“Oh,” Tracy put her hand to her chest as she breathed a sighed with relief. “You are around an expert?”
“Yes,” Seraphina pointed at Reeves. “This is my coach.”
Reeves waved awkwardly. “Seraphina Medina, hop on one leg. Really, you have to keep moving.”
“Yes, sir.” Seraphina held her cane and hopped on one leg. “So, you see, it’s not by choice, but I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Oh, Seraphina. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.” Tracy bent her head down as she rubbed her eyes. “I should know better. You would be the last person alive who’d want to stop. You let me know when the doctors find the right dosage, okay? Until then, I am calling every night. You stay safe and keep moving. Move as fast as you can, okay?” She stopped rubbing her eyes. “Well that’s my cue that I better head back home. Nice to see you again, Seraphina.” She nodded at Timothy. “Timothy, you take care of her. Do you hear me?”
Timothy nodded as Tracy started to take off. “That could have been a disaster.” He looked over at Seraphina. “You’re lucky I made it in time.”
“I know, you were a real hero.” Seraphina stopped hopping on one leg.
“What happened?” Reeves had to ask. “Why was she upset? How did she know? How many sisters do you have?”
“It’s personal,” Seraphina muttered to him as she crossed her arms. Her fiery personality had come back.
“How many sisters do you have?” Reeves repeated.
“What’s that got to do with my training?” Seraphina crossed her arms as she looked over at Timothy. “Don’t call from that old phone anymore, Timothy. If you need to make a call, use my cell. I'm not using it, so take it for now."
“Okay,” Timothy nodded. “I will call her later and ask her what I needed to.”
“What is it that you needed to ask Seraphina Medina’s sister?” Rebecca moved her head from side to side.
“Pipsqueak.” Timothy crossed his arms. “Fine, if you must know.” Timothy whispered something into Rebecca’s ear.
“Oh.” Rebecca looked sheepish. “Sorry, Timothy.”
“What?” Simps asked. Rebecca whispered into his ear. “Oh. Why did he want to know-“?
“Simps!” Rebecca stopped him. “Don’t let her hear.”
“Yes, thank you for almost spoiling the surprise.” Timothy complained, of course. “As for me, I am going back home. See you soon, Seraphina.”
“Wait, Timothy.” Seraphina gave him a large hug. “Even though you were almost late in your warning, I appreciate everything. Especially the excuse, I didn’t want Tracy to worry.”
“I know,” Timothy smiled as he held her even tighter and grinned at Reeves. “I know everything about you.” He pulled away and looked at Seraphina again. “Don’t worry, in two weeks you won’t have to lie to her anymore.”
Chapter 13
“I don’t know if I should do this, Timothy.”
Timothy looked above his pull-out couch and saw Seraphina. She had come to his house for once. She had stopped doing that for some time. “What do you mean? It’s only about one more week and you’re having fun with your playing.”
“Yeah, I know.” Seraphina chuckled and touched his head. Timothy moved his head out of the way. She loved bugging his hair, it always had too much hair gel. He loved looking as professional as he could be, he thought it detracted from the fact he was from Hidden Secret. She heard an unhappy grunt. “I know, no touch.” She did a small cartwheel along the floor. “I’m playing hide and seek. Wonder how long it’ll take before someone finds me?”
“You ditched Reeves?” Timothy had a large mischievous grin on his face. “That’s my girl.”
“Only temporarily. Besides, I’m still moving.” Seraphina did another cartwheel across the floor. “Like I said, I don’t know if I should continue this bet. It’s not going right anymore. Reeves seems to have his condition under control, he enjoys his work, and he is actually a decent Champion Paladin.”
“So?” Timothy rolled his eyes. “He will bug you intensely, probably more than before if you quit on him. Do you want to go through that again? Do you honestly want to leave Hidden Secret because of him? Think about it, two more weeks.”
“Okay, fine,” Seraphina agreed. “When he loses, I’m not making him keep his promise.”
“What?” Timothy all but whined. “Why even continue then? Seraphina, don’t give in.”
“It’s not giving in. I mean, he’s quenched my suspicions.” Seraphina answered back. “He’s not a dictator, he wants to help. He wants to help everyone, including people who aren’t exactly fond of him because he believes its right. It’s what makes the Champion a real Paladin.” She got down and started to do pushups. “He even put his own self on the line for the dumbest bet around, to try and help get me off of medication.”
“That may be, but as you have said over and over, it takes one slip-up to die." Timothy stopped to remind her. “One! So, he’s a Champion, what would happen if he did slip-up, hmm?”
Seraphina stood back up and looked at Timothy knowingly. “He’s always moving enough, and he is so full of energy that he’ll be okay. He runs fast, jumps high, has super strength, and all the other trademarks of an Adventurer even. Short from eating a piece of pie, I am pretty sure nothing would harm him.”
“Pretty sure.” Timothy repeated. “Pretty sure is not a positive statement. He is jeopardizing his own life by not taking that medication. You’ll be hurting him, not helping him. Besides, have you even told him about your sister or your hit yet?”
Seraphina crossed her arms. He did not go there. “Don’t try and use guilt against me to make me continue. Once this is over, I am releasing him from the bet. He can accomplish what no one else can and I can’t take that away. I’ll finish the bet though. Playing and exercise is fun, so I guess you're right in a way. I might as well enjoy it while I can.” She looked behind her. “I wonder.” She had a feeling she could do it. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and let instinct take over.
“That was great!” Seraphina exclaimed as she flipped onto her hands then back to her feet. “I haven't done a backward flip for years.” She looked at her feet. There was no frightened sense of failure, nor was there any self-doubt. It felt like getting back on a bike and knowing that you could still ride it even if it’d been twenty years. She performed a backward flip three times. The sensation was incredible.
“Wow, you’re good. When did you start doing that?”
“Pesky kid,” Timothy yelled at Rebecca as she appeared. “What are you doing in my house?”
“Finding Seraphina,” Rebecca said. “We’re playing hide and seek. Seraphina, you did an excellent job on those flips. Does Reeves know you can flip like that?”
“No.” Seraphina smiled at Timothy sheepishly. “Sorry you got involved in the game. At least we got to talk. I’ll see you soon.”
“Seraphina, you’ve got to tell Reeves you can do that,” Rebecca followed Seraphina up from behind. “He likes to hear about your feats.”
“He doesn’t need to know,” Seraphina said as she trotted through the yard. “Trust me, now you run ahead and find the others. I’ll be it when you find everybody. By the way, how did you know I’d be at Timothy’s?”
“I’m good at hide and seek,” Rebecca said. “You only seem to go there to exercise when you aren’t asked. How come you don’t want Reeves knowing you can do flips?”
Seraphina smiled at Rebecca and squeezed her hand. “You’re a sweet kid, Rebecca, but there are some things you don’t need to know. Just as I am sure there are things you don’t want to talk about, I don’t want to talk about this. Okay?”
Rebecca seemed to understand the concept of privacy. “Seraphina, how much do you like Timothy?”
“He’s a nice friend.”
“How much do you like Reeves?” With that, Rebecca smirked. “You like him like him, don’t you? Have you kissed him?”
Ooh, that was complicated territory.
“He like likes you,” Rebecca said. “Are you going to date him?”
That was complicated territory too. For now, they did have moments where the connection between them was too strong. They’d have a . . . moment, but then they’d stop it. She couldn’t get into a relationship with everything in the balance right now. Not with Timothy. Not with Reeves. Not with anyone, and not at the level they wanted.
Seraphina Medina yawned as she crawled into bed. It had been the twentieth already, eighteen days since she started the bet. She was getting closer to the ending day every night, but tomorrow? Would not be easy. She heard a knock at her door though. At that hour? She looked out the window and saw Timothy. She opened the door and was greeted with a ring box. “What’s that?”
“Early gift,” Timothy remarked. “You better appreciate it, I had to order it to be specially made.”
“Oh?” Seraphina Medina slipped the ring on her finger. “It’s really unique." Seraphina smiled at her ring. Such a funny thing. “Where’d the happy joker face idea come from?”
“Deck of cards,” Timothy added. "We used to play cards."
Seraphina chuckled. A cute red gem that had a joker face with the rest grey and shiny, almost silver. “This is cute Timothy, but my birthday isn’t until tomorrow.” She sighed. “It’s tomorrow already.”
“I wanted you to enjoy it, and I knew you wouldn't tomorrow,” Timothy said. “Remember that, my birthday's not very far either.”
Seraphina looked at the red ring. “This would have been her color. Red and blue, blue and red.”
“I was going to go with blue, but I hate blue,” Timothy said casually until he saw her starting to tear up. “I’ll exchange, I’ll make it blue.”
“No Timothy, it’s fine. I love it.” Seraphina insisted wiping her tears. She didn't want him to spend extra time fixing the color because she was emotional. “You were right for giving it to me on this day, instead of tomorrow. I can’t even smile on that day. I hope it goes fast. Goes fast and goes over.”
“Don’t worry.” Timothy yawned. “No one knows anything; it’ll be like any other day.”
Chapter 14
“Are you okay? You look miserable.” Reeves asked as he jogged next to Seraphina. “You’re not enjoying the jog at all, are you?” He had been so excited when she chose to jog instead of playing, that he thought it had been progress. She hadn’t been happy the whole jog, so he knew that wasn’t it. There must have been something else to it.
“It’s fine. I don’t feel really good,” Seraphina said softly.
“Don’t feel good? A tummy ache?” Reeves asked. No one was immune to sick days, even he had times when he hadn’t felt the greatest. No, he better not push her as hard today. “Would you like to walk fast instead of jog?”
“Maybe later,” Seraphina said as she seemed to notice odd looks as they passed people. She looked back at Reeves and muttered softly. “That’s eerie.”
Reeves watched the residents as they passed. They were staring too hard and smiling too wide, like a spooky painting in the middle of the night. Seraphina was right, it was eerie. What's wrong with them?
Seraphina had not been herself at all today either. Maybe he should speak to Timothy? It could be something personal affecting her. Then again, he hadn't spoken to Timmers, one-on-one, for a decade. Well, maybe it would be better to have the day play out?
Why is everyone smiling at me, Seraphina thought as she saw complete strangers even seemed to be happy to see her. Timothy promised no one knew. No one knows, was it in her head?
“Ah, hello, Seraphina Medina.” A man waved as Reeves and Seraphina passed by “How is your day coming?” Who was this guy? Seraphina looked him up and down. She had never seen him before. He was polite, didn't seem overly childish, and even wore clothing befitting of his age. A rarity in Hidden Secret.
"Ah, hello Marcus." Reeves playfully pushed her shoulder. "What's with that look? Don't tell me that you never met him of all people? Marcus Abbacus is the oldest resident of Hidden Secret, along with Miss Sharina Little. They had been here before Hidden Secret became the sector you knew."
"Really?" Seraphina looked at the man a second longer. He seemed to express intelligence beyond the normal residents. More than Timothy, in fact, his clothes being more casual but adult, not trying so hard with a suit and tie. He must have been here before Hidden Secret became the dumping ground for people's children. "Nice to meet you."
"We shall see you around." Reeves tugged on Seraphina gently, "Let's get going again." It didn't take much to twist Seraphina’s arm. She wanted to keep moving and not talk to anyone. That day, she didn’t even need Reeves slowing down to walk alongside her briskly. Oh, how she wanted to stay in her house today and not even get up from bed. That had been her routine for many years on that day.
“Wait, wait!”
Seraphina and Reeves both stopped as a large short woman stood in front of them like a big roadblock.
“Hello,” she smiled. “I am Sharina Little. I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.”
“Guess not.” Seraphina shook her hand politely. Why today of all days, did complete strangers choose to stop and say hello? Seraphina gave her a quick smile, but it faded in two seconds. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yes, you too.” Sharina Little held a notebook in front of her. It was time to get down to business, events such as this did not happen every day. Or even every decade. Once Timothy whispered to Rebecca about what he wanted to tell Tracy, her sister, Sharina Little made sense of it right away and informed the sector. There was only one reason a man asked about a woman's ring size. “I was wondering, what is your favorite color? You are often in purple and blue, is it either one of those? Oh.” Sharina noticed Seraphina’s hand. “My, that is a fabulous red ring, is red your favorite color?”
“Red?” Seraphina asked softly, almost in a thin gasp. “What?”
“Red, it’s red, right? You’d look beautiful in red.” Seraphina was not ugly, but she was kind of plain, and wearing red could give her appearance more vitality. Oh, she hoped it would be red. Red and purple, with blue and green? Would those make reasonable colors? No, no two to three. “How about red and blue?”
“Huh?” Seraphina took a small step back. “No, I don’t know. Look, I don’t have time for this.” Seraphina took off as quickly as she could, going from walking briskly to a full-fledged running spree.
“Odd girl,” Sharina shrugged her shoulders. “Oh Reeves, do you know what her favorite color is?”
“Frankly, no.” Reeves smiled politely. “What’s it for?”
“Colors darling, colors! Do you think Timothy Varmen could organize a wedding by himself?” Sharina announced “This wedding has to be remarkable; a mere little ceremony isn’t going to cut it. Oh, has he asked yet?”
“Uh," Reeves held up his finger. "Timothy is proposing?"
"Absolutely, he asked about a ring and everything," Sharina explained. "The whole sector knows, so I have to start getting some info." She noticed Reeves’ eyes widen with his eyebrows raised. "Reeves Honey, you okay?"
"I have to go. Goodbye Sharina.” Reeves waved and once again, smiled politely.
Sharina groaned. After all these years Hidden Secret would be having a wedding, but the bride to be couldn’t even tell her favorite color. She walked down the road further and saw Rebecca with another friend by her side. “Oh, Rebecca.” She waved at the girl. “Rebecca.” Sharina got out her notepad again. “I don’t suppose you know Seraphina Medina’s favorite color? I am guessing either red, blue or purple.”
“She wears blue a lot,” Jackson put his two cents in. “Maybe that’s it?”
“I don’t really know, Sharina.” Rebecca shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll ask around. Someone’s bound to know.”
“Good, then give me a call.” Sharina smiled perkily. “Goodbye Rebecca, don't forget to ask around!”
"Seraphina Medina, is your stomach still hurting?” Reeves asked
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“Yes. I have a feeling it will all day.” Seraphina said as she continued to walk briskly. “Oh, I wish I wasn’t here right now.” She touched her stomach. “It’s really hurting.”
“It’s harder to exercise with a sour tummy,” Reeves sympathized. “We’ll continue to walk briskly, but we have to get a little bit of jogging in every once in awhile. Maybe you should consider seeing the doctor soon?”
“It’s only the stomach, I’ll be fine,” Seraphina muttered. She glanced out the side and saw Jackson, like he made some impressive discovery about her. The child's look made her feel even worse. Jackson called out to another kid and whispered something. Whispers.
“Reeves! Seraphina!”
Seraphina and Reeves both stopped as Rebecca ran up to them.
“What is it, Rebecca?” Reeves asked. “Is something wrong? Did a tempie say something rude or did someone fall?”
“No, not really,” Rebecca smiled at Seraphina. “I wanted to say hi.”
“Hey.” Seraphina tried to smile for the girl. After all, Rebecca had always been respectful to her, even when others shied away because she was dating Timothy. Rebecca was never anyone that would cause trouble, and of all the kids, she seemed to have bonded with her the most. “What is it?”
"Seraphina isn’t feeling her best today, so we need to keep moving,” Reeves insisted. "We can play later."
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Rebecca apologized. “I have a quick question for you, Seraphina. Nobody seems to know the answer to whether your favorite color is blue, purple or red. Which is it?”
Seraphina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “What?” Not this again.
“We’ve seen you wear purple, but you wear blue a lot. Your cane was almost red though and-oh!” Rebecca noticed Seraphina’s new ring. “What a pretty ring! Red looks lovely on you.”
Seraphina ducked her head away. Not Rebecca, she wouldn’t be doing this. What was wrong with this sector?
“It’s probably red or blue, right?” Rebecca continued to harass her. “You would look great in red. Is it red?”
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