On Horseback

Chapter 7: Birthday Wishes

The Vegetable Festival (as I figured) sucked! I was at the town gathering for about ten minutes and left. Yup, I snarfed down a few corns and left. I didn't take any pictures of Karen gobbling her tomatoes down. I just ate some corn and left. Talk about a boring festival, I'm never going to that one again!

Now, it's Summer 13th.

I'm not too big of a fan of this particular date, only because the next day would be my birthday! My reasons are obvious: The day just goes on and on and on and on and...I just want the next day to arrive as soon as possible! I've always struggled through the 13th, but not this year. Since Jack was around, we always did enjoyable activites to pass the time.

"Hey, Ann!" Jack called out to me that afternoon. I was sitting in my room with the bedroom window open, and was curling my hair. I looked left, out the window to see Jack. Yup, my vanity just had to be so darn close to my window!

"Hello, Jack, lovely weather we're having today, eh?" I asked him as he approached the window. At the question, he stuck his tongue out and said, "Not really. It's currently 26 degrees. Tomorrow's temperature is supposed to be 29 degrees. H-H-HOT!" he exclaimed. I laughed and looked back at the mirror.

"Do you want a lemonade or anything?" I asked Jack.

The farmer nodded his head. "Please."

I quickly got out of my chair and spun it around (I love those kind of chairs!) before leaving the room. I walked into the shop where my father was holding two glasses of lemonade. I giggled. "You read my mind, daddy!" Dad shook his head, however. "No, Ann, I was eavesdropping." An angry look appeared on my face. "Dad! What have I-" "I was joking, Ann!" my father yelled so that I'd stop. Yeesh. Fathers.

The lemonade was wonderful. Jack drank his within seconds while I still had my lemon perched on the side of my glass. "Well, you certainly were thirsty!" I told him. "Sure was, got any more?" Silly old Jack. "Yeah, yeah, hold your horses."

The two of us continued to chat for the rest of the day. We were out in the ranch fields at around 6 o' clock that night, when Jack and I decided to take Cliffguard for a race.

"Are you positive about this?" I asked him. Jack nodded his head several times. "C'mon, Ann, I mean, what could really happen? Besides being thrown off horseback -which I truly do hate- and landing in the mud, relieved to discover that your neck hasn't broken. That's happened many times to some of the world's famous jockeys."

I laughed when Jack finished his little speech. "Great! Now can we go and ride around?"

Jack was the jockey and I was sitting behind him. One thing that I truly do hate is when I have to stare at the back of someone's head all day. Well, this was sort of an exception, considering that I'd be looking all over the ranch. I turned my head sideways to see the barn and my house just at the other end of our property. Jack said, "Let's go!"

Suddenly, Cliffguard had to have freaked out. He began charging all over the ranch. "NO! You stupid horse, don't take me to the beach again!" I shouted at my confused animal friend. And then, he took off down towards the exit of the ranch.

"EEKK! Stop, stop, STOP!" I shouted and Jack tried his best, but we sailed right out into the crossroads, and, as if controlled by some magic spell, Cliff ran right into Jack's farm. "I swear if we ever get down from here..." I began, but my voice trailed off as the two of us -like Jack had said- were thrown off horseback.

I flew through the air, afraid to close my eyes. I was gliding right towards Jack's water hole. "Oh, lord, of all things!" I cried. Then, the next thing I heard was a big SPLOOSH!

Jack limped over to the watering hole and found me floating in it, me looking up at him. "Can the two of us never ride on Cliff again? That was about the stupidest thing we've ever done!" Jack tried to let out a chuckle, but he couldn't, and fell to the ground with a large thud.

I lifted myself out of the water. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, until someone entered the ranch.

"Hey! HELP! HELP ME, PLEASE!" I screeched out. The figure in the distance quickly began jogging towards Jack and I. Then I could tell who it was. It was the vagabond, Cliff. "Cliff! Oh, I haven't seen you since the end of Spring! Where've you been?! Please help me! Me and Jack -Jack and I, sorry- were riding on horseback when-"

Cliff stopped me. "Ann, please slow down." I nodded and he told me to skip the story and just to take Jack to my house, since we didn't want to take his keys from his pockets. It would make Cliff and I seem like criminals or something. "Fine, you carry his head and I'll carry his legs. Let's do this as fast as possible. When we're done with him, I'll come back to get my horse."

The two of us took Jack to my house where my father was alarmed. "Ann! What have I told you about Cliffguard? You're supposed to be very careful with him! Not be a freaking menace!!" I squinted my eyes as tears began to develop. "Sorry, daddy, where can we take Jack?" Dad was not happy and neither was Gray when he found out that Jack would have to sleep on the sofa in his room.

I was ordered to go and get Cliffguard (even though I knew I'd have to get him) and return quickly. I walked with Cliff back to the farm.

"Sorry, my daddy's been a little crazy lately," I told my friend. Cliff didn't seem to mind, though, as he just said, "Uh huh" or nodded whenever he got the chance to sneak it into our conversation. When we arrived at the farm, Cliff changed the subject.

"Karen's told me that your birthday is tomorrow. How old will you be turning? I mean, it's okay if you don't want to tell me." I shook my head. "It's okay, Cliff. I'll be 21. T-W-E-N-T-Y-O-N-E." Cliff let out a laugh. "It's okay, I can spell." I mounted Cliffguard and got my whip out. "Oh, Ann," Cliff said. I turned to look at him. "Yeah?" I questioned him.

All of a sudden, this velvet box appeared in his hands. "Since Karen told me about your birthday, I decided to buy you a ruby ring." I was absolutely stunned. Talk about a guy who's known me for - oh, two weeks? Then he goes out and buys me this pretty ruby ring. It was glittering and shining and I just had to give him something in return.

I jumped off the horse and told him, "You come to my party tomorrow, mmkay?" Cliff got a dazzled look on his face. "Please, just come." I quicjly kissed his cheek and he shut his eyes and mumbled something under his breath, of which I couldn't understand.

"Adios!" I called out to him.

Not too many people were invited to my birthday party. Just a few people I knew, a few friend's of my brothers and my Dad's best friend. Or, to make this easier, the list consists of: Jack, Karen, Cliff, May (a little girl who lives in town), Stu (May's best friend), Popuri, Jeff (Elli's friend) and Sasha, Karen's mother.

Yup, that wasn't the longest list in the world, but eight people were good to go.

Jack was the first one to arrive...as he woke up in Gray's room. I quickly spared him the details by saying, "You hit your head real hard last night, and I didn't want to open your house door because I'd have felt evil by taking your keys. So, here we are." Jack laughed and gave me a bear hug. If it could've been any tighter, I would have choked to death.

At 9 o' clock, Sasha, Karen and Cliff arrived. My father gave Sasha a good natured hug and I gave two gigantic hugs to Karen and Cliff. "Where's the cake?" Karen asked me. The three of us laughed. "Don't worry, we'll be serving it a little later. As for now, we're just waiting for Stu, May, Jeff and Popuri." Karen looked amazed. Probably because I'd mentioned Popuri's name. "Why is she coming? You guys don't even talk to each other!" A smirk came to my face and I purposely stammered, "G-G-r-ay, r-r-em-em-b-b-b-ber?"

The Potion Shop Owner (EEK!) brought May and Stu and said that he'd pick them up around 4 o' clock. The two best friends (who are not related in any sort of way) began playing tag and asked Karen and I to join in. My best friend made a "please, no" face. But I insisted that the two of us played with them. Both of them were only seven-years-old!

Jeff arrived with Popuri a few minutes later. It was 9:15. Everyone arrived within reasonable times and my father gave everyone a noisemaker. "Let's celebrate Ann's twenty-first birthday!"

The fields were crowded with tables that were full of food, punch and balloons with my face on them. The thought of having your face on balloons always scared me, but now I feel as though it's an okay feeling.

Karen stuffed her face with chips and raisins and donuts of all kinds. Talk about a pig. Cliff was more on the mild side. He ate small portions of food. Of course, May and Stu ate as much as they could. The rest of us ate fair amounts of food. Not too little but not too much. And even though there were at least twenty tables with food on them, a lot of it disappeared, surprisingly.

At around 2 o' clock in the afternoon, the cake was severed. It was a strawberry cake topped with chocolate icing with little plastic bells on it. My favourite part is when I get to soak up the attention.

...In other words, when everyone starts singing happy birthday!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANN!" my family cried. Then, all of my friends started singing. "Happy birthday to Ann! Happy birthday to Ann! Happy twenty-first birthday to Ann! Happy birthday to Ann!" I blushed after they'd finished singing.

"Okay, Ann, it's time for you to open your presents!" Gray announced. That was one of the few times that Gray exclaimed something! Heh, heh. My ripped open my present from Sasha and Karen. WOW! It was a bottle of wine! I laughed a lot when I saw it, and so did everyone else! What else could you expect from Karen?

Popuri got me some poppuri...no pun intended. I didn't really need it, as I fall asleep quite easily, but I guess I'd store it away if I ever needed it for future cases or something.

Jeff, without a surprise, got me some tea and cookies from the bakery. The cookies were my favourite kind. Lemon creme. Yuuuuuumm. I'd have to greedily eat them all up once everyone left the party.

Cliff had already gotten me my present, which I announced to everyone and a big "AWWWW" came from them. Cliff smiled and tried to get me to get to May and Stu's gift, which I was assuming was something all cutey-ish and precious.

"Oh, WOW! WOW!" I cried. Was it ever something cutey-ish and precious! It was a doll! It looked just like me! I was speechless. Clearly speechless. The doll looked just like me, but with a wedding gown on. I hugged Stu and May and thanked them. I'd have to put it on my bookcase later on.

Jack was the last one to give me a present. For a few seconds, I saw a glittering blue. I was alarmed! Until I saw that it was only a globe that was glittering blue. "Oh, Jack, how sweet." I quickly hugged him, and my Dad said that it was time to cut the cake.

I walked over to the table where the cake was, dragging Jack in one hand and Cliff in the other. "You two sweet young men are going to help me cut this delicious piece of pastry!" Jack blushed and Cliff said, "Okay, Ann."

I grabbed the knife and gave it to Cliff. He cut one side of it. My father took a photo of that at the exact moment. Then, Jack took the knife and sliced the opposing side of the cake. My father took another, what I figured, excellent shot. Finally, I cut the cake. And my father took an excellent, sweet photo.

We all ate, and many of my friends complimented Jeff on the excellent cake. He bowed, like he was a grand master chef, and we all laughed. Things were going great!

At 4 o' clock, everyone headed home. Karen, Cliff and Sasha said 'bye, and Jeff quickly left after they did. The kids left when Stu's grandfather arrived. I still EEK! over that. Finally, Gray took Popuri home, while I said goodbye to Jack.

"See you in the morning! Don't forget about me!" I laughed and he waved goodbye as he walked back to his farm, and disappeared into the distance.

What a great birthday. It had seemed like a birthday for a twelve-year-old!

That's what made me sho happy; I was young at heart.

I can't wait until my next birthday!