"Adrien!"

   My feet thundered down the staircase from the second floor as I hurried down the steps after hearing my mother call my name. I had been working on her birthday gift for the past few hours, and my heart jumped when I heard her call me from downstairs. I reached the bottom floor while twisting my fingers in nervousness, hoping she wouldn't figure out what I've been planning to give her. 

I found her in the kitchen, standing in front of a huge red gift-wrapped rectangular box sitting on the dining room table with a surprised, yet pleasant smile. She turned when she saw me standing in the doorway and asked, "Is this the surprise you were talking about the other day?"

I shook my head before answering, "No, my gift for you isn't even that big." I tilted my head curiously as I walked around the table, examining the box. "I wonder who it came from."

Mom chuckled as she rubbed circles on her pregnant belly. "Looks like I have a mystery gift giver this year."

"If you asked me, Mom, I'd say that's kind of creepy," I remarked. "We don't even know what's in it."

"Well," she began thoughtfully. "I don't think it's from your father, because he gave me his gift last night...the earrings, remember?"

I nodded. 

She placed her hands on her hips as she continued to stare at the box with a puzzled expression. "Maybe it's from a family friend."

"Probably," I said. "But maybe you should..like..take a few steps back and I'll open it to see if there's anything suspicious in there...just in case."

Mom laughed as she rustled my hair, her emerald green eyes sparkling. "Don't be silly. I'm sure there's nothing in there that'll hurt me. Besides," she said as she narrowed her eyes mischievously, "I'm a daring woman."

"A pregnant daring woman," I told her nervously, reminding her that she might be possibly endangering her life...as well as my little brother/sister's. 

   Ever since she told me that she was pregnant, I started becoming insanely protective over her. I took care of all the heavy chores for her, I made special smoothies for her every morning, made dinner on nights when she'd oversleep and Dad was working long hours in the evening, always reminded her to buckle her seat belt in the car, made sure to have the TV turned off unless we were watching a movie (just in case there was anything on the news that could've shocked her), and double-checked every lock on every door and window before I went to bed at night. 

I don't know what exactly made me so wary of her well-being. Dad had told me it was normal for older siblings to react differently when there's a new addition to the family, but at the time, I labeled myself as completely paranoid. 

Mom gave the present one more look of curiosity before  attempting to pick it up off the table and place it on the floor. 

Unfortunately for her, her belly kept getting in the way. 

"I got it, Mom," I volunteered, wrapping my arms around the huge box before placing it on the ground. 

"Thank you, Adrien," she smiled gratefully. She began tearing the wrapping paper off and tossing it to the side, revealing a large cardboard box. 

After hunting for a pair of scissors, I helped her tear the tape from the opening and peeked inside the box. 

"What's in there?" she asked. 

I squinted, trying to get a better look. But all I could see was darkness.

"I can't tell. It's to dark to see,"  I said. 

I lifted my head from the opening, and she pulled the box closer to her before reaching her arm inside. She gathered her eyebrows with a confused expression before taking her arm out of the box. 

"It feels like some sort of cage," she remarked. 

After pulling apart the cardboard box, we discovered that it was indeed a cage...a white bird cage. 

Mom clasped her hand in pleasant surprise. "Oh my..."

"Yeah...but where's the bird?" I asked suspiciously. 

"Over here."

We both turned and saw Dad walk into the room towards us, a small blue parakeet resting on his outstretched index finger. 

Mom gasped, her eyes widened and her expression pure shock. "Gabriel..."

"I know, I know," he said, gently placing the delicate bird on my mother's shoulder. "I'm not very fond of animals, but since you wouldn't stop expressing how much you wished for a bird..."

"I thought you already gave her a present," I said with a knowing smile. For some reason, my father had a strange habit of giving two presents to people on different days instead of giving them both presents on the same day. 

He placed a hand on my shoulder with a chuckle. "Well, this one was took a while to prepare. I also had to make sure you mother didn't see it before she could open the cage." He then turned to face Mom. "Do you like it, Emile?"

"Gabriel," she breathed, her eyes completely enchanted as she stared at her new companion, who in turn curiously stared back with a tilted head. "She's beautiful."

 I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear at her reaction. 

Seeing her so happy felt so good. 

                                                    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  "Adrien."

I woke up to the sound of Marinette voice, my mind feeling somewhat heavy and my limbs aching from the uncomfortable position I was in from riding in the car for so long. 

Marinette was wrapped in a red and black polka-dotted fleece blanket, her midnight-blue hair loosely resting on her shoulders. The evening sun's rays poured into the car, making her skin glow.  It took me a minute to realized she had woken me up. 

"Uh, yeah?" I asked uncertainly, rubbing my eyes awake. Marinette pointed to the window with a smile, indicating that there was something I should see. I rolled down the window and looked outside to find a sign that said Hershey Park was just a few miles away. 

One of the many things my mom wrote to me about while she was on her trip. 

I rolled the window back up before turning to Marinette. "Thanks for waking me up. I could've missed it."

"No problem," said Marinette, spreading her blanket wide enough so that she could share her warmth with me. 

Sabine, who had just woken up too, looked around confusingly. "Did we already through Pennsylvania?" she asked with a puzzled frown. 

"No, darling. We're in Pennsylvnia," Tom laughed. "Don't you remember the welcome sign we passed by a few hours ago? We took a picture in front of it."

"Oh right," Sabine chuckled as she shook her head. "I forgot about that. I was just having this weird dream about Adrien's story..."

"You're obsessed with that story, Mom," said Marinette. 

Sabine shrugged. "You can't blame me for being interested in a really good story." She then turned to me and asked, "Think you can continue where you left off? I'm dying to know what happens next."

"Do you want to hear about the psychopath?" I asked. 

"Oh, as long as you don't make it sound too terrifying. Colette used to tell us spine-tingling stories of psychopaths, and I almost had a heart attack every time she did."

Tom placed a hand on his heart, a goofy smile plastered on his face. "Ahhh, Colette..."

Sabine slapped his shoulder with a laugh. "Don't you dare!"

So as we continued to barrel down Pennsylvania, I proceeded to tell them about the psychopath that mysteriously showed up at Nino's door. 

(A/N):

Anyone else completely shook  from the Oblivio episode? XD

Sup, my fabulous readers!

Ya gurl has finally blessed you guys with another chapter! I think this one was my favorite to write so far. Lemme know what you guys think by commenting below. Feel free to share and also click that little orange star up top!

Exams are next week ughhhhhh

But after that is spring break so yayyyyy :-D

Wish me luck! T-T

Anyways, hope you guys have a very awesome day/afternoon/night and I'll see you all in the next chap. 

Until then, STAY MIRACULOUS!! <3<3<3