Chapter One: Gift

"Happy Birthday, Hope!" 

Today is June 10, 2014. Twenty years since Hope Ambert came into this world we call Earth. Twenty years has passed and I can say that it definitely has its ups and downs. Life is not always happy, it's not always fair.

But you learn from your experiences.

I close my eyes and clasp my hands together and make a wish before blowing the candles. As I blew them, I open my eyes and see my grandpa's face lit up as he claps his hands together. I smile at him and gave him a warm embrace. 

"Thank you, grandpa!" I say as I pull out from the hug. Grandpa pats my head and places a hand on my cheek.

Uh-oh. 

Grandpa began to pinch my cheeks, hard. 

"Aww, my granddaughter is all grown up now!" He says as he pinched them harder. I place a hand on his wrist and say: "Grandpa, stop! I'm not a kid anymore!" 

"But you're still my little Hope!" He says finally releasing my cheeks. I rub a hand on them and can feel the bruise swelling up. But I know I'm exaggerating. 

I look around our small apartment and I'm still not used to mom's absence. It's the second time, the second time she missed this day and I'm not even sure if she's coming back. Mom went away to a different city for work and she did not want me to come along because I just started university. I refused to be left alone but she promised she'll come back and besides, at least grandpa is still with me. Yet it makes me wonder if being a teacher really takes so much off her time? Are teachers even that busy to not even bother to call their kid on their birthday?

I sigh. Grandpa quickly notice it and places a hand on my shoulder. 

"She'll call soon enough, Hope." He says. That's what he always says but she never calls. I just gave him a smile so he can't see what I actually feel. I mean, I am happy. I'm happy because he's here with me on my birthday, very single year. He was even there on the day I was born. 

As usual, grandpa made my favourite: Lasagna, as we sat in front of the TV watching some re-runs of of a Korean drama. It's weird, don't you think? To watch a drama with a seventy eight year old grandfather and a twenty year old granddaughter? But let me tell you, it's a ctually a bond that we share. Grandpa may be old for his age but his heart, mind, and soul is that of a teenager. Heck, he even pulls pranks on my friends! Especially that time when he filled up one of my friend's cars of colourful ballons, or that time where he dyed Joey's hair pink (Joey is our Golden Retriever and thank God it was only temporary hair dye, I've gone nuts when I saw the amount of pink on Joey's fur! Sheesh, the old man can do anything). 

"Guess who brought you your favourite?!" I jump from my seat and ran towards the door and quickly grab the bag from him.Joey trails behind him and starts making his way to grandpa to steal my spot. 

"You're welcome?!" I heard Lance exclaim but I was already too busy grabbing bowls from the cupboards and began scooping the Cookies and Cream ice cream from the tub with a spoon. I saw him follow me to the kitchen and flicked my forehead with his finger in which I glare at him. He glares back.

"A simple thanks would be great? Don't you think?" He says grabbing the spoon from me and directly putting it into his mouth and all of it. I sigh and gave him a toothy grin.

"Thanks, Lance" I say nicely and took another spoon from the cupboard since Lance's saliva is already on the other one. 

When I finished serving the ice cream to everyone, we settle in the couch as we finish the drama. Unlike grandpa, Lance is the complete opposite. Dramas are not his thing, it does not exist in his vocabulary. In fact, he tries to avoid it as much as possible. He can't really avoid it though when my grandpa's around. 

As the drama went through the credits, Lance shifted his body to face me. 

"Hey, do you think you could do me a favour?" He asks. I raise an eyebrow at him. 

"You're asking me on my birthday? You didn't even greet me" I narrow my eyes at him. Lance's jaw drops and smacks me on the head and I smack him back. 

"I did greet you! Did you not see my text?! I even sent it at twelve in the morning!" I roll my eyes and pull my phone out and reveal his message to him. 

"See!"

"Greeting in person is a lot different, Lance" I say and I feel the other side of the couch move as grandpa stood up from his seat. 

"Well, I will leave you two to bicker" 

"Grandpa! Our other show hasn't even started!" I pout at him. Grandpa sighs and nods his head: "Okay, okay. I will just go to the bathroom"

I smiled at him and focus my attention back to Lance. 

"Kay fine, Happy Birthday, Hope!" He greets with full sarcasm but I just shrugged. He always greeted me that way anyways so I could care less. 

"Fine, what favour?" I ask reverting my attention back to the TV. 

"Okay, can you befriend this girl named Hazel? She is so cute! I want to ask her out"

"Oh. My. God." I say to him in disbelief. I knew it, I knew it's about a girl. Honestly, Lance isn't exactly a player... more like... a wannabe player. He tries to use me to ask a girl out but most of them failed. I feel bad when he gets rejected but at the end of the day I just laugh. Like, come on. What girl wants to hear about how hot he is? Ew. He is not even close to being hot. He's the total opposite. 

"Come on, Hope! Hazel is so cute and I really want to take her out!"

"Lance, you barely know her"

"That is why you come along!"

"You know, Lance. I'm tired of being used to get you girls. Go find someone else" I say the truth. It;s been really bugging me lately and I feel bad for playing with the girls due to my friend's crazy antics. I used to find it fun but now I just find it irritating. 

Right when I'm about to leave him, the show starts and I immediately forgot the conversation I had with Lance. Grandpa settles himself on the other side of the couch and pats Joey's head.

"Why do you even like this?" Lance asks.

"How can you not?" I retorted.

"Oh wait, let me rephrase... 'Why do girls even like this?'" That's the last straw. I lift my hand up and clench it and punch Lance's arm as hard as I could. 

"OW!" He exclaims and starts rubbing his arm. 

"Go home, Lance. You got nothing else better to do but ruin my birthday!" I say and right then and there, we started to bicker again. I think grandpa must have gotten annoyed by our bickering that he left us, including Joey. I thought grandpa has already fallen aslep but as Lance and I continue with our argument, grandpa literally places himself in between us, stopping us from yelling at each other. 

Grandpa places an arm on both our shoulders and I saw an envelope lying on his lap with my name on it. I look up to my grandfather and he uses his lips to point at the envelope, gesturing for me to open it. Lance and I exchange looks.

"Grandpa... it's my birthday. No tricks!" I say removing his arm from my shoulder. Grandpa chuckles and ruffles my hair as he says: "No tricks, kid. Just open it. It's my gift"

Gift? A physical gift? I took the envelope in my hand and opened the letter. It's a card. As soon as I open the card, something fell off and my eyes widened. 

"Oh. My. God. No. Way." My heart starts to race as I pull the thing that fell on my lap. 

"Grandpa... is this...?" 

"Happy Birthday, Hope" He says giving me a quick peck on the forehead. My hands shake at the material on my hand. 

EXO: THE LOST PLANET CONCERT

06. 12.14

"How did you..." I saw Lance smile and I saw him holding the same ticket in his hand. 

"What?! You're going too?!" I ask excitedly. Lance nods.

"Of course! These guys are actually pretty good" He says. Lance is not exactly a huge fan of Kpop which is why I'm so surprised that he has a ticket of his own. 

"And besides, who's going to drive you there?" He says with a raised eyebrow. I smiled widely at the both of them and I can feel my eyes starting to water. 

"How did you manage to get tickets? They were sold out in a minute!" 

"You know grandpa will do anything for you my little Hope" Grandpa says and right there I pull my grandfather into a hug. Grandpa never gave me a physical gift for my birthday. Sure, he has cooked my favourite every year, buys me a cake, bonds with me... but not an actual gift. I never expect him to because he said that gifts are not only meant for birthdays or any other occassion, it's always the though that counts. 

Hello there!

I put up a first chapter. Thoughts? Let me know and I'll continue! :)