Emmet’s always wearing the cuff now. He’s no longer shy with it. The three of us spent a day looking over the box and the crest on the box matched that of the one in his parent’s old bedroom. He’d never really known his parent’s but he’d inherited the house and ditched school. He never really was a social guy.

                                                                                           . . . 

Today in the park we ran into my school friend’s, Winter, Kelly, Alice and Lee, the ones who I’d had the sleepover with. They were slightly surprised to find me in male company and even more so when I introduced him as an old friend.  They were going to bug me about this at school, I could tell. Emmet shook hands, always smiling, but actually met Winter’s gaze and I’m sure he’s the first guy who’s made her blush. To Winter, boys are just accessories you have on your arm. We spent the rest of the day in the park with them and the whole time Emmet was looking at Winter. Sometimes it even looked like he was flirting with her. I felt something that seemed a bit like . . . jealousy.

                                                                                                     . . .

Nasha spent the night at my house on the couch with popcorn, as had become her custom, and we took an early morning trip to see Emmet. On the way there we came across Winter. She was lying, in her pink unicorn pyjamas, by the base of an oak tree covered in dew. The oak tree marking the edge of the magical boundary hiding Emerin’s place. We woke her and took her with us to our destination. Emmet greeted us at the front door.

    “Laurel! Good mor . . .” he face clouded over, “What’s Winter doing here?” Nasha told him what had happened. We turned to Winter and she explained why she had been there.

    “I had this dream, right,” she explained, “And I saw Emmet and he was, like, beckoning me to follow. I did, obviously, (giggle) and we walked for ages. Then he just, you know, vanished. And I just sat down in the middle of the woods and when I woke up I was actually there.” We all exchanged glances.

                                                                                               . . .

 Nasha stayed with Emmet and I took Winter to school. I had to go anyway. We’d kitted her up with some stuff to wear because wet unicorn pyjamas weren’t a good look. School couldn’t have finished quick enough. I was desperate to talk to Emmet and Nasha about Winter’s crazy story. We met up at a café in town.