A R I A

"Mom, get away from the window! I told you not to peek," I tugged at her hand and pulled her away.

"Okay, okay. Sorry," She surrendered and threw her arms in the air with a mischievous grin. Her emerald eyes glinted with happiness as she laughed. Mom ran her hand over the dress I laid out for her and sent me a wink. "Well, Little Miss Artist, I see you've got a marvellous taste in fashion. Hmm, I wonder where you get it from."

I rolled my eyes and cracked a smile, hugging my Stitch plushie to my chest. Her laugh had always been contagious.

"Definitely not from Dad," I said and shooed her into the bathroom.

As if on cue, Dad stepped into the room and pressed a hand over his heart, feigning a hurt and offended expression.

"You know, I was about to ask you to taste the cake but now I'm starting to have second thoughts." His words made me gape.

"Now, now. There's no need for such drastic measures," I tried my best to sound formal, but there was only so much a fourteen-year-old could do to bribe her equally stubborn father. "If it makes you feel better, you're the most stylish dad in the neighbourhood."

Dad snorted and handed a little basket full of blue petals to me. "If you want the first slice of that cake, I better see these petals in the perfect places just like how it looks on that one Pinterest post I saw."

The petals were from blue tulips. I grinned and mock saluted him, but karma soon caught up with me as I ran out of my parents' bedroom and tripped on absolutely nothing. Dad decided to save his precious petals from throwing up all over the stairs instead of his only daughter as the basket slipped from my grip.

"Clumsy as always," He chuckled.

I beamed at him as I got to my feet, embracing the trait that I inherited from the Klutz Queen herself: Mom.

The backyard was breathtaking. Dad had told me he was recreating the setting of the day he proposed to Mom, and it looked like something that came out of a Disney movie. Usually, Aunt Lydia and Uncle Paul would join us for their anniversary, but this year was different. This year, it was just my parents. Oh, and me as the third wheel.

The surrounding trees had lanterns hanging from the branches and the fence was decorated with fairy lights. Vanilla scented candles only added to the brightness while they circled the small round table that was placed in the center of it all.

For an evening in the middle of December, it strangely wasn't cold at all. The sun began to set as I littered the snow-coated grass with petals. I threw them in the air like I was a flower girl and let them flow with the breeze, sprinkling them on the table and chairs. I laughed when a gust of wind created a tornado of blue tulip petals and I danced along with them. I had a feeling that from that moment on, today was going to be perfect.

As I finished with my last twirl, I spun around to see my mother dressed in the beautiful royal blue dress with her hands covering her mouth. Dad laughed and kissed her on the cheek. I took a moment to admire how fast he got rid of the flour from his hair.

I was already changed into my waitress costume that I wore on Halloween about a year ago. There was one slight change in the outfit, however, because my cheek was smeared with a stroke of green paint and I was too lazy to wash it off.

Anyway, as I said earlier, tonight I was playing the ultimate third wheel. I planned to serve my parents their meal and bring out the cake, but of course, right after that was when I'd crash their date.

"Oh, my baby, you did all this for us?" Mom ran over to me and almost crushed my ribs with the tightest hug she's ever given me. "It's so beautiful! Thank you, my little artist."

Over Mom's shoulder, I saw Dad with his jaw dropped and snickered. "Yup, this was all me. I take full credit."

Mom joined along with my laughter and pulled away from the hug. She bumped shoulders with Dad, but he only frowned.

"Emmmerrrryyy," He dragged her name, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Kyyyyaaaaaan," She mocked.

"Arrriaaaaaa," I pitched in, feeling excluded.

"You women are so unbelievable," Dad pouted.

Mom rolled her eyes and pressed a kiss against his lips. "Aw, I love you too."

I poked Dad's arm as his expression morphed to a mixture of a lovesick boy and a lost puppy when Mom ran off towards the trees to admire the decorations.

"You guys are so cute, it makes me sick sometimes," I faked a gag.

"And you make me sick all the time," Dad said. An evil smile took its place on his lips, and that's when I knew I needed to run.

Before he could attack my sides with his horrible form of torture—which was tickling—I sprinted back into the house to retrieve the cake. Yes, my family ate dessert first thanks to Mom, but I wasn't complaining.

The cake looked glorious with its vanilla icing and its red velvet crumbs. It was our family's favourite kind of cake, but as much as I would love to eat it every weekend, we only had red velvet on special occasions. Dad had always been a great baker and chef, but no matter how hard he tried teaching us the simplest of recipes, Mom and I would always manage to blow up the kitchen, or at the very least set it on fire.

I resisted the urge to dig my finger into the cake and made my way back to my parents, who were already seated and chatting. Mom was clutching onto the vase full of her favourite tulips and if it were wider, she would have had her entire face inside with the way she was taking in their scent.

"Good evening, Mademoiselle," I said to Mom, completely ignoring Dad's playful glare. "We have only one dessert on our menu today, and that is because the head chef cannot bake anything else."

"Hey! At least I know how to crack an egg!"

I shushed him and placed the cake in the center of the table. Mom was already under its spell, and I really couldn't blame her. This was the most seductive cake I had ever come across.

After we each took a slice, I cut another small piece and threw it at Mom. I didn't waste a second and took a scoop of icing to smear it all over Dad's face. They both gasped, but it was overly dramatic. Of course they predicted this would happen. After all, I did it every year. And every year, just like this year, they both team up against me. Soon enough, I was practically wearing the entire cake.

"I love you guys," I laughed, hugging Mom and Dad with my icing covered arms. "Happy anniversary!"

●●●

Hey, all! So, first things first, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my mom even though she will probably never read this A/N, but well, this chapter literally only exists because she told me what her favourite flowers are, and I've always known they were tulips, just not blue ones. Heck, I didnt even know they existed. Ooh, and, my Mom is also my Klutz Queen (thank you Mummy for passing on this blessing/curse to me and my brother) so Emery is kinda based off of her <33

Anyway, It's been so long since I last updated, and that's because I kept changing this chapter 😂 I deleted so many things and wrote even more and then deleted again and... it was an exhausting cycle. So in the end I was going to make this chapter much much MUUUUCH longer, but I decided to split it into two instead. I'm almost done writing the next one, so I should be updating within the next day or the day after. Also, since my school is off for the next 3 weeks, I'll be trying my best to update more regularly :)

I hope you all are safe and healthy. COVID-19 is pretty scary and so I'm here to tell you to not do anything stupid and WASH YO HANDS YOU NASTY PEOPLE

Annnnd holy crap this book is at 55k+ reads 😭❤ I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH WTF

Oki bai <3