Nova didn't look up from her phone when Lucia walked into the room, but she could see the blue of a familiar sweatshirt out of the corner of her eyes. Her black earbuds were in and she tried her best to pay no mind to Lucia, who was tapping her fingers and humming in the chair across from her.

She couldn't.

"Stop that," she bursted out all of a sudden, causing Lucia to jump.

"Sorry! I'm just a bit restless. I texted my mom and she said the snow isn't stopping anytime soon, so-"

"Great," Nova deadpanned, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you have stuff to make pancakes with? I like cooking and everyone likes pancakes, so..." Lucia trailed off with a hopeful yet cautious glint in her eye.

As impatient as Nova was, she did love pancakes.

"I've got ingredients, but no recipe. Tell me what you need and maybe I'll get it for you." She rolled her eyes, pretending to be mad, when in reality, she was looking forward to pancakes.

"Maybe?" Lucia cocked her eyes and grinned.

"Don't push it."

"Milk, eggs, measuring spoons..." Lucia went down her memorized list of ingredients, and Nova let her get to work after showing her how to manage the stove.

Lucia cooked and dumped pancakes onto plates while Nova watched Buzzfeed Unsolved. Every now and then Nova would hold out her plate and Lucia would dump a pancake onto it with a wide grin (unknown to Nova, of course).

"Will you tell me your name?" Lucia asked.

"Nope," Nova shook her head.

"Why?" Lucia laughed.

"Because my name is top secret government information." Nova rolled her eyes. "I don't feel like telling you."

"I'm making you pancakes," Lucia pointed out.

"I didn't ask you to," Nova sneered.

"Come on," Lucia smiled and, having finished, turned the stove off and took the seat across from Nova. "Tell me, please?"

"You smile too much."

"Sorry," Lucia smiled, "I'll stop if you tell me your name."

Nova glanced up at her, knowing full well that the girl was lying. "Nova," She said.

Lucia didn't acknowledge that Nova said anything, making sure not to smile. "Can I put the weather on your TV? My mom texted me and said we could be losing power and I'd like to see the schedule before that happens."

"Losing power? Are you fucking kidding me?" Nova bursted and slammed her hands on the table, anger flaring up over the pain. "God fucking damnit," she huffed, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I'm guessing you don't...like losing power?" Lucia tiptoed with her words, tilting her head slightly to the side as she spoke.

"Who the fuck likes losing power?" Nova yelled at the blonde girl, who stared at her with big eyes.

"Why don't we charge our phones now so they'll be at full battery in case we lose it?" She suggested, trying to think of things for the two of them to do to distract Nova from her rising anger.

While Nova plugged their phones in, Lucia turned on the weather channel. "I have flashlights," Nova growled. "My dad won't be coming home anytime soon. Apparently the roads aren't being plowed yet, so he's stuck at my aunt's with that fucking baby."

"You don't like babies?" Lucia cocked an eyebrow.

"No, okay? I don't like babies. All they do is cry and shit and puke. I'm tired of people looking at me like I'm a monster when I say I don't like babies. I'm a monster for different reasons," she raged, giving Lucia a glare and muttering, "Bitch," under her breath.

"I'm not a bitch," Lucia frowned.

"I don't care whether you think you are or not. I didn't ask. I'm just saying, you're kinda a bitch. You insist on me letting you in, force you dumb dogs into my bathroom, take my sweatshirt, eat my food, and now you're judging me in my own house. Fuck you."

It was silent for a moment as Lucia racked her brain for how to reply to something like that and Nova tried not to snap.

"You can have your sweatshirt back if you want," She offered warily.

Nova snapped. "Shut up!" She raised her voice even higher and gripped the flashlights hard, turning her knuckles white.

Lucia knew that if she smiled, she wouldn't make it out alive.

"Do you like snow?" She asked Nova, catching her off guard.

"...What?" Her anger simmered down and she loosened her grip on the flashlights.

"Snow. Do you like it? You seem like the kind of person who likes cold weather."

"I do...I mean, I am," Nova looked at Lucia as if she were suspicious of her. She was, actually. People usually couldn't figure out ways to calm her down, and Lucia had just done it twice.

"I don't like you very much," Nova pointed out.

"That's okay. You don't have to like anyone, if you don't want to," Lucia said.

Nova was dumbfounded. Usually when she said things like that, people asked for reasons, and she could piss them off and then they'd fight and then she wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. Not Lucia.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Nova asked. She wasn't even trying to be mean anymore, she was simply curious as to why Lucia wasn't affected by any of her jabs.

"What do you mean?" Lucia smiled sweetly and tugged at the sleeves of her borrowed sweatshirt.

"Why are you so...happy?" She scoffed. "Why aren't you mad? I'm being terrible to you, and you're just being this stupid...bubbly moron. What's wrong with you?" Nova rambled, feeling the fire inside her grow out of control.

Lucia stared Nova in the eye with a look of confusion. Her cheeks heated up and she tucked her blonde hair behind her ears.

"I've spent so much time being happy that it just comes naturally." She tried her best to explain her thoughts. "I guess I just don't see the point in wasting my life being angry."

Something about Lucia's words struck her, and Nova was angry and quiet. The heavy silence washed over the two girls and she felt tears well up in her eyes, something that hadn't happened in a while.

"I'm not wasting my life being angry," Nova raged, standing up suddenly.

"I know. I didn't say you were. Maybe you have a reason for being guarded. I just don't." Lucia shrugged and gave Nova a reassuring nod.

"Fuck you," Nova spat.

Lucia shrugged with a sympathetic look.

The television interrupted them and the display of upcoming weather was replaced with a live forecast.

"Power in surrounding towns of this area will most likely be going out in an hour or so," the weather anchor gestured to the area on the screen, and Lucia noticed that it included their town.

"Motherfucker!" Nova yelled, throwing the remote across the room.

"It's okay. Do you have, like... bagged ice?"

"What?" Nova sighed, her anger sizzling down. "Actually, yeah. We have some in the basement freezer."

"You bring the stuff in your fridge down there so it doesn't go bad."

Nova frowned. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'll find blankets so we won't be too cold."

The next twenty minutes consisted of them putting things in freezers and bringing every non-electric heating mechanism to the living room.

"We should build a fort," Lucia laughed and began to take the cushions off the couch.

"Anything you mess up, you put back," Nova reminded her.

"Of course." Lucia draped blankets over two carefully-stacked cushions and grabbed a flashlight, disappearing inside the fort. Nova stood for a moment, unsure of what to do until Lucia popped her head out. "Coming in, or what?"

Nova sighed but made her way inside, careful not to bump into any supporting pillows.

"I've never built a fort before," Nova muttered, averting her eyes from Lucia. The flashlight shone on the blonde girls face, perfectly highlighting every beautiful feature. Nova found herself blushing.

"You haven't?" Lucia frowned. "I used to make them all the time with my brother. He's away at college. I really miss him, though. We're really close, and—"

"Please shut up." Nova interrupted her, feeling guilty yet trying to convince herself that it was necessary.

Lucia seemed taken aback, but gave Nova a quick smile. "Oh, uh...we can talk about something else, if you'd like."

"I don't want to talk."

"I think it'd be awkward if neither of us talked," Lucia tried to explain.

"Okay, then you talk and I'll zone out," Nova rolled her eyes but hesitantly flickered them up to meet Lucia's. There was a moment of...something, there, but Nova couldn't tell what it was.

"Okay, can I talk about anything?"Lucia asked to break the moment of something.

"I don't give a fuck so sure."

"Alright. So you know Amelia Princeton? I was talking to her about flowers-"

"Oh my god, of course you were." Nova cut her off.

"I thought you were zoning out," Lucia said as she glared at Nova. "Anyway, she mentioned that women used to give violets to other women they were interested in, you know...."

"Sexually," Nova laughed.

Lucia frowned. "Romantically. Anyway, the next day there were violets in my locker."

"Why does she know your combination?" Nova rolled her eyes.

"I...told her." Lucia purses her lips and closed her eyes in embarrassment. "I didn't know she'd use the information to tell me she-"

"Wants to fuck you?" Nova laughed. "I think the whole thing is stupid. Really cringey."

"You don't think I should go out with her?" Lucia asked, her tone as serious as could be.

Nova bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. "Nope. She's way too good for you."