Narrator:

  Aria Clarke, 25.

  Daughter of politicians.

  Born into expectations. Raised on schedules.

  But she... just doesn’t care.

  She walks her own path — even if that path is off-road, uphill, and full of mud.

  And this? This is the last ordinary day of her so-called ordinary life.

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  The soft buzz of my phone broke the stillness of my room.

  Bzzzzzt. Bzzzzzt.

  I groggily reached over, swiping at the screen without even opening my eyes. The alarm died down, but my body refused to cooperate. I sank deeper into the pillow, the warm blanket cocooning me in a little slice of comfort I wasn’t ready to leave.

  If alarm clocks were a person, I’d have filed a restraining order by now.

  The shrill beep sliced through my dream of flying over a quiet mountain range, and my pillow immediately became my best friend again. I buried my face in the sheets, groaning as I debated if I could survive another day just by existing on autopilot.

  Then came the knock. The one that was as familiar as the air I breathe.

  “Wakey wakey, lazy gremlin,” Lily’s voice rang through the door, loud and far too cheerful for this hour.

  I didn’t even have the energy to glare at the door, so I just muffled my response into the pillow.

  “I’m dead. Tell the world I died bravely in my sleep.”

  There was a pause. Probably because Lily was debating whether to let me sleep or torture me further. Spoiler alert: she chooses the latter.

  “Tragic,” she said with mock solemnity, “Here lies Aria Clarke — devoured by her bedsheets.”

  I heard the soft sound of footsteps before she appeared at the door, holding the perfect peace offerings: a plate of toast in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. If this was how death worked, I’d die happy.

  “I always knew you’d be the one to save me,” I said, sitting up with the grace of a sloth waking from hibernation.

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  Lily just rolled her eyes, the corner of her mouth twitching with the beginnings of a smile. “I accept tips in the form of chocolate and Spotify control.”

  I took the coffee, already knowing what kind of morning it was going to be. “You drive a hard bargain.”

  She plopped down on my bed, crossing her legs like it was the most natural thing in the world. There was something about her that made everything feel a little more… normal. Maybe it was the way she didn’t need to ask why I was so tired all the time, or how she didn’t push me to fit into the box everyone else wanted me in. With Lily, it was like I could just breathe.

  “You know,” I started, finally taking a bite of the toast she made, “I was dreaming that I was flying.”

  “Flying, huh? That’s better than being a pancake on the floor, I guess.”

  “I was free,” I said, more to myself than to her. “I didn’t have to worry about speeches or schedules or everyone else’s ideas of what I’m supposed to do.”

  Lily glanced at me, her lips curving into a quiet smile, like she was hearing me, really hearing me. “I get that. That sounds like exactly what you need. Some time away from all the… politics.”

  “Not just politics. Everything.” I said, but then I laughed softly. “But yeah. Mostly the politics.”

  She gave a knowing look, one that was entirely unspoken. Lily didn’t have to ask what I meant. She already knew. And that was the thing about her. We didn’t need words to understand each other. She was the only one who got it — got me, in a way no one else did. The version of me that wasn’t caught in the web of “plans” or “expectations” or the “future of the family name.” Lily was the person I could run to when the world was too loud, when the weight of everyone else’s dreams for me was too heavy.

  She wasn’t just my sister. She was my escape.

  “I found this hiking spot on the old map we have,” Lily said, breaking me out of my thoughts. She didn’t need to finish the sentence for me to understand exactly what she was suggesting.

  “A new place?” I asked. “Somewhere we can get lost for a weekend?”

  “Exactly,” she said, nodding. “I don’t want any Wi-Fi, no signal, no one asking me about my future plans. Just… us. Just the trees and some snacks and a whole lot of silence.”

  “I love everything about this,” I said with a smile. “Let’s go. You pack the snacks, I’ll bring the map.”

  “Deal.” She grinned, bumping her shoulder against mine.

  For a moment, I just looked at her. The girl who made my world bearable. Who didn’t push me to be the right thing, just the real thing. I didn’t need to explain myself to her. I didn’t need to keep up the act, the ‘perfect’ version of me that my parents wanted. Lily had a way of making everything feel simple again, and I needed that — more than I’d ever admit.

  “Can we make this a regular thing?” I asked, more of a wish than anything.

  “Absolutely,” she said. “One hike at a time.”

  I smiled, but it was bittersweet. Because in the back of my mind, I knew something was coming. Something that would change all of this. Something bigger than the endless speeches and the family legacy everyone expected me to uphold.

  But for now, in this moment — I was just Aria. And she was just Lily.

  And nothing else mattered.