"Is the food ready? Are the decorations up? Is the cake prepared? Is everyone present?" whispered sister Mary to Leo, the second oldest child from the orphanage, after Oliver.
"Yes, yes, yes and yes... Sister Mary, you have to calm down! You are stressing out to much anyway! That boy is going to receive more than he deserves, so he should be more than thankful even if everything goes wrong!" responded Leo. "Seriously... that punk..."
"You shouldn't talk like that about him, Leo! He is a wonderful boy and he deserves it all. You better be nice to him today! That is all I ask of you." said sister Mary with a grave expression.
"Hhh... fine!" Leo said giving up...
"Now, I'll go and wake him up, while you go and tell everyone from the village to get ready in the Village Hall" said sister Mary excitedly.
"I know, I know..." said Leo while walking away.
*Can't wait to see how surprised he will be when he hears the good news* though sister Mary to herself. And opens the door to his room:
"Good morning, Oliv..." and she stopped... the sight before her left her speechless...
"Good morning, sister Mary!" greeted Oliver while ironing some clothes. "Did you sleep well?
"A-aa... yes... but what are you doing? I thought you were sleeping..." she said trying to hide her surprise.
"I woke up a little bit early today, so I read a little bit first, but at 7 you didn't come to wake me up, so I thought that you were tired. I realised that you were pretty busy the past few days and there was much ironing to do, so I took all the clothes from the orphanage and started ironing them." responded Oliver very matter-of-factly.
"You did, now didn't you? Well... thank you very much! That was very kind of you! However, you can leave the rest for later... The village elder asked us to go to the Village Hall." said hurriedly sister Mary.
"Really? What could it be for?" questioned Oliver.
"Who knows? Let's hurry, anyway!" responded sister Mary energetically.
"Sure... Let's go... But what are the other kids going to do while we're gone?" asked Oliver concerned.
"Don't worry! They are already there. Now let's go!" and she pushed him out the door.
In a few minutes they arrived at the Village Hall. However, Oliver felt like something was weird... Why would the elder call upon all of them? Did something happen? Well... he will find out soon enough. He opened the door and:
"SURPRISE!!!" shouted a group of maybe 70 people. Oliver was stunned for a moment.
"Wh-what is going on?" he asked feeling something welling up in his stomach. "Is this for me?" he asked with wet eyes.
"Yes! It is all for you! You are turning 16 today and we are just so happy to have you! Because you are such a good child, everyone from the village wanted to organize a surprise party for you!" blurted out sister Mary, almost jumping with excitement. "Do you like it?"
"This is all wonderful, but you shouldn't have gone out of your way to do all this for me! I'm happy just being with everyone." said Oliver.
"Oliver, you don't have to be so humble! We all wanted to do this. It is our utmost pleasure." said the elder from the side.
"Thank you very much" responded with teary eyes. Although he sometimes felt like he was a little bit unlucky, he knew now for sure that he was the luckiest boy in the world to be surrounded with such caring and loving people.
"Well, then, don't just stand there! Come in and let's enjoy the things that were prepared." said one of the villagers and so they did.
Oliver came in and the celebration began. The food prepared was amazing. The children from the orphanage couldn't stop eating. Only once or twice had they eaten meat before. They usually ate vegetables with rice, mashed potatoes, boiled eggs or bread with butter and jam. However, today they saw before them more than they ever dreamed of.
After all the food was eaten, a small, but tasty looking, cake came out. Sister Mary had put aside some of her personal money every month for the past year to be able to buy the ingredients needed. She was very proud of her achievement, but sad at the same time that she could make only a small cake for Oliver...
"Oliver, this is for you! You know the 'sweets' that you read about in some of your books? Well, I tried to do something for you. I hope you like it!" said sister Mary shyly.
"Thank you, sister Mary! You are very kind! You are more than we, the kids from the orphanage, deserve." said Oliver apologetically.
"I just love all of you very much!" she said as she gave him a hug. "Now then: here is a spoon. Enjoy!"
"Mark, Lucas, Tom, Leo, come and let's taste the cake!" exclaimed Oliver brimming with joy.
"But... there's only such a small piece... if you share it with everyone you will barely get a bite..." said sister Mary worriedly.
"It's ok. It tastes better when we share it! That's what you thought us ever since we were little!" responded Oliver brightly.
Sister Mary couldn't say anything anymore. She was so happy seeing them share the cake that tears started welling up in her eyes.
"Leo, you should come and have a bite too!" called Oliver.
"Huh, you think you can buy me with sweets? You wish! You can have your cake!" said Leo bitterly as he swallowed his saliva.
Without paying attention to what he just said, Oliver took a spoon of cake, ran to Leo and stuffed it in his mouth.
"Well? How is it?" he asked.
"What do you think you are doing? I said I don't want your cake!" said Leo refusing to swallow.
"I know, but do you like it?" asked Oliver.
*There's no hope left for him* though Leo to himself and gave in. He finished what he had in his mouth and said on an annoyed tone "Yes, it is very good!..."
"I'm so happy you like it! I like it very much as well. I'm glad we all got a piece of that cake!" said Oliver happily. He knew that Leo didn't have any ill intentions, but that was his way of showing that he cared. For sure he refused the piece of cake only to let Oliver have some more, suppressing his desire to taste it as well.
"Oliver" intervened the elder "we have one more thing to tell you: we want to send you to The Royal Academy of Susa to study. We know how much you wanted to continue your studies, so for the past half a year we put money aside so that you could go. This is our village's gift for you. We hope you like it!"
Oliver was speechless. He wanted to respond, but just couldn't. Was this a dream? Was this actually happening? He always wished to be able to go there. He was so happy, that he had no words...
"However... it is up to you if you enter or not. If you want to go, we can give you one week and a half to prepare. Then you will have to go and take the exam. If you pass it, you will be enrolled there, but if you don't... well... it's ok anyway... it is a very hard exam. Also, we can only afford the exa... actually, all you have to know is that this is our gift for you. All you have to do is pass the exam. After that, we will talk about whatever else we have to discuss." added the elder.
"I understand. I will do my best! I am going to make you proud! I won't let your gift go to waste!" said Oliver excitedly. "Thank you everyone!" said Oliver to the villagers "I won't let you down!".
Everyone was simply filled with joy at the sight of this excited child. He was just too nice!
The celebration continued until late in the evening. Then the Village Hall was cleaned, and everybody went home happily. Oliver was the happiest of them all. He had decided: he wasn't going to waste the gift he has been given. That said, the next morning he was up at 5 in the morning and started his day with 10 laps around the village, then he did push-ups, gymnastic and so on. Then, at 9 a.m. he went in, prepared breakfast for everyone and after that, he would study until lunch, then have a break and then study again until he went to sleep at 10 p.m. He studied every book he could get his hands on in the village. Also, some villagers got for him some books from relatives they had in other villages and the elder went to the capital and even got some books from The Academy for him to prepare from. That was his schedule for the next week and a half.
He did everything he could, and finally, he was one day away from the big exam. One more night of waiting, and then...