For some children, birthdays are a time of fun and celebration. This was the same for Heather, but she did notice that the people around her seemed way more excited. This became even more apparent when she was reading a book in her front yard while Dagur paced. He was talking too, but his sister discovered a few minutes earlier that he was not necessarily talking to her.

"And then there could be a bouncy house, but I guess bees could go in there. That'll just ruin all the fun. Okay, no bouncy houses. Knife throwing…no, that's more my thing. Ax throwing." He beamed brightly and got out a notepad, writing this down. "Much better. Pizza parties are nice, but that's so predictable. No no, we'll do something else. Tacos, ooh, or sundaes. A sundae party on a Saturday!"

Dagur laughed at the concept, but his grin fell when he saw Heather's lack of enthusiasm. He walked over to her, poking the book.

"Feel free to join in whenever you'd like, soon-to-be birthday girl."

The brunette shrugged. "It sounded like you were coming up with everything."

"I'm just throwing ideas at you. You have to decide. It'll only be special that way. Nine is a big birthday!"

"I won't even be in double digits."

"But you will be next year! This is your last year as a Heatherling."

The girl chuckled. "Can you not call me that again?"

"Fine, Heatherlet."

"I'm not a pig."

"You're not ten yet either, so we've got to make this really fun!"

Heather was not sure she followed his logic completely, but she understood well enough. Sighing, she set down the book.

"Okay, the ax throwing sounded fun. I know Astrid and Snotlout would enjoy that too. Hiccup and Fishlegs…not so much. I'm scared of the thought of the twins doing it."

Dagur cringed. "Good point. The twins would probably kill someone, but don't worry. There'll be so much going on that Hiccup and Fishy will have a bunch of other stuff to do and the twins will be too busy to ax anybody in the head."

"How much are you planning on having?"

"Enough to make your birthday party the best in the world!"

Heather lifted her eyebrow suspiciously. "An eleven-year-old is going to throw the best birthday party in the world?"

"Of course! I'm me! Can't let my little sister have a boring celebration. So, start picking stuff you want to do."

The redhead eagerly handed her the notepad, alerting Heather to just how much had been written. It seemed like she had more to read there than in the book. Just as she was about to ask for the summarized version, Dagur gave her a hug.

"Gotta head back before the boss lady gets mad again. She doesn't like it when I stay out late and don't give any heads up. I'll see you tomorrow," he said, waving. "Figure out what you want to do! I'm not asking!"

Taking off, the boy vanished and Heather sighed, flipping through the book. She realized that he was right about it getting late, so she headed inside. Bo saw her and tilted his head in curiosity.

"Is everything alright, Sweetie?"

The girl handed him the book. "I got birthday homework."

Bo laughed and accepted the item. "Oh, did you, now? Let me guess, Dagur's the tough teacher?"

He received a nod in response.

"He came up with all these things for me to do on Saturday. I don't think it's a big deal like he does. People turn nine all the time."

"But his sister doesn't."

"Dad! You sound just like him."

The father chuckled. "I'm only letting you know what he's thinking, so there's no way you're getting out of this."

He looked over the options, paling a little when he saw a piranha feeding list item. Next, he saw one involving pyramids of Egypt.

"Some of these are probably a little too… out there," he said, flipping through more pages. "I think we could do anything on these pages. Just pick what would make you happy."

"I'd be happy if I didn't have some giant celebration that would make a fairytale princess jealous."

"Well, if there's something you don't want to do, you don't have to. We all just want you to have a good birthday. Whatever leads to that happening is fine."

Heather accepted the notepad back, heaving another sigh. She let her eyes trail over the words. There were so many options that sounded fun. Part of her wanted to choose most of them, but that would be unmanageable. Suddenly, Heather had an idea.

"I've got it!" she exclaimed, after a few minutes had passed.

This surprised her parents and Ebba, who had been doing some secret birthday planning of her own, left the study to where her daughter was. Heather looked up at the couple happily.

"I know what I want to do for my birthday."

Her decision helped the parents a lot, allowing them to communicate with the other children's parents so that they would know where to go. There had been a lot of questions with little to no answers being given and they were starting to feel bad. The next day, Dagur and Heather met up after school. He had a twinkle in his eyes.

"Okay, so what did you decide?"

"An arcade," the girl replied.

Dagur was quiet for a moment, tapping his chin. Then he started laughing wildly.

"Perfect! Throwing stuff, all kinds of games, foods…it'll be a bit of everything. That one near here even has a bowling alley! Good idea! Glad I could make you think of it."

He smiled proudly at himself and Heather chuckled.

"We're going to tell the others today, so hopefully, they'll like it too."

"How couldn't they? It's going to be great! All that's left is for Bo, Ebba, and me to come up with a wow factor."

"A what?" Heather asked.

Dagur laughed again and ran past her to get inside the home. Heather tried to run after him, but he blocked the doorway. There was a wide grin on his face.

"Sorry, Sis. It's bad luck for the birthday girl to overhear party plans."

"That's not a thing!"

"It is now!"

He quickly closed the door. Heather went for the handle and sighed upon realizing that she had been locked out of her own home. Reluctantly, she went to do some handstands near a tree while she waited to be let back in. Bo and Ebba immediately noticed Dagur's extra devious snickering when he entered. He seemed like how they might have imagined a mythical troll to be if put in real life.

"Where's Heather?" Ebba asked.

"Outside where she can't hear our schemes."

"Don't you mean plans?" Bo asked.

"Not really."

Dagur rubbed his palms together, chuckling mischievously again. If the parents did not know him, they probably would have been concerned, but now, they just were amused. If there was anyone outside of them who would do everything in their power to give Heather a great birthday, they knew he was right there with them. So, the trio began their scheming and Saturday arrived sooner than expected. It was early in the morning when Dagur arrived. Very early. He could have taken every worm from the birds if he had so chosen, but his goals were different. The boy had a big bag with him that he was hauling over his shoulder. With all the helium balloons tied to his arms and waist, that bag was probably the only thing keeping him on the Earth. It was earlier than Ebba and Bo normally woke up and he knew Heather was a late sleeper whenever she got the chance, so he just let himself in. Once Dagur entered, he undid the tie around the opening of the bag. He had even more balloons, but these did not contain helium.

Dagur quickly went to the study, then started setting up the balloons near chairs and around the house. Then he untied the gas balloons, attaching them to chairs. He made sure that the print was facing out. As soon as Heather got up, she would see "Happy birthday!" everywhere. Dagur went back into the bag, pulling out some books tied in a silvery ribbon. There was also a pretty bouquet of lilies he found, so he got a vase from under the sink and filled it with water. He kept going in and out of the bag, trying to check if he was missing anything. A yelp caused him to jump, taking his head out of the bag. Ebba had a hand on her heart and was taking a deep breath.

"Dagur, when you pick the locks, can you leave a note near our room afterwards?" she requested, knowing that asking for the locks to remain unpicked was futile.

The boy nodded. "Okay, I'll do that next time." He happily gestured around them. "What do you think?"

With her heartbeat calming down again, Ebba was able to take in the sight. She smiled warmly at what she saw.

"I love it. So will Heather." She lowered her voice. "And you still have you know what?"

Dagur grinned excitedly. "Yeah. I put it in the study. She won't see it before it's time."

"Great, then I'm going to set up some more of the gifts."

Ebbe went into the closet to grab some gift bags. Bo left their room after this, then grinned at the duo.

"Good morning, you two."

"Good morning," they said back, both trying to figure out the best places to arrange everything.

Bo went over to the refrigerator and got out some eggs and milk before heading to the pantry. Heather awoke to the smell of deliciousness. Quickly, she got ready for the day, then joined her family downstairs. She was almost tackled in the hug from Dagur.

"Happy birthday!" he cheered, lightly tossing her into the air.

The girl giggled. "Thanks!

"Happy birthday, Babygirl," Ebba said, going over to kiss her forehead.

Bo smiled. "I'd give you a hug too, but I'm waist deep in omelets and blueberry pancakes." He dramatically sighed. "If only there was someone who could help with that."

Heather happily went over to the man and gave him a grateful hug anyway. "Thanks, Dad!"

When she let go, she noticed everything around her. Her eyes lit up from all of the evidence of birthday celebrating.

"Like it?" Dagur asked hopefully.

He received a hug in reply, making him beam. As Bo finished up preparing some breakfast potatoes, Heather opened her gifts. She was excited to see more books from her favorite author. Despite this, it sparked a question in her mind.

"You don't have money," she said. "Did you borrow these?"

Dagur shook his head. "Nope, I'm just crafty."

"You didn't steal them, did you?"

"I didn't say I'm a criminal. I'm crafty, Heather. I was able to convince someone at the bookstore to help out. You'd be surprised how much a sob story can get you."

Heather thanked him as her parents made mental notes to come up with a better birthday allowance to prepare next year. They were also thanked when she opened up their gifts. There were some CDs of her favorite singer-guitarists and a few clothes.

"Alright, you three," Bo called. "The grub is ready, so dig in."

They happily went over to the table and began enjoying the meal. Before too long, it was time to go and head to the arcade. The family went to the car and began riding that way. They arrived shortly and Heather grinned upon seeing her friends. As soon as the car parked, she jumped out and went over to them.

"Happy birthday, Heather!" they said.

She got a hug from Astrid and Fishlegs first. The twins looked excited as they grinned at the building.

"We've been wanting to go here all year!" Tuff exclaimed happily.

"It has everything," Hiccup said, impressed.

"Exactly," the brunette commented. "I figured that it would have something for everyone."

Snotlout went up and put an arm around both of their shoulders.

"Let's go in!" he encouraged. "You're acting like you want to throw the party out in the parking lot."

Nodding, the group started entering the building. Once they went in, it was like they were brought into an alternate reality of games and fun. It was dark, yet bright. Music was playing with a nice bass that immediately got the twins dancing. Heather chuckled at them and turned to her friends.

"Let's make this a competition."

If she could make the group any more excited, she just did.

"How do we win?" Astrid asked, already feeling the competitive spirit.

"The person to earn the most tickets is the winner," Heather told her.

"You're on!"

Eagerly, the kids went off to find games. The twins teamed up in a two-person shooter game against zombies. At one point, their teamwork stopped because they decided to shoot each other's characters.

"Hey!" Ruff said. "I'm not a zombie!"

"You are now!" Tuff told her, laughing as a zombie attacked her character.

Ruffnut frowned at him and put in another token before shooting his avatar. Tuffnut's jaw dropped and this continued for a while. Heather and Astrid found a faux ax-throwing spot and shared a devious look before running there.

"I'm going to win," Astrid said confidently.

"Not unless I go easy on you," Heather told her.

Heather grabbed the handle of a fake ax, then threw it right into the center. Smirking, Astrid grabbed another one and threw hers backwards.

"Show off," Heather jokingly said. "You don't get extra tickets for fanciness."

The blonde laughed as they kept going. They did this and Hiccup and Fishlegs went to find a claw machine.

"I'm going for that black cat," Hiccup said, eyes locked onto the plushie. "What are you going to try to get?"

Fishlegs peeked into the machine. His face lit up when he saw a bulldog plushie.

"I'm going for that one. It's adorable."

Hiccup did not necessarily agree. "You don't want the puppy?"

"No, this one's way cuter."

Shrugging, the shorter boy took his turn with the claw. It was trickier than he thought and it was quickly Fishlegs's turn. Neither thought they were going to get many points doing this. Dagur and Snotlout were also in the middle of a competition, standing in front of the moving basketball hoops.

"Be ready to lose, Snothat," the redhead warned, cackling.

Snotlout shook his head. "I wouldn't want to win against Heather since it's her birthday, but I'm not showing you any special treatment. This is going to be a competition like you've nev–hey, wait up!"

The boy had missed Dagur putting tokens into the game, so he panicked when the basketballs slid down to his friend. He quickly got his game ready, hoping that the early points would not be enough for him to lose. The pairs battled it out until the games ended or they got bored. They met up around air hockey tables.

"Who won?" Dagur asked.

"Hiccup did," Fishlegs said.

"I did too," Astrid added, smiling proudly.

"Just by one point," Heather specified.

"But I still won."

"I think we both lost," Tuffnut said.

"Because you were playing as a team," Hiccup told them, holding his plushie. "I saw you go over to the zombie game."

Ruffnut whacked her brother. "You made us lose! We didn't even get a cat like Hiccup."

Tuffnut sheepishly chuckled. "Oh, well…who won between you two?" he asked, looking at Dagur and Snotlout.

The shorter boy scuffed his shoe against the carpet. "Dagur."

"Warned you!" the redhead cackled.

"You're taller! You don't have as far to throw."

Dagur still looked pleased with himself. Then he gestured to air hockey. It was the kind where four people could each play against one another.

"There are two of those," he said. "We can see who wins this time."

"Let's have siblings at one table," Heather recommended.

The others were fine with this, so they split up accordingly. There was a tense silence as the groups waited for the pucks to pop out of the tables. Almost immediately, Fishlegs shrieked when Astrid and Snotlout started their battle. Hiccup ducked a few times as well when the pucks nearly went airborne.

"Okay, I lose," Fishlegs conceded, moving back.

Hiccup tried to hold out a little longer, but he soon realized that the two of his friends were much better at this than he was.

"I'll just congratulate the winner," he said, joining Fishlegs before they could take him out.

Snotlout's eyes were locked onto his targets, but whenever he looked at Astrid, she would have a cocky smile that distracted him.

"Why do you look like that?" he asked, confused.

His eyes widened when he noticed that a puck had slipped past him.

"That's why," his friend answered.

Astrid got a little too happy and was not able to block the next one from him. This continued as nothing short of chaos ensued at the other table. Heather wondered why she sabotaged herself the way that she did. Somehow, she willingly was near Dagur and the twins as they played air hockey. The pucks were flying by so quickly that it almost made her dizzy. She barely knew who was winning, only hearing random noises of displeasure or triumph.

"Might as well sit this out, Heather," Ruffnut taunted. "The little siblings should just give up."

Tuffnut frowned. "You're only a few minutes older!"

"Still older, little bro."

This distracted the blond even more and let several more pucks be shot in his spot. At last, the air stopped. Heather breathed out a deep breath.

"I survived," she said.

Her eyes widened when she still saw a challenging look on the others' faces.

"It's over, isn't it?" she asked.

"No way," Dagur said. "We've still got some pucks."

Heather lifted her hands in surrender. "I'm letting you have this."

With a mildly intimidating look from Ruffnut, the boy twin went over with her.

"I think I am too."

Heather glanced over, seeing that Hiccup and Fishlegs had done the same thing.

"Next time, we should split up our teams differently," she said.

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, those four can fight it out."

He and the other three had an entertaining show as their friends finished the competition. Astrid and Dagur emerged the victors, looking like they had just won the Olympics. Afterwards, the kids split up again, picking new challengers. Heather and Ruffnut went against each other in the jump rope game, Dagur and Astrid competed for whack-a-mole, Hiccup and Tuffnut did a baseball game, and Fishlegs and Snotlout went to a skeeball. Time passed and the friends were having an absolute blast. As it got later, they came together to compare their earnings.

"Okay, how many tickets did everyone get?" Heather asked.

The twins deviously looked at one another before holding out their hands. They had about twenty more rolls of tickets than everyone else.

"You must have cheated or something," Dagur said, not believing this for a moment.

"You never said how we had to get the tickets," Tuffnut stated, grinning. "A half hour ago, we found a way to get into some of the machines."

"Okay, well since you both are disqualified for cheating, I think Heather's the winner," the older boy said.

The twins looked discouraged. "But she doesn't have the most," Tuffnut said.

Dagur handed his tickets over to Heather. "Out of everyone who didn't cheat, she does."

Smiling, Hiccup handed his friend the tickets as well.

"You guys don't have to do this," Heather assured them.

"It's your birthday," Fishlegs reminded her, also handing her the tickets.

"When it isn't, expect a real challenge," Astrid promised, joining in.

The twins gave Heather their semi-stolen tickets as well. Snotlout was protectively cradling his tickets like they were his babies. When he saw the others looking at him, he sighed.

"Only because it's your birthday," he said, looking pained as he gave up the prizes. "I just hope you'll remember how nice I am the next time one of you gets mad at me."

"I'll remember," Heather promised. She started to smile. "I know what I'm going to get with these too."

She led the others to the back of the arcade with the prizes. With all the running around, something had caught her eye. Heather had enough tickets to get it. The employee saw her with all of those, eyes widening.

"Someone had a successful day," she said.

Heather grinned. "Can I use these to get the gumball machine?"

The worker nodded and accepted the tickets, trading them. She handed the machine over to the kids.

Snotlout scratched his head. "You could've gotten a bunch of prizes with those. Why'd you just get this?"

"Because these are all of our tickets and now, we can all have the gumballs."

This caused an excited cheer to go through the group. They happily ate the gumballs as they went to find the adults. Then the families went to get some burgers and fries from a nearby burger joint. They sang happy birthday to Heather when Fishlegs's mom came back from their car with a cake that looked amazing. It tasted just as good and was lemon with strawberry frosting. The birthday girl thanked everyone and hugged them when it was time to go back home. She was smiling ear to ear on the ride.

"This was really fun," she admitted, looking at her brother. "Thanks for pushing me to do something."

Dagur's eyes twinkled. "No problem. I always want you to have a special time."

There was something in his smile that made Heather feel like he was keeping a secret. When she glanced at the rearview mirror, she saw Ebba's eyes twinkling as well. This was made even more suspicious by the smile that Bo could barely keep off his face.

"What are you three planning?"

"Oh, nothing, Sweetie," the mother stated. "We're just glad that you had a good day."

Heather squinted at the trio skeptically. When they reached home, she could not help but notice how Bo moved aside as soon as he unlocked the door.

"Birthday girls first," he said.

Heather unsurely entered the home and stopped in the entryway. Against a wall was a beautiful acoustic guitar with a red bow tied around its waist. Heather ran over to it, letting her eyes go all over the instrument.

"How-when-what? I've been wanting one of these forever! I didn't even tell any of you! How'd you know?"

"We know you, Heather," Bo said, chuckling at her excitement. "And you really underestimate how much Dagur watches you."

Dagur laughed and grinned wider when he was given another hug.

"Now, you'll get to make your own music when you sing," he said. "When you're a famous singer, I expect front row seats."

Heather laughed. "You got it."

The girl turned when her head was bopped with a balloon. She saw her mother who had a devious smile.

"I think that this birthday should end with one more competition," the woman proposed, tossing another balloon at the siblings.

Dagur let out a wild cackle. "Us against them?" he asked, looking at the girl.

Heather looked at her parents, then nodded. "It's on."

The group began their last challenge of the day. It had been a great celebration. As she spiked a balloon at her dad, Heather could not help but think about how much she loved her family and friends. They definitely knew how to make her feel special.