Third Steps: High School

 By high school, I had about ten-twelve notebooks filled with tales of Crystilline Heiwa Yuy, most of them incorporating her into my favorite Japanese Animation shows at the time. I gave her a pedestal to stand on, making her character this innocent girl who had to face the realities of the world, thereby growing up. Her journey, I suppose, mimicked my own. I was still learning about the world around me and my curious mind couldn't comprehend the negative aspects I had seen. 

It was in Creative Writing when I met my now Serendipity Sister, Denise Davis. 

I can't remember exactly the moment we started talking, but I do know that we became friends once we both realized we loved Sailor Moon. At some point we discovered that the both of us had created our own fictional worlds with our own characters that interacted with characters from Sailor Moon. 

I believe it was Denise who suggested we collaborate, have our original characters meet each other. Dani and her sisters would meet Crystilline and her guardians for the first time that year. 

At first I was excited but then as we started I realized that Denise's skills were way above my own. She was, and still is, a fabulous writer. Her characters have personalities, backstories, things I could never imagine at the time. I figured at some point she would think I wasn't up to her caliber and would just stop collaborating with me at some point. But no, Denise and I kept writing, passing the notebook to each other in class, sometimes multiple times, sometimes just once so that the other could spend all night writing. The first story we finished was definitely on par with the typical Magical Girl troupe, but with more life and heavy undertones. Some of it was a bit silly, most of my work any way, but it was a finished story nonetheless. 

That semester started a friendship I never thought I would have. I figured we would stop meeting each other after that class, that the friendship would last only a semester, so I cherished our friendship for as long as I could. At some point we both got into another Anime called Gundam Wing. She loved Duo Maxwell while my character crushes were Quatre Winner and Heero Yuy. 

I can't remember if it was the next semester that year or next year when, as I took a seat in Shakespeare Class for the first time, I saw Denise walk in. 

We shared a look and she sat in the seat in front of me. 

That was the moment I knew, our friendship would last for a much longer time. 

It was also the beginning of the Serendipity Sister Stories.