Jill lit up at the sight of the calender.

January 15th, Sunday.

Her roomate Eldraid noticed this. "I say Jill! What's up?"

Jill teared her eyes away from her and looked at Eldraid. "Oh...well...it's just...the date."

Eldraid raised her eyebrow and walked over to the calender. "January fifteenth...oh! Jill! It's your birthday! Happy 14th!"

Jill smiled widely. "It feels good to be fourteen!" Eldraid giggled. "Are there any plans then?"

Jill was confused. "Plans?"

"You know...a party? When it's my birthday, my parents pull me out of school for a day, they treat me to dinner then they make plans for the weekend for me. They bake a cake, they get me a present then they let me invite a couple of friends over." Eldraid explained. Jill was stunned. "Well...we never did that before!"

"Then what do you do?"

Jill thought about it a moment. "Nothing...well...when it was my sister's 17th birthday my parents took her to the cinema and bought her a pearl necklace, then for my brother's 7th birthday they made him a huge chocolate cake..."

Eldraid nodded. "That's all very swell, but what do they do for your birthday?" She asked.

Jill thought about it for another moment. "Nothing..."

"No presents? No cake?"

"Well, they usually send me something a couple weeks later, as for a cake...they don't bake too often." Jill explained.

"Oh." Eldraid was now leaning on her desk. "Gee, I'm sorry."

Suddenly, Jill didn't feel too enthusiastic about her birthday anymore.

"Maybe they'll call? Or there may be something in the mail for you?" Eldraid suggested. This got Jill's hopes up a bit. "I'll go check."

"I'll tag along,"

But once they arrived in the 'mail room', they discovered that there wasn't anything at all. "Not even a card?" Eldraid asked. Jill shook her head.

"Aww, well...maybe Scrubb will get you a card?"

Jill shrugged. "Maybe, I'm gonna go find him."

Eldraid nodded. "Alright, see you later, Jill." And she trotted off. Jill hurried to the library, but he wasn't there. "Hey, Jones? Have you seen Scrubb?"

Petra Jones looked up from her book. "Nope, haven't seen him all morning, Pole."

"Oh, well thanks." So Jill went to the eating hall. He wasn't there either. The boys dorms? Nope. The ball court? Nope.

She was getting a bit frustrated. Where was he? On her birthday too! She finally gave up and decided to just entertain herself with something else. Besides, she did have an essay to finish...what a way to celebrate her birthday.

*Meanwhile, with Scrubb*

Eustace was busy in the school's kitchens. "Thanks again for hooking me up, Ladel. I know that only your cooking class is really meant to be in here."

Anna Ladel smiled at him. "No problem, so...whaty do you plan on making?"

"Well...since it is her birthday, I was thinking a cake."

Eustace set his alarm clock extra early this morning so he could meet Ladels in the kitchen to bake Jill a birthday cake.

"Right, here's a cookbook, have you ever baked before?"

Eustace took the book from her hand. "No."

She sighed. "Well...I'll help you, ok?"

"Ok."

So off they went. From flour, to sugar, chocolate, eggs...

Little bits of flour was spotted on Eustace's face and his hair was partly sticking up. He was just at the point of adding milk. "How much?"

"Two quarter cups."

"Two...cups...ok." So two cups is what he added. She shreiked. "No, no! Scrubb! You misunderstood me!"

She snatched the bowl from his hands, but it was too late to save.

"Congratulations, Scrubb. You ruined the cake." She muttered. Eustace groaned. "Now what am I going to do? We don't have time to make another one!"

Anna thought about it a moment. "How about a card?"

"I don't want it to be just a card, Ladel. It needs to be something special!"

"Well..." Anna thought about it as she dumped the cake mix into the trash. "Balloons?"

"Where am I supposed to get ballons?"

"Check the Art and Crafts room."

"Sorry, Scrubb. Can't help you out here."

Eustace let out a huge sigh. "Now what will I do for her birthday?"

"Well...you and Pole are good friends, right?"

"Yes, very good friends."

"Here," He handed Eustace a craft book of string bracelets. "Make her a friendship bracelet."

"A what?"

"A friendship bracelet, is a bracelet made entirely out of colorful yarn. You make one for yourself, and one for her. You put it on your left hand and tie it up."

"How do you take it off?"

"You don't, it's tied on, that's to show how much of a friend she is to you by keeping the bracelet on."

"You know, that's pretty swell! Thanks!" Eustace took the book, some yarn and headed to his dorm.

Jill's heart leapt into her throat whenever the phone in her room rang, but it was never for her, it was always a call for Eldraid.

"Gee, I'm sorry." Eldraid said after she got off her 4th phone call. Jill sighed. "it's not your fault your so poular. I'm just gonna go out for a walk." She got up and put her sweater on, then headed outside.

She wandered around the back of the school yard. It was about 5:30 PM so most people were inside getting dinner.

Jill went on a wooden swing under the huge oak tree. She had just begun swinging when she spotted someone. "Scrubb!"

She hopped off and ran towards him. "Where were you all this time? It's been such a dreadful day, and to make it worse, I had no clue where you were!"

Eustace pulled her into a hug. "Gee Pole, I never meant for your day to turn out bad...see, I was busy all day trying to do something for your birthday but nothing turned out, the cake was ruined, I couldn't find any balloons...but...then in the end, I made you something." He pulled away from her and pulled out two colorful stringy bracelets.

Jill's eyes grew. "What are they?"

Eustace took her left hand and tied the bracelet around her wrist. "They're friendship bracelets, see? One for me, and one for you. Here, tie this one around my left wrist...there you go. Now that they're tied, you can't take it off. It stays on, to remind us of our friendship. But I'm sorry none of the other things worked out..."

But Jill was thrilled. "Oh, Eustace!" She threw her arms around him and embraced him tightly.

"This is the nicest anyone has ever done for my birthday! and to think you were going to bake me a cake! just the thought of it...oh thank you so so much!"

Eustace had a huge smile on his face as he hugged her back. "You're welcome, Jill. What are friends for, anyways?"

Jill pulled away, a smiling brightly. Eustace linked arms with hers. "Why don't we go down to the eating hall and get some dinner?"

Jill's smile never left her face. "Sure, Eustace."

What they both didn't expect though was the suprise waiting in the eating all for Jill:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

It was Eldraid, Anna Ladel, the people from the craft room and a few of Eldraid's friends.

Jill's eyes grew wide. Infront of her was a chocolate cake with icing that read: "Happy Birthday Jill" on it. "What's this?" Eustace asked in suprise.

Eldraid smiled and was hugging Jill.

"Well, after you left, Scrubb, Eldraid here came in and explained to me about Jill's birthday being unnoticed, so with her help we made another cake." started Anna.

"Then after that, I gathered a few of my mates and during lunch we ran to the head's office, (because you know after everythimng's changed, we've got connections there) and got the permission to throw a little gathering here. She even provided us ballons!" Eldraid nodded towards the balloons.

Jill's eyes welled with happy tears. "Oh! You guys!" She hugged each and every one of them.

"Thank you so much! This is the sweetest, and it's something I'll never forget!"

And she never did forget that spectacular 14th birthday.

END

I got the inspiration because it was my own birthday yesterday, and I was feeling upset because nobody recognized it, and while it was my birthday everybody did something special for theirs (like Eldraid) but then later today my friend gave me one of those friendship bracelets that they made themselves and my friends bought me balloons and we threw a party. :)

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