Birthday Cake

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power of Five Series

"I wish I could have some cake about now," Jamie sighed softly.

"Anybody's birthday coming?" Scarlett asked, looking up from her magazine.

"No," Jamie answered, "And Richard won't let us have some."

It had been a month ago. Matt was determined to impress his friends with his amazing skills at cooking. Especially Scott. The two never got along very well and when Matt made tea for everyone, Scott didn't hesitate in spewing it all over the place.

"You call this tea?!" he had exclaimed.

Obviously offended, Matt asked, "So, you can do better than this?"

"Of course I can," Scott replied with a smirk.

It turned out Scott did know how to make drinkable tea, or any kind of edible food for that matter. Feeling humiliated, Matt decided to make a chocolate cake. He would make it perfect and Scott, that git, would be begging him to bake more. And then he would refuse, because Scott had humiliated him. That would be the best reward ever.

So Matt made preparations to bake the cake that everyone would drool over. And they did so, when the cake was ready. The aroma wafted throughout the house, attracting the other children, Richard and even the crow that had an uncanny interest in the window of their living room.

The taste had really been something out of the world. Scott would have asked him to bake some more but he wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to let Matt have the satisfaction.

As the saying went, everything that sparkles is not gold.

And every food item did not satisfy the stomach.

As delicious as it had been before being eaten, it was just like any other substance after coming out of their mouths. The taste of chocolate surprisingly changed to that of regurgitated food, and this certainly didn't please Richard. Or the children.

"Go to hell Matt!" Scott yelled in anger.

"I can still taste the vomit…" Holly said miserably.

"Leave cooking to Richard," Pedro said. He was the only one who was unfazed by the whole situation and maintained his calm demeanour. It was partly because he never ha the cake to begin with, and partly because he had already expected this from his capable friend.

"Exactly!" Richard said, "And no cakes from now on! I don't want you all to fall ill and skip school!"

"Uh, we're home-schooled," Jamie reminded him.

"And that too by you," Holly added.

"Whatever," Richard scolded, "Doesn't matter. Matt, you'll stay three miles away from the kitchen. No cakes from now on, unless it's someone's birthday."

Pedro opened his mouth to say something but Richard cut him off. "Birthdays of people living outside this house will not be considered."

And now, a month later, the law was still being followed.

"All we need is a birthday kid," Scarlett said, keeping her magazine on the table.

"And that's exactly what we don't have."

"Hey!" Holly said suddenly, "What about Pedro? He doesn't have a birthday, right?"

"Yeah… we don't know when it is," Scott said, "And we never tried to find out."

"Maybe we can-" Matt began.

"Ah, shut up," Scott said, "You spoil everything."

"You shut up!" Matt snapped, "And don't forget; I am the leader of our little group."

"A leader who can't even convince his best friend to let him have cake?" Holly asked, raising her brows.

"Just listen to the idea you imbeciles," Matt retorted.

Everyone stared at him. Taking this as a cue he began.

"See, we don't know Pedro's birthday. Pedro doesn't know Pedro's birthday. Richard doesn't know Pedro's birthday. So, nobody knows his birthday."

"Breaking news," Scott muttered.

Ignoring his rather simple friend, Matt continued, "So why don't we tell Richard that Pedro's birthday is after a couple of days?"

"As if he'll believe that," Scarlett argued, "Richard knows that Pedro doesn't know about his birthday."

"We'll say that Pedro chose this day a few months back because he felt left out since we all had our birthdays and he didn't know his."

"That could work," Holly said, "But what about Pedro? We'll have to tell him, right?"

"Let it be," Matt said, "He'll spoil everything. And anyway, Pedro will be delighted to have cake. I know it!"

"You know everything," Scott muttered sarcastically.

As their usual argument began, Jamie couldn't help but feel a bit weird. Not including Pedro didn't seem like a good notion, not good at all. He hoped things wouldn't go wrong.

The children had managed to persuade Richard. It had been quite easy, to be honest. The cake-fiasco was a month old matter. The house had been decorated, the delicacies had been prepared and the cake was resting majestically on the table, waiting to be cut by the birthday-boy.

The said child wasn't anywhere around. Jamie was getting agitated, for if Pedro didn't show up they would miss the chance to devour the cake. "Oh Pedro," he thought, "Just come already."

As if on cue, the door burst open and in walked the said boy, taking in everything. He had only just begun reading but he could understand the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEDRO' quite clearly.

All the children hugged him and gave him their best wishes. And then there were presents. A pair of pink socks, a bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo, some pebbles with a slingshot. And oh! A Spanish-to-English dictionary.

The boy was still dazed by all of this. His birthday… Since when? And why didn't he know it was his birthday?

"Happy birthday Pedro!" Richard said with a smile, giving him a hair dryer and new sneakers as gifts.

"I was born today?" the boy asked in confusion.

"Well, we don't know that. They told me you had decided to celebrate it today," Richard replied, his smile faltering a bit. Pedro glanced at his friends with a smirk, finally realising what it was all about. Sure, they wanted to have cake.

The boy had not really followed Richard's orders. As soon as an opportunity would present itself, Pedro would go to the bakery to buy a small piece of the much coveted item here. He wasn't really that enthusiastic about the whole thing. But that didn't mean he couldn't gain anything from this.

"Yeah, I told them," he replied sweetly, "How nice of you to arrange it all."

He could feel the others heaving sighs of relief. Not for long though, not for long. And they would have to pay for gifting soap, shampoo and the pink socks. Nobody could give him anything cleansing-related without incurring his wrath.

When he cut the cake and was about to take the piece and give it to Richard, Pedro found that the cake was yanked from the table by Jamie, along with the knife.

"I have waited for so long-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the cake was snatched away by Scarlett.

"No! First I will taste it!"

"Why?!" Scott said heatedly, "I placed the order for it! I'll have it first!"

"But it was my idea!" Matt snapped, "So it's mine."

The cake was passed from hand to hand as each child snatched, wanting to eat it first. In his excitement, Scott pulled the cake a bit too hard, making it slip from his hands and go flying. Flying towards-

"No more cakes. EVER!" Richard screamed as he wiped the once magnificent thing from his face. Looking at the said face, Holly found it to be rather chocolaty. All around her children were wailing in anger and resentment while Pedro, who did not involve himself in the cake-fight, was already in his room, checking out his new sneakers.

The characters might be a bit OOC. But it's all for humour. Why should the Five always suffer?