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Birthday Baby Part 1

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Today was supposed to be about celebrating, but as far as Karen Clay was concerned there was nothing to be happy about.

There should have been, though. The only problem was that a year prior her family gained a new member whose birthday was entirely too close to her own - within a week, to be exact.

"God, this is stupid." From where she sat brushing her hair in her bedroom, the girl spoke primarily to her reflection as she bemoaned, "The little brat's got no idea what today is anyway. Why celebrate it?" Personally, she found herself hoping she could get this over painlessly, maybe grab some cake, and ignore the kid.

Not that this was going to work, of course, she said to herself. Her brother always managed to be the center of attention no matter what the day was, and on today, it was likely going to be worse a thousandfold.

"At least Grandma might've gotten me something," she wondered aloud, as the old woman hadn't mailed her gift or flown in for her party last week. Sighing, Karen checked her hair in the mirror one more time before deciding it was fine and setting her brush down, "Probably got ten things for him, though."

The girl tried to push the thoughts out of her head, though, as she stood up from where she was seated on a stool she kept in the room. She hesitated about heading for the door, however.

"Guess I may as well get this over with," she sighed within a moment, however, and as the girl slowly shuffled out of her room she grumbled, "Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll fall asleep or something."

Again, Karen's luck took a turn for the worse, as was expected, since as soon as she stepped out of the bathroom, the little brat began wailing at the top of his lungs. Part of her wondered if he sensed her presence and sought to annoy her, but she tried to put such assumptions out of her mind. She was getting too big to think like that.

"Hi, everybody..." Once the boy had quieted down, Karen felt it safe to enter the living room and greet the crowd of people gathered around her brother. Her Grandma was closest to the door, letting her say, in at least a semi-happy voice, "Hi, Grandma."

"Oh, hi!" The much older woman turned in order to ruffle Karen's hair, which while she showed no outward sign of displeasure inside she wondered why she even bothered fixing it. It didn't much help when her grandmother asked, "Are you excited?"

For what? There was nothing to be pumped up over with this little nuisance involved. The girl didn't express that thought either, however, instead volunteering a half-hearted, "Yeah, I guess."

"Oh, that's all? You should be happy!" As the baby cooed appreciatively as Karen's dad played with him, the shrugged again. "Aren't you happy about your family becoming whole?"

"I don't really get it when people say that," replied Karen politely. "I mean, wasn't it kind of whole before, just with something we didn't know we had? If they had another kid, then they'd think it was whole after he was born."

"Maybe so. But that's the joy of children for you."

Karen had no idea what joy exactly was supposed to be found, having found a year of being an older sibling rather frustrating in the first place. She also chose not to voice this, however, instead changing the subject to ask, "How long is this supposed to take anyway?"

"Well, your mother's putting the last touches on the cake with your Aunt Sophie," remarked the older lady, pointing at the kitchen. "They said they'll bring it out soon. You want to come play with the birthday boy?"

Part of Karen wanted to quip, "Play what?" but decided to hold her tongue since it was her Grandma. "Erm... No thanks."

"Suit yourself, sweetie."

As the grown-up moved to coo at the baby, Karen gave a relieved sigh and stepped toward Tony, her cousin. The boy was only 7 months younger than her, so the two usually kept a close relationship at these things, "Hey."

"Hey. Heh, you look like you're in a good mood."

"Just smashing," the girl replied with an obvious amount of sarcasm, frowning a bit in the process. "You dreading the inevitable of things degenerating into him screaming and everyone in the room dropping everything to coo their heads off at him as much as I am?"

"I guess..." replied Tony with a shrug. "I mean, I don't really get why everyone sees babies as really cute. I mean, at least not when they're this tiny."

"Yeah, and you haven't even been stuck with diaper duty," replied Karen with a sigh. Stretching her arms over her head, she remarked, "He's got to be the most annoying creature in the world."

"Eh... Well, everyone was a baby once, right?"

"I prefer to think I wasn't." The two then set to walking toward another side of the room then, a bit further away from where people were gathering. Once there, Karen moved her hands from over her head to on her hips, and explained further, "Besides, there's no way anyone could be as bad as he is."

"Heh." Grinning now, Tony teased, "You know, my mom's given me some horror stories about you over the years..."

"Your Mom's just mad because of that dumb vase," replied Karen with a slight grin of her own.

"Not just that..." replied the boy with a shrug. "There was that one time you watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre in kindergarten."

"Heh... Yeah, and who was it that was supposed to be watching me?"

In either case, not the point. The girl sighed, questioning, "You know most of my friends said they'd just wait and do something with me in a few days? This kid's ruined my chances at a proper birthday party."

"Yeah, imagine that's not so great." Tony casually stopped to scratch at his ear, afterward asking, "At least it'll only be a year or two, right? And who knows, maybe as he gets older you'll grow a bit more fond of him."

"I really hope not. I kind of like being the only sane one around here."

"Being sane's better than being happy?" Dropping the subject at that, Tony shrugged before asking, "Is there gonna be cake?"

"For some reason, yeah. He can't eat it without either throwing it at me or smearing it over most of his face." Putting that complaint out of her mind, the girl added, "Mom's putting the candles on."

"Huh." Sounding amused by that, Tony asked, "What do you think he'll wish for?"

Something in the range of, "Gabaghlp."

With a smirk at that bit of gibberish, the girl added on along that line, "Another thing that gets annoying - they act like he can actually understand anything they say to him."

"Well, does help to learn the language I think. Probably picked up on some stuff already, has been awhile."

"Eh, maybe. Ideally, though, he'd wish himself about nine years older."

"Well, he has the monopoly on not being able to tell anyone and making it not come true," replied Tony with a snicker.

"All ready!" came a voice from the kitchen. Karen looked up to see her mother turn the lights out in the room, but illuminated by the candlelight. Sticking her head out, the adult cooed, "Bring the birthday boy on in here!"

"Well, guess there goes the conversation." Could always get back to it later, Karen supposed, but as a mass of people began to flock into the next room she and Tony followed slowly behind. "Hopefully he doesn't spend like twenty minutes trying, assuming he even tries."

"Don't think it'd be that hard." Tony was pretty casual as he walked along, as he did so explaining, "Mostly for the cameras and stuff anyway. You know they'll record it a few times over."

"Something else for my mom to shove in the face of everyone she meets, I guess," replied Karen, deadpan.

As they moved into the kitchen, Dillion was moved forward in the crowd and placed in his highchair. His mother's cake was set just in front of him on the table, As the infant chewed on his knuckles in confusion, a soft chorus of "Happy Birthday" started amongst the family present, which Karen remarked stubbornly absent from.

Tony nudging the girl with his elbow did get the girl to at the very least put some effort into faking it, if the word effort could be applied to awkwardly swaying while silently wearing a frown.

Soon, though, the singing stopped, and the girl's mother gave out a loud, "Yay!" before tousling the baby's hair. Karen muttered something in response to that, but given the company she was surrounded by she kept her voice very low.

"Make a wish now, sweetie!" cried Karen's Grandma, to her further annoyance. Dillion wound up just sitting in confusion in his highchair, blinking at all the grown-ups. His one candle was burning quickly and starting to drip down onto the frosting.

Karen grew even more irked as her family members began to make blowing motions to Dillion, as if trying to instruct him to perform that on the candle. How much longer was this going to go on? Were they just going to keep doing it until the candles burned the house down or the baby spat on the cake? Karen wasn't sure how much more of this she could be expected to put up with...

I wish they paid that much attention to me.

That idle thought going through her head, Karen cut this stupid leg of the celebration short by blowing out the candle herself.

"Karen Lianne Clay!"

That marked a dramatic shift in the mood of the entire room. Most noticeably in her mother, who after that suddenly angry outburst asked, "What on earth do you think you're doing?!"

"He clearly wasn't getting it." With a motion to the baby, whose only reaction was to look scared by the sudden change in the mood in the room, the girl explained, "I figured I'd just help to get this over with already."

"Karen, you know that wasn't nice," replied one of the girl's aunts, clearly annoyed but trying to sound polite. "It was your brother's cake."

"W-Well, yeah, but he doesn't know!"

"Karen!" The girl yelped when her mother cried, "Baby or not, it's your brother's birthday and I expected you to treat him with a bit more love then this!"

There was any number of things the girl could say to that. Karen did feel tempted to egg things on further if only to prove her point, or to alternatively apologize to keep the potential fallout to a minimum. She ultimately, however, settled on, "Whatever."

"That's it," demanded the girl's mother, pointing behind her toward the door, "Upstairs, young lady!"

"But Mom-"

"You heard me," replied the grown-up, glaring at the little girl in front of everyone, "Up to your room!"

"... Fine! This party's all about him anyway!" cried the girl before turning and stomping back upstairs.

As she moved upstairs, the preteen had a million thoughts running through her head and not a one of them was positive. Once she entered into her bedroom, Karen made a point of slamming the door behind her.

She was mad enough she didn't bother to lock it as she always did. Instead, she merely went over to the bed, plopped down onto it angrily, and mumbled, "God, that brat couldn't get older quick enough."

Grumbling out some further, bitter complaints about Dillion, Karen rolled onto her side and pulled her blanket sideways over her head. She curled up, feeling put-down and ignored, certain now that the discussion downstairs had turned to how ungrateful and selfish she was while they clumsily shoveled food into Dillion's mouth.

When a knock finally came on the sleepy girl's door, she cried, bitterly, "Go away!"

"Oh, come on, don't be like that."

Whose voice was that? It sounded vaguely like Tony's, but not quite - definitely the sort of voice you'd expect from a relative or something, however. Sounded about the same age as him as well.

In either case, Karen didn't care. Her response was a quick, quieter but still angry, "Leave me alone."

"Karen, c'mon..." The voice behind the door sighed audibly before kindly saying, "This is because you were up so late, isn't it? I know it'd get you cranky."

"I am not cranky!" responded Karen with a pout, pulling her head lower under the covers, "I'm ticked off, and it has nothing to do with being up late."

In spite of the certain knowledge she'd locked it, Karen heard the door open. Now feeling angrier than ever, she felt a particular bristle of irritation roll up her spine when the boy said, "Well, let's see if we can fix that, huh?"

Who was this? Karen felt a bit too petty right now to get up to take a look at him, but she still couldn't place the voice. Maybe it was one of her more distant cousins or something.

In either case, the girl spit out from where she hid under her blanket, "Just leave me alone, I just want to go to sleep."

"Hm.... Well, I know what happens when I try to interrupt that," replied the boy, sounding like he was half-joking. "You don't wanna come down, though. Everybody's waiting for ya."

"What for?" Karen was surprised how hurt she sounded when she added, "So they can yell at me some more?"

There was a pause then, before Karen felt her mattress compress. The boy was sitting next to her. "Um.... You wanna talk about it?"

"No, I don't." After a moment, though, the girl did opt to at least show herself, sitting up from under the blanket and then letting it drop down to covering only from her chest down.

Then she got a look at the boy in question. No immediate recognition besides a strong resemblance to her father, but after a moment of studying some of his features she let out a somewhat loud, "Ah!"

"AH!" The boy hopped a little bit in surprise at the reaction before calming down and giving a good natured pout, "Hey, don't do that."

"Wh-What the heck is this?!" Scooting away from the boy, Karen cried you, "You... Y-You look like..."

"Look like what?" questioned Dillion, still sounding rather confused. Putting his hands to his ten-year-old face, he felt his cheeks before asking, "Do I look sick?"

"No, um..." This was just getting more bizarre by the moment. After a second of consideration, though, Karen seemed to hit on what exactly was going on.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

"Heh... No, don't think so." Grinning at the idea, her older-than-he-should-have-been brother awkwardly scratched at the back of his head and teased, "What's got you acting so silly today?"

"I can think of a few things..."

Not taking Dillion's word on the subject of dreaming, Karen rose a hand to her cheek and pinched it. Wincing at the sting, the little girl began to slowly rationalize, "Okay, yeah, not a dream."

Looking over the boy in a slightly calmer mindset now, Karen began to take him in. He actually looked a lot like her, even both having a skinny build and being the same age.... Smiling nervously, she remarked, "Heh... Well, at least until I get this figured out, I won't have to worry about changing your diapers."

"Heh. Think you got things a bit backwards there...."

What was that supposed to mean? After a moment of consideration, Karen decided it was a normal enough, if slightly awkward, manner of going about saying things were unusual. And they certainly were.

In either case, the boy took the apparent slightly-improved mood to ask, "Now, you sure you don't want to go downstairs?"

"One question before that-" Holding up a hand and putting the subject of going downstairs on pause, the girl asked, "Is everyone freaking out about you? Like... one way or the other?"

"Uh..." This inquiry only seemed to make Dillion more baffled. After thinking over the question, he offered, "No?"

"Yeah, I think we can go down."

After rising to his feet, the boy offered his hand out to help his sister up from bed; while she regarded it as unnecessary, it was a nice gesture she supposed and she went along with it with a quick, "Thanks."

"Heh, no problem."

Karen got to heading out first then, leaving Dillion to follow behind. After a moment, however, he seemed to notice something wrong as he questioned, rather peculiarly, "Wait, what are you wearing?"

"Huh?" Just before she got to the door, Karen checked herself out. It was just the pink T-shirt and black shorts she was wearing earlier, no change. Shrugging, she remarked, "What about it?"

"Well, it's a special occasion right?" Shrugging, Dillion slowly suggested, "I thought you'd wanna look more... I dunno, festive."

While intrigue and even relief had been fluttering in Karen's heart, now she felt distinctly annoyed. Crossing her arms, she skeptically shot out, "Oh, don't tell me- even you want me to make a big deal out of today?"

"Heh. Well, it is kind of a big deal." Grinning, the boy added on, "If nothing else, you know how excited Mom gets for it."

"I guess."

If nothing else, if the original breakdown of the party had apparently not occurred as far as everyone was concerned, the girl might as well work to avoid it. As such, she answered, "Fine, I guess. Be down in a minute."

"I'll be outside," replied Dillion cheerily as he moved to the door.

"Hold it!" The ten-year-old girl blinked suddenly when her brother moved past her. As the boy paused, Karen took a step forward to stand just in front of him. After a moment of inspecting, she noted, "You're taller than me."

"Yeah?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Nevermind that now. Maybe getting some time alone in here would let her digest all this, "Wait outside, I'll be out in a second."

As the girl set to getting undressed, she thought things over - her brother was apparently now the same age as her, and what had happened earlier had apparently been forgotten by all involved.

It didn't seem to be a dream, so what did that leave? Other than perhaps the candle, and the matter of the wish she had made earlier....

"Wow," the girl commented at just the idea, though she didn't exactly put much stock into it. Still, she was fine to joke to herself, "Now I should be wishing Mom got me whatever brand that was when I was four and wanted a pony."

Pony wishes aside, what to do now? Dillion was apparently her age (So they were twins now? Was that it?), and was she supposed to reverse it. He seemed way more tolerable now that he wasn't in clear danger of wailing his head off any time somebody dropped something. Having a brother who seemed at least kinda attentive and friendly did seem much more appealing than one who soiled himself.

But was she supposed to just ignore this? Maybe she should go downstairs and ask around, make sure she was the only one who figured it out. She could get some cake then too...

Dumping her shorts and shirt on her bed, Karen peeked out the door a moment later, now wearing a little white dress with frilly sleeves and a skirt that came to her knees. Blushing, she admitted, "Can't believe I still had this."

"Heh. If it helps, sure Mom will love it."

"Yeah, not helping with the embarrassment much." Still, while a bit pink the girl did have to admit that making things go smoothly this time was definitely something she wanted to happen. Though there was one thing she did have to wonder about, and as such Karen questioned, "Tony here yet?"

"No, I think his dad called and said he'd be late," replied Dillion with a shrug. "Looking forward to seeing him?"

"Yeah, I suppose there's-"

"Awww..." As they arrived at the ground floor, Karen's hopes were dashed when she heard a familiar sound. Her mother's voice came from behind her, cooing gently, "Look at you! Don't you just look precious?"

"Heh. Not by choice, but..." The girl dragged off there, though, deciding to take the compliment. Given what had happened earlier, the praise was certainly welcome.

In either case, Karen changed the subject to question, "Hey, uh, what time are we starting things anyway?"

"Twenty minutes!" cried the adult. Karen glanced at a nearby clock- it was eleven in the morning now. When she laid down it must've been almost two PM....

Her attention was taken away when her mother put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair, "Are you excited about your big, special day?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Karen did have to admit afterward, "Sorry if I'm kind of unenthusiastic. It's been a weird morning."

Dillion piped in to give his take, by teasing, "Mostly just because she's been acting weird herself."

"Hey, shut up!" shot back Karen with a bit of a grin herself.

The ten-year-old took a moment to reflect on how she'd wanted to shout those words at her crying brother for a year now and she was finally in a situation where she could get away with it. Must remember to say it to him as much as possible and as often as possible.

"Awww, is my little girl cranky?" Bending down a little to look at the child's dress, the adult asked, "Doesn't getting in a nice pretty dress cheer you up?"

"Guess a little..." Odd thing to say, but maybe without a baby around her mother had a more in the way of coddling to dish out her way. Still, not something the girl had too many objections to. Smiling, she explained, "I think it'll clear up, just some odd things going on."

"That's good." Apparently the woman opted not to question it, instead asking, "How about you two go out back for a bit while we finish up getting ready in here?"

"Sure!" Karen found her hand taken by her little brother and pulled toward the back door, "C'mon, we won't get a chance to do this once Nana shows up."

"Heh. Nana?" Smiling in a teasing manner as she was pulled outside, Karen questioned, "You still call her that?"

Dillion turned pink, getting a further smile out of his sister. As they came outside, the girl questioned, "So what do you wanna play?"

"I dunno," the boy said with a shrug, though he was still plenty happy in the process. "Mind if I ask you something first, though?"

"Uh, sure, I guess." Karen had to admit - she was liking her brother much more like this. Hoping it wouldn't come back to her earlier weirdness, she questioned, "What is it?"

"Kinda got to wondering about it due to something you said earlier," the boy explained, and then he asked the question he had in mind, "What do you think it'd be like to have a baby brother or sister?"

Something about that question made Karen realize how absurd this situation was. Being asked by her baby brother, who was now taller than her, what it'd be like to have another baby? This was getting weird.

After that moment of silent clarity passed though, Karen scoffed, "Well, Dillion, that would depend."

"Depend on what?"

"A lot of things." Smirking a little, Karen replied, "How much do you like getting a full night's sleep?"

"Ah, come on, sure it couldn't be that bad." Smiling himself, he explained, "Bet it would be nice to have someone innocent looking up to you and stuff."

"You sound like Mom." With a sigh, Karen explained, "Would never want a baby around here. They're just loud and annoying."

"Completely?" Maybe sounding a little insulted now (appropriately, since Karen was talking about him specifically, if indirectly), Dillion questioned, "I mean, we'd get to protect him and make sure he grows up alright and-"

"Yeah, no." Holding up a hand, Karen replied, "You can't teach babies to do much since all they do is drool on themselves and never want to learn. And you can't beat them up because that'll just make them cry more."

"Beat up?" The boy looked slightly horrified at that, questioning, "Why would you even think about something like that?"

"Not like I'd do it. Just kind of tempting is all." With a shrug, the girl explained, "Trust me, there's nothing to love about a baby. Unless you like cleaning things."

"Now you're just being negative," replied Dillion with a pout.

"Yeah, yeah." Karen turned away from her brother, replying, "You haven't had to live with a baby- you don't know what it's like."

Putting his hands on his hips, slightly irked, Dillion asked, "Yeah? When did you become a baby-expert?"

Okay, that wasn't something easily answered. Particularly since she didn't know what sorts of trips she had gone on that Dillion believed himself to come along with.

After a moment, though, she settled on, "My friend Stephanie's mom has a kid who's three or four. Still annoying and used to just be unbearable."

"Huh...." Okay, that was apparently enough to satisfy the boy, who shrugged and questioned, "But Stephanie doesn't mind being a big sister, does she?"

"Not as much as she should, I guess," replied Karen with a shrug. "Why's this subject so interesting to you?"

"I don't know, just something that came to mind." The boy rose from his seat then, explaining, "I'm going to go grab something to drink. You want something?"

"Sure, I guess," came the reply. With a shrug, Karen explained, "No real preference, anything's good."

"Gotcha. Be right back!"

Smiling, Karen watched her brother dash into the house. This certainly beat her having to rush and get baby food for him. Part of her wanted to spit it in her face after drinking it just as payback for all the times he had done it to her, but decided not to.

Plopping down onto the grass and sighing tiredly, Karen heard, sooner then she expected, "Back! Sorry 'bout that!"

"It's no problem." The girl didn't look up toward her brother right away, instead opting to close her eyes for a moment and sigh a bit in the hopes it'd help ease her very confused, conflicted mind a bit. She did, however, offer her hand out and offer, "Thanks."

"Eh, it's nothing. Thought you shouldn't meet Nana on an empty stomach."

"Yeah, well..."

It was a small plastic bottle that had been placed in Karen's hand, and when she tried to sip it a soft rubbery thing bounced against her lips. Confused, the girl opened her eyes.

"Wha... Dillion!" Leaping to her feet and waving about the baby bottle she was holding, the girl cried, "What the heck is this?!"

"Oh, it's a new kind of milk Mom's trying out," the boy explained at once. Wearing a friendly smile that didn't seem to suggest anything odd about this scenario, the boy asked, "Do you not like it?"

"So not the point! You're not funny, and I'm going to go get an actual glass."

The girl set to walking, then, but quickly noticed something else amiss - her legs seemed to be spread out a bit as she moved, like something was forcing them apart.

"What the..."

Karen paused, as every step she took just made her feel funny... She glanced down at her legs, noting that now the skirt of her dress puffed out around her hips. Disoriented, she began to tumble backwards.

"Gotcha!" Thankfully she landed in her brother's arms. "Heh. You don't still need help walking, do ya?"

"Uh, no. Why would you even ask that?"

"Heh. You just seem to be having a little trouble is all." Karen then found her brother awkwardly moving to tickle her under her chin, which against her will got her chuckling a bit, before he helped her regain her balance.

Afterward, Dillion questioned, "You sure? If you're having trouble I could carry you inside or something."

"Hey!" Turning pink at that, Karen shot back, "Just because you're a little bit taller than me, that doesn't mean you can crack jokes about my size okay?"

That said, the girl stared back at her legs. She actually couldn't put them together- there was something separating them which made it hard to walk, "I gotta get up to my room and change- something's weird about my underpants."

"Oh..." A shot of horror flew through the little girl when her brother pulled her dress up from behind, "Don't tell me you need a diaper change already."

"A what?!"
Part 2 Is here: [link]

Another contest entry!
[link]

:iconfoxingtoniii: is holding a story contest! And the first prize is actual foldin' money. Usually I find entering contests to be really fun, but I never do anything with the prize. I entered contests being held by :icontoddlergirl: and :iconkk-panda: and got free requests from both that I never used. I love both their artwork, but I just can't think of anything I'd like to settle on- I just enetered the contests for fun. But being given money is a nice solution to that.

Of course, if this does manage to win 1st place, would be splitting the money with :iconlizuka:. We not only wrote it together, but he also came up with the idea and compiled it from out AIM sessions. Awesome guy, eh? ^^

And even if we don't win any of the five prizes offerred, we had a blast writing this particular story. Working with Martin is always great, but I think we were both surprised by just how much fun this one to do, especially when Dillion entered the picture.

I dunno if we'll take first (Toddlergirl is entering, and she's always tough to beat), but I'm confident we can at least place. Wish us luck!

Also, read :iconwright-as-rayne:!
© 2011 - 2024 Lance-the-young
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