A Thing To Remember Before Wishing For A Date With Edward Cullen
"I'm telling you, Eva, it's true!"
"Just because I believe in vampires, doesn't mean I believe in anything fictional now, Charmaine."
"But she's really telling the truth. I wished for something and it came true!"
"Really now, Sara. Tell me what you wished for."
"I tried something simple. I wished for novelty knick knacks. And they were there, inside my pocket."
"Novelty knickknacks?! That's original."
I'm Evangelein but all my friends-let's narrow them down to the only friends I have : Charmaine and Sara-call me Eva. All the other people in school who happen to know choose to call me nicknames.
I just turned 17 and I'm a huge Twilight fan.
In the bunch, I'm the only one who believes that vampires really exist among us. Charmaine believes in spirits and she revealed to me and Sara that her family's into witchcraft-particularly her grandmother. I guess Sara's the most normal among us, but she can be very gullible at times.
This time, Charmaine had her believe that there is a wishing line in her attic. Sara described it as an ordinary-looking white paint line on the floor but when you trace your foot on it, and make a wish, that wish will be granted. There have been a lot of things Charmaine's shown in her house that were beyond normal. But the wishing line is the most ridiculous one yet.
"Just give it a try, Eva. Today's a Friday and so far, we don't have anything major coming up for Monday," Charmaine tried again.
"That's true. And the only one that was said on this lunch table that made sense this week!" I exclaimed.
"Call us crazy, then. Just give it a try. Oh wait, I think I got something here ..." Sara sang as she reached inside the pocket of her skirt. "There!"
And she held up 3 novelty knick knacks-A Coca Cola bottle filled with some liquid substance that really looked like Coke-or soy sauce. A Nescafe coffee jar and some ice cream brand I've never heard of.
"Are you still calling us crazy?" she asked-waving her knick knacks close to my face.
"That depends. When are you going to tell me you got those at ?" I asked teasingly. I stood up to dump my plate by the dishwashing area. Was there no end to this "wishing line" nonsense?
"You're never going to believe me, are you?" Charmaine asked-disappointment flooded her face.
"Nope," I smiled.
The three of us walked back to our first afternoon classes in silence. I didn't want to talk to them-they'd only find a way to insert "wishing line" again. It was starting to get out of hand. Only a turn more before I reach my classroom.
"What are you going to wish for, Sara?" Charmaine asked in a voice that was shouting "Listen to me, Eva!"
"I don't know, Charm. What are you going to wish for this time?" Sara played on.
"I'll see you guys later," I muttered and left them and their wish list.
Only one more subject to go-too bad it had to be Spanish, the most unforgiving subject of them all. It got even worse when my teacher, Don (he didn't like 'Mr.') Enriquez gave us an English essay to translate into Spanish due on Monday. I was grounded and couldn't use the computer but otherwise, I could go to Sara's or Charmaine's houses. Mom and dad knew they were the perfect role models slash friends I could look up to.
Charmaine is the only one who has a complete Spanish emergency rescue all under one roof. She is a walking Spanish dictionary herself, her witchcraft-practicing grandmother (who ironically is a very nice old woman) is always more than willing to help with homeworks, and they have the biggest collection of Spanish dictionaries in town.
"Charmie!" I called to her through the busy Friday afternoon hallway. Everyone seemed perked up about the week end except her.
"Hey, Eva," she said weakly.
"I need your help. I have this Spanish homework and-are you okay?"
"No. My friend doesn't trust me anymore."
"Okay okay, how about this? I'll wish for your friend to come up to your house tomorrow afternoon and ask for your help with her Spanish homework."
That perked her up in an instant.
"Great! Sara will be there, too. See you tomorrow!" she waved back and hurried to catch her bus.
That morning, all I had to do was get my backpack ready with pens and a pad of paper. I walked weakly to her house right after lunch. Was I really going to make a silly wish? But it wouldn't hurt, after all. It would just be embarrassing. Besides, one more reason I decided to go, other than my paper due on Monday, is to prove to them that the wishing line cannot grant any wishes. I am going to make a wish so impossible that they would have to wake up from their fantasies. And I think I know just the wish.
"Eva, you came!" Charmaine practically squealed when she opened the door.
"I said I would come, remember?"
"True, true. Come on, we've got lots of wishes to make!" she was going to drag me to her attic now but I pulled her back.
"Not a chance. I'll have to do my homework first," I said and folded my arms stubbornly.
"Okay. I'll call grandma. Grandma! Grandma? Are you in here?" she called, walking to the kitchen.
"Eva! Hey, you got here just in time for the popcorn," Sara greeted cheerfully, holding a bowl.
"That looks good!" I said and got a handful as she passed.
"It's just mean of Mr. Enriquez to give you homework on a beautiful weekend such as this. You should really wish for him to turn into a toad or something."
"Thanks but no thanks for your suggestion, Sar. Besides, work before play," I smiled and put my bag down the couch.
"Uh-huh. Since when?!"
"Is that my Evangelein?" I heard Charmaine's grandmother's voice from my back and I turned to find her beaming down at me.
"Hey, grandma Chang," did I mention Charmaine was Chinese? And yet she was very good at Spanish and so were the rest of her family.
"Let's get started then," she said and rubbed her hands together anticipating for some challenge.
She dictated everything and I wrote as slow as I could just to delay the wishing line.
"What was that again?" I asked, pretending to not hear the last word.
"Amor," Grandma Chang said patiently.
"Is that with an 'e' or without?"
"Without."
"Are you sure?" I was pathetically stalling now and Charmaine noticed.
"Oh for Pete's sake, Eva, you should've stalled when Felicidad came up. You know amor. I just know you do!" she cried.
"Felicidad? What's that?" I asked dully.
Charmaine tore the pad and paper from my hands and wrote amor for me. Then she waved goodbye to her grandmother and took me by the hand. Up we went to the attic.
"You guys go first. I'll watch," I suggested by the time we got there.
"Not a chance. It's your first time. You make the wish first," Charmaine disagreed.
"I really don't know," I lied.
"If you guys are going to fight there, I'll go first," Sara jumped excitedly.
She traced her foot on it and closed her eyes. She reached inside her pocket and squealed, "Mr. Clean!"
"That's just ridiculous," I muttered, shaking my head.
"You think so? Watch this," Charmaine did the same and reached inside her pocket.
"The Notebook DVD. That, my dear, is magic!"
They practically dragged me again into the "wishing line".
"I am going to make a wish that's never going to happen, that's beyond impossible, and I'll prove to you that this is a fake," I grumbled to them.
"Nothing's impossible for the wishing line!" Charmaine scowled.
"Believe, Eva!" Sara smiled.
I smiled back an evil smile.
I closed my eyes. "I wish to have a date with Edward, not Robert Pattinson-not that there's anything wrong with the guy but he's busy filming-but the Edward Coh-len" I thought to myself. It sounded so stupid I couldn't help myself from making fun of the name of my fictional crush.
I traced a foot and reached in my pocket.
"See? There's no Ed-" I stopped dead.
Did I forget to throw a scrap paper from my pocket?
I got the paper and Sara and Charmaine stood next to me. Also curious of the paper.
On it was "Dearest Evangelein, please meet me 32nd avenue this evening at 8. Edward".
"Amazing!" Charmaine cried.
"Spectacular!" Sara exclaimed.
"Okay, which one of you guys slipped the note?" I asked with my arms crossed.
"Nobody. The magic of the wishing line!" Charmaine insisted.
"Your wish came true!" Sara added.
"Besides, how in the world would we have known that you wished for a date with Edward Cullen?" Charmaine asked skeptically.
And she was right. How would they have known? So was the wishing line for real? Had I got a date from Edward?
I said goodbye to Charmaine and Sara and assured them that I wouldn't go. I made them believe that I didn't believe that the note was authentic. But I was not so sure about that.
It was 7.30 and I paced restlessly in my room. Going to 32nd avenue would mean dressing up like a socialite for the evening. But that might mean a date with Edward Cullen. Might. Edward Cullen.
I sneaked out of the house a quarter before 8. My heart thudded loudly in the cab-the driver might have even heard it.
"Where to, miss?" he asked.
"Huh? Um, the 32nd avenue please."
"Here we are," he said and stopped in front of the tall building. I saw the fancy restaurant's window full of rich people. I breathed in deeply.
"Here you go," I dropped him the money.
"Welcome miss. Do you have a reservation?" an elderly waiter greeted me at the door.
At first I didn't know what to say to him.
But after a few awkward minutes, I said, "I was suppose to meet with Edward tonight?"
He smiled and led me to the table.
Someone was waiting for me already and he hid his face with the big menu of the restaurant.
"Sir?" the elderly waiter called silently.
"Please sit," "Edward" gestured.
Was this guy for real? Was I really having a date with Edward Cullen?
I anticipated to see his face and when he did let the menu down, I was terrified to find an ordinary guy in glasses. A geeky boy who looked my age.
"Sorry I haven't introduced myself properly. I'm Edward Colin," he said and reached for my hand to shake it.
"Pardon?" I asked. There was my conscience's mocking laughter ringing in my ears. "Told you it was impossible!" it said.
"I'm Edward Colin. And you are?"
"I'm Eva Sanders," I said, sounding a bit startled. My tone amused him and he had a crooked smile on his face. Okay, so he was not the Edward Cullen but that was the exact smile I pictured my fictional crush supposedly sported.
"I anticipated the worse. I thought my friends set me up on a blind date with a very unpleasant girl," he muttered.
"I could say the same." Not! I expected somebody perfect.
"By the way, they wrote the note for me. Was it too mushy for your liking?"
"The 'Dearest Evagelein' bothered me a little," I admitted sheepishly.
He was no Edward Cullen. He was Edward Colin. He had the same bronze tousled hair but he had eyeglasses and he was suffering from an overproduction of freckles on his cheeks. He was wearing a tux as dressing formally was necessary at the 32nd but he had no hot body. I was sure of that.
"You look very beautiful, Eva," he smiled his crooked smile again.
"Thank you. You look very nice yourself, Edward." If I said "handsome", it would have been an overstatement.
We ordered some food after a few small talks about our lives. He looked really interested with my answers and that was a bit flattering. He was asking me all the questions and I did all the talking. I would have asked him some questions about his life but he was always quick to follow my answers with another round of questions.
By the time our food arrived, I was carving my turkey leg and I found the perfect moment to ask him a question.
"Edward, no offense but how on earth did you afford the 32nd? It's just a blind date, after all. If I were you, I would have chosen McDonalds or Wendy's," I smiled, amused at my own question.
He smiled-half-amused and half-embarrassed about what he was going to say. "Um, Eva ... you see ... my uncle, he kind of owns 32nd."
I tried to hide the fascination in my eyes. This Edward Colin was the nephew of France Colin? One of the richest guys in the city?
"That's pretty nice of your uncle to give his nephew and his blind date a free dinner," I said, pretending to sound casually.
"Yeah. It is," he said.
I tried not to dwell so much on that fact. That this Edward was filthy rich, too, orphaned at an early age, adopted by his rich uncle who was a bachelor still.
And that this Edward was also strangely attractive.
I hate to admit it but he was also kind of cute.
When we finished our date, he offered me a ride home which I took without second thoughts.
We were parked in my front yard when he said, "I want to see you again, Eva."
And I felt the same way, too.
So he was no Edward Cullen but he was an equally nice guy.
Blind dates could have gotten worse.
"Yeah. Me, too. Come by here anytime you want, Edward," I smiled at him in the darkness of his car.
It was no Volvo, but it was just as nice.
I stepped out of the car and he rolled down the window before I could walk away.
"I will come by here next Friday night. What would you want to do?" he asked-crooked smile alert.
"Maybe watch a movie. I can buy the popcorn," I shrugged.
"If you insist."
"Sure," I turned my back on him now when he threw a paper plane outside his window before he drove into the night.
"Good night and sleep well, Eva" was written in a neater script than the note in my pocket that afternoon.
I smiled as I read the note over and over again on my bed that night.
So I didn't have a date with THE Edward Cullen. But I did meet MY Edward Cullen-just in the form of an ordinary, non-vampire Edward Colin. Sara and Charmaine still couldn't believe everything but they were the first ones to know about me dating the young Colin who attended a private school in the city. We really did catch a movie that Friday night, took a walk in the park that Saturday, hung out every weekend since then. And after a year, he asked me to become his girlfriend. He was too chicken to ask me sooner.
The wishing line at the Chang's attic really did grant wishes. So if you happen to drop by the Chang residence and wish for a date with Edward Cullen, be sure to pronounce his name properly in your mind. XD.