"Happy Birthday!"
Blaire's father and younger brother pulled crackers with a loud pop as the newly 11-years-old girl blew out the candles on her cake. Her mother was recording everything on her phone as the flames sputtered and bent before finally going out, then joined in the applause.
"What did you wish for!" Blaire's younger brother Tom was always a bit demanding, but what did you expect from a 7 year old?
Their dad shushed Tom. "Now, now, telling your wish means it won't come true."
Truth be told, Blaire had wished that she could do magic, like the people in the bedtime stories her dad had told her when she was younger. The closest thing to magic that she could do was make sparks jump off her cat's fur when she was upset, and Tom could do that when he was 2 and throwing tantrums, so it wasn't like it was anything special. Still, she could fantasize.
After everyone got a slice of cake (chocolate with strawberry icing!), Blaire unwrapped her presents. She'd be having a second, larger party with her school friends the following weekend, but this was just for the family, as per their tradition.
She opened Tom's present first, a drawing of her and Joseph, the family cat. It wasn't the world's best, but Tom had a knack and passion for art that made his works quite a bit ahead of his peers. Blaire thanked him with a smile and promised that she'd hang it on the cork-board in her room, which left him beaming in pride. The present from Mum and Dad was next: a new MP3 player! 64 gigs! She thanked them enthusiastically and barely restrained herself from running to the computer in the family room to load it up with her favorites. Dad waved her on with an indulgent smile (he'd always been a bit hopeless with computers) and Mum came over to help her get the player set up and working.
Blaire was deep in the middle of the hard choice between loading it up with One Direction, Adele, Bea Miller, or just loading it up with everything she had, when she half-heard a tapping at the window in the kitchen. She looked up in brief curiosity, only to see her Dad sliding open the window and… letting in an owl? It was the middle of the afternoon, what was an owl doing out? And why was her Dad letting it in?
Blaire dug out her phone to take pictures while asking her mother, "Mum, what's Dad doing with that owl?"
Her mother jerked her head up from the computer monitor and over towards the kitchen, then sighed as Dad lowered the owl to the kitchen table. "Christ. I'd hoped…" she said, quietly and absently.
She motioned Blaire up and over to the kitchen. "Come on, dear. It's time we had a family discussion."