It's Thursday, and I have just spent the past eight hours at school taking college classes at the University of Maine.

I was in my final semester before I graduated this spring with my Bachelor's degree with a dual major in Civil Engineering and Architecture, with a minor in Roman and Greek studies. Although the day had been an exciting one, as I was researching my thesis project for my degree, the cramping pain I had felt all week was lingering, making me think it was a culmination of being stressed over the research, and my period being due soon.

I was about halfway through my drive home, and I got a text from my husband, Adrian, "Please pick up thai, I just placed the order." Every Thursday, I picked up food from our favorite local Thai restaurant on my way home from the college. I didn't reply, as he knew I hated texting while driving, and instead waited until I got to a red light to respond with a heart emoji.

When we had first met, short-hand texting was the sort of thing I despised, preferring proper grammar and well-formed sentences. In our nearly five and a half years of marriage, I had become less tense and nit-picky about frivolous matters.

When I made it to the Thai restaurant, I felt a cramp in my abdomen again and made sure to take a quick Midol to help reduce the pain. My period was due any day, and the familiar PMS had begun again.

As I entered the restaurant, the same older man, Art, greeted me with a warm smile as I came in. He motioned for me to sit in the waiting area of the small yet cozy restaurant. "One minute, dear, the order took a little longer than usual tonight."

When Art came to the front of the restaurant a few minutes later, he handed me three large bags of food, more than double what Adrian and I, as well as his mother, could eat in one sitting. Including leftovers.

I hesitantly grabbed the bags from the man, asking, "Are you sure, we typically order a smaller amount?"

Art, who seemed to be expecting my response, "Yes, it's all for you; consider it a gift for your big day."

"Big day?" I asked, confused as to what he was alluding to.

Art looked like he had just forgotten like he had told me something he shouldn't. "Oh, uh, I mean, it's almost the end of the week, which is something to celebrate. Enjoy the food, good night." Art escorted me to the door, seemingly hoping not to say anything else.

Weirdness aside, I carefully placed the food in the back seat of my car, making sure none of it would spill on the remaining two-mile drive home. I just assumed that maybe Adrian was hungrier than usual, assuming that could be the only reason he could have ordered more food.

Before I left the restaurant parking lot, I quickly texted my husband, "On my way home now. It seems like you're hungrier than usual." Adrian responded with, "drive safe. Love u."

Driving onto our street, I noticed a couple more cars than usual, and I had assumed that the nearby church had had an extra service this week. Every Sunday, the historical church down the street from us held services that many of our small town attended. As the building had a small parking lot due to being over a hundred years old, the street we lived on served as a defacto parking area for members.

Absentmindedly, as I grabbed the food from the back seat of my car, and made my way to the front door of our house, there was something I didn't notice right away. Our house, which is a century-old Victorian-style house, had none of the lights on. As I unlocked and opened the door and stepped inside to turn on the light, I jumped back as I looked at what was right in front of me.

"Surprise! Happy Birthday" A small crowd of my closest friends all shouted at me, as I gaped in utter shock at what was happening.

Adrian, the closest to me, began walking towards me right as my friend Jill, snapped a quick photo of me.

"You should see your face, Syd, you look stunned," Jill said as she waved a Polaroid.

My son, Declan, came running up to me, "Happy Birthday!" He threw himself into my arms, and I held bear-style for a minute.

Adrian was right by my side, giving me a quick kiss as he quickly grabbed the bags of food I was somehow still holding. He quickly whispered in my ear, seeing the chilly look I gave him, "It's going to be fun, and besides, it was Jill's idea when she learned you didn't have any birthday plans."

Adrian knew I loved being in control, and therefore something I naturally despised was any kind of surprise that was even crazier, so that I hadn't even remembered my birthday. I had been so caught up with school lately it had slipped my mind.

Before I could begin any protest, I looked across the room, and I realized I hadn't seen a lot of the people here in over a year. There was Jill, one of my friends. Eddie, Adrian's guardian, Adrian's mother, Rose, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian, Angeline Mikhail, and Sonya Karp. All of these people were my friends, some of them I had been in life-and-death situations with.

A smile grew over my face as I made my way through the house, "Thank you all for coming. You guys shouldn't have gone through all that trouble…"

"Save it, Sydney," Rose said, as she made her way to me with what looked like two small glasses of champagne in her hands. "We all wanted to be here, and besides, how often do we get the chance to see each other?"

Rose hugged me and then quickly handed me one of the drinks, "Here you go, and no, it doesn't have alcohol in it."

As I walked through the house, I noticed how nicely decorated the place was. There were party streamers made out of plant vines strewn beautifully around the house, no-doubtedly Sonya had made.

As I entered the kitchen, I could see homemade pizza, vegetable, fruit and cheese platters strewn across the marble counters. I trend my head towards Adrian, was setting down the Thai food, "Honey, why did you have me pick up so much food, if there was already tons?"

"There are more people in the back, Syd. Say hi to your guests. We needed enough food." Adrian said, turning to Jill, who played host.

When I entered the back yard, there were more people I had befriended over the past few years, Moroi and dhampir alike. Our backyard, although not the size of an estate, comfortably fit both a decent sized garden, and a maze towards the property's edge. Near the house, on the moderately sized patio, there were heat lamps sporadically placed among tables and party games that had been set up in an organized manner.

As I slowly made my way through the crowd of people who awaited me, I greeted everyone, trying my best to catch-up with how each person was doing. As I made my way through the crowd, I learned the name of Lissa, the queen of the moroi, name of her twins. She had given birth to identical boys, and had decided to name them Eric and Fredrick (nicknamed Freddy), after the queens father and grandfather.

When I finally finished greeting everyone, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around. I was in utter shock when I saw who had tapped me, as it was the face of someone who I cared deeply about, but hadn't seen in ages.

"Mom!" I shouted, as I threw myself into arms of the woman in front of me, the woman who knew me better than almost anyone. "Sydney, its so good to see you," she replied, putting her arms around me and pulling me closer.

We talked for what seemed like ages, she told me about how she had recently traveled to Germany with her new boyfriend, Jack, for their six-month anniversary. They had rented a Porsche, and my mom recounted how she drove up and down the autobahn for hours. It truly felt good to see her, and when she was done telling her story, I remembered my siblings.

"Hey Mom, did uh, did anyone else come with you?" I asked her, shyly, looking to the floor to not give away the tinge of nervousness I felt.

"Oh honey,…" I glanced up to look her in the eyes, which gave away a look of pity. "Well, your sister Carley couldn't make it, you know she couldn't take time off, and Zoey, she…"

"'Is stationed somewhere overseas, and can't get the time off…" I said, cutting my mom off through my gritting teeth.

"…she told me to tell you happy birthday," my mom said at the same time. She locked eyes with me, giving me the same sadness that came over her whenever Zoey was brought up. My mom pulled me into another hug, and as I was about to return the hug—

"Sydney, you have to play this game of ping pong! Adrian's totally losing," Jill said, pulling at my arm to follow her.

"I'm talking with my m—" I replied.

"…You don't mind, do you, Ms. Sage?" Asked Jill, looking towards my mom.

My mom smiled, and nodded, "Of course not, you can have the birthday girl," she said. Noticing my indignation, she quickly added "my flight leaves Sunday, I have plenty of time to spend with Syd before I go."

I gave her a quick hug and quickly joined my friends in playing birthday games. The rest of the night went on beautifully, and as it grew cooler outside, we eventually made our way inside on the February night. We played games all night, and although I won a fair amount of games, I found darts to be the hardest, as Dimitri kept winning each round.

"You've gotten pretty good at this, huh Dimitri?" I asked him, as we faced off in a competition of sorts.

He laughed, "Well, if I recall, you lost at least one of the games we played back in Palm Springs."

Around six years ago, when I was stationed as an Alchemist in Palm Springs, Dimitri had been staying at the house of a local Moroi, Clarence,while conducting a spirit research project. On one of the nights that I had been at Clarence's for the feedings for Adrian and Jill, Dimitri and I had found ourselves in the game room of Clarence's battling in a dart game that lasted many hours.

"Uhh, if we're going off-memory, I distinctly remember you distracting me in order to make that one win of yours." I said to him, laughing at the memory.

Dimitri laughed, and I noticed, while looking over his shoulder, Sonya Karp starting at me with an inquisitive look on her face. Distractingly, I threw the last dart, and felt it hit what sounded like wall, and then falling to the floor.

"Dimitri wins!" I hear Eddie say, "Syd, it looks like you forgot how to throw on that last one."

"My wife always wins, someone had to have jinxed her." Adrian said, as he came over to me, and pulled me to his side in order to kiss me.

I smiled, "Of course, that's the only logical outcome, husband." We kissed for a second longer, and before Adrian returned to our guests, he whispered in my ear. "I have a real birthday surprise waiting for you later tonight," sending a shiver down my spine.

Angeline brought out a cake that had the two candles spelling out my new age, being twenty-five. Declan sat on my lap as everyone wished me a happy birthday, and after blowing the candles out with me, had more sugar than I usually allow him in a week.

As the night went on, and it was nearly dawn, I made myself to the backyard for a quick breath of fresh air. I made my way through our small-landscaped maze until I found myself to the beautifying bench that overlooked the small lake outside of our home.

I sat down, enjoying the view in front of me as I reflected upon the night. I had everyone here, my friends who were Moroi, dhampir, and even a few of my fellow coven members I had made in the last year. They were all here to celebrate me, and even though I didn't know some of them as much as others, like Lissa, tonight had been the most fun I had had in a long time.

I don't know how long I was sat there, but as I stared watching, I heard someone call me out of my daze.

"Sydney, I didn't expect to see you out here." Sonya Karp said, as she made her way over to me.

Sonya was wearing a calf-length sundress with wool leggings. She layered this underneath the heavy winter jacket she always ware. "May I?" She asked, indicating the space next to me on the bench.

"Of course," I replied, "it's nice to get a minute away with you. How are you doing?"

Sonya smiled, and sat down, "I am doing good, I have taken on a research lab at Court, studying spirit, as you know." I had heard, a lot actually, as my husband Adrian was a spirit Moroi user, and sometimes flew down to the research labs to help conduct projects.

"Adrian told me you guys were beginning to conduct research on dhampirs," I replied, in a tone indicating that I was interesting to hear more. The last time Adrian had been at Court to help partake in research, about two months ago now, he had come back home after nearly a week. While he had finished the project he had been needed on, and this new project was something she began after he had left.

Sonya's eyes brightened, "Yes, we have discovered so much already, and I believe we are on the crux of changing the vampire world." Sonya recounted the story about how two dhampirs had been able to get pregnant through the use of spirit. I nodded, remembering the story very personally, as my adoptive son, Declan, had been born. "Well, we have found a way to make it so that every dhampir couple is able to get pregnant." Sanya said, leading me to a gaping mouth.

"Wow, that is a huge discovery, congrats on finding that. A lot of dhampirs lives will be changed," I said, smile bright as I realized what this mean. Although I was human, over the last five year, I had gotten close to a number of dhampirs, all of which had known two dhampirs couldn't get pregnant together.

Sanya sighed, "Thank you, Sydney, but we still haven't come out to the public yet with this information, and I would appreciate if you didn't tell anymore." She paused, looking at me, I nodded, and she continued, "But it means that many couples will get to have families together, something many of them had never considered due to genetics." Sanya told me the process of using spirit so that dhampir couples may be able to get pregnant. While not too difficult of a process, was still a long and arduous one to achieve.

As we continued our conversation, the sun was beginning to surface on the East side of the lake. We both heard a familiar voice, "There you two are, we've begun to worry about where you guys were."

Sonya and I stood simultaneously, the early sunrise reminding us of the time.

"Sorry, we must have lost track of time," I said as Adrian made he was to put his arm around me.

Sonya, who was gazing at the two of us amusedly, "I'll give you guys a moment alone. I better go look for Mikhail."

As Adrian gave me a peck on the lips, drawing me closer to him, Sonya quickly said, "Also, congratulations on the bundle of joy, you two! Your aura is beautiful" Adrian and I looked at each other confused, before peering at Sonya, who had just hurriedly gone back into the maze towards the house.

"Do you know what she's talking about?" Adrian asked, studying my face.

"Of course not. She's been giving me that knowing gaze all night." I replied, just as confused as Adrian.

"What could the bundle of joy be that she's talking about?" Adrian asked.

"People tend to say that about people who are pregnant, but I obviously am not pregnant." I said half-confidently, as a part chest fell into my stomach. "What was she even talking about, with the auras? What does that even mean?" I asked Adrian, who had pulled me back into his embrace.

He studied me, my eyes, hair, and every part of me within reach. His eyes sharpened with surprise and shock, and then he looked at me with more love than I had seen in a long time, as he pulled me into a kiss.

Our kiss was long and sweet, and although it was cold outside, being in Adrian's arms kept me warm. After a while, I pulled away from him, looking at him in wonder, "You look like you just discovered something, what is it, Adrian. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Adrian smiled, "Sonya was right, your aura is beautiful, but it's not just you right now, there's a second aura within you." Adrian put his hand on my stomach.

"Sydney, you are pregnant."