#miranda 001

[estherquinn]

WHO: essie & @mcndyhcrtmcn

WHERE: animal sanctuary, countryside

WHEN: may, 2026

This was easily one of Essie's favorite parts of being back in Merrock for good -- getting to reconnect with her friends, and not just for a week at Christmas, or a few days over the summer break. She got to find out everything that was going on in their lives, spend time with them, and for the most part? It felt like the past eight years (or longer, if they, too, had been gone) hadn't happened. Mandy was one of those friends. She was a few years older, but they were both from local families, grew up together, and Essie always remembered how much Mandy loved being around animals, often running into each other at the animal shelter when they were just kids. It felt like the perfect place, now, in the present, to do it all over again -- a little bit of time with cute baby animals. As she stood just outside the front doors, she broke into a grin when she spotted the familiar woman approaching, waving her fingers with a little, excited wave. "Hey!"

[lenavaz]

WHO: Lena & @mcndyhcrtmcn

WHERE: North Shore, countryside

WHEN: September, 2024

"Thank you for agreeing to do this," Lena looked over at Mandy with a smile from where she was arranging paints and supplies on one of the tables in the common room of the nursing home, having decorated with fall colors and flowers already, earlier in the day. "My abuela has been talking for a long while about how she misses doing your paint and sip classes, and even though they can't have alcohol up here, I figured letting them paint and sip apple cider was the next best thing, right?"

[adelaidexbeauregard]

@mmcarsn

She pulled up the collar of her coat. It wasn’t cold enough to wear one, but still, she comitted. "We really should stop meeting like this.” She said, not moving her eyes from the cellphone at her hand. The food truck was so famous that the line blurred into a small crowd, all pushing each other to be the first to order. “People might get suspicious about me and you, talking,” but people who saw them in a place like that would hardly suspect of them doing anything illicit. “Or even worse: they’ll say you’re hitting on me.” She added a smirk, almost too confident.