Seven years ago...
"Happy birthday to you!" Calypso's roommates finished singing in soft whispers as she smiled and hummed along.
It was the middle of Autumn and the orphanage was packed tight so you couldn't even feel a cool breeze. Calypso and a few of her friends were all hiding in the basement well after their curfew for her 10th birthday.
"What do you wish for this year Calypso?"
Calypso took a moment and responded with a smile. "I wish I could go to school."
One of Calypso's friends laughed. "Why? I heard that it's a horrid place."
"I just want to learn that's all, and make some friends outside of this place."
The other girls nodded in agreement.
Calypso never knew her parents. Apparently they abandoned her and took her to the orphanage. The headmistress as we have to call her of the orphanage is a small creature called Ava. A lovely old woman about the age of fifty. She never got married but wished for a child and that's how she came here.
She was the one to take Calypso in. Calypso had asked her many times what happened but the only thing she would say is. "They knocked on the door at quarter to three in the morning asking us to take you and then they left."
Calypso being young just understood that as abandonment and never questioned further.
****
Everyday Ava would take the girls out for a few hours. They usually went to the lake. A beautiful clearing in a forest where a long hill greeted a sparkly clear stream. Many of the girls rolled down the hill and some were unlucky enough to fall into the lake.
One day Calypso was walking through the forest when she came across a flower patch. There was so much variety she just had to pick some. She was about to run off and tell some of the others when she heard a noise.
It was coming from a few metres away. Calypso was about to run but she had to pick a flower. She raced over to the patch and tried to pull one from the ground but it wouldn't budge. She kept trying and trying and was about to give up when. "Stop!"
She froze and turned to the voice. It came from a boy looking about her age with brown curly locks and gorgeous brown eyes. He had a bit of chubbiness in his cheeks but he looked like he meant business.
"What are you doing with my flowers?"
"Your flowers?" Calypso asked in disbelief.
"Yes my flowers. I put them there and I'm the only one who can take them out."
Calypso took her hand from the plant and brushed it on her dress. "Sorry I didn't know."
The boy smiled and walked over. "That's ok I was just playing. Although they are mine, but I don't know how."
"How they are yours?"
"Well they just appeared when I came one day."
"Show me." Calypso eagerly smiled, and the boy who was eager to show off gladly walked over to the dirt patch.
He knelt on the ground and put his hand on the soft soil. For a second nothing happened and then it grew. A small frail plant started rising to the sky and bloomed into a small daisy.
Calypso rubbed her eyes in complete shock. "H...how did you do that? Is it magic?"
He cheekily smiled. "I don't know but I hope it is."
Calypso stood back. "What are you?"
The boy looked shocked. "What do you mean?"
"Are you a goblin?"
"You mean from stories?"
Calypso nodded.
"No. I'm a human."
Calypso walked forward and touched his arm like testing water if it's too hot and she edged away. "Ok."
The boys smiled and extended his hand. "I'm Leo!"
"Calypso." She shook his dirty palm.
He smiled. "That's too long. How about Cal?"
Calypso giggled. "Ok I'm Cal."
***
Leo and Calypso stayed in the garden for a little bit longer and Leo would grow flowers to Calypso's amusement and Leo was enjoying the attention. They talked about everything and nothing and coming onto the subject of Calypso's birthday somewhere in between but she didn't think he heard.
He was in the middle of growing a rose which took a little longer when the sound of a clock awoke Calypso out of her flowery daze.
"I have to go!"
The clock only chimed once which meant it was half an hour ago when she was supposed to go back. Before she could race off Leo caught her arm which sent tingles up her spine. "Here!" He picked the daisy from the ground and handed it to her. "Happy birthday for yesterday. Let's keep this as our secret."
She nodded and raced off smiling and feeling so happy that she made a friend in the outside world.
