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by her best friend, Tristan—formerly known as Lizard—she struggles to cope with the realization that their bond has been replaced by Tristan’s new romance with Melinda.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.