When Pete suggested they go on a weekend trip to London, Ellie assumed it would just be the two of them. Even after he suggested they drive down instead of taking a train, she had still been operating under that same assumption.

She had not thought about the fact that the only person they knew with a car was his best mate Callum. She also had not considered that Callum's girlfriend would obviously want to visit London.

Four hours into the trip, seated in the back of Callum's dad's old Volkswagen, she drummed her fingers against her boot to keep from screaming.

“Oh my God, baby,” the seat in front of Ellie banged against her knee as Faith practically whined in excitement, “The town off the next exit has a model village.”

Callum shrugged, “Yeah?”

“We should go!” Faith reached over and shook his shoulder, spooking him enough that the car swerved ever so slightly. A car blew by them while its driver laid on its horn. “C'mon, model villages are a super-British thing, right?”

As always, Faith did her mock English accent when she said 'super-British.'

With gritted teeth, Ellie glanced at Pete and he mouthed what had to be his fifth apology that hour. Both of them had kind of laughed last year when Callum had gone to the States for a study abroad and started dating the bubbly blonde girl. They had laughed a little harder when they found out she was a first-year student, and joked about how many American girls he must have struck out with before finding her. Everyone was ready to tease him a bit when he came back the next semester but on the first attempt, Callum became very offended and asked why anyone would say something mean about his girlfriend.

Since then, Pete had complained endlessly to her about the long Skype calls that he overheard between the pair at their flat. Then when Callum announced that Faith had entered the same transfer program, meaning that she would be coming to Scotland for a semester, Ellie had tried to brace herself for having to see the girl a lot. She had told herself that Faith couldn't be as bad as the girl's vapid Instagram and tiktoks made her look.

Sadly though, Faith was the worst.

Not having to see her at the pub or at Pete's place or anywhere on campus, was part of why she had agreed to a near nine hour road trip just to spend a weekend paying seven quid for a coffee in London. She had been damn near ecstatic fantasizing about being glared at by Londoners for doing something 'wrong', jostling for space with other tourists at museums, and debating throwing away a month's rent to eat at a place with a Michelin Star.

Just getting blasted at some shite pub and getting kebabs afterwards would have been perfect because Faith wouldn't be there to ask questions or annoy her by simply existing on the same continent.

“Babyyyyyy,” Faith stretched the y out so far that it started to hurt Ellie's ears, “When am I going to get a chance to see a model village again?”

Her hands were still wrapped around Callum's left arm, playfully shaking him in a way that would certainly make any police officer pull them over for drink-driving if they spotted them.

Ellie wanted to snap that they certainly had model fucking villages in America but Pete's fingers squeezed her hand first. She yanked her hand out of his so fast that he actually yelped in surprise.

Callum awkwardly turned around to look at Pete while avoiding Ellie's glare, “Might be a good idea to stop, stretch our legs and all that, yeah?”

Faith turned around and beamed into the backseat. Her bright blue eyes seemed to light up and her dazzling too-white teeth somehow shone even on a gray early winter's day in Northern England. “You guys aren't getting cramped up back there, right? I can move the seat up if you need me to, Ellie.”

“I'm fine,” Ellie shot back while swallowing her more choice words.

“Right then,” Callum said as he turned the car off the highway.

The faint touch of Pete's hand on her arm made Ellie shrug in annoyance and when she turned to look at her he was again offering her a nervous and apologetic smile. At the same time her phone buzzed and she glanced down to see a message from him, 'Maybe it won't be so bad.'

Ellie rolled her eyes in annoyance and looked out the window just in time to catch sight of a sign advertising the model village: 'Lili-Traverston: The Happiest Little Place in England!'

A little over ten minutes later, they pulled into an unpaved car park that looked like it could barely fit three cars. Callum had barely stopped the car before Faith burst out of it, hopping with excitement, “Oh my God, this place is huge!”

Pete again tried to squeeze Ellie's hand as she stepped out and slammed the door behind her. A second later, she could hear the muffled sound of Pete and Callum exchanging a quick word but she simply smoothed out her peacoat and straightened the beanie on her head before stalking off. The gravel of the car park crunched beneath her boots and as she walked up to the fence separating the car park from the actual model village, Ellie found herself blinking in surprise.

The model village stretched fairly far and was a slightly larger scale than she expected. Glancing at the nearest buildings, a group of ivy covered brick row houses, she almost swore that they had been made out of actual brick.

Despite herself, Ellie let out a surprised, “Wow.”

She immediately regretted it as Faith took that as an opportunity to intertwine her arms in Ellie's and press close. “I know, isn't it so pretty?” The blonde cooed, “Like, I'll be honest, I kind of expected just a rinky-dink little thing but look at those streets.”

Faith pointed at the road right in front of them that seemed to connect to the high street near the center of the model village, “I bet we could walk down it without even touching the buildings.”

“I guess,” Ellie replied while she tried to shrug the girl off of her.

Faith's grip remained firm and she actually huddled a little closer, “Aren't you cold?”

Ellie glanced down at the shorter girl, who was wearing a baggy hoodie with her college's name on it and warm-looking sweatpants that tapered down inside of her Nike high tops. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” she shuddered, “But I guess I'm, like, always cold, y'know? Callum kept telling me over the summer that it gets cold here but I kinda thought it'd be, like, the fifties?”

“I grew up in the Highlands,” Ellie said reflexively rather than try to figure out how cold or warm 'the fifties' was.

Faith screwed up her face in concentration, something she did any time Ellie mentioned where she grew up, “Is it cold there?”

“Yeah?” She again shrugged to get the girl to unstick but Faith remained firm.

Car doors shuddered behind them and only the approach of Callum managed to get Faith to finally let go. The girl bounced over to her boyfriend and cuddled close to him as he wrapped his arms around her.

Pete tried to loop his arm around her waist, but Ellie stepped away with a muttered, “Oh, piss off,” and started walking along the edge of the model village. She heard his defeated sigh behind her but thankfully he didn't follow.

Ellie let her eyes run over the massive miniature village, preferring to marvel at the level of detail than think about how pissed she was and how dreadful the rest of the weekend would be. A quaint farmhouse near the fence line even had an herb garden that made it almost look like there was a field full of crops stretching out from it. Her eyes darted across the buildings closer to the center of the village, and she noticed that while a few looked to be fairly standard facsimiles, a majority of them were shockingly well built. She knew that they had to be sturdy enough to actually withstand the weather but it was still surprising to see so many of them had been made like they were actual buildings.

“Faith, what are you doing?” Pete's question was followed by a laugh.

“What did I tell ya, mate? She's a fucking legend,” Callum called out cheerfully.

On the far side of the village, Ellie watched Faith hop the fence and start walking toward the village center, not even being particularly careful as she walked along the road. “C'mon,” she shouted, waving her hand for the boys to join her, “No one's going to see!”

Ellie rolled her eyes and then yelped as she tripped.

She hit the dirt path with a grunt and glared at whatever errant branch she had failed to notice, “What the fuck?”

Her eyes went wide as she saw that it wasn't a stick or weed or garden hose that had tripped her.

A tangle of wires, sparking wires, were wrapped around the fluffy wool socks that stuck up out of her Chelsea Docs. The wires ran across the overgrown pathway, connecting the cutesy model power lines to a normal sized junction box obscured by the thick grass. She glanced toward the village just in time to see lights in various houses, the sturdier realistic houses, twink out in an instant.

The door to the quaint farmhouse by the herb garden opened up and Ellie watched as a shrinkee, probably only four or five inches tall stepped out with an annoyed look on their little face. When they caught sight of Ellie, she could barely hear the little screech that came out of their tiny body.

“Oh shit,” she muttered as the realization hit her like a ton of bricks, “It's Lili-Traverston not Little Traverston.”

A giggle echoed out from the opposite side of the model village and Ellie turned to see Faith dangling a shrinkee over her face. “Oh my God, you guys, there's a shrinkee!”

Faith swung the little screaming guy by his leg as she laughed, “What's that, little dude? You'd love to be a snack for me on our long road trip?” With a flick of her wrist, Faith tossed him into the air and then opened her mouth wide to catch him.

The little man's limbs windmilled about while he plummeted and then smacked into Faith's chin.

“Whoops,” she pouted, her eyes following the little man as he bounced down her body like it was a cliff face. He landed with a crack on the road far below and Faith simply shrugged. “Sorry, little dude, guess you don't get to be a snack.”

She lifted her pristine green and white Jordan 1 over the shrunken man and let it fall.

The wet crunch echoed across the model village.