Ness woke up before his alarm clock for once, and happily got out of bed. Looking at the calendar, he let out a nervous chuckle as it confirmed what day it was. On the calendar, in a big red bubble, there was a single number followed by a single word.

'16 today!'

Wondering if any of the other Smashers would remember, Ness got changed in a hurry and ran downstairs. Last year, they'd been a small pile of presents waiting for him, and the year before, they'd even had a party. Desperate to see if anything was happening, Ness bolted down the stairs, but nobody else was there. Slowly walking towards the kitchen, Ness saw nothing except Samus checking the fridge for food. Walking to the main dining hall, Ness found the rest of the Smashers, but nobody seemed to be that excited to see him. He wondered if they were going to surprise him, but as the seconds ticked by, he got more and more anxious.

He had never considered that they would forget completely, especially as he told Lucas about it last week, and Lucas said he'd tell everyone and set up a huge celebration for him. After twiddling his thumbs for a few minutes, Ness perked up when he heard someone behind him saying,

"Hey Ness, I've got something for you."

Ness eagerly spun around, only to be handed a plate with a few rashers of bacon.

"Here, it's breakfast. I had to salvage all the food before Dedede and Donkey Kong got to it."

Meekly thanking Zelda for making him breakfast, Ness turned back to the table and looked around to see if he could spot any balloons, or wrapping paper, or anything that would give him the sign that they'd remembered his birthday. Eventually, he spotted Lucas with something that looked like a ribbon, so his hope rekindled and he got off his chair to investigate. Even though in the back of his head he knew it was probably nothing, he wanted to know that somebody had remembered.

Turning the corner, Ness was amazed when his hunch was right, and he saw Lucas wrapping a present. Trying to keep calm, Ness cautiously said,

"Hey Lucas, what are you doing?"

Lucas looked shocked, but calmed down when he saw it was Ness.

"Phew, it's only you. For a second, I thought it was Nana."

"Why?"

"Haven't you heard? It's her birthday in a week. We always make a big fuss of birthdays here."

Ness' jaw dropped. He couldn't figure out whether Lucas was being sarcastic and ironic, or whether he had genuinely forgotten. He was sure a moment ago that his best friend wouldn't forget, and that any second now, he would turn to Ness and say 'Gotcha!' before starting a party, but it really looked as though he had forgotten.

Slowly backing away, Ness eventually stammered out, "I'll see you later," to see if it would provoke any reaction, but Lucas just nodded absentmindedly and went back to wrapping the present. Ness backed out of the room, dreading the thought that everyone had forgotten. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to calm himself down.

'Relax,' he thought, 'Just because one or two people have forgotten doesn't mean everyone has, right?'

'Right??'

Ness' day just got worse from there. People didn't seem to remember, and those who were vaguely aware of some event quickly remembered something else. On one occasion, it was King Dedede remembering that he had a fight coming up against Link, but the worst occasion was Captain Falcon.

"Er, Captain Falcon, you wouldn't happen to know what day it is, would you?"

Ness was cringing at how obviously he was hinting, but Captain Falcon was oblivious.

"It's Tuesday, isn't it?"

Ness let off a loud sigh and muttered, "Yes, but don't you remember something special today?"

Captain Falcon looked deep in thought for a second before gasping and turning to Ness.

"Oh man, thanks for reminding me! I have to meet Samus in the garden in a few minutes!"

As Ness felt even lower, Captain Falcon ran towards the door, then stopped before looking back for a split second.

"Ness?"

Ness didn't bother getting his hopes up as he quietly replied, "What?"

"I was supposed to wash the Blue Falcon now, but you just reminded me about Samus. Will you wash it, or are you busy?"

Ness' gut reaction was to think of a reason, but as he realised he didn't have anything else to do, he reluctantly accepted the job and vaguely heard Captain Falcon saying thanks as he ran off. Heading slowly to the garage, Ness wondered if he should just give up hoping and tell people it was his birthday rather than expecting them to know, but he decided against it. Entering the garage, he saw Olimar's small rocket, Samus' big starship, and then the huge Blue Falcon. Groaning loudly, Ness had to stand on Falco's Arwing just to reach up and climb onto Captain Falcon's vehicle.

Many hours later, Ness slid down the side of the Blue Falcon and stumbled off, feeling as miserable as ever. Out of all the things he'd wanted to spend his birthday doing, cleaning a car more than 20 times his size wasn't one of them. Stepping out of the garage, he could see from a nearby window that it was already past evening. Feeling hungry, he wandered into the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. Seeing nothing immediately, he went to the bottom shelf, where he always kept a spare packet of sweets for when he was really hungry. Unfortunately, all he found was a small note saying 'IOU 1 packet of sweets, signed Donkey Kong.'

Groaning again, Ness walked into the main hall, where most of the Smashers were chatting idly. Only Kirby noticed Ness, and aside from waving for a second, he didn't do anything about it. Ness looked around the room for a second, seeing all of his friends, and not one of them who remembered his birthday. Sighing, Ness decided to give up on the idea of having a happy birthday and trudged up to his bedroom. Feeling too depressed to even get changed, he slumped onto his bed and waited for sleep to come and take him to the next day.

A few minutes later, Ness heard a small spark, then a loud groan from downstairs. He was too sleepy to care, but soon heard people calling from downstairs. He yawned and pushed himself off the bed, noticing as he stepped out into the corridor that every light was off. Probably a power cut. As Ness carefully walked down the stairs, he heard the other Smashers in the hall, still calling his name. Wandering inside, he could vaguely make out the shapes of the Smashers in the dark, as he recognised Samus' voice asking him,

"Ness, there's a bunch of candles on the table. Could you light them for us so that we can see again?"

Ness responded by whispering 'PK Fire' and setting one candle alight, then picking it up and slowly using it to light the other candles too. He was about to turn around when he noticed something. The candles were in a square, and in the middle of the square he suddenly noticed a cake. A cake with three words on it.

"Happy Birthday Ness!"

Ness didn't have to read the words, as suddenly the lights came back on, and the Smashers all yelled the message. Ness was overwhelmed. He turned back to see the Smashers, only to be greeted by a huge pile of presents. Feeling as if he was about to faint, Ness scouted the room and saw every Smasher with a smile on their face, wishing him a happy birthday. Before he could even wish them thanks, they took a deep breath and started singing.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Ness, Happy Birthday to you!"

Ness had never been happier than this. He couldn't imagine how he had ever believed that his friends would forget his birthday and leave him sad.

The good thing about his sadness was that it always ended eventually.

Ness put on his biggest smile and ran towards his presents. This was his dream party.

Dream party…

Ness shuddered and awoke. Within seconds, his face fell as he realised that he had just been dreaming. Running to his door, he could still hear the other Smashers talking in the hall. They really had forgotten. Finally letting a few tears roll down his face, Ness slowly walked back to his bed and silently wished that he would forget this day as soon as possible.

Nobody had remembered his big day.

The bad thing about his sadness was that he never knew when it was coming back.