#best school sherwood park

[michellemisfit]

Tag Game Tuesday

Thanks for the game @celestialmickey and for the tag @deedala, @suzy-queued, @creepkinginc, @energievie <3

name: Michelle (Mys for short)

age: 38

pronouns: she/her

when is your birthday? 1st of March

where’s home? Where the heart Ruth is

do you have any pets? Two cats. Much livestock.

current favorite musical artist: Death Cab for Cutie

what do you do for work? Livestock Worker. Event Supervisor. Podcaster. Park Ranger.

if you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? Dominic Sherwood and Luke Baines. Pub lunch. Lots of beer and cider. I think we’d have a laugh!

what are you wearing right now? PJs and no fuzzy socks 😭😭😭

you’re going back to school, what’s your major? Art. I would love to actually learn technique and how to use various materials and tools properly. Rather than just making stuff up and watching YouTube videos and hoping for the best.

last fanfic or book you read: I’m up to 359 open tabs and I’ve not read fic in about a week. Wtf am I doing with my life??

and finally, share a happy memory with me:

Tagging @lingy910y @lynne-monstr @faejilly @juliakayyy @allmyfantasiesarethirdperson @rereadanon @too-schoolforcool @tsuga-of-mars @thepupperino @captainjowl @mishervellous @malec-crazed-author

[blueikeproductions]

Kurt Kelly is getting dressed after practice and a shower, wearing a tight fitting suit that just barely fits him. Being freakishly tall and an amateur teen bodybuilder in a town without a Big & Tall section doesn’t leave the guy with a lot of options. The bulky Thrash, walking by with just a towel around his waist heading towards the shower, takes notice of Kurt trying to remember how to tie his tie.

Thrash: Yo Kelly, who died this time? Heheh.

Ram and Throttle, also heading towards the shower, both whack him upside the head in annoyance.

Throttle: Idiot. Ram: Shithead.

Thrash: Ooooowwww, what’d I say? Kids have been dropping left and right lately, y’know! Specs and Chandler! It’s an honest question, isn’t it?!

Ram: You forgot what today is, didn’t you, Thrash…?

Thrash: What, his birthday? I dunno…??!

Kurt gave up on his tie and put on a Grayskull themed bolo tie instead: There we go! Feels more me…! -looks at his watch- Ah shit, I gotta go…! -jogs out the door-

Ram: -sighs wearily and leaves a confused Thrash-

-In the hallway, Veronica, Braverman, Jamie, Tracey and Martha are talking amongst themselves. Betty Finn, having started to assimilate into the Heathers with the void left by Red is eavesdropping while talking to Green and Gold about upcoming lunch time polls.-

-Kurt jogs by and crashes into Braverman and Jamie, all three boys tumbling over each other.-

Kurt: Aw shit! Jamie: My leg! Braverman: My scapula!

Veronica: Whoa! Whoa, where’s the fire, Kurt?

Tracey: Late for a hot date as usual, I’m sure. -adjusts her cigarette in her lips, trying to untangle the heap of boys laying before her, with Martha helping-

Kurt: Sorry, sorry…! -still tangled up with Braverman as Jamie got free first, so the two boys are slightly blushing, and semi aroused…- Practice ran longer than I thought and I’m late for a family thing…! Braverman: -still blushing-…W-wow, you clean up nicely, Kurt…! (Kurt: Aw, thanks, Dan-O!) Uh I mean, w-what-what’s going on? Cousin getting married? -is freed by Martha, allowing Kurt to stand up-

Kurt: Uh not exactly… -starts jogging in place- It’s the anniversary of my mom and big sister’s … death.

Martha: Oh that’s right…! That horrible plane crash….

Tracey: It’s the reason I refuse to step on a plane.

Jamie: Aw dude…

Veronica: …Oooff, I forgot about that. I convinced myself your dad was just divorced…

Braverman: I didn’t know you had a sister. Kurt: Yeah… My dearly departed big sister Kelly…! She died when I was six…

Veronica: …Wait, your sister’s name was Kelly?

Kurt: What’s wrong with that?

Braverman: Her full name is Kelly Kelly…?

Kurt: So? She’s named after my grandmo-OOOOOH, I hear it now.

Jamie: That’s like if Peter Parker was named Peter Peterson.

Kurt: -still jogging in place, starting to leave- Anyway my old man, the sap that he is, likes to throw a memorial party since my ma and sis were the social butterflies in their day, and Dad thought it best that’s how they’d want to be remembered with an event at the Sherwood Park. Anyhoo I gotta split…

Veronica: Wait how are you going to get to the park? You took the school bus this morning.

Kurt: -stops- Shit! Right. Dad took the truck. Ummmm… BRAVERMAN! You have a car! Kinda!

Braverman: I do…!

Kurt: You bet your cute ass you do! You can take me there! …Hey why don’t you all come? Ma and Kelly were always big on friends and family being together!

Martha: …We’re friends…?

Kurt: Why not? Me and Ram have been getting back on board with Team Ronnie lately since we started being bros with Dan-O. -gives Braverman a playful noogie-

Braverman: He’s right…!

Betty: -still eavesdropping, frowns at this mixing of cliques. Sure there was a bending of the status quo with Veronica during Red Heather’s rule, but that was the exception not the rule. Ever since Braverman and JD moved into town, the school has started to break down its conformity more and more, and it’s been stressing her poor new leader Heather Duke out. Perhaps, Betty thinks, it’s about time to be doing something about these independent thinkers…-

Veronica: -half smiles, her desire to see classmates return to their kinder selves is slowly coming true- Ok, sure. We’d be happy to come.

Martha: Totally!

Jamie: Uh sure!

Tracey: I got nothing else going on.

Braverman: Haha, it’s a date then.

Kurt: Hey what about Po Diddly? He’s usually attached to your hip.

Braverman: Oh Jason’s doing something with his dad the rest of the day. I pray he’ll be safe with that dragon… Anyhoo, let’s get going. Autobots, Roll Out!

-They assemble out into the student parking lot and pile into Braverman’s VW bug, and take off down the road-

-JD meanwhile is riding on his motorbike back to the school, relieved his father-son time was interrupted by Bud needing to survey the construction of a new attachment to Sherwood mall.-

JD: Finally free. Now to find Danny-boy and Veronica so we can… -sees Braverman’s car drive by on the high way with Kurt’s head hanging out the passenger window because he’s too tall-

JD: …The FUCK…? -Shocked and breaks, doing the Akira bike slide into the McClures parking lot- D-Danny-boy? -sounding upset, watching the car drive further away from him.-

[sunaleisocial]

MIT SHASS announces appointment of new heads for 2024-25

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/mit-shass-announces-appointment-of-new-heads-for-2024-25/

MIT SHASS announces appointment of new heads for 2024-25

The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) has announced several changes to the leadership of its academic units for the 2024-25 academic year.

“I’m confident these outstanding members of the SHASS community will provide exceptional leadership. I’m excited to see each implement their vision for the future of their unit,” says Agustin Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT SHASS.

Christine Walley will serve as head of the Anthropology Section. Walley is the SHASS Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. She received a PhD in anthropology from New York University in 1999. Her first ethnography, “Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park,” explored environmental conflict in rural Tanzania.

Seth Mnookin will serve as head of the Comparative Media Studies Program/Writing. Mnookin is a longtime journalist and science writer and was a 2019-20 Guggenheim Fellow. He graduated from Harvard College in 1994 with a degree in history and science, and was a 2004 Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Mnookin will continue in his role as director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Kieran Setiya will serve as head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Setiya is a professor of philosophy and is head of the philosophy section. He works mainly in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. He received his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 2002.

In the Literature Section, associate professors Sandy Alexendre and Stephanie Frampton will serve as co-heads. Alexandre’s research spans the late 19th century to present-day Black American literature and culture. She received a PhD in English language and literature from the University of Virginia in 2006. Frampton is also co-chair of the Program in Ancient and Medieval Studies. She received a PhD from Harvard University in comparative literature in 2011.

Jay Scheib will serve as head of the Music and Theater Arts Section. Scheib is Class of 1949 Professor of Music and Theater Arts. He received an MFA in theater directing from the Columbia University School of the Arts. He is a recipient of the MIT Edgerton Award, the Richard Sherwood Award, a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG fellowship, an OBIE Award for Best Direction, and the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

In the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Kate Brown will serve as head. Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science. Her research interests illuminate the point where history, science, technology and bio-politics converge to create large-scale disasters and modernist wastelands. Brown will publish “Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A Kaleidoscopic History of the Food Sovereignty Frontier” in 2025 with W.W. Norton & Co. Brown has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the European University Institute, The Kennan Institute, Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. She ​​received her PhD in history from the University of Washington at Seattle.

In the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies, Sana Aiyar will serve as interim head. Aiyar is an associate professor of history, and is a historian of modern South Asia. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2009 and held an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 2009-10.

[jcmarchi]

MIT SHASS announces appointment of new heads for 2024-25

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/mit-shass-announces-appointment-of-new-heads-for-2024-25/

MIT SHASS announces appointment of new heads for 2024-25

The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) has announced several changes to the leadership of its academic units for the 2024-25 academic year.

“I’m confident these outstanding members of the SHASS community will provide exceptional leadership. I’m excited to see each implement their vision for the future of their unit,” says Agustin Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT SHASS.

Christine Walley will serve as head of the Anthropology Section. Walley is the SHASS Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. She received a PhD in anthropology from New York University in 1999. Her first ethnography, “Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park,” explored environmental conflict in rural Tanzania.

Seth Mnookin will serve as head of the Comparative Media Studies Program/Writing. Mnookin is a longtime journalist and science writer and was a 2019-20 Guggenheim Fellow. He graduated from Harvard College in 1994 with a degree in history and science, and was a 2004 Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Mnookin will continue in his role as director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Kieran Setiya will serve as head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Setiya is a professor of philosophy and is head of the philosophy section. He works mainly in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. He received his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 2002.

In the Literature Section, associate professors Sandy Alexendre and Stephanie Frampton will serve as co-heads. Alexandre’s research spans the late 19th century to present-day Black American literature and culture. She received a PhD in English language and literature from the University of Virginia in 2006. Frampton is also co-chair of the Program in Ancient and Medieval Studies. She received a PhD from Harvard University in comparative literature in 2011.

Jay Scheib will serve as head of the Music and Theater Arts Section. Scheib is Class of 1949 Professor of Music and Theater Arts. He received an MFA in theater directing from the Columbia University School of the Arts. He is a recipient of the MIT Edgerton Award, the Richard Sherwood Award, a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG fellowship, an OBIE Award for Best Direction, and the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

In the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Kate Brown will serve as head. Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science. Her research interests illuminate the point where history, science, technology and bio-politics converge to create large-scale disasters and modernist wastelands. Brown will publish “Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A Kaleidoscopic History of the Food Sovereignty Frontier” in 2025 with W.W. Norton & Co. Brown has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the European University Institute, The Kennan Institute, Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. She ​​received her PhD in history from the University of Washington at Seattle.

In the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies, Sana Aiyar will serve as interim head. Aiyar is an associate professor of history, and is a historian of modern South Asia. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2009 and held an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 2009-10.

[hauptrealty]

Acreages For Sale West Edmonton – A Luxurious Option For You

Nestled on the western edge of Edmonton and the picturesque landscapes of Strathcona County, acreages for sale beckon those seeking a harmonious blend of spacious living, natural beauty, and proximity to urban amenities. Explore the allure of acreages and offering a glimpse into the charm of rural living near these vibrant urban centers.

A serene escape for you

Lewis Estates:

Located in the western part of Edmonton, Lewis Estates offers a mix of residential communities and acreage properties.

The Lewis Estates Golf Course and nearby parks provide recreational opportunities, making it an ideal spot for those who appreciate outdoor activities.

Rural West Big Lake:

West of the city, the Rural West Big Lake area offers expansive acreages with stunning views of Big Lake.

Residents can enjoy the tranquility of nature while still having easy access to West Edmonton Mall, one of the largest shopping and entertainment complexes in North America.

Secord:

Secord is a growing community in West Edmonton, featuring a mix of residential and acreages for sale west edmonton properties.

With parks, trails, and green spaces, Secord provides a family-friendly environment for those looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.

Acreages For Sale West Edmonton

Rural Bliss near Edmonton

Sherwood Park:

A thriving community in Strathcona County, Sherwood Park offers a variety of top Acreages for sale strathcona county with a perfect blend of rural and suburban living.

Residents can enjoy a range of amenities, including shopping centers, schools, and recreational facilities.

Ardrossan:

Located just east of Sherwood Park, Ardrossan boasts picturesque acreages surrounded by rolling hills and natural beauty.

A close-knit community, Ardrossan offers a peaceful retreat while still being within a short drive of Edmonton’s city conveniences.

Strathcona County Acreage Communities:

Strathcona County features various acreage communities, each with its unique charm and appeal.

Communities like Antler Lake, Collingwood Cove, and South Cooking Lake offer residents the opportunity to experience the joys of rural living while maintaining easy access to urban amenities.

Top Acreages for Sale Strathcona County

Whether you are drawn to the expansiveness of West Edmonton’s rural offerings or the picturesque landscapes of acreages for sale west edmonton in these regions provide an opportunity to embrace a lifestyle that seamlessly combines the best of both worlds. As you explore the available properties, envision the possibilities that each acreage presents and find the perfect retreat that aligns with your vision of tranquility and spacious living. West Edmonton and top Acreages for sale strathcona county await, offering a canvas for you to create your ideal rural haven.

[logicthink9999]

Prologue to Stop Driving School Sherwood Park Greatness

Enter the domain of driving greatness by signing up for the projects at Park Driving School Sherwood Park. This article will look at the remarkable qualities that make this driving school a main choice for people in Sherwood Park who are looking for excellent driver training.

Features: One thing that sets Park Driving School in Sherwood Park apart is its comprehensive curriculum, experienced instructors, and unwavering commitment to teaching safe driving techniques. The program guarantees that students will not only pass exams but also become responsible and competent drivers for the rest of their lives.

In conclusion, Park Driving School Sherwood Park offers an education that places a high value on excellence and develops students into competent, self-assured drivers who are strongly committed to road safety. We are amongst the best trained instructors in the Alberta. All, as a minimum, are licensed by the Department of Transport (Driving Standards Agency) to give driving tuition.

[trdsf]

So, since I clicked on 'Yes, and I feel compelled to reblog and share the story' (which I don't really, but that's the closest to my answer, which would have been a simple 'yes'), I suppose I'm obliged to reblog and tell the story.

Let's go back about 30 years to my first Internet account, back when you could reasonably keep up with a Usenet newsgroup or three via a dialup BBS. No, I'm not going to explain Usenet to the whippersnappers. I had been -- and I still occasionally use -- 'ikaros' as an online handle, which nomme de Net dates back to the VAX VMS 11/750 at my college in the early 1980s. Always all lower case, for reasons I simply do not recall. It was an affectation probably influenced by having read too much e.e. cummings in grade school.

Anyway, I fell in with the Usenet fan MSTing crowd, and for a MSTing of Batman Forever which I think we belted out of the park, I came up with the character of Dr Sherwood Forrester, the long lost twin of Dr Clayton Forrester. Ere long online, I was signing off as 'The Rev Dr Sherwood Forrester' or 'trdsf'.

Skip forward to 1996 and the MST3K ConventioCon Expo Fest-O-Rama 2 Electric Boogaloo. I'm wandering the halls early on Sunday with a friend and who do we bump into but Trace "Clayton Forrester" Beaulieu, who had just announced his retirement from MST3K shortly before the convention. While shaking his hand, the conversation went thusly:

Me: I'd like to say thank you for the last several years... He: Well, thank you very much. Me: ...and the best of luck in the future... He: Thank you, thank you. Me: ...and can I have your old job now? He: (throwing his head back and laughing) Sure!

And ever since then officially online I've been trdsf, aka The Rev Dr Sherwood Forrester.

As it happens, I am properly a reverend, as I have a formal ordination via the Universal Life Church as a minister in the Church of the SubGenius. And once I up my membership in the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, I shall definitely purchase a Miskatonic doctorate. :D

tl;dr -- trdsf is a hardcore MSTie and nerd and always has been.

[bouncinaroundca]

Bouncy castle rental in Sherwood Park, AB

Bouncy castle rental Sherwood Park, AB

In addition to offering the best bouncy castle rentals in Sherwood Park, AB, we also offer: Party Rental. So if your kids are tired of this year, then you might consider Bouncin’ Around for your next rental so they can have a blast with their friends outside in the backyard. We have such a big selection so, check out all of our equipment.

Bouncin’ Around is your #1 source for bouncy castle rentals . We love providing the top bargain for your money in the area. With every rental and every event, we focus in on providing world-class service so you can focus on having FUN. We also really enjoy providing safe and clean equipment at the most competitive pricing around. Each rental is cleaned and sanitized after every event guaranteeing satisfaction. We always follow safety rules and we will not sacrifice your safety for more business.

Bouncin’ Around is your source for high quality bouncy castle rentals .

Bouncin’ Around has everything needed to throw awesome, once in a lifetime parties. Whether it’s in your backyard or a big company event, we specialize in making sure your event is a fun, stress free experience from start to finish.

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Carnival

New for 2023! Bouncin' Around is excited to bring you a Travelling Inflatable Carnival!  New and thrilling inflatables never seen before on a scale this size!  Everything from castles to obstacles to wacky interactives for the wildest time you can imagine. 

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Inflatables

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Inflatable bounce houses are fantastic for getting some energy out. We also offer combination bouncers that have things like a basketball hoop or slide constructed right in with a bounce area! We have inflatable obstacle courses, dry slides, wet slides, and inflatable games. We are experts in renting bounce houses, and we can accommodate any type of event.

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Foam Parties

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Games

Games are an excellent way to give your guests a chance to compete. Inflatable games for parties can be rented out for your next party.

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Concessions

Concessions machines are essential for any event to provide snacks for guests or a option to cool down with a cone of snow after all the excitement. Concession machines are operated by staff or by volunteers.

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Event rentals

Every party needs event rentals. From tables and chairs for your guests to tents for covering your partygoers, we the have event rental accessories you need.

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Entertainment

Our professional entertainers are sure bring a smile on your face. Rent performers by the hour for use at your next event. Rent magicians, face-painting artists, balloon artists, and many more.

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Rides

Carnival rides make a fantastic option for school fun days, field days, after proms, fairs, picnics or proms. They provide a sense of family fun and will surely make everyone feel in a good mood.

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Trailer

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You may want to check-out these other items in Sherwood Park, AB:

Water Slide Rentals, Jumping Castle, Party Rental, Tent Rental, inflatable obstacle course

Bouncin’ Around rents out all kinds of equipment, including: Jumping Castle. While we focus on bouncy castle rentals , you can also rent other equipment. If you just want a bouncy castle rental for your own house, at a park, gym or indoor – we can do that. We also do larger event rentals for non-profits, schools, or festivals. Call us if you want to chat.

Bouncin’ Around: The top choice for Bouncy castle rentals rentals near Sherwood Park, AB.

Bouncin’ Around has been providing perfect inventory to the Sherwood Park, AB area for a long time, so you can trust us with handling your bouncy castle rental needs. We’ve provided for a large number of parties in the past several years from small to big, but all are handled with the best care. So don’t hesitate to hire us for your next event.

5.0 of 5

“Pleasant to work with and accommodating for lining up pick up times. Very reasonably priced “

– Michelle

from Bouncin' Around Alberta https://ift.tt/ahv0loY

[agturf]

Maps of Mesa that Will Change the Way You See It

When you’re looking for a new home in Mesa, one of the first things to do is look at your neighborhood. You want to be sure that the neighborhood you choose has the schools, amenities, and community that you’re looking for.

You’ll also want to make sure that you can get around easily. Depending on where you live, your neighborhood’s walk score can make or break whether or not you can get around without a car.

The neighborhood you live in is important because it has a lot to do with the character of the area. It’s also important to consider how much it costs to live in the neighborhood, as well as how close it is to schools and parks.

Your neighbors’ occupations are another important factor to consider when deciding which neighborhood to move to. The types of jobs your neighbors hold can have a huge impact on how you see the neighborhood, and the way you interact with those around you.

For example, if most of your neighbors are enlisted military personnel, that could be an indication that you’ll need to prepare for an active lifestyle when you move to the neighborhood. On the other hand, if most of your neighbors are in a career that doesn’t require an active lifestyle, then you may be better off choosing a different neighborhood.

Moreover, your neighbors’ ethnicity and ancestry can also affect how you see the neighborhood. For example, if most of your neighbors have Mexican ancestry, that can be an indication that you’ll enjoy a vibrant culture where people speak Spanish at home.

If you’re interested in the Nuestro Neighborhood, it’s worth checking out its demographics to learn more about what it’s like to live here. You can find out more about the average income, the percentage of children below the poverty line, and other factors by requesting a free report from NeighborhoodScout.

In addition, you can request information on the homes for sale in the neighborhood. Once you receive this information, you’ll be able to search for a house in the area and know what price range you’re working with before you start your search.

You can also use a mortgage house payment calculator to estimate what your home in the Nuestro Neighborhood will cost you. Simply enter the price of the house you’re considering and the length of time you’d like to own it, and we’ll show you an estimated monthly mortgage payment.

Lastly, you can also use the City of Mesa real time mobile civic engagement platform to identify and submit service requests for prompt response and resolution. Download it today and see how easy it is to make your city a better place to live!

If you're a buyer on a budget, you'll be glad to know that Sherwood Manor is also a relatively safe and tidy place to call home.

Sherwood Manor is the brainchild of local developers with a vested interest in keeping the neighborhood alive and well. This quaint community of midsized (three to four bedroom) single-family homes and condos is a popular choice among first-time homebuyers, and it's not hard to see why.

Most importantly, Sherwood Manor is a great place to live. The area is home to a variety of amenities and has some of the best schools in Arizona, including one of the top public school districts in the state.

Choosing the Infill of Your Lawn

Synthetic grass is a type of artificial turf made from thermoplastic materials such as nylon, polypropylene, and polyethylene. They are melted and extruded into thin ribbons of grasslike dimensions. Then they are dyed and UV stabilizers added to create the natural color of the turf.

Choosing the Right Material and Product

There are several key factors to consider when purchasing synthetic grass for your yard or commercial property. For instance, the material of your synthetic lawn may need to be more durable or non-porous than other types of artificial grass to prevent odors and water absorption from pets or kids playing on it.

The infill of your lawn will also play a role in how it looks and feels. Infill helps to support and cushion the blades of your grass, helping it stand up against foot traffic and preserving its look. Without infill, your turf would become flat and matted, which could lead to more damage.

Infill can be made from silica sand, crumb rubber, and specialized rubber products. Some of these infills also contain antimicrobial, anti-odor or cooling properties that help to protect the turf from fading and UV damage.

Choosing the Infill of Your Lawn

Whether you are installing a residential or commercial synthetic lawn, it will require infill. The amount of infill you will need depends on the size of your lawn and the kind of turf you are installing.

While a little infill can add depth and dimension to your lawn, too much can make it look flat and matted. So it’s best to install enough infill to fill the space between the turf fibers. Typically, homeowners need between 2 and 4 pounds of infill per square foot of the lawn, although this can vary depending on the specific product and expected footfall.

Always Green Turf AZ 204 S Mesa Dr, Mesa, AZ 85210 (480) 530-5476 https://www.alwaysgreenturfaz.com

[mayzlinrelocation1]

Locating Charlotte's Finest Neighborhoods for Apartment Rent

It's so troublesome, while you're moving, to contemplate living elsewhere. Commonly individuals put off searching for another condo until they totally need to begin looking or chance living in a lodging for quite a long time. In any case, the most effective way to find the condo that you can cherish for quite a while is to really begin looking through weeks, or even months, before you truly need to have a loft.

While you're looking at moving to Charlotte, you genuinely should find a spot that you truly love to live in, which can be precarious in the event that you have close to zero familiarity with the region of the city. How can you go to be aware, for example, whether you'll appreciate living in a space like South Park or Parkdale except if you truly do some exploration on them?

Before you even contemplate starting your quest for a Charlotte loft, you should advance however much you can about the various neighborhoods of the city. Charlotte, as most enormous urban communities, has various areas. The actual city really has 199 distinct areas! On the off chance that you don't live in the city right now, and you're searching for Charlotte lofts for lease so you can move there, scanning through 199 unique neighborhoods for your ideal condo can threaten!

The web is an extraordinary spot to begin assuming you're attempting to find areas of Charlotte that you will cheerful live in. It is there that you can find out about regions like Parkdale. While you're taking a gander at Charlotte lofts for lease and you coincidentally find Parkdale in the postings, get some margin to explore it. You'll view that Parkdale was made as the home of parted level and farm style houses. So on the off chance that you're searching for a calmer region, one that is an arranged local area, you might observe that Parkdale is simply a good fit for you. Since it's just a brief stroll to the shopping center and the recreation area, Parkdale is a well known place for undergrads and youthful families to search for condos.

A region like Sherwood Woods might be where you ought to search for a Charlotte loft if you have any desire to reside some place a piece unconventional. The whole region is basically the same as Parkdale, however the names of the roads are all named after things that you can find in the Robin Hood stories. You'll find roads like Nottingham Drive gladly recorded in the registry. Might you at any point envision what it might be want to live in a Charlotte condo that was arranged on Nottingham Drive? Tracking down the best lofts in Charlotte, obviously, has more to do with than simply names. Search for neighboring conveniences, schools, cafés, or simple admittance to essential streets - anything your fundamental worries for a loft area could be.

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[littlemisslipbalm]

I live in the neighbourhood

When Y/N moved to Hampstead she was unaware of the implications the decision would have on the course of the rest of her life.

or

Harry is Y/N’s eccentric neighbour who sweeps her up in the whirlwind that is his life

this gif bc its maybe my favorite clip of him EVER holy fuck - this is the harry of my dreams this is the harry of i live in the neighbourhood

HEY YALL it’s been a minute and I missed yall so much and I’m just about to be on break so maybe i’ll be back to posting writing regularly but with school its so hard and I think I’ve been working on this for months so yeah <3 lol PLS PLS PLS leave me feedback and reblogs and that stuff bc otherwise my writing just feels...empty and you have no idea the smile i get when even just the tags say like “god this was everything” it can be anything honestly but it keeps my passion up. Thank you again and hope you enjoy.

Word Count: ~10k | Warnings: swearing probably? no smut (yet), rich and famous harry - mentions of Taylor Swif 

-

She considered herself an average young woman in her mid twenties. She liked screaming Taylor Swift and Megan Thee Stallion songs alone in her car and thrifting on weekends. She hated cable because of commercials and when doordash didn’t deliver all of her order. She had asthma when she worked out or the air quality was bad. She had dumb celebrity crushes that her friends and her still laughed over with every new instagram post. She had hopes and dreams she had yet to achieve and she had past trauma that many would never know about, especially at first glance.

Sure, she was successful. She would admit that. How else would she be able to afford even the modest little house she had found in Hampstead? She had studied international business in college and hopped on a plane to London the first chance she got. After a few years of a more than decent paycheck and an advantageous stimulus check from her kind parents, she was able to move out of her starter flat into the suburbs. The definitive push for the move was two-fold. Her parents wanted her to take her dog and her apartment complex was strict on no pets. Then her promotion at work - which included a pay raise - made it hard to wave off taking full ownership of her childhood ten-pound best friend.

So with life happening as it usually does, Y/N first found herself scouring Zillow, then touring homes in the area, and finally standing outside a three bedroom, two bath, two-story cream house in Hampstead. Her house.

The little moving truck she had rented sat beside her as she stared at her future. The realtor had told her they would be there in ten minutes. For the next ten minutes all Y/N had to do was keep herself from combusting, or worse, sobbing.

She felt overwhelmed already. Renting a flat in London was one way to describe herself as independent. Owning a home in Hampstead seemed like a whole new level of adulthood she wasn’t sure if she was prepared for.

After taking a few deep breaths to ground herself, Y/N walked up to the gate that kept her front yard narrowly separated from the sidewalk. She lifted one hand from beneath the box she clutched tightly to her chest to push past the iron-rod gateway. The garden was cute, a little bland, and she thought to herself that maybe she’d develop some gardening skills now that she had her own front yard. The thought made her smile a little, refraining from laughing aloud while on her lonesome, since she had never taken interest in gardening before. But this house. This house. It was a new beginning. It was a fucking unwritten journal. Blank film. Unknown territory. She could be anyone in this house.

She gently placed the cardboard box on the first step up to the front door. There was no porch, but she couldn’t complain. It was gorgeous and she was lucky to get it at the price she did. The house was cream with dark blue accents and a grey shingled roof. Lots of windows. It was classic and it was hers.

After the realtor came with her keys and made sure everything seemed alright, Y/N’s couple of friends, Amélie and Daniel, arrived with their cars filled with items she had needed picking up from various stores. They helped her move her stuff into the house. Thankfully it was already half furnished, meaning she didn’t have to go out and buy beds or couches or any of those big items that are both expensive and a hassle to deal with.

By the time the evening had rolled around, everything was in the house and it actually seemed semi put together. Y/N looked around, sweat apparent on her face and hands on her hips, proud of what she had accomplished. The nerves from earlier had been drowned by pride.

-

The next day, she woke up from her first night in the house. It felt like a dream even though she was sure she was awake.  

She had to navigate her way to the airport today to pick up her dog from his long flight and then mainly settle into the house. Her house sat on Sherwood Avenue, one of the many streets in Hampstead. It’s neighboring houses were much larger. The ones directly next to and across from her weren’t drastically bigger but what she had yet to learn was that next to the house across from her there were two houses that had been joined together by their slightly eccentric owner. A man who would be the match that ignited the flame that was the rest of her life.

This unknown fact quickly became known after Y/N’s first few weeks in her new neighbourhood. The eccentric - more so absurdly rich - neighbor who conjoined the houses was Harry Styles.

The first time they crossed paths she wasn’t even aware of it. It was the day she moved in. He had been out for his usual morning run and was rounding the corner when she had pulled up in her moving van. Once inside his home, he snoopily watched on as his neighbour began to move in. He hadn’t taken note of much about her, just that she was new and that she had a nice pair of jeans on that day.

The second time, Y/N was convinced she needed to get her eyes checked because there was no way that she had just seen Harry Styles key himself into the house across the way from her. There was no way that she had moved into the same area as him, let alone the same street. It seemed far more plausible that she needed a psych evaluation or a strong glasses prescription.

But the third instance of them crossing paths, she was proven wrong. She was on her way back from the neighbourhood park when she saw a guy jogging towards her. With a yellow beanie and a black Columbia sweatshirt paired with running shorts and shoes, he was hard to ignore running straight towards her. The iconic curls, strong jawline, and soft green eyes were dead giveaways this time. After making brief eye contact as their paths literally crossed, she felt herself make a little face of odd interest. Her head quirked and her eyes narrowed, lips pursed with slight confusion. That was definitely him.

After that, she found herself seeing Harry around the neighbourhood a relatively good amount. She’d see him at the park, at the coffee shop, on their street, and more. They didn’t speak. She really didn’t think he would want to be bothered by his neighbours and she certainly wasn’t willing to test the theory. They sometimes gave a small smile of acknowledgement but nothing really friendly. Just ‘you exist and I know that’.

-

Fridays are Y/N’s favorite day. It’s the beginning of the weekend, she never has to go into work and it’s simply a nice day. People are happier, they smile brighter and it just seems like the world is a little better than usual.

Friday was especially amazing today because her childhood best friend, Cate, was arriving at London Heathrow in the evening. Y/N had begged Cate to fly out to see the new house in person and Cate had finally found the time to run away to England for a week.

She shut her front door carefully behind her and placed her headphones in her ears. Rori, that little terrier, who had made a similar flight to see Y/N’s place not too long ago, scampered out the door with her and jumped happily at her legs as she fiddled with her phone. Her coat ruffles around her disturbed from the morning air. It’s blanket-like fabric that consisted of a deep blue backdrop with felt giraffes sewn on it, kept her warm while she walked. With her mind racing with weekend plans and ideas for her and Cate to do both in Hampstead and the city, she crossed the street like usual and began to walk with her dog to the coffee shop for her morning tea.

Unlike usual, she fumbled just as she was putting her phone in her pocket and bumped into something large and definitely not sedentary.

“I’m so sorry!” She blushed and moved backwards from the man who had just been shutting his own front gate to head somewhere.

“S’alright. No harm, no foul.” He looks down at her and her dog. Rori seems excited by the stranger and sniffs him eagerly. A single paw prodding at the man’s long leg.

She grimaces, hearing the voice and stepping back allows her to fully recognize who she had just bumped into. Her neighbour. The runner. Harry Styles.

“Sorry.” She mutters again as Rori continues to prod at Harry’s leg.

She tries to coax Rori away, but Harry simply smiles and leans down to the small dog.

“Hi there buddy,” he coos and rubs the top of the fluffy dogs head, in between his pointy ears, “What’s your name?”

“Rori.” She states easily, Harry’s eyes flickering to her smoothly. Rori makes a smile babbling noise that sounds a bit like a tiny roar - hence the name - and Harry chuckles to himself.

“He’s really adorable,” he finally says and straightens up from his admiring of the dog.

The grimace becomes more of a smile on her face and she mumbles a “Thank You”.

As her neighbour - who hasn’t introduced himself (which wasn’t necessary, but still) or bothered to ask for her introduction - seems to be about to say something new when his phone begins to vibrate obnoxiously. He twitches, his large hands immediately going to his pockets for the important device. He checks the message and looks back at her face.

“Sorry, I have to run...um,” he’s not sure what to say. He really does have to go, but he doesn’t even know his neighbour’s name. He’ll have to make sure to get it at some point in the near future. Especially now that he’s acquainted with her dog.

“No worries,” she smiles completely this time, relieved for the whole interaction to be over. She felt like she was going to explode with each passing moment. In the presence of a legendary musician, c’mon, who wouldn’t be freaking out. All she could think about was how Harry Styles now knew her dog’s name. What the fuck!

-

Upon arriving at the airport, she waited patiently for Cate to walk out of the customs area.

When she did, the two young women began jumping up and down excitedly, Y/N squealing only slightly. They hugged and began chattering intensely, catching up on lost time that generally occurs when you live an ocean apart.  

Finally, one comment rings through the constant back and forth and Cate stops.

“Wait, what did you just say,” she questions as they begin walking to catch an uber back to Hampstead.

“I think my house might be haunted?” Y/N’s voice raising because she’s unsure if that’s what Cate was talking about.

“No, no, the thing after that. I think I must’ve misheard you.”

“Harry Styles is my neighbour?” Y/N’s brows raise as she looks over at her best friend, curious to know what she will say.

“Yes! Explain. Now!”

“It’s not really a big deal. It’s a nice neighbourhood, it makes sense that celebrities of his caliber want to live there.”

“That is not explaining. You have to introduce us!”

As they climb into their uber and settle in for the short ride back to Hampstead, Y/N sighs and tells Cate everything she knows.

“We’ve only just spoken today and I’ve been here for a couple weeks. He lives across the street and down one, I guess. I just see him around, it’s not like he knows who I am. He didn’t even get my name today, just Rori’s.” She laughs lightly, still finding it funny that Harry knows her dog’s name.

Cate nods, leaning in slightly to her best friend, hardly able to contain her awestruckness from the story and baffledness at Y/N’s calmness. “So, like, when do I get to meet him?”

“Girl, I don’t fucking know. Never, if you’re going to act wild. I don’t want the neighbourhood to think I’m not chill.”

“Sometimes…” Cate starts and leans away from Y/N jokingly, “I hate you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

They both smile, bumping elbows silently. The song on the radio fading in louder as their words die out.

-

The next day, Y/N took Cate to the local park. It was expansive and connected to the football fields that local teams would play at. The park section was a luscious green that was maintained with copious amounts of watering by the township.

She and Cate settled on a patch of grass near a slender tree that would offer some shade if the sun’s rays became too harsh. The quilt they sat on was something her grandmother had made her when she was maybe 8 years old, meaning it was torn in places and completely worn in a different shade of pink than it had been initially.

They set up their picnic and played music, enjoying the sunny day. Something rare and fleeting as the fall began to creep up on Hampstead.

They eat and catch up on life for about an hour. Basking in the sunlight, Y/N had laid on her back and was staring up at the clouds passing along the sky. Cate was carefully watching their surroundings, simply taking in her friend’s new home, but possibly for another reason too.

“Hey, isn’t that…” Cate trails off, trying to subtly nod in the direction of an approaching figure.

Y/N sits up, her hands holding her up from behind her. Her hair fails in front of her shoulders slightly and it’s a little disheveled from being mused in the grass. She looks discreetly in the direction of Cate’s nodding and then looks at her friend and rolls her eyes.

“Yes, but don’t say anything, he might not even notice me and I’m certainly not calling out to him.”

‘Illicit Affairs’ by Taylor Swift is playing off her speaker and as she’s about to change it, Cate turns it up slightly. They share a glare with one another before trying to act casual again, even though both of their eyes kept flickering to the man who seemed to be continuing closer and closer to their set up.

It became clear that Harry was approaching them after all and Y/N tried to carry on an unbothered conversation with Cate, which was hard with the constant nudging of Cate’s foot on her shin.

He stops a mere foot away from their blanket, beaming at the two young women lounging on the ground. He makes an attempt at a casual wave, his large hand splaying his fingers quickly, before opening his mouth to speak.

Cate beats him to the punch. “Hello there!”

“Erm, hi!” He says nicely to her and then looks at Y/N.

“No Rori today?” He inquires.

“No,” she smiles, slightly blushing at the fact that he remembered her and her dog. “He’s napping.”

“Ah, I see,” He pauses, “I feel like I need to apologize.” He continues.

“For what?” She questions and Cate watches on anxiously, mesmerized by Harry and dying to see what happens next.

“I ran off before I could even ask for your name or introduce myself. It was terribly rude.”

“Oh,” she can’t stop smiling, “It’s nothing to apologize for, I’m sure you’re busy. Besides I had to get my day started, otherwise I would’ve been late picking her up.” She points to Cate who smiles sheepishly, still internally screaming over the fact that her friend is able to talk so easily to a celebrity.

Harry nods and looks at Cate again, “Just visiting I take it then?”

She nods quickly, words escaping her. Y/N chuckles under her breath and swoops in to save her friend any embarrassment. “Cate’s my best friend and she’s been kind enough to take time out of her extremely busy life to come look at my new house.”

He hums, still standing a respectful distance from their set-up. “Nice to meet you, Cate,” he says very kindly. Then he laughs, but in a way that is like he’s beside himself. The two women both quirk their heads at him. Y/N squints her eyes slightly, trying to understand the guy she is talking to and connecting him with the man that is all over the news all of the time for his musical genius.

“Now I know your dog and best friend’s names but still not yours. At this point, I’m begging you to tell me.”

They all laugh and Y/N feels nervous for the first time since Harry had walked up.

“You first,” she smiles slyly.

His eyes widen slightly in surprise, but then go back to normal. Harry was very smart, she likely knew his name, but one, she was trying to be funny and two, she was also trying to be courteous. He preferred to introduce himself rather than just be told who he is, even if people already knew. It allowed him to maintain some normalcy.

“‘M Harry,” He says with a smile.

“Alright.” She says and then remains quiet.

Harry’s lips quirk up in a faint smile, amused at her expression.

“I thought it was a ‘show me yours and I’ll show you mine’ type of situation or was I mistaken?” He finally asks when she remains silent still.

The two young women laugh and Y/N bites the inside of her cheek, both feeling flustered and completely in control at the same time.

“You weren’t mistaken, I was just thinking.” Then she pauses again and Cate thinks Harry is about to combust and Harry thinks he’s going to as well with all the anticipation that has been built up over his neighbor’s name, even though he was pretty sure he’d heard it in passing at one point or another but had forgotten quickly afterwards.

“It’s Y/N.”

Harry releases a facetious sigh of relief, “Oh thank god! Finally!” His words quickly turn into an infectious laugh that is paired with a shining smile and she feels like she’s swooning right then and there. The control has gone out the window and she’s taken with her neighbor. He’s wonderful in that moment and she forgets about Cate or the park or anything. It’s just Harry and how it seems like he’s smiling just for her.

“Now that I’ve gotten your name,” he smiles pointedly at her after his laughter has faded away. The smile doesn’t leave his face though, his eyes still crinkled, his dimples still showing.

She nods, encouraging him to continue. Cate feels like she’s watching a movie unfold in front of her and she wishes she could record the entire interaction.

“I can finally ask you, Y/N, where did you get that fabulous coat I saw you wearing yesterday?”

She twitches further upright, eyes bringing themselves directly inline with Harry’s gaze. “Oh,” she inhales, “The giraffe one, yeah?”

He nods.

“I got it from a Goodwill years ago. It’s some vintage company that used to only make sleepwear. I looked up the tag one time and it doesn’t exist anymore. Super cool, though. Wish I could buy more.”

“Yeah,” Harry says eagerly, even taking a step towards the women, “It was so intriguing. Maybe, if you didn’t mind of course -” he falters, losing his courage for a moment, “you could bring it over and my stylist could check it out. I would love something similar and I’m sure he could figure it out.”

She shrugs. It wasn’t crazy, especially not for Harry - she assumed. She was certain he often found things he liked but there was only one of them so he would just order his own. She couldn’t help the pride that was swelling inside her though it that moment. Harry Styles liking her jacket so much he asked where it was from and then wanting his stylist to look at it. She’d jump for joy when she was in the safety of her private home later tonight with Cate.

“One condition,” she says and Harry’s brows quirk amusedly at her.

“You are a very tit for tat person,” he muses.

“Fair’s fair,” she shrugs again and then looks around her quickly, “It’s simple so don’t get too worked up over it, buddy.”

He laughs slightly again and tries to figure out what she’s looking for. When she extends a scratched up, sticker-covered point and shoot film camera he smiles.

“Can you take a picture of Cate and I? It’s always just the two of us so we never have anyone to take pictures of us together.”

Harry grins at this and her sincere face. Cate is a little taken aback, because while it’s technically true, it’s not entirely factual. They have plenty of film pictures of them - maybe not recently though. And she wasn’t going to question Y/N right now. It seemed like she knew what she was doing.

Harry takes the camera and begins to look through the viewfinder. The women scoot closer together and Cate wraps her arm around Y/N’s shoulder. She leans in to press her cheek against her best friend. They smile up at the camera and Harry crouches slightly to get a better angle.

“Alright,” he mumbles, “Ready?...Cheese!”

Their smiles stay hung on their face as they listen for the click and when the faint sound befalls their ears, Cate laughs and Y/N pulls away. She reaches forward for the camera, her hand easily brushing Harry’s large one.

Their smiles meet each other and Cate can’t help but notice how they grow as the two of them look at one another.

“Thank you,” Y/N says sweetly and pulls back to retake her seat on the blanket.

Harry straightens up, his grin falling back into that signature smirk. “No problem.”

“So-” He begins but she cuts him off.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll see you around, yeah?”

He clears his throat, feeling thrown off. “Yeah, sure. I guess next time I see you we can talk about when a good time would be for your jacket to come over?”

His voice raises at the end of his question a little more than usual, he’s trying to get her to bite, but she doesn’t seem like someone who is easily thrown off. He is trying to read her and she’s been completely cool the entire time. It’s intriguing. Even more so than the jacket, even though he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it, it wasn’t really his focus when he walked across the park to her and Cate.

“Yep! It was nice finally meeting you Harry.”

He feels the cue to walk off and says his farewells. As he walks off, back on course to his intended destination, his head is filled with questions. Most important of them being when he would see her again.

Cate and Y/N watch him walk towards the football fields. They see him meet with a group of men and it seems like they’re there to practice or play a game. Y/N couldn’t be sure.

“He likes you!” Cate finally bursts out.

Y/N rolls her eyes, “Stop trying to make me take the piss. That’s a fucking lie and you know it.”

“It’s not! He likes you and you obviously like him, I mean, but we been knew.”

“Having a crush on the famous Harry Styles when you’re 17 is different than me liking my neighbour Harry.”

“But you like him don’t you? He’s even better than he was when he was 19. Now he’s all grown up and established and more your style anyway.”

“Shut up! He could hear you.”

“He really couldn't, he's yards away, you’re just paranoid.” Cate continues to tease and ridicule her best friend over Harry and Y/N is just about ready to up and leave, but she also can’t help but laugh it off.

“I’m literally gonna kick you out if you keep talking,” Y/N says between laughs and the women feel like they’re back in high school losing their minds over the stupidest joke ever.

“Okay, fine. But all I have to say is I will hold this over you when you end up together.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, whatever. Just be prepared to wait forever because I can promise you Harry Styles and I are never ending up together.”

--

Two Weeks Later

Y/N walked to her door after hearing the doorbell ring and opened it to find her neighbour standing with his arm raised ready to knock.

“Hey, Harry,” She greeted easily, but not entirely sure why he was here.

They hadn’t really seen each other since their official meeting in the park. It hadn’t bothered her and it hadn’t really bothered Harry either. It seemed like they both had extremely busy lives that they didn’t plan on throwing out the window because they had said they would meet up at some point. She liked that.

Harry had come over because he finally had a break in his schedule and was hoping to talk about the jacket and anything else really. He was interested in getting to know her and he didn’t care to hide it.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go get a coffee or something?” He asked, leaning himself against her door frame now.

Her eyebrows raise and her eyes widen a little bit, not completely sure she heard him correctly.

“Right now?!” She asked incredulously.

She was wearing an oversized grey sweatshirt and black bike shorts that peaked out from underneath the sweatshirt hem. One of her socks was shoved around her ankle while the other was pulled up flat to touch the base of her calf. She didn’t think she was looking the most presentable at the moment. She had been basking in her day off by simply laying on the couch watching hours of Netflix.

He nods, his smile growing on his face. Her flustered expression only made him happier. She was always so nonchalant with him, he wanted to see her a little more antsy.

“Unless you’re busy,” he adds seriously, not wanting to bother her, just wanting to spend time with her.

“No, no. I’m not...I’m not busy. I just wasn’t expecting any plans where I would be required to go out in public. Let me just...um, come inside and then give me five minutes.”

“Sure,” Harry smiles again as he steps into her home.

Her smile is sheepish and much less genuine then the one Harry holds on his face as he takes in her abode. She tells him to make himself comfortable and then runs to her room to try and possibly fix her state in under five minutes.

She tears around her room, heaving off the frumpy sweatshirt and grabbing a long sleeve striped v-neck top she had hanging out half out of her hamper, a sign known to her that while it was clean enough to wear, if she happened to do laundry she should wash it. Slipping it over her head, she walks to her dresser and leans over to open the bottom drawer and unfolds a pair of dark wash oversized jeans. There’s no holes in them and she throws them on the bed so that she can slip out of her current pants. Next, onto the socks, she swaps out the current ones for a fresh black pair and finds her tortoise print boots to flick on. As she just about runs into her en suite bathroom, she zips the two boots up between steps. A quick comb through her hair, deodorant, two spritz of perfume, her eyelash curler and mascara and she’s running back to where Harry is waiting in her living room.

He blinks surprisedly at her promptness, usually giving people more time then what they say they need. She had indeed gotten ready in five minutes. He thought she looked breathtaking. And she felt like she was at a lack for breath in any case.

“It’s a bit cold out,” he glances to the window.

“Isn’t it always?” She smiles, finally catching her breath.

He chuckles and then nods, a smile appearing on his face as he feels a warmth in his chest at her wit.

“Ready?” He checks in.

She nods, grabbing a coat she kept hung by the door.

“Just the coffee shop down the way?” She inquires as they exit the house and she locks the door behind her.

Harry hums, waiting down a step for her to turn around and walk beside him. It was so strange to her, this felt all too normal with him. Like he was just a friend who had come to pick her up for coffee, her neighbor, nothing more.

“Did you hear the new season of the Crown is coming out soon?” Harry asks as they walk shoulder to shoulder (technically since her shoulder wasn’t in line with his).

“Really?” She looks at him, “I love that show!”

“Me too,” He looks at her and smiles happily.

“That’s amazing,” she breathes mostly to herself, half about the show and half about how Harry watches television and that he watches one of her favorite shows.

There’s silence. The brisk air pricking their cheeks as they walk down their street. Their puffs of breath create a slight mist of white ahead of them and then quickly dissipates.

Her eyes flit up to Harry’s chiseled jaw and face and she watches him as his eyes carefully and meaningfully take in his surroundings. Was it her turn to take a stab at conversation? It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence but she just wasn’t sure what was going on.

“You play football right?” She says finally as they turn onto the next street that would bring them closer to the café they both frequented.

She remembered seeing him there on several occasions. The tips he left were always overly generous, which she assumed you could do when you were exorbitantly rich. He always smiled when he ordered and knew the baristas by name. His order rarely differed and she hated to admit but she knew his two regulars. His actual “regular” was a 12 ounce black coffee, dark roast, no cream and no sugar. The other, his “I’ll actually have”, was a 16 ounce iced green tea, no cream and no sugar.

She couldn’t help that she was observant and that when ‘H’ was called at the bar she looked at what was pushed out, patiently waiting for him to come snatch it up with a smile and nod to the workers before he left. Sometimes he’d even smile at her over the lid of his drink as he exited the establishment. It was warm and inviting and she felt good about the twinkle in his eye that never seemed to waver no matter the day.

Now they were going there together and she’d have to pretend like she’d never noticed what he got as a drink.

He responds to her question with another glance at her and a simple “yes”. His hands shove into his pockets and one side of his pink lips quirk up. He continues, “I’m on a local team with some mates. We’re in a little competition with our league. The final match is coming up this Sunday actually...You should come.”

He says it so casually it almost doesn’t catch her off guard. Harry inviting her to his football game, maybe this was going to be her life now. Going to her neighbours football match. Going to Harry Styles’ football match.

“Sunday…” She sounds out, choosing to look out into the distance instead of at him. “What time?”

“Eight.”

“P.M. right?” She responds quickly, worried since she never wakes up that early and rarely before 10 a.m. on the weekends for that matter.

“Of course,” he chuckles.

They’ve come upon the café and he’s quick to grab the handle to open the door and let her go before him. She can’t stop the blush and smile that spread on her face as she ducks her head into the warm and cozy shop. Men had opened doors for her before and she really thought of herself as a strong woman who didn’t need a man for anything, but something about Harry’s action felt especially, and specifically, chivalrous. Why, she had no idea.

Neither of them stop to look at the menu. They were regulars and they both knew that about each other as well. He gestures for her to go first and she mutters her thanks before turning to the patiently waiting barista. She orders and is about to hand over her card when Harry suavely steps in and says, “Don’t worry about it. I invited you with me, I’ll pay.”

It was both completely unexpected and expected at the same time. Knowing she’d never win this fight, she thanked him again, glanced at the man taking her order and then stepped aside. Harry orders his own drink and then pays for both. Today he leaves double the amount he usually leaves for tip, she assumes since it’s two drinks he was paying for.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know?” She says quietly to him once they’re in a corner of the café waiting for their drinks.

He stands slightly slumped against the wall, closer to her height right now. He only shrugs, his good natured smile not once leaving his face since he entered this place.

“I wanted to,” he said simply right as the drinks were ready since it wasn’t particularly busy on this random Friday afternoon.

They glance outside and see that it’s begun to drizzle while they’ve been inside. She sighs, having hoped to walk around a little after being inside all day.

Instead, they sit at the corner table in the café, across from each other. She moves on from the paying thing, knowing it was simply how this guy probably operated most of his life.

He got a black coffee today, the cold and rain likely contributing to that choice.

As one pop song fades out, slightly under the sound of the coffee machines, she’s about to tell Harry she’s pretty sure she can make his final football match when ‘Cardigan’ fades in. It’s the second time a Taylor Swift song has been playing while she’s been in the presence of Harry and they were conversing. She tries to ignore one of her favorite songs at the moment. Harry doesn’t seem to pay much mind to it. His foot is tapping against his other, but it’s been tapping like that since they sat down.

“I think I could probably make it to your game,” she says finally after a pause and a sip of her own drink.

Harry grins at the response and launches into how great it will be if they win and how happy everyone will be. She smiles along and doesn’t notice the slight head swaying to the song that she’s begun.

“Fan of Taylor?” Harry inquires and Y/N’s face drops, eyes widening cartoonishly.

She stutters, a nervous laugh leaving her mouth before she can actually say something. How does she respond about liking Taylor Swift to a man who counts her as an ex. She’s at a loss.

“Yeah, uh,” she finally starts.

Harry watches her curiously, obviously noticing her discomfort as his question.

“I used to not really consider myself a fan. I don’t really follow her just because I don’t really follow...um...musicians,” she chokes out the last word realizing Harry fits that category. “But, after folklore, I don’t know, this album really spoke to me. I also really like Lover and...uh” she pauses again, sticking on 1989, an album she has argued with her friends about how it’s basically a tell all of the man before her and Taylor’s relationship.

He nods, hoping she’ll continue. He wanted to get to know her and he kind of liked seeing her squirm. “1989?” He finally supplies.

Her blush isn’t able to be covered this time. If her hair didn’t fall in front of her ears she was sure they’d be flushed with blood.

Then she draws out of her own self stress and looks at the smooth man before her and grows calm. He was amazing at winding her up and she didn’t want to seem like some young, impressionable fangirl to him. So, she squared her shoulders and straightened up in her chair.

“Yes, it was pop perfection as one of my college friends liked to say. I’d always listen to it at the gym.” Then she pauses, taking a measured breath, gaining her confidence back. Her eyes meet his, “Is there any songs off it that you particularly enjoy, Mr. Styles.”

He chuckles, mostly because of her emphasis on ‘Style’.

“Shake it off?” He asks.

“Oh fuck off!” She laughs and he joins in with her.

When they catch their breaths from laughing, they simultaneously take sips of their drinks and settle their eyes back on one another. Exes and songs written about oneself weren’t exactly the topics Harry had in mind for the coffee outing he had asked Y/N out on, but talks of exes had never been this funny with anyone else. He was grateful for her playfulness, her demeanor.

“Can I ask you something personal?” She asks quietly and seriously.

“I think we’re past that question, love,” he responds.

“Yeah, I guess,” she pauses and just about whispers, “Pretty much all of them are about you right?”

He shrugs again, his felt coat rustling around his seat. “We never really talked about every single song.”

She leans forward at the ‘we’ Harry is using about himself and Taylor Swift.

“But when I listen to the songs, I hear us in just about every one but a few.”

“Wow,” she breathes and sips her drink. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lived through something that intense and then someone commemorated in a masterpiece.”

“Do you have a favorite on that album?” He asks, moving on from her revelation.

“I love ‘I know places’, it has a cool sound. But I also really love ‘Wonderland’. They both have kind of dark sounds, yet it still is like what you have is so special that the bad bits are worth it. I don’t know, it just seems like a tv show. I don’t think my life could ever be that crazy or dramatic.” She doesn’t notice her use of ‘you’ because she had meant it as a form of analyzing the song theoretically as she had done hundreds of times with her friends,  but this time the ‘you’ is literally the ‘you’ the song is talking about.

“Love can turn anyone’s life chaotic.” Harry muses.

The green eye’s that flashed at Taylor throughout that album look at Y/N from across the table and she feels a flip in her stomach at his tone.

Maybe he notices her mild discomfort, maybe that’s just who he is. But after a beat, Harry’s onto the next topic on his mind. He launches into how he’s just returned from Scotland for a shoot for something so undercover he can’t even divulge to her, much to his dismay. She’s taken aback since she didn’t consider her someone Harry would divulge any of his private matters to, but it seemed like he already considered her a confidant. Just not for that. He wants it to be a surprise.

She smiles and listens attentively. She wonders as he goes on about his interesting yet absurdly lavish life whether he even knows what regular life is like anymore. Or if he’d even enjoy it if he experienced it.

Sure, coffee and football were plenty part of regular life . But the football league was something novel to Harry. He had just gotten to do it and he was thrilled by its normalcy.

She regarded him carefully, unsure what the next step was in this budding friendship. Was it dangerous to get involved with someone’s life which seemed to be filled with whirlwind rigor and constant change.

She liked her chaos, don’t get her wrong. She felt like she often was the odd one out in life. Always thinking differently than the ones around her. She often was the one to suggest spontaneous late night trips around town or exploration of an abandoned building known for spooky stories. She liked inviting friends over for themed parties for no specific occasions and she liked taking film pictures of friends like they were models even though it was only for her and her memories. She thought of herself as silly and fun, but what Harry described as his chaotic fun actually was regimented tight schedules of constant travel and work. Interesting experiences came out of that constant travel and work, but didn’t seem like something she necessarily wanted to get herself wrapped up in.

After coffee, they leave the café and it’s pouring now. Instead of going home, Harry insists on walking her to her place. She relents, realizing, once again, that Harry wasn’t someone who took ‘no’ for an answer. She then invites him in because it’s the polite thing to do. And Harry being Harry accepts.

“Want a dry sweatshirt while you wait?” She asks as she slips off her wet shoes and jacket in the entryway. Harry follows suit, his knit sweater being pelted with rain for the last eight minutes left him feeling cold and shivery.

He nods as he toes off his shoes and ventures back to the living room she had him wait in a few hours ago.

“Here,” She says as she tosses a grey sweatshirt in his direction. She believes it's her one from earlier, an innocuous pullover with ‘London’ in collegiate lettering on the front. He catches it as she rounds the corner to turn up the heater.

Her mistake was being so careless to not look at the sweatshirt before handing it over to her neighbor. Anyone else, maybe they wouldn’t have questioned it. But Harry, how could he not.

“What’s this?”

“A sweatshirt,” she doesn’t spare him a glance on the coach as she fiddles with the thermostat.

“It’s one of my sweatshirts,” Harry says and she can hear the smile on his face.

“That’s impossible, I’ve never borrowed-” Her brows had raised at what he said but now her words fall short.

He didn’t mean one of his personal sweatshirts that she possibly borrowed if they were better friends. No. He meant his merchandise.

“It was a gift,” she sighs as she turns to face him. He’s now wearing the sweatshirt proudly and grinning up at her smugly.

She rolls her eyes when he gives her a knowing smile.

“I didn’t know that it was the one I was handing you. Honest!”

“I thought you didn’t “keep up” with musicians,” Harry says playfully, his fingers making quotes appropriately.

“I don’t.” Her tone is serious as she plops on the couch beside Harry.

“I enjoy your music from time to time. Is that a crime?!” She finally exclaims when she can’t handle Harry’s knowing smirk.

“No it’s not, you could have just told me you were a fan!” She tries to stop him and protest that she wouldn’t consider herself a fan, but he continues, “I still would have wanted to have been friends.You’re one of the liveliest neighbors I’ve got. Everyone else on the street is rather dull.”

She chuckles, remembering finding out quickly that the street wasn’t a lively bunch.  

“I just wouldn’t say I’m a fan,” she presses and sits across from him.

He continues smiling like he knows the truth.

“I don’t think you’ve met an average person in awhile, Harry.” She finally says after they sat in silence for a few minutes because they were both too stubborn to be the first to talk.

“I would hardly call you average if that’s what you’re implying, Y/N.” He nods her way and he shifts on her plush couch, his legs adjusting themselves on their own accord. “And I know plenty of average people,” he adds huffily.

“I normally wouldn’t either, but compared to who you seem to surround yourself, I very much am. And that’s not meant to be a jab at anyone involved.”

His right hand sneaks up to his head to scratch at the base of a particularly perfect curl. His eyes squint a bit as his mind processes her claim.

“What are you trying to say exactly?”

“I’m just curious to see if you’d actually like me in your life. It seems like you want to be friends with me and that’s great, but realistically I don’t know how much I would fit into it.”

Harry scoffs, “That’s literally bullshit, just relax. I’m so chill you won’t even know what to do with me.”

Now it’s her turn to scoff. “Chill?!” She asks incredulously. Harry nods with a seriousness she hadn’t seen before.

“When’s the next time you’re flying off to another country for work?”

Harry pauses, “Um...the day after the final match. I’m beginning to film a movie, so I’ll be there for a month.”

“Busy bee,” she muses and they both chuckle.

There’s something about the somber look Harry is giving her. His eyes twinkled in the coffee shop and with playful winks she was excited to be in his presence. But after she mentions when his next trip is, he seems saddened. There’s skepticism behind his eyes and maybe he doesn’t like being challenged about who he is from other people, especially those who are new in his life.

But that’s who Y/N is, she’s straightforward and doesn’t lie to someone. If Harry was now her friend, she was going to tell it like it is to him. That personality trait she worried wouldn’t make her long for his world.

“So the cardigan? Do you have it here?” Harry changes the subject, clearly not wanting to actually consider a realistic friendship together instead just charging ahead with no hesitation. Whatever happened they would deal with it as it came. Maybe she should just go with the flow, let herself be swept up into his madness. Maybe it would be easier than fighting it.

“No.”

“Oh?”

“I do, I was joking. Where else would it be?” Her tone is light, trying to get back the shine she had seen Harry exhibit before it had vanished.

Maybe that was Harry’s effect on people. He was vibrant and like an Elton John song. You never wanted that shine to go away, never wanted the song to end. Never wanted him to stop shining his light on you. She felt this happening in just a few hours with him. When he was happy so was she and when he wasn’t entirely shining she wanted to do whatever she could to get it back.

A smile curls on his face and his green eyes narrow slightly. He’s trying to figure her out, know what she’s all about.

“Do you want to go and grab it?” His voice sweetening, almost like a tease. Maybe he means to bite his lip, maybe he doesn’t, but the effect on her is nonetheless earthshaking.

She pops up and smiles back, happy to have made him happy. As she walks out of the room to go get the cardigan that had started this all, her head tilts and she furrows her brow wondering why she felt such a sense of pride just for making him happy.

Would this man cause her to finally put someone else’s wishes ahead of hers?

-

“Are you on your way?”

She listens to Harry’s slightly worried voice crackle over the speaker of her phone as she shuts her door with the hand not holding her phone to her ear. His voice is raspy and muffled. She assumes it’s from the cold air of London at night and the scarf he is likely got wrapped around his neck.

“Yes! Jeez, I’m on my way. Walking over right now.”

It’s the final match for Harry’s football team and if they win the game then they get a trophy and it’s all Harry has been talking about since they got coffee and she handed over her cardigan.

Harry huffed an “alright” on the other side of the line and she called a “see you soon” before hanging up.

He was both eager for Y/N to come and possibly meet some of his teammates and a few of his close friends who he had invited and for her to arrive so that she wasn’t walking out late at night alone. He hadn’t known her for long, but he felt a certain protectiveness over her. She was relatively alone here, only two friends at work that she had mentioned and everyone else lived far away. She said she didn’t mind it, but Harry had a hard time understanding it since he surrounded himself with his friends as much as he could and was constantly either traveling or having them travel to see him.

He had even contemplated inviting her to come to Los Angeles with him for a month, but knew she would remind him of her ever important job that she couldn’t just randomly take a month off.

He’d have to ask her what exactly she did because every time he tried to remember, it always slipped his mind.

When her figure came into sight below the fluorescent lights, he breathed a sigh of relief. A grin spread on his face as she beamed at him and waved a bit. He didn’t understand how she couldn’t see how special she was. Every time he saw her he felt himself straighten up and feel a bubbling in his chest. Her smile was infectious and the way her eyes glittered when she looked away quickly and then returned eye contact made him want to stay in her presence forever.

“You made it!” Harry said and scooped her up in his arms, not realizing just how happy he was to see her, swinging her around in a half circle.

She laughs in surprise, but appreciates the warmth Harry’s hug offers her. She’s not quite sure they had ever touched each other before this moment beside shoulder brushes and hand touches. Nothing so...purposeful.

“I made it,” she confirms and pats him on his broad shoulders.

Questions in her mind raced as she questioned whether it was normal for friendships to happen like this. She knew in college friendships could happen this quickly. And that’s when it dawned on her, she really hadn’t made a new friend since college and that was why everything with Harry was so odd to her. She had forgotten what new friendship was. She needed to stop questioning everything and just live in the moment with a person she really liked being with.

Harry’s hands move from her waist and one stays to lead her forward so he can introduce her to some of his mates, as he had promised.

She felt at home in that moment. His hand on the small of her back, his heat radiating off of him and her hair swept behind her ears and her cheek pressed to his shoulder staring up at him sweetly.

She meets Charlotte, a member of Harry’s band who lives in London, her boyfriend, Mitch (who had just happened to find himself in Hampstead this weekend), Ben, and a few more people she couldn’t remember all the names of.

Harry’s team wins the game and Y/N’s not sure if she’s ever seen someone so happy to win an adult league football match. There wasn’t any official trophy except the one Harry had made himself and said he would even give to the other team if they won. It was engraved with the words “The World’s Greatest Football Team of Stars Ever. October 22, 2020”. It doesn’t even make sense but she’d been holding it for the entire night as he played.

He goes down the line of his friends who have been watching and gives them all jubilant kisses on the lips. When he reaches Y/N she holds out the trophy and he grins and gives her a kiss on the cheek. His lips are surprisingly soft and his scratchy stubble tickles her and she swiftly pulls back, a smile on her face and blush on her cheeks nonetheless.

Charlotte and Mitch share a look between the two of them and Ben’s eyes narrow slightly at the interaction. His eyes narrow just as they had when Harry had strutted over to the group with Y/N before the game. He had happily named everyone and she had shaken all of their hands with a warm smile on her lips. Ben had regarded her warily and she had shaken it off as the chill of the night air. But there it was again, not quite trusting of the neighbour girl Harry had just randomly befriended a few days ago.

The team and the friends of the team decide they deserve to celebrate this win, mostly at the request of Harry.

Y/N tries to find a time to leave, to return to her place so she can prepare for her day at work tomorrow. But no excuses will be heard from Harry and she has a hard time saying no to his sparkling eyes and gorgeous grin that she’s growing far too accustomed to.

She’s ushered down to the closest pub with the rest of them and finds herself chatting with Charlotte’s boyfriend. He’s the most...normal. She’s not sure how to explain it, but he doesn’t seem to be regarding her as different, unlike every other one of Harry’s friends. They were all perfectly nice and cordial with her, but she just felt like she wasn’t a part of their group, their world and she didn’t know how to explain it.

Charlotte and Mitch are rather nice too, but they’re more reserved with her. They’re musicians, like Harry, and they somewhat have that air of awareness around them that Harry sometimes gets. She thinks it’s from the fame, having to constantly be wary of who is around you, what everyone is doing, what is happening next. She doesn’t mind it, it’s just not something she’s used to.

She wishes she could just throw back some drinks and she could allow herself to be more...well just be more. More of a presence, more of herself, but she has a job she has to get to bright and early. Tomorrow was Monday and for her that meant work. So she sips a beer that Harry insisted be on his tab and she makes small talk with Charlotte’s boyfriend about how he’s been helping her produce her first EP. Charlotte occasionally pops in when she hears her name, but mostly is conversing with Mitch over something silly. Y/N knows because they keep laughing.  

Harry is going around to just about everyone in the party and she watches as he happily talks with every one of his friends. He’s ecstatic and she wonders if she’s ever experienced happiness like he has.

At midnight she attempts to make a French exit, as her mother always called it, and slip away with little to no farewells, but Harry spots her before she can.

“You’re leaving already?” Harry asks loudly, the euphoria of winning his silly little game and drinking a fair amount of pints has him at his peak boisterity.

“I have work tomorrow,” she says warily, slumping slightly from the weight of Harry’s arm slinging around her shoulder.

He turns serious and straightens up slightly, his green eyes looking especially dark in the pubs dim lighting as they look her dead in the eye. “Let me walk you home.”

“I can get home by myself,” she laughs, shrugging off his hold. “Plus, the host can’t leave his own celebration.” She gestures to everyone else happily celebrating on a Sunday, somehow not bothered by the beginning of the average week.

He steps closer, his brow furrowing for the first time that night. One of his large hands raises to his tousled hair and he runs it through the tresses. He even nibbles at his lower lip as he contemplates his decision. Then quickly and suddenly, he makes up his mind,

“No, I’ll escort you. Can’t have my neighbour walk home this late alone. I’ll just leave my card with Mitch. He’ll settle up the tab.” He smiles at his perfect plan and she grimaces feeling slightly embarrassed that he would leave his friends to walk her home. “Won’t you Mitch?” Harry calls as he grabs his coat from the wall next to the door. Mitch simply nods and Harry yells his farewells, Y/N waves meekly.

“That was...interesting,” she mulls over her words as they walk through the cold night air outside of the pub.

“Amazing, right?” Harry speaks over her less enthusiastic voice.

“You have a lot of friends,” she mused, trying to sound less disheartened than she had in her last statement.

Harry only hums and shivers slightly from the cold. His breath comes clearly out in puffs in the cold night air. Y/N’s is muffled by her scarf wrapped tightly up to her chin. She’s tucked his face as far into it as possible but her nose won’t stop from freezing as they walk.

Her hand goes up to it and she rests her palm to the tip of it. The motion grabs Harry’s attention and he looks directly at her curiously.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m freezing,” she muffles out, “This helps my cold nose not be so..cold.”

He chuckles and wraps his arm around her shoulder and she easily folds into him, welcoming any warmth right now.

After another moment of silence and them enjoying each other’s warmth and slight smell of whatever perfumes they had chosen earlier that night as well as beer and wood of the pub, Harry nuzzles his head above hers and then asks her something.

“Was that overwhelming for you?”

She’s quiet, thankful his eyes can’t reach hers right now. He was too powerful with those things.

“I, um, a little. I just...I just realized today that I haven’t made a new friend since college outside of work and it was overwhelming just hanging out with you. So all of your friends as well, yeah, it was a bit much for me.”

Harry looks out at the empty street ahead of them and sighs in realization. In his excitement, he hadn’t accounted how she might have felt tonight until just now. He wanted to kick himself for not thinking of her feelings, but other’s feelings slipped his mind so easily sometimes.

They round their street corner and she nuzzles back into his side.

“I’m sorry, love.” He rubs at her outer arm, “I didn’t think about it like that. I was just so excited for my plan to come together. Maybe next time, it’ll just be a couple of them rather than so many?”

“Sure,” she says quickly, wanting to make him happy, knowing how much he cared about his friends. “I feel like we need to hang out more with just you before I osmos into your friend group though if I’m being honest.”

“Well that can definitely be arranged,” he says and reluctantly lets go of her body. They’ve arrived at her door.

“I also want to see the inside of your house at some point.” She tugs at one of his hands before it can disappear into his warm coat pocket. “Houses,” she corrects.

“That can also be arranged,” Harry smiles with his lips closed. Pink lips and rosy cheeks extra bright from the cold. He plays with her fingers as the two stand close to one another, happy for the alone time and chalking the proximity up to heat sharing.

“You leave tomorrow right?” She finally asks.

His head falls and he sighs.

“Yeah…”

“It’s just a month,” she smiles, trying to stop Harry from being so dramatic. Especially when there was no logical reason for him to be so upset over not seeing his neighbour - she keeps telling herself.

“Are you sure you can’t quit your job and just fly out with me?” He pleads.

She throws her head back in laughter and shifts closer to him, her front porch light illuminating and shadowing every perfect place on Harry’s gorgeous face.

“Not even a chance.”

“That is a shame,” he takes an experimental step closer and she feels his breath fan across her cheeks at his last word.

She wrinkles his nose at the smell of his last beer, even though coming from him it was endearing.

Just as she feels him being to shift his head closer, she steps forward and gives him a tight hug.

“Goodnight Harry,” she whispers into his ear, “Safe travels.”

Then she’s stepping back and swiftly unlocking her door. She moves it slowly so as to not wake Rori and then Harry’s left alone and dumbfounded on her doorstep.

He definitely preferred being with her alone, but now he didn’t even have that chance until next month. And nonetheless she had just sidestepped his kiss with such ease he’s not even sure if he meant to kiss her. It had felt right, but why? Because it was cold and picture perfect? Or because he was enchanted by her and liked her as more than a new friend?

She slumps in her kitchen and fixes an Emergen-C to stave off the chill of the night and any germs that might have been lurking around the pub. She hopes when she walks to her bedroom she can check the front porch and see that Harry has gone home because she would hate to turn the light off on him.

How could he have expected her to kiss him just then? They’ve only just met each other a few weeks ago? And he’s Harry Styles and she just lives in the neighbourhood. What the actual fuck had happened to her life?

[ladyherenya]

This was more-books-than-sometimes month, because rather than take the time to write about the books I'd finished, I just read more books! Also, I read a lot over the Easter break, including some shorter books and a very binge-able series.

Also read: Two-Step and Someone Like Me by Stephanie Fournet, Hooked by Cathy Yardley, “Cloudy with a Chance of Dropbears” and “All the Different Shades of Blue” by W.R. Gingell, and “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” by Martha Wells.

Reread: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

Total: nineteen novels (including two audiobooks and one reread), one novella collection, two novellas, two novelettes and one short story.

Cover thoughts: Bellewether’s blue cover is (unsurprisingly) my favourite. I also really like The Ghosts of Sherwood. 

Still reading: A Portrait of Loyalty by Roseanna M. White and Playing Hearts by W.R. Gingell.

Next up: Torch by R.J. Anderson.

My full reviews are on Dreamwidth and LibraryThing.

*

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (narrated by Saskia Maarleveld): Historical mystery about three young women who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII.

My favourite out of the books I’ve read so far this year. Most of the narrative is set during the war, but interspersed with sections set in 1947 -- when Beth, in a sanitarium after a breakdown, has sent her two estranged friends a coded message begging for help. I loved this, but at times found it stressful and heartbreaking! The writing is so lively and effective and emotional. 4½ ★

 *

Castle Charming by Tansy Raynor Roberts: Fairytale retellings, collection of novellas.

A very entertaining and a somewhat different take on fairytales, focusing on the reporters, Royal Hounds and royalty at Castle Charming. Some of the character dynamics felt similar to those in Roberts’ Unreal Alchemy although I didn’t feel quite as attached to these characters. I’ll read the sequel. 3 ★ 

*

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley: Historical and contemporary fiction, set in Long Island during the so-called Seven Years War in 1759 and the present day.

Alternates between a curator overseeing turning a house in a museum and some of the house’s previous occupants, including a French-Canadian Lieutenant awaiting hostage exchange. Despite the various tensions the characters face, there’s something slow and ultimately gentle about this story. Which is lovely --  I enjoyed the picturesque sense of place and astute observations of people -- but it is less dramatic than I was expecting. 3½ ★

*

Happy Trail by Daisy Prescott: Contemporary romance, set on the Appalachian Trail.

A park ranger and a hiker shelter together during a storm. I was fascinated by the insight into hiking the Appalachian Trail and enjoyed some of the characters’ interactions, although I thought the way the romance unfolded was somewhat anticlimactic. Not always what I wanted, but I don't regret reading it.

*

Legacy by Stephanie Fournet: Contemporary enemies-to-roommates-to-lovers.

Wes offers to move in with his late-best friend’s girlfriend to help her out financially. This sort of hurt/comfort appeals to me. I liked how seriously this story takes Corinne’s messy, consuming grief. I don’t really want to spend any more time with the characters, but I was very invested in seeing them reach a better place in their lives.

Two-Step by Stephanie Fournet: Contemporary romance between an actress and a dance instructor. I enjoyed reading this. I particularly enjoyed how Beau helps Iris with her anxiety about dancing and with her controlling mother/manager. He’s very supportive and understanding! But I finished this with a niggling feeling of dissatisfaction -- Iris needed more opportunity to support Beau in turn.

Someone Like Me by Stephanie Fournet: Contemporary romance between a yoga instructor and her new neighbour, who has just got out of prison.

This one didn’t particularly appeal to me. Although interesting to see the experiences of someone recently released from prison, the romance developed too quickly.

(No, I didn’t read all three of these back-to-back!)

*

Hooked by Cathy Yardley: Contemporary fandom-y romance novella, set near Seattle. Takes place during Level Up and is about two of Tessa’s colleagues.

I enjoyed the characters' interactions and would have liked this more if it hadn't felt rushed. 

*

The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn: Historical Robin Hood retelling, novella.

Exactly what I wanted! It alternates between Robin and Marian’s eldest daughter, Mary, and Marian herself. I liked seeing Robin and Marian as a long-married couple, who still love each other and still have disagreements. And the dynamic between their children gave me a zing of recognition, reminding me of my siblings. 3½ ★

*

The City Between by W.R. Gingell: Australian YA urban fantasy (murder) mysteries. Set in Hobart.

I ended up enjoying this series so much more than I’d expected to!

Between Jobs: After a neighbour is murdered, our seventeen-year-old orphaned narrator acquires some unexpected housemates -- two fae, one vampire. Once I got past the opening, with its tales of murder, the worldbuilding intrigued me. I still wasn’t sure what I thought about her housemates or the fact that they call her “Pet”, but was willing to reserve judgement until I’d read more. 3 ★

Between Shifts: About supermarket shifts and shapeshifters. Pet and JinYeong go undercover at the local grocery store. This is a reasonable murder mystery. I was initially disappointed with how something played out (but in retrospect can see how that was actually a positive development for Pet). It ended on a cliffhanger, so I was extra motivated to start the next book. 2½ ★

Between Floors: This is where the series took off, because things suddenly get personal! One of her fae housemates has been captured and the closest any of them get to finding Athelas is Pet contacting him in her dreams.This raises a lot of interesting questions, not just about Pet’s abilities, but about her relationship with her housemates. How much does she trust them and how much do they value Pet’s personhood? 3½ ★

Between Frames: Pet’s housemates are hired to investigate a series of fae deaths around Hobart, which involves scrutinising some baffling security footage.  Another solid murder mystery.  The final pages felt like one step forward, two steps back, but yet again, in retrospect, this was a positive development. I’m glad I could dive immediately into the next book. 3 ★

Between Homes: Pet has moved in with some friends. Hurray for Pet having friends! I think this was the point where I started to feel comfortable with Pet calling herself Pet -- when it's the name used by people she likes and trusts and who don’t view her as a pet at all. 3½ ★

“Cloudy with a Chance of Dropbears” (novelette): An awesome title and an entertaining opportunity to see Pet from someone else’s perspective -- moreover, someone who doesn’t know her or what she’s capable of. 3 ★

Between Walls: Pet’s friend Morgana is worried about an online friends and asks Pet and co to investigate his disappearance. Along the way, they discover that there are human groups who actually know a lot about Behindkind. I am also becoming increasingly entertained by the Korean vampire. 3 ★

“All the Different Shades of Blue” (novelette): A great cover and it explains who that guy at the cafe is, but otherwise didn’t really do anything Cloudy with a Chance of Dropbears hadn’t already done -- ie., show us Pet from someone else’s perspective. Most of the time, I have enjoyed this series all the more for binging it, but I suspect this particular story would have worked better if I had read it after a period of absence. 2½ ★

Between Cases:  My favourite of these have been the ones where things get personal, and this involves a lot of revelations about who Pet is -- from a fae perspective -- and why her parents were murdered. I enjoyed this one a lot. 3½ ★

*

The Duke of Olympia Meets His Match by Juliana Gray: Historical espionage romance novella, set in 1893 onboard an ocean liner travelling to England. Apparently not the Duke’s first appearance in Gray’s fiction.

I liked the idea here much better than the execution. I liked Penelope, a fifty-year-old widow dependent upon her position as a governess, and I enjoyed her interactions with the older Duke of Olympia. But parts of the spy plot were rushed or confusing, and the resolution was almost-but-not-entirely satisfying. 2½ ★

*

A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer: Fantasy. Follows on from the fairytale-retelling A Curse So Dark and Lonely and its sequel, A Heart So Fierce and Broken.

If this is meant as a conclusion to a trilogy, then the ending was a bit too anticlimactic, with a few too many loose ends, to be really satisfying. But I reached the end feeling positive about the story, because I really enjoyed the characters’ interactions. All of the protagonists have to deal with conflict in relationships. I loved the times when they each navigate these conflicts by acting fairly and communicating honestly, when doing so is often difficult and complicated. That’s realistic and satisfying. 3½ ★

*

“Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” by Martha Wells:  Science-fiction short story. Part of The Murderbot Diaries series, set after Exit Strategy.

Very, very short but I really liked seeing things from Dr Ayda Mensah’s (third person) perspective. 3½ ★

*

Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace: Historical coming-of-age fiction, set in Minnesota in 1912-3.

I am very glad to finally have read this! It’s delightful, a fascinating insight into community life in a Minnesotan town, and it effectively captures the emotional experience of navigating a period of transition. After high school, Emily’s friends  leave for college, but Emily has to find her own path to purposefully fill her time, build connections and further her education. 4 ★

*

On Wings of Devotion by Roseanna M. White (narrated by Susan Lyons): Romantic historical mystery, set in London during 1918. Christian fiction. Features characters from The Number of Love.

Arabelle Denler is a nurse working in a London hospital; Phillip Camden is an airman now working for British Intelligence. I enjoyed their interactions, especially once they start to get to know each other. I didn’t like the antagonist’s contribution to this narrative -- between the dangers of wartime and the protagonists’ respective issues, there’s enough tension without her. But what I enjoyed about this story outweighed what I didn’t. 3½ ★

*

Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson: Historical fiction set during the Nazi occupation of Italy in WWII.

Nina, a young Jewish woman from Venice, goes into hiding by pretending she’s married to Nico, a Catholic farmer. Robson’s strength lies in pairing details of daily life with likeable characters, realistic dialogue and a sweet romance. I read this quickly and eagerly. But if the characters had been more nuanced, more complex, or if their emotions had been conveyed more vividly, I likely would have found reading this a more emotional experience. 3½ ★

[whatsyourdamage-veronica]

When The World Ends, What Comes Next?

He’s like fire, Veronica thinks, at some point in their relationship-after Chandler, after they’ve killed the queen bee of Westerburg High (and possibly the entire town of Sherwood), but not by much. She pushes the thoughts of what they’ve done out of her mind, and smiles as she thinks of the way he warms her from the inside out. 

She doesn’t think, then, that he could burn her. She knows playing with fire ends up in burns, but she thinks they’re different. They smolder slowly, she thinks, a fire to last a lifetime. Not the kind of fire that destroys, the kind of fire that warms.

They’re on her bed, her parents asleep across the hallway, tangled up in each other and just enjoying each other’s company. JD’s lips are against her skin, her lips and shoulder and collarbone, and every time he presses a gentle kiss where he’s murmuring words of love and admiration, Veronica feels like he’s touching her with a live wire. It makes her stomach swoop in the best way, and she thinks she’d give almost anything to just stay like this forever. 

She’ll think back on that and realize that even then, maybe she should have seen that their relationship was like a firework; burning brilliantly across the sky before it exploded and disappeared. 

~~

In the short weeks before Heather and Heather lure Veronica to the graveyard in the middle of the night, she spends almost all her free time with him, and she feels like she couldn’t be happier.

Heather Duke has tried to take over the role Heather Chandler used to fill, and Veronica can’t deny the pang of guilt and sorrow she feels when she walks into the lunchroom and sees green and yellow, but no red. Duke hasn’t quite dared to reclaim the color yet. 

She starts skipping lunch, instead finding hidden corners of empty classrooms or the school gym or even the library, on slower days, and spends her lunch break with JD. Sometimes they talk, but most of the time she doesn’t get a word in before his lips are on hers, and she melts into his kiss, forgetting everything she had to say. She’s learned how to bite her lip to keep the gasps and moans hidden as his mouth and his hands roam her body, learned how and where to touch him to make him speed up, make him claim her even more thoroughly. She’s lost count of the times she’s had to pull her blazer up just enough to hide the hickeys he leaves, but he’s always careful not to leave them on her neck, just her collarbones and decolletage. 

She tells her mother she’s joined a book club that meets after school and she’ll be coming home late after school. Her mother smiles and tells her that’s great, she’s glad to see Veronica getting out and about again, she’d been so withdrawn after poor Heather’s suicide. Veronica doesn’t know what to say, so she just bites the inside of her cheek and nods an agreement. 

It’s not entirely a lie, she thinks as she lays with her head on JD’s lap in the park, under a tree, dappled sunlight highlighting his hair and cheekbones and lips as he reads from his old, worn copy of Baudelaire’s poems. Most days, she gets tired of it after two or three poems, and she pushes the book aside as she climbs into his lap and loses herself in his touch again. Some days, she’s content just to listen to his voice. 

Sometimes she looks at him and marvels that he can love her so much and so completely. He’s not exactly the type she would have thought would be romantic and sweet, but he tells her he’d do anything for her, he whispers his love for her against her lips and across her body and between her legs, and she revels in it. She revels in the fact that she’s the one to bring the Baudelaire-quoting badass to his knees if she asks him, that she’s the one he’s chosen to adore. She’s special; out of all the women he’s met, he tells her, he hasn't loved any until her, and she loves that. She loves him. 

In hindsight, she realizes that wasn’t healthy. She realizes she shouldn’t have let him make her his entire world. It’s his fault for planning to murder two people in cold blood (she still counts Chandler as an accident, because she can’t quite bring herself to acknowledge that he knew, after what she’d said, that the drain cleaner would kill her) and planning to blow up a school, but it’s her fault too, for not walking away from him the first time he put her up on the pedestal she’d so enjoyed at first. 

It’s addictive, she thinks, to be worshiped. To be treated like a goddess, an angel, a queen. And she was barely seventeen. She didn’t know better. 

It doesn’t really help ease the guilt.

~~

Veronica isn’t stupid. 

Her grades are near perfect. She aces her tests. She’s smart, her IQ is high, she’s the model student. 

She knew all along that there was no such thing as tranquilizer bullets. She knew, she knows, and she chose to ignore it. Chose to believe the man who said he worshiped her, who promised with what she now sees was a sickly sweet smile that he’d make her problems go away. That Kurt and Ram would never hurt her again. She chose to think it’s because they’d be too humiliated to mess with her. 

Sometimes she wonders in the dead of night, when she wakes from nightmares of red scrunchies and white briefs and black trenchcoats, if she’d really wanted to kill them. She must have, she reasons, because otherwise she would have said no, would have insisted on another way. 

She knows she can’t chalk it all up to the half truths and twisted lies JD managed to plant in her mind, can’t blame it all on him. She’s guilty too, she’s got the blood of four people on her hands, and she’ll never be clean of that. 

She knows she couldn’t have saved him. She knows he was the perfect storm, ready to implode. Knows the day his mother died, a part of him died too, a part of him he’d never be able to get back.

She knows losing that part of him had irreparably damaged him. That part of him could never be filled with anything else, no matter how much she’d loved him. Maybe at one point, that wasn’t true, but he was too far gone by the time she’d met him. 

Love doesn’t fix things, she knows. But on the days she can’t get out of bed, the days she just cries or stares at the wall, the days her mother casts her worried glances as she brings food Veronica doesn’t touch, she wishes with everything she has, everything she is, that it could. She wishes he was here, wishes she had known how to fix him, wishes she could go back and stop his mother from walking into that building. 

Sometimes, in her dreams, he’s there. They’re back in the park, his lips forming the words of a poem she can’t quite hear. She always interrupts, always tells him she loves him, always tells him how much she wishes she could have saved him, how much she wishes she could have been enough.

He frowns at her, a beautiful figment of her imagination, and tells her he loves her too, but what does she mean? He’s not gone. He’s right here. And she’s always enough. 

She always wakes from those dreams with tears on her face. 

~~

She thinks about the scene in the boiler room a lot. It’s almost constantly on her mind the first few weeks after his death.

She remembers the way she’d looked into his eyes and realized the boy she’d loved, the boy who held her close after her nightmares had started, the boy who kissed her sweet and slow and read her French poems, was gone. He’d snapped, lost his mind, finally been driven to a final act of desperation in the war his life had become. It doesn’t make anything okay, doesn’t disarm the bomb or unpoison Heather Chandler or unshoot Kurt and Ram or unwrite the suicide notes, but Veronica pleads with him anyway. Even as he points his gun at her head, even as she has to focus on her breathing in order to keep herself calm and not break into sobs, she asks him to come with her, to disable the bomb, to just forget it all and choose her again. 

She feels her heart break all over again every time she remembers the fierce snarl on his face, the way he’d ignored her stretched out hand, the way he’d cocked the gun, his finger on the trigger. She feels her stomach twist as she remembers the way she’d stared down the barrel of the gun and thought she might die, right then and there, and then the school would go up in flames. 

She remembers all too vividly her hands on his, their bodies intertwined again in a very different dance, the way she’d desperately wished she could just get the gun from him and maybe then he’d see sense, maybe then he’d come back. She remembers the way her heart had stopped when she felt the gun kick and heard it fire, remembers the way it had kicked into overdrive as she’d pressed her hands to her own stomach, expecting to feel blood, remembers tasting copper and fear on her tongue as he gazed at her in shock for a long second before he fell. 

She tries not to remember the way he’d caressed her face on the football field, the way she’d flinched away from his touch as she felt his bloody hand leave a red print on her cheek, the way his eyes had been so, so sad as he’d stumbled backwards with the bomb (a Norwegian, she remembers it being called, on that sick, dark day she’d had no choice but to break up with the boy she’d thought would be the love of her life) clutched to his chest. 

She can’t help but remember the way her heart dropped and her stomach swooped sickeningly as he smiled at her for the last time. Her love, her JD, her sweet, too-broken boy, bloodied and bruised and broken on the outside now like he’d been on the inside for as long as she’d known him. He smiled at her, and she felt a sob wrench itself from her chest. 

By the time she’d realized she wanted to die with him, by the time she’d made up her mind that if he deserves to die then so does she, the countdown is too short for her to reach him before the bomb explodes. 

~~

Life goes on, because it has to, but Veronica can’t. 

She graduates high school but she doesn’t choose a college. She can’t. She knows she wouldn’t be able to focus, knows she’d fail her classes. She gets a job, moves into her own tiny apartment, drags herself through day after repetitive day. 

After work, as she sits at her table and picks at the food she’d barely had the energy to make, she sees the ones she’d killed. Heather, still in her red floral silk robe, tongue blue and hair gathered in her red scrunchie, seems to realize that Veronica will break if she’s pushed too far, and mostly stays quiet. She just sits across the table, eyeing Veronica resentfully as Veronica tries her hardest to ignore her. 

Kurt and Ram aren’t quite so considerate, but they were far less close to Veronica when they were alive, so she finds it easier to ignore them. And though they antagonize her, even they know better than to needle her about JD, because if she ceases to exist, they might too, and she thinks they enjoy her pain too much to risk it. 

She doesn’t see JD at all. She doesn’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. She misses him desperately, but the other three bear the marks of how they died, and she doesn’t want to see JD’s form if it’s broken and battered, singed and smoky. She doesn’t know what a person looks like after they’ve exploded, doesn’t want to know. 

She tells herself things will get better. Hopes with everything she has that they will. Doesn’t quite believe her own words.

Some days the only thing that keeps her going is the knowledge that wherever he is, if he’s anywhere, JD wouldn’t want her to die. She remembers the brokenness of his voice as he fell to his knees in front of what he thought was her dead body, remembers the tears in his voice even if she didn’t see the tears in his eyes, the way she knew he’d thought she left him just like everyone else. She thinks she has to make up for that somehow. She doesn’t owe him anything, she knows, but she wants to do everything she can to clean the slate, to make up for the hurt she’s caused.

She can’t not go on. She has to at least try and do some good in the world. She just can’t, not yet, not until she’s sure she won’t crumble to pieces at any given moment.

She starts with a plan. She’s not going to go to an Ivy League school anymore. She was a completely different person when she made those plans. She finds a community college, in Columbus, one she can do mostly online classes for in the beginning, and slowly starts with taking a few credits at a time. It wears her out some days, but she pushes herself through.

And as she does, she feels her broken parts, her jagged edges, her shattered heart start to mend. It isn’t much. She still wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, still has days she can’t get out of bed, still has to pause sometimes to take deep breaths at work so she doesn’t cry. But those things get less frequent as she finds other things to focus on.

Heather and Kurt and Ram have faded away, disappearing slowly as she learned how to move on and cope with the things she’s done and the losses she’s suffered. Even on the days she’s alone and broken and wishing for company, she doesn’t miss them at all.

She doesn’t declare a major for a long time. It takes her years to admit to herself what she’s known she wants to do from the second she realized how bad JD’s home life was, since she’d seen what it had done to him. But the day she turns in her papers declaring her intent to become a social worker and a counselor, she feels a huge weight lift off her chest.

~~

That night, she has a dream she hasn’t had in a long time. Her head is on JD’s lap again, his fingers idly stroking through her hair as he recites a poem from memory. She can’t quite hear him, but she knows the poem is one of love and adoration, just like they used to be. 

She starts to sit up, starts to apologize, starts to tell him she loves him just like she always does, but this dream breaks from the way her dreams usually go. He smiles down at her, fingers still tangled in her hair, and her breath catches in her chest as she sees the boy she’d loved in his eyes, the boy she could have happily spent a lifetime with, the boy whose love for her wouldn’t be obsessive or all-consuming or unhealthy.

He leans down and kisses her forehead, murmuring words of thanks and love and apology. She feels tears welling up, reaches up to caress his cheek, taking a shuddering breath at how warm and solid and real his skin feels under her fingers. 

“Veronica,” he says quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to her hairline, “thank you.”

“Thank you for what?” she replies, sitting up straight to look him in the eyes. “I killed you.”

He smiles softly at her, shaking his head. 

“You didn’t,” he says. “That was all me. I pushed you and pushed you until you didn’t have a choice. And I’m sorry for that. But you...you tried to save me. Even after everything I’d done. Even though I hurt you, over and over, you didn’t hate me.”

“I could never,” she chokes out, feeling her heart break all over again. “I love you so much.”

“I know,” he replies, cupping her cheek. She closes her eyes and nestles into his palm. It feels so real, and if it’s a dream, she doesn’t want to wake up. “I know, Veronica. And I love you too. And I know what you’re doing, what you’re becoming, and it means so much to me.”

She loses the battle, feels tears begin to fall, and he gives her the saddest smile she’s ever seen him wear.

“JD, I can’t-”

“Shh,” he interrupts. “You can. You have, and you are, and you will. I’m gone. I know you know that. I can’t undo that. Neither can you. So the only way to go is forward. You’re doing that, you know. Every day. But Ronnie...you have to let me go.”

“No,” she whimpers, tries to reach out to hold him, but he grabs her wrists and holds her hands together in front of her.

“Yes,” he says calmly. “Veronica, I loved you as much as I could. But we both know it wouldn’t have worked, in the end. You couldn’t have fixed me. You couldn’t have saved me, no matter how hard you tried. It’s time to stop beating yourself up about it. I don’t know if you even realize it, but you’re dragging me around, keeping the memory of me too close, and you have to let go.”

She breaks down, harsh sobs filling the peaceful air, and he reaches out to pull her close. She buries her face in his chest and cries, mourning all the things she’d refused to acknowledge for years. The nights together they’ll never have, the rings they’ll never wear, the children who will never run around and play in the yard and make a mess of the house. 

After a while, when her tears have subsided and her breath has calmed, as she listens to the steady pounding of his heart, he nestles his chin on the top of her head and sighs.

“I know you don’t want to,” he says softly. “I know it hurts. I don’t want you to either. But we both know it’s what you need to do. Veronica, if there’s an afterlife past this, I promise I’ll be right here to go there with you.”

She nods, cheek still pressed against his chest for a moment before he moves a gentle hand under her chin and pulls her up to look him in the eyes again.

“I love you,” he whispers. “I love you so much. Live a good life, Veronica Sawyer. I know you will. You’ll make a difference in this world, and even if it’s only for individual people, it will mean so much. And when it’s all over, just imagine me, and I’ll be there.”

“I love you too,” she says, pressing her forehead to his. “I’ll never stop loving you. I’ll miss you so much.”

He leans forward and presses his lips gently to hers. She kisses him back, soft and slow, with tears in her eyes again.

She wakes with tears on her cheeks, alone in her bed, and lets herself cry. She knows that with the morning sun, she’ll take a deep breath and let him go, like taking off a heavy coat she’s been wearing for far too long.

But just for tonight, she’ll finish letting herself mourn.

~~~

The years pass quickly. Veronica Sawyer graduates at the top of her class, gets her masters in social work, and immediately begins working in Texas. She knows the reason she chose that state, she acknowledges it, and then she lets it go and moves on with the work she’s chosen.

She sees things she wishes she hadn’t. Terrible things, terrible people, terrified children. And she fights her hardest to save every single one she can. If she can save even one child from ending up like JD, she thinks, she’ll consider it a success.

She becomes the most beloved social worker in most of the state. She’s called in for the most desperate cases, the children who are broken and exhausted and won’t talk to or work with anyone else. She knows she might not be able to save them. She knows she won’t ever be able to completely heal someone, that feeling pain and loss and terror leaves a scar. She’s got scars too, and she didn’t go through anything even close to what these children have. 

She might not ever understand. She knows that. She sees JD in their eyes; broken, bruised, battered. She knows that they need help, they need love, they need things she can’t give them. But she tries her best to help them see that life isn’t a battle, that they don’t have to live in a war zone. She goes to court and fights tooth and nail, she goes to the homes of prospective foster parents and makes sure everything is how it’s supposed to be, and she makes sure the children she helps know that she’s there for them no matter what.

She eventually does get married, but she never gives birth to children of her own. She adopts two, not children she works with but the most troubled cases from other places, ones that everyone says they can’t handle. She does her best to parent them from a place of love, even when it’s hard. She thinks they turn out all right; one of her children becomes a lawyer, one becomes an artist, and she thinks she couldn’t love either of them more. She becomes a grandmother a little late in life, but she finds she doesn’t mind. 

Her spouse passes first, in a tragic car accident. She’s crushed, and spends weeks trying not to fall into the same depression she did after high school. This time, though, she has children and grandchildren to help, and help they do. 

~~

Eventually, she gets sick. Pneumonia, the doctors say as she lays in a hospital bed for days at a time. There are days she can barely breathe on her own. Complication after complication keeps throwing wrenches into her healing process.

On her worst days, she sees a shadow at the edge of her vision. She knows who it is, and she knows it’s not time yet. 

She thinks it’s terribly ironic that he’ll end up being her angel of death. 

The day comes, weeks later, when she knows she can’t fight it anymore. They send her home on hospice, and she feels nothing but relief. 

Her children and grandchildren gather around. She tells them all how very much she loves them, and how much good they’re doing in the world. How much good they still have yet to do. She holds their hands and whispers words of love and praise and goodbye.

In the early morning hours, she feels her heart falter, and she knows it’s time. She closes her eyes and imagines JD in front of her, as perfect and young as the day they met. He appears slowly, sunlight in his hair, and she stands carefully, smiling at him. 

“Hello, Veronica,” he says with a smile. She takes a step towards him, and behind her, her bed fades away, replaced with the perfect green field she used to see in her dreams. 

She doesn’t say anything, just launches herself into his arms, tears in her eyes as he catches her and cradles her close. 

“Oh, I missed you, my love,” she whispers, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head. 

“I missed you too,” he says. “Oh, Veronica, you are...amazing. I’m so proud of you. Everything you did, everything you were.”

She pulls back to kiss him, sees her hand on his face, and stops in wonder. It’s smooth, free of the wrinkles and lines she’d gathered throughout her lifetime. She moves one hand to touch her face, finding the same thing. She’s young again, she realizes, and lets out a happy laugh.

“I’m staying this time,” she breathes, and he beams at her. She doesn’t let him answer before she’s grabbing his face and kissing him hard, pouring all the love and longing from the years into the kiss. He pulls her close as he returns her kiss with the same fervor.

When she pulls away, he chuckles and takes her hand.

“You’re staying,” he echoes, twining his fingers with hers. “C’mon, should we figure out what’s on the other side of this field?”

She laughs, moving her hand to loop her arm through his and resting her head against his arm as they begin to walk.

“With you,” she says, “I’d go anywhere.”

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Anita Louise (born Anita Louise Fremault; January 9, 1915 – April 25, 1970) was an American film and television actress best known for her performances in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938) and The Little Princess (1939). She was named as a WAMPAS Baby Star, and frequently described as one of the cinema's more fashionable and stylish women.

Louise had delicate features and blonde hair, with ageless grace, which saw her through 30 years in film, beginning as a child actress before becoming a featured player during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Louise was born on January 9, 1915, in New York City, the daughter of Louis Fremault and Ann Fremault.

She attended the Professional Children's School. She made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of seven, in Peter Ibbetson. Within a year, she was appearing regularly in Hollywood films. By her late teens, she was cast in leading and supporting roles in major productions and highly regarded for her delicate features and blonde hair.

At age seven, Louise appeared in the film Down to the Sea in Ships (1922). She made her first credited screen debut at the age of nine in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). In 1929, Louise dropped her surname, billing herself by her first and second names only.

As her stature in Hollywood grew, she was named as a WAMPAS Baby Star and frequently was described as one of cinema's more fashionable and stylish women.[according to whom?] Her reputation was enhanced by her role as Hollywood society hostess, with her parties attended by the elite of Hollywood, and widely and regularly reported in the news media.

Among her film successes were Just Like Heaven, Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Sisters (1938), and The Little Princess (1939).

By the 1940s, she was reduced to mostly secondary roles and her film career started to slow. Some of her films during this time are Casanova Brown (1944), Nine Girls (1944), The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946), Blondie's Big Moment (1947), and Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947). Her last appearance in movies was in the 1952 war film Retreat, Hell!. Louise was reduced to minor roles and acted very infrequently until the advent of television in the 1950s provided her with further opportunities. In middle age, she played one of her more widely seen roles as the gentle mother Nell McLaughlin in the television series My Friend Flicka from 1956 to 1957, with co-stars Johnny Washbrook, Gene Evans, and Frank Ferguson.[6] Louise was also the substitute host of The Loretta Young Show (1953) when Loretta Young was recuperating from surgery.[citation needed] In 1957, she was host of Theater Time on ABC-TV.[6]:1068 Other shows Anita hosted include The United States Steel Hour (1962) and Playhouse 90 (1957). Her last television appearance was in a 1970 episode of the Mod Squad.

Louise virtually retired after My Friend Flicka, which was rebroadcast thereafter for a generation. Her husband, film producer Buddy Adler, whom she married on May 18, 1940, died in 1960. They had two children. She married Henry Berger in 1962. Louise died of a stroke on April 25, 1970, in West Los Angeles, California. She was buried next to Adler at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. She was 55 years old.

Louise has a star at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her contribution to films.

A Republican, she supported Dwight Eisenhower's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.