Chapter 1 ; Maria

I still remember on a wondrous Sunday morning in the middle of April, the scent of the morning sun mirroring the lake that's a few minutes away from the house, the birds chirping their melody in the trees, and the flowers blooming as the others are yet small but growing. The ray of sunlight strikes my eyes while I was sleeping at seven in the morning, my nanny is making breakfast for my siblings before they go out to the bus stop on their way to school, and for my parents who have gone off to work. whereas a whispering into my ear, telling me to wake up, it must have been my friend, the wind. The windows are open every morning and as the wind blows itself into the house, it wakes me up somehow. Either because I was lonely and had nothing to do while my family was away or that I was cold with my blanket on? I got myself dressed for this early spring morning and headed downstairs, the fresh baked cookies and pancakes flatter around the room and everywhere in the house was spotless. My nanny gave me a smile as she beamed a "good morning darling" and slided my breakfast on the plate across the table while I took my seat. She seems happy, way too happy - I watched her as she hummed a melody to herself while eating breakfast. Although I haven't finished my breakfast,I struck up a conversation.

"Malisa (my nanny's name), can we go to the park after breakfast or maybe around the afternoon", I asked.

To her response, "yes, we can go after your piano lesson with Mr. Pear".

I sighed to myself. Right.. I forgot I got piano lessons every Sunday. After I was done with my breakfast, I got off my seat and headed to the piano, taking my seat again however in the living room, waiting for Mr.Pear to arrive. Each minute passed and he was late, until a sudden phone call rang.

My nanny went to answer the call and her expression turned worried, she ended the call with a, "I hope you get well, Mr. Pear". I'm assuming that practice is canceled today, my nanny looked at me as I tried to put my curious mask on instead of a small grin appeared on my face, She announced that Mr. Pear won't be coming today due to his sickness. I made myself look upset like I was looking forward to this practice even though I wasn't. She noticed my features and stated, "How about we go to the park you wanted to go to?" with a smile on her face to reassure me. I smiled happily.

Malisa and I arrived at the park that was close by from the house, there were many children out. Some are playing touch and go, racing each other, swinging on swings, sliding on the slides, playing with their own toys, and building sandcastles on the sand area; as for their parents watching their children play from the sidewalk seated on the benches. I told Malisa that I would be near the swings and she nodded for approval. I went to a swing that was near where she could see me and swung on that empty swing, while I was swinging I looked at the slide area. I was thinking that after swinging, I would go over there and slide however something else caught my eye. I spotted something underneath the slides. Something shiny or a toy perhaps? I got off the swing and headed towards the slide where I saw that mysterious object, It happened to be a toy robot.

A blue and red with silver lining robot that could transform into a truck, I observed the toy underneath the slides when a sudden figure I felt creeped behind me, I turned around quickly and saw that it was a boy. He had green eyes with a tint of brown in the inner part of his eyes near the iris, it resembles the dog poop on the grass I saw as I walked passed a few kids making my way towards here, his hair was dark like the burnt hotdog Mom made a week ago, and a birthmark near his eye that intimate the wishing star late at night.

Out of curiosity I asked him "do you need something?"That may sound mean but it was the nicest way I could say it without being very awkward. He knelt down on one leg and murmured something that I couldn't quite catch. I smiled at him acting like I heard him and as I got up to leave, he grabbed my hand and it pulled me back a little.

He looked at me with those eyes as if they could talk to me. I tried to let go of his grip around my hand but he was somehow stronger than me – for the first time, there was someone I couldn't suppress. Therefore instead of trying to get away from him, I asked him if he wanted to get married. I was little at the time, and I don't know why the both of us swore on that childish play, I guess I was way too straightforward. After we promised to each other that we would get married, I told him that when we're probably like our parent's age we should make preparations for the wedding. Considering that I proposed to a stranger, we hung out with each other and every Sunday after piano lesson, we would see each other every day and it stayed like that until high school.

*Ring Ring Ring!*

I was taking my nap and before someone could touch me to wake me up, I got up and forced myself to walk to the next class. The next class was lunch… Why would someone wake me up during lunch time when I'm tired? Unfortunately I'm thankful. I forgot that it was lunch after that lecture class. I bought a cream-bread from the near by asian market by the school and headed towards the class where my seat is at. To my surprise, I saw a rose with no thorns around it placed on my desk. I picked it up and searched my surroundings to see that most of my classmates know who it is from and whispered how romantic it is, furthermore I smelled the flower and walked toward the door frame. I said to myself, " this is lovely" hoping someone heard me and I threw the rose in the trash. The room became louder than the crashing waves at the shore of California, they're shocked at how I reject my secret admirer. They're a coward, my secret admirer - I mean. If they wanted me, I would rather have them say it to me face to face instead of hiding.

Right before I was going to continue my dream that I left off, someone was at the front door asking if they had seen me anywhere. I faced my direction to them and said, "I'm here".

I followed them down the hall near the office, "the teacher wanted to talk to you and afterwards Zion told you to meet him at the rooftop after meeting with the teacher". I nodded and thanked him for telling me. Meeting up with my professor, he talked to me about our plans for the seat changing as I am the class president for our class and later I headed my way to the rooftop. There he was – that player, Zion. I walked towards him and kicked his butt, "do you need something again?" I asked and when he turned around I saw a cut above his eyebrow that may leave a scar on him. I scolded him and dragged him down to the nurse's office to stitch up his injuries. He is like a baby that really needs to be taken care of. He looks at me and again it's those eyes that do something to me. Thus I grabbed his face in my hand, cupping his face, and checked around him for any more injuries. It seems like he got into another fight again. He pressed his cheek into my hand and placed his hand on top of mine. He purred with a smile, "I'm nothing without you, you know that right"? I chuckled.

"Yeah"