Second grade started without Alfonso, who still hadn't gotten over the phenomena between his and Fia's red string.

   "Poor Alfonso," Beth mentioned during recess one day

   Fia clicked her tongue and replied, "Not my fault."

   "But it's still so sad," Beth continued to talk about Alfonso, "his string came, but he also liked you."

   Fia gagged a little at the thought of Alfonso and her. She knew that most kids imagined a long life ahead of them with their fated ones, but if it was going to be Alfonso, she'd rather not.

   She would prefer a lifetime being alone instead of spending all her life with him.

   That was how much that one fight in kindergarten tainted Alfonso's image forever and made only worse with the other fights they had after.

   "People change, Fia," her mom told her a few times whenever the thought of Alfonso came to mind.

   "Not him," Fia decided.

   "What makes you think that?" Bri's uncle, Oliver asked her when she came to play with Bri one weekend.

   "Mean people don't just stop being mean," she argued.

   "But if there was a reason..."

   "Then, what would it be?"

   "Because he likes you?"

   "Ew!" She had goosebumps run down her arms. "Uncle Olly, you're wrong."

   Her lip was curled up, still disgusted by the thought of Alfonso liking her. What was 'liking' anyway? She'd never met anyone she liked.

   Beth out of the four of them was the only one who had any crushes. Bri liked people, but not enough to say she'd want to be connected with them. And Indy was just like Fia.

   There was Amber, who'd gotten attached to Tobias, and Joanna, who was too much like Beth, but worse (in Fia's humble opinion.)

   She could hardly call Beth and Joanna good examples.

   "What if I don't believe in the red string or God Eros?" She dared to ask.

   Uncle Oliver furrowed his brows together and pursed his lips to one side. He sighed before rubbing the top back of his head. He sighed a few more times after and then finally answered.

   "How did your parents react when you told them that?"

   "I didn't tell them anything," she answered.

   He nodded and went back to being pensive.

   "My mom is obsessed with the birthday parties, hoping Regina would meet her fate one. And she does the same for mine and Micah's birthdays too."

   "She cares about you."

   "I didn't say she didn't. I just want her to stop. I don't even care about it."

   Bri gasped, "Do you really mean that?"

   "I do!"

   A smile crept up Fia's face, a burden finally lifted off her chest for the first time.

   "I don't care about it!" She repeated herself.

   She thought she did. Every time her birthday came up or other people's birthdays were brought up, she thought it was important, that there was something more to it. Whenever Beth anticipated it, so did Fia. But in reality, she didn't care whether it showed up or never did.

   "I'm happy having friends and having cake for my birthday."

   "Don't you want to be like Amber?"

   "And what? Spend almost all my time with a boy? Doing what? He won't play princess and castle with us. He'll just want to play with me."

   Bri looked troubled. She didn't know what to say.

   "It's okay, you both can have different feelings about the red string," Uncle Oliver reassured his niece.

   "But it does exist, right Uncle Olly?" Bri needed assurance that hers would appear.

   "I'm sure, like your mother, you'll have yours too," Uncle Oliver said and hugged her.

   "Well, I'm not going to wait for mine."

   Fia did just as she said she would. She stopped waiting for the red string.

   On her eighth birthday, though she invited her usual three friends for a sleepover, they didn't stay up even when Beth started to cry.

   Bri's birthday was a better one for Beth's poor heart.

   "We'll stay up and wait like we always did before!" Beth eyed Fia. "And we're going to have so much fun!"

   But the string didn't appear for any of them, not that Indy would've told the truth.

   Joanna's birthday came next since Amber's birthday that year was an intimate dinner between her family and Tobias.

   "I heard that Amber's married."

   "It was an engaging," Beth told Joanna.

   "Engagement," Indy corrected them both.

   "So, they're what exactly?" Fia asked.

   "It means they're promised to each other," Patrick let himself into their conversation.

   "Which means they'll be married!" Joanna finished for him.

   "Does that mean Amber can't pick who she marries?" Bri asked.

   They all turned to her and said together, "Yeah."

   Bri's shoulders fell.

   "What if they change? What if they don't like each other anymore?"

   Indy felt her stomach drop.

   "What if Tobias no longer likes bugs?"

   "No girl likes bugs, Indy," Joanna said matter-of-factly.

   "I do," Indy said back. "And Amber does too!"

   "I bet she was just saying it because Tobias is a boy. Boys like bugs."

   Patrick grimaced and said quickly, "I definitely don't."

   "Well, you're not really a boy-boy," Joanna looked at the boys playing sports. "You're here, talking with us girls instead of playing with them."

   "But I don't like sports. It's so dirty and they sweat. I don't like sweating."

   No one struggled as much as Patrick did when it came to P.E. First, changing into jersey shirts and shorts was not his style. He'd never seen his dad wear one and preferred his button-down and bow tie over them.

   "See, you're not a boy-boy."

   "Then, I'm not a girl-girl," Indy said, moving her head from side to side.

   Joanna pouted and said, "You don't want that, Indy. Boys won't like that."

   "I don't want them to like me then."

   Both Beth and Joanna covered their ears.

   "Indy!" Beth said after. "You can't say that. My mom said, you never know who he'll be."

   "But if they don't like me liking bugs, then why should I like them?"

   "We can't be picky, that's what my mom told me," Joanna was nodding nonstop, "us ladies need to be ladies all the time."

   "If Indy likes bugs, let her be. I'm sure she'll find a guy who likes bugs too."

   "But, Fia, what if he changes?" Bri asked again, worried that Tobias would change his mind about Amber at some point.

   "I don't believe people change, remember?"

   "But Uncle Olly..."

   "Has your uncle ever changed?"

   Although it seemed impossible, Bri frowned deeper.

   "No? I don't know. Uncle Olly is how he's always been with me..."

   "So, people don't change?"

   "I'm sure everyone changes," Joanna crossed her arms, "We're not babies anymore."

   Bri continued to think deeply. It made Indy think too.

   "Do you think we're really stuck with the same person the red string connects us to?" Indy asked when she and Bri were the last to return to class.

   "I don't know."

   Bri shrugged and tried to smile.

   What if she didn't like the person on the other end? Or what if they didn't like her?

   She thought it happened more naturally. Two people start to like each other and they stay that way forever. She thought her parents had never changed and had always been what they were to her. But she has seen people change, people like Patrick.

   Patrick had been focused on his studies, trying to always one-up Arian, who was in a different class from his this year. However, Patrick was less committed to coming in first place in second grade than he was in first grade. He busied himself instead in all things about the red string.

   "At what age did your parents get their red string, Mr. Stirling?"

   They were studying history after recess, focused on the topic of God Eros.

   "That's a good question. Hmm, I was nine, I believe. The string wrapped around my waist, uncomfortable I might add." His voice had a soothing depth, intriguing at first and lulling later. "It wound tightly around my body and snuggled me. Comforting me."

   His English accent was also different from what the children had heard before.

   "And my wife and I met seven years later."

   "Did your wife also get it when she was nine?" Indy asked this time.

   "Oh yes. Two connected strings appear simultaneously."

   "At the same time?" Beth turned to Fia. "Is it possible for one person to see the string but not the other person?"

   Mr. Stirling thoughtfully answered, "I don't suppose it's possible. There has been no record of such a thing before, Miss Catalán. Do you know of anyone?"

   "Well-"

   "Shut up," Fia muttered to her.

   All but Bri and Louis were in the same class.

   "We do not say that in this class, Miss Östberg."

   "I just don't want her to share someone else's stuff, Mr. Stirling," Fia said, miffed.

   Beth shrugged and said, "He's not here to share it."

   "Then you say it," Joanna insisted to Fia. "It's about you anyway, Fia."

   "Say it!" The class all said, knowing what occurred with Alfonso the year before.