In Love Across the Multiverse

'Dear Diary, today was the best birthday ever! Grandma and Grandpa and our cousins in San Diego came out to see us and we all went to the beach. My cake even had a mermaid on it! Josh wrecked my sandcastle but Marie dumped sand on his head so it turned out okay.'

Underneath the entry, the little girl had drawn a huge sloppy heart and glued in a penny as a signature. Penelope laughed before clutching her stomach in agony. Nope. Laughing wasn't allowed.

But she had nearly forgotten that was how her signoff started. She always started her entries with 'Dear Diary' out of habit even though it was childish and ended them with a drawing of a heart and a drawing of a penny in honor of her nickname.

As a child she glued in pennies because they were practically worthless. But once she was older and writing more often she realized how impractical that was.

She knew how to draw a little by then so she started drawing a crude version of the Abraham Lincoln side of the pennies instead. All these years later, she still did though the sketches looked much more realistic.

It was nice to know that her quirkiness translated from one world to another. They really were the same person after all. It would make pretending a lot easier.

Penelope noticed a few key differences in the childhood journals though, primarily centering around who her friends were and the kind of activities the family did. With her mother's archaeological fame they could afford to do a lot more fun things like go on trips.

The first time Roman was mentioned was a few months into the first journal on Halloween.

'Dear Diary, today Roman took me and Percy trick or treating so our parents could go to a Halloween party. I'm pretty sure he only did it because the grownups say he's too old to go by himself. But he did trade me all his M&Ms so that was good.'

There was a pretty bad drawing of what appeared to be Batman, a ballerina, and a dinosaur holding candy bags underneath the paragraph. It wasn't the first time such a drawing appeared in the journal.

Once an artist, always an artist. She may have gone into graphic design but it would never change her love for drawing.

Penelope wondered exactly when she had met Roman. Percy only said they were neighbors and that they had moved to the Brentwood house when he was two. That was the year Penelope turned eight so there was a good chance he had already lived there when the Logans moved in.

The two families must have spent a lot of time together for a twelve-year-old to be entrusted with a toddler while walking around the neighborhood. Brentwood was a nice part of town with a very low crime rate though.

She returned to the journal, which covered events from her eighth birthday until she was almost twelve because she wrote so infrequently and discovered that Roman was mentioned only a few more times. Usually in relation to some sort of event like a holiday.

One entry in particular caught her eye when she was eleven.

'Dear Diary, for Christmas Roman gave me a card that served as a coupon good for one skateboard and however many lessons it took for me to be able to ride the halfpipe like he can. He took me to the skateboard store today and I got one with pineapples on the bottom and blue wheels.

'I wiped out about a dozen times before I finally managed to move forward a few feet. He only teased me a little so it wasn't so bad. He was actually really nice about the whole thing. I'm glad he's my friend.'

Roman would have been fifteen then. What fifteen-year-old boy wanted to spend that much time coaching a little girl on how to skateboard?

Percy did say he had liked her counterpart for as long as he could remember. Did he already like his Penelope then? That was fifteen years ago!

She was actually a little jealous. Nobody outside of her family had cared about her that long. Even her oldest friend hadn't come along until she was nearly thirteen. It was hard to imagine that level of devotion in another person.

Even worse, she had to fool this person who had known her other self for nearly twenty years. Penelope snapped herself out of her thoughts and forced herself to keep reading.

The next journal was from ages twelve to thirteen. It mentioned Roman a lot more often between skateboarding and doing homework together but nothing indicated that she had any romantic feelings for him yet. In fact, she seemed to have a crush on a boy from school named Daniel.

The journal from ages thirteen to fourteen was much the same. Roman was mentioned frequently but entirely in the context of friendship. It seemed like the other Penelope had looked up to him as a big brother figure.

It wasn't until the journal when she was fifteen that anything seemed to change. Her first boyfriend had broken her heart by asking another girl to a school dance while they were still going out. Typical high school drama.

'Dear Diary, Greg is a total loser and I can't believe I even wasted tears on him! Roman warned me from the start that he was no good but I didn't listen. He didn't even hit me with 'I told you so' when he saw me come home crying off the bus today.

'He was taking a break from doing homework and told me to get in his car. He ended up taking me to Madame Tussauds wax museum, which was a totally bizarre experience. I was so busy laughing that I couldn't be sad. We got ice cream afterwards too.

'Roman is such a good guy. If Greg had been more like him I wouldn't have had my heart broken. I need to make sure my next boyfriend is as nice as him and can make me laugh like he does.'