A/N: As much as I wish I were, I am not Stephenie Meyer and none of these characters belong to me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had to make a double look because I swear the game room never had confetti flying everywhere and pink balloons attached to everything.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA!" nearly everyone shouted.

I just had to have worn red today, didn't I? My face flushed as deep as my shirt. Everyone was there, smiles and all. Not a single frown. Even Red-head Lissie was calm today.

Lily skipped to me. She laughed at my expression--whatever it was.

"Wanda! Are you just going to stand there? Come on!" she said pulling me by the hand.

There was music playing and people were dancing. They were laughing when they had trouble with that. With everything that had happened, they had already forgotten how to dance, but they still tried.

Everyone was happy. It was heaven. Absolute heaven.

When Trudy announced it was time to cut the cake, I was seriously at a loss. I heard a chuckle and turned around to see Burns looking at me.

"You're not used to this, are you?" he said with humor in his voice.

"Is it that noticeable? This is my first birthday. By the way, what do they mean? Why are they going to cut a cake?"

"Walk up and you'll find out," he said pointing to the table everyone was gathering around.

I was absolutely astonished. The cake was beautiful white with pink roses. "Happy birthday, Wanda!" was written elegantly across the cake. This must've taken so much time to make. My eyes got watery.

"Okay, Wanda! Time to cut the cake!" Trudy said, handing me the knife.

I instantly repelled against it. I heard his familiar laugh and turned to see him. Ian would know all about this.

"It's just a cake, Wanda," he said as he smoothly cut the cake.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. I heard a song I liked and asked Ian if we could try dancing. Unfortunately, he was as bad a dancer as I was and I had never danced in my life. We kept stepping on each others feet. I winced everytime, so Ian thought it was best we shouldn't dance again.

All in all, it was fun.

The day was reaching its end when I saw Burns again.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"I guess."

"So you can't cut a cake?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I can't cut anything! I can't even hold a knife!" I said with a laugh.

He looked amused. "Really? Then how do you cook so well?" We had been spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

"Trudy or Lily are always doing the cutting part. I mostly do the bread. I'm too weak to do anything else." I said with a smile small.

"That's not your fault." He looked away quickly and his eyes bulged like he just noticed something. Then he reverted back to normal. I was too shy to ask what was wrong, but he answered without me asking. "I guess today's the last day I'll see you," he said quietly.

My eyes widened a bit. Was he seriously leaving today? But he was such a good friend to me… I looked away. "I guess so. But you'll come back, right?" I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Of course I will, Wanda. If you want me to," he said while quickly looking at someone behind me. I didn't bother looking.

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I want you to come visit me?" I said, turning to look at him. He looked kind of nervous.

"Well, you'd be surprised by…how much people don't like me here," he finished off quickly. But there was something about his tone…

He sounded exactly like I did, when I lied.

I let it go. It was obvious he didn't want to tell me; I shouldn't pry.

I gave him my best smile. "Well, I guess I should say goodbye. It was really great getting to know you, Burns. You've been such a good friend to me."

And he was. He was a fellow soul who could really understand what I was going through. He didn't prejudice or make bad comments. I suddenly ached to hug him, at least once.

It was as if he had heard me. Do I just say whatever I think out loud without realizing it? If not, then how did everyone seem to always know exactly what I wanted? Burns walked up to me and gently wrapped his arms around me.

It was all I could do to not wrap my arms around him. But I was just so weak.

"Goodbye…Wanda," I heard him whisper. I gasped as I felt his lips press onto my hair.

Suddenly, his warmth was thrust away from me. I had no idea where it came from, but I felt an aching pain as someone's volatile fist made contact with my face. I couldn't see. I couldn't see.

"Wanda! Are you alright!" I heard Ian come running at me. I couldn't see anything. My hands were in the way. What he saw must've terrified him because he was screaming profanities now. "YOU BITCH!" he screamed at God knows who, "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT, HUH?! YOU COULD PUNCH HIM ALL YOU WANT, BUT HOW DARE YOU HURT WANDA! HUH!?"

He must've been doing something that was hurting the other person because I heard her cry of pain, along with her muffled gasping.

Lissie. It was Lissie.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I've been on a twilight craze recently. I was so freaked out about twilight, that I thought I might lose my Host story. So I started writing more. I thought this up a little different. In my original idea, it had been Ian, not Lissie, who had punched Burns and Wanda was never hurt. But I knew Ian would never do something so low; he'd be heartbroken but he wouldn't do that. Then I was thinking about Lissie and my story kind of strayed from its original point. Oh well, it just happened. Please send me reviews! Reviews keep me going!

Twi-Hoster Girl