If there's yet another thing that high schoolers addicted to video games hate, it's a power outage. Thus forcibly removed from or prevented from even reaching our natural habitat, it becomes necessary to find something else to do. I let out a sigh as I stared wistfully at the Dream Machine, then my phone buzzed. It was Rachel. She and Andrea were heading out to a more local park and wanted me to join them. I replied that I would be on my way in a few minutes to meet them, to which I received a smiley face and a heart. I put on some warm clothes (being late in the year and all) and, after clearing things with my dad, headed out to the park.

There was a little playground and park about a third of the way between my house and Andrea's, which meant the two girls had the longer walk. I decided to make it up to them preemptively by stopping by one of the corner-stores on the way and getting three hot chocolates -- wait, I know Rachel enjoys it, but does Andrea? I wondered to myself after, but then shrugged. We drank something similar in Panarena all the time, after all.

Come to think of it, we haven't really done much together except in Panarena... so this is kind of nice, I guess, I considered as I made my way through the quiet streets. It was getting dark, but a lot of the street lights ran on a different power source than the main grid so it wasn't like I, or the girls for that matter, were out in a pitch-black environment. I wonder what the others will get up to... supposing they didn't also have an outage. Belle had joined the guild midway through the Grand Tournament, and, after an intense battle, Lysandra conceded on our wager and joined us just as happily as Belle had.

It felt like it had lasted years... but we got through it. I guess that last battle is gonna be the talk of the forums for a while, though, I thought to myself with a resigned grin, suddenly realizing I was at the park. There was a small duck pond to one side, several trees that had shed their leaves already along with a pine that, of course, was evergreen, and of course the playground. An ubiquitous swing-set, the ever-present classic climbing castle with monkey-bars and a slide, a couple of seesaws, and a plain old merry-go-round.

A-aren't those things a safety hazard? I wondered as I set the hot chocolates down on a picnic table.

“Sean!” Rachel's voice came to my ears. I turned around with a smile, and she jumped towards me to grab me in a hug. I saw Andrea smiling behind her. Both of them were also wearing fall coats and jeans, which surprised me--being the first time I'd seen either of them wearing jeans, after all.

“Oh, you brought chocolate,” the older girl noticed as we sat down.

“Ah, yeah; I thought it'd be nice right now,” I replied as the two of them picked out one each, leaving the last for me.

“It's always nice!” Rachel beamed at me.

“Definitely,” Andrea agreed. “Plus twenty points!” she grinned, and I sighed inwardly with relief.

“Still... we were planning to go questing with Belle and Lysandra tonight... and now we don't know how to get in touch with them and apologize for not being there,” Rachel remarked with a sheepish look.

“Y-yeah... I hope they aren't too upset later,” I added with a wry smile.

“They'll understand, I'm sure,” Andrea assured us. We looked around for a moment; except for the street lights, the city was dark. “It's been a while since we had a serious outage like this. I think the last time was when I was in kindergarten.”

“Oh?” Rachel wondered.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Do you remember, Sean?” Andrea asked me.

“Ehh, not really.” I replied.

“It was in the daytime though, so maybe you were out playing.” she shrugged.

“Could be,” I said. “I bet I even came to this park with one of my parents.”

“It is one of the older ones in the city,” the red-haired girl nodded.

“It's kinda cute, though,” Rachel said. “And I've seen a lot of them.”

“What was the best one?” I asked her. She took a long sip of hot chocolate, and then adopted a thoughtful look.

“Hmm... I liked the ones in Japan, wherever we were... but the ones in Toronto and Vancouver were nice, too,” she replied at last. “The slides there were fun, and we arrived there in the summer so they had a temporary water-slide as well!” she recalled with a smile.

“That sounds like fun,” I smiled as well.

“Definitely,” Andrea nodded. “Would be nice to get out and travel at least a little bit.”

“At least a couple weeks, yeah.” I said in agreement.

“We should plan our beach trip carefully, then!” Rachel said.

“Absolutely!” Andrea smiled. We spent a few more minutes bantering about places we'd like to go or see, others that we would at least consider, and some that we definitely wouldn't want to visit, before our hot chocolate at last ran out. The three of us then tossed the cups into the recycler and went to sit on the swings. I somehow found myself in the middle swing, Rachel on my right and Andrea on the left. We swung for a little bit and then sat there idly, enjoying each other's company.

“Hmm... ah! I think we did go to Toronto one year, to visit one of my dad's uncles around their Thanksgiving,” I suddenly recalled.

“Really?!” Rachel said excitedly. “How old were you?”

“Eh? How old was I?” I blinked. “Hmm... about... oh, I was seven.”

“I was seven too! We didn't leave until sometime after Canadian Thanksgiving. I wonder if we ran into each other!” she grinned.

“Who knows?” I smiled back.

“That'd be way cool if you had,” Andrea said, an astonished look on her face.

Suddenly I had a flash of memory; I was running around chasing one of my older cousins; I tripped on something, and I fell on my face. This really cute girl in a pink dress and a bow tying up a side-tail came over and helped me to my feet, smiling at me when I got back up. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. I turned to Rachel, my brow furrowing slightly as the memory replayed.

“A pink dress.” I said, and she started, turning to look at me with wide eyes. “It had... white polka dots... and a bow... it was a really warm day. The girl... she helped me up after I fell down... and... and then... gave me a lollipop?” I tried to recall. “It was... it was grape-flavored, I think,” I said. Rachel got up out of the swing, and walked forward a couple of paces.

“R-Rachel?” Andrea wondered in concern as the two of us stood up as well.

“H-hey, Rey, you okay?” I asked. She turned to me, tears in her eyes but a smile on her face.

“Y-you... you were wearing a plaid jacket, and your hair was longer. Grape was my favorite flavor back then.” she told me. I gaped in amazement. Andrea's face lit up in a big smile.

“Ahhh!!” she exclaimed with delight. “Why do the two of you have to be so cuuuute!!” she cried out.

“It... it was you!” I said with a happy laugh, and she ran to hug me again. I wrapped my arms around her tightly.

“It was you!” she said joyfully. “That makes me happy; you have no idea how happy that makes me!”

“Maybe a little,” I returned as we stood there. Andrea watched us with a smile, a couple of tears in her own eyes, and then she suddenly looked up.

“Ah! Power's back on,” she remarked. I walked the two of them home after a few more minutes at the park, both of them hugging me when we got to the door, and then I made my own way home. Of all the crazy coincidences, I thought to myself as I passed the park again.

I wouldn't have it any other way.