Hollinter on Holiday, Chapter 1 - Dear Diana

Dear Diana, 

I hope you can forgive me.

I know your mind's probably a swirling cauldron of emotions right now - anger, resentment, concern, fear - mine would be, too, if you had been the one to pack up and leave without an explanation.

.

I just hope that one day, when this letter finds you, you'll understand. I can't answer all your questions (you're bound to have a few, aren't you?), but maybe this journal could answer a few.

I found myself a new place to call home. It's a little rainy.

Well, okay. A lot rainy.

Not very good camping weather, but thankfully I didn't have to camp very long. I had just enough savings to afford a little shack, and yeah, it's not quite as big as the house Mom and Dad were able to afford out of college, but hey. I hear that builds character.

Besides the rain, it's quite a pretty little island. Lots of fish! I'm not very good at catching them, but I'll master the art of fishing one day, with a little bit of practice.

And there's frogs! They must like the damp weather here. Leo would love them, don't you think? If I can catch a little orange one I think I'll name it after him.

The neighbours seem friendly. Determined, too. I heard one of them got struck by lightning trying to welcome me to the island!

I was down by the pier fishing when it happened, but I thought I would stop by and pay him a visit once the rain let up. It seemed like the polite thing to do.

Well, I meant to visit him. It turned out he has a daughter? And she's... very pretty.

(I wonder if you've always known, Diana? Surely you and Piper must have figured it out at some point... I wanted to tell you; we told each other everything. I just didn't want it to change anything.)

Her name is Luna Villareal. A celestial name, like ours. Almost like destiny, isn't it? Of course, I had no way of knowing if she was even into girls, but she was friendly, at least.

And, of course, I found a way to mess up without even opening my mouth. Maybe I'm just too used to the days where we'd run over to Piper's and help ourselves to her snack cupboard. Anyways, Mr. Villareal wasn't too pleased when I used his kitchen to make some food.

He very firmly and not-very-kindly asked me to leave. Plumbob, that was embarrassing. I was so frazzled I took my lunch with me. I did leave the bowl on his porch. I hope that was the polite thing to do.

I'm such an idiot, Di. 

It started to rain again on my way back home. I changed into some dry clothes, and tried to lose myself in a book. 

There's a beautiful library in town. I can't afford my own computer yet, but I was able to write my first manuscript!

It's not journalism, but it's a good way to start earning some money.

Across the street is a really nice little cafe. I don't exactly have a real kitchen, and I wasn't about to go and make a fool of myself again by trying to use someone else's, so I've just been ordering small meals there.

I ran into Luna again before heading off to my first day on the job - I'm just a writer's assistant at the moment, but I'm working my way up.

She didn't seem upset about the salad incident the other day. I'm not sure how she didn't overhear her dad yelling, but I'm very thankful she didn't.

I self-published my first book when I got home from work later. The royalty checks don't amount to much, but I need every simoleon I can get.

Luckily there's lots of flowers, frogs, and fish to collect on the island. Again, not nearly enough to put towards a home, but they're good for paying off my meals!

I've done a little bit of exploring outside of Windenburg, too. San Myshuno is nice, and a lot dryer so far! I even did a little bit of karaoke - but only because the place was empty.

The library has definitely been my favourite spot so far. I've been reading some new novels for work, and taking advantage of the public computers whenever they're free.

I'm two books in!

Apparently I'm not the only one around here with a lack of social etiquette - some weirdo tried to break into my fridge last night? Okay, maybe it's a little hypocritical to call him names, but at least I wasn't creeping around at night to do it!

I woke up feeling a little dazed that next morning, but I'm okay otherwise.

After the second refrigerator incident, I decided to spend most of my savings, and expanded the house a little. Now my fridge is safe indoors, and I even have a little bit of counter space!

Luna invited me to join her club - they're called the Paragons? I'm honestly not too sure what the point of the club was - I mean, I know that 'paragon' would refer to someone who's a model of perfection, but that can't possibly apply to me, Di. Her dad kicked me out of their house on my first day here!

I don't know. Is it possible that she just wanted to spend some time with me? She even lent me a sweater for the meeting! Apparently they've got some sort of club rule about wearing pink. Sounds very Mean Girls to me, Di.

It took me another day to work up the courage, but I did ask her to grab some coffee with me. I tried my best to flirt a little, and she didn't seem to be very into it at first...

...but she did warm up after we talked a little more!

She even invited me to the bluffs later that night. There was some sort of weird dance party happening, but she didn't seem very interested in it.

I'll spare you the details, Di, but I can tell you that she turned out to be very interested in me.

The important thing is that she wanted to be my girlfriend! And to be honest, it's kind of a relief, being away from home. I don't have to worry about posting pictures of us together, or having that awkward 'Hey, Mom and Dad, I'm gay' talk.

I mean, I'm sure they would have accepted me. (Right?) But I would have never been able to be heir... and I think they wanted that for me.

Things were really starting to look up at that point. I had a steady girlfriend, job, and a slowly expanding home. I was even able to get myself a computer through work! It's ancient, basically the dinosaur of computers, but it works and I can write from the comfort of my home now.

Two more books! I've been branching out to different genres - children's books, short fiction, even poetry (which is weird; poetry was always my least favourite in school). I think maybe I want to focus on writing about my life, though.

Luna and I have been hanging out a lot - she likes to send me a lot of invites. A little too many, maybe. Sometimes I'm at work, and I really can't ditch to spend time with her, as much as I want to.

She just moved in with me, though, so hopefully that means we'll get to spend more time together (and I won't have to sneak away to answer my phone at work, haha.)

I was a little worried, because it's a huge step down from the house she was living in before, but she seems happy here. (And I'm really happy here, too, Di.)

She didn't move in with much money as I'd hoped, though. Maybe her dad wasn't too happy about her moving in with a salad thief, I don't know.

She did find a job, though! She wants to go into the fashion industry, something about wanting to become a trend setter. She's been interviewing people around Windenburg on their 'outfit of the day' (do people usually wear something new every day? I always just throw on the same thing).

I don't really know much about fashion (that was always more of your thing, Di), but I was happy to give her a few tips on conducting interviews.

I asked her to marry me the other day.

Maybe it was a bit soon, but she said yes, so I don't really care.

I'm not sure if we'll adopt kids, or maybe just some cats, but either way I think I'm going to keep up the family naming trend.

Luna works from home most days, so whatever our family consists of, she'll be home to take care of them. Right now she's been out and about, meeting new people, and taking pictures for her blog.

I was a little disappointed that I missed Geek Con this year (they had a real rocket ship, Di!), but Luna took a lot of pictures for me.

We had a hard time finding some good weather in Windenburg, so we took a trip to Brindleton Bay and got married there instead.

It was a small ceremony - just the two of us, but the weather was beautiful, and it was kind of nice not having an audience.

(I would have really liked for you, Leo, Mom, and Dad to be there, though. Do you remember when we were kids, and we promised that we would be each other's maid of honour? I'm sorry I couldn't keep it.)

We spent most of that day in bed. Once again, I'll spare you the details.

Well, Di... I'm not sure how it happened... but I think I'm pregnant?

Maybe it was the magic powers that I hadn't used since leaving home. Maybe it's something in the water here. Somehow, I'm having a baby.

Luna took the news very well. I didn't tell her about our powers - witches, people-eating plants, and that sort of thing seemed like something I needed to leave in my past. Luckily she didn't ask for an explanation; I still can't figure out how this happened myself.

I've been documenting my pregnancy in my books, just in case another couple out there finds themselves in the same position as us.

They've got some weird tradition here, Di. We woke up one morning to find a bunch of gnomes in our house? I don't think someone snuck in to put them there - I swear they could move around on their own. Some sort of magic is at play in this neighbourhood.

Anyways, we gave them some pie, and that seemed to appease them.

We also had a nice little feast for just the two of us - well, three if you count the baby. Oh, plumbob, I hope it's just one baby. I don't know how Mom and Dad survived having twins with no money and a half-finished house.

Luna and I have been working away on our projects, so we should have enough money to build a nursery, at least. As long as it's just the one baby, I think we'll be okay!

I've been brushing up on my handy-skills - a lot of our furniture keeps breaking, and that is definitely not going to be safe with a little one around. If I play around with some tools, I might be able tp upgrade some of our things so they don't break as often.

I can't see my feet, and I feel like my boobs have grown five cup sizes. Send help.

Diana, it's go time. Luna accompanied me to the hospital, and I'm glad she did because the birthing machine is... I don't even have the words to describe it.

We were both a little freaked out, but at least the doctor was calm.

It was a boy! Diana, you are now the proud Aunt of Rigel Hollinter. At least, I hope you're proud.

Not only we were able to afford a nursery, but I think we made it look pretty nice, too! Some people might not think purple is a very masculine colour, but those same people probably also think that girls shouldn't marry other girls.

(Or have babies together, but to be fair, I thought that myself up until a few days ago.)

I'm still not sure how we did it, but Rigel seems happy and healthy, and that's all that matters. Hey, maybe if we're lucky we'll be able to give him a sibling some day?

Diana, I hope that wherever you are now, you're happy, healthy, and safe, just like me and my own family. Send my love to Mom, Dad, and Leo, and to Piper and her family.

With Love,
         Halley Hollinter