Sam was in the middle of rinsing off the breakfast dishes and putting them in the sink as the rest of his family was in the middle of their normal chaos. Phil was rushing out the door as Jessica tried to fix Anna's hair, Ellie was ranting over the hole she had discovered in her favorite shirt and Aiden had just thrown a blanket over his head and declared that he was too tired to go to school. All in all, it was a typical morning in the Turner household and Sam wouldn't trade it for the world. Sam finished with the dishes and turned around, taking stock of the situation before heading for Ellie.
"Let me see." he said motioning for the shirt she was still holding.
"Okay." she said, looking confused as the took the shirt, spread it on the table with the hole visible and took a picture on his phone.
"One of my friends might be able to fix it, let me show a few of them and see what they say, alright?" he said, watching as her face instantly brightened.
"Thank you, Sam!" she announced before running off to find another shirt.
One down and one to go. Sam turned towards the couch and headed for Aiden, kneeling down and pulling the blanket off of the little boy's head. He had a feeling he knew exactly why the little boy was trying to go back to sleep.
"Why don't you want to go to school?" he asked.
"I'm tired." the little boy mumbled.
"You went to bed on time last night ... why are you tired?" Sam asked with a slightly knowing tone to his voice.
"Well..." the little boy started, catching the stern look on his brothers face and giving in, "I wasn't done playing! So I kinda-sorta got backup." he confessed.
"You have to go to school anyway though. You have a bed time so you won't be tired, remember that. Maybe you can take a nap when you get home." he told the child.
Aiden sighed and got off the couch, walking off to finish getting ready. With that dealt with, the family set about all the last minute things that went in to getting all five of them out the door and ready for the day. It almost seemed like a miracle when they all headed out the door on time, but then again, it always did. Jessica was just about to shut the door when Aiden suddenly ran back inside.
"What are you doing?" Jessica called into the house.
"It's Sammy's friend birthday! I have to get the card I made him!" he called, running back out a moment later.
Sam smiled as he climbed into the van with him. Mike had the first birthday of the group and today. he would turn eighteen. That always had the potential for an interesting day.
Rachel smiled as she walked into school that morning. According to the list of birth dates she had acquired during a brief interview with each New Directions member, today, Mike would turn eighteen. The first birthday of the school year among the friends would have to be celebrated. She was sure that she could get the others to sing to him in Glee that afternoon. After all, you didn't turn eighteen every day.
Mike was the oldest of the group. He was the first to be an adult and Rachel couldn't help but find that a little scary. They really were growing up. Several of them were seniors this year, they would graduate and move on with their lives. Half of the original Glee members would leave. That was a scary thing to think about.
She tried remind herself that they wouldn't lose touch. They had become like a family, they would always be close. It wasn't like they would never see each other again. But still, it wouldn't quite be the same. They wouldn't see each other every day. Maybe not every week. They had to make the most of this year.
She smiled when she caught sight of her boyfriend walking in with his brother and Rory. She definitely had to make the most of her time with him, Finn was a senior as well. She was already beginning to dread next year without him. She quickly tried to shake it off though. That was something to worry about later. Right now, she simply needed to spend as much time with him as she could.
"Finn!" she called rushing to catch up to the three boys.
"Hey, Rach!" Finn said with a smile as he instantly pulled her into a kiss.
Kurt rolled his eyes before hugging her, "Good morning, Rachel." he said.
"Good morning to you too." she said before turning to the youngest boy, "How are you, Rory?" she asked.
"I'm okay. How are you?" Rory replied softly.
"I'm wonderful! I'm looking forward to celebrating Mike's birthday. I was thinking that we of course have to sing to him." she began as the group walked down the hall.
Puck laughed as he walked into the lunchroom with Lauren who had been in the middle of telling him about her brother's visit the night before. Though her father remained wary of him, he had ended up getting along fairly well with her brothers once they got past the initial threats. The Zizes boys had gotten into enough trouble themselves to be able to look past his slightly checkered past. Their father hadn't quite gotten to that point yet, but he could understand that.
Lauren was Mr. Zizes only daughter and as much as she didn't seem to realize it, Puck knew that in his own way, he saw her as his little princess. Puck understood that feeling. He might not have gotten to keep her, and he might rarely see her, but Beth was his little princess. He had a feeling that if a guy like him wanted to date Beth, he'd be just as wary, if not more. It was the same reason that he was a little wary of Sarah's crush on Justin - though that hadn't stopped him from teasing his sister about it.
"So Alex went back home already?" Puck asked.
"Yeah. I had to drag him out of bed before I left for school though." his girlfriend replied with a roll of her eyes.
"He cut that pretty close." Puck said, laughing.
"He always does." Lauren responded, shaking her head.
"Just so you know," Puck started, changing the subject, "I think Rachel plans to turn Glee into a birthday party for Mike. Though I'm pretty sure it will still involve a lot of singing."
"Yeah, I guessed that. Berry can be pretty predicable. I brought my present for him." she said, smirking slightly.
Tina smiled to herself before pulling her boyfriend aside in the hallway to begin a make-out session. Rachel had informed her earlier that she needed to distract Mike and make sure that the two of them would be the last ones to enter the choir room. She really couldn't think of a better or more enjoyable way to go about distracting him. She would have to let Mike spend time with his friends once Glee started and this was a perfect way to ensure that she got some time with him as well.
She made sure to keep him occupied for several minutes until her cell phone buzzed in her pocket, telling her that everyone else was there. Sighing softly, she pulled away and informed her boyfriend that they really should get to Glee club. He agreed, and the two of them headed hand in hand for the choir room. Sure enough, just as Tina had suspected, the moment the door opened there was a loud shout of "Happy Birthday!" and once the group hug had ended, she realized that Rachel had somehow gotten cake and ice cream into the room. Before she could ponder that much further, Finn and Rachel began leading the group in singing to Mike.
She turned to her slightly embarrassed looking boyfriend and smiled, "Happy birthday." she said before kissing him again.
"You were in on this!" he playfully accused.
"Of course I was." she replied with a smirk.
"I'm so getting you back for this on your birthday." he whispered before being pulling into the laughing crowd and towards the cake.
"Happy birthday Mike!" Mr. Schue said as Mike was pushed towards him and the cake he was cutting, "Glee club has our first adult now! How does it feel?"
"I don't know ... good, I guess?" Mike replied and Tina laughed at the slightly confused look on her boyfriends face.
After the cake was cut and passed out, Rachel shockingly allowed them a good twenty minutes to simply celebrate Mike's birthday. However, as soon as the last person - who happened to be Finn - finished, Rachel was quick to announce that they really should get some singing in. Expecting that, the group laughed and cleaned up before heading back to their seats to start singing. Tina found herself almost missing the sarcastic comment she knew Santana would have made if she had been there.
Mike was still smiling when he walked into his house after picking his brother up from school. He might have been a little embarrassed, but he loved that his friends cared enough about him to do that. Once he got passed the embarrassment, he really had had a blast. It still hadn't quite sunk in yet that he was eighteen though.
"Boy, being an adult sure has you happy." Shawn teased.
"My friends through a party for me in Glee. It was really nice." he explained, before heading back to take the presents he had been given out of the car.
Shawn followed him and helped him get his things into the house before going through what his older brother had gotten and exclaiming over it. Mike couldn't help but laugh as he watched him. Sometimes he really couldn't believe how amazing his friends were. Once Shawn had finished going through his presents, Mike put everything up in his room. He had just made it back into the living room when his mom walked in the door.
"Happy birthday, Michael!" she exclaimed, even though she had already said so that morning.
"Thanks mom." Mike said as she put her things down and came over to hug him.
"Did you have a good day?" she asked him.
"I did." he told her, smiling as he remembered it, "My friends kinda threw me a surprise party in Glee."
His mother smiled again, "I knew that I liked them. You chose good friends, Michael." she said as she headed into the kitchen.
"Yeah, I did." Mike said with a smile of his own as he followed her into the kitchen.
"No." she said, turning around with a stern expression on her face that was ruined by the smile that was still there, "You go do something fun. I have a cake to bake and your favorite dinner to cook and you aren't helping on your birthday!" she said, shooing him out of the room.
Mike grinned before heading out of the room and asking Shawn if he wanted to watch one of the movies he had gotten. His little brother's face instantly lit up and Mike headed to get the movie out of his room. They seem to time thinks almost perfectly as the movie ended only five minutes before their mother called them to supper. He smiled as he sat down to the meal. Their mother had raised them on her own and there was really no other family in the picture, but she had always done her best to make birthdays special for her sons. In Mikes opinion, she had always succeeded.
"Thank you, mom. It looks great," he said before settling down to eat.
Author's Note: This is a lot shorter then I had wanted it to be, but I hit some writers block here and then my dad got laid off again and ... that sends him on cleaning frenzies we all have to be involved in. Along with a few other random things that kept me busy, this is shorter and took longer to get out then I wanted, but I hope that you guys will forgive me! My aunt is taking us on vacation next week, so I won't have much computer time, but I'll have the next chapter to you as soon as possible and it will be longer!