You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

37

After he snapped a picture of me beaming at the camera while holding the balloon, each of them took turns standing next to me for a different photo. Finally, when I had taken pictures with all of them, I bent my head down and blew out all the candles in one breath. They all clapped. Melissa presented me with the plastic cake knife.

"Oh, yeah, here's the second part of your birthday gift!" From the bench on the other side of the stone table, Ashley picked up a giant colorful card with various scrapbook decorations put together on it. "It's your birthday card!"

"Thank you! I wasn't expecting this!" I took it from her and admired the group pictures of us they'd printed out and pasted on it.

Wow, these photos take me back.

"Yeah, that was the point," she said, smiling back at me. "Did our little kidnapping scheme surprise you, too?"

"I would probably have started screaming if I hadn't opened the door to see Melissa standing there," I said, laughing. "Sorry, but you guys probably won't win the Best Kidnapper of the Year Award."

Melissa held a hand up. "It's okay, I don't need a lame award like that."

I placed the card down on the bench beside me and asked Melissa to help me hold my balloon. I began cutting the cake. "You're only saying that because you wouldn't win it."

"Chelsea has a point," Ashley said, pulling open a sealed plastic packet of paper plates. "Anyway, you surprised us because Melissa was supposed to be fast enough to cover your eyes the moment you opened the door. I got caught off-guard and forgot to lower my voice."

Laughing, I lifted a thick slice of the cake I'd cut out and placed it on one of the paper plates. "I figured, but it was a nice try. Did you guys really have to use the lift, though?"

"We didn't want to risk you tumbling down the stairs if you missed a step," Ashley said. "We did kind of blindfold you."

"Would be hard to explain if anyone saw us, too," Melissa said. "We decided to take the risk since it is kind of late at night."

I handed the plate with the giant slice to Melissa.

"I really appreciate this. Thanks for planning this little surprise for me." I cut out another slice and transferred it onto another plate.

"School can be boring," Ashley said, taking the plate that I passed to her. "We wanted to spice it up a bit."

"What better way to do that than plan a fake abduction?" Derek added, placing his camera down on the table.

Pleased by the warmth that was bubbling up in my chest, I laughed. "You guys are the best."

Melissa swallowed the mouthful of cake she was chewing and said, "Of course we are."

After getting my own cake slice, I sat down at the table with the rest of them. While I read the birthday messages that they wrote for me on the card in colorful ink, Ashley and Melissa recounted the details of the 'kidnapping' deed they'd just performed to Derek.

The tiramisu cake was absolutely scrumptious, and I had a feeling that the company I was in was part of the reason.

When I got back to my room right before attendance-taking, the first thing I looked for was my phone. Melissa and Ashley had taken me down to the courtyard right after I had answered the door, leaving me with no time to grab my phone.

I found it on my study desk and was surprised to see that I'd gotten a text message from Nolan.

'I didn't know it was your birthday. Happy birthday. I hope you'll always stay happy and bubbly.'