Encounter #1 with the Rain­bow-Haired Girl hap­pens dur­ing one of the low­est points in Dizzy’s young life. Feel­ing aban­doned by her best friend, Tristan—formerly known as Lizard—she strug­gles to cope with the real­iza­tion that their bond has been replaced by Tristan’s new romance with Melin­da. Their friend­ship, once built on deep con­ver­sa­tions and shared curiosi­ties, had shat­tered after an awk­ward kiss that failed to deliv­er the mag­ic Dizzy had imag­ined. Now, as Tris­tan embraces a more con­ven­tion­al teenage exis­tence, Dizzy feels increas­ing­ly lost, unable to find her place among peers who seem effort­less­ly at ease in their roles. The weight of her lone­li­ness builds through­out the school day, com­pound­ed by humil­i­a­tion dur­ing a bru­tal dodge­ball match where Tony Spencer mocks her synes­the­sia in front of their class­mates. Over­whelmed, Dizzy makes the impul­sive deci­sion to run away from school, her mind cloud­ed with grief and des­per­a­tion.

Wan­der­ing through town with no real des­ti­na­tion, Dizzy finds her­self dis­tract­ed by thoughts of escap­ing to some­where distant—perhaps South Amer­i­ca, where she imag­ines she could dis­ap­pear with­out con­se­quence. Her feet car­ry her toward an inter­sec­tion, her vision blurred by tears, as she steps into the road, unaware of the truck bar­rel­ing toward her at full speed. The world slows in that moment, the sounds of the city fad­ing into the back­ground, as she feels a force—firm but gentle—pushing her out of harm’s way. Dizzy stum­bles to the pave­ment, stunned and dis­ori­ent­ed, and when she lifts her gaze, she sees her. A girl with hair like a rain­bow, wild and unbound, glow­ing as though illu­mi­nat­ed from with­in. Dizzy blinks, try­ing to make sense of what just hap­pened, but the moment she attempts to speak, the girl is already mov­ing away.

The truck dri­ver yells, demand­ing to know what she was think­ing, but Dizzy bare­ly reg­is­ters his words. Her focus remains locked on the girl, who walks calm­ly down the street as if noth­ing unusu­al has hap­pened. Dizzy’s heart pounds, a mix­ture of fear and won­der surg­ing through her veins, but when she turns to a near­by bystander to ask if they saw the girl, she is met with con­fu­sion. It dawns on her that no one else seems to have noticed the girl at all. Dizzy inhales sharply, catch­ing the lin­ger­ing scent of some­thing flo­ral and unfa­mil­iar in the air—was it the girl’s scent, or was she imag­in­ing it? She stands there, shak­en yet odd­ly exhil­a­rat­ed, real­iz­ing she may have just expe­ri­enced some­thing beyond the realm of ordi­nary expla­na­tion.

The rest of the day feels sur­re­al, her mind replay­ing the encounter over and over, search­ing for details she might have missed. She remem­bers the warmth of the girl’s touch, the strength in the way she was pushed from the street, and the pecu­liar sen­sa­tion of weight­less­ness, as if she had been momen­tar­i­ly unteth­ered from real­i­ty. Dizzy won­ders if she had been saved by an angel, a thought that both com­forts and con­founds her. She recalls that the girl’s hair wasn’t just dyed—it shim­mered, catch­ing the light in an unnat­ur­al way, like the sur­face of a soap bub­ble. There had been some­thing unde­ni­ably mag­i­cal about her pres­ence, and Dizzy couldn’t shake the feel­ing that their meet­ing had been more than just chance.

As night falls, Dizzy stares at the ceil­ing of her bed­room, still caught in the grip of her expe­ri­ence. She feels different—changed in a way she can’t yet define. The lone­li­ness that had con­sumed her ear­li­er in the day still lingers, but it is now accom­pa­nied by some­thing else: curios­i­ty. Who was the rain­bow-haired girl? Why did she appear at the exact moment Dizzy need­ed her most? And per­haps the most impor­tant ques­tion of all—would she ever see her again? The mys­tery remains unsolved, but for the first time in a long while, Dizzy feels like she has some­thing worth search­ing for.