"So, do you get a lot of racoons in here?" Jessica asked, staring at the floor as her and Louise sat on the couch, waiting for Bob to come take Jessica back to her house.

"Why? You jealous?" Louise snickered, looking over to Jessica.

"Yeah, little bit," Jessica replied looking back at Louise.

"Hey, what're you two still doing up," Bob walked into the room, noticing the two still sitting on the couch despite it being late, "Oh. Do you want a ride home now Jessica?"

Jessica sighed, "Okay, guess it's time," She replied as she began getting off the couch. Jessica never really liked slumber parties, she'd always had a problem with wetting the bed and staying overnight at other people's houses was a hassle. But Louise was cool, and she didn't judge Jessica for her problem. Part of her wanted to stay, but she supposed she should just go home.

"What? It's a slumber party, why would she go home?" Louise responded, looking back over to meet Jessica's eyes and giving her a small smile.

"Woaahhh! Wait a second, you two are havin' a good time!" Linda happily walked into the living room, joining the conversation.

"Ughhhh mommmmm stop!" Louise yelled in annoyance.

"Awwww! My little BFF's!" Linda clapped her hands together excitedly.

"Shuuushhhh..!" Louise groaned, trying to get her mom to stop embarrassing her.

"See! I knew you'd like it! It all worked out the way I thought it would! Tomorrow we're going clothes shoppingggg!"

"Nooooo!"

"Yeahhhhh!"

"Noooooo…!"

"Yeahhh!"

Jessica watched as Linda hugged her daughter tightly. Linda reminded her of her own mother in a way, they were both very loud. Jessica laughed a little as she watched the two interact.

Maybe slumber parties could be fun.

A little over 2 years later….

"Bye dad," Louise says as she steps out of the old run down car her family owned.

"Bye Louise, have fun and uh- tell Jessica I said happy birthday I guess," Bob said looking over to his daughter.

Louise snickered and nodded, "Alright, I'll be sure to do that," She waved and closed the door. Turning around to face the beige, boring looking house she'd been to many times before. It looked just as boring as the family that lived inside, though Louise didn't think they were that boring. Jessica's grandma, Mary, was cool. She made age inappropriate jokes and that was enough to make Louise like her. Jessica's mom, Madeleine, was kind of annoying, she was eccentric and, in Louise's opinion, wasn't a very good mom to Jessica. Madeleine and Jessica's father went out a lot leaving Jessica home alone with her grandma, which made Jessica feel lonely a lot of the time, and Louise didn't like that. Jessica's dad, Jason, was pretty boring, he collected toy boats and that was the only thing he would wanna talk about ever. Louise collected things herself, but toy boats? How boring is that? Louise guessed that was where Jessica got some of her boring-ness from, except Jessica wasn't that boring. Just because she can look pretty boring, doesn't mean she was. Jessica was actually pretty interesting once you got to know her, Louise had kind of rubbed off on her over the years. Actually, both of them had rubbed off on each other, Jessica used to be pretty quiet, awkward, ect, but now sometimes she could be louder than Louise (Not often though). And Jessica was really good at calming Louise down when she was enraged. Louise liked that about her. Louise shook the thoughts from her head as she realized she'd been standing still for too long, so she walked to the door and knocked.

"Why hello there, Louise! Come in come in!" Madeleine said as she opened the door for Louise, "Jessica's in the backyard, just head on out there, okay? Oh and I'll take your bag for you, not everyone's spending the night so don't go braggin' about it okay?" Madeleine laughed a little.

"Oh uh yeah, okay," Louise replied kind of awkwardly and handed her bag to Madeleine. Madeleine smiled and walked away, so Louise led herself to the backyard. Their backyard was a decent size, at least Louise thought so, she didn't have a backyard. Jessica's backyard was normally pretty empty besides a huge tree that was in the left corner, but today there were tables set up with cake, food, and presents. There was also a pinata shaped like a shark hanging from their tree, which really interested Louise. And there was something else in the backyard that had never been there before, it was this huge, circular, trampoline! And on that trampoline was Jessica. Louise ran over, took her shoes off, and jumped onto the trampoline.

"Hey Jessica."

"Oh hey Louise," Jessica smiled, noticing her friend's approach.

"So Jessica when did you get a trampoline and why did you not invite me over right away?"

Jessica snickered, "I got it for my birthday. I woke up and my mom took me into the backyard and it was just here."

"Woah."

"Yeah."

"Hey guys!" Megan shouted as she exited the house from the back door, she ran over and took her shoes off, then climbing onto the trampoline.

"Oh hey Megan," Both Louise and Jessica said at the same time, causing the two to laugh.

Megan smiled and started jumping on the trampoline, "Oh by the way, Jessica. I can't spend the night."

"What? Why not?"

"My mom was getting all paranoid in the car and changed her mind, I tried to talk her out of it but she said if I kept asking she wouldn't even let me go to the party at all, so I just gave up."

"Damn, that sucks, we were gonna have one hell of a night," Louise said.

"Yeah, well at least she let you come to the party," Jessica sighed.

"Yeah."

The three continued to talk for a while until the rest of the party participants showed up. First it was Abby, who Louise found annoying sometimes but whatever. Next was Jodi, who looked terrified to have to be in a backyard that wasn't her own, because of the germs. Lastly Harley showed up, who Louise also tended to find annoying. Jessica found some of these girls annoying at times as well, and Louise knew that, so she assumed Madeleine forced her daughter to invite more people other than Louise and Megan.

"Happy birthday Jessica!" Harley said, jumping on the trampoline with the rest of the group.

"Thanks," Jessica gave Harley a small smile.

"I got you a reaaaaally good present, I think you're really going to like it! But actually I don't know, because I didn't really know what to get you so I just got you something I'd like!" Harley spoke quickly, for no particular reason, that was just how she spoke.

Jessica nodded slightly, "Uh I'm sure I'll like it, don't worry."

"Okay!" Harley turned around and saw Abby on the other side of the trampoline, "Oh hi Abby! I didn't know you were coming," Harely turned her focus to the girl she was talking to, not focusing on Jessica anymore.

Jessica turned to Louise and Megan, who were having a conversation about Wharfy, something Megan still talked about regularly, though Jessica didn't mind.

"Look at this, Louise!" Megan held out her phone to her friend.

"What am I looking at exactly?" Louise looked at Megan with a confused face.

"It's a new photo of Wharfy someone got!"

"Megan- that is not Wharfy."

"What? Yes it is, look there's her head, and look that's her chest," She pointed at the photo on her phone.

"Megan, that's a literal piece of driftwood."

"No! It's Wharfy!"

"Lemme see, Meg," Jessica jumped towards the two.

Megan turned to her and held her phone out for Jessica to see, "Look its Wharfy! Tell Louise its Wharfy, Jess!"

"Uhhh," Jessica looked at Megan then at Louise, "Uhm Megan I think Lou is right on this one, I think that's a piece of driftwood."

"What? You too Jessica? C'mon."

"There's literally a big stick just- stickin' out of her head! And last time I checked, Wharfy isn't a unicorn," Louise commented.

Megan groaned and put her phone back in her pocket, "You two just don't want to accept the truth."

Jessica laughed a little and the group continued to jump on the trampoline until Madeleine approached.

"Alright guys, come here come here, it's time for the pinata!" Madeleine smiled and held up a wooden bat.

The group hurriedly ran out of the trampoline, all of them (except Jodi) excited to hit the pinata. Jessica was first, of course since it was her birthday. Everyone cheered as she took the first swing.

"Come on Jessica! Give 'em hell!" Louise shouted, cheering on her friend.

"Yeah!" Megan yelled.

Jessica swung a second time, this time causing some damage to the pinata, no candy fell out though. The third swing did damage as well, nearly breaking off one of the shark fins. Everyone was limited to three swings so now it was Abby's turn, after Jessica they were going in alphabetical order, meaning Louise would have to go second to last and possibly not be able to go at all if someone broke the pinata before her. Abby swung her three times, not causing much of any damage. Harley was next and she surprisingly did pretty well, some candy fell out but still not a lot. Jodi was supposed to go next, but she refused to touch the bat so her turn was skipped. So it was now finally Louise's turn, and she wasn't going to waste her turn like Jodi and Abby, she wanted that candy and she was more than happy to hit something with a bat to get it.

"Wooo! Go Louise! Now it's your turn to give it hell!" Jessica cheered. Her mom nudged her, seeming to be upset that Jessica said 'hell' but Jessica ignored her mother and kept cheering.

Louise smiled and got in position to hit the pinata, then took her first swing. It caused one of the fins of the shark to fall off and candy fell out. Some of the girls started running forward to grab the candy but Madeleine yelled at them to be patient.

"Don't break it yet, Louise! I want a turn too!" Megan shouted.

"No promises, Meg!" Louise replied as she swung again, not causing as much damage this time but still an okay amount.

"Don't listen to Megan, Louise! Smack the hell out of it, you know you want that candy!" Jessica shouted.

Louise smiled at Jessica's words and hit the pinata one last time. The pinata falling to the grass, along with the candy inside. All of the kids dived forward to get as much candy as they could, besides Jodi, she anxiously watched as the others grabbed the dirty candy off the ground, saying something about the illnesses you can get from dirt and grass. No one was really listening though. Louise continued to grab as much candy as she could, Jessica doing the same. As Louise reached for a couple pieces of candy, Jessica pushed her hand away and grabbed the candy first.

"Hey!" Louise shouted, laughing as she nudged Jessica and took some candy from inside her friend's pocket.

Jessica laughed and pushed Louise lightly with her shoulder. They both continued to light-heartedly sabotage each other and mess around as they grabbed candy. Once all the candy was picked up, all the kids sat on the ground, eating the candy they'd gotten and talking to one another.

"So how much candy did you get?" Jessica asked, sitting next to Louise as Megan walked over to sit next to them.

"A decent amount, probably would've gotten more if you hadn't pushed me," Louise said, nudging Jessica with her elbow.

"Pfft, you were takin' too much candy! Gotta leave some for the rest of the people!" Jessica nudged her friend back.

"I was the one who knocked the pinata down! I deserve the most candy," Louise crossed her arms, "Oh by the way, sorry I knocked it down before you got a turn, Megan."

"It's fine, I didn't really care about getting a turn, I just wanted the candy."

"Well your missin' out, you get to HIT the pinata with a BAT and then you get candy for it! It's almost as good as halloween."

The group of children continued to talk and eat candy until Madeleine called them over, "Jessica! Jessica's friends! It's cake time! Don't fill up on candy! Everyone pile up next to that table!" She came over to the group who were still sat on the ground, then pointed to a table with the birthday cake on it. As the group approached, Jessica sat down in front of the cake, which was chocolate flavored with dark pink and light pink frosting flowers and the words 'happy 12th birthday Jessica! 3' written on it in cursive. Louise looks at Jessica, surprised she got a cake such as this one, it just seemed a little girly for her friends liking. Jessica noticed Louise looking at her and mouths, 'My mom chose the cake'. Louise giggles a little and mouths back, 'Thought so'. Jessica laughed slightly and smiled at her friend.

Madeleine came over and put candles shaped as a '1' and a '2' into the cake,"Alright is everyone ready!?" She pulled out a lighter and lit the candles.

"Happy birthday to you~

Happy birthday to you~ "

Jessica gracelessly smiled as everyone sang and stared at her, not knowing what to do besides sit there awkwardly and grin.

"Happy birthday to you~

Happy birthday, dear Jessiiicaaaaa ~

Happy birthday to you~ "

"Cha cha cha !" Harley screamed excitedly, raising her hands in the air.

Jessica paused for a second to make a wish and then blew out her candles. Everyone clapped as she did this and Jessica just nodded as everyone around her cheered. Louise laughed, watching Jessica's awkward reaction. Jessica noticed her friend laughing and stuck her tongue out at her. Louise giggled and did the same back.

"Alright everyone go sit down and I'll bring everyone cake!" Madeleine shouted. Louise sat down next to Jessica and Megan did the same.

Everyone was given cake and icecream, unless they didn't want any, and then they sat and ate, talking to each other until it was almost time for everyone to leave. Before that though, Madeleine had Jessica open her gifts. Harley gave her stickers, Jodi gave her hand sanitizer because she had extra in her bag and she didn't see any in Jessica's house, Abby gave her a doll and a toy hair brush because she thought 'Jessica could use some practice', and lastly, Megan gave Jessica a little plush toy of what Wharfy supposedly looked like. Jessica noticed how Louise hadn't given her a gift, but she didn't mind too much, she thanked all of the people who got her something for their gifts and they proceeded to go home, leaving Louise and Jessica now alone in the backyard, both of them sitting on the trampoline.

"So, how was the party? Ya' have fun?" Jessica smiled, looking over to her friend who was sitting across from her.

"Hmmm nahhhh, pretty boring actually," Louise joked and smirked at Jessica.

"Pfft shut up," Jessica snickered and pushed Louise lightly.

Louise giggled and pushed Jessica back, to which Jessica replied, "Hey! No pushing me! I'm the birthday girl!" Jessica put her hand on her chest dramatically.

"Hmmm, fine. But at 12 am it's free game," Louise squinted her eyes.

"You're on," Jessica smirked.

Louise snickered. Jessica smiled until she noticed something sticking out from Louise's pocket, "Hey what's that?" she pointed.

Louise looked down and gasped, shoving her pockets contents back down, "Oh! Nothing, it's nothing."

Jessica looked at Louise with a curious look on her face, "Oh? Nah nah nah, you can't just act that suspicious and expect me to NOT want to see what you're hiding."

"It's nothing."

"It's clearly something! C'mon! Show me!" Jessica scooted closer to Louise and reached her arm out, trying to grab whatever Louise was hiding.

Louise scooted back and tried pushing Jessica away, "Jess stop! It's nothing, back off!"

Jessica laughed and continued reaching over to Louise, "Come on! What're you hiding that's soOoOo bad!?"

"It's nothing, Jess!"

"Come ooonnnnn!"

"It's nothing!"

"Come oooooonnnnnnnnnn!"

"Ughhh fine! Fine! Just back off me for a second, dang," Louise said sitting up fully.

Jessica backed up and smiled, happy to have gotten her way and waiting for Louise to show her what she was hiding. What Louise ended up pulling out was a small box, wrapped in white wrapping paper and a bow, it was barely bigger than Louise's hand.

"It's uhm- the gift I got you.."

"Wait, you got me a gift? Why didn't you give it to me during the party? And why were you hiding it?

Louise mumbled something, but she was too quiet and Jessica didn't hear a word of what she said.

"Huh? Dude you're talking to quiet, I didn't hear you."

"I said I was scared you weren't gonna like it..!" Louise said looking away from her friend.

Jessica opened her mouth slightly in surprise, then she smiled, "You thought I wasn't going to like it? Louise, I would've liked anything you got me."

Louise met Jessica's eyes, she blushed a bit then sighed and handed the gift to Jessica, who happily held the small box in her hand and opened it. Inside was a small kit that Jessica recognized as Louise's lock picking kit.

"Wait… Louise you're really giving this to me?" Jessica asked, she took the kit from the box and looked inside, all of the right tools needed to pick a lock were present, they were slightly worn out because Louise had had that kit for years now.

"Yeah, I uhm- I bought myself a new one since mine was kinda old, and I was going to sell that one but I remembered that you had lost yours and could do for a new one so I thought it would make a good gift or something.. I don't know."

Jessica smiled and looked at her friend, "Woah. Louise Belcher gave up the chance to make money, for me?" Jessica teased.

"Pfft, shut up!" Louise nudged Jessica and laughed a bit.

Jessica laughed as well, she looked back down at the present, "But for real, thank you Louise, I love this. I really needed a new one but my mom wouldn't let me buy it. So this, this is great. Thanks," Jessica looked back up at Louise with blush tinted cheeks and a genuine smile on her face.

Louise looked at Jessica and smiled, her face redding slightly, "Uh- yeah, don't mention it.." The two of them were interrupted by Madeleine, coming outside through the backdoor.

"Hey! What're you two still doin' out here? It's gettin' dark, you'll get mosquito bites, get on inside, dinners ready!" She waved for the two to come into the home.

Jessica opened the zipper of the trampoline and held it open for Louise, "Shall we?"

Louise giggled a little, "we shall," she replied as she stepped out of the trampoline, with Jessica close behind. The two of them walked inside and ate dinner with Jessica's family. Unlike the Belchers, Jessica's family didn't talk much at the dinner table, there was only the occasional chatter between Jessica and her grandmother. Louise liked silence but it was unusual to her at the dinner table and it felt somewhat awkward. After dinner the grown ups went to their respective rooms, leaving Louise and Jessica the rest of the house. They grabbed the extra cake and ice cream from the party and put it on the coffee table. They also grabbed the leftover pizza in the fridge, and some juice.

"Alright! So snacks are settled, now we need to decide what movie we're gonna watch," Jessica sat down on the couch with the TV remote in her hand.

"Hmm, well since I'm a generous young soul, I'll let you choose the movie since it's your birthday," Louise sat on the couch, holding a bag of chips.

"Wow, how kind," Jessica snickered and scrolled through the movies they had. She ended up choosing The Secret World of Arrietty, one of her favorite movies. Both of them had already watched it but Louise did say Jessica could choose the movie. After that movie ended, they started another movie, and then another one. The two ended up watching movies for hours until it was nearly 1 am.

"Hey I think we should head to bed, my mom will freak if she sees us awake right now, and if she sees that we were eating on the couch," Jessica said as she put away the snacks.

Louise yawned, "Yeah alright, I'm pretty tired actually," She stood up and helped Jessica with putting the stuff away. Once they finished, they walked upstairs to Jessica's room. They grabbed extra blankets and pillows and set up a small bed on the floor for Louise to sleep on.

"This is a mighty fine make-shift bed, if I do say so myself," Jessica said sitting on the floor next to Louise.

"Ehh it's alriiiight," Louise waved her hand in the air.

"Hey! It's good and you know it!" Jessica laughed and smacked Louise with a pillow.

"Hey!" Louise grabbed a pillow and smacked Jessica with it. Before Jessica could protest Louise interrupted her, "It's 1 am, not technically your birthday anymore, so I can hit you all I want, remember?"

Jessica smiled, "Fine, let's do this then," She stood up and held a pillow in her hands. Louise smirked and stood up as well. They began a pillow fight, being careful to not knock anything of Jessica's over. The two had pillow fights a lot, it was kind of their thing, and they always had fun doing them. They continued their fight until they both got tired and sat back down.

"Gotta admit, you've gotten better since our first pillow fight at that dumb slumber party my mom made me throw a couple years ago," Louise said leaning back on her hands.

"You too," Jessica yawned, "Well that tuckered me out, so I think Imma head to bed," She stood and climbed into her bed.

"Yeah me too," Louise laid down, "Goodnight Jess."

"Goodnight, Louise."

The Next Morning….

"Gooood morning! Wake up wake up wake up!" Madeleine came bursting through the door, she was putting on a tie as she got ready for work.

"AHH!" Louise yelled, sitting up quickly as she got startled by the loud screaming.

Madeleine laughed, "Oops sorry Louise! I'm just really rushing right now because I'm gonna be late for work! There's breakfast in the kitchen, and uh yeah get up get up!" Madeleine ran back downstairs.

Jessica yawned and sat up, then looking over to Louise, "Good morning."

"Mornin' Jess," Louise stretched her arms upward and stood up. Her and Jessica walked downstairs and to the kitchen.

"Alright Jessicaaa, me and your father gotta go to work. Like I said, breakfast in the kitchen. Oh! And me and your dad won't be home till like 9 or so cause' we're gonna head to one of my friends house warming parties! Your grandmother will cook food for you or you can cook for yourself if you want I don't care. Also mom please don't make any inappropriate comments while Louise is still over! Bye!" Madeleine yelled and then left the house.

"..Bye," Jessica said quietly after Madeleine closed the door, she was holding a plate of food in her hand. Louise looked over at Jessica, then the door, then back at Jessica. Louise knew her friends' parents weren't home often, that's another reason Louise preferred hanging out at Jessica's place, because no annoying siblings or parents were around to bother them. But she knew Jessica wished her parents were home more often. Madeleine and Jason were at work a lot, and when they weren't at work, they were out with their friends, leaving Mary and Jessica at home. Another reason why Louise didn't like her friends' parents all too much, Jessica always gave them the benefit of the doubt, saying 'they're just busy', 'they work a lot so it's understandable to want to hangout with friends whenever they can', but Louise didn't like how they acted. She was surprised her parents even stayed home for Jessica's birthday to be honest. Louise sighed and put her hand on Jessica's shoulder.

"Wanna break the rules and go eat breakfast on the couch?

Jessica looked at Louise and gave her a small smile, "Sure."

The two friends walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Jessica turned on the TV, there was nothing good on so they decided to watch some random rerun of an episode of America's Got Talent.

"That girl needs to shut up about her sob story and actually show us some talent," Louise shook her head and took a bite into her pancake.

"Exactly! Like shut up already man, no one cares if you fell off your bike when you were five," Jessica waved her fork in the air.

Louise laughed a little, "Exactly.. Oh also, my dad said he's gonna come get me around noon. Sorry I know I'm leaving kind of early but there's a festival going on near my street which means we might actually get customers so my dad needs my help since I'm the best."

Jessica giggled, "Nah it's fine, I gotta help my grandma fix her phone later anyway."

"What's wrong with her phone?"

"Probably nothing, she just doesn't know how phones work."

"Ahh gotcha."

The two continued to talk until Bob pulled up in front of Jessica's house. Louise grabbed her stuff and prepared to leave. She opened the front door and was about to step out until Jessica grabbed her shoulder and Louise turned back around.

"Uh- I just wanted to thank you again for the present, I really liked it." Jessica said and removed her hand from her friends shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing.. But I'm uh- glad you liked it," Louise smiled.

Jessica smiled, "Yeah it's really cool. Well uh yeah, I guess you gotta go so um, bye."

"Bye, Jess. Happy birthday. Oh by the way my dad says happy birthday too."

Jessica snickered, "Alright tell him I said thanks."

"Will do," Louise smiled and waved at her friend, then shutting the door. She was glad Jessica liked her gift, she didn't want to admit that she was actually scared Jessica wouldn't want it or had maybe already gotten a new one but she had been, so Jessica telling her twice that she really did like the gift made Louise feel giddy and she couldn't help smiling as she walked to her family's car and got inside.

"Hey, so did you have fun?" Bob asked, looking over to his daughter getting in the passenger's seat.

"Uh, yeah, it was alright I guess," Louise buckled up.

"Your face says otherwise," Bob said quietly to himself and smirked.

"...Shut up," Louise rolled her eyes but kept the smile on her face.

Bob chuckled a little, happy his daughter had fun, and turned on the car, starting to drive away.

"Oh by the way, Jess says thanks."

"For what?"

"For saying happy birthday," Louise snickered.

"Oh, uh tell her I said you're welcome."

"Will do."