Finding Stardust

They talked about the car David would receive from his father if he made it to cla.s.s A as planned.

Unfortunately, according to Emma"s a.s.sessment, even though David"s grades had improved a lot, she wasn"t sure the young man would be able to enter Cla.s.s A.

"I think you can enter Cla.s.s C, but not Cla.s.s A," Emma said regretfully. "If you don"t enter cla.s.s A, you will not get the car? Not even a secondhand one?"

David looked disappointed to hear that. He really didn"t think about the possibility that his grades were not good enough to enter cla.s.s A. He really wanted to have his own car. During this time, he often rode with Eric in his car or got his family driver to take him anywhere. He felt like a child.

"Ugh ... I don"t know," he complained. "I"m an adult now. I"m 18 years old today and can manage my own life. I want to be like Haoran, who can do anything as he pleases."

"Uhm .. I am older than you, okay," Haoran said, clearing his throat. "And I have to manage my own life because my father doesn"t give a f*ck about me. You should be glad your father still seems to care about you."

All fell silent at his words. Haoran did not like talking about his family. Every time he mentioned his father, an expression of hate crossed his face, and he could never hide it.

Emma had looked up some info about Haoran"s father on the internet and saw that their appearances were actually similar. She became curious to find out whether Haoran"s personality came from his father or from his mother.

But it seemed she would never know. Haoran"s mother was far away in China, and Haoran"s father never appeared in this mansion.

"Heyy ... the sun already set and it"s going to be completely dark very soon. We can start lighting the fireworks!" exclaimed Alex suddenly. He didn"t want David to turn sad on his birthday, thinking about a car he wouldn"t get.

They also did not want to continue talking about how bad Haoran"s father was. Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard him and began to leave the dining room towards the terrace to watch the sky.

Alex was right. Nightfall came, and they saw that the atmosphere had turned dark.

"We can sit on the veranda and chill out to digest our food first," Dinh suggested as he dragged himself out with difficulty. He ate so much tonight that his friends thought he was kept in a dungeon for a week without food by his parents.

The sun had set earlier, and now the atmosphere outside was dark. When the six teenagers watched at the sky, they could see the moon had risen in the east, and stars began to appear one by one.

"Tonight, we can see the stars more clearly. I want to try my telescope," Haoran said. "Let"s light the fireworks now before it"s too late and disturbs the neighbors!"

All welcomed his invitation happily. The teenagers took a lot of fireworks with them to the backyard and planted some big ones on the ground. David and Eric brought a bag filled with drinks, ice bucket, and several gla.s.ses and placed them on a small table in the middle of the yard.

Haoran, Dinh and Alex came with folding chairs, while Emma brought with her a tray filled with snacks and cookies. The party was simple, but they"ve got everything they needed to have fun. It finally started when they all gathered and sat happily around the table.

"Happy birthday, David! I hope you can get a car when you enter law school and become a famous lawyer like your father. You deserve to get the first gla.s.s." Haoran exclaimed. He opened a bottle of champagne and poured its contents into a gla.s.s and gave it to David. He then turned to the others and asked who else wanted champagne. "Do you all want it?"

Everyone nodded, including Emma. This was a special moment, she thought. So, even though she was not old enough to drink, it should be okay to just drink a little, right? She was not a child, she told herself.

"You"ve never drunk before, haven"t you?" Haoran asked Emma. "Let"s just drink a little, okay? We don"t know what your tolerance is."

Emma frowned. "Don"t treat me like a child. I"ll drink a little. If I can"t handle my drink, I won"t continue."

Emma was not the only one there who was not old enough to drink. Dinh, Alex, and Eric were also not old enough, not yet 18, but Haoran did not ask their opinion.

"I am not treating you as a child," Haoran furrowed his brows. "I"m just considering the fact that you have never drunk alcohol. At all. These guys have been drinking secretly for some time now, so they could hold their liquor. And even if they were drunk or hungover, I wouldn"t care."

Emma finally nodded at Haoran"s words. "All right. Just a little."

"Smart kid," Haoran said in a teasing tone. He deliberately patted Emma"s head like a child after just denying her that he was treating her like a child, just to make her frown. For some reason, although he often told Emma to smile and don"t be too serious, he actually liked teasing her to frown.

Finally, when Haoran did pour champagne to her gla.s.s, Emma was the only one in their crowd who got only a quarter gla.s.s, enough for just one gulp, while the others each got a full gla.s.s.

"Let"s toast to David!" Haoran said as he led them to raise their gla.s.ses. "Happy birthday, David Wijaya!!"

"Yeahh! Happy birthday to you!!"

"Finally, an adult!"

"Another adult among us! Hahaha.."

They all clinked their gla.s.ses and sipped their drinks while laughing happily. Emma finished the champagne in her gla.s.s in one gulp, then placed the gla.s.s on the table. She looked at her friends who were enjoying their champagne happily and could only feel jealous while staring at her empty gla.s.s. She quite liked the taste and wanted to drink more.

"Shhh ... wait a little longer. If you feel fine, I will give you more," Haoran said with a laugh. He saw the expression on Emma"s face screamed feeling left out. "Seriously, you don"t want to get drunk near a lot of highly hormonal boys."

Emma hadn"t thought about that before. She always felt the boys treated her well. They respected her as a girl who was a lot smarter than them and didn"t dare to mess with her, knowing that Haoran liked Emma.

But Haoran was right, Emma finally agreed with him. If people were drunk from drinking alcohol, their common sense might not work properly. She must not take such a risk. She finally took a can of soda and drank it to ease her annoyance.

"Soda is nice, too," Haoran commented. "Later, if you want to learn to drink, we can do it in private. I think, at this point, I don"t mind if you take advantage of me."

Emma only rolled her eyes when she heard Haoran"s words and hit his shoulder. "Iissh..."

Haoran only laughed at her reaction. They continued drinking and chatting merrily. The night was still young, and they were having a lot of fun. Now, it"s time to play with fireworks.

"Let"s light the fireworks!" exclaimed Dinh, who had planted several large fireworks on the ground, ready to be launched. "Eh, I forgot to bring a match. Can anyone get matches from the kitchen?"

Emma saw a candle on the table next to her. She knew they were supposed to use it to light the fireworks. She quickly took the candle and lit it with her power, and walked toward Dinh. "Here you go. I"ve lit the candle."

Haoran spouted his drink when he realized that Emma had lit the candle with her pyromancy. He hurriedly approached Emma ​​and said to Dinh. "I got the match. We already lighted the candle."

Emma just smiled, seeing Haoran trying to protect her by claiming he had the match. She knew the young man was worried that Emma would be seen by their friends creating fire.

"What"s wrong with you? n.o.body saw it, I made sure," Emma whispered to him. "I"m not careless."

Dinh took the candle from Emma and lit four fireworks at once, which immediately shot to the sky. His friends took turns holding the candle and light more fireworks, one by one, happily. Everyone cheered and applauded as the fireworks exploded in the sky and displayed an amazing show of lights in the night sky.

Haoran and Emma joined in to enjoy the fireworks display with astonished faces. Under the magnificent sky lit with fireworks, Haoran took Emma"s hand and invited her to speak seriously.

"Emma ... promise me you will never let yourself get drunk or lose your self-control. If you used your power in front of others when you are not sober, then people will know your secret. I don"t want you to experience difficulties because of that ..." Haoran said seriously. "I know that you are young and want to experience many things like other kids, but you are not an ordinary girl. You cannot act like ordinary people."

Emma stared intently at Haoran and finally nodded. She knew she was the youngest of them, but she did not like to be treated differently just because of her age and the fact that she was a girl.

However, hearing Haoran"s words just now, Emma understood why Haoran was treating her differently. The young man just wanted to protect her.

It gave her a weird feeling in her chest. She knew she was physically so much stronger than this young man, having so many powers within her, but she actually liked this feeling of being protected by someone.