I suppose I should have suspected something was up when a pink haired girl popped up in front of the cash register demanding for a hundred pancakes.

I had stared at her in shock. “You what?”

She’d flicked her hand impatiently. “C’mon, you do deliveries, right? We need a hundred pancakes delivered to this address.” she handed me a piece of paper. “Thanks!”

“But- but whu-” I glanced up and she was gone, leaving a poof of pink smoke behind.

And that is why I’m currently driving around Fallon Forest - in the very very dark Fallon Forest - like an idiot.

“The Crazines, Down Rabbit Lane, Behind Wizened Oak, Fallon Forest?” I snort, shaking my head. “What kind of address is that?”

Suddenly, my delivery van stutters to a stop. I glance at the dashboard and frown, as the gas meter shows that the gas tank is more than half full.

“Just great,” I huff, sliding out of the driver’s seat and slamming the door behind me. I look up at the sliver of starry sky peering at me through the thick canopy of trees. “Now what am I going to do?”

“Hello, there!”

I barely suppress a scream of shock.

A young woman in a scarlet gown smiles at me from underneath a large oak tree. She gracefully gets up from the smooth, flat boulder she’d been using as a seat. A crown of roses sit on her chocolate tinged hair.

“I suppose you’re from the Pancake House?”

I nod, dumbstruck. It’s not everyday you get stuck in the woods and meet a stranger wearing a masquerade worthy gown.

“That’s great! Come with me, then. Cars tend to break down around here.” she gestures for you to follow as she starts to walk away.

“What about the pancakes? I can’t carry them all by myself!” my inner potato cringes at the thought.

“Issokay, Oli will take care of that!”

“Who?”

“Me!” I turn to see a boy with hair that defies gravity taking the cartons of pancakes from the delivery van. He floats into the air, carrying the pancakes as if they were nothing. He nods to you. “‘Sup?”

“Ah… right.” flying boys. Alright then. I turn to the woman in the red dress - I realize that I don’t even know her name - only to see that she’s already walking away down the path. “Wait up!”

“Come on, then!” I stumble after her.

“What’s your name?” I ask, glancing back back just in time to see Oli flying away, carefully balancing the pancake boxes in his hands.

“I’m Olivia,” she smiles warmly, adjusting the crown of roses in her hair. “You can call me Olly, though!”

“Uh, okay, then. Where’re we going?”

Her smile turns mysterious, her dark eyes gleaming. “You’ll see.”

After a few minutes of trudging through the forest, I see soft blue light shining between the trees in the distance. Olivia quickens her pace. “We’re almost here!”

“Hurray,” I mumble. “I’m guessing you’ll pay me there? Y’know, for the delivery and stuff?”

“Of course I will!” Olivia says. Her eyes scan the surroundings as if she’s looking for something. “Hold on- Mimi! I know you’re there!”

A teenaged girl steps out from the shadows, smiling sheepishly. Her lilac colored gown seems to be a pale blue in the light spilling from between the trees. “Hey, Olly!”

Olivia crosses her arms, amused. “I’m guessing you’re on guard duty.”

“Yeah, I am.” Mimi shrugs. “Since Kat’s stalling La with Dy, and all. Good luck to them. How you stall the most powerful witch in the centuries, I’d like to know.”

“Entertain her with Kpoop music?” I jump, staring in shock at the dark haired girl standing beside Mimi with a smirk on her face. I could’ve sworn she hadn’t been there a second ago!

“Be nice, Chops,” Olly reminds her. Her lips twitch into a traitorous smile, anyway.

“You know, I think that’d actually work,” Mimi says, considering Chops’ statement. “Especially if it has Park Jimin in it.”

Chops smirks and shrugs unrepentantly, pulling a blood red hood over her face. “You’d better get in there, boo. God knows, it’s World War 3 in there. Except with a lot more frosting.”

Olivia’s dark eyes widen slightly, apprehension clear on her face. She groans. “Dios mio. Lemme just die now.”

A feline grin appears on Mimi’s lips. “Good luck, Olly!”

She and Chops disappear into the shadows in a flash of pale lilac and blood red.

Olivia sighs, steeling herself. “Okay, then. Let’s do this.”

Then, with my mind whirling with graphic images of mutilated cake zombies rising from trash cans and declaring war on the human race, we go to the light.

To the light. Heh. Get it? Because we say “go to the light” when someone dies and… nevermind.

“You might want to brace yourself,” Olly advises me, a twinkle in her eyes. “The Crazy Fam didn’t get their name by sipping tea and playing croquet!”

Before I can reply she slips between the trees, the light engulfing her completely. I wonder if I should start yodelling in case this will be the last night I’ll be able to, but I follow her anyway. As I pass through the trees the light seems to brighten, blinding me, engulfing me completely, as I take one step after the other until it fades completely.

Colorful spots dance in my vision and I blink them out, my eyes adjusting to my surroundings. Slowly, my mind starts to register what I’m seeing, and I let out an impressed whistle. “Whoaaaa…”

A bungalow mansion sits proudly on top of a gently sloping hill, which is peppered with silvery white flowers that seem luminous in the moonlight. Tiny colorful lights dart here and there above the grass, and as I look closer I see that they are tiny, delicate fairies, their glowing wings fluttering on their backs.

Olivia smiles proudly at my reaction. “What do you think?”

“It’s amazing,” I breathe out. “Is this where you live?”

“Yeah, this is where we all live.” Olivia grins. “The party’s in the lawn. We thought La would like something a little more close to home!”

“So this is normal?” I gesture to the fairies as we start to walk up the path to the mansion. “Like, I shouldn’t be freaking out and checking myself in to the nearest asylum or something?”

“This shiz is normal in the Crazy Fam standards, but your sanity… you have to be at least a little insane to go way out here to deliver pancakes.” a young woman in a midnight blue gown that shimmers as if it was pulled from the night sky itself saunters up to us, a friendly smile on her face.

“Meg!” says Olivia, brightening. “What’s the news?”

Meg looks like she’s trying to suppress laughter, but she arranges her face into a grave frown. “Dy just called. She says we’ve got ten minutes, tops, before the birthday girl busts out of there. Oh, and she says she and Kat demand consolation chocolate for the, and I quote, ‘trauma and bodily harm we’ve suffered’.” She delivers the news solemnly, a burst of laughter escaping every now and then before she manages to control it.

Olivia snorts out a laugh. “That bad?”

“If the crashes in the background and the shout of; ‘PUNCAKE I SWEAR I’LL DRAG YOU TO THE DEPTHS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA’ and ‘I’LL HOLD HER DOWN’ is anything to go by, then yes. That bad.”

Olivia quickens her pace. “We’ll have to hurry, then.”

“Yeah, you go and control ‘em. Imma just go and see if the dryads are ready for their presentation…” she rushes off, her footsteps light as air.

That’s when a flare shoots up into the sky, exploding with a bang and a flurry of red sparks. We stare in stunned silence, watching its colorful imprint fade from the sky. I break the silence. “...Uhm, Happy New Year?”

Olivia curses under her breath, then sprints off. “Come on! Before someone sets fire to the whole fireworks collection!”

I run after her, and through the front door. I have a moment to take in the wooden panelling of the front hall when Olivia whirls off down a corner, with me following hot on her heels. We sprint through the twists and turns of the mansion - this house sure is huge - and pass through a set of french doors, emerging into a patio that overlooks a rolling lawn of moonlight.

An ebony haired young man in a purple tunic and a translucent, floating young woman guiltily turn to stare at us when Olivia bursts through the doors.

The guy forces a nonchalant grin, stepping in front of a box that I’m is filled with fireworks. “Ayye, Momma! You’re back!” too late, he hides the lit sparkler he’s holding behind his back.

“Mommy! Hi!” the dark haired ghost says cheerfully, pasting a smile on her face as she not-so-subtly kicks away a box of matches.

Olivia silently folds her arms, raising an eye brow.

“We were just testing-”

“Don’t be baka, I had nothing to do with this-”

As they scramble to explain to the fuming Olly, I wander away, staring in fascination at the sight before me.

A few feet away from the patio, glass orbs of trapped lightning hang suspended in midair around a picnic table. A makeshift throne is at the head of the table, which is a comfy boss chair covered in a mint green blanket with golden tassels. The picnic table is draped in a pale green blanket, laden with a feast, and at the very end, a pile of presents sit, waiting to be opened. A fountain topped with a silver depiction of the number “13” gushes with a bubbling silver concoction. Potion vials containing glowing golden liquid are strung from trees, casting a warm glow over the entire scene.

“Wonder who this La person is,” I muse. After all, she must be a spectacular person to warrant such a bash.

At the table, a girl, her dark hair tinged with brown, is arranging a stack of pancakes on the table. Oli is flying around, stringing more of the potion vial lights from the trees. The same pink haired girl who’d ordered from my shop is putting the finishing touches to the decor. She catches my eye and grins. I’m about to go up to them when-

“MERLIN AND MORGANA! PUNCAKE, GET BACK HERE!”

“LAMA! STOP IN THE NAME OF KAT!”

Two girls, one dark haired and the other blonde, stare in dismay at a raven haired  girl who has appeared in the lawn from thin air. Her warm, dark eyes dance with a mischievous twinkle, even as she stares at the scene before her in wonder. A cloak as dark as a crow’s feather flows from her shoulders, she shimmers in the light, as her pitch black dress is dotted with silver moons and stars. She radiates happiness and mischief, and I know without a doubt that this is La, the star of the party.

We all stare in shock. Then, as if they’d been expecting it all along, the Crazy Fam shout in a chorus. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LA!”

Everyone, and I mean everyone - Meg, Chops, and Mimi had come running when the lawn went suspiciously silent - cheers, including me. But I could’ve sworn that I heard someone say, “Mama Mia, Puncake. I love you and all, but tomorrow Imma take a week long vacation to the Bahamas.”