Presents and Polaroid Pictures Finished

§

One of the things that Elena remembered was dates. Dates and times and routines, books, facts, quotes. Anything that she recorded in the margins of her journal, and January 10 was a very important date. It was Min-seo's birthday.

Elena had been so careful to pick out the right gift for her friend, Min-seo liked fairy lights and there just happened to be little ones in the shape of owls. Which were awesome, so she packed them up in a little lilac coloured box and went to find Min-seo. She wasn't in her dorms, and she wasn't anywhere in the library. Elena didn't get an invitation which left...

The great lake, preferred location for birthday parties where the birthday girl wasn't feeling the best. I guess that meant it was the preferred place to hide. So Elena put a warm jacket on over her hoodie, before heading on down to the lake. She saw Min-seo sitting by the lakeshore and put a smile on as she walked over.

"Looking for a quiet birthday Lights?" Elena smiled, "I like your style, that's my plan for next year. The lake seems to be a pretty good venue for that, you're the second girl I've found all alone out here on their special day."

§

"Of course I remembered! I wrote it down to make absolute sure I did." Elena smiled and sat down next to her friend, "The other girl I found down here was Bella Hills, looks like I have a knack for finding missing birthday girls. Although I didn't need to bribe any students this time I just figured you'd like the calm, the great lake is oddly relaxing to watch. Even if the giant squid likes to interrupt, my reading tree is just over there actually, if you ever feel like climbing up. I don't mind you using it."

Elena held out the present, "Couldn't let you have a birthday alone, and I couldn't let you go without your gift. Especially after your amazing ones, but even more importantly because you're my friend."

Elena fidgeted a little with her free hand, owl lights were cool but even more important was the little wooden camera that she'd carved especially for Min. It wasn't much compared to the necklace, that's why the lights were the main gift. Although Elena'd never really been this nervous about gift giving before, she'd spent an hour obsessing over the colour of the box, and another two over the writing on the card.

§

"It works well, I've got a hammock up there and everything." Elena nodded.

Elena nervously watched and fidgeted as Min-seo opened up her present. She could see Min's eyes brighten at the lights and couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride when her friend admired the camera.

Elena hugged Min-seo back and smiled, "I'm glad you like them. Lights for my lights, and all that. The camera I just, hoped you'd like, it took a little while to make but it looks like it was definitely worth the effort."

One of the side effects of not having proper birthdays was that Elena felt the need to make sure other people had good ones. In all honesty her own party, although fun had been stifling. The great lake might be a good venue for the next year, or more likely somewhere else, somewhere that people wouldn't be able to find her. Peace and quiet were some of her favourite things, after all.

"So, do you have any cake or do I need to make a run back to the castle? You can't have a birthday without cake, it's one of the most important parts, that and the candles. Candles are important too." Elena smiled.

Elena beamed, "To the castle we go! On a quest for cake, is it a quest? I remember that an adventure is a trip without a destination..."

She appeared to reflect on this for a second, as if reading a book in her head, "Yep,
a quest, that's the one, a journey is where the trip is more important than the destination. I was right."

Elena noted a photograph had fallen out but didn't think that much of it, Min was a photographer after all, it was probably a photo of something she'd found interesting around here. There was a lot of things around the great lake that deserved to be captured in time.

"After you, tell me if you need to stop and take a photo." Elena nodded and got up, brushing herself off and smiling at her friend, "Also if you need my jacket, it's really cold out here, and I usually run a bit warm."

She was also wearing the old cloak that she carted around with her like a good luck charm, but that wasn't something to be shared. Min-seo probably wouldn't want to wear it anyway, it still smelled sort of like hay and would be big on her, seeing as it was already big on Elena herself.

Elena watched Min-seo take the photo and smiled, it was nice to see her perking up a bit. She’d seemed down earlier, and as much as she didn’t want to, Elena noticed little things like that. There was pain in Min’s eyes, like the pain in Elena’s when she was haunted by the shadows of what could’ve been, and what happened in her past.

“No problem Lights, I’m just glad to see you smiling like that.” Elena followed Min up to the doors, when her friend stopped to take a photo Elena glanced down toward where the stables were, wondering if Min-seo wasn’t the only one who had been alone on their birthday.

Elena answered Min’s grin with one of the small smiles that made Elena look even happier than the wild grins that she wore like a mask when she first arrived at the school, there was a lot of things that life here had fixed. One of those was her ability to express emotions, the real smiles were still rare but they actually happened. She could remember maybe one smile like that before coming here, a gentle one that she used after she convinced Eliza to go with her, when she thought she was free.

Elena walked over and held the doors open, “After you Min!”