I had survived my near death experience with a corndog. Right now Kristin and I were sitting on a bench. “Okay, so mostly we have been talking about me all day, I’d like to hear more about you.” Kristin looked at me with those gorgeous eyes of hers. I could see a whole world behind them. People might think she was a silly blonde, but I could see a depth of wisdom in her eyes that would amaze the world. “You’re zoning out again, sweetie” Why did I get so distracted? “Sorry, I was just thinking that you’re probably a whole lot smarter then people give you credit for.”

I wondered if she ever got tired of my compliments, was complimenting her too much making her think I didn’t mean it at all. “But we talked about me a lot too.” I contradicted her “You know I have dogs, that I’m totally insecure about myself and that I don’t like the way I look. There’s not more to know right? Oh and you know I’m Dutch.” I said jokingly “you probably know more about me then some people I’ve known longer then you.” Okay, maybe I wasn’t getting away from being interviewed by her. She gave me a don’t-joke-about-it look. I sighed “What would you like to know?” She took a sip of her drink “What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun?”

“Well, my biggest hobby is you. I like listening to your music, watch your videos, talk on Glitter, look up pictures. Beside you, I just love music and movies in general. I own way too many movies according to my mom. I am a bit artistic too I guess.” “Yeah! I saw your art supplies in the hotel room. Do you draw? I’m really bad at drawing.” I suddenly remembered a certain The Apple Tree drawing that Kristin had made and kept my mouth shut wisely “Well, yes. I draw. But I also paint, I write stories and poetry. I even write songs sometimes, but just the lyrics, my note writing skills are non existent. I read a lot too.” I remembered some of my drawings were in shoulder bag. "I can show you some of my work, if you want" Kristin nodded eagerly.

"This is something I tend to draw a lot. I draw a lot of fantasy figures. It's a lot easier to draw something that doesn't exist then to draw something that does. At least for me... I do have to say that I..." I took a deep breath "I draw you a lot." There I said it, it was out. "Moi?" Was she surprised, flattered. I couldn't tell. I was embarrassed enough as it was. "Uhuh... You're like… my muse. You inspire me so much. I should have something in here too, some sketches" I rummaged through the pages until I found some of her. I laid them out on the table. She looked at them with interest "I know they're not really good or anything, but I just start sketching and I never continue really. I painted you too a few times." She looked away from me "I get a lot of paintings send to me. Have you ever sent me one of yours?"

“I have actually!” I suddenly remembered “I sent you one for your birthday. I sent you a whole package for your birthday!” Please god, let her have gotten the package. She seemed to dig up the memory from way deep down inside of her. “A package… What was in it?” Too much to mention? “Well, it had a lot of stuff in it actually. But the things you might remember would be a 15 page letter with 150 reasons why I think you are the most amazing person in the world...” her eyes showed recognition now. “my first 5 scenes of SCI; the Musical” a smile started as well now “a painting of you and Maddie at the Red Dress event” She nodded. She remembered. “And an adorable purple backpack with Maddie’s name on it!” she finished for me. My time to smile now.

“That was from you?” Hadn’t I just said that? I didn’t say that out loud though, I just nodded instead, heat rising up my face. She leaned over the table and gave me a long hug. I sighed with contempt. “Thank you so, so much!” she whispered “It was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever gotten. And I get a lot!” “That’s hard to believe. You get so much stuff from your fans! Some of the girls on Glitter said that they sent you clothes and handbags and stuff.” “Yes, true. And it’s all wonderful things. But Maddie really loved the doggie cookies and I liked mine too.” She winked at me and I giggled “home made cookies. Both yours and Maddie’s”. Surprise showed in her eyes “But they were chocolate chip cookies with pink icing and decorations!” I nodded and smiled “I know, I made it all myself, well except for the decorations, I bought those in a little jar.”

She licked her lips again “We are so making cookies tonight” she nodded to herself. I felt like dancing around the table with joy, but settled with a little squee instead. “So you said you write, what do you write?” “I like fantasy stories a lot, but I think most stories I write somehow become movie scripts, or even musical scripts. I have some stories online as well on my Elfwood account.” Yay, more puzzlement. “What’s Elfwood?” “Elfwood is a website where people can join and upload stories and art and other people can view and compliment them. My stuff is rather old though.” “I’d like to see it sometimes, would be nice.”

Would I show her the horror stories I wrote about blood, guts, death and vampires? I had a feeling she would even find me scarier then she does right now. “What’s wrong? You look worried.” Was I that easy to read? “I was just wondering if you would find me scary if I showed you my writing. The stories and poems on Elfwood are mostly horror.” I had an idea. “You might like my Red Roses story though, it is a vampire story and has a bit of violence in it, but also romance and science. It’s like CSI; Vampire.” She chuckled. “CSI; Vampire. I like it. You have an obsession thing with CSI? I mean CSI; the Musical and CSI; Vampire?” I never really thought about it like that. “I really like CSI, I watch it a lot on TV.” She just smiled again. I knew she loved CSI about as much as I did and somehow I think she knew I knew.

I emptied my drink and looked around. I wanted to go to the haunted house; I just had to find out where it was. It had to be around here somewhere. Kristin slurped the remains of her drink and opened her mouth to say something, but something else came out. I turned around and looked at her in astonishment. “Did you just burp?” Her eyes were wide, the white around it showing. Her face turned red as she looked around quickly. Nobody else seemed to have heard it. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, it just happened.” I looked at the embarrassment on her face, shame colouring her face a nice tomato red that reached all the way to her ears.

I could feel the muscles in my mouth twitching. I tried to control my face, keep it nice and blank, but I failed terrible and burst out laughing. Me laughing only increased Kristin’s shame. “Oh come one” I said laughing “It’s funny! Burping is funny. Megan and I once held a burping competition over the computer. Funniest thing ever!” I grabbed my sides and doubled over laughing. “Oh, I’m gonna die! You’re killing me.” Then Kristin started grinning. The grin turned in to a smile. The smile became a giggle and the giggle turned in to a full out laughter. Some people looked at us like we were crazy. And from their point of view, maybe we were, but Kristin and I had just bonded more closely.

We wiped the tears from our face. “It has been ages since I laughed this hard.” I nodded in agreement “I remember when I first saw your interview where you mentioned Dead Puppies. Sophie and I were laughing this hard then too. We were taking it a step further actually.” I hiccupped laughingly. Kristin looked at me, laughter still visible in her eyes “Dead puppies, too dead to box with God. Dead Puppies; now with 30% more Jesus.” I made a very serious face when I said it. I could see the laughter bubbling up in Kristin’s face. It took about 10 seconds before she burst out laughing again. I just grinned sheepishly.

We stared at each other, finally without bursting in to laughter again. We were out of breath as if we had just run a mile. “Okay, so what do you want to do next?” I didn’t want to tell her what I had planned. “It’s a surprise, just follow me.” I felt quite evil, like I should have a tail whipping behind me and horns on my head. We got our stuff and started walking. “So tell me more about you, about your past.”

“Well, I was born and raised in the Netherlands. I come from a pretty big family for that time period. I have two older sisters and an older brother. I’m the only single in my family. We have three dogs and three cats. I’m pretty smart I guess. I love movies, music, books and computer games.” Kristin smiles “And I like long walks in the moonlight, romantic candle light dinners. Are you that special someone I can share this with?” That last part seemed to surprise her. I laughed “it was meant as a joke. Me summing up my life sounds like an personal ad.” She grinned, I grinned. Things were good.

“What about school? Did you do anything special?” oh boy “well, I never really liked school. It was too crowded for me and I didn’t like my classes except music, drawing and English. I finished my high school and then I started working full time. I was planning on saving money and make trips to other countries. Except, it never really worked out that way. I did move to Ireland when I turned 21. So I guess that was a good thing.” I sighed “And that’s basically my whole life. Not much to it really. But all the fun stuff happened when I moved to Ireland. I went to see musicals, like I had wanted to do since I was 12. I travelled to London to see Wicked and Avenue Q. But really, my life is boring.”

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