Everyone expected another storm coming from Iris when the news came that MIG and Iris broke up. Even Veggiedoggie had thought Iris would not simply let it go after all the fuss her parents bought up at school. But to everyone’s surprise, life went on as normal as it could be. Those who expected to witness a good drama felt disappointed. Those who had sympathy for Iris, were also disappointed, as if their strong feelings and their good intentions were all wasted on an impassive zombie. Only Veggiedoggie could see the difference in Iris. No tears were shed, but the sadness flew out of Iris like a small creek coming out of a mountain, quiet, slow, but non-stopping. Only Veggie experienced the pain Iris went through.
Veggie had been a happy girl all her life. She was one of those lucky ones that had no worries whatsoever. She had loving parents, who, unlike Iris’s, did not put too much strain on her and let her learn her own lessons. This way, Veggie learned at her early age that parents knew more than she did. Thus, she listened to their advice. The advice was always hinted in a way that Veggie, at the time, never realized how much her parents had influenced her decision. She could not remember being scolded for any reason. She was a girl embedded in love and happiness.
As if a loving family were not enough, God had given her special cares. Veggie was tall, slim and a very pretty girl. She was selected, the only one, out of the whole school to be the greeting girl for visitors from foreign countries. (This school had been visited by many from high officials to normal educators and students). Veggie could easily be bored if something held no interests to her any more. So she kept changing her favorite games that not many could keep up with. When she decided she wanted to play volleyball, she ended up in the district team and got a trophy from a tournament in the big city. When a music teacher told her that she got very sweet voice and a good vocal span, she decided that she wanted to be a singer in the future. Then she took some singing lessons and became a lead singer in the school choir. She learned piano when she was very young and could draw beautiful flying angels on an egg shell. (Just emptying the egg would make many crank.) When her parents subtly suggested that it was time to focus on academics and scores for the college entrance test, she dropped all of these extra curriculum activities and picked up her scores and became top 5 in the whole grade.
Veggie was a very lucky girl. But she did not realize how lucky she was. In her mind, everyone could have done all these if they wanted to. She was not someone special. This gave her a very charming side in her personality that everyone liked. She had many boy friends and quite a few of them were secret admirers. Many of them asked her out. She always managed to have Iris around as well as some other boys. Every one of these “dates” turned out to be innocent gatherings. Not that Veggie wanted to avoid those boys. She simply did not understand what was going on. At the age when other girls were dreaming of their princes on white horses, Veggie just wanted to have fun. None of the boys was brave enough to express their feelings clearly to Veggie, for fear that she might laugh her head off. She seemed to be into everyone and no one at all. So yes, Veggie was a very lucky girl and was care free all her life. That was until Iris’s love affair.
Seeing her best friend in such deep sorrow, for the first time in her life, Veggie realized how badly a person can be hurt. From then on, she decided that she would never have any boy hurt herself like that. The best way was to keep them at arm’s length.
