Chapter 1 The Start of It All

This, my friends, is the start of it all...

“Happy Birthday, Mai!” Everyone shouted as soon as I opened the door. Everyone was there. Even my best friends, a.k.a. my cousins, who were supposed to meet me at Renning Park, were there. I put a hand on my hip, shifted my weight to one leg and smiled. I can’t believe that I had almost forgotten my own birthday. My eyes were the same as my mother’s, a dark russet color. My hair, like my father’s. A midnight black color with strands of hair as if it were blessed with pure gold. The hair curl was passed on in our family through generations. They both barely brushed my waist.

“So, you two told me to go to Renning Park and I find out that you two are here?” I ask slightly amused.

“Yeah, we had to get the preparations done. And, we had to curl my hair and put me in a purple, frilly dress.” Kiriri, one of my best cousin-friends, said. Her bright orange eyes looked annoyed. I looked at her dress. I have to say, her dress looked really cute on her with her blue-black hair up in curls and her bangs were pushed to the side and tucked in like a blanket for half of her forehead. Her curl was left alone on the right. Her dress had one long sleeve on the left, and bared her right shoulder, and had ruffles on the left side. The end of the dress was four inches above her knees.

“I like it.” I tease.

“Shut up.” She says and I laugh.

“So, what’s your excuse, Haru?”  I turn to my other best cousin-friend.

“C’mon! It was a surprise and we all pitched in!” Haru’s chocolate brown hair was pinned up in a messy bun on the left side of her head; her curl was left alone on her left, like always. Her bronze eyes matched her dark green dress. It looked scaly from the top, across toward her shoulders. It soon went smooth from her short, puffy sleeves and down to the end of her dress and little black bow went around her waist to the front.

“Hey! Hey! Mai, do you like my dress?” Kaytara, my little sister, asked. She came up to me with a noisemaker. Her seal brown eyes were sparkling and her short onyx hair was curled into one drill on the right side of her head; her bangs curled inward and framed her face. Her dress was bubble style slip made of fuchsia chiffon. The cute dress had a pretty pink ribbon that tied around the entire waistline and a pretty hand rolled chiffon flower that adorned it.

“Si, I like it.” I said smiling at her. Kaytara giggled. Everyone knew I was into foreign cultures, more specifically, the world. It was just so fascinating! I like Italy the most. It might have financial problems, but the culture, food, everything is great! Even my favorite anime had to do with the world! My mother takes my hand.

“What do you think?” Mother asks. I look at the cake and gasp. It was incredible. It had my favorite anime, Hetalia: Axis Powers, on it and the world was spinning! It had my favorite character on top, Romano. I couldn’t even speak. It was, as Prussia would say, awesome. It was covered with the various characters of Hetalia, from the sweet Veneziano to the shy Canada.

“Why, it’d be a shame to eat the countries!” I said, laughing a bit.

“Oh, those aren’t part of the cake. You can take them off.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“So, I can keep them?!”

“Of course, honey!”

“Can we take them off now?!” Mother chuckles and shakes her head.

“We’ll take them off after we take pictures and sing ‘Happy Birthday’, dear.” I giggle and nod. They sing me a good happy birthday. They take pictures of the cake and I finally get to hold all the little countries they had handmade. They had the little micronations and even my OC, the Hmong culture! Too bad some couldn’t fit on the cake, but I loved and cherished each and every one of the little figurines. We had cake, relaxed, and then opened my presents. I had gotten a jewelry box that Grandmother had gotten me. She told me it was hand crafted by a famous Italian woodcrafter just for me. It was made with red cherry wood with red, yellow, and blue roses. I realized they symbolized my favorite horror game, Ib. The red rose was also England’s national flower. There were bluebirds on the box which were Italy’s national bird. Copper encrusted the edges and made the lock along with the key. I wouldn’t need it since I don’t really wear jewelry. It was a real waste to just put it somewhere, so I decided to put all my Hetalia figurines in them and they all fit! I also got a handmade wristwatch from Grandfather. The watch band was made of rubber and the clock frame was shaped like a tomato. It had the digital and analog time and the date. It was set to the correct date and time even right up to the same second. The rest were new clothes for school. I hugged every one of my relatives and they left. Only Kiriri and Haru stayed. We got ready for the night. Showered, fixed our hair the way we wanted them to be, brushed our teeth, and changed. Just as we were going to read Kaytara’s stories, Mother and Father asked me to talk with them in the hall. I walked out into the short, partially dim, hallway with much concern. I guess they had seen the anxiety on my face because they laughed a bit. This made me feel reassured and I lightened up more.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. You’re not in trouble.” Mother said calmly with kindness in her voice.

“Listen, our family has been rivals with a very dumb Russian group. They call themselves, the Tricked Out Gang.” Father says with an unwavering voice as if he had just read the words from a book, yet, his tone was stern.

“They would do anything to get rid of all of us. Be careful. If they attack you at home, there are weapons in the basement. A black Heckler and Koch, Model P7 in 9mm, a self-bow made from oak wood, and a steel katana.” Mother added with a matching stern manner.

“Oh, good night, honey. We’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, I love you.” I said to my parents.

“We love you too, hon.” They replied in unison. Their voiced matched perfectly. Both were comforting and kind with the silvery sounds of their voices in harmony. Father and Mother kissed my forehead and disappeared into their room. I stand in the empty hall for a while, staring at the spot where Mother and Father had just left. I stood there for about a minute more and then left into my room. When I opened the door, two pillows hit the sides of my face, one fully hitting the left, one fully hitting the right. I heard laughing and Kiriri and Haru ran across the room. I grabbed my lightning bolt pillow and chased them. Kaytara was laughing when Haru hid behind her. Kiriri hit Kaytara and Haru softly and Haru ran again. After the girlish pillow fight, we were exhausted. We turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Author's Note

OC means Original Character for those of you who didn't know.

Hope you enjoy. If you find any mistakes, please point them out. Don't be too mean. Like, "You idiot! It's [insert mistake here]" If you do, I'll block you... If I can. I'm pretty sure I can... Just say that I made a mistake and say what it was and correct me.

Reviews

[Pain&Suffering]

This was fun to read and I WANT THAT CAKE!

[Ontokki]

I like it just...er, yeah, I like it. There are a lot of descriptions and when you're going to put OC, make sure you let the readers know what it stands for. ;) That's all.

[HetaOtaku]

oh, alright! Grazie~!