So, guess who I ran into the night of graduation? That's right, it was Humbug! How unbelievably beautiful that guy turned out, right? He almost didn't recognize me, then he said, "Wait a minute ... Kiki?" and I almost had to shove him down again.
I put the charm on as hard as I could. To be honest, I have a lot of newfound confidence with my awesome new hair and my great kisser trait locked in the arsenal. For whatever reason the creepy bartender was super invested in our conversation.
In fact, when I asked Humbug if he was still seeing that fairy doctor woman, the bartender was palpably staring with his mouth hanging open, like we were the best soap opera on earth. (By the way, they broke up. Huzzah!)
Kind of reminds me of the way dogs seem to enjoy staring down Eden while she's gardening.
"They're judging me," Eden always says. That seems excessively paranoid.
Oh, back to Humberto! So, I guess if you don't mind me being cliche, the romance was a bit of a whirlwind. You know that thing you do when you're a kid? You take two 2-liter plastic bottles, fill one with water, tape the suckers together, and turn it upside down like an hour glass?
The water picks up in this crazy tornado cone and flies right through one bottle to the other. It's a contained disaster, and as such, not disastrous at all. Somehow beautiful because it goes the way we want it to. That was what it was like that night with Humberto.
And soon ...
We danced so much at the spring festival that I was the first Classic immortal to be crowned Spring Queen. I would've been the first Classic full stop, but Grandma Ophelia won pretty much every year of her life when she was around.
In the meantime, I was developing my skill as an inventor. The city even gave me a statue to commend me on my widget production. However, I'm pretty frequently lambasted in the papers for blowing stuff up.
Humberto doesn't seem to mind. He agreed to be my boyfriend pretty early on in the dating game. And yes, I always kiss him like that. I still feel like a nervous teen around him from time to time. What's wrong with the shy kiss if you're a great kisser, huh? That's right. Nuthin.
So, obviously, it wasn't too long before the ladies in the house started asking me about marriage and nooboos. "I want you to have one while I'm still here," Eunice says. Ultimate guilt trip.
I tend to deal with stress by exploding the junkyard.
That night, the charge took too long, and I, in all my genius went to check it. Soo, I got exploded a little too. And suddenly I thought, holy crap! I could've died. And I'm not even married to Humbug. Well, that needs to happen.
I didn't do too much planning before proposing. We had a nice dinner at the bistro and I think it was understood between us that this was the direction it was going in.
He's got some weird traits (fear of water is the worst one), but commitment issues isn't one of 'em. We were engaged on the spot.
We got married on the first morning of the summer. I love warm, sultry weather and as the sun rose over Monte Vista, the sky clear and blue and blazing, I knew that today was going to be the perfect wedding day.
In addition to being my wedding, this was the first party I'd ever thrown, so I got there early to ensure that everything was perfect. Sometimes I still get that weird feeling that I'm being watched, but I imagine it's just leftover from those awkward teen years.
Eden would later tell me that while I was exchanging rings with Humberto, that all of the immortals took a moment to consider their own daughters. That my wedding created a deep bond between all of them.
I, of course, was too in the moment to notice, sweet as it may have been.
I gave a short speech over the cake cutting. I wanted my family to know how grateful I am.
"My mothers, my dad Freddie, who couldn't be here, my grandmother Rosetta who wrote the wedding march, all of you contributed to the person I am."
"In order to get here, of course, all of you had to refrain from killing me through my teen years, and for that I thank you sincerely," I said, over laughter. "This has been perfect. This is what I've been living toward."
"So without further ado," I said, kneeling down to slice into the layers of frosting and strawberry torte.
"Cake!" Humberto announced enthusiastically, and there was applause.
The party raged on through most of the day. My new husband and I danced, we swam in the ocean, we played gnubb and gossiped. By late evening, most of the family had started on home. Humberto and I wanted to make sure we didn't leave before any of our guests.
Eunice and I sat close together, occasionally I rested my head on her shoulder. "Today is my birthday," she said.
I gasped. "What! But ... why didn't you say? We should've held off the wedding! Had a party."
"No, no, child," she laughed. "This was the best birthday gift I could've asked for."
I fell into silence, and felt a warm fuzzy sort of sentimentality wash over me. She really was the best, Eunice.
Later that night, there were several key events, all in unison. Both of our pets aged up. Moonglow is an old lady now and Penni is a full grown dog.
Eden got her final opportunity - she needs to harvest 3 outstanding quality bell peppers. No problemo, she just needs to plant some and abuse the swiftgro station. Eunice, while walking home alone while the sunset, aged up automatically.
The town consensus is that Mona Lisa is the most beautiful elder ever to live, but I think Eunice kind of gives her a run for her money.
In my wedding dress, I finished up a test I had started at my workbench while my husband experienced CAS for the first time. The Watcher purged away his greenish brown hair and gave him a tasteful new cut ... and while that was happening, I built my first time machine!
But, I bet I know those who follow the Classic story well enough to know that between the 25th photo in an update being a time machine built by a girl in a wedding dress or a hot man in his skivvies, there's really no contest.
Can't say I disagree with any of you there.
