Whoo boy, it's done! Fifteen pages and almost 7,000 words later, I've finished the mega birthday chapter! Part of me wishes I wasn't so stupidly stubborn that I wanted to keep this all in one chapter because a lot of stuff is crammed in here (so many lines, pls forgive me), but it's too late to take it back. Happy birthday, my smol freckled bean! I hope you lovelies enjoy the longest chapter I've ever done, and I'll see you on Monday if I don't fall over and die. ~Shaymie

Lorin's POV

"You know what today is, Lo?" Alex murmured sleepily, burying his nose in the crook of my neck. His arm draped over my body, pulling me closer and sending electric shocks down my spine. I looked over at the clock on his bedside table and saw that it was 12:01. It was now officially past midnight, which meant that it was now November 4… My birthday. That also meant that any second now, Darcy and Gil would come barreling in…

"Shit, I have to get dressed!" I hissed, scrambling out of bed. Alex flicked on a lamp and smirked at me as I got dressed, letting out an audible groan when I put my bra back on. He had told me that my boobs were one of his favorite parts of my body, and I could tell by the way he had been kissing them the past few nights. It was a miracle he hadn't left any marks. I could take a page from his book. His neck and chest were covered in hickeys I had given him. It was a good thing it was cold enough outside, he could justify always wearing a hoodie or jacket.

"You know everyone probably already knows that we're having sex, right?" he asked as I pulled my pajamas back on. "You're not exactly the quietest in bed, Lo. You were especially loud during round three when I-"

"Shut up, Alex!" My face flushed at the memories of last night… And the nights before that. Ever since that night in the attic three days ago, it seemed like we had been, as Darcy so eloquently put it, "fucking like rabbits". Not that I minded at all. Alex was far more gentle than James or Maria had ever been. I actually liked being with him. I smiled at him as he pulled on his boxers and a hoodie. "I have a feeling Darcy and Gil are going to come in here in a couple minutes and I don't want my brother and sister to see me naked."

Alex pouted and pulled me next to him on the bed, his face immediately returning to its spot on my neck. I groaned as he started kissing it. It had taken him only minutes to find all the sensitive spots on my body that made me tick, and ever since then he didn't hesitate to kiss me or touch me there whenever he damn felt like it, even if we were in public. I still hadn't forgiven him for kissing my neck at the library, which resulted in a very loud moan escaping my throat before I could even stop it. Aaron couldn't look me in the eyes the rest of our study session. I was mortified just thinking about it again.

"Are you sure we don't have time for a quickie?" he asked huskily, his lips leaving my neck with a satisfying pop. I shivered at the sensation and was almost grateful for Darcy and Gil bursting in then, holding a tray with a single cupcake on it and a handful of balloons. Gil grinned as he lit the candle with a flourish. I rolled my eyes.

"Do you have to be so dramatic? And couldn't this have waited for when it's actually light outside?"

"If we had waited any longer, I was scared we'd have to listen to you two have sex again," Darcy groaned as she extended the tray over to me. I blew out the candle with a blush and stared down at the cupcake as I focused on taking off the wrapper. "Do you two ever get tired? And do you have any idea how loud you get? 'Ooh yeah, Alex, touch me there. Harder, Lexy!' I'm surprised you two haven't woken up George and Martha."

I choked on the cupcake as Darcy imitated me and hid my face in Alex's shoulder. I peeked up at him and saw that he had the smuggest grin in his face. Of course he'd be happy about that. At least he hasn't been completely embarrassing himself.

"I'll leave you two alone now, but I have one question before I go… Have you taken it up the ass yet?"

"Get out, Darcy!" Alex and I yelled at the same time. She smirked and pulled Gil out of the room with her. Alex started laughing the second the door shut, his entire body shaking. I looked up and ran a hand through my hair, panicking for a brief second before I remembered that I had donated it. Alex sobered up after a few seconds of laughter and immediately returned to his assault on my neck. Was he really about to do this now? We had school today!

"You know, you only call me Lexy when you're really horny," he pointed out. I barked out a laugh and ran my hand through his hair. He smiled against my neck and pulled me higher up onto the bed. My head was now on his pillow, and I felt my face flush as he straddled me. I bit back a moan as I felt a bulge on my leg. "It's pretty damn sexy when you say that as you take me in your cute little mouth. You weren't kidding when you said you could take a lot in your throat."

"A-Al, we should try to get some sleep," I gasped out as his hand started creeping up my shorts, getting dangerously close to the waistband of my underwear. I pushed him away gently. I wasn't sure if going for another round was such a good idea. "It might be my birthday, but we still have school in about six hours. And I don't want to fall asleep in class."

"Fine…" Alex pouted, turning off the lamp. I held back a gasp. Whenever I'd told James or Maria that I was done for the night, they had only gotten angry. I hated that I had to remind myself for what felt like the hundredth time that Alex was absolutely nothing like James. He'd never make me do anything I didn't want to do. He snuggled up next to me and held me tightly. I felt him smile against my neck. "Night, Lo."

"Night, Lexy." The last thing I heard before drifting off to sleep was the amazing sound of my boyfriend's laughter.

"Is a birthday outfit really necessary?" I sighed as I stood in front of the Schuylers, Herc, and Darcy. I yawned and groaned as Darcy sat me down in front of my dresser, attempting to fix my hair. I didn't really understand the point of doing so since she was going to do something to it anyway.

"Lori, sweetie, you need an entire birthday look. You only turn seventeen once," Darcy said, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly as she rubbed product into her hands and started fluffing my hair. I yawned again, turning my eyes away from Darcy as she grinned at me. "Someone's tired. Did you and Alex get any sleep last night or did you bang all night? You seemed to be having a lot of fun considering your sex hair-"

"D-Darcy! I… We slept some last night, or I guess technically this morning, after you and Gil so rudely came in," I huffed, turning my head to watch the Schuylers and Herc. They were going through my closet and tossing clothes on my bed, murmuring to themselves. Darcy huffed and turned my head back to the position it had been in.

"You know, you never answered my question earlier. Have you and Alex breached those doors yet? Has he been in your backdoor or-"

"Darcy, there's a child present!" Peggy hissed, gesturing to Eliza, whose face was scarlet. Eliza rolled her eyes at her sister and laid a white pleated skirt down on my bed. Peggy and Angelica started putting up the rest of the clothes, having somehow silently agreed on the skirt.

"Are you forgetting that I'm older than you, Peggy?"

"At least I can handle people talking about sex," Peggy sniffed, kneeling down in front of the cubby where I kept all my shoes. She looked over to me with an evil smirk on her face. Between her and Darcy, I couldn't tell who was more involved in my love life. She raised an eyebrow as she saw the candy bags from Halloween sitting on the floor.

"You haven't eaten your candy yet? And why do you have two bags? Why haven't you shared?"

"I haven't been in my room much these past few days, Alex gave me his bag since he doesn't like candy much, and I haven't shared because you already had a bunch of candy on Halloween, Pegs." I answered her questions as quickly as she had asked them. She was silent after that, and the next thirty minutes were spent in a peaceful silence, the only sound in the room the Schyulers' whispered bickering with Herc as they argued over just what shirt would go with the skirt Eliza had picked out. It had taken some input from Darcy before they decided on a yellow blouse with strawberries dotted all over it. Between it and my hair, I was going to look like Strawberry Shortcake's rejected cousin. Angelica kicked Herc out of the room so I could change.

"How did you make your boobs grow so big?" Peggy asked as I unbuttoned my pajama shirt. I blushed as I tossed the shirt into the hamper and stepped out of my shorts. They got me far too much attention they were worth. I hated being the biggest of all my friends. I looked up Alex walked in, his hands grasped tightly around his signature lion mug. Judging by the look in his eyes, he was only on his first cup of the day. Darcy glared at him and crossed her arms as she stared him down. It was kind of funny that my sister was taller than my boyfriend, even without heels on.

"What the hell are you doing in here, Hamilton? Lori's still getting dressed," she scowled. Alex smirked up at her as he took a sip of coffee. I rolled my eyes as I pulled the skirt on. Didn't he know better than to mess with my sister by now? She had threatened to castrate him when we came down from the attic with rumpled clothes and mussed hair. It felt like they had some kind of rivalry going on when it involved me.

"I've already seen her naked, Darcy. Seeing her get dressed is no big deal," Alex said with a cocky grin as he set his mug down. He walked over to me and zipped up the back of my skirt, his hand resting on my butt for a few seconds as he kissed my cheek. I smiled up at him and pulled the skirt up to my waist before putting the shirt on, taking care to not ruffle my hair too much. Darcy would kill me if I ruined her hard work. Eliza set some white flats in front of my bed as I fussed over tucking in the shirt just right-it was a bit too big for me since I hadn't ever actually tried it on. I think it was a shirt Peggy had bought for me a few months ago.

"Haven't you two heard of 'no PDA'? I think my eyes are going to melt." Darcy spoke sarcastically as Alex and I sat down on my bed. At least she didn't kick him out. I pulled on the red thigh-high socks Eliza handed me (blushing as Alex made a flirtatious comment on how he couldn't wait to take them off of me tonight) and shoved my feet into the shoes. He smiled at me and rested his chin on top of my head, sticking his tongue out at Darcy when she glared at him. It would be a miracle if he survived the week.

"Your hair's so fluffy, Lo," he murmured, twirling a curl on his finger. I giggled. Sleepy Alex without coffee was kind of adorable. His accent slipped out slightly, but I didn't even think he was aware of it. He'd probably get self-conscious about it. "It's like I'm laying on a cloud."

"We should get downstairs for breakfast," Darcy frowned as she practically shoved Alex away from me and handed me a red sweater. I put it on and sighed as she started fixing my hair. She was too much of a perfectionist. At least that was something she had in common with Alex, no matter how much she might try to deny it. She patted me on the shoulder and grinned. "I think there's a little surprise for you."

I nodded and started to drag Alex with me, grabbing his forgotten cup as I passed it. He was going to need at least four more cups before he could function like a normal human being again. He perked up as I handed him the cup and started to drink the coffee, not caring that it had gone slightly cold. I sighed. Sometimes I worried that he was addicted to coffee.

I froze on the bottom step and stared at the kitchen. It was decorated in pastel streamers and confetti. There was a giant banner that read "Happy Birthday Lorin" in curly script hanging over the stove. The table looked like a buffet table and was completely covered with food. Gil smiled at me from his seat, his mouth full of food. The thing that surprised me most of all was that George and Martha were… here. Not locked up in their office, not gone somewhere for work, but here. This was probably the first time they had taken the morning off of work for my birthday.

"W-Wh-"

"We wanted to be here for your birthday," Martha said as she flipped a pancake onto a plate. Alex smiled as he led me to my seat. I felt tears well up in my eyes as George set his newspaper down and kissed my forehead.

"Happy birthday, honey. I'm sorry we haven't been around much lately," he put a hand on my shoulder and smiled down at me. I sniffled as tears started rolling down my face. Alex grabbed some paper towels and wiped my face. I smiled gratefully at him and looked up at George and Martha, absentmindedly playing with the tablecloth. They were so nice, I surely didn't deserve them.

"Thank you, Geor- Dad… And thank you too, Mom. You guys didn't have to take off work for me. I mean, you must have so much work to do…"

Their faces were unreadable. Did I mess up? This was the first time I had called them anything but their names. Maybe they didn't want me to call them Mom and Dad. Maybe they were only doing this because they felt bad for me because of James and Maria. I was keeping them from work, wasn't I?

Martha's eyes were shining with tears as she set a plate down in front of me. Oh God, I had made her cry. I really couldn't do anything without messing it up or hurting someone, could I? I looked down at the plate, which was piled high with French toast and fruit, all of which were sprinkled in powdered sugar. I picked up my fork and focused on cutting off a the corner of the French toast. I dropped it when I heard Martha utter a quiet "thank you" as she picked up Alex's empty cup.

Now the tears were really falling down my face. I huffed as I started wiping at them. Why was I crying so much? It wasn't even 8, and I had already cried twice today. If Darcy was downstairs, she would probably laugh at me for being such a crybaby. These, at least, were happy tears. It felt like it had been forever since I had cried because of something good happening to me.

"Lori, I got your stuff for you- why are you crying?" I looked up and saw that Darcy was walking over to us, my backpack on her shoulder and my school ID dangling between her fingers. She slammed the plastic card onto the table and dropped my backpack at my feet. Her eyes narrowed at Alex, who was in the middle of ripping off more paper towels from the roll. "Did Hamilton do something?"

"Why the hell do you think I did something?" Alex asked as Martha set his mug down in front of him, now refilled with coffee. She set my mug in front of me, filled with hot chocolate. I nodded gratefully at her and turned to my sister before she killed Alex.

"Nobody did anything, Dar. Nothing bad, at least. I'm just really happy." I turned back to my food before it got cold and blushed as Alex wiped the tears from my face. The Schuylers and Herc came downstairs and crowded around the table, since Martha had cooked far too much breakfast for just us. We ate in comfortable silence, the only sounds being our forks scraping against our plates. Martha bustled around the kitchen, refilling cups and making coffee for Alex. He had to have had at least five cups now. I cut him off before the sixth one. Five was the limit I had decided for him.

"This is an intervention, Al. You need to stop," I said as I took a sip of hot chocolate. He leaned back in his chair and blew some hair from his face. Martha stepped out of the room for a moment and came back with a gift bag. Oh no, the worst part of birthdays: gifts. I hated getting presents. Everyone made a big deal about them and they'd spend so much money on me, I'd feel terrible.

"Don't make that face, Lorin. It's not anything expensive," Martha laughed as she handed me the bag. I took it reluctantly and put it in my lap. It didn't feel very heavy. I peeked into it and got a faceful of colorful wax paper. "It's just a little something to help you since it's getting cold out."

I reached into the bag and pulled out a clear thermos with daisies printed all over it. It was pretty cute. Martha held out the pot of hot chocolate. I opened the top of the thermos so she could fill it up.

"I know how much you love hot chocolate when it starts to get cold, and your thermos keeps heat in so it never gets cold." She gasped as she glanced over at the clock. "It's time for you kids to get to school! I'll clean up, so you don't have to worry about it!"

I sighed as Eliza pinned a giant yellow ribbon to my sweater. It read "Happy Birthday" in giant letters. I didn't mind the ribbon much… What I minded was the money that was attached to it. It was like I was asking to get mugged. I hadn't counted how much money everyone had given me, but the Schyulers alone had given me fifty dollars… each.

Everyone else had gone into the school, with the exception of me and Alex. I wanted to chill out in the parking lot for a few minutes before going to English. I knew that Thomas and Maddie would make a big deal about my birthday, and I felt like I needed a few minutes to prepare myself before they potentially embarrassed me in front of the entire class.

I saw Aaron standing by the entrance to the school, talking to a pretty girl with braids. She was a senior, I think, but I couldn't remember her name. I heard Alex chuckle and turned to look at him. His gaze was on Aaron, who seemed to be exchanging phone numbers with the senior. She walked off shortly afterwards, her hair flying behind her as she entered the building.

Aaron spotted us from across the parking lot and walked over to us, adjusting his tie as he approached. The guy seemed to always be overdressed for school. I wonder if he even knew what casual clothes were. Seeing him next to Alex when I sat in on debate club meetings was hilarious. It was almost like they were from two entirely different worlds, Aaron in his vest and tie and Alex in his hoodie and jeans.

"Good morning, Lorin. I see it's your birthday today," Aaron gestured to the ribbon on my chest. I nodded and suddenly realized that a bright yellow ribbon was probably going to attract far too much attention for my liking. I detached the ribbon and money and put them in my backpack. I was in the middle of zipping it back up when I heard the familiar purr of an expensive car, one that wasn't even released in the states yet. It couldn't be...

"You know, Burr, most people would say 'happy birthday'," Alex commented dryly. I tuned him out, my eyes only on the expensive black car pulling into the parking lot. That was definitely James' car. But why was he here? His school was all the way across the city! He shouldn't be here. Yet here he was, in the flesh. I could a glimpse of him through the window and felt my heart stop as I saw that Maria and Lee were with him.

The car stopped in the middle of the parking lot, parked haphazardly across two staff parking spaces. I hid behind Alex as the back door opened. I wanted to tell him and Aaron that we should hurry up and go to class, but the words only sat awkwardly on my tongue and I couldn't make them come out if I tried. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I gripped Alex's jacket sleeve tightly and tried again to speak, but all that came out was a choked whimper.

"What's wrong, Lo? Are you cold?" he asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. Aaron looked down at his watch and turned back towards the school, saying that he was going to class and that we should hurry before we were late. Across the parking lot, Lee had gotten out of James' car, followed by James himself and Maria. What the hell were they doing here? Why couldn't they just leave me alone?

A wicked grin spread across Maria's face as we made eye contact. I could barely breathe. I had to get out of here. I couldn't deal with this now. Alex frowned down at me and followed my gaze, his eyebrows furrowing. I knew that he didn't know what James and Maria looked like, since I didn't bother to tell him, but he had probably managed to put two and two together based on my reaction. Either that or he was planning on asking me what the hell was wrong. He led me into the school without a word, but it didn't do any good to calm my nerves. I fell to my knees halfway to English, heaving deep breaths and trying to not have another fucking panic attack.

"Lo!" Alex knelt in front of me and pulled my hands from my hair. When had they gotten there? I tried to make my blurry vision focus so I could see his face. My chest felt like it was wound up painfully tight as I struggled to breathe. Why couldn't I be normal? They hadn't even done anything yet and I was already freaking out. But everything that they had done to me was flashing through my mind.

Their voices, which somehow managed to be both harsh and unforgiving and soothing and gentle all at once. Their hands, which had both given me the cruelest of punishments and best of pleasures. The searing pain from when Maria gave me a new scar for misbehaving because I was nothing but a pathetic whore who couldn't follow simple instructions. I wasn't a good girl. I was bad. Bad bad bad-

Alex was talking to me, trying to calm me down or something, but I couldn't hear him over the dull buzzing in my ears. James and Maria were here, and I didn't know why. Was he going to try to apologize? I didn't want to hear any of it. If he apologized, there was a chance I'd accept his apology. He'd manage to talk me into forgetting everything he had done to me.

"Don't want to go back," I sobbed between my gasping breaths, squeezing my eyes tightly shut. I couldn't go back to him. He'd hurt me, I know it. Lee had to have been lying. There was no way James had changed. The brief glance I had gotten of him earlier proved that. He had the same look in his eyes that he'd have before he beat me.

There was a hand on my shoulder. I screamed and pushed it away. Alex hissed a curse under his breath. I shook my head as he murmured reassurances into my ear in between attempting to count my breaths for me. He was lying. He couldn't protect me from James. James wouldn't stop until he got to me. Nobody could protect me from him.

"Lo, please look at me. I don't know what's wrong," Alex's voice sounded so broken. I opened my eyes and saw that he was crying, his eyes rimmed with red. He was sitting on his knees, his hands awkwardly in his lap like he didn't know what to do with him. His hair was a disheveled mess, and I could tell that he had been running his hands through it frantically. I looked away from him. I couldn't stand seeing him like that.

I didn't know what else to do aside from apologize, so I did just that. I lost track of how long I spent apologizing. Alex kept telling me that there was no need for me to apologize, but it was all I could do. I didn't want to tell him about James being here. There was no telling what he'd do. But… I had promised Angelica that I would tell them everything, hadn't I? And this was certainly something that I should tell them about. I hated dragging everyone into my mess because I was too weak to deal with it myself.

"J-James and Maria… They're here…"

I looked up from my worksheet as a brown paper bag was dropped in on the table next to me and took in a deep breath as I saw Lee standing in front of me. What was he doing here? He normally spent his free period off campus, or behind the gym getting high. Why was he here at the library, of all places? I tried my best to forget about what had happened the last time we were in the library together. I felt a chill go down my spine as I remembered the way he had nipped at my earlobe and the feeling of his hands on my chest, opening my bra and exposing me to the world.

I wasn't alone this time. John was sitting with me, and his eyes narrowed at Lee. John was supposed to be in art class right now, but he had gotten special permission to work in the library. And Eliza was working as a library assistant this period, too. I wasn't alone. In fact, in every single one of my classes, one of my friends was with me. Even if they didn't have the class with me. They were obviously trying to make sure that James or Maria didn't get to me. Alex had texted our group chat and told everyone to keep an eye out for them.

"Fuck off, Lee," John snarled, shoving the bag off the table. It fell to the ground noisily, and some of the contents rolled out. Pill bottles. Why the hell was he trying to give me pills? I picked up one of the bottles and gasped. It… It was mine. I stopped the rest of the bottles before they rolled away. All of it was the medicine James had taken from me. Lee picked up the bag and took out the last thing from it: a black box that I recognized as being from the most expensive jewelry store in the city.

"James wants to apologize, Lorin. He says-"

"Let's go, Lori." John packed our things up briskly, not looking towards me or Lee. I shoved the medicine into my backpack and barely managed to zip it up before John was pulling me out of the library. We didn't stop walking until we were at his car, where he finally released my wrist and scowled down at me.

"W-What-"

"Why the hell did Lee have your medicine? I saw some of the labels, Lorin. Your anti-depressants, your anxiety meds… Is that why you kept saying none of them were helping and changed prescriptions so much? B-Because Reynolds had them? You know how you get when you're off your meds!" His voice had started off soft, but by the end he was practically screaming at me. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. I couldn't look away from them. He won't hurt me for talking back, I reminded myself.

"'Off my meds'? You make it sound like I'm a fucking psychopath, John! I've been fine without them! Besides, you didn't even notice I wasn't taking them. No… Nobody noticed..."

"You haven't been 'fine', Lorin. Your panic attacks have been getting worse. Alex told us what happened earlier… How it took him almost thirty minutes to calm you down…" John pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Why did he have your medicine?"

"...Punishment. He took it because I misbehaved. He was supposed to give it back, but we broke up." I shook my head as the memories started flooding back. I didn't want to think about this now. Weren't birthdays supposed to be happy? "Can we talk about this tomorrow or something? P-Please?"

John reluctantly nodded and unlocked the car, quietly telling me to get in. I got in silently, not wanting to piss him off anymore than I probably already had. I quickly checked the time. There were still ten minutes left until the end of the day. If John wasn't Mattie's ride to and from school, he probably would have taken me straight home so he wouldn't have to deal with me anymore. I wouldn't blame.

The next few hours were uneventful. I was confined upstairs with Alex until everyone finished setting up downstairs for the party. His room was as neat as it always was, with his books and notebooks stacked neatly on his desk and his clothes hung up perfectly in the closet. The only place that was a mess was the bed, which I guess he hadn't made up since last night.

He didn't mention James and Maria, or my panic attack, which I was thankful for. I think he could tell that I didn't want to talk about it. I knew I'd have to talk about it eventually, but today I just wanted to try and relax and enjoy my birthday.

We were like we normally were, Alex hunched over at his desk, frantically writing away, and me lying on his bed. I had taken my sweater and shoes off to get more comfortable and wrapped a blanket around myself. I watched Alex write and sighed. I could never understand how he wrote like he was running out of time. He was either writing some scathing political essay (George got a kick out of reading those) or planning out his next debate with Thomas or Aaron. I blinked as his pen stopped flying across the paper. He normally never stopped writing until I made him.

"Lo, you… You know that I love you, right?" Well, that came out of nowhere. I looked at Alex (who was wearing his glasses for once, God damn he was handsome) and saw that he was looking at me. He cleared his throat awkwardly and twirled his pencil around. He tapped it on the desk a few times before getting up from his chair and walking over to me.

"Of course. And I love you too, Al. But why are you-" He sat next to me and kissed me gently, his hands getting entangled in my hair. I closed my eyes and breathed in his familiar scent. It was always a comfort. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. He pulled away from me and brushed some bangs back from my face.

"I… I just wanted to make sure that you knew that. Sorry if I was being weird." I couldn't think of a response, but thankfully I didn't have to because Darcy called for us to come downstairs. I kissed Alex's cheek and grabbed his hand so we could go downstairs together. Darcy hated waiting, and I felt like it was best to get things over with. Hopefully Eliza had managed to rein in Darcy and Gil a tiny bit. They loved parties, and I was kind of terrified of what they'd do.

They had moved the decorations from earlier to the living room, and oh my God, there were so many presents. Peggy nudged Gil as Alex and I walked into the living room, and I flinched as they both popped party poppers right in my face. I picked a streamer from my hair and looked around the room. Everyone was here, even Thomas and Maddie, who were setting up a folding table in the middle of the room. Everyone started moving their gifts from the floor to the table as Alex and I found a seat on the couch.

"George and Martha left to get your cake," Darcy said as she snapped a party hat onto my head. I nodded and started messing with the hem of my skirt as I looked at the table. Everyone was so nice… I didn't deserve their kindness, any of it. I didn't know why any of them liked me. I was nothing but a nervous wreck. Darcy, at least, was my sister. She had to like me. But I didn't really know what everyone else saw in me. Maybe they just pitied me.

I jumped as the front door slammed open. Mattie walked in, carrying a few pizza boxes. How she managed to open the door while holding them, I'd never know. I watched as she walked to the dining room table and dropped the boxes ungracefully. She turned to John and started ranting at him in Spanish. I couldn't understand a word since she was speaking so fast, but clearly Alex found it hilarious because he doubled over in laughter. John's face was bright red at the end of her ramble, and he refused to look his sister in the face.

"Um… Maybe we should start with the gift opening now," Angelica said, clearing her throat after a few moments of silence. I opened my mouth to protest, but Peggy and Gil were in front of me in an instant, holding their gifts in their arms. They huffed and stared at each other, scowls on their faces. I looked at the neatly wrapped boxes in their arms. Peggy's was bigger, and I could see that it was a gift from all the Schuylers from the tiny card that was attached to it.

"I was here first, Laffy," Peggy said, shoving the box into my hands. She smiled sweetly at me as I fingered the ribbon on it, hesitating. What if it was stupidly expensive and something that I couldn't return? I didn't want anyone to waste a lot of money on someone as worthless as me. I stared down at the box for a few more seconds before unwrapping it, taking care to not rip the paper too much. Underneath the wrapping was an expensive-looking gold felt box. Good lord, they even spent a lot on the box! I took the top off…

And immediately put it back on. No. There was no way. They had gotten me Broadway tickets. Not only that, they were tickets for a showing of Dear Evan Hansen on Thursday. That was a few days away. How did they even get these? Tickets had been sold out for months. Did they ask their father to pull some strings to get two more tickets? I felt tears welling up in my eyes. This was only the first gift, how would I react to the rest?

"I'm guessing you like your present?" Eliza asked, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket and handing it to me. I nodded and dabbed at my tears. They knew me so well… I really didn't deserve them. Before I could get too caught up in my thoughts, Gil handed me his gift. It was a lot smaller and flatter than the Schuylers' gift was. I opened it and saw that it was a signed copy of the soundtrack to the very play I had just gotten tickets for. There were even messages written directly to me from the cast.

"G-Gil… How-"

"I waited outside the stage door for hours and waited for the cast to show up. I almost freezed my butt off for those autographs," he laughed nervously, his cheeks flushing. I jumped up and hugged him, then gave each Schuyler sister a hug, too. What did I do to deserve this? What did I do to deserve them? My birthdays in the past were nothing special, a hushed affair in the middle of the night. Mama would always bake cookies, quietly sing me happy birthday, and tuck me back into bed. All of them had been like that, with the exception of my tenth birthday, which I refused to think about now.

The rest of the presents were handed out over pizza and cake. We had decided to wait for George and Martha to come back before I opened the rest of them. Thomas had gotten me a laptop (a quite expensive one, I might add-he said he burned the receipt so I couldn't return it), John had gotten me some Disney movies (I had a feeling he had gone through my collection so he knew exactly which ones to get me), Herc had sewn me some clothes and a new stuffed rabbit, and Maddie had gotten me a collection of gift cards, saying that he wanted me to choose what to get myself. George had murmured something about my gift not being here yet. That left only Alex to give me something, even though I had more than enough.

"Um, I didn't spend as much as everyone else did," he started as he reached into his pocket. "Hell, I didn't spend anything. And this doesn't exactly have any fancy wrapping or a famous person's signature. I've spent the past week thinking of something to get you. I didn't think I'd find anything good enough for you. This was my… my mother's. It was all she had left me before she died. She told me to keep it until I found someone special to give it to, and… I found her. I hope you like it."

He pulled out a charm bracelet from his pocket and held it gingerly in his palm. I looked down at it and silently offered him my wrist, holding it up to examine it once he closed the clasp. It was silver and had a few charms hanging delicately from it: a flower, a feather, a heart, a star, a moon, and a music note. It was beautiful. But I couldn't take such a precious thing-

"I know what you're going to say, Lo, and there's no takesie-backsies," Alex said firmly. I snorted. It sounded weird hearing such childish language coming from him of all people. He took my hand and smiled sadly. "Mom would have wanted me to give it to you. I know it's probably not what you expected-" I cut him off with a kiss.

"It's perfect."