Baldi's Basics in Baking and Birthday Preparation

The Resolution

I knock lightly on the door to the Principal's office, waiting for him to call me in before I go inside. Prince looks up from his papers to me, smiling warmly. "Good afternoon, Baldi."

"Good afternoon, Prince," I greet in return. "You said you wanted to see me?"

"I did." He lines up the papers and taps them into an aligned stack, laying it down before skirting his desk. When he stands before me, he offers his hand. "I was hoping you'd want to come with me to the park. We can just relax and unwind a bit, you know?"

"Oh, yeah! I'd love to!" I smile back at him and he nods, then I take his hand and allow him to lead me out of the building. Everything else is locked up, so we're able to leave without much delay. I decide to go with him in his car, and he agrees to drive me back to come get mine when it's time to head home.

When we arrive at the park Prince asks to go to the pavilion, so we tread down the walking trail to where the pavilion rests, secluded in a shroud of big and flourishing trees. But as we get closer, I notice something odd- our students are all there, alongside Galahad and a bunch of birthday decorations.

Prince continues leading me to there, his smile growing a bit nervous as I take it all in. We climb up the stairs, their handrails wrapped with green streamers, and stand before the group. I wave to them all and smile, saying, "This is lovely, everyone! Whose birthday are we celebrating?"

They all kind of fall silent. Then Brett sighs and pipes up, "Yours, Mister Baldi!"

"Wh- r- really?" I question, glancing at everyone before looking to Prince, who nods with a sheepish smile. "O-Oh, goodness. I forgot again, didn't I?..."

"Surprise!" Susie and Flynn cheer brightly.

"S- Surprise!" MC and Adrien chime, just a second or two after them.

"We've been kind of working on this for a while," MC admits, smiling shyly as they rub their arm.

"Really? I- I didn't even realize, unless... Wait! Is that what all that code and weird jargon had been about?! You guys were planning a surprise party for me?!" My eyes widen and I blink once, flabberghasted at myself for not even realizing.

"Uh-huh," They nod a little. "Because we knew you could hear pretty much everything, we made up a code that was easy enough for us to catch on with, but nonsensical to anyone not involved with the plan."

"It really was," I murmur, reaching up and rubbing my chin thoughtfully. "I figured out that I was the Halo Angler and MT, and that the ET and HT were the English and health teachers, but the rest had me completely in the dark!"

"MT? But your new codename was Ruler Knight," Flynn says, confused.

"Th- that was the codename I gave him when I was talking to the health and English teacher in private..." Prince says, his eyes wide. "I though that you went to go get another bottle of water!"

"Oh, uh!" I laugh sheepishly, scratching my cheek. "Actually, that was an excuse. I left to eavesdrop on you, because I knew you knew something, but I couldn't figure out any way to get you to spill the beans."

"Very sneaky, sis!" Susie says, puffing out her cheeks and crossing her arms sternly. I shrug with a little smile.

"After that and finding out that "throwing down" meant coming to something important- th- the surprise party, I didn't manage to figure out anything else, which is for the best, all things considered. I'd have hated to ruin all your hard work," I tell them, ducking my head in shame. "I guess I have a bad habit of eavesdropping, huh?"

"Aw, it's okay! Everyone's curiosity drives them pretty far!" Flynn chuckles, waving his hand dismissively. "And we knew just how to thwart you, no harm done!"