Hey, all! I know that I haven't posted anything new in this blog for a while. I've added little by little of my first volume, and now I would like to post this short story I'm working on. It's about Cornelia's birthday, and I'm halfway through now. I promise that I'll get this done by the end of this year.
Lincent gently lifted a strand of hair of my ears and smoothed my left cheek. He pressed his soft lips against my cheek.
"What are you writing?" Lincent poked his head.
Cornelia let out a scream. Blushing, she quickly hid her story notebook on her back.
"N....nothing." she stammered.
"It's a story, I can tell." Lincent chuckled.
Cornelia's cheeks flushed. She wouldn't want her boyfriend to read her story. It was according to her fantasy of celebrating her birthday with Lincent alone.
"Come on, sweetie!" he winked, "Let me read the story you're working on."
Cornelia shook her head vigorously. "It's...personal." she mumbled.
"Anyway," Lincent continued, "I know that tomorrow's your birthday, and I was wondering whether you're free for the whole day tomorrrow."
Cornelia's heart stopped. Her eyes expanded like large spheres. Is this finally happening??????
"Umm...yes! I'm free tomorrow!" Cornelia blurted.
"That's perfect! I'll take you to Disneyland for the whole day then, since I know you love Disney so much." Lincent smiled,
"Sounds fantastic!" Cornelia replied.
"Well, I got to go. But first,: Lincent said as he sat close to Cornelia. He was about to reach Cornelia's lips, while suddenly Tory screamed, "BOO!"
The lovebirds were interrupted.
"Tory!" Cornelia frowned.
"I'm sorry for..disturbing your alone time." Tory snickered.
"You better." Cornelia replied. She was fuming.
Lincent quickly gave a kiss on Cornelia's cheek. "See you later, my rose!" he waved.
Cornelia smiled dreamily. She watched with admiration as Lincent left the park.
"Ooo..." Tory teased, "Somebody's in her own world."
"Zip it, Tory!" Cornelia snapped.
Cornelia and Tory made their way to the campus.
"So, tomorrow's your birthday. I heard that Lincent will take you to a special place." Tory smiled.
"You have been eavesdropping all the time?" Cornelia asked in disbelief.
"Hey, I didn't mean to! But why just you and him? I thought you want a birthday party for just the Aurelz." Tory said.
"Tory, I've been celebrating my brithday with you girls many times. I want to have...you know, some personal time with Lincent." Cornelia replied.
"You see Lincent every day, isn't that considered as that?" Tory pointed out, "Oh! Here's the science department building. See you later."
Cornelia continued her way to the fine arts building where her creative writing course was held.
"Hey, Cornelia!" her classmate, Jenna, greeted.
Cornelia entered into the classroom and sat next to Jenna. She then dug in her sling bag for her notebook. Suddenly, she spotted a ruby red rectangular paper that sticked between the pages of her notebook.
"That's weird," Cornelia said, "I never carry a bookmark with me."
"What is it?" Jenna asked.
Cornelia flipped her notebook open and stared at the paper. It was a bookmark with little stamped rose papers and hearts on it. "Happy Birthday,Cornelia! You're precious to me!" was written in Italian-style calligraphy.
"Omigosh! That is so sweet!" Jenna exclaimed.
Cornelia flipped it to the back. There was no name or signature on it.
"It's anonymous!" Cornelia said.
"Wow! Suspense!" Jenna breathed, "Could it be a secret admirer?"
"That's impossible! Lincent and I are together. There's no way someone else can budge in." Cornelia replied.
"Well do you have any idea who read your book?" Jenna asked.
"No. Well, I only lend my stories for my best friends to read, but not to any guys here." Cornelia replied.
Jenna, the elf of Revylle (kingdom of elves), squinted her sapphire eyes at her friend.
"Oh, really?" she quizzed.
"You expect that a guy mysteriously hide this bookmark in my notebook huh?" Cornelia laughed.
"Could it be your boyfriend? I mean he could be the one who do this." Jenna guessed.
Cornelia remembered that Lincent sneaked by when she wrote her private story. Did Lincent had his eagle eyes on her story?
Jenna interrupted Cornelia's stare for two minutes. "Are you going to search for the mysterious person or not?"
"Oh! Um...maybe later." Cornelia replied, stuffed the bookmark back into her notebook.
"Girls! Conference!" Tory announced. The Aurelz (except Cornelia who was in the library), faced Tory with curiousity.
"Don't you think we should wait for Cornelia? I mean she's always the person who call us for a meeting." Penelope said.
"It's a secret conference." Tory smiled, "You all know that tomorrow's a special day."
"Of course! It's Cornelia's brithday!" Estella replied.
"Hey, Aurelz! What's up?" a cheerful voice made them jump. Avren Phire, the new young queen of Luminoux (the magical dimension of light), approached.
"Avren! You're just in time for a special planning!" Tory welcomed, "So, as I was saying, tomorrow's Cornelia's birthday, and this morning I overheard that Lincent will take her to Disneyland for the whole day tomorrow."
"Without us?" Charmaine asked.
"Well, yeah. Cornelia is all gaga about her romantic celebration with her hubby tomorrow." Tory maligned jokingly.
"We enjoy celebrating each other birthdays in all these years. Why suddenly Cornelia refused to celebrate her birthday with us this year?" Charmaine asked in disbelief.
"I have no idea. Which is why we're going too!" Tory decided.
"We're going to Disneyland tomorrow? Should we," Rosemary said, but was interrupted by Tory.
"No! We shouldn't let her know about this!" Tory answered, "We should give her a surprise."
"I'm in!" Estella agreed. And so were the others. Avren decided to join in, since she hadn't got any specific duties lately.
That night, Cornelia finally made it to her room after a long day at Silverstone. She kept staring at the anonymous bookmark that stuck out from the pages of her notebook.
"Girl, you keep looking at that thing. What's wrong?" Tory questioned as she looked up from her laptop.
"It's this." Cornelia answered, passing the ruby red bookmark to Tory.
Wow!" Tory remarked at the decorated paper.
"The problem is there's no name or signature on it." Cornelia said.
"Could it be your boyfriend?" Tory guessed.
"Maybe. I'll ask him tomorrow." Cornelia replied, "But what if it's not from him?"
"It's definitely from him, I can tell!" Tory believed.
Cornelia took the bookmark back. She slipped it into her Couch bag.
"So," Tory quickly changed the subject, "are you excited about tomorrow?"
"Why, of course! I can't wait!" Cornelia replied.
"Don't you want us to go with you?" Tory asked.
"Oh! There's no need. I can celebrate with the Aurelz tomorrow night, but the rest of the day is reserved for myself and Lincent." Cornelia replied sheepishly.
Not gonna happen. Tory thought with a cunning smile.
The next morning, Cornelia was all pumped. She wore her best Aeropostle shirt and skinny jeans, followed by her pair of black-and-white high top Converse.
"Ready to go?" Lincent greeted her with a charming grin. He just loved the way Cornelia dressed. Her black hair was combed neatly as usual, and he could smell the sweet Paris-flavour body mousse she used.
Cornelia nodded in reply and got into the car. Lincent left a soft kiss on his girlfriend's right cheek. Soon, the car pulled down the road. From the student apartment, Tory peeked through the window. She smiled as the coast was clear.
"Let's go after her, Aurelz!" Tory announced to the others.
"I don't think it's a good idea, Tory." Estella bit her lip.
"We wouldn't want to miss Cornelia's birthday, right?" Tory asked, "Who knows? Maybe the vampires of the Voural star will drop by and destroy her moment. We'll be the perfect backup for her."
"The weather sure is great today!" Cornelia smiled, looking at the sunny day with glee.
"It's going to be a great birthday date, you'll see." Lincent said. His right eye winked.
"A birthday date, huh?" Sounds enchanting." Cornelia joked.
"Everything's enchanting when I with you, Beauty." he winked.
Cornelia blushed with a smile, feeeling that she was like the luckiest girl in the world. Lincent parked his Toyota at one of the stalls in the wide Disneyland parking lot. A long queue was formed in front of them.
"Looks like the buses will be full." Cornelia exclaimed.
"Yeah, we better hurry. Oh! I almost forgot!" Lincent paused, "Before we get off the car, I have a surprise for you."
"Is it another necklace? Because I already have tons of them." Cornelia giggled.
"Just close your eyes, my dear." he said with a wink.
Cornelia sealed her eyes shut with an eager grin. Her soulmate quietly pulled out a present wrapped in red gift paper from the glove compartment, trying not to bump against Cornelia's hands which were gently clasped like she was praying.
"And...you can open them now." his soothing voice reached to Cornelia's ears like a sweet melody.
"Oh! Lincent!" she smiled real wide and took the gift gratefully from him, "You shouldn't have."
"I bet you'll like it."
Her Elianto ruby red polish glistened on her nails with little clusters of silver glitters like the tiny stars designed on the gift wrap. She unwrapped the present with excitement floating inside her. A glimpse of auburn was revealed as she slowly removed the paper. A hardcover 80-pages journal laid before her eyes.
"Happy birthday, Cornelia." he smirked.
She noticed him blushing. Blushing with pleasure. She then threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you! I love it!" Cornelia smiled, "Now I can have more room to write down new ideas and...diary entries about us."
Lincent folded his right hand on hers and stared into her eyes. "I'm looking forward to every story about us."
Meanwhile, at an intersection, Estella dialled her iPhone to call the guys.
"HEEEYYYYY Craigie pie! Guess what we're up to?" her high-spirited voice appeared.
"It's a good thing I got my official driving license." Tory groaned, trying to ignore her.
"What? Is there a problem of me using my phone while you drive?" she asked.
"Your loud voice is disrupting my driving." Tory uttered, "Oh! that rhymes! I should write a new poem about this!"
"Girls, what should we do there? I mean, Cornelia wants to have a great time with Lincent alone. Don't you think barging in is just...rude?" Rosemary interrupted with her eyebrows arched in worry.
"Girl, I've told you. We have to be involved in Cornelia's birthday. She's probably pretend to leave us behind so that we can give her a surprise or something." Tory replied.
"I don't know, Tory. She looks so happy to be with him on her special day." Penelope pinpointed.
"Well, we are going! That's it! I definitely can't wait to see the look on her face." Tory grinned.
"Ah! Every time I enter through these gates, I feel magic spreading inside me!" Cornelia smiled.
The happy young couple passed through the doors of Disneyland park. Cornelia couldn't agree more. Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, just gets better. A large wave of joy dosed all over her, like she was drunk in a world of no worries and pain. Everything was paradise. Toothy smiles were scattering here and there. Main Street USA welcomed them with transparent swirls of pastry aroma from bakeries and eye-catching souvenirs in stores that overloaded the cuteness meter.
Cornelia clutched her boyfriend's right arm as she pointed at her favourite charater like a child. "Hey! Let's take a picture with Mickey Mouse!" she squeled.
"But, sweetie! It's such a long queue!" Lincent said, "We wouldn't want to waste our time waiting."
"For all this time, I have never take a picture with Mickey Mouse." Corneia pouted.
"We'll get back to it later, okay?" Lincent cheered her up by tickled her nose with his fingers, "Hey! Let's take the tram to Fantasyland. I have a feeling that it's your favourite place here."
"You know me too well, Lincent." she laughed and rested her head against his broad shoulder.
"Hey! What's that?" a little boy suddenly asked, pointing one finger to a rooftop.
Cornelia and Lincent looked to the direction, followed by the boy's parents and a few other passers-by. The boiling sun was blocked by a figure in black. The familiar shadow caught her eye.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Cornelia groaned.
"Is that a vampire?" Lincent exclaimed.
"Well, if it isn't a vampire, then who else?" she replied, "What in the world is she doing here?"
The enemy leaped off the roof of a souvenir shop and landed gracefully down in front of the couple.
"Well well well...isn't it the lovebirds? What a pleasant surprise." Faye, the vampire of sedation and terrakinesis, smiled. Her fangs gleamed like silver.
