Today was my fifteenth birthday. That was such a crazy thought.

The first couple years I was with Marsh, we couldn't do much cuz of how everything was. Not that I minded since going to the carnival was enough for me. Coming of age was great. Not just cuz I got a raise but cuz of the new warmth we got to share with Alain and Duke and Ai. The others made last year great too even though we couldn't leave the palace.

What would they do this year? We could do more now, so I didn't really know what to expect.

I woke up around ten today so most of the others could have been up to anything while I was asleep. The only one who slept in like I tended to was Phoenix. Even then, he likely wasn't planning anything. I didn't think he even knew when my birthday was.

Duke came in soon after I woke up. He had a white plate in his hands.

It took me a minute to realize that it was a plate of pancakes. They looked so fancy. They were colorful and had a white layer beneath the sprinkles.

"Wow, Duke..." I gasped. "You didn't have to..."

Duke pulled a tray out of one of the drawers. "I wanted to. A young lady only turns fifteen once."

My face got so hot. I couldn't even talk.

He sat the food in front of me. "Enjoy it, kiddo. Happy birthday."

These sweet pancakes were so good. What on Engrada had Duke done to get them like that? No, better question. Where had these been all my life? If I could, I'd probably ask him to make them again next year.

"Ai sent this." He pulled a plastic bag out from underneath our bed. "She probably left you a note, but I didn't look, so you'll have to see."

Ai sent me something? What did she send me? Why did she send it to me?

Duke left, taking my plate with him, and shut the door behind him.

I pulled a note out of the bag.

Hi, sweetie. Happy birthday!

I'm not too sure what the others are planning to do for your birthday. Even if I don't get to see you, I wanted to be sure you got these. Daddy took me shopping since I needed new clothes.

I saw these and immediately thought of you. They're a little big on me, so I think they should fit you nicely. Hope you like them.

Enjoy your special day!

Love, Ai.

She sent me a black pair of pants. Whatever these pants were made of, they were so soft. These were gonna be great pants. They'd definitely keep me warm when I got cold. Then I found a silver shirt in the bag. It had a heart that looked like it was made out of flower petals. It wasn't as thick as the pants probably were, but it'd keep me warm.

She had sent me a dress, too. I was shocked. I hadn't owned a dress since I left home. When I left, I left with my school backpack, the clothes I had on, and one change of clothes. It was a good thing I didn't pack a dress. It wasn't practical for traveling girls to own dresses. It made it more difficult to move since no one needed to see a girl's underwear.

Actually, I don't remember wearing dresses much when I was little. I loved running after Zane. When I did, I needed to be in pants. Even after that, I didn't care to wear dresses much. I always felt like everybody had their eyes on me. I never liked that feeling.

There was a knock on the door.

"Yeah?"

Alain opened the door. "You weren't about to get dressed, were you?"

I shook my head. That thought hadn't really even crossed my mind yet. I hadn't had time to think about it.

"Ai sent you some nice clothes, didn't she?"

I nodded.

He knelt down so I could look him in the eyes. "We're going to go out later. We're gonna go to this event that's like the carnivals you went to back on Engrada. You might want to wear warmer clothes. It gets chilly at night this time of year."

I smiled. "Sounds great."

"You didn't want a party, right?"

I ran my fingers through my hair. "It feels weird when everybody focuses on you like that. I never liked it much."

Alain put his hand over his mouth. "I figured as much. I never liked that feeling." He got extra warm. It felt nice. "T and I are gonna have a party for our brother next week."

"His birthday is next week?"

"Yep. He's gonna be nineteen like me and Marshall." That warmth was still there. I could feel Alain's love for his little brother. "T and I are gonna go all out for it since we haven't been able to have one for him."

I closed my eyes and smiled. "Okay. I know you wanna make it special for him. It really doesn't bother me. Everybody should get a big birthday at least once."

Phoenix deserved whatever his siblings were planning for him. The higher-ups did awful things to them. He deserved to have a great birthday.

Alain ruffled my hair. "I wanted to be sure you knew we weren't trying to ignore you. It wouldn't be nice if we let you think that." He looked up. "Oh, yeah. Remember that ice cream place you went to with Eni and Marsh?"

I nodded.

"We're gonna go by there before we go to the thing later."

"Okay."

Alain shut the door behind him.

We were going to a carnival! We were going to a carnival! I couldn't believe I was gonna get to do that for my birthday this year! I hadn't expected to be able to do that while we were on Earth.

***

Anyway, I decided to put on the new clothes Ai sent me. I was excited to wear them, and this seemed like a great time to do it.

We went around four to get ice cream. Marsh went with us for this since he wasn't going to carnival cuz he'd feel bad tomorrow if he did. We all went to the place I'd went with Marsh and Eni before.

I got vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. Phoenix picked chocolate like he did last time. Marsh had some flavor I hadn't seen before. Alain got some with peanut butter in it. Recah went for cookie dough and Tiana had something called cotton candy.

Phoenix was so happy to have the ice cream. That made me extra happy. How could anyone not be if they saw his face?

***

We went straight to the carnival after that, so Marsh went home.

We stopped at the gate. Alain probably wanted to talk to us. He knew how this all worked since he was from here, after all.

"Okay." Alain took a breath. "Duke and Lie, I need you to stay together. Call us if you run into trouble."

Duke cracked a smile. "Aye-aye, sir!"

Alain and Recah turned their heads.

"We're going to get wristbands, so we don't need to keep track of tickets." Alain smiled. "Then we can go do whatever we want."

We went up to this window, so this lady could put white bands on our wrists. For some reason, she winked at me and Phoenix when she put ours on. Alain seemed to act like he didn't notice, but I wasn't sure.

We split up after that. I'm not too sure why, but Recah decided to come with us.

Something strange caught my eye. It was very tall, and it looked like people were riding carts on top of it. I wasn't sure if we had seen one back home or not.

I tugged on Duke's shirt and pointed at the thing I saw. "What's that?"

"That's a good question..." He furrowed his brows. "I think we have these back home. If we do, these guys probably still call it something else."

One of Phoenix's friends came up to us. I thought the guy with him was one of his brothers.

He smiled. "The word you're looking for is roller coaster. They can be pretty fun."

"It's Noah in case you forgot." He gave Duke his hand. Phoenix's friend knelt down a bit. "That looks really nice." He gave me a big smile. "Is it your birthday?"

I nodded. "Fifteen."

Noah smiled. "We're about the same age then. My birthday was a couple weeks ago."

Duke raised an eyebrow. "Mine was last month."

"Wow. Can I ask...?"

"Sixteen."

I wondered how old Noah thought Duke was. He was as big as Alain and Marsh even though they were older.

"I imagine you were gonna ask. Phoenix is around here somewhere with his siblings. You could probably text them."

Noah was so warm. I could feel how much he cared about Phoenix.

I jumped. "I wanna go on the roller coaster! Let's go!"

The brother laughed. "Let us come with you."

"Okay..." Duke raised an eyebrow. "Say... What is your name, anyway?"

"Oh, I forgot!" He had a nice smile. It reminded me of someone, but I couldn't remember who. "I'm Ran. Star and Noah are a couple of my brothers."

"Duke."

We followed them to this gate. Two kids who looked like they were the same age as Alain and Marsh whispered with Ran a little bit before they let us in.

We were the first ones on the roller coaster. Ran and Noah got on behind us.

One of the people from the gate put this black bar over us. I guess it was to keep us in the roller coaster.

The roller coaster went so fast. I liked how it blew through my hair. It felt so strong and a little scary, but I liked it. It was over in a blink. I wanted to do it again.

Duke didn't look very good when we out, though. Ran grabbed him, so he wouldn't fall. Duke also threw up in the nearest trash can.

I felt bad for Duke, but I wasn't sure if there was anything, I could do to make it better. He was like this whenever we teleported places, too. It didn't look like fun...

"W-where did Recah go?"

Noah had his phone out. "She went with our sisters. She's fine. She told your friends, too."

That was good. We didn't wanna leave her out of our fun. I just got excited.

"I'm gonna go see Eni."

Ran said, "Have fun!"

"You wanna go again?" Duke asked.

I shook my head. I didn't think he could do that again. He might end up like Marsh at the carnival if he did...

"You don't do well with teleporting, do you?" Ran asked.

"How could you tell?"

"People that get motion sickness tend not to do well with it, so I kinda figured..." He pressed on Duke's wrist. "I could take her if she wants to go again. Just take a breather."

After that, this turned out to be a great carnival. Duke and I had a lot of fun doing other things. He even won me a stuffed kitty!

***

:D Sweet little Lie is fifteen! Thoughts on her birthday fun? Noah and Ran? Theories? Predictions?

~Shino out!