Dedicted to Kris, Punk, Rain and Jayme. As a group because they make a guest appearence in this chapter! Yaysies!
Chapter 14 : Birthday at MacLaren's
The week flew by too fast and Mom’s birthday was here. Dad was actually arranging something similar to what we did for their anniversary but we convinced him to drive us to MacLaren’s for the day. We even got the Smiths to help us set up the place. We all agreed that Dad should bring Mom in so the siblings and I decided to go to the place earlier to help the Smiths set up everything.
Before Mom got there, everything was set up and Cassandra had helped us invite a couple of Mom’s friends. As far as I was concerned, Mom didn’t have any friends except for Aunt Qis. All the friends she used to have, all lost contact with her after she moved to England. Blake, Bianca, Henry, Thomas and I were all dressed up as the ragtag gang from How I Met Your Mother. I was Robin because I had her dark hair (I was no Cobie Smulders but I was close enough), Thomas was Barney, typically, Blake and Bianca were Marshall and Lily respectively (Bianca had red hair and my brother was tall) and since Henry couldn’t be anyone else, we made him Ted with copper hair (Henry was as intellect as Ted so I wasn’t worried).
While waiting for Mom and Dad, the guests started streaming in, it was a small group of people but I knew Mom wouldn’t have it any other way. The only people I recognized were her agent, her editors and a couple of writing friends I’ve seen a couple of times at parties. There was one group of people who stood out to me. They reminded me of Ted’s gang. A ragtag group of friends whom didn’t seem to fit together at all but somehow managed to fit together. I walked up to them curiously,
“Hello, I’m Vanellope, Skylar’s daughter. How do you guys know my Mom?” I stuck my hand out for them to shake it. They all took turns to shake it. Finally the lean, dark 40 something man answer me,
“Leave Sky to name her kids after a cartoon character. I’m Kris; I was your Mom’s best friend growing up, after a while we just fell out of contact. I regret that the most.” Then proceeded to introduce me to the rest of them. There was Rain, half Norwegian half Filipino. She was a reporter and reminded me of Robin. She was cool; I could see Mom being friends with her. Then there was Punk, Indian like Mom (although Mom was half), Punk was a psychologist as well as a writer. Last but not least, Jayme. The typically New Yorker was a psychologist as well and a tad blunt. After meeting them, I was starting to wonder how she could give up all these wonderful people. I would have loved growing up with these people as my aunts and uncles.
Then Aunt Qis came running towards them. She practically jumped on Kris.
“You all actually came? I thought Cassa-bitch was lying.” Kris was laughing.
“Of course we did. She’s our best friend even if we haven’t talked to her in 20 years.”
“She’s going to be ecstatic. I see you’ve met Vanellope.” Aunt Qis looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time. Wow, these people must be great if she didn’t see her favourite niece there.
“Great girl, really. She reminds me of Sky.” Rain says to Aunt Qis. I smile politely at her before I excuse myself to go see that everything’s in place. I go to Cassandra and tap her on the shoulder to check if everyone’s here.
“Um Ms. Cassandra. Is everyone you and Aunt Qis invited here?” Cassandra turns to me. She offers me a small smile before looking over the room.
“They are all more or less here. So you can just text your Dad. Also Cass would be just fine.” I nod before going off to call my Dad to let him know that he can bring Mom to the bar already.
“Hey Scherbatsky.” Thomas says cheekily, wrapping an arm around me. I let out a little laugh before snuggling closer to him.
“Everything’s going according to plan. I even met some of Mom’s old friends. Lovely people really.”
“You know I never got to thank you.” I look up at him confused.
“Whatever for?”
“For getting me and my family back together. The talk with Bianca and Henry mended my relationship with my siblings and then the camping trip really changed my parents and we have mended that relationship as well. You’re like the glue, Van. It’s amazing.”
“I know I’m amazing, no need to remind me.” I tease him. He plays along by rolling his eyes at me. He was about say something when Aunt Qis interrupts.
“ALRIGHT EVERYONE HIDE! SKY’S COMING!” So we all took our places behind something while Aunt Qis shut the lights off and went out to meet with Mom. I could hear her excited voice as they came closer.
“MacLaren’s? I didn’t know that this place even existed.” Then the lights were flipped back on. We all jumped out off our hiding places,
“SURPRISE!” we yelled happily. Mom’s jaw dropped as she gasped in surprise. She started tearing up,
“Oh you guys. You shouldn’t have.” Then she caught sight of Kris and friends. Her eyes widen. As she walked over to them, everyone split into their own social groups and started mingling. As I went over to Mom, I kept my distance because I could see Mom was just gaping at them like she couldn’t believe they were there.
“Take a picture, it will last longer.” Jayme pursued his lips. Mom rolled her eyes at him,
“Always the snarky one, Jay.” Mom shakes her head at them. Then she pulls all of them close and hugs them tightly.
“Okay Sky, you can let go now…” Mom pulls back, lightly blushing.
“Sorry…I haven’t seen you guys in 20 years. We’ve been so busy. I can’t believe you guys actually came! I never thought I’d see you guys again.”
“Cue waterworks.”
“Shut up Jayme.”
“Hey Crumpet.” Kris smiles at her, so that’s where that nickname came from.
“Hey Krissy.” Forget what I wanted to get Mom for. I leave her to catch up with her friends. I walk over to my friends and Thomas immediately comes to my side
“Your mom looks happy.” I look over and nod,
“Yeah she does.”
“So where’s the cake? Blake told me you made it.” Bianca cuts in our conversation. Thomas shoots her an annoyed look. I elbow him and give him a look that says not to be rude. I turn to her,
“I’m not really sure. I got Aunt Qis to bring it to the bar. I guess she’ll bring it out when its time to cut the cake.”
“Alright then. Hey Elle, whose that guy your Mom’s getting chummy with?” She pointed over to Mom and Kris laughing together.
“Oh that’s just Mom’s old best friend, Kris. He’s a great guy really."
“Alright then.” She says even though she kept an eye on him the entire night.
After we’re sure Mom has gone to every booth in the bar, Dad and Aunt Qis call me over. I excuse myself from my friends, pull away from Thomas reluctantly and walk over to Dad and Aunt Qis.
“Yeah?” I ask when I get to them. They both look at me proudly.
“Would you do the honor of bringing the cake in? It is your cake after all.”
“I’d love to.” I was practically beaming. Aunt Qis brought me to the bar and where she had kept the cake in the fridge behind the counter. I take it out and start walking to the booth that resembles the one the gang sits at in MacLaren’s.
“ALRIGHT EVERYONE! IT’S TIME FOR CAKE!” I yell as I sat the cake on the table. I get Mom to sit in front of it. She gets Kris, Rain, Punk and Jayme to sit with her as well. I had Aunt Qis sit next to her but Dad was nowhere in sight.
“Have anyone of you seen Dad?” I ask them. Mom shakes her head and offers to go find him. I shake my head at her.
“Mom, it’s alright. It’s your special day. I’ll go look for him.” I tell her stay put and tell everyone else to go do their own thing until I came back with the birthday girl’s husband. He wasn’t in the bar so I decided to go out and look for him. Then I find him out in the street, drinking a bottle of what looked like to be Vodka.
“Really Dad? You’re getting drunk just before cake cutting? That’s classy.” I give a snarky remark.
He shakes his head at me, as if to say that I wouldn’t understand.
“Your Mom doesn’t need me. She’s got her friends. Kris and what not.”
“Oh my god. I never thought I’d see the day, my Dad would be jealous.” I giggle.
“No, Vanellope. Mom used to talk about this guy all the time.”
“Yeah but she loves you, that’s why she married you. Dad, don’t be so thick, you’re smarter than that. Now, just come on in and make the birthday girl really happy.” I tug on his hand and bring him back into the bar. Mom spots him immediately and pulls him into a hug.
“Where have you been, idiot?” Her English accent was thicker than usual. Mom’s accent usually gets thicker when she gets emotional.
“Just walking around.” He brushes the subject off. Think again Dad.
“He was jealous of Kris.” I say with a chuckle. Dad glares at me while Mom joins me in laughing. Mom pats Dad’s cheek affectionately,
“Oh Dylan. You really are cute. Kris and I are just friends. Now come on and help me cut the cake.” She pulls him to the sacred booth. I light the candles and we all start to sing Happy Birthday to Mom. She closes her eyes and makes a wish before blowing out her candles. After which I hand her the plastic knife to cut the cake. It’s sort of tradition that after we cut the cake, we take pieces of it and feed it to our family members. So what Mom and Dad usually do for the Carson birthdays is that they take a chuck of cake and rub it on our faces. That was exactly what Mom did with Dad, Aunt Qis and her friends. Aunt Qis and Dad of course knew what was coming so they retaliated with their own chucks of cake.
Kris seemed to know Mom well enough to dodge. Once the other three realized she was going for them as well, Rain kept out of the way, Punk let herself get hit and Jayme slapped a chuck of cake on Mom’s face before she could even get to him. Soon enough, everyone was covered in cake and laughs. Mom’s editors, agent and acquaintances had left because either they wanted her to spend her special day with the closest people or they thought we were just plain bonkers, which we were, no denial there.
Finally we all sobered up and cleaned ourselves up. Then we ate the cake proper. Mom, Dad, Aunt Qis and the others occupied the booth while I rounded up Blake, Thomas, Bianca and Henry and we sat in the booth behind them, just conversing. I eavesdropped for a bit and Mom’s friends were hilarious.
“Jayme…why are you so close to me?” I could hear how uncomfortable Kris was.
“Aww, Jay still isn’t over you, Krissy.” Mom cooed teasingly.
“Jay! What would Rayleigh?” Rain faked mock horror.
“Scandalous, really.” Mom put on her snootiest Regency accent.
“Oh, Rayleigh wants a three way so he’s cool with it.” Jay nonchalantly says. I turn to see the horror on Kris’ face. It was hilarious, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Huge mistake, the entire table turns to me. I offer a sheepish smile and turn back to my own table. Of course they wouldn’t let me live it down.
“It’s awfully rude to eavesdrop, didn’t your Mom ever teach you that?” Jayme reprimands me teasingly.
“We all know Sky’s a notorious eavesdropper.”
“Hey! How was the 1D reunion tour, Punk?” Mom jabs back at Punk. Punk gives her an annoyed look. Soon they are all back to teasing and catching up with each other. I turn back to my table and couch down ever so slowly in embarrassment.
“Your Mom’s friends are crazy.” Thomas comments.
“WE HEARD THAT!” All five of them, including Mom, yelled at Thomas in perfect unison. Thomas looked so frightened and intimidated by all of them, he shuts up for the rest of the night. We all stay up at the place till midnight. My friends and I ended all our conversations at around 10 and I fell asleep on Thomas’ shoulder but Mom and her gang just kept on going and going till 2 am when Mom yelled,
“NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS AFTER 2AM.” I hear someone hit Mom and say tiredly,
“No one gets your stupid How I Met Your Mother references.” I could practically hear Mom pouting.
“Huff, you guys are no fun. You’re right, it’s late. Are you guys staying at hotels or…?”
Punk: I was hoping to stay with you for a couple of days.
Jayme: Honey, NY was my town before you came.
Rain : I haven’t checked in to the hotel yet.
Kris: I second Punk, frankly I’m surprised you didn’t invite us yet.
“Well screw hotels, Rain and Jay, who owns the mansion? Thought so. You’re all staying with me for the next week. No buts, if and so on. You’re all coming home with me and that’s the end of discussion.” Mom says in a very businesslike manner. She then wakes up Aunt Qis and Dad, the she comes over to me but since I was half asleep, I bolt right up and give Mom a little scare. I try waking up my friends but they weren’t budging one bit. Kissing Thomas woke him right up, I tickled Blake and jolted right out of slumber. I couldn’t wake up Henry or Bianca no matter what I did.
“I’ve got this.” Thomas says. He grabs a beer off the open bar and poured it all over Henry and Bianca. They immediately woke up and glared at their older brother.
“Thomas Brodie Smith! You are so dead! This was a new top!” Bianca yelled and ran after him. I trust Thomas to bring her to the limo (Dad had called one, knowing that Mom would invite her friends to stay with us.) I got some paper towels and handed them to Henry to clean himself up.
“Sorry Thomas had to do that, you and Bianca were practically hibernating.”
“It’s fine. You had to do what you had to do.” He smiles as we walk out to the limo.
“Henry, how do you always seem to radiate happiness and always stay calm no matter how horrid Thomas is to you?” I ask curious, once we were seated in the back of the limo. I lower my tone, I could hear Mom and her friends snoring away softly.
“Well as for the shit I put with from Thomas, is because I’m finally happy I’m getting attention from him after all these years. You should have seen us before, we would just all ignore each other like we didn’t exist. Thanks to you, we’re all bonded now.” I wave it off like nothing.
“It wasn’t me. I just gave you all the push you needed, you guys did the rest on your own.”
“Still though. As for radiating sunshine, I know for a fact that your Mom is in love with Tom Hiddleston and he influences most of her male main characters. I researched the guy, he’s a really great guy so I just happened to adopt his mindset.”
“So basically you’re Tom Hiddleston reincarnated?”
“He’s still alive so technically I’m not his reincarnation.” Henry gives me a teasing smirk.
“Alright then, smarty pants. I’m off to sleep.” I tell him before resting my head on Thomas’ shoulder and slowly nodding off.