Fan Fiction |
by Mimosa
“Ah, my head, my head!” Annie groaned, resting her throbbing head on Ada’s shoulder. “What’s wrong with me?”
“That’s called a hang-over, honey!” Ada rolled her eyes “Didn’t Kevin warn you before he let you drink?”
“Aw, it hurts!” Annie pinched her temples “Go away, headache, go away!”
“Here,” Flora emerged from the kitchen with a glass of fresh orange juice “Maybe this would help!”
“Thanks Flora jie,” Annie took a sip, and lied down again “If I knew it was going to be this bad, I won’t drink!”
“Now you know, it’s not too late!” Ada scowled teasingly “Next time let Kevin go gaga all by himself, don’t join him, okay?”
“Kevin!” Annie jumped up
“What?” Flora and Ada were startled
“He must have just as bad a hang… hang what?” Annie pouted “Just like me, right jies?”
Ada rolled her eyes and got up, causing Annie to drop limply onto the sofa. The girl remained in that position, feeling a little better with her head against the coolness of the material.
“Maybe I should call Kevin!” She mumbled with her eyes close, and reaching blindly for the phone with no success.
“Don’t worry, sis!” Flora tapped gently on her hands “Kevin knows how to look after himself!”
“You think he does?” Annie continued to mumble, her voice a little inaudible from the fact that she was having her face buried. “I don’t think he does… I don’t think so!”
“Girl, I think you’re having a hang-over, but you sound like you’re still drunk!”
“Ah” groaned the petite girl. “My head!”
“Annie, don’t ever drink again, okay?”
The phone rang, and Flora moved to answered it. Annie cuddled herself into a fetal position and dozed off lightly
“Wake up,” Flora shook Annie “Go take a shower and change, Annie! We’re going for a picnic!”
“Nick Gor’s idea again?” Annie groaned, “Can I bail out? I don’t feel like going!”
“But Kevin is going, sis! Your brother is picking him up!”
“He is?” Annie sprang up, and without further ado, rushed to the bathroom
Flora exchanged a look with Ada, “Silly girl!” they laughed
“I thought you’re supposed to be mad at me for some reason!” Ada squinted her eyes
“I am?” Flora tapped her head, realizing “True, I was kind of mad at you, wasn’t I?”
“I still don’t know the reason why!” said Ada
“Me neither!” Flora stuck out her tongue
“Liar!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Flora shrugged, smiling
“It doesn’t matter, but I still want to hear it from your mouth!” Ada tilted her head “Say it!”
“Say what?” Flora feigned innocence
“Say you were madly jealous yesterday when your Dr. Lo paid a little more attention to me!”
“Your imagination!” Flora rolled her eyes and shook her head
“Yeah?” Ada arched her eyebrow “The kiss was my imagination, too?”
“What kiss?” Flora jumped,
“On the balcony, under the moonlight, by the sea…” Ada danced around the sofa, chanting dramatically, causing Flora to get redder and redder
“You guys!” Flora covered her face “You spied on us?”
“Hey,” Ada stopped short in front of her friend and wagged a playful finger “Not spying, girl! We just happened to come to the same restaurant and caught that special show!”
“I can’t believe it!”
“Ada,” Annie called loudly from the washroom “Could I borrow a dress from you?”
“Are you kidding me?” Ada frowned “Ask Flora!”
“Help yourself, Annie,” said Flora as she eyed Ada knowingly “Mine are all in the closet!”
“She should know I don’t wear dress!” Ada chuckled, “Those are for you silly girls in love!”
Before Flora and Annie would voice their protests, the front door rang. Ada went to answer it, and came back in no time. Trailing immediately behind her were two striking tall, lean figures, both dressed in fine white tennis outfits.
Flora sat up from the sofa, a half smile on her lips quickly transformed into a starring-eye grin at the sight of him. Annie emerged shortly after, wearing one of Flora’s short summer dresses, in light blue. Something flickered in Kevin’s eyes, but he said nothing.
======================================================================================================================
[Parking lot]
“Dai Gor,” Annie was being very troublesome “I want the kind of roasted pork that Mom used to buy!”
“And I know a great place that has superb salad” Ada chimed in “But it’ll take some time to go get it!”
“Where is it?” Gallen tried to be patient. He would care less of the food. What he was dying to do right now was to get to the park, settled down on a nice spot, and enjoyed her company. But instead of letting him do that, now his friends were proposed a trip across the town just to get some silly salad. Gallen obviously didn’t need any food, since he was full from the new excitement she, Flora, had just brought into his life. He’d slept like a baby last night, smiling in his dream… His Mom had given him that What-is-up-your-sleeve look when he stopped briefly by the breakfast table, whistling along a silly tune from the TV.
“Gallen Gor, hey!” Ada waved a hand “Wake up!”
“I am awake,” said Gallen “I’m still waiting for your direction!”
“I repeated it to you three times just now, Gallen Gor!” Ada looked keenly into his face
“Oh, really?” he hurried on before Ada had a chance to come up with a remark “I need coffee, then!”
“Yeah yeah!” Ada laughed… “Anyway, we’ll split into two teams, Gallen Gor!”
“Huh?”
“One group goes on your car, getting your Mom’s famous roasted pork and bread!” Annie quickly took her favorite role of the planner, forgetting about her headache for the time being “The other group goes with Nick Gor to get salad and drinks. We’ll meet at the park in, say, 40 minutes?”
They nodded, split, and sped off in opposite directions.
Flora laughed and joked along with Ada and Nick in his car, but secretly long for the trip to shorten, so that she would see Gallen soon…
Gallen tapped his hands on the driving wheel, feeling utterly impatient. What would take Annie that long inside the bakery? Gallen wished he had known about the picnic a little in advance, then he’d have asked his mother to prepare a lunch basket for the whole group. It was all because of Nick. This curious fellow had, at the last minute, decided to switch from the scheduled museum tour-casual lunch plan into an outdoor picnic, claiming the weather was too good to stay inside.
After what seemed to be hours, Annie and Kevin finally emerged, and Gallen barely waited for them to shut the car door when he shifted the gear and sped.
“Slow down!” Annie yelped, “We still have 23 minutes to spare!”
Gallen ignored his sister, pressing harder on the gas pedal. He couldn’t wait to see her…
======================================================================================================================
[Camping ground – Tennis Courts]
For some curious reasons, Gallen found himself extremely busy running trivial errands for Nick and Kevin around the camp ground. He could see Flora laughing and talking with the girls, but couldn't even get near her...
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Gallen finally found a chance to whispered by her ear,
“I guess so,” Flora whispered back, not looking at him
“They know about us!” He picked up his tennis racket
“They do! They followed us last night!” she pretended to fasten her shoelaces
“They’re trying to play us, Flora!”
“What should we do?”
“Let’s lose them!”
“How?” her eyes brightened
“Leave it to me!”
They got back to their side of the court, when Gallen’s phone suddenly rang. He picked it up, listened tentatively for a minute, then flipped it off
“Sorry guys, it was Grantham”
“It’s your day off, Dai Gor!” Annie was being suspicious “What do they want?”
“They said they need my opinion… It’s emergency sis…” said Gallen as he started to put his belongings away “Guess I’ll go first, you guys go ahead and enjoy!”
“Should we wait for you for dinner?” Nick asked
“No,” the answer slipped out a little too fast, causing Nick to look up. Gallen hastened to clarify “Just save me a seat, but you don’t have to wait for me!”
Flora was sitting on fire as she watched him retreated away. Had he forgot about her? Then as he was about to cross the small gate of the tennis court, he turned and signaled her.
“Hey!” the group yelled in unison
“I might need assistance” he said innocently “Flora, you don’t mind, do you?”
“No I don’t” She moved as quick as she could, trying to appear casual as much as she could, but her face still burned under the meaningful stares. She broke into a run to catch up to Gallen. Teasing giggles and remarks chased after her.
They cruised along in silence, embracing the fact that they’d at last managed to be alone together. She was humming softly along a tune from his radio when she realized they weren’t heading back to the hospital
“Are you taking a short cut?” She asked, puzzled
“You know this area?” he sounded slightly surprised
“No,” replied Flora
“Oh,” he was quick “we’re not heading back to Grantham, if that’s what you mean to ask.”
“You… you mean…”
“The phone call? I faked it!” he winked “I thought you knew, Flora!”
“Oh, you’re bad!” she laughed “You got me. I thought Grantham really called!”
“If Grantham called, I would not have asked you to leave the game, Flora” he turned into a private garage, and switched off the engine “Here we are!”
“What is this area?” she got out of the car and scanned her surrounding with admiration “Elegant!”
He secured her hand in his and led the way “Come!”
======================================================================================================================