Love, Sweet and True [Part 1]

One of the things that inspired me to apply for the school paper (again and again and again and again) during my high school days was this short story. I was a very big fan of the publication that I made it a point to collect every year's issue. Technically this story was published in the year 2003 back when I was only ten years old. I rediscovered it out of my collection when I was already fourteen. I guess the delay was due to the fact that my mind wasn't ready to grasp love stories as a kid yet. Ha! 

Blue and White SY 2003-2004: A Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion - Main Campus Publication

Here's the cover of that year's issue. I recently took this photo and by recently I meant last July. Yes, I have a knack of keeping things. I'm proud to say it's in very good condition. Anyway, I wanted to share this to all my lovely readers but I had to ask permission first and give credit where credit is due.  Thanks to Facebook, I was able to contact Ms. Louise H. Gabato and she gladly agreed to allow me to publish it here in my blog. I'm sure there weren't as many nerds like me who considered these magazines as treasures and actually kept them for ten years. Yes, I've actually preserved this issue for a decade now!  Besides, I didn't want this piece to get lost and forgotten. So enough about my whatsits. Here's the lovely story...

---

I am the female version of John Doe. I never had many friends and the statement coincides my love life because I never had one. I know it's pathetic but you'll never know how much I've been through searching for that special guy. And oh, I'm a witch. Did I tell you? Big deal.

Anyway, I have this odd habit of looking intensely into the eyes of each and every male species that I encounter through the hallways. They think I'm vexing them into parameciums and so they all scatter in fright. But I can never stop doing this. If I do so, how am I supposed to find "the one"? Moving on, there came a point in my life when I almost surrendered.

One lovely day, with all my self-esteem flushed down the drain, I fixed my eyes on one last guy. Miraculously he returned my gaze with a great big smile and I almost choked on my bubblegum. He had this supernatural aura of radiating beauty which resulted into an instant attraction. He possessed beautiful dark features. Dark brown curls that ended in a mass at his soft tanned neck. He was tall and lanky, the ideal athlete's body. And to top it all, he had the mildest hazel brown eyes. He was the new guy named Angel.

See here. What if I'm a witch? Rituals and enchantments didn't make me less human. I've still got a muscle called a heart that thumps a million beats each year of my life. If I was less human, then how come this muscle hammers in my chest for him? And like an obvious chain reaction, 99.9% of the female population (girl and gay alike) had instantaneously worshiped the ground he walked upon.

Guess who got lucky? Thanks to a quick spell last night, I made it a point that Angel and I would be science lab partners. Within a few days, a rather close acquaintanceship bloomed between us hourly every lab period. On my part, I kept waiting, silently praying like a martyr for him to make the first move. A week had passed and still no sign of pure interest. Make that two. And to make matters worse, rumors had it that the perpetually adorable Angel had his eyes after Darla, Miss Popularity.Or was it the other way around?

By now I was desperate. I could vividly envision her, boldly wrapping her finger around Angel's. His loving eyes would solely be drawn into hers and then...

WHY WAS I NOT BORN BEAUTIFUL? WHY WON'T THINGS FLOW MY WAY? WHY CAN'T I BE HAPPY?

I had to do something. I had him at the tip of my fingers and I wasn't letting go. This left me with no choice but to embrace the final resort - my Love Charm.

I skipped one whole school day to accomplish the spell. I took out the family spell book and devoured the pages hungrily. To gain Angel's heart, I needed to perform a ritual that asked for a clock. It symbolizes Angels' pure affections trapped in time. It also needed shriveled roses to represent temporary love. After the enchantment, I secured the tiny clock and roses into a small box with a lock for safekeeping. And so I did it with no second thoughts and no guilt feelings. My brain was set only with the motivation to own Angel's love.

I woke up the next day with a fresh new zest for life. Entering the science lab, I produced my biggest and brightest glowing smile. Angel returned my smile in the most unusual way. As I sat beside him, he leaned shockingly close and whispered "I missed you." The next few hours led to an invitation at a glorious beach-side restaurant, then to flirty yet sweet comments to each other and eventually ended into a proposal and acceptance (of course!) of mutual commitment. The spell had worked out fine. Angel was now successfully mine and I was his.

Angel was the perfect boyfriend. Girls, particularly Darla, would eye us enviously as we walked hand in hand. Since the day Angel and I started going out, I did not give a care about the world. I even dropped my odd habit at last, knowing I ha found "the one".

But just like the movies, trials never failed to come about. Somebody had slipped a nasty striking note inside my locker. The scrawl read "WITCH, HOW LONG SHALL YOU CHARM HIM FOR YOURSELF?" 

To be continued... 
(Read part two here.)

---

Note: Please DO NOT repost or copy the said short story without the author's permission but if you wish to you can link up this post.