"CLAIRE I AM GONNA KILL YOU!" Will yells as he chases Claire across the lunch tables, as they both jump up from the seat of the table onto the tops.
Claire jumps elegantly from table to table and yells back to Will, "I HIGHLY doubt that!"
"IM BEING SERIOUS THIS TIME!" Will yells furiously, as he almost looses his balance on the table top and almost falls off. Heather walks past them and Claire almost steps on her head as she jumps to the next table. Heather squeals and rushes away quickly.
"UG! You almost ruined my hair! I just got it done, mind you!" Heather shouts, patting her hair making sure that no strand was out of place. For months Heather has been here... And great fully, she hasn't messed with the Wonderland children as much as she may had hoped to do.
"Not my problem!" Claire snickers as she jumps from the table top, making a loud creaking sound, and onto a tree branch. Claire lies on the branch, with her leg hanging off, and her elbow resting on the branch with her head in her hand. Claire smirks, devilishly, as she watches Will try to get up to the tree.
Will squats to jump to the tree, and the bench below him creaks massively.
"That doesn't sound good," Claire laughs.
Before Will can take one foot off the bench, the entire table collapses inwards, and Will tumbles to the ground in the center of it all. Claire bursts out laughing.
"HA! Serves you right!"
"I didn't do nothing to deserve this!" Will grunts as he tries to get up from the mess.
"Oh really?" Claire snorts.
"YEA!" Will shouts
"Whatever... Have you seen Double A?" Claire asks Will.
Aaron's new nickname was Double A... For two reasons, one being the fact that he has two A's at the beginning of his name. The second reason being that he was looking for batteries for his remote controller for the TV, and he couldn't seem to find them. Aaron then asked the others, "Have you guys seen the Double A batteries?" As they burst out laughing, they seemed to believe that was the perfect nickname out of the bunch that they had tried to come up with.
"No idea... Probably in the room reading. Where else would he be?" Will shrugs, as he brushes himself off as he finally gets up.
"Great!" Claire says, jumping down from the branch and parkouring off of his shoulder and onto the ground, elegantly.
Will tumbles to be ground once more, "CLAIRE!!!"
Claire rushes to the dorm to go prank Aaron on this special day. Will gets up and Heather walks over to him... Well not really, she walks over to the side of the table to watch Claire run off.
"You know, I really don't understand how you can still be friends with her. She's such a brat," Heather scoffs, smugly.
"Trust me, I've met bigger brats than Chesh," Will heaves as he finally gets out of the mess he and Claire had made.
"I could hardly say otherwise." Heather laughs at Will, for being in the mess, and his hinted response.
"Seriously?" He asks, crossing his arms.
"Yes... And- PHEW!" Heather says brushing her nose with her hand, "You need a bath! You smell absolutely, horrid! What have you been doing?"
"First of all, I literally just got out of a pile of broken wood from a lunch table. Second, I smell like this everyday. Have you smelled yourself lately? You smell horrid," Will says waving a hand in front of his nose, exaggerating.
Heather smells her sleeve. "But I smell like Lavender..."
"Exactly." Will smirks as he stuffs his hands in his pockets and walk away.
Heather stops her foot on the ground angrily, and storms away to go get her nails done to calm her nerves.
-----
Claire sneaks into the dorm room where Aaron was passed out on the couch with a book on his head. Claire sneaks around to the back of the couch and makes a bucket of water appear. She raises it above his head and-
Takes the book off his head so he doesn't kill her afterwards for ruining his book.
Claire turns the bucket over, and dumps the bucket of iced water on top of Aaron's head. Aaron jumps out of the bed suddenly after being drenched and almost hits the ceiling. Claire snickers and disappears in a small puff of purple smoke.
Aaron puts his hands on his heads and yells, "CLAIRE!!!!!"
Aaron stands up and walks to the bathroom, just as Will walks in, tracking dust from the mess outside into the room.
"Just because it's April 1st does NOT mean she gets to prank us!" Aaron heaves from the bathroom.
"That's the gift for herself," Will sighs as he sits on the couch.
---------
Ben and Mal are walking out from the thrown room and Claire appears in front of them both.
"Ben... Maybe we should go this-" Mal starts to say, until Claire snaps her fingers with a smirk.
A giant bucket of glitter and mud falls a top their heads and drenches both of them. Ben groans and clenches his fists. Mal simply stands there with a disgusted look from all the glitter.
"REALLY CLAIRE?! You can't just do that to everyone!" Ben shouts.
"Hey, I don't." Claire laughs.
"REALLY?! I have had enough! First you break the lunch tables, there is a leak in the floor from Aaron's dorm and now this?! Come on! You know better than this!" Ben yells, crossing his arms.
"Ben, it's ok..." Mal says trying to wipe the glitter off of herself.
Claire frowns a bit, "Hey, it's just a prank. It's April 1st."
"You know better than this, Claire." He growls.
"Well gee, do I?" Claire crosses her arms, almost mocking him.
"Claire!" His tone gets louder, and rougher.
"Ben..." Mal tries to pull him away, but Ben stands perfectly still.
Claire groans and rolls her eyes.
"Just because you are KING... Doesn't mean I have to listen to you EVERYDAY." Claire whines.
"Actually, it does."
Morgan skips up the steps and stands next to Mal. "Oh, sweetie... You seem a bit disheveled."
"Yea, I wonder why." Claire rolls her eyes once more.
"What's going on?" Morgan asks curiously as she steps back a bit to avoid her shoes getting stuck in mud and glitter. Morgan of course had just gotten a new pair for her own birthday on March 27th.
"The King seems to be agitated to day... More than usual." Claire growls.
"Claire... Get to your dorm, and stay there. If you come out of the dorms once more today... There will be punishments," Ben says forcefully, pointing to the dorm building.
Claire frowns, "FINE."
A cloud of pink smoke poofs Claire out of sight and to the dorm. Claire paces in her dorm as she waits for someone to come rescue her from her time out, which she highly doubted would happen.
---
"Bennnn..." Morgan says, annoyingly tapping on his shoulder as he crosses his arms.
"What?" Ben asks.
"Um... That was a really bad idea. Or decision... Or command... Whatever that sort of thing you do as a King is." Morgan says counting on her fingers as she lists the synonyms.
"Why?" Mal asks.
"Because it's April 1st."
"And?" Ben asks.
"Her birthday, genius!" Morgan announces, as if it was obvious.
"It's her birthday?" Ben's eyes widen. "How did we not know this?"
"Well, in Wonderland most everyone knows when her birthday is. It's the only day of the year where she gets to do whatever she pleases without getting in trouble. She normally does whatever she pleases anyway, but today is the day that she goes crazy over it. It's like a mad frenzy." Morgan giggles, "Puns."
"That's it?" Ben asks, "they don't do anything else for her birthday?"
"Nope."
"Sounds like Isle of the Lost... Except we would just have like some sort of small birthday party. Evie would often have some sort of huge birthday party," Mal replies.
"I feel bad now..." Ben says scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed.
"I'm sure you do! But now since you did it, you kinda have to fix it." Morgan says, shrugging her shoulders.
"I will! I have to!" Ben announces, becoming more sure of himself.
"Us Wonderland folks haven't had a real birthday party for a while. The one for my birthday was amazing though! The first one since I was 5!" Morgan explains.
"We need help if you are gonna make it up to Claire." Mal says to Ben, tugging on his suit sleeve.
"Yes! I'll get the boys!" Morgan squeals and rushes away.
"I'll get my spell book..." Mal smiles at Ben.
"We have to fix this..." Ben sighs as they both part ways to create the best birthday party they could make.
---
Will knocks on Claire's dorm room door thinking she'll open up.
Instead, the door opens and a pillow flings out and smacks him right in the face. The door slams shut immediately afterwards.
"Claire... It's just me," Will groans as he tosses the pillow off his face.
"Oh..." Claire opens the door again and Will sees a mess of a room with feathers everywhere. Feathers from the pillows though, of course.
"What happened here?"
"Anger management club."
"Haha, very funny." Will says sarcastically.
"What? I'm slightly serious," Claire points out.
"Where does the slightly come from?"
"Well your stepping in it. I would think that is a pretty big slightly if it even is one..." Claire grumbles.
"Hey it's alright, how should they know it's your birthday? I know I wouldn't if I were them. The only reason they knew it was Morgan's birthday last year was because she yelled it out at least three times a day the week before. You on the other hand, don't really say much about your self."
"That was all English right? Everything you were saying?" Claire questions as she sits down on the couch with her feet propped up onto the coffee table.
"Yeah I think so. Were you listening?"
"A bit. You had some weird words so I didn't know if you were actually talking to me or not..."
"Claire, we are the only ones in the room. Who else would I be talking to?" Will sits down across from Claire on the large arm chair that was the only spot in the room that wasn't littered with pillow feathers.
"Hey us Wonderland folk talk to things that aren't even there all the time! And don't forget, I'm sneaky not smart."
"I thought people say 'I'm pretty, not smart.'"
"Same difference."
"But - Actually, I'm not going to fight with you on that. How long have you been in here making a mess?" Will asks, crossing his arms across his chest as he leans back in the chair.
"Correction, I have been throwing a fit in here, not making a mess. Those are two different things. And I've been in here for a few hours now. It's quite boring to sit in here after you run out of pillows to destroy."
"Ahuh... Well, come on." Will says standing up and holding a hand out to Claire.
"I'm not allowed out, dummy." Claire grumbles, crossing her arms across her chest in defiance and frustration.
"Correction, I'm not a dummy... And you are now. I pulled a few strings here and there."
"Why should I believe you?" Claire narrows her eyes.
"Because you have known me practically our whole lives and if I was tricking you, you would probably figure it out ages before I got to do it. Plus, tricking and pranking people is your thing... I tend to keep away and stick to my computer, of course." Will shrugs.
"Sounds about right... Where are we going?" Claire says as she takes Will's hand and stands up from the couch.
"Surprise."
"I thought you said you weren't tricking me?!"
"In my world, surprising and tricking people is two different things."
"Ug... Whatever," Claire growls as they both walk out of her dorm, heading towards the lunch tables that had recently been destroyed by Will.
"Are we there yet?" Claire bugs.
"No," Will responds.
"Are we - woah..." Claire stops on the steps of the stairs entering the lunch pavilion to take in the scene before her.
Purple and pink balloons were tied to every tree and table in the lunch area and at least a dozen people were there with birthday hats on that looked like they had gone through the trash and back with nearly every color coated on them. Purple streamers were overhead with Carlos tangled up in one of them, hanging upside down in the middle of the table. Even the table that Will had recently broken had cleared out and replaced by colorfully wrapped boxes piled on top of each other. All of Claire's closest friends were standing there, trying to hide under or near the lunch tables.
"What the - what is this?" Claire asks, laughing as she says so.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone yells as they jump up from being 'hidden' by the lunch tables. Carlos misses the jump by so much, he hits his head on the table before getting to his feet again. Dude licks his forehead to make sure he is okay, before moving on to go try and eat the birthday cake sitting on one of the tables.
"You guys suck at hiding, but this is a mega surprise! How did you guys know it was my birthday? And I thought I was on 'dorm-arrest'"
"Thank Morgan for telling them it's your birthday," Will explains.
"You were in on this?"
"Possibly. All I did was break a table to make room for a birthday present stack," Will shrugs.
Claire laughs, "Actually part of the breaking of that table was my doing."
"Great! Then you can pay for half and I can pay for half!"
"Darn it..."
"No worries! Let's just start this party!" Ben laughs as he walks up to Claire with a green and blue birthday hat on.
Claire's smile fades a tad as she sees him walk up to her, "And I'm guessing this was everyone's, but your idea?"
"Technically, it was Morgan's idea. But Mal helped me set it up for you. Classical too! No magic needed to set it up!" Ben tries to admit, proudly.
She quirks an eyebrow, "You are kidding, right?"
Ben shakes his head.
"But you put me on 'dorm-arrest'"
"That I did... But after that they finally told me that it was your birthday, and being the gentleman I am-"
"Mhmm..." Claire smirks a bit.
"Being the gentleman I am, I decided to throw on a proper birthday party for you. In addition to them telling me it was your birthday, they also told me that you hadn't had a real birthday since, well, ever! Birthday parties here in Auradon are stressed to the very point!" Ben tries to exaggerate.
"In Wonderland, I just got to do whatever the heck I wanted to do. I think that was much more fun than these so called 'birthday parties.'"
"Trust me, I think you will enjoy this one." Ben smiles as he leads Claire into the center of the party.
In the beginning of the day, Claire's birthday was exactly how she had always had it. The only difference was that she was now in Auradon, and the rules had changed. At the end of the day, her new friends now showed her what a real birthday was meant to look like. Spending time with your friends (and enemy if you include Heather, who attended the party as well) and just having fun. Claire's idea of fun was playing pranks on strangers and friends for the entire day. Now Claire's idea of fun is changing to something we all know.
"HEY CLAIRE!" Will shouts out as he throws a box wrapped in tin foil at Claire. Claire catches it with ease, but looks at him funny.
"What's this?" Claire asks.
"Birthday present."
"Two things... One, birthday presents aren't suppose to be wrapped, silly. And two, why is it in tin foil?" Claire tosses the box from one hand to the other as she inspects the poorly wrapped gift.
"According to these guys, presents are suppose to be wrapped in wrapping paper. I guess Wonderland was too crazy to even bother wrapping pranks and gifts in paper. Also, I wrapped it in tin foil because I was too lazy to go out and buy wrapping paper last minute. You're welcome."
Claire unwraps the gift and inside is a sketch book and coloring pencils. "What's this for?"
"Drawing," Will says pointing to the pencils.
"Yes I know that, but why would I want to draw?"
"Don't think I don't see you doodling in Aaron's literature. You are a good artist, Claire! Drawing it in his books won't do anymore." Will taps his temple, trying to look like he was thinking properly.
Claire laughs. Aaron decides to pipe in as he and Carlos bring the other gifts over to where Claire was sitting, "Yeah! I don't want anymore drawings of scenery in the middle of my books!"
"Even with this book, you are still gonna get 'em." Claire raises an eyebrow at him with a smirk.
Aaron grumbles under his breath and everyone else comes and pulls up a chair next to or in front of Claire to watch her open presents.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about the wrapping paper thing... But it takes up so much trash, and it takes forever to undo." Claire complains as she breaks into her 5th present from the bunch.
"Cmon, Claire, there aren't that many," Mal laughs.
"There are so many! What are you talking about?" Claire laughs.
Everyone laughs.
Best birthday ever.