I really can't believe I'm about to start college, but first I have to go through all my old stuff...Ugh this is going to take forever. Well let's start by setting aside clothes: college, give away, leave here. She picked through her closet until it was completely empty.

After an hour or so she was finally finished with sorting her clothes. Next to sort was toiletries and accessories, this took about 30 minutes. Last but not least she took out all of the boxes from under her bed and in her closet. They were mostly filled with old school papers but some of it was childhood drawings. She lay at the edge of her bed opening boxes and throwing paper on the floor, only setting important sheets back into the box. Eventually she came upon her childhood crafts. She flipped through them laughing at some, reminiscing at others. As she got to the older drawings she began to notice a trend, many of the drawings featured a figure made of blue dots, most of the time it was holding hands with what she assumed was the younger her.

She called out "Hey mom, can you come here for a sec?" she waited a few seconds before shouting "Mom!" from the stairs her mom shouted back "I'm coming!" When her mom appeared in the doorway she looked over the chaotic room "What happened here?" she asked quizzically. "I'm just packing for college, I'll clean in up in a bit. Hey, do you know what this is supposed to be?" she angled a couple of the drawings towards the door. Her mother walked over and took one. "Oh I remember these, you were obsessed with the creature for a while, you called it the 'Rain Man'. Almost every single time it rained you wanted to go out to the pond and look for him. You said he tapped your nose, it was really cute...it lasted a while though, your fixation. Let's see you were about 7 when it began and you kept talking about him until you were about 12." she sat on the bed flipping through some of the other papers.

"Really? I don't remember that at all..." her mom paused for a moment on a single picture, "Well you were very young, I think he first appeared 2 months after we had moved into this house. You were playing in the garden and somehow made your way to the pond, you were probably standing there for 3 or so minutes before I found you. You kept waving at something behind us, I had just thought it was an animal. I left you on the porch for a moment to grab a towel and when I came back you were just staring out at the rain. While we ate you told me the Rain Man tapped your nose. After that you would draw pictures of him and when it rained you would tape them to the window before running out to look for him." She blinked as though coming out of a daze. Her face mixed into a sad smile, "I miss those days, back when you were a baby...now...now you're off to college" she began to tear up, covering her quivering lips with her hand. Ahnali sighed wrapping her arms around her mother "Oh mom, it's ok, I'm not moving far and I'll be back to visit a lot. I promise."

They sat there for a moment before her mom stood up dabbing her eyes, "Well, I should go start getting ready, you should too. Remember your father wanted to take us out to that fancy new restaurant...I'll choose your dress for you." She began to go through the remaining clothes in her closet. "Mom please no, I don't want to stick out!"

"Oh honey, if I let you choose your outfit you would stick out. It's a grand opening, everyone is dressing up, there's practically a dress code." Ahnali made a pouty face at her mother who in turn made an exaggerated 'don't test me young lady' face. They both shared a laugh but Ahnali knew she had lost. She sat on her bed making exaggerated displeased faces as her mother pulled out a few options.

"Keep that up young lady and I'll make you wear your quinecañera dress." the scary part was she wasn't joking. "OK, I've chosen 3 dresses for you to choose from, you need a clutch, shoes, bracelet, necklace, earrings, a nice hair style, and simple but classy makeup." her mom stepped to the door, "and dear, please clean up these papers." Ahnali laughed, "don't worry mom, most of it's getting thrown out, and you know very well that if I have to dress up I do it properly."

"OK, be ready by 7."