"Birthday Blitz"
The next morning, Sakura awoke to Archie gently shaking her awake.
"Wake up, baby…… Who's the birthday girl?"
"Mmmm….. Me?" Sakura said sleepily.
"That's right!" Archie sat beside Sakura and helped her sit up and held her in his arms. "My baby…… I can't believe my little girl is sixteen!"
"Oh Daddy!" Sakura cried as she hugged him.
Archie let Sakura hug him for a couple minutes before he said, "Come on, baby, you should get dressed; the others are waiting to see the birthday girl."
"Okay." Sakura said.
Archie let go of her and left her room and closed the bookshelf behind him as he left. Sakura climbed out of bed and changed out of her nightgown and back into her uniform. Then she walked over to the switch and flipped it and walked out of her room. Archie was waiting for her outside her room, and when she emerged Archie took her hand and led her to the dining room. As they reached the door to the dining room, Thomas approached Sakura carrying a little gift.
"Hi, Thomas." Sakura said.
"Hello Sakura, how are you?"
"I'm fine." Sakura replied smiling.
"That's good." Thomas replied.
Thomas now looked at Archie, "Boss, when's Sakura going to get her gifts?"
"Right after breakfast." Archie replied.
"Okay. That's a good idea." Thomas said.
"Let's go in now." Archie said.
Thomas opened the door and Archie ushered Sakura inside. All the noise died down when the rest of the team saw Sakura.
"And here's the birthday girl!" Some members exclaimed.
"Yup, she's here." Archie said, leading Sakura over to the table to a place where she was near him.
Thomas took the seat beside Sakura and Archie began his famous start of meal notices.
"Okay, you all know this, but today is Sakura's birthday. She's turning sixteen today, so I hope that you'll help to make her birthday a special day for her. Other than that, let's eat." Archie said.
Everyone reached to serve themselves some food, and the meal got underway. An hour later, everyone had finished eating and Archie stood up to give his end of meal notice.
"Okay, I hope you have Sakura's birthday gifts because the time has come to give them to her." Archie said.
The breakfast plates were taken away and were replaced with smaller plates and forks. Then the people who were giving Sakura gifts bent over and picked them up from beside them and set them on the table. Just then Michael appeared carrying a chocolate cake, and Sakura's eyes bugged out of her head at the sight of the cake.
"What's wrong, baby?" Archie asked.
"It's just I've always seen cake but have never actually eaten it." Sakura replied.
Many members looked shocked as did Archie.
"Well you can't say that anymore since you're going to be able to have some in a minute after you open your presents." Archie said.
The rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"I'll start this party." Archie said as he handed a fairly large package to Sakura.
Sakura looked shocked at the sight of the large package, but Archie just smiled.
"Go ahead and open it, baby." Archie said.
Everyone looked anxious to see what Archie had gotten her. Sakura took the package and began opening it. Once she had tore off the paper, she found a teal backpack packed full of other stuff. Sakura unzipped the backpack and pulled out an item ball. Sakura looked confused on how to open it.
"Just hold it out and hit the button and it'll open." Archie told her.
Sakura held out the ball and hit the button, and it opened revealing a Blue sleeping bag with light blue bubbles all over it with a built in pillow.
"Thanks dad." Sakura said.
"That's not all, there's still more in there. See what else is there, baby." Archie said.
Sakura reached into the backpack and pulled out another item ball and opened it and a large box of potions ranging from regular potions to Hyper Potions appeared.
"Wow! I've never seen so many potions………" Sakura said surprised.
"I know, but they'll come in handy for you when you go out with Thomas." Archie told her.
Sakura recalled the box of potions back into their item ball and set it on the table. Then she reached into the backpack and pulled out yet another item ball. Sakura opened it and a large pox of revives and Full Heals appeared, in such case that she needed them when she went out with Thomas.
"Oh my gosh……. Wow……." Sakura said surprised.
Archie smiled, "Yup and the last thing was that doll I gave you last night. So you've opened everything in my gift."
"Thanks dad." Sakura said clearly very happy.
"So who goes next?" Thomas asked.
"I was thinking that you should, Thomas." Archie replied.
"Okay." Thomas handed Sakura his gift that was wrapped in some blue paper.
Sakura took the gift and opened it and found a poke ball.
"Go on, open it." Thomas urged.
Sakura hit the button on the poke ball and a Feebas appeared from it. "Wow!" Sakura exclaimed.
Thomas smiled, "I'm glad you like it. But that's not all, as the second part of my gift I'm going to help you get it to evolve into its next stage since evolving it is a rather tricky process."
"Thanks Thomas." Sakura replied.
"No problem Sakura. I'll always help you and you can be sure of that." Thomas replied.
Sakura recalled her Feebas back into its poke ball and clipped it onto her belt. Now Tom passed his gift up from the end of the table to Sakura. Sakura unwrapped his gift and pulled out another poke ball, which she opened and much to her surprise a Spheal appeared.
"Wow!" Sakura exclaimed.
"I'm glad you like it, Sakura." Tom told her from the end of the table.
"Thank you." Sakura replied.
Tom smiled, "You're welcome.
Sakura recalled her Spheal back into its poke ball and clipped it onto her belt like she had done with the pokemon that Thomas had given her. Now Rebecca passed her gift down to Sakura. Sakura looked at it with interest wondering what it could be, then she started opening it and she pulled out another poke ball.
"Another one." Sakura said surprised.
"Go on, open it Sakura." Rebecca urged.
Sakura pressed the button on the poke ball and a Staryu appeared. "Wow!" Sakura cried.
"I'm glad you like it." Rebecca replied smiling.
"Thanks Rebecca." Sakura replied.
"You're welcome." Rebecca replied still grinning.
Andrew now took his little package and handed it to Sakura. Sakura could tell when he handed it to her that it was a little something, but she didn't mind since due to her past she thought that something beat nothing. She looked at it for a moment before she started to open it, and once she'd opened it she pulled a blue hair ribbon out of the tiny package. Archie stood up and walked behind Sakura and removed her bandana and took out a pair of scissors and cut the bandana so that her hair would fall through so that she could wear the hair ribbon Andrew had given her a couple minutes ago. Her bandana now had a round oval in the back of it that allowed her hair to fall through. Her father now put her bandana back on her head, gently guiding her hair through the hole in her bandana and tied the bandana in place on her head so that it wouldn't fall off. Sakura now took the ribbon and tied it around some of her hair so that she had a ponytail and also had some hair still cascading down her neck.
"Thanks dad." Sakura said.
Archie smiled, "It was no problem, baby. Don't forget to thank Andrew."
"Oh, I almost forgot, thank you for the ribbon Andrew." Sakura said.
Andrew smiled, "It was no problem, Sakura, I thought you could use it and apparently I was right. I hope that you enjoy wearing it."
Sakura nodded.
Now Edith said, "Sakura, my gift's a little different than the others since my gift is lessons on how to embroider."
Sakura looked confused so Edith said, "Embroidering is a form of sewing that requires that you use several strands of thread and a number of particular stitches to reach a completed project. I hope that you'll enjoy my gift."
"I'm sure I will, thanks Edith." Sakura replied.
"No problem, Sakura." Edith replied kindly.
"Okay, so that was the last gift, so now it's time for the cake." Archie said.
Everyone prepared to eat the cake when an alarm went off. Archie jumped up and grabbed Sakura and pulled her close, "Everyone go see what's happening. We'll have to continue this in a little bit. Come along, Sakura, if this is a Team Magma invasion like I think it is, they will try to recapture you and I don't want to lose you to them so I'm going to hide you."
The Team Aqua members headed off one way and Archie headed the other to take Sakura back to her room that could also serve as a safe-way house for her in this situation. Archie hurried with Sakura to his quarters and they went inside and Archie had Sakura go in her room after giving her a pokemon strategy book to read, and soon after Archie slid the book on the bookshelf back in place to make the bookshelf close and conceal Sakura's room. Then Archie hurried out of his quarters to go find out what all the commotion was about.