When Mia met Casper

|Chapter Five| - Its dark on a cold December but i've got you to keep me warm

| C H A P T E R F I V E | - Its dark on a cold December but i've got you to keep me warm

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9TH DECEMBER 1998

It was a Sunday afternoon and Mia is currently in the cabin, sat legs crossed on top of the red tattered sofa's, doing her maths homework which was due in the next day. Like majority children her age, Mia was not very fond of Math. She didn't see the point in solving unnecessary problems that weren't her own and she didn't believe that there was an answer for everything. It didn't help that her maths teacher was a nob head and the subject its self it was just so boring and time consuming.

Mia scrunches up the worksheet filled with algebra questions into a tiny ball and throws it forcefully out the little window above her head. She watches it fly across the air, amongst the naked winter trees and lands on an empty nest.

Birds are lucky, Mia thinks. They don't have to bother with maths. They didn't have to bother with school either. All they do is sleep, eat, poo and repeat until the day they die. What a simple life. For a brief moment, she imagines how life would be like as a bird. To fly to wherever, whenever. To travel across the oceans and visit countries and maybe even visit places not yet discovered by man. To not have to think or worry about simple things but just spread your wings and fly, escape from your problems. Even for a little while. And most of all, to not have to worry about maths homework that were due in the next day.

Mia shakes her head to get rid of her stupid thoughts. Not knowing what else to do, Mia decides to find Casper and maybe, possibly, annoy him. She hasn't seen her best friend for the past two hours and she wonders if he wanted to go skiing with her. Mia has never been ice-skating in her life. Sure, she's watched people skating in the local skiing resort a few times but the sport didn't really interest her the slightest. That was until that time she had caught Casper watching FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at 3:00pm in the living room one night. Apparently he had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep so he decided to go downstairs and watch television for a bit to calm his nerves but Mia knew it was just an excuse. He's been doing it all week. Since Casper's room was opposite hers, the sound of him opening his door and creeping down the squeaky staircase could be heard loud and clear; enough to wake her up. Only a couple of days later had she finally dragged herself out of bed to investigate further, to see what he was doing awake at three in the morning for the last 6 days. She was not expecting to see him sitting a few centre metres away from the TV screen with a bowl full of popcorn placed on his lap. And she definitely was not expecting to see Casper watching FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Because she had no idea that her best friend had an obscure passion for skiing. So much so that he woke up at 3:00pm just to watch it. And instead of talking some sense into her deranged best friend, she associated with his madness. And it was a not-so-wise decision on her behalf because she too, developed an obscure passion in watching people travel over snow on skis, occasionally slipping or running into a tree. And she accompanied Casper. At 3:00 in the morning. For a week.

Until they got caught by Laila.

Grimacing at the memory, Mia got up.

After a while of searching for her coat, Mia put on her snow boots, raps her neck with a large fluffy scarf and runs out the cabin eagerly. As soon as she was outside, Mia feels the chilly breeze touch her face as she sprints across the white forest like an invincible storm, occasionally stopping for a minute or two to catch her breath.

As she grows closer to the ocean where she had last seen Casper, Mia notices the new fallen snow; milk bottle top sized snowflakes drift lazily to earth in a gentle breeze, swirling down in great flurries over the quiet, silent woodland. The ground is covered with a powdery soft carpet of white. It was peaceful, as if the snow has absorbed all the sounds of the world.

Mia really does love winter. She loves those cold, cozy nights, lying beneath warm covers, drinking a steaming mug of hot chocolate and watching snowflakes fall from the sky with non-other than her best friend, Casper.

☾☀ 你永远是我最好的朋友。☽☼

It is five o'clock in the afternoon and Casper is busy carving something into the trunk of the great willow tree. The task has been proven more difficult than he had perceived. He had to put a lot of strength into pushing the kitchen knife into the trunk because the knife was incredibly blunt and a lot of concentration and patience was needed. Nonetheless, he was determined to get it done.

In the midst of carving in the last letter, Casper hears a familiar voice calling his name from behind. He arcs his head around and catches a glimpse of Mia running towards him with a freshly made snowball rapped around her palm. Casper instantly drops the kitchen knife and shoots up from his crouching position on the floor and hides behind the great willow tree, just about missing getting hit in the face by a snowball.

Casper chuckles loudly and sticks his head out behind the tree.

"Hah! You missed--"

Casper feels as if all the air escaped from his lungs as he felt something incredibly cold collide with his face. He stumbles back in surprise and slips onto the snow covered floor with a load thump. Fresh snow scatters all over the place like a blizzard and Casper tries very hard to shut out the sound of Mia's mocking laughter that could probably be heard from the depths of the amazon rainforest and across the deepest parts of the pacific ocean

Casper couldn't help but smile at his friends intoxicating laughter and he finds himself laughing even harder as he tries to get himself up. Mia appears in front of him, her lips morphed into a cheeky smile as she stretches out her arms. "Need a hand?" she offers, the sides of her warm eyes crease due to the intensity of her wide smile.

He nods and reaches out for her hand, his eyes sparkling mischievously. But Mia did not notice the slight smile tugging in the corners of his lips as his cold fingers w
rapped around her surprisingly warms ones, and with a forceful tug, Mia shrieks in shock as she lands right on top of him, causing them both to stumble and fall onto the slippery floor. They roll down the steep, slippery ground like a boulder of snow. And the two friends hold onto each other tightly for dear life as they fall.

The world spins before their eyes, the earth tilts, the sky dips and life churns on, getting faster and faster and they both erupt into another fit of laughter and giggles as they gently role down the hill and hit a stop a couple of meters from the frozen ocean.

And they stay like that for a while, catching their breaths, both caught up in a tangled ball of limbs, until Casper's soft voice breaks free the silence.

"That was fun."

Mia moves bits of hair from her face, "Yeah," she breathes, a ravishing smile etching across her flushed face.

The two friends stare up at the once blue sky that was now covered in exotic shades of pinks on oranges and streaks of turquoise. The sky didn't look so empty with the stars tonight. The sky looked alive and vibrant and it glowed like the northern lights.

Casper turned his head slightly to gaze at the girl with the magnificent green eyes. The kind of green that pushed its way through the piles of gritty snow to remind you that spring was coming. The kind of green that budded on the prisoners of winter, bringing life back to their branches. That churning, passionate green that the ocean turns during a storm. That colour of the forest after it rains. The colour of the tadpoles making ripples in the pond. That green colour that brings hope and life no matter what has happened. And looking into those eyes, Casper had realised that it didn't matter where he was, no matter if he was half way across the world living in a cave in Argentina or backpacking his way across the borders of Mexico, it wouldn't matter to him: as long as the green eyed girl was by his side, anywhere felt like home.

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