8. Birthday
Disclaimer: I don't own Lorien Legacies.
I haven't had time to revise it, sorry. Enjoy, anyway :)
For a long time I waited for this moment. It meant a way out of Santa Teresa and the ticket to begin my life. But before it happened, the Mogs found me and we had to fight, I met Six and we abandoned Santa Teresa in ruins. I don't need it anymore, but I still remember how much it meant at that time.
It's my birthday.
I don't know if it's true, but I always celebrated it today with Adelina. Before Spain, when our relationship was better, she tried to make every birthday a little better. I still remember the day we went to the little cinema in Austria when I still was Sophie and she was Emmalina. It was a beautiful movie about a secret world in a wardrobe and the music was amazing. She let me have the big popcorn and I was so happy.
I think that's my favorite birthday. After that, things just went downhill.
I make my way to the kitchen and I decide not to say anything to anyone. It's just a normal day, getting older isn't important anymore.
"Good morning." Six says when she sees me. She's eating a bowl of milk and cereal and so is John.
"Hey." I say making my way to the fridge.
"Nine left you some juice, Marina." She tells me.
"Nice." I say pouring it in a glass. "So what are we doing today?" I ask as I take a sip.
"Train with our Legacies. We have to make the best of them and we have to figure out how to combine them."
"Good idea." I empty the glass and set it down on the counter. "I'm going to change."
In the hallway I see Ella coming from the opposite side, she sees me and smiles wide. Suddenly she's running towards me and jumps at me.
"Happy birthday!" She says when she hugs me.
"Thanks, Ella." I smile. "But you can't tell anyone."
"Why not?"
"I just don't want them to know."
"Okay." She agrees, but she's frowning.
I shrug. "Don't worry, I'm happy this way." I think smiling at her convinced her and she continues her way satisfied with my response.
When I close my door, already inside my room, I start to change to more adequate clothes for training. Six and I went to buy them when we started with this morning practices. Her invisibility Legacy was useful, but we didn't steal, we always left money.
Since it's my birthday, I decide to give a little treat to myself and put my favorite training clothes on. It's silly but I feel content. I am about to remove my shirt when…
"Hey, Marina."
Eight appears in the middle of my room.
"Eight!" I blush. One second later and nothing would have been left for the imagination.
"Nice to see you too on this fine morning." He jokes.
"I was about to change." I explain and show him the sports shirt.
"Oh. Oh. Sorry. Yeah, maybe I should knock next time." He rubs the back of his neck.
"Yeah, that'd be nice." I giggle. "Why did you come?"
He can't be here because of my birthday. He doesn't know. There's no way he can know. Unless Ella told him. No, I don't think she did.
"Uhm, it's not that important, I'll let you change."
"If you had to tele-" He leaves before I can finish the sentence and I stand confused for a second before finally changing,
Training is training and we all sweat like pigs. No one says anything about my birthday and I'm silently relieved.
Back in my room, I lie on my bed for a few minutes. I'm exhausted but it's a nice kind of exhaustion. I feel content about my performance and I'm positive I can be as much as a fighter as Six with some more training. That young inexpert me is long left behind and she would be amaze by how much I have improved.
As always, I shower before lunch and leave my clothes ready on my bed to change. But that's not the only thing that's on my bed.
"What did we say about knocking?" I sneer.
Eight looks at me grinning but then I see him blush slightly. His gaze goes down, so I look down myself. I'm still in a towel. He looks away uncomfortable.
"Uhm, sorry."
I can't help but blush too. What little confidence I had, has left me and I wish I had changed in the bathroom.
"I just wanted to tell you," He clears his throat. "that lunch is ready."
"…Thanks." I smile nervously.
"Come quick." He breaths.
Once again, he teleports and I'm alone in my room again. Suddenly, I'm not hungry anymore.
There's knocking on my door and I chuckle.
"Come in." I say from my bed.
Six opens the door and I'm secretly disappointed it's not Eight.
"Are you coming to dinner or what?"
"I'm not really hungry."
"Come on, Marina. You need to eat something."
"I'll really not hungry."
"Did something happen?" Six almost reading me like a book.
"No."
She raises an eyebrow. "Sure… Now let's go."
I sigh. "Fine." I'm not really in the mood to start arguing why or why not I should eat something.
Six smiles proudly because of her win and we go together to the others. They are sitting at the table and they look at us grinning.
They know.
"Happy birthday, Marina!"
"Thanks, but…how did you know?"
"Six told us a few days ago." John answered.
"You didn't think we wouldn't celebrate an eighteenth birthday, right?" Nine laughs. "You know, in Europe you would the legal age to buy alcohol."
"Seriously, Nine." John rolls his eyes at him.
"Ehm, thanks, Nine." I say to him.
He winks at me proud of himself. From the corner of my eye, I see Eight looking at him. He's unimpressed, but he quickly grins when he looks at me.
"Marina, we bought you cake!"
"You did what?" I say touched.
"We bought you cake, but we didn't know if you like chocolate or vanilla better."
"Either of them is fine." I smile at him.
"We bought chocolate."
"Well, Marina! Sit!" Someone draws my attention from Eight and I sit down.
We spend the hours talking and laughing and they even sing happy birthday (which was embarrassing). It was nice, because it seemed like we were just normal kids having a nice time. It was a bit selfish of me to decide not to say anything. Today wasn't just about me getting older, it was about all of us. We all needed a birthday party and I'm happy to see them all smile and laugh together. Worse times are coming and I make sure that my wish is about us winning and having a happy life.
Before Adelina became Adelina, she loved wishes. She loved shooting stars and birthday candles. She thought it was pure hope from the people to make a better world. She always tried to find a cake for me to blow its candles and wish for something, but I loved when she had muffins instead of cakes. It was simple and sweet.
"What did you wish for?"
I'm on the balcony watching the stars. Sadly, there aren't many because we are in a city but still, the view is breathtaking.
Eight leans against the like me and looks at the city.
"I can't tell you."
"Just a little hint?"
"No, it won't come true."
He pouted and it made me laugh.
"Come on, Eight. It will be your fault if I tell you and it doesn't come true."
"Oookayyy…" He sighs. "I made a wish too, you know." He says after a silence.
"It's my birthday, not yours!" I tease him, even surprising myself of what I say.
I've learnt that when it comes to being around Eight, I can expect the unexpected from myself. Like that time I dived into the water in India without thinking it twice.
"Sharing is caring." He smiled playfully. "Don't you want to know what it is?"
"If you tell me it won't come true."
"Alright, I won't tell you."
The next thing happens quickly. He leans down and kisses me quickly on the lips. So quickly, I don't have time to respond. My eyes widen in shock at what he did and he shrugs.
"You were right." He says gently and smiles. "It came true."
I've had a hard time writing lately, to be honest and it's my mom's birthday so I thought, why not?
Tell me what you think, please. I feed on reviews. And who do you think will die in the Fall of Five? Only 2 weeks left!
Thanks for reading,
Sonia
