On Saturday, I woke up.

Well, as I usually do. But this time something extremely different and exotic happened and I found myself wanting to wake up.

There were many reasons as to why that was so, for example, a) my room did not feel empty and the bad kind of maroon, b) my blanket felt like the comfortable kind of cool, not too hot and not too thin, and c) it did not feel like I was stuck in an endless winter of brain-deadedness, unlike most days. Another reason would be that it felt like it would be a Good Day; not just a "good day", but a Good Day. There are a variety of words that can be used to describe the feeling of a day that is not sucky, but nothing expresses a non-sucky day better than the simple definition of a Good Day. And the reason I knew it was going to be a Good Day was because my window was cracked open enough that a warm breeze was blowing in and the birds were chirping happily outside in a very Good Day kind of way.

So, in honour of the Good Day, I ate breakfast with my parents and actually engaged in conversation (which made my mom worry a little), as well as trying to find the least smelly and most fashionable outfit (which made my mom quite pleased). I frantically packed enough sandwiches and juice boxes to last kindergartners for three decades, and a blanket that was soft to the point where the fluffiest dog would be jealous. Last but not least, I had asked my dad to drive me to Orenda's house, but decided not to tell my dad exactly why I needed to go to Orenda's house. Although he seemed to know that I had something planned because he kept questioning why I was so anxious about how my breath smelled.

"It's because smelly breath is a huge turn off, dad."

"A few turn offs never costed anybody their life," he said as he started the car engine.

"Tell that to a 40 year old man who still lives in their parents' basement."

"Don't talk about your uncle like that!"

"I have an uncle?"

"See? Gullibility. Now that's a turn off." My dad laughed and I groaned.

I wasn't exactly comfortable to tell my dad that I was taking her out on a picnic date, even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It was just that under usual circumstances, the picker-upper would drive on his own to the alleged date's house and pick the date up and it would be romantic and not awkward white cane clicking. Unfortunately for me, it was an impossible feat, so letting my dad drive me to Orenda's house was the next best thing.

The car eventually stopped and I checked my breath once more for good measure. "Dad," I fixed shirt quickly, "are you sure my breath doesn't smell? Because that would be embarrassing."

"Bud, you're fine. Don't burp in her face. Open doors for her. Keep your hands to yourself. You know all that stuff." He pat me on the back and I chuckled. "Good luck on your date."

"You caught me." I started getting out of the car and took out my white cane.

"See you, kid! Fix your hair!" I slammed the door and fixed my hair immediately. I stood awkwardly in the middle of the street as I listened to the car drive away, until there was no sound left in the air except for the birds.

I walked up the really short flight of stairs and stood on her porch, heart pounding, and knocked on the door lightly. Within a few seconds, I could hear feet scrambling to get to the door, which consequently made my heart beat even faster, and I fixed my hair once again.

"Hey Finn!" The scent of freshly baked pastries wafted out the door.

"Hey Orenda," I smiled.

A moment of silence. Orenda chuckled, "Um, how are you?"

"Oh! I'm great! Really, good. Um, you?"

"I'm great as well!" She giggled. "Did you bring food?"

"I di – crap. I forgot it in the car. I brought a really soft blanket though."

"That's okay. We'll buy something there; I'll bet there's some food trucks scattered about."

She closed the door and locked it, and then we walked down the stairs quietly.

"Do you know the way there?" She asked.

"Uh, yes. There should be signs that say-"

"Yeah! I see them! I guess you can just follow me."

I knew there was going to be something different about this time Orenda and I hung out, in fact, I was kind of expecting it. But strangely, it didn't feel very different at all. I mean, yes, there was some tension, but I'm sure it was only because we both had never went anywhere together that wasn't Willow or my house or her house or the bakery. We were terribly strung to our tiny little neighbourhood and the thought of going anywhere else together was very adventurously worrying. At least, that's how I felt. Orenda was still Orenda and I was still Finn, so everything was just like it has always been.

She was wearing a dress, and I knew because when her cold hand grabbed mine her dress brushed up on my hand with every step she took, just like the time we went to the Castellano's Bakery with Egan. I couldn't help but wonder how pretty she looked, since the dress was extremely soft and flowy and it made me a bit worried about how my hair looked: ex. was it greasy? Weird looking? Too floppy? Too long? Too short?

"I'm really excited," Orenda said, and it snapped me out of my thoughts.

"For what?"

"For the date, silly."

"Oh, right. Yeah, of course. Me too, Orenda."

"Your hair looks nice."

I smiled, my worries fading away.

The sun was beating down on the back of my neck uncomfortably, but before long we had entered the park and the trees probably covered up the heat, because it got a bit chilly. The gravel path crunched beneath my shoes and Orenda started babbling then, and I can't remember much, but I'm pretty sure she babbled about how she loved trees. She liked the coolness they gave off, and she liked throwing her head back and forgetting that her body existed for a few moments, and she liked how they were always there even when you feel like nothing is there anymore. And so I told her that she was like a tree to me. And she laughed. In the happy way, of course.

The park was busy; in every direction I could hear children screaming and crying, and the sounds of camera shutters clicking rapidly in fear that if they didn't get a picture of every single second the cherry blossoms were alive, they would be dead in real life and in memory. I asked Orenda if there were food trucks around, in which she responded "yes" pretty happily. Then she exclaimed, "Finn! I see the cherry blossoms! Oh, they're elysian!"

Still grabbing my hand, she pulled me and we burst into a sprint (which was very scary for me because I had no idea where we were going) across the grass. I completely ditched my white cane and just ran with Orenda, laughing and tripping over my own feet, most likely with people judging us. Although, like usual, I liked being with Orenda and couldn't really care less.

"Have we made it to the destination?" I asked her, taking out my white cane and letting go of her hand.

She coughed loudly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she coughed again, "just a bit out of breath. And yeah, we have landed!"

Orenda grabbed my hand again before I could keep asking her if she really was okay, and we ambled around until she finally decided on a spot that was not bug ridden and/or filled with tourists and camera clicks. I handed the blanket to her and she laid it down or whatever as I stood there and collapsed my white cane once again.

"Okay, everything's ready," she guided me to the blanket and we both sat down.

I ran my hands through the grass and grabbed a handful of soft petals absentmindedly. "Hey," I crossed my legs, "I just wanted to say that I'm really glad you said yes."

"Hi, and I'm glad you asked."

"Well-"

And as always, she kept talking. "Can I say something? I want to get it off my chest. I feel like I'm a bad person, Finn. Now, I don't want to get too pessimistic, but I also don't want to lie. I'll be honest; I've known that you liked me ever since... well, ever. And I feel like a bad person for being so dismissive about it, and I know that a kiss is not just a kiss. Okay? I know that. Sometimes I feel like I don't matter to anyone at all, but you make me feel like I matter. And I don't want to be the person that makes you feel like you don't matter. Because you do, you matter a whole lot to me. Recently I've realized that I should take chances, and, well, I really do like you Finn, alright? I'll just be real with you, as real as I can, at least. Okay? Can you say something? I feel like you've fallen asleep."

"Oh, um, yes, I'm awake. And don't feel bad. Really." 

"I've realized that I should live a lot more than I'm living right now. I want a life that is ineffable. I hope that's not a cheesy and self-absorbed thing to say."

"I think you speak for everyone when you say that." The petals fell from my hand with a gust of wind.

"Thanks, Finny."

"No problem."

She sighed and stood up, tugging the blanket underneath me slightly. "Do you want some food? There's a hotdog truck like, really close by."

I agreed to the food. She left in a hurry, and I was left alone on the blanket. Once Orenda was gone, I discovered that the place we had found was really quiet and all the noises that encompassed the park didn't really travel to me, as if I was in a little bubble. I took off my glasses for a little while and rubbed my nose bridge, which was getting a bit sore from where the glasses were resting.

"Finn!" Orenda's voice pierced through the bubble and I quickly put on my glasses. "I didn't know if you liked mustard, so I didn't get you any, but I got you Coca Cola because it's kind of a default for anyone – everyone likes Coke. I got you ketchup, though. On your hotdog."

"You should've gotten me mustard. I like to live life on the edge, you know."

"Sorry, Mr. Thrill-Seeker. Live with what you got."

She handed me my hotdog and we sat and ate. I didn't drink much off the Coke because it didn't really taste like the genuine thing, but rather like sugared carbonated water. I didn't tell Orenda that, though.

"There's really not much to do at a picnic other than talk, it seems." I stated as I finished off my hotdog. I tried to wipe my face to the very best of my ability, so that hopefully there was no ketchup residue on my cheeks, which would be very terrible. Orenda slurped her drink.

"You know what you were saying before?" I propped myself up and leaned against the tree trunk of the cherry blossom tree, "I feel like that too sometimes. Well, most of the time. I don't usually tell anyone. I think I can tell you, because we're... um, I trust you. I think mattering is essential to a human's existence. Most of the time I feel like I don't matter to the people who matter to me, and maybe I wasn't even meant to do anything special. I try really hard to be special, you know, to be great. It's like if I don't matter to other people... I don't matter at all."

"You are the most important person in my life, Finn," she said softly.

"That's over exaggerating."

She completely ignored my response and went off on a different subject again. "I have a question, and it's been on my mind for some time." She inched closer to me and I could smell her garden scent, which blended into the sweet atmosphere perfectly. "Why did you bring me here to the cherry blossoms if you can't even see them?"

"Because beautiful things do not need to be proven beautiful. Like you. You don't need to matter to others to be important. You've been important from the very moment you started existing. Truly beautiful things are beautiful no matter what, and I don't care if I can see the cherry blossoms because they don't need my vision to exist beautifully."

The wind blew.

I hoped that what I said didn't sound too rehearsed.

Orenda didn't say anything, she just giggled.

"I feel young." She declared suddenly.

"As in?"

"As in... just young."

"Like, an unwrinkled kind of young?"

"Yes, exactly. An unwrinkled kind of young. Unwrinkled. And unwrinklable."

"Unwrinklable."

"I feel like like a freshly ironed shirt. Unharmed, safe, new, and fixed. I feel alive in the greatest sense." She sighed contently and lay down. I carefully lay down next to her, the sunlight comforting my skin.

We didn't lie down for very long, because the ice-cream truck melody could be heard by Orenda, and we both got very excited. I guess it was a part of feeling unwrinklable, I felt like I had everything in front of me, and ice-cream was one of them. We ran to the truck, whilst laughing non-stop at nothing at all. Orenda got the Rocket Popsicle, and I got the Creamsicle – to which Orenda kept saying that the act of getting such a generic popsicle was lame, even though the Rocket Popsicle was the most generic one in the world.

We ran to the playground, and in spite of the fact that most of the people occupying the place were under five years old, Orenda coaxed me to get on the swing. So we swung (which resulted in me dropping my popsicle) and I got a bit dizzy because it felt like I was falling over and over again, but Orenda was having the time of her life, I'm pretty sure. We finally left the playground when children started asking questions about our relationship, and when Orenda kept teasing me about how I dropped my popsicle. So, I hit hers onto the ground too, for revenge. She then hit me on my arm but apologized immediately because I almost tripped over a step, but I just shook it off even though I nearly had a heart attack.

We walked back to the blanket and lay down again. I tried not to think about my existence too much, and focus on what was happening at that very moment. For example, I was lying under cherry blossoms with Orenda on a Saturday. I put my hands behind my head, and breathed the crisp air in so deep that, in a way, it made me feel so much more alive than merely breathing normally. The blanket underneath me had an upturned corner, so the tiny blades of grass were softly brushed up against my arm like my dad's scruff against my cheek when he gave me goodnight kisses in my younger days. 

Orenda was still talking on, her words all somewhat dulcet and overwhelming me with concepts that my drowsy brain just couldn't comprehend. I could vaguely understand what she was talking about; she said that the cherry blossom leaves above us looked eternal and neverending, yet ended much too soon. She said that it was like how our life is at moments when we feel like we're having a Good Day - in the sense that we feel like we are never going to be gone and our existence is not exactly bad accidental but rather a serendipitous accidental. She then apologized for saying that our existence was accidental at all because I told her that we were put here for a purpose and a good one at that, and it made her seem fulfilled and I liked that.

And then she sat up and said, "we got ice-cream, I'm sitting under cherry blossom trees, and I feel young in a good way. Nothing could possibly make this day better."

I sat up too, and our shoulders brushed up against each other's.

And, I kissed her.

Then, she laughed a laugh that was so full of happiness I could hardly grasp all of it at once, and said, "I stand corrected."

Then I laughed a laugh that made me feel young and that is when I realized that it was truly a Good Day, and I came to the realization that I did matter very much to quite a number of people. If I were a tiny fallen cherry blossom petal and were eventually mixed in with all the other petals that people begin to disregard, maybe I was the one that fell on her nose and made her laugh so hard that it would've become an unforgettable memory. And I felt slightly purposeful, and not so insignificant, and that truly is enough.

A/N

I am back!

Hopefully this chapter was good, since I kind of wrote it very quickly because I needed to use all the motivation I had stored all at once (does anyone else relate?) And I know there was a lot of dialogue, but I just really love writing dialogue oops. AND blame tøp for all the existential crisis evoking things that I have written.

It's weird cuz I really missed writing in Finn's voice, and when I started writing this chapter again I was like WOW I FEEL ALIVE!!! I missed Orenda too, obviously, who wouldn't?

Anyway, how have you all been? I've been pretty good, but kind of feeling not important, in a way. Maybe it's just a stage in life where everyone else is doing things that are just so amazing and sometimes it can make me feel like I'm not. I hope what I've written here has helped any of you guys that feel like this, because it sure helped me. 

Questions!

What is your favourite movie(s)?

What are you plans for the summer?

I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT DAY HAVE A GREAT LIFE

(ps. you matter a whole lot and your importance is overwhelming, do good things my friends, you're here for a purpose.)