“Are you eating eggs in a bowl?” Athena asked Ranch with a slim smile on her face.

Ranch gave her one of her infamous bored looks and casually reach up to her headphones. With a flick of her wrist she popped the cup off her ear and slumped her cheek into her palm. “I am. Because somebody decided to give away another free plate.” Her voice was even, yet accusatory in the way only Ranch had ever managed to do.

Savannah hit her head on the table-- a continuation of a symphony she had been composing all evening-- with a loud groan. “I said, I was sorry, Ranch.”

Ranch tapped her fork against the bowl.

“Why don’t you guys just get plastic plates?” Athena suggested, “No dishes, no worries.”

Savannah splayed herself across the table, knocking a couple pens off the table. She watched them sorrowfully but made no move to pick them up. “I don’t have anywhere to put the trash, Athena. Do you know how hard it is to find green plastic plates?”

The other girl tapped her chin, “not very hard at all, I reckon. Back home I--” She stopped suddenly looking down. “S--”

Ranch nearly tripped over herself in her haste to get up. Her dark eyes wild with sudden inexplicable anger, “Don’t say it!” She jabbed a finger in Athena’s face, “We had a deal!”

“Deal?” Savannah echoed intrigued by the change in conversation. She sat up akin to a balloon filled with air and given new life. She was for all purposes a curious person. They had been living comfortably together for about three weeks, but this was the first she had heard of a deal between the two of them.

And if she was really honest this was the most she had heard them communicate at all. They tended to hang out in that old fashion way of just sitting next to each other like strangers at a bus station. Savannah had been beginning to wonder if Ranch really knew anything about Athena at all.

Athena tugged the trim of her flannel. She had the gall to look embarrassed, which added a nice healthy rose to her cheeks, “I...my apologies, Ranch.”

Ranch didn’t look like she was going to accept the common apology. Savannah watch in slight fascination as they stared at each other. It was so quiet that she could hear the faint classical music pouring out of Ranch’s headphones. a couple cars rumbled by the RV, going somewhere over the speed limit with no fear of the speed traps that were rumored to exist within the next couple miles.

Then Ranch’s shoulders dropped and she relented. She slumped back into her chair and picked up her eggs for another spoonful with a greater amount vigor.

“Why did you have to give away the plate?” Athena asked Savannah, carefully sliding into the seat across from the author. Savannah wilted again, burying her head in her arms.

“I had a visitor last night. Didn’t you hear?” She mumbled, “He tried to buy my RV. I told him it wasn’t for sale and he offered me more money like it was a matter of price.” Her eyes popped up from beneath a curtain of untamed wild curls. “I threw the plate at him, told him where to shove it, and pushed him out the door.”

Athena sucked her bottom lip, “I was listening to Ranch’s headphones.”

“What?”

Savannah glanced over at the third girl, but she had gone back to nodding with her music and eating her eggs from the bowl. It was hard to tell if she was scrolling through her Tumblr or doing research for a college essay, but either way, she didn’t appear to have heard the rest of the conversation. Or she just didn’t care.

Athena picked up a pencil from the table and twirled it in her fingers like she was debating drawing a smiley face but didn’t want anger Savannah by doodling on her notes.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” The girl admitted, “Ranch heard me tossing and turning and told me just to listen to the music until I fell asleep.” She shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Are you secretly a witch?” Savannah asked before she could stop herself. At Athena’s curious, somewhat offended look (which Savannah noted was not something she had ever seen before), she plowed on with her logic, “Ranch never takes off her headphones. Not since...not in a long time at least that I’ve known her. But if you were a witch then it would make perfect sense because then you have placed a spell over her.-- Ranch blink twice if this is true!”

Ranch scrolled through her phone with no outward changes.

Savannah turned back to Athena whom had turned at red as the plaid in her flannel, “You’re good, but I’ll find some way to break the spell.”

“I didn’t-- I don’t--” She rubbed her cheek, looking away.

For a moment Savannah teetered in the unsafe area where she worried that Athena was going to start sobbing for another inexplicable reason, Then her shoulders started shaking and Savannah winced, already adding “witchcraft” to the list of things she needed to stop talking about around her--

But then Athena burst into a fit of her angelic laughter.

Savannah’s shoulders rolled back as she watched, mostly in awe. The other girl’s curls bounced as she threw her head back, a smile stretched across her face, her cheeks rosy with pure happiness and her hands holding her sides like they’d burst. She was well and truly laughing.

Savannah glanced back at Ranch, because did you see Ranch? I finally made her laugh. Look at her! But Ranch was already looking at them. Her headphones were pulled off on ear, allowing a bit of the red tint to be seen from behind her trimmed dark hair. She seemed to have forgotten all about her eggs-in-a-disappointment.

Savannah thought maybe she saw a twitch of Ranch’s lips, the crease of her brows relax, her eyes widen a bit.

It obviously wasn’t the first time they had heard her laugh. Athena giggled under her breath and sometimes she blessed them with a wide smile. Sometimes they were just quick, smart comebacks that left one of the two of them with whiplash.

There was something about her, Savannah decided. Something about Athena that made you just feel like you could do anything if you could make her laugh.

Except write a novel.

“I didn’t… I didn’t put a spell on anyone!” Athena calmed down, just enough to get the words out. She doubled over gasping for air, the artificial light of the RV making her tear trails glisten. A smile graced her. Savannah wondered if she could ever write a person with a smile like that.

She had been named after a goddess alright-- it made so much sense now. Savannah basked in it.

Ranch snorted.

Athena turned to her, without a beat and flicked her headphones. “Stop it! You know I didn’t!”

“You definitely would have better things to do with magic,” Ranch agreed, “Definitely better than magic-ing me.”

She pouted, but even that only lasted as long as it took Savannah pick up her pens off the ground.

“I would magic you!” She said, “It’s just that-- it’s just-- I don’t have  to!”

Ranch snorted again, waving a hand in the air. Savannah, with her masters degree in Ranchish, translated it as amusement. The musical girl stood up and brought her bowl to the sink where she left it to be washed some other time.

“Where are we heading now, Savannah?” She expertly changed the subject.

If Savannah thought she missing the biggest miracle of the century, then she kept it to herself as she leaned back in the booth and thought about the question.

“I’m not sure really.” She admitted, “I’ve always just driven wherever. Why is there a place you want to go?”

Ranch glanced at Athena, casually. Athena sheepishly tucked her hands into her sleeve, even though they were bought short enough that she shouldn’t be able to do that. Her hazel eyes still had that glistening memory of laughter in them.

“I was… I mean if it’s alright with you, I don’t want to be a bother--”

“Athena.” Ranch stressed.

“Right, I’ve always wanted to see the Wildwood. Like In New Jersey.” Athena fumbled over herself to say the words, “I mean, I know its back in New Jersey and we’d have to turn around a bit but please, could we go see it?”

Savannah was still smiling but, she felt like screaming. Her phone was somewhere lost in the pockets of one of her green jackets scattered about the cabin, but she could have sworn she heard it ringing.

“It’s not that cool.” Savannah told Athena, “Really, just a bunch of sand and overpriced food.”

Her smile slipped off with confusion, “You mean, you’ve been before.”

Savannah looked at Ranch and found her watching the exchange with a narrow gaze. She hovered on the edge between being completely out of the conversation, and the whole reason it existed. Savannah had never mastered the silent staring contests that Ranch ruled over, but she knew enough to understand exactly what had happened.

Ranch had backed her into a corner.

“I’ve really wanted to see it for a long time,” Athena said, “I’ve never been up this far, and I know that the beach might be boring to you, but I really super like it. Please Savannah, can we go? I swear I won’t--”

“Don’t swear.” Savannah interrupted without her eyes leaving Ranch, “It doesn’t change anything. I’m sorry.”

She got herself up from the booth, grabbing at a blanket she had sloopily folded that morning. “It’s late,” She said. “We should get some sleep.”

“Savannah--” Ranch snapped.

“Good night,” she responded curling into the couch she claimed as a bed. Athena’s eyes dropped to the floor, her hands folding into her arms like she was just barely holding back a series of apologies.

Savannah didn’t need to hear them. The sight of all the happiness dissolving from her was punishment enough. It wasn’t fair, Savannah knew this. She also knew that Ranch had set this up, because it was a guilt trip tactic to get her to go back.

“You can’t keep avoiding--” Ranch tried.

Savannah pulled the pillow over her head, “Sorry can’t hear you over the hypocrisy! Try again another time!”

Savannah stared at the back of her eyelids, ears straining for the sounds of Ranch’s feet on the floor. She expected the other girl to march over and rip the pillow off her head, she expected that she would fight her and built a wall of defenses to defend her decision, but it never happened. Ranch muttered something to Athena and there was “rikkzzz” sound of the curtain to her back bedroom swishing closed.

Savannah wondered how it was possible for Athena to make her feel like the worst person in the world with just a look. Somewhere between witchcraft and mind control, she fell asleep and the keys to the RV disappeared from the hook by the kitchen sink.