Black vision. She was still in the vivid dimension of dreams, feeling the warmth of her blanket on a winter morning, and she could hear some voices thinking they were part of the dream, not realising that it was actually happening in real life, right near her.

The two were talking right near her, whispering even, not wanting to wake Ilinca up just yet.

“Should I just—”

“Nooo, Richi, don’t shake her, she might get a heart attack!”

“Oh come on, at least let me use my permanent marker”

She could feel some deep holes near her body, feeling the ground underneath her sinking in.

“Dude! Get lower, you’re going to wake her up!”

“Well, RICHI, IF YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO MESS AROUND—”

Ilinca opened her eyes, grunting them, not realising if the two in front of her were a part of the dream or not, and then she got startled like getting a jumpscare in a super scary horror game, pushing herself towards the back with both of her arms.

“Oh… it’s you two… wait, HOW DID YOU GET INSIDE?!”
Exclaimed Ilinca, not knowing if she should be happy or to be scared a little bit

Even if Ilinca didn’t show it, she was very happy to see the two on the morning of her birthday.

The two looked at them, giving out slight smiles

“Wel… let’s not worry about that, right?”

“BECAUSE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!”

Richi and Terry jumped on Ilinca, kissing her cheek and hugging her tight, showing her, unconditional love

“Can’t… breath”

Groaned Ilinca, covered in hugs, while she was getting squished between the two smiling friends of hers, smiling like some lively cartoon characters

“You’re officially fifteen years old!!”

“Yay!”

Then they let her breath again, letting go of the killer hug.

Ilinca pointed at the marker from inside Richi’s hand, doing circles with her pointing fingers, towards the ultimate weapon of cheap pranks.

“What is that for?”

Ilinca. Suspicion. Grunted eyes. Suspiciousssss…. 

Richi… acting like… Richi, threw the freaking black marker behind her, throwing it right in the wall right a few centimeters near the door, flying back on her lap.

Richi, feeling the marker in her lap, looked down very slowly, and then slowly raised her eyes at Ilinca, smiling awkwardly

“Sorry… heh—”

Ilinca looked at Richi with a pressing look but deep down she tried very hard to not laugh as loud as she could after the marker flew back right in her hand. Even if Richi would have done the prank by drawing something on her face, Ilinca would get mad for like 5 minutes then it would pass.

Changing the subject, Richi started the conversation about birthday gifts.

“We got you these, WABUM!”
Exclaimed Richi, filled with energy, pointing at her gift.

Richi’s gift was wrapped in a Christmas wrap decoration, getting a serious sideye from Terry, mentioning lots of words with only that look, in a small cylinder, and Terry had hers beautifully wrapped with a dark-red wrap, kind of like the size of a napkin box.

“Awhhh…! How thoughtful of you two!”

Ilinca kept changing her sight once for Richi and once for Terry, who both had bright smiles on their faces, like genuine smiles.

Then she hugged them both, afterwards she raised herself from the warm, white and fluffy carpet.

“Give me a minute guys, I really need to wash my teeth”

Going to the bathroom that was right next to her room, with both doors widely opened, Ilinca could hear some searching, bag smacking noises coming from her room. Grunting her eyes a little bit, Ilinca looked towards her room and ignored it a little bit while brushing her teeth with toothpaste on. 

Seconds later, louder searching noises were heard, bothering Ilinca, so she went to check what was happening; having the toothbrush inside her mouth, letting her hands free.

One peek later, she saw the girls rummaging through her wardrobe, having thrown out in a big plastic bin with a plastic bag over it, and a recycle sign painted on it, very wobbly, where it could be clearly seen that it was made by Richi’s hand.

“WHERE’D YOU GET THAT—WHY ARE YOU THROWING OUT MY CLOTHES?!”
Shouted Ilinca, confused and angered, but even when she was angered, and shouting, no one could take her seriously

“Richi”

“On it, T”

Richi held Ilinca in a hug, not letting the search stop and with the found clothes that were out of style or trend.

And with this, piece by piece, clothing by clothing, Terry put all the not so good looking clothes in the plastic bin and Ilinca could only watch like a helpless owner having her treasure robbed by a search gremlin.

Suddenly, Terry found something that shocked her and almost made her give out a laugh

“Richi, come here, quick!”
Whispered Terry, holding a small photo in her hand. The photo couldn’t be seen because of the angle in which she was holding it.

“What, what”
Curiously asked Richi with a slight smirk

The two gathered around the picture with their backs to Ilinca, giving out quick giggles.

Ilinca, curious as well, tried to squish her head between the two walls of the fortress, to try to get even a slight glimpse, and when she did, the laughs were even louder when Richi and Terry saw Ilinca get sight of the picture

“Hey! That’s me!”

And she snatched the photo

The photo was Ilinca in a strawberry suit when she was a baby

“You were so smol!”

“So chubby!”
Said the two

found a picture of Ilinca from since she was just a baby

“OOOh! Is this you, Ilinca?”

Richi, seeing the picture, let go of Ilinca and curiously gathering around the picture as well of a chubby little Ilinca

“Look at tiny Ilinca, the little pumpkin cake!”

Ilinca, embarrassed, quickly took the picture from their grasp.

“Hey!”
Exclaimed both girls

“What do you mean “hey”, stop going through my stuff”

They turned around and giggled still having the memory of chubby Ilinca in their minds

“STOP LAUGHING!”
Exclaimed Ilinca but the shout didn t seem serious, it was more like a slightly annoyed one.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I got some activities prepared for today. First we’ll go to Terry to bake some cake together”

“That’s neat”

They searched through her personal stuff and found some pictures from when she was younger anad she was embarrassed

Then they started throwing away some clothes that were out of style and fashion for the present days and Ilinca was stopped by Richi until Terry was throwing them away

Ilinca was dressed up by them and they both nodded in agreement thinking they did a good job, but in their case, they didn’t think, they just knew they did a good job.

For her birthday, the two have dressed up Ilinca with a different outfit, something that would fit her tastes even better, something that she wouldn’t like at first, but then she would rock with it.

Next up was the gift unwrapping. From Richi she ripped open the presents with loads of strength but very slowly so that she wouldn’t ruin the thing that was in there. Richi looked very curiously at Ilinca’s reaction at the gift which Ilinca raised in front of her, held with both of her hands

“So, how do you like it?”

“A dress?! I really needed one, I was just talking with my dad like… a few days ago that I wanted this but I couldn’t get it; we were in a hurry”

It was a jean material dress, a dress not too short but not too long either

Ilinca hugged Richi and continued with Terry’s.

“Good wrapping (shakes box right in front of her face)”

“Okay, wait… first, what do you think it is?”

“I hear something moving and it’s quite heavy… maybe it is a….”

Unwrapping the box like a joyful birthday girl, Ilinca revealed that inside the box was really what she was thinking about, a necklace, a golden one. She thought it wouldn’t be something that expensive, but it was. It was very thin, for the chain, and it was written with small font “Ilinca” right at the bottom of it, in 3D shape.

But Ilinca had a saddened expression on her face, fading downwards from the bright smile. This wasn’t quite the expression that Terry was waiting for

“Is something wrong? I even left the receipt in the box, you can send it back and get something else… if you’d like”

“No… no, no, it’s not that, but… it’s too expensive Terry… I can’t really accept it, my father would skin me alive”

“Oooh… (blows raspberry) don’t be like that (pushes box towards Ilinca), just take it”

Ilinca stood a few seconds without any expression, then put on the necklace, showing it for the two spectators

Richi looked carefully and she was left in awe at the sight of the accessory over Ilinca’s small neck, glowing at every glimpse of light, just like the sight of a watch in the sun or in the zone of a little bit of light.

“Woah! Would you look at that!”

“How does it look? Be honest”

“It suits you. It really does”

“Here”

Richi then got up and come back as fast as she could, coming back with gift, in a small rectangle box. 

“More gifts? Come on, you really didn’t have to”

“This one is also special. We came to an agreement for this one, we had to find common ground and seek an outcome, and this was the outcome”

Started Richi, being nervous about the present

Ilinca opened the box and it was a polaroid camera with another thin rectangular box filled with charges for the camera. 

“I ALWAYS WANTED A POLAROID!”
Exclaimed Ilinca filled with joy and excitement over the last present.

“What are you waiting for, let’s take a picture”

“Right, right”

Ilinca turned it in different directions, pressed different shaped and sized buttons but she couldn’t figure out how it was working

“Let me get this for you… so, you press this to take a picture, and this other circle button to open the case for the charges to pull this little lever and put in the small charges”

“Hmm… okay, okay, I think I got it”

Ilinca opened the case and put in the smaller sheets of paper, being helped by her two friends, as two assistants and then everyone sat in a pose to take a picture.

“Happy fifteen!”
Exclaimed Richi happily

The other two gave out quick chuckles and decided to go with it

The picture engraved the moment in time, making Ilinca fifteen forever in that picture, fixing in time their emotions of excitement and happiness from that exact moment, sealing the past in time; frozen in place for eternity on a thin piece of paper.