Chapter 1
Moving wasn’t part of the plan. Scratch that, she had never wanted to move. But unfortunately for Mielle Dizon or Elle as she likes to call herself, she didn’t have any other choice.
At the age of sixteen, she should be celebrating her birthday with her friends back in the Philippines and enjoying the rest of the three years left of her high school life. But of course, life had other plans. After her mother died, her dad just decided on a whim to go to Canada. After many years of hard work, trying to apply for citizenship and was able to land a high-paying job, he had originally planned to take their family to Canada as soon as he got the job. But of course since her mom died not too long ago when he got it, he decided to do the next big thing, which was moving and being able to afford a humble house in the neighborhood of St. Roch, Quebec.
It happened all too fast. One moment she had three more years to enjoy her time with all her best friends in school before going to college then a second later it was gone, snatched away from her, just like that in a single blink of an eye.
She didn’t really want to go, but her dad insisted that living in another country would be “beneficial” for her future because apparently, Canada offers one of the best education in the world and she would be much happier living somewhere that is much more “stable.”
She snorted at the thought. Yeah right, as if her life could get any more stable than this.
Going up the stairs, she went to the farthest door down the hall. Opening the door, she let herself inside. The room wasn’t really big nor was it too small, though it was kinda dull, it just had the right decent amount of space where she can put all her stuff in, with a wardrobe and a single bed where she could sleep whenever she wanted.
Setting the box down on the ground, she began unpacking. Books were first, of course, it was her treasure, then her clothes came in next and she thanked God that her closet was large. Back at home, her new closet was stuffy due to not having space left anymore from all the clothes she had.
Unpacking proved to be much harder than packing, she cursed herself for having too much stuff but luckily she was quick at tidying, and soon enough she had put most of her things away. Reaching for the last box, she looked down at the last item in it. Taking it out, a sad smile etched on her lips as she caressed the glass of a picture frame, her eyes staring at the woman in the photo who in turn, was smiling back at her.
‘ I wish you were still here mom, maybe things would have been different ’ she thought, placing the picture down atop the nightstand beside her bed. Just as she was about to put away the dozen of empty boxes, a knock on the door made her jolt up in surprise.
Turning towards the direction of her bedroom door, she saw her dad standing outside. A cup of coffee in hand with the other inside of his pocket, he leaned against the door frame.
“ Enjoying the room? I figured since you needed a lot of space, you’d appreciate having this one“
She rolls her eyes before walking toward her bed and plopping down on it. “It’s alright I guess”
Her father sighed, stepping inside before setting the cup of coffee atop her dresser and went to sit beside her.
“ Look, sweetie, I know it’s hard. I didn’t wanna do this but, I just want what’s best for you ”
Elle gritted her teeth, her hand clutching the bed sheet under her tightly. What’s best for her? That’s a big fucking lie.
“It wouldn’t be so bad once you get used to it. And look at the bright side, maybe you’ll gain friends at your new school”
Ha, yeah right. A school that he chose for her without asking for her opinion, a school he was FORCING her to attend. Greenwood or whatever the school name was, she wasn’t happy with it. And she didn’t want to argue, they had already discussed this thousands of times, over and over. She turned her head away, trying to calm herself. It ain’t worth it being angry, she’d just waste her time.
“Mielle, I—“ before her dad could say anything more, the sound of a ringtone blasted through the room, interrupting him.
Her dad sighed, taking his phone out of his pocket to look at the caller ID before glancing back at her.
“I’m sorry sweetie, I gotta take this phone call. If you’d like to go out, you can. Explore the neighborhood if you want, there are shops nearby too, pag usapan nalang natin ’to mamaya okay?”
And with that, her father was gone, off to work and once again leaving her alone with nothing but a kiss on the forehead and 10 Canadian dollars. She frowned, looking at the money in her hand. Even when her mom was still alive, he was on call and barely there for anything. Not like she cares, it has always been a normal thing.
Turning her phone on, her frown deepened. No text messages nor missed calls from her friends, although she knows that they’re all busy with other things besides school she can’t help but be disappointed that they didn’t at least call her to ask how she’s doing now that she left.
Well, so much for her plan to stay in bed all day and chat with friends.
Elle sighs before looking at the window. If she was going to stay here for the full year and go to college after, she might as well start learning how to adjust to the place and the first step is taking a tour around the neighborhood.
Grabbing her cap, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a simple white shirt and denim shorts with her long black hair tied up with a ponytail. She looked closer, examining herself. Yep, she looked fine, her face on the other hand not so much. Her usual soft features looked burned out and she couldn’t help but grimace at the sight of the bags underneath her eyes. She really needed to get some sleep, she wasn’t able to do so with that twenty three hours and fifteen minutes of flight, she was uncomfortable the whole time.
She thought that she would be able to get some sleep once they finally arrived, but with all that unpacking, her sleepiness went away.
Shoving the money into her pockets, she went down the stairs and into the living room where she went to approach a small little altar that contained a tall white urn at the corner of the room.
“I’m going out, saglit lang ako, see you later Ma” She says, leaning down to kiss the top of the urn.
Then she turned around and headed for the door where she found herself out into the neighborhood. She started walking along the sidewalk, aimlessly looking around and as she did, she saw a few neighborhood kids riding down along the streets in their bicycles. The neighborhood didn’t seem bad, it was calm and peaceful, the perfect place to live. As expected of her dad, he knows exactly where he wanted his dream house to be. She shakes her head and keeps on walking.
She doesn’t really have an exact destination in mind other than the thought of going to that ice cream parlor just a little over 9 blocks away from her place. She saw it on the way here when they arrived an hour ago and figured why not go try their ice cream?
She needed a good dessert to lighten up her mood. But boy, was she not used to walking a lot though. She never knew that 9 blocks was quite far, nevertheless, she managed. She almost got lost on the way too, she was just that terrible at directions, but good thing she has the trusted google maps to help her around and about fifteen minutes later, she finally arrived.
The parlor’s exterior was surprisingly vintage and old looking. Looking up at the store’s blue neon-lit sign that read “Bert’s Ice Cream Parlor” which she found pretty due to the color and soon couldn’t help but be attracted into coming in.
Putting her hand on the door handle, she swung it open and went inside. She was amazed at how beautiful the interior of the ice cream parlor looked like, it mirrored the parlor’s exterior, looking like it was something out of those movies her mom used to love watching. The walls were painted in mint green and decorated with several retro stickers and posters, the chairs were all colored in pastel pink complete with a bar on the side and as a final touch, had a small jukebox in the center of the parlor. It was like a typical 50s vintage ice cream parlor back in the day.
Heading over to the counter, a tall beautiful-looking cashier stood from behind, smiling as she approached.
“ Bonjour! Bienvenue chez Bert’s Ice cream parlor, comment puis-je prendre votre commande ? “ the cashier greeted.
( Trans: Hello! Welcome to Bert’s Ice cream parlor, how may I take your order?)
Oh fuck. She mentally panicked. Did all of the residents not speak English in the neighborhood at all?
Flustered, she couldn’t make any words form out of her mouth. Dammit, had she known that this would greet her when she moved here, she would have started learning French other than English.
Hands starting to sweat, her eyes frantically searched the menu, barely noticing another person entering the ice cream parlor and lining up behind her as she tried her best to pronounce the flavor of ice cream she wanted.
“Oh um, can I get the, Gataw—”
No wait, that sounded bad.
The cashier leaned closer, unable to hear her. “Redites-moi ça?”
(Trans: Come again?)
She inhaled deeply. You can do it Mielle, just try your best not to butcher it.
“The Gataw ou fromage acks prises?”
Yep, she definitely butchered it. She wanted to crawl somewhere and die.
“Je suis désolé” the cashier shook her head. ” Je ne peux pas comprendre—”
(Trans: I’m sorry, I cannot understand)
“Bonjour ! Désolé de vous interrompre, mais cette charmante dame veut un gâteau au fromage et aux fraises”
(Trans: Hi! Sorry for cutting in, but this lovely lady here wants a strawberry cheesecake.)
She jumped a little as the person behind her started speaking, turning around she saw a tall guy towering over her. He was perfectly built with a heart shaped face, his hair was a long and tousled shade of dirty blonde with a length that reached down at the back of his nape, and not to mention, he had those baby blue that you would instantly get lost in.
He was dressed in casual jeans and a cream-colored cardigan with a black shirt underneath and on both hands he wore stainless steel rings of different design. If she wasn’t distracted by panicking over how to pronounce the name of the ice cream she wanted, she would have started swooning the minute she noticed him come in.
“Excellent,” the cashier nodded, taking down the order. “Et vous monsieur ?”
(Trans: Excellent, and you sir?)
“Une glace au chocolat, pas aux pépites de chocolat, juste au chocolat,” the guy told the cashier and she could only watch silently at the back and forth conversation between them.
(Trans: One chocolate, not chocolate chip, just chocolate)
“Une glace au chocolat, y a-t-il quelque chose que vous voudriez ajouter, monsieur ?”
(Trans: One chocolate, anything else you would like to add sir?)
“Non, c’est tout” he shook his head. “Merci”
(Trans: No, that’s all. Thank you)
“Le total pour chacun est de 4 dollars”
(Trans: Each totals to 4 dollars)
The guy turned to look at her, holding his palm out open towards her “She said that each ice cream totals to 4 dollars”
Snapping out from her dazed self, she blinked a few times. “Oh! Sorry, here” she says as she digs for the cash in her pocket before giving it to him.
“Thanks” the guy smiles, taking out his own cash before giving both of their payments to the cashier.
“Here,” the guy says, as he stretched his hand out to give her the change.
A little embarrassed, she took the remaining money and shoved it into her pockets. “Thank you” she thanked him, giving him a sheepish smile.
“It’s not a problem. I noticed that you were struggling to order, so I decided to step in, sorry if I just came out of nowhere and started talking, I must’ve startled you” he explains, rubbing the back of his neck.
Elle shakes her head. “Oh no, it’s not rude at all. I thought I would end up having to leave without ordering anything if it wasn’t for you, I was taken aback though since I wasn’t expecting her to speak in a different language”
The guy chuckled. “Well, this is Quebec, most of the people here speak French a lot more than English, though a lot of people also speak it, there are parts of Quebec where people prefer speaking French more. It’s the biggest French-speaking state in all of Canada after all”
Of course, it would be, she had been clueless about all these things. God, she felt like a total idiot for not researching more weeks before she moved. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for their order to come and Mielle’s embarrassment wore off as she saw the ice cream, it looked too pretty to be eaten, too bad she sucked at pronouncing its name. She could only let out a sigh of relief, it wasn’t every day that she struggled communicating, then again it’s a sign of how totally unprepared she was in this whole moving to another country thing.
“Thanks again” she lets out a weak laugh. “Had I known that most people here would speak French, I would have made an effort to study the basics at least”
The guy smiles. “French is a beautiful language but not everyone can speak it that easily, which is a part of its charm as one of the hardest languages to master. Looking at you, you seem new here. Have you just moved in?”
She nods. “Yeah, I just moved in”
“Ah” the guy nods. “Well, welcome to the neighborhood, it’s big and might get confusing but you’ll get used to it soon”
Hopefully she would. She forgot that she had almost lost her way to the ice cream shop before this.
“So, what brings you here in Canada?” he asks as he took a bite out of the side of his own ice cream.
“Well after my mom died, my dad decided that we should move here the moment he got that promotion”
“Oh” he frowned. “I’m so sorry to hear that”
She waved her hand dismissingly. “No it’s alright, she would never like it if I talk about how sad it was. She’d scold me if I did, anyways, that’s why I’m here”
“Must’ve been hard to move and leave everything behind”
She sighed. “It is, I mean I have a lot of friends so it didn’t feel right when I just suddenly left. I enjoyed my school life there and everything was perfect the way it was, you know what I mean?”
He nodded. “I understand, it must’ve been a very difficult choice for you to decide. Heck, it isn’t easy at all”
“Tell me about it ” she rolls her eyes. “But there’s nothing I could do anyways, I’ll just have to deal with living and going to school here, it’s not like I have any other choice”
“Speaking of school, if you don’t mind me asking though. What grade are you and which school are you going to attend?”
“I’m an incoming ten grader, at Greenwood International High School”
Upon hearing that, the blonde’s eyes widened. “Really?! No way! That’s where I go to too!”
As if she thought this day wouldn’t get interesting enough. First the language then she finds a local who attends the same school she would be attending? Huh, go figure.
“By the way, are you Filipino?” He asks.
She raised a brow. “Uh yeah, I was born and raised in the Philippines. Why do you ask?”
The guy grins. “Knew it!”
She tilted her head. What the?—
“I knew it, the minute I looked at you I knew that you were” he smiles, a glint in his eyes.
Her brows creased. “Um, knew what?—“
“Oh sorry, I forgot to ask, what’s your name by the way?”
“Mielle, Mielle Dizon. Elle for short”
“Nice to meet you, Elle,” he smiles. “I’m Geof—“
Before he could fully say his name, the sound of a loud car honking outside interrupted him, ruining his introduction.
“It seems like I gotta get going,” the blonde sighed. “I really want to stay and chat with you a bit longer but I need to go. School starts next week, I guess I’ll see you around campus when I can? Anyways, it was nice meeting you Elle!”
And just like that, the blonde rushed out of the parlor, and through the glass window, she watched as he hopped inside of what seemed to be a green convertible Audi before it drove off, disappearing down the streets.
What a weird encounter. She thought, looking down at the time on her phone. It was still early but she didn’t really want to eat alone in an ice cream parlor so without further ado, she thanked the cashier and left the ice cream parlor.
On her walk back home, she didn’t know why but a smile suddenly plastered itself upon her face. Maybe it was because she met an overly attractive guy? She didn’t know. Taking a lick from her ice cream, a single thought crossed her mind:
Ice cream never tasted this good before.
