7 The Weird Stranger

Victoria was happy at her daughter's score, but somehow she was getting afraid of her own child.

When they returned home, Victoria asked her daughter what happened.

"I already reviewed them. I'm not stupid." Andrea answered coldly. "And they kept accusing me that I cheated during the exam but they can't even find any evidence."

Victoria only nodded and excused her daughter. That same night, she talked to her husband, Professor Philip Fuentebella, about what happened.

"What? How dare they accuse Andrea of cheating?"

"It's already resolved Philip. She took the exam again and even perfected it."

"Really? Has she always been like that?"

She was uncertain at it.

"Do you think something happened to our daughter while in a coma?" she asked.

"Victoria, you're a doctor. Do you really have to ask such questions?"

"It's just, she seems and feels different." she answered. "It's like she's not our daughter anymore."

"You're thinking about it too much Victoria. Give her a few days, it's probably just some sort of phase in her life."

Victoria only sighed.

When Andrea graduated in elementary, she talked to her parents about what she wanted. She really put some thought into what this world's Lyga's words. She was given a fourth chance as Andrea Fuentebella and she didn't want her life to go the same as the first time she lived it. And if she wanted to change it, she had to start early, and the first thing she had to do was to get away from her parents.

Her relatives and even her parents would think she was being ungrateful, but she really didn't want to live her life being controlled by her parents. They can call her ungrateful and disloyal for all she cares, but she had decided.

"I want to study abroad." she told her parents when they asked her what she wanted as a gift.

"Andrea, I think you're too young to-"

"There's no such thing as too young and too old to experience the world. I just want to do it earlier than most people."

"Andrea you just graduated from elementary, don't you think that's a bit of a stretch?" her father asked.

"If I want to get accepted on the university I want, on the course that I want, I should start now. After all the education system of each country is different." she explained.

"Aren't you going to be a doctor?" her mother asked. "Didn't we talk about it before? You're going to study on the same school as mom?"

"I don't want to be a doctor anymore." she replied. "What I want to be in the future, I'll figure it out when the time comes, but I don't want to be a doctor."

"Andrea Fuentebella!"

"Mom, dad." she called trying to sound as calm as possible. "I don't want to end up like last time. I know I'm only eleven but you shouldn't expect too much from your children. You didn't choose them, but we didn't choose you to be our parents either. And even though you are the ones who made it possible for us to live in this world, there's a limit to how much you control our life and intervene in it."

Victoria wanted to cry. Her daughter had changed too much!

"I will study abroad. That's final. I already signed up for an entrance exam and a scholarship for an international school in China. Either you support me or not, I don't really care."

Andrea left the room and Victoria collapsed to the floor. Philip immediately went to her side.

"Victoria!"

"Philip, what happened to our child?" she asked as tears streamed down her face. "What happened to our child?!"

"I- I don't know either. But she has changed. She's no longer the sweet and obedient Andrea that we knew."

***

Andrea sat in the bench and looked at the children playing in the playground. Some were just her age while the others were younger than her. Summer had already started in the Philippines and kids usually spent it playing outside. Back in her first life, she spent her summers taking classes in different fields. She was always busy and never really had the time to play around.

Her mind drifted to the confrontation, and maybe also demands, she made with her parents.

'Was it too much?' she asked herself. 'I mean, I'm supposed to be eleven.'

She shook her head and decided to just stand by her decision. While pondering about it, a man with a magician's hat suddenly sat at the other end of the bench she was sitting on. At first, she suspected him of being a ghost and mentally debated whether to ask him or not.

Ever since waking up from a coma when she was nine, she started seeing ghosts. She never had such ability in her original life so she thought it was an effect of her spirit as Euka. She was technically a goddess back in Vastia and her spirit was carried back to earth.

A ghost approached her once when she was ten and asked what she was.

"I'm just me? A human being, a living one at that?" she answered, but even she herself sounded unsure.

"No, you're not just a regular living human." the ghost responded. "Sure you have the body of a human but your aura doesn't resemble that of a human at all."

A grim reaper also approached her once and told her she was a little weird.

"I have never met a human with the spirit and essence of a deity. Such level of aura, demigods doesn't even compare to it, and they're half-gods."

Since then, she had suspected that maybe she carried over her powers as Euka when she returned to her life as Andrea Fuentebella. She tried to practice her mystic arts, and although it was a little weak, she was actually able to perform it.

Ever since then, she used taekwondo to strengthen her body and continued practicing her mystic arts. At the same time, she would also help out the ghosts who would get lost or deal with those that would cause trouble when the grim reapers were too busy to do it. Because of that she was friends with a few spirits and grim reapers in the area.

Her train of thoughts got cut off when the man suddenly asked her a question.

"Excuse me?" she asked, not really able to hear what he asked.

"I was asking why you're not playing with them."

"Ah, well… I'm not in the mood to do so."

"Eh. For a kid you speak quite eloquently." the stranger commented.

"What? Just because I'm eleven that doesn't mean I have to be childish."

"Hey kid, didn't your parents teach you not to talk to strangers?" he asked again.

"They did, but I don't think you're up to no good. If you're a kidnapper, you won't kidnap me at such a public place in broad daylight. I can just scream and people would be rushing here in an instant." she answered. "But if you're a ghost, you can't really do anything to me."

"Who says I'm a ghost?"

Andrea looked at the stranger and noticed a strange aura around him. She somehow found it familiar, but the man was definitely alive.

"Oh, so you're a living man. Sorry if I called you a ghost."

"Can you see them? The ghosts?"

"I would be lying if I deny it, but other kids, and even adults, usually say I'm just making it up."

"Oh? And what do you think about it?"

"It's their mindset. To see is to believe after all. Why do you think police officers need physical evidence when they convict someone? It's because it can be seen." she said.

"Whoa, even as a child you're really smart." he said. "So even in your first life you really were smart, and I'm seeing it in person… your majesty."