A Twist of Fate ↠ Scott Hoying

18. A Capella

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!" Everyone yelled when he got home from school on Friday.

His eyes widened in surprise and a huge smile was on his face.

Scott ran up to him and leaned down, hugging him. "Happy birthday buddy!"

"Dad! What is everyone doing here?"

"I invited them for your surprise party."

He looked around at all of the faces. Uncle Mitch had brought him home from school, claiming that dad had work stuff to do. A lot of his friends from school were already there, and Auntie Kirstie (who I had re-met a little earlier) was grinning at him, with her boyfriend, Jeremy doing the same. Avi and Kevin from Scott's work were there, too. They had become good friends in the past few months.

Scott had asked me to come too, although I wasn't sure if Austin would want me there. Scott put Austin down and my concerns were immediately crushed as he ran up to me and hugged my legs, yelling, "Scarlett! You're here too!"

I grinned, "Of course I am! You think I would miss your birthday?"

He just laughed and ran around hugging the other guests.

Scott came over and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "I told you he would want you here," he mumbled in my ear.

I shook my head, fighting off a blush, "Yeah, you were right!"

He kissed my cheek and went to tell Austin that more of his friends from school should be here soon so they could play before cake and presents. His eyes lit up at the word 'presents' and I had to laugh, remembering the days when life was so much simpler.

***

"It's great to see that Scarlett is still around," Avi said to Scott later after all of the kids ran off into the yard.

Scott grinned and looked at me, "I agree."

I laughed, "It's great to see you again, Avi."

Then Kirstie came over, asking how long we had been together, which had only been a few months but feels like much more, and how we met, and so on. It was kind of weird for me to talk about myself so much, but apparently everyone wanted to know about Scott and I. 

A little while later, Scott reeled the kids in for cake and presents. The cake was all chocolate, his favorite. 

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!" We all sang and he grinned, looking at all of the faces that had come just for him.

"Make a wish!" Kirstie yelled and Austin blew out all six candles in one try, which he was very proud of.

Then it was time for presents. Scott got him a remote control car that he had been begging for for months. He got him a few Pokemon cards (he was going through the phase), and some nerf guns. I could already see the war that would take place very shortly.

Next he opened the present from me. The first one he opened was an early reader's book about a G.I. Joe. He looked extremely disappointed that he couldn't actually shoot anyone with it.

I laughed and pulled another present from behind my back, handing it to him. "I'm an English teacher, I had to!"

He opened his true present and a huge smile spread across his face.

It was a remote control helicopter that he talked about all of the time, and he would say how cool it looked every time the commercial came on. 

"Thank you!" he yelled, flipping it over and looking at all of the pictures of it  on the back.

"You're welcome! Be careful with it, though. We don't want any airplane crashes," I laughed.

He opened the rest of his presents and politely thanked everyone. He seemed to really like all of them, which made me really happy. We were all sitting around their small-ish living room, just talking and having a nice time while Austin and his friends were sitting on the floor looking at all of the stuff he got. 

Suddenly, Austin looked around at everyone, then looked to his dad and said, "Will you guys sing for me?"

"We already did, bud." 

"No, can you and Uncle Mitch and Auntie Kirstie sing a song?"

They all looked at each other and shrugged, seemingly thinking it was a good idea. 

Scott smiled. "You know... Kevin can beat box and Avi is a pretty awesome bass..."

Kevin and Avi looked at each other skeptically.

"Please, guys! It's my birthday!" Austin said.

Kevin and Avi nodded, saying that they would do it.

"Sweet! We're going a Capella! What do you want us to sing?" Mitch asked Austin. 

Austin shrugged.

"What's that song, that's on the radio all of the time?" Kirstie asked. "Cheerleader?"

"You wanna do cheerleader?"

They all nodded in agreement, then talked a little bit about how they were going to do it.

After a little bit of figuring it out, they were ready.

They started singing and my jaw dropped. I hadn't heard the three of them sing since high school and I had never heard the five of them together. Everyone else had the same reaction as me and I couldn't help but fangirl over them a little bit.

They sang the entire song and at the end everyone clapped and yelled. They smiled at us, acting like it was no big deal.

***

After everyone had left and Austin had fallen asleep, Scott and I were laying on the couch watching TV.

"You guys are really talented, you know."

"You think so?" he shifted so he could look at me.

"Absolutely. You should sing more often."

He kissed my forehead, "I'll keep that in mind."