Adventure In An Aircraft

Chapter 17

At the birthday party, the room was decorated with colorful ballons, streamers of various shapes and sizes, a fairy styled designs at the hems of the tablecloths. There were also children playing around, only Kenny was the only one who sat alone while his younger siblings played with the birthday girl.

Some of Wilmer's employees where nearby as they socialized, even Mandy had crossed to the other side of the room to chat with her older brother. Lindsay brought the birthday presents as she walked to her husband.

"Excuse me. Am I interrupting?" Lindsay asked sweetly.

"Not at all. You arrived just in time." Wilmer replied before she took a seat. "Honey, I'd like you to meet Alexis."

"Nice to meet you." The photographer greeted. Lindsay gave a superficial smile, a habit she picked up after years of working as a secretary. She put one of the bag of presents on the table, then as she put the rest of the shopping bags on the floor.

"Are you the new photographer?" Lindsay asked.

"Yes." Alexis replied.

"I wanted to have a traditional album for sometime, it's rare to find tangible photos nowadays. Almost everything is uploaded on the web, and with the virtual reality craze its getting difficult to get Cindy's attention." Lindsay mentioned.

"Don't worry about it," Wilmer said as he extended his arm to grab her hand but his wife quickly put her hand on her hip, "that's why I invited Alexis."

"I can transport the gallery and enhance the photos to eliminate the pixels from the digital photos and convert it into traditional photos. I also made 360 videos for the company." Alexis stated.

After they convinced Lindsay, she complied just so that her husband would stop trying to get close to her. "Gotta go put the presents before Cindy finds them first."

The caterer brought the fairy themed birthday cake, the first floor of the cake had vanilla with strawberry jelly and the second floor of the cake had marble on the inside before the candles were lit.

Cindy's parents sang her daughter Happy Birthday, Kent's children also joined in to sing, excluding Kenny. The preteen was more focused on the fact that he couldn't use an electronic device for the remainder of the trip.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, Cindy
Happy Birthday to you.

The photographer took snapshots of the event. The first photo was of the birthday girl blowing out the candles, another one was of Wilmer and Lindsay smiling for the camera. Another photo of Lindsay cutting the second floor of the birthday cake for Cindy's friend.

Tommy, Kenny's younger brother, took a plastic plate and fork before receiving a marble slice of the pastry. Then his sister, Lucy, received another slice of the birthday cake. Even Nancy received a slice by the time she arrived to the birthday party.

Cindy requested for Dawn to join her in a photo. Dawn was apprehensive on joining before Mandy's nephews had insisted for Mandy to join in, to which the blonde businesswoman complied.

Dawn conceded seeing that there was no harm in partaking on the activity, though her main concern was her older sister's mental health. "You win, kid. I'm going."

The photographer took a photo of Cindy, Lucy and Tommy. Then Dawn and Mandy joined in on the photo. The birthday girl ran to open the birthday presents.

Alexis adjusted the lens of the camera before he gestured some of the employees to join in for a group photo. After the photo was taken, one of the coworkers requested to take a selfie.

In hindsight, Kenny was glad that he didn't have to partake in the whole selfie charade. He can understand why his father found gratification in taking many photos of himself to elevate his self-esteem, though he found it unnecesary. Kenny himself rarely took selfies.

He and his father where polar opposites in terms of personality. He was the typical introverted geek who preferred to have his personal space while his father was an open book with no filter attached to it.

Kenny was the kind of person who would put an animated character as a profile picture, if it was his original design, the better whereas his father would post his face on social media like an influencer.

The only thing they common initerests they had were gaming and sports.

Kenny propped his elbow on a table whilst his father and aunt talk about sibling stuff they used to rant about.

"Remember the yo-yo?" Mandy mentioned.

"Oh yes," Kent made a sibilant noise, then continued, "How could I not? I used to play with it for hours."

"Tell me about it, you used to be obssessed with flicking the yo-yo around to make those tricks."

"Walk the dog, the flying saucer, inner ring grind, and what else?" Kent pondered.
"Double or Nothing." Mandy prompted.
"Man on the Flying Trapeze." Kent added.
"Over and Under." Mandy made a hand motion to mimic the trajectory where the yo-yo would go.
"Sleeper" Kent added.

"Breakaway"
"Forward Pass"
"Barrel Roll"
"Throw Down"
"Suicide"
"Tsunami"
"Rock the baby"
"Loop the Loop"
"Lindy Loop" Mandy added.
"Man on the flying trapeze and his brother." Kent recalled.

"Would you stop?" Kenny scrunched his nose on how awkward this conversation was, it's like hearing to older versions of his younger siblings one upping each other.

"No, this is classic stuff we're talking here." Kent stated, "and you're still grounded by the way."

"We're over 1,200 ft in the air." Kenny reminded him as a sarcastic remark.

"You're still grounded even if you were sent into outer space for hacking, young man." Kent affirmed. The prepubescent elicited an annoyed sigh. "Be grateful that I didn't tell your mother about this, she'd go out of her way to discipline you, even if it meant finding a teleporter to Amsterdam and wait to give you a smackdown."

"Kids these days." Mandy muttered under her breath.