Keith excitedly jumped out of bed, not wanting to waist a single moment. Today was his tenth birthday, and he had been promised that there would be a special present waiting for him when he got up. As soon as the energetic kit had changed out of his pajamas, he rocketed down the stairs. When he arrived at the kitchen, Keith found a lemon and white beagle puppy sitting on his chair. Keith squealed in delight and scooped up his new puppy. "Happy Birthday Keith! Do you like him?" Kai asked his son teasingly, knowing how much he had been wanting a puppy.
"I love him! Can I name him?" Keith replied holding his new friend against his chest lovingly.
"Of course, I couldn't imagine naming him for you." Keith paused for a moment trying to think of a name.
"I think I'll call him, Turbo." At that moment the puppy barked as if to say that he liked the name. Keith giggled and continued petting Turbo, while Kai reassumed baking breakfast. The quadruplets were soon down, each bringing a present with them. "All right, the doughnuts are ready. Remember, Keith gets first pick!" Kai told the kids before putting the doughnuts and six smoothies on the table. "Keith, don't forget to wash your hands first.
"I know Dad, it's been two years since the Holts got Brother, Auntie drilled it into our heads within the first few months." Keith replied, remembering how they had first met the friendly, but protective labrador. Katie had been kidnapped while at school and Brother was able to rescue her and bring her home. Ever since then he had been a constant companion for her, always alert in case of trouble and always ready to play when they wanted to play with him. Placing Turbo on the floor, Keith skipped to the sink to wash his hands and wondered how the two dogs would get along.
While he knew that Brother would never hurt the little puppy on purpose, Keith wasn't sure if Turbo would think of the gentle giant as a threat. After all, Brother was big even for his breed at two feet and five inches tall and Turbo was just a puppy. Dismissing that from his mind for the moment, Keith headed back to the table and snatched a doughnut. Before long, all sixteen doughnuts were gone, ending breakfast and Keith was ready to move on to opening his presents. "Hang on Buddy, we need to clean up first." Kai reminded him, causing the boy to pout a little before helping out.
"But then, it will be time for presents." Keith said impatiently.
"Yes, then presents. Don't worry, it won't take long." Indeed, it wasn't long before they were ready to move on to the presents and Keith could hardly sit still with anticipation. First, he opened his other gift from his dad and was surprised to see a knife inside. "It belonged to Mom; she left it here for me to give to you when you were old enough. Remember to be careful with it and to only use the blade to defend yourself." Kai explained, knowing that he owed them an explanation. Keith nodded understanding that it wasn't a toy, but still unable to find words to say.
Fingering the symbol, Keith could sense Krolia as if she were actually there and found it very comforting. Keeping the blade in his lap, Keith moved on to Kip's gift and discovered that it was a build your own robot Lego set. Next was a few How to Train Your Dragon comic books from Kelly, a tool set from Kyle. When he got to Kayla's gift, Keith noticed that it several wrapped gifts in it. "I've been saving up so I could surprise you with these." Kayla told him. Unwrapping the first one, Keith discovered that it was a cookbook that he could design.
This was something that Keith had been interested in trying to do that for a while now, he just thought that it would have to be in a notebook. The next one was a cookbook that had simple recipes that were easy to add onto or give unique twists on. And the last one was a kit for kids to learn how to make candy. Ideas were already flowing out of Keith's mind on what he would do with these gifts as he looked them over. "Thanks guys, I can't think of anything I would rather have gotten for my birthday than these. That is except Mom coming home."
"I know it's hard, but she's trying to get things worked out so that she can come home. If she could have helped it Mom would have never left. But for now, the kitchen is all yours for the day." Keith's eyes lit up at that and he was soon busy in the kitchen preparing to bake some cookies. Time flew by and before he knew it, was time for lunch. Once the kitchen was cleaned up, Kai started working on lunch, while the kids waited for the Holts to arrive. It wasn't long before Keith was opening the door to let them in and was surprised to see that his friends Pat and Jack had joined them. "We wanted to come to visit you on your birthday, so we arraigned to ride with them to surprise you." Pat told him with a big grin on his face.
"Thanks guys, I didn't see this coming at all. I hope there will be enough cake for everyone." Keith replied secretly hoping that there would be enough for him to get an extra slice or two.
"Don't worry, I knew that they were coming. There will be plenty of cake left over." Kai assured him knowing what his son was thinking. With that they settled down for lunch. They talked about different things while they ate and the kids were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Keith already knew that he wanted to fly and go to space, it was his greatest passion and felt like something out there was calling him. But Keith also wanted to keep up his music career when he grew up, plus there were other things that he was interested in doing. Like the possibility of owning a bakery, being an artist, a small wood working shop, or an animal rescue center. "I want to either film movies or go to space." Matt told everyone.
"I want to make videos for songs I write when I grow up. Maybe even work my way up to a full-length musical at some point." Kip answered thoughtfully.
"I'm going to be a racecar driver, just you wait." Kelly announced confidently causing the adults to chuckle.
"I want to run a ranch that allows kids to ride horses, and raise other animals as well. Either that or have a farm but not a meat farm." Was Kyle's sincere answer.
"I want to be a comic book writer and maybe a game designer." Kayla spoke softly not sure if she could make that dream come true. Everyone smiled at that knowing that the shy quiet girl would be great at those things if she were to try.
"I want to go to space and explore. Maybe I'll fly a ship and write about all of my adventures, or I could be part of Keith and Matt's team! I could also make different inventions, some that may save lives and write about them. Or, I could become a wilderness explorer and write about my encounters. Maybe I'll create a video game with a story and write books to go along with it, or I could write books and create a video game based off of them." Katie rambled until she started coughing. "I'm not going to let sickness slow me down." She added weakly after the coughing stopped.
"Nothing can stop you and your determination." Keith replied knowing how hard it was for Katie to keep pace with her class when sickness slowed her down regularly, at least it was getting better as the years progressed. The cake was soon brought out and Keith was happy to see that it was catnip flavored with cream cheese frosting, which was his favorite. By the time that they had finished eating, Turbo had found the time to tear some of the wrapping off of each of Keith's presents from the Holts. "Turbo! Those aren't yours!" Keith called out moving the startled puppy out of the way to make sure that he wouldn't damage something.
Later when Keith decided to go outside and play with Turbo, he noticed that the puppy had something in his mouth. "What do you have there, boy?" He asked quickly grabbing the pup and opened his mouth. Apparently, he had found a bouncy ball and had taken it to chew on. "Sorry Turbo, you can't have that." After disposing of the old ball, Keith opened the door, but was stopped by the sound of his dad's voice. "I was just about to go outside with Turbo! What are you calling me for?" Keith called back before shutting the door and walking over to where he thought Kai was.
"I just thought you might like to see what Uncle Kris sent you." Kai replied just as his son rounded the corner.
"What is it this time?" Keith's uncle loved sending the kids different surprises that he was able to find on his travels and always saved the best for birthdays and Christmas. Now that they were getting older, Keith found that they were getting less and less toys and more grown-up things. His brothers and sisters had gathered around by now, each excited to see what their big brother was getting. It was a small box and rather lightweight, which only made Keith more curious. Opening it up, he was surprised to find a toy spaceship in it along with a slip of paper and eight tickets. Keith's eyes went wide when he saw that the paper said that it was an all paid for vacation on the moon! "Is this a joke?!" He asked his dad having trouble believing what he was seeing.
"Nope, my brother wanted to get you something extra special this year and thought this would be just the thing, he even managed to get them for a huge discount."
"When can we go?!" Keith asked getting eager to leave on the trip as soon as possible.
"We can go next week, I've already arranged it with your teachers and they will let you catch up when we return, which won't be hard." When Kai told them this the kits became frenzied unable to contain their excitement. That night, as Keith lay in bed with Turbo lying at his feet, he thought about what a wonderful birthday he had. It was going to be hard for him to get any sleep, since he was still excited from the day's events. The only thing that Keith felt was missing was the return of his mom and Nat, but other than that, he couldn't imagine having a better birthday. In fact, he felt like it was his best birthday yet.