Lesson Plan [H.S.]

Part X

Ally's POV

It's my birthday tomorrow, I'm turning 24.

I always used to hate having a birthday in January, it's so cold and miserable outside that I always found it hard to make birthday plans with my friends — none of them ever wanted to face the cold. I couldn't really blame them since I'm not the biggest fan of winter either but it was still a bit of a bummer when I'd see posts of them out at a party instead of at my birthday dinner.

I'm so glad I left them in the past.

My birthdays ever since Harry has entered my life have been nothing shy of perfect, and even more so once my new friends — Lydia, Kyle, Khloe, and Heath — came into my life. They've always been down for a birthday celebration, whether it was just a simple dinner or even a hangout at one of our places, we all just wanted to be together in some way, shape, or form.

This year was going to be a bit different though because Harry wouldn't be able to celebrate with me.

He has a huge interview tomorrow, one that he tried to reschedule but was told he couldn't. One of his old professors had reached out to him and told him of a job opportunity he thinks Harry would be perfect for. He had forwarded Harry's outstanding grades to the employers and they were immediately intrigued. Harry couldn't believe it. "Me? They want to interview m-me?"

I was so fucking proud of him. Being a data scientist was a possible career path he had talked to me about before, and now it could very well become a reality — a dream come true for him. I almost killed him for wanting to cancel it solely because it was on my birthday.

"I mean this in the nicest way possible Harry but are you fucking crazy?" I had asked him after finding him about to email them and turn down the interview. I couldn't believe my eyes, I had no idea why he would do such a thing. I know the interview was a bit more extensive than the ones I was used to because he told me they'd introduce him to their software and see if he could adjust quickly enough, so it'd be a few hours instead of a half an hour, but that was still no excuse in my eyes.

It was only a birthday, it wasn't the end of the world. Sure I was bummed about it, but I'd rather him be at that interview than with me. I'd have more birthdays to spend with him, Harry wouldn't get another opportunity like this so easily probably ever again. "B-But it's your birthday Ally, I w-want to spend i-it with you. I'll f-find another job, d-don't worry."

It warmed my heart how sweet he was, but it also made him so stupid. I couldn't believe he was about to try and pull that behind my back, I wasn't worth that. I'm thinking about his future here and how this could very well be the jumpstart he needed — my birthday is nothing compared to something like that.

I know why he wanted to get rid of the interview though. For every other birthday of mine he'd tell me to completely clear my schedule, telling me that he'd be the one planning out the whole entire day just for me and him until our friends joined us at night. We always tried to make each other's birthdays a special day, it was just something we always did.

For Harry's birthday, which is only a few weeks after mine, we'd spend the morning and afternoon together before driving up to his mom's house for dinner with her and Raya. Ever since he could remember, he's had his birthday dinner with Anne and Raya and I wasn't about to be the one to break that tradition. It was sweet that they even did that, my parents never did.

Nowadays, I'm lucky to even get a text on my birthday. My mother actually called me last year on it, but it wasn't for my birthday. She wanted to talk about me coming to this press event in Los Angeles for my father, and only remembered my birthday at the end of the phone call when she was looking up the dates of when she wanted me to fly out and such. I never went.