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Chapter 029
Ignore the Crazy People
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Forks, Washington
Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 6 a.m. PDT
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At 6 a.m. my alarm goes off, and I roll over to slap at the clock and then roll back to lay against Damon's bare chest. He chuckles and kisses the top of my head before he tells me, "Better get up because if you're late getting to school Ric will make rules about what we're allowed to do and when."
I turn my face up towards his and crack open my eyes, "He wouldn't."
He laughs and kisses my lips before telling me, "He would, and you know it. Remember, he's the responsible adult in this family."
I groan and flop onto my back, "I so don't want to get up."
He laughs more and says, "I know, but you have to, besides it's your birthday, so I'm sure your friends will all wish you a happy birthday at school."
I sit up and rub my eyes, "Okay, I'm up."
Just before I go to swing my legs off the side of the bed, Damon sits up and pulls my arm, so I'll look at him. When I turn, he leans in and kisses me sweetly before whispering, "Happy Birthday, Mia Tesoro."
I smile and kiss him again before telling him, "Thank you, so far it's been awesome." I wiggle my eyebrows at him, and he chuckles before pecking me on the lips and then letting go of my arm, so I can get out of bed and get ready for school. I blush while I run from the bed to the bathroom buck naked.
Breakfast goes the same as every other day except for when I arrive in the kitchen and everyone stops and begins singing, "Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Juliet. Happy Birthday to you."
Isa hands me a plate full of chocolate chip pancakes with a candle sticking out of the stack. I stand there staring at the lit candle for a minute and make a wish, 'I wish for my family to remain safe this year,' then I blow the candle out.
Damon pulls me into his side and whispers, "Mia Tesoro, you're supposed to wish for something for you, not for everybody else."
I pull back and look into his eyes before I tell him, "And I did. It was an entirely selfish wish because I don't want to have to bury anyone else."
He frowns at me, but nods and lets go of me, so I can sit and eat my stack of pancakes.
When we're done eating Isa tells me, "Jules, you don't have to help clean up the kitchen at all today because it's your Birthday."
I smile and tell her, "Thank you. Hands down best present ever."
Everyone laughs at that, and then after the kitchen is clean Isa, Jazz, Kol, Bree and I all get our things and head out to Jasper's SUV.
I get to sit shotgun and control the radio because it's my Birthday, and I have to say I'm really digging this Birthday thing. My parents used to make a big deal out of it too, but I don't think anyone even wished me a Happy Birthday last year never mind gave me anything or allowed me to skip chores or man the radio in the car. Actually, I take that back, somehow Damon found out it was my Birthday and despite his switch still being mostly off he gave me an expensive box of pastels that I had mentioned wishing I had the money for the week before. But he was the only person who acknowledged it was my birthday. Jenna remembered a few days later and wished me a Belated Happy Birthday before handing me a card with a check in it, but really this year's birthday already far exceeds last years in terms of awesomeness.
When we get to school, we head over to our friends who all begin singing loudly and totally hamming it up. I must turn eight shades of red when everyone in the parking lot just stares at my crazy friends and me. When they finish singing Mike and Tyler intone, "And many mooore…"
The laughter bubbles out of me while Mike strikes a pose and I double over when Tyler mirrors him on the other side of Lauren and Jessica.
Lauren rolls her eyes and says, "Seriously, Jules, Happy Birthday… ignore the crazy people."
I just laugh harder when the two crazy people in question get outraged faces before they burst into laughter themselves.
Isa leans towards me and warns, "I hope you're prepared for crazy all day because I refused to let them do anything for my Birthday, so they're going overboard for yours."
Jessica overhears her and smiles saying, "There's no such thing as overboard when it comes to turning 16. She's one year closer to being able to get into an R rated movie alone. She can legally drive and legally have fun with her boyfriend, which if that monster hickey is any indication she's already been enjoying that part of turning 16."
I turn bright red and tell her, "Oh my god! Could you possibly say that any louder, the students on the other end of the parking lot didn't quite catch it…" She opens her mouth as if to repeat her statement louder, so I wave my hand in her face and say, "Seriously, shut up."
She just laughs and leans in before asking, "Seriously, you haven't even been 16 for eight hours, and you're already rocking a hickey? I'm officially jealous."
I smile after calming my laughter and tell her, "The worst part is the one I gave him already healed."
My eyes widen a moment later when I realize that Jessica doesn't know that Damon's a Vampire, so she has no clue about super Vampire healing. Fortunately, she glosses over it and says, "I'm sure you'll manage to give him one that sticks as pay back later. Surprisingly it's an art form."
I just nod with wide eyes before we all head inside to our lockers and then head to class.
The morning is pretty average, but because our crew sang so loudly everyone knows it's my Birthday, so folks I don't even know have been walking up to me and wishing me a Happy Birthday. Other than that though it's been a regular Wednesday morning… until… lunch…
So I'm sitting at the table with all of our friends except Lauren and Jessica who are suspiciously missing when I notice them walking towards our table with something in their outstretched hands. When they get closer, I realize it's a cake, a very lopsided cake, but other than my mom no one's ever made me a cake before, so I can't really complain.
This time they get the entire cafeteria to sing along, and I'm beet red by the end. When they finish Lauren smiles and says, "Jessica, Ang, and I made it for you with a recipe Bella gave us. The school wouldn't let us do candles but…"
I smile and tell them, "Candles or not it's still awesome, thank you. My mom's the only one who's ever made me a cake before. What kind is it?"
Jessica beams at me and says, "Chocolate with Peanut Butter filling and icing. Bella told us it's your favorite."
I can't keep my response to myself, so I nod deeply while I say loudly, "Yum! Well, let's eat our lunch and then we can all try it to see if it's as good as it looks."
They laugh, and Lauren smiles before she tells me, "It looks pitiful you don't have to lie, but Bella assures us if we followed her directions it should still taste good even if it is lopsided."
I stand and take my camera off my backpack and hand it to some girl passing by and ask, "Hey can you take a picture of my friends and me with the awesome cake they made me?"
She smiles and says, "Sure." When she looks down at the camera, she smiles wider and says, "Hey I just got this model for my birthday last May."
I laugh and tell her, "Awesome then I probably don't have to tell you how to use it?"
She shakes her head no, and I motion for all of our friends to gather around the table with me and my freaking awesome cake in the middle. She takes about 20 pictures and then hands me the camera before she says, "I hope you don't mind I usually take a ton of shots of the same thing so if someone's eyes are closed in one shot…"
I finish her sentence, "You can Photoshop it and open their eyes using one of the other photos. I do the same thing, thank you so much. In fact, when you're done eating your lunch come over, and you can have a slice of the cake because you helped us out."
She smiles and says, "Looking forward to it."
I sit back down. We all eat talking about what my plans for the rest of the day are, which honestly I have no clue, so I tell them, "Damon won't tell me what he has planned. I'm so clueless about what the rest of my day looks like after school other than I'm supposed to do my homework over at Isa's house and not show up at my house until 5:30 p.m."
They all look around obviously excited, so I'm guessing whatever Damon has planned they're in on it, but I don't let them know I know because they seem to be having so much fun knowing something I don't.
When we finish eating Jessica takes a plastic knife out of her backpack and hands it to me, "They wouldn't let us bring a real knife, so I hope this will work okay."
I smile, and when I hand her back the knife, I tell her, "I'm sure it'll be fine."
I look up and see Eric taking shots of Jessica cutting the cake and Lauren helping her put the slices on little paper plates Lauren took out of her bag. They hand the first one to me with a plastic fork, so I scoop up a bite and pop it in my mouth, and Oh My God is that heavenly. My eyes are wide while I chew. When I'm done, I smile at them and tell them, "It might not be the most symmetrical cake in the world but it's easily the tastiest I've had in years, and my mom used to make this kind of cake every year, so you're in good company."
Lauren, Jessica, and Angela all beam at that and everyone grabs a plate and sits to eat my awesome birthday cake. When we're done, Lauren takes my plate and the rest of my trash and throws it out for me. When she comes back to the table for her bag, I hug her and kiss her cheek before telling her, "Thank you, Lauren. This has been the best birthday in a really long time, and that's in large part because of you and Jessica and Ang and everybody else so just thank you."
I turn and hug Jessica next being sure to kiss her cheek too before doing the same to Angela. All three girls have huge smiles on their faces when I tell them, "I'm serious, I think this even tops my eighth birthday which was a costume party. It was before I truly became a tomboy, so I was Tinker Bell if you're curious, and all of my friends came over, and we had a blast. The only thing that could have made this Birthday better is if my parents were here.
All the girls surreptitiously wipe away tears at that last part, but they smile and nod. I proudly carry the remains of my lopsided cake into Ric's AP History Class, and before all the students file in, I tell him, "Hey Ric, I saved you the last piece of my Birthday cake that Lauren, Jessica, and Angela made for me. Don't be fooled by how it looks because it tastes freakin' awesome."
He smiles and takes the little paper plate and puts it to the side of his desk before telling me, "Thank you, Juliet. I have my free period next period, so I'll eat it then."
I just nod and head to my seat. We're watching a documentary on Henry VIII, so I take out my laptop and start taking notes while the movie plays. An hour and a half later AP Calculus is over, and when my friends and I are heading past Ric's classroom, he sticks his head out the door and stops us, "Ladies, excellent job on the cake. Jules, thank you for saving me a piece."
The girls are all blushing, but they nod, and I tell him, "No problem. I thought it was too good not to share with at least you though we should probably keep it between us or Damon will get jealous because you know how he is about cake."
Ric laughs and nods with a pseudo-serious face and says, "You're probably right about that. I'll see you back at the house around 5:30 yes?"
I smile and nod, "Yes, Isa promised Damon she'd keep me busy at her house until it's time to go home."
He nods, and we head out to the parking lot. I stop and give all our friends hugs and smile and thank them all for making this an absolutely awesome birthday then I get in the car, and we drive to Isa's house.
Jazz and Kol beg off doing their homework stating, "We promised Damon we'd help set up, so we'll do our work before we go to bed."
I just nod, and Bree and Isa lead me into Isa's house. I laugh when they maneuver me into sitting in the seat so that I'm looking out the window facing away from my house, but they just smile and take out their laptops, and we start working.
By 4:30 I'm done with my work, so I plug the memory card from my camera into my laptop and upload all the photos on my camera. My email pings so I look and see that Eric shared a Dropbox folder with me. I check it out only to find more than 450 photos from today that he and another kid on the newspaper staff took including a couple shots of Ric eating his piece of cake with his eyes closed and a look of pure pleasure on his face.
I click the link to download all the photos and then wait while they and the ones from my camera get uploaded onto my computer.
Almost an hour later I've fixed up all 800 plus shots in Lightroom, and I've marked the ones with eyes closed or that need other repairs so I can go in later and fix them up.
At 5:30 on the dot Isa and Bree put their things back into their bags, and after Isa brings her stuff upstairs, we all go across the street.
