Hello to anyone who may have stumbled upon this! This is only my third fic, and it was a present for my friend's seventeenth birthday! I hope you enjoy! I love to hear what you have to say!

Sadly, i do not own any of these characters, they belong to the goddess CP Coulter and Ryan Murphy.

Oh, and Ellie owns herself.


She knew it was coming. What it was exactly and when it would arrive was unknown. She would get no warning, no chance to run in the opposite direction with her arms flailing. (and even then, she wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic runner). After several years of spending this day in terror, she had finally accepted the fact that no matter what precautions were taken, she could not escape the day's fate. Old habits die hard Ellie thought as she peeked around the corner to check for the confetti canons (Kurt's).

It was one of those few days of the year that everyone in the Windsor house was on their toes a little more, knowing that there were three people you wanted to avoid at all costs. Two of them remained under the radar for the most part, but on those rare instances that they were in your line of sight, this was your signal to run like a bat out of hell. There was only one other person in more danger than you, and you knew it was only a matter of time before they showed up. This was the person who was always looking over their shoulder in anticipation, flinching at every little sound that was made. No corner was rounded without being scouted out first.

Most everyone that was in the same target zone as her had acknowledged the fact that once the clock struck twelve the night before, the day was no longer safe. Dwight Houston was not one of those people. The brunette smiled at the memory of her fellow windsor locking himself in his room the past year, only after laying a thick line of rock salt along the inside and outside edges of his deadbolt door. As she descended the staircase, the picture of Dwight's face flashed across her mind, the horrified shriek when they came through his window, and she knew that she was grateful for Han's conspicuously placed video cameras..

The cafeteria was clear that morning (unpromising, seeing as no sign of them meant they could appear any minute). Ellie paid no attention to what she put on her tray as she continued to scan the area for a potential threat. A hand on her shoulder made her jump , almost flinging her tray across the room. Ellie frowned as her friend from Hanover chuckled and ushered her to her seat.

"No sign of them huh?" Katie asked with a gleeful smile on her face.

"I'm still breathing aren't I?"

"Hardly."

"A hur hur hur"

"What do you think it will be this year?'

"Can't I just eat my bagel without thinking about it?"

"I personally am a fan of the paint balloon droppings. I think Reed still has some in his hair."

"He used up every freaking ounce of hot water that week." Katie produced a sly smile.

"Oh oh , what about the year they rewired Han's hard drive to play 'Friday" for twenty four hours straight?"

"How can I forget, they turned the house speakers on too.."

" Oh and-" She was cut off by a fit of giggles that aroused due to the look on the other girl's face.

"How is any of this supposed to make me feel better?"

"It's not." Kurt said as he and Blaine slid into the seats beside them.

"Thank you!" Early morning sarcasm seeped through her voice.

"Last year, I had to explain to a gang of truck drivers that I wan't the one who ordered the three truckloads of hair gel that were dropped off at the school. "

Kurt smiled and patted his boyfriend on the back. Ellie picked up her tray as Blaine muttered "I don't use that much gel."

"Of course you don't." Kurt assured, his glance to the gelmet saying otherwise.

This was not the only incident that day where she was reminded of what was to come. At Warbler practice, where they were missing two tenors, Ellie remained on edge. There seemed to be a force field with a three foot radius since everyone was aware of the reason for the absences. Few decided to penetrate the wall, only to quickly hand her a a present. Before clearing the area, Harry had patted her on the back with sympathetic eyes while Pratik plucked the chorus to the Script's "Dead man Walking."

This had happened in each of her classes, and Ellie had just sighed and tried to tune out the world as everyone retaliated the horror stories of fireworks and cars on roofs. Each one got more complicated and messy, until there was no more serenity cloud surrounding the birthday girl, only fear and spastic anticipation. Her friend's presents had been overshadowed by their advice to lay low and find an apocalypse shelter to escape to for the remainder of the day. "I'm sure Dwight will lend you his, he knows its for a good cause. Just remember not to touch the green stuff in the jars along the wall, strange objects with crosses carved into them, or anything with a label you can't pronounce."

"Thank you, Wes."

Charlie's present had been the most helpful by far that day, nodding his head at her in the galway as he tossed her a fire extinguisher with a bow wrapped around the nozzle. The card had read, "We can't afford another carpet."

Almost the entire day had gone by, and the only unwanted surprise had been the load of homework that she had been sent to her dorm with (not that that was particularly surprising). She had not been ambushed, and no kidnapping had occurred so far. This, of course, was not a signal to let her guard down. Ellie knew all to well it was when it was quiet that they liked to strike..

Taking extra precautions on her way up to the dorm, she wondered whether or not she would every have a normal birthday again. This was her seventeenth birthday. all she wanted to do was curl up with a cake, a Sherlock Holmes marathon, and learn the male part to "Sixteen going on seventeen."

She was almost to her room ,where she would try to trick a freshman to open the door for her. The last thing she wanted to have was to be the one to open the door that triggered the giant tub of jello to burry itself in her hair. She checked the ceiling and all the walls around her door before turning to try and find someone naive..

David passed her in the hallway, eyeing Charlie's gift. "It hasn't happened yet?" Ellie didn't even bother to answer him. "They usually don't wait this late, they must have something special planned.."

"Ugh god, you know what-!" She yelled to him as he laughed his way down the hall. Frustrated and edgy, Ellie swung her door open with a bang. And that was where she made her mistake. her heart lept out of her chest as her presents flew in every which direction. She screamed as she jumped, her back hitting the wall behind her. The giant Chewbacca figures screamed back at her as she felt the paintballs hit her at every angle. It went on until she had crawled into a ball in the middle of the floor shielding herself with her new scarf (It pleased her to know Chewbacca would have to deal with Kurt later..)

When the hail storm had finally ended, Ellie stayed on the ground, hoping if she sunk herself far enough into the floor she would disappears… The massive hands that pulled her up denied this wish. She looked up at the Wookies, and prominently flipped them off.

The laughs became clearer as the masks were slipped off, and two pairs of eyes turned with delight to the birthday girl. "Is it over?'

The twins exchanged coy glances, telling Ellie there was no chance in hell that was her only present. She didn't complain though, she had just been grateful to wake up in her bed that morning. Lee's story consisted of "Fucking waking up in foreign fucking country with no fucking clue why he was wearing a fucking bikini."

She took a moment to check out the damage done, and realized she could not find the place where her sleeves ended and her arms started. The hallways were barren. Normally, during this type of commotion, heads would be popping out of doors like whack- a- mole, but everyone in Windsor was aware of what day it was, and knew to stay where it was safe. Pursing her lips and nodding her head at the efficiency of the job, Ellie looked up at her attackers.

"Welp, I'm going to guess this is the same stuff Reed had the art office ban after last year." Two pairs of arms folded, encouraging her to continue. "Aand the second part of your wonderful surprise is that the shower head is missing from my bathroom."

The Tweedle's smiles grew impossibly larger. Ethan picked up her books that were now consisted of more colors than the gay pride parade. Evan slipped his arm around her shoulder. "Now, do you think,"

"We would do that to you?"

"Yes." Four eyes rolled.

"We already painted you with paint that won't come of for quite a long time"

"We didn't hunk we needed to tamper with the shower."

" Go on ahead and try to clean off if you like."

"We say try very loosely."

"They second part will find you eventually."

"We wouldn't want to let our Jubjub off to easily."

Not satisfied with the fact that they mentioned a second part, Ellie cautiously slipped her door open, to find that she could no longer make out what anything was in her room, seeing as every surface was covered in loaded mousetraps. Mouse traps that were loaded with paint balls instead of cheese. It was to the point where Ellie could not tell if she had a walked into the same room, since the mouse traps were the only furniture in the room. Everything else, including her bed and dressers, had disappeared. It was impossible to make it three inches into the room, let alone the bathroom. Ellie turned around to give the twins a piece of her mind, but all that was left was their ghostly laughter that hung in the air.

"Fuck."