Vinz's Epically Cool Yet Slightly Random and Badly Thought up Birthday Surprise.

Vinz sighed, staring aimlessly at the television screen that was showing some Animal Planet documentary, that on any other day; she would be watching attentively and messaging her friend Ollie about the gory details of the animal kingdom. But today was different, and she wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

How very odd, Vinz thought to herself, that today of all the days, everyone of my friends would decide to get together and watch a random screening of Rick And Steve; The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World and completely forget about my birthday. Vinz racked her brain, trying to remember if she saw the marathon of the show advertised anywhere, but she was never one to pay much attention to those trying to sell her a back shaver or something else pricey and ridiculous.

Vinz inwardly scolded herself for being so selfish, it wasn’t her friends fault that they all supposedly liked that show and it wasn’t like they had planned for the marathon to be on the day of her birthday. She also couldn’t blame them for forgetting it was her birthday, she only reminded them a few times per day for the last two weeks and was pretty exclusive about it. Besides, she could be in much worse places, such as being chased down an alley way by some egg covered biscuits with mutated sideburns, but she was glad to know that Eve and Ollie took care of that in New Caledonia. (Heck yeah, we did! We through the infested biscuits under the bed!)

“Oh ew! That kangaroo baby just came out of the pouch! That is so weird! And uncomfortable! Creepy yoga kangaroo!” Vinz randomly blurted out, realising that she had a talent for watching the TV while not watching it at all, and yet still being able to pick up on the disturbing things that occurred. Bear, who had been sleeping soundly by her feet, was woken by her outburst and ran off out the door, probably planning on bringing back a live lizard to hide in-between Vinz’s bed covers.

“You didn’t forget my birthday, did ya?” She asked Phantom, and watched as he seemed to scoff, as much as a dog can scoff, and wander off after being so rudely interrupted in his afternoon nap. Vinz fell back on the couch, and picked up the book she had to read for French.

'The Complete Cookbook of Frog Leg Recipes.' Vinz wondered if Ollie and Vanessa’s shenanigans were screwing a few important nuts and bolts loose in her French teachers head. She then giggled mentally about the word shenanigans and threw the book on the coffee table, falling back with her head tilted toward the ceiling when she noticed something that was not usually taped up there.

It was a square piece of paper, reading, "If I were a spoon, were would I room?”
Vinz sneaked a look around the lounge, knowing it couldn’t have been her mother, and if not her, then who? The answer to the question was simple; a cutlery draw. Vinz was apprehensive, and walked over to the draw uncertainly. There wouldn’t really be another piece of paper in there, she was pretty sure she was going slightly crazy. Vinz was now going to limit herself to the amount of fish finger sandwiches she was allowed to consume in a day.

Vinz pounced onto the draw, pulling it open to see; yeah you guessed it, a different piece of paper! She grabbed it out and unfolded it, to be met with another question, "Oh cuppy cake, where am I baked?”

Well that was just blatantly weird and odd. Vinz inched closer to the oven, desperate to prove herself wrong; her mother must just be playing tricks on her. She pawed the oven door open, to be met with yet another piece of paper.

"Isn’t it clear? The next clue is hidden in a chair.” Vinz looked around the room and noticed just how many chairs there were to hide an obnoxious little piece of paper. She speed round the room, searching every seat quickly, until she fell upon the white square that was lodged inside the frame of a dining chair.

“Running out of things to say, how much attention do you pay?”

Vinz was now irritated at the stupid pieces of paper that were collected in her clenched hand. They made no sense and lead her to absolutely nowhere. But she couldn’t help herself, she edged over to her wallet, and besides the cobwebs and the ten cents Ollie suggested she could use to get Ryho for the night, there was the piece of paper. She smirked as she grabbed the little bastard and unfolded it quickly, determined to get to the end of this silly game.

"My questions are wearing thin, are we closer to the fin?”

Fin? That told her nothing! She breathed out through her teeth, her head in a flurry over the stupid query until she struck an idea. Fin. Was that not the French word for end? French, French, French. Vinz, smirking once again at the idea of beating the stupid piece of paper, ran over to her French book, ripping it open to see what she had been expecting.

"Oh how we are near the finish, where is the place where your slash needs are never diminished?”

Vinz didn’t even need to think this one through, she raced over to the computer, her heart racing as the thought of finding out what this was all about could be in her grasp, and noticed she had a new message from an email she wasn’t familiar with.

Vinz was flooded with disappointment. Instead of an explanation for this absurdity, she was met with an address. She stared at it a little longer and realised it was the old bowling alley down the street, where her and her friends went bowling occasionally, despite the ugly footwear they were forced to wear. Vinz’s movements were all blurred together as she rushed for the door, only barely being able to grab the purple hoodie that she hadstolen borrowed from a certain Saporta.

In minutes, she found herself at the dark entrance of the bowling alley, finding it strange that it was open yet pitch dark with no one around. Hmm, seems kind of familiar, like a scene I’ve seen from one of those horror movies, Vinz thought, trying not to let on that she was slightly disturbed by the quiet.

Then, FLASH!

Lights, confetti, smiling faces. Vinz blinked and tried to rid her eyes of the black spots the sudden light had brought on, and looked around the bowling alley with astonishment. Over in the corner, were her buds from Panic At The Disco, even shipping the Rydon and Joncer she so desperately loved, Cobra Starship were over by the stereo and playing some funky beats, Gabe blowing her a kiss to which she blushed at. The Academy Is... were waving, and the Butcher blew into one of those annoying paper noisemakers and accidentally inhaled it, meaning Sisky had to step in and save him.

Her eyes popped open when she saw Green Day and Brett and Jermaine discussing the pros and cons of using apple based fruit juice in the punch, with James beside himself, not knowing which leg to hump first. (He is a big FOTC/ Green Day fan. And he is such a silly little blond!) Vinz’s brow creased, wondering how Ollie had managed to sneak into her house and get Tre from her wardrobe and here to the party without her knowing. (Funny story, and just for future reference, it’s a bad idea to repress Tre Cool from his afternoon Sudoku puzzle. Real bad idea.)

Eve, Brennyn, Frankie, Heliena, Ollie, Vanessa, Chelsea, Drew, Josh, Jean and, well you get the idea, there were a lot of people there, were all standing together and screamed, “Happy birthday!”

Her friends hadn’t forgot her birthday! Not at all!

Ollie ran over and hugged Vinz happily, handing her a ton of birthday cards with a smile.

“What about the marathon?” Vinz asked, still in shock that all this could be put together by her slightly dysfunctional friends, who couldn’t organize their elbows from their nostrils without help.

“What marathon? Oh! No, there was no marathon. Do you really think we would watch annoying Lego people on your birthday?” Ollie asked with a smirk, and Gabe came out from behind the stereo and placed an arm around Vinz.

“Not when we could be celebrating with a party!” He hollered and hugged Vinz tightly.

“Wait, but what was up with all the weird-o pieces of paper? Why not just tell me to come here straight away?” Vinz asked and Ryan suddenly looked slightly ashamed. On that’s a new look for him, especially from a guy who sees no problem with working the corners and being a bit of a whore. Not that the author has strong opinions on this subject. Not at all.

“Yeah, that was me. We needed something to keep you occupied and buy ourselves some time,” Ryan explained and Vinz decided not to tell him that his lyrical mind had obviously been failing when he wrote those riddles out.

“And with all questions done, bring out the cake!” Ollie shouted, and suddenly, a massive cake appeared, big enough to fit a stowaway inside if needed.

“This doesn’t have a half-naked girl inside it, does it?” Vinz asked warily, looking at the baked good suspiciously and thinking back to the many teen movies she had viewed that had the infamous stripper-cake attending.

“Well if Gabe had his way, yes, but I was in charge of this!” Ollie announced proudly and Gabe pushed her playfully, winking at Ryan who was quietly wondering what was sexy about a female stripper. Honestly, Ryan, keep your freaking questionable-sexuality to yourself.

After a delightful and different, to say the least, rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ that included a special yodel from Ryland, it took half of the crowd to blow out the large candles adorning the cake, even Ryan couldn’t do it alone and he had the best blowing power (oh, I wonder why!).

Suddenly, an explosion of cake and icing flew everywhere, and covered anyone remotely close to the cake and a figure emerged, grinning.

It wasn’t a half-naked woman at all, it was a half-naked Caleb who had jumped out of the cake, and ran over to Vinz, his favourite person ever! With the exception of William, but you didn’t hear that from me.

With a flounce, he hugged Vinz and handed over his present, a box containing a jug that changed colour when it boiled! Vinz decided to ignore that it took a bit of effort to pry the kitchen appliance from Caleb, and looked over at all her friends who were grinning happily and realised that she had such awesome friends that loved her, who could never forget her birthday, no matter how many gay Lego men marathons there were.

So, they all lived happily ever after. Except Ryan. Just kidding, him too. HAH! As if.

LOVE YOU VINZ, AND HAPPY ~EARLY~ BIRTHDAY!