The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Tomorrow

Within the darkness of a small room, a bright light is trying to come through a window and slip past the curtains. Just beneath the window lies a bed in the corner of the room. And a figure lies within a pile of blankets, sound asleep. The window above her is open, letting a light breeze through which pushes the curtains away and reveals the morning sun. The figure sighs as they slowly become conscious and rolls over to avoid the light, refusing the wake-up call. Another breeze pushes the curtains away more and the light that floods in reveals the rest of the room.

A large dresser stands next to the bed, many items and things scattered across it in an organized fashion. Next to that, in the other corner of the room is a standard bookshelf, full of books of various titles and other trinkets and things that decorate the space. Hanging just above the dresser was a large mirror frame. There was no glass in it to be a mirror, but the wooden interior served well as a chalkboard, of sorts. There was a messy drawing inside it that was also quite smudged. On the opposite wall, a small desk accompanied by an old desk chair, a pile of worn clothes stacked on top of it. The desk had an assortment of drawing materials and a stack of blank paper in the center, meticulously organized. Next to that stood a small cabinet that housed even more artistic materials and other miscellaneous items. And at the corner of that room was the door to the hallway.

It's early Autumn. When the heat of Summer very slowly starts to die down, but the cold weather won't entirely set in until way later. The figure sighs again and sticks an arm out from underneath the pile of blankets, lazily swatting it upwards to find a phone lying facedown on the edge of the dresser. The figure manages to grab it, unplug the cord and brings it over to their face. The screen lights up and the figure winces, swatting her finger on the screen to turn the brightness down.

The time was 10:12.

The figure groans, submitting to remain conscious and sits up in bed, yawning and stretching their limbs before swinging their legs out of bed and making contact with the floor. They pull over a long blue blanket that drapes over their back like a cape as they hold onto their phone and slowly trudge their way over to the door.

As they make their way down the hall and down the stairs, the figure can hear various sounds coming from the kitchen.

"How does he always get up earlier than me..?" the figure says to themselves.

When the figure makes it to the bottom of the stairs and turns left into the kitchen, there is another figure standing in front of the stove. A young man making breakfast for himself. He turns around and notices the figure approaching them.

"Oh, hey.

"Hey.

The figure walked over and sat down on a barstool, leaning their head lazily on the counter.

"I thought you'd sleep in later."

"Yeah, I thought so too."

"Are you... gonna make something for yourself or... do you want me to make you something?"

"No, no, I'm gonna make something in a minute. *yawn* I'm just tired."

"Yeah, same."

The young man finished frying up his breakfast and put it on a plate to eat. He didn't sit down, he just pulled out a fork from a drawer and started eating. His phone was lying next to the plate and he occasionally typed something on the screen as he ate.

"Whatcha' doing there?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm just making a grocery list. I'm gonna go out as soon as I finish eating. You wanna come with?"

The figure shook their head.

"I would but, uh... there's uh... a pile of clothes that's been sitting on my chair for like... a while now that I should probably wash. I meant to do it a while ago, but..."

"Yeah, you should probably do that. You really gotta wash them more often, Sophie. Oh, you should bring your blankets and sheets down too while you do that. You remember how it works, right?"

"Uh... yeah, I think so.

"Good. I'm not gonna be gone long, we just need a few things."

"You got enough money for it?"

"Yeah, I do. Don't worry."

The young man cleaned his plate and eventually left the room. Shortly after, he was dressed up and had already left to walk all the way to the grocery store. The figure, known as Sophie, eventually got up to make breakfast for herself.

The young man went out the door is Apollo, and his best friend Sophie, or Sophia, have known each other since they were kids. They live here together in this small house within a neighborhood similar to any other normal neighborhood. But they live alone. They only have each other.

No parents. No guardians.

Well... none that they know of however.

And yes, while they live in a normal household, they don't technically... own it. They merely... "claimed" it, so to speak.

And for as long as they've known each other they do their best to look out for each other and make sure not to attract... any sort of attention to them.

This time of year in particular is usually when they would start preparing to go back to school, now that the Summer is nearly over. This year however, they would not be attending.

Last year was when they decided to first start attending. Because while they had no one else to look after them, they thought it would be the right thing to do to get themselves properly educated. (And hoping it could help them appear more "normal" in the long run.) But as that year went on and they dragged themselves through it, their experience of what they thought school would be... was unlike anything they ever wished to experience again. By the time the school year was about to end, both Apollo and Sophia agreed that it just wasn't right for them. (Nor was it worth the price of their sanity.)

So they left, and made sure to erase all evidence that they ever attended and any records that proved their existence.

So as of this year, they were finally free once again to live their lives the way they wanted. To a certain extent...

In the meantime, after Sophia finished her breakfast, she returned upstairs to her room, and pulled her curtains back to let her room bathe in sunlight before getting dressed and gathering some items in a small leather satchel that she slung around her shoulders before heading back downstairs. Until she immediately turns back around, towards her desk chair and picks up the pile of clothes and carries them down into the garage and drops them into a laundry basket next to the washing machine, reminding herself that she'll wash them all later. She then goes out into the backyard, heading to the edge of the tall fence where she moves some loose panels out of the way, allowing her to slip through them. On the other side stood a chain-link fence that stretched around the neighborhood, blocking off any entry from the grove that lay just beyond. There was a section of the fence that had been pulled away, allowing Sophia to push her way through it and walk down into the grove itself.

She walked further and further, down the hill, where the trees began to thicken, knowing exactly where she wanted to go.