Free Over The Sea by Sherwood Smith

jumped up and down.
    â€œNot forever,” Clair said, earnest, her gaze steady, the gaze of someone who’s already seen one childhood friend die. “No human is forever, but you can be a kid for the rest of your life.”
    â€œSuits me.” I hopped around in a circle, too happy to stand still.
    â€œSomething else,” Clair said. “While we’re making changes, let me make them all now, and then we can tell the others.” Again she looked serious. “I want you to be the princess. See, you are so good at plans, even when you were trying to squash it, I could see that you are a leader like I’ve never been. If you are a princess, then you share whatever authority I have, and both of us can help each other where we’re weak as well as strong. Two of us working in our own ways — maybe that’s the way to keep Mearsies Heili free.”
    â€œA princess, and I don’t have to grow up and get married?” I exclaimed.
    She grinned. “You will be a leader with the girls. I think they need that, and I’m not as good at it as I ought to be. Seshe is a leader, too, but when I asked her, she refused to be a princess. It was she who said that you’d be better, something I’d been thinking without having said it. You get along with the girls real well. Not all the rest do that.”
    I gulped. I’d never been popular — but then I’d never been here .
    Clair gave a short little nod. “Once I know I’m right, I can make decisions, but with — people — I don’t always know, and I dither, and it gets to be too late.” She let out a sigh. “Maybe it’s too early — maybe I should wait, but I feel like I want it all settled right now. Or, what do you think?”
    Was I still dazed by the magic? I don’t know, but happiness made me feel like a balloon inside, lighter than air.
    â€œYes,” I said, still hopping up and down. “Yes!”
    â€œThen this is now yours. It was mine. Keep it for whenever you must use a symbol.” She took from the table a silver circlet, shaped for a girl’s head.
    I took it with both hands. Later I would try it on, but for now I just carried it, feeling peculiar indeed.
    Clair drew a breath, and smiled at last. “I don’t know why, but the world now feels right. I think what we have done is the right thing for us all. But last, you need a name. And I think I have the one. Unless you want to pick?”
    â€œWhat’s your idea?” I asked.
    â€œCherene Jennet,” she said. “It’s how I’ve been thinking of you these past couple of years.”
    It was my favorite name, but given their pronunciation: “Cher-enneh ... . Jennet.” I repeated it, and the name seemed to echo inside, as if a last piece of an inner puzzle had gone missing, and now locked into place. “It’s perfect,” I said, and meant it.
    â€œCherene Jennet Sherwood,” Clair pronounced. “Come on, let’s tell the girls. They are down in the Junkyard.”
    Waiting. They were all there sitting in a circle, their faces expectant.
    I blinked away the transfer reaction and looked round at those faces as they looked at me. Irene with her lip between her teeth; Seshe smiling the broadest, sweetest smile I’d ever seen; Sherry grinning happily, Faline’s eyes and mouth round. Diana nodding, Dhana’s thin brows lifted in interest.
    â€œCherene Jennet is here to stay,” Clair said. “And she is now my right hand.”
    â€œLeft hand,” I said automatically. Then wished I hadn’t spoken. And then I laughed, because I didn’t have to be afraid any more. “Left hand splat.”
    â€œSplat!” Faline jumped up, dancing around. Then they erupted into whoops, everyone talking at once. Faline yodeling “Splat! Splunk! Spleedle!”
    I got that warm sense inside that you get when someone actually cares about