, little sister. She thinks she’s really being stalked by some creep! I feel so guilty. I thought.
But then I heard her start running.
I quickly got up to see her get to a flower with a silver bud, grasp it, and pull it. As she pulled on the flower bud, a magical door opened. A square formed out of nowhere and inside of it was pitch black. I couldn’t believe it. It was like she reached out into the air and pulled on reality, because the edges of the door lined up exactly with the sky and filed, that is to say there was no outline on it. The only giveaway that something was not right was that the flower bud/doorknob was silver, and perfectly round.
“Hey! Wait!” I called after Sunny, (I didn’t care if I gave myself away at this point,) but she still ran inside that mysterious door. It was slowly closing.
Fog quickly stood up with me and we ran to the door, but it closed on us before we could get to it.
My heart started racing, “Oh, no! We lost her!” I yelled aloud, my worry shaking my voice up.
Agh! I hated showing my panicky spirit in front of Fog, but he didn’t seem annoyed by it at all.
“It’s okay, the doorknob is still here, so we can still catch up with her,” said Fog.
Fog was trying to reassure me, and I’m glad he said it. I needed to calm down. I stopped and studied the doorknob. It was shiny, way too shiny to be a plain old flower bud (I should have knew this!) but it had stupid uneven three-quarter circles drawn on it in paint to fool people into thinking it was a normal flower. That might trick someone from afar, but it wasn't fooling me anymore.
I turned the knob and was met with complete darkness. It was a small, completely black hallway. I couldn’t tell where the hall ended. I turned to Fog, speechless.
“Well, I guess we should head in.” Was all he said.
“But it’s pitch black in there!”
“Well, your younger sister went through. We came this far, Mist. It’s too late to turn back. don’t you wanna see where Sunny went?” Fog asked me.
“Yes, but…”
It got quiet for a few seconds.
“We’re wasting time, she could be long gone. Here, I’ll go first.” Fog reached for the door handle.
“No! fine, I’ll go first!” I bluterted. As much as I didn’t wanna go first, I really didn’t wanna get accidentally left behind in a dark corridor. I pulled the door open as wide as it could go and walked in. Fog came in behind me. As soon as the door closed I felt something on me.