When I was in middle school, I had an online friend named Stephanie Bull. I forget how we met, though it must have been through some ancient AOL forum, but we became fast pals. She was older than me, maybe by only a year, or perhaps two, and I looked up to her a lot. She was cool and kinda edgy and she knew a lot of things that I didn't. We bonded in a big way through not only our personalities, but through Dragonball Z of all things.

We both loved the show. It wasn't long before we began writing our own DBZ-related story, with ourselves as the stars of course. I'd write a chunk of story, and then she'd write a chunk, and back and forth like that all day through AOL. We did this for two, maybe three years. I'd print out our story every week or so and read through it at night when I was supposed to be sleeping for school, reliving the adventure and trying to come up with new ideas to use later. I ended up with a stack of pages almost a foot tall, and I kept it in my closet even for years after Steph and I drifted apart, and sometimes I'd still take it out to read at night.

The stack isn't there anymore. I don't know where it is. One day I went to look, and it was gone. My mom said she threw it away. She never did like me keeping the story, she thought some of the subject matter was too R-rated for a couple of pre-teen girls to have been writing about. And in hindsight she may be right, but it was a lot of fun at the time. I wish I still had the story. My memory can only dig up so much of it. So much writing, lost.

Every once in a while, I look for Steph online. I still remember a few of her screen names, but nothing major (or recent) has ever come up. I've looked for her on facebook, myspace, livejournal, even here. But nothing. I've always wondered what happened to her. I don't even remember why we drifted apart. We didn't fight or have a falling out, or at least I don't think so. Would she be able to recall?

Part of me also wonders if she's still in the DBZ fandom and if I'd have any luck looking for her in there. But then, where do you even start? At this point, after so many years, it seems like a lost cause. But I imagine I'll keep searching, and one day, perhaps, I'll find Steph again.