"It's you, isn't it?" The lady wearing a white knee-length short lace cocktail dress with sleeves partnered with white closed shoes with heels. Gabriella was surprised that a stranger from a public place knew of her so she raised her head to look into the woman's face to see whether she knew her too. She was shock to see an unfamiliar face in front of her, so she look at the lady intently and the more she look at her the more she realize that her appearance seems so familiar. She remembers Charles by just looking at the lady. She looks young and beautiful; her eyes were so similar to Charles that Gabriella almost thought she was Charles' sister.
"Huh?" She finally let out a sound after a few minutes of examining the lady's face. The lady looked at her and laugh, even her laugh sounds sophisticated.
"Charles' girlfriend!" The lady shouted a little bit with that attracted the attention of the other costumer near them. Gabriella was stunned for a moment and was unable to speak, she just look at her and trying to come up with a response so she won't seem to be rude at her. "Gabriella, isn't it?" The lady asked again.
"Y-yeah." Gabriella replied.
"Hi! I'm your Charles' mother, Lilianne." The lady said while giggling. Gabriella was surprised because the first time she lay her eyes on this lady in front of her, she thought that maybe she was just someone who looks so much like Charles or if ever they are somewhat related, she'd probably be Charles' sister because of how young she looks.
"Charles' mother?! Oh my God! I thought you were his sister." Gabriella unexpectedly said in shock. She immediately covers her mouth when she realized that she might've offended her. Lilianne didn't speak for a minute and just stares at her but let out an expensive laugh after seeing how Gabriella reacted on her own words.
"Do I look that pretty?" Lilianne jokingly said.
"Miss, Ma'am! You are!" Gabriella said that made Lilianne's heart jump.
"Mom." They both turn to see whom the voice came from, only to discover a man in a white long-sleeve polo shirt tucked into black slacks while smiling so sweetly at them. He's another individual who resembles Charles so closely that Gabriella almost mistook the guy as Charles. It's just that the stranger appears to be more professional and mature.
"Oh, this is my eldest son, Charleston." Lilianne slightly pushes her son as she introduces him to Gabriella.
"Charleston, it is nice meeting you." Charleston said still with a sweet smile on his lips and extended his hand towards Gabriella so she immediately shakes his hand politely.
"Gabriella." Gabriella said while shaking his hand. 'This guy looks so hot in his clothes but smiles like the softest cloud ever.' Gabriella utters in her mind as she question herself what kind of genes run through Charles family's blood that they all looked like a model.
Charleston whispered something on her mom after shaking Gabriella's hand while Gabriella just stood there silently since Lilianne's hands was still placed on Gabriella's arms. She doesn't want to be rude and just leave them without bidding goodbye so she waits there patiently until the two of them finished talking.
"I'm sorry, honey. Something urgent has occurred, and I must go immediately." Lilianne said as she turns her gaze to Gabriella with apologetic expression on her face. "Let's continue talking next time." Lilianne added and put a big smile on her lips and gentle caress Gabriella's arms.
"Sure, I'll be looking forward to talking to you next time." Gabriella replied and smiled and watches Lilianne as she walks away with her son, Charleston.
Not long after Liliane and her son left, Gabriella's name was called by the person on the counter as her orders were ready to be claim. She returns to her table while carrying the tray where all her orders were placed after taking it from the counter. When she arrived, her friends were already sitting there playing on their phone.
"Mid Vanessa!" Olivia shouted. They were all busy playing on their mobile phones that they didn't notice Gabriella. She put the milk tea in front of them without interrupting them as she know how they would react if interrupted while playing. Gabriella started eating her strawberry cake while waiting for her friends to finish their game.
When minutes already pass and they were not yet done, Gabriella started feeling bored so she took her phone from her bag. Her eyes widen when she saw a notifications from Charles. She immediately open it and saw a text message from him.
'Good Morning.' The text message Charles sent says. Both sides of Gabriella's lips rose up, forming a wide smile but she try to suppress it by biting her lower lip because she doesn't want her friends seeing her smile while looking at her phone though she know that they wouldn't notice her smile since they were busy on their own company. She's just not ready to be questioned.
'Good Morning!' Gabriella immediately send her reply not wanting any minute or second to pass. She opened her instagram account after sending the text message so she would seem busy looking at her idol's new post when in fact she was actually waiting for Charles's reply. She would sometimes check whether Charles had replied already and just didn't pop on her phone. Minutes have passed already and she still didn't receive a reply, she's already losing hope when an instagram notification pops up on her phone so she immediately checks it out.
Gabriella was surprised to see a message from Charles. She was not able to see what he said since he sends a photo and not a text. Curiosity led Gabriella on checking it out; it was a photo of bread placed on a white plate with a small cup of tea beside it.
'I'm eating breakfast right now. Have you eaten yours?' the photo was followed by this text message from Charles. Gabriella stares on the photo Charles' have sent her for a few minutes before typing her reply.
'Yup, I eat bread back home and a strawberry cake here.' Gabriella replied and sends a photo of her strawberry cake.
'Were you out today?' Charles immediately replied after seeing the photo Gabriella sent.
'Yup, currently here at Teaboba.' Gabriella replied and sends another stolen photo of her friends. 'I'm waiting for them to finish, we got to finish some school works.' This text message of Gabriella followed the stolen photo of her friends that she sent to Charles.
'Is that so? Good luck.' Charles replied that made Gabriella smiled even more.
'Is that it? I was actually waiting for you to send a video of you giving me flying kisses for good luck.' Gabriella replied while giggling a little bit as she followed her text message with a laughing emojis.
"VICTORY!" a loud sound exited her friends' phone synchronously together with their screams that caught the attentions of the other costumers.
"After losing five games last night, I finally heard this. Such a music in the ears." Olivia said with a victorious smile on her lips.
"For real, I almost lost my motivation to play this game after seeing how my rank is falling down. Should we play one more?" Chloe utters while her eyes was still focused on her phone.
"Let's go. I'll invite you two." Vanessa said and even fixes her position in her seat, getting ready on their next game.
"Should I remind you that we still have lots of school works we got to finish?" Gabriella asked them that made all of them loss their victorious smile. They didn't rebut and just kept their phone on their bags. They started fixing their things and drink the milk tea Gabriella bought for them.
"I wish I could be reincarnated as one of the heroes on this games so I do not need to do school works anymore and all I got to do is fight the enemies while protecting my team's tower." Chloe exclaimed and sipped on her milk tea.
"I thought this life is enough for you already. You even told me you don't want to live again after this. So why are you wishing to be reincarnated?" Vanessa said. Chloe choked when she was sipping her milk tea and laugh at her.
"I just want to play another game." Chloe said after coughing.
"Let's play again tonight. Which hero will you use?" Olivia asked while she was leaning her elbows on the table and holding the straw of her milk tea with both hands.
"I'll use Odette!" Vanessa answered immediately.
"Then I'll use Johnson so you can ride on me." Chloe said and look into Vanessa's eyes, their eyes met and they acted as if they were in a romantic movie. They started moving their face towards each other, Vanessa even closes her eyes. But they suddenly burst into laughter when their lips are almost touching each other.
"You guys are too flirty. Gabriella, you should also play with us. I'll use Angela, I'll use my Heartguard on you only." Olivia said and started acting the way Chloe acted when she replied to Vanessa thinking she would get the same reaction. Gabriella pushes Olivia's face away from her with disgust on her face which made Chloe and Vanessa laugh.
"Finish that already so we could start creating our miniature!" Gabriella said while pointing Olivia's milk tea using her pouty lips. Olivia obeyed her without hesitation and sips on her milk tea until she empty the cup.
They decided to visit National Book Store to buy the materials they will need in creating their miniature. After buying the essential things they need, they head straight to Vanessa's house since it was the nearest house at them.
They immediately started working on the miniature after arriving. They were stuck in planning how they should design their miniature because they were arguing, trying to share how witty their ideas are. But in the end they finally figured it out how they would make use of each and everyone's ideas. Creating miniature was not actually easy, they spend almost half of their allotted time creating their miniature. And when they were finally done, they immediately started working on their other school works.
"They broke up because Susan cheated on him with her boy best friend." Olivia replied to Vanessa. They were talking about their batch mates who were included on the campus' hottest issues.
"I knew it. I've notice something's fishy with them." Vanessa said while documenting Chloe's experimentation. Chloe was busy executing her experimentation for the laboratory report they have to do on their physics subject since Chloe was not able to attend their classes when they did the experiment. So Gabriella, Olivia, Vanessa was just chatting while waiting for her to finish so they could start working on their laboratory report together.
"Susan said they broke up because Jerry had impregnated another woman." Gabriella butts in while playing with her pen using only her right hand.
"Did she tell you?" Olivia asked.
"Nope, I just heard from other student council." Gabriella relied.
"Of course she would not admit the truth that she slept with another man while she's still in a relationship with Jerry." Olivia said. They continue chatting about the hottest issue in their campus until Chloe finishes her experiment.
They immediately started working with their laboratory report while Olivia and Vanessa puts an effort multitasking, working on their lab report and chatting about the trending and hottest issue on their campus. But despite them chatting while working, they still manage to finish their lab report. Since it was already getting late, they decided to just resume working on their other school works the next day.
Vanessa walks with her friends until they arrived outside their subdivision. She waited with them until a tricycle appeared. Vanessa waved her hand while watching the tricycle her friends ride on leave.
It didn't take them a lot of time to arrive in their own home since there is no traffic jam along the road. When Gabriella arrived at their home, she immediately kissed her mom's hand and head to her room. She washed her body and changes her clothes then she let her body fall on her soft bed because she really feels exhausted after hours of working on their school works.
She opened her phone to check any announcement from their lecturer but she saw a notification from Charles instead.
[cj.augutus sent a video.]
Gabriella immediately opened it and saw that is has been sent since morning, so she immediately played the video he sent. It was a video of him, at first seconds he was just fixing his hair while looking at the camera and then he suddenly throws a kiss.
["Good luck, my girl."] He said after throwing a kiss and ended the video