VACATION holds a very important role in a student’s life as it gives them a chance to relax and refresh from their last school year.
When Aoine heard from her mother Devoria that they’ll be going to treat her along with her siblings Ailbhe, Saoirse, Oenone, and Anemone to the bouncy castle at the plaza accompanied by some of her cousins Azalaeious, Azelarius, Evionne, and Siobhan from her mother’s side made her more excited than she was before.
Well, she thought it’s going to be fun. She thought she’ll get a great time with her siblings and cousins even though they see each other every day.
If it wasn’t just for Azalaeious and Azelarius’ dumb antics that irked Aoine so much.
“Lei, could you please stop throwing balls towards me?” But Aoine’s request only fell on Azalaeious’ deaf ears.
Since Azelarius was in front of her who keeps dodging the inflatable balls, the balls hurled on her direction instead.
Azalaeious continued to throw massive amount of balls at Azelarius but they only flew towards Aoine, she ended up getting buried.
“Ow!” The moment Aoine rose from the surface, Azelarius’ body fell on her after being tackled by Azalaeious.
To be honest, Aoine felt her back cracked from the forceful weight of the twins on her.
“Ate Shiba! Evi! Save me from these demon children!” Aoine called Siobhan and Evionne who’s not there to witness her struggle since they’re bouncing pretty far from them, her other siblings are nowhere to find.
Aoine flailed her limbs, she used her fists to hit the two that was still laying on top of her while she used her feet to propel them too.
“Quit it, Lei! We’re hurting Ina!” Aoine was somehow thankful that Azelarius finally acknowledged her underneath them.
I swear, if I’m just strong enough I would have lifted these two idiots.
“Get off of me, Zel! Ina can’t breathe!” Azalaeious yelled.
“How will I get up if your legs are around my body?!” Azelarius retorted.
“What are you two doing?!” Finally, Siobhan noticed them.
“Move, idiots!” Evionne pushed the twins over Aoine while Siobhan focused on pulling Aoine below the two.
Upon not feeling the weight on her back anymore, Aoine dramatically opened her eyes before blinking multiple times to adjust from the light.
“Ina, sweetheart, are you okay?” Azalaeious caressed Aoine’s cheek but he immediately withdraws his hand when Azelarius slapped him.
“Gross, don’t touch her like that.”
“What?! You’re just jealous I’m Ina’s favorite twin!”
“Where did that suddenly came from?!”
Evionne could only shook her head as she watched the twins arguing over trivial matters.
Siobhan helped Aoine to sit up, she moved the squishy balls out of the way to have Aoine get a comfortable position. “Are you alright? Did they hurt you in some way?”
Aoine faced her cousin with red eyes and nose. “I think my back snapped like a stick.” Her back sting but it’s bearable, at least for now.
When Evionne turned her eyes to Aoine that looked like she’s on the verge of tears, her brows met and approached the twins that was still not finish with their squabble.
“Look what you two did!” Evionne smacked their bums using her knee.
“Look what you did, Zel! You made Ina cry!”
“You started the ball fight first!” Azelarius kicked Azalaeious’ side.
Aoine saw Azelarius advancing towards her, when he lent her a hand, she flicked him on purpose. Aoine helped herself up and began to walk away.
“Wait! We’re sorry!” Aoine can feel the twins tailing her back. “Come on, play with us more!” Azalaeious blocked the way out of the bouncy castle.
“I think I’m done for today.”
She headed out and wore her shoes before running to the closest bench where her older sister Ailbhe was sitting. Azalaeious and Azelarius could only watch her retreat.
“We just ruined her day, Lei,” Azelarius blurted.
“It’s your fault!”
“Bro, seriously, just admit at least once in your life that it’s your fault too.”
“Why would I? You started it!” Azalaeious never budged.
“You’re unbelievable.” Azelarius began to leave his twin.
“Hey! Don’t turn your back on me!” Azalaeious followed inside and continued to play.
“Ina? You still have ten minutes in the bouncy castle, why did you leave?” Ailbhe asked, sticking her orbs on her watch to check if she’s correct about the remaining time. “It would be a waste if you didn’t finish the time, your ticket isn’t expired yet.”
“Can you punch my back?” Aoine asked Ailbhe.
However, Ailbhe crunched her face after hearing Aoine’s wish. It’s pretty tad concerning hearing that from an eight-year-old kid.
Ailbhe had to look around if there’s people nearby who might have overheard Aoine.
If someone did, they might think Ailbhe was physically hurting Aoine that it became normal to perform that to her—or maybe Ailbhe was just exaggerating the situation due to the fact that she tends to overthink.
“Uhh, yeah, w-why would I do that to you? Hmm?” Ailbhe guided her younger sibling to sit beside her.
“My back hurts,” Aoine simply replied, trailing her eyes at the bouncy castle only to see some kids leaving too.
Aoine just assumed Azalaeious and Azelarius scared them away to make them leave this early.
Knowing those twins for as long as she can remember, Aoine can confidently say that they cause trouble a lot anytime and anywhere.
“Huh? Did you hurt yourself while you’re playing?”
Aoine nod her head. “It’s the twins’ fault.” But I’m blaming Azalaeious more in this.
“Again?” Ailbhe released a sigh. “Alright, instead of the word ‘punch’, why don’t we massage your back instead? Does that sound good to you?” She rotated Aoine to have her back face her.
“But massage doesn’t help to ease the pain.” Aoine titled her head enough to see Ailbhe. “I want this pain to be resolve with pain.”
Hearing that from Aoine caused Ailbhe to shudder. It sounded very personal when it’s just about her back aching, seeing Aoine’s innocent eyes somehow unnerved her.
Is this the awakening of her masochist side? No! I’m not letting that happen!
Ailbhe threw her palm on her mouth as gazillions of thoughts clouded her mind.
“Ate? Ate Alva?” Aoine’s forehead puckered, Ailbhe seemed so engross of her intrusive thoughts. “Ate Alva!”
“Ha? What?”
“Oh, you died a minute ago.”
“No, I didn’t! I just froze!” Seriously, why is she using those words? It’s getting disturbing here. “Okay, I’ll massage your back but no punching!”
“Okay.”
Ailbhe kneaded her back by starting to her shoulders down to her waist to relieve the tension of her muscles.
“Can you try harder than that?” Aoine politely asked after not feeling the soreness dying down a bit.
“But this is the hardest I can do, I’m even pressing your back,” Ailbhe replied as she tried her best to satisfy what Aoine wanted.
“But it’s not doing anything, I suggest you do what I told you first.”
“No way I’ll punch your—”
“Whoa! What does people call that moving thing?”
Ailbhe followed what Aoine was shamelessly pointing at, what Aoine was referring to led Ailbhe to a young boy—probably same as Aoine’s age gliding around the wide stage of plaza with his skateboard.
“Oh, the kid is skateboarding, the ‘thing’ you’re saying is what we call a skateboard,” Ailbhe answered, “You haven’t seen people doing a skateboard trick, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen kids in school carrying them before but I never thought what’s its purposes since I don’t usually go here in the plaza, but looking at that boy. . .” Her eyes followed the fluidity of the boy’s body as he dragged his skateboard to every corners of the stage as he pleased. “. . . it looks fun.”
Ailbhe sneaked a peek at Aoine’s face as she grew more interested to the young lad not so far away from them.
She’s kind of appeased now that Aoine’s attention switched to the young boy instead of complaining about not getting the desired pressure on her back.
But what made Ailbhe delighted more was seeing Aoine’s glistening eyes as she watched the boy moving around the place.
“Wait, wait, wait, did he just—uhm . . . uhm . . . what’s the best word to describe it again. . . ?” Aoine hardly gave a thought about it as she tapped her fingers on her lap as a way to come up an idea.
When she finally got it, she snapped her fingers. “Aha! Flip! Flip is the right word! Am I right?”
“Mmm, I didn’t see what the boy did but I know they flip the skateboard when they do a trick. If you saw him turning it quickly then ‘flip’ is the correct word for it,” Ailbhe explained, “What did he do anyway?”
Aoine pondered deeply about it again, but this time, she didn’t take long to answer. “The skateboard flipped! And, and, he turned around too! Or he flipped his body too. . . ?”
Again, she tapped her lap while she squeezed her eyes close as if she’s reimagining the stunt that the boy executed earlier, she opened her eyes again after five seconds. “It was so fast I didn’t even saw that coming!”
Ailbhe giggled while watching Aoine clap her hands as she continued to anticipate another trick from the boy.
“Look! He did something again but it’s different from the earlier!” Aoine pointed at him.
Ailbhe hummed. “That boy is like water; he flows so effortlessly beautiful.”
“Yeah . . . like water,” Aoine mumbled, “I want to learn too!”
“Good luck asking ma with that.”
“Why?” Aoine tilted her head, Ailbhe just finished massaging her back so she saw how Ailbhe’s smile stretched in a more horrific look.
“Skateboards costs about a thousand pesos or more.”
“Really?!”
At last, Aoine did ask her mother Devoria after she called them along with her Aunt Seviora, Sunniva, and Flavia to go home since it’s blue hour already.
The operator prepared to turn off the electric inflator of the bouncy castle after the kids inside went out.
Aoine ignored the twins who was following her behind while Aoine on the other hand asked or rather begged Devoria to buy her a skateboard.
It was a tough ride for Aoine since her mother wouldn’t let her, Aoine even made a plan to ask Devoria every other day so she wouldn’t get annoyed by her every day.
After days of whining—or more like months of whining about buying her a skateboard, Aoine’s mother finally gave in.
Vacation was over when she got her dream skateboard. Nonetheless, she’s thankful she got one.
Too bad, the day she got it was the day Devoria will eventually take away her freedom from skateboarding when she got injured from the first try.
“You should have wear knee pads and elbow pads before trying it, Ina.” Siobhan clicked her tongue as she put gauze on Aoine’s knees after she slipped when she rode the skateboard.
“Skateboard is already expensive, gear set too.” Aoine pursed her lips.
“Ina, do you know the consequences of what you did?” Evionne’s palm flew on her waist. “You’re our muse for Buwan ng Wika! Tita Dev will be very mad if she saw you like this!”
“No one will see my wounds anyway since I’m wearing a Filipiniana!” Here she goes again, acting like a mother. “Geez, mom.”
“What did you say?!” Aoine chose to press her lips together when Evionne raised her voice. “Our teacher will choose you again for intramurals and those wounds will turn into scars! You know you have bad cases of scars!”
“I still don’t understand why our teacher chose Ina as our class’ representative for this program though,” Azalaeious abruptly joined between Aoine and Evionne’s interlace.
Aoine glared at Azalaeious. “Are you saying I’m ugly?!”
Azalaeious was taken aback from Aoine’s tone. “No, no, no, no! What I’m trying to say is, the teacher should have chosen a morena girl instead. Your skin is too fair to be a muse for Buwan ng Wika, you’re more fitted to be an intramural muse to be honest.”
Aoine only rolled her eyes at Azalaeious and when Siobhan was done on her wounds, Aoine complained, “You didn’t kiss my wound, Ate Shiba!”
“Ha? Why would I do that?” Siobhan just finished cleaning the first aid kit.
“I’ll kiss it for you, Ina!” Azalaeious volunteered.
Aoine and Azelarius cringed at him. “Gross,” they said in unison.
“That’s just rude!” They didn’t pay no mind when Azalaeious marched out of the room.
“I must receive your lips’ blessings. So kiss it!”
“Geez, stop being pushy.” Siobhan kissed her bandaged knees until all the heads in Aoine’s room shifted to the door when it slammed open all of a sudden.
“Zel, Evi, Shiba, please leave Ina’s room for a moment, I need to talk to her this instant,” Devoria uttered.
The four of them shared a look before the three of Aoine’s cousins complied and held their heads down as they left her room.
Aoine gulped, her hands became sweaty and cold, her skin almost turned white as Devoria approached her. She even caught a glimpse of Azalaeious before her mother closed the door.
That stupid snitch, one day you’ll get a taste of what you inflicted to me, Lei.
It wasn’t a surprise, Devoria took her skateboard away from her due to that incident.
At first, Aoine found out where her mother hid her skateboard and she would sneak it out just to enjoy the experience of flowing with the wind like the last time she felt it—even if she got slapped by the tree after not being able to avoid its roots.
Azalaeious must have hated her so much because when he saw her dragging the skateboard out, he immediately betrayed her. “Tita! Ina is taking out the skateboard again!”
Aoine cried several times after being scolded by her mother again.
The next day, she found out Devoria sell the skateboard so she wouldn’t get a chance to use it anymore. Because of that, Aoine locked herself in her room after being on bad terms with her mother.
“Zel. . . .” She cried in front of Azelarius while they’re video calling. “I hate your twin so much.”
“Don’t worry, we can both hate him together. Stop crying, Ina”
“Even if we hate him, it won’t change the fact that my skateboard got taken away.” Aoine sniffled. “I understand the bike thing because I’m a girl and I might go far away and yada yada but taking away my skateboard? Why is my ma being so cruel?”
“Ina, it’s just a skateboard, stop being dramatic.”
“What?! You’re not even taking me seriously!”
It upset her more hearing that came out of Azelarius’ mouth, Aoine ended the call and chose to cry herself to sleep after.