Horrorvale Sweet Treats
Chapter 2: A Poorly Wrapped Birthday for Wraps
It was the middle of a weekend, their's no school, no nothing. This meant a whole day of boredom for Wraps, the Mummy Girl, she would spend the morning, nested in her expensive and outfit-ridden bedroom, hoping that one of her friends would accept one of her invites to do something on this dull day.
This idleness irked Wraps a ton for it was her birthday. She made it clear to her parents that she wanted to spend her big day with her friends this year, while they understood her desires; They were secretly happy that their daughter was able to garner such a close circle of friends that she could spend time with.
'Yo Alice! You wanna like, go get lunch together or something? :D' Wraps texted as she sat on her bed, cross-legged, hoping that her best friend would be free on this special day. She didn't want to spell it out that it was her birthday, it would look too desperate for attention on her part.
'No thank you, Wraps. I'm busy. Sorry.' Was all that Alice would respond with, the coldness of the text made the Mummy girl feel a little bit discouraged. Wraps didn't expect her friend would shoot her down so quickly as she did.
Not giving up, she would shrug nonetheless before going with her back-up plan, she switched text message targets to another best friend of hers.
'Hey Jekyll, you wanna come to my house and play some videogames?' The Mummy girl would send to the Ghoul; there was a brief silence before there was a response from Jekyll.
'Hello Wraps, I would like to apologize, but I'm currently busy with something that requires my attention.' The text made Wraps feel a little bit frustrated; the ambiguity is what got to her.
'Are they hiding something from me? How are they both busy? Especially on my birthday!?' a dark thought whispered in her mind, she lightly shook her head to repel the evil thoughts, Wraps didn't want to think that her friends were purposefully trying to avoid her or something, but she wanted some clarity, so she would admittedly, nosily poke in their business.
'Busy with what? I can Totally help! :3' She would send the same message to both Alice and Jekyll.
'No thank you, Sorry.' Alice replied, her quick, almost callous response made Wraps feel entirely down.
'Hello Wraps, while I appreciate your willingness to help, I feel like I accomplish this task by myself. Thank you for your concerns.' Jekyll responded professionally. This made Wraps feel even worse; you have to be hiding something if you text like an automated message.
'Okay...Fine.' Wraps texted to both of them, getting fed up with defensiveness as well as their insistence to not answer her question, still wanting to be secretive and ambiguous.
"Alright girl, don't give up, So you won't be able to spend your birthday with your BFF's, you have like, a ton of other friends you can hang out!" Wraps told herself as she felt determined to spend her birthday with someone.
'Yo Beatrice! Wanna hang out today? :)' Wraps would ask her vampire friend.
'NO...But thanks for asking.' Was all the Mummy girl got, she sighed deeply as she picked another person from her contacts list.
'Heya Tom! Wanna hang out? :D'
'Can't, sleeping right now.' Tom's response annoyed Wraps a ton, how can you be sleeping if you can answer a text message?
"Lying Cat..." She grumbled as she began to text someone else.
'Stitches, today's my B-Day! You wanna hang out?' She would text desperately, now adding the fact that it was her birthday as a way to entice people to hang out with her.
'Happy birthday Wraps! Sorry but I can't, I'm currently contemplating our existence...Seriously Why are we still here? Just to suffer? To struggle for nothing but strife and turmoil? WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?! GIVE ME A REASON WRAPS!' Wraps quickly exited the text conversation before things got weirder.
'Yo Scotty-'
'Busy today. Sorry' Wraps couldn't even finish her text before Claus could shoot her down, that one stung like a knife to her heart, she would place her phone away from herself so that she wouldn't have to experience another wave of disappointment again.
Defeated, Wraps would spend her morning on her bed in silence, the long line of rejections and denials has made the usually upbeat Mummy Girl dour and depressed. She would grab her phone one last time when the clock hit noon, but rather than a text to her friends, she would call for help.
'Hey...Mom and Dad, can you guys come home? Please? All of my friends are like SUPER busy today, and I can't hang out with any of them...It's really lonely here.' She would text to her parents as a last resort; she was regretting telling her parents yesterday that she would spend her birthday with her friends, she didn't expect EVERYONE to be
She would get no response from either of them. They were usually instant with their replies, especially with a message as blatantly blunt as the one she sent. Wraps would try her best not to cry; this creeping loneliness was genuinely getting to her. This silence would finally break as she got a text message, her eyes lit up with hope as she scrambled to grab her phone.
'Hey Dear, we're so sorry to hear that. We're out of town right now, but we promise that we'll spend the whole week with you when we come back. -Mom and Dad' Wraps sank even further.
"Guess...I'm spending my birthday alone..." She would conclude somberly, her voice sounding devastated as she would rub her eyes, quickly noticing that her arm bandages were now stained with tears.
It was nearing the evening. It took a lot of effort, but Wraps finally mustered enough willpower to get out of her room. With a depressed aura looming the Mummy Girl, she would cover herself in a blanket and sulk through the kitchen, she would fancy herself an uncaringly basic meal of sugary cereal and milk. She propped herself against a chair in the dining room, over pouring her cereal for her bowl and carelessly drinking from the milk carton as she began to eat.
"This is nice...I guess..." She lied to herself as she ate sloppily, not caring whether or not she makes a mess. She would go back to the kitchen for a moment, greedily grabbing the whole ice cream tub from her freezer and a big wooden spoon from one of the drawers.
"It's not like you're alone on this Wraps, some monsters don't even celebrate their birthdays...Or have friends..." She continued to try and rationalize her current situation as she scooped up a spoonful of ice cream and chewed on it indifferently, the taste was bizarrely and harrowingly plain. She would get out of her seat and raid the kitchen again, now searching for something that would taste sweet.
A couple of hours passed, the dining room table was now a complete mess, littered around the table that an unhappy Wraps created were crumb-brimmed cupcake wrappers, empty soda bottles, and chocolate bar wrappers, as well as empty paper bowls of grease-ridden foods she ordered some time ago.
"Hey, Diablos pizza? It's me again! I'll take two pepperoni pies...Thanks!" Wraps would call on her phone as she took another bite of the pizza she ordered earlier, not finding any taste she would throw the slice behind her, landing on top of another piece of half-eaten food that Wraps couldn't find the taste for. Her voice sounded inauthentically cheery and happy, her sadness and devastation being masked by a layer of junk food and sugar.
"See Wraps? This is Totally better than spending times with friends! Just me, myself, and these chocolate chips!" Wraps would say in her junk food-addled haze, opening up a bag of the little chocolate bits. They were supposed to be used for baking cookies, but on this particular day, they would be grabbed by the handful and be gluttonously eaten by a depressed Wraps.
"Mhm! So Yummy! Who needs friends when you have sugar? Who needs family when you have Chocolate, ice cream, and pizza!?" She asked no one in particular, dropping her chocolate chip bag on the floor, spilling its content as she was suddenly fixated on a box of cookies Wraps brought in earlier but was distracted by other sweets she would've engorged herself on.
"Gimmie Gimmie! Hehe! Happy birthday to me!" She announced to herself cheerfully, opening up the box and grabbing a handful of the baked sweets before chowing down.
But to her surprise, her doorbell rung, she would casually drop the half-eaten cookies on the floor, joining the sea of other half-eaten sweets and desserts that Wraps would carelessly discard.
"Must be the pizza delivery guy! AT LEAST SOMEONE VISITED ME DURING MY BIRTHDAY!" She would say, her voice rising into a shout as her faux-bubbliness shattered into a festering resentment.
"Hellooooo?" Wraps would chirp before opening the door.
To her surprise, it was her two best friends, Alice and Jekyll. Both of them looked relatively well, although their moods would change once they saw how Wraps was doing.
"Hey Wraps...Happy birthday...Are you doing alright?" Jekyll politely asked with some hesitation, noticing that Wraps face bandages were stained with chocolate, crumbs, cupcake sprinkles and blobs of grease. In fact, her whole body was like this, all under a blanket that was rubbed with food stains.
"Oh! OF COURSE, I'm doing alright! I'm like TOTALLY OKAY!" She would answer with her head tilting slightly.
Hello, my two BFF's! You wanna come in!? I am having a totally awesome birthday party right now! Where all my friends are invited!" She said with an extremely forced giggle. Both Jekyll and Alice would look at each other, they would both look a little frightened.
Before the two could say anything, they were pulled into the house by Wraps, she would laugh as she made them sit in the mess of a dining room, both Jekyll and Alice would look upon the dining room with both bewilderment and remorse.
"OH!? Did you two forget about my birthday!?" Wraps would ask as she rested her fingers on the table, carelessly clearing away some room by pushing some half-eaten cupcakes onto the already trash-filled floor to do so. Her sweet voice sounded fake and fabricated, the two friends would stay quiet until Jekyll spoke up bravely.
"Well about that Wraps...We didn't forget at all...The reason why we were both bu-" Jekyll would try to calmly state, sensing the pent-up emotions Wraps was possessing but was interrupted by the distressed Mummy Girl.
"LIES!" Wraps shouted angrily, causing both Alice and Jekyll to flinch.
"You two FORGOT! Or! Since everyone else has been saying that they're busy today! Pranking me! Admit it!" She would accuse, tears began to well up in the girl's eyes, her emotions flaring through her, from angry, to paranoid, to despairing in a moment's notice.
"Please...Let it just be a prank...At least you two remembered if it was just a dumb prank..." She would cover her face with her hands, groveling in despair. Her two friends were silent as she would start to cry.
"I'm sorry Wraps." The room fell silent as Alice would finally speak, her voice was as quiet as a mouse and as light as a feather. Wraps would look up to see Alice fighting back tears of her own.
Alice would silently reach for a card in her cloak and meekly handed it to Wraps. The Mummy girl would accept the card and open it up with a sniffle.
It was a drawing of Wraps and her friends, hand-in-hand, all of them looking happy while on a lovely grove. And written on top of the drawing was some written words, which based on the handwriting, was written by Alice.
Happy Birthday Wraps, We have a surprise for you which is why we were so sneaky this morning
Thank you for being the best friend I can ever ask for
You help me up when I'm down
You don't give up on me
And you brighten my day when I need it
So, I hope this surprise will repay you for all the kindness you gave me
Alice would then pull out her staff, and with a little twirl would cast a spell, with a puff of smoke came a crook made of ivory, perfectly curved, perfectly crafted, Alice would slowly give the crook to Wraps, to which she eyed with splendor in her eyes.
"...I" Was all Wraps could say, stunned and dazed from the very thoughtful gift.
"And we're not done yet Wraps, please come outside." Jekyll would ask of the girl with a small hopeful smile, relieved that Alice's words were able to calm down an overwhelmed Wraps, Alice would take the birthday girl's hand suddenly, Wraps would look bewilderment as she did so, as both of them quickly walked her out of the house.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Wraps heard the resounding announcement, she gasped as she saw Beatrice, Tom, Stitches, Scotty and all the other monsters that Wraps knew, all on her house's front yard, with a big banner of Wrap's blushing face painted in the center.
"This is what we're all busy with Wraps, we're sorry for trying to keep it away from you, we didn't want to spoil the surprise." Jekyll would explain as Wraps was left speechless.
"I..." Wraps would look at the gift she received, the care that she was given...And began to cry once again, but not out of despair, but rather, out of relieved joy.
"Thank you Thank you Thank you!" She would repeat as she hugged both Jekyll and Alice, they would both smile from Wraps glomp, not minding how sticky her sugar-stained bandages were.
"I'm so so so sorry! For ever doubting you guys!" She would apologize, tears streaming down her face.
"You all are the Best BFFs a girl could ask for!" Wraps announced happily as she turned to the others, earning a cheer from everyone as returned to her genuine self.
And so, after her faith in her friends now rekindled into a blazing fire, Wraps and her friends spent the rest of the night, celebrating her birthday...Right after all of them would obligingly help clean the dining room which looked like a sea of junk food.
When the night was over, Wraps was happy, once broken and devastated from the solitude on her special day, is now with her friends, feeling loved, and cared for.
Her bond with her friends, once questioned by her isolation, was now stronger than ever before.