I fell asleep that night under the fiery robe that carried the smoky scent of my grandmother and the incredible warmth of a heater. Even in the morning when I was awake I stayed wrapped in it. It felt cozy as I wrapped myself up like a slab of ham in a sandwich wrap under the blazing deli display heater. All was well as I lazily rested in bed until Sunny slammed open my door.

"You didn't knock," I said with a scowl at her rudeness. You'd think our family had no manners with how she barged in.

Instead of hotly retorting back per usual, Sunny's expression grew a creepy, eerily chipper smile. I recoiled from her joy and finally took note of the food on the platter she was carrying. Oh no, is that a revenge breakfast? I tried to flee but was wrapped too tightly in the red robe.

"It's such a wonderful day." Sunny sang as I huffed and puffed myself into a bigger mess on the bed. "The sun is up, and I was so worried that you would miss breakfast I came to bring it to you."

I cried out in horror as the robe clung to my skin and handed me over to Sunny on a red platter.

"Your first moon came, so we have to celebrate it with a celebratory meal in bed." Sunny grinned at me, and I stopped struggling to meet her cheerful gaze.

"My what now!" I cried, trying to look downward to see if I was bleeding. My first period as Wendy and my first period ever!? In my world, I hadn't experienced it yet, but that was chalked up to the typical age range in my family being longer. Witches tend to live hundreds of years in my family. We started periods much later for that reason.

"Of course, I thought the red was just some residual from that bright robe, but when I looked closer, I saw it was your first period."

Sunny set down the platter, and I gagged at the overwhelming red that painted the tray. The berries looked sort of normal, but a big bowl in the center of the platter held what seriously looked like a heart.

"You have to replenish your iron," Sunny said as she took a fork and knife and began to cut small pieces of the strange red thing. "Say ahhhh."

I'm ashamed to say that I never stood a chance against the pregnant woman. She was stronger than she looked, and my grandma's robe was impossible to escape. And she was a pregnant woman. If I struggled too hard, it could hurt her. So I laid there, opening my mouth like a robot, and chewed away. It didn't taste bad…she just wouldn't tell me what it was.

When the torturous breakfast was over, I was allowed to escape to clean myself and my bedding. Grandma's robe must have been magicked because it was clean. I hand-washed it and hung it out to dry anyway.

Most of the day was spent with Lucia and Sunny. They told me about their first periods, and we spent the day with idle girl chit-chat. As we did this, a lot of pampering was done, and we did each other's hair. It was a lot of fun, and despite Sunny being annoying,

Sunny had a lot of wisdom regarding womanhood. Sunny seemed almost sweet during this time. Aside from the few barraging comments and cruel asides…she was downright human. It was nice to see a glimmer of her behind the hardened mask she wore.

"I knew it was approaching from how bloated you were getting. You look more pregnant than I do!" Sunny laughed loudly at her own joke, and I rolled my eyes

And the moment was over. Ruined by a crude cousin.

"It doesn't look that way at all," Lucia said, and I glowed from the warmth of her backing me up. That glow promptly died at her following words, "You just ate a few too many sweets, that's all. Salt just does things…Oh, Wendy, I didn't mean it that way."

Some of my pain must have shown on my face. I ran away to hide. I wound up in the tree house, unsurprised that one of the kittens was trying to grasp the last rays of sun through the window.

"Hi, stinky pus," I said affectionately, picking up the protesting cat and snuggling with him. Lucas named and cared for all of them, and I could barely tell them apart. They all looked the same and picked him as their human to some degree.

To my surprise, the kitten started purring, and I curled up on the small chair with the cat, soothed by the reverberating kitten.

Lucas found me, and he looked as surprised as I was. The two of us weren't exactly tight. Without the buffer of Lucia or Wyatt, we rarely ended up together. I could recall one previous solo conversation, which was as brief as my sulkiness just now.

"This is the first time we have been alone together," I said as he sat down. I half expected him to leave when he saw me. The treehouse had become like his personal domain- his and the cats. No one really bothered coming up. Wyatt tried to make it a hang-out place, but Nips was his shadow. Hauling up the growing puppy was hard work, and just as hard was listening to the cries from the ground when Wyatt was in the treehouse.

Lucia didn't like cats much, which was funny if you thought about the twins. It was like they purposefully chose to be opposites in how they acted and what they liked. It made sense to want your own niche, but it must be nice to have a twin. Someone destined to be with you and look like you…I suppose not everyone thought that way.

I took myself out of my thoughts to take a look at Lucas. He nodded when I spoke but didn't seem to care to say anything. He really was the strong, silent type.

I watched his surprisingly skilled hands brush each of the cats. They started to appear individually, more than I realized we had, and each presented themselves to him. He brushed, clipped their nails, and gave gentle pets.

The cat in my arms had stopped purring, and I looked down at the bugger. He looked up at me expectantly, and I gave a little pet to his head. Immediately, the purring started back up. A smile escaped my lips, and when I looked up, Lucas was watching me with a small smile of his own.

"I'm grateful for what you've done, allowing us to stay here," Lucas said, and I blinked, surprised at how even and steady his voice had become. Not only had I never heard him string that many words together, but he sounded way too old. Far too many kids were not really kids in this world.

"Lucia doesn't have a female friend. Wyatt and I are…" Lucas paused, and I saw him struggle to form the words he wanted to say.

"I get it," I said with a soft smile. I didn't get it, but I got what Lucas was getting at. "I'm just as grateful."

We shared this small moment between the two until all hell broke loose.

Sunny went into labor.

And instead of helping or aiding as planned and expected, I blacked out. I woke up light-headed and embarrassed on my bed. I must have been placed there because I have no recollection of how I got there.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I could hear nothing, and I gingerly got out of bed and ran into Wyatt and Grandpa Evans in the TV room. There was a little bundle in Grandpa Evans' arms, and when I looked closer, I realized it was a baby.

"This was the look on your face when you crashed into the ground." Wyatt made a startled, ugly face before choking on his joke. The warm flutter of excitement only a baby could bring was washed away with annoyance only Wyatt could create.

I tackled him, and we started to tussle until Lucia stomped over from the kitchen. She pointed a wooden spoon at the baby before pointing it at the two of us. I'd never seen her look so fierce. We pulled away, each holding part of the other, only reluctantly letting that go last.

"Sunny's resting, and Grandpa Evans saved the day," Lucia said as she left, returned with snacks, and sat between us.

"What's the baby's name?" I asked before I jammed a strawberry tart into my mouth.

"Sonja." Lucia's warm voice and smile practically glowed. "Grandpa Evans did all the work before the midwife got here."

"How long was I out?" It sounds like it was longer than I thought.

"Only two hours." Wyatt supplied this. "That baby slipped right out of Sunny. The midwife came for the afterbirth. She spent more time tending to you than Sunny or the baby."

Lucia shook her head and whispered to me in a low whisper, "Wyatt fainted too. Only Lucas managed to help. The midwife said your low iron was likely to blame."

This first period of mine was becoming a bummer rather than the exciting new milestone I thought it would be. How embarrassing to lose my cool and pass out before I could be helpful to the midwife or Sunny.

"Isn't Sunny short for Sonja?" I paused, remembering the old photos with names scrawled on the back.

"In a sense." Sunny's voice interrupted the conversation, weaker and more tired than I'd ever heard. She was slowly heading down the stairs. I could hear her mumble something else but couldn't quite make out what she was saying.

Sunny shooed us from the coach and took it over, forcing us three kids to the loveseat. She then grabbed the platter of snacks left behind and inhaled them down her gullet with surprising speed. I watched mournfully as she ate the pieces of fruit one by one and then moved on to using all the hummus to eat the veggies.

I looked over at Wyatt to see how he was dealing with the loss of food, but his face was comically horrified. I nudged him with his own elbow while Lucia, Sunny, and even Grandpa Evans started talking.

"Why the face?" I smiled at him, wondering why he was so horrified.

"Did you hear what Sunny said?" Wyatt met my eyes, and there was no game or hidden motive, just genuine horror.

I shook my head, surprised at the depth of emotion in his gaze.

Wyatt opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Mary, Bill, and other familiar adults came in with gifts and food.

It was busy for a long time after that because Green's Mountain went out of its way to celebrate the birth of babies. Since Caelis was just a short distance behind us, wintery moon-themed food, gifts, and blessings were in order.

Sonja, unlike her mother, Sunny, was quiet. It was startling how peaceful of a baby she could be. She laid in Grandpa Evans ' arms when she wasn't feeding off her mother's breast. The two were inseparable, and even more surprising than all of this was how he sang and talked to Sonja. He took walks outside to give her fresh air. He was like a new man.

It was touching, and for an all too brief time, life was bliss. We were snowed in and had enough food, firewood, and entertainment. The livestock was protected from the elements and any predators with Molly and Nips.

But when the snow melted after two months, spring started to come. And with that change. The trio returned to the church, and soon it was just Grandpa Evans, Sunny, Sonja, and myself. It was different, but the trio did visit to help with spring planting. And they came to celebrate their birthdays with me as well.

Sunny started leaving the home come spring. She was away for a few hours, then a day here and there. It was strange because it was almost as if she picked the moments anyone would come over to be MIA.

Adam also came back with spring. I was able to give him his late birthday gift of a photo album and an assortment of tasty goodies I made for him. His visits picked up right where they left off. Sometimes, he could spend the night; other times, we only had a chance to hang out in the library while each of us worked on individual projects. It was comforting and normal. This strange peace was destroyed when Sunny disappeared for good.

Aside from the note, it was decent of her to leave after we found formula for baby Sonja. And the note meant we didn't have to send out the search dogs. It was a bland note only highlighted by her stating that she couldn't care for Sonja the way we could…the way we were.

I burned the note and prayed that her daughter never discovered this happened. Against all the odds, I prayed that her mother would come back before her daughter had memories of her absence. I felt uncharacteristically angry, and I stuffed that down into the deep recesses of my body to pick up Sonja and hold her close.

She smelled like sunflowers and hope and had a touch of Grandpa Evans' pine soap. "I didn't have my mother either." I whispered to her, "I turned out just fine, and so will you." To this day, I wasn't sure what exactly happened to my mother…just that she and my father were gone. My grandma never went into any details, and I found myself curious for the first time in forever. I was never brave enough to ask, but maybe I should when I return to my world.

After that, I let down my guard with Sonja and carried her as much as possible. That lucky baby was always in someone's arms. She was the first baby of the year to be born and the only one for a decent while. People actually ventured out to the Unruly forest to give gifts and see her.

The only thing spring didn't bring was a change to my powers. I extended and built upon my plant network, grew my capability of sustained space access, and was able to turn on the frequency at which plants seemed to talk.

The glowing fungi that overtook my forest hadn't done any visible damage to it. During the day, everything looked normal, but the forest was alight with spores when the sun went down. It was weird. I kept waiting for it to do something, but nothing happened.

The spores seemed content with spreading, and they spread. I saw the damn things all over Green's Mountain, but no one seemed alarmed. It didn't help that with the heat of the sun coming back the only place the spores were thriving was my forest. They waned in brightness and invasion for the moment but they would undoubtedly spread come fall again.

I had to shelve that growing concern for something I could change. My ability to get seeds to grow with a thought.

I tried several seeds I had pulled from the Acquisition room. But I got nada, zilch…bupkis.

I was peering at the seed as my fingers rubbed the smooth edges. The energy I had poured into it smoothed over the rough edges. I'd tried repeatedly to make it grow, but it felt as dead as my hope that I could make it happen.

It was a late spring afternoon, and I wasn't alone. Adam was with me. He was working on homework or something, I assumed, as I lay on my library sofa.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked me, and I looked to meet his gaze.

Summer was coming, and the heat in the room made me sleepy. I yawned and held up the seed in my palm. "It won't grow, and I can't figure out why."

Adam lifted a brow as he reached over to pick up the seed. He rubbed the tiny thing between two fingers before lifting his other brow. "Is it a dud seed?"

I blinked. A dud? Is that a thing? A small laugh escaped from his lips when he saw my expression. "Not everything can grow, Wendy. Some things, even seeds, are doomed to remain the same."

I dropped my head back on the sofa and sighed. A dud seed? I hadn't tried to pool power into seeds from this world. There was no need to since most of the plants I had going would keep going. I didn't plant anything new this spring; I just pushed some energy into the plants we already had to get them back going. So, the seeds I had were the ones I pulled from the Acquisition room from a book about seeds. Why would they be duds…unless only good-looking seeds were picked…what if they weren't even seeds? What the heck had I poured my energy into?

"I don't think it's a seed." Adam's voice was equal parts regretful and laughter. I could tell he wasn't laughing at me but was enjoying the situation.

I flipped over to bury my face into the pillow to hide my internal screaming and my pink face.

Luckily, I was stopped from further embarrassing myself because of a knock at the door.

Neither of us moved until the pounding on the door continued.

"Lucia took Grandpa Evans and baby Sonja out." It had been a big deal the first time Grandpa Evans left the house, but now it was becoming the norm. I sighed as I sat up. It was good to run, but I'd prefer lounging and taking a lazy moment. With a broad smile, I scooted out of the room and swung open the front door.

A vaguely familiar man smiled at me with a strange sort of tenderness. "Wendy."

Three things simultaneously happened at once. First, he said my name as if he knew Wendy wasn't my real name. Two, his voice sounded so familiar that thirdly, I recognized why.

My mouth that opened in greeting instead screamed bloody murder as I tried to close the door on him.

The man stuck his foot in the door and pushed forward. "It seems I finally have you alone. Let's make this quick, shall we?" Gavin said with a sickly sick grin.