11 Surprise II

She wash her hands and check herself in the mirror, making sure she still looks neat. Of course she has to looks presentable. Plus, she will be meeting with strangers, where she is the one playing the outsider card.

She walks to the door and open it, strolling her way out to the bench besides the door of the restroom. She swing her backpack on her shoulder, getting ready to walk away. But, as she was about to walk away, a familiar figure caught her eye.

It's Harlan.

In his typical black oversized sweater. For now, you never sees him wear another color then black. You can tell he is not in a emo phase or such. Probably, he just coincidentally buys black shirt all the time? Who knows.

He is walking away out of the school. You check the watch on your wrist. "2.18 p.m."

Huh. He get home earlier today.

You watch as he walks away, his figure becoming smaller and smaller with every step that he makes. Remembering where you supposed to be right now, you take a final glance at him before walking the opposite way he was going.

You walk through the empty corridor, not even taking a long time to reach the big transparent glass door of the school backyard. From inside, the big wide green field is such a bless for the eye. It just gives off restful mood that makes a perfect place to sit after hours of learning.

You push the cylinder handle of the door, your face met with chills as the crisp air hits her face. You lips automatically form a smile as your body is refreshed. I take a deep breath as you walk outside of the building, closing the glass door. Your eyes automatically closed by themselves.

You slowly exhale as you open your eyes. You look around the green landscape, being in touch with the reality. You look to your left, finding a group of people looking at your at one of the tables Cameron was talking about.

By a quick glance, you can see there are 4 people. So, you are the fifth you assuming? Your eyes scanning the people, there are only two people that you recognized. Cameron and Liam.

The other two? Never really seen them before. A girl with a brownish blond hair while the guy have a brown hair.

You walk to them as your hands tugging onto the straps of your bag, being lowkey nervous. The first time is always like this, right?

You get closer and closer to them until Cameron open his mouth. "Emily, you're here," he says with his infamous smile. Trying to not be bitter, you gave him a small smile. "Hey," you lowly said.

You reached the table and place your bag on the empty sit, which where they were pointing for you. You sit on the chair of table, joining the rest. "So, I guess we will do a little bit of introduction," Cameron says as he looks at the people around the table. "Okay, we will start from Matthew."

The guy on the left side of Cameron begins to look around the table as the ball was passed to him. "So, my name is Matthew, and you can call me Matt," he says as he looks at you at the end of the sentence. He finish of with a friendly smile on his face which force you to give him a smile.

The next person to introduce themselves is the girl whose looks screams an A student with a healthy life. "My name is Halle and you just can call me Halle," she says as she looks directly at you.

Well, of course it is obvious they do this introduction session because of you. Judging by the way they all sit together, you knew they already knew each other.

"I hope we can be friends," she says as she lend out her hand. You were a little bit taken aback by her action. Not a bad way, you never had someone approach you like this.

You take your hand out with a small smile on your face, shaking her hand. "Me too."

Realizing that it is your turn, you look at the people around the table, opening your mouth. "My name is Emily. You can just call me Emily." Halle mouth "sure," while Matthew is just nodding at your sentence.

"And, I'm pretty sure you already know the both of us?" Cameron tease as he meant him and Liam, stealing the attention at the table. You just give him a small smile and nodded. "Good, I don't think we need an introduction then," Cameron says as he relax in his sitting straight position.

Contrast to his bestfriend, Liam is sitting in a crossing leg position, while leaning back on the chair. His bored eyes are closed. His fluffy hair are messy, giving him an attractive look while his jawline and soft looking cheeks completes everything.

"Wait, why is he here?" Halle's said, turning the attention on to her. Liam open his eyes to see who she is talking about to only find her finger pointing on him.

The atmosphere goes quiet.

"Hey, come on. I'm not dumb," Liam open his mouth, defensing himself. "Nobody were talking about you being dumb, dumbo," Halle said, adding a little joke at the end.

"You just doesn't seems like the right person to do the job," she adds. Liam playfully glare at her, when he does gives off an intimidating vibe. "Just watch. You will know how good I am at it."

Halle let out a sarcastic smile. "That must be interesting to watch." Unexpectedly, Liam let out a little pout.

"Okay, okay," Cameron says as he look at everyone around the table. "We are going to decide on the roll." He says as he brings out a piece of paper. "You already have recommendations?" Halle asks.

"Yup, I made it beforehand," Cameron answers. "So, like you all know, I am the head of this team, Liam is going to be the one in charge for the activities that we are going to do for the event, Halle is going to be the one who takes care of the venue, Matthew is going to be a supervisor and Emily will be in charge of the money."

Everyone at the table nodded hearing their positions. "No objection?" Cameron says as he looks at every one of them. No one raise their hand or say anything. "Cool, then we are done about everybody's roles," he says as he looks at the piece of paper he holds.

He looks up once again, opening his mouth. "Now, time for the details."

~*~

She twists the doorknob after hearing the click from the knob. "I'm home," she says as walks in, closing and locking the door behind her. She looks to her right and left, sensing that no one is home.

She walks and step up on the stairs, one by one leading her to the second floor, where her room is located. She turns to her right and with few more steps she opens the door of her room. Letting out a deep sigh, she closes the door of her room and rush to her bed, tossing her beg to the side while throwing herself on the soft mattress.

She takes a deep breath, slowly exhaling as she is enjoying the heavenly feeling of the sunken bed after a long day of school. She stays in the same position, relaxing her body until a thought came into her mind.

Ugh...

Just as she get the time to relax, she suddenly reminded herself of where she needs to be tomorrow.

*Flashback*

"Everyone is clear about their job?"

A "yup," can be heard coming from Matthew, while Halle, Emily, and Liam nods. "Good," Cameron says as his face is beaming with such a positive energy. "So, we will start our work by tomorrow," he adds as he puts the paper down on the table.

Emily secretly looks around the table to find any displeased face, and to her surprise, she found none. While her, although it paltrily annoys her, her expression stays the same.

"Wow, seems like nobody has any objection," Cameron says as he looks at us. "Which I did not expect, but well, I am happy with how things are going. Seems like I have chosen the right people to be in this team," he adds and of course, with his golden retriever smile.

Emily mentally sighs.

"Where are we going to meet up?" Halle asks as she looks at Cameron. "How about the park?" Cameron suggests. "Yeah, cool," Matthew positively responds, followed by Halle's and Liam's nods.

However, Emily does not give any respond. Why? She doesn't even know where the park is. Everyone ended up looking at her as they were waiting for her answer, but instead, they are met with a lost face.

"You don't know where the park is?" Halle asks nicely. Emily shakes her head, giving the others an answer. A friendly smile makes a way on Halle's lips as an idea slips through her head. "Oh, it's okay. We can just pick you up from your house, then we will go together," she says as she looks at you.

Having the whole table's attention diverts onto you, you simply answers Halle. "Yeah, sure."

"But we don't have your address," Halle says. As you were about to open your mouth, you were cut by Cameron. "I know her address," Cameron says with a smile. "I can just lead later," he adds.

"Good then," Halle responds to Cameron.

~*~

How much she doesn't really want to go, she doesn't have a choice. She just sighs in defeat. She changes her position, laying on her side in a fetal position. Her head brings back the moment where she saw Harlan walking out of school.

He goes home a little early today. Earlier than usual. What he could be doing? Or probably he just want to home soon to rest since it is Friday, which is exactly happening to Emily.

She just could not help but be a little curious about him. Plus, being curious about someone is not bad, it helps us understands people, right?

The time pass slowly as her mind wanders about the things that happened today. Her eyes slowly becoming heavy as she lose her consciousness, leading her to her usual afternoon nap.

~*~

She scrolls through her phone as she is relaxing on the bed, enjoying her definition of Friday after school. As her eyes focused on the glass of her smartphone, a notification comes in. She immediately tap on the notification, opening the messaging app.

*You are added to a group chat*

She looks at the name of the group. "Event Team." Such an "interesting" and "creative" name for the group chat. But hey, A for the effort.

She tap on the group description, trying to find her number. But to her surprise, there are only 4 people in the group chat including her. Realizing this, she write a text and send it to the group. "Why Emily is not in this group?"

Just seconds after she sent the text, she immediately gets a respond. "She doesn't have a phone," Cameron reply. Before she knows it, she unconsciously learn something about Emily, same goes for Matthew who are going to read the text.

"Oh okay," Emily respond, letting Cameron know.

Just as she was about to exit the messaging app, her favorite name pops up in her notification. A small happy smile forms on her lips. She opens the text to read the message.

"Weirdo." her smile becomes brighter as her fingers begins to type. "What now Noah." She is swarms with joy as she sees him typing. "You just are a weirdo."

On the other line, Noah also form a small smile on his lips. It is odd to call people weirdo out of the blue, isn't it? The truth is, he wanted to text Halle since she has been running on his mind, but he doesn't have any topic to tease her. So he just starts a conversation like that, out of the blue.

"Whatever," he received from Halle. The smile on his lips remains as his fingers are moving, wanting to type something, but he doesn't have any idea how to reply. On the other hand, Halle waits for his text.

Time slowly pass, but nobody wrote anything. Regret slowly crawls into Halle. "Why did I say whatever," she says as she face-palmed herself. That leaves both of them hanging, hoping the other side would say something.

~*~

Sandra open the door, walking into the house with a bag of grocery in her hand. Her action is followed by her husband after he lock the door of his car. He walks into the house, carrying two bags grocery, closing the door behind him.

As he walks closer to his wife, he opens his mouth. "Emily is not here?" He puts the bags on the kitchen counter while his wife is already taking out the grocery out of the bag. "She must be sleeping," she says as she organize the item on the table.

The husband looks at her, understanding her sentence. His hands reach for one of the paper bags, unloading it. As he reach the bottom of the bag, his hand takes out a plastic that wraps 5 bottles of banana milk.

He doesn't think his family is really a drinker of this kind of milk. "Since when do you buy banana milk?" His wife opens her mouth. "Recently. I was trying to get her eat more so I tried testing buying a banana milk and bunch of snacks so she could munch something after school. And the milk disappears. So, I bought the milk just if she wants more of it," the mother explains. "Along with healthier snacks," she adds.

The husband nods. "Do you think she will like it?" The mother suddenly speaks. He looks at her, opening his mouth. "If you ask me, I am not sure. But at least it will show her that we still care and love her."

The couples looks at each other, while the husbands closes the gap between them two, side hugging her. "She is a smart girl, we will get through this." Both of them move around as they hug, while the mother closes her eyes. They pull away from each other, looking at their eyes.

"I love you," Sandra says, making her husband smile. "I love you too." They stay in the same position for awhile, before Sandra opens her mouth.

"Let's put the items where they needs to be, then we will be cooking dinner."

~*~

Her gaze jumps from one word to another, her brain processing pictures in her head. She lean back on my chair, shifting to another comfortable position as her two hands stably hold the book.

As she is immersed in the world in her head, her eyes started to lose focus. Her eyelids closes by themselves while her hands put the book down on the table. She lean forward, her elbows resting on the wooden surface, her hands rub her eyes.

Her eyes open once again, eyelids flickering, trying to focus on the wall in front of her eyes. Once she gains her normal sight again, she looks at the window behind her. "It seems like the night is coming," she says in her head.

She looks at the clock hanging on the wall on her study table. 18.34 hour. Remembering the darkness is slowly illuminating her room, she stands up, walking to the switch, turning the light on. She sits back on the chair, continuing to read the book that was left on the table.

Time slowly pass as her focus brought her in another world.

On the other hand, the middle age woman is already on the other side of the door, knocking on the wooden surface. Emily's attention is disturb by the sound. She looks at the door to see it opening, her mom's head peeking inside.

"The dinner is ready," she says with a light face. Emily move her head to the book, reaching for a bookmark besides the book, signing that she heard her. Understanding the sign by her action, the mother closes the door and walk away to downstairs, where the kitchen is located.

Emily put the bookmark on the page she was on and closes the book, putting it on her table bookshelf. She walks to the door, switching the light off before leaving the room. She walks down the stairs and turn to her right, walking to the kitchen. There, she sees the both of her parents already sitting on the table, waiting for her.

She walks to the rectangle table, sitting on the opposite side of her parents. As she adjust her chair to be closer to the table, her father opens his mouth. "So, I think we can start eating," he says as he takes a glass of orange juice in his hand.

The mother follows her husband's action, while Emily is the last to hold her glass. Her father looks at both of them with a small smile before taking a sip, followed by his family member.

The family starts digging into their dinner, roasted chicken with herb butter, some mashed potatoes with some veggies on the side. Yes, today's dinner meal is a little bit different. Usually, there would not be this many components on the dinner table since her parents are busy. But she didn't question it. She don't really care.

Minutes pass, and her parents are waiting for the right time to pull up the gift. As they were eating, both of them are also watching Emily. Emily doesn't eat a lot. So, they are waiting for put down her utensils and takes a sip of the juice since that is her body language when she finished eating.

Another minute passes, and Emily finally put down her fork and knife, her hand reaching for the orange juice. Catching the action, the parents quickly takes a chance. Both of them also put down their utensils as Emily is drinking the orange juice.

"Emily," her father calls as she put down the glass. "Yes?" She says in her low tone. "We actually have something for you," he says as his hands pulls up something from under the table.

He put the small plastic bag on the table, pushing the content inside it to Emily. Emily's face slightly change. She is a little bit surprise, but not excited. She was kind of expecting it. Judging from the dinner that they are having tonight, this makes sense.

She takes a hold of the content inside of it, that shapes like a box. She takes the box out of the plastic, revealing what it is. It is a smartphone. Both of her parents have a small smile on their lips. "Open it," the father says.

She opens the box, just like she was told, to see a brand new smartphone inside. It is a beautiful model, she cannot lie. "Do you like it?" the father asks. She puts on a light face, different from what she is actually feeling.

For once, her parents finally gets to see a positive reaction from her, although it is not big, a step still makes a difference. "Thank you," she says looking at her parents for a short while. The father just smiles, while her mother have a happy relieved expression on her.

They wrap up the dinner, Emily walks up to her room with her new phone. The parents clean the table, putting the dishes into the sink. Both of them washes the plates and the utensils used together, with the mother scrubbing the plates and the husband rinsing.

While she scrubs the plate, thoughts coming into her head. "It is good that we moved here," the mother said, voicing her thoughts. "Yeah, I think so," the father smiles as he rinse the plate, putting it on the cloth that is spread out not far from him to be dry later using dry towel.

"And I heard that she is doing well in school," the father adds. "Really?" the mother says as feelings of ease starts to gush in her heart. "That is a relieve."

The couple looks at each other in the eyes for a second, sending words that they cannot utter towards each other. How lucky they are to have each other. Sending smiles, both of them get back to their work, now doing the work with a light heart.

Day by day, it seems like they are healing. The couple keep putting faith into their daughter, and it seems like their effort finally bear a small flower. A small flower will grow into a fruit, and if you put enough attention and care, the fruit will grow to be healthy and sweet.

Just like how much they want the situation to go back to normal, to the old happy family they were, that much effort they will put into healing their relationship with her. Just like how much they want to see Emily smiling again, that amount of care they will put into protecting and loving her.

We all make mistakes. Some mistakes are hard to be forgiven. How much angry or regret we are, it could not reverse something that is done.

What we can do is learn from our mistake, and avoid doing the same thing, ever again.