Hi guys, I'm so proud of myself. This is my 3rd update this week (I think). I wonder how long I can keep up this streak...anyways, for an update on stats: I now have 350+ reads/views, 9 votes, and FINALLY 1 comment! Maybe that's why I updated so early...*wink, *wink, *nudge, *nudge... This chapter is dedicated to jennaringpop again for being my first commenter:) Anyways, sorry for boring you, I'm just going to stop rambling and let you read the story. Oh, one more thing, all of the sentences with asterisks, or * those thingies have references to other books or movies and will be explained at the end of the chapter if you're not familiar with the reference. OK, now I'm actually going to stop right...now.

"MOM, I'M HOME!" I yell into the empty house. No reply. Huh. I take the maze that my house has in order to get to the kitchen, and I see a glow around the entire room.

A figure pops out of the wall and screams, "SURPRISE!"

I shriek and I look closely at the figure, a slim woman with prominent collar bones and large, blue eyes peek up at me from under a mask complete with a fake nose and a mustache/glasses attached.

I slow my breathing down, and my mom comes near me and wraps me in a hug to (I think) balance out the trauma that had happened a few seconds earlier.

No such luck mom.

"Mom, as much as I love you, I think I just died for a couple of seconds, I swear, I don't think there was a pulse, or a heartbeat, or anything, for a couple seconds there."

"LENORA MOORE, NO SWEARING IN THE HOUSE! How many times do I have to tell you not to say "I swear" and all the other hurtful words that accompany it? You're seventeen now, and I don't want to have to lecture you anymore then I have to, but you know how I feel about the SWEARING!"

I try to make my breaths slow and even, because right now, I'm in the "I can't even" mode.

"Mom. Saying "I swear" isn't going to hurt anybody's feelings. It literally just emphasizes a point. The only thing that you should honestly watch out for are swear WORDS, not the phrase "I swear"."

My mom just looks at me and huffs, looks back at the birthday cake and says, "The candles are almost melted Lenny! Quick! Blow them out before we eat wax instead of chocolate!"

I look at the birthday cake. To put it quite simply: it looks like the equivalent of Channing Tatum, otherwise known as the epitome of deliciousness.

I look at all seventeen candles, make a wish (of course I'm not going to tell you what the wish was, it might not come true if I do!), and I blow: none of them out.

I look at my mom, and she just starts laughing. "Don't look at me, you got your father's weak lungs."

The tips of my lips twitch into a smile.

My dad.

The guy that used to haul me up onto the monkey bars every day that he was back from serving.

The guy that used to blow out all my birthday candles with me because I could never do them all.

That guy, my dad, died a long time ago due to his arch nemesis: lung cancer.

He used to smoke a lot, but apparently, that wasn't the only reason he got it. My dad had fought in the Vietnam War, and when he was serving, he was in a vehicle that had set off a bomb. When the bomb was set off, he and a lot of others were thrown off of the vehicle, and out of the eight people riding in it, only three had survived. One of them was my dad. He had been flung safely off, but he did end up needing a disc to straighten out his neck, and he had also broken his leg.

What the doctors didn't see though, was the amount of dust and other chemical elements from the bomb that had entered my dad's lungs. They only figured out years later that he had inhaled a lot of that air, and all of those elements, combined with the already existing tar in his lungs, irritated them enough to cause him cancer.

It's been six years since he left us.

In the midst of all this, my mom was a shining beacon of light for our family. She had already known that this might happen, being an army wife and everything, so even though she did take his death harshly, she was still strong enough to remember my dad with a smile, and not tears.

As you might be able to tell, I've gained a lot of respect for my mom after that.

I look back at the cake and I try again. This time I blew: 11 candles out.

I see my mom smirk again, and she looks at me with her fake nose and mustache, but this time, I see her phone in her hand, recording everything.

I pouted. "Mom, I look TERRIBLE, why in the world would you record this!?"

My mom looks at me pointedly and smiles. "To embarrass you on your wedding day of course!"

I mumble, "With this haircut, I don't think that day will ever happen."

She looks at me, takes off her mask to reveal her high cheekbones and and says, "Sweetheart, your hair will only take around a maximum of six months to grow back to your shoulder, and by then, everyone will be used to it. This haircut makes you look like a different type of beautiful."

"Mom, I just want to be the same type of beautiful I've always been, not a mushroom beauty."

She looks at me like she's about to argue again, but I stop her and say, "Mom, it is what it is, okay? I get it, my hair will grow back eventually so I should stop overreacting. I get it. I'm fine, OK?"

She looks at me and says under her breath, "I don't think you're overreacting," but I pretend not to hear it and I blow out the six remaining candles.

I grab the knife and I start to cut the cake until my mom's hand darts out to stop me and she says: "Is Alex coming home today?"

I look at her, nod my head, take the knife out of the cake and head over to my room to change.

That's when I heard the noise.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

I rush downstairs and I crash into my mom on the staircase.

I look all over her face, and she looks at me strangely.

"Did you hear that noise? It sounds like it's came from the door."

My mom looks at me and says, "Do you remember what happened on your birthday every year until a couple years ago?"

**Flashback**

*"LENORA! LENORA! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO OPEN THE DOOR OR ELSE LUKE IS GONNA GO ALL HULK ON YOU! LENORA!"

It was exactly 12:00 p.m. on the night of my birthday. WTF.

"SWEETHEART, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT SOME PEOPLE IN THIS HOUSE ACTUALLY WANT TO SLEEP AT NIGHT, SO I'M GONNA OPEN THE DOOR SO THEY CAN STOP BREAKING THE DOOR DOWN, ALRIGHT? ALRIGHT."

I suck in my breath, and wait for the moment of truth.

Footsteps pound their way up the stairwell, and my bedroom door slams onto another wall.

Ouch.

*"HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN AMERICA!"

My blanket flew off my body, and I adjust my eyes to the bright light.

*My personal Avengers were there, all suited up, including Nick Fury and the Agents of Shield. I'm in love.

*Damien, dressed as Nick Fury, said, "Captain. I have a job for you. I need you to suit up and assemble the Avengers, right here, right now. We'll give you five minutes. If the suit doesn't fit, tell Black Widow, even though she said she knew your size."

*Damien looks over at Bea (dressed as the Black Widow) and says, "If it doesn't fit, you're the one going back to Walmart, not me."

I laugh and say-

**End of Flashback**

Caught up in the memories, I'm interrupted by yet another thump, and I rush to go open the front door.

*There, standing in the dim porch-light, were my pirates.

*My Pirates of the Caribbean.

I started coughing.

----------------------------------------------------

The first 5 * (asterisks) - These are referenced to Marvel's The Avengers (I'm talking about a movie), but there are many other movies within Marvel that can help explain the references. I suggest you spend time researching and watching all the Marvel movies that exist; they're amazing.

The last 2 * (asterisks) - These refer to the movie series The Pirates of the Caribbean. You haven't completely lived your life if you haven't watched these movies. Jack Sparrow is bae <3

Picture: Wendy Moore

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