"Come on Tris! It starts in twenty minutes!" Christina yells, pushing me through the living room.
"Do you have Nala and Izzy?" I ask.
"Yes Tris, stop worrying, we need to go!" She says, pushing me out the door.
I run to a new vehicle I got, a dark blue van, and get into the passenger seat. Nala is sleeping in her cat carrier, and Izzy is jumping around her tiny cage. Christina locks my door, and runs into the drivers seat.
"So did the girls set up the tables?" I ask, as she pulls out of my driveway.
"Yes, they got there an hour ago since I knew we would be late." Christina responds.
Izzy starts whining, so I reach back and take her out of her cage. She happily starts licking my face, making me laugh. Christina puts a hand over to pet her, while still keeping her eyes on the road.
Izzy curls up, as much as a corgi can, and starts to sleep on my lap. We reserved an small area of a convention building for the baby shower, and didn't invite too many people. Christina gets the leftover decorations out of the back of the van while I grab Nala and Izzy. They are getting so big, they are only a few months old. Since Nala is a Savannah cat, she is getting really big really fast, where as Izzy is still an itty bitty corgi baby.
I go into the room, seeing the only ones who arrived so far are Lynn, Lauren, Shauna, Marlene and my mom.
"Hey guys!" I say, setting Izzy down to go run.
Mom runs to me, squeezing my body in a bear hug, "I missed you sweetie!"
"I missed you too Mama bear!"
I let go of her, and watch as Izzy runs up to Lynn, jumping at her legs. She looks disgusting, nudging her with her feet. "It's a dog, Lynn, you pick it up and pet it." I laugh, walking over.
Lynn really does look so much happier with Lauren. Her face doesn't always look like she hates the world, and she is always kinder.
I pick up Izzy and bring her up to Lynn, "Hold her."
Lauren laughs at her fiance, "Come on babe, it isn't hard."
She takes her from my hands, and puts her on Lynn's shoulder. She look stiff at first, but smiles when Izzy licks her cheek. "See, she isn't a wolf."
Lynn laughs, pulling Izzy to her chest. I smile, watching her warm up to something so fast is almost alien, Lauren was really good for her.
"Tris, come get your cat!" Mom says, diverting my attention.
Nala is pawing at the door with her long legs. I run over, and open the door, and she immediately pounces into my arms. She is already bigger than any normal cat, so it is a little hard to hold her in my arms comfortably.
Marlene runs over to us, always a cat lover, and starts petting her. Nala purrs, and climbs into her arms. "You are such a pretty kitty, yes you are!" She gushes.
I laugh, leaving her to play with the cat. Finally, I get a good look at the set up. There are six tables, each with the decoration Christina picked out, and an open area for games. I don't know everything Christina planned, but I just have to go with it.
There is ten more minutes before people should even start arriving, and fifteen minutes after that is the official start time. I invited a few of my aunts and cousins, as well as some friends from various jobs. I am most excited about my best acting friend, Shailene Woodley. We always swore we were twins and Mom only took one of us, but there really isn't any blood relation. We still look exactly the same.
I also wouldn't be surprised if Uriah and Zeke showed up, and I really wouldn't mind. Tobias said he would come towards the end so he doesn't interrupt our girl time, but I know he just doesn't want to be in a room with so many girls.
"Tris, come help me set up the gift table!" Christina calls out to me.
I walk over, seeing there are already a few gifts there, probably from my friends.
"What do you need help with?" I ask, leaning onto the table.
"They are supposed to set their gift down and then they are supposed to fill out a baby name suggestion card, and draw a little onesie, but I don't know how to set it up!" She exclaims, as if it's the hardest task in the world.
I sigh, "Well, if you put the gifts that are already here on the left side, they will know to put them there, and if you line up the onesie papers and name cards like, four feet away, they will know to grab one after they set their gift down."
Christina shakes her head, "That is so obvious, I'm sorry I have pregnancy brain."
My eyes widen, "You WHAT!"
Her face goes pale...er, "Um, I uh."
"You are PREGNANT!"
Her cheeks blush, "Maybe."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I yell, slapping her arm.
She shrugs, "I knew you were going through a lot lately, and I didn't want to mess up your focus or whatever."
I cross my arms, "Christina you always tell me these things. First of all, how far along?"
"6 weeks"
"Does Will know?"
"Of course."
"Are our babies going to be best friends?"
"Of course!"
Shauna and Marlene obviously heard, because they run over and join me in hugging Christina.
"Okay, teenage girls, time to break it up. People are arriving." Mom says, pushing us apart.
I compose myself, still excited, and go to the front to greet people.
The first to come in is my cousin Abby and her little one, Aaron. She is a few years older than me, and married, so it isn't as weird of a situation for her. Aaron jumps around, twirling and laughing.
"How are you guys?" I ask, giving Abby a hug.
"Absolutely amazing! Aaron and I are so excited to see you, she has been talking about it all week!"
Aaron jumps up to me, "Hi Trissy!"
I smile picking her up, "How are you Aaron?"
She giggles, "Flantabulous!"
I laugh, "I am feeling pretty flantabulous too."
She jumps down from my arms, running to the middle of the room. Abby watches as her daughter dances, a pure ball of energy and adorableness.
"Thanks Tris! Where do I sit?" She asks.
"Just sit at the color table you think the twins will be." I explain.
She walks over to a blue table, letting Aaron dance around the room.
After greeting a few of my aunts, Shailene finally arrives. The second she walks in, I squeal and run over to her.
"Shailene! I missed you!"
"I missed you too Tris!" She yells, hugging me tightly.
We let go of each other, finally. "How are you and Theo doing?" I ask with a smirk.
She blushes, "We are doing great. Who would have thought after doing one or two movies together we would be dating!"
"Not only that, but Theo looks exactly like my T-Four."
She laughs, "We are exact copies! It's so weird! I'll go sit down, I am so happy to see you!"
She walks over to a pink table, next to my Aunt Tori.
A few more of my cousins come, adding a few more small children to run around like maniacs, and a few of my other actor friends come, like Zoe Kravitz, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q and some others.
Finally, everybody has trickled in, so I go sit down at a pink table, with the girls, and Christina walks up front, getting everything started.
"Welcome to my best friend, Tris Prior's, baby shower."
Ansel cheers, the only one, then looks down, embarrassed. I laugh, patting his shoulder.
"I have lot's of games to play, but first, we had chick-fil-a cater because Tris was craving their nuggets!"
This time everybody claps, I don't know who doesn't love their chicken.
"Pregnant ladies first, then kids, then I don't care." Christina says, running to the table filled with foods.
There are tenders and nuggets, and we have grilled and fried. There is a few giant bowls of fries after those, some salad, fruit, and condiments at the end. They did a great job setting everything up.
Christina gets a plate first, grabbing a full handful on nuggets. I can't say that was wrong, because I take at least half of a tray of them. I grab some strawberries and peaches, then sit back down.
I dig in, having been craving these all day. It's like they are cooked perfectly, just for me.
"Hungry?" Uriah yells behind me.
I scream, jump from my seat, and slap him across the face, "Do NOT scare me! And even worse, don't interrupt me when I am eating chick-fil-a!"
He burst out laughing, and walks to the gift table. I sit back down, agitated, and start eating again. Marlene is staring at me like I am a zoo animal.
"What?"
"You just ate twenty chicken nuggets in like five minutes."
"And?"
"Never mind."
By the time everybody is finished eating, I have had probably a full tray of chicken nuggets. At this moment, I am glad we got four trays of each.
"Alright everybody, I have a game for us to play!" Christina yells from the front, grabbing everyone's attention.
"This first game is just called, 'Don't Say Baby' I will hand out these pins, "Christina grabs a bag of pins with diapers on them, "And if anybody says the word, "baby" until we open presents, you can take their pins. At the end, the person with the most pins gets a prize!"
The bag of pins is passed around, and everybody takes one. I put mine on the front of my shirt.
"Now, the real game, is guessing baby food. Who wants to play?"
There is some talking, before Me, Marlene, Shauna, Lauren, Aunt Tori, Zoe, My Mom, Uriah, Zeke and Shailene come up.
"Great, everybody take a seat at this table." Christina says, showing a straight table that has seats facing everybody else. I sit in the middle, naturally.
"Wait, what's in these baby food containers?" Uriah asks.
I lean over and snatch his pin, "You said the word!"
He groans, falling back in his chair, and the others laugh.
"You totally deserved that Pedrad, "Christina laughs, "Anyways, I have ten kinds of nasty as heck baby food flavors, and everybody will get a spoonful and you have to guess which flavor."
"Go Tris!" Abby yells.
I laugh, "Thanks!"
Christina starts spooning the baby food onto our plates, which have numbers for each flavor. I get my pencil ready to write them down.
She hands us baby spoons to eat it with, of course, and I try a little of the first flavor. I am sad to say, it isn't awful.
"Chicken!" Zeke yells.
I start laughing again, "It's purple, do you really think that is chicken?"
He shrugs, looking back at his paper.
I write down blueberry and strawberry.
It seems that everyone tries the second baby food at the same time, because we all gag when we taste it. It tastes like a chicken got washed in bleach and mixed with brussel sprouts!
Everyone at the tables laugh at us, making me smile.
I write down chicken and green beans, since I know Christina didn't get brussel sprouts.
After a few more rounds of awful baby food, Christina pulls out the answer key. "Come on Chris, hurry up!" Zoe says, she has always been one who wants to win, very competitive.
I look at my paper, "I know one thing, Uriah and Zeke won't win."
The both look over at me and say, "Hey!"
"Don't be such a babe!"
"I'm not a baby!" Zeke yells, realizing I tricked him.
Shauna grabs his pin before me, and I shake my head. Remind me again why Shauna loves that doofus? Well, then again, I can't blame her. Zeke is a cheeseball, and can be romantic when he wants to.
"You guys are easy." Shauna says, and gives her boyfriend an apology kiss.
I shake my head, turning my attention back to Christina.
"Okay, so if you at least got part of the flavor right, you can count it. In order, it's Blueberry," Right, "Chicken and Peas," Close enough, "Squash and Peach," Wrong, "Strawberry Banana," Right, "Peas and beef, "Wrong, "Mango, "Right, "Pear," Right, "Sweet potato," Right, "Peas and Carrots," Close enough, "Apricot." Right.
"Who got all of them right?" Christina asks.
Nobody speaks up, "Nine?" Mom raises her hand.
We cheer, "Go Mom!" She gets a bag full of candy for her prize.
"Now I have a game we can all play, it's called, Drink Up Baby! Repeat that back."
"Drink Up Baby!" Ansel, Abby, Aunt Susan all repeat it back.
I grab Abby and Ansel's pin aggressively.
"Damn." Ansel says, shaking his head.
I laugh, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "It's okay, I know you aren't so bright."
He rolls his eyes, still smiling.
"See I got some of you!" Christina giggles, "Anyways, Uriah, go grab the container of baby bottles."
He runs to the corner, grabbing a huge box filled with baby bottles. "So for those of you that can drink, we fill up the bottle with beer, and those of us who can't, get apple juice. I'll count to 3, and we have to drink it through the bottle as fast as we can."
"Great!" Mom says, grabbing one filled with beer.
I honestly had no idea Mom even drank at all. I grab one with apple juice, and people laugh and joke while we wait.
"I am going to win this one." Zeke says, flexing his muscles. "Yeah, that's never going to happen." I mumble, making him glare at me.
"Damn Trissy- Poo, you hate me today!"
I laugh, "I try."
Christina grabs one for herself, "Is everybody ready?"
We respond with a chorus of 'yeah' and 'Yes!'
"1...2...3, DRINK!"
I never realized how hard it was to drink out of these things! I suck down as much as I can, but not enough because of all people, Aaron yells, "DONE!" Before anyone else.
She starts cheering, and twirling around. We all stare dumbfounded while looking at her empty bottle. "Um, okay then! The prize for this one is a baby teddy bear, so you'll like it!" Christina hands it to her, and she holds it close.
After a few more stupid games, it's time for gifts. I text Tobias to make sure he is on his way, because after looking at the gifts Christina is doing gender reveal cupcakes.
"Alright, let have the new Mama sit over here!" Christina says, bringing a chair over to the gift table.
I sit down, a little exhausted from our last game. We had to run two laps around the room with a balloon in between our legs, and if we dropped it we were out. Shailene won that one.
Everybody faces me, and the little kids sit on the floor in front of me. "The first gift is from... me!" Christina says, handing me a large bag.
I smile, opening it up. "It looks like we got... dozens of onesies!"
They all have cute designs or goofy sayings, like, "Christina is the BEST Auntie!" and "Clothes are my Spirit Animal"
"Thank you Christina!" I say, giving her a hug.
"You're Welcome. The next is from Uriah."
She hands me a black bag, filled with pink and blue tissue paper. I throw the paper on the kids, and pull a few things from the bag. The first is a footie onesie that says, "I AIN'T NO PANSYCAKE!", very Uriah, and the rest is teddy bears and and stuffed animals.
"Thank you Uriah!" I say, throwing the bag at him.
He laughs, throwing it back. After a few more gifts, Tobias arrives.
"You finally made it!" I yell, ignoring the box Christina is about to hand me, and running to Toby's arms.
He laughs, pulling me into a hug. I breath in his scent, something that always comforts me.
"You'd think you haven't seen him in a month." Shailene laughs behind me.
I give him a sweet kiss, and pull away. "Ew, you KISSED him!" Aaron and Alex, both my cousins kids, yell.
I laugh, those two are attached at the hip. Of course, they are four, so anything gives you 'cooties'.
"Come on Tris, you only a few gifts left before we get to do the gender reveal!" Christina says, motioning back to the table.
"Come sit with me bab-alonia." I say, catching myself.
"What?"
"I can't say the word... you know."
"Oh, that makes... no sense." He says, laughing.
We walk back over to the table, and open up the last few gifts. They are from Shailene and Zoe, both are giant teddy bears, one is black and white, the other is completely pink.
"Thank you guys. Christina, is it time for the gender reveal?" I ask, getting more excited.
"My favorite part, let me go grab the cupcakes."
She runs over to the opposite side, and comes back holding two cases of cupcakes. Everybody has moved forward, anxious to see what gender they will be.
"Okay, I will give you and Four the first cupcake, then we can hand them out." Christina says.
Tobias moves his chair closer to mine, and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Are you ready?"
We both nod. She hands it to us, and we both keep a hand on it.
We look at each other, smiling, "1... 2... 3..!"
I tear off one side, Tobias gets the other.
"It's a girl!"
"It's a boy!"
We scream at the same time. I shake my head, turning the cupcake to him, "See, pink, girl."
He shakes his head, turning his side to me, "No, a boy."
"Guys you are having a girl and a boy!" Christina exclaims.
I squeal, jumping up and down. A boy, and a girl! This is amazing!
"Calm down Tris!" Tobias chuckles, grabbing my arm.
I laugh, taking a breath. This is it, everything is coming into place. My whole family is coming, and I can't be more excited.