BIRTHDAY CAKE

"Okay, I got the recipe!" Emma announced.

Ray blinked sleepily, running a hand through his spiky black hair. He was still in his Stranger Things pajamas, and his eyes were all crusty with sleep. "Okay? Recipe for what, exactly?"

Emma dumped a heavy cookbook down in front of him, the cover sporting a set of purple iced cupcakes. "Ray," she whispered, her voice entirely serious. Here we go, he thought. "Do you know it's Norman's birthday today?"

"Uh huh." Ray scratched his head. "And?"

She stared at him. "I need to repeat that. Ray, it's Norman's birthday. He's turning sixteen."

"So? I turned sixteen a few months ago too, what's the big deal?"

"Yeah, but." Emma traced the cover of the cookbook. "You hate celebrating your birthday."

"Mhmn. Get to the point," Ray complained.

Emma sighed. "We're going to bake Norman a birthday cake!"

"Heck no!" Ray said, his dark green eyes widening. "Emma, please tell me you're joking. Please please please please tell me you're joking."

"What's so bad about it?" Emma said, frowning.

"First of all," Ray started, holding up a finger. "In third grade you gave me food poisoning from a muffin you cooked."

"Hey! It's not my fault!" Emma said, slamming her hand down on the table with a huff. "That muffin was literally cursed!"

"You cursed it," Ray muttered.

"Anyway, it was in third grade! That was forever ago!"

"I had to be hospitalized!" Ray snapped back.

"That was because you had a vomiting bug and the doctors thought your intestines needed an operation!"

"Emma. That muffin gave me the stupid vomiting bug."

She tilted her orange head in confusion. "Wait, what?"

Ray groaned. "Nevermind. Forget it." He held up another finger. "Secondly, you seriously didn't wake me up at 5 am with your texting, insist that I be at your house by 6 am - so I had to ride my bike there when the sun was rising and it got in my eyes - and then you spend about half an hour just searching for the cookbook. Just to bake a cake."

"We needed the recipe," she protested.

"No, we actually didn't, Emma. There's such a thing as a cake shop down the road. The birthday cakes there cost $10. I would have been more than happy to have paid for it."

"But the birthday cake can be a present for Norman! And we would have made it, he'd really like that. Homemade."

Ray frowned. "Still, I don't know why you didn't just search up a cake recipe on the Internet."

"Takes too long." Emma shrugged.

"Longer than the half an hour you took to find the book?!" Ray retorted.

"Yep! Now come on, Ray!" Emma danced around her kitchen happily. "Before Yuugo and Lucas wake up."

"Urrrggghhhh, your dad hates me," Ray whined, flopping his head back down onto the kitchen table.

Emma paused. "Which one?"

Ray rolled his eyes. "Yuugo, of course. He hates me with all his fucking soul. He hates the fucking world."

"Language, Ray!" Emma scolded him, grabbing his jumper and trying to tug him up.

"I want to go back to sleep," he mumbled.