The morning of Juvia's birthday was cool, crisp, and smelled of the wonderful scent of Autumn. The sky still had little pink and orange tints from early morning sunrise and she could hear the goldfinches singing from high up in the trees. The pretty atmosphere of that morning put Juvia in a really good mood.
"Good morning Juvia."
Just a little ways from Juvia's house was the hone of Alzack and Bisca Connell, the very few people in town who treated Juvia and her folks like they were no different than anyone else in the world. They were a very young couple, only about seven or eight years older than Juvia, very young and very lovely. They always appeared deliriously in love and it always warmed Juvia's heart to see them together.
When they first moved to Magnolia Street, they like everyone else thought that the people living in that old Victorian house were very strange and suspicious. Of course they were never rude or unkind to Juvia or Anna or Derek, but they didn't exactly attempt to make friends with them. Then one day when their daughter Asuka took ill and they couldn't afford the medication the doctor prescribed, Anna just came over to their house with her special tonic and the tiny girl was back to her cheerful self the very next day. Mr. and Mrs. Connell were so grateful, that they never missed an opportunity to give Anna and her family a smile or a kind word.
"Good morning Mrs. Connell." Juvia greeted to the green-haired woman fetching the enveloped contents from her mailbox. "How are you?"
"I'm doin just fine thank you." She replied. "Have a good day at school Honey."
"Thank you."
"Mommy!"
At that moment, Bisca's daughter Asuka came running up to her mother with a hand full of dandelions.
"Whatcha got there Darlin?" Bisca asked the child with a warm smile.
"I picked you some flowers Mommy."
"You did? Well isn't that sweet."
She scooped Asuka into her arms and sniffed those weeds as if they were fresh cut roses.
"Do you like them?" Asuka asked.
"I do. Why don't we go inside and put these in some water?"
As Juvia watched mother and daughter walk back toward the house, seeing Bisca kiss Asuka's cheeks, forehead, and nose, she felt her good mood sink like a pebble thrown into a pond. Now sometimes when Juvia saw Bisca and Asuka together, she would think that it was a most adorable sight and feel quite chipper. But other times, like today for instance, their relationship would make her sad. Sad because she would never have that.
Juvia was not born in a hospital. She was born at home, she was born very early, and she was born on a day when the wind blew so hard that you would get carried away even if you weighed more than a stone, and so much rain was pouring down that it flooded the streets terribly. Her parents and Anna had been trapped in the house by the storm and her mother was forced was forced to give birth without any medical aid, all she had was Anna who had experience as a midwife. According to her father, the entire labor seemed like an eternity. Her mother was in sheer agony and would lose consciousness over and over again. One minute waking up and the next passing out because of the pain. He said that throughout the night, it sounded as if a river were flowing right through the house and her mother thought it was the second most beautiful sound in the world. She had said that the first were the cries Juvia had made when she was finally brought into the world. Her mother had cried too, her father had cried and Anna had cried. But her mother was the only one that night who had cried tears of joy.
Ondina Lockser had a very fragile heart, one that couldn't handle so much pressure. A home birth was not a safe choice but because of the strong wind and the flooding, they couldn't get to a hospital. All those hours of pain and labor with no medical treatment, once she had her baby, Ondina's heart slowly gave out. Anna had desperately tried to get an ambulance on the line, Derek was pleading for his wife to stay with him, but Ondina just weakly held her baby girl in her arms and sang to her with her last breath.
Her mother's voice was the only thing Juvia could remember about her. You would think that she wouldn't be able to remember anything about her period what with only knowing her mother for a few minutes and as a newborn baby no less. But for reasons that Juvia didn't know for most of her life, she could recall Ondina's voice and her lullaby perfectly. Still she wished with all her heart that she could have known her mother longer than just a few minutes.
Until she was ten years old, she was solely raised by her father with Anna frequently visting. At age ten, Anna came to live with them to guide Juvia as she blossomed into womanhood. She had always been told that Anna was an old friend of her mother's and that she was hired as a nanny. She did her job very well. She kept the house clean, she cooked delicious and healthy meals, she can be strict but she could be loving and fun. Juvia loved Anna and Anna loved her. Anna was pretty much the only maternal figure Juvia had ever known.
"Hey Juvia! Wait up!" A voice called from behind. Juvia turned around to face the owner of the voice with a smile.
I mispoke when I said that Juvia had no friends. She did have one friend. Gray Fullbuster, a local boy whom she had lived six blocks down from. He had moved to Magnolia Street in the summer time about two years prior and one day in which the weather wasn't too hot, he decided to walk down to the hardware store to pick up some nails for his uncle. He was halfway home when he was suddenly lured away by the most beautiful voice. It drew him down those six blocks and up to that Victorian house which was rumored to be haunted, but the fifteen year old boy had been so curious to know where the voice was coming from, that he forgot all about the gossip and crept toward the backyard of the estate. That's when he saw Juvia sitting in the garden with a black cat in her lap, singing out loud to herself.
The townsfolk had told him many different things about the clock shop owner's daughter. They said that she was strange and antisocial. That every where she went, misfortune seemed to follow. He had once heard one especially disturbed neighbor rant that she and her family practiced devil worship. However from what he saw, Juvia looked like a regular fourteen year old girl. He called out to say hello and at first she was startled by his sudden appearance, and felt terribly shy. She stood right up from the garden swing and tried to hide from him behind the lilac, poor thing was scared that he had come to stare and make fun of her like so many of her peers. Sensing her fear, Gray immediately apologized and introduced himself. He tried to enter the garden but the black cat that had been in her lap hissed and clawed at him each time, keeping the boy at a distance.
So at a distance, they made proper introductions and proceeded to get to know each other. He had spoken so kindly to her and looking at him for sometime, Juvia began to think that he looked very handsome. Most girls their age just dismissed him as some lanky, bespectacled nerd but she thought that his glasses made him look adorable and she thought that his jet black hair was radiant. But the feature she had liked most about were his eyes. He had the most unusual yet lovely eyes that she had ever seen on anyone. One eye was the shade of a very dark blue, like the starry night. The other eye was the shade of a sparkling silver, like moon beams. Another thing very unusual about him was that his aura seemed ice cold while his eyes seemed to hold all the warmth in the world.
Before long she was coming out from behind the lilac and invited him inside for a glass of lemonade. The two had been close friends ever since. Never did Gray ever find her or her family strange. He never believed the rumors said about them and if something odd or misfortunate to happen in Juvia's presence, he merely shrugged it off as coincidence. Next to her father and nanny, no one else was ever more dear to Juvia.
"Hi Gray." She said. "Running a little late again?"
"Not as late as last time." Gray said. "At least I made it to the bus stop this time."
"I thought you said that you were going to set alarm this time."
"I meant to but I forgot."
"You know you really shouldn't be staying up so late every night. That's why you always end up over sleeping, you know?"
"I know." He huffed.
"What are you even doing all night anyway?"
"I'm studying. You know I'm falling behind in history."
"Well how long does it take for you to memorize events from your hometown?"
"Considering I'm up all night doing it, a very long time."
"Maybe you should get a tutor instead of pulling an all nighter?"
"Uncle Gildarts can't afford a tutor. He's already working two jobs to put Cana through college."
"Then I'll tutor you. I know Salem's history like the back of my hand. How about we meet up at my house tomorrow after school?"
"Your folks won't mind?"
"No. Not at all."
"Okay. If you say so." He adjusted the strap of his book bag. Suddenly he was reminded of something. "Oh! I almost forgot!"
He briefly took off his book bag and unzipped one of the compartments, producing a small, rectangular shaped box from inside.
"Happy birthday." He said handing it to Juvia.
She smiled at him touched.
"Gray you remembered."
She lifted the Vox's lid and discovered a silver chain inside, attached to the chain was a pendent of a silver crescent moon combined with a heart made of celestite.
"Gray this is beautiful." She said admiring the necklace.
"It was my mom's." Gray said. "I found it with her things when Uncle Gildarts and I were reorganizing the attic."
"And you want me to have this?" She asked him surprised.
"Well it's not like my mom had any daughters to pass it down to, and I figured a necklace would make a better gift than a pair of socks."
Juvia giggled.
"You we're going to give me a pair of socks?"
"They were novelty socks. They had cats on them. I thought you'd like them." He explained while blushing. "But then Cana hit me with Uncle Gildart's newspaper and told me that was a stupid gift, so I looked for something else to give you."
"Oh I would have liked them very much." Juvia assured him. "But I love the necklace."
"Here, let's see if it fits."
Juvia handed the necklace back to Gray and turned around, lifting her hair up. He carefully latched the chain around her pretty white neck. It was a perfect fit.
"I'm going to keep this forever." She said putting her fingers to the pendent. "Thank you so much Gray."
"You're welcome."
He smiled at her. She smiled back. Unfortunately the tender moment was ruined when the school bus drove right past them.
"Oh no! Not again!" Juvia cried running after the vehicle. "Hey! Stop the bus!"
"Pull over!" Gray said running beside her. "Come on man! Don't do this!"
The other teenagers riding the bus stuck their heads out the windows and laughed at the two of them.
"Keep running freaks!" One of them passengers said. "You both look like you could use the exercise!"
"And so it begins." Juvia thought as she tried to keep up and mentally prepare herself for another day of being subjected to ridicule.
