at dead of night | a twilight fanfiction

at dead of night | 05

january 25, 2005

"Feliz cumpleaños, te deseamos un feliz cumpleaños, ¡que tengas un feliz cumpleaños papi!¹" we sang to papi in the dining room as my siblings and i came from the kitchen. i held a red velvet cake, and everyone clapped in rhythm to the song. we were nowhere in sync with singing, but papi was laughing so we continued. mami, who was our distraction, was grinning and had her camcorder in hand recording. (1: happy birthday, we wish you a happy birthday, have a happy birthday dad!) (a/n: may be prone to change! i do not like this translation-)

i set the cake down in front of papi, the candles shaped like 37 on top and burning with the small lit flames. he looked embarrassed but was smiling nonetheless as he blew the candles and we clapped and cheered.

"what did you wish for?" juanita asked excitedly, bouncing on the spot with the morning jitters. 

"you don't ask what he wished, or it won't come true!" yvonne chimed in, looking at juanita who gasped and then covered her mouth.

papi laughed to this and played along with the teasing. "i wished you ate cake for breakfast!" he tickled juanita's sides, who squealed and whined under the tickle attack. to the side lorenzo groaned, looking forward to having cake for breakfast, even though it was about to be 11 a.m. 

mami laughed as she wrapped up her recording, when the home phone ringing caught our attention. we all followed as mami went up to pick it up. i was wondering who it may be. it couldn't be school, papi and mami already told them we won't be coming in today. i also told leah to give billy a heads up as well.

"cortez residence." mami said, and the mumbling on the other line started. "chief swan?" she looked puzzled, and papi went over to listen in as mami and mr. swan talked over the phone for a bit. 

when mami said goodbye, she turned to papi with a serious look. "¿que quería?²" he asked as mami put the phone back. (2: what did he want?)

"he's asking if we could come in today, one of the guards over at mason county was killed. says it was some kind of animal attack." she explained, and papi also grew serious upon hearing this. i looked over to my siblings, raymundo and ramiro looking back at me.

"are you going to work?" sonya slowly stepped up, looking to them. "but we were supposed to celebrate papi's birthday."

"we can celebrate this weekend," i say to her, glancing to my parents as they then went to get ready and looked to ramiro to put the cake in the fridge. i felt the mood die down, and i was also bummed about it too, but this was an animal attack, they would need all the help they can get.

"are we supposed to stay home then?" lorenzo asked, like everyone he was also looking forward to going to the city, especially since we rarely go due to the drive.

"i'll take you guys to the reservation, i'm sure they'll understand with this coming up." i say, and then began to usher them upstairs as well so we could get ready for school. ray whined, not wanting to go since he had a test today in one of his classes. 

i went to my room, closing the door behind me and sighed. i was looking forward today as well, wanting a break from school, and at least a day to help properly sort my feelings towards alice out. it's been about a week since bella moved here, alice telling me to tell bella that edward is out with family, and alice being a bit more physical than usual. i remember last week it rained and i offered to let her wait under my jacket with me, her outfit was way too cute to let get wet, for rosalie to pull up with the car. i don't know if she did it on purpose or not, but she was like smelling at my jacket for some reason. i thought it was because i may have smelled bad, but she then complimented on whatever perfume i wore. i didn't have time to question her, or even thank her as she speed walked towards rosalie pulling forward.