Chicks

the daughter ran away

2008-09-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

I believe news travels so fast. Especially gossips among the gossipers.

The next day I wake up, my e-mail has been bombarded with spam and strangers sending me questions or more like protests. My head is drowsy and my eyes are blurry. I keep my eyes focus to scroll down the monitor as my mind recall what was going on last night, it left me with a panic feeling flowing through me as the realization come alive.

The gossips, Jalouse magazine, lady in a blue dress, me and Ian running all the way to the residential area and he dropped me home….

Suddenly my phone rings, I glance at the caller’s name, it’s Vi!

It’s 9 in the morning and she must be up already, and she must has read the article of which now spread all the way to other gossip websites. Trembling, I pick up the phone and bring it close to my ear before I put my finger on the green button.

“Hello?” I greet innocently, or at least, pretend to be innocent. But I AM innocent after all, aren’t I?

“What is wrong with you, Sugar?!” Vi’s voice drills into my ear at the very second, ear-splitting and heart-breaking. Her voice isn’t okay, it’s mor like a tired whining. “Vi, I know what you think of this, but seriously, I don’t give any information to them! In any kind of form!” I desperately say, crossing my fingers that she would at least listen to me if that’s still one of the possibilities available.

“Than who are you suggesting of spreading the news?!” Vi’s voice rise up a note, “You’re the only one who know all about these!”

“Maybe they eavesdropped our conversation!” I say, I know it doesn’t sound convincing enough, remembering that the street was very busy and crowded. “Do you think it’s possible?! Come to think of it Sugar, all the clues make me guess it’s you. Damn Sugar! I thought you’re my friend, my best friend!” she sounds even more sad.

“I am you’re friend!...”

“But friend doesn’t spill other friend’s secret Sugar! How could you!” she’s screaming now, her throat tight with tears. “It’s private! Do you know what it may cause me and my family?! My dad and my mum divorcing is bad enough! I don’t need any more pressures from the media, blaming my dad as a cheater, having an affair, and my mum as a drunken woman, who never spent a bit care of her daughter!”

“I didn’t….” I start, just when Vi continues, “I am sick of you Sugar!”. The connection broke.

What?
What has just happened?

And suddenly a wave of sadness throwing me down. Pulling me into the water to carry me to the bottom, to its very bottom. I wish I can pull myself down, drowning myself for the crime I have done!

I crouched myself by the bed and pull my knees to my chest

Am I wrong?

What am I suppose to do now?!

Should I go to her house to apologize? Will she listen to me? will she even want to meet me?

Or should I just strike up to the Jalouse Magazine’s office and give my protest? But what am I suppose to say? That it’s not true? That it’s private?

Of course it’s private and sadly, it’s true! I can’t possibly win arguing against them. They have all the rights as media to report what’s going on!

And Vi’s voice keep repeat itself in my head, making me sick of the voice and the thoughts of her, alone, refuse everything, angry, sad, and broken. I want to be there for her! I want to put the pieces together! I want to make it up to her!

Almost too suddenly, I realized that my phone’s been beeping and ringing, its sound bringing me back to reality, and this time it’s Ian calling me. just when I reach for my phone, it stops ringing and beeping. Then, silence plunk onto me. I manage my fingers to call Ian back but I get to his voicemail, saying that he’s not there at the moment to answer my call and says to leave message. I hang it up.

The hot water has succeeded in soothing my mind a little. I blow dry my hair, pick my favorite casual jeans and green cardigan to be paired with a white tank top. I turn off my monitor, which showing me that my income e-mails been increasing since I left it. Then, I go downstairs, picking up some bread and a glass of milk. Dad and Mum have gone to their office and the twins haven’t wakened up yet.

I have made up my mind that I will go to Vi’s house today, explain all of these stupidities and befriend with her again, just like we always did. We’re best friends aren’t we?! And we’re bonding to each other closer than you think!

As I walk to the bus stop, I can feel that my head begins to spin and heavier. I had a good 8-hour sleep, didn’t I? Then what is this about? And I realize it’ my own mind pressuring my brain, pushing and squeezing it. I haven’t had proper sleep since…since….i can’t remember it.

I exhale a deep sigh and hop in the bus, pay my fares and choose the back seat, the corner one, the most invisible one. I certainly need to let alone my mind.

I settle myself down and let my mind drifts away to everything that had happened as I prepare myself to talk to Vi. Drops of water tell me that it’s been drizzling outside and not long after that, it turns into a heavy rain. More and more people get in the bus in soaked conditions, especially those girls with tank tops and shorts. Who will ever guess it’ll rain in this pretty day in summer.

I raked my brain to find the right words to defend myself in front of Vi, who had accused me of doing a betraying act to her.

“Vi, to be honest with you, I never told the media anything about your family.”

“Don’t you see that the pics of me are when we were debating on the street?”

“……I know how life is being hard on you now, but I suggest you to see the realities that…”

That what?!

Ugh I can’t find any sentence that sounds convincing. Even the last option won’t do anything if it is used on me! I know that all I should do is just talk spontaneously, unplanned, and as always, I could easily get away with the conversation, winning. Or at least, tie.

The bus stop and I hop out from the stuffed bus. My phone rings again, it’s Sean. What does he want from me?

“Hello?”

“Hey Sugar, it’s Sean.” He greets.

“I know it’s you.” I reply tiredly, half-heartedly.

“Well, I’m calling you now, to ask you something.” He says, carefully.

“What is it?” I pull my hat from my bag and wear it on top of my head.

“I know it sounds pretty stupid and straight forward. But I just want to know……..” his voice is drowned by the heavy rain splashes all over me, hitting to the ground fiercely.

“What?!” I raise my voice above the rain, running for some shelter under the roof of the closest convenience store.

“I just want to know whether Vi’s in your house or safe, at least?” He says louder.

“What are you talking about?!” I ask, alarmed. Something must have gone wrong!

“Vi’s not in her house and no one had seen her anywhere near her house. She’s nowhere to be found! Not in her dad’s office or her grandma’s house. I even make her staffs calling all the places possible, even to Birmingham. But she’s not there either. And so I called your house but no one answered. Don’t you know that she’s missing already? You sound lost.” He says.

A stab of pain hollows my chest.

“What?! I….I don’t know about it…..” my voice falters into a whisper. My legs are wobbly.

“Well then, where are you?! I’ll pick you up and we can search for her together.” His voice seems so far away but still makes sense. It’s an urgent voice. I give him the address of the convenience store and I step inside to warm myself.

Just when I step in, some faces turn to see me. Oh well, I’m Sugar Dale, whose face had been all over the pages of magazines and internet. I quickly avoid people by walking aimlessly through every deserted aisle. And finally, there I am, in the magazines and books aisle. My eyes wildly search for the well-known magazine. I don’t know why am I even search for it?

My hand nervously reaches for the magazine I can’t ignore. There, in the middle of the magazine rack, eye-catching title forces me to look. It’s of course, Jalouse.

Quivering, my fingers flip through its pages, searching for the famous article I honestly haven’t seen it myself.

Then just as I wish I can close my eyes, I see the article, fitted into the magazine with big pictures of pretty Vi, dressed in her beautiful dress in the perfume launching. Her hands curled to his dad’s waist and Mr. Freyson’s hand curled on his daughter’s shoulder. They both smiling. As happy as ever, even though they both know one essential member was missing in the picture. The person who should be there, to complete the picture.

The Sweet Escape: is Freyson Having an Affair?

Having succeeded in launching his new joint perfume line, Mr. Freyson seems in a great need of more attentions. The grand owner of the multi-million dollar business is reported to date his new partner, Heidy Manson, the new fashion designer in the biz.

“If it’s not because of the affairs, Mr. Freyson would have chosen other trusted people to be his partner. I believe he can work with anyone he wants. He might choose other celebrities like Jennifer Lopez or Britney Spears, or other designers like Thakoon or Phillip Lim” says Emily, a 20-year-old socialité who had come to the perfume launching of Hey Son, the new label of the famous perfume.

Despite the shocking news about the affairs, some people still think differently. Fransesca, an editor in local Brooklyn newspaper, said that the news might only be a bait to increase the popularity of the brand-new perfumery.

“I personally think the recent news about the Freyson family was all made up to boost the popularity of the Hey Son new perfumery. It’s such a poor thing that Vi, their daughter, become the victim of the gossip and moreover, her friend, Sugar Dale is also brought up to the conversations…”

My heart stops beating at the sight of my name, printed black upon white on the paper. And suddenly my phone rings, it’s Sean, he’s arrived in front of the convenience store with his posh Volvo.

Avoiding people lining up at the cashier, I go out from the back door and run all the way to the front, opening the car door in hurry and bang it close.

“Whoa, are you okay?!” Sean’s face turns to see me.

“What?” I ask absently, my breaths are pacing each other. I can feel my hands shivering.

“Your lips are white, Sugar. Should I get you to the doctor or….”

“Just go please.. I don’t care much about my lips. It’s maybe just because of the chill weather..” I say impatiently.

“Ok..” he pushes the gas pedal and the car jump to he street, leaving the convenience store behind.

We were both silent for some minutes, he gave me a pack of tissues to dry myself and he turned on the heater to a warmer temperature. “So….” I start to break the ice, “Have you read the article yet?” I ask sheepishly, my mind recall the article I read just a few minutes ago.

“What article?” he asks, puzzled.

“You surely have heard about the famous article, right? About the Freysons?” I ask back.

“Oh yeah right. That one.” He says, more like to himself. “Yeah, I’ve read it. but certainly it’s not you who told the media right? Coz I think you’re a good friend and there’s no way you can do that… or unless if you’re….”

“What?”

“….jealous?”

“Of course not!” I shriek. Then as I realize this new way of thinking, it occurred to me that maybe Vi thinks I’m jealous of her. But of course that’s not possible. There’s nothing to be jealous of. She even wants to trade her life with mine and we’ve been friends for ages.

“Oh well, good then..” Sean answers shortly. We’re silent again as the car speeds up against the slippery road.

“I came to her house this morning. She didn’t answer my calls yesterday although we got a meeting. She said she needs to talk to me, so we set up a plan to meet, but she didn’t come and I called her several times but she didn’t answer any of them. So I decided to come to her house today. And after I wait for some time, her maid came back down, her face white, telling me she’s gone.”

“And..?” I demand some more information.

“And the whole house broke down in panic. So I called you. You’re the last person I could think of. ”

The car turns to the next street, “Where do we go?” I ask.

“To the police station.” He replies.

“What?! NO!” I scream furiously.

“Why? Here we are, we got a missing people to report and if they know it’s Vi, they will jolt to their feet and work hard to find her, right? We can easily find her in no time!” he answers as if he’s talking to a child.

“No! if they find out it’s Vi, the news will spread among people and media! And the news will get bigger!” I shriek in frustration as the car speeds up in a lightning speed until the view are blurry, completing the poor eye-sight because of the rain.

He suddenly slow down the car, think over his plan as he hears my argument. “Oh, damn! you’re right.” He says slowly, angrily. “Then, what should we do!” he asks in panic.

“Well…” I think for a while, “…I think we should search her ourselves. We can call Ian and Jeremy to help us.” I suggest.

We’re silent again.

“Okay, fine. We’ll try.” Sean says, pulling his cell phone from his pocket and began dialing both Ian and Jeremy.

i'm not a secret spiller!

2008-07-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

I drain my coffee cup down and take my jacket. It’s Ian’s first day in Ben & Jerry’s and I’ve promised to come there, just mingling around, having some nice cup of ice cream and we’ll walk together to the cinema.

I’m wearing this gorgeous orange tunic paired with dark brown skinny jeans and a brown leather post-man bag. It’s the latest trend! And I got it half price in e-bay. Mum and Dad have gone to this wedding party of dad’s acquaintance and I’m going with Ian so the house will be empty except for the irresponsible twins. I have reminded them for the thousandth times to keep the door close and don’t light the stove, if they’re hungry they can take pudding from the fridge or something.

I close the front door and walk to the bus stop. There, are a woman and an old man, they look all carefree and light. It’s like their life are perfect and I can tell it from their face. They’re not stressed out and tense. Dang, when will my life be like theirs?

“Where are you going, Miss?” the old man turns to me, smiling.

“Oh me? I’m going to Ben & Jerry’s.” I answer

“Oh, meeting friends, huh? Teenagers these days…” he smiles, “…I was once like you too. And in the old days, there’s no Ben & Jerry’s or Krispy Kreme. I have to work hard for my family. Teenagers these days should work hard too, life’s too easy for kids now. All they do everyday are just laughing, meeting friends, shopping and playing.” He says, kindly but in a protesting way.

Yea, right. He won’t believe me how much problems we have to deal with every day!

It’s 3 p.m. when I turn to Ben & Jerry’s. I can easily find Ian behind the ice cream cou
nter, he’s extremely happy to see me and the ice-cream guy is there too, he’s too dumb-founded to talk. “You know this new guy?!” he asks puzzled. Me and Ian laugh and he makes this face that shows ‘what is goin on?’

“Umm, this is my boyfriend, Ian. Ian this is..umm…” I pause a little as my cheeks redden, I know I forget his name. “I know his name already, Hun.” Ian says casually and they laugh at me.

“It’s Scott, Scott McKinsley.” says the ice-cream guy, still laughing.

“Oh, yea, right, Scott.” I mumble absently. “So, how’s your first day?” I ask

“I have to do something, I’ll leave you two alone, ok?” Scott says, disappearing through the door at the back of the counter. Ian and I sit down on an empty table and he starts speaking to me, telling me what a good start today is. He’s all happy about his job. Scott comes out and brings us 2 ice creams and he sits together with us.

“So, is this the boyfriend you’ve told me several times?” he asks, eyebrow rises.

“Well, yes he is.” I say, smiling.

“What? You two have been talking about me?!” Ian says in a shocked expression, but he’s such a bad actor that he makes us laugh. “Ok, so tell me now, when did you two meet each other for the first time exactly?” he asks.

“Well..” I start, “It was when we met Mrs. Manson for the last time. I was so depressed and stressed out, so I came by to have a cup of ice cream.” I explain.

“You have no idea how tense she was!” Scott adds lightly.

“Oh, I know! She must had this folded face with her mouth pouted.” Ian says, teaming with Scott, teasing me.

“Ok, enough guys, before I walked out from this store.” I say. and they laugh even more.

Customers come and go and finally it’s closing time. I wait Ian to help cleaning up and then he changes his work uniform into a casual clothes and he comes out all fresh and fragrant. I’ve always liked his smell, it’s refreshing, yet addicting!

“So, shall we go?” He asks, offering his palm, I reach for it, grinning. “See you tomorrow!” Ian says to Scott who turns to see us and waves back, “Have fun you two!” and so we walk to the cinema.

“How’s Vi?” Ian suddenly asks as we turn to the next street.

“Not good.” I answer. “I called her today morning and she sounds pretty pissed by what I did yesterday. I know I shouldn’t have done it.” I say, sighing.

“Oh.. maybe you have to wait till she feels better.” Ian says.

We arrived at the cinema and was confuse between 2 real good movies when a woman in a blue knee-length dress with her hair up comes up to me. “Hey, aren’t you Sugar Dale? Vivienne’s best friend?” she asks.

“Errr, yeah, why?” I ask back.

“Is it true that Mr. Freyson of Freyson perfumery is going to divorce with Mrs. Freyson?!” her eyes bulges in desperation to know. And I can tell that my face forms some kind of a shock face and I can see Ian’s eyebrows rise in astonishment.

“I…..I don’t know…” I say stutterly.

“How do you know that?” Ian asks in scrutiny.

“Oh, it’s in Jalouse Magazine, it’s everywhere, don’t you know about that?” she says in a look that makes you feel stupid.

“Jalouse?” I ask absently, looking at Ian.

“Yes, the French magazine!” she says as if she’s teaching me 1+1 and I don’t get it.

“I know what is Jalouse!” I say in a high-pitched voice, “I just don’t get it why is it in Jalouse and why am I there?!”

“Come on Sugar.” Ian takes my hand and drags me to the bus stop.

We walk really fast that I don’t know where he’s dragging me to. Several people were looking at me when I walked past them and Ian drew me closer to him. “This is wrong! You shouldn’t have pass the information to a journalist!” he says as we walk in a slower pace, knowing that we’re in a residential street with townhouses built close to one another and standard cars parked in front of it.

“I didn’t pass any information to any journalist!” I snapped back, feeling betrayed.

“But how could they know about it?! if Vi knows, she will think that you spilled the information to the magazine because as far as she concerns, you’re the only person know about all of this!” Ian says impatiently. We fall into an awkward silence. The kind of silence you’d use to think, not to feel uneasy.

“But I didn’t….” I feel my throat clenched.

“I know you didn’t do it, I trust you, but how about Vi? She’s in a break down condition. And if she got this news, she’d be more pissed than ever.”

I know! I say frantically to myself. My brain works harder and I can’t imagine tomorrow morning, or even now, that Vi reads the magazine and I even haven’t read it myself. Maybe they mentioned something not true there that makes the public all curious and ‘oh-my-god’ing

Gosh….why should it all be this complicated?

Ian dropped me home to avoid more people on the street asking and everything. He kissed me good bye and left. I’m now in my own room, in front of my computer and typing the words ‘Freyson Perfumery’ on the box. The results is shocking, about at least 400 articles are found under those words and I specify the searching by typing ‘Freyson divorce Sugar Dale’

I wait as I hold my breath and when the results turn up, I just can’t believe it, there are more articles about it than I thought! And they even got the photos of me on the street talking with Vi in a serious, more like angry face! Oh my god! I click the next photo that shows me a picture of me, pushing the door of the mini market while holding the cookie bag. No wonder I felt followed that day! And I thought I was too paranoid!

I took a hot shower to ease my mind and lay my head on my bed, trying to sleep but I can’t! my eyes are still wide opened and my computer is still on with the articles of me and picture of me and Vi on it. The title is even grosser, ‘Will Freyson Daughter Survives The Pressures?’

What is that suppose to mean? I’m a pressure to her? Like it or not, I have to get things straight to her before she finds the news herself and blame me for being a secret-spiller. Well, I’m not.

paranoid

2008-06-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

OH MY GOD!

I slap Vi!

That sounds even crazier if I say it over and over in my mind. Why the hell would I think of doing that? She must be shocked! I should have talked to her alone and patiently not just storm up to her and slap her on her face! Oh my god, what should I do?

My phone beeps as I walk down the road stressfully, it’s Ian texting me:

Hey hun, where r u? at Vi’s house?

I just want to tell you, I GOT THE JOB!

*kiss*

I quickly text him back:

WHOA! Congrats!

Which branch are you in?

No, I’m not at Vi’s house. I’m on my way home, there’s sumthn happened n I’ll tell you the complete story later, k?

;)

I press send and shove it back to my bag. It’s late evening and more and more people are wandering out and about on the streets, wearing their best and chicest clothes. Most of the girls are wearing something light and fun, like dresses due to the “hot weather” in summer and the guys are wearing casual clothes.

My phone beeps again, it’s from Ian saying ‘ok, I can’t wait’ with little heart on the bottom. Aww! He’s so sweet!

I stop in front of a mini market and fetch some cookies and water to soothe me a little. After paying for the whole snacks and water, I push the door and ..

What was that?

It’s like I saw something black and when I see it, it disappears to the aisle 3 feet away from where I stand. Ok, maybe I’m too paranoid because I’m still shocked for what I’ve done. Easy…

I crack the cookies wrapper open and biting it delightfully.

Ok, is it just me or is there someone following me?

I can feel it!

It’s creepy!

It’s like I’ve been watched and followed since I left the mini market, or maybe long before that! Should I turn my back to make sure no one follows me? but what if there really is someone following me?

What do they want?

I stop in front of Tiffany’s and pretend to adore the necklaces on the display. And as I look around cautiously, I see no one in strange attitude, all are fine, all are people walking, laughing and passing me by.

Ok, maybe I AM paranoid.

As I ride the bus back to my house, I feel much much better and calm. I stuffed my mouth with 4 cookies and yes, I feel like a new person already. I can find huge mess has been made in the middle room with those 2 twin boys that are just too irresponsible to throw their own Snickers’ wrappers into the dustbin and I have to yell to them to pick it up or I won’t cook them anything.

Dad isn’t home yet but I will have to do chores before he arrives home. I take a shower and as I dry my hair, my mind wonders off (again) to Vi. isn’t there any other options between living with her drunken Mum or her ‘having an affair’ Dad? She’s supposed to have some other options, isn’t it? She’s supposed to be happy, living like a princess with her happy family, she deserves it!

As I spread Victoria’s Secret body lotion, my phone rings, it’s Ian calling me.

“Yes?”

“Are you gonna tell me the whole story or not?

“Oh shit! I forgot!” I say, closing the bottle and press the phone on my shoulder while my hands rub the lotion all over my legs and hands.

“Ok, so it begins when Vi took me out.”

“Uh-huh.”

“She told me this news. That her parents are going to get divorce for real and she has to choose who she’s going to stay with!”

“And who did she choose?

“She ran away! She ran away to Sean’s house! And she was being all miserable and tearful and she even thought of living by her own!”

“And?”.

“I slapped her! On her face!” I said in horror.

“What?! You slapped her? And what did she do?” Ian’s voice rises.

“I…don’t know! I ran away!” I say in desperation and it’s like I’ve been hit by the reality, “Oh god! I shouldn’t have left her, aren’t I?” I ask in panic.

“Well, I prefer you to be with her than just slapped her and ran away! She needs you more than anything now.” Ian says.

“But…will she forgive me? I mean, her life is jumbled up enough at this point without me being so stupid to slap her and…..oh god…” I floored.

“Just apologize and it’ll all be alright. I know you can do it. Vi and you are best friends, best friend stays.” He says dramatically. If the situation isn’t bad enough like this, I might laugh at this moment.

He’s all sweet and gay-ish when he said that. Oh, did I say that aloud in my mind? Mind you….I wasn’t supposed to say bad thing about my boy. He’s all nice and understanding, there, I corrected it.

“Oh..ok….i’ll do that.” I say in final, “So, how’s the interview?” I ask in a cheerful voice.

“Oh, it wasn’t that good! I even had no idea why am I being recruited! There’s this guy wearing Armani like head to toe and he asked why do I want to work there and he asked my report card and everything.”

“and?”

“I said because I need a job and my sister got a job already and it makes me feel like such a loser!” he says. “I even don’t know why I answered that too honestly! I could have just answered some good old sentences like ‘oh because I’ve always liked Ben and Jerry’s, Ben & Jerry’s is one of my favorite…’ blah blah blah. And even if it sounds cliché, it sounds better!”

We laugh for his stupid mistake and he told me where he worked. It turned out to be in the same shop as the ice-cream guy (will that be mean Ian is an ice-cream guy too? I have to find the ice-cream guy’s real name before Ian works there!). One of the staff there quitted the job yesterday evening and so Ian got the job. Isn’t it amazing that your boyfriend work in the same place as your friend?

“So, what can I say, congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll go to your work place like every day! Ice creams there are so yummy.” I say.

“Sure, whenever!” as he says it, I can hear distant voice of Dad downstairs.

“I should go. Dad’s home.” I say.

“Ok, see you later. Bye Hun.”

“Bye!” and as the connections breaks off, Nathan enters my room, “Dad’s downstairs.”

“Ok.”

Saturday morning…..

Don’t ask the date, I’m not a school girl so don’t expect me to remember any date during summer holiday. There isn’t time and date, it’s a free season, free to do anything, and no one cares about time and date.

I rub my bleary eyes and straightened my back to stretch. It’s another day in summer holiday, nothing can be better, unless if you got into a fight with your friend, or got a zit when you’re suppose to be perfect, or your boyfriend broke you up. And I’m in the first situation.

I step my feet to the stairs and go downstairs to find Dad and the twins are there and there’s a woman with her back on me. They’re all laughing hysterically that they don’t even realize I’m there, with my loose pajamas and my messy hair.

Who the hell is this woman? Dad’ assistant? Oh my….i feel my throat is tight with the thought, Dad’s not having an affair while Mum’s gone, right? Vi’s dad alone has caused much trouble and I will NOT let Dad….

The woman turns her back and she runs and jumps and hugs me, “Honeeeyyy!! I’ve missed you so much!”

Oh….

It’s Mum.

Damn, how could I forget Mum’s back today?

“I bought you guys many souvenirs, you’ll get excited!” Mum says, releasing me. I look at her from top to toe, she looks tanner and fresher!

“Where, where?” Nicho asks impatiently.

“Later, ok? We should get some breakfast.” Mum says, kissing Nicho’s head who’s trying hard to avoid.

Mum cooks us breakfast and I mean Breakfast with big B. it’s real breakfast! After a week without her, this moment feels like a revolution. We ponder every inch of her home-made omelets with mushrooms, ham, and cheese. No more cereals, no more peanut butter spread, no more frozen pizzas! Freedom!

After we had our family breakfast, Mum took a shower and ended up sleeping and forgetting all those “opening the souvenirs” things. And so I dial Vi’s number and get into the mailbox and after trying several times, her sleepy voice speaks.

“Yeah? Who’s this?”

“Umm Vi. it’s Sugar.”

“What do you want?” she asks in a snap.

“Look, I’m sorry for what happened yesterday that I slapped you and everything. I guess I just lose my…..”

“Oh cut it Sugar! Can you please leave me alone?!” then the phone cracks. And for few moments I just stare at the phone blankly. Then with a slow turn, I realize this is not a good moment. Definitely not. My whole body freeze as I recall Vi’s tone just now. She’s really mad, isn’t she?

Reality sucks

2008-05-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

“What do you think?” Vi steps out of the fitting room, make a little walk before back in front of the mirror. She’s wearing an electric blue short dress, it’s so pretty yet cheap. “Nice.” I say.

“I can pair this with my new white bolero.” She says to herself, then she spins to see how it goes again on her slender body. “Why don’t you try that one?” she asks, pointing at a yellow dress with blue bow on the waist line.

“Ok.” I pick the yellow dress and go into the fitting room.

So far, I and Vi have been to 5 stores and so far, we only got 1 shopping bag. None of us feels satisfied. And so we continue the journey to other stores that put up some discounted stocks. Our goal today is to spend $60 and still looks good, this isn’t an easy goal, especially for Vi. however, we do it for fun.

Sean and Jeremy called Vi the other day, they asked to meet us in a café nearby at 3 p.m. and so we still got 2 hours left before meeting them. They said they just want to have fun and everything. Ian is going to go on the interview at Ben & Jerry’s today and I wish him all luck. I told him to join us all in the café after the interview and he’s ok with that. Today will be a nice day, no fuss, no worries, nothing! We’ll all take it easy today.

Both of us step out of the fitting room at the same time and we stand side by side, looking at the mirror. “Wow! This look good on me, isn’t it?” I say, admiring my reflection in the mirror with that made-for-me yellow dress.

“I know! It looks good on you!” Vi says supportively. I reach for the price tag and almost faint to see the price, it’s freakin $100! And we’re supposed to be on budget!

“Dang! It’s not on a budget.” I say, looking at the rice tag in sadness.

“Oh silly! Just…go ahead and buy it! You may not find this dress anymore anywhere! Someone would just come in and who knows? Taking your dress! You will never ever gonna forgive yourself! I know that feeling.” Vi says in an expert understanding look.

“But…”

“No ‘but’, you go and buy it. And you look pretty on it so go ahead!” she says. And we ended up buy those dresses that are actually out of the budget. And to not feel too guilty, we raise the budget to $50. and actually, it’s really unfair.

We walk out of the stores with additional 2 shopping bags and it actually feels great. I deserve that dress, aren’t I? after working at the Sanctuary and save a lot here and there, and especially for a little present for myself because I can handle the house chores without Mum.

Talking about Mum, she’s coming home tomorrow and someone taught mum how to post her photo in Flickr, because she told me yesterday that she has posted her latest photos in Hawaii and the wedding party. That feels a little inappropriate for me, ok, not a little, it’s a revolution for Mum and for me.

Mum never uses internet, she doesn’t need it either, she got all she needs without internet, while me, on the other side, can’t live without internet. And now that she begins to connect with the internet world, she WILL asks me to teach her more. One thing I can assure you, I will never gonna let my mum makes a My Space account. That’d be revolting.

It’s 3 p.m. when I and Vi finally order some relaxing cappuccino and apple pies before Sean and Jeremy come. “So, how about you and Sean?” I ask while putting down our shopping bags on the floor.

“We’re good…..good.” she says, looking down to her cup.

“What is good?” I ask more.

“Well, we talk a lot lately.”

“But you said he’s boring?”

“I know he is. But we’re just friends.” She says. “He called the other day and we talked a lot about our parents. And that’s all. I mean, there’s no way I’m gonna fall for him again. Moreover, he said he likes other girl.”

“Really? Who?” I slurp my cappuccino in a quick movement, don’t dare to miss the information. Sean? Likes other girl? Seems like an impossible thing, especially these days where he seems to still like Vi.

“I don’t know. He didn’t want to tell me and he said ‘I’ll let you know later on.’ Instead.” She says.

“Hey Vi! hey Sugar!” we both turn our head to see 2 figures of cute guys approaching us. they’re Sean and Jeremy, and somehow, Jeremy seems to have built more muscles and Sean looks tanner. They both grinning radiantly.

But wait….who is that girl coming along with them?

And as my brain revolves, I can feel a twinge of alarm flipping in my head. That hair, that skin, that lips, that eyes…. Hayley? I exchange look with Vi and I can see Vi’s eyes gleaming in such hatred. “What is she doing here?” Vi whispers in horror. I shrug as an unsure answer.

“Hey!” I and Vi greet, almost too quickly.

“Come on here.” I say.

Hayley is wearing this blue dress that prolly cost her $120 and her skin can’t be more radiant and supple. She looks real pretty and her eyes are sparkling in those brand new ocean blue contact lenses.

“Hey! I thought….it’s only you two!” Vi says with a forced smile.

“Yea, we were thinking about that too! But then Sean got this idea to ask Hayley to join us too! Isn’t it great to have more people?!” Jeremy exclaims happily. Doesn’t anyone sense a huge loathing is so near that I can practically sniff it? It’s totally on now! If either Hayley or Vi says something off the limit, this relaxing tea time can turn into a girl cat fight.

“Yeah, I didn’t know that you all would meet here. It’s great to see all of you again!” Hayley says.

Then as awkward as it is, a silence covers the conversation. It’s like our jaws are glued and for like 5 seconds, we’re exchanging looks absently. Yeah right.

“Um..so Sugar! Where is Ian?” Jeremy asks, melting the ice.

“Oh yea! I almost forgot to call him.” I stand up and take my phone to call Ian in a quieter place. Vi steps on my feet to avoid me from leaving her alone with Hayley, Jeremy, and Sean. But she finally let me go after we had an eyes-talk in a switch.

After I call Ian and he said he’s on his way to the café, I stroll back to the table to find the four of them are laughing in joy and fun. And Vi seems to over-doing it by holding her stomach as if it hurts.

“Hey! So where’s Ian?” Vi asks after I take my seat.

“He’s on his way.”

“Great.” Jeremy says. Then Sean stands up, “coffee anyone?”

“Yeah. One espresso.” Jeremy says.

“One green tea.” Hayley mentions. And she get a complete stare from Vi that says ‘don’t try to look like a girl who really keep her health properly!’ but of course, Hayley doesn’t look at her.

“So..” Vi starts, “how’s you sister’s business?” a slight frown plaster on her face. I even can feel my feet step on Vi’s automatically.

“Oh! Can’t be better!” Hayley beams, “People like the products especially the promo package which consist of….”

“Oh really? How great!” Vi put her hand on her chest dramatically while saying it.

What the heck is she doing?!

“Yeah! And your dad has been so…”

“So gentle? I know he is!” Vi says quickly, again, cut Hayley’s sentence in the middle. Hayley looks at me like saying ‘what is wrong with her?’

Vi let out a forced laugh, “He’s always like that isn’t he? All kind and generous?”

“Yeah! Actually he is.” Hayley now answers shortly, knowing that if she says much she’ll be cut in the middle.

“How kind?”

“Ehm…Vi, if you think that your dad is having an affair with my sister or something like it, that would be…”

“Who thinks my dad is having an affair with your sister?” Vi’s voice rises by several pitches and she almost squeaks. “My dad is totally not up to some woman he found on the street!”

“What?!” Hayley rise from her seat. And thank God, Sean comes back, bringing a tray of cups. “Here’s your orders.” He puts down the tray and is now alerted by the fight. “What is it?” he asks cautiously as his eyes fall upon the two girls glaring at each other furiously.

“This is ridiculous.” Hayley says in a whisper.

“Oh, you think? Well, I think it’s been ridiculous since your sister flirts with my dad!” Vi’s out of control.

“My sister never flirts with you dad! Your dad flirts with my sister!” Hayley snaps back. Just when Jeremy says, “ENOUGH!”, Ian pushes the café’s door open and I quickly waves my hand to him so that he can sees us.

“What’s wrong with you two?!” Jeremy shouts madly. And now, everyone’s looking at us and the whole café plunge into silence.

“Nothing wrong with me. “ Vi retorts. “It’s this bitch who has some problems…”

“STOP!” Jeremy yells again. This time is for real. Ian who has just reached our table quickly realizes what happened just by looking at those two girls.

“Wow, wow, wow. What’s wrong? Vi, I want you to answer me honestly, is she the girl you’ve been telling me over and over?” Sean points at Hayley.

“Yes. She is.” Vi mutters.

“This is ridiculous! You’re such a spoiled brat that you can’t face the reality that the world isn’t as all heart-shaped and butterflies as it seems! Well, in this case, you never able to face it, your dad isn’t as good as he looks like and well, he’ll soon leaves you when he’s got the date. Too bad, princess…” Hayley snatches her Chanel bag and walks out of the café.

“Bitch!” Vi says before Hayley closes the door.

We sat down again and no one dare to talk, trying to figure out the puzzles and complete the missing boxes. Sean, who had just known Hayley from the night of Perfume Launching, quickly realizes that it’s Hayley that Vi’s talked about these past few days. And Jeremy has just realized the situation between the two girls and the tenses he probably had felt in the Perfume Launching. Ian and I are silent, we both know what happened.

Vi’s breath is pacing up with her and finally she breaks, “Sugar, will you follow me?”

“Ok.” I stand up, looking at Ian who’s looking at me with the same kind of look I can’t quite explain.

She leads me outside of the café and we walk some steps further.

“My dad and Mum are going to get divorce.” She says blankly, turning her back to see me. "This time, it's for real."

“What?”

“Mum told me yesterday night and she wanted me to listen to her about the reasons why she’ll get divorce. But I yelled at her instead and took a taxi to Sean’s house.” She says. “He’s the only person I could ever think of and he kept me safe until this morning that I got back to my house.”

“Don’t say you had sex with him…” I say, fully alert.

“Of course not! i was all tear-stained and broken hearted. But the main thing is, my parent’s are getting divorce. and this is no joke, Sugar. this is not some other statements we don't know the truth. Mum asked me who I want to live with.”

“and…?”

“I ran away, avoiding the reality that I have to choose…” she exhales, “Maybe Hayley’s right.”

“No way! she can’t be right! You can’t just let her be right! You have to fight back! And even if your parents are getting divorce, then choose. You have your own life.”

“But I don’t want to choose!” she cries.

“Well, then where will you stay? Who will pay for your school fees, your clothes, your meals?” I reply.

“I….don’t know….” She slowly answers and now, it’s like she has just seen the reality right now, served under her nose. her eyes are completely blank and she doesn't say a word for long time..

"You have to choose." I say slowly.

"But i can't! it's too much! i can't choose between those two. if my assumption's right, dad will get married with Hayley's sister and there's no way i will ever live together with that woman. but i don't want to live with mum either. She'll all stressed out, under some stupid medications and drugs she always takes. she'll get drunk every night and even now, she cries every night. i want to run away...." she falters, "..away far from my house, far from my parents, from all of these.."

"Yeah, but you have to face it, remember? running away doesn't solve the problem at all!" I say.

"I don't care!!" Vi shouts. "I don't care." she opens her arms wide. "I want to be free. to lead my own life!"

"why don't you at least try to live with one of them? if things get worse, we can always work out another way." I say.

"You know what Sugar? i think I want to go back to Birmingham. i can search for my brother and i can make a whole new life there.." she says.

PLAK!

my body shivers as i realize what I've done. i slap Vi right on her face.

she lifts her head and she sees me, shocked. we're both silent.

"Don't be such a spoiled brat." I say, my heart thumping.

Vi looks at me, bewildered.

"I'm...." my throat clenched, then i turn and run away.

summery tops and jobs

2008-05-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

I am now walking under the orange New York sky. I can feel summer breezes along from corner to corner and people are wearing bright and primary colors, dresses, and loose tops. This is a real Summer!

And I don’t want to go back home..

Basically, it’s because I need to laundry all clothes, cook dinner, tidying up, not mentioning checking the twins whether they’re home already. Argh! I deserve a light, free night, especially after hearing the shocking news about Vi’s brother.

It’s like, wow! Super wow! Double triple wow! I can’t imagine her not being the only child. She has always been the only princess and the only person who controls the house and even her parents are mostly not in the house.

I wonder what he looks like…..is he as talkative and easy-going as Vi? Is he extravagant? Does he like strawberry smoothies like Vi? is he thin? Well-built? Tan? Black?white? I just can’t stop my mind from all the questions popping through my mind.

As I pass the familiar signs that tells me I’m near to Ben & Jerry’s already, I try to form the words that I will say to ice cream guy in my mind virtually. Suddenly my cell beeps and I take it out from my pocket I see a “Mum” blinks back at me.

“Yeah Mum?”

“Sugar! Finally! I’ve tried to call you several times but they just won’t come through! So, how’s house?!” Mum asks brightly. I turn to Ben & Jerry’s and spot ice-cream guy right away, he waves at me and points an empty seat for me to sit.

“Umm, actually, I’m away since afternoon so I honestly don’t know anything about the house…” I say in a low voice.

“What?” even when she’s angry inside, her voice sounds brighter. Yeah right, Hawaii can really change people, isn’t it? “Then, where are the twins?”

“They were in their friend’s house. Maybe they are home by now.” I hear myself say. the ice-cream guy points at a picture of New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream and I shake my head. But he insists, it’s in his expression, and so he disappears to the back of the table and makes me that stress-reducing ice cream.

“Well, I want you to listen carefully, ok?” Mum’s voice warns, “You have to call home right after this call ends. And I really want you to call Dad and…could you please be home as soon as possible?”

“Err, ok, I will.” I reply.

“Good!” she says, “…no Mary, don’t put it there… ok Hun, you know what, this wedding will be a great wedding. And one thing I want you to know, Hawaii is a really beautiful place! And we had so much fun here! I went to a spa place today and people here are so nice, friendly………” The ice-cream guy back with the smack-you-lips-looking ice cream.

“Mum, I’m sorry, I’ll call you later, ok?”

“Ok, Sure!” Mum cheerfully replies. “Have fun, Dear!” as the phone clicks off, the ice-cream guy sits across me.

“Ok, here is you ice-cream.” He says, putting spoon on the ice cream.

“Whoa! This is too much!” I say, taking the spoon and shove the ice-cream into my mouth delightedly.

“So, what are we going to talk about?” he asks, his playful expressions lighten his eyes.

“Ok, it’s about my boyfriend, Ian. I think you knew what happened recently, the day when we first met, remember?”

“Yeah, that day when you’re so stressed out and tired and messy..”

“Messy?” I raise my eyebrow.

“Well…” he chuckles, “a little.”

“Okay.” I laugh, “so, he’s now searching for a new job, I just want to ask you whether Ben& Jerry’s need staff.”

“oh! Too bad, just this afternoon a guy was signed for a waiter. If you asked me earlier, I probably…..” he stops, “Maybe there’s one place vacant. Wait a sec.” he roots in his pocket and produces a cell phone.

“Here is my boss’s number. Maybe you just call him to know more.” He says, showing me a series of number and I quickly save it in my cell phone.

“Thanks.” I grin.

“Your welcome. So, how’s life?”

“Been better.” I scoop another spoonful of ice-cream into my mouth and let it melts inside. “Got some shocking news, Mum’s having fun in Hawaii, got new job as the new “mum”, and usual typical summery stories.”

“What is “usual typical summery stories”?” he looks at me straightly.

“The usual one, you know. You have fun but there are some changes here and there.” I say.

We continue the conversation for the next 1 hour, then I leave.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave as soon as possible. I still got tons of work to do since Mum’s away.” I say.

“Oh, okay. Sure.” He says.

“and really thank you for the ice cream.” I give him an amount of money for the ice cream and I add “Not refundable.”

He laughs and says, “Fine.”

“See you.” I say.

“See you too.”

As I open the front door, I’m not that “shock” to find the messy house inside with 3 boys wandering around the room. They’re so messy! And they’re so ignorant! Dad is wearing his apron and trying to cook something so horrifying on the pan. “Hey Honey! Where you from?” Dad asks lightly as I enter the kitchen.

“Dad! What are you cooking on the pan?!” I ask in panic. It’s not even has the criteria of a just-standard-and-basic food. It’s black, and smells like smoke.

“Sugar! You leave us in starvation! I will sue youuu!” Nathan screams from the living room, where he’s playing his PS2 with Nicho and as he says it, he even doesn’t look away from the screen.

Dad shrugs symbolically as the answer of why is he there, wearing his apron and cooks something so terrible. “I’m trying to cook that frozen pizza.”

“What!? That pizza isn’t to be put inside a pan! It’s microwavable! And dad, you’re so good at cooking pancake, why don’t you make pancakes?!” I take the pan and throw the failed pizza in the dust bin.

“I don’t think pancake is for dinner, Honey. That’d be inappropriate.” He says, taking off his apron. “Well then, I just hope you’ll cook us something really nice as your punishment for being so ignorant that you let me starve.” He winks at me and hands me the apron.

Yeah, right.

“I can’t cook!” I desperately say. “Can we just order pizza or Chinese food?”

“Sure! Anything! With your own money!” He strolls out of the kitchen and leave me standing blankly in the kitchen.

It’s good to have a clean house and nice meal. And now I fully realize what a “mother” means. She’s someone we can always look up to, especially in cleaning and cooking part. And hell knows why I don’t have even the slightest ability to do one of those things.

We ended up eating pizza that I bought with my own savings. And as we wait for the pizza, I start to fold all the newspapers and magazines and neatly place them in piles. Next, I take all the dirty clothes and put them in the washing machine. One last thing, I cook them too salty omelets due to their guy’s hunger instinct that they can’t stand.

When the pizza finally arrives, Nicho runs to the door and opens it eagerly. “Thank you, Sir! Thank you! You’re my family’s savior!” he says enthusiastically and passes the pizza guy some money. I can swear he could kneel on his knee and kisses the pizza guy’s feet with that expression if he wants to. It’s such a devoting expression.

“Ok, guys, let’s eat!”

And so, day one without Mum has passed, not so beautifully. Pretty much not like what I expected.

I wake up with a little spinning head knowing that I will have to pass this another un-mum day. I know what I should do right away, cleaning comes first, then dry cleaning, then cook breakfast, followed by taking fresh newspaper, and then ironing all clothes. Ok, that’s not hard. I can do it. I hope.

I wash my face and brush my teeth, then I walk downstairs.

Ok, plan change.

The twins have woke up, earlier than usual, which means I have to cook a fast breakfast for them. “Hey guys, why are you up this early?” I ask, yawning.

“We’ll bike race with our friends today. The one who lost will be pushed to the lake and the winner can get a free ticket to cinema.” Nathan replies.

“What? Pushed to the lake? That’s so mean!” I cry.

“No, that’s not. We’ve made a deal and we should keep it.” Nicho says in a “gentle-man” manner.

“Oh, yeah. Right.” I walk to the kitchen and buttered some toast then spread it with a nut jam. It’s the simplest possible food I can make and it’s quite delicious although it’s revolting.

After I watched the twins leave the house, I start the house chores. And yeah, it’s pretty boring. Not long after that, Dad wake up and I cook him a ham and omelet, he doesn’t complain either. After spending so much time, struggling with those clothes I have to iron, I think I should just give them to laundry service. I give up.

When it’s almost 12 noon, I get my butt up from the sofa and call Ian. It’s nice to hear his voice again.

“Hi Hon.” I greet.

“Heey!” his cheerful voice makes my heart blooms.

“Listen, yesterday I ask my friend at the ice cream shop and he gave me the number of his boss. He said maybe you should…..”

“Hold on.” He cuts in, then he speaks again, “Ok, umm, why don’t I come to your place and talk about this more?” he asks.

“Ok, sure.”

I put the phone down after saying bye and I sprint to my bathroom, take a quick shower while estimating his time to get here. His house isn’t far and he must be here in 30 minutes or less. I blow dry my hair and I put some quick make up just to freshen my look.

Just as I put down my mascara stick, the door bell rings. I grab as much newspapers and clothes my hand could handle as quickly as possible then I stuffed them in the cupboard. Then I comb my hair back before opening the door. I’m wearing my lucky yellow shirt and short pants so I know I look good.

“Hey.” I greet.

“Hey!” he greets back. He’s looking good in a loose grey jacket and casual jeans.

“Come in.” I shift to the side to let him in.

We’re silent for few seconds before he comments, “I thought your mum’s gone to Hawaii.”

“Oh yes, she is.” I reply awkwardly. It’s weird to have him here.

“But this house is clean and tidy?” he looks around the room.

“Well, I clean them” I modestly say.

“No way!” he turns to me.

“Oh yes I do.” I proudly say.

Then he walks closer to me that I can smell his manly fragrance. “Ok, tells me about that job.” We sit on the couch and I show him the number, then he calls the number right away.

I listen to the conversation finger-crossed. I hope he can get a summer job there.

He talks businessy with a do-not-disturb-this-conversation tone. And after waiting for those nervousing minutes, he puts the phone down and looks at me, grinning “They say maybe they can put me into a branch not quite far from here.”

“Oh god!” I say in relief and automatically get up and jump to hug him. “So where is it?”

“Not far. I can go there by bus.” He replies. But weirdly, he doesn’t want to let me go from his big, loving hands.

“What?” I ask, laughing.

“Nothing. I want to hug you and not letting you go.” He says.

And we don’t know who starts first, we ended up kissing. And he reach for my shirt, pulls it off and I catch his shirt, unbuttoning it. He brings me down to the carpeted floor and God knows what happen next. Mmm..

the short story of Daniel Freyson

2008-05-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

Mum has gone to Hawaii this morning and she has granted me the house key and things mum usually does after she’s back from her office. Yeah, it’s pretty….how do you say it? Demanding? Yeah, it’s very demanding. It takes hours for me to finish all the chores. Here is the list.

~ Laundry all clothes, and dry clean it

~ The twins should water the plants and flowers

~ tidy up living room and kitchen

~ Cook dinner or at least order pizza or Chinese food.

~ Iron all clothes

~ tidy your own room

~ ….

I don’t have guts to read further. This is overwhelming! I can’t even tidy up my own room! And she expects me to cook dinner, iron ALL clothes, etc etc etc. I think this whole week will be a complete disaster, not to mention making breakfast every morning which means I have to wake up earlier than usual. God!

Paste the paper carelessly on the fridge and take my coat then leave the house. The twins are playing in their friend’s house and Dad has gone to work. I take the first bus that takes me to Vi’s house and when I get inside the bus, it’s utterly full! Plus, I should stand near a flyer guy with a really nasty smell. Dang! I should’ve waited for the other bus.

“Could you please move a little? My leg seems to have stuck.” I say. my feet wiggles hopelessly between 2 chairs.

“Of course.” Says the flyer guy. And as he shifts a little, I catch a glimpse of familiar face. “Hey.” I greet the guy beside flyer guy, he stand with his back on me. Then he turns his back to face me with a struggle due to the crowded people in here.

“Hi!!” he greets me back. It’s the ice-cream guy. He tries to change position with the lyer guy and it almost makes the flyers drop and luckily it doesn’t. They cautiously balance their selves and finally they make it.

“Hey! Where are you going?” the ice cream guy asks.

“Oh, me? I’m going to Vi’s house. You?”

“I’m going to a supermarket, do some groceries. My mum is away.”

“Really? My mum too. She’ll be back in a week.” I say.

“Oh. My mum doesn’t.” he replies shortly. Then with a sudden movement, the bus stops and some people get off the bus and they left us 2 empty seats.

“So, where is your mum now?” I ask, shifting in my seat to get the best position with my new pink bag on my lap.

“She’s gone.” He answers lightly.

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Heaven?” he smiles as he says it. What the hell is wrong with him? Does he really mean it? “For real.” He adds as if he can read my mind.

“Wha….what do you mean? Heaven? Has your mum…” I pause, feeling uneasy to say the word

“Dead? Yes, she had been dead for 3 years now.” Says the ice-cream guy lightly. Then he smiles.

“Are you nuts?!” I automatically move back a little. I mean, is this guy sane? Coz I never seen anybody so happy talking about their dead mum!

“Wow, wow, wow! I’m not crazy, ok?”

“Then why did you smile?” I ask impatiently.

“Ok, the truth is….I never know where she is. As long as I can remember, Mrs. Reyes is the one who raised me. Even I don’t know whether my dad is my real dad or not.” He says.

What?

“So….” I gulp, trying to digest all the information. It’s overwhelming! He is raised by someone who is not his mother and he isn’t even sure does his dad is really his dad. “So….how could you stand it?” I blurt out my thought.

“Well, you’ll get used to it if you’re 18 years old and have lived with it your whole life. But really, Mrs. Reyes is the best woman I’ve ever met in my whole life and my dad, well, he isn’t the best guy, but he’s ok. He rarely stays at home so I only get very little time to know him.” He answers.

“Wow..” that’s the only word pops into my mind and I stupidly staring at him in pity and admiration.

And abruptly, the bus comes to a halt and as I look outside, I come to realization that it’s the road to Vi’s house. And so I stand up, “Well, I have to go. See you later.” I wave goodbye and he gently waves back with an angelic smile.

“Oh! Actually, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you. Shall I come to your store today, later?” I say as my mind recall the work for Ian.

“Sure. Anytime.” He says. And with that I leave the bus and walk to Vi’s house with my mind still trying to figure out the ice-cream guy’s life.

Hilda, the head of all staff in Vi’s US house says that I should just go upstairs and I’ll find Vi in her room. And so I walk pass the living room and climb up the stair when I bum into Mrs. Freyson. she wears a nice dress and high-heels, “Hi Sugar!” she greets.

“Oh! Hi Mrs. Freyson!” I reply back.

“Vi is in her room.” She says.

“Ok.” And as she passes me by, I can still see that she wears lots of make ups on her face but still, perfume company owner’s wife always smells good.

As I walk the long aisle to Vi’s room, I can hear loud music from Vi’s room and when I open the door, Vi’s dancing and jumping on her bed with loud music of Good Charlotte blares from her audio player. I throw my bag on the floor and snap the volume button to turn it down. As the music disappears, she stops jumping.

“Oh! It’s you.” She turns to see me and she loses her balance. She falls on her bed, exhausted with her breath pacing up with her.

“What the hell happen to you?” I ask.

“Oh, exercising?” she shrugs.

“No you didn’t. Where’s Ruby?” I take my bag and sit myself on the side of the bed, where Vi is flooding with sweats, still in her pajamas and her face is all hot pink.

“I don’t know. Hilda took her, she said it’s her schedule to go to dog saloon.” She walks to her bathroom unsteadily and I can hear she opens the tap as the water runs.

“And…?” I ask even more. She walks out of the bathroom with towel dabbed on her face. “Let’s talk downstairs.” She says. And so we sit in her dining room as she enjoys her late breakfast with a pretty view of peaceful backyard.

“So… what had happened?” I ask, taking a bite of chocolate croissant.

“Oh, it’s a total mess. And my mum has left to see her lawyer and everything. This is terrible.” She says, gulping her milk.

“And?”

“And, well, Sean told me to listen to rock music and jump around the room. It’d soothe me a little. Well, it works!” she shrugs.

“Oh, right…” I say.

“Oh, yea, about that picture….” She starts.

“You don’t have to tell me I you don’t want to.” I immediately say.

“No, I have been willing to tell you since long but I never had the right time. ok so listen….” She leans forward to make sure nobody other than me, hears this.

“That guy in the picture isn’t my ex-bf or something like it. He’s my brother.” She whispers.

“What?!” I automatically say, Vi clasps my mouth straight away. “Shhh!”

“Brother? You mean, like, genetically?” I ask. My eyes bulge out in desperation of knowing more.

“Well…” she gulps, “..kinda.”

“And where is he now?”

“I don’t know! I never saw him! Never ever! When I was old enough to realize, he had gone. That is the only picture left and mum was trying to hide it. But Mr. Badge told me everything that I should’ve known and well, that’s all.”

“Whoa! Do you think he’s still in England?”

“I….don’t know.”

“What’s his name then?” I ask incredulously.

“His name was Daniel Freyson. But since he has gone, there are lots of possibilities that he has changed his name or maybe the woman who took him changed it.” She says, “I’ve googled his name several times and I even went to every place that seems to have Daniel Freyson there but none if them even looks like me.” She finishes.

“You mean, you’ve tried to find him your self?” I ask doubtfully. I mean Vi has always been all careless and happy and free-spirited! There’s no way she gonna travel somewhere alone to search for someone she barely knows!

“Well, yes. But I took Sean along. It was last year when we’re still together and it was only twice.” She says.

“But you said, several times?”

“Yea! Two times is several times!” she insists.

Oh, right. Whatever.

“And so….why did you mum gave him to somebody else?” I know I’ve crossed the safe zone but I can’t help it. I gotta know the answer! Who knows the Freysons got tons of secrets behind the rich and happy family?

“I don’t know. Mr. Badge said it’s because my dad doesn’t want him. An old staff at Birmingham said it’s because Daniel is the result of an affair done by my mum. She said mum and dad ever had a big fight about him and it turned out that my mum had sex with random guy she met a week before her wedding day. Crazy isn’t it? But I prefer not to know. Well, maybe I want to know but later. Not now.” She explains.

“Maybe it’s true that my mum had sex with a stranger, that would be fun isn’t it? To have sex with other guy because it’d be the last time you would ever had sex with different partner other than your husband!” she exclaims.

Oh, well. The crazy-normal Vi has back. Glad to have her as the normal one, not the all-serious-full-of-mystery kind of Vi.

Affair: New Scent

2008-05-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

After 9 p.m., seems like the crowd has melted away. They’re going home after having glasses and glasses of champagne until their face are pinky and they talk non sense things like their companies, their friends, and the guy on the next table is talking about his great aunt, he must have drunk too much champagne or is it the Golden Rum Cake?

And so at 9.30 p.m., we all go home. Ian and I ride the limo again and the paparazzi haven’t dispersed a little. They are all still at their same position, lining up the entrance door to get the closest pic of celebs. “Where is the car?” I ask Ian when we’re in the lobby, loaded with paparazzi that shot their cameras non-stop.

“It’s on the way. Are you okay?” he looks at me intensely.

“I’m ok.” I say as my head sways a little.

“Hey! You’re Sugar, right? You come here too!” a woman voice suddenly calls. I turn to see the owner of the voice and I see a tall, slender-bodied woman in her 20s. I racked my brain trying to think where I'd seen her before. And to my horror, she comes closer. “How are you doing?” she shakes my hand gently.

“Oh, I’m good. How about you?” I ask her, struggling so hard to remember her name or where had I seen her. But my head gives a little nudge back that means ‘don’t disturb me! I’m light, and dizzy and stuffed!’

“I’m great! So how was your parent’s perfumery business? Was it this big?” she tilted her head back to the huge poster of Hey Son!. What the hell is this woman talking about?

“Oh, yeah. It will!” I reply in an assuring voice although I’m doubtful inside.

“Ms. Willis!” suddenly a bearded man walks towards us. “It’s really nice to meet you!” he hugs the woman and they kiss each other’s cheeks.

Ms. Willis?

Where might….

Oh!

Oh my god! My whole body freezes as I come into consciousness.

It’s the woman from the charity evening! I don’t even remember her anymore! And what the hell is she talking……damn! I lied to her, didn’t I? I said that my parents got a perfume line, and it’s a joining company with Earl…Gavin?

A moment later the bearded guy has gone and Ms. Willis turns to me again. “So? Are you enjoying the night?” she asks.

“Oh, yes, very much. Thanks.” I say.

“Well, where is your friend? The lucky daughter of the Freyson Family?”

“Oh, she’s inside. But she’ll be back home in no time.” I say, trying to smile.

“Oh, I see.” She says, raising her eyebrow elegantly. Suddenly, the bearded guy back again, this time with another man in a dark brown suit. “This is the famous Ms. Willis. Ms. Willis, this is Pierre Beau, the guy I once told you.”

“Oh, sure! Nice to meet you!” Ms. Willis shakes the Pierre Beau’s hand professionally.

“Enchanté!” says the French guy enthusiastically.

“So, are you the well-known reporter of Jalouse Magazine?” Ms. Willis asks him.

“Yes, I am.” He replies proudly.

Ian has now listens to the conversation, too. “Who the hell is this woman?” he whispers.

“She’s a fashion designer.” I reply quickly, don’t want to miss the conversation. I know I’m eavesdropping, but I can’t help it.

“And have you know about the…” Pierre looks around cautiously and I quickly look away to the busy road. “…I heard from a friend that Heidy and Mr. Freyson has an affair!” he says dramatically and Ms. Willis and the bearded guy are gasping, including me actually.

“Did you hear that?” I nudge Ian silently.

“Yes I heard it. But it’s no proof.” He says calmly.

“…and Mr. Freyson is having an uneasy home condition right now. I guess he and his wife are having a fight, you know. I looked at their only daughter just now and she’s terribly sad. It’s on her face and Mrs. Freyson doesn’t come today.”

Ok, this is over the limit.

How could they find out about that?

And suddenly our limo appears and stops in front of us. A doorman opens the door, “Oh! You’re going home! Well then, see you later, Sugar!” Ms. Willis says.

“Sure! See you next time!” I say, waving my hand and as the door closes, I’m plunk into a deep relaxation, away from the crowds. It’s just me and Ian. And the street lights and the traffics. I practically close my eyes to feel the silence and peace.

“So.. are you going to tell me or not?” Ian suddenly asks after we’re silent for about 10 minutes.

“What?” I ask without opening my eyes. I’m perfectly settled here.

“About the perfume line your family had?”

“Oh. I was lying.” I say without much thinking.

“Lying? Why did you lie?”

“Well, I thought it’d look cool and I would be more fitted in the group. Besides, people at the Charity Evening won’t really ‘see’ people unless you got tons of money.” I say honestly. Ian chuckles and says, “Well, about Vi’s parents and Heidy…”

“I hope it’s not true.” I cut in.

“Yeah. You don’t have to believe it, ok? It’s just a rumor. Magazine people use to make rumors.”

“But…how did they find out about the fight?” I ask, opening my eyes and all I can see are just blurry vision of lights from shops and cars passing us away.

“I…..I have no idea.” Ian replies. “What time is it?”

“9.40.”

“It’s too early to come home.” He says. Ok, I know this is some kind of a sign, this will make a mean that he wants to take me to other places, some cool places!

“Well, where do you want to take me to?” I ask to-the-point-ly.

Ian laughs quietly, “How do you know I’m going to ask you to other places?”

“Girl instinct.” I reply.

“Well, in that case, does your girl instinct says you’re hungry?”

“Hmmm, let me ask her.” I say and I really talk to my belly about it and Ian laughs. “Well, she says ‘if it’s just a little donut or a cinnamon pretzel, then it should be ok’.” I announces as if my belly can really talk.

“Ok, how about La Bergamote?” he suggests.

“Where the hell is that?” I ask blankly.

“It’s in 169 Ninth Ave. not far from here.” He rolls down the partition between us and the driver. “To 169 Ninth Avenue, please.”

“Sure.” says the driver. “They say it’s a good place there.” he adds.

“Really?”

“Yes. People are always mounding up that place. It’s really delicious. I have ever brought my wife there once and after that night I proposed her and she said yes. It’s like the most beautiful thing.” He says.

“Whoa! How romantic!” I say.

“Yeah. So, what’s the place like?” Ian asks.

“Oh, it’s pretty. You just have to look at it yourself. Well at that time I was a taxi driver, I don’t have much money. Taking my wife to eat there was like cutting my salary into half! That was pretty crazy. But at noon, many people come there, they say the napoleon is crazily delicious. Must-try.” He explains.

“Whoa! Sure!”

“Ok, here we are.” He says, stopping the car on the side of the street ad it looks hugely “too much” for this place. It’s a nice place with restaurants and galleries lining up the street and this limo, just doesn’t fit in.

“Thanks a lot, Marco!” Ian says. “You can go home now.”

“But I haven’t taken you back home!” he says.

“That’s ok. I’ll take bus from here.” Ian says.

“Ok then if you’re sure. Have a nice meal with your nice girl!” he says, rolling up the window and sends us a wink. We wave him goodbye and everybody is staring at us with these formal dress and suit.

“Shall we?” Ian offers his arm and we both walk inside the comfy little place.

Ok, this place is sooo irresistible. I had a chocolate mousse and a cup of cappuccino but the napoleon are so demanding that I had to order more. Same goes with Ian, he had a chocolate croissant as a starter, but then he wants fruit cakes and in the end, we are both stuffed and happy and light and totally relaxed.

“So…. Are you going to get a job again some day?” I ask, fiddling with my spoon.

“Well maybe. Actually, I was thinking of getting other jobs as waiter or newspaper guy, but I don’t really like the idea of waking up too early and have to go to work I don’t like. I know being a newspaper guy pays a lot of money but so is baby sitting. But the thing is, I hate both ideas.” He replies.

“what would you like to do, then?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I must find the right job to know it fits me.” He says lightly.

“Ice-cream man?”

“That sounds fun! Driving the ice-cream truck with kids chasing you. But I don’t like the idea of sitting in the truck until my flat ass glued to the seat.” He says and we both giggle to the image of him, driving the ice-cream truck with a really terrible face.

“My sister got a job in an advertising company. It’s just so unfair! She is the smart one and I’m more like…..”

“The stupid one?” I puts in.

“Yeah kind of.” He says, laughing.

“I let you know what is unfair. My mum is going to Hawaii and she doesn’t bring her kids along with her! Dang! I’m dying to go to Hawaii!”

“What she do there?”

“She’s a wedding planner. She will organize a wedding there for a couple of superrich people. Mum says they are “kind of” celebrities just because they bring LV bag. My mum is like soooo plain. She has no idea who is Johny Depp! Mind you!” I say and we both laugh.

“Oh! I know this guy who works in Ben and Jerry’. Would you like me to ask him if there is a position available?” I suddenly recall the ice-cream guy.

“Ok, sure if you don’t mind,”

“Of course not!” I say.

“Ok, it’s almost 11 now. We should go home or your parents will get angry.” He stands up and holds my hand.

“Uh. Ok.” I reply vaguely. Then we take a nice walk before stopping at the halt to feel New York’s cool night breeze with night life. Then we get in the bus and ride back home.

I’m all stressed-out when Vi calls this morning. Why can’t my life be just fine for a day? I sometimes wonder if God would let me be stress-free even for just a moment. Well, my life used to be like so “safe” but since I knew Vi, it all changed. My life is a big chaos, full of stresses, parties, dresses, shoppings, clothings, and a dog. It’s not that I hate it, it adds colours to my life actually. The thing is, sometimes, it’s overwhelming. And my life sometimes looks more like a story than a real one.

“Sugar… I need to see you today.” Vi’s shrill voice echoes in my ear.

“What happened?” I rub my eyes and stretches.

“I heard my parents arguing again. This time is not about the money my mum gave, it’s about my dad having an affair!” my heart skips a little as she tells me in a desperate voice. “Oh god Sugar! I’m scared!”

“Clam down, ok? Calm down….” I say soothingly, “that can’t be true. There is no proof to that.” I say, remembering what Ian told me yesterday.

“But Mum has got proofs!” she cries.

“What?”

“She has got proofs! It’s in Dad’s e-mails and text messages! They’re calling each other ‘Hun’!” she furiously says.

“Welll….maybe it’s a common word for people that work in a perfumery and clothings business? You know, sometimes, they’re gay and they like to….”

“My dad is not GAY!” Vi says harshly.

“I know, I know. Ok, you know what, I’ll be there.” then I click the phone off. This is starts to go scarily nuts. Affair? A man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s? This is a total scandal! The press will all get excited if they know about this and there will be headlines like “Affair: New Scent” in no time.

guessing...

2008-05-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

“I knew it since yesterday actually.” Vi says as the smooth breeze touches our hair lightly. She’s wearing a nice knee-length black glittery dress, with a distinctive purple bow that wrap around her waist and she wears a nice purple high-heels that match the bow. It looks really pretty, especially with a glass of champagne to complete her perfect appearance

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.

“I thought you’re still angry with me. About the whole ‘Sean knows it but I don’t’ thing.”

“How did you find out about our dad and Hayley’s sister?”

“He asked me what was my plan for today and I said I wanted to go to Heidy’s perfume launching. And when he asked where and when, he finally admitted that to me.” She states.

At first, it was hard. I thought of my dad and Hayley like ‘how could you?’ but then things don’t always fall to the place we wanted to. Dad was in a hard position as the owner of the company. He has to find a way to keep the business rolling. And one day, in a fashion show, he met Heidy, the fashion designer. Well, they talked and here they are today.” She sighs.

“Well…” I start, “Actually, I wanted to apologize about this to you….. It’s just not that easy you know, every time I want to call you, I was bothered by this feeling. I felt so small and….and not reliable enough…..”

“Ssssh!” Vi put her manicured index finger on my lips, “Don’t ever say that! You’re my best ever friend! Actually, I want to say sorry that I didn’t tell you about the guy in the picture.” She says. “It’s just that, I haven’t found the right timing to tell you.”

“That’s ok. I…I don’t really want to know about that guy either. If he is your ex-bf, that’s ok, I won’t ask.” I say, taking a gulp from my champagne glass

Then we’re both silent. I’m looking at the wide open city under us, we’re on the balcony of the hall, avoiding the crowd and cooling down our temper.

“Listen…” Vi starts.

“Hey ladies.” A voice makes us turn and it’s Sean. As handsome as ever, with a preppy brown coat and angelic smile. On his sides are Ian and Jeremy.

“Oh, yeah hi!” I say.

“Hey!” Vi greets.

“So, how you guys doing?” Sean asks.

“Well. I’m well.” I say.

“Me too!”

“It’s a nice surprise isn’t it? Having him here tonight. I haven’t seen him for ages!!” Jeremy rounds his arm on Sean’s neck and they do some “boys-friendly-gestures-but-its-more-like-a-fight-to-girls” things.

“Yeah! How do you do, bro?” Sean asks in a besties-to-besties voice.

“I’m great!” Jeremy brushes his coat to make it neat again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seat.” A voice suddenly echoes around the hall, stopping Vi in the middle.

“Come on.” I say, grabbing Vi’s hand and we walk inside, where more people have gathered and they’re taking their seats around the round tables.

Hayley is waving to us in a distant, she’s put us together on one table. Me, Vi, Ian, Jeremy, and her. And so, Jeremy, who knows nothing about the whole “bitch-and-betrayer” thing, eagerly hops to the table.

“Hi! Jeremy greets Hayley.

“Hi! Nice seeing you here. And who is this?” she points at Sean.

“I’m Sean. Jeremy’s best friend.” He extends his arm and shakes Hayley’s.

“Well, we need more chair!” Hayley calls one of the waiters and asks for additional chair. “There you go! Come on! Sit with us!” she taps on the chair.

“Thanks.” Sean says, taking his seat.

And so, the 6 of us, sit together awkwardly. Although, Hayley doesn’t feel like it.

Mr. Freyson climbs up the stairs to the stage and clears his throat, then he grabs the microphone and opens his mouth. “First of all , I’d like to thank you all to come and join us tonight in this highly celebrated launching of me and my new best friend’s perfume.” He pauses, “although she’s nowhere to be found..” he looks around the room, pretend to search for Heidy and it makes the guests laugh.

“What?” Jeremy pulls a face. “What joke is this? Mr. Freyson? and Heidy?” his voice raise.

“Yes! Great isn’t it? Vi’s dad and my sister!” Hayley says in a bright face.

Jeremy turns to see Vi, who forces a smile to Jeremy.

“Whoa! You guys knew about this and you didn’t tell me! How could you!” Jeremy’s voice turns into more excited.

I pray a silent prayer that he will shuts his mouth until the end of the presentation and dinner, and speak nothing about the “new owners” that he didn’t know about. Well, we all, didn’t know! Except that brunette-haired lady in a red dress.

“…..Well, well, well. I am very pleased to tell you that this..” Mr. Freyson points at a big symbol of old Freyson Company on the projector screen, “..has turned into this.” The picture changes to the new Hey Son symbol with swirly motives around the Hey Son swirly letters.

“This doesn’t mean that I will change the favorite scents every body likes, it’s just a matter of new name and addition of owner. And…” he suddenly points to the entrance door, “Ah! There she is!” and all heads are turning to the direction he’s referring. Heidy is standing there, shocked that every body’s looking at her, then she clasped her cell phone shut and professionally climb the small stairs to the stage.

“I think, she can form better words than I do. So, ladies and gentlemen, Heidy Manson.” Mr. Freyson says, followed by polite claps and little laughter.

“I’ll go to the rest room.” Vi suddenly stands up.

“Wait. I also want to go to the rest room.” I say, following Vi, who thumps her feet in anger all the way down to the rest room.

After we’re both inside, she walks to the glass-made sink and open the tap to let the water flows. She then take a handful of water and splash it on her face.

“Sugar…” she starts in a dready voice, “Please tell me now, how to survive in this situation? First, my dad and mum. And now, this!”

I think she must hate me to do such bad thing! She knew it! She knew it from the start that it’s her sister and my dad! And she knew so well that I suffered in a situation where my dad almost went bankrupt, and he had a big fight with mum. And she was all lightly said in such excited face that her sister is going to launch a new perfume line. I was happy for her! I had no idea it’s my dad! Why didn’t she just tell me that her sister….and I thought she is on my side, I took her shopping and I was so grateful about her and you and Ian and……” She doesn’t continue, her throat is strangled with tears.

I quickly walk towards her and hug her tight. Then she cries like a baby. All big and loud and with lots of tissues, and tear-stained face.

When we head back to the party, dinner time is over. And they all chat and laugh together, especially Jeremy and Sean, Hayley is nowhere to be found.

“Hey! You’re back! Where have you two been? I thought you were in the rest room….” Jeremy asks.

“We were.” I answer shortly. He, then drifts his eyes to Vi, whose eyes puffy and she’s looking down with tissue in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Jeremy whispers to me in a puzzled face.

“Nothing.” I reply even shorter than before. I’m not in the mood to talk to anybody right now.

Guests have stood up from their seats and wander around to kiss others cheeks and have fun meeting new people and old friends. It’s almost 9 p.m. and slow music is playing in the background, while louder laughter are coming from many tables and we’re trapped in this round table with sad Vi and not-in-the-mood me. Why should we be the one who are sad? And moreover, Mr. Freyson hasn’t even once came down to our table and at least, visit us and talk. He, on the other hand, is talking and laughing with other unknown men.

“Having good time?” Mr. Freyson’s makes me jump. He’s standing behind Vi now, his face is all red due to glasses of champagne.

“Yes, we are. This is great.” I respond automatically.

“Where is Mum?” that’s Vi’s respond.

“I don’t know. I thought she would come later. The last time I saw her at home, she’s dressing up.” Mr. Freyson says. “You two go have fun,ok!” he taps Vi’s shoulder and saunter away.

“Care to tell me what had happened?” Jeremy asks after some pauses.

I exhale and finally says, “Ok, come on.” I stand up, followed by confuse Jeremy. I lead him to the balcony, where people are less crowded although, of course, there are people here.

“Ok, what is it?” he faces me in a bewildered expression.

“Vi and all of us, including you, also had no idea that it’s Hayley’s sister and Vi’s dad who built this new perfume line. We had no idea that Hayley knew all this since long. And even Vi, didn’t know what happened to his dad’s company, other than it’s almost gone ruin.” I say without taking a breath. Jeremy’s silent for few seconds, to digest all the information carefully and he opens his mouth, “So…what you’re trying to say…is that….Hayley knew what had happened between Vi’s parents and she didn’t tell us anything about this?”

“Yes, yes, yes…” I nod.

“Wow! So, is that the reason why Vi’s sad?”

“Of course! You moron!” I say impatiently.

“Wow,wow,wow! Cool down!” Jeremy says, “ok, but, I know Hayley since long. There’s no way she would do that!”

“Well, but she has!” I retort.

“But…” Jeremy’s going to reply but then he closes his mouth. “…but she was so happy and light and got excited every time her sister called her to tell her about the new progress…ok, maybe she’s just being happy and afraid that if she told us earlier about this, we might got angry at her, especially Vi.”

“But I thought she’s a good friend! I mean, how could she? She knew Vi is sad and his dad’s company was almost gone bankrupt and it’s her sister who made the joint company and….”

“Wait, wait.. Maybe her sister isn’t that evil, you know. Maybe she’s just trying to save Mr. Freyson’s company by making a joint-company so that Mr. Freyson’s company can still survive the hard times.”

“But she’s no one! Remember? Vi’s dad could easily pull up a contract with some cool celebs like Halle Berry, or Madonna, or Megan Fox! They all use Freyson Perfumery products!”

“So, you think her sister had tricked Vi’s dad?” Jeremy asks.

“Well…it’s just a guess. But it’s still weird.” I say. Then we’re both silent, trying to figure out what’s wrong and what had happened and what’s the wrong part and why? Why is it so bothering? Like something’s not right.

My brain tells me so. And my heart too.

Bitch!

2008-05-04T05:33:00.000-07:00

The sun has completely drowned by the night and more people are packing inside the mall. The twins were finally found by me and the ice-cream guy (I haven’t quite figure out what his name is). They were having really good time with those PS2 battle and people watched them and scream to support them.

However, at the end of the battle, both of them won. And they got quite a big sum of money and we all used it to eat ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s. Today turns up into a nice day after all.

And we’re sitting under the dark blue sky with a little moon dangling far in the sky. Breezy wind brushes my hair and cheeks, leaving a relaxing effect.

“Another cup?” the ice-cream guy asks.

“No way! I’m stuffed!” I laugh.

“I don’t mind another cup.” Says one of the twin but I don’t care who talks, I’m busy looking at the open pretty sky and I practically close my eyes to feel the relaxing sensation. Here I am, Sugar Dale, 16 years old, feeling more relax than ever. Wish Ian were here cos it’ll be so much fun, not mentioning the….

Suddenly, a “you got a friend” ring tone tingles inside my pocket. I quickly take it and see the caller, no way!

No way!

Vi?!

Should I take it?

Oh yes of course! Stupid!

“Eh…hello?” I greet formally.

“May I speak to Sugar, Please?” her croaky voice is heard from far away. And all of a sudden, a little flip is going inside my body. Dang! How I miss her voice. It’s been a week without her around.

“Yes, it’s me.” I reply, quite in a squeak.

“Oh, it’s you.” She let out a nervous laugh. “Well, I just call to ask whether you gonna come to the perfume launching of Hayley next week?”

What the hell is goin on? She talks like I’m her mum’s important business friend that she has to keep her manner and everything.

Oh, yea right.. She still thinks we’re not fine. Stupid me! She doesn’t call to make it up to me, or to apologize or else to explain. How could I even think of any of that?

“I think so. Maybe. Why?”

“Nothing. Just asking.” She says coldly but I can catch it in her voice, she misses talking to me, too.

“Ok.” I say.

“Ok.” She says.

There’s a pause before finally the phone clicks off.

And unexpectedly, I feel empty.

I feel like I’m close to tears, but no. I’m not going to cry in front of a stranger and my brothers.

“Ready?” Ian asks.

“Totally.” I reply, smiling at him with the best smile I can possibly give. I reach for my purse and dab my pomegranate lip gloss, then I tie up my Manolo.

“What do you think of my tie?” he grins.

“Perfect.” I reply.

“Ok, then. To the Ritz Carlton, please.” Says Ian and we’re purring away from my house.

In a limo!

Ok, to tell you the truth, this is limo is from the Limo Service, just for tonight. But I’m totally blown by Ian, cos he arranged everything, he called the Limo Service while I was busy thinking of my dress, and he paid for the Limo Service while I was busy begging mum to borrow her sexy Manolo shoes. He’s just so…..dependable!

And now as we move to Ritz Carlton, I realize why I love Ian, especially tonight with his suit and night blue tie. He’s so adorable, he’s handsome, tall, nice smile, dependable….

“What?” He’s now looking at me, meeting my eyes.

“Nothing.” I shrug, pretend to focus on the crowded street.

He snorts and says “Come here.” I shift towards him and I lay my head on his shoulder and he strokes my hair gently. I really want to put a pause at this moment, I want to keep it like this, forever. I don’t want this limo to stop and I don’t want to come out, I just want to be here, with Ian all night, driving along New York’s streets.

But somehow, we arrive at the Ritz Carlton, with its posh building and grand entrance waiting for us. A doorman opens our limo and Ian comes out first, then he offers me a hand so that I can come out of the limo gracefully, like all the movie stars do all the time!

And suddenly, I’m blinded by all the camera flashes.

Oh cool! Paparazzi!

Stupid me! Of course there will be paparazzi, how could I didn’t prepare for these?

And right behind us, a couple of stunning-looking people have just come down to earth. The woman wears a dark purple gown by Vera Wang and the man is wearing a preppy suit by Louis Vuiton. Guess who? BRANGELINA!

Oh my god!

And is that Halle Berry?

God, kill me for my sin that I finally see celebrities, go to a full-of-celebrities event, and….

No way!

As we enter the big hall, my eyes drift to a table, a big round table full of all the top class perfume-maker celebs. There is Nina Ricci, and there is Usher, and J-Lo, and this is too much!

“Hi! Glad both of you finally make it!” a sweet voice behind us says. I turn my back and there is Hayley, wrapped in Valentino’s red dress and black high-heels.

“Yes. We’re glad too.” Ian says.

“Yes. We’ve been waiting to come here. And this is….superb!” I say, smiling widely. “and by the way. Where is your happy sister?”

“Oh, she’s just there.” she points to a crowd of people. “well, in the middle of that crowd, somewhere there.” she says doubtfully.

“Well, we have to thank her for inviting us here,” Ian says.

“Sure. Come on.” Hayley says. Then she leads the way across the great hall.

Does she have any idea what we’ve done to their mother?

When we get closer to the group, I can see a pretty young woman in a knee-length pink dress in the middle. She looks really happy and bright. She laughs and drinks from her glass then she laughs even more.

“That’s quite a successful step! You’re going to be rich!” says a man in the crowd who wears a shocking yellow tie and gray coat. Heidi laughs lightly, “Hopefully!” she says, rising her eyebrow.

“Excuse me.” Hayley says, breaks in the crowd. “Sis, I want you to meet my best friend, this is Ian Somers..” Ian smiles.

“Of course!” Heidi beams and they both shakes hand.

“And this is Sugar Dale..”

“Nice to meet you. and thanks for inviting us here.” I say, shake Heidi’s soft hand.

“So…where’s the lucky man?” a man suddenly asks, grinning at Heidi.

“Oh, yes. Where is he?” Heidi gets out of the crowd and spreading her view. “Oh there he is!” he points to a man in a black suit, with his back on us. he’s talking in his cell phone.

“So…that’s the man that other famous owner of this joint-company too? How did you make the deal? I thought he already made a perfumery kingdom himself!” a woman in white dress asks.

“Well, just a little talk.” Heidi smiles modestly. Then the man we talk about turns his back and as he sees us looking at him, he waves.

Are my eyes normal?

But..

That’s impossible!

“Mr. Freyson?” I say, half-choked.

“What?” Ian asks, then he looks at him and his jaw drops. “No way!”

Mr. Freyson is now strolling towards us with a big beam on his face. “Hi all!” he casually greets. And suddenly, his eyes fall upon us, “Oh, hi Sugar! Vi’s there, why don’t you be with her?” he says, pointing at a pretty girl in a glittery black dress, sitting alone by the stage.

And I am too shocked to talk.

Suddenly I recall the situation back then when we were in the night club back in Birmingham

“my sister called me and she said she has signed a contract to a joint company with a perfumery! And she sounds happy. The company’s name will be Hey Son!”

I should have known! Hey Son! Heidy and Freyson! and my brain plays another episode of flashback, where Vi cries on her pillow after seeing her parents arguing

“…..They’re arguing about the company, Sugar! Dad’s sold half of the Freyson Perfumery and made it a joint company with some unknown woman!.....”

Damn!

It’s Heidy, the unknown woman!

And….wait….

Something’s not right….

Hayley must have known, she must have known about all this since long! When her sister called her all time in Birmingham, Heidy must have mentioned about “Freyson” and we lived with the Freysons under one roof!

Damn!

And now, as I look at Hayley, laughing with her goddess face, I don’t feel even a pinch of happiness for her. And as I look at the lonely girl sitting beside the stage, I feel a sudden rush of temper as I come to all the realization.

It’s Hayley all over this time! She didn’t tell us about this! She knew exactly what Vi’s parents were arguing at the living room about! She knows Vi is sad. Why didn’t she tell us that it’s her sister and Vi’s dad who own the joint-company? Why should she put all those happy face when we were sad about Vi's parents?

Damn!

Bitch!

Gadget Freak

2008-05-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

I’m listening to my favorite song while sitting on my bed.

I can’t wait a moment more
Tell me quando, quando, quando
To say it’s me that you adore
And then darling tell me when…

I don’t know why I like that old song very much that I can hum it every second everyday.

As I look out to the window, the sun hasn’t come out yet, I know I’m too early this morning, but who cares. I was planning to do yoga cos I bought the book yesterday with a really cheap price and it’s completed with real person’s pictures step by step. It’s worth it!

I was on my way to stretch into a Snake Pose, when suddenly Mom knocks on the door. “Sugar? You there?”

“Yes!” I reply, putting both hands together as the end of this 4-steps-yoga due to the disturbance. I click the door open and Mum is there, wearing her suit, ready for work.

“I and your dad will be late today. I will be attending a wedding and accompany one of my client choosing cakes. Could you please take care of your brothers?” she asks in a concern face.

“What? They’re old enough to take care of themselves!”

“No. really, I want you to take care of them, or just make sure they’re not going out with your permission and you know, just look after them.” Mum insists.

“Okaay…” I say lazily.

“Good! Ok then, I have to go. The twins haven’t wake up yet. Breakfast is in the fridge, just heat them up. Bye, Sweetie!” she kisses my forehead and strolls down the stairs. I just realize, Mum looks more fashionable these past days. she even wears a white long coat today and boots! Dang! I will ask her later where did she buy it and how much, and of course, can I borrow it?

I wash my face and go down the stairs. All my senses wake as my barefoot touch the cold ceramics on the backyard porch. I sit myself down on the chair while waiting for the pizza to be ready in the microwave. And for now, I got this nice cup of coffee. And I should really enjoy this time because the twins will wake up anytime and if they…..

“Sugaaar!!!!!!!!” Nathan’s voice booms.

Damn! There they’re!

“Whaaat?!” I reply, standing up and get inside the kitchen.

“Where’s Mum?” Nathan asks, running down the stairs still with his pajamas.

“She’s left. Dad too. Why?” the microwave ‘ding’ and I reach for the plate and fork.

“She said she will take us to the mall!”

“Well, but she cancelled it. Ok, come on, have some breakfast, I have heated these pizzas. I’ll hunt you if you don’t eat it.” I say uninterestedly.

“Nichooo!!!!” he screams and runs upstairs hysterically. What he thinks I am? A monster?

At least, I’m a good sister cos we finally sit quietly around the kitchen table, reading magazine, playing PSP, and heating more pizzas for the whole morning that takes to 11 a.m. and both of them, annoyingly, beg me to take them to the mall. They say there’s this game festival or something that they should come. There will also be a launching of new gadget and if we buy the door prize ticket, there’s a possibility we can win the new gadget.

Honestly, I’m not interested. I mean, at all! I prefer to stay in the house or go somewhere with Ian, or with Vi….

Oh shit, now I remember the whole sucks feeling toward Vi. I can’t control it anyhow, it keeps bothering me! And about Mum’s advice, I think it’s not the time yet for me to really think that Vi never means to hurt me. Cos she must have known, it’ll hurt me! And like it or not, I am now really curious about the picture of the boy.

Is he Vi’s old boyfriend? but she doesn’t have to be really discreet and everything about an old boyfriend, isn’t it? Or maybe her parents want her to marry him? No, no, no, impossible. Or is that……

“Sugar!” Nathan cries from upstairs.

“What?!” I dry my hand on the apron after washing all the plates and tidying up the kitchen table while the twin took their shower.

“Come on! We must be hurry, or the bus will be full!” he replies.

“Alright, alright!” I say halfheartedly and drag my body to the second floor.

Mall.

I hate mall.

Because they’re bunches of people whirring around.

Not that I hate crowds, I love crowds more than anything.

But I hate people strolling around the mall. Why? Because they think they’re beautiful people! They dressed up like they’re going to Academy Award or something and sometimes, they’re more into….quirky.

And most of all, they always act like they’re some kind of popular people, which is not. They dress like fashion magz does! Not that I hate fashion magz, they’re brilliant, except that some people just dress from head to toe, exactly like how they do in the glossy pages. Yeah, right. Well, that’s my opinion, don’t get offended.

And now, we’re trapped in the middle of the crowd where they hold the Gadget Festival and I have to keep my eye on the twin so that they don’t wander off my sight or I’ll get into trouble. Moreover, I’ve been pushed by this woman standing next to me! She elbows me and hell knows how much she eats everyday! She can swallow three me, or maybe four!

“Nathan!!” I scream. Oh my god! Now, this will get me into trouble! He has gone! And Nicho too!

“Nicho!” I quickly turn to let myself gulped by the crowd, where are these naughty boys? I push my way among these “mall people”, dang! Those boys won’t let me not get to trouble, aren’t they?

I end up at the side of the main stage, where I can people are packing up in front of the stage. And I’m sweaty and tired and….thirsty! the twins can be just anywhere in this huge area of festival. They’re people lining up in front of a stand where they sell the grand prize ticket, and they’re also kids packing up and screaming in front of the stage and they’re lots of stands here!

Where might they be?

“A gadget freak?” a voice makes me jump in my worry. As I turn, I see a familiar face, the ice cream man I met the other day. He wears a t-shirt and jeans with a baseball cap and he’s eating his hotdog.

Dang! What’s his name?

I let out an easy laugh, “no. not me, it’s my brothers.” He raises one of his eyebrows interestedly, “ah, I see.”

“Well, you?” I ask while racking my brain, searching for his name.

“Yes I am. A gadget freak.” He says, biting his hotdog.

“Yea well then…I have to search for my brothers. See you around!” I wave my hand to avoid him before something unwanted happened, like for instance, he tests me what his name is? Which is a little impossible, but who knows?

“Your phone.” He suddenly says.

“What?” I stare at him blankly.

“Your phone.” He points to my pocket, “ringing.”

What?

Oh right! My phone’s ringing!

How could I be so stupid!

“Oh yeah. I was just going to pick it up when you mention it.” I say, taking my phone carelessly and push the green button before I see the caller.

“Hi!” I greet.

“Hi, Sugar!” Ian’s voice sings inside my ear.

“Oh, hi!” I say.

“Just wondering, what are you doing?” he asks gently.

“Oh, well, I’m searching the twin, they’re disappearing! I’m at the mall, actually!” I say.

“Oh, ok. Should I come there and help you?”

“no,no,no. I’ll be ok.”

“Ok then. By the way, Hayley called me.”

“What she want?” I suddenly become more alert.

“Easyy….she asked about the perfume launching event. It’s a week away. She just wanna make sure we can make it there.” he says.

“Well then tell her I’m not coming.” I say ignorantly.

“Why?”

“I just don't want to see Vi.”

“Oh come on, Sugar! Grow up! You two are best friends!” he cries.

“Alright. Well if you come, then I’m too.” I say at last.

“Ok, great! See you later!” he says.

“Bye Hun.” I reply.

“Bye my Cutiepie.”

“What? Cutiepie? I prefer to be….ummm….sweetheart?” I giggle.

“Sweetheart? It’s sooo old!” he replies, giggling too. “Well, I have to go. Bye Mrs. Somers.” He says and he hangs up the phone.

I stare at the phone disbelievingly. Mrs. Somers? Not bad!

“Your boyfriend?” the ice cream guy asks. Why the hell is he still here? And now that I look into his eyes, I remember Vi!

“Yu-uh.” I reply. “I hate to search for the twin.” I say.

“You seem like it. Why don’t I help you search for them?” he offers.

“But you don’t know what they look like!”

“Well, they must be two boys, with naughty face, and they look alike. And they look like you.” He says.

I roll my eyes, “Yeah whatever you say. come on.”

at vi's house

2008-04-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Vi’s house at about 3 p.m.

“Hi. Sorry I’m late.” I say as I get inside the living room where she’s with Ruby, watching E! Channel.

“Hey! It’s ok. Come on have a seat.” She pats on an empty seat beside her on the plushy sofa. “What happened?” she asks right away. Dang, she always knows when I got problem.

“Nothing.” I lie.

“nothing..” she echoes.

I look at her and she’s looking at the TV.

“Fine! I got into more serious trouble.” I say, admitting.

“And?”

“And I yelled at Mrs. Manson.”

“No way!” her eyes bulge out, she almost drop her jaw too.

“Well, I did.” I say, “and I met this guy in an ice cream shop. And when I saw his eyes and hair, I remembered you!”

“And do you like him?” she leans closer like all the gossipers do.

“Hell no!! we met like 15 mins, that’s all!” I say.

“OH. But he’s cute?” she asks even more.

“Quite. But for real, an ice cream guy! Does a shop keeper not ugly enough?” I say. And we both giggle hysterically.

“Remember what I said to you the other day? Sometimes normal guys are more romantic than those supercilious guys of our school.” She says in a lecturing style.

“Rigghttt…”

Vi walks to the kitchen to fetch a packet of chips and I’m left alone in the living room. The silent living room. The whole house even looks dead.

“So, what is it you want to tell me this morning?” I ask, laying my head on the sofa pillow and take out my cell phone with a notification of ‘1 new message’ on its screen.

“Nothing. Not important.” She walks back with the chips and yoghurt. “Tell me about Ian.”

I stare at my cell disbelievingly. There, Ian sent me a text:

R u completely out of ur mind?

But I like it

I know my mouth’s open and I want to say something but no word comes out. “Who is it?” Vi asks, jump to the sofa and take the cell from my hand. She reads it for a while.

“What is it so special?” she asks plainly.

“I…..I almost got him fired this afternoon! After I yelled at Mrs. Manson, he’d probably got fired!” I say. then as quickly as I can, I text him back:

U r not angry with me? I thought you’d break me up!

So, did Mrs. Manson fire u?

I press ‘send’ and there, the text has been sent. Then only sound heard are just the sound of chips cracking in Vi’s mouth and a very little sound from E!Channel that we don’t listen anymore.

“Does Hayley know about this?” Vi asks.

“I don’t know. Her mum probably has already told her.” I reply.

“Complete story, please..”

And so for 15 minutes I tell her the whole insane story. She gawks at me and stares at me in such incredulity and when I finally stops, my cell beeps. It’s Ian, texting me back.

No. I quited

She looked really pissed. I think I might want to take a break before applying any job.

Where r u?

I miss u…

I smile at the text while Vi is shouting hysterically, “You’re crazy!!!”

Ok, so…I thought Ian mad at me which is not. And I’m now lay at Vi’s bed with Ruby and Vi, gazing at the empty ceiling. “So, are you gonna tell me something?” I ask.

“Not really. You know almost all the information I got.” She says.

“Almost?”

“Well….” She gulps, “almost all. But really the only thing you don’t know is really not important..”

“Such as?”

“Such as…..Sean texted me yesterday…”

“No way!” I gasp.

“Oh yes, he did. And he asked how am I doing? that sort of thing.”

“did you fall in love with him all over again?” I ask, feeling uneasy.

“I don’t know. Somehow, he understands how I feel when I told him what I heard from Mum.” She shrugs.

“You told him?! Gosh! Vi, what happened to you? Are you out of your mind?”

“No, it’s not like that..” she blushes, “…he phoned me too and we talked for quite long. At first, I was ignorant and wanted to hang up the phone as soon as possible. But the more I listened to him, the more I realized…”

“What?” I feel a twinge of alarm. This is all wrong! Sean is supposed to be out there, nowhere, puuffff! Gone!

“He understands me. But really Sugar. We don’t have to a couple again! We can be just friends, right?”

“But……but you and him……but this is all wrong!” I say puzzled.

“This doesn’t have to be wrong. We can always give a second chance, right?” she looks at me in a pleading face.

I silent. No, no, you can’t give Sean another chance. I mean, he had sex with me when he was still with you! And we officially made him a ‘not the guy in our list’, well not in words, but we…..

“Well…” I inhale. “As long as it suits you.” I say, forcing a smile.

“That’s it Sugar! He understands me. He had been here! In my position. Her mum and dad divorce and her mum married again.” She says reassuringly.

“Yeah. Whatever. God knows how many secrets you’ve been hiding from me.” I mumble.

“Sugar! What’s wrong with you? I’ve been open to you, aren’t I?” her voice raises a pitch.

“Yeah. I….pretty much appreciate it.” I say.

“What?” she looks at me.

“Unless, you haven’t told me about the guy in the picture.” I burst.

Damn! I wasn’t supposed to say that! That’s her privacy!

Well, ok, I’ve been curious about it and everything, but that doesn’t mean she must tell me or what, right? Or should she?

“What picture?” she asked, then with a click she adds, “Oh, that one.”

“Yeah. That one.”

“Well, I’ll……didn’t I tell you?” she asks, lying. It’s in her eyes, she’s trying to sound as if she had told me and in case I forgot.

“No. you haven’t.” I say to the point. She sighs and we’re silent for a moment, then she says, “I’ll….I’ll tell you later, ok?”

I was going to say ‘ok’, when suddenly my lips say the other, the other that I might think of, “Does Sean know about, him?”

She suddenly becomes tenser and she gulps.

“He knows, isn’t he?” I say, feeling betrayed all of a sudden. And Vi nods slowly.

And that’s it. I can’t contain this feeling of being betrayed, backstabbed, and not trusted. She’s my best friend, and even before she knows Sean. We’ve been best friends! How could she?

“Ok, that’s it!” I say in a final tone. “maybe Sean can understands you better.” I say, taking my bag and coat then I walk to the door and leave.

As I help mum cut onions before dinner, I can’t help feeling a pang of guilt of what I experienced today. It’s not just about the Vi part, but also about the Mrs. Manson part. Actually, I start to think that I’m out of my mind. Hell knows what happened to me today.

Maybe it’s a jetlag effect? I don’t know.

But still, I still feel betrayed. It’s so disturbing, uneasy, and somehow, it makes me feels insecure every time I think of it. I had been thinking of phoning Vi and apologize when suddenly those feelings appear again and I cancel all the apologizing words.

“What’s wrong?” Mum’s voice disturbs my thoughts. Dang! She always know!

“Nothing.” I say, moving away from her side to the stove, pretend to check the soup and stir it slowly.

“Nothing?” Mum echoes. “Nathan, could you please tell your dad that dinner will be ready in 20 mins so he can take a shower first?” mum shouts from kitchen.

“Got it!” Nathan replies from the living room, where he’s playing his PS2 with Nicho.

“So? Are you gonna tell your story to me, or not?” Mum says, looking at me.

Ok, I can’t avoid her anymore. “Fine.” I say. then, I tell her all that had happened today and she’s quite shock, especially in the “yelling at Mrs. Manson” part and as usual, she gives me advices and parts where I did wrong, including the Vi part. According to Mum, it’s Vi’s choice who she wants to tell the secret to. Sometimes, we want to tell other people, to see how others think, to see from their point of view.

“Yeah, I know Mum. And now, we’re not good. I feel like…” I try to find the word.

“Not trustworthy?” mum helps.

“Yeah, quite like that. It’s as if I’m not trustworthy enough to handle Vi’s secret.” I say, bringing the soup to the dining room, where Nathan and Nicho are ready on their seats.

“What should I do?” I ask, taking a seat opposite the twin.

“Well, for start, you should get rid of those uncomfortable feelings.” She says, spooning the twin beef. “And everything will flow from there. You should trust Vi. You’ve been friends for long time. You should trust yourself and Vi that she doesn’t mean bad things to you.” Mum adds.

“Wow! Looks yummy!” Dad suddenly enters the dining room only with his shorts and sleeveless white thin shirt.

“Dad! I’ve told you not to wear that!” I exclaim.

“Have you?” he asks with a dumb face, then takes a seat besides mum carelessly.

Yeah right. That’s SO my dad.

New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream

2008-04-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

All my senses wake up as I smell the sweet scent of maple syrup downstairs. Oh! It’s a Pancake Day! I get up lazily, all my body feels comfortable and nice, it’s really warm in here, in my own bedroom. Although it’s much smaller than that bedroom in Birmingham, but this is waay cozier. It feels like……home!

And I am wearing my old easy pajamas that I had since 3 years ago. The familiar smell really brings me to life. It’s another day of summer holiday and I’m here! Safe and warm under my house roof!

The noises made by Nathan and Nicho echoes to my room, they’re fighting over their PSP. Dad bought it for their birthday present but Dad only bought one, he said the twins can always share. Duh, as long as I live, they NEVER share! The only thing they share is…….ok, nothing.

They even want the bed to be separated although mum had bought them a queen size bed for two of them! And they insist on getting a standard-one-person bed. And Nathan, who has always been the more talkative one, want to get his own telephone on the side of the bed and Nicho, who join the soccer team, begged for his own Nike Mercurial Vapor soccer shoes which cost around $300.

I wash my face and brush my teeth, then join them downstairs. The small living room is so contrast than those in Birmingham but somehow, it’s more comfy. With the usual magazines and papers everywhere, and the PS2 the twin left last night and even mum’s coat.

“Morning, Honey!” Dad greets as I enter the kitchen. He’s sipping his coffee, reading the usual newspaper, already in his smart suit to go to the office. Normal life…

“Hi..” I mutter, take a seat besides Nathan who seems to have won the PSP, and pondering every inch of my body in this kitchen and inside this pajama.

“Pancake?” Mum asks, she’s also in her nice pink shirt and long pants.

“Absolutely. 3!” I say, “Why are you two in your office suit? Didn’t they give you any day-offs?” I ask, pouring coffee into the nearest cup.

“No, Hon. Office’s been busy these past weeks. People are getting out, searching for new sofas, bed, and storages. Especially after Oprah did a house make-over last week on her talk show, people are packed inside the stores.” Dad says without looking at me.

“Yes, people are more interested in wedding in holiday. And next week, I have to go to Hawaii to organize this wedding for these superrich couple.” Mum flips the pancake and put it on the plate, “Here.” She hands it to me.

“What?!” I almost drop the plate. “Hawaii?!” Nathan, too, stops the game and gawk at Mum.

There’s a complete silence. Then Nicho suddenly whisper in a scared-sounded voice, “Can I come with you?”

Then the ice has completely broken, me, Nathan, and Nicho beg in turn.

“Please Mum, I’ll bring your suitcases…”

“I’ll wash your clothes…”

“I’ll do my homework!” Nathan says. And we’re all stop dead, looking at him. “What?”

“No, sorry Dear. All of you. I can’t pay for your flights! Besides, you’ll wreck the wedding if you all come!” she says.

“What?! No! I’m old enough!” I say encouragingly. For god sake! Hawaii!

“But still, you have to make sure the house’s secure while Dad in his office and you have to prepare dinners and breakfasts for Daddy and the twin!” mum rubs her hand on the apron and take the twin’s plates and put them in the sink.

Suddenly, a ring tone echoes in the kitchen, the Step Up soundtrack blares in the room, then with a snap, I realize it’s my cell. I grab it and look at the name winking at me on the screen, it’s Vi.

“Good morning!” Vi’s cheerful voice greets.

“Yeah good morning. What do you want?” I ask, chewing the pancake.

“Hey, hey! You’re so tense!” she says, “listen, on the 1^st of August, my dad will launch his new perfume and it’ll be held in The Ritz Carlton! And we obviously need to go shopping!” she says excitedly.

“Vi, come on! We just arrived yesterday. I need a break!” I say, walking to the backyard to fins a more silent place.

“Oh. Ok. Actually, I…..” she stops, “…never mind.”

What? Vi never says ‘never mind’!

“What? What is it? Just tell me.” I say.

“Oh, okay….umm, I need to tell you something. Err, why don’t you come here?” she asks.

“No I can’t I have to go to the Sanctuary and get the penalties for what I and Ian had done. Ran away to Birmingham.” I say.

“Oh, ok. Anyway, it’s not really important. I’ll tell you next time.” she says. “actually, there’s a more important problem.”

“What?”

“I can’t talk on the phone!”

“Oh Vi! yes you can!” I insist.

“Alright..” she pauses. “Mum and Dad are getting really distant and they don’t talk to each other anymore. And last night..” she exhales sharply, “…I was going to fetch a glass of water when I saw Mum talks on the phone in a low voice..”

“And..?” I ask impatiently.

“I didn’t really hear what she said but I can catch the words that sound like ‘divorce letter’, ‘sign the statements’, and something like ‘grant you big rewards if you win this case’, that sort of things. I guess……I guess she’s talking to the lawyer.” She finishes and I can picture her in her room with Ruby and she’s now playing with the tip of her pillow nervously and she maybe also bites her nails or something like that.

And now, it’s my turn to talk. What can I say? I have to go to Vi’s house! As soon as possible!

“Ok, there are lots of possibilities that you’re sleepy and you didn’t catch the word correctly. But I’ll go there as soon as the Sanctuary problem finish.” I say.

“Ok. Thanks Sugar! You are the best!” she says. And the phone clicks off, leaving me looking at the backyard vacantly, wondering what if all the things she heard is true?

I mean, in this kind of situation, it’s really possible for Mrs. Freyson to hire a lawyer, and maybe both of Vi’s parents had decided to go other ways, in other word, separate. Maybe they already decided to get this case done on the court and they’re trying to win the child custody.

Ok, I have to get rid of that kind of thought, that’s terrible. I can’t imagine my mum and dad divorce and I’ll have to choose one of them or maybe the court have decided me to go with Dad, and I have to leave mum. And the twin will be with mum. That’s terrible! A family should be one! They’re not breaking or cracking or get separated!

“Dear, I’m going.” Dad says, his head appear from behind the door.

“Oh, ok.” I quickly get up to get my forehead kissed by dad, then he turns to leave the house. Mum also comes towards me, kisses my forehead and the twin and she also leave.

The Sanctuary is as calm as always with its candles and bamboos, and Diane, looking at me with a look that says ‘you left me behind! How dare you let me work alone!’. Ian seems to have arrived there before me because his bag is on the chair and Diane quickly looks down, avoiding my eyes.

“Diane, where’s Ian?” I ask.

“In the office.” She replies shortly, pointing at the office’s door.

Since I got on the bus, I got this tight knot inside my stomach. What punishment will I get? I mean, I’ll do anything to get Ian work in the shop again. Never mind with me because mum already got another job.

As I push the door opens, I can see Mrs. Manson sits behind the desk and Ian sits on the chair across her. “Hi. Good afternoon.” I greet awkwardly. “sorry, I’m late.” I add.

“Please take a seat and you’re not late. Ian came too early.” Mrs. Manson says coldly.

I pull the chair and sit beside Ian, whose face pale. Hell knows what Mrs. Manson has said earlier.

“So….you two went to Birmingham without informing me. And luckily, you bumped into my daughter and ask for her help. Is that so?” she asks frigidly.

I don’t like how she stresses on the words ‘luckily’ and ‘ask’. We’re not that terrible! We’re not even that lucky to meet Hayley. And she’s a kind girl and we’re friends. It’s not like we begged her or felt thankful for her.

“Yes. Quite like that.” Ian finally says.

“And you still want to work here?” Mrs. Manson raises her eyebrow.

“Yes, ma’am.” Ian replies.

“What about you, young lady?” she asks me.

“Yeah, I still want to work here, too.”

“Do you have any idea what consequences you two will get?” she asks, then she answers before I even open my mouth, “you two, who fortunately knows my daughter, will sure get a dispensation of the punishment.

“Actually, you two should work here 2 months without any earnings, but….” She looks at us intensely, “you will only get no earnings for a month.” She finishes unwillingly.

“Sure! Thanks a lot, Ma’am!” Ian face’s bright and he looks at her thankfully.

“yeah, thanks.” I say unenthusiastically. And it seems like she wants me to thank her the way Ian does, so she asks me again “you still want to work here right? I know punishment sounds bad, but that’s the consequence.” She says. “and I gave you a dispensation!”

“Yeah. I’m……grateful!” I say, beaming at her.

If she’s not Hayley’s mum, not the owner of this wonderful shop, and it’s not for Ian, maybe I’ll slap her ignorant face and say “Screw you!” and leave the store. Lucky for her, she happened to be Hayley’s mum.

We’re about to leave when Mrs. Manson says, “Oh, and don’t try to persuade my daughter to be your friend. She’s all different from you two. You know that, right?”

This time, rage is rising inside my body, I hit my step to her desk and say sharply, “Listen, ma’am. She’s the one who come to us and want to be friends with us! Besides, we never beg her and if you don’t want us to be friends with her, it’s perfectly ok with us!” I stop for breath, Mrs. Manson has gone pale, she’s paralyzed with a really ugly expression.

“And don’t step on people just because they’re less fortunate than you!.......screw you!” I yell with all my anger, then march my way to the door, open them and bang them. Diane’s there, staring at me in horror. She must have heard the yelling.

But I really don’t care! Who she think she is! Threat me, yell at me, and step on me! Lemme show you what dignity means…

I pound my feet in anger on the busy pavements with people walking pass me. And suddenly it’s like I’m plunged into a deep cold sea, my legs are shaky and my hands are sweaty. I turn to the nearest ice cream café and sit my self down.

“Anything you want to order, Miss?” A voice calls. I look up and there, is a guy with a blond hair and a series of white neat teeth, looking at me with a pair of bluest eyes. It’s almost like, Vi’s.

OMG! Vi! I have to go to Vi’s house!

“Umm, actually, I’m in a bit of hurry.” I say, pushing the chair back to get up.

“Are you sure?” the guy asks doubtfully.

“Well, yeah. Why?” I say, looking at him.

“Cos, you look so tense and pale.. why don’t you have a glass of ice cream first, then you can go?” he takes a really good look at me from top to bottom.

For real, I’m not tense and pale! It’s just every time I get up, my legs are shaky and wobbly. And ok, I have to admit this, I need a glass of ice cream.

“Ok, fine.” I say, sitting down again.

“Great.” He hands me the menu and I look at it for a while, “I suggest you New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream..” he says.

“Yeah, ok, whatever suits me.” I say, hand him the menu back.

“Ok. Is that all?” he says after note down my order.

“Yeah. That’s all.” I say.

“Ok, be back in a min.” then he strides inside the shop.

Where the hell am I, anyway? I look up to see a board with Ben and Jerry’s on it. Oh, right, I’m in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop, that’s ok.

Unless…. I have just shouted at my boss, ruin my boyfriend’s job, and if Hayley knows, she’ll get mad at me…

My whole body freezes as I remember what I have done. Dang! What was on my mind? Shout at her like that?

“Hey, here’s the ice cream.” The guy walks back again with a glass of yummy ice cream. Then he points to an empty set right in front of me with a questioning expression which means ‘is this seat empty?’ and I nod which means ‘yes it is. You can sit there’ and so he pulls the chair and sit.

I scoop the ice cream and put it inside my mouth. Ummmmm…..I forgot how yummy ice cream is. I practically close my eyes to feel every bit of it.

“Yummy, huh?” the guy asks. I open my eyes and nod, ”yes it is.”

“I’m Scott. Scott McKinsley.” He extends a hand and I shake it, “Sugar. Sugar Dale.”

“Nice name.” he says.

“I know, a bit weird, isn’t it?” I say, scooping another spoon of ice cream.

“No. it’s just. I don’t know. Weird?” he says. And we both laugh. “No, I’m just kidding” he says kindly, “When I heard it, the only sense that I can feel is: sweet! It’s like hearing the name Honey. It feels sweet.” He says.

“Yeah. Maybe I should change my name into, New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream..” I grin.

“No, no. it’s too….macho.” he says at last. And we giggle even more.

“Yeah, right.” I say in the middle of my laughter.

And after a min or so, we both silent and suddenly the atmosphere become more serious.

“Got problem, isn’t it?” Scott asks in an understanding voice.

“Yeah, quite like that.”

“What about it? Tell me in a sentence without details.” He says.

“Ok. Here it goes: I just yelled at my boss, putting my boyfriend’s job in a danger and it’s not all, the boss is my friend’s mum and my best friend’s parents are showing signs of divorce and now, I should have been at her house.” I say without breathing.

He looks at me unbelievingly, “Wow! That’s a lot!”

“Yes it is.” I exhale. “And when I saw your eyes and hair color, it reminds me that I should be at my best friend’s house. She got the same hair color and eyes as you.” I say.

“Really? What a coincidence.” He says unenthusiastically and suddenly, he looks around, avoiding my eyes. And I daren’t raise the topic.

“Right then.. I should be going.” I say, standing up.

Then he suddenly jumps to his feet, “oh yeah right…well..”

“Here.” I hand him the money.

“No. no. no! just take your money.” He refuses.

“What? No! it’s can’t be! I’m a customer.” I say, thrusting the money into his hand.

“No.” he put the money back to my hand, “Let’s just say, it’s a little yummy present to cool down your problem.” He says firmly.

I pause a bit, “Ok. I’ll just go then. Thanks a lot!” I say.

“You’re always welcome!” he let out a big grin. And with a much lighter steps, I take a bus to Vi’s house.

back in states

2008-04-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

We’re all silent for few minutes, trying to figure out what has happened. She never told me about that boy in the picture, even once! Or had she mention him by any chance and I wasn’t listening? No, no, that is not possible. And she seems to always be tough and brave and why did she cry? Or have we just crossed the limit? Is that her deepest secret ever?

Feeling responsible for her, I automatically climb down to chase her. “Wait Sugar!” Ian’s voice passes my ear as I run down the hall, back to the library. I come to a halt and the others have paced up with me. “Let’s search for her together.” Ian says.

“I’m the one who made her cry, I’ll search for her. You just stay here.” Hayley says.

“No. we search together. We go to separate ways, ok?” Jeremy says, followed by nods from me, Ian, and Hayley. “But we have to close the secret access first.” I say.

“I’ll do that. You all just separate.” Ian says, running back to the narrow aisle.

The rain doesn’t stop as we search for Vi and the thunder rumbles outside in the dark sky. I search in the bedroom, library, and every possible room on the 2^nd floor. Ian searches on the backyard, porch, and kitchen. Jeremy searches in the 3^rd floor and Hayley on the first floor.

It’s almost noon when we finally decided to gather in the living room for that our efforts are unrewarding. There’s no sign of Vi anywhere, but her coat, phone, and suitcases are still in the bedroom, neatly fold. She must not been there.

“Where is she?” I ask worriedly. My feeling says that she’s not far from the mansion. She’s sometimes nuts, but not that nuts to go out in the rain and run away. She’s not that type of girl. But then, where’s the possible place?

Horse stable?

Is it possible?

But it’s raining outside!

“Should we search in the horse stable?” I say, without much thinking. My feeling says so!

“What? That’s not possible! It’s raining!” Hayley cries.

“But she’s nowhere in the house! Where else could she possibly be?” I say, a bit stressed out.

“Sugar’s right. There are lots of possibilities.” Jeremy says. “Come on.”

We wear our coats and shoes then open the backyard door and run as quickly as possible, avoiding the rain and mud splash against my legs. The horse stable isn’t that far from the backyard but this time, it feels really far and the rain blurs our sight. When we finally reach the horse stable, there’s nobody there. All the horses are terrified by the rain but they’re safely covered.

“See, she’s not here!” Hayley says. And as we’re going to go back to the mansion, Ian shouts, “Is that her?”

“Where?”

“There!” he says again, tries to speak above the falling rain. His finger points at a small wooden building far between the wild grasses that grow on the right side of the horse stable.

“Come on!” Jeremy says.

Ian holds my hand as the 4 of us run towards the small wooden building.

The building seems like a comfortable place for us, even just to shelter ourselves from the fierce rain. As we come closer, I can see 2 figures sitting on the porch. “That’s her!” Jeremy cries. We run even faster to the wooden house with Vi and Mr. Badge sitting on the porch.

“What are you doing?” Vi stands up as she sees us, all wet and tired.

“Searching…..for…..you!” I say in a stutter, catching up with my breath.

The air is pretty cold and wet when we leave the mansion, dragging our suitcases and backpack unwillingly. The rain has turned into a breezy drizzle and all the maids and staffs are standing in a row, waving at us in the terrace. This is the end of a wonderful week at Birmingham which bring us more complicated problems as a part of our grown ups plan. This is too much to contain, I don’t want to leave Birmingham!

Vi hasn’t said anything since the lunch time. She was so shocked that we found her in Mr. Badge wooden house. She clearly was in the middle of a conversation cos Mr. Badge said that she can call him anytime she wanted to tell him more. What “more”? She surely was telling him something. And I don’t know it.

We ended up in Mr. Badge cozy living room with cakes and tea and Mr. Badge’s wife was also there, she was so happy to meet all of us and she talked a lot about when Vi was little. And we didn’t mention about the picture, not even once.

Mrs. Freyson came down when we had our lunch and she’s thick with make up to cover her sad face. And although her lips are bright red, but her eyes tell everything. She’s not in a good mood, pretty terrible actually.

“So, are you guys ready to go back to the States?” Mrs. Freyson asks as the Lexus purrs up to Birmingham’s wet street.

All the people on the street seem so peaceful, wearing colorful rain coats and umbrellas. I wish I can join them. Or that group of girls of my age, pounding their feet with ice creams on their hands and laughs in their face.

“Quite.” Vi mumbles.

“Yes! Totally!” Hayley says eagerly.

But they’re Birmingham girls, aren’t they? And they got British accent and they go to Birmingham school. How different my life is…

It’s summer holiday and people are coming to the States. New York will soon be full and we’ll soon be needing new places to hang out, avoiding the tourists.

“How bout you, Sugar?” Mrs. Freyson’s voice comes alive to my head.

“Oh…yeah…actually, I prefer staying here than in the States.” I say honestly.

“Really? Why?” she asks again.

“I don’t know. Here people seem to be happier.” I replies, looking outside the window, watching all passerby as the car comes to a halt due to the traffic.

“Not all.” Mrs. Freyson says in a sad face but then in a switch she covers it with a big grin, “well, we should go back to the States, whatever happen, right? And won’t you spend you holiday with your family somewhere?” she asks.

“I don’t know. Mom’s pretty tight with her wedding planner schedule and Dad’s busy too. You know, businesses are busier during holiday season.” I say.

Mrs. Freyson nods understandingly, “Yes, yes, that’s right.”

We’re silent as the car drive along the highway, drown in our own thoughts as the sun rays shines through the clouds, casting away the dark sky after the heavy rain.

“Have you informed you dad that we’re leaving now?” Mrs. Freyson asks.

“No. but he knows that I’ll leave today. Anyway, why don’t you tell him?” Vi asks. But Mrs. Freyson’s silent, pretend like she doesn’t hear the question at all.

We arrive at the airport, 30 minutes before the boarding and so we scurried to the check in gate, get our boarding pass and wait in the Executive Lounge. Lucky that we’re traveling with Mrs. Freyson, she got heaps of credit cards and just by showing them, we can easily get in the Executive Lounge to grab some late snacks before the flight.

“Hayley, we should get in touch when we’re in the States, ok?” Vi says when we’re getting inside the plane.

“Sure.” She says, smiling.

We arrived at about 8 at night with all sleepy and lazy feeling after taking a sleep. After taking our own baggage, we separate without much talk. Hayley has to go to her Mum’s house, Ian’s mum and dad have been waiting for him, and Jeremy’s been picked up by his own driver.

“Well the….it’s such a memorable week, isn’t it?” Ian says. We look at each other and can’t help let out a giggle and tears at the same time.

“I don’t want this to end!” Vi says abruptly.

“Me too!” I say. And we all hug each other, scared to be separated by the harsh American life.

Birmingham had been such a getaway for me and for all of us actually. But however, we have to get inside our own normal life. And so we lug our own belongings and go to different ways.

The familiar buzzes of American accents hits me as I drag my suitcases across the airport building, and as I turn my head around, wow! I’m in the States! Can’t quite believe it somehow.

All the black business suits, all the typical “busy women”, all the advertisement on the boards, all the yellow taxis line up in front of the airport building, all the Burger King and McD ads, all the black skin girls and guys, all the making-outs-in-public-places couples.

And above all heads, suddenly I spot 2 familiar heads.

“Sugar!!!” both of the heads calls me as they run towards me. I run towards them and hug them tight. How I miss my twin brother!

“Hi guys!” I say, hug them tight. Mum and dad have come towards us, dad in his yellow shirt that I told him not to wear and mum in her pink cardigan and jeans. We all come to a family hug. Dang, my family is the greatest thing on earth!

Vi's secret hiding place

2008-04-20T05:21:00.001-07:00

It’s not a very good day as the rain pours on the mansion’s roof. We’re all hiding inside, packing our suitcases for that the plane will leave at 2 p.m. and now, it’s still 8 p.m. we’re all early morning person kind of person actually.

I got up after Vi and we took a shower in turn. The hot shower seemed like a perfect opening for the day due to the laziness I suffer before getting up. I mean, look at that, it’s raining outside and it’s so comfortable inside the duvet. Can I please just snuggle under the duvet for the whole day? But Vi insisted that we shouldn’t waste any more time because this is our last day here and so, half-heartedly, I drag myself to the bathroom.

As I’m drying my hair, 2 maids come inside, bringing trays of breakfasts. “Here is your special breakfast for today!” one of the maid says, putting down the tray with sandwich, boiled egg, and toast on it.

“Wow! What a surprise! Thanks!” I say, get up, and come closer to see the whole package of special breakfast both of them bring today.

“Wow! Yea! Thanks” Vi takes the toast and bites it, “Yummy,”

“Do the others get this special breakfast too?” I ask.

“Yes, of course. You’ll not get enough nutrients with the airplane’s food, won’t you?” the older maid says, looking at us in a pity-ish looking. I and Vi simply laugh and they excuse themselves to go to the kitchen. A thought slips into my mind as they close the door behind them, do they know that they’ll soon be unemployed when this house is sold?

This is terrible, I keep thinking of this kind of thing. And after 10 minutes of indulging ourselves in this super breakfast, I encourage myself to ask Vi, “Vi, do the staffs here know….you know..” I shot her a look, hope she understands what I’m trying to say.

“What?” she says blankly, chewing her sandwich.

“Do they have any idea that they’ll lose their job as soon as this house is sold?” I ask.

“Oh, I don’t know. But they can always move to the state if they want to continue their job.” She shrugs.

“That’s not possible! You got your own maids and staffs there! Where will these people sleep if they join you in the state?” I bite my toast and there are some pauses in between before suddenly..

“Good morning guys!” the door bursts open and there stands Jeremy, Ian, and Hayley, holding their own tray of breakfast, all bright looking and smiling at us although the thunder roars outside.

“Wow! Hey!” Vi says, shocked.

“I think it’ll be fun if we all eat our breakfast in the same room, isn’t it?” Hayley beams.

“Oh right! Sure!” Vi says. We all make a circle on the floor and happily, eat our breakfast. Why don’t we do this everyday? This is much more fun than in the cold, elegant dining room!

“So, we are going to go to your secret hiding place, aren’t we, Princess?” Jeremy teases.

“I’m not a princess!” Vi says, “But I’d like to!” she adds.

“and where is this secret hiding place?” Ian asks, spreading the peanut butter on the bread.

“Oh it’s a secret! That’s why it’s called secret place!” Vi replies.

“Okay….” Ian replies.

After we finish our breakfast in our warm, cozy bedroom, we head downstairs, bringing all the trays and give it to one of the maid who scurried down the hall to help us with all the trays, despite her small body. People here are soo nice, especially the staffs here. They’re way nicer than those in the State.

“Good morning!” a businessy voice jump all of us and when we turn our head, it’s Mr. Freyson, walking down the stair, make his tie and he seems to get difficulties in it.

“Come here, let me help.” Vi says.

“Oh no dear. I can handle this myself.” He says, smiling. He twists the glossy black tie and folds it and slips it and folds it again and turns it back. He doesn’t look like someone who can “handle this myself” at all.

“Sure?” Vi says. Mr. Freyson looks up at us, all looking at him. A flush of pink spreads on his face. “Alright, alright.” He says, letting Vi does his tie.

“Where’s Mum, anyway? She always does your tie, isn’t she?” Vi asks casually although I can catch a slight quiver in her voice.

“She’s upstairs.” Mr. Freyson answers, try not to sound too gloomy.

“She has waked up, hasn’t she?” Vi asks, twisting the tie and make a final touch to the tie.

“I don’t know. You know what Honey, I’m actually a little late. See you later!” Mr Freyson kisses Vi’s forehead and as he does so, Vi replies, “There’s no “see you later”, Dad. I’m leaving this afternoon.” She says.

Mr. Freyson looks at her, amazed. “Really? Wow! Why you never told me?” he asks clumsily.

“Hello? You’re the one who booked the ticket for all of us!” Vi replies, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, yes, of course!” Mr. Freyson says, even clumsier. “Ok then. Have a nice flight, Dear.”

“Does your mum gonna come too?” he adds as he almost near to the entrance door.

“Yes, she is.” Vi answers.

“Ok, perfect!” Mr. Freyson raises a thumb and leaves.

We settle ourselves on the sofa, still too dumbstruck to talk about anything. Clearly, this must be a big cat fight that Mr and Mrs. Freyson even don’t talk at each other, or at least, Mrs. Freyson doesn’t do Mr. Freyson’s tie anymore. This is too much for Vi to contain. I mean, for you guide, here are some questions that crowd my mind:

How could Mrs. Freyson not do her husband’s tie?
Do they even sleep in the same room, anyway?
How can Mr. Freyson forgot that today, we’re leaving Birmingham?
Has he actually sold this house?
Why did he even say “perfect” after Vi told him that Mrs. Freyson are going with go with us back to the State?
Has he really forgotten about Vi? I mean, not at all, but as a good daddy kind of thing?
Has he really sold half of the company’s stock and make it a joint company?

Actually, it could be a really long list includes the question about Vi and the staffs and other things. But I decided to put it in only 7 numbers.

We’re silent in our own thoughts for some minutes and Vi looks more than sad. But then she gets up and says cheerfully, “come on!”

We strolled down the hall, the familiar ones where we usually pass when we go to the library, then we turn left, to a narrower aisle. I’ve never been here before and I thought it’s gonna ended up in kitchen or maid’s bedroom.

Which is not.

It leads us to small corridors with doors in both sides and then suddenly Vi stops walking. We’re standing in the middle of the corridor, where the hell is the secret part?

“Here we are!” she says excitedly.

“What?” Jeremy’s face blank, and the others are looking around, searching for the secret door with the same color as the wall or a small door on the floor or anything. But there’s nothing like that here.

Vi grins and she touch the ceiling, there, is a small square with a small handle. No one will notice it’s there! She pulls it down and a set of stair comes down, complete with its dust rains us and makes us cough.

“Wow!” I say, coughing even more and wave my hand on the air, getting rid of the dusts.

“Come on!” Vi climbs the stairs and we follow her. As we climb up, the room on the ceiling contains even more dusts. Vi switches a small bulb on, it shines the whole small room with its dim yellow light.

“oh my god! It’s the same exact position as when I left it here!” she touches the photo frames that stand on a small table, thick with dusts.

There’s a small flowery carpet in the middle of the not-so-big room. And there are some big pillows, and a rack of books. The left side is a small table with photo frames and a small window, also covered with dust.

The ceiling is high enough that the girls can stand, but the guys can’t quite stand up here. The height of the wall is the same height as mine. And so when I stand up, it touches my head.

But for a little girl 10 years ago, it’s spacious enough. I’m now picturing little Vi play with her dolls here, her hair in braids, wearing a cute flowery dress. And as I do so, my eyes spread across the whole room, I can see frames and frames of photos, nicely posed with little Vi smiling at the camera, sometimes not.

“When was the last time you here?” Ian asks, take a photo frame with little Vi and her parents in a place what looks like a party. The frame’s glass is stained but still, it doesn’t cover the pretty dress she was wearing in the picture.

“2 years ago.” She smiles at some of the photos as she has her flashback.

“Wow! Who is this guy?” Hayley suddenly asks, she’s holding a crumpled picture from the box in the corner. there, is a picture of a little boy, laughing at the camera with blond hair just like Vi's. and her teeth are so neat and white, he's standing somewhere with tall yellow grasses everywhere around him.

“Don’t you dare touch that!” Vi suddenly snaps. Her voice raises a note and her face is tenser.

“What?” Hayley asks indignantly, holding the picture of a little boy. Her face shot a “no one shout at me” kind of look.

“That’s private!” Vi snatches the picture away from Hayley’s long manicured-nail fingers.

“Oh, a little scandal for the princess?” Hayley teases.

Uh-oh. She has just said the wrong thing. All my senses tell me so.

“Don’t make me mad at you, ok?” Vi says in a warning voice, make us all plunge into silence.

“Wow, wow, wow, don’t take that seriously.” Jeremy says, touching Vi’s tense shoulder but she casts it away. “What’s with him?”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I think, I need some fresh air.” She climbs down and leaves, a single tear rolls down her cheek.

Thinktank

2008-04-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

After we finished our dinner, we take a relaxing walk around the backyard. It was a cool night, with a bright moon dangling in the sky and stars are hiding behind the clouds. The grasses are tall and wet, brushing against my leg. I wrapped myself in a pink cardigan and as we walk across the grasses, we can hear owl hoots from far away. This is more like film scene you usually see where the little adventurous girl is hiding from the bad guy.

“What’s our plan for tomorrow?” Hayley asks as we pass a big tree and the horse stable.

“According to our plan sheet, tomorrow’s a fun day. And last night, I saw a brochure of Cadbury World. What do you think, Birmingham Girl?” Jeremy asks, grinning at Vi.

“Oh shut! I’m not a Birmingham girl! This is just my family’s mansion!” she hits Jeremy, “well, Cadbury should be fun.” she says after some pauses

“What about cinema?” I say. i don’t actually think it’s the best idea, but it’s nice though. And when I get back to the states, I can casually say to the others, “Oh yes! I watched that one in Birmingham! I just remembered!”

“Good idea.” Jeremy says.

“What about a gallery?” Ian suddenly says.

“I hate galleries!” Hayley says, “They shows you things you don’t even know what it is and it has got really high price!”

“Okay, Okay…then, where will we go?” Jeremy asks.

There’s a silence between us. The only things heard are our feet stepping on the grass briskly and the owl hoots and the traffic from far away. Ten suddenly, Vi comes to a halt, “I know! I know! I know!” she screams.

“Ssssh! You’ll wake the neighbors up!” Jeremy says, putting his finger on his lips.

“I know! But this is the greatest idea so far!” she squeaks to lower her voice.

“Ok, what?” I say. We all have stopped walking, and turning to her, watching her face glows in the excitement of her idea. Hope this one will be good!

“Thinktank!” she says in a low, discreet voice. We stare at her blankly, what did she say?

“Oh my god! You don’t know Thinktank?!” she jumps impatiently and explores our dumb faces. “It’s a great place! They got a planetarium, cinemas, café, cool robots, inventions, and technologies! You name it!” she points her fingers as she says the things.

“Right….” I say, waiting for more information I can feel more familiar with.

“God!” Vi put her palm on her forehead, “Right then! You all should see it! We will go there tomorrow!” she says in a final tone.

“Right….” We all say.

We change our plan, from visiting a world of chocolate of Cadbury World in Bournville to Thinktank in Millenium Point. It was almost 1 p.m. when we arrived there. I wear my best “Cinema Night” outfit which is a grey long cardigan, black tights, and long checkered shawl cos Vi said there is an Imax and Planetarium inside. According to Vi, this place is “must-visit” and we can’t miss Thinktank in Birmingham.

We arrive there 10 minutes by car. Fortunately the traffic isn’t so busy and so we can get there easily. This has so far gone as what we have planned on the first day when we arrived in Birmingham.

It is such a shock as I enter the massive building with wall of glass. It is so crowded and kids are running everywhere, I suddenly feel too big and overdressed for this place. As far as my eyes could see, there are just parents, kids under 12, and even younger kids. This place is really really big and cool. Why should it be a Thinktank for young kids, not a nice club, shops, tattoo store, books store, and saloon for teenagers. That is so unfair! Even Air isn’t as big as this!

As we pound our feet, our eyes are moving from one corner to the other. This is amazing! We are now looking at what we can read form the board is “Thinkback”. The whole floor consists of some separated galleries. As we enter the Move It gallery, we are served old things in the past. There are the huge locomotive of the City of Birmingham, steam machines, and even a real tram! And the design, oh I love the design of this place. I mean, the whole thing and even the littlest thing in this building are nicely designed!

“See! Isn’t that this place is absolutely amazing?!” Vi turns to see us gawking at this place. “This is a gallery, a cinema, and a cool place, all at once!” she adds.

Wow. She is right! I mean this has so far been the second time when Vi got the right thing on the right point after the incident where she has to chose between a green skirt and a bright blue tube dress. And she chose the skirt which is the right choice and she often use it!

“So, where’s the planetarium?” Hayley asks as we move along the machines and touch it and read the informations provided. I still am gawking at the designs! Oh my! The designs are so….what do you say? High-tech! With lots of abstracts shaped things, metal tables with flat screen TV… and everything is so cool!

“It’s on the L1floor. It’s the last floor of this whole building. We’ll visit it later, ok? I still want to explore floor by floor and every inventions and cool things!” Vi says excitedly.

And so we start our exploration from the Thinkback, to the Thinkhere, which is not really interesting for me cos it only tells you about Birmingham but Vi is all excited t read through every but of information about the old coins and even the area of Birmingham back then.

“Pretty boring here, huh?” Ian suddenly asks when I’m looking at William Hutton's death mask. I turn my back, “Yeah, not as interesting as the Thinkback part.” I admit.

“How about if we go to the next floor? They’ll catch up with us.” Ian says.

“Errr…ok.” I take his arm blushingly and he gives a little jolt as I do so but then he sends me a warm smile and squeezes my hand even tighter.

Thinknow is much more interesting. It has got 5 galleries, telling us about the genius inventions of nowadays gadgets, medicines, forensic and even how to recycle our rubbishes everyday. I wish I were 6 again…..this place is a whole package of fun and education!

Then after 10 minutes or so, Vi and the others are catching up. We had so much fun around the galleries especially in The Street gallery where we can really work a hydraulic digger. And when we’re laughing, all the kids are staring at us, even some are crying! I don’t even remember, am I that scared of a 16-year-old gang when I was a little kid?

The next thing we know, we’re at the L1, where we’re lining up to get inside the well-known planetarium. They say that the Planetarium has got a 360 degree dome ceiling where the breathtaking images are shown! That would be real great then!

After we pay the entrance fee, we get inside and suddenly, TARAAA! We’re in the middle of a full dome ceiling where gigantic images are playing! All the people here are looking upwards and around to see the images better. This is sooooooo great!

The show last for about 40 minutes and what we’re looking at is the west midlands sky and we’re spotting the objects that we can’t see from down here! I don’t know a sky is that beautiful, with lots of emerging colors, blending and spreads all over the place. The rock-shaped objects are scattered across the sky and it’s just so beautiful!

“Oh my gosh!” I say, looking around the ceiling.

“It’s very pretty, huh?” Ian says, holding my hand and we’re both looking up at the ceiling and it makes my whole body tingles. Never once in my life, looking at a ceiling this long, and this interested.

After spending lots of money, buying souvenirs for Nathan, Nicho, Mum, Dad, and myself, then we’re sitting at the café, having a nice cup of chocolate. I got a really hard time, choosing which figures I want to give Nathan, because clearly, he likes dinosaurs, but he also likes robots. And they got the Build-a-Hovercraft kit, dinosaur models, and even talking clocks! And so I buy all of them and ended p with 3 shopping bags just for the souvenirs.

“Cool down, Sugar! You’re getting all greedy about it!” Hayley chuckles and sips her chocolate.

“No, I’m not!” I say, avoiding the fact, “I just think all the souvenirs are cute and I’ll find it useful someday! Besides, I got loads of little cousins!” I say triumphantly. Which is a lie..

“Alright..” Hayley rolls her eyes.

She, Jeremy and Ian also bought lots of souvenirs and when we’re out of the building, it’s almost 5 p.m. Jake takes us all back to the mansion and we’re talking all the way back to the mansion.

“Tomorrow’s our last day…” Jeremy says, opening the conversation and it turns to a busy talk.

“Dang, yes it is..” I say, hit by the realization. How fast a week could be?! And I these past week’s memories are playing in my mind like a video cassettes. There, we are, riding horses, then party, Vi’s parents arguing, went to the Air, playing hide and seek, experiencing royal breakfast everyday, the job…..oh my god! I haven’t told Hayley about the job!

“So, where will we go tomorrow?” Ian asks, opening his wrapped burger and bites it.

“hmmmm……Airport?” Vi says plainly.

“Other than that?” Ian says, raising his eyebrow.

“How about a nice dinner in a posh restaurant?” Hayley suggests.

“I don’t know, a theme park?” I say.

“Theme park is nice, but we’ll be all too tired. And dinner isn’t possible. Our plane takes off at about 2 p.m.” Vi says.

There’s a slight pause before Vi says, “How about a nice walk to my hidden place?”

“You got a hidden place? Wow! Cool!” Hayley says.

“I know..” Vi says triumphantly, flicking her short hair backwards.

“Alright….” Jeremy says.

After we’re all bathed and gathered in the dining room, the tension between Vi’s parents has grown stronger and it impacts my feeling even if I don’t know what had happened recently. But I can tell something happened. It’s so obvious, like printed on Mrs. Freyson weary eyes and Mr. Freyson’s angry bark when he calls the chef and give the chef a hard time by saying the ribs isn’t cooked although it’s perfectly cooked.

“So…how’s your day?” Mrs. Freyson asks in a trembling voice.

“Nice! We had a great fun in Thinktank!” Vi says, chewing her macaroni and cheese.

“Really? What did you all do there? Isn’t that it’s the place for kids?” Mrs. Freyson looks up and meeting my eyes since we’re sitting across each other.

“Yes, but it actually got heaps of fun things there! Why don’t they built it when I was little?” Vi protests.

“They haven’t got the technology, Dear” Mr. and Mrs. Freyson suddenly say in unison. Of course, unintentionally. And they go blushing and pretend to get busy with their ribs awkwardly. This is the first time I see Mr. Freyson actually blushing!

I almost burst into laughter as I see these two adults playing like kids when they don’t get what they want. But I clamp my lips together and try to hide my silent laughter, but then as I look around the table, Ian, Jeremy, and Hayley are also doing the same thing!

Then we abruptly continue to focus on our food before we can’t contain the laughter and explode it.

The whole night is beautiful. We lay side by side on the rooftop after we finished our dinner and we’re looking at the sky, busy with our own thoughts. I think this is the best time to tell Hayley about the work at Sanctuary part and so I spill it all out.

“Hayley, ummm, actually, I have something to tell you.” I say, swallowing.

“Oh, really? What?” she turn on her right side and put her hand to support her head. Her eyes are glittery and she looks so pretty. I feel small all of a sudden. Will she grants us another chance?

“Um……It’s about the shop-keeper of your mum’s store.” I gulp, trying to continue to the end. Ian, realized what I’m talking about quickly straightened his back and take the turn to talk.

“Yeah, what is it?” Hayley asks, looking confused.

“It’s us.” Ian says without any “good and complicated” talk like what I have in mind. Hayley now really looks blank and suddenly Vi also joins the talk, “Please don’t fire them! I was the one who said to Sugar that it’ll be alright!” she says.

“Uh, what are you guys talking about, huh?” She says dubiously.

“It’s us!” Ian echoes.

“The shop-keepers!” I add.

She looks at us perplexed, from my face, to Ian’s, to Vi’s, and finally to Jeremy, “Do you have any idea about this, too?”

“Nop. Not at all.” Jeremy shakes his head.

“Ok, good. Cos this is quite…..shocking!” she says eventually.

“Will you tell your mum about this so that we probably….” I say, “…can still have chance to work there?”

Hayley still hasn’t moved from her shock then gradually, she opens her mouth, but then closes it again. She gulps and finally says, “Let’s see what I can do about this.” She reaches for her phone and climbs down to call her mum.

After some 10 minutes of waiting, she’s back and sits in the middle of me and Vi. “How’s she?” Ian asks.

“Has she replaced us?” I ask.

Hayley inhales and says, “she has hired another girl. But she still wants a confirmation from you two. She seemed shocked to hear that her two shop-keepers are in Birmingham with her daughter. But she’ll be waiting for you.” She says.

I release my breath in relief and hold her hand, “Thanks a lot!” I say. and she just smiles.

glares

2008-04-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

As we step inside the house, Mrs. Freyson and Mr. Freyson are glaring at each other fiercely in the living room. They both are in their office suit and from their eyes, I can say that it’s safe to just go to the backyard instead of the living room.

“Oh is that what you think?” Mrs. Freyson snaps.

“Look, I’m just trying to make things better, ok? We’re in enough difficulties, and you’re not helping!” Mr. Freyson shouts back.

“Don’t even say word “help”! You even don’t know what help means! I lent you over $500,000 and you still able to state that I’m not helping?! Watch your mouth!” Mrs. Freyson retorts. “Oh…I understand…” she walks a circle, “…you use me up, right?”

“What?” Mr. Freyson seems totally angry and Mrs. Freyson is out of control. Mr. Freyson holds his head with two palms. “What the hell was that?! You think I’m that kind of person, aren’t you?!” he retorts.

The 5 of us stand in front of the door dubiously. And Vi is near to tears, seeing her parents shouting at each other. “I think we should just go to the backyard.” I whisper and everybody slowly walk to the backyard, ladled with shopping bags. But Vi stands still in the guest room and she slowly walks to her parents. At that time, I, Ian, Jeremy, and Hayley are turning to the backyard door, avoiding the uncomfortable family situation happening.

We sit ourselves down and stare into nothing. We know we all still try to eavesdrop some words from the living room. And from where I sit, I can see Vi is shouting to her parents from the small gap between the turning wall and the living room. Then she runs and goes out of sight. It’s such a small gap where I peep so I can’t see further.

I’m now staring at blank space where a small part of sofa can be seen. “Guess it’s time for me to chase her.” I say. The others are silent, then Jeremy says, “you go and do that. But don’t push her too hard.” And afterwards, I go back to the living room and sneaks behind the sofa where Mr. Freyson sits alone and Mrs. Freyson’s no where in the room. She must has already left.

Vi is in her room, burning her head in the pillow and says nothing as I come closer to the bed. I take a seat beside her but she doesn’t even look up to me. “Vi… are you ok?” I ask slowly, afraid she might bursts into hysterical cry.

“I’m ok.” She says in a low voice.

Oh, right…it’s not a hysterical burst.

“Sure?” I ask again in a concern tone.

“Sugar! What should I do?!” She suddenly looks up and without any warnings she hugs me tight. “I know this will happen. I had a dream a week ago that my parents divorce!” she cries.

“My goodness! Don’t you believe your dream then. It’s not always right!” I say encouragingly.

“But what if it is?” she release the hug and look at me in the eye. Her face is pink.

“No way! I mean, they’re perfectly fine! It’s just a small bump in every marriage!” I try to sound confident.

“No it’s not! They’re arguing about the company, Sugar! Dad’s sold half of the Freyson Perfumery and made it a joint company with some unknown woman! This is crazy! Situation might get worse! And mum knew nothing when Dad made the decision!” Vi sounds really frustrated.

“What? Unknown woman? What you mean?”

“I don’t know! Dad doesn’t talk business with me and he has been very discreet!” Vi says in a high pitch.

Alright… so Vi’s dad has made his company a joint company without discussing this to his wife or daughter. This is insane!

A silence plunk in the middle of the room and I can virtually see our brains revolves in our own thoughts. This isn’t good, I mean, Vi’s dad, and her mum, and….omg, I haven’t told Hayley bout the shop keeper! Ok, ok think fast, in like 2 days I will be back in the state and I have to tell Hayley before we all get back there.

And about Vi’s parents, I have no idea how to cheer Vi up! What if I say they won’t break up and actually they will? I mean, the situation is really fragile and their divorce can be announced at anytime!

“Could you please leave me alone, Sugar?” Vi suddenly asks.

“Oh, okay. Everything will be fine, I’m sure it is.” I say as I head to the door.

When I enter the backyard, Jeremy, Ian, and Hayley are still there, sitting with a plate of cakes and cups of coffee. “How is she?” Jeremy stands up as he sees me.

“Not better. She really is sad! And her dad’s been discreet about everything while the company situation is on danger.” I say, taking a seat and reach for the cake.

“And?” Ian asks.

“That’s all. She wants me to leave her alone. And I was stuck with no encouraging words. To be honest, I don’t really think everything will be just fine. I mean, it’s not safe enough to say that her parents won’t get divorce or…”

“Divorce?” Jeremy puts in, “what are you talking about? Are they going to get divorce?”

“I don’t know! That’s just possible. And Vi got this dream about her parents got divorce! And could you please lower your voice?” I hiss.

As I say that, I can hear a footsteps coming and as the backyard porch door opened, there stand Mrs. Freyson. Her face is pale and tense with a black shadow under her eyes. Her cheek is tear-stained and as she catches a sight of us sitting there, she stammers, “Oh… I thought this place is….. vacant. Well then..” she gulps.

“Oh no, Mrs. Freyson. We’re just going to go upstairs!” I say cheerfully, afraid she might hear our conversation before. Then, we all get up and head to the living room awkwardly, she passes us a weak smile as she closes the door and let herself in a more peaceful place.

“Do you think she heard us?” Ian asks in a low voice as we have all sat down on the couch.

“She might…” Jeremy answers.

It’s the most uncomfortable dinner we had today. Mrs. Freyson doesn’t want to go downstairs and have dinner and so it’s just the 5 of us and Mr. Freyson. Since the last 20 minutes, the only sound heard are just clanks of spoons and forks and some low voices asking for salts or pepper or if the food is too far, someone would say “Could you spoon that for me please?” in a low voice too.

Suddenly, Hayley’s phone rings and it makes us all jump in horror. And she takes the phone abruptly and she leaves in a low voice. Gosh! Can someone please talk? Anything? In a normal voice?

“So…what did you do today?” Mr. Freyson’s voice also makes us all jump although somehow, it can melt the ice in the room.

“Just go shopping.” Vi answers shortly.

“and what did you buy?” Mr. Freyson asks again, chewing his salads.

“Some clothes.” Vi retorts.

“And what about you, Sugar?” Mr. Freyson turns to me.

“Err…just some tops and dresses.” I almost add “sir”. This is more like an interview with a general!

“What about the others?” Mr. Freyson addresses Ian and Jeremy.

“Just coats and shirts.” Jeremy answers, smiling. Thanks God! Someone can actually smile!

“Shirt and shoes.” Ian answers lightly. As he says that, Hayley’s walking back to the dining table, she clutched her phone, her face is bright.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“My sister will take me out to Barbados for holiday!!” she squeaks in delight.

“Wow!” I say, aghast.

“I know!” she squeaks back. “It’s for the celebration of her new joint company!”

“Wow! Lucky you!” Jeremy says.

“You all can come too if you want!” she says.

“Oh no…that would be…” I say

“yeah…inappropriate…it’s your sister’s and….” Vi says.

“…we don’t know your sister…” Ian ends. We all give reasons in turn.

“Oh…” Hayley seems a bit disappointed. “That’s ok. But I really-really am hoping you all will come to the launching..” she says.

“Oh yes, sure we will. In America? Or England?” Jeremy asks.

“In America. 1^st of August!” she says.

In a swift, Mr. Freyson rises from his seat and says, “Well….errr…I should go back to work..” he says.

“But you haven’t finished your dinner!” Vi says.

“Yea, I’m full already.” Then Mr Freyson comes to kiss Vi’s forehead and he leaves for the working room.

TGIOS: thanks God, it's on sale!

2008-04-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

“Yeah?”

“Should I get you a glass of water? cos you look really high?”

“Noo…” I reply. My head’s dizzy and all things around me start to go blurry.

“Are you sure?” the voice asks me again. Whose voice is it anyway?

“Yes. Pretty sure. What time is it?” I ask vaguely. All I can see around me are just darkness and colorful lights and loud music blaring from far. Silhouettes of people dancing seem too many that I can practically see them as piles and piles of people on top of each other, moving and trying to get some air.

“Around 3 in the morning.”

“Where’s Vi?” I ask again.

“She’s resting on that sofa. Would you like me to get you there too?” the husky voice asks.

“urrmmm…” I can’t quite form the words on my mouth. “Yes…….. Please. And who are you anyway?”

“Ian” He replies.

Oh.

“Oh. It’s you.” Then I let out a laugh. I don’t even know why am I laughing? And from the side of my eyes I can see a topless guy and a topless girl dancing on the podium without a bit of care. They both look heavily drunk but if we look around, everybody does look drunk.

“I’ve been looking for you for hours!” he shouts above the noises.

I can feel his arm supporting my body as it drags me long the space possible to a dark corner where Vi’s sitting on a plushy sofa and her head is tilted upwards, looking at the ceiling unconsciously..

“Vi..” I call in a very sleepy voice. I can feel my whole body ache after the dance. I can now remember the very details of what happened after the dance.

We all enter Air and we have to wait in a long queue. As soon as we get there, the party has started and we just dance. We dance the whole night long and get few drinks and dance again and when I suddenly realized, Vi, Ian, Jeremy, and Hayley are nowhere to be found. We got separated in this superclub that can contain 2000 people!

And after having 1 or 2 glasses I was quite drunk and here I am now. I think I need a painkiller coz now I just want to shut my eyes and forget about everything. “Vi..” I call her again. Her eyes dabs for few times then it completely open, “Hi..” she replies weakly then straightened her head. “Got good time, huh?” she asks.

“Yeah. And now I really tired.” I reply. She grins feebly, then drops her head backwards again.

“Where’s Jeremy?” I ask.

Suddenly a girl comes to us, she is really sweaty and drunk, “Hi! Why are you guys here?” she asks. As I try to get up, I see the girl is Hayley, her face is all red and sweaty but it looks excited.

“By the way, I meet this guy. He’s the son of the owner of Frizzy Hair products!” she lowers her voice, “and it turns out that he also work together with my sister as the supplier of beauty products for the models!” she exclaims. Really, my head’s spinning and her face is blurry.

“Another good news is….” She pauses for attention, “my sister called me and she said she has signed a contract to a joint company with a perfumery! And she sounds happy. The company’s name will be Hey Son!”

“And what are you two doing here? Aren’t we suppose to have fun?” she flicks her hair then a silhouette of a man hugs her from behind and she giggles. One thing for sure, he’s not Jeremy. Maybe it’s the hair product’s son.

Then she leaves with the guy and a glass on her right hand.

And next thing I know, I’m on the sofa in a dark moving room. And when I realize it’s Vi’s Lexus, I quickly fall asleep again.

I’m surprised that it’s hard for me to lift my eyelid and when it does open, all I can see is just blurry visions, is this Vi’s bedroom? I can smell myself like vodka and gin and when I try to move my body, I realize I still am wearing last night’s shirt.

I try to lift my head but it all goes around, dizzy and uncontrollable. So I push my head back to the pillow and when I look to my left side, there’s Vi, sleeping soundly, still complete with her blue eye shadows and her last night’s dress. However, someone has taken her hair clips cos her hair falls naturally on her shoulders.

I don’t want to get up, but I know I have to. And with my head spinning, I slowly straightened my back and it aches. I put my feet on the ground and wear my bed slippers then walk to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.

“OH MY GOD!” I shout as I see my own reflection in the mirror. My goodness! For real, I can actually scream louder than that for what my reflection looks like. All black eyes, smeared eye shadows and blush on, bad smelling, and to complete the mess, my hair is sticking out of its place! I practically look like a monster!

Then I notice, my hair pins are gone too! Somebody must have removed all the hairpins and get us to bed. But who on earth is that kind too took us, two heavy girls, upstairs?

I quickly remove all the make ups and wash my face as clean as possible, then brush my teeth and comb my hair. I feel much better, though. Then I quickly get a glass of water and drain 3 glasses. Then as I reach the door handle to go downstairs, Vi wakes up. She moves and stretches, “Good morning.” She says. “my goodness! My voice’s gone!” she says then coughs few times before straightened her back.

“Yeah. I got that too.” I grin.

She walks to the water jug and drain the whole jug fiercely. “Phew! Better!” she says.

“Ok then. I’ll go and check the other. You better remove all the make-ups and brush your teeth.” I say, turning the handle, “Oh yea, don’t scream when you see your reflection.”I grin and close the door.

The whole house seems very quiet, no one’s in the dining table and as I make my way to the living room, there sits Hayley with her leg crossed on each other and reading newspaper. She sips her coffee and as she sees me, she puts the cup down, “Hi Sugar!” she greets, smiling. She really doesn’t look like someone who has just came home from clubbing last night. She looks soo alright.

“Hi.” I say, taking a seat and reaching for the nearest magazine just so that I look like doing something. Suddenly her phone rings, she picks it up and flips it open, “Hi!” then she gets up and walk away so that I don’t hear her.

Mary walks towards me and asks what I’d like to have. “Coffee.” I say.

“Ok.” Then she walks away.

“Oh! Mary!” a thought suddenly snaps, Mary stops and turns to me, “Who brought me and Vi to the bed last night?” she looks at me puzzled.

“I have no idea, miss.” She answers blankly.

“I did.” A voice interrupts, Ian and Jeremy are walking down the stairs and they both grin. “Me too.” Jeremy adds

“You?!” I stare in disbelief at Ian. He nods, “yu uh. Sorry that I didn’t change your clothes.”

“But we would absolutely done that if you gave us permission.” Jeremy says, grinning.

“Perv!” I retort and then we laugh.

Hayley’s back with her lightened face, “Hi!” she greets the boys and then she take her seat and says, “My sister has just calling..”

“She said the new company is doing well! Their first product will be launched on the 1^st of August!” she exclaims.

“Wow! That’s fast!” I say.

“Sorry? What company?” Jeremy asks.

“Oh yea! Of course you don’t know.” Hayley laughs proudly, “My sister’s having a joint company with a perfumery. And they named it Hey Son! It will be huge!” she says excitedly.

“Wow! Congrats for your sister, then.” Ian says. Mary arrives with my coffee and announces us that the breakfast is ready. And so we all head to the dining room where the complete English breakfast is served.

Vi has already sit on one of the chairs and she smiles at us all. “How’s yesterday?” she asks, flip her plate and take a toast and a pack of butter.

“That was really great!” I say.

“We should do that again!” Jeremy says.

“But in other club.” Hayley adds.

“Why?” Ian asks.

“I don’t know. Last night wasn’t that my best night ever, my sister told me there’s this cool place called Chi in Birmingham. Maybe we should go there!” She says, spooning herself sausages and omelet.

“Alright….” Vi says after some pauses. Never in her life does Vi got such insult. Actually, not an insult, but she always tend to keep her guests satisfied, especially these days when we stay in her house. And Hayley seemed has just ruin her pride of her services.

“Hey! Maybe we can go on another horse ride!” I suggest.

“NO!” Ian, Jeremy, and Vi snap.

“Alright..” I reply.

And so today we all go to the famous shopping places that served us from the cheapest store to the posh ones and we all are superready for this!

The trip starts as we all finish our breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, and of course, take the money and count them. Then Jake, as usual, drives us along the way to the shops and he waits patiently in front of every shop. I just can’t imagine if he lose his job just because Freyson’s family got their house sold. Gosh, and someone in fact has bought the house!

“Sugar!” Vi’s voice come alive. “What’s wrong? We’re there!” she says, pointing at the busy pavement outside the car. There, right on our left is a tall building with scarily crowded people outside a shop with red papers covers the glass windows written SALE 50-70% OFF! 6-21 July!

As my eyes moves to the board above the door, my heart skips a beat, oh my gosh! It’s TOPSHOP!! I can feel my whole body tingles as my eyes see the famous name that has been everywhere on American magazine spreads. My goodness! This more like a miracle to be able to stand here, outside this huge shop with cool clothes and everything! I just have to buy one or two or 5 things from this shop!

No wonder people are fanatic about it.

After opening the car door and try to get into the crowd, we can see a real mess inside the shop. Jeremy and Ian have chosen to go to other shops due to the crowds and fierce moms. All the clothes are thrown everywhere, the clothes on the hangers and shelves are jumbled everywhere. I even can see a girl with slender, delicate legs pushes an old grandma and greedily reach for a cool green top on the shelf with board written 60% off!

“Come on! Before the good ones are taken!” Vi then runs to the nearest hanger where 7 or 8 girls are standing around it. As my customary instinct switched on, I also reach for the flowery dress on my right side. Hayley has gone to other side of the shop and the three of us are insanely crazy over Topshop today!

It is proven at the end when we are queuing to pay for the clothes. I have chosen a cool formal dress (I think I can use it anytime, it’ll be really useful, plus, it’s on sale which makes the price down to around $35!), a shorts, a clutch, and a pair of green patent shoe and they’re all on sale!

Vi buy 3 tops and a cardigan, Hayley’s the one with the most clothes, she buy 2 tops, 1 tube top, 1 dress, 1 cardigan, and a bangle. To be honest, I’m quite worried when I was going to queue, I thought my money won’t cover these all, but then, it turns out to be enough. Thanks to SALE!

After pounding our feet to 4 more shops (Emporio Armani, where I didn’t buy anything, Thomas Pink, Macy’s, where I got a nice cheap dress, and Cult) my feet start to wobble, I am tired, choosing and walking again and choosing and walking and get in the car and get out and spend more and more money.

After splurging so much money, who won’t feel weak?

And so we continue the trip to my favorite coffee shop, Starbucks!

“So, what did you buy?” I ask when we’re in the car.

“A shirt and shoes.” Ian answers.

“Um… two shoes, 3 cute tops, cardigan, cheap flip flop and an ice cream.” Vi says, grinning.

“Wow! I just bought 2 long pants and a cool coat that I once saw on internet.” Jeremy says.

“I bought, umm, let’s see…” Hayley roots inside her 4 shopping bags. “Few tops, shoes, bangle, you know accessories are vital things so I bought more necklaces and belts.” She shyly says. I’m like 100% sure when she said “few tops” means more than 5 and that’s not few!

We all gap at her silently, “Whoa! You’re a shopper!” Vi comments.

Hayley giggles and says modestly, “Noo. I’m not. You know, just buy myself something nice.” She grins.

“Unfortunately, I’ve made a promise to not spend more than $120 today and so far, I’ve only spent $98!” Vi beams proudly.

“Wow! Are you? I thought you bought that $40 shoes?” Hayley asks, puzzled

“Oh. I didn’t!” Vi says, her hand slip a shopping bag behind her back.

“Really? What is that then?” I ask, pointing at a peeking blue plastic from her back.

“Oh, fine! I bought that one! Which makes it $138!” she admits and we all tease her non-stop all the way to Starbucks.

“$120, huh?”

“Maybe you bought those shoes mistakenly!”

Vi rolls her eyes and says, “OH SNAP!”

the trouble-maker

2008-04-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

It was around 2 in the morning when all the family members finally get to bed. The gathering was ended by a slow dance and some people are clinging on their couple to keep them standing due to the drunken condition they had. I, of course, danced with Ian. He was all sweet and kind and he smiled a lot. He was the first one to ask me to dance and as he offered his arm, I can feel my heart skips in excitement.

Jeremy and Hayley also had their moments and they look happy together. I wonder why they broke up over the distance? They look like the most perfect one on the dance floor. And at that time, Vi was no where to be seen, she has asleep when I sneaked inside the bedroom. Ehm, about Ian and me….he asked me to accompany him take a glass of champagne and then we off to the kitchen. But then the light was dim and we were too drunk and “high” and he suddenly…..oh you don’t need to know. But he was really…and I was like….oh, can I just keep this one to myself?

And finally, the night and the gathering have ended beautifully. The guests have to leave tomorrow so some of them packed their bags that night. But mostly, they enjoy the party till the end. And the last time I saw Lulu, she has changed her dress into the more sparkly one for the night and she was dancing with a cute guy.

So..

This morning as I wake up, Vi has waken up earlier than I am and I suppose she’s downstairs or somewhere in this huge house. After I take a hot bath, I go downstairs and find some of the families are still downstairs, enjoying their royal breakfast. There are about 50 people cos the rest have gone home on the first flight.

I was going to go upstairs again when an angelic voice calls me, “Good morning Sugar.” And as I turn to see the owner of the voice, I see Hayley standing behind me on the stair, wearing a shorts and a tank top. She looks fine with her hair up on a tie and her skin looks glowing.

“Oh yea, Hi!” I reply. “umm, have you seen Vi?” I ask

“No. I haven’t met her since I came. Where’s she?” she asks, coming down to my side.

“Oh, I don’t know. I will just, look for her then..” I sat then I walk off. I felt small and little compare to Hayley. She’s indirectly is my boss and she always looks radiant and glowing and I feel pale and ugly in comparison.

As I make my way to the backyard, I can see someone’s sitting on the garden bench, holding Ruby and pat her head. She’s wearing a blue night gown with her hair messy and curls up everywhere. My goodness! It’s Vi!

“Vi! what are you doing? You haven’t taken a bath!” I say, approaching her.

But she completely ignores me! She’s like some kind of autism girl that doesn’t hear anyone talks to her. This is insane! I sit beside her and inhale deeply, this is going to be a long time..

“Vi… I know you’re under some pressure and you think you will be poor and everything, but the truth is, you won’t! your dad and mom are such hard workers, they can easily built up another business empire and it’ll just be alright.” I say quietly. “and moreover, will always be here, you can always count on me.” I add.

“No Sugar. You don’t know what it feels like. You don’t know how bad the condition is. Even now Mom and Dad aren’t talking to each other because of this problem.” She says slowly without looking at me.

“What? Why?” I know I asked the wrong question, but I have already said it so I can’t take it back. It’s probably impolite and you know, not the question Vi’s looking for.

“Oh I don’t know. Mom thinks that Dad always make a decision without asking her and Dad thinks that he has done the right thing by selling this house and his stock. They just don’t talk to each other.” Vi hugs Ruby tightly as if Ruby will be sold too.

I am speechless now. If I were Vi, I would probably do the same things as she does now. Got many thoughts inside her head, not feel like talking to any body and everything suddenly turns into mess. She has always live in a luxurious condition, this princess won’t be able to adapt with a life like mine!

She keeps playing with Ruby and she ignores her surroundings. She doesn’t even reply a girl who said good bye to her. She’s her relative! And she’s too cute to ignore and she maybe came all the way from Hawaii or Brazil but Vi ignores her completely and it makes the girl sad.

“Vi! what happened to you!? The condition won’t get any better even though you do this! You know that, right? Don’t be scared of being poor, it’s not as terrible as what you think, ok?” I say.

“No, Sugar. You don’t understand. I’ll…I’ll just take a shower then..” she gets up and walk to the house.

In the afternoon, we’re all supposed to be around Birmingham’s best places to have some fun. But due to Vi’s mood, we all cancelled the plan. Actually she wants us to keep going there without her but what kind of friends we are if we go without her.

At around 12, all the guests have all come home to their own house and leave the 5 of us remaining in this huge house. Hayley has decided to stay with us all the week and actually she’s nice to be with.

“Really, you can just go and have some fun there. My head’s no right and I think I should take a lot of nap. Just…go!” Vi insists. We all sit around the semi-circle white couch for relaxing time.

“No. if you’re not going then I am too.” I say, pulling the nearest pillow and put it on my lap.

“Well, obviously we can’t leave you behind!” Jeremy says.

“We can always play card or twister here!” Hayley puts in.

“No, really guys. I am not in the mood but you go have fun. You’re all in Birmingham and you’re supposed to have fun!” Vi says.

“No fun until all can join.” Ian says. And we all agree.

And so we stayed in the house and try to cheer ourselves with horses and playing Hide and Seek. And actually it’s more fun then just go and spend some money on things and foods in the town.

We all really have some fun, especially in the hide and seek game that we have modified. So the game will start as usual, one seeker and 4 hiders. But the things is, there’s this place we call as “headquarter” and we all have to get there before the seeker does. And the “headquarter” is where the seeker counts to 20. So it’s pretty hard for us to get there if the seeker keep waiting in the “headquarter” instead of go somewhere to search for us.

This time, it’s Hayley who is the seeker and as she counts to 20 we all run to hide. I run to the backyard and find out that Ian, Jeremy, and Vi are also running to the backyard and we ended up got found by Hayley as we all laugh and running all places to hide and when she finished counting, we haven’t hide properly. And instead of hiding, we just laughing!

This is more fun than I thought it would be. The last time I played Hide and Seek must be years ago! And finally we’re all sitting on the backyard porch, laying our heads in tired. We all get sweaty and just can’t stop smiling.

Vi’s maid has brought us a bottle of orange juice and some cakes. As we all eat and drink, we share other idea of games. And we ended up suggesting ideas about old games we played as kids. Like jumping rope, tag, and other crazy games we can figure out.

Suddenly, a ring tone make us all hush, it’s Hayley’s phone ringing. She quickly takes it from her pocket and look to the screen. “It’s my Mom. Be right back.” She then off to the living room to take the call. I secretly exchanges look with Ian. It’s our boss calling Hayley!

After some minutes, Hayley’s back with us and she stuffed her phone into her pocket. “It’s my Mom, she said my flight has been changed to the 12^th of July!!” she screams happily. Her flight is on the 12^th means it’s the same date as all of us!

“And she also said few things about her office in the US. She said two employees are running away and it makes the whole store running out of places as the customers are mounding in the summer holiday. What a trouble-maker!” She says vaguely. “Right! Now…what we will play?”

I squeeze Ian’s fingers and he squeezes back. Omg omg omg omg. It’s us! The two employees! The trouble makers! I should have told Mrs. Manson!!!

“Ehm, Ian, could you please come with me upstairs to take the card?” I say slowly.

“Are we going to play cards?” Hayley asks.

“Maybe, just in case if we need it. Come on!” I stand up.

“Ok.” Ian stands up and joins me upstairs. Jeremy and Hayley are looking at us doubtfully but Vi’s biting her lips, knowing that it’s all because of her that I didn’t tell Mrs. Manson about the trip.

We both walking silently upstairs and when we finally got upstairs, he grabs my shoulder,

“I thought you have asked for the permission!!!” he whispers angrily.

“Yes, yes I know! I’m sorry. Look, Vi said to me that a week without two employees is nothing, the boss won’t even realize!” I hiss back.

“But she realized! What are we going to do? She probably have dismissed us from the job and replace us by other employees!” his eyes widen and we both silent as we come to this part.

“We can always ask for Hayley’s help..” I squeak.

“Are you crazy? She will consider us as the trouble makers! This isn’t good!”

“And what plan do you have, then? It’s the only way!” I whisper.

He thinks for a while and we both feel into silence once again. This isn’t good at all! If he gets dismissed, it’s all my fault! And about me, it’s nothing! Cos Mom has already got a new job as a wedding organizer which left me no pressure to work.

Finally, we come to my idea, to tell Hayley the truth and gamble the possibility she will help us. When we get down with a deck of cards, they’re still there talking and laughing. I and Ian have decided to tell her if the time is right, that means, no now.

As the afternoon turns to evening, Vi feels much much better and decided to join us all to a pub called Air. Vi said it’s a nice place and so we all get ready for the night. I slip on my glittery golden top with bow and a black legging to match. I don’t want to be too dressed up, it’s summer, right? I mean, we all should have some relax atmosphere.

Vi wears a nice red pinky mid-length dress with black bow circling her waist and a gold necklace. Hayley wears only a very short glossy black pants and a tank top topped with a white jacket. And the boys are wearin cool long pants and t-shirt and belt.

And so we all get inside Vi’s Lexus with Jake driving us to Heath Mill.

the lightning struck

2008-04-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

At 1 a.m. sharp, Jeremy has gone with Jake to the airport to pick up his ex-gf, Hayley. I’m wondering, is it okay for exes to meet in such way? I thought it would be completely inappropriate, you know, meeting exes, picking her up at the airport, go to a party together. I mean, she must has another life after Jeremy, right? It is impossible that she kept clinging to him and wishing they will be together again…..hey! why not? They’re both as cute and as rich and they look perfect together.

“Hey! My cousin has just shown up, come on! I want you to meet her!” Vi says, pulling my hand and drag me all the way to the backyard garden. There, a girl holding the latest Chanel bag and a cute green dress is playing with Billy and Ruby.

“Hey Lulu! This is Sugar, my friend from America that I have talked a lot about.” Vi says.

Lulu turns to see me and examines me for a while from top to toe, “Oh! Right! Hi, I’m Lulu, Vi’ best cousin!” She says with a perfect british accent.

“Nice to meet you.” I shake her hand with a smile. Her eyes are deep blue and her skin is pale white, the usual glamour Caucasian, only with slightly more pointed nose.

“Vi! I have something to tell you actually,” she says, looking at me. I know, that means I have to go away cos she doesn’t like me and she just wants to talk to Vi. ok fine…

“Really? What?” Vi asks, biting her chocolate chip cake.

“It’s about Aunt Harvey…” she says more obviously, talking about family which has nothing to do with me.

“I’m sure you want to talk about this without me, I will just…” I say

“Oh ok. And by the way Sugar, where is Ian? I haven’t see him since Jeremy’s off to the airport.” Vi says.

“I don’t know. I’ll just search him then.” I say, leaving those two girls alone.

This gathering is more than just normal gatherings. All Vi’s relatives from south to north, from rich to poor, old to young, all are in here, no one’s left behind! And the whole house is full with people, the last time I went to the toilet, there are a girl who is making out seriously with a boy. Aren’t they relatives? This is insane!

And even a middle-aged woman is now crowded by people, wanted to get their predictions for future or something. She can do palm-reading and everybody is making a queue, some even ask their kids to do the queue while they’re taking foods but of course they run away and play with other kids.

It’s not that I really believe in horoscope and future-prediction kind of thing, it’s just that fun to read the prediction and even though usually they just tell us common thing like “start saving your money!” and “take an exercise everyday” but they’re fun to know. And this one particular moment, I am one of the people queuing down the porch.

“Sugar!” a voice suddenly calls me and when I turn round, there is Ian, holding two glasses of red wine and he hands me one. “What are you doing?” he asks, sipping his wine.

“Oh, you know, just queuing to get your future prediction.” I say nonchalantly.

“What?”

“That woman is good at palm-reading and everybody’s queue up to get a sneak peek of their future.” I say.

“What a waste of time! You’ll know it later! It’s the essence of life, isn’t it? To get a surprise in every turn you go..” he says.

“Well, uhm…”

“Come on! Let’s take a walk.” He says. Ok, a “walk” sounds better than queuing to get a life-prediction.

“I met this guy, he said he is from Vi’s father side and his name is Peter. He is nice, though. How bout you? Have you met someone?” he asks as we walk past an old woman sitting with another old woman and they’re talking seriously.

“Yeah. I met Vi’s cousin named Lulu.” I say.

“And where is she? And where is Vi, anyway?” he asks.

I sip the wine and pondering its taste on my tongue as the warmth comforts me. “They both wanted to talk about something related to their family so I left them alone.”

“Oh, okay.” He replies.

For some minutes, neither of us talk but suddenly Mrs. Freyson’s voice come alive to my ear, “What?! This is terrible, Jeff! If you want to do this, at least you could tell me first!!” she sounds angry and as I look to my left, there she is, standing face to face with her husband.

“But what’s with it? It’s just a small thing, you don’t need to know!” he replies as mad as his wife.

“You always do that Jeff!” She shouts back, unaware of her surroundings where people are staring at them now. This is the first time I consider Mrs. Freyson’s face as scary instead of kind. Cos she always looks kind and care and nice and patient, but now both of them have this angry face. I just can’t believe it! They’re the perfect couple! I look up on them and almost make them my muse when I have got a husband someday later. But now, they’re both look terrible.

“Fine! I’m wrong and you’re tight. I’m sorry okay?!” Mr. Freyson says

“It’s not about the apologizing words you speak! You always do that and you said you won’t do it again! That is such an important decision to make! and what am I? I am your wife, Jeff!” she screams uncontrollably.

Suddenly a limo purrs on the carport and it makes all of us stares at the limo. It’s so distinct among all of these people. Then Jake comes out, OMG! It’s Hayley and Jeremy. They’ve come! I wonder what Hayley looks like! And even I got this little nervous heart pounding thing.

Jake opens the limo car door and from the inside, Jeremy comes out, followed by a girl from the picture I saw in US. she even looks better than in the picture! She has this white lively skin with brunette curly hair and pink cheeks. Her lips are red and her body is slim even though she’s not tall. And she just look perfect as Jeremy offers an arm for her.

It’s like a lightning struck in the middle of the party when they both come. Everybody is staring at them, they look like a prince and a princess! No wonder they both got all the attention.

Hayley Manson is the name. She’s almost too good to be true and now she’s been friends with almost everybody in the party. Some of them even give her their business cards in case she wants to become a model and they’re the modeling agency people.

This is overwhelming! And where’s Vi, anyway? I’ve tried to call her to inform that Hayley’s here but she’s not answering my calls. And now, as I flashback of how people in Jeremy’s birthday party commented about her, it’s absolutely wrong! She’s pretty with great sense of style! They’re just jealous of her. And how on earth could she get Jeremy? That must be a good question and I’d like to know that in….

“Hey Sugar!” Jeremy calls. As I look to him, he’s walking towards me with Hayley by his side. “I’d like to present you, Hayley! And Hayley, this is Sugar. My friend in America.” He says, introducing me and Hayley.

“Hi Sugar!” she says, showing rows of white teeth and well-shaped lips.

“Hi!” I reply, shaking her hand.

“So, you’re at the same school as Jeremy, right? He told me about that school you all in.” she says warmly. No wonder she has got loads of friends even though she’s been here not more than 30 minutes.

“Yes, yes I am, In Bardwood High!”

“Oh, great! He says it’s such a great school with nice friends.” She says.

“Oh yes they are!” I reply. And I swear to myself that that would be my one and only time to say Bardwood High in a proud tone.

“Hey! You two, hold on!” Jeremy says. “You still should meet this guy, Ian Somer!” he now introduces Ian.

“Oh yea Hi! Nice to meet you!” she says, smiling and they’re shaking hand.

“Where is Vi?” Jeremy asks, turn his head around.

“I don’t know, I’ve called her several times but still, she doesn’t answer me.” I say.

“Ok. Well then, come on.” Jeremy intimately rounds his arms on Hayley’s waist and they’re walking together while smiling and laughing. They just look perfect!

After 30 minutes or so, Vi finally shows up, her hair is messy and she looks unconscious. “My goodness! Where’ve you been?” I ask, running towards her.

“Just doing several fun things.” She says randomly. She really is terribly unconscious and her breath smells wine. She’s drunk!

“Vi! where’ve you been?” I ask again.

“She seems not right. Let’s get her inside.” Ian says, helping me bringing Vi inside and sit her on the couch.

“Vi! you’re drunk!” I say.

“Yes, yes I am. Where is everybody? Where’s Jeremy?” she asks.

“He’s outside with Hayley.”

“Hayley? Is she here already? I haven’t seen her! Come on! I have to see her!” she tries to get up.

“No! You stay here! You can go after you are sane enough.” I say, pushing her so that she stays on the couch.

“Could you please fetch her a glass of water?” I ask Ian.

“Oh, sure!” he says then he goes outside.

“Ok, now tell me, what have you done?” I ask.

“Just drinking some wine and champagne with Lulu.”

“No way! you must have done something or do something or anything, I don’t know. Tell me the truth, what have you done?” I shake her body, make sure she understands me.

“Okay, okay. She told me something….about my parents….” She says slowly then she lays her head on the pillow. “My Dad is run out of money. He has sold half of his investment and we’re going to be poor.” She says.

“No, you’re not!” I say, although I’m a bit shock to hear it. I thought their money is unlimited! They have got this huge mansion and another huge house in US. Her dad got the Freyson Perfumery Company and they have done well!

“Yes we are going to be poor, eventually….” She says, looking me in the eye, “he’s sold this house, too, Sugar.”

“What?” and now, it’s more than just ordinary “what?” cos the problem her father’s facing right now must be pretty terrible that it takes the whole mansion to take the money from it.

“But, what about the horses? And Mr. Badge? And Mary? And other servants? And…” I falter as I say their names, they’re great person and I even can’t come to the word ‘Jake’ and it turns out to be a small whisper.

A footstep tells me Ian’s back with the water and he hands it to Vi. Vi quickly drains it like it’s nothing and then she pushes her head back to the pillow, trying to cast away all her problems.

“But…” I swallow hard, trying to figure out a simple question that represents all the confusions on my head. “But….is it that terrible? The problem your dad’s dealing with?”

“Yes, yes it is. Sugar, could you please leave me for a moment?” and with that she’s off to her bedroom.

Birmingham day 2

2008-04-01T04:35:00.001-07:00

“Miss Vivienne! Miss Sugar!” a voice from far away calls. “Mr. Ian! Mr. Jeremy!” the sound echoes again, louder in my ear. Is that real?

“Do you hear what I hear?” I ask alertly.

“What do you hear?” Vi asks.

“Ssssh!” Ian says, holding his finger on his lips. “I heard a voice.”

“Really?!” Vi says in disbelief and forget to turn the volume down.

“SSSH!” we says in unison.

“Oops. Sorry.” Vi whispers, clasping her hand on her mouth.

“Miss Vivienne!”

“There! The voice!” I whisper.

“Yes! I heard that!” Jeremy replies in whisper. “HEEY WE ARE HERE!” he shouts in his biggest volume.

Silence….

We’re moving uncomfortably to hear the voice better. The horses are tapping their feet on the ground briskly. “Miss Vivienne!” the voice says again.

“WE ARE HERE!” I scream as loudly as possible. But the ‘Miss Vivienne’ voice has gone fainter and fainter. “Come on!” I say, pulling Vi’s hand. “We have to get nearer to the voice!”

We quickly get to our feet and hop to the horse as fast as possible, then yank the reign and we’re moving out of the forest, to the wild plants and grasses. “Hey! We are here!” I scream again. But now, the voice has completely gone.

“Oh my god! We have to do something!” Vi says. And suddenly, without warning, Vi let out a high-pitched scream and it makes us all jump, even the horses are going to run away!

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” she screams eagerly for like long 10 seconds then she stops. Leaving the atmosphere calm and silent. “What the hell are you doing?!” I ask. She must be out of her mind to let out that spooky scream! It’s like those screams you hear in horror movies!

“I’m trying to get us a help!” she retorts.

“SSSH!” Jeremy says, “I heard a sound!” and we all quickly get our ears ready for even the tinniest sound, except that the horses are moving and tapping their feet and it makes me have to grab Ian’s shirt so I don’t fall down.

“Sorry.” I whisper in Ian’s ear. And he was going to reply when Jeremy let out another shout, “Hey! We are here! Vivienne here!”

After few seconds or so, we can hear the sound of vehicle machine get nearer and nearer. The woman’s voice is also got nearer, calling our names. And we’re screaming in unison to tell them where we are.

Suddenly, a huge black jeep roaring from far, smashing the grasses and tall trees and it tumbles all the way to our direction. They see us! we’re safe!

“Miss Vivienne!” a worried voice of a woman is heard above the noises of the jeep.

“Mary! Omg! Omg! Mary! Thank God!” Vi has got down from her horse and the jeep has completely stops in front of us. From inside, a woman in her 40s coming out and hugs Vi eagerly. “Are you alright?” she asks faintly.

“Yes I am.” Vi replies.

“Come on! We should go back. The guests have come and your parents are in the house already!” She says, then she gets inside the jeep again then we all being led by the jeep all the way to the mansion’s paddock.

It’s such a shame for all of us when we almost too weak to walk back to house with all the guests enjoying their meals in their nice dresses and shirts. Most of them whisper to each other as they see us, all dirty with soils and grasses and our hair is a total mess.

“My goodness! What happen to you?!” Vi’s mum quickly get down from porch and walk quickly towards us, leaving the guests. We stop dead there, got stared by all the guests and those who are Vi’s relatives are coming closer to us and asking what happened to Vi and us.

“Come on! You all should take a warm bath and wear your nice clothes!” Vi’s mum says, ushering us inside where more people are gawking at us.

And so we walk, almost run, upstairs and get ourselves a nice warm bath before joining the guests downstairs. All the food and drinks and desserts, even the decorations are perfect. I mean, when you got this pretty mansion that always looks good anytime and a whole bunch of maids to take care of your house, there’s nothing to worry about. Even if it’s not decorated, it’ll still look nice.

There are standing flowers added to the sides of the tables and as I head to the long table, where the foods are, I can see that the chefs have done perfectly! All the foods are hotel-like menus and the desserts are so yummy, even just looking at it.

I realize that some of Vi’s relatives are also looking around the house and shaking their heads unbelievingly. This house is incredible! Especially, right now, when all the windows and doors are wide open, revealing every inch of its beauty and exotism. They even have their own room to put all the awards, photos, and memories they ever got. Most of them are trophies, won by Vi’s dad and Vi when she was in primary school or kindergarten.

All the walls are covered by pictures of their journeys around the world and Vi’s mum even can mention where every single thing in her house came from. She talks non-stop about the wooden coffee table at the back porch that she bought that in Srilanka and she had to bargain to get good prices there.

“They are freakin rich, aren’t they?” a woman in her 20 suddenly speaks to me.

I nod, “yes they are.” Actually, I was thinking of adding, Vivienne’s my friend, but I cancel it. It’ll be too “showy” if I said that. I mean, Vi doesn’t even know half of the guests here! But her mother does, and she tells us one by one who is who and what’s the connection.

I just can’t believe a woman named Maida Ling that came all the way from Hongkong. And she’s the granddaughter of Vi’s grandfather’s oldest brother. Can you imagine that. You can picture the whole family tree here. They are all here! And they are all going to sleep under one roof! Whoa!

“From what side do you come from?” the woman asks again. “I’m from Mr. Freyson’s. I’m Vi’s oldest cousin.” She holds a hand and I shake it.

“Actually I’m Vi’s bestfriend from America. And I came here with the other two.” I say.

“Oh, I notice your accent! What’s your name? Mine’s Georgina.” She says, smiling.

“Sugar, Sugar Dale.” I say, smiling too.

“Hey! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! We’re going to play Twister upstairs! Come on!” Vi suddenly shows up, grabbing my hand and pulling me upstairs.

The rest of the night is amazing. I really got connected to Vi’s relatives and some of them are our age so we really got a good talk. We played Twister and Hide and Seek! I have never played hide and seek in such a big area which is a crazy but exciting idea. But we have to go to bed at midnight cos tomorrow is the real party and we just can’t wait!

The next day, I wake up in a dizzy head. As I try to move my body, I realize I still wear last night’s dress. I try to remember what happened last night and finally realizing I was too tired to change after playing cards and hide and seek. Then I just jumped to the bed and sleep.

I rub my eyes and get to my feet, yawning few times without intended to and seeing Vi still sleeping soundly. I can hear the activities going on from far down there, they’re all getting ready for the infamous Freyson’s Family Gathering. They even got loads of balloons and they tied them 5 at once to decorate the whole mansion.

This sounds even greater as I push the bathroom door open, letting the steam to come out. I still am wrapped in my towel and as I blow dry my hair, Vi wakes up. “Hi!” she says in a husky voice then she yawns and stretches her body.

“Morning.” I reply, combing down my hair.

“What time is it?” She asks again.

“11 a.m. I guess.”

She pushed herself back comfortably to the bed and pulls the duvet closer to her.

“They’re getting ready downstairs.” I say, taking my best simple black dress from the wardrobe and pull the hanger out.

“Should I wake up now?” She asks lazily from under the duvet. I give her a look and she finally says, “Ok, Ok. I’m the host, I know!” she gets out of the bed and walking uncertainly to the bathroom.

All the settings are ready when we come downstairs, some of the guests are already playing happily around the mansion and Ruby has also took a bath and dressed in a pretty pink tutu skirt.

Suddenly, Ian and Jeremy also come downstairs, dressed in their formal suits and tie. “Hey!” Ian greets, smiling.

“Hey!” I reply.

“You look nice.” We both say at the same time. then there’s a pause before we break into laughter.

“So…are you going to pick Hayley up?” Vi asks Jeremy.

“Yeah, I guess. She’s coming all the way from London and her plane will land at about 1 p.m.” Jeremy says.

There’s a pause between us four as we watch the chaos and so many people wandering around the house. The maids suddenly come out, bringing plates and plates of food, then followed by bowls of cocktails and trays of orange juices.

“Let’s get those foods inside!!!” Jeremy suddenly shouts greedily as the maids put some of the foods on the long table outdoor and indoor. And with that, the party has officially started, at least for us.

Get Lost

2008-03-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

The next day, I wake up later than usual. This room is so comfy that I don’t want to get out of the bed. As I look around, trying to focus my sight and realizing slowly that I’m in Birmingham, I can see Vi has got out of the bed. She dressed in a nice flattering purple dress and she has blow dried her hair put a pin on one side.

“Hi. Good morning!” she greets as I straightened my back and yawn.

“Hi. Wow! Where are you going? You look nice!” I say.

“My relatives will be coming in no time. You should take a shower and get dressed too! We will have a breakfast downstairs. I’ve called the boys and they also have just wake up.” She says, opening the drapes and the sunshine gets inside, shining on the side of the bed.

I do a few more yawns and head to the wardrobe to choose what outfit should I wear today. As I take a good sight of Vi, I think I should wear something nice and semi-formal too for the day so my option fall on an white simple dressed with ruffles and bow.

After taking a real nice hot shower I join Vi and the boys downstairs. The breakfast is held at the dining room with 12 chairs and cool chandeliers. Vi parents is nowhere to be found and as I look around, I can’t help feeling a flicker as I see Ian, dressed in jeans and loose white shirt. He looks cool with his hair messy. Still can’t believe it somehow, we are living under one roof! This is insane! I mean, I usually see him with a working uniform or a jeans and t-shirt but Birmingham has brought us all to another level.

“Hi! Good morning!” Ian says, meeting my eyes.

“Oh, ya, good morning!” I reply as my heart gives a little jump.

“Come sit and have these nice breakfasts.” Jeremy says, spooning me a slice of buttered waffle.

“Thanks.” I say, pulling a chair beside Vi.

I take a gulp of a warm coffee that has been served for me. Several maids are standing around the room, ready to be called if in case we need something. “So, where are your parents?” I ask, taking a spoonful of waffle.

“Oh, they have gone to the branch.”

“This early? Wow! What a hard-workers!” Jeremy says.

“Yea. But they will be back in an hour cos my relatives will be all coming today and the gathering is tomorrow.” She said.

“What? Tomorrow? But I will meet Hayley tomorrow!” Jeremy says.

“Well then, too bad you can’t join us. But it’ll be nice if she come here instead of you coming there. Well, for a simple reason, she understands England better than you. And another one is that the main reason you’re here is to attend this gathering, right?” Vi says coolly, chewing her toast.

“well…” Jeremy seems speechless for some moments. “That is…reasonable.” He swallows.

“You can call her now before too late. The earlier she is here the better, right?” I say.

“Ok. Sure.” Jeremy takes out his cell phone and dials Hayley’s number.

“Hayley. Yeah, this is Jeremy……was just wondering…..yes……could you come here? I have to attend my friend’s family gathering and that’s why I’m here…..yeah…..really…..” then he shuts the phone.

“Well, what did she say?” Ian asks.

“She’ll contact me later. There’s a possibility she can come here. But I have to pick her up at the airport.” Jeremy says, cutting his waffle and put it inside his mouth.

“Okay. You can use Jake.” Vi says.

“Ok. Thanks.”

After finishing our breakfasts, we take a little walk to the horse stable. There are like 4 horses and 1 cute white pony that I like, named Vienna. Too bad she isn’t my horse, so when she born, Vi named her Vienna cos it’s close to her name Vivienne.

“Well, choose your horse and we can take a little walk with them.” Vi says. She has chosen a black big horse with really well-built body. Then I choose the brown one, Ian the white one, and Jeremy the darker brown. Each of them has name, mine is Kirby, Ian’s is Ped, Vi’s is Larry, and Jeremy’s is Bella. Some are named by Vi, some are from the horse care taker.

“Good morning!” a man’s voice suddenly makes us all jump.

“Mr. Badge! How nice to meet you again!” Vi has thrown a hug to the man, standing behind her. His hair is grey and he has wrinkles, I suppose he’s about 65 years old or older. He wears a nice long brown pants and a grey sweater.

“Guys, this is Mr. Badge, he is the horse care-taker. Mr. Badge, these are my friends from America. This is Sugar.” I wave and smile. “This is Ian, and this is Jeremy.” Vi says. They both smile to Mr. Badge.

“Very well then. They have been missing you so much, I think. Go on, ride him!” Mr. Badge says, patting Larry and he makes a horsy sound. “Thanks so much for taking care of the horses. Seem like they love you more.” Vi says. And Mr. Badge let out a laugh. I just realized he has rows of white tooth and when he laughs, his whole face lightens up. This is the kind of guy you would want to meet and tell your problems to.

And so we start to ride our chosen horses. It’s kind of awkward firstly coz it’s been a very long time since I sit on a horse back. But then, Ian and Jeremy probably got the same problem cos they can’t even balance their body on the horse! And we should take a hats-off for Vi for that she has smoothly get her horse to walk. I try to move the reign but Kirby hasn’t move an inch! I start to go panic as the others have almost gone out of sight, turning at the paddock.

“My goodness Kirby! Come on! Move your butt! Or feet or whatever!” I say in panic.

“Need help?” Ian suddenly comes with his horse, standing perfectly quiet beside Kirby.

“Well, I don’t know why but this horse won’t move!” I say, trying to do something with the reign by pulling and dragging.

“Hey! What’s wrong?!” Jeremy shouts, pulling his horse’s reign so that it stops moving.

“This horse doesn’t want to move!” I shout back.

“What?” Jeremy shouts again. “Come on! Vi will lead us to a place!” then with a simple yank, Jeremy and his horse are nowhere to be seen.

“Come on!” Ian suddenly says, extending an arm to me. What does he mean? Does he mean we will…? Omg.

“What?” I flushed.

“Come on! Your horse won’t move in a bloody million years, just hop here and we can pace up with them!” Ian says, still offering his arm so that I can hop to his back and we can ride Ped together.

“Alright.” I swallow, looking at his arm doubtfully. I grab his hand and carefully try to stand and move my left leg to the other side. But Kirby moves briskly, then he lowered his head and eat the grasses underneath happily.

As I try to get my right leg on the other side of Ped, I can feel Ped also moves and tap his legs on the ground, knowing that he will get heavier weight. I’m sorry, Ped. And awkwardly, I try to take off my left leg from the pedal but then I feel a swift on my waist and voila! Magically I am sitting on Ped!

No, it’s not magically! It’s Ian who held my waist and simply grabs it and places it on his back. Now, I can’t help feeling giddy and light. Now that he has pulled the reign and with a little jolt, Ped starts walking and walking, leaving Kirby munching his food behind.

I am paralyzed for some minutes and awkwardly, trying to balance myself without holding on Ian’s waist. I mean, it’ll be embarrassing if I round my arms on his waist, isn’t it? And anyway, this saddle is too small for two persons which makes my legs swinging unbalance and sometimes, kicking the horse’s body.

We have paced up with Jeremy and Vi (whose eyes widen as she caught a sight of me, riding a horse together with Ian) and we have rode these horses for around 20 minutes or so. But suddenly, Vi turns her horse out of the gate, “Vi! Where are we goin? Isn’t that your guests will be coming soon?” I ask.

“Don’t worry. It won’t be long. Just a little stride from here.” She grins and confidently, heads to the open wide grassland, farther from her house.

Now, I think it’s not a really good idea to follow Vi after all. She sometimes can’t find the ladies bathroom on the third floor at school! And now, we’re riding these horses, following Vi, passing grassland with wild plants for about half an hour. The scenery are breath taking cos we can see a series of mountain from here! There are so much to see. I mean, when was the last time I inhale proper oxygen on a beautiful hill, facing the mountains and is that a river?

but the longer we go, the more boring the sceneries are. ok, let's be true...for the last 20 minutes all I can see are just boring plants with buzzing insects and all I can see are just plants! and it's wild! and tall and I can see trees growing up in some random places.

I think we might be lost but when Ian asked her 10 minutes ago, she said she knows the way. so then we leave it up to her.

And to my surprise, she turns to the left which only consists of clusters of trees. This isn’t like how I expected it to be! It’s ok to wander around the grassland, but not the woods!

“Vi! are you sure this is the right way? we might get lost in there!” I say in panic.

“Trust me! I know the way! I’ve been here like so many times. Ok?” she says without turning to face me.

“Sugar’s right, Vi. You should stop. When was the last time you been here? It must be years ago! No one can guarantee our safety in there!” Jeremy adds.

Now, Vi pulls Larry’s reign and with a smooth movement, it comes to a halt. Vi pushes her hair aside and turn her head to face us, “We’ve been lost since the last 20 minutes.”

What?!

We’re all too gobsmacked to talk any word. Thoughts are crowding our head and we’re trying to figure out something to our tongue.

“What you mean?” Ian slowly asks.

“Please say you’re joking….” I say in a pleading voice.

But Vi’s face doesn’t change at all. She’s sweaty and her face is tense. No way! we’re lost somewhere in Birmingham! And as I turn my head involuntarily, all I can see are just grasses and trees.

“Vi!” Jeremy says in a shaky voice. “we should come back! And what are you doing? Keep walking while we’re lost?”

“No. no. no. I’m sure I heard the sound of water from inside there. There must be a river! And if there’s a river, then my house is just a step away!” she insists.

“I…I don’t think it’s a good idea. Could you please call someone in your house to find us? like..now?!” I ask in a strangled voice. This is a real forest! With tall huge trees and mosses everywhere. There isn’t any path showing that a vehicle has been here before!

Vi has taken out her cell phone and dial a number, “Mary! Thanks God! We’re lost in some area near my house. It’s about 30 minutes away from the gate of the paddock. Yeah…could you please fetch someone to find us?” Vi says. “Yeah…but then….hello? hello?.....hello? Mary?” Vi shuts the phone and look at us all in a tense glare.

“The connection’s lost. There’s no freakin signal down here!” She freaks out.

There’s a silent pause between all of us. No one dare to talk something. And at last, Ian breaks, “I think we should get down from the horse and wait here.”

“What if we got chased by a tiger or a bear? We won’t have enough time to run away!” I say.

“There’s no tiger here! And no bear! We can’t possibly sit on the horse, waiting for the help to come!” Ian retorts. Everyone seems scared and lost. We are all panic with our own wild thoughts, imagining the worst that could just happen. And so we get down from the horse and tied them to trees while we’re sitting on the ground and rock. “The guests must have come by now.” Vi mumbles. “And my parents will arrive at any time soon.”

“Don’t think about that now. We should hope for the best.” Jeremy says, taking out his cell phone to checks the signal and everyone does the same. But it’s such a fruitless effort, we all know there’s no bloody signal here.

I silently let out a little prayer over and over and over: God, please help us! please help us! I don’t want to die, got eaten by a bear or a tiger or even a…..”SNAKE!!!!!” I jump in fright as my eyes caught a sight of a yellow snake, curling on the tree and its head moves slightly beside me!

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” I scream, I can feel my feet have gone numb as I can’t run or even move!

“SSSH! Don’t-you-move-your-head..” Jeremy whispers as he takes a stick of wood and he tiptoes quietly to my side. With a fast, strong move, he hits the snake right on its head and it hisses angrily back.

A strong hand grabs my arm in a sudden movement and pulls me to the front, away from the snake and as I notice the hand, it’s Ian who pulled me. Vi’s face has gone pale and she’s trying to stand by the tree. Her left hand grasping her chest and her right hand holding the tree trunk to keep her body from falling down.

And with another swing, Jeremy hit the snake again..and again…and again…then a silence breaks down. Followed by a sound of falling down, Vi has sat on her foot helplessly. Her whole face has gone white.

“It’s okay..” Jeremy says, round his arm on Vi. “It’s dead already…”

“How long should we wait? One of us could be killed in here!” Vi says in not more than a whisper. I quickly release myself from Ian’s arm that I just realized was holding my shoulders to give a hug to Vi.

“We can try to move further inside and find more comfortable place if you want to..” I say.

“No! We shouldn’t! The possibility of getting chased by more terrible animals is way bigger than in here.” Ian puts in.

After waiting for 20 minutes or so, we start to move around, looking at each other and do something pointless like draw something on the soil and on the tree trunk. This is insane! What if no one find us? We should just go back!

“Guys, don’t you think we should just go back to the way where we first came?” I ask.

“No. someone will try to find us here! If we try to get back to the way where we first came, there’s even a greater possibility we could get lost farther with nothing to eat and nothing to show us a way.” Jeremy says insisting. I mean, the possibilities here are many. We could just go and walk and get lost deeper inside, or we can go without knowing the way and luckily we find the house. But there are like hundreds of ways and the trees look all the same! How could we know which way we passed firstly?

Birmingham day 1

2008-03-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

The sky is bright orange when we all have gathered at the airport. The smooth breeze touches my hair as we drag our suitcases along to the check-in gate. The last time I’ve been here was like 3 or 4 years ago when I went to Thailand for the holiday and everybody was really jealous of me. And this time, way better! Birmingham!

Vi’s parents is like 10 feet away from us, they are wearing thousand-dollars suits and they both look immaculate and “important”.

It has been a pleasant day for us and we all really have prepared lots of energies for Birmingham and now, Ian and Jeremy have become closer than ever. They talked about music and Jeremy is all kind about it. He doesn’t act like he’s richer nor has more power, instead he embraces Ian with everything they have in common, such as music, automotives, and of course soccer game.

“MU is better than Arsenal of, course.” Jeremy says.

“Yes they are. Hey, did you watch the last Saturday’s game?” Ian asks.

“Calm down, boys. You can get better time when we’re all in Birmingham.” Vi puts in.

“Yea. You’ll easily get bored of each other if you two don’t shut your mouth on everything.” I add.

“No way!” Jeremy laughs. “We will have loads to talk about, aren’t we?”

“Yeah!” says Ian, taking out his cell phone from his pocket and put it inside a metal box to be scanned by the security guard.

After some processing and put the suitcases in the baggage, we all get into the airplane. A nice-suited lady greets us and kindly shows us where our seats are. After putting our backpack in the cabin, we adjust ourselves to the seat nicely. I got the seat that is next to the window so I can see the beautiful view from here which is why I want this seat. The flight will go about an hour and I can easily make myself comfortable during the flight with Ian beside me and our shoulders brushed each other’s.

Ok, relax…

I know these seats are designed to be as close as possible to make the airplane smaller and lighter or whatever it is. But somehow, this is nice 

After the take-off that always gives me a fright and crazy thoughts that we might not make it into the sky, we all take off the safety belt and settle ourselves back into the seat and well…..we’re off to BIRMINGHAM!

I’M HERE!
Can’t believe it! I’m standing in BIRMINGHAM. Birmingham International Airport to be exact. And I’m breathing Birmingham’s air and everybody just talk in British accent! It’s really cool! Maybe I should talk in their accent too so that I really look “British” and “cool”.

“Excuse me. Can you please show me where the toilet at?” I ask a man in my best British accent. But he doesn’t even turn to see me! “Excuse me.” I say again. He still stands there like a statue, and I think my voice is too low, so I make it louder. “EXCUSE ME!”

“Sugar! God! What’s wrong? What had he done to you? Are you harmed?” Vi suddenly paces up with my step. The guy next to the man has turned to me and says, “He’s deaf.”

Damn great! Now everybody is looking at me in a bewildered look.

“And why the hell are you talking with such accent? You look confuse..” Vi says again.

Ian and Jeremy have now joined us too and ask me what went wrong. God, it’s just me trying my new British accent! And no one harmed me!

A driver named Jake takes us all to Vi’s mansion with a Lexus so that we can put all of our things in it. As we drive along the road, I just can’t take my eyes from Birmingham roads and cars and peoples, I just need to take in as many informations as possible while I’m here.

I was halfway through my bag to take my diary so that I can list everything when Mrs. Freyson ask us all, “So, you are all Vi’s chosen friends then? Really nice to meet you all!” she gives us all a handshake. “Welcome to Birmingham. And ah, I never saw this man before. What’s your name, young man?” she asks, referring to Ian.

“Ian. Ian Somer.” Ian nods.

“Oh. Ian. So, you are in the same school as the three of them, I suppose?” she asks again, wiping her hand with a tissue elegantly. Why do rich people seem so elegant, even when they just taking a tissue?

“No actually. I’m in Colin High.” He replies.

“Oh.” Mrs. Freyson says, without a pause.

“Dear, you just go with the children to the mansion, I have to go to the branch.” Mr. Freyson suddenly says after consulting his PDA and blackberry.

“Oh. I’ll go with you then..” Mrs. Freyson says, putting a supporting hand on her husband shoulder. Ideal couple, aren’t they?

“Are you sure? Don’t you want to take some rest after the flight?” He turns his face to his wife in an understanding face.

“No. It’s okay.” She says.

After 10 minutes or so the car slow down as we enter the huge gate that reveals us a small park with a beautiful water fountain. Then as we go along, we can see a double door on the other side of the fountain When it finally stops, I just realized how rich my friend is. I mean, this mansion of her is really, really, gigantic!

And as we enter the mansion with the maids taking care of our suitcases, I just can’t stop gawking at the interior. It’s an airy space with all simple and white furniture. The drapes are long and thick with big gray flowers and the paintings all over the room are unbelievable. This is a dream house!

The sofas are semi-circle all white and one big flat TV sitting proudly as the centre of the beauty. As we moves slowly and enter another room, my heart skips as I caught a sight of a beautiful grand piano, all black and glossy with tall book shelves that touch the ceiling.

“Well then, make yourselves home. We have to go and be back at about 6.” Mr. Freyson says.

“Sure, we will!” Vi says delightedly. And with that, the Freyson couple leaves the house with a limo and we’re left here. Only us four with this huge house and all the things we need.

“Well, where do we start?” I ask and she laughs modestly.

“it’s not that big, Sugar.”

Yeah well, it’s only freakin enormous!

“Let me show you all your rooms okay? Err, Ian, you don’t mind sleep in the same room with Jeremy, right? Cos all other rooms will be used by my relatives.” Vi asks.

“No I don’t mind at all.” Ian says, smiling.

Vi leads the way through the spiral stairs that covered in marble and then we turn to a corridor with paintings and photos displayed on the wall. After passing some doors, she turns and opens a door that looks just like the others.

In front of us is a spacious room with 2 single beds like the ones you see in a hotel room. In fact, the whole room resembles a hotel room expect for the wardrobe cos It’s much bigger and the bath room doesn’t provide toothpaste and hair dryer. But it looks perfect and comfortable. Beside each bed are Ian and Jeremy’s suitcases and above the bed, instead of plain ceiling, a clear glass framed the sky perfectly, which is my favorite part of the room.

“Here is the boys’ room. And there is our room.” Vi points to the last door in the row. The boys are left in their room and we head to our room. It’s much much much much better than then. Honestly, this is a dream room for girls. It’s big and colorful and the bed is huge and….gosh, I can live here for the rest of my life!

“Here where we gonna sleep and spend lots of time.” Vi introduces the room.

“Oh my god, Vi! this is gorgeous!” I gasp. Vi laughs then we start to unpack our suitcases and relax for some time before we gather in the living room for a tea time.

Actually, it’s not the same living room, it’s in another part of the house which face the beautiful garden. It all made of wood and the cakes are yummy. Ruby is chasing the butterflies and he plays with Vi’s other big german shepherd dog named Billy.

“So, I think we need a set of plan for the next 7 days.” I grin.

“Yea! Totally! I mean, there are just too much things to do and we need to get it in order.” Jeremy says. Vi gets inside to take a paper and a pen and start to write the days and time.

“Err guys, actually I should go to London on Wednesday.” Jeremy suddenly says. “to meet Hayley.”

“What? When? I mean, how? You don’t know England, aren’t you?” Vi stares at him. Actually, I stare at him too.

“Well, I can always ask someone, right? I really can handle that myself.” Jeremy says.

“Who’s Hayley?” Ian interrupts.

Dang! He doesn’t have any idea about Hayley, aren’t he?

“our boss’s daughter. Hayley Manson” I simply reply.

“What?” Ian now goggles at us all, then turn to me again, “Hayley Manson?” he echoes.

“Yeah. She’s Jeremy’s ex.” I admit.

No one talks or some seconds, still try to figure things out in our own mind, get the strings straight.

“So…?” Vi says, breaking the ice.

“So, I won’t be with you guys on Wednesday.” Jeremy says, helping us figuring things out.

“And won’t she be with us here?” I ask.

“No. she doesn’t know Vi at all. Maybe we’ll meet and spend time together but not staying overnights.” Jeremy explains. “But she also will go to US 3 days after we arrived there.”

“Okay…” Vi says slowly.

This isn’t like how we expected. Hayley also gonna stayed in US and we will all meet her in UK too. Will she be a nice person? Will her presence complete us? a whole rack of thought swirling around in my head.

Let’s hope for the best…

packing..

2008-03-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

The air of June has been replaced by the summer atmosphere of July. With the sun shining brightly and everything seems fine. I always wake up with light feeling and happy face, knowing summer holiday is coming. School is only a week left and after that, bye2 11 grades! I’m going to 12! Wew..

Since I have been saving my earnings for nearly half year now, I got enough money to buy something a little more expensive than usual. And I can’t help beaming every time I check my account on the ATM.

The only thing that I really look forward to is spending a week at the Freyson’s mansion at Birmingham. Which is a total F-U-N and a total getaway! Vi even asks Jeremy to join and she also want me to ask Ian which is crazy cos Vi’s mum barely knows Ian. She maybe never even heard of the name. And what if someone ask him what company does his parents own..

There will be this meeting with all her relatives in England and her grandma who originally came from London. She also has this horse stable in the house area and she knows all the shopping places there!

So…with my savings that I have earned for the past 6 months, I’m sure I can get something for myself there! Vi showed me the other day a picture about her mansion in Birmingham and I fell in love with it! It has got a very big spacious luxurious living room and large garden with statues and a small paddock for her horses. Love love love love it!

I just can’t wait for it! But of course, I have to pass the hard times with lots of tests and HWs and I hate it! Vi has gave up on her HWs a minute ago and I’m still trying to cope with the numbers and angles in math homework. She lays her head on her pillow and calls Ruby to come to her. This is perfectly insane, I hate math, physic, biology, and all subject related to “sciency” and “numbers”.

“I hate science and people that invent them! And anyway why should we learn about it if at the end we all get bored and not interested?” Vi says, patting Ruby’s head.

“Well, we should at least know the basic, right?” I say.

“Yea, but still, I don’t have to if I don’t want and not a single person can make me learn those things that I don’t even interested in.” she insists. She is such a stone-headed girl and she is not a person who we can sit down and compromise with. She’s nowhere near the things she doesn’t like on the first impression.

Whereas me, I’m more of a flexible girl who can always give person second chance, and maybe that’s why we can be friends. Friends completed each other, right?

So after struggling with those hard times and everything, we finally passed our 11^th grade which is a relief! And now, I and Vi is sitting in Vi’s car, enjoying our yogurt in this beautiful evening after school. Nothing, I tell you, nothing can stop us now from having fun all day! It’s summer!

“Have you asked Ian?” Vi suddenly asks, taking a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth. She wants to help me pack my suitcases for Birmingham and we just can’t wait for it!

“Err…” I fiddle with my skirt.

“You haven’t asked him! Omg, quick, ask him. It’s 3 days away!!” Vi snatches my cell phone and dial Ian.

“What are you doing?” I take my cell phone back.

“What? I’m calling your bf! Don’t worry about my parents, they’re perfectly ok about this. They even want to me to take all of my friends. They’re freakin excited about meeting all of you!” Vi says.

“I’ll call him later, ok? And he’s not my bf.” I flustered.

“Yea, right..” Vi rolls her eyes.

We spent 30 minutes choosing which suitcase I should bring at my room and we decided to bring the green one cos it’s the biggest and I will need big suitcase to put all my things and the things I will buy in England.

“Ok. Let’s make a list of things you will bring…” Vi reaches for a pen and a note. She scribbles something in it and stop for some seconds, then scribbles something again and she finally hands it to me.

4 shorts
2 jackets
1 sweater
1 long coat
2 skirts
1 formal dress
1 cocktail dress
lots of under wears

I read it and stare at her. “what?” she asks me dumbly.

“This is a lot to bring!” I say.

“Well, you will need those!” she says. “and other small thingies like make-up case, 2 bags, 1 plastic bag, 1 flip flops, and a pair of boot and a bikini if we’ll go to the beach.” She adds.

And then the packing starts..

We take out all the clothes I have and start choosing. There are loads of clothes and dresses that I don’t even know exist and some are the clothes I’ve been searching for so long and when I try it on, it doesn’t fit me anymore. Duh.

“Hey! This cute pink tank is nice!” Vi says, throwing it into the suitcase.

“Vi! You’re going to make me bring the whole wardrobe if you keep throwing every piece you found in the suitcase!” I say.

“Well, you can always wear those.” She replies, reaching for another pants and scrutinizes it and throw it in the suitcase.

“For god sake, Vi. we need plan! And this is more than what you’ve written down for me!” I exclaims, taking back the pants and the tops and throw everything out. “We need to sort things out!” I say straightly.

We start packing at around 3 p.m. and ends at about 8 p.m! This is freaky! I mean, we can’t possibly sit here, choosing things I’ll bring for 5 whole hours right?! We just pack, how hard could that be?

And well, at last, I packed more than the list Vi gave me previously! I even pack another mini bag for my retouch kit and some belts. I bring my diary too, I can’t possibly leave my diary cos I will want to take notes of every thing that I do there.

“pheww! Finally!” I say, throwing myself to my cluttered bed.

“Yeah finally…” Vi agrees. “Hey! You haven’t called Ian!” she suddenly exclaims, breaking the nice silence.

“Oh yea.”

“Come on! Call him! Now!” she insists. “or you’ll regret it later.” She adds, looking at me doubtfully.

“Why should I regret it, anyway? We just had one kiss and that’s it. Full stop.” I retort.

“Well, one kiss leads to another…” Vi raises her eyebrow. “Come on! Call him!”

I intentionally wait for some pauses before I reach my cell phone. “Fine!” I say. Vi grins happily. Suddenly my hands start sweating without any reason as I start dialing the number. The connection tone really makes me furious even just to wait for some seconds.

“Hi Sugar.” Ian’s voice suddenly clicks in.

“Yea hi. Eh, umm…this is Sugar.” I say. “I was just wondering where do you go this summer?” I ask awkwardly.

“ I don’t know. Umm, working? Why?” I can hear he’s eating potato chips or something crunchy.

“’waswonderingmaybeyoucouldjoinmetoBirmingham?” I stutter. Dang! I’m stupid!

“Sorry?”

“Uhm….I was just wondering, maybe….it’s just a maybe, alright? You don’t have to if you don’t want…”

“What is it?” he cuts in.

“Maybe you want to join me to Birmingham? for a week?” I finish.

There’s a pause before he says, “How?”

“Vi’s parents invite us! And they’ll pay all the flight tickets fare and we will stay at her house there.” I explain.

“What? But I don’t really know Vi! or even her mom or dad!”

“Vi said it’ll be alright. And we’ll absolutely have some fun there! there will be her family gatherings and Vi can invite anyone she wants! and you and me included” I say. I start to feel like a pushy girl cos I keep reassuring him that it’ll alright.

“Well. Only if you sure it’ll be fine…” he says at last.

“Great! Now you really have to pack. We’ll leave in 3 days!”

“What?! 3 days? I even haven’t informed my parents!” he replies in a panicky voice.

“Well, I know it’s a bit tight, but you really have to start now! We’ll leave at about 4 p.m. and meet at the airport at about 3 p.m. ok?” I can see Vi’s looking at me in such anxiety, really waiting for the answer.

“Oh yeah. I’ll contact you later if I have something more to ask. And by the way, have you told Mrs. Manson about this? We’ll be off in like a week, right?”

Omg! I totally have forgotten than I still have a job to do!

“Umm…since you remind me, I’ll call her now.” I say doubtfully.

“Now?! Goodness sake! You haven’t really planned everything out, have you?” he asks.

“I have!” I say in dignity, “In fact, I have packed my bag. Job is like…a little thing and not to worry. I’ll just call Mrs. Manson right now and she’ll just permit us.” I say.

“Well, if you really sure. So I have to go the, packing.” He says.

“Ok. I’ll text you later if I have already got the permission. Bye!” I say.

“Bye!”

“How is it?!” Vi asks me rightaway.

“He’ll come!” I shriek in excitement. “But he has to inform his parents first!”

“Great!” Vi smiles widely.

“And the bad news is, I haven’t told my boss about this.” I say.

“Oh. That’s not a big deal, right? Even if you only absent for 3 days she won’t know!” Vi says. Well, she got a point, actually. Mrs. Manson never turns up in the shop ever since I work there. Even if I don’t ask permission from her, she won’t know!