Author's Note: First of all, before you do anything else, the wonderful ShinkisRule drew this AMAZING picture of Anya from the last chapter that you all NEED to see RIGHT NOW: http:/ shinkisrule .deviantart .com /art/ Anya- with- Bunnies -221915689
(And if you don't want to go to the website, go check out my profile because this amazing picture is now my avatar.)
Adorable, right? And now that you've seen it, you have my permission to read chapter 21…
"Can you do me a favor?" Anya asked shyly one day about a week after her trip to the zoo.
"Anything," Kendall replied, turning off the TV so he could give her his full attention.
"Can you teach me how to ice skate?"
A smile spread across Kendall's face. "Of course," he replied, "I can teach you later, after we're done recording with Gustavo."
So that afternoon, Kendall and Anya headed over to the rink, both clad in jackets, sweaters, hats, and gloves to keep warm. Kendall brought his own ice skates but they had to rent a pair for Anya. After he helped her put them on, they went to the ice.
"Be careful," Kendall instructed, "It's really easy to fall. If you feel like you're about to fall, just grab onto me, ok?"
Anya nodded uncertainly, slowly making her way onto the ice. Kendall skated backwards, facing her.
"To go you just push your feet to the sides. Like this," Kendall said, demonstrating.
Anya nodded again and tried to mimic him. It wasn't as easy as it looked and she soon had to grab onto Kendall.
"Here. Let's try it like this. You hold onto my arms like this and I'll pull you along until you get a feel for the ice, ok?"
Anya nodded and Kendall began to skate backwards, pulling her along.
"Good," Kendall said after a few minutes, "Now I'm going to let go and you're going to skate to me, ok?"
Anya nodded once again as Kendall skated away from her, stopping about 9 feet away from her.
"Don't be afraid to grab onto the wall if you have to, ok?" Kendall said.
Anya nodded and began to skate slowly towards Kendall.
"Good," Kendall said when she reached him, "Now, try again." Kendall skated away.
Anya began to skate towards Kendall once again. This time she seemed a little off-balance.
"Careful," Kendall called out anxiously.
Suddenly, Anya's skate caught on something and before Kendall could react, she fell.
Kendall immediately skated over to her as fast as he could.
"Are you ok?" he asked, deeply concerned. He could see the tears that had gathered in her eyes.
Anya nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"Are you sure?" Kendall asked.
Anya nodded again and Kendall helped her up.
"Do you want to take a break?" he asked.
"No," Anya replied quietly, using every ounce of her willpower to keep her voice from wavering.
"Ok. Do you want to keep going?"
"Yes," Anya replied, her voice stronger.
"All right." Kendall skated away from Anya, this time stopping only 5 feet away from her.
They practiced like this for about 10 more minutes, Kendall stopping farther away from her each time. Later, they worked on turning and stopping. After that, Kendall decided to call it a day.
"That was really good for your first time ice skating," Kendall said as they took off their skates.
"Really?" Anya asked.
"Yeah. You got through a lot more than I did my first day," Kendall said, leaving out the part about how he was only four when his father first took him to learn how to skate, "Did you have fun?"
"Yes. I had a lot of fun," Anya said with a smile.
"Good," said Kendall. He stood up. "Ready to go?"
Anya nodded and the two teenagers left.
The next morning, Katie Knight got up at 7:30 (as she always did) and made her way to the kitchen, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Happy birthday!" Katie looked around, startled. Her mom, brother, honorary brothers, and Anya were standing around the table, smiling. In front of her was a cookie cake with 13 lit candles in it that read "Happy Birthday, Katie!" surrounded by a few wrapped presents.
"But my birthday was almost three months ago," Katie said, confused.
"Yeah, well, we never got the chance to celebrate it, what with everything that was going on," Logan explained.
"Better late than never, right?" James added.
Katie smiled and Carlos began to sing, everyone quickly joining in.
"Happy birthday to you..."
After they finished eating the cookie cake (proudly baked by Mrs. Knight and Anya), it was time to open presents.
"Thanks for the hair cra-I mean hair care products, James," Katie said.
"No problem," James said excitedly, oblivious to Katie's obvious displeasure, "If you want, I can show you how to use them later."
"Um, thanks," Katie said, quickly moving on to the next gift.
"Oooh! Open mine!" Carlos said excitedly, hardly able to stand still.
"A Frisbee?" Katie asked after unwrapping it.
"Yeah! You broke yours last summer, remember?" Carlos asked, clearly convinced that he had given her the perfect present.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Thanks." Katie happily set the Frisbee aside and moved on to Anya's present.
Katie carefully unwrapped the gift. It was a teddy bear.
"It's so cute! Thanks!" Katie gushed, already devising ways that she could use it to augment her puppy dog eyes in order to get what she wanted.
"I made it myself," Anya said shyly.
"Really?" Katie asked, all thoughts of using the bear for her own purposes flying out of her head.
Anya nodded.
"Wow." Katie suddenly had a new respect for the bear. She gently put it down and picked up Logan's present.
It was small, which was always a good sign. The best (and most expensive) presents tended to be the smaller ones.
"Castle Bashers 2!" Katie squealed, "I didn't even know they were making a sequel!"
"They weren't," Logan said, his face impassive. Katie looked up at him in confusion.
"What?" she asked.
Logan laughed. "Kidding! Of course they were! You probably didn't know because of all that's been happening. And get this: Castle Bashers 2 doesn't come out until this fall."
"Then how'd you get it?" Katie asked incredulously.
"I know a guy," Logan said vaguely.
Katie set Logan's present aside and moved on to her brother's. She had saved his for last because Kendall always got her the best presents.
"Snoop Dogg Jam Phonic Headphones?" Katie squealed again more excitedly than before.
"To replace the ones you gave to Bitters for Christmas," Kendall explained, "Happy birthday, Katie."
Katie stood up and hugged her brother tightly before giving similar hugs to everybody else.
"Thanks, guys," Katie said, "This has been the best birthday ever."
Author's Note: So I'm planning on this story only having 2 more chapters. But on the bright side, I'm planning on doing a 100 themes challenge that includes Anya, so you'll still be able to read about her. And I'm also planning on doing a sequel, I just have too many ideas and I'm not sure that any of them are actually good. So if you have any ideas for the sequel, PLEASE tell me. And if you don't bother sharing your ideas, don't complain when it takes FOREVER for the sequel to be written…
And did you guys know that they have Big Time Rush binders, notebooks, and folders? I've heard that people are getting them, but I cannot for the life of me find them. I looked at both Target and Walmart yesterday, and while I found some pretty cool iCarly, Victorious, Superman, and Beatles notebooks, I couldn't find a single BTR one. Grrr…
And on a happier (and more random) note, have any of you guys heard the new Goo Goo Dolls single, All That You Are? If you haven't, go look it up on YouTube RIGHT NOW! It's AMAZING! I've literally been listening to it nonstop the entire time I was writing this chapter.