I arched an eyebrow.

Johnny glared at his twin. "Juni—"

"Oh stuff it! You and your—"

"Juni!" Their mother snapped, giving her a stern look. "If you aren't going to be polite, you can go clean your sister's room since you trashed it."

She glared at their mother, then shot us another hostile look and stormed out of the room.

I leaned over slightly so I could whisper, "I did just ask her where she got her shoes, right?"

Lizzie nodded, glancing nervously after her older sister.

"Huh." I straightened out and continued to stand with her and Nico like nothing had happened. "You were about to introduce me to your youngest sibling."

Johnny nodded slightly, carrying the baby over to us. "This is Kaylee, like I said before, her hobbies are screaming in the middle of the night and sleeping."

"Hi," I said softly, grinning at her. She was adorable.

Nico shook his head. "You're also ridiculously attatched to her."

"She's my sister, I'm pretty sure that takes it away from being ridiculous." Johnny let Jamie take Kaylee from him.

"He's way over-protective," Jamie told us, rolling her eyes. "You should have seen him when one of my classmates came over to work on our science project."

"He is protective, isn't he? That's not entirely a bad thing. Though how he finds time to spend with all of you, and get good grades, and spend time with us, and be quarterback of the football team…I will never know or understand." I folded my arms a bit. "I'm freaking out with just school and family, friends a little."

Nico snorted. "Understatement."

I shook my head.

Johnny nodded. "Such an understatement, that I'm afraid it's basically a lie. Cassie is no longer a good role model for you guys, sorry." He guided them out of the room. Then gave us a smile. "I got lucky to have mostly non-annoying siblings. Uh, you ready to get back to your place?"

His mother squeezed his shoulder and kissed his head. "Don't be out too late, and if things start getting out of hand, you call us. If there's even a hint of—"

"Mrs. Cahill," Nico jumped in desperately. "They're just working on a school project, and I'm just along for the pizza."

I gave Nico a half-smile.

He looked at Johnny. "You told her."

"To stave off a panic attack, yes," Johnny said in an apologetic tone.

"I was in a state, besides, you know I hate surprises. What made you think I would like surprise party?"

Nico shifted, glancing nervously at Mrs. Cahill. "I'll explain later."

I arched an eyebrow, then hooked my arm in his and looked at Johnny's mom. "Pardon us, we need to speak privately for a moment. May we use your kitchen?"

She smiled, almost laughing a bit. "Be my guest."

As we were going in, I heard her whisper, "Nice manners on that one, you sure you don't want to date her?"

I shivered a let the door close. "What made you think a surprise party was a good idea?"

Nico swung his backpack around and pulled out a folder. "I found this when I was trying to find the Christmas decorations on Wednesday."

I frowned a bit. "That's one of mom's."

"You can tell by looking at it?"

"It has a turtle sticker on it, mine usually had penguins. What is it?"

He let me take it. "Plans. For your birthdays."

I blinked, then opened it. "Birthday-s? Plural?"

"She outlined what she wanted to do, starting at your thirteenth and on to your twenty-fifth. This year she wanted you to have a party with a bunch of friends from school on the Friday before, then a quiet day on the actual day." Nico shrugged. "I told Travis about it and we thought it couldn't hurt to carry on the way she had planned. I mean, you made me celebrate my birthday and we said we were family. Family celebrates each others' birthdays, right?"

I stared at my mom's handwriting. Her notes beside my previous birthdays that she had planned on this page of paper, regular lined paper, with scribbles of ideas on it. There was a stain on it that most would think came from coffee, but I knew it was from hot chocolate. She had used pencil, and four different colored pens, as if she had had it sitting somewhere within reach if an idea struck her at any time and she had just grabbed whatever was closest to write with. I could see where she had traced over faded pencil with a pen.

"Did she really take you to a cabin for your birthday two years ago?"

I nodded. "We froze. It was fun, but we both promised never to do that again. Not in that rustic of a cabin." I didn't read farther than my seventeenth, handing it back to Nico. "Will the surprises never end? Tomorrow, we are going through all of those boxes, I'm going through all of mom's clothes and junk and we're finding all of the other things that she may have hidden. I'm done with surprises. I don't care if we have to move out all of the furniture."

He smiled a bit. "That's a bit extreme, don't you think? It's a big house."

"There's three of us, plus the cat and dog for whatever use they are in the process."

"Distractions and stress relief?" Nico suggested, edging toward the door as he pushed the folder back into his backpack. "You sure you want me to hold onto this?"

"Yes, I don't want to know what's in there. It's both the past and the future and…I can't handle both at once. It's best if I don't see a thing. She's dead. It's best if we leave it at that." I turned and walked out of the kitchen. "Sorted, we should get going back to the house so I can feign surprise."

Nico nudged me.

Johnny nodded and set one of the twins down. "I'm ready when you are."

We headed toward the door, saying goodbye to his family.

Once we were out the door Nico shook his head. "Your family is crazy."

"You're telling me?" Johnny was grinning. "I live with them. But other than Juni being a brat, it's not too bad. The young ones are turning out pretty good. It keeps things interesting. It's kind of nice, because most of them are so young that they just love you unconditionally. You can be absolutely horrible, and they'll always forgive you. Apparently, that's good because according to mom, teens get worse before they get better. But, now we focus on Cassie's birthday!"

"Hooray," I said sarcastically.

Nico smirked at me. "Your boyfriend is there."

I nodded. "That's good, but still."

Nico blinked a couple times. "Is everything okay?"

"Has to be for now, doesn't it?" I kissed his cheek. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine once I get some cake."

The drive was short as we gabbed and I made sure they knew to save me every once in a while.

Then we walked into the house.

I put on a smile as everyone yelled surprise.

Will was the first to give me a hug. "I tried to tell them not to, for the record."

I laughed softly. "Johnny warned me." I kept the smile on my face.

Stacy bounced over. "Cassandra darling! Happy birthday!"

"Stacy, how's your dad?"

She grinned. "Home. It's great." She hugged me quickly. "This is going to be great. You'll love your present."

"You shouldn't have gotten me a gift," I said, shaking my head. "Nobody should have."

Will snorted. "Of course we got you gifts. Some of them aren't exactly traditional gifts, but gifts all the same."

I smiled. "Meaning made in arts and crafts?"

"We know how you like useful gifts," Stacy said with a grin.

I smiled. "Yeah. I don't really do gifts, period."

Connor appeared and hugged me, kissing my cheek. "Hey, Happy Birthday, Cassie."

"Thanks."

Julia and Alice were already running around and causing trouble, but hugged me quickly from either side as they passed.

Tribbiani stopped, out of breath. "Um, when they say they have my wallet?"

"They have your wallet, and you might not want to stop giving chase," I responded easily, pointing after them.

His eyes widened and he ran after them.

I smiled and exchanged amused looks with Connor.

Cecil appeared and tugged a strand of hair. "Happy birthday! See where the girls went?"

"Toward the basement."

He nodded and dashed after as well.

I greeted more friends from camp, and those from school, waving at the girls from Northpoint and grinning when I saw Zeke from Northpoint doing the robot with some of the chess and robotics club members that frequented the friday night group.

Austin and Kayla were by the stereo.

Reyna was talking with Eric beside the stove.

I moved among the group, greeting people and getting wished happy birthday. I didn't really stop to chat too much, feeling like it was my responsibility to make sure everyone was having a good time.

Johnny was the one who made me sit down. "Your boyfriend has passed through twice trying to catch up to you."

I winced. "Wondered why I hadn't seen him."

"You were running around like a chicken with your head chopped off. Just sit. You are the person we're celebrating. Relax and let people find you." Johnny handed me his soda. "I'll get a new one, stay put."

I nodded and opened it, watching everyone as I took a sip.

Malcolm dropped next to me. "It's crazy in here. Hi."

"Hi," I replied, smiling at him.

He kissed my forehead. "Happy birthday. Early, but happy birthday all the same. Really, were you going to tell me about your birthday or was I just going to have to guess eventually and have you correct me?"

I shrugged. "I wasn't exactly planning on celebrating with anything more than a movie marathon." And some world building…

Emily dropped in front of us. "Tell me you aren't opening presents in front of everyone."

"OF course not, that's super tacky and I don't have time for that."

"Just checking, oh, and thank you for knowing so many cute boys! Come on Megs, I see a hottie."

"That's just as derogative as a boy calling one of us a hottie, Em," Meg scolded half-heartedly, looking more terrified of where Emily was dragging her.

Malcolm glanced around. "There are a lot of guys here."

I shrugged. "Most of the football team is here, and the basketball team. Johnny's on both of them and they both go to our friday night alternate party thing so I've gotten to know them. A large majority of the girls at my school are still—"

There was a crash, and everyone stopped talking.

Austin paused the music.

I turned around and looked at the broken window, and the horrified face of Cecil.

He saw me looking and got wide-eyed and kind of sheepish. "Sorry?"

I pointed at him. "You're dead."

Travis went over and checked it out. "How the heck did you break the window? I've got something we can put over it. Carry on!"

Austin hit play again.

I glared at Cecil a moment longer, then shrugged it off and sat back down.

"Figures it was a camper," Malcolm muttered.

Lexi hugged me from behind. "This is so cool! You know so many people!"

"Yeah, I do," I responded.

She moved on, talking with Lacey and Mitchell.

"You were saying something about most of the girls at your school?"

"Oh, yeah, they're still on Brandi's side. Meaning they don't like me. Oh hey, Jenny's here." I waved at her.

She waved back. She looked ecstatic as she talked with Jamie from the Hebe cabin.

Jamie. Huh. Hadn't seen Jamie since the Petunia went missing.

I looked at Malcolm. "Did they find Petunia?"

He shrugged. "From what I understand, yes. I don't know if they found her dead or alive though, because Jamie doesn't talk about it. I guess Ria's still beating herself up over Andy's death."

"I heard about that, but I knew they were still looking for Nia." I shook my head. "Jamie and her were thick as thieves."

"Two birds of a feather?"

"Peas in a pod."

"Donald and Mickey."

"Mickey and Minnie," I corrected.

"Really?" Malcolm looked surprised. "I didn't know they were involved like that."

"They weren't, but there was chemistry. They both liked the other but she was too shy and he was afraid of scaring her off. He had a flower that she gave to him pressed and laminated, carried it in his wallet. I don't know. Don't quote me."

Malcolm chuckled then glanced to the side where kids were dancing. "You want to?"

I hesitated. "Maybe. Think you can keep up?"

"No, and I'll look like a dying duck, but I'll try."

I nodded. "Meet you over there. I have a song request to make." I darted over to Austin, who was now appearing to be bickering with Stacy. "Yo, give me Lovesick, Emily Osment."

He gave me a thumbs up and searched the list.

I walked over to the dance floor as the song playing ended. Then my song came on.

Dancing was something I excelled at. Wasn't particularly useful, but it was something I did love doing.

Malcolm was right. He looked awkward.

"Birthday girl on the dance floor!" Stacy yelled, sliding up next to me.

Apparently that was the signal that everyone should be dancing.

Could be worse.

AN: Hey, sorry for the delay. Finals is getting to me. Also, I sang my first solo and...it didn't go so well. So, here's a post that I've been working on for far too long not knowing what else to do with it. I'll try to post again before Christmas, but I don't know if I'll be able to manage it. Wish me luck on my exams! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and all that jazz.