[A/N: I honestly don't know when their birthdays are, but for the purpose of this story we can pretend they are around the same time]
When it got close to Derek's seventh birthday he announced that it was around the same time as Mark's birthday and that he couldn't believe he had never had a party. I decided I would ask Derek if he wanted to share his party with Mark, they were in the same class at school so they could just invite the whole class anyways and tell them to bring two gifts, and it wouldn't even cost them any extra. "Derek, how would you like to share your party with Mark, that would mean his name would be on the cake too and people would sing to him too, but you both get gifts and you're whole class will be there."
"Really? We can do that, that sounds so much fun. I can't wait to tell him about it."
"Well. Let me call his mother or father and make sure they are o.k with it, can you give me his number?" I got the paper from my son, dialed the phone.
"Hello," It sounded like Mark.
"Hi Mark, this is Carolyn, Derek's mom, can I talk to your mom?"
"Ok," He sounded confused.
"Dr. Sloan," She said.
"Hi, my name is Carolyn Shepherd, I'm Derek's mom, Derek and Mark are friends at school and Mark's come over a few times."
"Oh yes, we wanted to tell you, Mark has been having a really good time with you guys, he let me try his cookie and it tasted amazing."
"Well thanks, it's a family recipe, anyways, I guess the boys have their birthdays around the same time, I was wondering if it would be o.k if we say it's Mark's party too?"
"Why, you are so kind, that would be great, we've been meaning to plan a party for him we just never get around to it every year, I don't know where the time goes, just let me know how much it costs and I'll send a check." The boys chose a superhero theme that year since the weekend before they had been reading comic books. We had it at the bowling alley, another thing Mark had never done. I remember when we took Mark to the bakery to pick up the cake he was surprised because it even had his name on it. I never asked Mark's mother for any money, but a few weeks later a check for four hundred dollars came in the mail from her. I called her and told her the party had costed way less, but she just insisted that I keep it. I felt guilt in cashing it, but our family could use the money. After that year the boys practically expected shared parties, each year they thought of something different, one year they had a toy boat race, another year they went to a go cart track.