28. DIPPING A TOE INTO MISCHIEF

November 26, 2025

After their meeting at the café, Bas and Laura started seeing each other almost every day. Sometimes at work, sometimes right after. They went out for lunch, for coffee, and sometimes grabbed a drink together. Especially on days when Ollie was spending time at the ranch with her mom.

They talked about everything or about nothing at all. They felt wonderfully comfortable around each other. Their friendship bloomed like never before.

Unfortunately, it was only friendship.

Neither of them took that one step forward to turn it into something more.

Bastian had no idea how to cross that line between them. With every meeting he wanted more and more to tell her how he felt. And yet, whenever he tried to say something, the words got stuck in his throat. He didn’t want to ruin what they had regained. But being a friend wasn’t enough for him anymore.

Sometimes he caught Laura giving him a look that seemed softer, gentler, as if she, too, was searching for something. But he could never be sure if it wasn’t just his imagination. The uncertainty paralyzed him. He had no idea what to do. And the days kept passing.

Then spring arrived. And with spring, certain changes came in the neighborhood.

But we'll get back to this later.

Now, we get back to Ollie.

Spring finally reached Chestnut Ridge as well. After school, our girl spent a lot of time practicing horseback riding and playing with Becky the sheep and Mekhi the goat.

But most of all, she played with her imaginary friend, the Pegacorn Shreeky.

Shreeky, however, had a very different idea of what “fun” meant compared to what Ollie was used to.

Olimpia: I’ll be the fearsome Calypso, and you can be brave Freya.

Shreeky: I’m bored of this game. I have a better idea for what we can do. But you have to make a very special promise that you’re planning something mischievous.

Olimpia: Okay… I guess.

Olimpia: I earnestly promise that I’m up to something mischievous. Buahahahaha!

Shreeky: We’ll polish that later.

Shreeky: Let’s see which one of us can decorate the floor better!

Olimpia: I will You’ll see!

Olimpia: What do we do now? Want to throw the airplane around?

Shreeky: Nooo… Let’s jump in the puddles instead!

Olimpia: Yay!

Shreeky: And now we dance around the table!

Olimpia: Am I doing it right, Shreeky?

Shreeky: You’re doing it perfectly…

Shreeky: So? Wasn’t today great?

Olimpia: It was awesome!

Shreeky: Keep it up and one day I’ll show you a super-fun prank. It’ll be sizzly, heh-heh-heh!

When Sofia finally came home, she couldn’t believe what she walked into.

Sofia: What happened in here??!!

Shreeky: Oops! I’m out for today. Byyyyye!

Sofia: Olimpia Drozd! Can you explain to me why the floor looks like… this?

Olimpia: We were only decorating it. Me and Shreeky.

Sofia: You call this decorating? Is the whole muddy rug also decoration?

Sofia: I really don’t understand. Why did you do this?

Olimpia: I told you. Shreeky said it would be fun if we decorated the floor like this.

Sofia: Shreeky is your imaginary friend?

Olimpia: She’s not imaginary. She’s the realest, the funniest and the bestest.

Sofia: I see… Well. No matter who came up with this game, the result is that it’s extremely dirty in here. And it all has to be cleaned up. And since I don’t see Shreeky anywhere to fix what the two of you did, all the cleaning falls on you.

Olimpia: I have to clean all this… alone?

Sofia: Yes, exactly.

Olimpia: But that’s not fair. I wasn’t the only one who made the mess.

Sofia: I know it’s hard and not fun, sweetheart. But you agreed to this kind of play, and now you have to clean up after it. That’s part of being responsible.

Olimpia: …Okay.

Sofia: One more thing. A little “I’m sorry” is in order.

Olimpia: I’m sorry, Mom.

Sofia: That's better.

Sofia felt uneasy about the whole situation. And although this was Ollie’s first real mischief, something told her this was just the beginning. A mother’s intuition. She should talk to Bastian so neither of them missed anything important.

Olimpia, on the other hand, felt an overwhelming wave of hurt toward mom and the whole world.

She only wanted to have fun. And instead of laughter and dancing, she got a wet rag and scolding. She used to have so much fun with her mom, and now her mom didn’t understand her at all.