January 14th

When Skye was growing up, she saw her eighteenth birthday as something to be excited about. It meant freedom, especially freedom from her mother, but Skye wasn't so happy today, even though she felt like she was supposed to be.

She had still been a little down in the dumps, which came out of nowhere, but when your mind starts thinking of worst-case scenarios in the middle of the night, your mood can change completely. Skye felt as if she was at fault for ruining the group's friendship with Hunter, but she had actually been doing them a favor without even realizing it. Hunter hadn't been such a saint even to his own best friends for a long time, which Skye didn't know as she only met them this school year.

As Skye went to school on what should've been the perfect Thursday, she roamed the halls with a pout. No one had wished her a happy birthday yet, but at this point, she didn't see the point as she wasn't even happy herself. Skye watched as she saw another student who shared the same birthday as her be met with tons of birthday cards upon opening their locker, making Skye roll her eyes and head to homeroom.

After not hearing anything from Danny (which shocked her considering he's such a sweetheart), Skye then went to chemistry after the bell, expecting a big to-do from Levi as he loved doing the most for anything and everything. She kind of hoped he'd pick her up and spin her around while squeezing the life out of her like he did that time she came back to school after being sick for a few days, but even that didn't happen. Skye just went to her seat while groaning.

"Hey." She said, lazily tossing her backpack to the floor and slouching into her chair.

"Hey..." Levi furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Skye mope.

Did he seriously forget? Skye thought to herself. There was no way Levi could possibly forget something as big as this. It was her birthday! Where were the balloons, the confetti, and even a stupid serenade from the school choir? Yes, Skye had witnessed that before, and damn was it absolutely adorable. Even with the gloominess, Skye expected Levi to turn her day around. He always did, so why not today?

The two didn't speak another word after that as their teacher began class. They had an upcoming test, so today they were going to review the current chapter with everyones "favorite"; a review packet. There's totally nothing better than a thick stack of papers forced together with a stapler and full of review questions front to back. Just what Skye needed to start the day.

"Kill me now." Skye groaned as she lightly tapped her head against the desk.

"Do you want to work on the packet together?" Levi proposed, thinking it would make both of their lives easier, especially considering they had the highest grade out of the whole class. The two were still tied too, but both had a feeling it would stay that way until the end of the year.

"Fine." She sighed. "Let's get this over with."

"Um, before we start though, are you okay?" He asked.

"I will be when this day is over, thank you for asking," Skye replied harshly. It appeared that Levi's little plan was working a little too well.

•••

After the school day, Skye arrived back home, stretching her arms out with a yawn then tossing her backpack and kicking her shoes to the floor before going to the living room where her dad typically was if he wasn't working.

"Dad, I'm home!" She called, walking in to see her dad on the couch just as she suspected. Skye was surprised that he had the day off today as he usually worked on Thursdays, so he had a bit of a hunch when it came to that.

"There you are!" Scott stood. "I need you to run errands with me."

"Seriously? Today?" Skye whined. If her own father didn't remember her birthday, then she felt like she might as well get hit by a car for real.

"Yeah, why?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Nothing, it's not important." She sighed. "Where do you have to go?"

"Lowe's."

"Lowe's?"

"I wanna get a new toilet," Scott said.

"Oh my god, this can't be real," Skye muttered under her breath, practically screaming in her brain. This had to be a joke. There was no way today's events were actually real. Skye even pinched herself and prayed it was a dream, but this was in fact reality, and reality right now felt like pure satire.

"Huh?" Her dad questioned, pretending to be confused.

"Nothing, let's just go." She rolled her eyes and let out a groan, hearing Scott yell in excitement.

"Yes!"

While Skye goes to the front of the house to grab her shoes and put them pack on, Scott pulled out his phone to text a certain someone, using a code word that indicated he was getting Skye out of the house. She was completely oblivious to this, only focused on getting this insane errand over with.

"Can we get coffee on the way?" Skye asked her dad while he pulled his keys out of his pocket.

"Dunkin' or Starbucks?" Scott asked.

"Whatever's closest." She shrugged.

"Dunkin' it is." He said, which Skye was happy to hear. At least one part of her birthday including something good. Coffee always solved everything, let's be real.

"Thank god," Skye whispered. To be honest, she preferred Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks, but she wouldn't mind indulging in a cake pop when given the chance.

As the father-daughter pair exited the house and headed towards the car, Scott discussed his potential coffee order, making a joke about Skye's ride or die order that she refused to stray away from. "I might get one of those hinky dinky iced coffee's you always get."

"It's not hinky dinky, they're delicious." She protested. See? Ride or die.

"You better prove me wrong then, pumpkin." Scott chuckled, then had an idea pop in his head. "Ooo, do they have pumpkin?"

"Pumpkin is seasonal," Skye replied as they got into the car and buckled their seatbelts.

"Dammit." Her dad cursed.

When Skye and Scott arrived at the nearest Lowe's, Skye followed her dad through the aisles, watching as he got carried away by things that were in fact not toilets. To be fair, they did have one of those fancy walk-in bathtubs that caught Scott's eye, but he wasn't doing a very good job at distracting his daughter.

When they finally did reach the aisle of toilets, Scott made sure he was scanning each one as slowly as possible, now taking the plan seriously, all while Skye didn't have a clue. At this point, he was tempted to actually redo the bathroom, but there was no way he could invest in that right now.

"So, why are we looking at toilets exactly?" Skye asked as they walked down the massive aisle.

"I want to redo the bathroom," Scott replied, stopping in his tracks to pretend to look at prices.

"The bathroom is fine though." She furrowed her eyebrows. Literally, the bathroom was completely fine. Skye could see if it was in desperate need of a makeover, but Scott kept his house pretty up to date per his desire to have a perfect home after dealing with Skye's nightmare of a mom for years.

"But look, they have a toilet that shoots up water!" Her dad exclaimed as he pointed at a random toilet, which so happened to possess such features.

"Kill me now." Skye groaned.

Scott got way too ahead of himself, not noticing he was many steps ahead of Skye as she stood in the same spot while pulling out her phone. "This one has a vibrating seat, oh my-"

Skye unlocks her phone and goes to contact, scrolling down to Levi's contact and pressing call, putting her phone up to her ear while she rang him. She waited as it kept on ringing, then eventually the automated voice spoke about him not being available and to leave a message. Skye didn't bother leaving a message though, hanging up and shoving her phone back in her pocket as she was weirded out by Levi not answering.

"Weird, wonder what he's doing." She said to herself. Levi always answered his phone. Skye was starting to sense something, but she didn't know what. Before she could get thinking, Scott called for her, asking her to come to wherever he was as she didn't notice how far he had gone without her.

"Pumpkin, look! They have a toilet that talks to you!"

"Coming!"

•••

Over at Skye's house, Levi and the rest of the gang (minus Hunter of course) were decorating the place and preparing for a surprise birthday party for Skye. This had been in the works (with Skye's dad involved) for a week now, and all that was left to do now was make sure all of the decorations were set and the cake was perfectly intact.

"Cake incoming!" Nini called out while she and Danny were carrying Skye's birthday cake inside so they could place it on the table.

"Xavier, get out of the way!" Levi yelled. "We know you'll accidentally knock over the cake!"

"Shut up!" He scoffed, knowing Levi was right about that.

Nini and Danny carefully set down the cake, then Nini walked over to Levi who was checking his phone. "Got any update from Mr. Simmons?"

"The last thing he said was that they were in Lowe's. I don't know if they left or not." Levi replied. He was pretty anxious about the whole thing, but Nini was there to ease his nerves with her radiant positivity. Besides, a party is a party, and Nini was down for any kind of party. Well, as long as there was no alcohol or drugs.

"Either way, we're gonna pull this off." She said.

"I feel like we're missing something. Are we missing something?" He questioned. Again, the nerves.

"Um..." Nini pondered. She had checked off a bunch of things from her mental list already, so she couldn't quite think of anything else.

"Are you forgetting a present?" Danny chimed in.

"No, Danny, I-" Levi began, then realized that was exactly what he was missing. "Oh my god, I left my present in the car!"

"Knew it." He chuckled while Levi bolted out of the house to grab his present.

Nini let out a laugh as she watched Levi, but she couldn't help but be in awe of his effort. "Man, it's so sweet of him to plan something like this for Skye."

"If only he'd confess his feelings," Danny said almost a little too loudly. Oops, did he spill? Yes, yes he did.

"What feelings-" Nini furrowed her eyebrows, but then the realization hit her quickly. "Wait, is Levi in love with Skye? Like, for real? It's not just a crush?"

"Maybe-" he began.

"Why didn't you tell me? You tell me everything!" She asked whilst raising her voice at him.

Danny was definitely in some deep shit now. He was usually known as the best secret keeper, but even this secret couldn't be kept. He found out when Levi called him after Skye left his house on New Year's Day with "I think I'm in love with Skye" being the first thing to come out of his mouth. Danny was so, so tempted to tell his girlfriend, but he was sworn to secrecy. Too bad he spilled the beans anyway, and now he was regretting it as shown in Nini's reaction to the bombshell.

Xavier peered his head into the kitchen, having heard the last bit of what Nini said. "What didn't you tell her?"

"Levi is in love with Skye!" Nini exclaimed.

"Levi's in love with Skye?" Xavier gasped.

"I'm in love with Skye?"

"Ah!" The three screamed in unison, turning to see Levi standing there with Skye's present in hand.

"Um, anyway..." Levi said. He really didn't want to have to talk about this while he was stressing about party preparations. Plus, they weren't exactly on unlimited time.

"Um, anyway, nothing! Tell us that you're in love with Skye. Now." Nini demanded. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, and now that it seemed to be the truth? Nini wanted every detail, but she wouldn't get any from Levi today.

"Can we talk about this later?" He sighed. "Skye and her dad are on their way back, like, now."

"Mayday, mayday!" Xavier yelled out, causing Nini to go into panic mode.

"Oh my god, hurry!" She ordered. "We still have more streamers to put up!"

Nini, Danny, and Xavier rushed to the living room for last-minute decorations, having to call out Levi for help. "Levi, come here! We need your tall ass!"

"Coming!"

"I'll get the lighter for the candles-" Xavier proposed, immediately being stopped by the others as they knew it would most likely end in disaster.

"No!" They all said at the same time.

"What?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"We can't burn the house down before the party even started," Danny said. "Dumbass."

"Right, right," Xavier replied, seeing that they were right on that.

With the help of Levi, the three put up the remaining streamers. Nini basically bossed the boys around while they decorated the place, but without her orders, the living room would look like a disaster. "Come on, one last tack and this living room should look perfect."

"Here?" Levi pointed, standing on the couch and holding up a purple streamer.

"Mhm." She replied.

Levi placed the last tack, carefully stepping down while holding onto Danny for leverage. "Got it."

"Perfect! Thank god for your tallness." Nini said, giving Levi a little side hug. She'd leave the real hugs for Skye.

"Everything's set up?" Levi asked, scanning the place, which was decorated to perfection.

"Yup." She nodded.

All that was left now was to hide until Skye showed up, and Danny proposed exactly that. "Um, should we turn off the lights and hide?"

"Oh, I know just where to hide," Levi smirked.

The three followed Levi to god know's where and soon realizing that he wanted all of them to hide in the bathroom in the hallway. It was closest to the front door, plus they could make an epic entrance once Skye and her dad showed up. After some protesting though, everyone settled into the bathroom, even if they weren't all too fond of it.

"I can't believe we're hiding in this cramped ass bathroom," Xavier said, hating this situation more than anyone else.

"Shh! I think I hear something." She shushed him. Nini was right about hearing something as a moment later, keys rattled from Skye unlocking the door. The four tensed up as they heard her, then tensed up even more once Skye actually stepped through the front door.

Oblivious to the decorations, Skye rambled on about how stupid the Lowe's trip with her dad was, then immediately changed her tune once she looked up and saw what had happened to the place. "I can't believe we looked at toilets for over an hour just to not- um, dad?"

"What?" Scott asked, walking in and shutting the door behind them.

"Did someone break in and decorate the place for a party or-"

"Surprise!"

•••

MARIA TALKS!

surprise (not)! it's a cliffhanger!

ironically the day of posting this chapter it's also spiderskoo's birthday aka one of my favorite people on this app! she's been by my side throughout the entire journey of this book from the day i first thought of the idea until now and i could never be more grateful for that. we're gonna manifest the disneyland trip of our dreams one day (don't drop your phone on space mountain tho). happy 21st birthday queen <3

also thanks to her for making this meme because it truly is accurate

anyways, funny story; the part where the squad hid in the bathroom before skye got home is actually inspired by something that actually happened!

in 2019, my sister was throwing her now fiancé a surprise birthday party at their place. while he went to get his mom at the airport, we set up the party and then hid in the bathroom when we saw they were parked outside. there were i stg like 10 people cramped in that bathroom and some even stood in the bathtub to make room cause it was so small. after we heard her fiancé and his mom come in the house we were like "surprise!" then boom, party.

i thought it would be nice to put such a funny memory in my story, and what better timing than the actual birthday chapter?

anyways, i hope you enjoyed part 1 of skye's birthday, and don't forget to vote!

see you in the next chapter xx