Mako's Message: Now this is more like it! Shame I can't get this sort of length out of every chapter. But sometimes there's just not a lot to say.

This is not, exactly, what I planned. But, stories have a way of mutating on you and there isn't much you can do about it. I hope you all enjoy it but feel free to let me know if you didn't.

Mmm... short message today. Weird...


Today was... well. It was something. Never had a day like it.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but it was still different.

It started like any other day though. I woke up, started in on my morning work-out, and was halfway through it before I woke up enough to remember what day it was. Marcus gave me a ride to school and on the way he mentioned that it was a shame I was too old for in class birthday parties. He said it'd have been fun to whip up a couple dozen cupcakes. I kinda have to admit that the idea did kind of appeal to me. It was a rare thing for Daddy to bake anything, but when he did I always loved licking the beaters.

When I got to school Angela and Jessi were lying in wait for me. Now, there are two levels to reflexes. The first... well, okay, three levels. The first is when you're not fast enough to react to an attack, the second is when you are, and the third is when you're not just fast enough to react to an attack, but fast enough to stop yourself from reacting. Angela and Jessi are lucky, and I'm proud to say, that I am in the third category. I mean, Judo throwing your friends into a locker would be a pretty suck-ass way of starting your birthday off.

Anyway, they pounced on me and yelled "Happy Birthday!" and everybody nearby started staring at me. It was kinda weird having people I wasn't even related to excited for me to be a year older. It was kinda nice too, but still weird.

They asked me how old I was again and when I told them I was twelve they were like, "I keep forgetting how young you are," and "I keep thinking you're older for some reason."

That's when I got a surprise; Jessi is younger than Angela.

Angela actually turned 14 last year, and Jessi won't turn 14 until next month. I seriously thought Jessi was older, I mean she's taller, her boobs are bigger, and she's dating and Angela isn't so I just kind of assumed she was older.

Anyway, they were more excited than I was to go to my party that night. They couldn't stop talking about it. This boy even came over and asked if he could come. I told him, as politely as I could, that there was no fucking way. I don't know who this kid is. He's never talked to me before. I think the closest thing we've had to a conversation is him staring at me in class.

Angela and Jessi tried to keep quiet when he came over but they failed miserably and giggled to themselves the entire time. Now that I think about it, I kinda feel sorry for him. He must have been even more embarrassed by them giggling at him(and his own friends laughing at him when he went back to their table) than I was at having some boy I barely know ask if he can come to my birthday party.

Maybe I should apologize to him or something tomorrow.

Anyway. I didn't see Dave at school again, but I did go sit with Todd for a minute to remind him he was invited to the party, and he said he wasn't going to go because he had a guild raid or something. I asked him if he was sure, but he just said it was something he had to do.

Now, I don't know what sort of rules or whatever there are in his guild but I'd think that going out to a party, even if it's mostly middle school girls, would be more fun than whatever the hell goes on in world of warcraft or whatever he's playing.

Speaking of games, I- no. Let's keep this in order.

When I get home I go straight to sleep. It was kind of weird at first, but getting five hours at night and then a few more during the day seems to be working. Marcus wakes me up later when it's time for my party, and there's a text from Dave saying he's going to be late. He said that Riley called him in to cover someone else's shift for a couple hours until she could get there, and that she was already going to skin the guy for calling off so I didn't need to.

So, for the first hour it was just me Angela and Jessi. Well, and Marcus too, but he wasn't really with us. He was just there. But the three of us where having a fucking blast. We shot baskets, and played wack-a-whatever, and there was this digital jump rope thing that was fun but glitchy because I know there were times when it said we didn't jump over the "rope" when I know damn well we did. I wanted to call over a manger or something and try and get credit for that bullshit but Angela said I should just forget about it because we were there to have fun.

And there WAS a shooting gallery. It was infra-red or something, because the guns didn't actually shoot anything, but it worked pretty well. I think some of the sensors were broken though, because there were a couple targets that I just couldn't hit no matter how carefully I aimed. I still set the high score though. The thing spit out tickets for a full minute. Angela had to go get a bucket for them all.

Fucking awesome.

I wanted to just keep playing until we ran the machine out of tickets, and Jessi was up for it too. But Angela said if we just kept playing one game it would get boring and that I already had more tickets than she'd ever seen someone win so we should go do something else. I really wanted to keep playing, I mean, if I could keep getting these scores then I might actually be able to get one of the really cool prizes. But I knew she was right. It would get boring pretty damn fast shooting the same targets over and over again no matter how many tickets we were winning.

So we went over and tried the racing games, which I'll admit I wasn't as good at as I was expecting.

Dave showed up while we were playing a dancing game. We were doing co-op songs and Angela and Jessi were going when I heard him call my name. It took me a second to find him in the crowd and when I did I couldn't stop myself from running over and hugging him. I probably could have restrained myself a little more though, since I almost knocked him over. But fuck it. It was my birthday and I was having a great time and if I wanted to hug my best friend then you better fucking believe I'm going to hug him all I want.

He smelled like ice cream cones.

He brought Katie with him though. I was annoyed but she didn't seem to be annoyed at being dragged to my birthday party, so I wasn't going to look bad by looking annoyed at her being there. And for the first time in a couple weeks she wasn't clinging to him the entire time and even jumped in to take a turn with Angela when her and Jessi's game finished. Dave and Katie played the next round, and then I took a turn with Dave.

We scored higher than he did with Katie.

I know, it doesn't mean anything. Angela and Jessi scored higher when they were playing with me than with each other. I just have better reflexes and coordination. But I still felt rather smug about it. If nothing else, I beat Katie at something.

Then Marcus came and found us and said it was time for us to eat. I sat between Angela and Dave, and Marcus was between Jessi and Katie. Katie actually ended up talking to Marcus about something. I couldn't make out what it was about, but that's fine. It meant I got Dave to myself.

Jessi seemed like she wanted to talk to Marcus about something now that I think about it. I don't think she did though.

I think Angela spent all of dinner wishing she could switch places with Marcus.

After dinner we decided to try the karaoke room before opening presents. It was Marcus' idea so he started off. He selected random and ended up with "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavign. He was a good sport about it and sang it straight. Angela and Jessi were laughing their asses off. Katie was trying to not laugh but she wasn't doing that great of a job at it. Dave just looked like he was too nervous about his turn to even pay attention to what anyone else was thinking.

I was thinking I wish I could have gotten that song. I think I picked a better one though.

Katie went next and sang "Hero" by a guy whose name I can't remember. It was hispanic though, I remember that much. Angela picked "Get The Party Started" by Pink, Jessi sang What Doesn't Kill You by Kelly Clarkson, Dave went next, but only because Katie pushed him to and said that the birthday girl should be the finale. I have no idea if he selected random, or just picked at random, or if he actually knew the song, but he sang "Party Hard" by Andrew W. K.. Maybe he picked it because of the whole party thing.

I honestly didn't know what I was going to sing when I walked up there. But I was looking through the song list and I came across one I heard Angela play and I was kinda nervous about it but since Marcus chose that moment to go to the bathroom I decided to go for it.

I took a deep breath, and took the first, small, step towards making Dave mine. I sang, "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.

It went over rather well. I've only really sung when jogging, and that's just to help increase my lung capacity, but I Dave, and Angela clapped and cheered. Jessi looked kind of depressed, and when I came back said, "You're like, top of your class, right?" I don't know if there IS a top of the class in 7th grade, but I have a 95 or higher in all my classes so I just agreed with her and then she started ticking off on her fingers, "So, you're smart, athletic, and can sing. Is there anything you're not good at?"

I could have given her a few things but they wouldn't have made any sense to her, so I just punched her in the shoulder and told her to shut the fuck up and that she was a great singer.

Katie kept giving me weird looks for the rest of the night. I think she might be on to me.

Anyway, when Marcus came back we went back to the table and opened presents. Angela got me a box set of The Vampire Diaries, Jessi got me a trade paperback of the Kick-Ass comic which Dave and I have been avoiding just because we're not sure we even want to know what's in it. I almost wish it was the Red Mist comic believe it or not. That got pulled off the shelves so fast it was like they were never there so they're actually pretty valuable. Katie got me a John Woo double feature, which was a surprise because I didn't think she'd get me anything in the first place. Marcus got me a fucking Wii. I don't know what made him decide to get me one, it's not like I play video games. And Dave got me a My Little Pony collectible, which was disappointing. I think Dave noticed because he leaned over when no one else was looking and whispered, "I'll give you your real present when we're alone." into my ear. I don't know if it was him breathing on my ear or if he just has that affect on me but I haven't been able to stop thinking dirty thoughts about him since he did that.

I don't know what my "real" present is, but I'm trying to keep my expectations low because there's no way it's what I keep fantasizing.

After that Dave and Katie left and Angela and Jessi called their parents to be picked up. While we were waiting we went to cash in all our tickets. Angela managed to enough to get a t-shirt and Jessi decided to spend all her tickets on candy and gum. I couldn't find anything I wanted though. There was plenty of stuff I could get, like little stuffed animals, novelty banks, mugs, balls, and jackets, but I was still short of all the really cool stuff, like this really cool electronic dart board, so I ended up just getting credit for my tickets put on my game card for the next time.

When Angela's parents got there I realized that Jessi hadn't even reached her parents yet. Angela's mom offered to give her a ride home though, so it didn't end up being a problem.

Marcus works early in the morning so he went right to sleep when we got home. He said he had the Wii set up in the living room already and that he'd put a few downloadable games on them, so I've been thinking about checking those out. Dave and I made this an off night since it was my birthday and everything, so I guess I should head to bed now that I'm finished with all that. That's what we're taking nights off for after all.


Mako's Message: The Lost Messages: I knew I was forgetting something.

2Wingo wrote a cute little fluff piece based on this story. You should all check it out. Oh, and it earns it's M rating despite being a fluff piece.

Also, DangerousBeauty84 made yet ANOTHER amazing Dave/Mindy video. It's kinda dark and deals with some "trigger" issues, so watch with caution, but it's really good. You can find it at Vimeo dot com forwardslash 28283999.

Enjoy.