Unsuited

| Chapter 11 |

Callie shook it a bit. It rattled loudly. "Should I be scared?"

"Always," Bee said seriously, "-But not this time because it's your birthday!"

Callie laughed. She tore open the box to find the source of the mysterious rattling. Tied loosely with a lightly patterned brandishing ribbon, were a set of small spoons. Off to the side of the colorful box, was an equally obnoxious card.

'Callie,
You're cool.
I like eating ice cream with you and stabbing you. Wow, sounds like I'm buttering you up to kill you. This was supposed to be a nice card but oh well. I'm not rewriting this, because I only have one card. And don't think I'm spending another two dollars on one!
Sooo...

Happy birthday, Shortie♡'

"Lovely card, Bee," Callie commented.

"Thanks. I try." Bee patted herself on the back.

Soon after, another present was given to her by one of the unknown relatives. Inside the bag was a pale pink baby's outfit.

"Last time I saw you was sixteen years ago..." they muttered. "Since then you've gotten SO BIG!"

"Um... thank you...?" Callie placed the outfit back in the bag.

"Yeah. You can just regift it," they shot her a half-hearted smile.

"Right."

"This is awkward," Savanna commented. "I'll give you my gift. Close your eyes."

Skeptical, Callie asked, "Why do I need to close my eyes?"

"I ran out of wrapping for the whole thing."

"Whole thing...? Is it that big?"

"Don't ask."

Callie, a bit unwillingly, closed her eyes. As something was placed before her, she was told to open them. When she did, Callie found a lamely wrapped fork before her. Only the prongs were covered in a thin layer of Christmas wrapping.

"I wanted to give you something useful. Now you can affectively stab your enemies. Also, you can have a free soul-infested coffee at In a Cup." Savanna shot her a thumbs up.

And Callie was next handed two gifts. One from her mom and the other from Maria. Callie opened Maria's cylinder-shaped gift to find a white candle.

Oooh, I love, love, love candles! My favorite is vanilla laundry mountain oasis lemon spring. Because that's definitely a name for a candle. Yep. I didn't just mash generic candle names together. Definitely not.

"You remembered!" Callie gasped. The crowd of confused faces convinced her to explain. "I had a white mocha kiss candle that I absolutely loved, yet I completely used it. And here is another one. Thank you, Maria!"

"You're welcome, dear."

Next, it was her mother's gift. It was a small, wrapped, rectangular object. Under the paper Callie found box of matches. She looked at her mother with such confusion it was almost embarrassing.

"For the candle," her mother started before walking away with teary eyes.

Callie stared at the matches and just sighed.

                         «<•>»

Guests left, decorations were being taken down, food was swept away, and the party was over. Yet the day wasn't. There were still a few more surprises left.