Chapter 86: Birthday!

Tuesday, April 20, 1982

In a development that I didn’t even try to pretend was a surprise, the gang got cake and ice cream for my birthday. They sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and made me wear a party hat.

It was a good time. I enjoyed it. I’m certain my sixteenth was absolutely nothing like this before, though I really can’t remember it very well. That, by itself, says it wasn’t anything like this.

Jasmine provided a first that I was not expecting, however. Not that we did anything new, exactly. But it was the first time she drew a straw. Birthday present, don’t you know? We would continue to draw straws only seldom, since we had a perfectly good place and everyone knew it. Jimmy and Connie were still drawing only about half the time. They had an iffy place, but it worked for them. Angie and Gene had a back seat, in a pinch. Mike and Sarah had Mike’s room. Mel and Cammie, Cal and Andy, and Emily and the Wonder Twins relied on the guest room as their only real outlet. Sue? Quite possibly soon.

Jasmine and I very much enjoyed our nap. Very much. There’s never a bad nap with Jasmine.

9:30pm

Angie slipped in and pouted.

“What’s wrong, sis?”

She unzipped her PJs.

“I wore my birthday suit in your honor, but if I keep it on, Mom would be a major party pooper.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

She zipped up again, hit the lights, and climbed into bed, rubbing noses.

“Happy Birthday in advance.”

“Thanks!”

“I know it wasn’t exactly you two years ago, but for me, I feel like it, sometimes. And your birthday was really special for me. I don’t know if you exactly know that.”

“I have weird half-memories of a conversation where it got mentioned.”

“I was looking for cards for your birthday. I felt like I had to pick. I could pick ‘cousin’, and I didn’t want to. Or I could pick ‘brother’, but you weren’t, not yet. Or I could pick neither, which was a little weird, because there aren’t cards for ‘nearly brother’ or ‘more than cousin’. I grudgingly went with the ‘someone very special’ card, because, well, you were. Much less special than later, but still, very special. I wanted so much to give you ‘brother’, and I bought the card, but ... that would have made your birthday all about me, which would have been rude.”

“I get that. Every day is all about you, though.”

She giggled. “Now it is! Girls rule! But then? I couldn’t do that. But now I can, because now you’re my brother and you always will be. Well, unless we keep doing this and try again a different way.”

“We’ve got a long, long ways to go with this life. I’m in no rush to find out if we keep doing this.”

“I sure hope we don’t! I feel like we’re getting it right. Or more than right enough.”

“I do, too. It’s hard to imagine things going more right. Oh, little tweaks, but every one is also fraught with issues. If we helped Mel earlier? But the timing might have been wrong. If we’d helped Candice earlier? But she could have denied it and not gotten help. And we would never have met Jane. And on, and on.”

“I’m loving the journey. I’m eternally grateful to whatever sent us here. Even if we wind up with some big job to do later, it’d be special to even have a big job to do.”

“Definitely.”

“Sleep time, birthday boy. It can’t be as big as last year’s, but it’ll be big.”

“It will. Love you, Ang.”

“Love you, Steve.”

We kissed, rubbed noses, then snuggled in to sleep.

Wednesday, April 21, 1982

My day was filled with birthday wishes. They started first thing in the day when Jessica jumped me — literally — and gave me a birthday kiss. Jasmine jumped me the second Jessica disengaged and gave me an even better birthday kiss, one that got us a warning from one of the teachers watching the parking lot. I found out later they had collaborated on the order, so, no cat-fight.

Then a succession of cheerleaders each wished me a happy birthday, along with a succession of Drama girls, and Debate girls, and friends, and girls I didn’t even know. Most of them involved hugs. A number involved cheek kisses. A good dozen involved kisses on the lips, including both Mel’s and Cammie’s. And Janet’s! Not Lizzie’s, but a kiss on the cheek from Lizzie was pretty special.

Words barely exist to adequately contrast this to my first go-round. I probably received more kisses this time than the number of people I even really knew in high school the other time. Night and day difference.

After school, Mom and Dad opted for tradition, and I had no complaints. We did rehearsals, then headed for Brennerman’s, blowing off dance and movement.

Angie and I split crab cakes, steak, and a lobster tail. I feel certain she got more lobster. I had no problem with that.

Mom and Dad had already made it clear that there would be no presents as big as last year’s. How could there be? What were they going to do to top cars and hardship licenses?

I caught Mom’s eyes as she watched us cutting up bits of steak and lobster and trading them back and forth. I knew she’d had concerns, serious concerns, about whether we’d crossed the line, or would. But, now, she trusted that we hadn’t, and wouldn’t — at least, not yet, and not soon. That left her free to get misty-eyed at her children being so close. As they’d said again and again, they didn’t dare hope for more than that we’d simply not be at each other’s throats. Concerns or not, that we were very close, each other’s best friends, and did so much together? Beyond their wildest dreams.

“Happy birthday at school?” Mom asked.

Angie jumped in before I could. “A very happy birthday, I think!”

“Did something happen?” Mom asked, with a bit of smirk.

“Steve started the day with a birthday hug from the prettiest girl at school.” She glared at me. “No claiming she’s not!”

Mom laughed. “Since I know who he’d claim was prettiest, I’m okay with that.”

“Nah. I break it down. Angie is the prettiest blonde, Jessica is the prettiest cheerleader. Jasmine is the prettiest girl in Drama and the prettiest girlfriend. Everybody wins.”

Mom snickered. “That works until they compare notes. Then you lose!”

“I’m up front about it. Witness Angie’s comment.”

“Anyway, so. Jessica started the day with a hug and a kiss. Then Jasmine. Before you worry, the two of them planned it. Then most of the cheerleaders...”

“Not even half!”

“ ... many of the cheerleaders got in the act. And all the girls in Drama and Debate.”

Mom and Dad both shook their heads. “Never would have seen this coming!” Mom said. “Also, wasn’t there a girl in Debate that didn’t like you?”

“Cindy, but she’s left. She has study hall now,” Angie said.

“Credit — or blame — goes to Jessica. If she hadn’t invited me to Sadie Hawkins, it’d have been a much smaller number of girls,” I added.

“Nah,” Angie said, smiling. “Credit goes to you. If you weren’t who you are, she wouldn’t have invited you, and people like Lizzie wouldn’t have hugged and kissed you.”

“I suppose you have a point there.”

“Sounds like it was a good day, anyway!” Dad said. “I didn’t have any days like that in high school!”

“Good!” Mom said.

“You didn’t know me then. I could be excused.”

“True enough,” Mom replied, grinning a little.

Angie and I finished our last bites of steak as the conversation slowed. “Mom and Dad, may we go walk in the garden a bit?” Angie said.

“Sure, honey,” Mom said.

We got up and went out, holding hands.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” I said, chuckling.

“Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time,” Angie smirked.

“I’m not sure what crime you’re referring to.”

“Being irresistible.”

“I’m pretty certain I can be resisted.”

Whap! “You know what I mean.”

“Fine. I do. Still not seeing it.”

“That’s okay. It’s for girls to see.”

“I’m good with that.”

“Smart boy.”

“So ... any thoughts on presents? They can’t match last year.”

“No idea. I think, in a lot of ways, not being under house arrest and having the freedom to date is a terrific present, considering.”

“You have a point there. They can subcontract out the presents to Jasmine, and Sam, and Lexi, and Sheila, and Megan, and Jessica, and Mikayla, and...”

“They are all definitely a gift.”

“About as romantic a comeback as you could manage, big brother. Let’s go see what they have in mind.”

We went back in and sat. Good timing, too — or they’d been waiting. Our waitress brought over a cheesecake with candles, and she and several other members of the wait-staff sang ‘Happy Birthday’. Then she gave me a kiss on the cheek. I guess maybe Angie had a point? Mom seemed tickled pink, in any case.

Dad was amused, too. “The student has become the master!”

“You were never that good, dear,” Mom said. “Thankfully!”

Everyone had a bite of cheesecake. Mom and Dad handed me a card, and Angie handed me one, too. Hers was special: she’d saved the ‘brother’ card from two years ago. Mom and Dad’s was nice, and funny, but had no pictures of cars or the like.

Mom took the lead on things after the cards. “We talked quite a lot about what to get you, honey.” Dad nodded along. “You seem ... very content ... with things. No requests for computers or calculators or gadgets. You manage money well and pay your own way for books and music and gas and so forth. Clothes, too, though of course we’ll buy most of your clothes. But, fancy dresses and shoes excepted...” I got a significant look on that, even far after the fact. “ ... clothes aren’t really presents. We can’t do cars and hardships again. We’re already doing the summer program, and we could claim that, but that wouldn’t be much. The same with the summer trip. We’ll buy souvenirs and such, but that’s not much of a present.”