Okay everybody, I know that this is late, but I had a little time, so I decided to get this typed. In know I still have to do Chloe's birthday, and if I have time, mother's day, which is coming up. I decided that I probably won't do a one-shot for Derek's birthday because I really don't know what to do. If I get a really good idea, I may do it, but I just don't have any.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Darkest Powers
This one is like the first Valentine's Day one when they are all in first grade. It's technically a little continuation of the last one because it is just a few months later.
"Chloe!" a voice shouted on the other side of my bedroom door. Squinting my eyes open, I looked over at the clock. 7:45. I quickly sat up. Today was Easter. Even though it was Sunday, my class was having an Easter egg hunt and the teacher was making us go, not that I would have minded. I love Easter egg hunts. Mom and Dad used to set them up for me around the apartment. One time I even found one in the freezer.
I threw the blanket off me a hurried out of bed. I went a little too quickly, however, and tripped over my blanket, sending me tumbling to the floor. I didn't care, though. I was too excited. Ms. Winters was giving a prize to the team who found the most eggs. We were required to have teams. Even though we got to pick them ourselves, we were required to have a boy-girl team. There was an equal amount of boys and girls, so the only problem was which girls were stuck with which boys. When Ms. Winters had announced her idea, the girls were instantly out of their seats and crowding around a small group of boys to get partners before all the good guys were taken. And by good, I mean the guys who don't stick worms in the girls' desk during recess and stick gum on their chairs. I didn't care about the rush though because no matter how fast the good guys were taken, I already had my partner.
I quickly got dressed and rushed out of my bedroom, almost running over Annette in the process. I knew she didn't like waking me up in the morning, especially on a Sunday. However, today I knew she was grateful to get a break from watching me while Dad worked. Dad took the day off and decided to chauffeur me himself to the Easter egg hunt. When I walked into the kitchen, Dad was already sitting at the table. He had in front of him a coffee cup and the morning paper. In my spot was a plate of pancakes, already covered in syrup. I smiled and climbed onto my chair. I instantly started shoving pancakes into my mouth.
"The hunt starts at 8:30," Dad said, "so you can take your time eating." His eyes lifted to meet mine and he smiled. He knew how excited I was.
"I know," I said, "I just want to get there."
"Well, we'll get there, so don't eat so fast. We don't need you to start choking," he said, shaking his head and looking down at his paper.
"Sorry," I said, eating slower.
When I had finished my last pancake and washed it down with a glass of orange juice, Annette grabbed my plate while I rushed out of my seat and ran to the door. Behind me, Dad followed, laughing. I waited for him to get to the door. He was going too slowly.
"Come on, Dad," I said.
"I'm coming. I'm coming," he said. "I'm too old to go that fast."
"You're not old Dad," I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the door.
"Well, thank you," he said and allowed me to drag him out the door and down the hall to the elevator. When we got in, he let me push the button. As soon as it opened again, I ran out. I waited for Dad when I got to the door. He was driving, so Milo wasn't waiting for us. I waited with the door man while he got the car and climbed into the back seat when he pulled the car up to the door.
I spent the car ride staring out the window. After a few minutes, Dad passed the school and kept going. The egg hunt was being held at the park because it had more room. Today was going to be great. I'd be happy if we won the prize, but I wouldn't feel bad if we didn't. I didn't need the prize, whatever it was. I just wanted to have fun with the hunt. I hoped there were enough eggs for everybody to find at least one. I would hate for somebody not to find one. I knew some of the kids in my class would try to find all the eggs for themselves. Among those people was one of my friends. Rae had matched up with Brady. She had a major crush on him and would do anything for him, which included helping him horde all the eggs.
My thoughts were interrupted as Dad stopped the car. I sat up as high as I could to see over the seat. In front of me, I saw my class running around and playing before the hunt started. I smiled and unbuckled my seatbelt. I opened my door and stepped out. I watched as Dad walked over to the other parents and started talking to them, then I ran over to my friends, who were waving me over.
"Hi," I said as I stopped in front of them.
"Hi," Liz said. She didn't bother hiding her excitement as she was bouncing up and down. I knew that not all of her excitement was for the hunt, but for her partner. She got Simon as her partner and all the girls hated her for the rest of the day. All the girls minus me, Tori, and Rae. Rae was too focused on Brady and Tori hated her brother. And as for me, I was perfectly happy with my partner.
I heard a car door slam behind me and everybody turned to look who had showed up. I didn't even have to look. I just had to look at Liz's reaction to know that Simon had just stepped out of the car. I turned around to see Tori, Simon, and Derek all walking over to us. Tori walked directly to Liz, ignoring the rest of us. Simon started talking to Rae as he waited for Liz to stop talking to Tori. And Derek walked up to me.
"Hi," I said brightly.
"Hi," he said.
"Ready for the Easter egg hunt?" I asked.
"I guess," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
I didn't take his un-enthusiasm to heart. I knew he didn't mean it. Ever since we exchanged Valentines cards, we'd become friends, much to my friends' confusion. In just the few months we'd been friends, I knew him better than I knew Liz or Rae, both of which I've known since before we started school. Every chance for partners in class resulted in the empty desk next to him being pulled closer and me sitting in it. Rae thought I was crazy. She still didn't like Derek. Liz was fine with him because she was best friends with Tori.
"Okay everybody, it's time to start," Ms. Winter called from a table lined with baskets. The entire class cheered and started running over to the table. I grabbed Derek's hand and pulled him with me. After he got the message, he picked up the pace and walked next to me. I didn't let go of his hand and he didn't pull it away. When we got to the table, I grabbed a basket. We only needed one because teams had to share. Once everybody had their baskets, Ms. Winter had everybody line up at the edge of the field. I looked over at all the teams next to us. Rae and Brady looked determined, Liz was laughing at something that Simon had said, and Tori was glaring at Peter, who she had been stuck with.
At the sound of a whistle, everybody streamed out into the field. Derek and I just walked. We headed to the edge of the field first to see if any eggs were hidden in the bushes. As I pushed through, my eyes focused on a small purple egg. I smiled and reached for it. Before I could grab it, another hand came out and snatched it. I looked up to see Brady at the end of that hand. Next to him was Rae who only looked at the Brady and not at the girl who had the egg stolen from her. I wanted to say something, but I didn't get a chance before they ran off to find more eggs. Instead, I walked over to Derek, who was looking in another bush. He heard me coming and he looked up.
"Find any?" he asked.
"Yeah, but Brady took it before I could grab it," I said.
"Maybe I should talk to him," he said.
"It's fine," I said, shrugging. "There are other eggs."
He looked at me for a second before nodding and picking up the basket. We continued looking into bushes until we concluded that they were empty. We spent the rest of the time looking in holes in the field and just looking on the ground. Unfortunately, it seemed that everybody had found them all. After a while, we stopped looking.
I looked into our empty basket and looked up at Derek. I said simply, "we lost."
He looked at me and started laughing. I just stood there looking at him funny. "Why are you laughing?"
He didn't answer. He just kept laughing. After a while, I started laughing too. I still didn't know what was so funny, but his laughing was contagious. Eventually, we were gasping for breath. When I finally regained my breath, I asked, "What was so funny?"
He looked up to answer me, but something behind me caught his eye. When I asked him what he was looking at, he pointed at the tree about 20 feet behind me. I turned around and looked but I didn't see anything.
"I can't see anything," I said.
"Come on," he said, grabbing me hand and pulling me after him.
When we got underneath the tree, he stopped and pointed up. I followed his finger and gasped. On a branch a few feet up was the prettiest egg I'd ever seen. It was blue and green and covered in sparkles. When the sun hit it, the light reflected off it and it shined. I turned to Derek and he looked at me. He smiled and looked back up.
"I want it," I said, looking at it.
"Then we'll get it for you," he said, walking over to the trunk of the tree.
"But it's too high," I said.
"Come here," he said.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm going to lift you up," he said.
"But you might drop me," I protested.
"Don't you trust me?" he asked, looking a little hurt.
"Of course I do," I said. And I meant it. I took a deep breath and walked over to him. He laced his fingers together and bent over so I could put my foot into his hands. I put my hands on his shoulders and lifted myself. Once I was up, he lifted me so I was level with the branch. Making sure I steady, I looked in front of me. Nestled between the branches was the egg. It was even prettier up close. I reached out and grabbed it, holding it close so that I wouldn't drop it. I looked down at Derek and nodded. He slowly lowered me down, but I started to lose my balance and started to fall. I gasped as my falling made Derek fall over, with me falling on top of him. I sat up and looked down at him. He looked back at me and smiled.
"Did you get the egg?" he asked.
I held it out for him to see. He looked at it and back at me. "It's pretty."
I smiled down at the egg. "Yeah, it is."
I got off of him and he got up. He picked up the empty basket. I didn't want to put the egg in the basket, so I just held it as we walked back to Ms. Winters. Everybody else was already there. We stopped next to Simon and Liz.
"Okay everybody, I want every team to come up one by one and show me your eggs," she said.
The first team to go up was Rae and Brady, who had their basket full of eggs. Ms. Winters went through it and counted the eggs. She wrote down the number and took the basket. She did the same with the others. When it got to our turn, I was worried. She took the eggs from everybody, so would she take mine? I really wanted it. When we walked up, I heard snickers coming from others teams when they say that we had only had one egg. When I held the egg out to the teacher, she looked down at the single egg and smiled. She reached out and took it and me and Derek walked back to the others. From a few people away, I could see Rae and Brady laughing. I turned back to Derek, tears threatening to fall.
"At least we found one," he said, trying to lighten the mood.
I tried to smile, but it wouldn't form. Instead, I looked down at my feet.
"Okay class," Ms. Winters said, "With 15 eggs, the winners are Rae and Brady."
They ran up and retrieved their prize. It was an Easter basket full of candy. I sighed. I knew I shouldn't be so disappointed because it didn't matter. But I still found myself envious of them. I sighed and heard footsteps. I looked over to see two men walking over to us. One of them was my dad and the other was a tall man with black hair. By the way Simon reacted to him, I'd say that he was their dad.
"Ready to go?" Dad asked.
I nodded and walked over to him. We walked in silence to the car. He walked over to his side and go in. I opened my door and was about to get in when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Derek running to me. He had something in his hands. When he got to me, he held out his hands. Nestled safely in his hands was the egg. I looked up at him hopefully and he handed the egg to me. I gently took it and looked down at it.
"Ms. Winters said I could have it," he said. "I know that you wanted it."
"Thank you," I whispered. I looked up at him and I threw my arms around his neck. He stiffened before wrapping his arms around me and hugging me back. After a few seconds, I let go and stepped back.
"Derek!" a voice called.
He turned and looked at Simon who was waving him over. He turned back to me.
"Bye," I said.
"Bye," he said, running off to Simon. I smiled and got in the car. After I got buckled in, Dad started the car and started the trip home. Looking down at the beautiful egg in my hands, I decided today was not a disappointment.