Expect the Unexpected

Chapter Three

I opened the door to the office and was immediately hit with a “SURPRIIIIIIIIISE”!!!! from the crew. There were streamers and a big banner that said ‘Happy 18th Birthday’ across it hanging from the ceiling. Everyone was wearing those corny cone hats on their head and Bri was headed my way with one in hand, about to place it on my head.

“Do you know how hard it was to get you out of here so we could pull this off for you and to keep Ivy from spilling the beans because she can’t keep a secret to save her life”? She asked as the corny cone of birthday shame was placed on my head.

“Um, excuse me?! I can keep a secret just fine, thank you” Ivy responds with a furrowed brow as she’s putting pizza slices on napkins and attempting to shoo Reid away from taking a whole pizza to devour for himself.

“Guys, we can’t afford this. We’re supposed to be saving for the apartment”. I replied to both Bri and Ivy as if to remind them we’re having a ‘party’ in a run-down, abandoned warehouse.

“Elara, relax. We’ve been working our tails off and you’re the first of us to turn 18 to be able to start working towards us actually getting the apartment. We can afford to celebrate our hard work for one night with pizza and decorations”. Iris quipped while rolling her eyes at me.

I hated when people used my full name and Iris knew that which is why she was the only one who didn’t call me El. Always Elara.

Plus if everything were to go the way Iris wanted, we would’ve spent our money on a lot more unnecessary stuff that normal teens like and get to do but between Mason, Bri, and myself we were able to keep a pretty good handle on our finances and saving.

I didn’t fight a response to Iris because the pizza and decor were already purchased, what’s done is done, right? I instead walked over and grabbed myself two slices of steaming, hot cheese pizza. I immediately put half a slice in my mouth and bit down, not caring that it burnt the roof of my mouth or that I probably looked crazy for shoving the pizza into my face as quickly as I did. It was too good to put down let alone spit out or to actually care how I looked.

After the pizza had disappeared and bellies were actually full for the first time in months, we all huddled around our tiny TV and took turns voting on what movie to watch from the array of films we had seen a million times. Once it was Mason’s turn, he faced all of us and smiled when we asked what he wanted to watch. Reid reminded him of ‘bro code’ and said he should definitely go with his pick which was V for Vendetta. Mason laughed and shook his head no, then stood up and grabbed his backpack off the table and pulled out a newspaper-wrapped gift. He handed it to me with the smile still plastered on his face.

I grabbed it and gave him a ‘what did you do you big goof’ look and unwrapped it.

It was a DVD copy of the original Alice in Wonderland.

It was my favorite from when I was little before I ended up in foster care. It brought back memories of me begging my mom and dad to watch it on repeat.

I had told Mason and Bri about it one night almost 2 years ago when we were awake stressing about money and food. After an hour of figuring out how to fix those issues, we decided to change the subject for a bit, talking about life before it drastically changed to what it was that night.

I looked up at Mason and smiled the biggest smile I could muster while trying to hide the tears that were starting to form in my eyes.

He just nodded back at me and we had the mutual understanding of the thanks that I gave.

“Alright, well we can’t just stare at the cover all night so pop it in! Let’s get this party started”! Reid shouted from under his sleeping bag that he had crawled into and rolled over onto his stomach, making him look like a giant caterpillar.

I whacked him square in the face with my pillow which made everyone laugh and then proceeded to slip the disk into the xbox.

Ivy turned off the overhead lights and the office became dimly lit with the glow from the movie starting its opening credits.

We all snuggled into our respective spots and tuned into Alice and her adventures through Wonderland as if we were a normal bunch of teens, hanging out having a movie night. It felt like we were somewhat normal.

Once the movie was finished, I ejected the DVD out and carefully placed it back into its case. I looked over to the crew after placing the case onto the shelf by the sink where we had the rest of the movies and witnessed Reid and Iris passed out already snoring away. Bri was doodling in her sketchbook, Ivy was finishing cleaning up the pizza boxes and Mason was fluffing his pillow, letting out a big yawn.

I crawled onto the couch where my “bed” was and wrapped myself up into my blanket, ready to welcome sleep. After about 20 minutes, my eyes felt heavy and I finally let it overtake me.