Flirting with Danger Bk 1

He smiled, hearing these thoughts, and came over to me. “Happy birthday Kota. Sister.” he said softly, looking me in the eyes.
I sniffled and rubbed my nose, trying not to let my tears spill over. “Thank you so much.” I said, grabbing him into a hug. You gave me everything I could have ever wanted. I thought.
I just gave everyone what they’ve been wanting all along. he said softly. I released him and looked at him.
Don’t be modest, Ivan. This is the biggest thing anyone’s ever done for me. I owe you big time. I said.
No, it was my pleasure. he said. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t get him to agree with me that I owed him and smiled. He smiled and kissed my forehead before stepping back just in time for Alister to slip in.
“I’m so happy you’re my sister!” he said, shaking me back and forth.
“Me too!” said Aubrey, hugging both of us. Then Vincent, Connelly, Mathias, Amelia, and Ivan hugged us too, so now we were having a group hug.
“This calls for a celebration!” Alister said when we all broke apart.
“What have we been doing?” Aubrey said, looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I mean, a toast, dancing, you know.” he said, giving her a look before disappearing into the house.
“Thank you Amelia, Mathias, for doing this. It means the world to me.” I said, walking over to them as they sat down.
“It wasn’t our idea.” said Mathias.
“No, this was all Ivan. And he wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, but since he needed our permission, he told us.” said Amelia, smiling sweetly at me.
“Well, then thank you for allowing him to adopt me into the family.” I said.
“We would never dream of saying no.” she said, taking my hand. “We’re honored to have you in this family.”
“And I’m honored to be in this family.” I said, sniffling again as my tear glands started running again. She smiled and I went and sat down again, Connelly kissing me as I did.
“Time for the toast!” Alister exclaimed, coming out of the house, his arms laden with cups and Cream soda.
“And Dancing!” Aubrey stepped out after him, holding a handheld stereo and going to the other side of the porch.
“Cream soda?” I asked, looking at Alister.
“Yeah, you got a problem with that, sis? Man, I love saying that.” he said, grinning as he passed out wine glasses and set the two liter bottle in the middle of the table.
“We drink it because it looks like Champaign.” said Vincent, seizing the bottle first and pouring himself some.
“Yeah, that way we still look all cool when we’re drinking it, and people actually fall for it.” said Aubrey, cracking up as she sat and took her turn with the bottle.
“But to be truthfully honest, we could drink real Champaign.” Connelly said, sipping his soda. “We can’t get drunk.” He smirked behind his glass at me.
“Yes, but though that may be, you still have to follow the human rules.” said Amelia, giving Connelly a look as Mathias poured his and her drinks. Connelly chuckled and nodded.
Then he looked at me and took my hand. “You wanna dance?” he asked, smiling amusedly. I smiled and nodded, letting him lead me off the porch and onto the grass. He brought me to him and we started slow dancing, Sarge and Griz running around our heels.
“So, I hear you had a great birthday today.” he said, smiling softly down at me.
“Who was it?” I asked, a small smile at my lips. I hoped it wasn’t him who’d been spying on me, because I’d be extremely embarrassed if he’d seen what happened in the club.
“Ivan.” he said. “He told me Louis got you tickets to Nickelback. That’s pretty exciting.”
“Yeah, but it’s nothing compared to this.” I said, pulling him closer. He smiled and kissed me, sliding his hand gently behind my neck.
“I love you.” he said.
“I love you too.” I said. He smiled and we resumed our dancing as the rest of our family came and joined us.
We danced, we drank Cream soda, ate cake, and after a while Connelly and I went for a ride in my new mustang, stopping at our secret spot for some alone time together.
***
“Whoa.” I said, sitting up in my bed and looking around my sunlit room. “What a dream.” It had felt so real, like I was actually there. Man, I hated those dreams, because they were so cool, but then you wake up and find out it wasn’t real. I never really got any of that stuff, and didn’t really spend any time with them last night.
Sighing, I rubbed my eyes and slid out of bed, heading to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed I’d fallen asleep in my clothes. I looked at myself confusedly, and then went on with my business. I must have been really tired last night. I thought.
I got dressed in a Christmassy outfit, which was a red long sleeve shirt that said, “Merry Christmas!” and a short black skirt with red leggings. I descended the stairs when I was done and was greeted by flashes when I entered the living room.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be in your pajamas.” said Kati, and between all the little dots in my vision I could see that she, mom, and dad all had their pj’s still on.
“Sorry, but I’m expecting the guys in a little bit and I don’t want them to see me in my pj’s.” I said, coming and sitting on the floor beside the Christmas tree.
“What? How come you didn’t tell me? I don’t want them to see me in my pj’s either!” said Kati, getting up to go change, but mom stopped her.
“No, go sit by Kota. You can change afterwards.” Mom said and Kati huffed like a sixteen year old as she drug her feet towards me and sat down with a plop.
“Oh, come on. There’s no reason to be grumpy on Christmas. Besides, they won’t be here until later.” I said, separating my presents from hers.
She perked up after I said that and we had a nice present opening time, and after Kati changed Sue’s parents came over, along with all the guys and their parents. There was laughing, drinking eggnog, all sorts of Christmas food, and of course the kissing under the mistletoe, a tradition I was really beginning to have a love/hate relationship with. Jack and Louis were carrying handfuls of mistletoe in their pockets and would pull it out all of a sudden and then try to kiss me. So, I took it away from them, smiling and shaking my head, and went into the kitchen, throwing it away.
But when I returned to the living room, I saw that in that small amount of time, they were able to stick mistletoe every few inches all over the ceiling. I sighed, blinking my eyes exasperatedly, though it was kind of funny how much hard work they were going through for just a kiss.
I got every piece of it down eventually, having a few close calls with them both, but successfully getting through the party with no mishaps. And afterwards we drove out to the concert, which was mind-blowing, and getting pictures taken with Chad Kroeger and then the whole band, not to mention all the pictures we took during the concert.
I got home late that night, but they forgave me because it was still considered a birthday gift.