10 years ago

"You stupid idiot," Icilia shouted stomping her foot. "Look what you just did, you moron."

"What did I do?" Zoran smiled innocently, a mischievous glint visible in his eyes.

"What didn't you do? You spoilt our castle. I hate you," Icilia shouted, looking at the crumpled sand which was once a castle.

"I hate you too, sweetheart," Zoran said with a smirk. "But grow up. It was a stupid castle anyway. It didn't even look like a castle in the first place. Looked more like a shack."

"Go to hell! What do you mean by "grow up?"," Icilia asked, air quoting the words "grow up." "We're only eight, you dumbo. And don't ever call me sweetheart. I don't want to be called sweetheart by you," she shouted, all the while glaring at Zoran who had plastered a smirk on his face.

Their parents watched from afar, chuckling silently. "I'm telling you, one day, they're gonna get married," Icilia's mother said, a knowing glint in her eyes.

"I agree," Zoran's mother said, nodding her head.

"Well, I don't," their fathers said together. "What if they don't turn out to be mates? Then what?"

"Well, we do," Icilia's mother spoke for Zoran's mother as well as herself. "And I'm one hundred percent sure they'll turn out to be mates. You just wait and watch."

"My baby girl is too young for that. I'm going to keep her locked up in a tower like Rupunzel till she's thirty. She's not allowed to date till she's forty and not allowed to marry till she's fifty," Icilia's father declared.

"Honey, you can't do that. Mostly because we might be dead by the time she turns fifty. But even then, you can't do that. Don't you want grandchildren?" Icilia's mother asked.

"She can adopt," her father replied grumpily. "And what shit? I can do that. We're immortal remember?"

"Only if we don't die in battle remember?" Icilia's mother sassed. "And now I know who's the cause for Icilia learning those foul words. You,"  she pointed her index finger and narrowed her eyes at her husband who looked like a child caught eating cookies, "You are the culprit. But I don't get when Icilia picked up those words." 

"Uuh.. Well.. you see.. She may have walked in on me calling one of my employees that," Icilia's father said sheepishly.

"Honey," Icilia's mother said, narrowing her eyes at her husband.

"What? I'm only human."

"No, you're not," Icilia's mother said. "We're not human." 

"I knew that. I was just trying to create a dramatic scene," Icilia's father said in a duh tone.

"Whatever," Icilia's mother waved her hand. "I just don't want her saying those words again. She's only eight. She shouldn't be speaking such words. And you, my dear, will make sure of that," Icilia's mother told her husband in a no-other-excuses-you-will-do-it tone.

"Yes, dear," Icilia's father slumped, having realised that further arguing with his wife would prove be pointless. After all, "A happy wife equals a happy life."

This got laughter from all the adults present there. And that's how the day went by. Very merrily and filled with energy.

At present

ICILIA WINTERS

Beads of perspiration trickled on my forehead. I narrowed my eyes at my opponent, not letting my grip slip. I stared at him with a challenging stare, asking him to back down now. Silently asking him to let go or a promise that he'd receive a painful blow to his ego. A promise that he would be defeated, painfully.

He didn't back down. Instead, he tightened his grip on my arm. His eyes told me the same thing my eyes were telling him. But I was not one to back down from a challenge. In fact, I enjoyed it. And I knew my opponent very well. I knew him just too well. He was over-confident. Very over-confident. And within two minutes, he'd face a major blow to his ego. Wouldn't be the first time anyway.

I tightened my grip on his arm again. Staring him in the eyes, I put all my strength into my next move and in one quick motion, pushed his hand down and held it like that a for a solid ten seconds. And hence, he went down like a turd in a punch bowl.

"And we have a winner, ladies and gentlemen. It's Miss Icilia Winters," my good friend, Darin Price announced, patting my back. "For the third time in a row."

Darin Price. He was a flirt. That's all I can say about him. Every chance he gets, he flirts. With his brown bed-hair and ocean blue eyes, he has most of the girls' eyes on him. Him being tall only did him good.

"Why, thank you, Darin," I said, bowing. "It's fun beating Zoran every single time."

"Please, I let you win," Zoran said, trying to save his beaten ass.

"Aww, look at you trying to save your beaten ass. By saying the same thing three times in a row. And that's only today," I cooed, pinching his cheeks.

He slapped my hand away, scowling.

"Man, I believed you the first time. I'm not stupid to believe you the next few times. You're just saying that to save your beaten ass and I won't have any of it," my other friend Treznor Heard declared and continued, "Dude, she's beaten your ass six times already. Three of which were today alone. I hate to say it but, she's stronger than you man." 

Treznor was complete opposite to Darin. Treznor gave of that dark, mysterious and bad boy vibe. This attracted a lot of ladies' attention. He was not as light as Darin. He was serious but not too serious. He was the complete package if you're into bad boy/nerd people. Yep, he's a nerd as well.

"Thank you, Treznor," I said. "Now for my prize. Let's hear you say it, Zoran. Loud and clear this time please."

"Yourestrongerthanme," Zoran mumbled, looking anywhere but into my eyes.

"I said, loud and clear, Zoran," I said, taking out my phone. "And look into my eyes this time, please."

"Fine. Icilia Winters is stronger than I, Zoran Summers," Zoran shouted while looking into my eyes as I had asked him to, "You happy now?"

"Very," I smiled and moved my hands which were behind my back to in front of me, replaying the recording I took of Zoran admitting defeat. "This is gonna make good blackmail material."

Zoran looked shocked as he saw the the phone in my hands and heard the recording. "Icilia, I thought I told you not to record it," Zoran whined.

"And I thought you knew I wasn't going to listen to you," I sassed. "You should've known that after all these years, Bubbles."

"Don't call me that," Zoran snapped.

"Chill dude," I said, fanning him with an imaginary hand fan. "Should I give you some ice to cool down or you want to take a cold shower since you're oh-so hot?" I smirked.

"You evil, evil little child," Zoran narrowed his eyes at me.

"You devil's little spawn," I narrowed my eyes at him.

If you didn't already guess by now, there's some history between Zoran and I. Not the good kind lemme tell you that. We were born on the same day but he was a few seconds elder to me. Seconds! Yet, he wasn't letting go of that any sooner. We were sworn frenemies since the day we turned one and I slapped him and he pushed me. I don't how I even knew how to slap then and I don't know why I did it. Apparently, I just did. At least, our parents told us we did that. Since we were five , we've been playing pranks on each other. Still, we are also friends. We annoy the hell out of each other but we support each other - kind of. Yeah, we have a complicated friendship going on. Treznor, Darin, Regi, Vanessa, Fayth, Sanya, Zoran and I were the best of friends but also sworn enemies. I don't know how our friendship worked, but it did.

Now, Zoran Summers. I couldn't deny that Zoran was hot with his dark hair and eyes and his full on cute smile. But I had seen him in his diapers and I had seen both his sides, so, I wasn't too attached or something.

"Okay. Before you guys start off, I'mma go get some popcorn. Hold up," my dear friend Sanya Patel said. 

As you can guess by her name, she's an Indian. In fact, we all are. She's very pretty and out-going. Everyone loves her an she's easily approachable. She has brown hair and brown eyes and always, a mischievous glint and smile.

"Yeah, hold on, will ya? Vanessa is going to be here soon," my other dear friend, Fayth Pierre said. She's fun and beautiful. She's kinda like Treznor and gives that bad girl vibe. She too, has dark hair and dark eyes. I think Treznor has an eye out for her.

"I'm here, I'm here. What'd I miss?" Vanessa Sterling came barging in, panting. It looked like she ran all the way from her house to get here - which she probably had. I mean, she didn't want to miss anything so, she most probably ran here as fast as she could. 

Vanessa's a Princess. Literally. Her dad's the King of Qrison Vlesa. But she doesn't let it get to her head. She is sophisticated but she is down to earth and also quite fun to be around. She's the best prank side-kick you can get.

"Nothing much. They haven't started yet. Here's the popcorn," Regi came in from the kitchen out of nowhere. 

Regi Lennox is the dope person. He's the joker and a ball of energy. I think Vanessa and him make a really cute pair. With his dark hair and mischievous smile and her light brown hair and greyish eyes, they'd make a really cute couple.

"When did you get here?" Zoran asked curiously.

"Been here all along, dude. You just didn't realise it 'cause you were so into your argument with Mrs. Summers here," Regi winked.

"Don't you dare, Regi. I'm not his girlfriend forget being his wife," I hissed.

"We'll see about that soon enough," Regi said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked carefully.

"Both of your eighteenth birthday. I'm just saying that there's a high possibility of you two being  paired together," Regi simply shrugged.

"Eww. No. Please don't say that," I shivered. "Why would you even think such a thing? Eww, eww, ewww. No way. Eww."

"Just saying," Regi shrugged. "You guys are born on the same day with only a few seconds apart. You are polar opposites but also like like poles. Maybe since you're both so weird and no one can match your weirdness, you both will be paired together. Who knows?"

"Regi," I whined. "Stop saying that. Maybe there's someone else on earth who matches my weirdness. Plus, I'm way too awesome for him," I flipped my hair back erupting laughter from the rest of them except Zoran.

"Qrison Vlesa. Someone from Qrison Vlesa," Treznor corrected.

Right, we only had mates from Qrison Vlesa. "Yeah, yeah," I waved my hand around as if fanning myself.

"What's wrong with being my mate?" Zoran asked me, frowning and ignoring everything we had just said. I swear he has selective hearing. He only hears things that describe his "awesomeness" or his what is the word opposite to awesomeness? Badness? Eh. He only hears things that describe his goodness or badness. Did that make any sense?

"Hallo," Zoran waved a hand in front of eyes. "So, what's wrong with being my mate?"

Oops! I didn't realise I was day dreaming.

"Everything," I answered, feigning shock. "I thought you already you knew that."

"Everybody shh. They're about to start," Vanessa shushed everyone. Everyone immediately quietened down. Unbelievable!

I turned to her, "Glad to know you find us amusing," I said dryly.

"Oh, we don't just find you guys amusing. We find you very entertaining. Now go on, continue please," she said, urging me to continue.

"Now we definitely won't. Your welcome by the way. You know, for all the entertainment we're providing oh so freely. Next time, I demand at least a hundred vlesas," I said. 

'Vlesa' was our currency - like rupees, euros, dollars and more. One vlesa is equal to sixty dollars. Yeah, it's pretty costly.

"A hundred is too much. I'll pay fifty," Vanessa said seriously. "On behalf of all of us I mean. I'm not that rich."

"Yeah, you are," Darin said in a duh tone. 

"I'm not. My dad is," Vanessa protested.

"Same thing," Darin said, shrugging. "Anyway, anyone know what you guys are getting for these two tomorrow?"

"What's tomorrow?" all of us asked Darin, curiosity shining in our eyes.

"You idiots! Tomorrow is Zoran's and Icilia's birthday," Darin said, shaking his head.

"Oh," we said, forming our mouths in an 'o' shape.

"Yeah, oh. How the hell did you guys forget that tomorrow is your birthday?" Darin asked Zoran and I and then turned towards Regi, "Regi, at least I thought you'd know that tomorrow was their birthday seeing as how you mentioned it just a few minutes ago."

Regi, Zoran and I shrugged. "Don't know."

"I know. You two were too busy eating each other's brains out," Darin said sarcastically.

"Don't be silly, Darin," Zoran said shaking his head at him. "I'd never eat her brain raw. Maybe cook it a bit to kill all the germs and wash away those dead brain cells and then, maybe consider eating it."

"Eww, Zoran. That's cannibalism. I, for one, would feed your brains to the dogs. But seeing as you don't have one.." I trailed off.

"Why you little..." he started but was interrupted by Sanya.

"Wouldn't it be funny if Zoran and Icilia were mates as Regi said earlier?" asked Sanya, agreeing with what Regi had said not so long ago.

"Hahaha. It'd be very funny for you guys. Not me. I don't want to be mated to mated to brainless here," I said dryly, pointing my index finger at Zoran.

"And I don't want to be mated to snobby here," Zoran pointed at me.

"Why you stupid little.." and I was interrupted this time.

"You guys are really alike you know?" Faith remarked.

"Maybe that's why they repel," Treznor said.

"Sure, please. Go ahead. Talk as if we're not here at all," I said.

"We're not. We're addressing you guys here. Regi may be right. You guys might turn out to be mates tomorrow. And if you are, you better tell us. Don't bother lying because the whole of Qrison Vlesa will be present here and your mate can only be from the people of Qrison Vlesa. So don't dare bother denying tomorrow if you guys are each other's mates. Okay?" Faith ordered, her hands on her hips.

"Yes ma'am," Zoran and I mock-saluted Faith.

"Yes! I might be right for the first time in my life," Regi announced, dancing.

"It won't be the first time, you idiot," Darin said, slapping the back of his head.

"Ow, man. I know that. I'm just kidding. Can't you take a joke? Want me to dip you in an ice bath to cool you off?" Regi asked, looking serious but we could tell he was joking.

"Regi.." Darin shouted before he started chasing Regi around the house.

"You'll never catch me alive," Regi declared and started running away from Darin.

All of were laughing at this Tom and Jerry scene.

And that's pretty much how the day went. Zoran and I bickering every two seconds, our friends interrupting us and making fun of us and teasing us about how we might be mates tomorrow.

Yipee! I can't wait. Please note the sarcasm.