Chapter 4: Happy Birthday!

It was 6:00 on a beautiful Saturday morning and everyone were in their beds asleep, well all but one little birthday girl. She crawled up in her older sister's bed and laid under the covers staring, watching her sleep. The older sister was sleeping calmly until she began to feel as if she was being watched she opened her eyes and nearly fell off the bed.

"Chichi, what the hell are you doing?"

"Nothing just waiting till you woke up."

"Why?"

"Because you said you would finish decorating for my party as soon as you got up and ate breakfast."

"Chichi, it's 6:00 A.M.. My alarm is set to go off for another two hours. Go back to bed your party isn't until 11:00."

"I'm already a wake. Can't you at least fix me some breakfast?"

"No." Elena crawled back in bed and closed her eyes and ignored her little sister's further requests for her to fix breakfast.

"Come on, Sissy, it's my birthday you have to be nice to me." Chichi was now jumping on the bed, but Elena just moaned and rolled over throwing Chichi off. "Oh well since you are ignoring me, I'll just go find my gifts."

"Good luck, but your gifts haven't arrived yet."

"But you said yesterday that I couldn't stay home because I'll open my gifts. So they must be here."

"I did say that, but I never said that they were here. I just said you opened them up last year while I was at work."

"Oh come on, Sissy, get up."

"If you don't go away, I'm going to get up and get the phone and cancel your gifts."

"Well you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Cause they are here."

"No, they are not."

"Well you can't be that mean of a sister."

"Wanna bet?" Elena got up and grabbed the cordless phone.

"No, I'll be good."

"Promise?"

Chichi looked into her sister's eyes and said "Yes ma'am"

"No, you won't. I can see it in your eyes." Elena began to dial a number.

"No, please don't." Chichi jumped up and tried to grab the phone out of her sister's hands, but failed. Elena then ran outside her bed room shutting the door and holding it shut as her sister pulled on the door from the inside.

"Sissy, what are you doing?" Hige asked

"Calling the down stairs number."

"Why?"

"So that I can mess with Chichi's head."

Elena then heard four voices laughing. She looked over and saw that not only was Hige out of bed watching her but so was Tsume, Kiba, and Toboe. Elena, now embarrassed, hung up the phone, open the door, let Chichi out, and went into her room shut the door all without saying another word. No one saw very much of Elena till about 11:00 when guest began to arrive. The first to arrive was Lin.

"Hey girl. Where is Chichi I need to give her, her gift before it runs away?" Lin said

"What do you mean 'before it runs away'?" Elena asked.

"I got her a little kitten."

"Oh no, you didn't."

"Yea, why is there a problem with that?"

"Yes, I got her a puppy."

"Oh, oops."

"Oh well, she's outside with Toboe."

"Who?"

"Oh this cute little guy she has a crush on."

"Aw. Hey, so is that Tsume here?"

"Yes, why?"

"Where is he?"

"Outside with Hige. Why?"

"No reason." Lin smiled and ran outside to meet everyone. Elena began to follow her but the door bell rang. It wasn't long before all the guests have arrived and everyone was doing their own thing.

"So, Elena, which of those guys are Tsume?" Lin asked, pointing toward Kiba and Tsume.

"The one in the black swimsuit and the X scare on his chest is Tsume. The one in the blue suit is Kiba, and if you haven't notice the young one that has been with Chichi the whole time, in the red suit, is Toboe."

"Oh Tsume's cute and so is Kiba, meow. So why don't you let me take over the hamburgers for a bit and you go talk to Tsume?"

"No, I'm ok, thanks. Wait, did you just say meow toward Kiba? "

"What do you mean your ok? Girl, go and hook up with the guy. Yes, as a matter of fact I did. So what are you going to do about it?"

The two girls laughed, but mean while Kiba and Tsume were sitting at the table talking about Elena.

"You've been staring at Elena to whole time she's been standing there. Why don't you just go over and talk to her?"

"No, I'm ok just sitting here."

"No, I don't think your ok. I think you need to go talk to her. How are you ever going to be able to tell her how you feel about her if you're just sitting around just staring at her?"

Tsume didn't reply he just sat there staring at Elena. He then got up and walked over to Elena and asked "Is there any thing I could help you with?"

"No, not right now . . . " just then Lin stepped on Elena's foot " . . . well if you don't mind you could go into the kitchen and cut up a watermelon."

"Sure."

As he walked away Lin lean over and whispered to Elena "Aren't you going to go help him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just go to the kitchen with him."

Elena did what her friend told her and went into the kitchen. She watched Tsume as he tried to cut the watermelon, but she finally laughed and said."Tsume, you're not doing it wright. Here let me show you."

She grabbed the knife out of his hand. She looked into his eyes and smiled.

"See like this." She began to carve the watermelon into a long perfect triangular shape then cutting the long triangular shape into smaller, more eatable triangular shapes.

"Oh ok, let me try." Tsume took the knife out of Elena's hand and tried to cut the watermelon.

"No your not cutting smoothly. Here." She grabbed his hand and began to move his hand in order to help him to cut more smoothly.

Without noticing it they were both smiling at the thought that they were almost, in a way, holding hands. Elena stopped moving Tsume's hand and looked into his eyes, he looked back into hers.

"Tsume, you have the most beautiful golden I have ever seen."

Tsume smiled and lean in to kiss Elena when Chichi comes running into the kitchen. Half mad, Tsume and Elena pulled away from each other and looked at Chichi.

"Sissy, everyone on is ready for the seed spitting contest."

"Ok let me just finish cutting up the watermelon. It won't take long."

"Ok" Chichi skipped out and walked over to where Kiba, Hige, Toboe, and Lin stood.

"That was not what I had in mind." Lin said

"What were they doing?" Hige asked

"Well it looked like they were about to kiss."

"And you stopped them?" Toboe asked.

"Well I didn't mean to."

"Oh well at least they know that they care for each other." Kiba said.

Well back in the kitchen Elena finished cutting the watermelon as Tsume put the slices onto two long trays. They picked up the trays to take them outside. As Tsume was just about to push the door open to allow Elena to walk through with one of the trays, Elena smiled and kissed Tsume on the cheek. Both Tsume and Elena smiled and they went outside and placed the trays on one of the tables.

Lin looked at Tsume and Elena and turned and told Hige."Awe, have you noticed it's been about an hour since they came out of the kitchen and look at them now. They haven't been to far away from each other since."

"Yea, I know. It's kind of creepy." Hige commented.

"I think it's so cute. . . . Well I've never seen her with a guy before and now that I think about it, it is kind of creepy."

Elena and Tsume were standing by the grill talking. Tsume watched as Elena flip over the last couple of hamburgs.

"So what inspired you to become a cook and start your own restaurant?" Tsume asked.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because. I have to show you."

"Well show me."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know everything about you. I want to know why you do the things you do. I want to know what makes you happy. I want to know everything."

"You will, just as long as I know everything about you." Elena and Tsume smiled at each other. Elena smiled and then begun to laugh.

"What?" Tsume asked

"Nothing." She began to laugh harder and turn to look at Lin.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just Lin was wright. We are a lot like."

"I suppose we are."

At that same time a third conversation was going on, but this time in the pool.

"So, Toboe, are you enjoying your self?" Chichi asked.

"Yes I am."

"What do you think of my friends?"

"They are great."

"Oh thats . . . " Before Chichi could even finish her sentence a whistle began to blow.

"Ok you all it's time to eat and to watch Chichi open her gifts." Lin announced.

After everyone got their plates and sat down, Elena began to pass out the gifts.

"Well, Chichi, lets start with mine since it's just now arrived."

Sitting before Chichi was a huge square box. She ripped open the gift expecting to get a huge gift, but she pulls out a water bowl, a dog bed, and several other dog items. She looks puzzled at her sister and said. "Wow, this is great I didn't know you thought so low of me."

"Oh no, Chichi, those aren't for you. Think of them as accessories." Elena then walked into the house.

"What is she doing?" Everyone asked each other. Elena soon came out of the house holding a little black dog with a white spot on the lower part of his back.

"Oh My Gosh! You mean I get a kitten and a puppy." She looked down at her kitten, which was now sitting in her lap, and began to pet it. The kitten was much like the dog but was white with a black spot on its head.

"So what are you going to name them?" Toboe asked

"Simple the kitten is Ying and I guess the puppy Yang."

Lin laughed and said "Oh, I see how that could be."

"Ok next is Toboe's gift." Elena said.

"Awe, Toboe, you didn't have to get me anything."

"It's ok I wanted to."

Elena gave the huge pink gift bag to Chichi she looked in it and looked back up to Toboe as she pulled the little brown stuff wolf with a brown Louie Vuiton purse clinched in it mouth.

"Awe, that is so cute. Thank you, Toboe."

"Wait, open the purse and look inside."

Chichi did so and found that the purse was filled with chocolate cover cherries.

"Aw, chocolate-covered cherries. My favorite. Thank you so much, Toboe." Chichi then got up and hugged Toboe.

The rest of the party was just wonderful. Everyone had a great time. It was 5:00 when everyone was completely gone and the only thing to do was to clean up. Elena went into the kitchen and grabbed a few trash bags and went back out and began to clean up. Until Hige came outside.

"Hey, Sissy, you've been doing everything. Why don't you let me do the clean up?"

"Really? Thanks."

Elena handed Hige the trash bags and walked inside.