ll Soulmates ll A Spirit Animals Alternative Universe

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Spirit Animals series don't belong to me, it belongs to the authors of SA. The concept of communication through journals don't belong to me either, it belongs to J.K Rowling.

Abeke's POV

It all started on the day of her eleventh birthday...

"Happy birthday, 'Bek!" her best and quirky friend, Rollan, hollered at her, holding a ridiculously glittery banner with the words "!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" on top of his head.

Since Abeke's family didn't really care about her birthday, her father and her elder sister, Soama, had gone to see an opera downtown while her friends, Rollan and Irtike, prepared a surprise party for her on this night.

"Blow the candles, Abeke!" Irtike punched her shoulder playfully. Even though the girl was half a year younger than Abeke, the two had quickly bonded over their love for animals when they met in English class, and after introducing her to her childhood friend, Rollan, the three had quickly became the best of friends.

Abeke grinned and blew out all the candles in one single breath before bending down to lift the coke and cups under the table for her friends. She spotted Irtike and Rollan struggling to hold in their giggles as she straightened. Still holding the bottle, she shot her friends a confused look.

Irtike pointed at the candles on top of the cake before clapping Rollan's shoulder and exchanging a satisfied smirk with the boy as Abeke glanced at the cake.

There, right before her eyes, were eleven brightly burning candles, right where she just blew!

Abeke mouthed a silent "what?!" in disbelief before turning to her mischievous friends with a withering glare.

"Seriously, Rollan?! Relighting candles?! You pulled that stunt on me last year! I thought you grew out of it!" she exclaimed, putting down the heavy coke bottle with a loud THUD.

Rollan grinned. "Well, you can never grow old for pranks!"

"But these are relighting candles," she protested. "No way am I wasting 5 minutes of my night blowing candles!" Abeke refused bluntly, recalling her experience with relighting candles a year ago.

Well, that's Rollan for you, she thought ruefully. Never tired of pranks.

"Fine, then," Rollan agreed reluctantly, throwing the still burning candles in the sink and drenching them in a pot of water. "I'm not here for this anyways," he continued seriously as Abeke and Irtike both shot him a confused glance.

"You see, I turned 11 almost a year ago. And my mum told me that if you have a soulmate, you will receive a mysterious journal that connects you to your soulmate, which means you two can use it to communicate," Rollan lectured. "I have mine here, and we've talked through it for a lot of times," he said, holding up a thin book with a worn leather case. "It doesn't need to be thick, because everything you write just sinks into the paper and your soulmate will receive it." He frowned at Abeke's blank stare at him. "So?" he hinted a bit with his voice, making wild hand gestures at her.

"So what?"

"You cat-obsessed idiot! Go to your room and see if you have a journal!!!"

Irtike shuddered at her friend's impatient attitude. "You know, I'm just gonna stay here and, um, wash the dishes?" she tried.

"Oh, Irtike you don't have to-"

"Suit yourself!! Though I don't bite, y'know," Rollan interrupted with a mischievous smile.

Irtike's eyes curved upward in laughter. "Yeah.... We'll see about that," she said. "Now go get my friend some brains," she added with a note of humor in her voice.

"But how am I supposed to know that this is not another prank you set me up in?" Abeke asked, still skeptical about the whole idea of "soulmates" that her parents and her 14-year-old sister hadn't told her about. "And why didn't Dad tell me about it sooner?" she said as they started up the stairs to her room.

Rollan rolled his eyes. "Hey! I take offense in that! We've known each other for years!" he protested. "And as if that trashy man would tell you anything," he added angrily under his breath.

"You messed up your reputation first! Now everyone thinks you're a prankster!"

"Seriously? You believe a stupid old man who only cares about his daughters' grades?!"

"I don't know if this is real or not!"

"Okay, okay stop. Sorry, let me show you how this works," Rollan held out an arm as he pulled out his journal using the other.

Abeke took a deep breath as she leaned against the cool wall. "I'm sorry too, for raising my voice."

Rollan smiled warmly at her. "That's okay, I know how much you've dreamed of a soulmate."

And just like that, they always made up. Even though Abeke got angry plenty of times due to Rollan's sometimes ridiculous behavior. That's how they remained best friends, because they understood each other.

"Here," Rollan showed the book to his friend, then took a pen, and wrote out the words "hey, I'm at my friend's birthday party, how 'bout u?" on the first page, which Abeke noted was blank. Slowly, like magic, the words sunk into the yellowed recycled paper, until it became the blank paper Abeke just saw.

Abeke let out an astonished gasp as she traced her finger on the paper just to be sure.

"It's gone!!"

Rollan let out a satisfied smirk. "Told you I wasn't bluffing you."

"Wait!!! More words are appearing!!" Abeke squeaked as she put a hand to her wide-open mouth.

Rollan's eyes widened too as much neater cursive writing in blue ink appeared on the page "Really, the one who's turning eleven? Does she have a soulmate?"

Abeke raised her eyebrows with a smile at that, but didn't say anything. "Huh, didn't know she was awake," Rollan said to himself.

"Who knows! Maybe you two are in the same time zone!" Abeke squealed, suddenly filled with excitement. "Come on, let's see if I got a journal!!" she said as she dragged Rollan up the stairs, almost tripping over her cat, Uraza, who let out a displeased mew. Rollan smiled as he put the pen and his journal back into his inner jacket pocket to respond to his soulmate later.

"Oh, my, gosh!!!!!!!!!" Abeke shouted in excitement as she entered her room with Rollan at her heels. Right there, lying on her bed was a journal, identical to the one Rollan owned, only with a new and smooth leather case.

"Told you," Rollan said smugly as he leaned on the doorframe with his hands in his pockets, lips curving upward in a pleased smirk. Below them, they heard the sound of porcelain shattering and the terrified scream of Irtike, and a look of horror entered Abeke's eyes. "My dad is gonna murder me when he gets home and finds out that one of his plates are broken."

"Errrr... Don't worry, I'll go clean this mess up, while you stop holding that book in your hand like a statue and start writing in it already!" Rollan encouraged her as he hurriedly headed down, yelling confidently, "Believe me, your father will not even notice that a plate's been smashed here before.

"I don't really believe you!" Abeke yelled downstairs as the sound of Rollan's footsteps faded, leaving only silence.

Taking a deep breath, Abeke picked up her fountain pen from her desk, accidentally dripping a drop of ink on the paper, though it disappeared seconds later, and started to write, the green ink of her pen flowing smoothly on the paper.

Hi. I'm Abeke. I guess I'm your soulmate?

If it weren't for the ink disappearing, Abeke was ready to slap herself for being such a stupid idiot, writing on a journal, believing it led to her soulmate. She let out another surprised gasp as blue, blockier words appeared on the page.

Wow, this is really real. Hello.