Hello :)

Scar stared at the sign that had appeared behind him, and the arrow on it pointing to another sign a few blocks away. And then a whole trail behind. So, he resolved, there was only one thing to do.

Follow them.

So, he followed the signs. A few had writing, a few had just arrows. One pointed to a cake next to it and very excitedly said FREE CAKE!!! It didn't take long to realise it was Cub's doing. And if it was Cub's doing there would probably be a prank at the end. The sign trail led right through the redwood forest to-

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCAR!'

Scar screamed, on instinct pulling out his Hotguy bow and shooting randomly. But then he calmed down enough to realise what had been said and what was all around the previous empty area.

Piles of cake and presents, replicas of Star Wars ships, a billion cats, Hotguy posters, and every single Hermit dressed either as Star-Wars characters or Scar himself.

'Happy birthday, man!' Cub ran over, handing several shulker boxes over before hugging his best friend.

'Th- thanks Cub... whose idea was this?'

'Mine. And Grian's.' Scar looked over to where Grian was waving, dressed perfectly in Scar's green-life Double-Life skin.

'Happy birthday, buddy! Now you need to judge whose outfit is best.'

'Oh no...' He glanced around the brilliant costumes again, including Cub's Area 77 Scar outfit

'Surely you can just give the prize to Cub-tain Angry-eyes.' Scar was the only hermit to burst out laughing.

'I spent 2 hours researching Starwars characters for this!' Called who was probably Impulse under their Mandolorian helmet. 'And it's very warm under here!'

'YOU'RE warm?! Look at me!'  Protested Wookie-Tango. 'This is a lot of fluffification here!'

'Oh my goodness...' Scar laughed. 'This... This is not what I expected. Thank you.'

'Come on, man. We had to do something to celebrate.' Cub put an arm around Scar's shoulder, leading him towards the huge pile of presents in the middle of the castle. 'Now... Presents?'

'Presents?!' Scar grabbed the closest shulker box, starting the hour-long excitement of opening presents, 15 minutes of which were just Cub and Grian's. And then Scar judged the costume competition (Doc's Yoda and Bdubs's Mayor Scar won). It appeared Etho's claim to be dressing up as Scar's MCC Etho-costume and not changing his outfit hadn't worked, but had been amusing.

After all that it was time for Cub's Star-Wars and Disneyland quiz, on which Scar got 100% except 1 question he disagreed with Cub's answer on (it was only an hour later Cub got a word in edgeways and admitted he'd put in the wrong answer as a prank). Everything was going great, all the hermits, and Scar especially, were having an amazing time, until 5 minutes to midnight when the Hermits decided they were tired, it was time to head to sleep.

'Aww... Come on! The party's just started! Can't I pretend it's my party?' Cub protested.

'It's ok... We've got plans for tomorrow evening.' Jevin said.

'Yeah...'

It didn't take long for the party to clear off, leaving Cub and Scar alone.

'Thanks for this.' Scar smiled over at his friend. 'It's been am-oy-zing.'

'You deserved it man... 2 minutes to my Birthday.'

'Yeah...' Scar crossed the area to clear up another chest of leftover food. 'I'm here to celebrate. It's a clear night for stargazing... And eat all this left over cake. How much cake did you make?!'

'All exported from Concorp.' Cub grinned, following. Scar laughed.

'As it should be.'

'30 seconds until my birthday...'

'30 seconds until the end of mine' Scar glanced at his clock. 20 seconds left. Then 10. 5, 4...

A piston hissed. The ground disappeared. Cub yelled as he fell too, landing in a hidden area where...

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CUB!'

Cub burst out laughing at the sight of a whole different party set up with rockets, fireworks, old bases, and another couple stacks of cake and presents.

'Happy Birthday!' Scar landed in front of Cub, arms wide for a hug his friend gladly accepted.

'You KNEW?!'

'It was my idea!' Scar insisted. 'Now, what do you want to do first? Presents? Pranking?'

'Pranking?!'

'Yeah! We all get another person to prank in secret and at some point tonight we prank each other! It'll be amoyzing!'

'Holy smokes... That's... I love this... Wait, Grian, you're in costume. Wait- how many of you are in costume?!'

'Literally half my layers were for this, Cub. I hope you appreciate it!' Beef, now dressed in a sculky lab-coat, called. Next to him, Keralis was trying to get xB's paper vex wings to open. Cub laughed again.

'You guys are amazing.'

'You're even more amazing!' Skizz yelled from somewhere at the back. 'Rubba-dub Cub! Rubba-dub Cub!'

'Rubba-dub Cub!' Hypno, Wels, and quickly the whole group, joined in chanting. Cub was still laughing, but his attention quickly turned as Joe brought over a shulker.

'It's the Shulker of Pranks! Cub, you get first pick!'

'Who'll he choose?' Scar whispered to Mumbo, who'd got the balance of gunpowder and dye dangerously wrong for his firework Cub skin and whose hair was still smouldering.

'I choose... This hermit! Scar, you're next!'

'Me?!'

'Yeah, come and get your vict- I mean, Hermit.'

'Of course, of course...'

It didn't take long for everyone else to have their randomly-chosen Hermit, and for the presents to begin, at least half of which were inside references from Scar that no one else understood, but Cub definitely appreciated. False managed her prank on Doc halfway through, convincing them that Cleo had taken his present for Cub. And then Xisuma had to separate the pair when Doc got aggressive. There was endless cake, random potions,  fireworks, and occasional pranks. One of the activities planned was stargazing, where Stress and Iskall fell asleep, and several hermits decided to call it a night.

'Before we go!' Scar called, standing. He held out his Vex-magic drink. 'A toast! To the greatest, smartest, most amoyzing player I've ever had the honour of meeting, let alone calling my best friend. To Cub!'

'To Cub!'

'Happy Birthday, Cub.' Scar hugged Cub again. 'Thank you for everything.'

'I wouldn't do anything less for my best friend. I'm here for you. Always.'

Saved this for a year, barely got this out in time...