"Heya, Pessimist!"

Alyssa swung around to see another version of herself behind her. She hadn't gone to the other side, just the Weird Dimension.

"What do you want?" She groaned. Her 'Weird' (That's what people from this Dimension were called) was always calling her 'Pessimist. It annoyed her to no end.

"Whatcha doing?"

"None of your business."

"Okay... how has your day been?"

"Terrible. I'm leaving."

"Geez, Pessimist! I'm only trying to be nice!" Alyssa watched her Weird roll her eyes. "This is why no one likes you. To be liked, you have to first be likable."

"That's harsh, for you." Alyssa grinned. "Maybe my day just got a little better. Oh, and for your records, I helped someone today. Like, without killing anyone."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Yep. I'm gonna go now, and if you need anything from me, it's not my problem!" Alyssa grinned, then opened another portal and pulled it towards herself, transporting herself to her own dimension. She was back in her own room.

"I don't need to look back to know she's shaking her head at me." Alyssa giggled, closing the portal behind her. Her laugh was interesting. It was sort of... hollow sounding. Void of any happiness or excitement. She laughed when she felt she should, or when she thought she needed to. It intimidated younger kids, creeped out other kids her age, and made everyone just a little bit uncomfortable. It was just so fake! She sounded a little like a villain from a fictional movie when she laughed. It wasn't loud. It was just a soft giggle, with no emotion in it, accompanied by a smile too dangerously sweet to be real. That was the thing with Alyssa. Nothing positive about her was ever real. It felt hollow. Empty. It was an illusion, and nothing was really there.

She hated herself.

"Alyssa?" Dervon called. Alyssa sighed and left her room, then ran down the stairs until she was at the bottom floor of the pagoda tower. Pagoda towers were usually found in Japan, not Canada, but Dervon's great great grandfather had built this one far away from the city, surrounded it with cherry blossom trees of pink and white, and built a bridge across the small stream that ran around his property. The stream flowed through the pear and cherry orchards sometimes, branching off from the main current going around the perimeter of the property. The tower was red, gold, green, and a little bit of white. The wood was brown.

"Hey Dervon! What's up?" Alyssa asked, trying to smile.

"Did you want to help with the lanterns?" Dervon gave Alyssa a real smile, and handed her a bright red Chinese lantern. Alyssa just nodded her head. It was sunset at the time, and the two lit each lantern, hanging them wherever they could to light up the outside of the house, and the balconies. The last rays of sunlight reached out towards the sakura blossoms and shone through their petals. The rushing water seemed a little more calming than it did the rest of the day, and drops of water that sometimes flew up caught the sunlight and sparkled before splashing back into the stream. Who knew when that same drop of water would jump up and have it's little moment in the sunshine again?

"What are you looking at?" Dervon asked as he caught his sister staring at the sky. It was going to be a clear night, full of shining, twinkling, sparkling stars. "You've seen this all before."

"That's right. I just never got to enjoy it."

"Wait, are you happy right now?" Dervon asked, suddenly excited.

Alyssa thought for a moment, searching through her emotions before giving her answer. "No, I'm not."

She was trying to enjoy these moments, she swore she was! But she could never feel anything positive.

"Hey, Ly-Ly, did you want to go to the bridge?" Dervon waited a moment, then sighed, trying to smile despite his disappointment. He couldn't expect his friend to be happy. She'd tried her best, and she would keep trying, he knew. But there wasn't anything that anyone could do. It would take something or someone very special, - and probably something extremely unexpected, - to make her happy.

"Sure." Alyssa replied. "Why not?"

The bridge was built across the stream, so they were closer to the water. It was a stone bridge with red lanterns hanging in the trees on the other side of it, just outside of the property. The land that Dervon's family owned was about 10km by 10.5km, and it was surrounded by the stream, covered by cherry trees. One section of the land had pear trees growing there, surrounded by water where the stream had branched out. In the middle of the pear trees was a single cherry tree. There were small islands surrounded by water, so the property had four bridges on it, including the one at the koi fish pond. Alyssa stayed out there with Dervon, talking about school until the sun had set.

"The stars are beautiful, aren't they?" Dervon pointed to the little sparkling light in the sky. "Don't you like them?"

"I... feel nothing for them, and that's as close as I'm ever going to get." Alyssa sighed. "So, yeah. I guess I do."