Whilst, unbeknownst to Cat, most of her friends were devising dramatic situations to get themselves into The Wood spotlight, she had spent her evening cutting and sticking neon sheets of pink paper. In fact, she was using three shades of pink - one that could be described as hot pink, another baby pink, and (her favourite) a 'strawberry pink' sheet, one of many that her mother had taken from her work supplies to give to her obsessive daughter. Cat had squealed in glee at the gift, and within six months, had used almost all of the paper. However, some had remained, a fact she was more than grateful for upon realising that it was time to create her birthday party invitations.

Cat loved birthdays. They were just full of her favourite things: cake and presents and decorations and laughter and smiles and… people. Her friends. Her family. Focused on her and her happiness. Utter bliss.

She took great pride in scattering a healthy portion of purple glitter over each card, almost obscuring the instructions to turn up at her house the following Saturday, ready for cake, finger foods, and a fun little party. After all, a girl only turned seventeen once!

Of course, there were things she'd have like to have achieved by this point in her life. Obtaining her driving licence was one which Jade had been on her back about almost constantly until Toby had arrived. Also, her goal to get a little more confident in what she said and how she understood the world hadn't quite been successful. With Jade's backing, she'd been getting there, but now she just felt…

But that was negativity for another time. For now, she would enjoy the fact that her birthday was fast approaching and she would be able to celebrate with all her favourite people. She didn't need reality to go spoiling that, did she?

As it happened, reality manifested itself in the form of people. If Cat had read a little Sartre, she might have taken agreement with him when she entered her kitchen on the morning of both her birthday and her party to find… nothing.

There was no cake and no presents, but, more importantly, no people. A gnawing feeling in her stomach, Cat sprinted up and down the stairs, calling out for her parents and brother, but there was no reply. It seemed that she had awoken on her seventeenth birthday to an entirely empty house.

Cat re-entered the silent kitchen and thought hard. This was not what she had expected on her birthday morning, and she would be the first to admit that she wasn't the most adept at dealing with surprises.

Surprises…

Of course! It all made sense now - her parents weren't there because that was what she had least expected. And they'd put together a birthday morning that would surprise her, because they were throwing her a surprise party!

Cat suddenly beamed, looking around the room, as though someone was about to jump out, despite having already meticulously checked all the nooks and crannies of the house.

Now much more relaxed, she sat down to lie in wait for her surprise.

By twelve o'clock, the biggest surprise that she'd had was seeing a squirrel fall out of a tree outside her window. It had scurried along a thick branch, catching Cat's eye, before slipping and plunging onto the grassy floor below.

Cat had gasped and jumped up to check if it was okay, but before she could even think about heading outside, she saw its bushy tail once more snaking through the undergrowth. She had sat back down.

Her friends were supposed to arrive at one o'clock. If her parents were going to turn up, they'd have to do it pretty soon. She didn't want to think about what she would do if preparations weren't made within the hour. Suddenly, Cat started to cry.

In that moment, she realised not only that her parents weren't due to arrive, but also that they had not bought the snacks she had requested, or made the cake that she had promised her friends would be served at the party. It was an hour until people arrived and everything was completely and utterly messed up.

But an hour was a long time. In a haze of panic, Cat wiped ferociously at her tears and darted towards the stack of recipe books in the corner of the kitchen. Throwing open the first one she could find, she flipped the pages until she found a recipe for a standard vanilla sponge. It wasn't quite the red velvet she had been dreaming of, but for that there was no time. She rolled up her sleeves, raided the fridge and, after twenty minutes and many ingredients spilled over the kitchen counters and floor, the dishevelled mix was safely in the oven.

Now onto the party food.

There was a Target just a block away from her house, but in the interest of time, Cat still threw herself on her sparkly bike, streamers billowing in the wind as she hurried towards the store. With five minutes to spare, Cat returned, forehead glistening and Target's selection of mini sausages and halloumi dippers left barren in her wake.

She pulled the cake out of the oven, barely stopping to pull on mitts, and threw on a hastily mixed batch of frosting. The cake was a little burnt and the icing wonky, but it was there. Finishing her tasks by two trays of party food into the hot oven, Cat breathed a sigh of relief at having completed everything on time. It might not have been perfect, but she knew it was the thought that counted. And she'd put thoughts and prayers into all of this.

She'd sweated off the make up she'd so painstakingly applied in anticipation of her surprise party, but there was no time to worry about that now. She would have to wait for a quiet moment of the party to slip away and sort out her appearance. Not that people would mind, surely. It was her birthday, after all! If she wanted to look a sweaty mess then why shouldn't she?

With a quick wipe of her forehead, Cat sat down in wait for her friends.

She would be waiting for hours.

In fact, no one arrived. Not one person. Each time a car passed by outside, Cat's heart jumped, before falling flat once again when the vehicle only sped past.

Her phone lay silent on the table. No one had messaged her happy birthday. In fact, no one had messaged her at all, not even to explain why they hadn't turned up.

A solitary tear trickled down Cat's face. Even her grief was played out in silence.

By the time six pm rolled around, the pizza was cold, the rest of the food sweaty and unappetising, and the icing had slipped so far off the cake that it now looked like a lump of coal decorated with 'APP RTHDA'. Cat took one mournful look at her creation before throwing it in the trash.

She looked around at the remainder of the party supplies, taking in how utterly pathetic it all looked. Untouched snacks, zero decorations save for the split flour and egg shells left over from her baking exploits. Who would have even wanted to attend the party.

Deciding that the rest of the cleanup could be delayed, certainly given that there was no one around to witness it in any given case, Cat hurried upstairs and launched herself under her bedcovers. Clutching Mr Purple to her chest, she let her sobs multiply until she had fallen asleep, the wet tracks slipping down her cheeks evidencing a birthday poorly spent.

Meanwhile, completely oblivious to the upset on the other side of town, Cat's friends were having a whale of a time acting up in front of the documentary cameras.

If Jade, or really anyone of sound mind, had been there, they would have laughed incessantly at the incredible foolishness on display. It was as though all of the gang had lost their minds in the pursuit of fame. And not just them, either; fellow hordes of students had completely abandoned their weekend plans to come into school purely to act as extras in the commotion that the 'main people' were staging. To anyone else, it would've been ludicrous. To the kids, it was show-business.

"Now, Andre, I want you to shout at Beck for taking your role in the last school production!" The director called over to the boy in question.

"But I didn't even audition for the last production. I was in the band." Andre explained, confused.

The director shook his head. "That doesn't matter. This is reality TV - we say what keeps the viewers watching."

"Oh, right, of course." Andre replied, mentally slapping himself for appearing such an amateur. Maybe it was that niggling feeling that he had forgotten something. He made a note to check his grandma-related list of tasks in his next break.

"Okay, 3… 2… 1… action!"

Tori, having always believed that reality TV was just that, real, was quite stunned to discover that so much of it was stage. And quite how much - it seemed as though they were yet to film a scene that had not been manipulated by the producers in some way or another. However, perhaps what surprised her more, was just how believable and, ultimately, enjoyable it all was, despite this. She found herself getting entirely engrossed in Andre and Beck's faux fight, almost having to physically stop herself from jumping in at one point, when Andre had Beck in a particularly realistic headlock. Of course, there was the additional benefit of being on a TV set. Regardless of the format that was insanely cool.

Behind Tori, a phone went off, the same generic ringtone that had already trilled around the room a few moments ago, and a few moments before that. Tori doubted it was loud enough to ruin the take, but it was certainly annoying either way. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she waded over the various bags in the corner of the room and located the phone, sticking out of a black backpack. One look at the display told her whose it was.

The screen lit up with Jade, and surely there was only one person she called, even now.

"Hold! Whose phone is that?" One of the producers yelled irritably, shooting a look over to Tori's corner of the room. She looked up like a deer in headlights, seeing that there were a number of eyes trained on her, squatting with a ringing phone in hand. Beck's ringing phone. She had two options - she could name him as its owner, or…

"It's mine, sorry! I'll turn it off now!" Tori called back, quickly silencing the phone.

The producer rolled his eyes but said nothing to her, calling for the scene to be cut and everyone to take five.

Andre and Beck released each other from their respective grips and plodded over to Tori, laughing with each other about the scene they had just filmed.

Andre fast fell into conversation with Robbie, who had also sidled up to Tori, leaving Beck and Tori stood together.

"You didn't have to cover for me." Beck smirked, nudging Tori's hand, which still held his phone.

She gasped slightly and handed it over. "Sorry, here you go! I just- I didn't want you to get in trouble, that's all."

Beck mumbled a thanks, distracted as he looked at his screen.

"Everything okay?" Tori asked. It wasn't every guy's dream to be called multiple times by his ex-girlfriend when he was supposed to be doing his dream job.

Beck paused for a moment before looking up at her with a smile. "All good." He proclaimed, turning the phone completely off and depositing it back in his bag.

A producer called for a return to set, after not quite the five promised minutes. Tori turned to Beck, her cheeks flushed at such close proximity.

"Back we go." He said with a smile, and Tori almost melted there and then.

Things were in fact, not all good.

For Jade anyway.

Or namely Toby, who was whimpering softly, having wailed all morning at the oppressive heat attacking his immune system.

He and Jade had had a rough night. Toby had settled fine, but had woken up within the hour, and then again and again and again, much to the ire of all Jade's family members, and also the teenage girl herself, who lacked the walls that the others at least had between themselves and the sounds of crying.

At first Jade couldn't figure out what was wrong. He didn't want to take any milk, he wasn't hot, he didn't need to be burped or changed. She'd even checked whether he had any hairs trapped around his little toes, a ghastly tale she'd seen online, but they were also in the clear there.

But at around six in the morning, with both mother and baby functioning on almost minus sleep, an explanation had become apparent. Throughout the night, Jade had meticulously checked Toby's forehead with the back of her palm, her paranoia causing her to also break out the thermometer, the normal reading on which did little to assure her. However, at 6:13, when the reading flashed up as 100, Jade's heart rate spiked. Immediately, her mind shot to the emergency room. Toby would be so scared but they could help him out. He was on Beck's insurance so at least that wasn't a worry. After a moment, however, she levelled herself and took out her phone. Finding out that this was only a mild fever did little to dissuade her fears, and Jade decided against making any attempt to go back to sleep. Instead, she plied Toby with the exact recommended dosage of the medicine she kept by her bed, before taking up a post at the side of his crib, to watch for any changes in the behaviour of the sniffling baby. The following day was a Saturday, after all. It's not as though she needed to be anywhere. She ignored the obvious - that, even if she had, even if it was the most important event of her life, she wouldn't waste a moment before deciding it was worth missing to make sure her baby was okay.

By ten, Jade was growing increasingly worried, to the extent that she'd even sought out her mother to ask for advice. Katherine, having had her sleep disrupted by Toby, was exceptionally irritable, and gave exactly zero helpful advice to Jade. Her ultimatum of "either take him to the emergency room or don't and stop worrying about it" was a much harsher rephrasing of the internet advice Jade was already struggling to stomach. She and David had departed the house, sporting identical looks of aggravation, at eight am, making no secret of the fact that they were leaving to escape Toby's noise. Luke, in tow, at least had the decency to ask if his nephew was alright. Jade had given him a weak smile and promised him that she was looking after him and was going to make sure that he was okay. She would do everything in her power to fulfil that endeavour.

Taking out the thermometer for the tenth time in as many hours, Jade placed it under Toby's tongue, and, upon checking the reading, almost passed out. Online, every piece of information she had read had instructed parents to take their child to the emergency room if their fever was over 102.2. The glowing light on the thermometer read 102.5.

Immediately, Jade sprung into action. Momentarily ignoring Toby's cries to be held, she began to throw every item she deemed somewhat important into a large backpack.

Her eyes were wide and her breathing erratic as she raced around the room, throwing in pacifiers, diapers, spare clothes, cuddly toys - anything she could find that Toby might need or want for a stay in the emergency room. Once satisfied with her haul, she lifted the floundering baby from the crib, with a precision so contrasting to her hurried behaviour only seconds prior. Her precious cargo secured, Jade immediately headed for her car, encountering a scowling Amber on the way, evidently aggrieved that her oh-so-healthy college student sleep schedule had been interrupted.

After fifteen minutes and several ignored speed limit signs, Jade arrived at the ER, ready to take down any nurses who tried to make her wait to have her sickly baby seen.

As it happened, this wasn't necessary. After hysterically relaying his symptoms to the bored-looking lady at reception, Toby was quickly seen, and transferred to a different room for further monitoring.

Jade blurted out answers to numerous questions, barely hearing her own voice as her eyes remained transfixed on her baby. She didn't even notice the wayward stares of a couple of the nurses, and other patients, at the sight of an obviously rundown teenage girl caring for an emotional baby.

Toby was given medicine that Jade just about came out of her trance to check, and began to quieten down, although his forehead still felt as though it could burn a hole in Jade's hand. A doctor came in an out of the room frequently, checking something different each time. Jade wasn't sure what unnerved her more - the fact that they kept coming back, or the fact that they never said anything was wrong.

It took an hour before Jade thought of Beck. The whole time, she had been so utterly focused on Toby that she hadn't spared a single thought for anyone else. Despite the bag by her feet brimming with Toby's possession, the only item of her own that had accompanied her to the hospital was her mobile phone. It was on this, with a flash of regretful panic, that she phoned Beck.

She'd never forgive herself, first off, if something were to happen to Toby. But the additional guilt of not informing Beck straight away might kill her. He deserved to be cared for by both parents, even if they weren't together. He deserved to have the life that Jade had never had.

Beck's phone rang for a lengthy time, but this wasn't always unusual. She had, on multiple occasions, had to wait almost until the voicemail tone for her boyfriend at-the-time to pick up, at which point he would apologise profusely for having been in the shower or something equally as mundane.

However, this was not the time for excuses. Jade simply needed Beck to pick up, and fast. The sooner he found out about Toby's condition, the sooner her son would be looked after, in his feeble state, by both parents. But Beck didn't seem to want to play ball. She called him three times, on each occasion letting the phone ring until its limit. Each time he didn't pick up.

After her third attempt, Jade went to go for a fourth, when she saw that her urgent message, summarising the situation and sent straight after the first call, had been seen. Immediately, there was a speech bubble to signify typing.

Jade held her breath, hoping that Beck wouldn't be annoyed at being informed so late, and that he would be straight over. The speech bubble continued to animate, trickling over into the minutes, as Jade bit her lip nervously. Beck typing for this long could not be good news. Who knows how angry he would be - would he try and get more custody of Toby? Full custody? Jade shuddered.

And then the bubble disappeared. Beck had stopped typing.

Jade waited a couple of minutes to ensure that there was no mistake, but nothing ever appeared. Beck had seen her text, read it, gone to reply, and then decided against it. Beck wasn't coming.

She was going to kill him.

It was this anger that fuelled her emotional turmoil over the next hour. Her heart rate seemed entirely unable to return to normal levels given the mixture of anxiety and frustration that was running through her blood.

She had to fight back tears every time she looked over at Toby, stripped down to his diaper, and flushed and sweaty, but finally sleeping. Every time she looked at him, she felt deeper the silence which surrounded her. She was the only other person in the room. How had she failed so badly that she was the only one Toby could rely on?

And then a sudden realisation completely catapulted Jade out of this self-pity, making her feel nauseous with disgust.

It was Saturday.

As in, Saturday, Cat's birthday.

It was nearly three o'clock, almost two hours after she had told Cat she would arrive at hers for the party that her best friend had been so excited about.

Jade's stomach lurched and she really did feel like she was going to be sick.

She had forgotten Cat's birthday.

She had wasted her time being so angry at Beck, instead of directing that energy towards herself. Here she was, alone in a hospital room, with her son whom she'd been unable to keep healthy, safe and with two loving parents, and meanwhile she'd completely deserted her only friend.

She didn't deserve Cat.

Hastily, she pulled out her phone and texted Cat a lengthy message, apologising profusely and wishing her the best for the party, only briefly explaining the emergency as her reason for missing it. It wouldn't matter to Cat anyway - the point was that she had promised to be there and she had broken that promise.

Jade turned her phone off and buried her face in her hands.

In that moment, she no longer hated Beck.

She only hated herself.