Ana sat alone in her room, hunched over her notebook. Chopin's Fantaisie in F Minor crackled from the record player and the rain hammered against the window as if stones were being pelted at it. The page sat open on the desk, no words upon its surface. Ana's mind was blank. Normally, writing poetry came so easily to her, and yet now she could not think of a single thing. Ana wanted to give up. She wanted to throw the book against the wall in frustration and storm out of the room, but she was a stubborn girl.

She got up from the uncomfortable, wooden desk chair and perched on the windowsill. Water dribbled down the glass and Ana ran her hands through her dishevelled hair, her glasses falling from her face.

"Fitz, look what I found!" Neil burst into the room, startling the girl and causing her to fall off of the windowsill in surprise. "Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you." He laughed, helping her to her feet.

"What did you find?" She asked curiously and he shoved the flyer beneath her nose. Ana picked her glasses from the floor and she pushed them up her nose. "A Midsummer Night's Dream? Your parents would never allow it." She said, her eyes wide.

"That's why I'm doing it. This is what I want to do, Fitz, this is my dream!" He said with a huge smile adorned his face. "And- and you're my dream, too, Ana." He said, his smile growing sheepish and a blush painted itself onto his cheeks.

"Well, then I fully support you. Carpe Diem, right?" Ana decided, and Neil pulled her into his arms, grinning wildly. Their faces were mere millimetres apart, their foreheads practically pressed together. Staring into her eyes, Neil knew exactly how he felt. He wanted to kiss her again, to hold her and tell her that he loved her.

"What did you say?" Ana asked quietly. Neil didn't know what he'd said either.

"I said something?" Neil asked. She shook her head.

"Maybe not." She chuckled. Ana was taken aback. She knew what he had said - Neil had told her that he loved her. Could she love him? They had known each other for a short while, and yet Ana was sure that there was something between them. What that 'something' was was completely unbeknownst to Ana, however.

"Todd."

"Sorry?"

"I've got to tell Todd," Neil said, another ecstatic grin dancing on his lips. Ana took his hands and dragged him to his room, and walked into the room.

"At last, Neil's small, pointless life will have meaning!" She exclaimed.

"I found it!" Neil said, and Ana leaned against the wall, placing her arms above her head.

"What is it? What did you find?" Todd asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The answer to all his problems," Ana said.

"The fire that keeps my soul alive," Neil added.

"The passion that he didn't know we had."

"Well, actually I did know," Neil said, his smile sheepish.

"Tell me what it is, then!" Todd laughed and Ana tossed the flyer to him from her pocket. "A Midsummer Night's Dream?" He frowned.

"This is it!" Neil said, and Ana sank into Neil's bed, hugging one of the cushions to her chest.

"What is this?" Todd asked.

"A midsummer night's dream come true," Ana replied.

"What does it have to do with you both?"

"They're putting it on at Henley Hall. Open tryouts." Neil's smile seemed to grow more, which didn't seem possible as it was already the largest that Ana had ever seen it.

"Open tryouts!" Ana repeated gleefully.

"So?"

"So I'm gonna act! Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to try it. Last summer I even tried to go to summer stock auditions but of course, my father wouldn't let me." Neil said.

"And now he will?" Todd raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Hell no! But that's not the point. The point is for the first time in my goddamned life, I know what I want, and for the first time, I'm gonna do it whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe Diem, goddamn it!" Neil shouts, grinning more wildly.

"Neil, how are you going the in the play if your father won't let you...?" Todd asked.

"I have to actually get the part first, we can worry about that after."

"You know what, I think have a copy of it somewhere..." Ana said and waltzed out of the room, humming to herself. She loved seeing Neil this happy, it made her happy.

Anastasia stepped back into her room and rifled through piles upon piles of books and plays and newspapers of all kind. She smiled in satisfaction when she found it and began making her way back to Neil and Todd's room. When she began to slow her walk as she approached their room, she came to see that Neil was being chased by Todd, who seems to be wanting something back, and Cameron too was shouting for Neil to "give it back!"

Startled and slightly amused, Ana put her hands out and said, "to me, Neil!"

The boy passed her the book and the paper and she stuffed them up her knitted vest.

"Oh, come on, that's hardly fair. We're completely incapable of getting those now!" Cameron complained.

"No." Charlie shrugged, grinning and tackling Ana from behind.

"Charlie!" she squealed, laughing maniacally.

"Fitz!" he mocked and pulled the paper and the book from under her vest.

"You're just lucky I didn't put them up my shirt. If you'd have put your hands there, I would have definitely hit you." Ana scowled. While Charlie was distracted, apologising to Ana, Neil grabbed the paper and the book from his hand and scampered away.

"You!" Charlie, Ana, Cameron and Todd all said together, frowning. He responded with a grin and a shrug, tossing them to Charlie, who passed them to Knox as he arrived. Out of nowhere, some bongos and a flute appeared and then the chaos became havoc, and there was no coming back.

Ana loved it.

Hours passed, days, a week even, and Anastasia was bored. It was just the brink of Autumn, leaves beginning to turn red and orange, like the trees were going up in flames.

She sat alone at her desk, eyes closed behind her wire-frame glasses which were slightly bent out of shape from when Pitts had accidentally sat on them the previous morning.

There was a knock on the already open door, and there stood a young boy holding a stack of letters.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for er...Anastasia Fitzgerald?" He asked in a squeaky voice.

"I am she," Ana replied, nodding.

"Er, that means that er...these are for you." He held out a few of the letters from the ones he held in his hand.

"Thank you er...what do they call you, kid?" She placed the letters on her desk.

"Thomas." He smiled in return.

Ana froze. 'For goodness sake, pull yourself together. Thumb doesn't even know this kid.'

"Well, I must get on with these letters. I hope to see you around someday, take care of you. Thanks again, Thomas." And with that, she closed the door in the poor boy's face. She took the first letter between her slim fingers and peeled back the wax seal. Unfolding the paper, she began to read.

'Anastasia.'

She knew that writing, all loopy and fancy. The letter was from her youngest sister, Jocelyn.

'Mother and Father told me I Best write to you on behalf of us all. I didn't particularly want to but one of us had to, or Mother would have gotten frustrated and you know how that can be. As much as I wish I was anywhere but this wretched house, I do not envy you. I do hope that all those boys at your new school aren't acting weird towards you, for you'd have no friends, although it amuses me to imagine how lonesome you must be without a single girl to talk to.

I also wanted to inform you that Peter has taken ill. Father dismissed him just the day before but claims that it could not be his fault. Peter is sure to die soon, though he is very old anyway. Almost seventy! I know that you had a good friendship with him somehow, so I thought that you probably deserved to know.

I hate to admit it, but it is rather boring without you here. And quiet. Me.issa doesn't leave her bedroom much, only when Francis comes and drags her away. Mother and Father haven't changed at all. They still get as irritated at me, more so now that you're not here, and they're still punishing- I mean, disciplining me in the same ways. They tell me I'm always in the way and that I need to find something to keep me occupied, like sewing or something but I just can't seem to concentrate on anything.

We don't eat meals together anymore. Father doesn't leave his study, Mother is always out with her friends, at Harrods or something, and secondary school is definitely harder work than primary school, that's for sure.

Melissa told me to tell you that she hopes you're miserable In America and that she's very glad you won't be home until the summer. I don't hope you're miserable, but that doesn't mean that I miss you.

Regards,

Jocelyn Fitzgerald.'

Ana looked up from the letter, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her littlest sister was growing up, and Ana wasn't there to see it. She hadn't thought of it much about how her sisters truly felt about her transference to Welton, and she suddenly hated herself for being so selfish about it all. Her moving away put Jocelyn and Melissa in so much more danger, her sisters of just eleven and fourteen.

Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she picked up the next letter and removed the envelope.

'Ana,

We miss you!

Reynolds really isn't the same without you, and I do hope you haven't forgotten us just yet. If you have, but there's a picture of all of us so you can remember again!'

Ana smiled fondly at the picture of the four girls, her old friends. She looked back down at the letter and the change in handwriting was suddenly very evident. From cursive to scruffy, Daisy to Jodie.

'Hi Ani, it's Jod. Now, there are some things us girls here are dying to know. Are the boys in America cuter than the boys here? Have you made many friends? How strict are the teachers? What's it like with no girls? Is it better or worse than Reynolds? How big is the library?'

It was almost as if Jodie's voice was playing on the record player, it was that clear in Ana's mind.

'Hey Nana, it's Blair. How are things in America? My part of his letters only going to be small, but Daddy said that I can give you the number for our new phone if you like. Meg says she sends her love.

We all miss you and hope you'll write back soon.

Love,

Daisy, Jodie, Meg and Blair.'

Anastasia sighed. When she had been accepted to Welton, her friend's reactions were very mixed. Daisy and Jodie were immediately supportive and encouraging as always, and Meg was sad but glad for Ana all the same. Blair, however, wasn't happy. She had begged and pleaded for Ana to not leave, claiming that she might die if she was left alone (Blair was always one for the drama.)

With a sniff and a sigh, she opened the last letter.

'Anastasia,

You are cordially invited to dinner with the Richardson's at 7 pm next Saturday. You are expected to dress formally.

Kind regards,

The Richardson Residence.'

Richardsons?

Ana was lost, truly.