The Lake
1877 Words
...continuation...
Really? She shook her head in amazement. Cellestine really can't understand why his fiancee feels insecure every time Caleb communicates with a girl. There are a lot of times when she will put a tapping device on his phone and monitor every call or text message that Caleb receives. Caleb pretends not to know it to protect her ego. He always ends up buying a new line and pretends that his phone is lost when the worst scenarios come. Just like now.
Anya's a nice girl. Cellestine just wishes she could give Caleb a little more trust. Anyway, this only means that she can't call Caleb regarding matters during their investigation. Lucky she does not know Caleb's secret email for his clients. She can be very nosy.
She was about to continue browsing through the files when she heard a knock at the main door. She got up from her bed and opened the door.
When the door was opened, Cellestine was taken aback. There was no one by the door. She looked left and right and didn't even find anyone in the hallway.
When she looked down, though, she found a letter. She picked it up, glanced around one last time and then decisively entered the unit. After that, she closed the door and locked it.
There was no indication of where the letter was from, but there was her name on it. So it must be for her. When she opened the letter, what she found was a key.
“What is this key supposed to be for?”, she asked herself. When she flipped the key, she found a rose pattern embossed on the other side of the key.
She shrugged her shoulders, put the key back in the envelope and put it in the drawer.
At that moment, there was another knock at the door.
"Who's at the door?" No one answered her.
With the envelope incident as the precedent, she does not want to open the door without knowing the person on the other side anymore.
Another knock came. Cellestine asked again, "Who's there?"
Still, no one answered her. She slowly went to the main door and did a silly thing.
She went down on her knees, bent forward, laid her head on the floor and peaked through the gap between the door and the floor. She was not sure if it was a man or a woman, but there was indeed someone outside.
This time, the third knock came. She stood up and before opening the door, she got into a defense position.
The moment she opened the door, the person outside pounced on her and wrapped her in a big bear hug.
"Girl, I missed you!"
---
There are things that we want but we can't get. There are things that we don't care about but they're given to us anyway.
Ever since Cellestine was very young, her parents would often tell her that chasing over a dream or setting her goals high is good. But if you make your dreams too illusory and your goals too ambitious, you may end up using your entire lifetime and never feel that you have ever accomplished anything at all.
This is the reason why she has always lived by the principle of setting up small goals first. She will focus all her attention on this small goal until she reaches it.
With success in this smaller goal, she would have the confidence to be a bit bolder and challenge new heights. This way, she can improve herself and not be stuck in horns when she can't overcome the obstacles which were actually brought to her by her own self.
She doesn't want all the riches that her parents left for her. She'd rather have them by her side. But they're gone so she can't do anything about it.
What she wants, though, is to find out who is behind their death. And although she doesn't have that much authority and power at the moment, she has set up a small goal for herself. That is, to prove that her suspicions are correct and her family was indeed murdered and it was not an accident as the authorities want the world to believe.
After proving her suspicions, she will set up another goal. Until one day, she will be able to give her parents an explanation.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her friends calling her name.
"Hailey, girl, you're so silent."
"Yeah, Hailey, you seem so preoccupied."
"Do you need to be somewhere quiet? Are we too noisy?"
"I'm fine. I'm just thinking about how happy I am to have friends like you.", Cellestine said as an excuse. She's not lying, though. She is really thankful for these three girls.
Karra Mien Guevara, her cousin, has been her friend since she was a toddler. They were inseparable. To the point that even when she transferred to Europe for her apprenticeship with a famous piano maestro, her cousin decided to go with her and transfer schools as well.
The second person who spoke was Devonne Howie, Caleb's twin sister. She met them when she went to Europe. Cellestine and Karmi somehow got lost and the twins were the ones who helped them get back to their home. It turned out that they were actually neighbours and they would attend the same school, so they became friends.
When school started, Cellestine met Louella Tan and Pierre Wong. They are both half Chinese and half French, who are in the same class as her. She went for a short bathroom break just before classes started and happened to see poor Pierre, who was being bullied, and Louella, who was protecting him. Cellestine stood up for them and that's how they became friends and, eventually, they were added to her group of friends.
Earlier today, Karmi decided to play a prank on her. She was so ready to punch the person who kept on knocking on the door that time. Who wouldn't be defensive when the other person clearly heard her ask for a name but still did not answer?
The moment she opened the door, the person outside pounced on her and wrapped her in a big bear hug.
"Girl, I missed you!"
Luckily, Cellestine was able to stop herself or else it would be a hard punch that would welcome her best friend.
"Karmi?" Cellestine asked.
"Yes! That's me! Did you miss me?" Karmis excitedly said while still wrapping her cousin in a tight embrace.
"Of course I missed you. But can you let go of me first? I can't breathe," Cellestine jokingly added the last sentence.
Karmi laughed and let go of her. "I have a surprise for you," she mysteriously said.
Cellestine raised her eyebrows. "Humour me."
After Karmi clapped her hands twice, two other girls appeared behind her.
"Surprise!"
It turned out that Devonne and Louella came with Karmi and they were the ones who would occult the suite next door. The surprise doesn't end there.
According to them, Caleb and Pierre would be a little late but they would also transfer to Haynes University. It's just that Caleb still had things to do, so Pierre decided to wait for him so that Caleb didn't have to travel alone.
This meant a lot to Cellestine, who was in a very vulnerable state.
"I'm serious, girls. I'm really thankful for the fact that you are all willing to transfer from Europe to here in the Philippines just for me," she said.
"Hailey, girl. We're friends and we'll be friends for life. It's just a change of school. Besides, Haynes University is also one of the best international schools in the world. Give your school some credit." Devonne's lengthy reply came.
"True. I can't imagine having another pianist for my duets except for you," Louella said. Like Cellestine, she also mastered the piano and their masters were also friends.
"Don't even think about leaving me out, Hailey Cellestine. I'm your cousin before I'm your best friend. So no matter where you are, I'll be there with you," Karmi overbearingly added.
The four of them looked at each other and in a tacit understanding, they simultaneously said, "Group hug!"
They laughed at their antics.
Everyone around them can't help but take a glance in their direction.
At the moment, they are in the lake area in the middle of the forest, just at the back of their school. The four of them decided to have a picnic lunch and stay there for a while.
It's a pretty wide lake. Some students were even playing in the water and some were riding boats, which were provided by the school in limited numbers.
The lake water was very beautiful and the water was so clear. Sitting around the lake will make you feel the refreshing breeze coming from the water.
It was Karmi who suggested that they should have their lunch here because she'd been here once. Unfortunately, they can't really come here every day once the class starts. The trek in the forest, just going to this area, took them about thirty minutes. Going back and forth would take them about an hour. Not really convenient when they have classes.
Suddenly, there was a commotion. The water on the lake suddenly rioted and big waves emerged, almost toppling over the boats that are currently floating on the lake. The people who were lounging about near the lake shore were also splashed with water, including Cellestine's group.
Those who are directly affected on the boats, especially the younger ones, could already be seen crying. Some had already started fleeing back to the school and the responsible and older ones took charge of the crowd. It did not take long for the school staff and security team to come and the students were all guided back to the main campus.
When the school staff came, the water miraculously calmed down as if nothing happened.
What most of the students did not see, however, was in one of the corners of the panicked crowd, there was a group of young girls who seemed to be quarreling. When one of the girls fell down and seemed to have fainted, the girl who was beside her got so angry. With this anger came a sudden burst of energy that made the water elements near her unstable, directly causing chaos in the lake area.
After the teachers arrived, some of them immediately went to those girls' side. But the moment the girl fainted, the water calmed down.
Most of the students were unaware. But Cellestine, who accidentally saw the whole fiasco from start to finish, was still in a state of shock and disbelief as her friends led her back to the main campus.
She looked back one last time and she found that the teachers and the group of girls were no longer there. Instead, she saw Luke, who looked back at her and gave her a nod and a smile. It's as if he's affirming to her that she was not imagining things. She reluctantly smiled back and then looked away from him.
Deep in her head she thought, "He must have seen it too, right? What's happening?"
- Writer
