Cliche (Love Series # 1)

f i f t y - t h r e e

Preparation

(noun)

prep·a·ra·tion\ˌpre-pə-ˈrā-shən\

: the activity or process of making something ready or of becoming ready for something
: things that are done to make something ready or to become ready for something

°°°
Christmas is an occasion every filipino can't wait to start. Before Christmas starts people would decorate their houses with Christmas trees and hung parols on the outside of their house. Kids would knock on our house with their self made instruments singing carolings, vendors selling bibingka ang puto bungbong and the rest of the families are already planning for places to go to.

Christmas is just two weeks away from this day and there would be no Christmas party in our class, I'm not sure why there's not but it doesn't really matter that much to me. I mean I have my share of Christmas parties in elementary and High school, I think I can get over the fact that there's none this year.

What I'm really looking forward and getting antsy for is my scheduled meeting with Willmark's parents. I have mixed feelings about it, I guess this is what Willmark felt too- wait, I forgot!

He's a charmer! I now know why he always appeared in our house together with our group of friends, that sneaky man! He hid his intention too deeply that even my mom wouldn't know about it. Then, should I curry with his parents too? But I don't think I'll do a good job,

I'll probably suck and perhaps they'll throw money at me and say I'm not fit for their son. Yeah, like that would happen, I mean I'm the greatest girl he has ever met and there's no one like me, I'm a rare gem.

With that thought, I laughed like an evil maniac and once again got glared at by my sister. I just ignored her and turn my head to the reviewer that I finally finished.

I studied for about two hours more before sleeping, tomorrow's our final exams and I can't wait for this to end. Not before long, my eyelids became heavier till I finally went into dreamland.

...

Soon, exams are finished and there's only two days before Christmas vacation starts. Every student is already feeling the nearing vacation and their mouths can't stop chattering as they talk about their plans and what they're gonna do this whole four weeks and three days of vacation.

Willmark and I decided to attend simbang gabi together with our friends from high school though we only attended five times out of nine days.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he clasp my hand to his.

"I'm not, are you?" I turn to his direction and zipped his zipper closed, my eyes looking up for his answer.

"I'm the one whose cold" Bool suddenly shove his face forward to us.

"I don't care" I shove his chin off of our sight and decided to hug his arm.

"Jamie, were going to the church so please restrain yourself okay?" I pinched his arms as if I can't wait to skin him alive and then glared at him.

"I'm not that desperate you toothpick!"

The others burst into laughter while bool can only look at me in grievance, I harrumphed at his pitiful face before walking towards the church hand in hand with Willmark.

Afterwards, Willmark would come in our house four times a week, either chatting with my parents and playing with Josh or either helping us and fixing the fans and other appliances. Sometimes he would be seen playing with my older brother and of course, I would always cheer for him.

Mom would always praise him for his quick and talented hands making him blush to the ears again. Now he doesn't blush anymore and just smiled, it seems like he's already used to it.

"Jamie, go out and buy all of this in puregold" she gave me a list of ingredients, must be for this week's Christmas.

I nodded at her and Willmark immediately stopped playing with Joshua and my other cousin, telling them he have to drive me there and take all the heavy groceries.

"Thanks for coming with me"

"It's fine, let's head out" he take his keys off his pockets and we drove together to puregold.

The moment we enter puregold, I was blinded with the Christmas lights hung on the ceilings, each workers have a reindeer like hat on their heads and the whole area was covered with red and green.

There's a lot of promos and sales in front of the entrance, the song "Christmas bonus" rang from above and I could see the smiles from the workers.

Me and Willmark begun our search for mom's ingredient list and managed to get all of it. We lined up from the counter and waited till the person in front was finished. A sudden influx of customers came, thankfully, we've already lined our things in the counter or else we'll have to wait for a long time before we get home.

We reached home before the sun sets down and get into work, I'm the one taking out the groceries out of the plastics and Willmark on the other hand was responsible for arranging inside of the kitchen drawer.

Just a week more and Christmas will finally arrive, well, let's just see how things would go this Christmas.

Notes:

• Traditionally, parols come in the shape of a big circle with a star in the middle, but you can also choose from various designs like stars and flowers. It can also be made from different materials like plastic, wire, wood, or even recyclable materials.
• Bibingka is baked in clay pots and leaves, while puto bumbong is steamed in bamboo tubes.
• Simbang Gabi means “night mass”, which is basically what it is. Filipinos attend mass either late at night or in the wee hours of the morning for all 9 days before Christmas.
• Puregold Price Club, Inc. or simply Puregold is a chain of supermarkets in the Philippines trading goods such as consumer products (canned goods, housewares, toiletries, dry goods, and food products, among others) on a wholesale and retail basis.
• “Christmas Bonus” is Aegis’ plea to companies that are thinking twice about giving their employees their financial rewards for the holiday season.

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Hello everyone! How are you today?! Christmas is near, well, I hope Christmas will give you a bit of happiness! Thank you for loving this book, this may not have that much reads but I know one day it'll be.

Stay safe and healthy as always okay?! Have a great day everyone!

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Thank you!