Epilogue: Destiny

It was a couple months later. School was just about to start back up again — a new grade and a whole new year of (probably) mayhem to go with it. So to distract myself from what I just knew was going to be another nine months of the most boring classes possible by day and insanity by afternoon through night, I had decided to do a little late-summer cleaning.

Yes, you read that right. I didn't want to think about going back to school so badly I was literally cleaning to distract myself. It was that bad.

I had already given my own place not just a once-over but a twice-over — that was how desperate I was — so now I was over at Snowball's. I had told her I would give her room a quick tidying up, but I was, somehow, living to regret it. Not only was her room a total pigsty, it was also full of crazy inventions, most of which had already tried to kill me.

"Phew." I wiped my brow. "Least I'm basically done." All that was left to organize was a shoebox on a high shelf in the closet. Wondering what was inside, I was just bringing it down when…

Something small and thin fell out and floated lightly to the floor. It was a photo, one of Snowball's that she had taken with her instant camera. I knew that much before I even picked it up. But when I flipped it around to the front, I was surprised. The shoebox was full of unorganized pictures that Snowball had yet to put into albums — and out of all of those pictures, what were the chances that the one to fall out would be this one?

The one of me and Matchstick, sleeping next to each other peacefully. How it made it through that day at the beach — through me treading all the way out into the bay — without incurring any water damage was still a total mystery. But in any case, I had managed to return it to Snowball safely.

And now, here it was again.

I smiled, faintly at first, but then bigger, and bigger, till I started chuckling, and then came the full-on laughter. It was funny. I had agonized so long and so hard about what to name this photo and had still come up with screw all. But now, just like that, I knew the perfect name for it.

I dug through Snowball's mess of a desk for a minute — I had cleaned most of the rest of the room, but considering my lack of hazmat suit at the moment, I wasn't gonna dare tackle that nuclear-level disaster zone — until I found a permanent marker. This would be a good way to cap off the cleaning, I thought. It was finally time to give this sucker a name.

But just as I was about to write the name I had thought of down on the little strip at the bottom of the photo, I heard voices from nearby. Three voices — two people-voices and one non-people-voice — calling my name. So I quickly capped the marker, put the picture back, and shelved the box, an unsuppressable smile spreading onto my face. All of that could wait. It was the last day of summer, and I wasn't about to waste it. It was time to go.

To where my friends were.

THE END