Chapter Fourteen—Happy Birthday
Reid was the first to figure it out. He had been watching Caleb intently though out breakfast. Instead of his usual brooding and seriousness, the fearless leader was grinning like a monkey who had been released from the zoo and into a giant pool of bananas, or, so was the analogy that Reid came up with when he told the others.
"He was grinning like a monkey who's just been set loose from the zoo and landed into a giant pool of bananas." Reid said triumphantly, as Tyler and Pogue scratched their heads in confusion. Reid sighed with exasperation.
"Oh don't you see it, he definitely got it on with Blake last night."
"How can you tell?" Tyler asked.
"When will you ever learn baby boy," Reid rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "A true man can always tell when a fellow comrade has scored in the ladies department."
Tyler still looked puzzled.
"Yeah," Pogue nodded. "He did seem sort of giggly today at breakfast. It was kinda creepy actually."
"See? What'd I tell you?" Reid smirked. "And Tyler had post-sex written all over him the morning after with Val."
"I did not!" Tyler retorted. "You can't tell if someone's had sex or not just by looking at them 24 hours later."
"Oh yes you can," Reid shot back. "You just have to observe closely, that's all."
"Anyways," Tyler added, folding his arms huffily over his chest. "Who cares if he did or not?"
"Well we have to confront him about it, obviously. It's just what we do."
"It's what you do, Reid." Tyler replied, lifting his nose in the air slightly.
"Oh don't be such pussy," Reid scoffed. "Come on, this is going to be fun."
Caleb was innocently washing the dishes in the sink while his mother took the girls upstairs to put their clothes in the wash. He didn't notice his three friends sauntering into the kitchen until he felt someone breathing down the back of his neck. The plate he was holding crashing into the sink loudly.
"Jesus Reid," he muttered, picking up the plate to examine it for damage. He frowned and quickly repaired the crack with a flash of his eyes.
"So, fearless leader, we think you have some explaining to do!" Reid gloated as he tapped the counter expectantly.
"Yeah come on Caleb, give us the dirty details." Pogue snickered.
Tyler sighed and took a seat at the kitchen table.
"What are you—" Caleb faltered.
"Oh don't place innocent." Reid sneered. "We all know what went down last night, or more importantly who."
Tyler winced. "Reid, do you really have to—"
"Oh okay," Caleb said with a grin, leaning up against the counter. "I see how it is."
"Well?" Reid demanded, folding his arms impatiently.
"Well, your right." Caleb shrugged.
"So he admits it!" Reid gasped dramatically. "Oh this is good, really good stuff."
"Well why would I deny it?" Caleb said, still grinning as he continued to wash the dishes. Reid coughed expectantly.
"Well?"
"Well what?" Caleb asked, completely innocent and straight faced.
"Well, details Caleb! Details!" Reid snapped his fingers impatiently.
"You're not getting any." Caleb grinned again and began to whistle as he cleaned off a cereal bowl.
"Told you this was pointless," Tyler mumbled from the table.
"Oh come on Caleb, be a sport!" Pogue added.
"Okay fine, I'll sum it up for you. It was good, no wait, make that great. Real great." Caleb began to laugh at the expression on Reid's face.
"Great?" Reid asked in disbelief. "That's all your going to tell us?"
"What are you boys talking about?" Blake asked slyly as she strutted into the kitchen, wearing nothing except her underwear. Reid's eyes bulged out of his head like a squeeze toy, and Tyler and Pogue's mouths dropped a few inches.
"Happy birthday!" Blake smiled and leaned in to kiss Caleb.
"Thanks, at least somebody remembers." Caleb grinned, wrapping his arm around her smugly.
"Oh yeah! Sorry dude! Happy fucking birthday!" Tyler said, jumping up to pat Caleb on the back and then returning to his seat.
"Happy B-day bud!" Pogue added apologetically.
"Yes, yes, and may you life forever, oh holy masterful fearless leader." Reid sighed, waving his hands in the air in defeat.
"Something bothering you Reid?" Blake grinned deviously, obviously catching on to what the boys had been discussing before she had made her entrance.
"Everything's peachy," Reid grumbled, taking a seat next to Tyler.
"Morning everyone," came a voice from the doorway. Cass entered, her long blond hair falling down her back as she yawned and stretched. She hopped up on the counter next to Blake, dressed in a very short pair of shorts and a camisole. This, evidently, took Reid's mind off of being bitter.
"Happy birthday Caleb!" Cass beamed, as he passed her a cup of coffee.
Val, Lena and Evelyn were next to enter the room. Lena looked none the worse the ware after the events of last night; she had shrugged it off completely. At least being attacked by freaky demons was more eventful then sitting in her dorm listening to her roommate strategize about chess.
"There's the trooper!" Pogue grinned at her and she sat down next to him. "Sleep well?"
"Perfectly," she smiled back. "Happy birthday Caleb," she added.
"Yeah! Congrats birthday boy!" Val added as she sat down next to Tyler.
"Thanks!" Caleb said gratefully, shooting raised eyebrows to his friends.
"See, all the girls remembered." He teased.
Reid grabbed a croissant from the table and flung it at Caleb's head. Caleb dodged it and chucked back his dishcloth, which smacked Reid dead on in the face. Everyone howled with laughter except for Evelyn, who was tut-tuting as she hurried to throw out the croissant that had fallen to the floor.
After everyone had eaten they re-assembled in the campgrounds, better known as the living room.
"So what's the plan for today birthday boy?" Reid asked, flopping down on a couch.
"Me and Blake are going to head over to the colony house to look for anyone with British decent in the book." Caleb said firmly.
Reid snickered and raised his eyebrows.
"We aren't going alone," Caleb retorted. "I say two more people should come."
"I'll go." Tyler piped up, eager to get out of the house and do something useful.
"Yeah, me too." Said Val, who was becoming greatly interested in the whole matter.
"Okay sounds good. The rest of you can stay here, if anything comes up call us right away."
"You can help me make my baby's birthday din din!" Evelyn called from the kitchen doorway.
Reid groaned. "Oh no," he muttered.
"So it's settled," Caleb grinned as he pictured Reid in a chief's hat being forced to cook by his mother, who all the while was beating him over the head with a cookbook.
"We'll see you all later."
"Whoa, Caleb, you never told me you own a haunted house!" Val breathed as she stepped out of the back of Caleb's mustang.
"Creepy old caretaker included." Tyler muttered, as he spotted Gorman peering around the front door.
"Come in mater Caleb and friends," Gorman mumbled as he opened the creaky old door. "Your mother informed me of your coming, if you should require anything I'll be waiting upstairs."
"Thank you Gorman," Caleb replied politely as he led the others down the winding stone steps into the cellar.
"Holy shit," Blake whispered. "You guys went all out didn't you?"
Caleb grinned as he walked by the stone seat that had 'Danvers' engraved in it. His eyes flashed black for a brief moment and the fire sprung to life from the centerpiece. Tyler drummed his fingers over his own seat and then used his power to summon the book of damnation to the center.
"Okay," Caleb sighed, pacing around. "We need to find anyone of British decent. You two go looking through the history books over there, while me and Tyler mull out the damnation book here."
They set to work, Blake and Val scanning through dusty of volumes of Ipswich history while Tyler and Caleb worked on collecting information about re-ascension and magical fusing.
"This is spooky stuff," Tyler muttered, pointing to a diagram in the book. "Says here that fusing for the non-magical can be even more painful than ascending."
Caleb nodded and continued to flick through the pages until he settled on a page about immigrants.
"Look!" He said excitedly. "Says here that several years after the colony was established, a group of strangers sailed over seas from Europe to settle there."
"Did it say anything about names?" Tyler asked.
"Right here, look. Says here that four families from overseas sailed on the ship from Europe, but only two made it alive to Ipswich. The family names were Ackart and Walsh."
"I think I found something that might help," Blake said, coming over with a large dusty volume in her hands.
"Here's a list of all the decedents from Ipswich until modern days. Looks like the Ackart's died out somewhere in the early 18th century. But look, the Walsh family left Ipswich around the same time, so the book stopped recording their names. But for all we know they could have very well survived into today."
"Looks like we've got ourselves a last name at least." Caleb said grimly.
"Master Danvers?"
Caleb looked up to see Gorman at the top of the stairs.
"Your mother's on the phone. She says it's time to return for your, ahem, birthday feast."
Caleb groaned as Tyler stifled a giggle.
"Tell her we'll be right there."
"Hurry Reid, Caleb's on his way. I need everything to be perfect for my baby's birthday. No, no, no! You don't put the potatoes next to the cranberries!"
Thwack. Reid yanked back his hand in pain as Evelyn delivered a quick smack to his hand with her, yes you guessed it, cookbook. Talk about birthday wishes coming true.
"Oww! This is such slavery!" Reid moaned, nursing his hand.
Cass walked up beside him and dipped a finger into the cranberries.
"Mmm, yummy." She grinned, sticking her tongue out at him. Cass had been pampered all day long by Evelyn, while Reid had been forced to do all the dirty work.
Reid's natural male brain was instantly filled with fantasies of Cass and him completely naked covered in cranberry sauce. He flashed her a perverted grin and then put his finger to her face and wiped off the remains of cranberries from her cheek.
"Thanks," she smiled, flushing slightly.
"Not a problem," he grinned at her.
"Reid!" Evelyn exclaimed, bustling back into the dining room.
"He'll be here any minute! We still need the pasta brought out!"
"I'll do it," Cass giggled, pushing Reid out of the way as she hurried to help.
Reid watched her follow Evelyn into the kitchen, admiring the way her hair bounced up and down when she ran, like he had so many times before. He sighed thoughtfully, wondering if one day she'd ever see him for more then just a pain in the ass. It was his own fault really, but he just did not know how to behave nicely towards females; especially ones that he liked.
There was a loud bustling noise from the front foyer, which announced the arrival of the others. Pogue and Lena came into the dining room to join Reid as they waited for the others to assemble.
"Wow, jeeze, thanks mom this is amazing!" Caleb grinned as he stepped into the decorated dining room. The whole table was covered in steaming food, all of his favorites.
"Oh it was nothing," she said, beaming at him.
"Easy for you to say," Reid muttered bitterly under his breath.
"So did you guys find anything out?" Asked Pogue, who had already helped himself to an enormous heap of mashed potatoes.
"Yeah we did," Caleb replied. "The guy were looking for definitely has the last name of Walsh."
"Walsh?" Evelyn frowned. "That doesn't sound familiar."
"They left Ipswich sometime in the 18th century, so their names were no longer recorded in the records afterwards."
"I see, that explains why you only have a last name."
Caleb nodded.
"We'll have to do some digging then," Evelyn replied briskly. "In the meantime, enjoy yourself sweetie, it is your birthday after all!"
After everyone was full from the massive dinner, Evelyn brought out the cake and everyone sang a very loud, off key version of happy birthday. Reid adding in the obnoxious version, of course, finishing off with a grand "you smell like a piece of shit, and you were born in a zoo"
"He was not," Evelyn retorted, glaring at Reid. But everyone was laughing, including Caleb.
When everyone was almost done their cake, a ring of the doorbell interrupted them. Caleb looked up sharply in alarm. Who would be ringing the doorbell? He watched as his mother shot a grin across the table to Blake and winked. Blake got up and scraped her chair. The others turned to each other with smug expressions on their faces.
"What's going on?" Caleb asked suspiciously, getting up to follow Blake to the door. Everyone snickered and whispered excitedly as he left.
"Is there something going on that I don't know about?" He asked as he rounded the corner. He stopped dead in his tracks.
"We have a delivery for a Mrs. Evelyn Danvers?"
"Right here!" Chimed Caleb's mother, brushing past him.
"What is that? Are those—" Caleb asked in bewilderment.
Blake grinned at him as the delivery boy handed Evelyn the papers.
"Surprise!" Blake said, clapping her hands.
"Thanks again for choosing 1-800-dial-a-keg." The boy said. "Bring em' in boys!"
Caleb watched in amazement as the delivery people began to lug in not one, not two, but three enormous kegs of beer into his house. His jaw fell completely slack.
"I what, but I, seriously?"
Blake giggled and glanced up at the clock.
"Guests should be here any minute!"
"Mom?" Caleb turned on his mother in shock.
"Oh come on honey, you only turn 19 once." She winked at him and strutted back to the kitchen.
"Well I, wow I don't know what to say."
"Happy birthday," Blake said as she tiptoed over to him and kissed him.
"All right! It's kegger time!" Reid yelled, doing a leap of joy in the air followed by a rather impressive heel kick.
Everyone else was now filed into the foyer and examining the vast amount of beer in awe. Tyler and Reid began to do a rowdy sort of jig around the kegs all the while chanting "beer, beer, marvelous beer!'
"I don't even know what to say, thank you!" Caleb beamed, still very taken aback by the insane birthday present.
"Told yah I'd surprise you." Blake grinned and then dashed to get the doorbell as the first of the guests arrived.
A/N: So I definitely couldn't help it; I want to see the whole gang completely sloshed. But will something unexpected happen during all this birthday bliss? Oh well, I can't tell you that now can I? Keep reading and reviewing guys! Also, for you Reid lovers out there, I posted the first chapter of my new Reid themed fic, so I'd love to hear some feedback! Don't expect much more from it for a while though; I'm totally taken up by this fic right now! Enjoy guys, thanks once again!