The rustle of leaves dragged Delilah from her peaceful nap out at her sanctuary. As she struggled to get out of her hammock she tried to recall any of the details of the dream she was having. She remembered it to be a pleasant one but could only recall an owl in a scarf and mailman hat, carrying a cross body bag full of envelopes.

"Strange," she thought.

Shaking the fog of her nap away, she looked around the Grove in which her sanctuary resided. The leaves on the trees danced in the soft breeze and the colorful wildflowers seemed to glow in the early summer sun. She strained to listen for any other disturbance in the trees but could only hear the soft bubbling of the creek and the croak of the frogs that called the creek home. She rubbed the last of the sleepiness from her eyes and reached down to gather her stuff. Just then, a twig snapped in the forest. Her head snapped up and she searched the area around her but saw no intruder, be it man or animal.

Starting to get nervous, so she quickly gathered her books and shoved them in her bag as she slipped on her sandals. She double checked to make sure she didn't forget anything and wearily started her journey back home through the forest. As she stumbled over a log she heard another disturbance. She spun around to see if there was someone following her, but saw no one. As she turned back towards the house, Ophilia jumped out from behind a tree and roared like a lion causing Delilah to jump out of her skin.

"Lia! You snot! You scared me half to death!" she scolded as she punched her best friend in the arm. "I can't believe you would do that to me! I thought you were wolf or something!"

"Really?" Lia asked in disbelief. "Like this is the first time. You know I find it hilarious when you jump like a little chicken."

"Well it's not nice!" she retorted trying to act annoyed.

She could never stay mad at Lia for long. She was like a sister to her. They were next door neighbors who had lived beside each other all of their life, and had bedrooms whose windows faced each other. They pretty much grew up together. Lia was the exact opposite of Delilah. Delilah was a meek girl with mousy brown hair and Lia was a fiery redhead who was quite a wild child. Had it not been for Lia, Delilah would have probably never done anything fun or ever even gotten in trouble. She was the exciting one with the great, and sometimes not so great, ideas. She could never imagine what her life would be like if it had not been for her. It would have most likely been boring, that's for sure. They were inseparable and did everything together. That is, when Lia wasn't grounded. Lia had always been quite the troublemaker who was constantly getting grounded. She always liked to toe the line, or occasionally hop, skip, and jump way past it.

On days like these, they would sit in their windows and talk to each other through the walkie talkies that they kept hidden. They had both saved up all the money they could from birthdays and allowances for two years to buy them. These weren't some Mickey Mouse ones for little children, these were the real deal and could even reach Delilah when she was out in the woods reading. Before they got them, they used to just talk as quietly as they could between the windows (which really wasn't that quiet at all), but they kept getting caught, which would only get Lia into even more trouble. This way, they could still talk and not make things worse. Today was one of those days that Lia had been grounded. This time, she had gotten in trouble at school for getting in a fight, though sadly she had only done so in defense of Delilah. This time not only had she been under house arrest, her mother had also taken away Lia's walkie talkie.

Since they had not been able to talk or hang out, Delilah had been going out to read in her sanctuary. She did this often, but usually Lia went with and splashed around the creek searching for frogs or something just as noisey. It was nice for a change to be able to read without all the extra distraction, but she didn't mention that to Lia. She was having a bad enough summer as it was.

"What are you doing out here anyways? Aren't you supposed to be grounded?" Delilah inquired.

"Yeah but my mom took pity on me since I've been locked up during the first week of summer vacay. She is allowing me yard time for being a good inmate. Honestly I think she was getting annoyed of me constantly moping around the house. Had I knew it was that easy I would have tried that days ago!" she chuckled. "Well my time is up, time to head back to my cell. She gave me back my walkie though, so at least I don't have to talk to myself anymore."

"Awesome! Be on the walkie in 5?" Delilah asked as she gave her a hug. Lia just saluted in agreement as she marched back to her house, imitating a soldier. Delilah just shook her head and laughed as she walked up to her house.

Although her house was ordinary, Delilah loved it. She had lived there all her life and it truly was her home. It was a beautiful craftsman style house with a wrap around porch and a white picket fence. Her back yard wasn't fenced and was backed up to the beautiful forested area where she spent most of her free time exploring.

She climbed the stairs to her room and dropped her bag on the bed before she started her search for the walkie talkie she hadn't seen in a week. Her bedroom was simple as well. She had a four poster bed with fluffy feather pillows and a down feather blanket that seemed to be just right no matter the weather. She had her dresser, a desk to do her homework at, her own bathroom, and the perfect window seat to read at. She looked all around her room and finally found the walkie deep under her bed, surrounded by all the dust bunnies and missing socks. She fished it out and sat down in her window seat just as Lia came into view in hers.

"So are we going to finally discuss what happened?" Lia asked with an expectant look on her face. Delilah knew that look and tone. She wasn't going to get out of this one easily.

The popular girls, Shelby and Christina, had made a habit of picking on Delilah, and today Shelby decided to "accidentally" dump a whole carton of milk into Delilahs backpack at lunch. Delilah could tell Lia was getting really mad so she pleaded with her to just let it go, but Lia just couldn't stop herself. It was the last straw, they had to pay.

She grabbed her milk and dumped it all over Shelby, which of course escalated into an all out cat fight. Delilah was struggling to try and separate them, but nothing was working. Lia couldn't get in trouble for defending her, not again. She had gotten into enough sticky situations on behalf of Delilah and she couldn't let her best friend take the fall again. This was the last offence before Lia was going to get seriously grounded. Delilah was panicking. She had to do something to stop them but she didn't know what else to do. She freaked out and screamed for them to stop. At the same time, out of nowhere, a garbage can just exploded and there was garbage everywhere! It was just the distraction needed to break up the fight.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Principal Johnson was on his way and he caught Lia red handed with a fist full of Shelby's hair. Boy did he look mad, she was definitely in trouble this time.

This hadn't been the first time something crazy like this had happened. Lia was the only other person who knew about the occurrences. She didn't even know about them all, it had happened too many times to count. Delilah was afraid to admit what had happened when she wasn't there. She didn't want to believe it was true. Most of the time it was no big deal. Just a small thing here or there, like making things move, lost things just randomly appearing where she knew she had already looked, or a light bulb (or a few) exploding. One night she swore she created a thunderstorm when she was really upset. She had learned that she could prevent them from happening if she kept control of her emotions. The bigger the emotion, the bigger the event.

How could she tell her parents that weird things happened to her? They would think she was crazy and lock her up in the soft padded room with the cozy straight jacket. No one would believe her, aside from Lia of course, and she had only believed it because she had seen it first hand.

The first time something extraordinary had happened was when she had just turned 8. Lia had stayed over for a sleepover for Delilahs birthday. It was late at night and they were having a blast pillow fighting. It was the happiest Delilah had been in a long time. As does usually happen when fighting with feather pillows, feathers started flying. But that wasn't all. The feathers had started floating in large circles around the room like they were caught in a breeze. It took a few moments for either of them to realize what was going on since they were still in the middle of their pillow fight, but Lia was the first to take notice. She just froze in awe, and because she let her guard down, she took a pillow straight to the face, knocking her backwards. Delilah was laughing so hard she was crying. She didn't see any of it at first but Lia made her stop and see. Delilah was so shocked by what she was seeing, and the moment she grasped what was happening, the feathers just dropped. Neither could explain what had happened or why.

"Hello, Earth to space case, can anybody hear me?" Shaken out her memory by the annoyed tone of Lia's voice, she looked to her best friend. "Was that you who blew up the trash can?"

"I dunno, how could it have been? I was nowhere near it?" This was true since the garbage can had been a few yards away.

"Well it's not like it's the first time you made crazy things happen." Lia responded. "Remember that time you saw your cat Jinxy get hit by the car? The power went out on the whole street at the same exact moment you saw it happen."

"How could that have possibly been me? That had to have just been some strange coincidence..."

"OK, well then explain that one time the toilets exploded when Christina was tormenting you in the bathroom at school." She did not want to be reminded of that one. Talk about gross!

"Come on, it's not the first time someone had dropped a firecracker in the toilets. Stupid boys think it's so funny."

"Fine then! Explain the feathers."

She had no explaination for that. Even to this day both of them could not explain that one. They were in Delilah's basement when it had happened (which doubled as their hangout space) and there was no source of wind. There wasn't even windows down there. "OK. Maybe you're right. But how could that be possible? It would have had to have been magic and we both know there's no such thing as magic," Delilah said, shaking her head.

"But what if there is?"

"I can't believe in something that is not real. Let me guess, you want me to start believing in elves, werewolves, dragons, and unicorns now too?" she said incredulously.

"Well then what is your explanation then?" a bit of attitude flaring up.

Delilah didn't have an answer to that one either, so instead of answering, she just changed the subject. "Are they at least going to let you come over for my birthday next week?"

"'Pending good behavior they may let me reduce my sentence,'" Lia said with air quotations and an exasperated look on her face. "You'd think I robbed a bank or something. I'm currently grounded for 2 weeks. Just a couple of days shy of being able to make it to your birthday."

"Well then, let's not give them any more reason to be mad. It wouldn't be the same if you weren't there. I'd be stuck having to actually spend time with The Shining twins and the Mean Teen gang. Plus, I'm tired anyways so I'm gonna go to bed. You should do the same. I'll see you in the morning," she told her as she was walking away from the window to crawl into bed.

Little did she know, on her birthday, she would have her answer.

~ ~ ~

The morning of Delilahs 11th birthday started as it did every year. Her parents had started a tradition of waking her up with breakfast in bed when she was really little. It was the same thing every year, a big stack of sprinkle pancakes, covered in icing and whipped cream, and topped with a candle, just like a cake. They had done this for as long as she could remember and she would never admit it, but it was her favorite part of her birthday. She wasn't like most kids when it came to her birthday. She didn't like all of the forced conversation and having to be the center of attention. If she could have it her way, she would just have a nice dinner at home with her parents and Lia.

She never told her parents this though. Since she was an only child, they always made a big deal about her birthday and threw her a big party. Her parents always invited all of her family. They were all from her mom's side of the family though, seeing as how dad was an only child and his parents had passed away long before Delilah was ever born. Since her cousins were invited though, Delilah was required to have to pretend to enjoy their company. She didn't even like her cousins.

Oldest and nerdiest was Geoffrey. He was eighteen and was a computer nerd. He fit the cliche to a tee with his nerdy glasses, braces on his buck teeth, worn out gamer tee, and pimple ridden face. He was so awkward to talk to because all he spoke was gamer talk and Delilah never really understood what he was talking about or what he was even saying. What was a noob anyways?

Then there was Stacy. She was the not so sweet sixteen beauty queen. And a queen she was. She was a stuck up, snobby, spoiled rotten princess who only cared about makeup, clothes, boys, and whatever the latest celebrity gossip was. Delilah never really tried talking to Stacy anymore because Stacy wouldn't want to talk to her anyways. She used to be nice, but then she went to high school and was never the same again.

Thirteen year old Tyler (he goes by Ty now supposedly) was a typical teen boy. He skateboarded everywhere, loved playing video games, and was even learning how to play guitar. He wasn't too bad to talk to, if you could get him to talk that is. Recently his vocabulary has been reduced to various grunts and one word answers. He was starting to get quite the 'tude as well.

The scariest and youngest of the cousins were The Shining twins, Candy and Mandy. They were seven. Just like in the movies, they were two identical twin girls with pale skin and brown hair. They dressed alike and even seemed to have a demon like personality. They had a joy for misbehaving and blaming it on others, while maintaining an angelic like persona for the adults. It was creepy to talk to them too. It was like talking to one person, as they would switch between each other while in the middle of a sentence.

Delilah: "Hey girls, thanks for coming. How's it going?"

Together: "Hello"

Candy: "Our parents made"

Mandy: "Us come. We wanted"

Candy: "To stay home. They"

Mandy: "Said no."

Together with a fake smile: "But we hope you are enjoying your birthday so far." She had noticed at that point some of the adults had walked back in the room.

She had come to the conclusion that her parents only invited her family so she wouldn't feel lonely. Since she really didn't have any friends other than Lia, they must have assumed she would be sad if no one else came, so they always invited the whole family. She tried to tell them that they didn't have to throw such a big party for her one year, but they must of thought she was just trying to be modest. That or maybe they thought she was being all bah humbug about her birthday. Either way, it just confirmed her suspicions that her parents really didn't understand her.

Delilah was saved from having to continue the awkward conversation with The Shining Twins when Lia stumbled in the door carrying a huge present. Lia must have wrapped it herself seeing as how the twins could have wrapped it better blindfolded. The size of the box didn't help, and Lia was never really much of a gift wrapper anyways, but this year her wrapping really was quite bad.

"HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAAY DELILAAAH!" Lia shouted from the front door.

"I think even the martians in another galaxy could hear you" Delilah said with a chuckle.

"Where should I put this? And answer quick because I can't carry this much longer"

Delilah managed to open up enough space where the other presents were just in time before Lia dropped it. What gift could possibly be so huge anyways? The box had to have been big enough for her to hide inside of it.

The party continued as can be imagined. The parents were mainly hanging out in the kitchen chatting amongst themselves. They were obviously trying to ignore the chaos going on in the livingroom. It was rather loud in there and the girls couldn't blame the parents for trying to avoid it. The twins kept being obnoxious by hiding things like remotes, car keys, Geoffreys glasses, and drinks. They somehow managed to even make Shelby's phone disappear. All the while somehow avoiding being caught by anyone other than Delilah. That's only because she was keeping a watchful eye on them since she was used to their ways.

Geoffrey was screaming at some video game both him and Ty were playing called Duty Calls or something like that while Ty was just laughing at him (there's that noob word again). They were both sitting about two inches from the screen and had been playing since they walked in the door. They atleast had uttered some sort of greeting when they got there.

Shelby, on the other hand, hadn't put down her phone once, not even to say hi when she got here. You would think that it had become one with her hand seeing as how you never really saw her without it lately. She was engulfed in her own little world, talking to some guy and scrolling through social media.

Delilah and Lia were sitting in the corner of the room making fun of the faces Shelby was making while taking pictures of herself. How many selfies does one girl need before she finally has one she likes? They were also laughing about how mad Geoffrey was getting at the game. He must have been losing. All the while they were trying to keep an eye on the twins. They did NOT want to be messed with.

It was a huge relief when the pizza showed up for lunch. It was what Delilah always chose for her birthday. If she could eat only one thing for the rest of her life, it would definitely be pizza. The only people who complained were the twins ("We don't like mushrooms on our pizza!"), and Shelby, who barely touched hers ("Grease is so gross."). Jeffery and Ty, on the other hand, had of course each hoovered down half a pizza. They both had to have been hollow on the inside, where else could one store so many slices of pizza?

Once everyone had their fill, Delilah's mother brought out her cake. She had spent the whole day prior making it by hand just for her, just like she did ever since Delilah's first birthday. She really outdid herself this year with beautiful fondant flowers of all shapes and colors. She had lit only two candles on top, symbolizing her 11th birthday. That way she didn't have to worry about ruining the look of the cake with wax dripping everywhere. Delilah was in awe and was sad she was going to have to cut it. Before she blew out the candles (and after that annoying birthday song), she made a wish:

I wish for something extraordinary to happen.

Once the cake was divided and eaten, it was time for presents. Lia had announced that hers had to go last, so first she opened the gift from Aunt Mary, Uncle Joseph, and the twins. It was a pair of soft pink fuzzy bunny slippers with matching ears and a $10 gift card to Toys R Us. How old did they think she was turning, four?

Next was from Aunt Jen, Uncle Steve, Stacy and Ty. They got her gift certificates for two movie tickets, a bunch of candy, and $20. They always gave the best gifts.

After that she opened a board game that was from Aunt Nancy, Uncle Bob, and Geoffrey. At least it kind of looked cool.

Her parents got her a beautiful pair of earrings. They were simple, each with a bright teal jewel that dangled like water drops. They were her favorite color. She was so excited she put them on right away.

Lastly, Lia dragged over the huge box she had brought with a suspicious looking smile on her face. Delilah wasn't so sure about opening her gift anymore.

"Nothing's going to jump out and attack me is there?"

Lia just laughed and shook her head.

She got through the wrapping paper (which wasn't even really that hard to do since it was barely wrapped) and had to use a knife to open the box. There was enough tape on it to wrap 10 boxes the same size. That was the first hint that something was up with this gift. She got the box open to find a layer of packing peanuts. After digging a bit, she found another gift wrapped box a bit smaller than the outer box.

This one at least had been fully wrapped, though not very neatly. This was Lia's typical standard for wrapping gifts. Giving her friend a side eye and confused look, she unwrapped the 2nd box. Inside she found some bubble wrap and rolled her eyes. Once through that she found another gift wrapped box, this one was at least half the size of the previous box and was wrapped somewhat nicer.

She was starting to get frustrated, but continued to unwrap the 3rd box after a bit of encouragement from her increasingly annoying friend. Wrapped within tissue paper was yet another (albeit much smaller) box with a pretty bow and curled ribbon on top. She must have gotten help wrapping this one though, because it looked like a professional did it. It was small enough to hold something the size of a grapefruit.

"If I open this box and there is nothing inside or even worse, another box, I swear I will no longer be your best friend" Delilah said trying to sound as convincing as she could even though they both knew she would never follow through with that threat. "I mean it!"

"I promise! That's the last box! Now open it already!"

Once unwrapped, Delilah opened the "last box" to find a bunch of those tiny styrofoam balls. Giving Lia a grumpy look, but digging inside anyways, she uncovered a snow globe. There were two girls, one red headed and the other brunette, in the middle of a pillow fight. Instead of snow though, it was tiny feathers floating around. When she swirled it, the feathers swirled around, just like on her 8th birthday.

"I was surprised I found one with the right hair colors" Lia said sheepishly. "Not a lot of stuff have redheads. I hope it's not too cheesy!" She wasn't sure if Delilah would like it.

"Oh Ophelia! I love it!" Delilah squealed as she threw herself on her best friend to give her the biggest hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"OOMPH! My goodness. You're welcome! Ok, ok! You're going to break my ribs!" Lia said with a smile.