Round 1: Li

Lacey Li is an Adult. Her daughter Winter Li is a Child.

* * *

Winter knew how much her mother loved her. That wasn’t the issue. Almost every day, her mom would hug her and straighten her dress and tell her that she was a beautiful princess who would one day grow up to meet a handsome prince. She would take Winter with her to the museum and show her all the beautiful paintings, or feed the ducks with her at the park.

It was just that she missed having a home of her own. At first it had been fun living at the park, where she could play on the big pirate ship any time she wanted, but these days it just made her tired. And it seemed like she was hungry all the time. She got lunch at school, and sometimes she could find something to eat at the park, but there were some days when she didn’t get anything to eat at all.

She could tell herself her mom hadn’t always been like this, but it wasn’t true. Even back at home, her mom had sometimes forgotten to cook for days at a time, too busy with admiring all the paintings she had bought and talking to people who weren’t there. It was the paintings that had been the problem, Winter knew – she had spent so much money on them that they didn’t have enough for the house anymore. And the worst part was that her mom didn’t even seem to care. It was as if she barely noticed that they didn’t have a real home anymore. And whenever Winter got mad, her mom acted shocked, like she really had no idea what Winter possibly had to be upset about.

She didn’t mean to get mad at her mom. She was just tired of everything. She was tired of eating other people’s spoiled food. She was tired of not having a bed to sleep in. She was tired of trying to sneak into the gym to shower so no one would tease her about how bad she smelled.

Her mother was embarrassing. Once, Winter had been too young to notice, but now she was old enough to feel embarrassment acutely. Her mother wandered the park talking to herself. Her mother inserted herself into everyone’s conversations, and once Winter had caught her trying to kiss a complete stranger. Her mother forgot to sleep until she collapsed in odd positions on the ground.

The one thing Winter knew for sure was that she would never be like that.

Iris Burr was the closest friend Winter had, but even Iris didn’t really get it when she tried to talk about her mom. She would just get this shocked look on her face and then turn quiet and awkward. Soon Winter learned to just not say anything. She let everyone at school think she still lived in a house, even Iris.

That wasn’t to say that her life was all miserable. There were magical moments too, like when she found the glowing tree in the park that no one else seemed to notice. Sometimes she felt like she was a character in a book, living a life that was secret and special. If she told anyone she lived in the park, where she slept under glowing trees at night, probably they wouldn't believe her.

And she had lots of friends at school, which meant she was always being invited to other people’s houses – and that meant more opportunities to eat.