Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Stephanie Tanner

Looks: Blonde hair, blue eyes

Personality: She is something of a blabbermouth. But sometimes she will try to keep secrets.

River Phoenix

Looks: Blonde/black hair, dark green eyes

Personality: Mysterious, cool, and keeps to himself, except for when it comes to Stephanie.

(Story start) It was another day as usual for Stephanie Tanner, seven. She was waiting for her turn on the phone, which was being used by her older sister, 12-year-old Donna Jo (who was called D.J. for short). Finally she headed up to her room (which she shared with D.J.) and sat on the bed.

“Hey, kid,” said a voice.

Stephanie looked up. “Who said that?”

“Over here.”

Stephanie looked over to where the voice was coming from. She couldn’t believe what she saw. It was River Jude Phoenix!

“Let me guess — your sister is hogging the phone again?” he said.

“Yep,” replied Stephanie, nodding.

River thought for a moment, and then grinned his special grin, which he had practiced since the age of thirteen. “I have an idea.”

Ten minutes later, D.J. came up to her room to find Steph listening to River playing the guitar. Whoa, baby! she thought.

For the most part, Stephanie was hypnotized as she listened to River playing. She was just sitting and listening, and watching as River effortlessly plucked the guitar strings as though he had been doing it for years.

Wow!

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Stephanie couldn’t believe that this was happening. She just couldn’t. It was two days after she had met River Phoenix, and already, things were happening pretty darn quickly — at least from her perspective.

“No way,” said D.J., surprised.

“It’s true,” said Stephanie.

“You’re not reading my diaries, you’ve been ignoring me for the past two days and you’re not blabbing any of my secrets. Now what’s going on?” D.J. asked.

“Nothing is going on!” snapped Stephanie. “Really!”

“Girls, girls!” called their dad, Danny Tanner, as he walked into the room. “What’s this all about?”

“Dad, Steph’s been acting all strange lately,” D.J. explained. “She won’t read my diaries, she’s not sneaking around, and she won’t blab any of my secrets.”

“Is that true?” asked Danny, turning to Stephanie.

“Yes,” said Stephanie. “It is.”

“Oh, come on, honey; you were born to blab. There’s nothing like spilling a big juicy secret,” replied Danny.

“I can’t. River Phoenix told me not to,” replied Stephanie.

“Yeah, OK, so — hey, wait a minute. Who’s River Phoenix? Is he an invisible friend of yours, or a guardian angel?” D.J. queried.

“No. He’s an actor. He was here yesterday when I came up here. I listened to him play guitar, partly because I had nothing better to do, and partly because D.J. was tying up the phone again,” said Stephanie.

Danny turned to look at D.J., and then sighed. “D.J.,” he said, “you were tying up the phone again?”

“Yes. I had to talk to Kimmy,” replied D.J..

“D.J., you should know that there are other people living in this house. You can’t keep the phone to yourself.”

“But Dad—!” D.J. began.

“No ‘But Dad’s. You are grounded for a week,” said Danny, glaring at his oldest daughter.

“Dad, that’s so unfair!” D.J. replied.

Ooh, D.J.’s grounded for a week! Cool! Stephanie thought, grinning mentally to herself.