The Harper Generations

The infamous blue ball cake

Misty

After the Valentine's Day snafu, I welcomed a combined birthday party with the cousins. At least we weren't sitting in jail and had cake.

Now, here's what people need to know about cake. We don't use it to celebrate special occasions but as a revenge tactic.

Tino and Preston found out Chelle gave River blue balls. River tried to hide this tidbit from his cousins. Lena spilled the beans to Ryan, who told Preston and Tino about it. Guess who changed the cake order at the bakery with a phone call?

Since Decker took the order, Rafe and Reese didn't know it had changed when they brought the cake to the birthday party. We had gathered in a party room at the restaurant when Rafe carried the cake box to a table and set it down.

Now, this is what set off a brawl between the cousins.

"Ooh, is that the cake?" Tori asked, walking toward the cake box.

"I had Decker decorate it since I was working on another order," Rafe said.

"I want to see it." Tori lifted the lid and furrowed her brows in confusion. "Are you sure this is the right cake?"

"Yeah. Why?" Rafe looked at the cake as annoyance flooded his face.

"What's wrong with the cake?" Romeo asked, checking out the cake before staring at it in confusion. "I'm sure that's not what Ma ordered for the writing."

Pat looked at the cake and laughed.

"Patrick!" Tori exclaimed.

"That's hilarious!" Pat roared with laughter.

The family and guests glanced at the cake before reading the inscription.

"Christ," Elias said.

Tino, Preston, Ryan, and Michael snickered.

River glanced at the cake before glaring at his cousins. "You're dead."

Yep, that's all they wrote. River jumped on his cousins as they retaliated. Val and his brothers tried to break it up but got more than they bargained for.

All hell broke loose in the party room between the cousins.

I'm staying out of this one.

********
Valentino

River was insane if he thought he could take on four of us. But it didn't matter as we ended up brawling in the party room. Our dads tried to break up and learned the hard way when we clocked them. It didn't help our energy kept shocking them.

My cousins and I ended up with bloody noses, eyes, and mouths. Yeah, we were a freaking mess until Nana stepped in and grabbed my and Preston's earlobes with Grammy's help.

Aunt Reese and Uncle Rafe checked out River.

"What is wrong with you?" Nana asked us.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Preston asked.

Nana yanked hard on Preston's earlobe. "Don't make me sit on your head."

Nana and Grammy released us as we rubbed our ears.

"You're eighteen, and act like you're two," Nana said.

"It was a joke," Preston said.

"Oh, that's right." Nana nodded. "Humiliating and embarrassing someone is a joke, right?" She folded her arms in disapproval.

"It's something we do to each other," Ryan said.

Nana tilted her head. "Why do it at all? That might have worked before, but it doesn't work now. What you boys did was childish. You took a special day and tainted it with a terrible joke. I hope you're happy."