My Guardian Angel

37: Best birthday I've ever had

This is literally the best day of my life, ever.

Though I missed dad and Klaus, at least the others were there, especially the person I liked the most. Seeing Klaus here with Sally and Ava disappointed me a lot, but I could forget that till I saw him later at school. Karly still had the smug look on her face unlike me, who hid it for Jaspers' sake, but Dorian assumed that it maybe some 'girl' problem and never asked her again. Thinking that she got her periods here, Dorian bought a large packet of foreign chocolates for her and she laughed and thanked him, blushing like hell. Still smiling widely, she shared those with all of us and never appeared smug again. That made me smile too, realizing how easily Dorian could make her smile again, though I wasn't able to do that immediately. They're indeed perfect for each other.

After the roller coaster ride, we chose to go on some less scarier rides like a large merry-go-round, ferris wheel, a video games center and so on. Then there were the popular claw machines. Some of them contained chocolates, some of them toys, some of them had random items and others contained plushies. Karly and Dorian went for the one with the random-stuff one while I stayed, torn between the chocolates one and the plushies one, and Jasper obviously stood along. "Jasper, can you help me choose between these?" I asked him, pointing to the two, "I already had chocolates, but I still like them and can store them for later. But these plushies look pretty cute and soft, y'know?"

"You've an option to choose both, birthday girl," he reminded me, "Why don't you try this while I'll try to score a packet of chocolates for you?"

"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" I sighed, "That's great, Jasper, thanks!"

He gave me a dramatic bow in response and I chuckled as I watched him put a coin in the claw machine, pushed random buttons and turned the levers effortlessly while examining the movements of the claw carefully. I did the same, trying to follow up his level of focus and effortlessness on my game too. It worked for a while, but it stopped at the final moments, when the claw was right by the side of the opening. I had fixed on a bright blue rabbit plushie. I know, childish, but hey, it's fun to be immature sometimes. It just wouldn't let the plushie down though. Besides starting to lose my focus, there was a kid behind me who was crying and shouting for some toy from the other claw machine and distracting me a lot. I'll be honest here - the kid looked pretty young but I had the urge to turn around and scream at her to stop that freaking whining. It pained me to think that once I might've been the same, but hey, that's the past. This kid was annoying as heck.

Fortunately, the kid stopped crying after a second or so and I continued with my game carefully, bringing it right to the opening and successfully dropping the rabbit plushie I'd chosen. I wondered what happened to her, but I shrugged that off, got the plushie and turned around with a smile to see that the kid was still behind me.

And in front of her, Jasper.

He was handing her a little chocolate stick and patting her hair gently so as to stop her from crying. The little kid, her face wet with tears and her hair messed up, hadn't been crying for a toy but had apparently fallen down and hurt her arm, and her parents weren't nearby. Jasper lifted her up in his arms, took her hand where she'd been hurt and rubbed it slowly, gently, telling her that it was okay. He always had a way with people, even infants. Keeping the plushie down, I went nearby them, swallowing a lump in my throat as I did so because of the guilt I felt in my heart. "Hey, what's wrong?" I whispered, patting the baby's head and feeling even guiltier once she turned to me with a light smile. Jasper turned to me, "She fell and hurt her hand," he then turned back to the kid and smiled, "But it's fine now. Aren't you okay now, sweetie?"

She nodded, touching Jasper's cheeks and giggling in a cute tone. I laughed at that, feeling glad that he comforted her at the right time unlike stupid me. When the kid was finally smiling at the both of us, her parents returned from somewhere around and took her, thanking Jasper and me profusely and leaving instantly. They had lost the kid sometime ago and were looking for her all around. I instantly felt bad for assuming that she was crying for toys like most annoying kids do and not helping her when she'd fallen down. I had even felt the urge to scream at her without realizing what had made the infant cry like that. You're a bad, bad person, June, I thought guiltily. But at least Jasper came in time and comforted her. He'd been sensible enough to understand what had made her cry.