~Chapter 1~
A Hauntingly Sad Beginning
I'm Chesa Heart. My life was never normal, in fact it was merely a nightmare that I could never awake from. Though it terrified me in many ways, I fought with everything I had. Everything went completely wrong from friends to family to love. I had always dreamed of an adventurous and fun life. You know what they say, be careful what you wish for. I surprisingly got exactly that. On my thirteenth birthday my mother had died. My family and friends were at our white cottage-like house celebrating my joyous first teenager birthday. About twenty people were there to happily party with my family. My mother noticed that she had forgotten to get the cake from the bakery in town.
"Oh, crap!" my mother exclaimed. "Sorry dear let me go get it." She grabbed her keys, which always had a strange metal ring on the key chain, and hopped into her aqua blue Hybrid. That was the last glimpse I saw of my mother alive. She and I looked fairly alike. She had a skinny figure, deep brown eyes, a heart shaped face, and shiny long black hair. I had a petite yet athletic figure, a heart shaped face, and shiny long black hair. The only physical thing I had from my father was his bright turquoise-blue eyes. We were in the middle of watching a cheap clown trying to make a balloon giraffe for my best friend Summer Santos. I know what your thinking A clown at a thirteen-year-old's party?! Wow?! I really didn't care about this small party. My parents promised me a better party with all my school friends the next day. Summer had a petite figure, deep big green eyes, shiny long black hair, and a heart shaped face. She lived next door to us in a cottage like home. She and I had very close birthdays. Mine was June 13 and hers was June 12. She was always glad to be the older one and I really didn't think it mattered. Summer was an only child just like me. We did everything together and were practically twins inside and out. I was Filipino and so was she. We both loved the sunset, ocean, and almost everything else. We both have American fathers, but we have Filipino mothers. Both of our mothers went to the same grade school, high school, and college. They went to America together at about age seven, which I think must've been hard. A high class school had accepted both of them and all their siblings. Tala, (my mother) meaning morning star in Tagalog (the Philippines' language), and Marisol (Summer's mother) met their husbands the same time also. They were so alike like Summer and me, just like twins.
The clown somehow successfully made a giraffe for Summer. Though it looked slightly like a dog Summer accepted it. She gladly, with a giddy smile, skipped over to me.
"Chesa I have something for you," she signaled me to stay where I was perfectly and comfortably seated. I watched her rush, more like sprint, over to her mom who handed her a white cubed box which had a lavender creamy colored ribbon delicately tied into a bow. "For you," she handed it to me. I thanked her and slowly, but curiously unraveled the beautiful ribbon. I slowly opened the lid and was blasted with the mouth-watering scent of chocolate cake with a hint of cherry. I looked inside and gazed at the beautifully decorated cupcake which had a small purple candle placed on top of it. The cupcake had sky blue icing on it with little pink roses making a circle. In the middle of the rose garden was the number thirteen in neon pink, followed by the candle right in the middle.
"You know how I always stunk and cooking?" I nodded. "Well I decided to take a cooking class and they taught me how to make a mouth-watering chocolate cupcake with a sweet cherry filling," she smiled proudly at her wonderful creation. She grabbed some matches which were placed on the table for we were going to sing happy birthday until my forgetful yet loving mother had forgotten to get my cake before the party. Summer had lit the match which flickered in many warm colors, rose red, sunlight yellow, and bright orange.
"Make a wish Chesa," I closed my eyes tightly as if I was about to jump of an airplane. I took a long deep breath and blew out the candle. I wish for my life to be adventurous. For this birthday to be a new beginning. From the horizon we suddenly heard a loud gunshot which caused many of the guests to jump. My father, Summer, and I quickly tumbled into his forest green Hummer and headed toward the restless town. As we drove on we gazed at everyone scrambling and panicking. No one was the least bit calm. We saw an ambulance which was blaring its alarm and police cars surrounded the bakery/cake shop. I swiftly jumped out of the car and ran to the scene of the crime. Summer and my father followed. We pushed through the busy crowd, dodged the running screaming people, and entered the shop to see my mother's lifeless bleeding body on the floor with the cake box in her hands. I noticed that she had been shot through the heart. Her face will forever haunt me. The shot was unexpected and she was ghost white pale in the face with her brown eyes staring right at me. I was devastated and before I could stop myself I was running to her like I was bing pulled by a magnet, but my father and the police stopped me. I collapsed to the cold tiled ground for my lifeless knees couldn't stand it any longer and I sobbed like I was an infant again. Summer finally finished pushing through the crowd, saw the body, and screamed. It took her a while, but she snapped back down to earth. She glanced over in my direction and noticed that I was crying, wait scratch that sobbing, and came to comfort me though she was obviously really freaked out by my mom's body just lying there, never to smile or hug us again. The police talked seriously to my father while I sat on the tiled floor crying. It began to harshly rain and thundered loudly outside like the world was ending. This incident started the end of the world for me at the moment.
* * *
It was tranquil day in May. At the age of five I was already very emotional and dramatic at that age. My mom always reminded me that I was a naturally born actress. I usually laughed at that, saying that I would never be as pretty as Megan Fox. She just laughed and wondered where on earth I had ever found out about Megan Fox. I had explained to her that Uncle Brett always talked about Megan Fox and that someday he would marry her. She laughed so hard she was choking and as a child I freaked out and called 991. Once she caught her breath she rushed to grab the phone and apologized to the firefighters. Uncle Brett was my mom's brother who was very dear to her. They had both went to the same school. Brett and Marisol were actually a couple once, but they decided to just be friends. He was older than them by a year. Uncle Brett would often visit on holidays. He always cracked jokes whenever he had the chance to. His favorite thing to joke about was probably about Uranus. If you have no idea what that means I suggest asking a friend.
That quiet day my caring parents and I went to Widow Park which had the best playground on earth and maybe even the best playground in all of the Milky Way (not the candy bar). The playground had a swing set and everything, following the themes of cars on one side and fairies on the other. It seemed a bit cloudy as we drove along the path. My five year old body sat tiredly in the old chipped blue Volkswagen. We smoothly parked our car and got out my red wagon and began to walk along the trail. My parents walked in there matching sweats and I was in the wagon in pink sweats with a Powerpuff Girl's t-shirt still drowsy. Suddenly my gaze lingered over to a group of cute German Shepard puppies. I loved dogs even at a very young age and was never afraid of them. I cheered up quickly right as I saw them wagging their little tails happily. As this happened the sky slowly cleared and you could see part of the sun shyly peeking out of a cloud.
"Would you like to buy one sweetie?" asked the kind lady who wore blue jeans with a black v-neck shirt with silver decorating sequins along the side.
"Yes." I answered for myself unaware that my father didn't really particularly like dogs. He described himself as a cat lover though he was highly allergic to the furry creatures.
"Well you can have to choose the one that you feel a connection with. Its free." she smiled the warmest smile I'd ever seen. I smiled back. I took my time choosing the perfect one. I saw a female with a shiny tan coat and a dark spot on her back. I felt as if she knew me already like in a different time. I named her Malaya meaning free or freedom in Tagalog. We brought her to the car in a dog carrier and she sat next to me. I let her sit on my lap the whole ride. Malaya licked my face almost the entire ride. I giggled with delight and the sky cleared showing the whole sun in the sky.
"You know dear," my mother spoke to me. "You are like mother nature. The weather reacts to your emotions. The sun comes out when you are happy, the clouds come out when your tired, and I bet you it'll rain when your sad." I thought about it a lot when I was a kid. As time went by I started to believe that.
* * *
Our car ride home was wet, sad, and gloomy. I wasn't sobbing as much but salty tears still slid down my face whenever they had a chance. Summer stared out the foggy window and watched the rain splashing against the cold window. My father kept his eyes straight forward watching the road. No one talked, no music was played. The world seemed dead, silent, and still. The world felt like it was at an end. I felt as if my mother's death had sucked every happy thing out of me. I had no energy and from my reflection on the window I was pale. My mom's dead lifeless face flashed in my head. I pulled my legs up so my body was in a ball. I covered my watery eyes with my knees. My body felt numb and yet I was bewildered for not knowing what had happened to my mom or if any of this was reality.
I worked up the nerve, breaking the silence, and asked, "How did mom die?" My father tightened his grip on the wheel. "I mean I know she got shot, but by who and why the hell."
"I'll tell you when you're older," he said calmly. I was fine with this answer because at the same time I was afraid to know the truth. When we reached our house my father told everyone what happened and everyone went silent. No one sobbed like I did, but they did mourn with puppy dog eyes and all. We continued the party but there was less spirit and barely a single person was out of a chair besides the smaller children who didn't hear what had happened and just carried on with their cheerful non-depressive lives. I was longingly praying for this terrible horrid day to be over. Hoping that after this all would be fine and normal again, but this was just the beginning of the nightmare.
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It might take a while for the romance to kick into this story so please be patient and continue it! I hope you like it so far. Please comment and vote! Tell me what you like about it! And advice and criticism is welcome too. :)
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