Scarlett walks into school the next day with a messenger bag full of invitations. She sees Jake and David standing by the lockers and walks over to them. She pulls out two invitations and holds them out with a smile. "You are cordially invited to the biggest bash of the year...Danielle Landon's eighteenth birthday party...but it's a secret so don't go bragging that you got invited." She smirks as they take their invitations.
Jake smiles and nods nonchalantly. "Cool."
David takes the invitation with a large overly excited smile. "Awesome!" Then he looks down at it with sadness. "My first invitation to a big party and I can't even brag about it." He shakes his head in disappointment and begins walking down the hall.
Scarlett chuckles at him and turns back to Jake with a smile. "It's this Saturday, you can come, right?"
"Yeah, as far as I know."
"Great!"
Jake gives her a confused look. "But...why are you throwing Dani a birthday party? I mean I know you guys are friends, but I didn't think you were the kind of friends that threw surprise parties for each other." He smirks jokingly.
"Joe asked me and Taylor to help him out."
He nods in understanding and raises an eyebrow. "I'm sure Taylor loved that request." He smirks.
She snickers briefly and nods with wide eyes. "Oh yeah...she was just thrilled." She chuckles and stands on her tip toes to give him a peck on the lips. "I'll see you at lunch, okay?" She walks a ways down the hall and sees Mia at her locker snacking on a breakfast bar. She chuckles and walks over to her. "Hungry much?"
Mia looks over at her and forces a small smile. "Maybe a little."
She smiles and hands Mia an invitation.
Mia looks down at the invitation confused but takes it from her, quickly reading over it. "A surprise party for Dani?" She looks up at Scarlett in confusion. "Since when do you throw surprise parties for Dani Landon?"
"Since Joe asked me and Taylor for a little help."
Mia nods and glances back down at the invitation then back up at Scarlett. "This is at your house, why do I need an invitation?" She chuckles lightly. "I live there, remember?"
She shrugs. "Yeah, I know but I think I made far too many invitations anyways." She looks down at her stuffed messenger bag with wide eyes. "You can come, right?"
Mia takes a bite of her breakfast bar and nods.
"Awesome! See you at lunch." She walks off down the hall for a few minutes before seeing Logan sitting in an empty classroom reading a book. She smiles deviously and walks into the classroom over to Logan. She pulls out an invitation and hands it to Logan with a smile as he looks up at her with confusion.
He takes the invitation and reads it over before looking back up at her with slight confusion. "Why are you inviting me? I barely know Dani."
"That's okay, she doesn't have many close friends, so anybody's welcome. And...Mia's invited, I thought she might have a little more fun if you were there." She smiles that devious smile once again.
Logan snickers lightly at her expression and shakes his head. "Yeah...okay."
She smiles with satisfaction. "Great! See you Saturday." She turns and walks out of the classroom with a large smile. She is now determined more than ever to make this party one unforgettable night.
~~~
Joe turns the corner out of his last class and sees Dani standing at her locker. He walks up to her with smile. "Hey, Landon!"
She can feel her stomach rise in her chest and her eyes widen at the sudden feeling. What the hell was that? Now he can't even say one word without my stomach flipping like a freaking pancake? She shakes the thought away and quickly glances at him with a small smile. "Hey."
"So...I was thinking we could do something Saturday."
She closes her locker and turns to him with an exasperated look. "Adam, I told you I don't want to acknowledge the fact that another year has come and gone." She starts walking down the hall.
Joe sighs and follows after her. "I don't understand why you are so against birthday's. You're not even out of your teens yet! You should be embracing the fact that your getting older, not condemning it!"
Her face contorts and she continues walking. "I never understood why people want to celebrate the fact that they're just one year closer to death."
"Okay, now you're just turning something fun and exciting into a completely morbid celebration."
"Maybe because it is."
He sighs in frustration and steps in front of her to stop her from walking. "Fine. So...no birthday mention or references to what date it is...will you just go out with me Saturday?" His eyes suddenly widen as he realizes how that sounded. "I mean...uh..."hang out"...y-you know, friends a-and all." He snickers trying to play off the stuttering of his voice and nervousness rising in his chest. He didn't understand why that simple slip of the tongue gave him a wonderfully strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.
She smiles at his nervousness and rolls her eyes. "Fine, but any mention of December 2nd and I walk."
He chuckles and nods. "Deal!"
~~~
Dani's sitting on her couch after school with Nick, reading a book while he does homework. She finally puts down her book and looks over at him. "It's been over an hour and you haven't asked me one question about physics."
He looks over at her. "Your point?"
"My point is...what are you doing here?"
"Maybe I just don't have anything better to do."
She chuckles and sets her book down on the table, turning to face him. "Well, that's just sad and I do...so you need to go home."
He gives her a disbelieving look. "Like what?"
"Like...none of your business."
He smirks. "Like...Decemeber 2nd stuff?"
Her eyes widen in anger. "Who told you?!" Her eyes turn to a glare as she stares past Nick before grumbling under her breathe. "Joe is so dead."
Nick chuckles and lifts his hands in defense. "Chill...so...what are the big birthday plans?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing. Now go home."
"Nothing? Come on, it's your eighteenth birthday...your legal." He smirks.
Dani rolls her eyes. "Legal to vote and get put in jail if you commit a crime...whoop-ti-do."
He laughs at her lack of enthusiasm. "Come on, you seriously have no plans for this weekend?"
She shrugs and a small smile begins to appear at the corner of her lips. "Adam asked me to hang out Saturday but that's about it."
"Wow...what a friend...a fast food dinner and some lame movie...sounds like an awesome way to celebrate a friend's birthday."
"Well, it sounds like the perfect way to celebrate one of my birthday's...December 2nd has never been a good day for me."
"Why not? You get cake, people treat you like royalty and best of all you get presents." He smiles like a child and Dani laughs before shaking her head.
"Maybe for you that's what birthday's mean but for me they mean something totally different." She looks down in sadness as a dark secret weighs heavy on her heart.
He gives her a look of honest concern at her sudden change in attitude. "Like what?"
She looks up at him for a second. "Like...you should go home." She smirks and hands him his physics book.
He sighs and takes his book, stuffing it into his bag and standing up. He walks over to the door and opens it slightly before looking back at her with a smirk. "You should try getting laid; believe me that would change your whole view of birthday's." She gives him a look of disgust and chucks a pillow at his head as he walks out the door laughing. Nick closes the door behind him and walks to the edge of the porch, before shaking his head and snickering in amusement.