Chapter Four

The day Christie and Silvia had been eagerly waiting for finally came. Their twelfth birthday. For a year, they had been excited for this day. Everything was bound to go as they planned. The weather was nice and warm, and there was not a single loud sound in the blue sky. The warmth and the birds chirping cheerily was hard to ignore and the flowers that had bloomed throughout the night were waiting for the girls to find them. It seemed as if someone had given this as a gift.

And indeed, someone had planned this all out.

"Happy birthday." Said the headmaster from his tower. "Your last special gift at home."

"Isn't the day so nice today?" Sighed Silvia happily as she and Christie together lay on the grass on a hill(not where Christie's home was situated), surrounded by colorful flowers.

"Yeah, it is. Doesn't look like it's going to rain." Christie nodded. Silvia opened her mouth but before anything came out, two girls came running from the bottom of the hill. A sigh simply fell out.

"Not those two." Silvia muttered, sighing again.

"Silvia!" Chelise Rogers squealed as she skipped up, clearly trying not to pant loudly. Christie snorted at the funny sight.

"Happy birthday!" Joanna Edney yelled, beaming next to Chelise. She didn't see the large stick in front of her and tripped over, landing face first on the grass. This time, Christie couldn't hold in her laughter. She rolled around the ground, cackling and next to her, Silvia giggled helplessly. Joanna glared and Chelise frowned. When they finally reached the two birthday girls, they scowled down at Christie whom they detested.

"Hey Silvia! Happy birthday." Chelise smiled warmly at Silvia and rolled her eyes at Christie.

"Why are you hanging out with...her?" Joanna sneered rudely at Christie who was now glaring right back at the two girls. Silvia's forced smile vanished and glowered at them. Her cheeks became blotchy which was not a good sign. It was a sign of rare anger and when it came to anger, Silvia would not calm down for a long time, and Christie was aware of this fact.

"Uh, Silvia? Maybe, just calm down a little?" She requested and looked up at Chelise and Joanna who were identically smirking. Even with the amount of hate she had towards Chelise and Joanna, she did not want to be stuck with an angry friend all day.

"Her has a name, and I'm hanging out with her because she, unlike you two, is a true friend and doesn't use me! Also, you should know that it's her birthday too! " Silvia yelled, ignoring Christie and her body trembled slightly with fury.

Chelise and Joanna looked shocked at who-they-had-thought-their-friend Silvia lose her temper.

"We're not using you." Said Joanna quietly, staring at the ground, twisting her fingers nervously.

"Then, why is it that you don't like Christie?" Silvia fumed. They could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears while her ear resembled a fire perfectly.

"Well...uh..." Joanna stammered, still seeming uncomfortable.

"I mean, look at her! She's so...so ugly!" Chelise spat. Joanna suddenly got her fierceness back as she saw Chelise spitting out the reason why they didn't like her.

"To tell the truth, no one likes her except you, Silvia." She said in a cool tone. Silvia did not answer. She was speechless at the thoughts of Chelise Rogers and Joanna Edney. Instead, Christie finally spoke up confidently.

"Then, is it that you're trying to be Silvia's friend because she's beautiful? Not because she's kind?" She asked with a cruel smirk playing on her face.

"Do you think we care about 'kindness'? We only care about popularity and prettiness." Chelise sneered, but panic quickly came over her face as she saw Silvia's hurtful look.

"Not that we don't like her because she's so nice." Joanna attempted to amend Chelise's slip, but failed and her fake smile vanished and a scowled guiltily at the ground.

"Can you go away? What's the point of wishing me a happy birthday if you don't even like me and don't even wish her a happy birthday just because she's not pretty? You two are wrong about her, anyway. She's pretty as she is, and do you want to know why you can't see that? It's because you don't know how kind and sweet Christie is. Goodwill is the only way to be beautiful. It's no wonder why you both don't make me think of pretty. You two are ugly because you're cruel, stingy and desperate for attention!" Silvia ranted at the girls who looked absolutely disgusted because they couldn't deny what Silvia had said.

Trying to find an insult to throw at Silvia, Chelise scorned, "You know, when I heard about your father's death, I was honestly really happy. Never liked that crazy, old man." Silvia leapt up, raging. Her face had turned to the color of a beetroot which the bullies laughed at.

"Beetroot girl!" They snickered, turned and ran back down the hill, chanting 'beetroot Silvia' non stop. Fuming, Silvia plopped back down onto the cushion of flowers and grass. She tried to hide the pain that twisted across her face as she remembered Chelise's harsh words about her dead father.

"That git is going to pay for what she just said." Christie growled, next to her. "Are you okay, Silvia?"

Silvia shook her head, wordlessly, curled into a tight ball and hid her face full of misery and agony.

"They don't deserve to live after this. I'll go after them and teach them a good lesson." She jumped up, cracking her knuckles.

"No don't." Silvia lifted her head in panic. "Let's just enjoy our birthday."

"How can we? When you're upset like this?"

"I'm not. I'm just...I'm just..."

"Like I said, upset and you can't deny it."

Silvia nodded, sadly. "I just want to get out of here." She said.

Just as those words came out, two hands grabbed them from behind. Silvia and Christie's eyes widened with shock and terror.

"Who?" They turned around in the strong grip the person held them in and gasped as they took in the man's appearance. His face was wrinkled and his hair was white like an old man's should be. But this man looked older than what the usual grandparents would look. He looked as if he was meant to die a century ago but was somehow still alive. But, although he was old and wrinkled, he was strong. Stronger than anything.

"You said you wanted to get away from here?" Said the headmaster, grinning, revealing a set of yellow teeth. Frozen with fear, the girls couldn't do anything but stare at the stranger. Unexpectedly, the headmaster jumped up high into the air. The girls screamed, expecting to plummet back to the ground, but instead found themselves not falling, but flying the man's arms.