"Yes!" Anna exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement and ultimately doing a little dance within the confinement of her seat when the professor handed back her pre-calculus exam. It had taken him forever to grade it—a whole week; Anna had been counting. And now as she stared down at the 98% marked at the top of her paper, she realized that everything she had done in preparation had been worth it.

And of course, having Elsa explain everything was beneficial in multiple ways, Anna reminded herself. Because who knew studying could be…well…fun? It was almost unheard of. But when Anna was around the senior, at times it seemed like almost anything was possible.

On the other hand though, from the seat next to her, Rapunzel let out a small groan. Turning her attention to her roommate, Anna was almost afraid to ask what the verdict was. So she settled for, "I'm guessing it didn't go quite as planned?"

"Unless you'd consider a 72 great, then no," Rapunzel answered. But her tone was light and she was smiling anyway, so it didn't seem as though the grade bothered her too much, "But I still have the final to bring it back up."

"I don't even want to think about a final," Anna said with a laugh, even though she knew that it would be quickly approaching. Winter break was right around the corner, which meant that finals were even closer.

Anna's roommate only shrugged, "Me either. But I realized over the course of doing so poorly on this exam and almost failing my last biology exam that slacking off at the end of the semester maybe isn't the smartest thing to do. Even if I spent the whole first part of the semester working hard. Actually, especially if I spent the whole beginning of the semester working my butt off because now all that hard work is going to go right down the—"

Rapunzel was cut off by the professor's voice, ringing loud and clear among the fairly large pre-calculus class: "And make sure to check online for the final review guide. I plan on posting it tonight, and I want you all to have problems one through twenty completed for next class."

This comment earned a subtle, yet collective groan from the students—Anna's roommate included. But Anna only laughed to herself, knowing all too well from the torture of trying to memorize every possible date and detail from her history class that they were all lucky that they even had a review guide to study from at all.

That night, Anna had one of her last riding lessons of the semester. Even though there wouldn't be any more competitions until closer to the middle of the spring semester when they would return from break, Weselton still felt that the team members needed to "keep in shape before putting on those extra pounds during the holidays". Anna had laughed and Belle had rolled her eyes, and Olaf—being Olaf and the kind of person who wouldn't want to insult even the most annoying of insects—nodded his head like he agreed very much with Weselton's assumptions.

But now, however, there was no joking of eating too much or getting out of shape. Tonight seemed to be drill after drill after drill of insanely strenuous exercises—so much so that Anna swore she'd only ridden with stirrups for about five minutes of the entire lesson. And it didn't help that Knight decided to jump every little crossrail as if it were two feet instead of not even a foot. Of all nights to not be assigned to ride Dee…

Anna made a mental note to ask Elsa why the mare wasn't in their lesson tonight if she got the chance to see her. It was a rarity now (even though Elsa told her time and time again that it was good for Anna to ride different horses since that was the basis of the competitions) that Anna would go even two lessons without getting the chance to ride Dee. But Anna honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd had a lesson with her favorite chestnut mare. And while spunky and more willing to do what she wanted to do rather than what she was asked to do, Dee was certainly a smoother ride than Knight.

"But I think," Anna said as she leaned down to give Knight a pat for his good behavior during the lesson, "That is something that we'll deal with after you're back in your stall."

Anna put the reins in on hand and slid down from the saddle, wincing as soon as her feet hit the ground, "Though on second thought, maybe it's something I'll have to deal with after I've regained feeling in my legs."

Weselton had already left the arena, so when Anna's comment was voiced louder than she'd intended for it to come out, she was met with a response from Olaf, who most likely felt that it was now okay to complain because their instructor was out of earshot: "You can't feel your legs? I can't feel my legs! It's probably been since last year that I had a lesson that difficult!"

"Better get used to it," Belle laughed. Being a junior, she knew all about the team and what the 'newbies' were in for, "Weselton only gets more strict by the spring semester when he realizes that all we can think about is summer."

"Oh, but I love summer!" Olaf exclaimed, his exited tone nearly making his horse jump, "All things warm, and the beach, and—"

"Nice going," Anna laughed, "Now you've gotten him back on one of his summer rants."

She knew how much Olaf loved summer. Well, maybe it was more like the entire school knew how much he loved summer with how much he talked about it. He was in the drama club as well as on the equestrian team (although how he managed both activities and classes, Anna wasn't sure), and rumor had it that for the club's performance at the end of the year, he'd be singing his own song that he'd written about none other than summer.

"The damage has been done," Bell stated gravely as Olaf continued on and on about his favorite season.

Anna only laughed again, knowing how ridiculous her teammates could get at the end of a long lesson. If anyone were to ever witness their craziness, they'd probably be more apt to label the three of them as part of a middle school team rather than as part of a college team. But even still, Anna couldn't resist continuing along with the joke, "The horror! We'll be trapped in summer until the end of time!"

"Or until a certain someone turns off the lights in the arena and your summer world is plunged into darkness."

All three teammates frozen in place. Belle looked to the ground. Olaf—in mid-description of a palm tree by the ocean—even stopped talking without finishing his thought. And Anna's almost uncontrollable laughter was replaced by nothing but a burning that she felt make its way first to her face, and then all the way down her neck.

Of all the people to overhear that, it had to be Elsa?

"Um, yeah, about that…" Anna mumbled, "We were just leaving."

Belle made a dash for the door the fastest, her sprightly little pony all too eager to follow, and, never one to be embarrassed, Olaf gave an exuberant wave before following in her footsteps. Which left Anna in the middle of the arena with a confused looking Knight ,who was no doubt wondering why his friends were allowed to head back and eat their dinner while he was still stuck in the arena.

And of course, there was Elsa, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, her focus on Anna with a look that was borderline amused. But no matter what Anna had been anticipating the senior would say to her, none of her thoughts came anywhere remotely close to the question she was actually met with, "So what do you think would be better, an eternal summer or an eternal winter?"

"Which one do you think would be better?" Anna asked, still not quite over her embarrassment and finding it much easier to ask the questions instead of being ridiculed (albeit jokingly) for her answers.

"I asked you first," Elsa said very matter-of-factly.

"Fine then. I'd like an eternal spring," Anna said in the same tone of voice, daring the senior to challenge her.

"Spring wasn't an option," Elsa answered, "You're avoiding the question."

"And you didn't answer when I asked you, so I believe that makes us even," Anna declared.

Elsa held the redhead's gaze for a moment longer, a hint of a smile still tugging at the corner of her mouth, before saying, "Just bring Knight inside so I can shut the lights in here. He's done more than his share of work."

Not entirely sure what to make of their not-so-serious interaction, Anna only answered, "Okay," before leading Knight out of the arena. And by the time she had the gelding in his stall, both Olaf and Belle were long gone. So it startled Anna—for the second time that night—when she heard a voice from what she had previously thought was an empty aisle.

"Want some help?"

"That would…actually be great," Anna admitted, turning to find the senior who had already let herself into Knight's stall.

Elsa—much more quickly than Anna ever could in the exhausted state she was in—had Knight's tack off and back upstairs before Anna even had a chance to finish brushing the gelding off. And there was a particular order of brushes for grooming a horse: the first was the curry comb, the second was the hard brush, and the third was the soft brush. Anna was still using the curry comb by the time Elsa was back downstairs. And so joining Anna once more in the gelding's stall, Elsa worked on brushing one side of Knight, while Anna stayed on her own side. Then, unsure of what to say, or how to fill the silence, Anna settled for taking the opportunity to ask about Dee.

"All horses need breaks every now and then, which I'm sure you probably know. So there's nothing wrong with her," Elsa explained, "She'll be back in your lessons by the time we're back from winter break. But hey," Elsa said, already changing the subject, "How'd you do on that pre-clac exam?"

"Actually pretty well, thanks to you," Anna answered proudly.

"You caught on more quickly than you gave yourself credit for," Elsa answered, "All it took was fifteen minutes and the promise of chocolate cake."

At this, Anna laughed, "Where there's chocolate cake, there's a way."

"I believe the saying goes 'if there's a will, there's a way'," Elsa corrected.

Anna narrowed her eyes jokingly, "Same difference."

The two seemed to fall into a peaceful silence after that, Anna noticing that neither of them had even reached for a different brush in the time they'd been talking. And as ridiculous as it might sound, Anna reveled in that small fact. Because couldn't it mean that Elsa wanted to stay here and spend time with Anna just as much as Anna wanted to spend time with the senior?

It was Knight, though, who eventually disrupted the quiet, lowering his head from his feed bucket once he'd finished the last of his grain, and moving towards the corner of his stall, where there was a fresh pile of hay waiting to be diminished.

As he remained preoccupied with more food, it didn't take long after that to finish grooming Knight and get his blanket on; the gelding was situated happily in his stall in a matter of minutes. And Elsa's offer of a ride back up to campus was one that no longer really even needed to be asked aloud.

"You know," Elsa said as she pulled the car up to the curb, "I don't think I'd mind if the only season we ever got around here was winter."

"Well yeah, that's because no matter the weather you just wear the same polo shirts. Not all of us are immune to temperatures below freezing," Anna laughed.

"Spring's not perfect either. Why deal with the rain when you could have snow instead?"

"Snow is pretty, but it's impractical," Anna said as she opened the door, "It gets in the way."

"Maybe," Elsa answered, "But only if you let it."

Though Elsa's words about snow and winter seemed to resonate with her for a few days after she'd heard them, Anna had to remind herself that sometimes, Elsa surprised her with these seemingly optimistic words of wisdom. And while there was an obvious truth in the statement, maybe what mattered most was not so much what the words meant, but the fact that Elsa had, once again, been willing to share something so heartfelt with Anna. And she was lost once more thinking about the progress she'd made with the senior when she was startled out of her thoughts by Kristoff.

"So I'm sorry, did you say that you knew about this already?"

The two of them were walking side by side on their way back from another team meeting. Rapunzel was trailing along with them since she had, surprisingly, come to the meeting as well. Most likely, Flynn had given her some sort of special permission since she wasn't part of the team, but she refused to admit it.

"Know what?" Anna asked, completely oblivious to what was going on at the moment having been lost in her own thoughts.

"About the team party?"

"Uh…I may or may not have mentioned that Elsa told me about it. Why?" Anna was slightly confused as to why Kristoff was asking. They had just talked about it in the meeting, after all. It was going to be held the Friday before break, on the Arendelle property, of course. And, being her crazy self, Anna could only grin at the thought.

"I'm leaving early for break," Kristoff said, "If I had known…"

"Wait, what?" Anna whipped her head around to meet his gaze with wide eyes, "You didn't tell me this."

"Sorry," Kristoff said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "I didn't think it would be a big deal. My parents decided that they wanted to take a trip since this is the first year our break is so long. And they booked the flight for that Friday morning since I don't have any finals."

"Why?" Anna groaned.

"Sorry," Kristoff apologized again.

Anna sighed, and then, half joking and half serious, she complained, "Who am I going to go with! And how in the world am I going to get there!"

And she instantly regretted saying it.

Because Kristoff immediately suggested, "Ask Elsa."

And while Anna hadn't yet told her roommate everything that she had told her best friend, she was almost positive that Rapunzel had come to her own conclusions. Rapunzel's face broke out into a large grin, "That would be so perfect, Anna!"

Oh, yes. Rapunzel had definitely come to her own conclusions.

Anna had the urge to hide her face behind her hands, but all she managed to mumble was, "Elsa said she never goes to them."

"Just ask," Kristoff said, "The worst she can say is no."

"I know she's going to say no," Anna said, "I mean what am I supposed to do, just walk into the office on Sunday night and say, 'Hey, Elsa, want to go to the party with me even though you pointedly said you never go to them?' No. Then I'll just sound inconsiderate."

Rapunzel laughed, "Who said anything about being inconsiderate? You're just being friendly."

But the way her roommate mouthed the word 'friendly' again, mainly to Kristoff, while adding air quotes around the word, caused Anna's face to burn slightly, "Okay, first things first—we'd be going as friends. And second, I haven't even asked her yet!"

This only caused Rapunzel to laugh harder, "Defending it only makes what you're refusing to say more true."

Anna shot Kristoff a look that clearly said—help me!—but he only said, "She has a point there."

"You two are impossible," Anna muttered.

"I'm going to ask Elsa for you if you don't," Rapunzel declared.

Anna sighed, knowing very well that her roommate would, "Okay. Fine. I'll think about it."

But somewhere inside, she already knew what she was going to do. Because it was one thing to deny the comments of her friends…and another thing to deny what she knew she felt in her heart.

Anna's Friday morning shift at Starbucks was almost over.

Just ten more minutes, and then I can head back and sleep, Anna sighed as she watched the singular clock in the small coffee shop tick above the door. She thought back to two weeks ago when she'd looked at her schedule to find that she'd actually been given a day off for no reason at all. It's a shame that day wasn't today so I could have stayed curled up in bed…wait…hold that thought…never mind!

All feelings of tiredness suddenly flew out the window when Anna spotted a familiar platinum blonde braid at the end of the line of people that now had four customers instead of three.

Anna's boring, annoying morning just got a hundred times better, and she felt herself smiling instantly at the fact that Elsa had actually taken the invitation to come to Starbucks more often during Anna's shift. And this time, Anna was more than happy when she was the one to take the senior's order.

"So the same as last time?" Anna asked.

"Same as last time," Elsa confirmed with a smile.

And after Elsa had paid, Anna set to work, making sure to intentionally add the chocolate to the iced coffee this time.

"Thanks," Elsa said, before taking her coffee from Anna's outstretched hand and heading over to one of the tables.

And of course, when Anna's shift was over—literally only ten minutes later—she found herself hurrying to sign out so that she could rush over to the table where Elsa was sitting and plop herself down in the chair opposite of the senior. Elsa's eyes snapped immediately upwards from her book when she noticed Anna sit down across from her, but if she was surprised at all by the redhead's spontaneous action, she didn't show it.

"Hey," Anna said (although a little belatedly for the current situation), "My shift is over. So…mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Elsa said, closing her book that Anna could now see was physics related.

"Hey, don't you have class on Friday mornings anyway?" Anna asked, her question prompted by the book's cover. Then jokingly she added, "Don't tell me you skipped just to see me."

Elsa rolled her eyes, "Really, Anna, does that sound like something I'd do?"

Anna shrugged, "You never know."

Elsa chose to say nothing more about skipping classes, instead explaining, "My second class was cancelled. My last one doesn't start for half an hour."

"That's physics, right?"

Elsa only nodded, leaving Anna with nothing else to say.

As silence fell across their secluded corner table, Anna began to wonder if she should take this opportunity to ask Elsa about the party. She had originally planned on asking the senior on Sunday after her shift at the barn, but she had been worrying about it in the back of her mind ever since she had talked about it with Kristoff and Rapunzel. Not to mention that the sooner she got a definite answer from Elsa, the sooner Rapunzel would stop threatening to intervene.

The party was a week away. Exactly.

Was it too early to ask?

And what if the answer was 'no' and everything just got more awkward?

"Hey," Elsa's words brought Anna out of her thoughts, "You okay there?"

Anna blinked once and said, "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I was just…thinking."

Elsa looked at her expectantly.

Wrong thing to say, Anna. Wrong thing to say.

"It's nothing," Anna said, trying to forget the whole thing.

"Clearly something's bothering you," Elsa said, and it if weren't for her nervousness at what exactly was bothering her, Anna would have found the senior's concern much more endearing.

Anna sighed.

It was now or never.

"Well, I wouldn't say bothering me, exactly," Anna said. She paused, taking a breath, but knew that if she didn't get it out now, she might never have the nerve to ask, "I know you said that you don't go to the team parties. But I was wondering…if maybe you'd go with me?"

But as soon as she registered the fact that the blonde's eyes were wide, Anna immediately launched into another (rambling) explanation, "I mean, as friends of course! And you don't have to go. I know it's probably silly of me to ask, because you said that you don't. I don't want to make you do something you're not comfortable doing," Anna took another breath before finishing lamely, "And really even if you don't want to stay, all I need is a ride because Kristoff is going home early."

Elsa seemed to take a moment to let the redhead's rushed explanation sink in before she finally said anything. And in a tone that sounded slightly amused she asked, "So you're telling me you want me to drive all the way to campus to pick you up, just to drive you back to my house?"

"That was part of the request," Anna mumbled, "It's only five minutes."

Once more, Elsa didn't answer immediately—instead, seeming to deliberate Anna's request in its entirety. And Anna's heart seemed to race faster with every second that ticked by. Because, sure, she had told Elsa that they would be going as just friends. But…what would it really be to Anna if the senior said—

"Yes."

Now it was Anna's turn to be shocked, "What?" she asked, more out of astonishment than anything else.

"I said yes," Elsa repeated, "I'll…go with you. It might be a nice change."

"Really!?" Anna exclaimed, a part of her denying what she'd actually heard.

"Well, remember, half of the reason is because you need a ride," Elsa said, and although Anna couldn't tell if the senior was joking or not, for the moment, she was too elated to care. And after another minute, during which Anna had to fight to contain another ever-growing smile, Elsa said, "And now as much as I'd like to stay, I really do need to get back to campus."

"Oh, right. You have a class," Anna said, managing to come to her senses, "But my shift's over so I'm heading back, too."

"You can come then if you want," Elsa offered as she put her book away, "You know, since we're headed to the same place."

"That'd be great," Anna said, "Kristoff dropped me off this morning, so I'm sure he'll be happy about the fact that he won't have to come all the way back for me. I'll just send him a text."

When Elsa got up, Anna followed. But as her fingers flew quickly over the screen to send Kristoff a message, she wasn't looking where she was going. And of course, just for spite, she walked right into Elsa when the senior stopped to open the door, colliding into the blonde's backpack.

"Sorry," Anna said.

Elsa only sighed, not even bothering to turn around, "I don't understand how you've been around horses this long without landing yourself in a hospital."

"Well, you know," Anna started, Elsa's sarcastic comment reminding her of something that had actually happened, "There was this one time, it was probably the second year I was riding, and I didn't realize that there was a hose on the ground in the barn. And of course, because I'm me, I tripped over it. And I was leading this horse—he was huge, like a Clydesdale-draft cross or something like that, and he spooked at everything, and so when he noticed that I almost went down, he freaked out. But instead of just spooking and shifting to the side like most horses, he had to be even more dramatic and kick. And one of his lovely hooves hit me right in the leg. And I almost ended up in the hospital after that one. Almost."

"I can imagine that would hurt," Elsa said, her tone serious, although the redhead could tell that she was trying to hold back a laugh.

"It's okay," Anna said, climbing into the car once they had reached it, "You can laugh at me."

"It's not funny. It could have been a lot worse."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But really. A hose of all things. That's probably the most common tripping hazard in the barn—something that you'd think I'd pay a little more attention to, but no…" Anna rolled her eyes.

But for the rest of the ride, Anna found herself telling Elsa all of the embarrassing stories she had from her old barn—from tripping over the hose, to knocking over an entire rack of saddles, to getting stuck in the mud while leading a horse and inevitably also falling into it—each embarrassing scenario eventually earning Anna a gradually larger laugh from the senior the crazier, yet less dangerous, the stories became.

And Anna found that she didn't mind sharing all of these memories (in which she sounded like a complete idiot) with Elsa. Even though they were stories that Anna normally avoided talking about, each one just seemed to slip more easily from her mouth than the next. And she wasn't exactly sure what had prompted her to even begin telling all of these stories at all. But if all it took was to share embarrassing moment after embarrassing moment…

Hearing Elsa's laugh definitely made everything worth it.

A/n: I mean, we all have that one person who can make our boring, annoying morning/day/life better. Am I right?

But on another note, I'm sorry if this chapter seemed a little less cohesive than the other chapters—the order of events changed multiple times before I decided on something that chronologically made sense. Because funny story: I was all set to write the party in this chapter and then realized that it would have definitely felt rushed, considering the fact that Anna just asked her. And having a rushed plot is something that I try to avoid at all costs. So...it's something to look forward to for the next chapter :)

And, as always, thanks for reading!