Late b-day fic for Sorrowsnow! Happy b-day! X3 This fic takes place during The New Kids In Town, by the way. I was just too lazy to include the new OCs, to tell the truth…lol I'm sorry about that. XD Well, enjoy anyway! :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2 or the characters in Left 4 Dead 2 in any way, shape, or form! I only own my own OC, the personalities that I have given to the already existing special infected, and the plot of the story. Commander of the Rabbids owns Sam. Sorrowsnow owns Calli. Zipper Whippersnapper owns Jeffry. Foxstar-Nikiu owns Valery. Coheed17 owns Claire. Breaking Ground owns Mike. Scorpion 123456 owns Clawer.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For some strange reason, Smoker had gathered everyone together in the alley. That is, everyone accept Calli, who had been asked (or rather, practically forced) to go on a walk with Boomer.

"So…what's this all about?" Sam asked the question that everyone had on their minds.

"Well, I just found out something the other day," Smoker explained. "I found out that today is Calli's birthday."

"Really?" Taunter asked in surprise. "And we don't even have presents! Oh, geez!"

"That's why I want to organize a party today. I want to make it something special."

"We have other things to worry about besides parties," Hunter grumbled. "Besides, we've never done them before."

"Come on, Mr. Grumpy Pants," Taunter grabbed Hunter's arm, pulling him up and dragging him out of the alley. "We're going to go find some presents!"

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, now let's go!"

"Alright, so, they're on presents…" Smoker thought for a moment. "I'm going to go find a present, too. I'm going to need some of us setting up decorations and such, and a few will need help Boomer distract Calli while we get it all done. Sound good?" Everyone gave some sort of affirmation. It had been a long time since they had celebrated anything, after all. This would be fun.

"Okay, who's going to go help out Boomer?" Smoker asked. A few hands raised. Mike, Jeffry, and Valery were the ones who had raised them. "Alright, good luck, guys. They went over that way." Smoker indicated the proper direction, and the three volunteers were on their way. "Okay, so, the rest of you can decorate. You'll have to go to the store to get the stuff, but that's not that hard, right?"

"But there's only three of us," Sam said. The only ones who would be left to decorate would be Sam, Claire, and Clawer, after all.

"Well…" Smoker frowned for a moment, then shrugged. "Figure something out. I've gotta go get a present now. See you guys later!" Smoker took off out of the alley, nobody knowing quite where he was going. And that left the three of them alone in the alley.

"Uh…so…decoration store?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, let's go," Sam nodded, and they set off to find some decorations.

…...

"So, what kind of present do you think that Calli would like?" Taunter pondered aloud, looking at the shelves of the toy store they had walked into. "Something fluffy, maybe?"

"I dunno," Hunter shrugged. "And how come we have to get everyone else's presents, too?"

"Smoker never said that."

"Well, yeah, but he probably expects us to."

"Well then, we can just take one of each of these!" Taunter decided, reaching up for the variety of plush toys that lined the shelves. "Can you help me carry these?"

"Sure," Hunter said, putting a plush kitten and a plush puppy into each of his pockets on his hoodie. Taunter giggled at this, seeing as how Hunter carrying anything as brightly colored as these was a pretty rare sight. "What?"

"Nothing," Taunter grinned, trying to suppress her giggles.

"What, seriously?" Hunter persisted, feeling awkward and pushing the stuffed toys further down into his pockets to try to conceal them.

"Nothing!" Taunter's grin just grew bigger as she hoisted up a large haul of plush toys in her arms. "Okay, we've got what we need, now let's head back. I bet that she's going to love this!"

…...

"Didn't we already go this way?" Calli asked, confused at the large group that had suddenly joined her walk with Boomer. "I thought that we were just going on a quick walk. I've got a painting I need to finish back in the alley…"

"Oh, but there's this really cool thing over here that we need to show you!" Valery said quickly.

"Yeah, it's really awesome," Mike said, going along with what Valery had said.

"What is it?" Calli asked curiously.

"Uh…" Mike paused. Nobody seemed to be able to think of anything.

"A giant paint can!" Jeffry spoke up out of nowhere, a wide beaming smile on his face.

"Really?" Calli seemed surprised.

"Uh…yeah. A giant paint can," Boomer nodded. "I found it this morning, before you woke up."

"But I woke up before you-"

"Well, come on, let's go see that paint can!"

"Uhh, okay!"

…...

"So…now that we have this stuff…do we know what to do with it?" Claire held the streamers while Sam put the bags of confetti down onto the mattresses and Clawer placed down the last bag, which held lots of random supplies that they thought that they might need.

"Hey, guys!" Taunter was suddenly coming back into the alley with Hunter. "Do you have any wrapping paper that we can wrap these up with?"

"Yeah, I think so," Sam nodded. "Clawer, is there any in there?" Clawer dug through the bag a bit, and finally found a roll of wrapping paper, pulling it out of the bag and handing it over.

"Alright, cool!" Taunter ripped off a piece of paper, spreading it out on the mattress. "Now, let's put all of the animals down…" She and Hunter placed all of the plush toys into the center of the paper, then paused for a moment. "Uh…so…how do we close it?"

"Like…this?" Hunter pulled two of the edges together, then frowned when they flopped back into place. "Well, geez. Sam, you bought broken wrapping paper!"

"Wrapping paper can't be broken!" Sam replied as he was unpacking decorations.

"Well, it's not sticking!

"That doesn't mean it's broken!"

"Yes, it does!"

"Do you have tape?" Claire cut in.

"…No," Hunter said after a pause.

"Well, ya can't really close it without tape, now can you?"

"…No, not really."

"Alright, let's go get some tape!" Taunter jumped up, grabbing Hunter and dragging him out of the alley again. "Now, where the heck do we find some tape anyway…?"

…...

"Are you guys sure that you know where you're going?" Calli asked her group. "I mean, I don't see a giant paint can anywhere around here."

"Maybe we took a wrong turn or something…" Boomer said, pausing for a moment afterwards.

"Guys, I think that I'm just going to go back to the alley and finish painting.

"No, you can't!" Mike said hurriedly.

"Why not?" Calli looked confused again.

"Uh…because…just because!"

"Huh?"

"Come on, let's keep going!" the group hurried her along, and she was still as confused as could be.

…...

"Alright, we did it!" Taunter grinned, looking down at the package that she and Hunter had finally managed to wrap.

"It sure looks lumpy, though," Claire observed. The other three had taken a break to watch their attempts at wrapping all of the toys up together.

"It'll do," Hunter shrugged. He picked it up, about to put it away, only to have the wrapping paper rip apart as soon as he lifted it. He frowned, dropping it down to the mattress again.

"See, Sam, the paper is broken!"

"Well, yeah, now it is," Sam replied. "Not my fault, though."

"Come on, let's just go get some more! We don't have that much time!" Taunter grabbed Hunter for a third time, and then they were off to the store yet again.

…...

"Guys, are you hiding something from me?" Calli asked skeptically.

"Hiding something?" Boomer asked almost too enthusiastically. "Why would we be hiding something?"

"I don't know…seriously, what's up?"

"The sky," Jeffry replied, pointing upwards into the air. Calli smiled a bit, but still seemed a bit doubtful about things.

"Uhh…oh, hey, look over there! What's that?" Valery said, and the group began dragging Calli over to yet another new location.

"Huh? I don't see anything," Calli said as she was pulled along. "Guys? Hello? Guys?"

…...

"Alright, we finally got it wrapped," Taunter sighed.

"And the decorations are up, too," Claire said, coming down from up on the wall.

"Hm…but…something still seems like it's missing…" Sam said, looking around. "What could it be…?"

"Huh…you know, you're right, something is missing," Hunter agreed. "I've got no clue what it is, though." Taunter, Hunter, Sam, and Claire thought on it for a bit while Clawer was digging through the bag at the back.

"How about a cake?" he said without looking up. The other four all stopped, then realizing their mistake.

"We need a cake!" Taunter shouted, and the four of them stampeded out of the alley, heading for the bakery and praying that something was still fresh enough to eat.

…...

It didn't take them very long to get to the bakery.

"Hm…what looks good?" Claire asked as they all looked into the cooler windows.

"I can't read any of this survivor writing on it, though," Taunter sighed. "I wonder what it says?"

"Let's just get a cake that looks good," Hunter said, scanning the shelves. "I mean, I don't think that Calli can read the survivor squiggles either. I think that Boomer's the only one that can read it."

"Well, let's hope so," Sam shrugged.

"This one looks good," Claire took a cake out of one of the coolers. "Now, let's hurry up and take it back." They all walked outside, but were surprised to find a large amount of Commons around.

"The sweet smell must have attracted them," Taunter said, surprised.

"Come on, we can't stop now, let's just get the cake back there," Sam said, and they began pushing through the Commons, Claire holding the cake.

"Back off, you vultures!" Hunter shouted, trying to ward off the Commons that approached them. "Go get your own cake!"

"We'd better hurry and get back," Taunter said, glancing around as they went. "We sure don't wanna be late!"

…...

"Okay guys, I know that something's going on back at the alley," Calli stopped, and the group turned to her.

"Going on? Nothing's going on," Boomer answered quickly.

"Well then…" a grin spread across Calli's face. "I guess that you wouldn't mind me checking it out!" Suddenly, she whipped out her skateboard, and she was off in the other direction, rolling on down the road.

"Hang on, you don't have to go back there, right?" Mike ran over, catching up and keeping pace with her. "I mean, it's just so boring back there, right? Really nothing cool about it!"

"Oh really?" Calli asked, picking up speed. "I'm going to go check it out, and you can't stop me!"

…...

"Okay, everything's ready," Sam said, surveying the alley. Clawer had taken care of a few last touches while they had been out, and everything looked perfect. They set the cake, plate and all, down onto the mattress next to the lumpy package of plush animals.

"Not everything. Where's Smoker?" Taunter asked, looking around. "I mean, he said that he was going to bring that present and everything, right?" And all of a sudden, they could hear the rolling of skateboard wheels. "Uh-oh. Smoker's not back yet!"

"Oh well, too late!" Claire picked up the confetti bags. And as soon as Calli, followed by the rest of the group, stopped at the entrance to the alley, she dumped the confetti on them.

"Huh?" Calli said in surprise.

"Surprise!" came a bit group shout. "Happy birthday!"

"Whoa…wow!" Calli smiled widely. "I can't believe this! This is great!"

"Well, here you go," Hunter walked over to her, handing her the lumpy present. "I know that the wrapping job sucks, but we did our best, so…yeah. Happy birthday and stuff."

"Thanks!" Calli took the present, shook it a bit, then put it down onto the mattress in front of her and opened it up. "Ooh! They're so cute!"

"That's from all of us," Taunter grinned. "We thought that you would like them."

"I love it!" Calli smiled. Then, she paused, looking around. "Hey…where's Smoker? Didn't he come?" The others looked at each other uneasily, but their fears were soon gotten rid of when a voice echoed into the alley.

"Sorry I'm late," Smoker said, coming into the alley and carrying an impeccably wrapped present. "It took me a while to put this present together."

"Oohhh…" Calli took the present as he handed it to her. She looked at it for a bit, then opened it up to reveal a set of spray paints in a nice holder, one paint can for each color. "Oh! This is amazing! Thank you, Smoker!" Calli jumped up and gave him a big hug, making his face turn a light shade of red as he smiled and laughed a bit.

"And look, we even got a you a cake!" Sam said, pointing to the cake sitting on the mattress.

"Yay!" Calli skipped over to the back of the alley where the cake was, followed by everyone else, and they all gathered around the cake. "Thank you guys sooo much! This is so amazing! I'm so happy!"

"Well, it was all Smoker's idea," Hunter said. "He's the one who came up with it all."

"Thanks so much, Smoker!" Calli gave him another quick hug. "Now, let's eat!" There was a long pause as Calli looked curiously at the cake. "Uhh…guys? You know that I can read survivor writing, right?"

"You can?" Claire seemed surprised.

"But, it's still a tasty cake, right?" Taunter asked.

"Well, yeah, but…" Calli paused for a moment as she looked at the cake again. "Why does this cake say 'Congratulations, it's a boy'?" There was a long general pause in which Calli couldn't help but giggle as everyone else looked at each other, Smoker staring somewhat in horror at the four who had gotten the cake.

"Eh. Cake is cake," Hunter said, picking up the knife that they had found. "Let's just eat it already."

"Sounds good to me," Calli smiled.

"Hm…I can't remember how the happy birthday song goes," Smoker seemed a bit troubled by his lack of ability to sing the birthday song.

"Don't worry, this is definitely enough," Calli laughed.

"Well, I'll at least say it again! Happy birthday!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

This was really fun to write! XD And I hope that you liked it! :3 And once more, happy b-day! X3 Lol I feel so bad for being late…darn power outages… XD