Once Upon a Lie

#kincontest

Once Upon A Lie

Chapter One

"Happy Birthday to you!"sang the tone deaf well wishers as they killed off the last chorus of the birthday song.
"Thank heavens they didn't sing the Chinese version," thought old Derek Shelley as he waited impatiently,"or I'll end up a skeleton before they serve the stupid cake."

" Blow out the candles!"
"Speech, speech!"
"Make a wish!"

Make a wish. Make a wish. Make a wish. The pretty woman with the long black hair had heard this so many times over the years. It was all she had ever done. Sadly it seems the Fairy God Mother doesn't grant wishes to naughty girls who don't do as they're told. Or maybe she had just stopped believing. Closing her eyes and squeezing them tight for extra luck, the woman wished what she had wished for the past eight years. Him. She wanted him. Not that anyone would understand, least of all her family. Now that was another problem for another day, today she would do what she always did; put on her lucky red dress, put her best foot forward and make her family proud.

Maxine blew out the 28 candles that had been carefully arranged around the elegant three-tiered concoction to a round of rousing applause. After having all the obligatory photos taken, she stood in the middle of the opulent sunroom, scanning the expectant faces. Maxine cleared her throat and began her speech. "Hi, thank you all for coming today. I know everyone's really busy, and well, I am glad you could make the time."

Maxine glanced nervously around the room and saw Derek Shelley knitting his brows into those little furrows that she had become familiar with. She wondered which offensive sentence, word or pause she had committed to cause her grandfather the displeasure. She continued, "I am glad to have all of you in my team and as the new CEO of Kwan Shelly United Holdings, I hope to lead you into the next decade of adventure and success!"

Crap! Thought Maxine. Half of them are so old they will be extinct by the next decade.

"Please enjoy the cake and eat the celebration!"
Crap, crap, double crap!

Maxine hurried out of the crowded room before getting killed by Grandfather Derek's deathly eyebrows. She ran upstairs to the safety of her large luxurious bedroom and before she could retrieve her handphone from its charging station, it buzzed a familiar ringtone. Maxine smiled for the first time that day.

" How is my Princess enjoying her party so far?" teased a male voice at the other end.
" Arghh! Horrible, torturous, bad, bad, if-I-don't-have-another-Shelley-birthday-bash-for-the-rest- of-my-life-I'll-be-over-the-moon-kind-of-bad," Maxine ranted.

The other voice laughed. Oh god, how Maxine loved that laugh. It was the only thing that kept her going on days like this.

" But seriously Maxine, you know you can't avoid these shenanigans. It comes with the whole Shelley package. And now that you are the CEO, things are just gonna get more hyped up, more crazy, and just MORE! But hey, don't worry about it ok? I am here for you, you know that right? In fact, I feel a song coming on... I'll be there... I'll be there... Just call my name and... I'll be there." Maxine laughed, "Sorry, I don't know that one. It must be from your father's time."

"Oh come on, The Jackson Five! It's a classic!"
"If you say so," Maxine was already feeling better just talking to him. He was so good at loosening her mental kinks and lifting her emotional lows.
Her grandmother called shrilly up the stairs to let her know she was wanted downstairs.

"I've got to go. I love you so much, do you know that?" Maxine whispered breathlessly into the phone. " See you later? Same time? Same place?"

'You know it," said the voice on the other end, and hung up.