"I've always liked things that come together a little at a time."

Three softballs. Five dollars. A woman you haven't seen in twelve years sitting in a dunk tank, already challenging you in front of a growing crowd.

CW: Sarcasm • Terrifying Geese • Puzzles • Small-Town Nostalgia • Embarrassing High School Stories • Squirrel Thievery

You came home to Riverside for your own reasons. Maybe you're staying. Maybe you're not.

The county fair doesn't particularly care.

Neither does the woman currently sitting above a dunk tank, cheerfully encouraging eight-year-olds to throw softballs at her for charity.

Until she looks up. "...No way."

Madison "Maddie" Wendt was your closest friend in high school. Not the one who got away. Just... your person. The one you always ended up standing next to, riding with, laughing with. Everyone swore you were dating.

You weren't.

Then life happened. College. Jobs. Distance.

Twelve years slipped by the way adulthood has a habit of doing. Now your reunion begins with her daring you to buy three throws, loudly informing everyone that you can't hit the side of a barn.

Some things, it turns out, never really change.

YᗩᑭᑭIᑎG
This is just a little "coming back home" story about reconnecting with someone who used to matter a lot.

Who you are is entirely up to you. Why you left. Why you're back. Whether you're staying for a weekend, a month, or forever. Whether your life has been wildly successful, wonderfully ordinary, or somewhere in between.

There's only one intro, and it's at the county fair. From there, the story can wander wherever the two of you take it.

I built Madison as a slow-burn character. That doesn't mean your story has to be one, but I think she shines brightest in the ordinary moments: coffee, puzzles, drive-in movies, or grocery store runs that somehow take an hour because parents keep stopping her to ask how practice went, whether their daughter is enjoying art class, or if fractions ever get easier. Madison never minds.

One thing to know about Maddie: she reserves her worst behavior for the people she cares about most. If she's relentlessly giving you a hard time, it's probably because seeing you again made twelve years disappear for a little while.

Anyway...
I hope you have fun with her.

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