For the rest of the year, Beth had a singular goal in mind — to finish the Dreamchasers project.

Simone told the group that both she and Felicity had passed the band audition, and they would be devoting a lot of time to the band. Julianna set aside her Olympiad books and just dedicated time to her current clubs. Beth split her time between the art studio and her host home to work on Dreamchasers; she would lock herself in her room, sit down on the floor, and start lining up her sketches to see which one works the best. A new sewing machine sat on top of her desk, while boxes filled with fabrics, decorations, and gadgets she bought online hid under it. As Beth transformed her sketches into fashion pieces, she watched relationships and events in her life unfold again, in clear, chronological order.

The first piece she made was inspired by the sunflowers she planted as a child with her mom.

Beth never knew the full story of how she came into this world. Luke told her that she came right after he and Madison settled into their new home. Both of them were young, impulsive, and freshly in love. After a big quarrel with her parents who didn't approve of Luke, Madison chose to leave home and move in with Luke. The two struggled to make a living without much parental support. Your mom was really burnt out from everything when she found out about you, Luke said. Things weren't easy for Madison. Beth's head size made her birth complicated. After a long labor and an unexpected final push for Madison, she finally got out into the world. Yet she was not crying. Madison, worried to death, almost risked her safety to find a doctor that could care for Beth right after her birth.

The tough-minded Madison wasn't the best person at conveying emotions. She often called Beth a difficult child. In hindsight, Beth was difficult. Her mood tantrums often came along too headstrong, as if an unleashed monster took over the best of her. Throwing crayons all over the place, spilling breakfast, and tearing up books...her home became a playground. Madison, tired of running around as a new mother, couldn't help but yell at her. Beth hated that her mom did that well many years later. On an uneventful afternoon, Beth finally broke after her mother's yelling. If I were this difficult, why should I even be born? Am I just causing unnecessary pain for you? I didn't ask to be here in this world! She immediately slammed the door of her room and locked herself inside.

Beth thought her mom would leave her alone, yet Madison ended up waiting for her to come out for the entire rest of the day. During dinner time, Beth spotted a bouquet of sunflowers in a blue glass vase. When she asked Madison about it, she remembered her mom telling her that she always stared at the sunflower fields on the way back home. Beth looked at the flowers with adoration and sadness; although they were pretty, they could only last for a short time. She suggested planting some sunflowers on their own, to which Madison agreed. The following summer, an array of sunflowers co-planted by Beth and her mom, proudly blossomed in the backyard.

Many associated the sunflower with adoration and loyalty. Beth, however, saw it as a symbol of her mother's love, which was deep and protective beyond words. She wondered if she chose to wear the sunflower dress on the day she left for Laurel City because she had always cared about Madison the same way Madison did. With the bright yellow petals spiraling in her mind, she created a purple cotton dress filled with gingham patches, decorative ribbons, and giant cut-out sunflower patterns. As she sewed her elements onto her purple canvas, she came to see her mother in a new light, and understand that her mother never had the chance to be an individual. She sought strength by thinking about all the things Madison did for her while making a promise that she would speak lovingly to herself.

With a newfound sense of conviction, Beth moved on to her next piece, which was inspired by her childhood lifestyle in the suburban town. After living and studying in the vibrant Laurel City, she started looking at her hometown in a fresh light. For the many future days to come, her life would be busy with new people and experiences. Shifting into the role of a visitor to her hometown made her miss the simple pleasures of childhood. The deep conversations over delicious dishes at her favorite restaurants in town. The mornings watching mountain mists disperse into the sky. The cheery summer days navigating the clear rivers in the woods. The nights sitting beside campfires making s'mores, watching the flames slowly ascend into the air. Her experiences became illustrations and hand-written poems, scanned into her laptop, printed onto cotton fabric, and made into jackets, skirts, pants, and aprons. With her own hands, she constructed pieces of wearable history about her childhood town.

The third piece she created was inspired by her reflections as Owen and Nora's host daughter. These two people were just like her mentors, who gave her a safe space for her to be the best version of herself. For that, she created a piece based on the idea of home. It was a set consisting of a cape on top of a suit, both in navy blue color. The wool cape had embroideries of the Laurel buildings and city lights, while the suit had the front door of Owen and Nora's house embroidered in golden threads.

Beth remembered her interactions with Bianca as she created her fourth piece. She wanted to base her piece on Bianca's illustrations of flowers coming through skeletons. She had in mind to create a cream-colored gown with light-weight, soft silk, and attach hard, 3D-printed, plastic exoskeletons to it. When she started assembling individual pieces of plastic spines, she had a change of mind. Bianca was empathetic to others and detached from herself. She wasn't just a passionate soul under a dignified demeanor. Her gentle, intuitive, tolerant side was deeply intertwined with her withdrawn, meticulous, moral side. The very nature of her resembled water; it was responsive to the changes in the environment and could shapeshift into a hardened form of ice. To portray the concept of shapeshifting, Beth took off the exoskeleton and sculpted the upper body of the silk gown into the shape of a rib cage and a spine. In the end, she sewed a string of lights behind the chest on the gown, at the place where the human heart was positioned at. When the lights were turned on, the illumination would form a fuzzy heart shape.

After creating the Bianca gown, Beth wanted to dedicate a piece to her friendship with Simone. She had always known that pink was Simone's favorite color. However, Simone's personality was much more than what the pink color can convey. With that idea in mind, Beth made a cute cutsew with large, translucent puff sleeves, while decorating it with ribbons and pearls of blue, yellow, and light pink. She cut a long, thin stripe from the pink fabric she was working on and shaped it into a ribbon choker. For the bottoms, she wanted something stylish yet casual; a pair of white, high waist, floor-length pants was the perfect complement to her cutsew. In the end, she painted a pair of sneakers with some splashed, graffiti colors. The whole coordinate was bright, fun, and easily wearable.

Setting aside the coordinate that she put together for Simone, she was in the mind to create a piece for Julianna. For Julianna, Beth did regard blue as the color that embodies her spirit. In the old stories, blue was often associated with depth, knowledge, integrity, and freedom. The presence of blue was cool and calming. Beth, however, saw a distinct warmth in this color. She was fascinated when Julianna went on and on about the spectacular hues of hydrangeas, morning glories, and cornflowers; she was radiating happiness as she immersed herself in her special interests. Whenever Beth felt lost or defeated, she always turned to Julianna, who would assure her that she had been doing the right thing all along. And whenever her imagination was soaring high in the sky, expanding into mindless directions, Julianna was there to help her collect her thoughts into one integrated entity. It was with Julianna's love for the ocean that Beth started appreciating the ocean as well. The all-encompassing ocean was a cradle, which gave birth to a spirit as bright and introspective as Julianna. Ocean waves were an essential part of the dynamic of the ocean surface; Beth made large, wavy, semi-transparent flounces of baby blue, turquoise, and sapphire blue that resembled ocean waves. With the power of her sewing machine, the flounces were joined together as one dress that looked like a soft shell.

At last, Beth worked on turning her white dress during her magical transformation into a piece in real life. After she finished everything from sewing fabric pieces, attaching lace to sleeves, to weaving wires and fabric into flowers, a strong wind pushed her into a world where everything was warm and bright. Her golden bracelet fell off to the ground. The sketches on the floor were lifted into the air, and the edges of her dress fluttered in the wind.

It was her magic appearing for the last time.

In front of her were two versions of the white dress — the one she was now wearing in response to her magic, and the one she just made. The surroundings were empty — no emotional monsters were coming up to attack her, and no figures appeared to guide her forwards. The only thing present in the environment was a tall, transparent mirror. Beth saw herself alternating between two distinct states through the mirror. For one moment she was her usual happy and content self, and for another moment, she morphed into a hairy, glittery monster, drenched in anxiety and doubt. Eventually, a balance was struck between the two states, in which Beth could accept the existence of those monsters, and only let them come out from time to time. All the emotional monsters she fought off were parts of herself she wished to desert; however, with some taming, they could be regenerated, forming parts of her new self. The alternating two states of Beth gave her a strong, vivid force of inner creativity. It could take a form as tender as the spring sprouts, powerful as the summer sun, authoritative as the autumn leaves, and tranquil as the winter sky.

Beth wondered if her golden pen was still functional. Even if it was, what can I do with it now? When she attempted doodling with the pen, hundreds of color dots shot out from the pen tip simultaneously, coming together as an image of the Dreamchasers performance she envisioned. In the middle of the picture was a giant stage, decorated with round, glowing lanterns, and bouquets of balloons. The cheers of people could be heard from offstage. The countdown of the show was playing on a wide glass screen at the back of the stage.

5!

4!

3!

2!

1!

After the last number appeared in the countdown, a row of neon lights announced the opening of the show. The image became three-dimensional around Beth. A poem written together by Beth and Julianna was narrated. Then, the glass screen was transformed into an exhibition of photos and videos Beth created. While they were on autoplay in the background, Beth's friends and classmates appeared on stage one by one, posing fabulously in the fashion pieces she made. Simone interacted with the models while she sang sweet words; Felicity and the rest of the band blasted funky beats. All the participants marched to the dynamic rhythm; the chanting from everyone offstage became strong waves of passion.

And with the show coming to an end, the image dissipated into color dots again, quietly disappearing into the thin air. The pen dropped from Beth's hands and shattered into pieces. The golden bracelet on the ground became a stream of sand absorbed by the mirror, and Beth watched everything soaring into the above in front of her eyes. She was sitting down on the floor of her room again.

My magic...it is gone.

It was at that instant that she sighed with relief. She felt the shackles on her heart disappear, and she was feeling her body again. Every single detail in her hands became suddenly visible; she watched lines and shapes coming together to form an organic landscape in her palm. Looking around, she saw everything sitting in their comfortable place. The room was covered with a thin mist of rose, and everything looked so peaceful as a whole.

Beth imagined telling Julianna and Simone that she had been liberated from her magic. However, as soon as she was about to do so, she hesitated to pick her phone up. A strong, impulsive force knocked against her. She stood there, feeling her tears dripping down her cheeks onto the floor. Magic, which had been a part of her since she came to Laurel City, left her permanently. Suddenly, she sensed that the streams of air surrounding her detangled. She liberated herself from being entangled in her emotional turmoil; the world seemed to be freshening up. Yet the image of that vibrant, passionate self of hers who transformed with the help of magic also remained left behind.

Beth sat around her creations, feeling exhausted, empowered, and a little sad. She was in awe at how much she had grown and accomplished. Magic had left her, but her feelings and memories would always be by her side. Thinking about the upcoming Dreamchasers show, she smiled, eyes covered with a thin film of tears. She collected her sketches and held on to them tightly.

It was time to make my visions into reality.