Happy Birthday, Percy

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, Dear Percy~! Happy Birthday to you!"

Percy sat before a blue ice cream cake. With a huge grin, he took a long, deep breath and blew out all the little flames dancing before him.

Sixteen candles blew out, leaving one candle to fend for itself. No matter, he would just blow it out.

It had been a year since he turned sixteen. He felt great now that he can actually celebrate his birthday without the fate of the world on his shoulders. Talk about pressure.

Now that that's all behind him, Percy can finally relax and enjoy the company of his friends and family. Life felt great to him. Soon after, though, it got a tad frustrating. We made sure of it.

Percy took in another breath, only a fraction of the strength of the previous one, and blew toward the last blazing candle.

It went out and everyone cheered.

Well, that was until it lighted again.

"What the-?" with a look of confusion, he inhaled and blew at the candle.

It stayed out for a moment but then it came back to life. And it brought two of its friends with it.

Then our Birthday Boy started getting a bit angry, blowing at the candles with all his might. They reluctantly lost their fire.

And came back to life. I stifled a giggle as I watched Percy commence a battle with wax sticks.

Oh, how the great have fallen, I thought. The great son of Poseidon is battling candles and he's losing.

Finally, Percy stood up, a bit wobbly and blue in the face, and glowered at the melting ice cream cake.

By this point everyone was trying to hide their amusement while they watched the show.

Suddenly all the liquids in the room, including my and my brother's Sprite, shot out of their hiding places and floated above our heads. Our smiles were wiped off and we paled. Oh no. We were found out.

We tensed when the brown toxic waste (including Mr. Paul Blowfish's deadly "Super-Healthy Smoothy") formed a perfect sphere, ready to run for our lives at a moment's notice. When the ball slowly hovered to the cake, we let our held breaths and grinned with relief.

"Percy " Mrs. Jackson warned. "Calm down and think this through."

Percy wasn't listening. Instead, he had this evil gleam in his eyes as he stared at the cake. Faster than you can say, "You're Crazy!" the thing crashed into the cake, shooting disgusting mystery-colored blobs all over the room and its party-goers. Well, except for me and my brother; we came prepared for everything, even World War Three. Umbrellas would be the ideal shields if the attack was gunk.

Everyone stared at the deranged Birthday Boy. He just stood there, smiling with triumph and satisfaction and a tad hysteria. That is, until three seconds later.

He was staring at the cake with horror.

I turned to look at the table and found out why.

I instantly let out a howl of glee, breaking into gut-wrenching laughter. I was soon followed by everyone else in the room. Well, everyone except Percy.

The candles were still lit, the flames dancing as if to taunt him. And, to make things worse, every single one was lit.

I laughed so hard I fell over, clutching my stomach in pain. Rolling around, I bumped into someone and saw it was my brother.

Suddenly everything became quiet.

We looked up, finding ourselves the center of attention. We soon found out why.

Percy had this look of uncontrollable rage while he stared at a red box on the floor, trembling.

It was a box of Sam's famous relighting candles. Of course, we modified them so that they were practically immortal. And to make things worse, a big sticker slapped right on the cover said in bright red "The Property of Travis and Connor Stoll. Steal This and Feel Our Wrath! ;P"

It must have fallen out of my pocket when I crashed into my brother.

I looked at him and we simultaneously gave Percy our biggest, most innocent smile. "Hey, how are you doing? Having a fun party?" We realized it wasn't working and thought it was high time we escaped.

We shot to our feet. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAWEED BRAIN!" We screamed and sped out of there, leaving everyone to choke on our dust and wonder what just happened.

As we escaped the apartment, we heard the enraged bellow of a tricked demigod. We didn't stop until we reached the corner of the tenth block, stopping to catch our breath.

We stood up and dusted ourselves off. "Wait a minute! We forgot his presents!"

"Awwww, man! I don't want to walk all the way back!" grumbled my brother. I ignored him.

When we reached his apartment door he finally stopped whining and instead sported a big, face splitting grin. We knocked.

Percy opened the door a crack. With one eye he stared at us in anger. "What do you want Connor? Travis?"

I took out a box from nowhere (and so did Travis) and put it out in front of him. "You forgot your presents."

He gave us a suspicious glare and stared at the twin mini boxes, wondering what we could be thinking. Not wanting to hold a grudge, he opened the door wide and said, "Come in, you guys. But you guys are definitely going to clean up all that goop."

His lips quirked up in a little smile as he thought of them cleaning until he heard a faint "You are helping them too, Percy!" His grin quickly turned into a frown and a sigh. We all shared a smile until he noticed the little twinkle in our eyes. He gasped in horror.

We threw our wrapped boxes into the apartment and once again shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAWEED BRAIN!" Then we ran for the emergency stairs, our Heelys ready for our ride down. I did mention that we were ready for anything.

Right when we reached the lounge we heard an explosion. Pausing for only a second to share a smile, we ran out of there, laughing our heads off and sneezing on the way.

I hope no one's allergic to pepper.