The Oracle Chapter 2

"Dear Diary,

Everyone seems to be making a big deal out of my birthday. Since Grammy asked that I should definitely throw a party, I told Linda all about it and she got excited and decided to plan everything for me. Though I did tell her that this will be a private, small gathering as my Grammy pointed out, she did have a small disappointed look on her face. She always likes the party big because she's the one organizing it. My parents consented to the party and so did Mao. Though they appear to be less interested in the matter, the only ones who are excited about all this are Grammy and Linda. Elie somewhat looks excited, I think. Linda finished the invitations two days after I told her about the party and given her a small list of people who will be invited.
There were only three as I don't have that many friends. For Linda, Elie and Dan. They all knew I have this thing with Dan and as my friends, I trust them the secret. But, I don't know how to give this to him because we hardly talk at school. I'll whip up the courage to ask him sometime... tomorrow lunchtime?
My birthday's in three days so I need to give him the invitation tomorrow. Wish me luck. Haylin" She got up from her usual spot in the garden and brushed her skirt. This was a usual routine for her every after school is over. She walked towards the spring to wash her face. The water felt good and warm and the sweet sound of birds was ever so peaceful. She loves this solitude of happiness in her life because she feels comfortable and peaceful. As she was washing her face she heard a sound in one of the vines. Her heart skipped a beat for fear that something unknown might attack her knowing that the only exit is the tree trunk which will take you minutes to go out.
She got up silently, picking up a stick and walked towards the source of the sound. As she crept closer, she saw something jumped out of the vines. A big white furry, long haired creature with big golden eyes. It had silver highlights in the back of his head and mostly on its tail. It was a huge cat. She felt a sudden relief from the sight that it was just a cat. The cat looked at her as if it was thinking that she was crazy.
Haylin placed the stick carefully down and approached the cat holding her hand towards it asking for it to come to her.
"I've never seen you here before. Come here kitty kitty." The cat took a few steps back and Haylin stepped back to reassure it that she means no harm. This gesture made the cat comfortable and decided to approach Haylin's hand and licked it.
Once Haylin thought it was comfortable with her, she scooped her into her arms while brushing its head gently with her hand.
"There you go. Were you scared?" The cat meowed as if giving a response. They had this attraction towards each other and Haylin instinctively wanted to take it home with her. And so she did. She hurried home and reached her house. This time her parents were home and she showed them the cat.
"Look Mom, Dad. I found her at the streets!" Haylin lied of the place she found her because she knew that her parents would be deathly worried about her going to the forest alone due to the reason that she was once lost in that forest when she was young.
"The cat looks good for an alley cat. Where did you say you found her again?" Her mom asked. She is still wearing her pink scrub suit which clearly indicates that she had just come home from work. Her bobby brown hair already unkempt which means that she had a very hard shift today.
"I found her near the Haeion Cafe where I passed by. He doesn't seem to have a collar so I guess no one owns him. Can I keep him?" Haylin begged as her dad gave a disapproval look.
"How did you know it's a he?" Mao asked puzzled.
"I checked." The cat meowed as if it was trying to tell them something.
"I don't see why not." Her grandmother said as she descends from the stairway.
"Grammy!" Haylin called out her name happily.
"But mom, keeping a cat in here would mean more responsibilities and I don't think Haylin's ready for that." Her dad said and mom nodded in agreement. "She can't even cook dinner for me sometimes." Mao said teasingly.
"This doesn't have anything to do with you Mao!" Haylin shot back angrily.
"Stop it Haylin!" Her mother reprimanded her.
"I think the cat should stay. It would be a wonderful change for Haylin. That would teach her some sense of responsibility. Did you already think of a name for him? Her grandmother asked nonchalantly.
"Mother! please." Haylin's dad pleaded not to.
"Shiro! His name is Shiro!" Haylin said victoriously jumping for joy.
"Thank you grammy, and mom dad, I will do my best to take care of Shiro." She said beaming. With a look of dismay, her parents finally approved.
"Just make sure to housebreak him" her mom said looking at Shiro.
"I will!" The alarm clock went on like crazy as Shiro tried desperately to hide from the fear of the loud alarm clock. The sound was so loud it would make anyone annoyed. With a tired eye, Haylin’s eyes slowly opened and the first thing she sees is…. “AH! It’s 7am already?! I’m late for school!” Haylin jumped out of bed, rushed to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and changed her clothes as fast as she could. She went downstairs as Shiro followed her.
“Haylin! A day with us saying yes to the whole I-can keep-my-cat concept and you’re already irresponsible!” It was rare for her mom to be at home this time of day. Usually she would have left at 6am.
“Sorry mom.. urrhh.. the alarm didn’t go off.” Haylin said grabbing a piece of toast and pouring milk for Shiro at the same time. “Don’t give me that excuse young lady, I can hear your alarm from here.” Her mom pointed out as she was flipping pancakes like a mad expert.

“Sorry mom. I gotta go. Bye Shiro, be good.” She waved goodbye to Shiro while he was drinking his milk and waved a goodbye to her mom as well.
“Miss Long, fancy seeing you today. We’re so lucky to have you here with us today.” Professor Mike Chan said sarcastically while eyeing Haylin as if she were an unexpected visitor.
“Sorry Professor Chan” Haylin went to her seat feeling embarrassed. Dan was sitting two seats in front of her and smiled at her. Linda laughed at her while playing with her cell phone and Elie looked worried.”
A few hours later, the school bell rang. “Okay now everyone can leave, and don’t forget to do the paper on the history of England and leave them on my desk this Friday, am I clear?”
The students all got up and walked straight out the door while saying yes all at the same time.
“Except you, young lady, I have a few words I like to talk about with you today.” Pointing out towards Haylin, she was surprised and acted all whiny as she placed her things down and told Linda and Elie to meet her at the Haeion Café after her session with the devil, as she claimed. The professor looked deathly serious as Haylin was approaching him and he said something about her grades.
“Your grades are plummeting miss Long, care to explain that?” Haylin stood dumbfounded by the question.
“Ummm.. I don’t really have a good explanation as to why I…. have bad grades Professor.” Professor Chan sighed looking at the stack of papers on his desk. “The paper you submitted on Lahfush paper had minimal content. It seems you just skimmed at the book and concentrated only on the gist to come up with possible sentences.”
“I know I should’ve been more critical towards the details.” Haylin said apologetically.
Professor Chan sighed. “Okay, what do you say for earning an extra credit? With the grades you have now, it’s highly possible to repeat a grade. So I do suggest you make up for it.”
Haylin’s eyes shone. “Of course! Definitely, I most certainly will. What do you want me to do?” Haylin asked in a bubbly tone of voice.
“I want you to write a 2000 word report on a certain legend that is popular in the middle kingdom about The Legend of the four kingdom element. Submit that to me next Friday.”
“Of course professor, I’ll do my best with the paper. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.” Haylin smiled and Professor Chan gestured her to leave. Haylin packed her things and went outside.
Dan was waiting for her outside. Started, she asked him “Umm… can I do something for you, Dan?”
Dan looked at her with a puzzling smile. “You tell me, you asked me to wait for you after class, see?” He handed Haylin a small piece of pink paper. The paper had a message which says….
“Please wait for me after class, there is something important that I want to tell you.” Shocked at this, she recognised Linda’s handwriting.

“Umm.. Oh.. yeah.. I remember. I was supposed to give this to you.” She reached for her backpack and fished out a small invitation card.
“My birthday is tomorrow and I’m having a small celebration and I thought that.. well… if you aren’t too busy… maybe.. you would… stop by?”
Dan smiled as he’s flipping his hair. He has long lair at the right side of his head and at the left one he kept it short. He had a unique style. But he still looks handsome.
“I would love that; I’ll stop by your place Hay.” Haylin couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her stomach literally churned with excitement.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” With that, the Holiday season started for all the high school students. Haylin went to the café as soon as she could to meet up with her two best friends. She couldn’t wait to tell them what achievement she had done. She had been crushing on Dan for a year since he last spoken on the Gym as a representative for the sophomores.
“Took you long enough, how was it? Linda asked teasingly.
“I can’t believe you. Why did you do such a thing?” She was referring to the pink note she had given to Dan.
“Relax, I knew it was going to be a success. Trust me on this one, I’m no boy expert, but I guess I kinda know what they’re thinking.” Linda smiled at her.
“You really shouldn’t be doing that Linda.” Elie said as she was scolding her.
“Sorry, I just had to do that because our Haylin’s too shy. All I did was gave her a little nudge.” She giggled. Haylin looked forgiving because her plan actually worked. She had given Dan the invitation.
“So we’ll see you at your house tomorrow then? I have all the decorations ready and your mom already gave the money to Elie to buy that cake. They were so close that Haylin’s mom was open to them.
“I’ll pick it up tomorrow at Haeion bakery by 6pm.”
The three took off after 30 minutes saying their goodbyes because of preparations for tomorrow’s event. They still need a lot of things to finish. Haylin arrived home and found her grandmother sitting on the couch with Shiro in her lap while watching television. She looked at Haylin with her compassionate eyes.
“Welcome home dear. How was school?” Her Grammy asked nonchalantly.
“It was great Grammy. How was your day?”
“It’s fine dear, can you sit here for a moment?” Her grandmother said as she took Shiro away from her lap and she patted the seat right next to her as if telling Haylin to sit beside her.
Haylin went to her grandmother’s side and sat right next to her. Her grandmother took out a medium sized box wrapped with gold paper and one little box wrapped in red paper.
“Grammy! A present?” Haylin was clapping like a five year old when she saw the two boxes given to her.
“What could it be?” “Why don’t you open it and see for yourself?” Her grandmother said with a smile. Haylin quickly unwrapped the golden box first as fast as she could possibly tear the paper. Then when she opened the present, she saw an old vintage book. It was an old book with leather case and the pages were so old it looked almost yellow. Haylin was amazed when her grandmother quickly told her to open the next one. She hoped it would be better than the old book. She unwrapped the red cover and saw a Jewellery case. She was excited her heart pounded with delight. She opened it gradually and was taken aback on what she saw.
There lies a necklace with a leather strap and the pendant was marvellous. The pendant had a huge black diamond at the centre the size of an almond and a ring with a beautiful white diamond in the center. However, there was something grotesque with the design because at the side of the stones, there are four empty slots that are somewhat reserved for four tinier stones the size of a bead.
“There are about… eight more tiny stones missing Grammy. The necklace could use four and the ring could use four stones as well.
“Is this supposed to be for me to collect the stones?” Haylin asked while holding the Jewellery puzzled.
“Yes child, you need to do some sort of things in order to collect those stones, and those tasks are quite onerous to accomplish. But, sooner or later, you’ll know… in time.” Her Grammy smiled and got up to go to the kitchen.
“What does that even mean?” Haylin thought to herself while looking at the gifts. Without thinking she placed the gifts back in the box and took them to her room. She hid them in her underwear drawer for safe keeping. She went back downstairs to the kitchen and saw her grandmother make dinner. She went to her and helped her with making noodles and stuffed chicken and apple pie for dessert. An hour had passed and with their combined teamwork, they were able to finish earlier before her parents and Mao came home. Her mom and dad took a time off from work because it’s Haylin’s birthday and of course, it will be New Year’s Eve tomorrow. They came from the mall to buy presents for Haylin.
After dinner, they discussed their preparations for Haylin’s birthday tomorrow and her friend’s Linda and Elie will be there to help out as well. Haylin wasn’t particularly excited about the party, but, nervous rather because she kept thinking about whether or not Dan would arrive or not. He did say he’ll try to stop by her place but not promising first hand to be there.
“So everything’s all set for tomorrow honey, do you have anything else to add to the preparations?” Haylin’s mother said while preparing the chicken dressings. They were going to have a small celebration tomorrow night.
“Not really mom, I guess everything is all good.” Haylin’s mother smiled at her. She placed stuffing on the chicken like vegetables and other meat. Her mom was a great cook. Her dad wasn’t home since he’s checking for stocks at the toy company he is working in. They have huge sales this December because this is the usual time of the year that parents buy presents for their kids like crazy.
Mao was in charge of helping Linda with some of the decorations so they were out for today, and Elie had already ordered the cake.
“Have you seen Grammy?” She hasn’t seen her grandmother since this morning.

“I don’t know dear, have you checked the attic? She did mention she was looking for some old things of hers.” Her mother said as she placed the remaining stuffing.
“I’ll go check.” Haylin went upstairs and turned right in the corner of their parents’ room where the attic is. She found her grandmother there searching for something.
“Grammy, what are you looking for?” Haylin asked as she helped her with her stock of books.
“I’m looking for a glass ball.” Her grandmother answered.
“A glass ball? Where did you last put it?”
“I don’t remember, I had a dream last night, a voice told me to find the glass ball in this attic.” Haylin was surprised with her answer.
“Okayyy? Maybe we should go down and eat Grammy, you must be starving.”
Haylin offered her a hand up. “No darling, I’m fine. I need to look for it; I did clearly remember I had it.” Her grandmother insisted.
“I’ll help you find it later, but first, let’s go down and eat, shall we?” Haylin persuaded her grandmother to come down and finally the old woman gave up the idea of finding the thing that she was looking for and decided that it can wait. They went downstairs to eat and discussed more of the details on what foods to add for tomorrow’s party. They already have a lot of food for a few people and Haylin insisted that what they have now is enough. It was 10 o’clock and everyone’s already home and into their rooms getting ready to sleep when suddenly, Haylin’s phone rang. She had just gotten in her room after her evening bath. She was still drizzling wet as she picked up the phone to see who was calling. It was Linda.
“Hey, Linda, what’s up?” Haylin asked.
“I’m just calling to let you know that all the preparations are all done. Are you sure we won’t get to invite more people?” Linda asked in a begging tone of voice. She wanted it to be a huge party. But haylin was quick to reassure her that this will be a small party.
“Yes, I’m quite certain that a few people will be coming Linda.” Haylin giggled while drying her hair.
“By the way Elie is on the other line. Let me get her in.” Linda pressed some buttons.
“Hello, Elie?” Linda called her.
“Yeah? I’m in, and I have already ordered the cake for tomorrow and I know you like chocolate so much I ordered the one with the massive amounts of dark chocolate icing.” Elie said proudly, she’s the typical person who would remember anyone’s interests.
“Thanks guys, this means a lot.” Haylin said. But as she was about to say something more, there was a beep on their line.
“Hold on you guys, I have another call coming, and I’ll put you on hold for a moment.”
“Hello?” The voice on the other line seems familiar.
“Hi, Haylin, it’s me. Dan.” Haylin couldn’t believe it. Dan? Calling her? In this time of night? Please say you’re going to the party tomorrow. Haylin was pleading in secret.
“Dan.. hello… uhh… good evening..” She was disappointed for being shy and weak.
What’s wrong with me? Haylin asked herself disappointedly while she jumped out of bed in her green pajamas and pacing like a nervous dog.

“Yeah, pleasant evening to you too. I’m calling to say that I can stop by tomorrow evening. But, I guess I’ll be an hour late, I’m sorry, my mom asked me to stop by her friends’ house to help her with her computer problems. She says that her laptop wasn’t working and asked me if I could check it out.”
Dan was a computer savvy, quite young for his age. He self-studied computer programing as young as 13 because of immense interest on computers. That’s one of the things Haylin liked about him.
“No, uhhh.. that’s fine. Please, take your time.. I don’t mind.”
Dan laughed on the other line and again apologised for being late tomorrow. They hung up after saying good night and Haylin jumped for joy like a kid given new toys for Christmas.
“Hello? That took you long enough, who called you?” Linda asked, annoyed that she had to wait a few minutes for Haylin to finish the call. She talked to Elie about the outfit she was going to wear tomorrow.
“Dan called! He said he’s going to my party tomorrow.. but.. he’s going to be late for an hour because he had errands to tend to.”
Haylin was grinning. She never felt this happy and excited before. How is she going to sleep tonight with all the excitement that she is having? She made a mental note at the back of her mind, to fix herself a glass of warm milk before bed and then she stroked Shiro’s fur and he meowed.
“See? I knew my plan worked. I’m certainly confident that he would come.” Linda said proudly. She knew that it was going to be successful. After all, she could be an author of the how-to catch-boys-successfully playbook. The girls laughed all together with her remarks. They talked for another hour and a half, talking about how the party will make her closer to Dan and of course, what Linda would be wearing. At last, they all hung up and Linda went down to the kitchen remembering to pour herself a glass of warm milk. It was 2 in the morning when she finally fell asleep. She fell asleep amidst the noise of the fireworks outside. It was New Year’s Eve after all.