III

September 13th, 1992 - Albuquerque

"Happy birthday, Jesse," the small girl said, thrusting a large box towards him. Felicity looked unenthused as usual but he did notice the small quirk in her lip as he accepted the present.

"Thanks Fissy," he teased as he rushed back to the TV where he and the rest of his friends were sitting.

Felicity was the only girl at the party and was only really invited because their parents were such good friends. She sat alone on the recliner while she watched the other kids take turns playing Sonic the Hedgehog. She had never touched a Genesis before and would have preferred not to make a fool of herself in front of all these boys. Felicity was often associated with Jesse due to how close their parents were. Whenever there was a barbecue or get together, Felicity was there regardless of if Jesse wanted her to be there or not. She had a bad habit of trying to boss him around.

One of the other boys, Emilio, turned and motioned to her. He was new in town but he made friends quickly. He and Jesse were particularly close. "Hey, do you want to give it a shot?"

She opened her mouth to decline the offer but she supposed Jesse wanted to answer for her, "Nah, what the heck does she know about video games anyway? Just pass it to Pete if you don't wanna play."

Emilio frowned a little but Felicity offered him a small shrug. She didn't mind. It Jesse's birthday party, anyway. After a few more minutes of watching the boys play, a whole train of adults came into the room singing Happy Birthday. Jesse's mother also held a cake, fully outfitted with a Superman topper and a sparkling candle. Felicity noticed Jesse's eyes light up as he bounded from in front of the TV to the dinner table. Soon, all of his friends assembled with him and joined in the singing. Felicity was the last one to make it to the table, but by then, Jesse had already blown out the candles.

Everyone cheered and took a moment to snap photos before moving back a little. Felicity felt a strong hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her father. He smiled at her and she pursed her lips. "Do you think he's going to like what I got him?"

"I have a good feeling," her father replied, squeezing her shoulder.

Jesse already went straight to work on opening his gifts. So far, he had received a new game for his Genesis from his parents, a sweater from his aunt Ginny, a Super Soaker from Brandon and a new Transformer from Pete. Felicity held her breath as her gift came into view. It was packaged in a uniform box, wrapped in bright pink wrapping paper with a large purple bow on it. There was a card attached to it as well. She wrapped it herself. Jesse eyed her from across the room.

"Well, I sure know who this is from," he snickered.

He quickly tore into the paper, not even bothering to look at the card. She frowned a little and crossed her arms. As soon as the paper settled, Jesse let out a loud gasp. "Oh my god… How did you… How did, not even bothering to look at the card. She frowned a little and crossed her arms. As soon as the paper settled, Jesse let out a loud gasp. "Oh my god… How did you… How did you know?"

Felicity only shrugged. "I've seen the jar in your room, doofus."

She had bought him a SNES. She had known that he had been saving up for it since it came out a year before and she figured it would be a nice gift. Luckily for her, her parents were quite generous whenever it came to presents and had no issue with dishing out the dough for it. Obviously, she had asked Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman if she could buy it for him, just in case they had already planned to, but they gave her the go ahead.

"Hey, dad, can we hook this up right now?" Jesse asked, looking at his father.

Mr. Pinkman shrugged, "Sure. You finish opening up the rest of your gifts and you can play this after."

Jesse nodded excitedly and continued to burn through his gifts.

A few hours later, after all the boys became sufficiently frustrated with Mario Kart, the party drew to a close. Felicity stood on the porch with her parents who were just finishing up saying good bye to the Pinkmans. Jesse had not said so much as a thank you to her, but she didn't take it personally. That's just who he was. She didn't think of it again as her and her parents walked back to their house.

Meanwhile, Jesse was stuck with cleaning duty and came across a pink birthday card on the floor.

Happy birthday, Jesse. I bet I can kick your butt at Mario Kart any day. Hope you like it.

Felicity Scott.