"What is the surprise?" Jake asked. We are downtown but the parents still wouldn't tell us where we are going. We rented a bus because we are a large family.

"Not yet" Lizzy answered. We kept driving not in silence because they was noise and talking and laughing. We took lots of pictures. We kept driving till we got to a gate. We were allowed to enter because we head reservations. We parked by a building and Daniel went forward to the lady in front. After checking everything we were escorted to the back by a young guy not older than Jason where we finally saw the surprise.

"OMG!!!" Zoe shouted.

"No way!" Mike and I said together. He looked at me and smiled. Lou and Peter couldn't not stop smiling. Happy was genuinely happy.

"A nice surprise, right?" Paige asked.

"Yes" we all said at the same time.

"This is Howard" the young guy who identified himself as Oliver introduced us to our escort.

"Hello" Howard said, "I would be with you during the ride. I see that you rented two. Lisa here would be on the second one" he said pointing to the black hair lady walking up to us. Howard would be between 25 and 30. He is of average height.

"So, Howie when are we going up?" I asked smiling sweetly and winking at him. Howie blushed a little and smiled. Mike pushed me closer to him.

"Please give us a minute to set things in order before we go up" Lisa said after introducing herself. She is a little shorter than Howie and curvy.

"Howie?" Mike asked. I nodded and smiled.

"Jealous?" I asked.

"Maybe" he said and smiled. I tiptoed and kissed him. Oliver showed us to a set of seats for us to wait.

"Ollie, come seat down" I called Oliver tapping the seat beside me. He was standing waiting on us.

I heard Mike groan beside me when Oliver came up to seat down beside me with a shy smile.

"Thank you" Ollie said when he sat down. Mike held my hands.

"I'm Elly" I introduced, "and this is Mike" I pointed to Mike.

"Her boyfriend" Mike said.

"Oh" Ollie said looking away. I glared at Mike.

"What?" he mouthed.

"So Ollie, where are you from?" I asked.

"Minnesota" he answered looking at me again. We talked for a while until Howie and Lisa came back. Mike too became interested in the conversation. I learnt some things about Ollie. The last of 3, both dad and mum are living at Minnesota. He's sister is married while brother works at Knight Tech. Yes, my company but I didn't tell him that though. Mike asked about Knight TECH, if he's brother likes working there and Ollie said his brother likes it there and that his brother, who's name in Noah, said that everyone at the company loves the new CEO.

"Thank you for waiting. Everything is ready. Please come this way" Howie said looking at me.

We all followed him to the back. The back was so big and spacious. The serene is amazing. We walked up to two baskets. Mike, Peter, Jake, Lou, Jenny, Jason, Zoe, Nick and I all got into one big basket while The parents and Happy got into another. Happy wanted to go with us but they wouldn't allow because they said we are kind of irresponsible which is quite right.

"I would go with you while Lisa would go with your parents" Howie said.

"I don't think I like... " Mike was saying but I cut him off.

"That is perfect, come in" I told Howie. He stepped in and began doing his work. After a while, we started going up.

We were in a Hot Balloon.

The view from up here was amazing. The mountains and the sky blending into one. It was breathless. We all took a lot of pictures of ourselves and the other balloon too.

"Want to take a picture with me, Howie?" I asked. He nodded and came to stand beside me. Mike stood beside me too saying he wants to take a picture too.

We were up there for a while then began to descend. "That was awesome" I said when we landed.

"Yes" Mike agreed.

I hugged mum when we got out of the basket.

"That was so cool. Thank you" I said after the hug.

"I want a hug" James said and carried me in a big hug. I was laughing when he put me down.

"Thank you all so much. It was a wonderful surprise" I said when we got to the car.

"I second that" Nick said. Others said their 'Thank yous' too and we drove back downtown. It was late afternoon now.

"You all can go do whatever you want now, meet us at home when you are done sightseeing" Lizzy said dropping us in front of an ATM.

"Can I stay with them?" Happy asked.

"I don't know about that" Riley began.

"Please mummy" Happy begged.she looked at me pleadingly

"I would look after her" I said.

"Me too mum" Peter said.

"Okay then, you can go" she told Happy.

"You can get a cab back home" Kevin said.

We all got down from the bus and walked taking up the whole place and taking pictures. This is the first time since we came here that we are going out downtown by ourselves.

"What should we do first?" Jason asked.

"Food" Lou and I said at the same time then highfived. We walked to the nearest coffee shop we could find. I am so happy I dressed light in a white sleeveless crop top, it looks knitted and short jeans with my black boots because the weather was so hot.

Jenny wore a grey armless crop top with black jeans and black sandals. She looks so pretty.

Zoe is wearing a red tank top with the inscription work hard, slay harder written in white on a black background . She tucked the top into a white Jean short and paired it with white sneakers.

We were still eating in the coffee house when Jenny spoke up, "What should we do after eating?"

"We can go to the movies" Happy said half-hearted with food in her mouth.

"Yes" Zoe said and we all agreed.

"Really?" Happy said with a big grin.

"Yes, it's a good idea" I said.

After eating, we walked to the movie theater. We had to ask for directions which was because we were going the wrong way. When we got to the movies, I bought the tickets and we went in. Because I bought the tickets, Mike decided to buy the popcorn and hotdogs and drinks.

We bought so much food everybody looked at us weird when we entered the movie room.

"Why all the stares. Never seen so much food in your lives?!" I shouted and everyone looked away.

"People can be so rude" Peter shouted so they could hear. We went to our seats at the back and settled in. Mike sat beside me while Nick sat on the other side, beside him was where Zoe sat followed by Jenny and  Jason. On Mike's other side, Peter sat with Happy followed by Jake and Lou.

We all sat talking before the movie came on. We were to watch Boss baby because of Happy. We laughed through the movie because it was a interesting film. When we got out of the theater, it was getting late. We bought some, OK lots of fast food before taking a cab and going home.

"I'm home!!" I shouted when we got in.

"Welcome dear" mum greeted from the lounge. They were all watching a movie when we came in.

"I'm home too and we brought food!!" Lou shouted when he came in.

"Yes!" James shouted standing up.

Lou and Jason kept the food on the center table and we all reached in to take a bowl of Chinese food. Happy ran to hug her mum.

"What did you do?" Nick asked when we were eating.

"The dads went golfing as usual while we stayed home and gossiped with a bottle of wine" Paige answered.

"You didn't tell us that" Daniel said.

After eating, we left the parents there and went to the lounge downstairs with five large pizzas we ordered because the food did not fill us up. Mike selected Beauty and the beast for us to watch. We were half way through when Happy slept so we stopped it and chose an horror movie instead. I hate my pizza with a little booze.

I snuggled in the blanket with Mike, resting my head on his shoulder and watching the movie. That was until it remained one pizza in the box. Jake looked at me and then the box. I rushed out if the blanket and grabbed the pizza putting it in my mouth.

"I wanted that" Jake whined.

"So did I" I answered.

"You snooze, you lose" Jenny said laughing.

"Please pause the movie" Peter said.

"Why?" asked Zoe.

"I want to take Happy to bed" Peter answered and picked Happy up taking her to the room they share. We paused the movie and when we had gone I played it back.

"You are so mean" Mike said and kissed my forehead.

"I knew you wouldn't wait for me" Peter said slumping back to his seat on the floor.

Almost halfway to the movie, I was thirsty so I stood up. "Where are you going" Mike asked.

"To get water" I answered.

"Ok" he mumbled.

"Pause the movie" I told him and was about going up when I ran back to the TV and disconnected some wires.

"Why?!!!" they all shouted.

"Well, before you arrange that, I would be back" I answered smiling evilly.

"That's smart and evil" Jason said as I ran upstairs.

"I know" I shouted back. When I got back down, the TV was just coming up.

"Oh, good. You guys waited for me" I said innocently.

"I hate you so much" Lou said.

"Even with what I brought?" I asked showing him the tray of Nutella sandwiches I held behind my back.

"I love you Elly" Lou said taking the tray. I snuggled back in with Mike eating the sandwiches and watching the film.

By the time it was over, Nick and Zoe had slept while Jason and Jenny had gone up to talk or sleep. I don't know. The guys and I woke Nick and Zoe telling them to go to their rooms, we then went to the terrace and sat by the fire.

"I feel like swimming" I said. The weather was perfect.

"We can swim" Jake said.

"I know but not in the pool" I said. They looked at me a little confused.

"At the lake" I clarified.

"Oh, we can still go" Lou said.

"Really, you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah​, if not you would sneak out and go alone" Mike said and he is right. I laughed and we went upstairs to change. I wore my bikini bra and a short with pair of flip flops before going to meet with the guys. I didn't forget to take my jacket.

We didn't have to sneak out because everyone was asleep already. The walk to the lake was not so far maybe because we were used to the road.

At the lake, I removed my jacket and short and ran into the water. It was warm because the sun was hot all day. The guys and I swam, competing with each other and splashing water. Mike and I made out in the water causing the guys to splash water at us telling us to stop which we did. We sat by the shore talking till it got dark before we made our way back home. Everyone was still sleeping when we got home, so we quietly went to the shower to bath before going to bed. 

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