The glare of the sun shining through the window was what woke Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler. Opening her eyes, she blinked and groaned, squeezing her eyes shut against the assaulting white light from the window above her bed.

Peggy reluctantly sat up and groggily looked around her room. What time was it?

The clock on her oak bed side table read 8:42 am.

'Too early...' She thought, tempted to cover her head with a pillow and go back to sleep. Until she caught sight of her calendar.

'September 19'

Peggy stared at the date for a second, not fully grasping why this date was important to her. Suddenly, she remembered and, filled with newfound energy, threw off her yellow covers and flung open her door, running down the hall to her parents room.

"MAMMA! MAMMA!" She yelled. "PAPA! LIZA! ANGIE!"

She hastily opened the door to her parents room and threw herself onto the bed, jumping up and down until both Catherine and Philip Schuyler woke.

Philip groaned and sat up, rubbing his wife's shoulder. "Margie, what?" He asked.

Catherine sat up as well, letting out a soft "oof" as Peggy burrowed in-between the two adults, beaming up at them.

"Mamma, papa, it's my birthday! I'm twelve today!"

Catherine, still sleepy, responded with, "that's nice, dear."

Peggy fake-pouted but was soon back to smiling as she bounced up again. "Do I get my soulmate today!?!"

This woke her parents up immediately. Philip and Catherine looked at each other. It was Peggy's birthday. Peggy was turning 12. Her soulmate mark would appear around ten-fourty-five am.

"Y-yeah.." Catherine assured the young Peggy. "Yeah, you get your soulmate today."

"Yay!"

~

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du monteir de Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette, a handsome young Frenchman, couldn't care less about his 12th birthday.

He was getting his soulmate mark: big deal, so what?

All that mattered to him was that his parents weren't there. His pére had died five years ago in war and his mére died about a year ago in Paris. Now he was living with his grandma, someone he had almost no emotional connection with.

September 6th was a day the Marquis de Lafayette would rather just forget.

~

It was ten-fourty-four. September 19. Peggy couldn't be more nervous and excited at the same time.

Her oldest sister, Angelica, had teased her saying it would hurt but Peggy didn't believe her.

Angelica's mark was a bunch of descriptions. 'Tall, black afro, African American, loves magenta and macaroni and cheese. T.J.'

Eliza's mark was a quill pen, a coffee cup, and the initials 'A.H'

Peggy's mark hadn't appeared yet.

Suddenly, Peggy felt a little tingle. She looked down to see her wrist encased in ribbons of gold. Gasping, she watched in awe as a single word began to appear, written in neat, flowing cursive. Letters in the same writing appeared below.

'Plane'

'MJPYRGL'

Peggy stared at her wrist as the gold died down. It didn't hurt, but that was the least of her problems.

What did 'plane' mean? She'd meet him or her on a plane? That narrowed her search down to a needle in a haystack. Just great.

And what was with the random letters? 'MJPYRGL'?

She couldn't even sound it out!

Peggy couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed as her shoulders drooped and her face fell.

Angelica and Eliza both got some sort of initials and descriptions. But she got 'plane' and a word that made absolutely no sense.

She let out a sigh and reluctantly showed her parents, mentally cursing fate for doing this to her.

~~~

Lafayette was sitting on tbe couch, watching his favorite movie (y'all decide what it is) when his wrist began to itch. He tried to scratch it, but it didn't go away. Sighing, he looked down, only to see gold sparks surrounding his skin. Movie forgotten, Lafayette stared at the gold with wide eyes.

Slowly, it began to fade, revealing five words.

'plane'
'new york'
'sunflowers'
'yellow'

'MPS'

He could barely understand it, but he offered a small smile. He didn't care for soulmates all that much, but at least he now knew that he wasn't the mistake everyone thought he was.

There was someone, somewhere in the world, who loved him.

That made him the happiest he'd been in a long time.