"He should be here any minute now..." Max whispered. To his left and right were the rest of the gang, minus one certain psychotic rabbit with blue eyes. Other than Snowball, everyone was hiding somewhere in Max and Duke's apartment. Only five of them were behind the couch. The others were somewhere else hiding. Mel and Buddy were in a closet while Norman was in an air vent. Ozone was on top of a shelf. Sweetpea and Tiberius were on the refrigerator, keeping an eye on Chloe who was hiding behind the counter where a cake was sitting. Joining Max and Duke behind the couch was Gidget, Pops and Leonard. The apartment was very dark, concealing the party decorations such as balloons and presents.

"He better get here, I can't feel my back legs," Pops murmured. The apartment was deathly quiet for a few seconds until Chloe piped up, "Hey stupid, you're paralyzed in your back legs."

"I think I might become paralyzed if I continue sitting like this," Duke muttered.

"Guys, please..." Ozone grumbled from where he was crouched on the highest shelf.

"Buddy, I have to go," Mel whimpered.

"What do you mean you have to- no, not in here!" Buddy whispered back.

"Mel, hold it!" Max quietly barked.

"I can't!"

"Yes you can!"

"No, I really can't. I've been holding this in for nine hours..."

"...why..."

"Dude, you don't want to end up like Pepe, right?" Leonard joined the conversation.

"Can I remind everyone that we're supposed to be throwing a surprise party?" Gidget mumbled.

"Wow, I did not know that..." Chloe muttered, slowly reaching a paw towards the cake on the counter. Sweetpea dropped a loaf of bread on her head.

"Why are we doing this again?" Tiberius yawned, his eyes drooping sleepily.

"We're doing this cuz we're nice people and friends always do things for each other, like throw them a surprise birthday party," Gidget answered. The hawk had no reply to that.

"Plus, we'll all become dead meat if we don't celebrate Snowball's birthday today," Max added.

"Well, he probably might spare Norman," Mel commented.

"I think I hear someone!" Norman whispered, peeking out of the air vent and looking over at the open window. Sure enough, everyone could hear footsteps on the green fire escape outside. Silence immediately fell across the apartment as they ducked back into their hiding places just as a rabbit appeared on the windowsill. "Hey guys, I got the text- what in the world?" Snowball mumbled, his face of delight falling into confusion when he saw how dark it was. Huffing, he hopped up onto a table and jumped as high as he could towards the light switch, flipping it. The lights came on.

"SURPRISE!"